BRIDE SHIPS IN ALL BUT NAME: MISS MONK AND THE SERVANT GIRLS
Much of the content of this article was presented at the Western Australian
Genealogical Society Inc. Affiliated Societies’ Conference on 15 September 2012.
Source documents such as certificates and wills will be deposited in the State
Library’s Private Archives collection in the Battye Library.
We became interested in this subject after receiving an enquiry about two sisters, Hannah
and Beatrice Field, who had arrived on a bride ship in about 1901. Our initial reaction
was that bride ships were a much earlier phenomenon – but we were proved wrong!
The enquirer wanted to know on which ship the sisters had arrived in Fremantle. This
was easy to find using the UK Outgoing passenger lists, 1890-1960 on Findmypast. They
were travelling on the Surrey and arrived in Fremantle on 25 January 1901. What we
immediately noticed was that the entire ship was filled with young, female servants.
Most were in their teens, twenties or thirties. It certainly did have the appearance of a socalled bride ship.
Listed among the cabin passengers was a Miss Monk, aged fifty-one. She turned out to
be the matron supervising the girls and we became interested in finding out more about
her life too. Miss Monk accompanied parties of young emigrant women to Western
Australia from 1886 through to 1901 so we have concentrated on that time period in this
article.
The scheme
The original bride ships came about because of an imbalance in the number of males and
females in the colony during the 1850s. The solution was to entice young single women
out to Western Australia with a free passage and the promise of employment. There is an
excellent book on the subject by Rica Erickson called The bride ships: experiences of
immigrants arriving in Western Australia, 1849-1889. The first bride ship was the Mary
which arrived in Fremantle in October 1849 with fifty female servants who had been sent
out at the request of Captain Irwin who was administrator of the colony at that time. As
you can see by the title, Rica Erickson’s book covers the subject up to 1889, which is
why we had assumed that it was discontinued after that time.
During the 1890s there was once more a huge difference in the number of males and
females in Western Australia. In fact, the discrepancy was so great that, by 1896, there
were more than twice as many men as women in the colony. There was also an extreme
shortage of female servants. The problem was summed up in an article in the Western
Mail:
That an increase to the female population of Western Australia is very urgently
wanted is well known by everybody acquainted with the vital statistics of the
colony…This contingent of women for the “Coming Colony” should prove very
welcome in a variety of ways.1
So, in a similar scheme to the initial bride ship scheme in 1848, the Colonial Government
offered free passages to young women aged fifteen to thirty-five and guaranteed them
employment as servants, laundresses or needlewomen. In return for their free passage the
women had to agree to stay in the colony as domestic servants for twelve months.
Emigrants were also able to send for friends and relatives ‘belonging to the agricultural
or domestic servant class’ at half the normal rate once they had been resident for six
months.2
The young women coming to Western Australia were viewed by the Colonial Government
as a marketable commodity as can be seen by some of the correspondence on the subject:
Shall we order another 50 girls or do you think we had better wait & see how
these go off. I don’t think there would be much fear of glutting the market if we
sent for 50 more.3
The Agent-General for Western Australia in London authorised the United British
Women’s Emigration Association to select girls of good health and excellent character
who were experienced as servants, and advertisements were placed in Irish and British
newspapers and in publications such as the Girls’ Friendly Society’s newsletter Friendly
Leaves. By 1898, Western Australia was the only one of the Antipodean colonies offering
free passages to female emigrants from the British Isles. At that time, it cost the
government £20 per head to import the women servants.
In 1908, new immigration regulations were introduced which meant that domestic servants
were still being brought out to Western Australia, but as assisted migrants, rather than
under a free migration scheme. At this time they were required to pay £5 for their passage
and deposit a further £5 with the Agent General which was refunded to them on arrival.
Parties of female emigrant servants continued to be sent from Britain as assisted migrants
right through to the beginning of World War One.
An article in the Western Mail from 1910 shows that not much had changed from the
1890s:
In Western Australia the male population greatly exceeds the female, and in a
prosperous young country such as it is, there are hundreds of young settlers who
making good money, are anxiously seeking wives. 4
Young women applying for free passage under this scheme were required to be healthy
and were physically examined as part of the application process. Experience in domestic
service was important but the most important criterion was morality. As Jan Gothard
states, ‘Domestic skills could be learned; morality, once lost, was irrecoverable and
irreplaceable.’5
Ellen Joyce
A variety of different organisations were involved in facilitating emigration from Britain
to colonies around the world. One of the earliest was the Female Middle Class
Emigration Society founded in 1862. Following on from this was the United
Englishwomen’s Emigration Association which went through various name changes;
during the period we researched it was called the United British Women’s Emigration
Association and Mrs Ellen Joyce was at its head.
Ellen Joyce was involved with emigration associations for about forty years. She was
based in Winchester in Hampshire and wrote a pamphlet entitled Letter to girls on
leaving England which was given to emigrant women prior to their departure.6 There is a
copy available in the State Records Office amongst the Colonial Secretary’s Office files.
Ellen Joyce was the widow of an Anglican clergyman and the mother of another and was
very religious; this can be seen in the content of the pamphlet. She encourages the
women to write regularly to those left behind:
If you only knew the terrible and needless agony some mothers and fathers go
through, when girls don’t write home for a long time, you would never be so
wickedly unkind as to leave letters unwritten.
She also warns about the dangers of men:
Be a wise prudent girl, and don’t make any acquaintance at all with any of the
men on board, either with the sailors, or the passengers, or the stewards. Men
who are travelling about are very apt to spend their leisure time in talking
nonsense to girls; they don’t mean anything, but to pass the time and amuse
themselves – but they deceive the young women, and leave many of them with sad
hearts and sometimes lead them into great folly, and even imperil their good
name, by tempting them to break rules and come out of bounds, or stay on deck
late.
