Annie ELDER
Father William ELDER b. 1825 m. bef. 1855 d. 19011
Mother Anne FRASER aka ELDER b. 1827 m. bef. 1855 d. 18942
Sister Madeline ELDER b.c. 1853 m. d. unknown
Inmate Annie Madeline ELDER b.c. 1855 m. 1876 (see below) d. 19453
Sister Catherine McD. ELDER b. 18584 m. d. 19295
Brother William ELDER b. 18606 m. d. 19477
Sister Alexandrina (Ida)8 ELDER b. 18629 m. 188910 Kenneth SUTHERLAND d. 194711
Sister Margaret R. ELDER12 b. m. 188513 John McLEOD d. aft. 1896
Husband Allan LIVINGSTONE b. 184514 m. 187615 d. 191016
Daughter Sarah Anne LIVINGSTONE b. 187717 m. DONOVAN d. 1936
Daughter Madaline Mary LIVINGSTONE b. 187818 m. d. 195919
Son William Elder LIVINGSTONE b. 188120 m. d. 196721
Son David LIVINGSTONE b. 188322 m. d. 1972
Daughter (Twin) Margaret F. LIVINGSTONE b. 188723 m. d.
Daughter (Twin) Catherine Jane LIVINGSTONE b. 188724 m. none - d. 197825
Daughter Flora LIVINGSTONE b. 188826 m. none - d. 198127
Daughter Eva LIVINGSTONE b. 188928 m. none - d. 187529
Daughter Ada LIVINGSTONE b. 189130 m. 191731 Arthur CAFLIACH or CAFLISH d. 196932
Daughter Helen LIVINGSTONE b. 189333 m. none - d. 198134
Daughter Christina LIVINGSTONE b. 189635 m. none - d. 197336
Son Allan J. LIVINGSTONE b. 189737 m. d.
Son Albert Hill LIVINGSTONE b. 189938 m. d. 199439
Description
Relationship Name Age Height Hair Eyes Complexion Build Distinguishing features
Inmate Annie40 17 5’ 3” light hazel fair stout

Annie appeared before the court in Sydney on 14 October 1870.41 She had been arrested by constable GROUNDWATER who stated that at about midnight he had seen her in Elizabeth Street in company with a convicted thief.42 This thief has not been identified but may have been the man who appeared in court at the same time as Annie charged with a felony. GROUNDWATER further reported that the two had gone into an unoccupied house and he followed them but the man ran away. Annie confessed that she had gone there to sleep with the man and that she was between fifteen and sixteen and had no place of abode. She identified that her father and mother lived at Camden Park and that she had a brother living in Sydney. Her brother,43 specifically identified as Alexander ELDER a boot maker of Market-street, stated that Annie's father was a farmer.44

Annie was admitted to Newcastle on 20 October 1870.45 Because this admission once appeared in the missing section of the Entrance Book, no family, religion, educational or discharge details can be verified from this source. Five months after her arrival, Annie, in company with Margaret DIXON and Catherine HARDING, were convicted on their own confession of wilfully destroying Government property in the industrial school during the riot on 21 March 1871. The three girls were tried in Newcastle Court on 22 March and were each ordered to pay a fine of five pounds or to be imprisoned in Maitland Gaol for two months.46 The fine wasn’t paid and the trio was admitted to Maitland, appearing with Mary Ann BROWN in the Maitland Gaol Entrance Book. Annie's entrance and discharge records from the gaol indicated that Annie was a Protestant who had arrived in 1854 and who had been born at sea. It was recorded that her ship of arrival was not known. All the girls admitted to Maitland from the industrial school were placed under the care of the prison chaplain, W. THACKERAY. THACKERAY was impressed by Annie and on 16 May 1871, wrote to the Colonial Secretary requesting that she be apprenticed to him as a housemaid. He believed that with his 'kind and judicious treatment she may be restored to a respectable position in society' and that Annie 'was most anxious to enter my service.' The Colonial Secretary approved the apprenticeship provided that the industrial school superintendent, newly appointed George LUCAS, agreed. Unfortunately LUCAS was forced by the Industrial School regulations to deny Annie the opportunity of the apprenticeship because she had not been at the school for the required twelve months.47

