George White and Elizabeth Allen: Together, Apart & Together Again
George White & Elizabeth Allen - From 1845 - Tasmania - Melbourne - New Zealand.
This post picks up on the story of George White and Elizabeth Allen after they married in Tasmania on 1845. Both were convicts. You can read about how each came to be in Australia here:
George and Elizabeth's request for official permission to marry was approved by the Colonial Secretary on 22 March 1845. Permission was granted for 28 April 18451. Both George and Elizabeth were still convicts when they married at St Johnโs Church, New Town, Hobart, Tasmania on 28 April 18452:
1710 - 28 April 1845 St Johnโs Church, New Town
George White 28 Bachelor Brickmaker
Elizabeth White 23 SpinsterThos. J Ewing, Minister
This marriage was solemnised between us George White Elizabeth Allen [her X mark]
In the presence of us Henry Carpenter, Ann Carpenter.
A little over two years after they married, on 15 October 1847, George received his Certificate of Freedom3. Elizabeth remained a convict for a further two years.
On 1 August 1848, Elizabeth was given a Ticket of Leave. Two months later, on 10 October 1848, she was recommended for a pardon. However, it took just over another year for this recommendation to be approved.
Elizabeth received her conditional pardon, on 10 November 18494. This essentially gave Elizabeth her freedom but on the condition that she never return to the United Kingdom.
Starting a Family
George and Elizabethโs first four children were born while they were living in Hobart, Tasmania. Two of them, born 22 May 18465 and 7 July 18476 respectively were born while both George and Elizabeth were still convicts. The next two children, born 28 June 18487 and 2 September 18498 were born after George was given his Certificate of Freedom and before Elizabeth was given her conditional pardon.
On the birth registrations, George is listed as a brickmaker. Elizabeth is listed as the informant from New Town9, a suburb of Hobart. The name of the child is left blank in all four registrations. Later records suggest these registrations belong to Joseph, George, Ann and Elizabeth10.
In Search of Greener Pastures
Between about 1850 and 1862, George and Elizabeth appear to have been quite restless, perhaps constantly in search of a better life for themselves and their children, or perhaps simply not wanting to be stuck in one place after their experiences in Tasmania.
From Tasmania they went to New Zealand, then back to Australia where they lived in various places in Victoria, and then back to New Zealand again. I have managed to track their whereabout, to some extent, through their childrenโs birth and death registrations, as outlined below.
Auckland, New Zealand
Sometime after Elizabeth received her conditional pardon in November 1849, George and Elizabeth moved their family to Auckland, New Zealand. This was probably during 1850 and certainly before February 1851 when their son, Alfred, was born, in Auckland, on 21 February 185111. Auckland had been founded just 10 years earlier in 1840 and was officially declared the capital city of New Zealand in 1841, a status it later lost in 186512.
George and his family arrived in Auckland in uncertain times during the period of the New Zealand Wars (1845 to 1872). The New Zealand Wars were a series of campaigns between some Mฤori tribes on one side and government forces (British and colonial troops) and their Mฤori allies, on the other. The two major periods of conflict were the mid-1840s and the 1860s. In 1850 when George and his family arrived in Auckland there was an uneasy peace13 14. The southern frontier of the Auckland settlement was protected by the Royal New Zealand Fencible Corp, members of which had been recruited as military settlers from England in 184715.
Victoria, Australia
George and Elizabeth didnโt stay long in New Zealand, preferring to return to Australia and spend time in Victoria, Australia. This would have been in about 1852/53. That is, after Alfredโs birth in 1851 in Auckland and before his death as a 2 years old in 1853 in Melbourne, Victoria16.
When George and his family travelled back to Victoria, it was a time of rapid population growth and a growing economy generated by the discovery of gold and the influx of people wanting to find it. People had begun pouring into the Australian Colonies in 1851 as a result of the discovery of gold. This may have been part of their motivation for returning to Australia?
