The Needlewomen of the Culloden

I will pause now for a moment in Bertha's story, and include a brief deviation away from my Hughans as I indulge my own interest in the needlewomen of the Culloden. While I had from the Victorian Public Records website a list of the needlewomen on board the Culloden, I didn't know what had happened to them after their arrival in Victoria. Researching via Google produced a little information on several of the women, but on the whole I knew nothing beyond their names.
Last week I was lucky enough to find an article published in England that gave each woman's initials and where they were employed once they got to Victoria. Armed with the passenger list, it was easy to put a whole name to each set of initials, although I had trouble with two women whose initials were "C.P"- I can't differentiate between Caroline Parsons and Catherine Ann Pain.
By the way...one of the best under-utilized resources for online genealogy in my opinion is the one offered by Australian State Libraries ( at least NSW and Queensland State Libraries that I know of-other states would have to check).All residents of NSW, for example,are eligible to become members of their State Library. Country members, such as myself, apply for membership by mail, and once your membership card arrives, you have full access to many wonderful online resources..all you need to do each time you access the site is type in your membership number and password.This gives instant access to the most wonderful collection of online newspapers from England, including the London Times archive. There are many other resources available on this site, but the newspapers collection is where I have made my most fabulous discoveries.Much of the information that I discovered on the Female Emigrant Scheme and the Culloden needlewomen all came from the State Library Of NSW British Newspapers Collection, 1600-1900.

Of the 36 needlewomen who sailed on the Culloden, 28 were actual needlewomen who at some period of their lives had been servants or had become acquainted with some branches of household or farm service. Of the remainder, two were teachers( both acting as sub-Matrons),and the remaining six charwomen and out of work servants.

Because the Culloden women were the first to leave England, there were several reports conducted as to the success of the venture. The first report was concerned with the total of 409 women who emigrated under the scheme in 1850. Of these only six might be classified as middle class by occupation- three governesses and three teachers. Of the 409 women, 38 individual case histories were looked at, of which 16 had suffered the familiar experience of steep class decline following the death of a father, loss of family fortune or other causes usually identified with what was known as 'genteel poverty'.
The Morning Chronicle, a London newspaper, published a list of the Culloden women, identified only by their initials, on Wednesday, November 27, 1850.I have added further information when known.

"From the following account which has been furnished to us of the present circumstances of the emigrants by the Culloden,most of whom are now settled in Melbourne and its vicinity, it will be seen how wide is the contrast between the wretchedness of their former lot and their condition and prospects in their new home- where, in addition to the wages which they have obtained, they are provided with an abundant supply of the necessaries and comforts of life.The annexed table is, it will be perceived,arranged with reference to the metropolitan districts from which the young women were respectively selected.For obvious reasons we only give the initials of their names.
Information given was: First column: Initials of name. Second Column: Description at home. Column three: Employment obtained in Australia.

HOLBORN and WESTMINSTER DISTRICTS.

Margaret J. Landells/ Infant school mistress. No earnings./ engaged by Major Newman, J.P.of South Yarra for twenty pounds a year.

Marion Hughan/needlewoman, earning one shilling a day/Living with her mother in Melbourne.
Jessie Hughan/ needlewoman one shilling per day/ Living with mother in Melbourne.
Bertha Hughan/ a child/ living with her mother in Melbourne.

Elizabeth Fenwick/ Needlewoman, earning 3s, 6d a week/ Engaged by Mr. Bell of Melbourne for 14 pounds a year.Married 1853 to Arthur Davies.
Alice Fenwick/ needlewoman, young/ Engaged by Mr. Larrydon of Loddon River at 7 pounds per year.Married James Wyatt, 1854.

Matilda G. Walker/ servant, occasional employment, earning about ten shillings a week/ Engaged by Mr. Pohlman of Richmond for 16 pounds per year.
Ellen Walker/ servant/ engaged by the same at the same rate.He promises she shall have a situation near her sister.

