Person:Thomas Wells (10)

DEATH:Victoria Australia 6100\1808

AUSTRALIAN DESCENDANTS OF THE NOTTINGHAM LACE MAKERS Harpley 254 Dep 12 May 1848 Arr 2 Sep 1848 Fairlie 296 Dep 30 Apr 1848 Arr 7 Aug 1848 Agincourt 263 Dep 16 Jan 1848 Arr 6 Oct 1848

Originally they are British, mostly from the Nottingham area,but a few can be traced to other areas of the British Isles.At some time in their lives all of them went to live and work in France, mostly in Calais, but a few can be found in other areas of France.

In the first half of the 19th century expert machine makers had cleverly devised machines capable of making lace, formerly only slowly produced by hand. A booming industry grew up in Nottingham. Traditional hand making lace areas began to suffer. Northern France was one of these. To survive they needed to make their lace also by machinery. Not unnaturally the British were anxious to preserve their monopoly of the trade and made it as difficult as possible for their ideas and par\tents to be copied.

But in any walk of life, at any time in history, a form of espionage can apply. Parts of machines were transported from England to France by all manner of means. Once there, they needed experts to reassemble them.Then some more experts either to train the French operatives, or move to live and work in France carrying on an industry learnt in England. Many thousands moved. Calais became known as the Nottingham of France.

In the year of the revolution in France in 1848, life was disrupted for everyone, but especially for the British Foreigners. The closing factories threw many hundreds of people out of work. All suffered, from the top owners to the lowest operatives-those

in the bottom being nearest to desolation the fastest!

In 1848 the machine lace trade in Nottingham, quite simply, could not absorb this kind of influx. The poor rate, always stretched to the limit anyway could only provide for numbers on a vast scale by one method- increase the rates!The city fathers put their heads together to devise a way out of this dilemma.

"Collections" were made. But this wasnt a small disaster like a shipwreck or fire, this involved enormous numbers of people. A one off payment would not suffice, their were long term problems looming here.

Mass emigration seemed to offer a remarkable solution! Not only would this lift the burden completely from the shoulders of the Nottingham Poor Law Administrators, but it would also preserve the livelihood of the many thousands of workers already in the machine made lace trade there; an industry which could in no way absorb so many hands without threat of financial collapse.

More than this, this solution could offer hope to this mass of people who were otherwise faced with very great hardship, if not ultimate destitution. Immigration to Australia offered them a chance to build new lives for themselves and there families.

This is the bones of the story of how these three boat loads of remarkably skilled immigrants arrived in Australia within a three month period in 1848.

But there is even more to this story. Not all these "French Deportees" agreed to be shipped to Australia, many were absorbed back into their own families and struggled until they reestablished themselves.

They were not only lace makers and they did not only originate in Nottingham. Welsh iron workers, Lancashire cotton weavers, and Midlands publicans and general shopkeepers to name a few had been found. Then there were soldiers of all trades from all parts.

The original first move-across to France from England offered an opportunity not always available in England. Many couples, marrying in their twenties in St Marys church in Nottingham, left directly after,for this adventure in France. Connections between Nottingham and France were so close that many families already had kin or very close friends over there. There was a great deal of coming and going-evidence of this is easily spotted in the Nottingham Census returns where in a long list of children, Nottingham and France are dispersed as given birth places. It would almost appear that some workers went on contract that is home based but serving a term while in France only. Recruitment was actively carried on in Nottingham. Others went privately, the beer house keepers for instance.

Many family fortunes were both lost and won in France. The exodus in 1848 was only an episode which resulted in the mass emigration to Australia of so many Nottingham folk, but after the trouble died down, large numbers of English drifted back to France and continued to work there and commute back to Nottingham as before.

