Elizabeth Lesurfe

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Amanda Read on 19th May 2024

Elisabeth was born 1786 to James Draper Collier and Elizabeth Mason.

71

Robin Sharkey on 7th October 2018

Elizabeth Lesurf was transported on convict ship “Wanstead” for 7 years, being found guilty at the Old Bailey on 2nd December of stealing from a lodging room: one feather bed and its accompaniments – two blankets, a pair of sheets, coverlid and a bolster. “Wanstead” departed England in August 1813 and arrived in NSW in January 1814. At her trial, Elizabeth was recorded as being 24 years of age. The Old Bailey online trial report has her surname incorrectly as “Lesuree”, but the original typed record correctly names her as “LESURF”. English Marriage: As Elizabeth Collier, she had married William Lesurf on 11 May 1806, at St Leonards church, Shoreditch. There were several Elizabeth Colliers baptised in inner London between 1786 and 1792, but the closest birth age to 24 year old Elizabeth was the Elizabeth Collier Born 21 March 1789 ( 23 & ¾ yrs in December 1812). She was christened on 14 August 1789, St Matthews Bethnal Green to parents Abraham & Elizabeth Collier. William LeSurf was from a family of weavers who lived in the Shoreditch area (Bethnal Green), part of the Huguenot immigrant influx from France (name originally as Le Cerf or LeSerf). Since Elizabeth worked as a Quill Winder for her brother, it’s likely her Collier family were also weavers in the Shoreditch/Bethnal Green area. There were many Collier weavers in this area in the 1841 and 1851 Censuses – James, John, Wiliams. English Lesurf Child: Mr and Mrs William and Elizabeth (Collier) Lesurf had a child named William born 5 August 1807 who was baptised (aged nearly ten months) 29 May 1808 at St Matthews, Bethnal Green. He was five years old when his mother was charged and found guilty in December 1812. ______________________________ From the trial evidence: Elizabeth was very poor, married with one child but she had said her husband was at sea. She was in bad circumstances because although she worked for her brother in the weaving industry, as a quill winder, she had no work and was in the Bethnal Green poorhouse (run by St Matthew’s parish) when she committed the crime, although the person she stole from did not know that at the time. She seemed to plan her crime. In early November 1812 she went to see Mrs Sarah Pocock about taking one of the furnished rooms in the Pocock’s house at no 10 Turk-Street, Bethnal Green which were let out under the husband’s name - Thomas Pocock (a plasterer (“Plaisterer”). A woman called Maria Crane was in the house with Mrs Pocock, and said that Elizabeth liked the room “exceeding well”. Mrs Pocock said she had agreed to take the room, paying 5 shillings a week. Elizabeth said her husband was a “narrow weaver”. She came to take the room the following Thursday, about half past four in the afternoon, bringing an old chest with her and, according to Mrs Pocock, she said she had a small parcel and that her husband would bring the rest. Maria Crane was there again at the time, and Mrs Pocock gave Elizabeth clean sheets and later went out to her mother’s. At 7 o’clock Maria Crane saw Elizabeth come downstairs - and gave her a candlestick since Elizabeth said she was going for a candle. Maria Crane claimed she was in the house the whole time and that nothing went out through the front door and that Elizabeth must have taken the things out through the window. Sarah Pocock came home and saw the window open and went up between ten and eleven pm and entered the room, finding the bedding things gone. Mrs Pocock made enquiries about Elizabeth and found that she was in the Poor House. This would be the Poor House at Bethnal Green, that had been in existence since 1777. A woman called Jane Harper (no explanation was reported about her relationship to Mrs Pocock) then went to the Poor House and saw Elizabeth. Jane Harper asked Elizabeth to own up to having taken the bed and Elizabeth responded that she had sold it for £2. Finally, a Mrs Drake gave evidence that she heard Elizabeth say that she had “parted with the bed in Winfield-street, for two pounds”. Mrs Drake may have been a person in authority at the Poor House because Elizabeth’s only defence was that “Mrs. Drake promised to forgive me if I would own to stealing the bed.” ________________________ ON ARRIVAL IN NSW: Elizabeth was sent with a group of women off “Wanstead” to the Parramatta Female Factory in January 1814, and was mustered there in October 1814. She must have given up all idea of getting back to England to see her young son, William Lesurf junior, because a year after arrival she married again in NSW: Marriage: On 3rd January 1815, Elizabeth LeSurf married Michael Parker, aged 37, who was then free, at St John’s Church, Parramatta. Elizabeth gave her age as 25, and made her mark on the wedding register. Her new husband, Michael, had been tried at the Old Bailey in 1795 and 1796 as a fifteen year old In 1813 in NSW he had obtained his Conditional Pardon. He undertook different jobs, including in 1816 at Parramatta fencing in paddock near Parramatta for the Government cattle herds. Michael and Elizabeth may have had much in common with each other, appearing to have both grown up in the Shoreditch area of London: • Michael Parker was born at Shoreditch: Baptised at St Leonard Shoreditch - Michael Parker son of William and Mary Parker of Hollywell Lane, born September 29th, baptised 18th October 1780. PARKER CHILD BORN: Their own child together, also named Michael Cornelius Parker, was born 11 Sep 1820, baptised 29 Oct 1820, at St Peter's Church of England, Richmond. In 1818 Elizabeth and Michael were working at William Cox’s at Windsor (per 1818 Musters). Finally she had served her seven year sentence by the beginning of 1820, and was recorded from the 1822 Muster as being Free by Servitude. Elizabeth and Michael Parker then move into the Hunter region of NSW: • 1824 both she and Michael were recorded in the Hunter river population Book, as living with Isaac Lancaster, an emancipist convict, one of the many employees of Mary Morgan (Hunt) a landholder at Wallis Plains. • In 1825 (per 1825 Muster returns) Elizabeth was employed by John Blaxland in the district of Newcastle • 1828 Census Elizabeth was recorded as aged 36 (in fact she was then aged 40), Protestant, living in the household of Mary Hunt at Wallis Plains, with her 8 year old son Michael Parker (junior). • 1828 Census Michael Parker (senior) was recorded as a labourer per Ganges; Free by servitude; employed by Philip Thorley and living with Isaac Lancaster, who was much younger than Michael (only about 31 in 1828). Lancaster had been at William Cox's in 1820 when Elizabeth and Michael were there. He had also been employed by Philip Thorley in 1824 at Singleton and in 1825 by James Blaxland as a labourer in the Newcastle area. (However in the 1828 Census Parker is recorded as being employed by Thorley at Bathurst which doesn’t seem to be correct given that Thorley’s property was at Singleton.)