Charlotte Savage/ needlewoman, five to six shillings per week./Engaged by Mrs Mackenzie of Collingwood at twelve pounds a year.

Lucy M. Edwards/ servant, out of place/ Engaged by Mr. Fytte, of Melbourne, for twelve pounds a year. She wrote to her father back in England:
“The ship when it was rocking afforded me great pleasure for to see the things rattling about ; plates and dishes rattling; the children crying; the girls a going into fits; the Captain a giving orders; the Matron ordering the girls to be quiet because of the Captain.”
Lucy also reported that events didn’t go as smoothly as reported upon arrival at Port Phillip:
“ We came ashore at night on account of there going to be a mutiny with the sailors and the captain, because he would not give them their discharge when they came and asked him, so they all struck and would not do anything so he sent for the police constables and he kept them on bread and water until a great many of them ran away.”
Lucy Malcolm Edwards married Edward Miram Camplin in 1851.


Jane Holland/ servant, out of place/ engaged by Mr Westley, of Melbourne, for 12 pounds a year.

Eliza Burney/ Needlewoman, 2 to 5 shillings per week/ Engaged at 25 pounds per year.
Margaret Burney/ needlewoman, 2 to 5 shillings a week/ Engaged at 25 pounds per year.Married Henry Simmons Trapp, 1854.
Esther Burney/ needlewoman earning 2 to 5 shillings per week/ engaged by Mr. Bell, auctioneer, of Melbourne, at 25 pounds a year.Married John Skandon, 1860.

Elizabeth Tuck/ waistcoat maker, 4 to 6 shillings per week/Engaged by Mr Beer of Richmond for 20 pounds per year.

Anne Coates/ braider, earning six shillings per week/ At depot. Since engaged. Particulars not known.
Eliza Coates/ braider, six shillings per week/ Engaged by Mr. Brodie of Richmond for 16 pounds per year.

Ann Ferguson/needlewoman out of work two months/ Engaged by Mr. Foxton of Melbourne for 14 pounds a year.

Emma Fletcher/Needlewoman, 3 shillings per week/ Engaged by W. Smith Esq, of South Yarra, at 14 pounds per year.

Ellen Ellis/ lace-transferrer,only occasionally employed,utmost earnings 5 shillings a week/Proceeds to Sydney where she has relations.There was a scandal after the Culloden docked, with the Captain. Ferguson, trying to seduce Ellen off the ship in Port Phillip.She later joined her sister-in-law in Sydney, who was a druggist.
SOUTHWARK DISTRICT.

Christina Tisdall/ widow, tailoress, 4 shillings a week/Engaged on board the ship Culloden as stewardess, to wait on the ladies, at 21 pounds a year.

Elizabeth Randall/ servant, paid part of her passage money/ Engaged by Mrs Butterfield of Melbourne at 14 pounds a year.

Rachael E. Cox/servant, nine pounds a year/ Engaged by John Orr Esq, of Melbourne, at 18 pounds a year.

Catherine Ann Pain)/ belt stitcher, 3 to 5 shillings a week/ Proceeds to Port Stephens via Sydney to join friends there. She arrived in Sydney on 10th August 1850 and 10 days later married Thomas Paten at St James Church, Sydney. Thomas was employed by the Aust Agricultural Co. in the Port Stevens area where they lived for several years until they moved to the Tambaroora goldfield near Bathurst. Catherine died at Tambaroora in 1871 and Thomas stayed there until his death in 1894.(information from descendant Mark Paten, May 2010).


Fanny Hickmott/ servant, out of place/ Engaged by Mrs Simmons of Melbourne at ten pounds a year. Some of the letters written back to England were published by the Fund to encourage other girls to emigrate. Fanny's letter as published read in part:“It is a good place for all maids to come to for they are sure to get a husband. I am not married yet, but I shall be before long- before you get this- to a young man who came out on the same ship. There was a mother and four sons and four daughters, and this is one of the sons that I am to have, and _____ is to have another and ____ is to have a third. If you can, prevail on my sisters to come to me, and all shall be done both by me and Richard that can be done to make them happy.”


