The Price and Russell connection was a late addition to my family tree. It has been shown that although Daniel Beck arrived in Australia with his first wife Elizabeth Hoile and they had one child, Elizabeth returned to England in the early 1840’s. Daniel met up with Elizabeth Patterson (nee Russell Price). This then is her story and her parents.
Both John Price and Elizabeth Russell were convicts arriving in the colony in the early 1800’s.
John Price 1783?-1840?
Born in Hertfordshire, England. It is not known what crime he committed but he was transported for life to Sydney in 1802. So he was aged about 14.He was convicted at the Worcester assizes on 6 March 1801. He travelled on the Coromandel, leaving England in January 1802 and arriving Sydney 13 June 1802. That is 14 years after settlement. There were 252 convicts on board.
His description 5ft 5 inches, dark complexion, black hair, dark eyes. Painter and glazier.
He was assigned to John Macarthur to help with the building and renovating of Elizabeth Farm.
Macarthur was a pioneer, politician, architect, and entrepreneur and with wife Elizabeth built the wool industry. In 1814 John is listed as a government employee at the Parramatta Stores.
On 16 March 1807 he marries Elizabeth Russell at St Johns Church Parramatta. He is 19, Elizabeth 15.
“John Price of the parish of St John Parramatta and Elizabeth Russell of the parish of St John Parramatta were married in this church by banns this 16th day of March in the year 1807 … by me, Henry Fulton.
John Price signed the register and Elizabeth Russell made her ‘X’ mark
in the presence of William Rushton who made his ‘X’ mark and Hannah Hunter who signed the register”.
Note that john signs the register indicating that he must have had some education.
She was also a convict and worked for Lieutenant John Brabyn in the nearby Parramatta Barracks.
Both John and Elizabeth are listed in the Parramatta Pioneer Register and on the Australian Royalty Website. https://australianroyalty.net.au/index.php
Their first child John Cloudesly is born 1 January 1813 in Parramatta.
The next record for John is in 1815 when he is sent to Newcastle for 3 years (punishment for an unknown crime). He and other men travel on the Lady Nelson to get a load of cedar and coal for Sydney. He applies for and gets a Leave of Absence on 1 July 1817.
A daughter Elizabeth Russell is born 5 September 1818 also in Parramatta.
Records from the Colonial Secretary Index shows their son John Cloudesly is admitted to the Male Orphan School, aged 11. It shows that John and Elizabeth both now work as servants for Lieutenant Antill. The Male Orphan School was for destitute boys who were given a basic education and farm skills. Perhaps this was a chance for John to improve his prospects. In 1823 the school was moved to Cabramatta.
By 1819 he is again working for the Government Stock Department. He petitions for a mitigation of his life sentence and for a ticket of leave. He is supported by George Johnston, the superintendent of the Stock Deprtment. He is granted a Conditional Pardon then Absolute Pardon on 31 January 1820.
By Septembe 1822 John is the tollkeeper on the turnpike on the Western Road Parramatta. Earlier that year John and Elizabeth had a very unpleasant experience. Their house was broken into by 3 men. The NSW Supreme Court (as recorded in Sydney Gazette 14 June 1822) trial records that 3 men broke into their house on 29 May 1822 and stole 60 pound in notes, cash; chest of tea; sugar and their clothes. The couple were threatened, John was beaten. Elizabeth was pregnant at the time (James was born 2 months later 27/7/1822) Young Elizabeth was 3. The men were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.
John Cloudesly finally left the Orphan School in January 1827 when he was apprenticed to J. Clayton, a cooper at Cooper’s Arms hotel in George St. Sydney. Maybe things weren’t to his liking as he absconded in April. He may have moved out of Sydney and changed his name. He eventually marries Cordelia Ann Pawsey in 1837.
The 1828 Census shows John, Elizabeth and their 2 children Elizabeth and James still in Parramatta working for George Stanbury, on his farm; Stanbury had also been a convict and often employed convicts or ex-convicts. John Price died about 1840.
Elizabeth Russell 5/9/1794? – ?