After gold was discovered in New South Wales, the Victorian Government had offered a reward of ยฃ200 to anyone finding gold within 200 miles of Melbourne. Within six months, gold was discovered in Clunes, and then Ballarat, Castlemaine and Bendigo. The Victorian rush accounted for more than a third of the worldโs gold production in the 1850s17
They were still in Victoria in 1854 when another son, Alfred Wallis White, died at the age of 3 months there18. It seems that, initially, George continued to work as a brickmaker. He was listed as such on the birth entry of his daughter, Emma Amelia White. She was born on 23 December 1854. Her birth was registered in 1855 in the District of Prahan, Victoria consistent with where they were living in South Yarra (now part of Melbourne), Victoria1920 21.
By 1858, it appears that George had decided to try his hand at gold digging at Pleasant Creek in Victoria. He is listed as a gold digger on the birth entry of his son Edwin. Edwin was born at Pleasant Creek on 26 February 185822. We donโt know how George fared as a gold digger, perhaps not well because, by 15 April 1860, when his daughter Alice Ann was born, he was again listed as a brickmaker and recorded as living in the District of Great Western in Victoria where Alice Annโs birth was registered23.
Ever restless, by 15 June 1861 when their daughter Ada was born, George and Elizabeth had moved their family to the District of Ararat in Victoria. George is listed as a brickmaker on the entry24.
Back to New Zealand
George and Elizabeth returned to New Zealand with their family sometime about 186225; this time settling in Dunedin, Otago. Their move to Dunedin, like their move to Victoria, coincided with a growth in population and economy following the discovery of gold. The Otago gold rushes from July 1861 transformed Dunedin. Its population increased to nearly 15,000 by the end of the 1860s, and nearly tripled between then and 1881. For several years, it was New Zealandโs largest and most prosperous city26 27.
On 30 January 1869, just 7 years later, Elizabeth died at the age of 46. At the time of her death, George is recorded as being a brickmaker. Elizabeth was buried in the Southern Cemetery, Dunedin (Block 16, plot 12), where George later joined her28.
George - Widower
When Elizabeth died, George was 52 years old and their children ranged in age from 7 years old to 22 years old.
George did not remarry. It seems likely that he very much missed Elizabeth because, after she died, he began to use Elizabethโs family name, โAllenโ, as his middle name. As far as I have been able to find, the middle name โAllenโ doesn't appear in any documentation relating to George until after Elizabethโs death. Over time the spelling gradually morphed from Allen to Allan.
It seems likely that George remained in Dunedin for a few years although I have yet to find records to establish his whereabouts. By January 1883, George was living in Taranaki as George Allen White. He may have travelled there either with, or in order to join, his oldest son Joseph. Joseph and his wife and family were living in Taranaki at the same time29.
On 3 January 1883, George was tried at Patea (Taranaki) on a charge of obscene language for which he served 3 monthโs labour in the gaol at New Plymouth. I canโt help wondering what it is he said and who he said it to. To accrue a 3 month sentence suggests it was quite serious in the day; perhaps something we wouldnโt bat an eyelid at these days?
George is listed as George Allen White (7th from top in the image below) and is described as having white hair, hazel eyes and a fair complexion30. He would have been about 66 ยฝ years old in January 1883.
[Gaol] N. Plymouth - [Name[ George Allen White
[Where Tried] Patea - [When] Jan. 3, 1883
[Offence] obscene language - [Sentence] 3 months' labour
[Native of] England - [Trade] Brickmaker
[Born] 1816 - [Height] 5โ 6 - [Complexion] fair
[Hair] white - [Eyes] hazel - [Nose] medium - [Mouth] medium - [Chin] medium
George remained in Taranaki for a few years. He is listed as George Allen White, resident of Whenuakura, brickmaker in the 1887 and 1890 Waitotara Electoral Rolls31. However, sometime between 1890 and 1892, he returned to Dunedin where some of his family were still living.
Although he appears in the 1893 Patea Electoral roll as: George Allen White, Whenuakura, brickmaker, residential32, George was back in Dunedin by 1892 and living in Caversham. Extracts from the Otago Benevolent Institution โInmates Bookโ lists George in 1892 (age 76) and 1893 (age 77) as having been placed in their institution on 16 September 1892 due to old age โ George Allen White, Wesleyan, born in England, last from Taranaki33.
