Old Parramattans is a collection of peer-reviewed essays featuring people connected to numerous heritage sites of Parramatta and buried at St. John’s Cemetery, Parramatta, Australia’s oldest surviving European cemetery (1790), and/or registered in the St. John’s Parish burial register.
The biographies in the collection have been selected and edited by historian Dr. Michaela Ann Cameron and, while some are voluntary contributions, those marked with an asterisk have been supported by either the New South Wales Government through a Create NSW “Arts and Cultural grant” (2019–2020); a Parramatta City Council Community Grant (2016); or a small grant from the Royal Australian Historical Society through funds allocated from the Heritage Branch of the Office of Environment and Heritage (2015) [See “Credits” below for the key]. Using these funds, a number of historians have applied their expertise to tell these diverse stories from Old Parramatta, ranging from content on First Peoples, First Fleeters, Second and Third Fleeters, to missionaries, surgeons, Female Factory inmates and personnel, children, convicts, constables and colonial elites.
This work is ongoing, but the essays that are currently available can be accessed below.
Augustus Alt: The Baron** [Memorial]
Lydia Barber: A Real Tess of the d’Urbervilles [Memorial]
George Barrington: The Prince of Pickpockets*
Rogues, Rapists, Cheats, Thieves and Murderers: The Batmans* [Memorial]
Nicholas Bayly: The Anti-Settler* [Memorial]
Sarah Bell: Female Factory Matron* [Memorial]
Elizabeth Bennett: The Baker’s Wife [Memorial]
William H. Bennett: An Eminent Baker [Memorial]
Elizabeth Bourke: A Much-Lamented Lady* [Memorial]
The Killing and Keening of Simon Burn* [Reported Grave]
Mary Cavillon: Homemaker, Housebreaker* [Memorial]
Nicholas Cavillon: A Hardened Villain* [Memorial]
Frances Hannah Clements: The Convict’s Child [Memorial]
William Cosgrove: Duty and Destiny* [Memorial]
Catherine Crowley: A Convict Sea Wife* [Memorial]
Thomas Daveney: The Tyrant of Toongabbie* [Probable Grave]
Henry Dodd: The Faithful Servant** [Memorial] [Marker]
Elizabeth Eccles: The Dairy Maid [Probable Grave]
Thomas Eccles: The Swine Connoisseur** [Memorial]
Edward Elliott: The Husbandman** [Memorial]
Lady FitzRoy: The People’s Lady* [Memorial] [Public Monument]
Thomas Freeman: Minding the Store* [Memorial]
The Grimshaws: The Eternal Masquerader* [Memorial]
A ‘Raw, Ignorant Boy’: John Harris, Esquire* [Memorial]
Deborah Herbert: A Prigger of Toggery [Memorial]
John Herbert: From Felon to Farmer** [Memorial]
The Hollands: Guns ‘n’ Tuberoses* [Memorial]
Hugh Hughes: The Wheelwright Made Right** [Memorial]
John Irving: The Best Surgeon Amongst Them*
Mary Kelly: The ‘First Lady’ of Kellyville*** [Memorial]
David Killpack: The Merry Mutineer** [Memorial]
Isaac Knight: The Trusty Sergeant** [Memorial]
Elizabeth Lawry: Little Babe* [Memorial]
Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Lees: Departed Innocence*
Catherine Leigh: Faithful Coadjutor* [Memorial]
John Lewis: The ‘First’ Murder*
The Wretched, Rascally and Depraved Magees, and the Story of St. John’s First Burial* [Memorial]
Samuel Marsden: A Contested Life [Memorial]
John Martin: The Self-Freed Slave*** [Memorial Plaque]
Mary Martin: Ungodly Visitation* [Memorial]
Thomas Martin: The Ripples of a Revolution*
James McManus: The Wrath of a Madman
Jane McManus: The Maid Freed from the Gallows*** [Memorial]
“He was a Clever Chiel Geordie, Tae be Only a Weaver”: George Mealmaker* [Memorial]
Josephine Mercelin: Convicts, Slaves and the Global Entanglements of New South Wales and Mauritius
Sarah Moses: Tell the World I Died for Love* [Memorial]
Lives Left Behind: The Forsaken Families of First Fleeters William Gloster and James Ogden*
Christopher Palmer: Perils of a Purser* [Memorial]
John Palmer: The Purser, The P.O.W** [Memorial]
Richard Partridge: The Left-Handed Flogger
Benjamin Ratty: Convict Constable* [Memorial]
Mary Rowe: At What Price Theft?*
Mary Anne Smith: A Murder is Announced* [Memorial]
Mary Smyth and John Kenny: A Murderer’s Banes in Gibbet Airns*
St. John’s Parsonage: Lost Landmark*
Introduction: Lost Landmark*
Part I: Georgian Parsonage*
Part II: Victorian Mansion*
Part III: Ladies’ College*
Part IV: Edwardian Rubble*
Conclusion*
No Pity for the Hunted: The Tarlingtons, Little Jemmy and Little George* [Memorials [1] [2] [3] [4]]
The Taylors: I Am But Sleeping Here* [Memorial] [Recorded Grave]
D’Arcy Wentworth: A Gentleman Rogue* [Memorial]
John Williams: The Mayor of Reinvention* [Memorial]
James Wright: The Highwayman*** [Memorial]
CREDITS
The essays in the Old Parramattans collection marked* are supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
The essays marked** were supported through a Parramatta City Council Community Grant.
The essays marked*** were assisted by funds allocated to the Royal Australian Historical Society through the Heritage Branch of the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage.
The essays without any asterisk were very generously completed on a voluntary basis and donated to the project by Matthew Allen, Michaela Ann Cameron and Briony Neilson.
Collection Design, Research Assistance, Editing, Multimedia and Publishing: Michaela Ann Cameron.
Peer Reviewers: Special thanks to the academic peer reviewers who have so generously volunteered their time (but must remain anonymous), and to Mark Pearce, churchwarden of St. John’s Anglican Cathedral, Parramatta, for his valuable feedback regarding factual details on a number of the pieces published as part of this collection.
Authors: Caitlin Adams, Matthew Allen, Sarah A. Bendall, Michaela Ann Cameron, Alexander Cameron-Smith, James Dunk, Elizabeth de Réland, Penny Edwell, James Findlay, Catie Gilchrist, Jennifer McLaren, David Morgan, Briony Neilson, Danielle Thyer, Ben Vine.
Research Assistance for selected First Fleet content: Jennifer Follers, The Fellowship of First Fleeters.
Intern: Abbie Hartman.
© Copyright 2015–2021 Michaela Ann Cameron
St. John's 