Ellen Hurley (1843-1897)
Personal details
Gender:
Female
Notes:
Married name —
Ellen married labourer John Vontom in 1873 and they had four children: Mary Louisa (1875), John Peter (1877), Louisa Annie (1880) and, in the year that her eldest daughter Ellen married Gabriel Morgan, a son, Alfred Gabriel (1883). When Ellen married John her son William was eleven and daughter Ellen was six.
Ellen's death certificate stated that she was born in Cork, Ireland, and had been about 3 years in Queensland, about 3 years in New South Wales, then 37 years in Victoria.
The Hurley family migrated to Australia in several waves. The eldest daughter of John and Mary Hurley, Honora (c.1830-1863), married John Goold in 1851 and together they travelled to Australia on the Beejapore, arriving in January 1853 in New South Wales, Honora giving birth to their first child Mary at sea. Five weeks of distressing quarantine followed, given contagion on the ship. Also on the Beejapore as assisted immigrants were Honora's younger sisters Eliza Hurley, 22, house servant and Mary Hurley, 15, nursemaid. John and Mary Hurley followed on the Conrad, arriving in Brisbane 15 November 1855. Their eldest son Thomas Hurley, 23, sailor, came out on the Forest Monarch 21 December 1858, Sydney, sponsored by his father, living in Sydney according to the ship's records, which also noted that Thomas's mother Mary was dead. Mary died in tragic circumstances in 1857. Her death certificate didn't list her children Patrick or Ann, which suggests that Patrick was in fact deceased before the family left Ireland, and that Ann must have died between their arrival in November 1855 and her mother Mary's death in October 1857.
The Goolds were in Melbourne by 1854, Eliza by at least 1856, Mary by at least 1857 and Ellen had her first child in Melbourne in 1862. All the siblings bar Thomas and Ann (who I've not yet been able to trace) ended up in Melbourne, but their mother Mary died in New South Wales in late September/early October 1857. It doesn't appear that John Hurley left New South Wales. He may have died in 1872.
- Ellen Vontom
Ellen married labourer John Vontom in 1873 and they had four children: Mary Louisa (1875), John Peter (1877), Louisa Annie (1880) and, in the year that her eldest daughter Ellen married Gabriel Morgan, a son, Alfred Gabriel (1883). When Ellen married John her son William was eleven and daughter Ellen was six.
Ellen's death certificate stated that she was born in Cork, Ireland, and had been about 3 years in Queensland, about 3 years in New South Wales, then 37 years in Victoria.
The Hurley family migrated to Australia in several waves. The eldest daughter of John and Mary Hurley, Honora (c.1830-1863), married John Goold in 1851 and together they travelled to Australia on the Beejapore, arriving in January 1853 in New South Wales, Honora giving birth to their first child Mary at sea. Five weeks of distressing quarantine followed, given contagion on the ship. Also on the Beejapore as assisted immigrants were Honora's younger sisters Eliza Hurley, 22, house servant and Mary Hurley, 15, nursemaid. John and Mary Hurley followed on the Conrad, arriving in Brisbane 15 November 1855. Their eldest son Thomas Hurley, 23, sailor, came out on the Forest Monarch 21 December 1858, Sydney, sponsored by his father, living in Sydney according to the ship's records, which also noted that Thomas's mother Mary was dead. Mary died in tragic circumstances in 1857. Her death certificate didn't list her children Patrick or Ann, which suggests that Patrick was in fact deceased before the family left Ireland, and that Ann must have died between their arrival in November 1855 and her mother Mary's death in October 1857.
The Goolds were in Melbourne by 1854, Eliza by at least 1856, Mary by at least 1857 and Ellen had her first child in Melbourne in 1862. All the siblings bar Thomas and Ann (who I've not yet been able to trace) ended up in Melbourne, but their mother Mary died in New South Wales in late September/early October 1857. It doesn't appear that John Hurley left New South Wales. He may have died in 1872.
Relationships
Husband:
Emigration
Date:
27 June 1855
Notes:
Departure date: 'Arrivals', The Moreton Bay Courier, 17 November 1855, p.2. Eleven-year-old Ellen immigrated with her family on the Conrad: parents John, 42, and Mary, 41, and siblings John, 12, Margaret, 7 and Anne, 2.
Immigration
Date:
15 November 1855
Place:
Notes:
Nine days after the arrival of the ship Conrad the Brisbane newspaper The Moreton Bay Courier (24 November 1855, p.3) reported: 'The immigrants by the Conrad were all landed in Brisbane, on Monday, and many have already been hired, the wages being about the usual average.'
References:
Burial
Date:
15 March 1886
Place:
Notes:
Baby Frances Louisa Morgan's burial was arranged by Ellen Vontom, her uncle Gabriel's mother-in-law, reflecting the closeness of the siblings Gabriel and Fanny Morgan perhaps, and likely Ellen's understanding of the situation the 18-year-old pregnant Fanny had found herself in. It was a kind and considerate act. Ellen had a daughter Louisa (1880-1944) herself, after whom Frances Louisa may have been named.
Tragic death by manslaughter
Date:
12 December 1887
Place:
Notes:
John Vontom drowned in an appalling workplace incident on the Yarra river. His death was widely reported in the newspapers – by The Age under the ballad-like leader of ‘The Wool Washer’s Tragedy’ and the Leader under the more apt ‘Wilful Murder’. John had worked for Nettleton’s wool washing works in Collingwood for 15 years and was at his job with several other men on a landing stage on the Yarra river one Monday afternoon. A fellow worker, the worse for drink and under no provocation, grabbed John unawares from behind (‘taking hold of him in a habit peculiar to roughs’) and threw him into the river, it seemed, for a joke. The perpetrator was sentenced to only three years hard labour for manslaughter (‘the jury commended him to mercy on the ground of his intoxication at the time’), serving barely more than two. Such little value put on a life and the consequences of its loss. Ellen, his wife, would have read all about her husband’s last moments in the newspapers, even while his body was still unrecovered: ‘Vontom disappeared beneath the surface of the dirty stream at once, but rose again a couple of seconds after, some yards away. A life-buoy was thrown to him, but he failed to reach it, and immediately sank, and was not seen any more.’ John’s children ranged in age from four to twelve years old. The poem his wife Ellen inserted in his memory the following year in The Age spoke to a deep and abiding loss.
International Order of Good Templars
Date:
1890
Place:
Notes:
Ellen Vontom (Sister Vontom) was a member of the Good Templars, a temperance organisation, and was attending meetings in 1890 at least.
Death
Date:
28 November 1897
Notes:
Cause of death - hydatids of the liver, rupture of the liver
References: