I like cemeteries. They are places filled with memories, of solitude and solemnity. They are filled with people who are strangers to most of us, but who were special to others during their lives. Once the people with the memories have also passed, they remain. Their stories waiting to be retold.
Back in the day when our ancestors were arriving on foreign shores hoping to start a new life free from the constraints of England or wherever they had come, they often endured a perilous journey around the globe.
One such journey is memorialised in the cemetery at Dunwich.
The Emigrant had sailed from Plymouth on 17 April 1850 bound for Moreton Bay with 276 likely anxious yet excited passengers embarking on a journey to a new life with new opportunities in the new colony. A number of babies were born on the voyage, but those joyous arrivals were far outweighed by the number of deaths.
Four weeks into the voyage there was an outbreak of Typhus with eighteen deaths on board. When they reached Moreton Bay the ship and passengers were quarantined at the Quarantine Station at Dunwich on Stradbroke Island. A further twenty-six perished there, including the young Surgeon Superintendent Dr Mitchell and Surgeon General for the Brisbane District Dr Bellow, dying either while at anchor or in the Quarantine Station.
Today, crosses still mark their resting places and a memorial plaque gives information about the tragedy and lists their names and dates of death. Two marked graves memorialise the surgeons.
Who were these people ? Who were the people they left behind ? How did they rebuild their lives after such a horrific start in their new country ?
The names on the plaque are listed in sections, for those who died at sea; those who died at sea after entering Bass Strait; at anchor in Moreton Bay; at anchor at the Quarantine Station and at the Quarantine Station in Dunwich. Reading the the names, one family group caught my attention.
Hallett, from Somerset.
We have Halletts, from Somerset in our tree. I couldn't help myself, I wondered could there be a connection. The Halletts in our family had emigrated to New Zealand with several other members of their wider family, so it wouldn't be surprising to discover that siblings or cousins had emigrated to other colonies too. So far I can't find a connection, but I think it is fairly likely to be there somewhere. Not siblings, but perhaps cousins to "our" Halletts.
Our Hallett family was from East Chinnock and the family on board the Emigrant were from West Chinnock and Middle Chinnock. The three villages are all within three miles of each other.
On the 1841 census, Charles was a weaver (an occupation in common with the other Hallett family and much of the working population in and around Middle Chinnock). Charles and Hannah had three sons; James 7, Charles 4 and Henry 2. By 17 April 1850 when they left England there were two more children Anne and George, and a baby on the way.
The baby, described only as an infant, arrived mid May. On 24 May 1850 Hannah died of apoplexy. Charles was left to care for his young family, to console them and grieve with them for the loss of their mother and his wife. They were still a long way from their intended destination. But worse was yet to come. The baby, now without the nourishment it needed could not strive and died on 18 June 1850 aged 1 month.
Charles and his sons James and Henry died from typhus in quarantine at Dunwich between 1-26 September leaving Charles 13, Anne 7 and George 5 to fend for themselves. What happened to them ? Were they taken in by another family ? How bewildered and bereft they must have felt in this strange land with no family but themselves.
On the passenger list there were other families from Somerset, maybe even from the same village - I saw some names on the census to chase up and compare. Perhaps a family that was known to them - even related by marriage - might have gathered them up and cherished them. I hope so.
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