She advises the women to follow the matron’s advice:
Remember, if you have a first-rate character for service and steadiness, you may
land with a very different reputation if you do not take the advice of the Matron
on board. Some girls have lost the worth of a seven years’ character which had
been sent out beforehand to employers, by foolish conduct during the voyage.
And she warns against dances saying ‘daylight pleasures are the safest, - and pray don’t
spend all your good wages on your clothes’.
Nationalities of the emigrant women
We looked at all the existing passenger lists for ships conveying women emigrating
under this scheme from 1886 to 1901 and found that by far the majority of the women
were English (87%), followed by Irish (9-10%) and Scottish (2-3%). Foreigners, whose
nationality was not specified on the passenger lists, made up less than half a percent.
Shipboard matrons
According to Rica Erickson, the prestigious position of matron in charge of the single
women was much sought after. In the early colonial days, matrons were often appointed
by the ship’s surgeon on an informal basis from amongst suitable older female
passengers, but from the 1860s or 1870s it was a more formal arrangement and the
shipboard matrons were employed by colonial governments to protect emigrating
women.
Some women - and Mary Monk is a prime example of this - spent many years
performing this duty, sailing backwards and forwards across the oceans in the role of
guardian. The matrons’ primary role was to protect the morals of the emigrant women
under their charge. Colonial governments invested substantial sums in this scheme and
wanted to protect their investment. This type of emigration is even referred to as
‘protected migration’. As well as protecting her female charges, the matron tried to keep
the women from idleness and prepare them for their roles as domestic servants in
colonial homes. Sewing formed an important part of this preparation as this report from
1900 makes clear:
The voyage out is made a time of improvement to the girls. The Government
provides 200 yards of print for blouses, which the girls learn to cut out and make,
and which became their own on landing.7
The matron’s authority was cemented by a contract which women were required to sign.
This formed part of the agreement for receiving a free passage. The rules were:
1.- Emigrant Single Women are expected to rise in the morning at whatever hour
ordered by the Matron.
2. – They are to go below deck when directed by the Matron. In the evening the
hour for going below will vary with the season of the year. They are not to come
on deck again after roll-call in the evening on any pretext whatever, without
asking permission from the Matron. They are to go to their berths at 9 o’ clock.
3. – They will have to keep the articles of their Ship Kit thoroughly clean and in
order. They will have to do their own berths, and keep them clean and tidy.
4. – They are expected to attend the Services held during the voyage, and any
classes for Religious Instruction given by the Chaplain.
5. – They are to consider themselves under the direction of the Chaplain (‘and of
the Medical Officer’ has been written on the copy held in the State Records
Office.)
6. – Young Women are on no account to hold any communication with the crew
or with the male passengers, excepting in the case of Fathers and Brothers, and
then only with the sanction of the Matron. When on deck they are to keep together
in such places as directed by the Matron, and to be under her charge.6
Sometimes the matron was placed in a difficult position as a woman and as subordinate
to the ship’s officers. Where there were conflicting ideas regarding the rules for the
women, the matron was not in a position of strength.
Mary Pitman Monk
Mary Pitman Monk (her middle name was spelt Pittman in some records) was born in the
village of Belchalwell in central Dorset, England on 17 December 1839. Her parents
were William Pitman Monk and Eliza Monk, nee Francis. William is described as a
yeoman on Mary’s birth certificate, which usually refers to someone who farmed their
own land rather than being a tenant farmer. William and Eliza had two other children;
Susannah Margaret, more often called Susan, and William John. Neither Mary nor Susan
ever married.
Mary died in Child Okeford, Dorset on 18 November 1908, aged sixty-nine, of mitral
disease syncope; in other words a heart condition. If you look at a map of Dorset and see
where she was born and died – the two villages are only about five miles apart - you
could be forgiven for thinking she had led an unadventurous life, whereas nothing could
be further from the truth.
Mary worked as a shipboard matron for about twenty years, taking approximately nine
parties to New Zealand (1883-1888), twenty-one to Western Australia (1886-1901) and
fourteen to Canada (1889-1903). This means that, with the return journeys taken into
account, she spent about ten years of her life at sea. During this period she accompanied
over 1,000 domestic servants to Western Australia and a similar number elsewhere. She
certainly didn’t make her fortune through this work. Her probate record shows that the
value of her estate was ₤334 8s. She obviously believed in the work she was doing
because the United British Women’s Emigration Association annual reports show that
she often paid a subscription to help further their work. She had her passage paid by the
government and also received a payment during the time she was ashore in Western
Australia; for example, in 1897 she received thirty shillings a week. We also found a
reference to her receiving a gratuity of ₤30 from the Western Australian government,
although it’s not known how frequently this occurred. From all we’ve read, we believe
Mary Monk to have been a kindly lady with the best interests of the young women at
heart. She is described by Mrs Joyce in a letter published in the Kalgoorlie Western
Argus:
The matron who takes charge of these young women on their six weeks’ voyage
is a Miss Monk, a woman of very large experience, with infinite tact in securing
obedience, and a large hearted sympathy for young girl nature.8
More telling are some of the comments of the female emigrants themselves:
Miss Monk could not be kinder to us all when we were in the ship if we had all
have been her own children. She shall never be forgotten by me anyway, nor any
of the rest of the girls for her kindness, everything was for the girls.9
Miss Monk was so good and kind to everybody, I think her perfect as matron, it
will be so nice to see her again, I long for the next party to come for that
reason.10
Douglas Darbyshire, who was surgeon on the Cornwall in 1898, kept a personal diary as
well as his surgeon’s journal. He illustrated it and included a poem written by Mr H.
Frederick, another passenger who was sharing his cabin. The following is a small section
of the poem which mentions Miss Monk:
The passengers on board the ship
Are varied in their kind
Some of them live in the saloon
The others are behind
These last are guarded jealously
Both when they sleep in bunk
And on the deck, by one they know
As matron – Miss M Monk
To see how well her charge she keeps
Look on these maidens fair
And you will see upon each face
Rude health depicted there11
Mary Monk also used to report back to Ellen Joyce on her return to England. As Mrs
Joyce lived in Winchester, which is between London and Dorset, presumably Mary
Monk made a habit of visiting her on her way home.
