Of John Everard's and Jane Sanders' two surviving sons and three daughters, we know that four of the five definitely married and had families. Of younger son, Thomas Everard, I have no knowledge at all..even the information given on his parents' death certificates is conflicting...the 1895 death certificate of his father states that his son Thomas is dead and other children are still living. When his wife Jane died in 1908, on her death certificate Thomas has risen from the dead and is stated as being 48 years old (he would have been 52 if he was still alive)
I will start first with the eldest child of the family, Elizabeth Everard, who was also known as 'Eliza' or 'Elizabeth Jane'. Her life story is one of immense struggle and courage, and at the completion of my research into her life I had found a great deal to admire about her character and strength.
1. ELIZABETH EVERARD: Elizabeth Everard, also known as ‘Eliza’, was the first child born to Irish-born John Everard and his English partner Jane Sanders in c. 1850.
It is unknown how and when John Everard arrived in Victoria. His death
certificate stated that at the time of his death in 1895 he had been in the
Colony of Victoria for 48 years, putting his year of arrival as c. 1847.
John Everard’s profession was always given as ‘carpenter’, and after initially
working around Melbourne he found himself in Warrnambool. First daughter Elizabeth was born in Melbourne, but all future siblings were born in Warrnambool. Jane’s brother, Thomas Sanders, and his family had also eventually settled near Warrnambool, in a town called Framlingham where Thomas ran a pub.
Jane Sanders had received no education, and could not read or write. John Everard could at least sign his name, whereas Jane signed her name when required for official documents with a cross. Daughter Elizabeth was the same- in all documents pertaining to her family, she signed her name with a cross also. Her brother John David Everard could both read and write, but sister Mary Ann signed her marriage certificate with a cross. Youngest child, Annie Everard, was able to sign her own name on her marriage certificate when she married William Sparkes in 1881.
In 1867, aged only 17 years, Eliza Everard married 28 year old John Mansfield
from County Cork. John brought to the marriage a ready-made family for Eliza...his first wife Catherine Luddy had died on March 19, 1866 ( information provided on the marriage certificate of John Mansfield to Eliza Everard) and left behind three little sons aged between one and four years. John had married Catherine Luddy in 1862,and their children were: John Mansfield born 1863, William born 1865 and Samuel born 1866. Samuel’s birth and his mother’s death both occurring in 1866 suggests that her demise may have been childbirth-related, as was so often the case in that period. I cannot find a trace of Catherine Luddy Mansfield’s death in the Victorian BDMs, but she does have a gravestone in the Mortlake Cemetery. Details from the
‘Cemeteries of South-West Victoria’ dvd state: “ 178. Catherine Mansfield, b c.
1840(?). Died May 26, 1866(?)26 years (?) wife of John. Last digit of year
inscription difficult to read.”
John’s details on his marriage certificate state that he had been born in
Mitchell’s Town, County Cork, Ireland, in c. 1839 to parents William Mansfield,
horse dealer, and Mary Ann Fennessey. His occupation was given as ‘horse dealer’ his age 28 and his present and usual abode as ‘Mount Gambier’.
Because she was only seventeen years old, Elizabeth had to obtain her father’s written consent to the marriage. She married John Mansfield at the Wesleyan Parsonage at Warrnambool on January 31, 1867, with both of her parents acting as witnesses to the marriage. Elizabeth and her mother signed their names with a cross, while the bride’s father and husband scribed their names. Elizabeth’s occupation was given as ‘sempstress’, and her present and usual residence as Warrnambool.
It has come to light that Elizabeth’s first choice of a husband was a very poor
one...the South Australian Police Gazette of January 17, 1868, and April 1, 1868, carried the following notice:
“A warrant has been issued at Mount Gambier, 6th January, 1868, for the apprehension of John Mansfield, charged with deserting his family.
Description- about 5 feet 10 or 11 inches high, medium build, about twelve
stone weight, 30 years of age, dark hair and whiskers, small, active appearance.”
It seems that John had ditched 18 year old Eliza and left her with his three
small sons. Youngest child Samuel died in Victoria the same year, so Eliza must
have gone back to her home state after her husband left her.
The purchase of Samuel Mansfield’s death certificate tells a very sad tale, but
throws up more questions. He died at Warrnambool Hospital on May 25, 1868, aged only 2 years 3 months. His parents were noted as being John Mansfield, horse breaker, and Catherine Mansfield, and the cause of his death “debility caused by neglect, six weeks duration” as certified by R.H Harrington, coroner.
