The Story of Caroline Penelope Browning

The story of my paternal Great Great Grandmother, Caroline Penelope Browning (1830-1894), is yet another story of determination, resilience and true grit.  It is also a story of an Australian pioneer, a strong woman!

In the year of Caroline's birth, 1830, the poem "Mary Had A Little Lamb" by Sarah Josepha Hale was published; the first passenger rail service began in the United States; the Port Arthur penal settlement was established in Tasmania, Australia; Charles Sturt and his party discovered the mouth of the Murray River in Australia.

When Caroline was born in April 1830, her father William Browning was 39 and her mother Anne Littlejohns was 28. Caroline Penelope Browning was born in the Poor House of the St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Launceston, Cornwall, England.


When I discovered that fact, I had to sit with it for a while and let it sink in.  My great great grandmother had been born in a poor house!  That was her start in life.

My knowledge of 'poor houses' was limited I have to admit, so I went searching for information.  Parish poor houses preceded what were to become known as 'work houses'. They were generally small establishments, and often in rented existing buildings rather than specially built premises. Families who were completely destitute could lodge at the poor house that belonged to their parish.  Unlike the 'work house' the family members were not put to work within the walls of the poor house.  They were able to come and go as they pleased, but it provided somewhere to sleep and to have a meal, although the food was reputedly terrible.

The Browning family must have entered the Poor House sometime around 1828-1829 because Caroline's slightly older brother had not been born in the poor house back in 1827. Obviously, by the time Caroline was due to be born, father William and mother Anna had found work hard to come by, and were in need of parish relief.  Families only usually entered the poor house when there was no other alternative and they were close to starvation.

At the time of her birth, Caroline already had three siblings.
Susannah had been born in 1822.
Hannah was born in 1825.
John Thomas was born in 1827.

So the Browning family was a family of five when they entered the poor house, and grew whilst residing there. I wonder if there were any more experiences of living in the poor house during Caroline's childhood? 

After the birth of Caroline, there were three more children added to the family.
William Henry was born in 1832 when Caroline was 2 years old.
Dinah was born in 1835, when Caroline was aged 5.
Mary Anne was born in 1837, and Caroline was 7 years old at the time.

The following year unfortunately, Caroline's sister Dinah died before her third birthday.  Caroline herself was only aged 8.

Now a little context is needed to provide background for what happened next to the Browning family.

1800s England had suffered a post war depression, a terrible famine and massive unemployment, caused by industrialisation and changing farm practices. Many thousands of people were desperate enough to take free or subsidised one-way passages to the ends of the earth.  By the end of the 1830s, with six children to feed, and few employment prospects, William Browning took advantage of the opportunity presented by the recently introduced Bounty Immigration Scheme in Australia.

The Bounty Immigrant Scheme allowed settlers in New South Wales to recruit their own workers from England, through the services of an agent.

The settler paid the immigrant's passage, and this was paid back by the Government upon the emigrant's arrival.

Preference was given to skilled workers such as tradesmen and mechanics, agricultural labourers, dairy maids or some form of worker that the settlers particularly wanted for their business or farms. 

Australian authorities were also looking for healthy young couples with children, preferably daughters who were of a marriageable age because the numbers of men far outweighed the numbers of women in the colony.

Bounty Immigrant List - 'Premier' 1840 

In 1840, at the age of 9, Caroline and her family boarded the ship Premier in Plymouth for the voyage to Australia.  The trip only took 90 days, which was a bit of a record at that time. 

Sydney Herald, Friday 3 July 1840, page 2-a

During the voyage, there had been a little mutiny.  Four of the crew had to be subdued and then chained for the rest of the voyage.

Caroline's father had apparently stood up and spoke up about the mis-treatment of the crew, and had thereby incured the wrath of both the Captain and the Surgeon, along with many of the other bounty emigrants who were asked to crew the ship.


There might have been an unfriendly response from the other emigrants towards the Browning family for the rest of the journey.

 

Upon arrival in Sydney, Caroline's parents were sent to work for Ward Stephens on his property, Lismore Station.  Caroline and her brothers, William and John, worked alongside their parents as shepherds for a number of years. That would have been an extremely rough life, living outdoors, tending to the sheep in all weather and in unknown countryside. 

Another brother was born in August of 1841, when Caroline was aged 11.  Susannah, the eldest sister married just a month later, when she was aged 19.

Two years later, tragedy struck though and Susannah died at the age of 21. 

By this time, it appears Caroline's parents had moved to Runnymede Station to continue working for Ward Stephens after he had sold Lismore Station to a man named William Wilson.

Another brother was born in 1845.  Joseph Edward came along when Caroline was 14 years old.

Just one year later, Caroline got married.  She married Henry Johnson Brown in January of 1846 when she was just 15.  This was another point in Caroline's story where I had to just had to sit and take that in!  15!  Her husband was ten years older.

Henry Johnson Brown and Caroline Penelope Browning were married at The Settlement on Clarence River.  Henry had emigrated with his sister in 1840, the same year as Caroline's family but on a different ship.  Back in England his occupation had been 'printer', but by 1845 he was working as a cook on Runnymede Station.  That is where he met Caroline.  

They were to be married for 22 years and had twelve children over a span of 20 years.  In the beginning, they both continued working for Ward Stephens at Runnymede.

Caroline's and Henry's first born, a son named Henry Johnson was born in March 1847, but died the following year.  That appeared to be the catalyst for their decision to leave the employ of Ward Stephens in early 1849. They packed up their belongings, and started heading towards Mr. Wilson's property on foot. 

