Henry Knight

Story

Henry Knight was born 1817 in Leigh, Kent, England, to the servant Susannah Knight (1797-1821). He was the illegitimate son of Susannah’s employer, the yeoman farmer Thomas Medhurst (1784-1848) of Killick’s Bank. When Henry was only four his mother died and he was left with no immediate family, however he was cared for, as his father had guaranteed his upbringing and education by signing a document known as a Bastardry Bond and by placing 100 pounds with the local parish as security. Henry was to become a gardener at Penshurst, Kent, and in 1838 he married Martha Ingram at Chiddingstone, having two children George (b.1838) and Henry (b.1840). Sadly, Martha died. Henry remarried in 1845 to Mary Burgess of Tonbridge. They had two children at Penshurst, Charles Ralph (b.1847) and Mary Susan (b.1849) before deciding to emigrate. It is thought Henry had a position to go to in Sydney as his passage was assisted, although the benefactor is unknown.

Henry and his second wife Mary, with the four children, departed Gravesend 22nd November 1852 on the new Hamburg-registered sailing ship “Java”. Henry was to keep a diary of the voyage which has survived, with a second copy (in Henry’s hand) held in the Mitchell Library, Sydney. Henry’s diary is a heart-wrenching account of one of the most tragic of all immigrant voyages to Australia – over 50 died during the voyage with Henry sadly losing two children to “starvation”. His diary description of the circumstances of the deaths of his son and daughter are stark reminders of the tragedy that was part of many of the immigrant journeys.

ř February 1853 Fine day very Hot Calm Henry very ill could not take but very little Susan a little better betwixed 8 and 9 O’clock Henry went down stairs took a counterpane down with him that he had been laying on all day previous to this he had been to the Closet but once all day as soon as he got down to our Berth he started to the Closet I followed after him was in the Closet with him we talked together a good bit I then went up on the upper Deck same time Henry went down I stayed a short time up on Deck because my wife was washing the children and she could do better with the little Girl when I was out of sight as she used to cry after me, mean time Henry had gone to the Closet again and for the last time he was heard to groan but no one it appears Knew what it was or who it was he had fasten himself in the Closet with the Hasp as was the way of most of the Emigrants and therefore could not be got at under 15 or 20 Minutes no one had suspected a Death had taken place untill the Door was opened but so it was poor fellow he quite dead sitting on the seat & perhaps my friends can better judge what my feelings were than I can express I took George to see him after he had been carried into the Hospital which was the place where all the Dead were taken poor fellow he wept over him most bitterly nor was he the only one that wept for none of us expected all this”

One month later, just after weighing anchor from the Cape of Good Hope, Henry’s little girl Susan died:

Śth (March 1853) Sunday weighed Anchor about 9 O’Clock my Dear little Girl breathed her last we Sailed out into the Bay & we had then A dead Calm at 1/2 Past 10 P.M. they committed my Child to the Deep I was in Bed the Captain having promised me in the morning to wait till Monday morning…”

The Java entered Sydney Harbour on the morning of 24th April, 1853, and Henry wrote:

“…the wind proved fair & we sailed into harbour nicely this was the most Handsome sight in nature that I ever saw the Oaks & the Evergreens on every side was truly Beautiful but the thought of my Dead Children spoiled all and here is an end to the anxieties of the Voyage.”

The family tragedy continued however, for two weeks later the quite ill Mary was to give birth to a daughter Hannah who sadly survived just five days.

Henry was to become a gardener at Thomas Walker’s Yaralla estate, Concord, and Mary was for a while a maid in the house. They were to have six more children born in Australia, all were to survive. Henry later built his home nearby in Flavelle Street, Concord, naming it “Penshurst” and it was here he suffered a stroke while ploughing in his orchard, aged 80, dying four years later (1902). Henry and Ma

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