In the 1890โs, sources of public relief for those without means was most commonly provided as โoutdoor reliefโ with food, clothing and money given to them to enable them to be able to stay in their own homes. For the elderly poor, and those unable to live on their own, there was โindoor reliefโ in the Benevolent Institution itself located at Caversham in Dunedin.
The Otago Benevolent Institution was started in 1862 and was funded partly through public support in the form of local subscriptions and partly by Government funds. The addition of โindoor reliefโ within the institution itself in Caversham began in 1866. Initially, the institution took in both children and the elderly. Children were the majority of the residents until the 1870's but their numbers diminished as other alternatives were provided. After 1896 only the occasional child stayed short term at the Benevolent Institution, which then became a home for the elderly only34 35.
To date, I have been unable to find reference to where exactly the Caversham Benevolent Institute was located. My assumption is that it was in Alexandra Street given that George appears in Electoral Rolls between 1893-1902, initially as George Allen White (1893) and later as George Allan White (1894, 1896, 1897, 1899, 1900, 1902), brickmaker living in Alexandra Street, Caversham36. It can be seen that it wasnโt until 1894 that โAllenโ changed to โAllanโ. By this time, George was 78 years old and information was likely being reported on his behalf rather than by him.
George died on 23 December 1902 at the Caversham Benevolent Institute, age 86. His death entry, in the name of George Allan White, indicates that he had been ill for months and died from senile decay and heart failure. He had last been seen by the doctor, J. O. Closs the day before he died37.
George was buried on 27 December 1902 in the Southern Cemetery, Dunedin with his wife, Elizabeth, and his grandson, George Alexander White (son of George and Elizabethโs son George). George Alexander had died after Elizabeth, aged 5 months, on 2 April 1876. All three are together in Block 16, plot 12. The memorial stone was erected by George and Elizabeth's oldest sons Joseph and George.
About George and Elizabethโs Children
There appear to have been thirteen children altogether. Six of them died young. Not all of them have been mentioned in this post. It has proven difficult to find birth and death registrations for some of the children.
Sorting out George and Elizabethโs children requires some unravelling of evidence and a little guesswork using the information that can be pieced together from the registrations that have been found.
You can read more about that here:
The post draws on information from my family history archive on the weare.xyz platform.
Postscript
George and Elizabeth are my husband's 2nd great grandparents.
George's arrest, conviction, transportation and early life in Tasmania was the inspiration for a fictional work, 'Seven Seasons of Wrath' (2015) by their great grandson, Douglas Coop [Dr. Douglas Harold Coop (1922 - 2021)]38.
'Seven Season's of Wrath' [AUK Authors; Standard ed. edition (January 12, 2015)] is a revised version of Douglas' earlier fictional work 'The Price of Freedom' [Trafford Publishing (August 9, 2005)].
'Permission to Marry' โ CON 52/1/2 page 389; RGD37/4:1845/1710 Request sent to Secretary 22 March 1845. Approved. Permission date: 28 March 1845 via Libraries Tasmania [Website] - No. 1903:WHITE Geo. of the Ship The Geo. the 3rd and No. 171 Elizth ALLEN of the Ship Margaret. Accessed 23 January 2023.
Tasmanian Archive & Heritage Office 'Tasmania Marriages 1803-1899' Image via FindMyPast [Website] Accessed 26 January 2023
'Convict Records' - CON34-1-5 โ Image 497 via Libraries Tasmania [Website] Accessed 26 January 2023 - https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON34-1-5$init=CON34-1-5P497
'Convict Records' - 'Conduct Record' CON40-1-2 - Image 29 via Libraries Tasmania [Website]. Accessed 23 January 2023 - https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON40-1-2$init=CON40-1-2P29
Registers of Birth in Hobart, Launceston and Country Districts (RGD33) โ RGD33-1-2 Image 168 โ Entry 1715 - Male registered 8 June 1846 via Libraries Tasmania [Website] Accessed 15 January 2023 - https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD33-1-2$init=RGD33-1-2-P631
Registers of Birth in Hobart, Launceston and Country Districts (RGD33) โ RGD 33-1-3 Image 17 Entry 165 - Male registered 12 August 1847 via Libraries Tasmania [Website] Accessed 15 January 2023 - https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD33-1-3$init=RGD33-1-3-P051
Registers of Birth in Hobart, Launceston and Country Districts (RGD33) โ RGD 33-1-3 Image 91 Entry 904 โ Female registered 23 August 1848 via Libraries Tasmania [Website]. Accessed 15 January 2023 - https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD33-1-3$init=RGD33-1-3-P125
Registers of Birth in Hobart, Launceston and Country Districts (RGD33) โ RGD 33-1-3 Image 180 Entry 1790 โ Female registered 26 September 2022 via Libraries Tasmania [Website] Accessed 15 January 2023 - https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD33-1-3$init=RGD33-1-3-P214
Registers of Birth in Hobart, Launceston and Country Districts (RGD33) via Libraries Tasmania [Website]. See footnotes 5-8.