The little boy’s death was registered by Edward Wilson, master of the hospital,
Warrnambool, and he was buried in the Warrnambool Cemetery the following day.
Now for the questions...after being deserted by her husband early on in her
marriage, Elizabeth must have made her way from Mount Gambier back to Warrnambool where her family resided. The fact that her stepson Samuel Mansfield died in Warrnambool in May shows that Elizabeth took the three children back with her.
The coroner stated that the debility which caused Samuel’s death was of six week’s
duration- was that the period during which he had been neglected to such an extent that he died, or the period in which he had been treated by the hospital, with the neglect starting prior to this date? Six weeks before his death takes the time period to around mid-April 1868. This is roughly the time period in which Elizabeth fell pregnant with the first of her own children.
An article published in the Melbourne newspaper ‘The Argus’ solved the mystery of what happened to Eliza Everard’s two remaining stepsons after little Samuel died:
" "A most deplorable scene", writes the Examiner, was witnessed in Warrnambool on Tuesday last. Four magistrates were on the bench, when two young boys, named John Mansfield, aged six years, and William Mansfield, aged four years, were presented by Mrs Everard, residing in the gully, with a request that the children might be sent to the Industrial School.
The application was backed up by the police, and Sergeant Archibald stated that several warrants had been issued for the apprehension of the father without effect, as he is supposed to be in New South Wales. It appears that they are the children of John Mansfield, who worked on Mrs Robertson's station at Connewarren. His wife (the mother of the children named) died about three years ago, and he has since married the daughter of Mrs Everard, and deserted her. The stepmother was unable, through illness, to appear in court, and the bench forthwith granted the application.
The same man, Mansfield, whilst on the station, seized James Murphy, who murdered Constable Boyle, in the Warrnambool Court-house in August, 1863. John Mansfield was then praised for his courageous conduct; but if he had seen his two innocent children as they prattled along from the court-house to the gaol on Tuesday morning, under the protection of the police, it might have induced a feeling of remorse, as none but a callous heart could witness such a spectacle without pity. The children were sent to Melbourne by the steamer Edina. We hope that the police will still hunt up the delinquent who has so cruelly neglected those whom he had sworn to provide for and protect."
-From the 'Argus', Monday 26 July, 1869, page 4 & 5.
Mystery surrounds the events which followed next. According to records, Elizabeth Everard gave birth to two children to her husband, even though the marriage certificate to husband number two stated that she only had one. On January 27, 1869 – just over a year after John Mansfield had been publicly named as a deserter of his family- Elizabeth Everard Mansfield gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Mansfield. Her father was named as John Mansfield, 30 years of age, horse dealer, born Sydney NSW. The reasons for the discrepancy between John’s places of birth as given on his marriage certificate (County Cork) and the baby Elizabeth’s birth certificate (Sydney NSW) are not known.
The interesting thing about Elizabeth Everard’s first child is that she gave birth
to her at the Lying-In hospital, Melbourne. Founded as a place where underprivileged women could give birth and receive proper medical and nursing attention, the original title of the hospital was the 'Melbourne Lying-In Hospital and Infirmary for Diseases of Women and Children'.
A brief history of the Lying-In Hospital is as follows:
“The Women's was initially a ‘charity’ hospital, serving the needs of women
unable to afford private medical care. Melbourne was marvellous for some but the allure of gold had left many women without support or the means to care for themselves or their children.
Most sought assistance when giving birth or recovering from its after-effects,
or when plagued by troublesome or life-threatening gynaecological conditions
later in life.
The hospital was a benevolent institution dependent on donations and subscriptions from the successful and comfortably-off sector of society – these were not people who wanted be seen to be supporting an institution that assisted the morally lapsed.
However, that is precisely what happened. Whether by doctors admitting women in labour without abiding by the requirement for the Ladies' Committee to first vet candidates, or whether the ladies were more generous than they were purporting to be, a large proportion – occasionally as many as half – of the women giving birth at the hospital were unmarried.
The hospital is located in an inner suburb of Melbourne and many of the suburbs around it were already slums by the end of the 19th century. Demand for the hospital's services was strong and sustained and in its first decade nearly 3,000 women were admitted and many more treated as outpatients. “
From: http://www.thewomens.org.au/PatientRecords
This background of the place of Elizabeth Everard Mansfield’s first labour and
birth makes me confident in thinking that John Mansfield perhaps was not the father of Elizabeth’s child as she suggested. There is no indication that John ever returned to his family, and in the South Australian Police Gazette of July 1872 the following was published:
“Missing Friends: John Mansfield, born in Sydney, aged 35 years, 5 feet 11 inches high, dark complexion, black hair, dark eyes, round shoulders, a horse breaker. He left Warrnambool in January 1867 and went to Mount Gambier, and from there to Penola. It is reported that he afterwards went to Queensland, and was trading in horses between there and Adelaide.”
