Doctor BENSON or Quack?

[lou4lou]

Thanks for that reference - I have seen it before.  I understand how women were treated as merely extensions of their husbands in those times, but am fascinated by Hannah - she came out as a 17-year old alone with the man she was to marry - or did they meet on the voyage? 
My mother tells me, just as a humorous sidelight, that her Aunt Bertha (daughter of Barker's son William Robson) used artefacts gathered by either Barker or William as garden stakes in her backyard at Bexley.  She also recalls a story about William riding a horse up the steps of Sydney Town Hall

[Barkrelsatthepoint]

Hi all,

I thought I'd be persistent and see if I could find anything on Barker and Hannah in NZ other than the place they got married. Instead found this document  'Journal by  ngairedith'

http://www.familytreecircles.com/passngers-of-the-catherine-stewart-forbes-wellington-1841-32720.html   

As I read it I realized a couple of things I hadn't noticed before:

1. The very young ages of the passengers.
2. A striking number of families with young 'teenage' girls and boys.
3. A person by the name of Mary Durham who in this document is described as a MATRON.
4. The fact that Hannah wasn't the only very young semptress.

Others seemingly travelling on their own are:

Amoss, Mary Ann - 19 - Dressmaker
Squire, Emma - 16 – Sempstress
Swaffer, Martha - 22 - Sempstress
Swaffer, Matilda - 19 - Sempstress

Many other girls in the families use the same title 'semptress' to describe their skills - one as young as 12 years of age.

I then thought that if you add Matron Durham who is 54 years of age (the oldest passenger) and at minimum five girls all calling themselves 'semptresses' could it be that they all 'belong together'

Maybe it's grasping at straws but a bunch of girls being allowed to go abroad under the patronage??? of an older woman seems a far more likely scenario than all these young ladies travelling on their own???

It doesn't rule out the possibility that Barker and Hannah eloped, but perhaps this is an avenue to set about discovering.

Cheers barkrels   
   

[oldbarkersrelsatmenai]

Hi anyone out there still getting alerts for this thread. Its barkersrels at the point here but we've moved so I've re-registered.

I am now writing the second book on the Australian story after writing the first one for our own family on the English Bensons. I bought Simone's book online and it gave me a jump start back to England even though I was about to finish up the Australian one. 16 pages later...

So if your family tree stops at Thomas Benson's will from Whitby Museum, I'm commending to you a site which I found 7 weeks ago and gave been working on ever since. I'll call it 'Meet the rellies'
it's at Lady Day 1673 Hearth Assessment for North Riding of Yorkshire. The 1672 version for the East Riding is a gem also. I can give you many more sites not the least being a connection to Chapman and Company from Simone's book and I can tell you what Barker was doing in 1836 I think it is and its to do with law! Oh also I came across a great thesis on Universities and Doctoring.
I don't think its fair to keep it to myself after all genealogy research is about helping others. Hope someone out there is still interested.

Cheers xxx