Edward Thomas Romeril - Hero, Villain or both? From Jersey to Australia and into the Unknown – the Mystery Unfolds
Barbara Romeril
12 November
2017
INTRODUCTION
As a
child I was told that my great grandfather, Dad’s paternal grandfather, was a
ship’s captain named Edward Thomas Romeril who came from Jersey in the Channel
Islands, married and had children in Australia and then went missing.
An
exciting story was told through a pair of paintings owned by Dad’s parents
which were displayed in their house at Briar Hill showing a merchant ship SS Richmond, annotated with reference to
Edward Thomas Romeril, Captain, painted to honour his bravery in saving the
ship in a storm.
The
story was told that he later left to travel north for work but never arrived. No
record of his death had ever been found despite a number of people searching
records in Australia and in Jersey. The theory was that he could have been
attacked by robbers as he travelled overland, murdered and his body thrown down
a mine shaft. We were all reconciled to never knowing the full story.
But
as various members of the extended family became interested in family history,
each of us became obsessed in turn with trying to find out what happened to
Edward Thomas (ET). So we now have a record of his early maritime journeys from
his parents’ home in Jersey from the age of 15 and his travels in Australia.
Later
the family discovered that ET was the Secretary of a Lodge in Sydney before his
disappearance.
Other
than that, he was an enigma. So it has been possible to imagine him as a heroic
figure, captaining merchant ships all around the world, bravely facing storm
and shipwreck, leading sailors on sea and land, but finally coming to a sticky
end through no fault of his own while nursing a broken heart from the loss of
his marriage and children.
But
now a death certificate for an Edward Black in Queensland has given us the key
to ET’s life after his disappearance. Usually death certificates are the most
unreliable sources, especially for elderly deaths as the informant is often
poorly informed. But in this instance, despite deliberate attempts to disguise
his identity, ET has left us enough hints to provide a very compelling case for
believing that he was Edward Black and lived a long life on the lam.
So
who was ET?
CHILDHOOD IN JERSEY
Edward
Thomas (ET) Romeril was born on 4 March 1849 into a maritime family in Leoville,
in the parish of St Ouen, the most rural part of Jersey, the middle child of
seven born to Jean and Rachel (nee Pirouet – remember this name, it becomes
important later in this story). Both parents were descended from many
generations of Jersey locals.
In
another blog we tell the story of Rachel and her children who stayed in Jersey
while ET went off to the other side of the world.
The
Census shows ET’s father Jean was a landlubber (shoemaker and farm labourer)
but several of his uncles and his older brother were mariners.
MARINER – JERSEY TO AUSTRALIA
ET’s
older brother John went to sea at the age of 17 and ET followed him 7 years
later at the age of 16.
He
sailed on the Tickler, a two masted
schooner which was later honoured on commemorative coins and stamps as an
example of the proud history of the Jersey ship building industry[1]
and on several other ships from Jersey up til 1873. During this time the
Channel Island Census shows ET as living in Leoville with his widowed mother
and teenage sister Jane[2].
ET In Australia
ET surfaces in Australia two years later, in January 1875 as
the Mate on the barque Zelia, in
Newcastle NSW. He gave evidence in the trial of a seaman William Gaze charged
with Disobedience of Lawful Command[3].
The Zelia had arrived in NZ from
Mauritius a month earlier[4].
Perhaps this is how ET first arrived in Australia, sailing on the Zelia all the way from Mauritius.
ET’s
maritime service in Australia took him to many places on several different
boats. Another blog on this site tells that story.
ET’s Brave Adventure
In
October 1881 ET was catapulted to fame in media reports of his brave rescue of
the Richmond. The ship sailed from
Melbourne on 19 October and on 21st they struck bad weather and the
Captain was washed overboard and drowned in a gale. As Chief Petty Officer ET
Romeril brought the ship safely to port in Sydney. This brave feat was later
immortalized in a painting of the Richmond
in distress and another of the Richmond
sailing to safety in Sydney Harbour under Captain Edward Thomas Romeril. These
paintings have been lovingly preserved by the family.
Our
analysis of the Jersey census shows some interesting details of ET’s family who
were poor and geographically isolated – at the same time that ET was being
hailed a hero for saving the Richmond his widowed mother went into service in
Jersey at the advanced age of 66.
ET
was issued with a Master’s Certificate[5]
immediately after rescuing the Richmond,
as well as a ‘Pilotage Exemption’. For the next month he Captained the Richmond on a number of voyages on the
waters between Sydney and the Clarence River near Grafton in northern NSW. In
January 1882, 3 months after becoming a Sea Captain ET married a lighthouse
keeper’s daughter, Martha Farncombe in Sydney.
ET captained
the Argyle between Sydney and Grafton
throughout January 1882. On 28 January, 11 days after his wedding, he made his
final recorded sea voyage from Clarence River to Sydney with his new wife.
We
have been unable to find a record that he ever sailed again.