Susannah (Susan) Monk
Mary’s sister, Susan, deserves her own mention. She, too, remained single and became a
schoolteacher. Her occupation is described in the various censuses as Schoolmistress,
Ladies Day School and Ladies School Keeper. Mary is sometimes described in this way
too, so she must also have taught in the school when she wasn’t travelling.
On at least one occasion, Mary was unable to get back to England in time to take the next
party and Susan went in her place. We know that Susan definitely accompanied a party
of emigrant women on the Gulf of Siam in 1894. Jan Gothard, in her book, Blue China,
states that Susan had accompanied parties on two occasions prior to this. This was
difficult to confirm because the passenger lists very often listed the matron as Miss
Monk, with no initial or forename.
The Monk family in official records
We traced the Monk family through the various censuses available on both Ancestry and
Findmypast. Surprisingly, considering how often she was at sea, Mary Monk appears in
five censuses. Initially, we had trouble tracing the family in the 1861 census, so we opted
for the address search in Findmypast which is very useful when you can’t find someone,
particularly if they live in a fairly small village. Looking through the residents of
Belchalwell it was easy to spot that the family’s name had been mistranscribed as Mank.
In 1861, Mary was away from home but her widowed mother Eliza, sister Susan, brother
William and uncle, Samuel Francis, are listed. Eliza had been a widow for a long time as
her husband, William, died when he was only thirty-seven. Mary was five years old at
the time of his death, Susan was two and William was only a few months old. Eliza must
have been a very strong and resourceful woman to have carried on without her husband
and with three very young children. She continued to farm and never remarried.
It’s interesting to track the Monk women through the various censuses because they
constantly lied about their ages. Eliza gives her age as fifty-three in 1861; ten years later,
according to the 1871 census, she is still fifty-three! Mary and Susan also regularly
shaved several years off their ages. For example, when we first discovered Mary Monk
on the passenger list of the Surrey and she gave her age as fifty-one, she was in fact
sixty-one!
When we first began trying to find information about Miss Monk we had no idea where
she came from and, obviously, her age was misleading. We found a few possible
candidates in the census records, but when we found the entry for Mary P. Monk in the
1901 census, there was no doubt that we had found the correct person. Her surprisingly
precise occupation was listed as:
Lady Superintendent of Government Female Emigrants to Western Australia.
By that time she, and her sister, Susan, had moved from Belchalwell to Child Okeford
and were living at Bay Tree House. We were able to find a photograph of the house,
where the two sisters lived for about thirty years, on the Geograph website. The caption
under the photograph states that it was a dame school before the village school came into
existence, so it seems highly probable that Susan, and occasionally Mary, taught the local
children in their own home. A dame school was a school in which the rudiments of
reading and writing were taught by a woman in her own home.
The ships
The following table shows the ships which were used during this period. The dates of
arrival are approximate because they often vary slightly from one source to another.
Name of ship
Port of arrival
Helena Mena
Nairnshire
Wilcannia
Gulf of Martaban
Echuca
Fremantle
Fremantle
Fremantle
Fremantle
Fremantle
Approximate date
of arrival
24 Sep 1886
5 Oct 1889
11 Dec 1889
11 Apr 1891
29 Mar 1892
Echuca
Fremantle
9 Oct 1892
Gulf of Taranto
Port Phillip
Fremantle
Fremantle
12 Mar 1893
25 Sep 1893
Port Victor
Port Pirie
Fremantle
Fremantle
Mar 1894
10 Jul 1894
Gulf of Siam
Fremantle
7 Oct 1894
Nairnshire
Fremantle
12 Jul 1895
Warrigal
Albany
24 Nov 1895
Port Phillip
Fremantle
22 May 1896
Port Melbourne
Devon
Cornwall
Woolloomooloo
Albany
Albany
Fremantle
Fremantle
15 Nov 1896
4 May 1897
28 Sep 1897
19 Jan 1898
Cornwall
Banffshire
Surrey
Perthshire
Fremantle
Fremantle
Fremantle
Fremantle
17 Jun 1898
11 Jul 1900
25 Jan 1901
3 Jul 1901
Comments
Matron’s diary held
in State Records
Office ACC 504/3
Matron’s diary held
in State Records
Office ACC 504/5
Matron’s diary held
in State Records
Office ACC 504/6
Matron’s diary held
in State Records
Office ACC 504/7
Susan Monk was
matron. Matron’s
diary held in State
Records Office
ACC 504/8
Matron’s diary held
in State Records
Office ACC 504/9
Matron’s diary held
in State Records
Office ACC 504/10
Matron’s diary held
in State Records
Office ACC 504/11
Matron’s diary held
in State Records
Office ACC 504/12
The first ship in which Mary Monk came to Western Australia was the Helena Mena,
which was carrying couples, children and single men in addition to the fifty-two single
women under her charge. However, most of the ships used to bring women out to
Western Australia during this period were fairly small, carrying mainly the female
immigrant servants, sometimes with a few private passengers. This meant that there were
not so many issues with keeping the women separate as on other ships which had large
groups of single men. According to Rica Erickson in the Dictionary of Western
Australians, Miss Monk (spelt Monks), was appointed matron on board. We’re not sure
where this information came from; it could well be true but Mary had already made at
least six voyages to New Zealand prior to 1886, so she was an experienced matron.
Most of the voyages took about six weeks although Mary’s first voyage to Western
Australia in the Helena Mena took eleven weeks. During the 1890s there were often two,
or even three, groups a year. Most of the ships sailed to Fremantle with the exception of
the Warrigal, the Port Melbourne and the Devon, all of which went to Albany. There was
no voyage to Western Australia during 1899 as the government had trouble obtaining
ships due to the South African war.