In an amazing bit of luck, I discovered that the Lying-In Hospital records are
online for the period which concerned Elizabeth Everard’s time there, and I was able to view her records for the two occasions that she gave birth in the
hospital.
In baby Elizabeth’s birth, the entry reads as follows:
Number of case: 3418
Date: 27th January, 1869
Name: Elizabeth Mansfield
Age: 18
Country: Victoria
No. Child: 1st
If married: Yes
Date confined: 27th January
Child alive: Yes
Presentation: Head
Duration of labour: 6 hours
Weight of child: 7 ½ pounds
Length: 18 inches
Dismissed: 5th February
For Elizabeth’s second child I could find no birth certificate- only the certificate for his death 4 days later. Fortunately, the record for this birth
also appeared in the Lying-In Hospital records :
“Number of case: 4151
Date: 27th November, 1870.
Name: Elizabeth Mansfield
Age: 22
Country: Victoria
No. Child: 2nd.
If married: Yes
Date confined: 27 November
Child alive: yes
Presentation: head
Duration of labour: 10 hours
Weight of child: 2 ½ pounds
Length: 16 inches
Observations: Premature
Dismissed: 9th December.
Elizabeth’s tiny baby was a boy whom she named Francis Mansfield, and he lived for only four days because of his prematurity. He died at the Lying-In Hospital on December 1st, 1870. Again the baby’s father was given as John Mansfield, horse breaker, and the informant was a messenger at the Lying-In Hospital, Melbourne North. He was buried in the General Cemetery, Melbourne, on December 2nd, 1870.
The death of Elizabeth Everard’s first child, Elizabeth Mansfield, took place on
December 30, 1869, at Saint Patrick’s Right of Way, West Melbourne. The information on her death certificate, or lack thereof, speaks volumes...there was no father listed, only the mother ‘Elizabeth Mansfield, servant’. Baby Elizabeth’s age at death was given as 6 months, even though she was eleven months old. The informant on the certificate was Caroline Durrant, dry nurse in attendance on deceased, St. Patricks Right of Way, West Melbourne. Caroline signed her name with a cross. Little Elizabeth was buried in the Melbourne Cemetery on December 31, 1869.
I can find no information on this ‘St Patrick’s Right of Way’ in West Melbourne, but it was obviously a charitable institution where Elizabeth Everard as a deserted wife with a small child could seek help. Caroline Durrant declared that she was the baby’s ‘dry nurse’, which is someone who cares for a baby but does not breast feed it as a wet nurse would do. Elizabeth Everard was working as a servant while her baby was attended. Elizabeth must have fallen pregnant with her second child somewhere around Autumn of 1870( for a baby to be born full term around late November 1870 it would have been conceived around February...a premature 2 1/2 pound baby would have been conceived around March to May 1870.)
By the end of the year Elizabeth was twenty years old and had seen the deaths of two babies and the desertion of her husband. Her movements over the next four years are unknown, until in February of 1874 when she turned up in Sandhurst to marry her second husband, James Gilmartin. She stated on the marriage certificate that she was a widow as of 1871, but the fact is that John Mansfield was not dead... he did not die until 1913, up in Queensland!
The Queensland Pioneer index has the following entry:
1913 C207 John Mansfield parents William Mansfield and Mary Ann Finese.
(“Finese” is written as “Fennessey” on John Mansfield’s marriage certificate)
Did Elizabeth know he was still alive and marry anyway, or had John Mansfield disappeared so completely that he was believed dead to those who knew him? Whatever the case, he must have been a terrible husband and father, and Elizabeth would have been hoping for a better life’s partner in her second marriage.
Unfortunately for Elizabeth, her second marriage also had its problems, although they were of a different nature than those she had with John Mansfield.
She married Irishman James Gilmartin, a 26 year old labourer, at Sandhurst on
February 9, 1874. Aged 22 (actually more like 24), Elizabeth stated that she was a domestic servant from Echuca, and that she had been widowed in 1871, with one child of that marriage deceased.
