Eliza Stilman

26

—Kate— on 3rd March 2024

Eliza was born on the 14th of July 1816 in Plumstead (Kent, London) to John Stillman and Sarah Garrett. John was a warden at Woolwich Rope-yard and Sarah died when Eliza was a toddler. Eliza had an illness that had kept her at home, where she cared for her father and siblings while the family worked. After a conflict with her stepmother, she left home. In 1830, Eliza was imprisoned for three months after stealing a muff, valued at 40 shillings. In 1831 she stole two dresses, valued at £1,10s and was sentenced to transportation for fourteen years. Following her arrest and sentencing, her father died ‘of a broken heart’ and her older sister petitioned for leniency. The unemployable Eliza was ‘not yet sixteen years of age’, and as her sister explained, was driven to dishonesty to provide herself the necessaries of life. The court records note Eliza as being 18 years old. The gaolers' decision on her petition states ‘Bad - convicted before’ and, obviously, the request for leniency was denied. Eliza was transported from Plymouth to Van Diemens Land on the Hydery in 1832. During the journey, she suffered repeated violent epileptic fits. At times, she became comatose and was treated with blood-letting and turpentine enemas. In Hobart, Eliza recorded more colonial offences to her name: Mostly insolence, absenteeism, foul language and drinking, with one count of stealing clothing in 1836. Her punishments at the Female House of Corrections (Cascade's Female Factory) ranged from imprisonment and hard labour, solitary confinement, and being sent to the interior. Eliza applied for permission to marry Hector McFie (David Lyon, 1830) in 1835 and was denied. In 1838, she married Thomas Quarry (Southworth, 1830), who was employed as a prisoner constable. A few months after marrying, Thomas was dismissed for serious misconduct and sent to the interior as punishment. There, Eliza gave birth to their first child, Sarah, at Cockatoo Valley Hunting Grounds (now Bagdad) in 1839. Two years later, back in Hobart, their second child Mary Margaret was born. Eliza was granted a conditional pardon in 1842 and freed in 1848. In 1849 she accused Thomas of abandoning her for a wealthy widow, which he didn’t deny. In court, she refused to take money from him and handed over the children instead. Shortly afterwards the family appears reunited and aboard the Shamrock bound for Sydney, via Melbourne. Two years later, Sydney newspapers report Eliza and Thomas Quarry as the victims of a theft, with their daughter Sarah as a witness. Eliza appears in a few Sydney news stories up until 1858, which are rarely flattering. In 1860 Eliza appears as a widow and marries James Williams in Mookerawa, Wellington District, NSW. The connection to Wellington is made through her daughter Sarah, who gave birth there in 1858 and 1860. Sarah had married George Phillips in Sydney in 1856. George was the son of the convicts Thomas Phillips (Dick, 1820) and Elinor Bassnett (Elizabeth, 1818).