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By Susan Ross
A JOURNEYMAN’S JOURNEY FROM SCOTLAND TO THE ANTIPODES
In the eighteenth century the county of Ross and Cromarty, in the north of Scotland, differed widely in aspect between one seaboard and the other.
In the west the coast was wild and rocky, and little farming was possible. In the centre and the east the land was wide open plains and fields: land for cultivating root vegetables, and grazing sheep for the landed gentry. In many places in Easter Ross the land was poor and stony. People near the coast were fishermen and could supplement their limited diet by their fish catches. The crofters were generally very poor, their land holdings very small and they were expected to give service to the landlords.
Most people lived in turf-built houses, with thatched roofs and dirt floors, which had to be replaced every 3 to 5 years. Seaweed, shells and dung were used in an effort to improve the soil. Life was little above basic subsistence.
In the 19th century life began to improve. With better transport, mainly by boat, the export of goods improved, to Inverness and across to the west coast that had been badly affected by the potato blight (1848-1850). A small port was founded near Tain, at the village of Portmahomack, in the early 1800s, and by the 1840s and 1850s there were thriving harbours at Invergordon, Cromarty and Portmahomack. Herring was the mainstay of trade and economy.
Andrew ROSS was the second son, after Hugh, of Alexander ROSS and Janet MUNRO. He was born in 1819 in the fishing village of Portmahomack, in the Parish of Tarbat. It is assumed that his father was a fisherman. 3 sisters and 1 brother followed Andrew and though, in his youth, he most likely took part in fishing expeditions, it is known that Andrew was apprenticed to a smith to learn the trade of blacksmithing. His brother Hugh became a master saddler. Andrew probably worked as a journeyman, plying his trade wherever he could find work throughout the Ross County. Perhaps by the end of the 1840s, he began to think of seeking a better more stable life elsewhere It is not known when Andrew Ross left Scotland, but somehow he made his way to South Africa and worked in Cape Town.
The Dutch had founded Cape Town in 1610 but by the 19thcentury many new settlers were Scottish.
In November 1850 a ship named Blue Bell left London for South Africa via Rio in South America, then to voyage across the southern ocean to Australia.
A young man, Cornelius GREEN, was one of the passengers, and because he kept a diary of the voyage we know the details of what happened aboard the Blue Bell. Cornelius, then 18 years old, had been advised to take a sea voyage for the benefit of his health.
The ship Blue Bell, after calling at Rio, headed straight across the Atlantic for Cape Town, South Africa, a journey of 84 days from Plymouth.
A child was born during the voyage, the mother being assisted by the captain, as there was no other woman on the ship. Cornelius Green, although a paying passenger, was expected to assist the crew in their work.
When the ship arrived at Cape Town on 21st February, 1851 the crew mutinied, as had a previous crew under Captain Jury, declaring that they would not work for the Captain unless conditions and food improved.But the mutinous crew was brought before the magistrate and sentenced to two months hard labour and the captain, perforce, hired a new crew: 2 Scots, 2 Americans, 1 Portugese and 2 ‘general help’. Cornelius Green and the steerage passengers were again expected to assist the crew. The First Class passengers were Mrs. Vivien and child, presumably the new-born, and C. Green. The steerage passengers were 2 Scots…one Andrew Ross the blacksmith we have already met, and the other a carpenter… 1 Irish shepherd, and 1 Liverpool clerk.
The Blue Bell left Cape Town on April 5th., 1851. It called at Port Elizabeth,then sailed straight down to latitude 40° and below…the ‘roaring forties’…to gain the benefit of favourable winds and currents. The crew was inexperienced and incompetent, perhaps grateful for Andrew’s knowledge from childhood fishing trips, and there were doubts that the ship would arrive safely. The steerage passengers, when not working about the ship, spent their time below decks, complaining of poor food and the rigours of extreme cold and ferocious seas. The ship arrived in Adelaide on May 20th. 1851, 44 days out from Cape Town.
Andrew immediately set about finding work. He went first to a village called Willunga and worked there at his trade until, when gold was discovered in Victoria later that year, and perhaps with other people in convoy, left South Australia and moved to Victoria to try his luck.
Eventually Andrew made his way to Castlemaine and the diggings in the surrounding areas where, in 1854, he married Mary ROSE and their first child, a daughter, was born at the goldfield of Forest Creek in l855. When Andrew made a good find it was whispered that he kept the gold nugget under his bed. With the profits from this good fortune, he decided to buy land at Laanecoorie and in 1858 he went into partnership with his father-in-law Angus ROSE.
They settled on good land near the Loddon River, each built a cottage and Andrew and Mary raised a family of 10 children, though another child died in infancy. Angus Rose and his wife Sarah lived with their unmarried adult children and all became part of the thriving farming community at Laanecoorie. They worked with the other farmers in the district, sharing the vagaries of the weather, good and bad, drought and flood.
From the 1860s to the 1970s, it was the custom for farmers to help each other during harvesting and shearing.
Solid friendships were made with the Frazer and Forbes families and with others. The children of the Ross and Rose families married into the surrounding farming Houses. Church affairs were high on the agenda of these good people and a Presbyterian Church at Eddington had been founded in the 1850s, though it was across the river from the farm, and was cut off from the Laanecoorie people in time of flood.
Grain and wool were transported to Bendigo for sale. A flour mill was established in Maryborough in the 1870's.
Andrew Ross died in 1895, much regretted by his friends in the district and lamented by his family. Andrew was a good man, always hardworking and God- fearing. He raised a large family and the children, by marrying into the surrounding families, founded other dynasties. He made a new life in a new land.
A photograph of Andrew taken in later life shows a genial gentleman. He must have experienced many setbacks and frustrations during his journey to Australia and in the years of farming, but he looks out at us as a pleasant, satisfied old gentleman.
He would be amazed at the number of his descendants. One of his ten children, young Angus named in Scottish tradition for his maternal grandfather, became the patriarch of my branch of the family and, far from the banks of the Loddon and even further from the shores at Portmahamock became Angus Ross Esquire, resident of Inkerman Street, St.Kilda and proprietor of a Draper’s shop on the corner of Carlisle and Nelson Streets, East St.Kilda.
Written by By Susan Ross
Bibliography
SMOUT, T.C, A Century of the Scottish People. 1830-1950.
MOTAT, Ian R. Easter Ross---1750-1850.
ALSTON, D. Ross and Cromarty.
VICTORIA AND ITS METROPOLIS. Vol. 2 1888
Diary of Cornelius Green, kept in National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Reminiscences of the late Mrs.F.Davies (nee Ross) Laanecoorie, Victoria.
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