Elizabeth was in her early stages of her third pregnancy when she married James Gilmartin in early February of 1874. She gave birth to a daughter on July 10, 1874, five months after her marriage, and named her Blanche Ada Gilmartin. Like her first two pregnancies, Eliza chose to deliver at the Lying-In Hospital in Melbourne. The details of her delivery were as follows:
Patient number: 5798
Date” 9th July, 1874
Name: Eliza Gilmartin, 24 years.
Country: Victoria
Number child: Second
Married: Yes
Date confined: 10 July, 1874
Child alive: Yes
Presentation & sex: head female
Duration of labour: 8 hours
Weight of child: 7 lbs
Length: 20 inches
Dismissed: 28th July.
On the child’s birth certificate, her parents’ details were given as “Father:
James Gilmartin, labourer, 26 years, born Limerick, Ireland (incorrect birthplace- he was born in County Tipperary). Mother: Eliza Gilmartin late Mansfield, mn Evride, 24 years, born Melbourne.” The doctor who attended Eliza’s labour was Dr Thomas Rowan, the nurse Mrs Dewar and a witness named Miss Harvey also attended.
Eliza and her baby daughter returned to the Echuca district, where James had taken a lease on just over 148 acres of land at Kanyapella. Eliza surely must have thought her luck had finally changed as she settled into a stable home and farm with a new husband and baby, but unbelievably fate was not done with her yet.
The following year, in December of 1875, Eliza’s daughter fell ill. A great grandson
of Eliza, Nick Grumley, shared the following sad tale of what happened when Eliza found her child ‘s health rapidly declining:-
“A story my mum told me about Elizabeth, told by mum's dad to her. When Elizabeth was married to James on the farm at Kanyapella, her child was sick (possibly the first by James) and she walked the 13kms to see the doctor in Echuca carrying the child all the way. Unfortunately, the doctor pronounced the child dead, so she carried the child back to the farm for burial. A plaque recently placed is supposed to mark the spot under a mulberry tree.”
This story just enforces the strong, courageous woman that Eliza Gilmartin
was. It is impossible to imagine the heartbreak of carrying her third child, dead
in her arms, back to the farm to bury her close by. Her daughter Elizabeth and son Francis were both buried in Melbourne, almost certainly in unmarked graves- at least Eliza could visit the resting place of her little girl.
Confusion exists over the death certificate of Eliza’s and James’s first child...James registered the event in Echuca on the same day that it occurred, but stated that his daughter’s name was ‘Edith Gilmartin’ rather than ‘Blanche’ or ‘Ada’. Her age was seventeen months, and the cause of her death was given
as “teething and diarrhoea”. She was named as 'Ada Blanch' on her mother's death certificate.
Eliza Gilmartin went on to have a large family of eleven other children-seven
daughters and four sons- all born on the farm at Kanyapella. Their names and
years of birth were as follows:
1876: Mary Jane
1877: Margaret Gilmartin
1879: James Edward Gilmartin
1881: Elizabeth Bridget Gilmartin
1883: John Patrick Gilmartin
1884: Sarah Ann Gilmartin
1886: Ada Ellen Gilmartin
1888: Michael William Thomas Gilmartin
1890: Silas Alfred Gilmartin
1892: Angelina Etterell Ambug Gilmartin.
1894: Ethel Gilmartin ???(this last child is not found in the Victorian BDM index or
on her parent’s death certificates, but her details come from her granddaughter Kathy Riley). I actually think that this child was baptised Angelina and known as 'Ethel', but more about that theory later!)
In August of 1885, the Gilmartins ran into some financial trouble when James was declared insolvent. A notice published in the Argus stated:
" New Insolvents: James Gilmartin of Kanyapella, selector. Causes of insolvency-Inability to collect debts due to him, and having lost by disease cattle which he had purchased on a bill. Liabilities 124 pounds 1 shilling. Assets fifty pounds. Deficiency of seventy four pounds and 19 shillings. Mr. A.W.H White assignee."
Eliza was the mother of ten children aged between 19 and 3 when her husband James suddenly died on June 9, 1895. The event was reported in the Riverine Herald of July 10, 1895:
" A SUDDEN DEATH: Yesterday morning Mr John Gilmartin, vigneron, residing on the Goulburn, near Stewart's Bridge, died very suddenly. The deceased, who leaves a wife and family of little children, had been ailing for some days, but a fatal termination was not suspected. The usual inquiry will probably be held today, as the deceased was not attended by any medical practitioner." (NOTE: The newspaper incorrectly named James Gilmartin as 'John')
The Riverine Herald of Tuesday, June 11, 1895, gave the following report of the Magisterial Enquiry into James Gilmartin's death:
" MAGISTERIAL ENQUIRY AT KANYAPELLA.
