Mordecai Solomon (1800 -1883) and Elizabeth Haines (1809 - 1852)

Elizabeth Solomon (nee Haines)

Elizabeth Haines was born in London, England in 1809, the third of ten children born to Henry (1778 – 1858) and Catherine Haines (1786 – 1843). In that year Henry Hains was a tailor who kept a clothes shop and residence at 60 Anchor and Hope Alley in the parish of St George in London. At this shop he also sold hardware, jewellery and trinkets. Later, in the late 1830’s he is listed a Curiosity Shop keeper.

The unusual fact about the Haines family is that between 1834 and 1852 nine out of the ten children had migrated to Australia, with Jane, Phillip, John, Charles and Joseph all settling in South Australia and Isaac, Lewis, Rachael and Elizabeth in New South Australia, with only their ninth child, Helen (b 1825) remaining in England.

As far as Elizabeth Haines is concerned, she was one of 2700 single women who migrated to NSW & Tasmania under the The London Emigration Committee scheme between 1833 & 1837. Of the 14 ships 8 went to Sydney, 6 to Hobart & 2 to Launceston. Three ships were from Cork, another including young women from Cork & Dublin as well as from London, the remainder all left from London.

In the simplest terms there was little employment available in Britain for women & a shortage of female labour in the colonies. By ‘exporting’ females to colonies they not only would provide labour, it would be an important step towards addressing the gender imbalance. Men outnumbered women in settled colonial areas by 3 to 1, and as much as 20 to 1 in some more remote areas.

Initially the scheme was to be organised by the London charity Refuge for the Destitute, targetting the respectable parish poor. Once the Bussorah Merchant & Layton, the first ships, were underway, the scheme was run by a dedicated committee known as the London Emigration Committee.

The committee advertised for ‘young women desirous of bettering their condition by an Emigration to New South Wales.’ Would be immigrants were to apply by letter, ‘accompanied by recommendations from the Resident Minister of the Parish, and from any other respectable Persons to whom the applicant may be known’.

All applicants were interviewed before being accepted. The respectable parish poor were expected. Literacy rates were 1-2% less than the average English & Irish averages. The respondents were not only some of the illiterate poor but middle class who for various reasons sought a better life in the colonies. The main push factor was the limited possibilities in the home area & reports of greater opportunities in the colonies, some from relatives & friends already there.

Source Joan Edwards : http://www.bmfh.org/london-emigration-committee-1833-37/

See also “Female Migration to Australia in the 1830’s”: http://www.rushen.com.au/

Elizabeth (aged 24) arrived in the Sydney on 30 October 1834 as one of the 356 females aboard the vessel ‘David Scott’. This letter, published in the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday 3rd November 1834 gives us an interesting insight into the ‘selection’ that followed the arrival:

GENTLEMEN,-Having this day attended at the Bazaar, with the view of selecting from among the female Emigrants arrived by the ship David Scott, a Governess, a Lady's Companion, and divers household servants, for several friends in the country, and for myself ; I instituted a very careful enquiry, as to their general character and conduct during the voyage, and, as far as was possible, before their embarkation, and I feel it my duty to state thus publicly, that, in regard to the great majority, the result was entirely satisfactory. They are, on the whole, decidedly superior to any former arrival. The humbler class, consisting chiefly of household servants, appear to be virtuous and industrious girls. The Cabin passengers are young Ladies of education, many of them of truly respectable, though reduced families, and are well calculated for the situations of Governesses or Ladies' Companions.

Having no sinister interest to serve, I beg most sincerely to recommend these young Emigrants to the immediate notice of families requiring their services.

I am, Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,

A FATHER OF DAUGHTERS. Sydney, 30th October, 1834

We may assume that Elizabeth was one of the "class" of young ladies as referred to by the gentleman who wrote the letter and she was (according to family anecdotal evidence) "met on landing by Mordecai Solomon whom she married soon after arrival" (in 1835).

For the next 18 years she bore Mordecai eight children, with the youngest (Lewis) being born in 1848, just four years before her death on 2 November 1852..

The following death announcement appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday November 3, 1852, “At her residence, Pitt Street South, on Tuesday, 2nd November, Mrs. Elizabeth Solomon, aged 43 years, leaving an affectionate husband and eight children to deplore their loss.”

Elizabeth was buried in the Devonshire Street Cemetery (later built over by the construction of the Sydney Central Railway Station). Nearly fifty years later, on 22 March 1901 an exhumation permit was issued to her son Myer Solomon (then aged 63) and her remains were re-located to the Rookwood Old Jewish Cemetery.

She is buried in Section A Row 2. Grass Plot, with no headstone.

[Adrian Paul]

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