When the government of Louis Philippe collapsed in Feb 1848 there were all kinds of ramifications throughout France. All banking was frozen, all industries[including lacemaking]was stopped, and there was fair amount of ill feeling towards the British and other foreign populations employed in France.Thousands and thousands of Britons went home from all kinds of industries...textiles, steel and road building in particular. It would seem that in some places there were actual threats against the English, and while this doesn't seem true of Calais, we do know that a lot of French Masters had a lot of pressure on them to employ only French. The state of the lace trade in Nottingham at that time was abysmal and thousands of the population were in poorhouses. There was no way that the families of Calais would find employment in Nottingham which is where they mostly came from. A group of 113 families held a meeting in a church in Calais and decided to petition the British Government to allow them to migrate to Australia.

The petition was drawn up, and eventually passed by the government, and with the help of a group of do gooders, the families came on the aforementioned ships. Although the petition stated that they would like to go to Australia, the Harpley was the only one that did. It was actually a general immigration ship that they got passages for the families in direst need on.

It is of some interest that those families broke every rule that applied to assisted immigration, bar being of good health. Thomas was 42 and Sarah 36...40 was the maximum age on general runs. They had a large family, also against the rules because experience had taught that large families often carried the kids diseases that spread like wild fire through other large families, and were, of course, deadly, and secondly because large families of small children gave the small colony no return for their investment for a year the needed manpower, and right that minute.

Thomas Wells, his wife Sarah(nee Creswell), and their 10 children arrived in Adelaide on the Harpley in 1848.

Both the Wells and Creswell families can be traced back to the Nottingham area to at least 1700, the Wells then living at south Wilford. Mary Flower, later Thomas's maternal grandmother, was also a member.

It is not clear when the Wells family migrated to France or which members made the move. David and Rebecca Creswell and family, of which Sarah was the eldest, probably arrived around 1825, as their second son, William was born in Sneinton, near Nottingham in August 24 and their last child, Elizabeth, at Montreuil in France in 1826. It is probable that the family was living in Calais 2 years later when Sarah eloped with Thomas Wells, The couple had been forbidden to marry as Sarah was barely 16 and Thomas was twice her age. David and Rebecca suffered a crushing blow in 1833 when they lost three of their children during the months of May and June.

Thomas and Sarahs first child, Richard was born in Caen in Normandy at the end of March 1829. The birth certificate states that Thomas was a lace worker and that he and Sarah were married in Normandy. A witness was Thomas Peet, and English fabricant residing in theRue de St Jean. The Wells were then living in the Rue de Bretagne, close to where William the conqueror, Duke of Normandy is buried. Two further children, Thomas and Rebecca, were born in the same town. Sarah was born in Havre de Gras(now Le Havre) in 1834. Though the birthplaces of Emma and William, who followed in the next four years, are not known, the family was living in Calais before November 1841, when John, the seventh child was born. A month later, Sarahs father, David Creswell, died at the age of 50. The Creswells address at the time was La Grande Rue.

James Wells was born in Calais in 1843 and Anne in 1846, when the family was living in the Rue de la Fayette. Elizabeth, the tenth child was born at the Rue de Four a Chaux just a few weeks before the Harpley sailed for South Australia.

Little is known of their time in South Australia except that 3 more daughters, Eliza, Alice, and Fanny were born there between 1848 and 1854. It is believed that Thomas obtained some land and ran dairy cattle, perhaps along the banks of the Torrens, near Thebarton, where many of the Harpley passengers are reported to have settled, or possibly by the Sturt river closer to Glenelg. Rebecca, their eldest daughter, worked for a time as a ladies maid, and married William Burroughs Bradshaw, her employers son at Morphett Vale in February 1849. The family moved to the Ballarat goldfields some time after the birth of their second child in November 1851. Rebeccas older brother, Richard married Ann Cope, the daughter of Henry and Ann Cope at Morphett Vale in 1853. The Cope family had also arrived in the Harpley. Anns uncle was a reciver for the gold sent back to Adelaide by the diggers who had gone to the Victorian Goldfields. There is an uncormfirmed report that some of the Wells men were involved in the first gold escort to leave Mt Alexander with gold consigned to Adelaide in early 1852. Richard and Ann Wells moved to Ballarat where they opened a bakery some time before the end of 1854. Their first child was born the following year.