Elizabeth Russell arrived in Sydney 11 April 1806. She traveled on ‘William Pitt’ with 120 other female convicts. She was tried & convicted for her crime (details unknown) on 21st July 1804 & sentenced in Salisbury, Wiltshire, (Assizes). Elizabeth was given a term of 7 years, & “Transportation” to New South Wales, she was only 12 or 13 years old. Soon after arrival in the new colony (1806), and according to the “Musters of New South Wales and Norfolk Island, 1805-1806” Elizabeth was assigned to a family headed by an officer of the New South Wales Corps, namely Lieutenant John Brabyn. The Brabyn family occupied quarters in the “Parramatta Barracks” (primarily for the Military) which was situated at the lower end of George Street, opposite the Queen’s Wharf. This was only a few hundred metres from ‘Elizabeth Farm’, where John Price was living.
Elizabeth Russell was a servant at the Brabyn’s, probably from 1806 to 1810. No doubt she would have been of substantial assistance to Mrs Brabyn, as well as providing some company for John & Sarah Brabyns’ 3 young daughters.
The two convicts, Elizabeth Russell and John Price were married in St John’s church in Parramatta on 16th March 1807. John was then about 19 years of age & Elizabeth was only a young girl of 15 years.
John Price of the parish of St John Parramatta and Elizabeth Russell of the parish of St John Parramatta were married in this church by banns this 16th day of March in the year 1807 … by me, Henry Fulton. John Price signed the register and Elizabeth Russell made her ‘X’ mark in the presence of William Rushton who made his ‘X’ mark and Hannah Hunter who signed the register”.
Elizabeth, whilst still a convict in 1810, was then employed as a servant for Henry Colden Antill, who was possibly residing in Parramatta or Sydney. He was a Captain of the 73rd & 46th Regiments; he was appointed Justice of the Peace in December 1821; and a landholder at Liverpool. Major Antill was also a personal & close friend of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. So once again, Elizabeth was residing with a Military family, & probably at the recommendation of her previous employer, Captain Brabyn. In 1821, Major Antill married & relocated to a property at Moorebank, Liverpool.
Elizabeth received her emancipation certificate on 9th May 1812, but it is understood that she remained as a servant at the Antill family residence in Liverpool. This meant that she was ‘freed by servitude’ after her 7 years sentence.
Elizabeth and John have 3 children – John Cloudesly Price 1 January 1813; Elizabeth Russell Price 5 September 1818; James Price 27 July 1822.
See John Price biography for more on John Cloudesly; the robbery at the turnpike.
It has not been confirmed, but the convict Elizabeth Price (nee Russell) may have re-married after John Price’s death in 1840, especially since there are no death records under “Elizabeth Price“. There is a marriage in 1844 at St John’s church in Parramatta for Elizabeth Price & Thomas Page.
https://jenwilletts.com/convict_ship_william_pitt_1806.htm
Elizabeth Russell Price 5/9/1818-23/3/1883
Elizabeth was born in Parramatta, her parents were both convicts – John Price and Elizabeth Russell. She had an older brother, John Cloudsley and a younger brother James. It would have been a harsh childhood with convict parents; she had little or no education and she was only 3 when her family was attacked and robbed in the tollhouse. Then in 1829, aged 11, while attending the races at Parramatta, she and a friend were abducted and raped. The man responsible was apprehended, tried, found guilty and hanged. This must have been a traumatic ordeal which would have affected her for the rest of her life.
When she was 16 she married John Patterson (Pattinson) at St John’s Parramatta on 8 July, 1834. She signed her marriage certificate with an x. John was also a convict.
They have 2 children, both born in Parramatta – Thomas James 17/2/1834 and Elizabeth 21/2/1838. However in 1840 John deserts her, taking young Thomas, they go to Port Phillip (Melbourne). Elizabeth is not only left with baby Elizabeth but is pregnant again. There were few options for a deserted woman so she goes to The Female Factory in North Parramatta. Here there would be shelter, food and work – to help her survive & bring up her 2 year old child; as well as prepare for her expected new baby. Work may have included spinning, knitting, straw plaiting, washing, or other cleaning duties. A colonial surgeon would also have been on hand at the “Factory” for the birth and after-care. She gives birth to Cordelia Anne on 20 December 1840.
The Parramatta Female Factory, in the former penal colony, was located in the grounds of Cumberland Hospital, North Parramatta, New South Wales. It opened in 1821. The factory idea was a combination of the functions of the British bridewells, prisons and workhouses. The Parramatta Female Factory was multi-purpose. It was a place of assignment, a hospital, a marriage bureau, a factory, an asylum and a prison for those who committed a crime in the Colony. The reason it is called a factory is because it manufactured cloth – linen, wool and linsey woolsey. It was also the site of the colony’s first manufactured export producing 60,000 yards (55,000 m) of woven cloth in 1822.The women also did spinning, knitting, straw plaiting, washing, cleaning duties and if in third class, rock breaking and oakum picking.