The voyages
An excellent source of information for ship’s voyages are personal diaries or letters. In
the Battye Library we hold a diary of the 1886 voyage of the Helena Mena written by
one of the male immigrants, Alfred William Fearn. Unfortunately, he doesn’t mention
the matron but he talks about seeing a whale and a flying fish and also talks about the
rough conditions:
…it rained as I have never seen it rain in England & the sea was running
mountains high which makes the ship pitch & roll terribly, the best of it is to see
at meals time the tea pots plates & dishs rolling off the tables & they all being
made of tin they do make such a rattling noise.12
Reading the description above, it’s not surprising that seasickness was frequently
mentioned, both in diaries and surgeons’ journals. Kitty Page, one of the emigrant
women who travelled on the Surrey, also kept a short diary of the voyage which is held
in the Battye Library, together with a letter written by her to her mother from Perth.13 At
the end of the diary she lists all the women on the ship and gives the nationality of those
who weren’t English; this is useful information, of course, because they would simply be
categorised as ‘Foreigners’ on the passenger list. These women were Rose Vilches (half
Spanish), Nellie Allanach (New Zealand), Rossina Dessanges (Swiss from Lausanne)
and Boline Winther (Danish). This extra information is interesting because we have
found that the women on these ships very rarely appear in the Western Australian
Biographical Index. Some of them may appear on the cards of men they married, but
most of them do not have cards or entries of their own. This lack of information about
women highlights one of the difficulties in family history research where women are
underrepresented in records.
The female emigrants were sent out in batches of about fifty and, once on board, they
were divided into messes of eight people. Often sub-matrons and assistant matrons were
appointed from among the older or more responsible women. These groups of eight
women dined and slept together. One of the women who had travelled on the Port Phillip
wrote a letter to the Inquirer in 1896 where she complained, amongst other things, about
the food on board:
The food! Oh gracious, it was terrible! Salt beef we got served to us with potatoes
and coarse bread, till we were sick at the sight of it.14
Kitty Page comments that for Christmas they had ‘beef and mutton for dinner and a very
ordinary roly-poly plum pudding’.13 The official view is rather different. Douglas
Darbyshire, surgeon on the Cornwall in 1898, reported in his journal:
I inspected the dinner today. As usual it was of good quality and quantity.11
Of course, as a saloon passenger, he wasn’t eating the same food as the emigrant women.
However, Douglas Darbyshire does seem to have been an excellent surgeon with the real
interests of the emigrant women at heart. The attitudes of the matron, captain and
surgeon would have had a big influence on how the women viewed their experience. For
instance Darbyshire reports in his journal on the Cornwall:
This evening I pointed out to the Captain the fact that the candles supplied for the
lanterns were not long enough to burn all night, he thereupon had an electric
light fixed up, which will add greatly to the comfort of the emigrants.11
Kitty Page complains about the bedding in a letter to her mother:
…three unbleached calico sheets as stiff as boards & a counterpane in the same
state. I am very glad I have got a good big rug. I shall sleep in it as I don’t fancy
these sheets.13
Mary Monk slept in a small cabin which was curtained off from the emigrant women, but
was close by and within earshot. The women were locked in their sleeping quarters at
night, to prevent them having contact with any men on board. This, of course, was very
dangerous in the event of an emergency.
The women had quite a lot of leisure time on board:
The girls have all sorts of games on deck when it is fine. They skip and dance,
and play at Oranges and Lemons, Jolly Killer, and so forth: it seemed funny at
first to see them at such childrens’ games, but of course it is a good form of
exercise.13
Sometimes there were concerts or plays on board. For example, Douglas Darbyshire
wrote a comedy called The emigrant’s choice which was performed by the saloon
passengers on the Surrey:
A dramatic performance was given this evening between decks, which the girls
greatly enjoyed.11
Matrons’ diaries
Each matron kept a diary where she recorded daily events as well as giving a report on
each woman under her charge. She also noted the present allocated to each woman from
the government work box such as blouses, bodices etc. These matron’s diaries are a
wonderful source of information and several of them have survived and are held in the
State Records Office.
For example, here is Mary Monk’s report on Lucy Fenton who travelled on the Echuca in
March 1892:
An industrious, amiable, good girl who all through the voyage did even more
than her share of necessary work and behaved well.15
Mary also had nothing but good to say about the Norris sisters, Eugene, Catherine and
Ada, who sailed on the Echuca in October of the same year:
These sisters appear most amiable, kind-hearted & respectable. Either will I am
sure consciously try to please her employers, for all thro this voyage they have
taken their time with scrubbing, cleaning – helping to cut out and make up the
calico’s &c, being dressmakers. (Cathine has made a dress for me, & one for Miss
Pearse the Captns sister.) Their help and assistance was most valuable. I think
they will all make valuable servants.16
Not all the reports were complimentary, however. Susan Monk made very negative
comments about the Lloyd Harris sisters on the Gulf of Siam in 1894. About Winifred
who was a hospital nurse she had this to say:
Has broken the rules, has been constantly rude & insulting from the first week,
openly defying the matron.
And about her sister, Ethel, a nursery governess:
Has also been rude, insulting and has broken the rules.17
These women were twins who came from London and were the daughters of a dissenting
minister. Perhaps they gained their rebellious natures from him! We suspect they may
have been identical twins because, at one point in the diary, Susan Monk notes that she is
not sure which of the Harris sisters has been reported for a misdemeanour. We gained the
distinct impression that Susan Monk did not have the same level of control or respect
commanded by her older sister, Mary.
