Phillips Family

Mother

Maternal Line:

A must have in the family is a convict and we have two. Nathan Phillips was the first I discovered. He was born in about 1813 in London; his father was Hyam and mother Mary. Much information about him comes from his convict records. He was Jewish (my grandmother always said we had Jewish blood in the family), his profession was a stage dancer and dealer (perhaps a Fagin type figure); he can read and write (unusual for this time, so he must have had an education); his native place is London and Portsmouth. Apparently some Jews started to arrive in Portsmouth in 1746, many were Spanish refugees.

There is also a description of him: He is ruddy with dark hair, chestnut eyes and is 5ft 2 inches. He has the initials HP tattooed inside his lower right arm (perhaps his father Hyam’s initials); short finger nails, pock mark on left side of mouth. He was convicted at the Surry Quarter Sessions on 7 April 1834, his crime, a pickpocket; his sentence 7 years transportation. He was 21 when he was transported to Australia; he arrived in Sydney on 18 November, 1834 on the boat Hooghley.

Hooghley

The journey to Australia on convict boats would not have been pleasant but convicts were looked after. The surgeon’s log on Nathan is long and detailed. It included the following:

“By his own account he was ill with sciatica in the hip joint before the journey. This occasioned a berth in the hospital before leaving and then he kept to his bed for most of the journey. To detail the various minutia of his treatment would occupy a whole journey in itself. Pain described sometimes as excruciating, then suddenly gone. Except that the limb was emaciated compared with the sound leg, I would have thought he was imposing on me.”

Treatment included blood letting, cupping, warm baths, blistering and diaphoretic (promotes sweating), anodyne (analgesic) medicines, sulphuric acid. He needed support for most of the voyage and used crutches for a while. The limb gradually regained its muscularity. He was then able to exercise and enjoy the benefit of open air. He was fit enough for assignment when they reached the colony. In fact the surgeon said he could arrange for Nathan not to be assigned to any labour but Nathan turned that offer down. It seems hospital was to be avoided.

Nathan was assigned to William Vivers who had a cattle and sheep property at Kings Plains between Glen Innes and Inverell.

Nathan earned his Certificate of Freedom in July 1843 and in September 1843 marries Roseanna Elbra. It is assumed he must have returned to Sydney some time earlier. They marry at St Andrews Scots Prebytarian Church in Sydney.

St Andrews Scots Church

Roseanna(h) Elbra (the surname in earlier years was Elborough) was born in 1824 in King Street, Lambeth (near Lambeth Walk). Her father, John Elbra, was a blacksmith and her mother, Mary Ann Allder, a hat maker. They were married in 1810 in St John’s Church Paddington.

Interior of St James Church

St John’s Church, Paddington.

She travels to Australia on the ship Burhampooter with her brother William (blacksmith) and his wife Sarah (straw bonnet maker). They all come under the Assisted Immigrants Scheme, arriving in August 1841. Roseanna is 18 and described as a dressmaker and servant, she is in good health and can read and write, she “had no complaints to make”. Who would listen if she did have any complaints? She is 19 when she marries Nathan; she must have judged him as of good character in spite of his criminal record.

Their first child is Louis but there is no record of his birth or place however we can follow the family’s movements from where the rest of the children are born. Hyam is born in 1847 in Capertee. Capertee is west of Sydney near Lithgow. The white settlement of Capertee began with sheep properties in 1840’s. Perhaps Nathan used his experience on the sheep property in Kings Plains. The family returns to Sydney where the next 3 children John, Mary and Sarah were born between 1849 and 1857. Sarah’s birth in the newspaper notice gives an address for Goulburn St East, Sydney. They are on the move again when in 1864 Simeon is born near Young in the gold mining area of Tipperary Gully; he only lives 1 year. Nathan’s occupation is storekeeper. They are still in Young when Aaron is born in 1867. Roseanna is 43, hopefully the end of her childbearing years.

Mary, who was born in 1851, is our 2 times great grandmother. As Mary marries James Durrant in 1869 at the 7 Mile Rush, near Grenfell I presume Nathan and Roseanna are living there too.

Panning for gold

By 1891 Nathan and Roseanna have moved north to Parkes as the Census shows them living in Clarinda Street, Billabong. Billabong is a gold mining area. Nathan dies aged 86 in 1899 in Narromine, north of Parkes. Why is he there, is Roseanna with him? It is possible that one of his sons is living there, perhaps he was visiting. Whatever the answer Nathan’s forced move to the other side of the world gave him a completely different life and in spite of his illness on the voyage to Australia he lived a long life with a wife and family.

Roseanna dies in Parkes, aged 89, in 1913. I hope she made the right choice with Nathan. Like other women at this time she moved around a lot; living in difficult situations; poor housing; had many children, some dying young – not an easy life.