Thomas & Elizabeth Maple
| First name | Thomas & Elizabeth |
|---|---|
| Last name | Maple |
| Country of Origin | England |
| Date of Birth | 1816 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1853 |
| Submitted by | Tony Maple |
Story
Thomas Maple was born in 1816 at Wingham in Kent and lived at Adisham, Kent before emigration. He appears to have been a member of the large Maple family then in that area. Elizabeth Maple was from the same area and both were illiterate when they married in 1842.
In those days the prospects for agricultural labourers were poor as they was a great deal of cheap labour and the steam-driven farm machinery was reducing the need for farm labour. In some areas families faced the of starvation. And through this period the UK government was actively encouraging immigration to the colonies and America. Because Australia was so far away the government was prepared to provide financial assistance to the types of men and women needed in the colonies.
On 4 October 1852 Thomas and Elizabeth Maple and their three children, Charles (10), Caroline (9) and Stephen (7) emigrated to Australia as ‘government immigrants\’. They sailed with some 692 other emigrants and 84 crew from Liverpool, then a major port for the immigration trade, in the newly-built American sailing ship, Shackamaxon. In the ships passenger manifest he is described as a farmer, labourer and gardener. The voyage must have been traumatic as an outbreak of scarlet fever claimed the lives of 6 adults and 51 infants.
Thomas and Elizabeth landed at Port Adelaide, South Australia on 19 Jan 1853. They then lived in the Willunga area south of Adelaide for two years. Here in September 1854 Thomas is recorded as having donated the small sum of 2s.6d. to a Crimean War Relief Fund. Doubtless Thomas was saving to buy property of his own. In 1855 Thomas and Elizabeth travelled by bullock dray to join other pioneering families at Yankalilla. They bought a farm at Hay Flat which was called ‘Parkfield\’.
They had no more children and Elizabeth died in 1867 aged 52 years. Thomas, then 54, remarried in June 1871 to Isabella Fretter, a 41 year old spinster. They had no children. Little else is known of Thomas though photographes show he lived in a thatched whitewashed cottage in the 1890s . In his later years he is reported to have been a caretaker of the Methodist church at Yankalilla as was considered to be a sincere and god-fearing man. Thomas died in Yankalilla on 9 Apr 1893 and he is buried under a wooden bedhead in the general cemetery
The three children of Thomas and Elizabeth Maple produced large families of their own. In addition to many Maple descendants, the Maple-Brown family (of Goulburn, NSW) and Malpas family (of Townsville, QLD) are offshoots from Thomas and Elizabeth Maple.