James Mearns

Story

THE MEARNS STORY

James Mearns, along with 327 other ‘convict boys’, arrived in Australia on the John Barry on 22 March 1839. The following day the Sydney Gazette reported ‘the prisoners … appear to be in a very healthy state; only one death occurred during the passage.’

James, then aged 21, was a shoemaker. The year before, on 4 July 1838, at York (West Riding Quarter Sessions), he was sentenced to 7 years transportation for stealing ‘waistcoating’. The printed indents list him as ‘Indent Number 259, single, Protestant, able to read and write’. It described him as being short, five foot four and three-quarter inches tall (162 cm) and having a fair/ruddy complexion with brown hair and brown eyes. He had a scar on his left cheek and a dimple on his chin.

Seven years later, on 14 April 1846, when he had served his sentence, he received a Ticket of Freedom (No 378 of that year). His complexion had changed to ‘dark pale’. His hair was now ‘black’ and in addition to his cheek scar and dimple, he had lost part of the tip of his nose, added a scar to the top left side of his forehead and another on the back of his left thumb. The Australian sun and intervening events had left their marks.

We do not know where James spent his first few years in Australia, but boot and shoe making were important skills in Colonial Australia when most folk traveled a lot on foot. By the early 1850\’s he had set up a bootmaking business in Auburn Street, Goulburn and was advertising for staff. By then he was married and had a young family to support.

His wife, Mary Green, had also been a convict. She had arrived two years before her future husband, in 1837 on the Sarah and Elizabeth. When she was 15 or 16 years old, Mary had stolen a hat. She was listed under Indent No 90 for that year as being very short, four foot ten and a half inches (147 cm), Protestant and able to read. She was a nursery maid by profession. Her hair colour was described as light red and her complexion ruddy and freckled. She wore a blue ring on the forefinger of her left hand. Her sentence was for 14 years. She would have been eligible for a ticket of leave in 1851, but there is no record of one ever being issued.

James and Mary were married on the day before Christmas in 1851 at St Andrew\’s Presbyterian Church, Sydney. By then they already had two children: James, born 7 November 1848, and John, born Goulburn on 7 June 1850. James and Mary were to have six further children, only two of whom were to survive to adulthood: Hannah, born Goulburn, 11 March 1854 and Mary, born Deep Creek, near Phils River (Crookwell) on 25 February 1862.

James Mearns\’ bootmaking business in Goulburn started well enough, but the shortage of labour during the 1850\’s (due to the gold rushes at the time) and competition from other bootmakers, caused him to leave Goulburn after the birth of Hannah. Subsequently James, Mary and family were living near Crookwell in 1862 when their youngest daughter, Mary was born. Five years later, in 1867, they were living in North Wagga Wagga where James\’s wife, Mary died from a bladder infection. She is buried in the North Wagga Wagga cemetery.

James was living in Albury when his son John married Sarah Macklin on 6 March 1871. On 14 June of that year his eldest daughter, Hannah married Arthur Keen. John and Sarah went to Temora where John was a member of the syndicate that found the gold that started the Temora gold rush. Hannah and Arthur also settled in Temora and had 7 children there.

In July 1874 James and his remaining son (James) were also living in Temora. Young Mary, who was 5 when her mother died, was living with the Stinson family at Berry Jerry (near Coolamon) at this time. We know quite a lot about the life of James Mearns after he arrived in Temora because he kept a diary. The fragments that remain can be found in the Temora Museum. The diary records the boot and shoe repairs he took around the district as well as providing some brief description of events.

In 1885 Mary married James Sturgess in Parkes where John and Sarah were also living at the time and where their eldest daughter, Mary was to marry John Fisher on 19 August 1896. James died of a heart attack at Temora on 2 August 1888 at the age of 67. He is buried in the Temora Cemetery.

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