Lady Mary Pelham passenger list

It is impossible to be sure of who was on board the South Australian Company’s barque Lady Mary Pelham. The ‘Register of Emigrant Labourers Applying for a Free Passage to South Australia’ lists those people considering life in the new colony and generally indicates on which ship those deciding to proceed were embarked. However uncertainty arises from clerical errors, last minute changes, and desertions. Together with the Company’s other officers and servants, the Lady Mary Pelham’s crew was considered to be an addition to the colony’s population, so those eligible are named in the ‘Register of Emigrant Labourers’ as well as the Directors’ Minutes, which recorded all engagements. Two surviving letters, from a passenger Cornelius Birdseye and second mate Alexander Dawsey, confirm the rank of the ship’s officers who are merely named in the Minutes, but there is no account of the voyage that might have provided further information. John Williams and Patrick Keiffe were engaged by the Company, but their entry in the ‘Register of Emigrant Labourers’ is annotated ‘but not sent’.

Officers:
Master: Robert Ross
First mate: James Doine Thompson (died at sea)
Second mate: Alexander Dawsey
Third mate: Walter S. Edmunds

Crew:
Thomas Amey
Andrew Anderson
Ralph Anderson
Christopher Burn
Edward Brett
William Chadwick
Robert Davis
William Drewery
James Fasting
James Forsyth
Richard Kelly
Thomas Kelly
Henry Mason
John Owens
John Robinson
John Slattery
Joseph Smith
George Swyney
John Thomas
Richard Wilde
Elias Williams
Robert Williams

Passengers:
Cornelius Birdseye
Mrs Birdseye

Emigrants:
William Samuel Capper
John Clark
James Fasting
Mrs J.D. Thompson (wife of mate)
William Walker

– information compiled by Bob Sexton