LIST 18 - 1806 MUSTER - NEW SOUTH WALES
The second muster presented for New South Wales is the 1806 Muster, which
took place in August of that year. There are 49 members of the First Generation
identified from this muster (34 colonial born and 15 childhood arrivals, 20 boys and 29 girls).
The information presented for each entry is:
family name Christian nameyear of birth
parents' names
parents' civil status at the time of the child's birth parents' marital status at the time of the child's birth civil status arrival as recorded in the muster how employed (males) with whom lives (females) surname as it appears in the original muster reference number linking the entry back to the original source document. The entries in the list are presented alphabetically; ordered firstly by
the father's name, secondly by the child's Christian name. This was done to preserve family groupings. In the original muster, the names were grouped
alphabetically on the first letter of the surname and them divided into males
and females, but within each letter group the entries appear to be random.
By 1806 the eldest of the colonial born would have been 18 years old, just
on the cusp of adulthood. Why these particular 49 children were included
in the muster and not the hundreds of others is a mystery.
For the first time the girls have been separated from the boys in order to make
sense of the surnames under which their entries are found in the Muster because
most of them were already in relationships with men and following the English
custom, women took their husband's surname upon marriage. The year of birth and parental details are additional information researched
for this work are not in the original muster.
Also included with the muster is the Reverend Samuel Marsden's "Female List
of 1806". This list is basically a copy of the female entries in the 1806
Muster, but he divided the women in relationships into legally married women
and "concubines". Even more he records if the marriage took place in New South Wales or England, and how many children the women had, divided into males and
females, legitimate and "natural".
The parents and birth date have not been identified for two boys and five girls:Alexander Atkinson [A0060]
Robert Thompson [A4284]
Mary Fitzgerald [A1603]
Sarah Gould [A1797]
Mary Reynolds [A3868]
Catherine Ryan [A3873]
Elizabeth Wilson [A4788]
The year of birth of Sarah Gould [A1797] was calculated from her marriage details in 1818.
The fathers of three children are also unknown at this time:
Jane Jones [A2380]
Rosanna Julian [A3320]
William Watkins [A4539]
The date of birth has not yet been discovered of:Eleanor Duggan [A1342]
Elizabeth Wilson is interesting; in the Muster she is recorded as both "born here" and "CF" and in Marsden's List she is recorded as both "born NSW" and
"married in England". As mentioned above Marsden's List is a copy of the Muster
but the Muster has two Elizabeth Wilsons and the List three, the extra one
being a women who arrived free on board the "Sugar Cane" in 1793. She is also
recorded with two children, which again would be unlikely for a colonial born
girl at this time. It is highly likely that Elizabeth Wilson was not colonial
born but rather arrived free with her soldier husband in 1793.
Similarly Mary Smith is recorded as both "born here" and "CF".
The oldest colonial born child was Letitia Sever(Twyfield) at 18 years (Jane
Jones at 26 years was the oldest childhood arrival) and the youngest George Grimes at 6 years.
Unlike the situation on Norfolk Island, most of the boys are listed under
their father's surname, whether he was married to his mother or not, the
exceptions being the two Grimes boys & Peter White who were listed under their
step father's surname. The same was true of the single girls.
Twenty of the girls were already in relationships with men and were recorded
under their husband's surname in the muster if married, the exceptions being
Marianne Collins, Elizabeth Boggis & Mary Peat who still went under her maiden
names despite being married.Why Mary Smith is classed as a concubine when she was married to Robert
Wittington seems strange at first but reference to her Muster entry reveals
she was living with Richard Binder, obviously separated from her husband
- Marsden didn't miss much ! Sarah Gould and Hannah Harris are both described
as concubines by Marsden, whereas the Muster is a little more discrete, remarking merely that the former was a "servant" to William Gowen and the latter
"at" Dr O'Connors.
Marsden has Sarah Taber married in New South Wales when in fact she was still
single. Rosanna Julian and Martha Hortle are both erroneously listed as married in England.
If Dr O'Connor and D O'Connor are one in the same person, he was certainly a
busy fellow with not one but two concubines to take care of !Unfortunately Sarah Gould's natural daughter has not been found, perhaps being a "concubine" she was not too fussed about baptism either.The original muster had a column headed "Ship of Arrival". For the colonial
born, 27 entered either "born here" or "born New South Wales" or "born Norfolk
Island" which made them easy to identify. Seven others left the field blank
but research, mainly from the Pioneer Register, helped to identify these as
colonial born.
The childhood arrivals listed their ship of arrival of course in this column.
The ship of arrival of Jane Kennedy is incorrectly recorded as "Prince of
Wales" when it should have been "Sovereign".
The "Civil Status" column was mainly used for distinguishing current and
time expired convicts in the original muster. Most of the colonial born used
"F" for free in this field, although eight of the colonial born had "CF" for came free, without exception meaning coming from Norfolk Island to Port Jackson
and four left the field blank. Three of the childhood arrivals left this field
blank as well.
Of the boys, eight were apprentices at the dockyard.
Only Mary Eades from the 1800 Muster has an entry in this muster.
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