This can be gleaned from the detail in the registrations of later children, particularly in light of the information in the 1860 registration for their daughter Alice Ann - Registration 26, 1860 District of Great Western in the Colony of Victoria - Information compiled by PK Bain, Dunedin from the records and kindly shared with me by Don Stevens. This will be detailed more thoroughly in part four of this series.
Birth Registration Number: 1851/1312 Births, Deaths & Marriages Online, [Digital Index] via New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs [Website]. Accessed 14 March 2022 -https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
โHistory of Auckland' via Wikipedia [Website]. Accessed 17 January 2023 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Auckland
'New Zealand's 19th-century wars' via New Zealand History [Website]. Accessed 17 January 2023 - https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/new-zealands-19th-century-wars/introduction
'Story: New Zealand Wars' via Te Ara The Encyclopedia of New Zealand [Website]. Accessed 17 January 2023 - https://teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-wars
The Corps consisted of discharged British soldiers, veterans of war, who were enrolled in England in 1847 as military settlers for a period of 7 years, although many became permanent settlers. They and their wives and families received free passage. On arrival in the colony, each Fencible was given a two-roomed cottage and an acre of land, already partly cleared and made ready for cultivation, and an advance for furniture and stock. They were paid 1s 3d a day in addition to any pension they had earned with previous service.
See: 'The New Zealand Wars: A History of the Maori Campaigns and the Pioneering Period: Volume 1 (1845-64) The Royal New Zealand Fencibles' via New Zealand Electronic Text Collection (NZETC), Victoria University of Wellington [Website] [Cowan, James F.R.G.S The New Zealand Wars: A History of the Maori Campaigns and the Pioneering Period: Volume I: 1845โ1864 R. E. Owen, 1955, Wellington] - https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cow01NewZ-b1-1-14.html
Victoria Deaths 1836-1985 - Death Registration 3320' Transcript via FindMyPast [Website]. Accessed 17 January 2023 - https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=ANZ%2FBMD%2FVICTORIADEATH%2F12738
Gold Rushes - 1851: Gold rushes in New South Wales and Victoria begin via National Museum of Australia [Website]. Accessed 17 January 2023 - https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/gold-rushes
'Victoria Deaths 1836-1985 - Death Registration 884' Transcript via FindMyPast [Website]. Accessed 17 January 2023 - https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=ANZ%2FBMD%2FVICTORIADEATH%2F16040
'Australia, Births and Baptisms, 1792-1981.' Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013 via Ancestry.com. 'Australia, Births and Baptisms, 1792-1981' [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Accessed 17 January 2023.
'Pioneer Index, Victoria 1836-1888' via Ancestry.com. 'Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922' [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Registration 1270. Accessed 17 January 2023.
Registration 1270, 1855 District of Prahan, Victoria, Australia - Information compiled by PK Bain, Dunedin from the records and kindly shared with me by Don Stevens.
Registration 84, 1858 District of Pleasant Creek in the Colony of Victoria - Information compiled by PK Bain, Dunedin from the records and kindly shared with me by Don Stevens.
Registration 26, 1860 District of Great Western in the Colony of Victoria - Information compiled by PK Bain, Dunedin from the records and kindly shared with me by Don Stevens.
Registration 12, 1861 District of Ararat, in the Colony of Victoria - Information compiled by PK Bain, Dunedin from the records and kindly shared with me by Don Stevens.