Thomas, Sarah, and the rest of the family in South Australia appear to have made the move to the Ballarat goldfield some time after the birth of Fanny, theit third Australian child, in June 1854. James, then about 11 years old claimed to have watched the battle of the Eureka Stockade in December 1854 from a nearby tree.

Richards bakery was at Specimen Hill, somewhere nearby.

Legend has it the family drove their cattle overland to Ballarat, losing some on the way to aboriginal spears, and on arrival they camped on the pastures around Yuiles swamp(Lake Wendouree). From there they appeared to have followed the gold leads down the Yarawee in the area around Magpie, where Thomas set himself up as a dairyman on Winters Flat, supplying the miners in the area. Their second son, Thomas, who married Catherine McIntyre at Geelong in 1855, took out a miners right at Magpie. Catherines first child was born there in 1856 and on Christmas Eve the same year Sarah gave birth to her 14th and last child Frederick Flower Wells.

In February 1859 Sarah married Matthew Hutchinson, a widower at nearby Bunyinyong and the following year her sister Emma married Isador Yde at Bunyinyong. Both families selected land in the district when it was opened up for small scale farming around 1863 and continued to live there for 20 more years..

Initially both Hutchinson and Yde both had trouble gaining title to their lands because miners petitions held up their applications. Mathews grant was finalised in 1873, subject to mining rights, but Isadors land was not surveyed until 1880.

Thomas senior also took advantage of the new laws and selected land on the banks of the Leigh River at durham lead some miles south of Bunyinyong in 1863. Here he built a home for his family, which still included nine unmarried children. This farm was to remain in the hands of the family for approximately 100 years.

Richard and Ann left Ballarat and opened a bakery in the small township of Durham Lead, not far from the Wells farm. In June 1866 Ann died, leaving one surviving child Richard Loscoe Wells just turned 11. Richard senior was able to continue running the bakery, his son doubtless brought up by his uncles and Aunts. Richard Loscoe was a little older than his uncle Frederick. In 1868 Richard was married for the second time, to Alice Dutton in Ballarat. Descendants of their 4 children are still living in the area around "the Durham". Richard lived there until his death in 1880.

In the ten years after Thomas and Sarah settled at Durham Lead six of the remaining children married, either at Durham Lead or in Bunyinyong, and continued to live in the area, as did the older ones. The Wells seemd to have been a close knit family. Only one, John, left the area in this period. About 1865 he went to New Zealand, married at Woodstock, a small gold mining town in the South Island, in 1871, and begat a large family, descendants of whom still live in the district. He died there in 1925.

Of the family who emigrated to South Australia in 1848, Anne was the first to die. In 1847 she died in childbirth leaving her husband, Dionysius Wallis, with two young children to care for. Two years later, Sarah, the mother of the Wells family, died in Ballarat at the home of her daughter, Alice, the West Ballarat fire Station. Alice had married William Perry, the station keeper, in 1873. The Perrys continued to live in Ballarat until Alices death in 1896.

After Sarahs death in 1876 the family started to disperse. Apart from the loss of their mother it is probable that changes in the economy of the district played a part in this.

Gold was no longer available at shallow levels and work on on or connected with the mines was more difficult to obtain.

In that year James took his family to Barrys Reef, a gold mining town near Ballarat. Elizabeth with husband Henry Waters and a young family, also moved there. The Waters, however did not remain long but migrated to Tasmania where they settled. Some of their descendants still live in Waratah.

Rebecca Bradshaw bore her 16th and last child at Bungaree near Ballarat in 1874. Subsequently the family moved to Gol Gol near Wentworth where Sarah and her 3 year old son died in 1877. At Wentworth where they are buried, William erected a worthy monument to his wife.