Dangers of sea voyages
There were, of course, dangers associated with such long voyages. For example, there
were fires on board two of the ships we’ve looked at which are described in some detail
in the matrons’ diaries. A severe fire broke out on the Gulf of Siam in 1894 and raged in
the hold for five days. This seriously affected Susan Monk’s health as reported in the
1895 annual report of the United British Women’s Emigration Association:
Miss Susan Monk who went through the experience of a fire on board the Gulf of
Siam, and suffered greatly from nerve tension, is now completely disabled and
crippled from rheumatism, and unable to do anything for her own living.18
There is then talk about trying to obtain a pension for her from the Royal Hospital for
Incurables at Putney Heath. There was also a fire on the Port Phillip in 1896. It happened
at night and most of the women were in their nightclothes; in fact many of them lost all
their belongings. Luckily they were close to the island of St. Helena and were able to stay
there where they were well looked after for about fourteen days. Although these fires
caused some upset, inconvenience and ill health in the case of Susan, there were no
fatalities.
According to a newspaper report in the West Australian, Mary Monk was originally
scheduled to travel on the Kapunda in 1886.19 At the last minute the plans were changed
and she went on another voyage instead. The Kapunda had four hundred immigrants on
board, many of them bound for Western Australia, and it sank off the coast of Brazil after
a collision with another ship. There was only a handful of survivors and the news of the
loss had a profound impact on the colony at the time. A supplement to the Inquirer
reported the tragedy and listed the names of the dead together with the names of those
who had nominated them.20 The collision happened at night and, as previously
mentioned, the women were kept locked up after retiring to their bunks. A graphic report
from a survivor says:
Amidst all this there could be heard the smothered shrieking of the 70 single girls
who were locked down in their bunks.21
The dead are also listed on Findmypast including Sarah Crockford who was Mary
Monk’s replacement as matron. If you look at the list you can see that, in many cases,
whole families perished. So, going on a long sea voyage was not to be undertaken lightly.
Having said that, there were surprisingly few disasters and most people did arrive safely
in either Fremantle or Albany.
Arrival in Western Australia
On their arrival in Western Australia many of the women gave testimonials to the
captain, the matron and the surgeon. However, we sometimes get a slightly skewed
impression from official documents and the enthusiastic reports published by the
emigration societies. Hannah Sullivan, an immigrant on the Cornwall in 1897, made a
complaint to the Western Australian government against both the surgeon and the
matron, Miss Monk, claiming that she had not received appropriate medical care and
attention from them. The official who questioned her dismissed her criticisms as
groundless, describing her as ‘an intensely emotional girl of not the most desirable Irish
type.’22
Hannah Sullivan was the last emigrant to be employed from the depot; hardly surprising
as she was described to prospective employers as ‘available but temperamental’.20 It
often did no good at all to the complainant who was at the mercy of the officials who
could pass judgement on her reputation, abilities and temperament.
Once the ship arrived in port the Officer of Health came on board and inspected the
women. Once this formality was over they were able to disembark. There were often
large crowds of interested spectators on the wharf, particularly men who were anxious to
employ them or propose marriage.
Old sandgropers recalled the scenes of earlier years during the arrival of the
brideships and remarked sagely that history was repeating itself.23
The arrival of the young women was always announced in the local newspapers. Some of
the reports are rather condescending by today’s standards:
The immigration agent (Mr Dale) took up a most envious position – escorting no
less than two hundred fair lasses from the wharf to the depot.24
In the early days the women were marched to the depot under police escort but, by 1897,
this practice was discontinued and they were transported in buses. One disgruntled
immigrant had this to say about their arrival:
On the wharf a crowd of men stood waiting to stare at us, as if we were prize
cattle. I never saw a shabbier collection of men before…and the remarks some of
them made about us caused my ears to tingle. Then a gruff official ordered us to
get into order, and off we were marched in charge of a couple of policemen, like
prisoners, the crowd following to gaze at us. It was a shame to treat us so. I’ll
never forget my arrival in Western Australia – never! Treated like a criminal, in a
borrowed dress, and snubbed when I asked for compensation…An imported
domestic servant is not supposed to be human.14
The compensation refers to the loss of their clothing in the fire on board the Port Phillip.
She goes on to say that she thinks she will like Western Australia and intends to get
married as soon as she can! Sometimes the newspapers reported some of the comments
from the women:
Oh, look at that long fellow. He must be an Australian. I’m sure to marry
someone like him. They’re all tall out here.25
Many of them had very little idea of what Western Australia was like:
I haven’t the slightest idea what the place is like, and I think that all the other
girls are in the same predicament.25
Not long after their arrival, there was a hiring or engaging day which was advertised in
the press:
The “engaging” day is quite a sight at the Immigration Depot at the Port. Cabloads of matrons… throng to the old government building in South-terrace. There
the keenest competition is exercised to obtain first choice of the girls….The
engaging process is not altogether an elevating one. There is just the suggestion
of the squatter picking out the best workers from a herd of two-year-old cattle.25
Another report in the West Australian says:
The girls are marshalled in a line, and are critically scrutinised by about 150 or
200 ladies, who remark audibly upon the points of the new arrivals subjected for
hire.26
Local ladies from the upper echelons of Western Australian society soon realised that
becoming involved with the societies supposedly supporting the new immigrants gave
them first access to the servant girls in a time of shortage. The girls had to go to
‘approved employers’. They took great advantage of their position until the newspapers
caught wind of the practice and there was public outcry.
The policy of ‘protecting’ the girls after their arrival included not allowing them to leave
the depot until they had been employed. This also prevented the girls from getting firsthand experience of employment conditions and wages in the colony and thus served to
keep their wages down – at least in their initial placements.
There were, of course, women in Perth who took a genuine interest in the well-being of
the immigrant women such as Mrs Eliza Salter from the Girls’ Friendly Society. For
many years she met the girls on their arrival in Fremantle and watched over them. Girls
who had emigrated as part of the scheme were encouraged to join the Girls’ Friendly
Society. This gave them some support and meant that they could socialise with other
girls in the same situation. There were recreation evenings every Friday and picnics were
organised to places like Cottesloe and Guildford. There was also a lending library.