When George died in December 1902, his death entry indicates that, at the time of his death, he had lived in New Zealand for 40 years (that is, since 1862). When Elizabeth died in January 1869, cemetery records indicate she had been in Otago for 7 years (that is, from 1862).
'Dunedin' via New Zealand History [Website]. Accessed 18 January 2023 - https://nzhistory.govt.nz/keyword/dunedin
'Page 6. Dunedin' via Te Ara The Encyclopedia of New Zealand [Website]. Accessed 18 January 2023 - https://teara.govt.nz/en/otago-places/page-6
New Zealand Society of Genealogists Incorporated; Auckland, New Zealand; New Zealand Cemetery Records via Ancestry.com New Zealand, Cemetery Records, 1800-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Accessed 18 January 2023.
See also: Find A Grave, database and images - Elizabeth Allen White (1822-1869) - Find a Grave Memorial: Accessed 18 January 2023, memorial page for Elizabeth Allen White (1822-30 Jan 1869), Find a Grave Memorial ID 193822254, citing Southern Cemetery, Dunedin, Dunedin City, Otago, New Zealand; Maintained by Cosmo (contributor 49300889).
Josephโs daughter, Alice Maud White was born in New Plymouth on 22 April 1883. Registration Number: 1883/6511 Births, Deaths & Marriages Online [Digital Index] via New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs [Website]. Accessed 17 March 2022 - https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Archives New Zealand; Wellington, 'New Zealand New Zealand Police Gazettes, 1875-1945'; Item: IE25691437; Roll: R15423652 via Ancestry.com. 'New Zealand, Police Gazettes, 1878-1945' [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2018. Accessed 16 March 2020.
1887, 1890 Waitotara Electoral Rolls - New Zealand Electoral Rolls, 1853โ1981. Auckland, New Zealand: BAB microfilming. Microfiche publication, 4032 fiche via Ancestry.com. New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Accessed 17 March 2022 - https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1836/
1893 Patea Electoral Roll - New Zealand Electoral Rolls, 1853โ1981. Auckland, New Zealand: BAB microfilming. Microfiche publication, 4032 fiche via Ancestry.com. New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Accessed 17 March 2022 - https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1836/
The Inmates Book is held at the Hocken Library, Dunedin. I have not personally sighted this information. It was compiled by P.K. Bain of Dunedin and shared with me by Don Stevens.
โOtago Benevolent Institution, Caversham' via Care Leavers in Australia & New Zealand CLAN [Website]. Accessed 19 January 2023 - https://clan.org.au/orphanages/otago-benevolent-institution-caversham/โ
'The Caversham Project', University of Otago via History Department, University of Otago 2003 [Website]. Accessed 19 January 2023 - https://caversham.otago.ac.nz/resource/poverty/helping.html
See also: 'Otago Benevolent Institution' via New Zealand Electronic Text Collection (NZETC), Victoria University of Wellington [Website] Accessed 19 January 2023 [Torrance, J. A. (1890) 'Picturesque Dunedin: Or Dunedin and its neighbourhood in 1890' Mills, Dick & Co. 1890, p.183] - https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BatPict-t1-body1-d9-d1.html
1893, 1894, 1896, 1897, 1899, 1900, 1902 Electoral Rolls - New Zealand Electoral Rolls, 1853โ1981. Auckland, New Zealand: BAB microfilming. Microfiche publication, 4032 fiche via Ancestry.com. New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Accessed 17 March 2022 - https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1836/.
Registration Number: 1903/1876 Births, Deaths & Marriages Online [Digital Index] via New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs [Website]. Accessed 17 March 2022 - https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
A copy of the death entry is held by the Author (Jane Chapman).
Doug died on 18 May 2021. At the time of writing, his website continues to be accessible and is maintained by his family - https://douglascoop.co.nz/
That's very sad that Elizabeth died at such a young age. It does make me wonder what his life would have been like had she lived longer.
What a life Elizabeth and George lived. I bet as youths they never dreamed they would see so many different places or that it would be due to incarceration. I'm glad they were able to live out their lives there.