LANDLUBBER
ET
married Martha Farncombe at St Philips Anglican Church in York Street Sydney on
17 January 1882. They lived at 213 Pyrmont Street Sydney[6].
By 1883 when their first child Jessie Ray was born, they were living in Ada
Street Utlimo[7];
Jessie was baptized in the same church where ET and Martha married, St Philips
Church, York St Sydney.
Six
months later at the end of 1883, the family was living in Pyrmont St, Sydney
and ET was listed as Master Mariner[8].
A
month later, at the start of 1884, ET was mentioned in the media as Secretary
of the Sydney Marine Benefit Society. During this year, the family moved to 330
Kent St (the address of the Sydney Marine Benefit Society) where their second
child was born, Martha Lavinia, in April 1885[9].
There are further media mentions of ET as Secretary of the Sydney Marine Benefit
Society throughout 1886.
In
August of that year, ET was granted a publican’s licence to operate the
Braidwood Hotel in Cleveland Street Sydney. The family were still listed as
living at the address of the Sydney Marine Benefit Society. ET continued to
operate the Braidwood Hotel while holding the position of Secretary of the Marine
Benefit Society into 1888.
ET Falls on Hard Times
All
was not well for ET and his family; as Publican of the Braidwood Hotel in
Sydney ET ultimately went broke.
The
first mention of difficulties at the Braidwood Hotel appeared in March of 1887
with the announcement of the dissolution of the original partnership and ET
taking on his former partner’s debts. Four months later in July, ET’s third
child, our grandfather Robert William Edward was born in Darlington.
In
April 1888 ET transferred the publican’s licence to Andrew Eckman[10]
and two days later the District Court ordered a public auction of all of his
good and chattels at the Braidwood Hotel.
ET
maintained his role as Secretary of the Marine Benefit Society throughout this
setback and in December 1888 his fourth and final child Lillian Annie was born.
When ET registered her birth in January 1889 they were living at Grove Street.
But 4 months later he took off, on the run from the law.
This
apparently brave, heroic, compassionate community leader who fell on hard times
had a dark side. The NSW Police Gazette of 1889 lists an arrest warrant issued
in May of that year in relation to the theft of money from the Sydney Marine
Benefit Society.
A
warrant has been issued by the Water Police Bench for the arrest of E.T.
Romeril, charged with stealing the amount of £1 8s., the property of the Sydney
Marine Benefit Society. Offender is about 35 years of age, 5 feet 6 inches
high, medium build, fair complexion, very fair hair, beard, whiskers and
moustache; dressed in dark clothes and brown hard hat; kept a butcher’s shop at
Leichardt about six weeks ago, frequents race meetings, has been a sailor and a
publican; was employed as Secretary to the above Society.[11]
While
the amount was relatively minor (one pound 8 shillings – equivalent to one
week’s wages for a seaman – from a Society worth several thousands of pounds)
it is an unforgivable breach of trust for the Secretary of the society that
raises money to help sailors in distress and their families to steal from that
fund.
Further
the warrant describes ET as someone who is known to frequent the racetrack,
which combined with his history of a failed business and abandonment of his
family casts a very unromantic light on his disappearance. Rather than trudging
off with his wife’s blessing to search for work to support his family after a
string of bad luck it looks more like he was an habitual gambler who possibly
embezzled the pub as well as the benefit society and has ran away after being
caught out, leaving to fend for themselves his wife and 4 young children, the
youngest only a few months old.
Six
years after ET’s arrest warrant, his deserted wife Martha posted a ‘Missing
Friends’ notice in the Police Gazette requesting information on the whereabouts
of her husband Edward Thomas Romeril ‘alias E. Black, who came to Queensland
about 6 years ago…’[12]
To
our knowledge nothing came of this notice and four years later, in 1899 Martha
remarried, with her marriage certificate to Arthur David Blair annotated as follows:
Marital status – Deserted 1889 not having seen or heard
from and of her husband since 1889… Note: The Bride confidently believes that
her husband (Romeril) is dead but has not sufficient direct evidence to warrant
the declaration that she is a widow.’[13]
Why Did ET Run and Where Did He Go?
To
understand why ET decided to evade the law it would help to know more about his
background.
Will
we ever know why ET left Jersey as a very young man, apparently never to
return? His older brother John went to sea like ET but returned to his home
town in his 40s to marry and farm the land like their father; but perhaps ET was
no longer welcome in Jersey. Was the adventurous spirit that enabled him to
pull up roots and travel to remote Northern Australia to work in the dangerous
pearl fishing industry a result of necessity?
Perhaps
ET left Jersey with limited skills and a rural working class life view,
catapulted to fame and leadership through a single incident on the high seas
and ultimately flailed out his depth, unable to sustain the middle class lifestyle
he attempted in Sydney.
We
have mused that perhaps after the disintegration of his life in Sydney he
returned to the Torres Strait under a false name and lived out his life
anonymously far from the eye of his family in Jersey, his dependents, his
fellow mariners and the police. And now it seems we were not far off.