When a new party of women arrived, the Girls’ Friendly Society often organised a
gathering so that the new arrivals could meet emigrants who had been here for some
time. If you are researching someone who came out to Western Australia under one of
these schemes, it may be worth consulting the Girls’ Friendly Society Minute books,
some of which are held in the Battye Library from 1893 onwards. They often mention the
names of girls who wanted to join the Society as well as those who had married, left for
another colony or returned to England. Miss Monk would also go to these social
evenings when she was in Perth, and learn how the women she had previously escorted
were getting on. When she returned to England she would visit Mrs Joyce in Winchester
and report back.
What became of these women?
We tried to get some idea of how successful the plan to introduce potential brides into the
colony was. We looked at the passenger list for the Surrey, which arrived in 1901, and
tried to find marriages for these women in the online database at the WA AttorneyGeneral’s Department. In some cases it was difficult to establish whether or not we had
found the correct entry, but we found marriages for approximately sixty-eight percent of
the women. The remainder presumably remained single, died, went to other colonies or
even returned to England.
The women who came out under this scheme had very marketable skills and some of them
took advantage of that fact to travel around to other colonies. Kitty Page comments on this
in a letter to her mother because she’s working with a girl who’s just come from Victoria.
“People here seem to shift about from one colony to another’.13
Of course, most of the women emigrants simply settled down and raised families as the
government had intended. As hundreds of young women came out under this scheme, and
many of them married and produced children, they would have thousands of descendants
here in Western Australia. Some of their stories are briefly outlined here:
Edith Baker
She came out on the Gulf of Taranto in 1893 with her sister Louisa. She met and married
Nathaniel Black in Carnarvon and they moved to Shark Bay where they were involved in
the pearling industry and raised their family.
Agnes Brennan
Agnes came from Manchester and both of her parents were Irish tailors. She arrived on the
Gulf of Siam in 1894, married Thomas William Boase and had nine children.
Patience Wooler
Patience emigrated on the Echuca in 1892 as a twenty-two year-old cook. She came from
Chiswick in London from a humble background. Her father was a basketmaker in one
census and a lamplighter in another. Mary Monk’s comments about Patience are ‘Most
willing and industrious. Will make a splendid servant.’ Patience married Ethel Meerna
Caedwalla Hasluck (yes his name really was Ethel!) who was in the Salvation Army. One
of their children was Paul, later to become a popular and respected Governor-General of
Australia who held office between 1969 and 1974.
Rose Vilches
Rose came out on the Surrey in 1901 with the Field sisters and Kitty Page. Kitty says that
she is half Spanish and mentions in her diary that she told her all about bull fighting. In
1902 Rose married John Henricksen in Cue and the year after that they had a daughter,
Violet Rosalie, in Perth. The family was still living in Perth in 1915 when Violet passed
some school music tests but at some time they left for Tasmania because we found an
engagement notice for Violet in the Hobart Mercury. Interestingly, Rose is not on the
passenger list for the Surrey but she is listed in Kitty’s diary.
Other women had more tragic stories such as:
Hannah Sullivan
After arriving on the Cornwall in 1897, Hannah married John Augustine Coleman in
Perth in 1901 and they moved to the Goldfields. They had several children but, sadly,
John committed suicide in 1915. He had been out of work for about ten months and had
that week been released from the mental ward of the government asylum where he had
spent the previous three weeks under observation. Hannah did not remarry and she died
in July 1947. One of her daughters married William King and raised a family in
Toodyay.
Kate Teehan
Kate Teehan arrived on the Woolloomooloo in January 1898. Obviously something went
horribly wrong because she committed suicide about three weeks after her arrival by
dousing herself in kerosene and setting fire to herself.
Laura Bartrop
Another really tragic story is that of Laura Bartrop who came out on the Surrey in 1901 –
in fact she was in the same mess as Kitty Page who kept the diary. Laura didn’t marry but
she had two children not long after arriving in Western Australia – Kathleen in 1902 and
Herbert in 1904. Both children died as infants; Kathleen was three months old and Herbert
was only ten weeks.
Laura, as a single mother, must have had to go out to work and she left her children in the
care of one Alice Mitchell. Alice became the centre of an infamous case known as the
Baby Farming case. She was convicted for the manslaughter of a baby named Ethel Booth
and sentenced to five years hard labour but many more children had died while supposedly
under her care; in all thirty-seven children were listed on the death roll including young
Herbert. It’s entirely possible that Laura’s other child, Kathleen, was also under the socalled care of Alice Mitchell when she died.
The Lloyd-Harris twins
Winifred and Ethel Lloyd-Harris arrived on the Gulf of Siam in 1894. Winifred didn’t stay
in the colony for long, sailing to South Africa in February 1898. We don’t know the
circumstances but she died in 1900 on her twenty-sixth birthday. Ethel posted several ‘In
Memoriam’ notices in the West Australian such as this one:
In loving memory of my darling twin sister, Winifred, who died at Durban, South
Africa, on her birthday, November 3 1900. “And with the morn those angel faces
smile, which I have loved long since and lost awhile.” 27
Clarence Visick
Clarence was born in Guildford, Surrey and, according to the 1881 Census, her father was
a dentist. She arrived on the Surrey in 1901 but returned to England. She appears to have
travelled widely, appearing on passenger lists for Canada and the US. In 1919 she married
widower, Lemuel Upton Westcott, a missionary who went blind after serving in Africa.
Lemuel died in 1929. Clarence died in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia on 9 August 1942.
What about the Field sisters?
This was a question asked after our presentation at the Conference. Well, their fate was
sealed when two brothers, John and George Morris, happened to be in Fremantle on the
day the Surrey emigrant ship arrived. They made their way to the Fremantle wharf and
spotted the two sisters amongst the crowd of women making their way off the ship.
Hannah married George Morris later that year and Beatrice married John Morris the
following year.
As Jan Gothard points out in her book, Blue China, it can be difficult to find out about
these women after their arrival here and it’s often only through the efforts of family
historians that their stories can be told. It is salutary to compare the extensive, and
wonderful, research undertaken on the pensioner guards, who arrived in Western Australia
during the convict era, with the dearth of interest in these equally intrepid young women.
