Elizabeth Wymer

Story

Elizabeth Bruce Wymer was born on 20 November 1863 in the town of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England. She was the fourth and last child of James and Maria Wildsmith.

James Wildsmith was a successful master baker. He and his family lived in a beautiful home with servants and a coachman.

Elizabeth was privately educated at an all girls\’ boarding school. She learnt among other things the skills of being a seamstress.

She becomes a ward under the care of her older brother John Wildsmith, after her mother dies in 1881.

Now 18 years old, Elizabeth seeks adventure. She responds to an advertisement in a London newspaper, requesting educated, single women between the ages of 17 and 24 to take up positions of governesses and the like in the Colonies of Australia.

Elizabeth requests permission from her brother John but her requests go unheeded until one day her brother relents and in anger says ‘Go! Go and be damned!’

Elizabeth boards a 909 ton Barque called the ‘Silver Eagle’ at Plymouth England on the 3rd March 1882 and sets sail for the Colony of Queensland.

The recommended list of principal articles for a single woman at sea included: I warm cloak with a cape, 2 bonnets, 1 small shawl, 1 stuff dress, 2 print ditto, 6 shifts, 2 flannel petticoats, 1 stuff ditto, 1 pair stays, 4 pocket handkerchiefs, 2 net ditto for neck, 3 caps, 4 night caps, 4 sleeping jackets, 2 black worsted hose, 4 cotton ditto, 2 pair of shoes and 6 towels. Total cost was ₤5.

On the afternoon of the 7th June 1882, Elizabeth disembarks at Maryborough in the Colony of Queensland Ð one of approx. 250 migrants to land safely and in good health. The journey took 97 days with one birth and no loss of life.

Elizabeth is employed as a governess on a cattle station in Emerald Qld.

One day she is left in charge of the station for a period of time, when her employer makes a journey to the coast. She is given strict orders not to unlock the storeroom, but supplies run low and the stockmen demand provisions and so she is forced to gain entry.

Her employment is terminated.

Elizabeth moves to the town of Bundaberg Qld where she meets a Walter Paul Steventon Ð a ship\’s steward. They marry in 1884. On the 13th February 1886, their child Bessie Maria is born. In 1889, Elizabeth and Walter separate.

Elizabeth moves to Maryborough Qld, where she meets a Frederick William Wymer.

Frederick William Wymer was born on the 16th April 1864 in Hardingham, Norfolk, England. He was the first child to Sarah Anne Wymer. When he was 12 years old, he ran away to sea for two years. On his return, he was sent to Germany to further his education.

At the age of 18 years he takes to the sea again on the steamship the ‘Carthage’, working as a gentlemen\’s servant. Departing London, he makes two trips to Sydney, NSW. On the second journey, he jumps ship in Sydney when the ‘Carthage’ arrives on the 4th May 1882.

Frederick finds his way to the gold fields of Gympie, Qld. Gold had first been found there in 1868 precipitating Queensland\’s first gold rush. Frederick opens a barber\’s shop Ð in a tent!

Elizabeth will live with Frederick for the rest of her life. They have four children together: Ettie Elizabeth (1890), William Frederick (1897), John Herbert (1901) and Walter James (1903).

Elizabeth and Frederick\’s first son William Frederick Wymer married Ellen Amelia May Wallace in Forbes in 1921. Ellen\’s mother Margaret Wallace, as the family folklore has it, was the first woman born in Forbes on 27th July 1862!

The discovery of gold in Forbes in 1861 brought 30,000 to 40,000 newcomers. Forbes came to be a series of tents on the banks of the Lachlan River and it was in one of these tents that Margaret Wallace was born.

Towards the end of her life, Margaret Wallace became the oldest living identity of Forbes. The residents of Forbes celebrated her life by making her a feature of many civic parades.

Margaret Wallace\’s parents, James and Mary McKeon had come to Forbes in search of gold. They had come from the gold fields of Victoria. James and Mary had both been granted their Certificates of Freedom in 1853 and had migrated from Tasmania to the new free Colony of Victoria in 1854 after gold had been discovered there in the early 1850s.

James McKeon had been transported to Tasmania (formerly Van Diemen\’s Land) as a convict arriving on the ‘Samuel Boddington’ on 18th January 1846 aged 32 years and a widower. He could read and write.

James married Mary Cotterell in 1848. Mary had also been transported to Tasmania as a convict, arriving on the ‘Elizabeth and Henry’ on 4th January 1847 aged 21 years.

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