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Hi Chris

The original passenger information came from the free ‘Family Search’ website. It’s in the same book as these other records (images 98 and 99). This section ‘Ship Return, A.  Report on The Immigrants’ was completed at the end of the voyage and contained a complete summary of the ship, it’s daily routine and it’s passengers on landing. I see that images 11 to 14 shows details of the ship and the voyage. The diseases on board were listed as ‘phthisis pulmonary (tuberculosis) common colds, bowel complaints’. 6 babies were born on board. They are all listed on image 12, including Mary-Anne’s boy.  Most immigrants also have details on their final destination, employment and wages. Lots of them were destined for Parramatta. The Stephens family are listed on image 21 but oddly they are amongst those with no employed details or destination. John is listed as an ‘Agric.Labourer’. This is the link to the page (image 21):

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSKD-JSSW-P?view=index

As far as I can see, on arrival in late Dec 1841 they were maintained on board ship ‘All the full ten days’, but there’s no mention of any work.  On the next page it says of the families in this section they were maintained on board ‘All the full ten days’ adding ‘and gone to the Barracks, not employed’ ‘122 illegible illegible’. Clearly some had no work to go to and were maintained on board before being accommodated in some barracks. It’s hard to read the writing but at first glance the family had no work and nowhere to go...

According to the City of Parramatta History & Heritage website, the All Saints Cemetery was established in 1843. The cemetery has around 1500 unmarked graves which are mainly for the benevolent institutions and orphanages in the Township of Parramatta (and the inmates of the Parramatta Lunatic Asylum from 1846). The unmarked graves are recorded on 24 plaques attached to a solid Memorial Wall in the south-west corner of the cemetery. The 3 Stephens/Stevens were amongst the earliest burials in the cemetery.

Parramatta seems to have been a relatively poor farming area in the 1840s, with some mills and industries like tanning which were situated well away from the main city due to the smells etc., along with a poor quality water supply. I expect it was a very tough life out there.

‘Lower class’ would have mean ‘working class’ which would included agricultural labourers, skilled or unskilled, and the poor and destitute. It’s possible John had died, or was just unwell or unemployed. I suspect the family had very little capital when they arrived and it seems they had a hard time. I assume they’d have been provided with some sort of accommodation with employment, possibly on a farm. I suspect this means the Stevens family were probably recipients of some charity, which may well mean there are some local records available. The website has a research section, so you may be able to contact someone there to advise you on what records are available, as there seems to be lists for the orphanage etc. They often gave a reason why charity was given and dates. On the bright side, I checked the ‘Female Factory’ workhouse for women convicts and their children in Parramatta and they’re not in there. The website link is below as there are some good paintings of Parramatta during the 1840s on various pages which gives a feel for the place at the time. It’s an interesting read.

https://femalefactoryonline.org/essays/deaths-in-custody/

https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/blog/2017/01/24/all-saints-anglican-cemetery-and-unmarked-graves-parramatta

I also found a very useful and interesting video on YouTube touring through this cemetery called ‘All saints cemetery, THE FORGOTTEN ONES’, although it doesn’t paint a very happy picture!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmOA4oYX-Q4

My wife had a Guernsey relative (Alexander Agnew) who ended up nearby in Liverpool City from 1885-1917 so I’ve been researching these areas in Sydney. He was buried as a pauper, but fortunately appeared in court in 1905 for a fraudulent pension claim which provided some useful information! Another (William Agnew) was in Glen Druitt Road, north of New Gisborne near Melbourne for the gold rush in the early 1850s but I think he ended up poor as well. Information is thin on the ground for these guys.

Kind regards
Toby

Hi Chris,

I’ve found deaths/burials for both of John Stevens’ 2 children that died in Guernsey:

John-George Stevens: ‘John-George, son of John Stephens was buried on 13th April 1835, age 3.’ (St Peter Port Town Church Burial Register, page 253). Buried in Candie Cemetery with his brother. His actual date of death is given on the monument as 8th April 1835 (Candie Cemetery, area 2 records).

William Henry Stevens was buried with his older brother in Candie Cemetery (area 2 records), St Peter Port, Guernsey. The records say the actual date of death is given on the grave monument as 'William Henry Stevens died 30th May 1839, age 1', 'Brother of John Stevens, age 3', 'Son of' John Stevens and Mary-Anne Avery. However, this burial doesn’t appear in the Town Church Burial Register for some reason?

The Candie Cemetery records/monument spells their names as ‘Stevens’.

Area 2 sits on the western edge of the cemetery, well away from the large monuments and expensive family vaults in the main part of this small Cemetery.

Regards
Toby

Happy to help.

I've found a burial record for John-George Stephens. It’s in English:
‘John-George, son of John Stephens was buried on 13TH April 1835, age 3.’ (St Peter Port Town Church Burials, page 253).

Haven't found a burial William Henry Stephens yet, but unlike the baptisms these records aren't indexed so it's harder to find things and easy to miss them! If it turns up I'll let you know.

You may have already seen these bits, but here they are anyway.

On Family Search I also found the original ship's record of their assisted passage on the 'Lady Clarke' (not just the summary index card). Under the Stephens family record for Male children family it also lists "an infant born on board, as yet unnamed". That's quite a journey for Mary-Ann to make as she must have been heavily pregnant when they left England! At least there was a doctor on board to accompany the passengers. This is the link to the record page (John Stephens snr is on the previous page):

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSKD-JSS7-G?view=index

Captain Alexander Lawrence was the captain of the ship Lady Clarke in 1841. The ship departed Plymouth on September 4, 1841, with 192 emigrants (some records say 225). There was 1 death on the voyage. It arrived in Port Jackson, Sydney, New South Wales on December 26, 1841. The Stephens family came out as assisted immigrants under the Bounty Immigration Scheme in New South Wales which paid for their passage. Applicants had to provide accurate information about the age, occupation, character, and condition of the people they were bringing to the colony.

Newspaper reports on the ship's arrival:

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/32191836?

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2555369

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser Tue 28 Dec 1841:
“Ship News. The Lady Clarke, out from Plymouth 113 days, arrived on Sunday with 192 emigrants, under the superintendence of Dr. Anderson. The ship appears to have been kept in a clean state during the voyage, and every comfort shown to the passengers, who speak in the most
flattering manner of the attention bestowed on them by the captain and doctor. When off the
Cape, the Lady Clarke experienced a severe gale of wind, and on the 30th November, spoke the ship Alexander, with emigrants from London to Port Phillip, in Lat, 33 S., long. 8E.”

Regards
Toby

Hi,

This is the marriage you’re looking for.

On 29th September 1886 at the Town Church, St Peter Port. Lawrence Love, an engineer on board the steam-boat ‘Assistance’, age 28, married Eliza Lilly Alice Queriple, 21, daughter of William Henry Queriple, a gardener. Lawrence is shown as the son of Lawrence Love, an engine driver.