Ticket of Change

I never meant for life to turn out like it did.  Life was good in Bruton, hard but good.  I had Elizabeth and the girls and we got along.  Then work got harder to find as the competition increased, not just building but any work at all.  It seemed machines were taking over and men weren’t needed like they used to be.  Farm labourers were heading to the bigger cities looking for work that just didn’t exist.

When I saw the advertisement looking for carpenters in Van Diemen’s Land it seemed like a chance for a fresh start for us.  We had another baby just born and the three older girls, so it was decided for me to go out and make a start then Elizabeth and the girls would follow.  I had every intention of honouring this agreement.   I just didn’t think it would be wise to take a young family on such a long trip with no guarantees that life would be better.

Figure 1: Charles Ellen, Arrivals Record, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, Hobart, CB7/9/1/1,p.11. 

So with the ticket that would change my life and the lives of others, I left the Bristol docks aboard the Arabian on the 5^th May 1841.  I have to say, I knew the trip out to Van Diemen’s Land would be rough but I didn’t expect it to be as bad as it was.  The food was unacceptable, to the point that the surgeon superintendant condemned it!   We were all going to jump ship at the Cape of Good Hope until the Captain bought on more supplies but even then they only lasted three weeks and after that we had to eat rotting food again while the Captain, Gardener ate the very best.  We certainly didn’t receive the supplies we had been promised on departure in Bristol.

When we finally docked in Launceston on 24 August 1841 we were all worse in heath than when we boarded.  So much so that I and some others wrote an open letter of complaint to the paper.  We said that we thought it unacceptable and that an inquiry should be held.  Nothing really came of it of course but we did get our point across.

Figure 2: ‘Launceston’, Launceston Advertiser, 2 December 1841, p.3.

Later in November I was approached by the Committee for Immigration, they wanted to know what I thought of their bounty scheme.  Well, I let them know what I thought and told them that I found it very disappointing, wages were low and cost of living too high.    I told them it was highly unlikely I would send for my family when I would have been better off staying in England.  A sad state of affairs this was and I was angry and feeling very hard done by at the time.  

Things seem to go from bad to worse. In October I was sent by Mr Ritchie to do some work for Mr Heaney in the Perth town ship.  Billy Gould and Will Hill were there too and we got to drinking.  I didn’t know where the grog had come from but it turns out the boys had ‘borrowed’ it from the inn at the front of the house.  Mr Heaney’s daughter, Charlotte called the constable in and reported the theft.  I was in no state to argue as I had endeavoured to forget my sorrows that night and barely remembered my name let alone the events of the evening.

Why am I such a strong advocate of the Temperance movement, well I have to say that no good comes of the drink and if you drink to forget as I did then it will see you on the wrong path.  As a consequence I ended up at New Town Bay for two years hard labour.  And hard it was, I have the scars on my ankles to prove it and my back has never been the same.  Building roads is hard enough but being part of a chain gang triples the punishment.  I don’t like to dwell on those two years, but I accept that I did wrong and I wore the sentence.

I hadn’t heard anything from Elizabeth and had pretty much accepted that she had moved on and made a new life for herself and the girls.  I daren’t think the worse and could only hope she had found herself a new man to care for them.  The lack of response to letters I sent seemed to indicate that I would not see her or the girls again. It was time for me to forge a new life.

At the end of my sentence my first thought was to find work.  I took board in Hobart thinking to set myself up there but after asking about, several people suggested heading back north to Oatlands.  This was a farming and timber community with a fast growing township and I heard, plenty of work for a builder like myself.   Having very little money I set off on foot to Oatlands and a new start.

I worked hard, there was plenty of work to be had and I became good friends with George Aitchison who saw me right for work.  He was a stone mason so we worked well together, me with wood and him with brick.  The house I now live in on the High Street was built by us and it was a proud moment when I was able to buy it off George for Betsy and our family.

Figure 4: Kelli Schultz, Sketch of Charles Ellen’s High Street Cottage, 2018, digital image.

Who is Betsy I hear you ask.  Well, like I said a new start I was to have and I met Betsy and married her in 1848.  We have been together more than forty years and had eight children, six who are still with us.  I have been truly blessed in my new life, I do think back to England and mourn the loss but my life has been good. Who would have thought that just one ticket could be such a life changer.

Charles Ellen