William Wells, after his marriage to Kate Bland had settled at the Durham and worked as a carter in the mines. In 1880 William and Kate loaded their 6 children and all their possesions ionto a horse drawn dray and travelled overland to Gol Gol, where irrigation was opening up prospects for orchardists. They arrived after the day the Bradshaws oldest son Charles was drowned in the Murray River. One of their own sons was to drown in the river some years later. William worked hard to establish a farm, supplementing his income with whatever work came along, including trapping rabbits to help out the housekeeping. Kate, or Nurse Wells as she was called, gave her services as the district midwife, often rowing across the river and walking miles through the bush, usually without payment. William and Kate remained in the district until their deaths in 1924 and 1935.

Towards the 1880s Melbourne was becoming a magnet not only for overseas immigrants but for people from former goldmining towns where work and money had become harder to come by. Eliza and her husband James Geddes left Sebastopol where they had been living, around 1877 moved to Melbourne and settled in Carlton. Eliza died at Fitzroy in 1936. Fanny, her youngest sister, and the only one not to marry, moved to the city not long after the Geddes, possibly about the time that Frederick, who was till on the farm married Sarah Louise Lloyd. Fanny seems to have made her living as a dressmaker.

She was living in Prahran when she died in 1889 soon after her 35th birthday. Thomas Junior had jopined the railways and had also shifted to Melbourne by this time. He was living in South Melbourne in 1894 but moved soon after to West Brunswick where he died in 1900.

Landsales boomed in Melbourne during the 80s and enormous sums of money were invested by overseas financiers. Standards of living where high and the magnificent buildings erected at that time spoke prosperity and confidence. Emma and Isador Yde gave up farming and moved to Melbourne this period. Isadore died at Richmond in 1895 and Emma in Croydon in 1919. Sarah Hutchinson left the farm amd Mathew, who did not want to leave the land, and moved into a home built for her in Essendon by 2 of her sons. She died there in 1910 and is buried in Coburg.

James and his family remained at Barry's Reef until 1887 then moved to Ascot Vale, a suburb of Melbourne. They arrived a day before the fireworks to celebrate Queen Elizabeths Jubilee took place. With work hard to find in the depression years of the early 90s when the land boom had come to a sad end, James and his eldest son, Herbert, tried their luck in Queensland for a short while, but evidently without much success. They returned to Melbourne and sonn afterwards Herbert borrowed enough money for a steerage passage to Western Australia which was booming due to the discovery of gold. In 1896 James, with financial help from Herbert brought his whole family to the west and they settled in North Freemantle. James died in Freemantle in 1924.

Father Thomas moved to Melbourne around 1890 to live with his daughter Sarah Hutchinson at Essendon. He died there in 1894 and is buried in the Melbourne Cemetery.

Frederick, the youngest member of the family, stayed on at the farm. He and Sarah Louisa had seven children. The oldest son was drowned in the Leigh river in 1894 at the age of 12. Sarah Louise died in childbirth in 1897. Frederick, with the help of his eldest daughter, brought up his family on the farm. He died in Ballarat in August 1942 and is buried in the Bunyinyong cemetery. The farm remained in the family until 1966 when after a succession of drought years it was sold.

Descendants of Frederick and Sarah still live in Bunyinyong.

Funeral details of Thomas Wells. The follwing is taken from an extract of the funeral records of Joseph Allison, Funeral directors. The company is currently operated by W Rose in Burwood, Victoria.

No2 Ledger 1886-1894 Folio 350

Name of Deceased; Thomas Wells Date of Death? Sep 30 1894 Age 93 Where died Dorcas St, Sth Melbourne Funeral Leaves Not Recorded What Denomination Wesleyan What Compartment F Number of Grave 1015 What Cemetery Melbourne General Day of Burial 02/10/1894 What kind of coffin 5 foot 10 inches lined and mounted Address Agatha St, Essendon

Funeral Notice

WELLS- The friends of the late Thomas Wells are respectfully invited to follow his remains to the place of Internment- The Melbourne General Cemetery. The funeral will leave the residence of his daughter, Mrs Hutchinson, Agatha St, Essendon, this day, Tuesday, at 3.30pm.

