John Armstrong - It don't matter

When I say the name "JOHN ARMSTRONG" to you, what kind of image of the man does it conjure up? For me the name Armstrong is Scottish.  Now add in that he was born in 1800, and died in 1850 in Adelaide, South Australia.  You could surmise that he was a traveller, an adventurer, perhaps drawn to the gold rush in that area when the state was very young. His occupation was a stoker, perhaps on the very ship in which he travelled to Australia. We know that many crew members jumped ship at locations where gold was found. What is your picture of John Armstrong so far?

Adelaide ca. 1850.  Drawing by Samuel Calvert. State Library of South Australia.

Now add to your picture that he married a young Scottish widow with an infant daughter in 1842. How do you picture him now? Finally, add in your picture that he was buried in Adelaide by the government in 1850.  We could surmise that he didn't "strike it rich" if his wife couldn't afford his burial. Now add in that he was a black African man. Wait, what?

Pre-conceptions. Mine. Armstrong = Scottish = white. I had lived with my preconceptions of a Scottish John Armstrong for a long time. As you research a person in your family tree, you can live with your own preconceived ideas for years sometimes. I got the shock of my life when I was proved so unutterably wrong.  John Armstrong was a black African man, and our family had inherited his black skin.

Previous generations of our family had very dark skin, so we have always known that there was black ancestry somewhere back in the mists of time.  We knew, for example, that John Armstrong's daughter Elizabeth had married an African man, (the elusive Sims Cummis that I have written about so many times on this blog). We have a photograph of one of Elizabeth and Sim’s children, who I discovered had the nickname “Snowy” because of his beautiful chocolatey dark skin.  Their daughter was nicknamed "Blossom" for the same reason (she was my great great grandmother). We had all presumed our family’s dark skin came from their father, Sims.  But we have no absolute proof that Sims was dark-skinned. All we know about Sims for sure is that he too was born in Africa. That fact by itself doesn’t prove that our family’s dark skin was inherited from him.

Fast forward now until I discovered a John Armstrong mentioned in an Adelaide newspaper dated 1841, describing John and his mate as "two African blacks".  I was astonished. Could this be my John Armstrong? The chances of him being my John Armstrong were good, as the population of South Australia was exploding but still only about 10,000 at the time.  John Armstrong is a common name though, and there was one other John Armstrong in Adelaide at the time.  I discovered him again in another newspaper article, this time, described as "a man of colour". Further investigation proved that yes, this particular John Armstrong was indeed my 4x great grandfather. I had made a massive, incorrect, culturally stereotyped assumption about the name Armstrong.

Although I hate the racist description in the newspaper, I am in some ways grateful for it.  It is a reflection of its own time. Without that description “two African blacks” I never would have gotten the whole clear picture of John Armstrong.  Without it, I would never have understood the full implication of the harsh realities that John Armstrong encountered over his lifetime. And the newspaper descriptions are proof enough that our family’s dark skin was inherited from Snowy’s maternal grandfather, the black African John Armstrong. (Whether his father Sims had dark skin too is yet to be verified, although it does seem likely.)

But this whole incident taught me the hardest lesson any genealogist can learn.

Keep clear what are facts in your research and only work from there.  Never make the arrogant mistake of assumption. Be on the lookout for your cultural stereotypes that are so insidious, you don’t even know that they exist. Our ancestors were individuals, and they made unique choices, so every research option must be explored in order to honour their individuality. 

Next week, John Armstrong makes his choices in Adelaide in 1840.

Historically yours,

Valerius Copernicus

PS. Recent DNA evidence shows that our African roots stem from Mali, Benin/Togo, and Senegal.

 Image from State Library of South Australia: B1134

http://www.catalog.slsa.sa.gov.au:80/record=b2064839~S1

Harriet Cadwallader nee Sloane 1839 - 1920

Welcome to Robert Armstrong's descendants!  

You are descendants of Elizabeth Salter's son Robert, and I am a descendant of Elizabeth Salter's daughter Louisa.

Today I thought I would write an overview of Elizabeth Salter's older half sister, Harriet. Harriet and Elizabeth shared the same mother JANET.