We hope that time and the curiosity of their families will gradually bring more of their
stories to light.
Can you help?
Do you have more information about Mary Monk or any of the women who came to
Western Australia as part of this scheme? We are particularly interested in finding an
image of Miss Monk who gave her portrait to many of her young charges.
REFERENCES
1. News of the week. (1894, January 13). Western Mail, p. 31. Retrieved from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article
2. Free emigration to Western Australia. (1891, January 10). Birmingham Daily Post, p.
Retrieved from www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
3. Colonial Secretary's Office, file 191/94. (1894). State Records Office of Western
Australia, Acc 527.
4. The immigrant domestic. (1910, September 17). Western Mail, p. 40. Retrieved from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38362137
5. Gothard, J. (2001). Assisted female immigration 1860-1920. In Jupp, J. (Ed.), The
Australian people: an encyclopedia of the nation, its people and their origins (pp. 53-56).
New York: Cambridge University Press.
6. Joyce, E. (1895). Letter to girls on leaving England. In Colonial Secretary's Office, file
1895/80. Report of the Agent General for Western Australia. State Records Office of
Western Australia, Acc 527.
7. Fawcett Library. United British Women’s Emigration Association. (1900). Annual
report, p. 39, The Association, Winchester, England (AJCP reel M2292).
8. Notes from London. (1899, December 14). Kalgoorlie Western Argus, p. 12. Retrieved
from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32203258
9. MJT. (1898). Letter signed MJT written from Western Australia. In Fawcett Library.
United British Women’s Emigration Association. (1898). Annual report, The
Association, Winchester, England, p. 26. (AJCP reel M2291)
10. AT. (1897). Letter signed AT written from Stanmore House, Howick Street, Perth,
WA. In Fawcett Library. United British Women’s Emigration Association. (1897).
Annual report, The Association, Winchester, England, p. 31. (AJCP reel M2291)
11. Darbyshire, D. E. (1991). In time for lunch: the personal diary and the official
journal of Douglas E. Darbyshire, surgeon-in-charge of the young women emigrants
sailing in the S.S. Cornwall from England to Australia, 1898. Fremantle Arts Centre
Press, reproduced in association with the Library Board of Western Australia, South
Fremantle WA.
12. Fearn, A. W. (1886). Notes on the voyage to Western Australia in the ship Helena
Mena, which arrived from London on 24 September 1886. State Library of Western
Australia (ACC 6738A), Perth, WA.
13. Page, K. E. (1900-1901). Diary of a voyage to Western Australia on the SS Surrey,
leaving England 7 December 1900 and arriving Fremantle 11 January 1901; letter home
to her mother, 15 March 1901. State Library of Western Australia (MN 2179, ACC
5960A), Perth, WA.
14. The Golden West. (1896, May 29). The Inquirer & Commercial News, p. 12.
Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66532077
15. Colonial Secretary's Office. (1892). [Journals of Immigrant Ships, 1875-1900. March
voyage of the Echuca]. State Records Office of Western Australia (AN 228, Acc 504/3).
16. Colonial Secretary's Office. (1892). [Journals of Immigrant Ships, 1875-1900.
October voyage of the Echuca]. State Records Office of Western Australia (AN 228, Acc
504/5)
17. Colonial Secretary's Office. (1894). [Journals of Immigrant Ships, 1875-1900.
Voyage of the Gulf of Siam]. State Records Office of Western Australia (AN 228, Acc
504/8)
18. Fawcett Library. United British Women’s Emigration Association. (1895). Annual
report, p. 21, The Association, Winchester, England. (AJCP reel M2291).
19. News and notes. (1898, January 20). The West Australian, p. 4. Retrieved from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3193081
20. Fearful wreck of an emigrant ship. (1887, February 9). The Inquirer & Commercial
News, p. 5 Supplement: Supplement to the Inquirer. Retrieved from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66080373
21. The loss of the Kapunda. (1887, August 11). The South Australian Advertiser, p. 3.
Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37177815
22. Gothard, J. (2001). Blue china: single female migration to colonial Australia.
Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Vic.
23. Erickson, R. (1992). The bride ships: experiences of immigrants arriving in Western
Australia, 1849-1889. Hesperian Press, Carlisle, WA.
24. Notes from the port. (1886, September 29). The Inquirer & Commercial News, p. 5.
Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66038348
25. The immigrant girls. (1897, October 15). Western Mail, p. 27. Retrieved from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article33145319
26. News and notes. (1896, May 27). The West Australian, p. 4. Retrieved from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3090945
27. Family Notices. (1903, November 3). The West Australian, p. 1. Retrieved from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article24837015
SOURCES
1841 England Census. Belchalwell, Dorset. The National Archives of the UK (TNA):
Public Record Office (PRO). Class: HO 107, Piece: 290, Folio: 7. William Monk
household. Retrieved April 30, 2012, from Findmypast.co.uk
1851 England Census. Belchalwell, Dorset. The National Archives of the UK (TNA):
Public Record Office (PRO). Class: HO 107, Piece: 1853, Folio: 353. Eliza Monk
household. Retrieved April 30, 2012, from Findmypast.co.uk
1861 England Census. Belchalwell, Dorset. The National Archives of the UK (TNA):
Public Record Office (PRO). Class: RG 9, Piece: 1330, Folio: 165. Eliza Monk
household. Retrieved April 27, 2012, from Findmypast.co.uk
1871 England Census. Child Okeford, Dorset. The National Archives of the UK (TNA):
Public Record Office (PRO). Class: RG 10, Piece: 1974, Folio: 69. Eliza Monk
household. Retrieved April 19, 2012, from Findmypast.co.uk
1881 England Census. Child Okeford, Dorset. The National Archives of the UK (TNA):
Public Record Office (PRO). Class: RG 11, Piece: 2086, Folio: 68. Mary P. Monk
household. Retrieved April 19, 2012, from Findmypast.co.uk
1891 England Census. Child Okeford, Dorset. The National Archives of the UK (TNA):
Public Record Office (PRO). Class: RG 12, Piece: 1632, Folio: 58. Susan M. Monk
household. Retrieved April 19, 2012, from Findmypast.co.uk
1901 England Census. Child Okeford, Dorset. The National Archives of the UK (TNA):
Public Record Office (PRO). Class: RG 13, Piece: 1970, Folio: 58. Susan M. Monk
household. Retrieved from Findmypast.co.uk
Athletic club for Fremantle. (1894, August 31). The Inquirer & Commercial News, p. 7.
Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66249909
Bay Tree House [photograph] by Robin Clay. Available on Geograph at
www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2190343
British Nationals died at sea, 1854-1890. The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public
Record Office (PRO). Retrieved from Findmypast.co.uk
Chief Secretary’s Office, file 5141/97. (1897). Documents relating to nominated
immigrants, 1891-1898. State Records Office of Western Australia, Acc 553
Colonial Secretary's Office. Journals of Immigrant Ships, 1875-1900. State Records
Office of Western Australia. Matron’s diary for the March voyage of the Echuca (1892).
Acc 504/3, AN 228
Colonial Secretary's Office. Journals of Immigrant Ships, 1875-1900. State Records
Office of Western Australia. Matron’s diary for the October voyage of the Echuca
(1892). Acc 504/5, AN 228
Colonial Secretary's Office. Journals of Immigrant Ships, 1875-1900. State Records
Office of Western Australia. Matron’s diary for the voyage of the Port Phillip (1893).
Acc 504/6, AN 228
Colonial Secretary's Office. Journals of Immigrant Ships, 1875-1900. State Records
Office of Western Australia. Matron’s diary for the voyage of the Port Pirie (1894). Acc
504/7, AN 228
Colonial Secretary's Office. Journals of Immigrant Ships, 1875-1900. State Records
Office of Western Australia. Matron’s diary for the voyage of the Gulf of Siam (1894).
Acc 504/8, AN 228
Colonial Secretary's Office. Journals of Immigrant Ships, 1875-1900. State Records
Office of Western Australia. Matron’s diary for the voyage of the Nairnshire (1895). Acc
504/9, AN 228
Colonial Secretary's Office. Journals of Immigrant Ships, 1875-1900. State Records
Office of Western Australia. Matron’s diary for the voyage of the Warrigal (1895). Acc
504/10, AN 228
Colonial Secretary's Office. Journals of Immigrant Ships, 1875-1900. State Records
Office of Western Australia. Matron’s diary for the voyage of the Port Phillip (1896).
Acc 504/11, AN 228
Colonial Secretary's Office. Journals of Immigrant Ships, 1875-1900. State Records
Office of Western Australia. Matron’s diary for the voyage of the Wooloomooloo (189798). Acc 504/12, AN 228
A dead baby. (1907, April 15). The Daily News, p. 3. Retrieved from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article77616252
Dorset Online Parish Clerks, www.opcdorset.org
Eliza Salter – Girls’ Friendly Society – “In Memoriam” to a tireless worker for the
G.F.S., died 16 Dec. 1902. (1903, March 18). West Australian Church News, p.237.
Erickson, R. (Ed.). (1979-1985). Dictionary of Western Australians, 1829-1914, Vol. 4
Pt. 2. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, WA.
Fawcett Library. United British Women’s Emigration Association and British Women’s
Emigration Association Annual reports, The Association, Winchester, England. (AJCP
reels M468 and M2291-2293).
Female domestic servants. (1897, December 11). Bucks Herald, p. 2. Retrieved from
www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
FreeBMD, www.freebmd.org.uk
Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser (1898, March 26). p. 6. Retrieved
from www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
Girls’ Friendly Society, Minute Books, 1893-1967, State Library of Western Australia,
Battye Library, MN 381, ACC 1943A/1
Gothard, J. (1999). Space, authority and the female emigrant afloat, Australian Historical
Studies, 29:112, 96-115.
Immigration. (1908, November 21). The West Australian, p. 5. Retrieved from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26214174
Langfield, M. (2002). ‘A Chance to Bloom’: Female Migration and Salvationists in
Australia and Canada, 1890s to 1939, Australian Feministl Studies, 17:39, 287-303.
Mary Pitman Monk, birth certificate (1840). Registration district: Sturminster-Dorset.
Sub-district: Sturminster in the County of Dorset. General Register Office
Mary Pitman Monk, death certificate (1908). Registration district: Sturminster. Subdistrict: Sturminster in the County of Dorset. General Register Office
Mary Pitman Monk, will and probate record (1908). District Probate registry: Blandford
Nicholson, I 1990-1998, Log of logs: a catalogue of logs, journals, shipboard diaries,
letters, and all forms of voyage narratives, 1788 to 1988, for Australia and New Zealand
and surrounding oceans, The Author jointly with the Australian Association for
Maritime History, Yaroomba, Queensland.
Notices. Farmers, farm-workers and domestic servants. (1913, July 24). The Cornishman,
p. 6. Retrieved from www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
Serious fire on the Gulf of Siam. (1894, October 12). The Inquirer & Commercial News,
p. 7. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66251728
Shipping intelligence. (1894, October 9). The West Australian, p. 4. Retrieved from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3067536
Shocking suicide. (1898, February 11). Western Mail, p. 47. Retrieved from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article33150317
Statistical register of the colony of Western Australia for 1901 and previous years.
(1903). Perth, WA, Government Printer.
UK Outgoing passenger lists, 1890-1960. BT 27. The National Archives of the UK (TNA):
Public Record Office (PRO). Retrieved from Findmypast.co.uk
Welcome Walls, Western Australian Museum, www.museum.wa.gov.au/welcomewalls
Western Australian Online Indexes, Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages,
www.bdm.dotag.wa.gov.au/_apps/pioneersindex/default.aspx