Age- 2 October 1894

Individual: Melbourne General Cemetery, Wesleyan Compartment F Grave 1015(no headstone)TAKEN FROM “THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN REGISTER”: Adelaide: Wed nesday, September 6, 1848 and later reprinted in A HOBART NEWSPAPER, TASMANIA: Wednesday Evening, Sept. 20, 1848 under the heading COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE

THE EMIGRANT SHIP "HARPLEY" (Supplied by Miss D Smith, 21 Corella Ave, Glenalta SA 50 52)

This fine colonial-built ship took her departure from Deptf ord on the 12th May, and sighted Kangaroo Island on Tuesday the 20th August, at four in the morning. Remarkably inauspicious weather retarded the arrival within our harbour precincts, and eventually obliged Captain Buckland to trust to his cables and anchors in Holdfast Bay. During the terrific gale on Friday night, the twice parting of the small bower cable obliged the captain to have recourse to a chain cable on board, on freight, which by the help of the emigrants was got up and happily rendered conducive to the safety of the ship, the best bower holding on in the meantime, and confirming the good repute of the "holding ground" at the anchorage.

The circumstancial history of the bulk of the migrants pe r "Harpley" is worthy of a particular notice. With the exception of six. families, those on board the "Harpley" had been employed in French lace manufactories in or near Calais, some of them having been there eight years since they left their native place, Nottingham. At the outbreak of the French revolution the popular fury soon extended to the hitherto peaceful abodes of the refugees, and the cry of "a has les Anglais"(down with the English) would possibly have been followed by actual and violent expulsion but for the timely interference of the Consul, who besought the insurgents at least to respect the persons of the English workmen. At that time, the number of English working for, or dependent upon, manufacturing employers in Calais and its environs was nothing short of a thousand souls; of whom some have gone to Sydney, a few more are coming hither, and a ship-load were to embark at Calais for Port Philip, a fortnight after the "Harpley" left.

In their extremity the English work people in Calais not wi lling to return to their native town of Nottingham, or any other part of the over-stocked English labour-market, sent a memorial to Lord Palmerston, dated April 12, desiring to obtain passages to one of the English colonies, and a large number wishing to make choice of South Australia, of which they professed to have heard through our "Voice". In three days, an answer was returned by his Lordship, and a government Commissioner arrived to make the requisite enquiries. He was immediately succeeded by Mr. Cooper, a gentleman from the Office of Her Majesty's Land and Emigration Commissioners, who instituted diligent scrutiny into the characters and circumstances of the memorialists, and then arranged for their passage to England, preparatory to emigration for these colonies. On their arrival in London they learned that a benevolent committee was sitting daily at the Mansion House, under the auspicies of that genuine specimen of nobility the distinguished Lord Ashley, and eagerly engaged in getting up a generous subscription to which the town of Nottingham contributed 300 to 400 pounds for the relief of those who were hourly compelled to return to England from the French territory. The objections of the Commissioners to send lace makers and their families to a young colony like South Australia were compromised by an allowance of 5 pounds per head from the subscription fund, and an engagement to provide a good outfit.

The details were then arranged, and the "Harpley" appointed , the emigrants embarked, and soon the poop of the ship, to use our informant's words, was "transformed into a haberdasher's shop", from which every thing necessary was gratuitously and unsparingly supplied to those who were in need, Mr. Cooper being charged with Lord Ashley's princely commands to let the unfortunates want for nothing. Mr Commissioner Wood visited them at Gravesend previous to their departure, addressed to them an admirable speech full of kindness and encouragement, assuring them they were proceeding to a land where honesty and industry seldom failed to have their proper reward.

The only instance of death among the adults was an aged an d ailing man (in his 67th year) who was unwilling to be separated from his family, and to whom the Commissioner humanely granted a free passage. He died in traversing the Bay of Biscay, the only instance of mortality besides, being a delicate infant of three months old. A sea apprentice and a young sailor named Bateman fell overboard during the passage, but both were saved by a well-directed life-buoy until they could be picked up. During the passage the ship only sighted the Cape Verd Islands and St. Pauls. The passengers, who were scarcely becalmed on the line, suffered little from heat in the Tropics, and as little from cold in the southern hemisphere, 39.5 S being the most southerly latitude attained. There was no case of serious illness during the greater part of the passage, and 236 souls have arrived in excellent health, in a remarkably clean and well-commanded ship, manned by a fine crew. During the passage Mr. Spencer the Surgeon-Superintendent read prayers every Sabbath when the weather permitted.