They stay at the Female Factory for a few months before going to live in the house of George Buckley. Elizabeth was friends with his wife. Who knows what her life was like but it turned horribly wrong when in July 1841 she is tried and convicted of the manslaughter of Cordelia. In the court trial it was claimed that the baby died “by neglecting to afford said infant the proper nutriment etc”. It’s a horrific story – she was often drunk, the child was not looked after or fed and the court records also imply she was a prostitute. She was sentenced in July of that year to 2 years imprisonment in Sydney Gaol.
http://www.law.mq.edu.au/research/colonial_case_law/nsw/cases/case_index/1841/r_v_pattison/
She was to serve that time in a Sydney gaol because the new Parramatta Gaol was still under construction; and the new Sydney gaol had just opened at Darlinghurst in June of 1841. (The old Sydney gaol was in George Street). So at least Elizabeth would have spent 2 years in a new prison, in which the conditions may have been not quite as bad or horrific as the earlier establishments. It is not known who looked after her daughter Elizabeth. She was released in June or July 1843.
Around this time she meets Daniel Beck (his first wife Elizabeth Hole had returned to England) and they form a relationship; she gives birth to Mary Ann Beck in 1844 in Pennant Hills. Daniel is a timber getter. Mary Ann’s death certificate lists Elizabeth Price as her mother.
Then another child Daniel Beck Patterson is born in 1846. Although he carries the surname Patterson, John Patterson had gone to Port Phillip in 1840. Was Elizabeth worried about the legal complications because she was not married to Daniel?
They move to the Gosford area and Susan Beck is born 1850 in Erina. Her christening certificate lists Elizabeth as mother. Daniel is described as a timber getter and store keeper. He is an enterprising man.
However gold is discovered in the Hill End region and the Beck family are off again, this time to the goldfields. He is listed as a gold miner in Tambaroora, Wattle Flat (Sofala), Pyramul and Stoney Creek.
More children are born Sarah in 1853 in Wattle Flat; James Beck 1855 in Turon; Emma Beck/Price 1857 in Tambaroora. Except for Susan all their death certificates list Elizabeth Price as mother.
There are various records of Daniel’s and Elizabeth’s lives over the next few years. The Hill End Goldmining records show Daniel and Elizabeth running the general store (1854 -61) in Pyramul and the 3 Bells Inn in 1856 in Long Creek. He is the churchwarden in Meroo.
They eventually marry in August 1858 in Tambaroora. Elizabeth is described as a widow and makes her “mark”.
William Ley is a friend of Daniels and he marries Elizabeth Patterson, Elizabeth’s daughter with John Patterson (it’s nice to know she survived those horrific years). This is also recorded in Hill End Mining Records.
They have a child and name her Cordelia. I wonder what Elizabeth thought of this?
By 1861 Daniel and Elizabeth are declared insolvent and must leave their store in Pyramul. They move to Young. They receive a summons from the Insolvency Court in Bathurst to show proof of debt. Because witnesses do not show up the case is postponed. Daniel dies 1st September 1862.
Elizabeth and her 6 children (aged from 17, 16, 12, 9, 7, 4) stay in the Young area. Her son in law, William Ley becomes their guardian.
Elizabeth stays in Young until about 1868/9 when she moves to Grenfell and the gold diggings with the rest of the family. Note her daughter Susan had married Robert Budd in 1868 in Young and moved to Grenfell.
Elizabeth marries for the 3rd time on 2 October 1870 to William Rogers in Grenfell.
Sarah and James also marry in Grenfell; Emma marries in Gulgong. Daniel Beck junior 2nd marriage is to Sarah Anne Phillips’ daughter of Nathan Phillips. Her sister Mary Ann Phillips married James Durrant, their daughter Rose Ann Durrant marries Robert Henry Budd!
Elizabeth’s life continues to be a struggle, she dies on 23/3/1883, near Cowra, aged 65. She was a washerwoman. She is buried in Cowra cemetery, her grave is unmarked. She’d married 3 times, had at least 9 children. I hope her life was not a complete misery. Perhaps her time with Daniel was easier and productive and not too harsh.
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