Mary Ann Brownlee
| Town/City | Reynella |
|---|---|
| First name | Mary Ann |
| Last name | Brownlee |
| Country of Origin | Ireland |
| Date of Birth | Christened 30.9.1832 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1855 |
| Submitted by | Heather Rayner |
Story
Mary Ann Brownlee was born in 1832 at Artabrackagh, a small village 1.5 mile from Portadown, Armagh, Ireland, where her father leased about 6 acres of land.
The Brownlees were a family with strong ‘Orange’ affiliations and her father, John Brownlee, held secret political meetings of the Orange Lodge in his house and at such times armed guards were placed outside for protection. The guards were to watch for the ‘Greens’, who may come and snipe them unawares.
In 1855, Mary Ann and her two sisters, Jane and Alice, made the decision to leave Ireland for a new life in Australia. Usually the reason people emigrated was to better themselves, which wasn’t very difficult in most cases – with not enough land to support growing families, poor prospects and internal strife from either political or religious motives – foreign lands looked greener. Due to the lack of communication and literacy skills in those days, farewell for distant lands meant just that, for few ever saw and some never heard from loved ones again and such was the case for Mary Ann and her sisters who were illiterate and apparently never communicated with their family in Ireland again.
The girls left Ireland in May, 1855 and travelled by coastal shipping to Liverpool, England, where they stayed in an Emigrant Depot for several days. The Depot housed hundreds of people all waiting to board their ship.
Many Ann aged 22 and Alice 18, were among 150 single Irish girls classed as domestic servants who boarded the ‘Aliquis’ bound for South Australia. Also accompanying them was their eldest sister Jane and her husband John McGowan. Like most emigrants they travelled as steerage passengers and slept between decks in long, low, hot and crowded compartments. They had no privacy. The ‘Aliquis’ arrived at Port Adelaide on 12 August, 1855 but Mary Ann and Alice dis-embarked at Normanville and obtained domestic work in the Yankalilla district for 2/6 (25 cents) a week. Their elder sister Jane and her husband also settled at Yankalilla until about 1857/58 when they moved to Moranding, Victoria. Alice married William Edmonds in 1856 and three years later they moved north to Gumeracha and the Peterborough area. Alice’s great-grandson is tenor singer, Thomas Edmonds.
On 6 June, 1859, Mary Ann married Joseph Law who had arrived from England as an 8 year old in 1849. For fifty years they ran a mixed farm at Torrens Vale near Yankalilla and grazed sheep on a large holding of bushland called ‘Callawonga’. Life was hard for Mary Ann and conveniences were few. In those days the centre of the home was the kitchen and here she spent a great deal of her time, for like most farmers wives she made her own bread, butter, jam, soap, clothes, pillows etc, in fact there was very little that wasn’t made in the home. Evenings were often spent mending or sewing by lamplight and like her husband, Joseph, she worked long hours as everything was done by hand.
In 1909 they retired to the township of Yankalilla and their son Joe took over the management
of the property.
Mary Ann died at home on Christmas Eve 1910 and was buried in the Yankalilla Public Cemetery on Christmas Day. Joseph passed away on 6 January, 1921 aged 79.
Mary Ann had 8 children – two daughters died at the age of 1 year and her eldest son, George, died at 20.
Joe, who took over their property, was born with only one arm but he did not let this physical handicap unduly bother him and became a very successful sheep farmer. In the early 1900’s he was among the first in Yankalilla to drive a T-Model Ford car. Joe smoked a pipe and when driving with his single arm he had the habit of filling and lighting it while letting the car find its own way.
Robert married Nellie Parsons and farmed at Bookabie on Eyre Peninsula. Agnes married Andrew Brook and they farmed at Penong on Eyre Peninsula. Mary Ann married James Clark and Harriet married James William Hutchinson, a farmer and shearer. James died in 1919 from hydatids, the result of drinking water from a stream and then Harriet and her 4 children went to live with her brother Joe in the old family home at Torrens Vale.