Matthew Coen
| Town/City | Golden Grove |
|---|---|
| First name | Matthew |
| Last name | Coen |
| Country of Origin | England |
| Date of Birth | C1822 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1853 |
| Submitted by | Edwards Mervyn |
Story
Matthew Coen, son of Matthew had fallen on hard times after his marriage to Hannah Poplete and the births of his first three children. His fourth child was born at the Workhouse, St Martin\’s in the Fields, London and at this time the Church of England Diocese was attempting to alleviate their overburdened charity system. There had been talk of shipping some of the workhouse inmates to Australia and Matthew and his family became part of this early experiment.
On the 3rd October 1852, Matthew, his wife Hannah and children, William (1844), Elizabeth (1848), James (1850) and John (1852) and 48 other inhabitants of the workhouse became the first shipment of pauper migrants to leave Plymouth. They joined 200 other emigrants who sailed aboard the 481-ton Barque ‘Calcutta\’ which was in charge of Captain Allen and arrived at Port Adelaide on the 4th February, 1853 after an eventful voyage. They had not left the shores of England when some of the passengers were so intoxicated and badly behaved that the Captain was ‘compelled to charge them before the magistrates of Saltash, near Plymouth, and two of them were consequently committed to prison’. Described as mainly young they stated their occupations as ‘labourers, shoemakers, smiths, domestic servants and charwomen who attributed the cause of their entering the poorhouse to weakness, after being treated for fever in the London hospitals.’
The family settled in the mid north of the state where Matthew worked as a shepherd on stations between Peterborough and Port Augusta, a vast change of employment as English records show he was a waiter and butler. There is evidence that he may have worked in the Burra mines for some time between 1865 and 1878 before becoming a fruiterer at Yongala.
The family grew from four to ten and multiplied to the 396 descendants linked to date (2008). Two of the children moved to Broken Hill spreading the family over two states. From their humble beginnings the family have prospered and many have continued in the fruit and vegetable industry.
Matthew (recorded as Cohen) died in Adelaide in 1896 but no record of Hannah\’s death has been located.