Matilda Ransley
Of all of George and Elizabeth's children Matilda was the one who must have given them most sleepless nights. I can almost hear George grumbling to himself that this one got her nature – proud and headstrong, and sometimes just the wrong side of the law - from her Bailey relations.
One of the Ransleys' neighbours at the Falls was a Scotsman in his early 30s, George Nisbett, transported in 1821.1 This George was also serving a life sentence but unlike George Ransley his early conduct in VDL had been anything but exemplary. Sent to Macquarie Harbour in 1822 as punishment for stealing a boat 'with intent to escape from the colony' Nisbett committed a string of offences within two years of arriving. He gradually settled down, perhaps convinced by his umpteenth flogging, that the odds were against him.
Nisbett had just the tearaway profile to appeal to 22 year old Matilda Ransley and in November 1831 the couple applied for permission to marry.2 It is not clear from the record whether the request was approved but in any case the marriage never took place.
Ten months later Matilda gave birth to a son, George, at the River Styx but no father was named when registering the birth.3 Perhaps only Matilda knew who had fathered her child: her Scottish swain George Nisbett or the man she married the following year, Charles Fenton, or perhaps even she wasn't sure.4
Matilda’s son was not the first grandchild. George Ransley jr had beaten to his big sister to the punch in marrying New Norfolk teenager Bridget Murrell at St Matthews, New Norfolk, in June 1831 (George ‘Nisbet’ was one of their witnesses) and producing a daughter in April 1832.5
George jnr was leasing a farm owned by a successful emancipist George Salter at the River Styx at the time of his marriage.6 It looks like he may have got Matilda a position in Salter’s household where she met her future husband, Charles Fenton, Salter’s assigned servant.7
George Salter was to prove very generous to Matilda and Charles as they, with Matilda's youngest sister, Hannah, a mere child at the time, inherited a life interest in Salter's 260 acre farm when he died aged 88 in August 1832.8 Just what was going on at the Styx?
One possible scenario is that Matilda became housekeeper for the elderly Salter and sister Hannah went along to keep her company or because their parents were finding it hard to house their brood. While at Salter's Matilda fell pregnant to her colleague, Charles Fenton and the couple had served their master so well that he decided to give them a hand up and leave them his farm.9 Matilda's son, perhaps named George partly in honour of her benefactor, was born a few short weeks after Salter's death. As for little Hannah, she brought a ray of sunshine into the elderly man's declining years so she went into the will as well. Once these three had died the estate was to go back to the Salter family in the shape of a nephew of Salter's, also George, 'son of James Salter of New Norfolk'.10
Of course many more salacious possibilities also spring to mind – feel free to make up your own. It's likely that Salter's two executors, local squires Richard Barker and John Cawthorne, not to mention the local gossips, did just that.
It's worth noting that the Salter family seemed to remain on good terms with the Ransleys, despite being largely cut out of old George's will. Salter-Ransley marriages are frequent, starting with John Ransley, smuggler George's second son, who married Mary Salter, whom I believe to be a niece or great niece of George Salter, in 1841.11 As for the young George Salter, old George's nephew and residual beneficiary, he married Martha Ford Higgins, first cousin to Matilda and Hannah Ransley!12
Back to Matilda who seemed intent on proving she was a chip off the old block. In the year of his death George Ransley had the dubious pleasure of seeing his eldest daughter convicted of sly grog selling, a conviction she unsuccessfully appealed.13 At the time Matilda was running a store at the River Styx so her little sideline must have been in (friendly?) competition with brother-in-law George Rayner, Hannah’s husband and the licensee of the nearby Flag of Truce public house.
The following year Matilda was charged with perjury in connection with the evidence she had given in a case involving her husband, Charles Fenton, and Hobart merchant Moses Cohen. The case was a complex one involving bills of exchange, signatures forged or not forged and other arcane details of 19th century commerce.
The heart of the matter is that Matilda had sworn black and blue that she had not signed a critical piece of paper on behalf of her husband (Charles Fenton being illiterate) and could not have done so as she was back at the River Styx and not in Hobart at the relevant time.
[T]he evidence given on that occasion by Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, was of such a nature, as to induce the learned Judge [Mr Justice Horne], who tried the case, to commit them to the gaol, and, in consequence of that committal, he, the Attorney-General, had filed the present information, charging the defendant [Matilda] with perjury.14
Starting from a squabble over a business debt Matilda Fenton managed to find herself a few months later up before the highest court of the colony on a serious criminal charge. Quite a feat! Luckily for her, defence lawyers Brewer and Lees were able to call just enough witnesses, neighbours at the Styx, to muddy the waters to the point where
the evidence on the whole was so conflicting that the jury through their Foreman, intimated to His Honor, that they had decided upon a verdict of acquital [sic] and would not trouble him to sum up the case. The learned judge [Chief Justice Fleming] acquiesced in the opinion and the defendant was acquitted accordingly.15
Little wonder that when Charles Fenton and his son appeared before Judge Horne on a trespass charge later that year the His Honour threw the book at them. The Fentons had apparently taken it upon themselves to run 400-500 sheep and some cattle on part of a large farm at Bushy Park whose legal occupant was a Mr William Blyth, whose permission had not been sought.
