Australian Royalty: Genealogy of the colony of NSW

[see burial below]

Name: George Hall
Gender: Male
Marriage Date: 17 Nov 1791
Marriage Place: Lowick, Northumberland, England
Spouse: Mary Smith
FHL Film Number: 94976

A group of Presbyterian families from Scotland and Northern England emigrated to Australia aboard the ship Coromandel which departed Deptford on 12 Feb 1802 and arrived at Sydney Cove on 13 Jun. They chose the Coromandel because William Stirling, the uncle of one in their number, George Hall, was her captain. The same George Hall kept a diary of the voyage. They settled along the River below Windsor. Six years after they came to the colony they commenced building a stone church at Portland Head, now known as Ebenezer. This is now the oldest church building in Australasia.

They were:
- George Hall, his wife Mary Smith, children Elizabeth 9, George 7, William 5, John 1. George was the son of a Northumberland tenant farmer, educated, and conversant with 'agricultural machinery'. He was a London carpenter when he returned north in 1791 to Lowick to marry Mary Smith.
- John Howe, his wife Francis Ward, children Mary 2, Elizabeth 2 months. Soundly educated and, by his own statement, brought up to husbandry, he worked in a grocery business in London while waiting for a passage and when in the colony he proposed to become a teacher.
- Andrew Johnston, wife Mary Beard, children Thomas 11, William 7, John 5, Alexander 2 (Died at sea 21 Mar, buried at sea), Abraham 1.
- John Johnstone
- Lewis Jones
- James Mein and wife Susannah Skene
- Andrew Mein (died on voyage 28 Apr, buried at sea)
- William Stubbs, wife Sarah Wingate, children William 5, Sarah 4, Elizabeth 1.
- John Suddis
- John Turnbull, a tailor, wife Ann Warr, children Ralph 10, Mary 5, James 4, Jessica 2.

They had decided to accept the English government's offer contained in the following document of Jan 1798, which George Hall had acquired while living in London.

"We whose names are undersigned acknowledge that, at our own request, we offered ourselves as settlers to go out to N.S.W. with our families on the following terms:
To have our passage found and our families victualled by the Government during the voyage. On our arrival in the Colony we have a grant of 100 acres of land at Port Jackson, or fifty acres at Norfolk Island. To be victualled and clothed free from the Public Stores for a term of twelve months after being put in possession of our allotments, and to be allowed the labour of two prisoners maintained by the Government for the same term. After which term we and our families are to be no further expense to the Crown. Likewise we have the same proportion of stock, such grain and agricultural tools as have been furnished to other settlers, together with such other assistance as the Governor need judge proper to afford us.
Outfit for men: 1 jacket, 1 shirt, pair of trousers, pair of shoes, 1 hat.
ditto for women: 1 Jacket, 1 petticoat, 1 shift, pair shoes, 1 cap, 1 handkerchief,
Children as above on stores.
Tools; I billhook, tomahawks, 1 spade, 1 handsaw, 2 west Indian hoes, 1 cross-cut saw (between two men), quantity of nails, one iron pot, 1 old musket, quantity of powder and 16 musket balls."

Mary Hall per the ship Coromandel 1st, 6 children off stores, wife to G. Hall

Name: Mary Hall
Death Date: 1827
Death Place: Pitt Town, New South Wales
Registration Date: 1827
Registration Place: Pitt Town, Australia
Volume Number: V18277428 2c

Also, On the 29th of June, after a severe illness of five days
the Wife of Mr. George Hall of Pitt Town, leaving a
large Family to lament her irreparable loss.

"Lately at Pitt-town, Mrs. HALL, wife of Mr. George Hall, of that district, in her 58th year. The interment took place on Monday the 2nd of July, and the funeral was attended by most of the respectable part of the community from some distance within those districts. Mrs. Hall and family arrived in the Coromandel in 1802, in company with several other free settlers, who, for the most part, became residents of the Hawkesbury. She was mother of a numerous family, whom she reared to habits of industry, in her own example. She is described by a very intimate friend as the careful North of England farmer's wife. The old gentleman, as may be expected, endures exceeding grief; and the whole family may be truly said to be the house of mourning."

'Thy virtues and my woe no words can tell,
Therefore Mary farewell.
For faith and love like yours Heaven has in store
Its last gift, to meet and part no more.'

Mary Smith Hall
BIRTH 1769
Lowick, Northumberland Unitary Authority, Northumberland, England
DEATH 29 Jun 1827 (aged 57–58)
Ebenezer, Hawkesbury City, New South Wales, Australia
BURIAL
Ebenezer Uniting Cemetery
Windsor, Hawkesbury City, New South Wales, Australia
MEMORIAL ID 211150757