We have seen in the hands of the refugee Emigrants, some o f the certificates granted by employers and municipal officers in France, and they speak well for the character of the people, who we hope will find they have exchanged the inhospitable treatment of the French for a hearty welcome in a British colony. Their's is an instance calling for especial sympathy and spirited exertion on behalf of the colonists, and we shall much mistake if the newly-arrived do not in their case confirm the assurance, that any honest men and women who venture to South Australia with their off-spring will be likely to find the right hand of fellowship extended towards them in a land of peace and plenty.

We have elsewhere published the names and shall be exceedin gly glad to assist, through our office, in facilitating engagements between employers and those who assure us they are anxious to make themselves useful in any capacity.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE:

ARRIVED.... Saturday, September 2nd - The ship "Harpley" 5 7 ?tons, Buckland, master, from London. Passengers: Dr John Spencer, surgeon superintendent, and John Spencer , in the cabin; and the following refugee emigrants from France - John Barnet, wife and six children, John Brown, wife and four children, Wm Burgess, wife and four children, Joseph Clarke, wife and child, John Clarke, wife and three children, Wm Cobb, wife and two children, Henry Cope, wife and seven children, Joseph Cope, Ann Cope, Henry Cope jnr, ?Fanny Cope, Wm Cope, Cornelius Crowder and wife, Hannah Crowder, Emma Crowder, Mary Crowder, George Dennisthorpe, John Davis, wife and four children (one born on the passage), Mary Ann Dennisthorpe, Richard Dixon, wife and two children, Sarah Dixon, Richard Dixon jun, David Dixon, Joseph Dixon, George Dormer, wife and six children, Thomas Dormer, Ellen Dormer, Thomas Dunk, wife and five children, John Freestone, wife and five children, Richard Goldmark, wife and four children, Jas. Hall, wife and child, John Hemmingway, wife and two children, Wm Hirold and wife, John Hibbert and wife, Humphrey Hopkins, wife and adult daughter Mary, Philip Hickey, wife and two children, James Henslie, Caroline Henslie, John Henslie, Benjamin Holmes, wife and three children, Hariet Holmes, John Irons, wife and child, Joseph James, wife and two children, Edward Lander, wife and six children (one born at sea) and Mary Ann (adult), Henry Lee, wife and child, Hiram Langmore, wife and five children, Matthew Matthew, wife and three children, John Mountaney, wife and three children, Thomas and George (adults), Emma Needham, Wm Paul and wife, Wm Parsons, wife and seven children, Sarah, John and Ellen, adults (the youngest, three months old died at sea), Louisa Peat, Emily Peat, George Pike, wife and child, John Revel, wife and three adult daughters (Elizabeth, Anne and ?Mel...sen), Wm Henry Sanson and wife, John Sanson, wife and four children, William Sanson, Jane Sanson, Thomas Sibley and wife, John Shaw, John Smith, wife and four children (one Mary Ann, adult), Thomas Street, wife and four children, Wm Stubbs, wife and three adult children (Francis, Robert, Henry and Edward), George Saunders, wife and three children, Elizabeth (adult), John Sweeney, Theresa Sweeney, Mary Ann Sweeney, Robert Taylor, Walter Wells wife and seven children, Henry and John (adults), Thomas Wells, wife and ten children, Sarah, Richard, Thomas and Rebecca (adults), Thomas Widderson, wife and six children, Henry Watts, Charles Richmond, wife and eight children, Henry and Eliza (adults), Esther Samuels.

THE SHIP - THE HARPLEY The information is taken from “Blue Gum Clippers and Whal e Ships of Tasmania”, a book by Will Lawson and The Shiplovers' Society of Tasmania, published by Georgian House, Melbourne in 1949... and borrowed from my ship loving neighbour Vic Brownlie who has a whole library of ship books! Thanks to Vic.

