Thomas Yates II, a man full of life

Thomas Yates II, my great, great, great, great grandfather, was born on 1790 to his lovable parents Thomas and Mary. Thomas was very smart and bright unlike many other British people. He married his love Mary Ann Matthews and 18 years later they began their journey to Australia. Mary Ann was seven years older than Thomas and was the daughter of Mr Matthews, a butcher and his wife also named Mary Ann. Thomas Yates, like most Englishmen had agricultural and labouring backgrounds and was selected to emigrate to Victoria for free to help increase the population. Only nine years after John Batman and John Pascie Fawkner founded Melbourne, the ship Abberton sailed into the port of Williamstown on the 22nd of September 1844. On board was my family, Thomas, Mary Ann and their children Samuel, 17 years old, Josiah ( pronounced Joseph), 14 years old, Elizabeth, 10 years old and John, 6 years old. Mary Ann and Thomas' other children were older and deiced to stay in England with their partners. In Australia  Thomas worked for Mr Robert Purcell were he was contracted to work for one year receiving 40 pounds in wages, which is equivalent to $64.40 nowadays. In the 1850's my family moved to Geelong were they took up farming as their way of making a living. In the Balliere's Post Office Directory the Yates were listed as bakers as well as farmers. Mary Ann Yates died on June 26th 1886 aged 88 years. Its unknown when Thomas died.     

Diary Entry 1

 

I have written two diary entries of my great, great, great, great grandmother and her journey to Australia. I have gathered facts from her trip and put together what I thought it would have been like.
 

When my husband got offered the job in Australia I was happy for him. It was his dream job and the pay was great but sometimes I wish that I had a say in these things. Leaving England would be leaving all that I knew. I would have to start a fresh in a land that I knew nothing about except from what I had read and had been told. I would have to leave my eldest children and not seeing their faces everyday would make my life much harder than it should be. Of course I will still have my younger children and my husband but I cannot stand the thought of all of us being separated. I am scared to move to another country. It is far away and we will be there until we can earn enough money to go back to England.

I am going to miss England. I am going to miss the smell of the fresh grass and the sound of birds chirping. I have no idea what Australia will look like but I can only imagine it as a whole lot of dirt. I am going to miss the green meadows and playing with the children outdoors when the sun shines. But as much as I am going to miss my home I know that I must embrace this new land for my husband, my children and myself.

While I am writing this we are sitting near the ship that will become my home over the next couple of months. My family and I are all sitting nervously while we await the new chapter of our lives. Waiting with us is Thomas, Catherine and David. We are all silent.

Application Form

This is the application form that every immigrant had to fill out in order to go to another country. Unfortunately I couldn't find a copy of the one that Thomas Yates signed but this shows what he had to write so he could move to Australia.   

They came by ship

 My ancestors first came to Australia by the ship Abberton. Here is a page of the passenger book. My family, the Yates are down the very bottom of the page. This book is currently in NSW. The ship carried 45 families, 24 single women and 36 single males. If you click on the picture twice it will zoom in.

Abberton

The Abberton arrived on the 22nd of September 1844 from England. The captain of the ship was Captain Campbell. On board six people lost their lives. Mary Wheeler died while giving birth and her infant daughter died four days later. Three other small children died of unknown causes and 16 year old Thomas Waring died a painful death by inflammation of the brain. The Abberton was built at Ipswich in 1819 and belonged to the Marshall of London. The ship sailed from England to Cork before arriving in Australia. On the ship many people had seasickness because of the continuous rocking and the only cure was pea soup but by the end of the voyage everyone was so sick of pea soup that they couldn't look at the food without feeling nauseous. The Abberton was narrow in the beam. This caused damp and uncomfortable living conditions in the single men's quarter. When the immigrants arrived the men were made to sign a form stating that they had received proper treatment and praising the doctor, master and crew for their great kindness and attention.     

Diary Entry 2

One by one we were taken on a steam tug that would sail us to the ship, Abberton, where we would be spending the next couple of months. When I stepped onto the ship I already felt seasick and I was sure my heart was out of my chest. We were ushered to the middle of the ship where the married couples and children stayed. There were 20 messes each with about 12 people in each. Each mess had a captain but my family and I left that job to people who had experience, although my son was keen to take on the roll.

Our area is quiet loud. Children are running around mad all day but luckily there is a school on board that a young Scotsman set up. I send Elizabeth, John and occasionally Josiah but he thinks he is too old to be going to school with much younger children. Our bunks are one of the best on the boat. We have a porthole that we can look out of but most of the time it is underwater. The roof is very low and my son, Samuel, being tall, finds it very hard to walk under. Most of the time he sits so he can avoid hitting his head.

Our diet consists mainly of pea soup and for the unlucky ones who have seasickness its great but for the rest of us we have to be forced to eat it. I have been on this ship for a week and so far my trip has been pleasant. It’s not like a five star hotel but its better than I expected. Every Sunday the doctor on the ship reads us passages from the Church of England service so we don’t forget were we come from.

On the deck a lovely welsh sailor plays his fiddle while we all dance and laugh and sing. It keeps our mind off the nauseous feeling we get while we are rocking on the waves. You would think that by being isolated on a ship for a few months I would get a lot of time to write in my diary but looking after stranded children takes up most of my days. Some children on this ship have lost their mothers or they are very ill. I help care for them and the ill people. It is a tough job but someone has to do it.    

 

Interview with my mother, Janelle

My mum, Janelle agreed to let me do an interview with her about her great, great, great grandfather, Thomas Yates. Unfortunately this video only works on certain computers so if you are one of the unlucky few that can't enjoy the interview then I have written the dialog out for you. The video tells the story of the first person from our family to immigrate to Australia. The video was made on Tuesday the 5th of April.   



This is the dialog that my mum spoke during the video.

The first person from my family to migrate to Australia was my great, great, great grandfather, Thomas Yates. Thomas and his wife, Mary Ann and his children Josiah, Samuel, Elizabeth and John came from Buckinghamshire, England and migrated to Australia in 1844. My family came to Australia because they got their tickets for free. They arrived in Port Phillip Bay on the 22nd of September 1844 on a ship called The Abberton. In order to come to Australia the Yates family had help from the government. Thomas and Mary Ann left their older children in England with their partners. In 1844 when they arrived in Melbourne, many events were happening around the world. One such event was Joseph Smith Jr. being elected fr president of the United States and then being shot. I think my great, great, great grandfather would have felt sad and lonely when he came to Australia but also excited about the new experience. Thank-you.

This photo is of my mum and dad on Christmas day 2010. This was taken at my grandfathers house who is the great, great grandson of Thomas Yates.