On her release from Maitland on 21 May 1871,48 Annie was returned to the Newcastle institution and within days was transferred with the school to Biloela. Annie continued to be a difficult inmate on the island as, in his report on 9 October 1871, LUCAS reported that she and Sarah BOURKE had been confined to the quadrangle for three days between 5 and 8 October for going beyond the enclosure.49 On 20 November 1871,50 Annie was discharged from Biloela to J. AARONS, Esq., of Wellington, for two years at a rate of two shillings for the first year and three shillings for the second year.51 Annie's apprenticeship would have concluded in late 1873 and no absolute confirmation of her after this date has been located.

No further details of Annie's apprenticeship have been identified and it is expected that none will be located as this discharge was arranged by LUCAS whose paperwork has either not survived, was never sent to the Colonial Secretary or was never created.52 This apprenticeship was also unusual in that other superintendents found positions for girls close to their families. Most usually a girl was returned to an area near her arrest and for any exception to this, evidence has been found for the reasoning of the superintendent to create such an exception to this rule. An inland apprenticeship was therefore unusual for Annie as she had been arrested in Sydney and her family was located in Camden Park. Her family's location was also some distance from the north coast where it is believed that Annie eventually resided although it is not so great a distance from Camden Park where her father was almost certainly working at this time.

It is strongly believed that Annie married Allan LIVINGSTONE on Palmer's Island, in the Maclean River, on 3 February 1876. Annie was referred to as the eldest daughter of William ELDER53 but it is unknown whether this was because the the older child Madeline, had died or whether Annie and Madeline were one and the same person and recorded incorrectly on the indent. No death registration or burial record has been located for Madeline and the indent records an unnamed female infant who arrived with her parents and who had been born on the voyage. There are differences in the ages of Annie and Madeline and it is possible that the Newcastle admission was the older, identified sister whose age was understated when she entered the Newcastle school as many lies were told by family members to authorities to get children admitted, especially if their safety was of concern.54 Annie Madeline and Allan LIVINGSTONE had thirteen children,55 including one set of twins between 1876 and 1899 and this in itself is a good indication that she was the younger girl. Allan and Annie lived on the property, Clarenza, where Allan had resided since at least 1867.56 Allan died in 1910 and Annie died at Clarenza at the age of ninety on 26 November 1945. Her headstone in Grafton General Cemetery identified that she had been born in Scotland on 1 June and was 92 years of age. This exact birth date in June does fit very well with an arrival by sea in July.57

10766564586_f62045ee7c_z.jpg

Annie's headstone at Grafton General Cemetery
Photograph courtesy of Australian Cemeteries Index (http://austcemindex.com)

Family

At the time of her arrest, Annie's father was identified by the man reported to be his son, as a tenant farmer on Sir William MACARTHUR's estate at Camden Park.58 He was not named.

Deaths that may reflect potential members of the ELDER family who resided at Camden Park are:

1875 (8984/1875): Eliza ELDER the daughter of James and Mary at Parramatta
1884 (11868/1884): Joseph ELDER the son of Jane at Penrith
1886 (8174/1886): Jane ELDER the daughter of William and Mary J. at Central Cumberland

While no mention of Camden Park was made in the obituary of the man believed to be Annie's father, there is little doubt that Annie's correct family has been identified although this hasn't been confirmed and some inconsistencies exist. It is unknown whether Annie was the older child known as and recorded on the Exodus indent as Madeline, but who was possibly baptised in Scotland as Annie Madeline, or the second daughter who had been born aboard the Exodus whose name was Annie. One of these two girls eventually married Allan LIVINGSTONE. The question must be asked whether this unnamed female child was in fact Margaret, the other daughter of the family whose birth hasn't been identified. While this research is believed to be correct, it is still possible that the Newcastle admission belonged to another family who have not been identified. Annie's arrest in Sydney very strongly suggested that at some stage between 1862 and 1870, all or some of her family moved from Raymond Terrace to farm at Camden before moving to the north coast by the 1880s. Doubt must be placed upon the date of the move to the north coast as an Ann ELDER was living at North Arm on the Clarence River in July 1865.59