EDWARD BLACK IN NORTH QUEENSLAND
My
cousin’s persistent search has unearthed a man name Edward Black who died in Townsville in north
Queensland in 1933 who appears to be our missing ancestor.
The
evidence is overwhelming. First the surname, Black and the location in
Queensland match the information that ET’s wife Martha supplied in her public
call for information on her missing husband.
The
death certificate gives Edward Black’s occupation as seaman, as was ET.
The
age is almost exact – at the time of death on 22 May 1933 Edward Black’s age
was given as 85 years; ET would have been 84 – very close and easy for an
informant to get wrong.
The
father was named as Robert Black, which has no similarity to the name of ET’s
father Jean Romeril; but Robert was the name of ET’s first and only son, Robert
William Edward Romeril. Could he have invented a false name for his father
using his son’s name?
Another
significant difference between Edward Black and ET is the place of birth;
Edward Black’s death certificate names ‘Liswede, Scotland’[14],
not ET’s birthplace of Jersey. But again, could he have chosen a Scottish
ancestry to explain his Jerriais accent while throwing any police search off
the scent?
Our
theory that ET became Edward Black to evade police is supported by the fact
that so far we have found no record of Edward Black before 1903, well after ET
disappeared.
So Edward Black and ET:
-
were
named E. Black, as per ET’s alias
-
were
born within one year of each other
-
were
both seamen
-
had
a foreign accent
-
went
to Queensland
And there appears to be no
record of Edward Black before ET absconded.
But
the clincher is Edward Black’s mother – ‘Rachael Pierrot’ is a match on a
Soundex search for ET’s mother ‘Rachel Pirouet’; that is, they are a phonetic
match.
Pierrot
and Pirouet are both extremely rare names. A worldwide search on Ancestry.com shows
only one Rachael Pierrot, not in Scotland but in England, born too late to be
Edward Black’s mother. A slightly different spelling – Rachel Pierrot – shows a
small number, mostly in Germany and none in Scotland. And a search on Rachel
Pirouet shows every one was in Jersey.
A
search for Edward Black with father Robert and mother Rachael shows none in
Scotland.
Of
course, we will never be one hundred per cent certain that Edward Black was ET
Romeril - but his mother’s name, combined with the other matching data is extremely
convincing evidence that Edward Black is our ET.
The Life of Edward Black
So
far we know that Edward Black lived in a tent at Rush Creek in Pentland, 250km
inland from Townsville north Queensland, working as a miner at least from 1903
to 1905.
He
moved to Rosalie Farm, Brandon in Ayr, 90km south of Townsville, working as a
cook in 1908. He moved around the Ayr district, in Lochinvar and Ayr proper,
working as a laborer from 1909 to 1915 and then was back in Pentland in 1917
and continued to work there as a laborer until he retired.
From
1922 to 1930 the electoral roll shows Edward Black as having no occupation and
living in Norris St, Hermit Park Townsville, at the home of C. Williams. Three
years later he died of myocarditis heart failure in Townsville Hospital.
Intriguingly,
the Minister at his burial was F.G. Williams – could he have been a relative of
the C. Williams with whom Edward Black lived the last years of his life?
The
funeral notice describes Edward Black as a friend of the Williams family,
previously of Pentland. So Edward Black may have befriended the Williams family
when they all lived in Pentland and then followed them to Townsville when he
retired, to live in the household of C. Williams until his final illness.
Perhaps
research into the Williams family and the ministry of F. G. Williams at St
Peter’s Church will throw more light on Edward Black.
CONCLUSION
I
believe that Edward Black is almost certainly our long lost great-grandfather. ET became Edward Black and lived another half a lifetime far away from his life
in Sydney, leaving his wife alone to raise 4 children under the age of 6, one a
babe in arms. To our knowledge there was no contact during those 44 years
between him and his wife, children or grandchildren.
It
is very sad to think that he was alive when all of his grandchildren in our
line were born, including my father, but none of them ever met him and all were
brought up to believe he was long dead. Across the generations the story of his
bravery on the SS Richmond has been
treasured. The paintings that memorialize his greatest moment were carefully
preserved and even reproduced so they can be displayed in several family homes.
Given
his history of failed business, gambling and fraud and the known facts of the
life of Edward Black, it seems reasonable to assume Edward Thomas Romeril escaped justice to live a profligate
lifestyle in the second half of his very long life, travelling to where there was work, living on his wits, probably gambling
and drinking his earnings. This is a sharp contrast to the valorized, romantic hero of
Romeril family mythology.
[1] Built in Jersey in 1858 for the Le Boutilier
Company, the Tickler weighed 93 tons
and was 93 feet long and 19 feet wide. She was intrinsic to the trade with
northern Europe and the Mediterranean, and occasionally Newfoundland in Canada.
The ship changed hands a number of times and eventually was sold to France in
1888.
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