According to an article published in The Northern Star, the story as told by Henry and Caroline's son many, many years later in 1929 went something like this:

"They came across to Mr. Wilson's to seek employment and arrived on the opposite bank of the river. On arrival my father swam over the (Richmond) river to Mr. Wilson's and was engaged. On his return he made ready to take my mother over the river the following day by collecting some logs and tying them together with lawyer cane. During that night, my father had to take his little raft over the river and bring Mrs. Wilson back across. My brother Sandy was born on that night."

So, Caroline was giving birth to her second son, Alexander (known as Sandy), on the bank of the Richmond River in the middle of the night!  I suppose she hopped on the raft the next day and went across to Mr. Wilson's property to begin work alongside her husband.

Alexander Johnson was born in 1849, when Caroline was 18 years old.

Caroline and Henry remained working for Mr. Wilson until around 1850.  After that it appears that Caroline and Henry, with their young son, moved around to several different areas in northern New South Wales, as Henry plied his trade as a part-time hawker.


By 1850 they had returned to the Richmond area and Henry began work at Bald Hill (later Bexhill) as a timber cutter and dealer. At this time Bald Hill was a major cedar camp, but it would have been a hard life for both Henry and Caroline.  Henry soon lost interest in the life of a cedar cutter though, and decided he was more interested in trading. The family went to the small settlement of Lismore and Henry set up a saw pit on the river bank and began his business milling and selling timber locally and out of the district.

He built a small slab house for the family to live in.  It would have been very similar to this:

Their family grew, as Caroline gave birth to another 10 children.
John Thomas was born in 1850.  Caroline was aged 20.
Anne Caroline was born in 1853.  
Henry Johnson was born in 1855.
Elias came along in 1856, when Caroline was 26.
William Norman was born in 1858.

Tragically, Elias died the same year at the age of 2.

By this time, the family home had been extended into Lismore's first hotel, the Cedar Squarers' Arms. Henry had obtained a liquor licence and had then purchased several more blocks of land in the area surrounding the home and hotel. 

Brown's Creek Bridge over Brown's Creek,
named after Henry Brown.

He had established a large garden near the creek that ran nearby.  That creek was known as Brown's Creek for many, many years.

The garden was most likely established to provide food for the family.  Caroline would have tended the garden and used the produce for the family meals.

Perhaps she also cooked meals for patrons of the hotel, as well as for her growing family.

Son, James Irving Stevenson was born in 1859.
Richard was born in 1861, when Caroline was 31.
Eliza Duncan was born in 1863.
Francis Summers Hayes came along in 1865.
Robert Frederick Bayley was born in 1867.  Caroline was 37 years of age.

1867 was a bad year for Caroline.  Her father, William Browning, passed away, and her husband Henry had to appear before the Insolvency Court in Sydney.  He had quite large debts and he was now bankrupt. 

Unfortunately, 1868 was another bad year.  Caroline's husband, Henry, died suddenly that year, before the insolvency case was settled. Much of the land he had bought was then lost to creditors.  Caroline was only 38 at the time, but she had been married for 22 years and was now a widow left with 10 children aged between almost 1 and 19.

I haven't been able to find much information about what Caroline did to support her large family at this point in time, but I suspect she carried on with the business of running the hotel.  No doubt her eldest children, Alex aged 19 and John, aged 17, would have started working as well to contribute income and support the family.

Six years later, in 1874, Caroline married again at the age of 44.  Her husband was Nathan Taylor, who had been sent out to Australia as a convict around 27 years previously.  He was now aged 62.  They were married on the 23rd of May, but unfortunately he died just a few months afterwards.

Caroline then lost her mother early the following year, in 1875.   

In 1878 Caroline married again.  She was now aged 48 and her spouse, Thomas Collins, was also aged 48.  Unfortunately, her third marriage was to last only three years as Thomas died in 1881.

Once again, Caroline was widowed, but by now most of children were adults.  Both her eldest boy, Alexander and John, had married.  Then at the end of 1881 Eliza, aged 18, and James, aged 22, also married.

Frances, the youngest daughter, married the following year in 1882 when she was aged 16.  Then in 1883 William and Richard married sisters.  That was also the year that Caroline's sister, Hannah, passed away.

Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 12 March 1887, page 5

Richmond River Herald and Northern Districts Advertiser, Friday 18 March 1887, page 2

In 1887 Caroline applied to have a parcel of land bought under the Real Property Act.  This was the plot of land on which her home and the hotel stood, so I guess my understanding that Caroline had supported herself and her family by continuing the hotel business was correct. 

That particular plot of land had been granted to the settler William Wilson many, many years before, and the application effectively meant that Caroline would then hold a title of ownership for that land.  Of course, William Wilson was the employer she had worked for long ago when she was first married.

Just a few short years after that application though, in 1894, Caroline died at the age of 64.  It appears she was living in Sydney with her daughter Eliza and son-in-law Robert Gall.  He was listed as the sole executor of her will.

I wonder why none of her own sons were named as the executor?  Perhaps the son-in-law was trusted to take care of all the remaining family members' interests.  Caroline was survived by all ten of her children.

It speaks volumes that there was an article printed in the Northern Star newspaper in Lismore, upon her death.  Obviously she was a well-respected, well-known woman in that community.

Northern Star (Lismore), Wednesday 23 October 1929, page 16

  

Two very interesting points however:

One ... the article was title "Early Pioneer:  Late Mrs. Henry Brown".

Despite the fact that she had been married twice briefly after Henry had died, she was obviously known in the Lismore area as the wife of Henry Brown.


Two ... not once in the short article is mention ever made of her Christian name.  She's only referred to as Mrs. Henry Brown! 


A sign of the times during which she lived. 

Special Note to any family members:  If you have memories to add, photos or information to share, can I graciously ask that you do so.  Please use the comments box below or email me.  It may prove to be invaluable to the story and provide future generations with something to truly treasure.