Harriet SLOANE was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1839, the same year her parents and (probably) her older brother John came to Australia from Scotland.  I have written about the ship, the Katherine Stewart Forbes which the family travelled out in.  It is possible that Janet was pregnant with Harriet on the voyage.  Harriet's father died and then her mother Janet married John ARMSTRONG, giving birth to Elizabeth in Adelaide in 1842.

In late 1851/early 1852, Janet moved her family to Chewton near Castlemaine in Victoria in response to the gold rush in the Forest Creek/Mount Alexander area.

In Chewton, Harriet married William CADWALLADER, the local Blacksmith in 1857.  William Cadwallader bought land in the first land sale in Chewton in April 1860. The Cadwalladers went on to have six children who were all born in Chewton.  Their names were Sarah, Janet, William Sloane, Emily, Harriet and William Robert Cadwallader.   Sadly, William Sloane Cadwallader died at the age of 11 months, and was buried in Chewton Cemetery on 13 January 1865. His Death Notice appeared in the Mount Alexander Mail:

 As the Cadwallader family grew more prosperous, William also bought land in Talbot/Amherst about 70km west of Chewton.  He eventually died and was buried there in 1885.

Harriet and Elizabeth's mother Janet died in 1887 and was buried with her 11 month old grandson in Chewton.  A decade later, Elizabeth would also be buried in this grave.

Harriet moved to Bendigo, and lived until she was 81 years old.  She died in 1920 and was buried in Bendigo Cemetery.


 Thanks to Trove for allowing the reproduction of the article on William Sloane Cadwallader's death, cited as below:
Article identifierhttp://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207002314

Page identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page21589842

APA citation

Family Notices. (1865, January 16). Mount Alexander Mail(Vic. : 1854 - 1917), p. 2. Retrieved October 4, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207002314

MLA citation

"Family Notices." Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917) 16 Jan 1865: 2. Web. 4 Oct 2015 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207002314>.

Harvard/Australian citation

1865 'Family Notices.', Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917), 16 January, p. 2, viewed 4 October, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207002314

Wikipedia citation

{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207002314 |title=Family Notices. |newspaper=[[Mount Alexander Mail |Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917)]] |location=Vic. |date=16 January 1865 |accessdate=4 October 2015 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Unclaimed letters in Adelaide, South Australia in 1853

Adelaide newspaper article in 1853

Janet Salter's name in a list for Unclaimed Letters
 in Adelaide in 1853.

Just for a change, I searched Trove for an ancestor, this time Janet Salter.

Janet was a Scottish woman who came to Adelaide with her husband, arriving in 1839. South Australia was a fledgling state at that point, and I've read stories of how people had to wade through swampland with their possessions on their backs once they reached Adelaide.  Colonial times sure were a hoot.  Anyway, Janet buried two husbands in Adelaide poor thing, and married a third, called James Salter, in August 1851.  Hope springs eternal.

Around this same time, gold was discovered in the Forest Creek area of Victoria (that is around Castlemaine).  James and Janet Salter must have decided to try their luck in that area, and were settled in Chewton by 1855.  They must have travelled overland as there are no records I can find of them sailing. The journey wouldn't have been much shorter anyway from any Victorian port out to the goldfields.  To sail would have been expensive and I seriously doubt whether they could have afforded to sail. I shudder to think what travelling from Adelaide to Chewton overland would have been like with children in tow. I imagine wooden wagons and bullocks, not many possessions and lots of walking, but I don't know for sure.

So the two definite dates we have for James and Janet are:  August 1851 in Adelaide when they married AND August 1855 in Chewton.  So they travelled some time during that four year period.

Trawling through Trove yesterday, I discovered an unclaimed letter for Mrs. Janet Salter, published in two different South Australian newspapers for a total of 5 times.  Although there are Salters in Adelaide at this time, there are no other Janet Salters, so I know it is her letter. The notices appeared in these newspapers:

• 7 May 1853 - Adelaide Observer
• same day - South Australian Register
• 14 January 1854 - Adelaide Observer
• 16 January 1854 - South Australian Register
• 20  February 1854 - South Australian Register

So, with these dates in mind, if Janet did not collect her letter in May 1853, she had likely already left Adelaide by that date.