SHADWELL.
Elizabeth Henwood/ servant, out of place/ engaged by Mr. Palmer, of Melbourne, at 12 pounds per year.

E.J.???/shirtmaker earning 2s to 2s 6d a week./ Engaged by Mr. Bickerton,a passenger (with his family) on the ship Culloden,wages not stated.NOTE: No woman with initials 'E.J' was on the Culloden passenger list. However there was an Elizabeth Ireland who wasn't matched up to a set of initials, and I believe that this could be 'E.J'

ST. GEORGES, EAST.
Eliza K. Cornwall/bootbinder, 2 shillings a week/ engaged by McKenzie of Collingwood,at 10 pounds per year.

Matilda S. Read/ servant, mother a needlewoman/ Engaged at Club Hotel, Melbourne, wages not known. Matilda Read, who had been a servant in London before emigrating on the ‘Culloden’, was one emigrant of whose letter home to her family was published:
“We have been here now about ten months, and I have had very good situations, the last of which I left to be married.
I was married on the 5th of January last to Mr Charles Servante, brother to ‘Little Jane’, as you call her.(NOTE: Charles Copsey Servante also came out as a passenger on the Culloden in 1850) I have been very comfortable since, and am very contented. Jane has a comfortable good place, and twenty pound a year wages.” (This Jane was Jane Elizabeth Servante who was a fellow emigrant on the ‘Culloden’, and she married William Mills in Melbourne in 1852.)Matilda and Charles had a typically large family in the Kyneton district- Matilda b & d 1852 aged 5 months; Charles b 1855; Henry b 1857;Athelinda b 1858;George b 1860; Edgar b 1862;Arthur b 1864;Frederick Read b 1866 d 1867; Matilda Elizabeth b 1868;Frank Edward b 1870 d 1878.
Matilda would have been in Kyneton at the same time as the Hughan siblings Fergus, Jessie and Marion.


Margaret Thompson/ needlewoman without work/ Engaged by Mr. Larrydon of Lodden River at 12 pounds a year.

Jane Hunt/ widow.Shirtmaker, 2s6d a week/Engaged by Francis Waidley Esq of Melbourne at 15 pounds a year.

Jane White/ weekly governess, 5 shillings a week./ Engaged by Mr. Murchison, J.P., of Goulburn River,at 16 pounds a year.

Ellen S. Broughton/ stockmaker/ Engaged by J.A. Henriquies Esq at 16 pounds a year.

Caroline Dennis/ collar stitcher, 4 shillings a week/ Married at Melbourne to Mr. James Walford, an intermediate passenger by the Culloden, who is about to proceed to Hobart Town.

Jane Elizabeth Servante/ servant, out of place/ Engaged by family of Mr. Palmer, a passenger by Culloden. Wages not known.

Caroline Parsons / needlewoman/ Engaged by Mr. Angel,of Melbourne,at ten pounds a year.

Emma Madgeley/ needlewoman, 5 shillings per week/ engaged by Mr Walters of Melbourne for 9 pounds a year.

Rosanna Stone/ servant, out of place/ Engaged by Mr. McMullane of Melbourne at 12 pounds a year.

Jane Leavett/housemaid, out of place, mother a lace worker/Engaged by John Orr Esq of Melbourne at 18 pounds a year.

NOTE: The name 'Mr. Larrydon' appears twice as having employed two women...I can find no trace of this name or anything like it anywhere in the world, let alone Victoria!
In my Googling of this past five minutes I found the following disparaging comment about the poor needlewomen,in a book written by an emigrant named Ellen Clacy:
"Sydney Herbert's needlewomen" bear but a bad name; and the
worst recommendation a young girl applying for a situation can give, is
to say she came out in that manner--not because the colonists look down
on any one coming out by the assistance of others, but because it is
imagined her female associates on the voyage cannot have been such as
to improve her morality, even if she were good for anything before.