Sarah Mountjoy
| Town/City | Nashua, NSW 2479 |
|---|---|
| First name | Sarah |
| Last name | Mountjoy |
| Country of Origin | England |
| Date of Birth | 8/1/1809 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1853 |
| Submitted by | Gladys Adcock |
Story
In 1852 Hugh Mountjoy, his wife Sarah (formerly Chope) and their children, Mary (17), Maria (16), Hugh (15), and Sarah (8), left England to make a new home in Australia. Both Sarah and Hugh came from land-owning families in Hartland, North Devon Ð they were, in fact, neighbours.
We don\’t know why they decided to try their luck in Australia. There was a general exodus from North Devon around that time, but mainly by farm labourers. Perhaps Hugh was looking for adventure; perhaps they were going to join the gold rush; or simply thought they could have a better life in Australia.
They sailed aboard the Bark (Barque) ‘Trafalgar’, which left London on Sunday 17 October 1853, bound for Sydney. It was to be an ill-fated voyage for the family, with at least two of the girls, Sarah and Maria, and their father contracting ‘Spotted Fever’ which was wreaking havoc on the passengers. It is most probable that Spotted Fever was Typhus. The girls recovered, but their father died in quarantine in Sydney. Twenty people died on the voyage or in quarantine, probably not all from Typhus, but we know at least eight died of the disease.
The ‘Trafalgar’ arrived in Port Jackson on 22 February 1853 and was immediately put into quarantine. It was sometime between then and 10 March that Hugh Mountjoy died and was buried in Cemetery 1 at the North Head Quarantine Station.
The surviving passengers were landed in Sydney on 10 March.
How the family survived without their husband and father we do not know. But survive they did. In Sands Directory for Sydney 1863-64 a Mrs Sarah Mountjoy is listed as running a school in Bullanaming Street, Waterloo.
However, the three daughters died young. Maria married a saddler, Thomas Puckett (Pickett) and moved to Queensland where she died at 29. Her mother and sister Sarah also moved to Queensland, where Sarah married a farmer, Charles Haines. Charles and his two brothers, William and John, and their sister, Mary-Ann, had arrived in Australia from Micheldever, Hampshire, sometime between 1861 and 1869. Sarah and Charles had five children before Sarah died aged 34. Sarah\’s eldest sister, Mary, died aged 42 at the Gladesville Hospital for the Insane. Of Hugh Jnr we have been unable to find any further information.
Mrs Sarah Mountjoy died ‘of old age’ at Little Ipswich, Queensland, in 1874, aged 65. What a strong woman she must have been to support her family in an alien country without the help of her husband. How different her life must have been to that which she expected when the family left England for the new world.