We have narrowed the date of their leaving Adelaide down to less than 2 years now, between August 1851 when they married in Adelaide and May 1853. Of course, nothing is set in stone with genealogy.

The next question is, who wrote to her and how did they know she was by then Mrs. Salter?

Historically yours,
Valerius Copernicus

If anyone out there knows of a book or any further information as to how people travelled from Adelaide to Victoria in the early 1850s,  please let me know.

Trove Citation:

23 South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900) 3 1853 7 May 1853 Adelaide, SA http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38463379 22 August 2015

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An insight into the gold-mining town of Chewton, Victoria, Australia in 1865

Robert Armstrong Comes

Recently I obtained the birth certificate for Robert Armstrong Comes aka Robert CUMMIS, aka Robert ARMSTRONG.

As usual, Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria sent the whole page from the Chewton records at the time.  So I get five birth registrations for the price of one.

Robert was born on 3 July 1865 at Wattle Flat in Chewton, and was present at the time of his registration in September.  His father was listed as Simes Comes (who our family usually refer to as Sims Cummis) and he was a miner aged 28.  For some reason his birth place is listed as South America but our family knows he was from South Africa.  His birth in South Africa is confirmed as per his own statement on his wedding certificate, as being born at the Cape of Good Hope.

Robert's mother (and my 3x great grandmother) is listed as Elizabeth Comes, formerly Elizabeth Armstrong, born Adelaide, South Australia, aged 23.  Robert's birth registration also states that  Elizabeth and Sims married in 1864 in Chewton, and we can confirm this from their wedding certificate that they married on 10 October 1864.

The informant was Elizabeth herself, and she dutifully made her mark on the register (see the photo), as she had also done at her wedding.  It is interesting that Elizabeth and Sims were both illiterate, and yet one of their later sons became what amounted to an unofficial journalist, commenting in the newspapers about his experiences at Gallipoli and the Western Front during the First World War.

In the Witnesses column, it states there was 'No Medical attendant', however 'Other Witnesses' names Mrs. Salter.  

Now we know who that witness is.  Mrs. Salter is Elizabeth's mother and my 4x great grandmother, Janet Row who was born in Scotland.  She travelled to Adelaide, South Australia in 1839 with her Scottish husband, who died that same year.  Janet married again, this time to Elizabeth's father, an African man called John Armstrong.  After John Armstrong died, Janet married yet again in Adelaide, South Australia to an Englishman called James Salter.  James brought the whole family to Chewton in Victoria shortly after gold was discovered, a distance of 650 km (over 400 miles).

What is interesting on this birth registration page is that Mrs. Salter is named as witness to two births.

Janet also helped deliver another boy born four days after her grandson Robert. That boy's name was William John Archer, and his father was a 32 year old baker from Liverpool, England. His mother was 22 year old Agnes Longstaff, from Brooklyn, Long Island in America.

Four out of the five births listed on the page state 'no medical attendant'. Two of the other informants have definitely signed in their own hand.  The other two listed as informants seem to be consistent with the handwriting of Registrar Hardy. So Elizabeth was the only one who 'made her mark' on the page.

I like to think Elizabeth's mother Janet helped others as a midwife in their community. Janet lived in Chewton until she died in 1896. If I'd travelled from Scotland to Australia, from Adelaide to Chewton, I would refuse to move any more too.

.  

South Australia 1839 - Governor George Gawler

His Excellency Governor George Gawler,
Governor of South Australia in 1839.
State Library of South Australia, SLSA, B14428

Hi everyone,

You know of course from yesterday's blog that my 4x Great Grandmother Janet Slone nee Row and her first husband Robert Slone arrived at Port Adelaide, South Australia in March 1839 on the Katherine Stewart Forbes.

Also on board was Charles Cooper, who was to become the first Chief Justice of the Province.

An article by the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register newspaper printed on 6 April 1839, just days after their arrival, tells of a welcoming speech given by His Excellency the Governor George Gawler to Charles Cooper.

