William Orchard and Louisa Dale
By Allison Carrins
TFHS Inc. Member No. 668
William Henry Orchard was born on 11 October 1838 in Bridport, Dorsetshire, UK. His parents may have been William and Isabella (Crocker) who married on 16 May 1837.
William claimed to have first touched Australian soil when he waded ashore after the luxury ship, Schomberg,on her maiden voyage ran into a storm on 27 December 1855, and slid onto a reef off Cape Otway in Victoria. (He was a 'Bounty' passenger, so no doubt had basic accommodation.) The story of this wreck is told in 'Wrecks Around Cape Otway' and photos and a display of relics are in the Warrnambool Maritime Museum. There was no loss of life, but loss of goods, and the ship eventually broke up, not able to be salvaged.
The passengers were conveyed to Melbourne, and William's name heads the passenger list of those from the Schomberg,travelling on the Maid of the Yarra to Launceston, arriving 31 December 1855. He was sponsored by Edward Symonds, occupation given as farm labourer, and the shipping company was paid 22 pounds for his 'safe' arrival! He gave his age as 20, though he must have been only 17.
His grandson, Reg Hunt, recorded some of his and Louisa's story as told to him by his mother, Bertha.
Although unable to read or write, William Orchard was a gifted mechanic, and came to Tasmania after learning that many water-driven flour mills were operating in the north. He spent his first night in Tasmania at the Court House Hotel, Launceston. Before dawn next morning, one of the hotel staff knocked on his door and called out, "Hurry up Mister, a man is going to be hung across the road this morning!"
William had no wish to see the event, so he lost no time in paying his bill and getting out on the road (now Wellington Street) where he saw a large crowd in the enclosure.
He walked the twenty miles to Westbury, then a thriving village with seven hotels. Being useful with scythe and sickle, he soon found work. (He was in the care of Ed Symonds on 24 January 1856, who as sponsor would find him employment.) Later, he worked for several years in the flour mill at Egmont, owned by George Greenhill. Egmont was two miles from Westbury, an estate of 900 acres, with a frontage of one mile on the Meander River.
He also worked on the first threshing machines introduced into Tasmania by Walker Bros. These machines caused upsets to the hand-threshing labourers, but this hostility was short-lived and the services of these wonder machines were so sought after that they were kept busy often right up to midwinter and were taken as far south as Campbell Town. He could operate a stationary steam engine as boiler attendant and would have loved to have worked on the railways, as they were established, but lack of education prevented him from gaining the necessary qualification.
Louisa Elizabeth Dale, who was to become William Orchard's wife, was a slightly-built girl, from the industrial town of Ipswich in England. (She was born on 6 June 1841, the daughter of Samuel Dale, a bricklayer, and Louisa [Osborne].) In her teens, she obtained a position with the family of the late General Havelock who had died after the relief of Lucknow, ending the Indian Mutiny. (It was thought by her family that Louisa came out with the General and his family at the time of the Mutiny, but that is not correct, as his family was safe in England well before and during the Mutiny. Members of his family must have gone out to India afterwards.)
Reg. Hunt's story continues.
For some reason, when the family returned to England, Louisa decided to travel with other Europeans who were leaving India and seeking a future in Australia where transportation had ceased and migration was booming. In Melbourne she could not find suitable employment, so came to Tasmania (listed on the Hoogly,Hobart to Launceston, 21 December 1859) but here her luck was no better. With her money running short, she accepted a position on a farm at Westbury.
However, she soon found the long hours of hard work and meagre rations too much. After a few weeks, she told her employer. He was so enraged that he dismissed her without any pay. She set off to walk the twenty miles back to Launceston, but soon realised that she had no hope of getting there before nightfall. At Hagley, the next town, she sat on the steps of the inn and wept. Just then, Sir Richard Dry (later Premier of Tasmania) drove past on his way home, to Quamby, on the outskirts of the village. He enquired about the girl and took her to be cared for at his home. After Louisa had regained strength, Sir Richard obtained a good position for her with his friend Mr Richard Boutcher and his family at nearby Cliston.
While working there, she met and fell in love with William Orchard. They were married 31 March 1861 in the Hagley School house (used for services prior to the erection of the very beautiful St Marys Church of England).
So William and Louisa, both coming through perilous journeys across the world by very different routes, and after many hard experiences, met in this new country. They had twelve children, of whom nine grew to adulthood, and their descendants have made a worthy contribution to this land, mostly in Tasmania. They lived in the Westbury district where most of their children were born, until December 1878 when they moved to Waverley, where Mr Peter Bulman had established the Woollen Mill (which still operates).
They lived in a cottage belonging to the mill. Waverley Mill used water power till 1888, then used water to produce electricity. Peter Bulman was actually the first person in Australia and possibly the Southern Hemisphere, to operate and provide electric light and power for his house and factory. It was not until 1895 that Duck Reach power station began operating. William may have worked the water-driven machinery and left when electricity was introduced. Some of the family learned the textile business. Their youngest children, born 1883, were twins who only lived a few weeks, but were named Harry Bulman and Waverley Rose.
After about ten years there, William kept a grocery store on the comer of Galvin and South Streets, Launceston. During the last twelve years of his life, he suffered from some kind of paralysis, thought to have started with a stroke. Some of the family remembered that he had no use in his hands. Reg. Hunt's mother told how her father would walk around the paddock kicking over pieces of wood or cow pats, followed by a flock of chooks after the worms. This was at St Leonards where William and Louisa lived with their daughter Bertha and her husband, William Hunt.
In those days, pensions were just becoming available. It took some time to persuade William to apply for it-the first payment, about 15/- a week, was made to Louisa about the time of his passing 22 June 1909. Louisa had been friends with Mrs Peters of Peters Foundry in Wellington Street. When the Hunts moved to the West Tamar, the Peters family made a cottage available ( off Wellington Street) for Louisa as long as she needed it. She died 8 May 1917.
We will never know what motivated Louisa to leave home and family, never to return, and as far as is known, she didn't have any contact with them again. Some of the family thought she came from a wealthy family, because of a photo of large brick house with 'Home of Louisa Dale' on the back. But the people standing round what seems to be the back of the house look more like servants. One of them could be Louisa, just a young girl. So it is probably the home of the family who employed her. We have the church records of her own family, and her father was a bricklayer.
I have perused an old book on the 'Life and Times of Henry Havelock', written in 1860 by Mrs Havelock's brother, John Clark Marshman, and the only reference to Ipswich, is that Marshman was standing for an election in Ipswich. So it can only be assumed that he found employment for Louisa with the Havelock family. Perhaps the large house was his.
William and Louisa were my great grandparents. The eldest child, Arthur William, married Mary Ann Carey, daughter of John and Elizabeth Carey, and their youngest child, John Raymond Orchard (1906-1995) was my father.
This story was originally published in 2001 by the Tasmanian Family History Society Inc in My Most Interesting Ancestor.
The original introduction to this publication may be found here.