THE HARPLEY (page 151) Fired no doubt by the spirit of competition and not wishin g to see the bulk of the London trade handled by Hobart ships, the people of Launceston became possessed in 1847 of a fine ship, only 15 tons smaller than the Tasman and, moreover, built on the Tamar. This was the Harpley, 545 tons, owned by James Raven and bu ilt by Patterson Brothers. She left Launceston early in 1847, with a full cargo of wheat and wool, and reached Hobart, where she had to pick up as passengers 50 soldier pensioners, 26 women and 40 children, on March 26. She sailed again on March 29, under the command of Captain Buckley, and made a good passage. It was a shock to the owners and builders when their ship, on arrival at London, was condemned by Lloyd's surveyors as unfit to carry emigrants, some of her beams being declared to be rotten. In a new ship this was inexplicable, and seemed to point to some prejudice against colonial-built vessels. Hobart Town master builders and merchants were very jealou s of the good name that their blue gum vessels had earned in all parts of the world, and they talked of loading one of the oldest vessels and sending her to London for Lloyds to take her to pieces and satisfy the English authorities that blue gum built ships were second to none, including English oak and teak. One of the shipbuilders went to Launceston to make enquiries and found that the Harpley had been built of swamp gum, which southern builders considered totally unfit for ship building.

JOHN PATTERSON OF PATTERSON BROTHERS (page 139) This builder turned out the largest vessel to be built on t he Tamar and the second largest in Tasmania - the barque Harpley, of 545 tons. She was launched to the order of James Raven, a merchant of Launceston, on Feb 5, 1847. Her length on keel was 133 feet. The firm's yards were at Blackwell where, in 1848, they bui lt a schooner of 130 tons, and in 1851 launched the schooner Pearl, 200 tons, for Charles Weedon and John Griffiths....!DEATH:Victoria Australia 6100\1808

Extract from a letter to Mignon Preston [descendent from Sarah (nee Wells) Hutchinson, the fifth child of Thomas and Sarah (nee Cresswell) WELLS], written by Elizabeth Simpson FSG, "Peapkin's End", 2 Stella Grove, Tollerton, Nottingham NG12 4EY England... dated 30 Sept 1986....(includes references to John Boyland, 3 Eggeling St, Esperance WA 6450, also descendent from Sarah).

...the colony of South Australia - celebrating their 150 years this year, had hoped to hold a big meeting of descendants of all those who had arrived per the Harpley in 1848. A letter was published in the newspaper THE ADVERTISER on 20 Sept 1983 written by a Mr John Donisthorpe, 26 Adelaide St, Magill SA 5072 asking folk so descended to get into touch with him. I also gave him the address of the secretary of the Lacemakers Association which was formed in Sydney several years ago, Mrs Gillian Kelly, 10 Sorrell Place, Queanbeyan, NSW 2620. I would urge you to get into touch with Gillian ... she is at present doing a BA in Applied History and using the arrival of the Nottingham/Calais Lacemakers to her thesis. She is intensely interested in what happened to them all after their arrival and I know she would like to hear from you with the story of the WELLS family.

Their search for the right place and occupation to follow tells such a lot about their plight. The lot who landed at Adelaide came to a colony only 10 years old - they were sophisticated folk who had led a very good life in Calais - they were used to travelling, but in a superior way - they were fairly affluent - their work in France paid off - they were better off than their families left at home in Nottingham - they grasped at the straw and hope of 'going to Australia' because they feared that revolution was about to break out in France again in real earnest - trade was very bad at home - they would have had to go onto the Poor Law and seek relief - no jobs - no where to live save possibly back at home (very cramped) with any relatives still there - they appealed to be sent to Australia - at this time all she wanted was labourers - farmers in particular - domestic servants, menial posts - they DID not want lacemakers... who was wearing lace?