Yesterday afternnon Mr. H. McKenixie, J.P., held a magisterial enquiry at Kanyapella touching the death of James Gilmartin, who died suddenly on the previous day.
Elizabeth Gilmartin deposed she was the wife of deceased. He had been ailing, and on Sunday morning she askied him if he would take his medicine. He replied "No;I would prefer a drink of wine." Witness said she would make him some gruel, and did so. She subsequently saw her daughter taking him a cup of wine, which deceased drank. Shortly after, wirness again entered the room and she saw that her husband was in a dying state.He got out of bed, but witness caught hold of him, and he sank back and died in her arms. Her husband had been in delicate health during the past two or three years from excessive drinking. She had been married to him for 21 years.
james Edward Gilmartin and Sarah Ann Gilmartin, children of the deceased, gave evidence coroborative of the leading statements of Mrs Gilmartin. The daughter stated that she had never seen her father ill treated by either her mother or her brother, but he (the father) behaved harshly to them when under the influence of drink.
Senior-constable Love gave evidence to the effect that Mrs Gilmartin informed him of her husband's death. He found no marks of violence on the body."
A week later, one of James Gilmartin's vigneron associates-and presumably friend- went before the local court to attempt to convince them to reopen the investigation into James's death. His name was Felix Brouard, a Frenchman, and he was apparently quite a character.In 1892, Felix had fallen foul of the law in Bendigo when he was caught selling his wine in quantities less than allowed under a vigneron's license...the minimum amount was two gallons or one dozen bottles, and Felix was letting his customers buy less. It was stated in a report in the Argus that Felix had "a small vineyard at Boilleau, some few miles eastward from Echuca, on the road to the Lower Goulburn." He also admitted that his wine was made not only from his own grapes, but of those of his neighbours which he had purchased, which was also a breach of the law. Perhaps James Gilmartin was one of those who sold some of his produce to the Frenchman. Whatever the case, the bench did not take Felix seriously, as another report in the Riverine Herald suggested:
" ...of the business at the local court yesterday morning, Felix Brouard, a well-known resident of the district, went before the bench and said he had an application to make. As the bench apparently did not understand the nature of the application on account of Brouard's faulty English, Senior-constable Love explained that he wished to ask for a fresh inquiry into the cause of death of James Gilmartin of kanyapella, who died on Sunday last. Brouard said he could not understand how deceased went off so sudden and expressed his determination to wire to the coroner. Mr Dwyer, P.M., informed Brouard that there was no need for any such action as Mr McKenzie, J.P, who conducted the inquiry, was perfectly satisfied. Brouard did not appear to relish the idea that his wishes were to be thus put aside and he spoke rather angrily to the bench. The P.M., however, quitened him rather suddenly by informinghim that instead of his going to the :head fount" as he threatened to, he would go to gaol unless he was less impertinent. The interview then came to a conclusion."
It seems as though there were some in the district who were suspicious of James Gilmartin's sudden demise, and perhaps turned their eyes towards Elizabeth, who as an abused wife may have had a motive to "do away" with her violent husband.
James Gilmartin’s death certificate states his cause of death as being
“General causes accelerated by excessive intemperance. Magisterial Inquiry
held at Kanyapella on the 9th of June, 1895, by Hugh McKenzie, Esquire, J.P.”
Again there was no mention amongst his issue of final child Ethel-could she
and Angelina have been one and the same child, known by a nickname rather
than her birth name? It was certainly very common in those times, and it
certainly seems very unusual that Ethel would have been left off both parents’
death certificates as well as not being officially registered at the time of her
birth.
James Gilmartin’s issue was named as follows:
Blanch Ada dead
Mary Jane 19 years
Margaret 18 years
James Edward 17 years
Elizabeth Bridget 14 years
John Patrick 12 years
Sarah Ann 9 years
Ada Ellen Grace 9 years
Michael William Thomas 7 years
Silas Alfred 4 years
Angelina Etterell Ambug 2 years.
Elizabeth Everard Gilmartin was 45 years old, and probably for the first time in
her life she was in a position to take control of her own future, as well as ensuring a good life for her children.
Victorian Gazettes for the years 1887, 1888 and 1889 show Eliza Gilmartin paying one pound five shillings per year for a license to run a rural store on 3 acres of land in Kanyapella. How she managed this while raising so many children, and with the added burden of being illiterate, is incredible.
