Robert Fisher
| First name | Robert |
|---|---|
| Last name | Fisher |
| Country of Origin | England |
| Date of Birth | 1826 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1854 |
| Submitted by | John Schooneveldt |
Story
THE FISHER FAMILY STORY
Robert Fisher and Catherine Maria Hilton were married in the Chapel of St Nicholas, Whitehaven, Cumberland, England on 15 October 1853. Robert was a farmer, living in nearby Summerhill. Catherine was living with her parents in Church St, Whitehaven. She was a member of the well-known Hilton family that had lived in the Cumberland district since Elizabethan times. Her father, Jonathan Hilton was a successful builder in Whitehaven, and her nephew, also a Jonathan, went to sea. As Captain of the ‘Cumeira’, Jonathan Hilton was to visit Australia several times. On one of these visits he traveled overland from Adelaide to the goldfields of Victoria to visit his aunt, Catherine Maria, who was living there then.
Catherine, Robert and their young daughter Jane (born 6 December 1853) arrived in Melbourne on the ‘Albatross’ in July 1854. The great Victorian gold rush was at its height and the young family headed straight to the gold fields near Castlemaine where new finds had recently been reported.
It could not have been easy for Catherine Maria. Baby Jane was only 8 months old and Catherine was already pregnant with her next child, John, who was born on 11 January 1855. Like most aspiring diggers they would have bought the necessary mining tools in Melbourne as well as the basic essentials for setting up their new home: presumably a tent, sleeping and cooking equipment etc. It is likely the young couple would have made friends during the incoming voyage and probably made the trip to the goldfields with a group of like-minded immigrants.
Catherine Maria and Robert were to move from one goldfield to another in the Castlemaine area. They were living at ‘Kangaroo’ (now Tarilta), Fryers Creek when their son John was born January 1855; Pennyweight when Eleanor was born 1858, and Loddon Valley when Catherine was born 1861. Another son, Robert, died at the age of 19 months in 1864 (there is no record of his birth) and around this time Eleanor also died. The youngest child, Maria was born on 22 October 1866 when they were living in Strathloddon.
On 16 December 1868 Robert Fisher died at the age of 41 leaving Catherine Maria with 4 children to support: Jane, 15; John, 13; Catherine, 7; and Maria, 2. Robert had fallen down a mineshaft some 2 months earlier and never recovered from his injuries. The death certificate attributes his death to ‘continued fever and softening of the brain’.
Catherine Maria supported herself and her family as a dressmaker. At the time of her husband\’s death they were living in Strathloddon. Robert Fisher had died intestate, but had obviously found enough gold to meet the basic necessities. It was not till 1881 under pressure of eviction that Catherine Maria applied to the Supreme Court of Victoria for administration of her husband\’s estate that was valued at 50 pounds and sixteen shillings at the time of his death.
In subsequent years Jane married a local farmer John Henry Willoughby in 1872, John married Amelia Stevens in 1883 and Catherine and Maria married two brothers, Alan and Israel Kirkpatrick respectively. Like all immigrant families the children did well as a result of the sacrifices of their parents.
John and Amelia had a young son, John Hilton Fisher (born on 30 December) who died on 14 July 1884. A week later, on 22 July, his mother, Amelia also died but then John moved to Parkes and remarried, to continue on the Fisher line.
Catherine Maria died in Guilford on 26 January 1889 at the age of 57. The cause of death was given as ‘choleraeic diarrhoea’. Presumably there was no medical term for a ‘hard life’.