Voyage to Australia: The ship 'Susan'

In 1852 Robert Leed was 22 years old and working at Kinneil Iron Works at Bo'ness on the Forth, Scotland. His father, deceased, had been a Master and part owner of a schooner operating out of Glasgow. His mother remarried in August 1852.

Gold had been discovered in Australia so that may have influenced Robert's decision to buy passage on a ship to Australia. He paid his own way on a brig called Susan, one of only nine passengers on board. A brig has two square-rigged masts and is quite small compared with some of the huge clippers that sailed to Australia in the 1800s. She weighed 175 tons. Brigs were fast and maneuverable but had a reputation for being difficult to sail into the wind.

A brig

The Susan, with R D Munro as Master, departed Liverpool 24 January 1853. On 2 March she was sighted off the west coast of Africa by another ship called the Lima, and on 8 May she was seen west of Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia by Uncle Tom.

South Australian Register, 16 May 1853

The Argus, 25 May 1853

Hobson's Bay, Williamstown, Victoria [Source unknown]

After a voyage of four months the Susan arrived Hobson's Bay (Williamstown), Melbourne on 24 May 1853. There was a notice in Melbourne's main paper, The Argus, detailing the cargo she and several other ships had carried and the Sydney paper also listed the cargo.

The Argus, 25 May 1853

Geelong Advertiser, 26 May 1853

The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 May 1853

The brig stayed for a year or so, plying back and forth between Victoria and Tasmania carrying passengers and cargo. In August 1854 is was advertising accommodation to Mauritius and England.

The Argus, 11 Aug 1854

Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencier, 26 Aug 1854

In 1856 and 1857 there were several newspaper notices of 'the brig Susan' returning to Sydney port with sperm oil from whales, but it may not be the same ship.

Robert Leed went to the goldfields at Castlemaine and Eaglehawk, married and raised a family and died at the age of 57 from phthisis, a lung disease common with goldminers. He was a very good engineer, and worked for many years on large quartz-crushing machinery, but that's a story for another day.

David Jackson, where are you?

Finally. The little bundle of clues coalesced and my theory has turned into a fact.

Here's the story.

In March 1857 a baby, Thomas, was born in Fryers Creek, Victoria. His father was Robert Leed and his mother Helen Jackson. At the time of his birth his parents weren't married, although they stated that they were, and didn't marry until after their third child was born. So, working backwards, Thomas must have been conceived about June 1856 when Helen was 17 years old. Fryers creek in 1855/1856 was a rich goldmining area near the present day town of Castlemaine in central Victoria. It was an area in an extreme state of flux, with miners coming and going continually. What was a 17-year old girl doing there?

When I checked Robert and Helen's marriage certificate it stated that Helen's parents were David Jackson, storekeeper, and Helen Kinross. A witness to the marriage was a David Jackson. I found young Helen on the 1851 Scottish census for Leith, Scotland - she was living with several relatives including her grandmother and her younger brother John but no parents were present.

So I wondered if the David Jackson who witnessed the marriage was her brother or her father. Next I checked the immigration records and found Helen (16) and her brother John (13) arriving in Melbourne on the ship 'Oliver Lang' in April 1856. I assumed that as they were so young they would be travelling to join a family member, and speculated that it would be her father. So I checked all sorts of records without being able to prove any connection but there was a John Jackson who died at Castlemaine in 1916 (who I think is Helen's brother) and a David Jackson operating a store at Castlemaine. I got excited when I  found that that David Jackson remarried in 1857 at Castlemaine and quickly got a copy of the marriage certificate but it was inconclusive although several facts, including age and birthplace, were about right.

The Argus (Melbourne) 7 April 1856

But just before Christmas I found this newspaper notice. The shipping agents in Melbourne are advertising for David Jackson of Leith to tell him that his daughter and son have arrived. Remember, Leith is where Helen was living in 1851. That was the proof I needed that David was in Victoria prior to his children arriving. And now I think I'm on safe ground assuming that the David Jackson living in Castlemaine was her father.

Helen JACKSON, daughter of David JACKSON and Jane KINROSS was born on 11 Feb 1838 in Leith, Scotland. She died on 20 Jun 1886 in Eaglehawk, Victoria, Australia. She married Robert LEED, son of Thomas LEED and Grizzel (Grace) McLEISH on 19 Aug 1863 in Eaglehawk, Victoria, Australia. He was born on 22 Aug 1832 in Glasgow, Scotland. He died on 26 Jul 1889 in Eaglehawk, Victoria, Australia