William and Anne ELDER had arrived aboard the Exodus in Sydney in July 1855 with their daughters, Madeline and an unidentified baby girl born on the voyage.60 The two immigration indents identified that the family was both Church of Scotland and Presbyterian. No son named Alexander was identified arriving with them but the elder Ann's brother, Alexander, was identified as her relation in the colony. Baptisms of two children were documented in the Presbyterian register in the Hinton area of the Hunter Valley and while no names were recorded in the register, the appropriate registrations on the NSW BDM Index made in the nearby settlement of Raymond Terrace can be matched to the baptisms. Catherine ELDER had been born on 5 January 1858, and William ELDER on 24 January 1860. Both these children were baptized on 25 March 1860, by Reverend BLAIN and at this time William was described as a farmer on Eskdale, Port Ree. Another daughter, Alexandrina, was also registered in Raymond Terrace in 1862 but a further unregistered daughter, Margaret, has been identified through newspaper articles.

William had been born in Findon, Kincardineshire, Scotland, and arrived as a policeman. His obituary recorded that he had one son and four daughters, three of whom were married.61 It further indicated that he had spent ten years in the Hunter before moving to the Clarence area. This date would suggest that William had arrived on the Clarence sometime before 1881. This arrival on the North Coast was most likely in about 1865 as there was a land grant of 49 acres in the County of Clarence made in February 1868.62 This grant draws into question whether the correct ELDER family has been identified although circumstantial evidence continues to point to this couple being Annie's parents. Might it be that the couple were living separately with Ann at Camden Park and William establishing a property on the North Coast? No statement was made in William's obituary concerning any stay at Camden Park but if the family had left the Hunter after about ten years,63 there was still ample time for them to spend a short period of time at Camden and this suspected period in Sydney matches with the time of Annie's arrest there.

There was another family living in Sydney in the 1860s who are not known to be connected. This family also had a daughter named Ann who married in 1861. Another William ELDER married the widow, Julia NONNEMACHER in Sydney in 1861. Julia had arrived in 1861 with a daughter, Catherine, but no other children. It may be that this man died in March 187164 or July 1872.65 Ann, the possible wife of the other of these men died in December 1875.66

Annie's mother, Anne, had been born in Inverness, Scotland. She was identified on the Exodus indent as Anne ELDER who had the same parents as her husband. No parental surnames were provided on the indent. While this is unusual, it is not impossible that Anne's maiden surname was the same as her married surname but the two baptism records from the HVPRI very strongly suggest that the indent is in error. These baptisms identified that Ann senior's maiden name was FRASER. It is also not impossible that both William and Anne had parents with exactly the same names – William and Margaret.67

Although at the time of their arrival in 1855, Alexander was recorded to be in Melbourne,68 it is considered very likely that this was the man named as Alexander ELDER the shoemaker, and recorded as the younger Annie's brother rather than her uncle in her court case in Sydney in 1870. This man has not yet been positively identified. There is little doubt that the Alexander reported in the court case was her mother's brother and should have been identified as Alexander FRASER. This premise is bourne out by an identification of a shoemaker named Alexander FRASER who was living or working at 214 Market Street, Sydney, in 1865.69 The best arrival for Alexander, was aboard the China in September 1854. He had been born in about 1825 and came from Kiltarlity, Inverness. Alexander was a farm labourer and a ploughman and his parents were William and Margaret. He may have arrived with two cousins.70 Whether William ELDER had a brother named Alexander who may have been in court is unknown.

An Alexander FRASER, the son of Donald FRASER from Inverness and born in 1803, arrived in 1839 aboard the Lady McNaughton. He was a farm overseer. Another man arrived from Elgin, Moryashire, and he was accompanied by a Matthew FRASER from Inverness. It is unknown whether the two were brothers or just alphabetically listed on the St Vincent indent in 1851. Another man from Inverness and born in about 1824, arrived on the St Helena in 1854. A shoemaker named Alexander ELDER who had been born in about 1824, arrived in Melbourne in 1852 but it is considered unlikely that this man was Margaret's brother as it is believed that he should have had the surname FRASER or FRAZER.

Updated May 2020

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