Joseph Jones, a labourer, was born in about 1815 in Acton, England, and travelled to South Australia with his brother James on the John Pirie. We know little about the brothers, although records indicate that Joseph married Harriet Wallace in 1836 – but not whether she was also aboard the John Pirie. Joseph and Harriet went on to settle in South Australia and have nine children, the first of whom was born in 1837.
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Great to have these records of the worthy Joseph, reinstated after the “strike” on KI, but not so brother James. Will be interested to follow up James later history.
Also I have been trying to find detail about Harriet and indeed any Wallaces from this early date, but no success.
Hello.
I passed your enquiry onto Bob Sexton, who has done a great deal of research into the passengers on these early ships, and this is his reply:
The South Australian Company Directors’ Minutes record that Joseph Jones and his older brother James were engaged by the Company and they came out by its schooner John Pirie. As with other Company servants, the cost was defrayed by the Land Fund but there is no mention of a wife or of a woman named Harriet in either the Minutes or the ‘Register of Emigrant Labourers Applying for a Free Passage to South Australia’, which notes that they were both labourers of Acton, Middlesex, single, and aged respectively 20 and 24. Upon arrival at Kangaroo Island Captain Martin certainly joined two couples in marriage, but not the Jones. The brothers are mentioned four times in the diary John Brown maintained during the voyage, again without hint of a wife, and it is thus it is quite clear that Harriet was not on board.
The difficulty is to positively connect the Joseph Jones of the John Pirie with the family which submitted information for the ‘Biographical Index of South Australians 1836-1885’. This indicates that a son William, the first of nine children, was born to Joseph and Harriet Jones in 1837. Neither their marriage nor his birth were recorded officially as civil registration of births, deaths and marriages did not commence in Britain until 1837 and locally until 1843. Following Joseph’s death, Harriet remarried in 1865, and her father was now recorded as being Robert Wallace. The complication is that a Joseph and Harriet, both aged between 25 and 35 and without children were listed in the 1841 census, and presumably another Joseph Jones married Harriet Lewis, a widow, at St John’s Church, Adelaide, in 1844, but neither their ages nor her father’s name were recorded to help identify them.
Cheers
Allison – History SA
thanks indeed for this information. Very exciting to have this record.
I too have been following up on Joseph Jones and Harriet Wallace
I was tracking down marriages in the paper and came across
“Family Notices.” South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 – 1900) 25 Apr 1862: 2
JONES-GILES.— On the 18th April, at Clarendon, by the Rev. William M. Bennett, William, eldest son of the late Mr. Joseph Jones, of Clarendon, to Agnes, second daughter of the late Mr. Charles Giles, of Adelaide.
William and Agnes go on to have a child
Berard Wallace Jones who also has a son called named Keith Wallace Jones….
“Family Notices.” South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 – 1900) 7 Apr 1862
HARDY—JONES.—On the 3rd April, by the Rev. William M. Bennett, at the residence of Mr. Joseph Hardy, Joseph Abraham, eldest son of Mr. Joseph Hardy, Clarendon, to Helen, eldest daughter of the late Mr. Joseph Jones, Acton, Middlesex, England
I’ve also been researching these brothers. After reading primary material concerning the voyage, I, like Bob Sexton, have concluded that Harriet was not on board John Pirie in 1836 with Joseph. I wonder if Harriet “Lewis” was a mishearing of Harriet Wallace, and it was “our” Joseph and Harriet marrying in 1842? (Harriet Lewis was listed as a widow, but we know the records are only as good as the information supplied, or how attentive the recorder was at the time).