Leaving Ardnamurchan – An Emigrant Family’s Voyage

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Donald (c. 1791 – 1876) and Anne McPherson (c. 1789 – 1865) sailed from Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, Scotland, on 28 October  1838, in the government-chartered immigrant ship British King.

The passenger list records that Donald, a shepherd, was then aged about 48, a native of Ardnamurchan, Argyleshire and son of Allan MacPherson, a farmer, of Morven. Wife Anne, a dairymaid, is recorded as aged 42, also a native of Ardnamurchan and daughter of Anne Henderson of the same place.  (Anne Henderson, born McColl, is the subject of an earlier post titled Ardnamurchan, Anne McColl and the Archaeologists)

Donald could read and write, whilst Anne’s literacy went unrecorded. The family were Presbyterian.

Donald McPherson’s Immigration Record – 1839

Accompanying them were their 8 children, aged between 2 and 20 years. These included Janet and Flora, who in Australia were to marry brothers Alexander and John Cameron.

Only Flora and her brother Alexander, born in 1830 and 1832 seem to have christening records, probably because the church in Acharacle, where they were christened, opened only in 1829. Flora’s christening record says that the family were then living at Resipol, on the north side of Loch Sunart, and in the shadow of Ben Resipol.

Flora McPherson’s Christening Record

There exist some contemporary and more recent accounts of the voyage of British King. In 1939 Gordon Dennes published a detailed account:

“The 8th government-chartered immigrant ship to sail from a Highland port in Scotland, was the barque British King. Her predecessors were the William Nicol, Midlothian, Brilliant, St George, Boyne, James Moran and Lady McNaughton. The British King’s registered tonnage was 673 tons and her burthen upwards of 1,000 tons.

She had a regular frigate deck from stem to stern of 124 feet with a ceiling of 8½ feet, width 28½ feet with double tier of berths for 256 passengers, besides children. In addition, the male and female hospitals each contained 9 berths and were situated immediately beneath the Surgeon’s cabin. The Surgeon thus had access at all hours to his patients from his own room by a hatchway, through which a wind sail could be put to the top of the poop, a matter of the greatest importance to the sick.

Each adult was provided with a clothes bag, a bed and blankets, a knife, fork and spoon. The dining tables were affixed amidships and no chest was allowed to be taken to the hold. There was a wide promenade round the whole of the ship, which was rendered airy and agreeable by the provision of air ports on each side. According to the standard of accommodation for ships of those days, that of the British King was comfortable.

The general outfitting was carried out probably at Greenock, under the supervision of Lieutenant Hermans, the Government Agent for the ship, whilst Mr. Andrew Crawford, joiner, fitted up in a superior manner the sleeping and dining accommodation. …”

To read or download the full account (PDF, 116Kb), visit the Isle of Tiree Genealogy webpage.

A less rosy account of part of the voyage was given by Archibald McEachern who was only 19 when he left Tobermory on the British King. He describes a near disaster towards the end of the voyage:

 “In company with my father, stepmother, and nine brothers and sisters, I embarked in the sailing ship British King from Tobermory, Argyleshire, on Sunday, 28th October, 1838, and on that date bade an eternal adieu to the bonnie shores of dear old Scotland. After an uneventful voyage of three months we first sighted land at the mouth of the Glenelg, near Nelson, where we experienced some slight trouble in the shape of head winds, which necessitated the ship being put about and during the supervening night the performance had to be repeated again somewhere between Julia Percy Island and the Laurence Rocks. We sailed past Portland early next morning, and towards the close of the following night narrowly averted a terrible catastrophe, this time in the form of a shipwreck.

Our skipper, Captain William Paton, as sober and attentive officer as ever commanded a ship, during the evening instructed Mitchell, the second mate, a very nice fellow, to call him at a certain hour of the night. But it came about on that particular day, as was customary on certain days of the voyage out, that a nobbler apiece of grog was served out to everyone on board, numbering all 350 souls, many of whom were total abstainers, and those that did not indulge, instead of getting outside of it themselves, transferred their dole to the mate, who was an exceedingly popular fellow with the passengers. The consequence was, in a marvellously short space of time, the mate got as drunk as a fool, and failed to carry out the commands of his superior officer, who, when he awoke, was horrified to behold the breakers in close proximity to the vessel, stretching away in front of him as far as the eye could reach. In fact the ship was drifting stem on to one immense boulder that would have smashed her to atoms had a collision occurred.

By judicious manipulation we got clear, much to the relief of all on board. Our providential escape was simply miraculous. A few years subsequently a large passenger ship bound for Hobson’s Bay, with 100 passengers on board, was wrecked at the self same spot, and with the exception of eight sailors, every man women and child that constituted this immense human freight were, in perhaps less time than it takes to record it, consigned to a watery grave.” (Traces of a Heritage (Notes to Chapter 7) (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/7661/Foot7b.html –accessed 27 December 2008 but no longer available)

On arrival in Sydney, the immigrants found that there was no demand for their labour, due to the economic conditions in the Sydney district. What happened next is described in the following extract from a Cameron family history:

“The newly arrived immigrants were not all destined to remain in Sydney. Local settlers were not particularly interested in hiring men with large families and Governor Gipps was persuaded to send, at Government expense, 48 families from the British King on to the Port Phillip district of N.S.W. which was in great need of free settlers, as labour was scarce. The John Barry was the second vessel to bring Government immigrants to the district. …”

“When they disembarked at Williamstown, no shelter was available and they had to spend their first night in the open. William Lonsdale found ‘a miserable hut’ to accommodate those who had fallen ill with typhus fever and dysentery. Lonsdale pleaded with the Sydney government to make proper arrangements for the reception of any future migrants. Gipps replied that a permanent establishment must not be set up. Once again all healthy migrants managed to find work in Port Phillip without difficulty.”

A document titled “ A Return of the Disposal of the Immigrants by the Ship ‘British King’ from Tobermory which arrived at Sydney on the 28th Feb 1839 under the Superintendence of Dr. Arbuckle”  records that the McPherson family was among those “in sick quarters at Port Philip“.

To read the full account of the voyage of the John Barry, visit the Victoria Before 1840 website.

I have found little information about the family’s situation as they settled into what was to become the town, and later city, of Melbourne, just 4  years after its foundation. However that they helped to build the town is evidenced by this newspaper article:

“Mrs Janet Cameron (nee M’Pherson) relict of Mr. Alexander Cameron, of Inverlochie Farm, Wollert (Vic.), who died at the age of 86 at Craigieburn recently, was a colonist of 72 years. She was a native of Argyleshire, and arrived in Melbourne with her parents, brothers and sisters in April, 1839. Their ship went first to Sydney, no vessel sailing direct to Melbourne at that time.

The family lived at the corner of Russell and Lonsdale streets, her father, Donald M’Pherson, being engaged in building several bush huts in that vicinity, and her brothers felled trees in those areas which are now Lonsdale and Elizabeth streets…” (The Daily News (Perth), 17 May 1911, page 3)

Lonsdale street is now one of the major streets of Melbourne.

(Donald and Anne McPherson were my wife’s 3rd great-grandparents, via Flora McPherson (1830 – 1900)

(Herrmann Family History)