It is clear from the article that both men have used this opportunity to make statements of their agendas.

Firstly, Gawler welcomes Cooper, stating that he has received the orders from her Majesty, Queen Victoria to make Charles Cooper a permanent Judge of South Australia.  Gawler sees this permanent position with 'satisfaction' and as giving rise to stability within the Colony. This stability is 'of the utmost importance to our prosperity.'  I'm getting the feeling that George has some warring parties on his hands somewhere.

George then says that Charles Cooper shouldn't have too much to do on the criminal side of things, and waxes lyrical about how the working classes of the whole British Empire are all things wonderful but especially law abiding. Er, George, where did the convicts come from in the first place?  One gets the feeling he is trying to make it so by saying so here because his next statement  was that the Gaol was full, but it was only a little Gaol.

Prophetically, Gawler speaks to our family in the next paragraph, and I'll let you read it for yourself.  He says that most prisoners in the Gaol were:

     'runaway sailors or escaped convicts from other colonies; with such as these there will, no doubt, be something to do.  An efficient police must be maintained, and the arm of justice firmly extended to repress their irregularities.'

Well, Janet Slone's next husband, and my 4x great grandfather John Armstrong,  is an African born sailor, who we think gets done for theft of four chickens, and ended up doing hard labour in that Gaol a few years after this speech.

Next, Gawler talks about a propensity for 'frivolous and vexatious litigation' within the colony which he hopes is replaced by conciliation and arbitration.  He hopes that Mr. Cooper will not have to deal with too many of these civil cases.

Cooper himself responds now, thanking the Governor for the cordial reception, and said that 'everything had been done to make him forget that he was a stranger in a strange land.'  I wonder if Granny felt the same way.  Cooper then went to some effort to emphasise that, by necessity, his position required him to be apolitical.

Then he commented on a situation of which I have no knowledge, but Mr. Cooper states that he has read something in the newspapers that is 'so unjust to the Governor' and 'so injurious to the happy progress of the colony.' What is Charles Cooper talking about?

Another mystery to solve.

https://www.facebook.com/AmazingmazyHistorically yours,
Valerius Copernicus

Image of Governor Gawler supplied courtesy of State Library of South Australia, SLSA. B14428.
Newspaper articles found in Trove reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Australia.
Citation for Trove article:

Article identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31750510

Page identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page2052662

APA citation

APPOINTMENT AND INSTALLATION OF HIS HONOR THE JUDGE. (1839, April 6). South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register (Adelaide, SA : 1836 - 1839), p. 3. Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31750510

MLA citation

"APPOINTMENT AND INSTALLATION OF HIS HONOR THE JUDGE." South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register(Adelaide, SA : 1836 - 1839) 6 Apr 1839: 3. Web. 22 Apr 2015 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31750510>.

Harvard/Australian citation

1839 'APPOINTMENT AND INSTALLATION OF HIS HONOR THE JUDGE.', South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register(Adelaide, SA : 1836 - 1839), 6 April, p. 3, viewed 22 April, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31750510

Wikipedia citation

{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31750510 |title=APPOINTMENT AND INSTALLATION OF HIS HONOR THE JUDGE. |newspaper=[[South_Australian_Register|South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register (Adelaide, SA : 1836 - 1839)]] |location=Adelaide, SA |date=6 April 1839 |accessdate=22 April 2015 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

   

The 'Katherine Stewart Forbes' arrived March 1839 in Port Adelaide, South Australia

Sir Charles Cooper, first Chief Justice of South Australia 

Hi Everyone,

I can't imagine what my Great-Great-Great-Great Grandmother Janet Slone nee Row thought when she left her home in Scotland and boarded the sailing ship Katherine Stewart Forbes in Plymouth in October 1838.

The Katherine Stewart Forbes was a three mast ship built in 1818.  She was only 117 feet long and not quite 30 ft wide.  (35.6m x 9m)  The ship had previously conveyed settlers to New Zealand,  transported convicts in 1830 and 1832, and had also made a previous trip to Port Adelaide in 1837.

We also know that the ship called at Capetown in Africa, for an extended period of time.

