The McMillans Emigrate from Scotland

The original Thomas McMillan (1837-?) was born in Ireland, the son of James McMillan, a joiner, and Agnes Thomson. At the time of his marriage, his mother was already deceased.

Scotland and Ireland are only a few miles apart and at some stage he crossed the puddle and married Agnes McCallum (1838-1918) on 09 March 1863 at Lorn St, Campbeltown. Agnes had been born in nearby Southend, the daughter of Archibald McCallum (a distillary workman and farmer) and Agnes Lang. Thomas' occupation was a coal miner.

Tongue Row (date unknown)

The census lists three children:

• Agnes, born in Patna, Ayrshire, Scotland on 13th April 1865;

• Thomas, born in Campbeltown, Argyle, Scotland on 3rd October 1867;

• Alice, born in Kerse, Scotland on 12 April 1871;

and a few years later

• Mary, born about 1875 in Patna, Ayrshire, Scotland.

Patna, which lies south of Glasgow near Prestwick, was established in 1802 by William Fullarton, to provide housing for workers on the coal-fields of his estate. Fullarton's father had worked as an employee of the British East India Company, and the town takes its name from the city of Patna in India. (Coal mining became a major industry in Scotland, and continued to grow into the 20th century producing the fuel to heat homes factories and drive steam engines locomotives and steamships. By 1914 there were 1,000,000 coal miners in Scotland. It was a hard life; their life style resembled coal miners everywhere, with a strong emphasis on masculinity, egalitarianism, group solidarity, and support for radical labour movements).

Patna on the River Doon.

The family emigrated to Australia on the Rodell Bay. She arrived twice in 1877, the year that she was launched, and again in 1878, on both occasions from Glasgow to Moreton Bay, Brisbane, Queensland.

The Index to Registers of Immigrant Ships Arrivals in the Queensland State Archives 1848-1912 shows that the family arrived on the 27 August 1878. It lists:

• Agnes McMillen 12;

• Agnes McMillen 39;

• Alice McMillen 6;

• Mary McMillen 3;

• Thomas McMillen 44; and

• Thomas M McMillen 10.

The newspaper reported:

FROM advices received from London on Saturday morning, we learn of the following departures for this colony, with emigrants: The Rodell Bay, 1080 tons, Captain Lindsey, sailed from the Tail of the Bank, Greenock, June 6, bound for Brisbane, and had on board the following number of emigrants, viz., 47 married men, 47 married women, 123 single men, 57 single women, 70 children between the ages of 1 and 12, and 16 infants, making a total of 360 souls, equal to 309 statute adults.

- The Brisbane Courier Tuesday 13 August 1878

Emigration to Queensland, The agent-General for Queensland has been advised

by telegram that the following vessels conveying emigrants to Queensland

have safely arrived:

"Rodell Bay" arrived at Queensland, from Glasgow.

-The Times Friday, Sept 13, 1878

By 1870, 20 years after the introduction of steam ships, sail still accounted for 60% of international shipping. The Rodell Bay was an iron three-masted vessel, belonging to the Port of Glasgow, of 1,116 tons gross and 1,079 tons net register. She was built at Govan, in the county of Lanark, and launched in the year 1877.

She disappeared after leaving San Francisco on 3 December 1880:

It is of course impossible for us to say what has become of her, seeing that she has not been seen or heard of since the pilot left her, and that not one of the crew has been saved. All that we can say is, that she was a somewhat tender vessel, very fully laden with a homogeneous cargo, and that she left San Francisco in midwinter. It is true that when she would arrive in ordinary course off Cape Horn, it would be almost mid-summer; but then, I am told by the Assessors that that is a time when great numbers of icebergs would be likely to be met with in those seas. We are told, too, that she had close bulwarks, and there was no information before us as to the number of freeing boards which she had in case she should ship a heavy sea, and which would undoubtedly be a source of great danger to a vessel so tender and laden as she was. She might, no doubt, as has been suggested by Mr. Spens, have foundered after collision with some other ship or with an iceberg; or on the other hand, she might have been overwhelmed by an heavy sea, for I am told by the Assessors that there is no part of the world where she would be more likely to meet with heavy seas than in the Pacific, or in the neighbourhood of Cape Horn.

-Board of Trade Wreck Report for 'Rodell Bay, 1881.

By 1880, the family had moved to New South Wales where twins were born;

• Archibald and James, 28 May 1880, at Minmi. James died on the 3rd June.

(Additionally, Archibald's birth certificate lists the other children, as well as three females and two males as deceased).

Minmi was an active coal mining town near Newcastle, north of Sydney. Coal had been mined there since 1853 and the Hunter Region Coal Miners’ Protective Association, one of Australia's first organised unions, was formed there in 1854. From 1857, the railway linked the mine to the port at Newcastle.