It was a minor miracle that they were allowed to go - their arrival must have shattered them! What had they come to? It has always been my belief that the coming of the gold rush so soon after their arrival was the salvation of a lot of them - a boom was created and through this they could learn how to survive. I am thus delighted to see that this is exactly what helped the WELLS family.

.... Walter Wells I have not linked to Thomas - but it is very likely that they ARE related. The lacemakers who went to France went as family units - extended family units - and they recruited more of their own kin all the time. The names are too close to be ignored - and the coincidence of both being on the Harpley helps too to strengthen the idea that they belong to each other - I suspect that they are probably brothers - or at the very least first cousins. Work needs to be done on the background of the Wells in Nottingham. Up to now I only do this kind of work if asked to by Australian descendants - I don't have the time to spare just to potter about on my own too much! I used to work a lot on these Lacemakers - but I have had two whole years off ill.... which brought my activities to a total halt..... I am pleased to find that the descendants of these lacemakers have not lost all hope and are still actively interested in their incredible story.

I shall be in Sydney for the bi-centenary in 1988 and it is possible that I will deliver a paper on these lacemakers. It is a story which has to be told - a unique migration of a very particular group of people. Nothing like it has occurred anywhere else in the world - I am delighted and proud that I was the one to bring it to the notice of the Australian people in the first place.

.. extra info...(from Elizabeth Simpson)

Walter & Sophia WELLS baptised a bunch of their kids all together at the 'English' church in Calais: Robert, Elizabeth Maria, Edward Howell, Walter & Winifred on 16th November 1847... no ages given for the kids but the name HOWELL might be a help..

The CRESWELLS were also in Calais: There was a Charles Bilston CRESSWELL born France c1828 (details per 1851 census of Wednesbury, Staffs. He was living in the home of his Mother Ann who was then 59 and a widow. He was a 'fitter of steam engines' - had a wife called Harriet who was born Birmingham c1830.

A David CRESSWELL born c1792 was buried in Calais 3rd January 1842 aged 50.

A Rebecca CRESSWELL, the daughter of a DAVID, married a Levi TURNER on 22 Nov 1842 in Dover.

A Rebecca CRESSWELL daughter of David married Thomas TODD 19 Nov 1838 in Dover.

Ann WELLS daughter of Thomas & Sarah (Cresswell) - birth registered in civil records Calais 8 Feb 1846 - father then aged 42, mother 30. Residence rue Lafayette, section G No 470. Witnesses Charles GIRUAD 37 lacemaker, Reuben Jennings 37 lacemaker.

Lucy WELLS bapt Calais 27 Feb 1826 daughter of William and Charlotte.

James WELLS son of Thomas & Sarah (Cresswell) birth reg 15 Feb 1833 Calais, residence as above. Witnesses John Webster 35 and Henry Hill 25.

John WELLS son of Walter & Sopies (Basford) birth registered 15 Feb 1833 Calais, residence: rue Lafayette Section G No 364. Witnesses John BASFORD 38 and John Vicary 36.

Sophia WELLS daughter of Walter & Sopiea buried 1 Oct 1841 Calais died 29 Sept 1841 aged 6 months.

William Henry WELLS son of Walter & Sophia (Basford) birth reg 3 Nov 1830 Calais. Witnesses Robert William Pechell 39 and James Trees.

SNIPPETT (taken from Tulle magazine, November 1998 pg26)

In 1841, according to the census of Calais, Rachael Basford, nee Stevens, and the widowed mother of Sophie Wells, was living with her youngest son George, in the home of Thomas Goldfinch and his first wife, Anne Farley.

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  Sources    
  
  

 Title: Sourced from Bronwyn Thomas

Title: VIC BDM Register Author: Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages Victoria Publication: A database of births, deaths and marriages recorded by th e Registry of Births,Deaths and Marriages, Victoria. Page: 1894/13059 Quality: 3

Title: Of All The Mad Pursuits Author: Mignon Preston Publication: T & M Preston

1. ↑ acte n° 313
   vue n° 1138, en bas à droite.

   Acte consultable en ligne sur le site des Archives Départementales

2. ↑ Harpley