Many thanks both Geoff and Bruce for your tips about the McLeans. Surely together we’ll even pin down Eliza Boak or Bolk eventually! Meanwhile I’m doing some more circling around her by finding out all I can about her eldest step-son James McLean.
Our James McLean was certainly the son of Edward McLean and Mary Jane Gordon. He arrived from Ireland on the Sarah Botsford with his parents Feb 15th 1842 aged one year. Was he the James McLean of Penrith who married Mary Ann Willcock (or Wilcox) 9 Feb 1867, then moved to Bathurst where he was a Saddler, father of four surviving children and died in 1916? I think so, although a few things make it very difficult to tell for sure.
Death of James MacLean, Saddler of Bathurst, New South Wales aged 76, 3 Jan 1916
Firstly, this death certificate is for James MacLean, not James McLean. I think we can ignore that though, as all of the children listed here were born McLeans according to the BDM records, including the informant, Hector E. L. MacLean. His father is Edward, though Hector didn’t know the name of his own grandmother – sadly not that unusual. He was buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery at Bathurst, and we know that our McLeans were Presbyterians. He was married in Penrith aged 27 years to Mary Ann Wilcox. Their 1867 marriage certificate spells her surname Willcock, but she signs her name there with an X, so probably wasn’t too fussed about the spelling. He arrived in New South Wales aged 2, whereas our James McLean was only 1 year old upon arrival. The biggest problem is that the death certificate says he was born in Glasgow! On the other hand this news article says he’s from the north of Ireland. [Thanks Geoff for finding this!]
Death of James MacLean, Saddler, of Bathurst, From National Advocate, Bathurst 4 Jan 1916 via TROVE
It’s certainly the same James MacLean as in the death certificate. As well as him being a Saddler of Bathurst, the news report comes just the day after the actual death and there are the same sons and daughters. Can we assume that the informant for the news item just had different place of birth information to the son who registered the death? If so, 2 years old on arrival is very close to our James who arrived aged 1, and we know that both the parents of our James were from the north of Ireland. In 1853 when James’ father died the family were in Balmain. In 1869 when next heard of, James’ elder sister Margaret, his step-mother Eliza and half-sister Jane were living at Regentville House, Penrith. It seems likely that James would be near his family before his marriage in Penrith in 1867. Maybe it’s also worth noting that Margaret Sheils, James older sister, moved to Bathurst in 1873 after the apparent loss of her husband.
Another James McLean was a suicide at Bondi in 1896. He’d have been the right age, but wrote a highly literate farewell note and was a Tutor! I don’t think our relation, whose mother was illiterate, would have been so erudite. What a relief. I think ours is almost certainly the Saddler, and have put him in my family tree!. What do you think?
taggerty 
I think that the 1916 death of James MacLean is a good fit.
I notice that there is a death registered for Eliza McLean at Penrith in 1922. Parents Samuel & Mary A. Registration No 1922/6629. Not sure if is worth a punt, but locality seems to fit. Unfortunately, I cannot locate any death notice.
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The trouble is, she’d have been about 100 years old. I was thinking of trying Eliza G, daughter of Samuel and Colina who died 1901 in Petersham next. Oh well, it’s just dough…
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Will give it some further thought. With regard to Glasgow the McLeans did leave for Australia from Scotland so they may have lived there for a short while with a baby being born ??
Bruce
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That’s a good point Bruce, I guess they could have waited a year for a ship and the trip took what – 3 months?. It would explain the inconsistency between the death cert and the news articles. I was trying to read the name of the port of departure of the Sarah Botsford on the ship’s passenger list. It might have been Glasgow. UPDATE: The Sarah Botsford left from Greenock, Glasgow late Dec 1841. This looks like our James – right?
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Glad to see my certificate made it to the right hands 🙂 I’m inclined to think James was born in Glasgow. Whether the family had moved to Glasgow then decided to emigrate or whether they were just passing through on the way to Australia is anyone’s guess. Though the family doesn’t seem to appear in the 1841 census taken on the 6th of June 1841.
There are a number of newspaper articles pertaining to James’ death. In one it states “…Mr. MacLean had just returned from a three years’ visit, to his native country, Scotland.” This article can be found on Trove:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/109942785
I think it was mentioned in another post what motivated them to emigrate. We obviously can never really know and can only guess. Perhaps since Edward and Mary worked on farms and were poor they may have felt the repercussions of the Night of the Big Wind in 1839. Whatever the reason it was a good thing since the famine was on it’s way.
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