In 1889 and 1890, there is evidence of James Gilmartin transferring the ownership of parts of his land, two parcels to his wife Elizabeth and another to Joseph Brown.
With the help of her elder children Elizabeth continued to farm her land at
Kanyapella, and do it successfully.
She had to contend with local gossip and inuendo after her husband's death. A small article in the Argus from October 20, 1897, paints a telling picture of what Elizabeth had to face in the local community:
" A SLANDERED WIDOW: ECHUCA, Tuesday.
In the County Court today, before Judge Casey, Elizabeth Gilmartin sued a farmer of Kanyapella, named James Peck, for 250 pounds damages for making a remark reflecting on her chastity as a widow at Stewart's-bridge Hotel, in the presence of the landlady and several men. the evidence showed that the defendant interrogatively told the plaintiff that she was habitually intimate with a man named McNair. The jury returned into court with a verdict for the plaintiff for a farthing damages, carrying costs."
On November 8, 1897, the Riverine Herald also carried an article regarding this case:
"ONE FARTHING DAMAGES: In the County Court, recently held at Echuca, Mrs Gilmartin proceeded against James Peck for slander and a verdict was given in her favour, the jury fixed the damages at one farthing. On Saturday the defendant called in at the office of his solicitor, Mr C.H Campbell, and handed over a farthing, for which he received a receipt. Today the farthing will be formally handed over to Mrs Gilmartin's solicitors."
Unfortunately, Eliza remained a single mother for only two years after James
Gilmartin’s death...perhaps she gave in to the gossiping and inuendo and gladly entered into a marriage again.She married Robert Newby in 1898 at the age of 47, and
thankfully bore no children to her third husband. I was hoping that after being
deserted by her first husband and ill-treated by her second, Eliza may have found happiness and serenity with her third husband. Apparently this was not the case...her great-grandson Nicholas Grumley wrote the following:
“From what I can gather, my grandfather thought a lot of his mother, so she must have been a devoted mother given her life and her Gilmartin children received the education she didn't. The school was practically next door, close enough to hear the bell, for when the last ring sounded for the morning, James allowed his kids leave for school keeping them at home till the last minute doing farm work. Naturally they were always late.
When Eliz. remarried, my grandfather left home after a while (about 8 or 9yrs
old), because of mistreatment from his stepfather. He lived off the land with the help of the neighbours.”
My heart sank when I read this...after welcoming another man into her family circle, Eliza would have found herself again having to protect her children from abusive treatment at the hands of the head of the family. The thought of her young son Michael having to live off the land with neighbours helping him survive is heartbreaking.
I have discovered nothing about Robert Newby, and am disinclined to do so because of what I have been told about his treatment of young Mick Gilmartin.
The Port Phillip Herald of 1895 carried an article concerning two “lucky” miners
recently returned from the Coolgardie gold fields, one of whom was a man
named Robert Newby, but I have no idea if it was Elizabeth Gilmartin’s future
husband or not.
Eliza survived ten years of marriage with her third husband. Her mother Jane
Sanders Everard had moved to Kanyapella to live with her eldest daughter towards the end of her life, and she died at Kanyapella on June 1, 1908, aged 78.
Eliza herself passed away the following year, on April 21, 1909, from peritonitis. She was about 58 or 59 years old, although her death certificate gives her age as 57. Her children were aged from between 31 and 15, and four daughters had already married and provided Eliza with grandchildren by the time of her death:
Mary Gilmartin married Herbert Owen in 1904, and their son Clifford Owen was born in the same year.
Margaret Gilmartin married Duncan McNair in 1896, and had children Christina and John in 1898 and 1904 respectively.
Elizabeth Bridget Gilmartin married Thomas Gardner (which explains why a ‘Thomas Gardner, friend’ was the informant on Jane Sanders Everard’s death certificate!) , and had Robert in 1904 and Bertram in 1909.
Finally, Sarah Gilmartin married Thomas Smith in 1906, and siblings Gladys and
Alfred were born in 1906 and 1909.
Eliza/Elizabeth Jane Everard Mansfield Gilmartin Newby had 14 children, lost three in infancy and raised the others to be strong and survive the tough times like she did throughout her life full of hardships. She was my great-great-great aunt, elder sister of my great-great grandfather, John David Everard, and my research has revealed a woman whom I am very proud to include in my family tree.
She overcame illiteracy, abusive marriages and the loss of beloved children,
and ensured that her surviving children were well educated to gain a chance at
a better life. I applaud her courage and tenacity, and look forward to adding
even more to her story in the future.
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