On board this particular journey with my 4x great grandmother was one Charles Cooper Esq., soon to be sworn in as Chief Justice for the Province, the bewhiskered man in the photograph.

The South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register reported that Charles Cooper arrived in excellent health 'notwithstanding a long and rather tempestuous passage.'

Also on board the Katherine Stewart Forbes were many goods including but not limited to 3 wheelbarrows, 4 carts, 16 wheels, 2 pigs' heads, 6 oars, anvil, 6 puncheons bottled beer, 6 bedsteads, and one iron bedstead, 21 barrels pork, 19 tierces beef and a piano.  Does anyone know what a tierce is?

All this amazing information was printed in the newspaper at the time, when the ship arrived in March 1839. It was a long trip even for those days,

I've made a list in TROVE called 'Katherine Stewart Forbes 1839' so you can find the digitised newspaper articles, including the list of goods article, plus articles that mention Charles Cooper.  Should you want to know more about Sir Charles' life, please refer to the Australian Dictionary of Biography.  I have provided the link below.
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cooper-sir-charles-1918

Historically yours,
Valerius Copernicus

Newspaper articles found in Trove reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Australia.
Image used courtesy of the State Library of South Australia  - B440

Citation details

'Cooper, Sir Charles (1795–1887)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cooper-sir-charles-1918/text2253, published first in hardcopy 1966, accessed online 21 April 2015.

This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, (MUP), 1966

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A chook stealing John Armstrong in Adelaide in 1842

Tell me everyone, how I can identify my 4 X great grandfather John Armstrong?  With such a widespread name as Armstrong and such a common name as John, how do I separate my John Armstrong from any other?

In 1834, South Australia separated from the colony of New South Wales.  Land was being released for the first time.  Commissioners were appointed to control land sales, revenue and the flow of emigrants in 1835.  There were only 546 Europeans in the province of South Australia in 1836.  The colony was small in those days; therefore there is less chance of multiple people with the same exact name.  But with a name like John Armstrong, how can we be sure?

We know for a fact that John Armstrong married my 4 X great grandmother Janet Slone nee Row in 1842 in Adelaide. He was her second husband.  Janet (yes, the same Janet as yesterday's blog!) gave birth to my 3 X great grand mother Elizabeth Armstrong.

We know a John Armstrong was buried in West Terrace cemetery, Adelaide in an unrecorded location on 8 February 1850.  He was aged 50 when he died and lived at 50 Waymouth Street, Adelaide.  His burial was paid for by the state.  

Another search of John Armstrong turns up a newspaper article about criminal proceedings in 1841 for theft. This John Armstrong was indicted with accomplice Charles Hall for stealing four chickens.  There is an amusing account of the policeman following footprints and chook feathers back through the bush to the hut and taking the chook heads and feet back to the farmer to identify.  The policeman also mentions small children in the hut, and this information tallies with what we know of Janet's Slone family. Then again, lots of people have children.  ie. We can neither confirm nor deny.

Another time the same Charles Hall and John Armstrong get done for stealing clothes from a Mrs. Hall although the ineffectual John tried to stop Charlie, who complained bitterly at John's lack of experience and ineptitude.  The interesting thing in this case is that Charles Hall and John Armstrong are both black-skinned Africans. The records mention John lives near the Brown Hill Creek.  

It is certain that the chook stealers and the clothes stealers living in a hut in the bush are the same people.  They are black African men, it says so in the court records.  The interesting thing is that we know Janet's child Elizabeth Armstrong, my 3 X great grandmother later married a black skinned man born in Africa. Like her father?  We don't know. It is only an interesting fact because as all family historians know, patterns occur over generations.  

So we have three John Armstrongs.  Our great great great great grandfather that married Janet Slone in 1842 is definite.  The one that died 1850 buried in West Terrace is a probable because we know Janet was a widow when she remarried in 1851. And lastly, the third John Armstrong that got done for chook theft. How do you prove that he was the only John Armstrong in Adelaide in the days of less than perfect record keeping?

Historically yours,

Valerius Copernicus

PS. I think he is all the same person; I just can't prove it.