Jane Smith (1819-1870?)

Jane Smith, Jeanetta's mother and George Menzies mother-in-law, is an enigma, a puzzle, in the Menzies family story. She is spoken of in anecdotal family history and first appears in the records on 17 September 1843 at the baptism of a daughter she called Jeanetta Smith. This ceremony took place 126 miles west of Sydney in All Saints Church, Bathurst, and was conducted by Rev Thomas Sharpe according to the Anglican rite. The child was born on 9 August.

The mystery associated with Jane Smith stems from her failure to identify the baby’s father on the Certificate of Baptism. This initially gave rise to speculation about illegitimacy but recent evidence now suggests that there may be more to the story than first thought. It has been surmised by the family that Jane was either a single convict girl, a poor assisted migrant girl from impoverished Ireland or perhaps a married woman who had fallen on hard times or had suffered some other terrible experience.

But what was she doing in Bathurst in 1843? It was not a place people chose to be considering the harsh living conditions prevailing at the time.

Renowned historian Manning Clarke wrote:

In fact conditions were to get much worse and between 1837 and 1839 they were most severe. The country was littered with dead and dying animals. If this was not enough to make Bathurst an undesirable place to live, the whole colony was soon suffering a severe financial crisis. Some said the problem arose because of a drop in the demand for wool from the mother country. By this time the landholders of NSW had huge flocks of sheep, nearly 3 million in fact, and the whole fabric of the colony was based on big incomes, big lending and big debt. Cash was plentiful and land speculation was booming but towards the end of 1840 prices began to fall and the boom came to an abrupt end. Soon bankruptcies became common. The Sydney Morning Herald reported in 1842 that there had been 600 insolvencies in a free population of a little more than one hundred thousand souls. Beef and mutton prices almost halved from December 1841 to January 1843, wheat prices were down a third and fat cattle dropped from 7 pounds a head in March 1841 to 3 pounds in June 1843. It was no wonder that with banks lending at between 15% and 20% that where once men competed to buy the best properties, now owners could hardly give them away. At this stage the government was feeding hundreds of distressed labourers and the squatters were coming in from the bush like broken men.

From “A History of Australia”, Vol III, CMH Clark Melbourne University Press.

The knowledge we have of the ensuing years comes from a story handed down from Jane’s daughter, Jeanetta, who it appears last saw her mother when she was about 5 years of age. Considering this tender age and that another twenty or more years passed before her own children were hearing what she had to say it is remarkable how consistent each of her children’s account of the story is. Each branch of the family has the following story:

“Baby Jeanetta Smith was born in the British Army camp in Bathurst. Both parents died and she was raised by a military family, some say that of the officer in in charge. She became a playmate of a daughter of that family and when the daughter came to Sydney to be married, Jeanetta came with her as her Linen Maid. She was 18 years old and the journey took 4 days.”

Female Orphan School c1830, by Joseph Lycett

After lengthy searches through the Colonial secretary’s correspondence it was eventually established that Jane was in Sydney in 1848 with her daughter Jeanetta aged 5. She had prevailed on the Rector of Christ Church St Lawrence, in Pitt St. City, Rev. William H Walsh, to write a petition on her behalf to the Governor of NSW, Sir Charles Fiztroy, asking for her daughter to be accepted into the Female (Protestant) Orphan School at Parramatta.

A facsimile of the actual letter of 26 July 1848 from Governor Fitzroy

approving Jeanetta’s entry to the Female Orphan School at Parramatta

We can only guess at the mutual grief that must have been felt by mother and daughter at the consequent separation. They had been alone for 5 years and there was no other family to offer support. What circumstances had led Jane to make the decision to put her daughter into care?

Excerpt from the book Jane's Legacy by John Brew.