When Blyth took steps to recover the use of his land the Fentons pushed back and Matilda was anything but a passive observer. The shepherd employed by Blyth told the court
I went up, and seeing Mrs. Fenton, said "New Tenants." She said, yes, this is my property. I said it was strange. She told me that the sooner I was off the run the better.16
Blyth’s son testified
On the 28th August I went to the land with my father and others. I found Charles Fenton, a son of his, ... a man and Mrs. Fenton there. Mrs. Fenton asked us where we were going. We said, " To the hut”. Whereupon Mrs. Fenton pushed my father away.17
It seems to have been common knowledge that it was Matilda who called the shots in the Fenton household - the jury foreman in yet another court case went on the record that ‘it was well known in Hobart Town that Charles Fenton was a non-entity’.18
Had she been born a couple of decades earlier, Matilda Ransley may have gone down in history as the first woman to lead a successful smuggling gang, a worthy successor to Captain Bats. But instead her death certificate describes this feisty businesswoman and mother of nine simply as the ‘wife of a farmer’.19
FICTION
The Bourne Tap
The door of the Bourne Tap burst open and a scrum of men spilled out into the yard, fists flying. Weatherboards and windowpanes reverberated with their violent passage. George Ransley pursued them outside to quieten the dogs whose barking was unsettling the carthorses.
“That’ll do boys. Save it for the excisemen,” he advised the combattants.
Bourne Road was almost invisible in the gathering dark but George knew without looking that sentries were posted along its length to Frith Road. The only traffic to pass would be his own men gathering for the night’s run.
Inside Elizabeth and her sister Rhoda continued to line up tots of grog – not too ample – along the elm plank that served as bar. Matilda cut bread and cheese for the late arrivals while young George tapped the next keg and chalked up the number of drinks consumed on a slate.
Elizabeth saw that the straw covering the floor was none too fresh but knew it would see much worse before the night’s business was concluded. It could wait till tomorrow.
George made a sign to one of the drinkers. Samuel Bailey left his place by the chimney, ducking slightly to avoid the ceiling beams, and followed his brother-in-law through a plain plank door.
The adjoining room was simply furnished but the floor was flagstone, not the earth of the bar room. George checked briefly on his younger children, tucked sleeping into two wooden cots, then spread out a hand drawn map on the room’s sole table.
“Time to get to work Sam.”
1TAHO CON31/1/29 Conduct Record George Nisbet.
2TAHO CON45/1/1.
3TAHO RGD NN 32/1/1 no.4602.
4TAHO RGD No 36/1/2 No. 2289. Charles Fenton, no relation to the owner of Fenton Forest, seemed to consider Matilda's son, later known as George Ransley Fenton, to be his own.
5Named Elizabeth for her grandmother. TAHO RGD 32/1/1 No 4587. Baptism Elizabeth Ransley.
6A Second Fleet convict transported from Devon to NSW (for smuggling as it happens) George Salter moved to VDL in 1813 after success as a farmer at Parramatta. Michael Flynn George Salter and His House 1796-1817 http://dx.doi.org/10.4227/11/5045887EC9ACB accessed Feb 2017. Colonial Times 8 Jan 1833. So far as I can establish Salter’s farm ran north from the angle of the Rivers Styx and Derwent up to what is now the railway line. It is traversed by the Gordon River Road once you cross the River Derwent if going from Macquarie Plains to Glenora. Colonial Times 15 Jan 1833. In modern terms Property ID 2960494, Title Ref 129141/1 http://maps.thelist.tas.gov.au/listmap/app/list/map accessed Feb 2017.
7The couple married on 6 May 1833 at New Norfolk. TAHO RGD NN 36/1/2 no. 2289.
8TAHO RGD NN34/1/1 No.2601. See TAHO AD960/1/1 p.99 for George Salter's will.
9Matilda inherited Salter's household goods exclusively – a reward for good dusting? - and shared the property's livestock (cattle, horse and pigs) with her sister. This could indicate that Hannah also worked on the farm, caring for its animals.
10While so described in the will it's possible this George was a great nephew, I haven't pursued every strand of Salter DNA to find out.
11TAHO RGD Hbt 37/1841/1261. Marriage John Ransley and Mary Salter.
12On 8 Oct 1849. TAHO RGD Hamilton 37/1/8 no.199. Under the terms of George Salter’s will, once Charles, Matilda and Hannah had died the property reverted to nephew George Salter or his heirs (presumably the children of George Salter and Martha Ford Higgins) if he had already died.
13Colonial Times 17 Jan 1856.
14Mercury 13 Feb 1857.
15Mercury 13 Feb 1857.
16Tasmanian Daily News 15 Sep 1857.
17Tasmanian Daily News 15 Sep 1857.
18Mercury 3 Mar 1860.
19TAHO RGD NN 35/1/37 no. 379. Death Matilda Fenton.