There were many mines - gold, tin and coal - in the Hunter Valley/ New England area of NSW. So it seems likely that Thomas worked at Minmi as a miner. He is listed as a miner in the marriage certificates of his children up to 1896. Unsurprisingly, his son Thomas and the husbands of his daughters Alice and Mary were also miners.

In 1879 Agnes was involved in a sad incident:

Coroners Inquest

The District Coroner (Mr Ranclaud), with a jury of twelve, held an inquest, yesterday, at the Commercial Hotel, Minmi, on the body of a child named John Watson, who had been accidently drowned in a tank on the previous day. From the evidence of the mother of the deceased, it appeared that she was the wife of Thomas Watson, a miner, residing at Minmi, and the deceased was aged four years and nine months. On the previous morning, between 6 and 9 o'clock, deceased left the house to go to the back, saying that he would return to be dressed; witness being engaged at the time giving medicine to a younger child; about ten minutes afterwards, seeing that he did not return, she went to look for him, and noticing that the lid of the tank was off, she looked into it, and found the deceased's body floating on the water; she screamed, and obtained assistance; she missed the lid of the tank. Agnes McMillan proved having run to Mrs Watson's assistance, and kept the body afloat with a broom, but saw no signs of life; she knew the tank was always kept covered, as Mrs Watson was very particular about it. John Watson, a carter living in Minmi, disposed to having drawn the body from the tank, and to having gone at once for a doctor. Dr E.B. Loghman's evidence showed that the death was the result of asphyxia, caused by drowning, and a verdict of accidentally drowned in a tank was returned.

- Newcastle Morning herald and Miners' Advocate, 3 October 1879.

The 1870s had produced bountiful rainfall across the eastern colonies. During this decade pastoral lands were broken up for farming and many ex-gold miners became inexperienced farmers during a decade of benign weather.

The 1880s produced patchy rainfall. A new element was the spread of rabbits which were moving inexorably north. These combined to cripple agriculture and grazing in some regions; a drop of nine million sheep in NSW alone. Like many droughts, when it broke rain came in deluges and caused damaging floods across a wide area.

Then the drought, or droughts, of 1895-1903 struck, widely regarded as the most severe in Australian history and variously known as the Long Drought, the Great Drought and the Federation Drought. Its effects were compounded by poor farming practices, the conversion of large properties to small farms, the rabbit plague and the decline of gold mining towns. Unemployment rose, businesses and banks failed, wages were driven down and unions responded with strike action. The sheep herd fell by half, the cattle herd by 40% and people emigrated from Australia. The rural populations bore most of the economic and social brunt of the drought, particularly women who were faced with hard work and few resources under trying conditions. Reports of death from sunstroke, typhoid and suicide were not uncommon. The temperature oscillation was extreme, from heatwaves to bitter cold with surprising falls of snow, such as occurred at Burra in S.A. Dust storms were frequent as the now huge area of ploughed land blew away; Melbourne was blanketed in November 1902. When the drought broke, many areas suffered severe flooding and typhoid broke out in the Hunter region along with plagues of mosquitos and flies.

The one bright note was the discovery of gold at Southern Cross, Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Miners crossed the Bight by the shipload and walked 500km to the new fields. Growth was phenomenal. The International Mining and Mineral Exhibition at Coolgardie in 1899 attracted 60,000 people.

The depression had a big impact on the McMillans. Blainey noted the "unusual mobility of Australians" at the turn of the century, a product of years of gold rushes. The McMillans were scattered across the country. About 1899 or 1900 the original immigrants Thomas and Agnes, their daughters Alice and Mary with their husbands, and Archibald, had moved to the eastern goldfields of Western Australia. Son Thomas and his family were in Tasmania, and only Agnes remained in NSW. Eventually, Thomas and his family would move to the Western Australian goldfields, too.

When daughter Mary died, these two unascribed photos were found among her belongings. I think that it's reasonable to assume that they are her parents, Thomas and Agnes:

Agnes died in Perth on the 30th of July, 1918, aged 80, and is buried at Karrakatta Cemetery.

The West Australian, Wed 31 Jul 1918

I've been unable to locate the date of death or grave of Thomas, my great-great grandfather. Some clues exist though.

When the youngest son, Archibald, died in 1914, his father was entered into the death certificate as Archibald Thomas McMillan, not Thomas McMillan. He is also listed as a farmer. Death certificates are notorious for having incorrect information, though.

But, intriguingly, when Agnes remarried in 1913, her father Thomas is listed as deceased and a farmer. It seems unlikely to me that he would have been a farmer in the Southern Cross area at this early stage of the region's development.

In February 2019, I asked the Armidale Family History Group (NSW) to search for him. They wrote:

We have not found any reference to Thomas at Hillgrove. And we checked through our archive for mentions of him in Armidale. Whilst there were many McMillan references as having lived in Armidale, none referred to Thomas. We also checked cemetery records for Hillgrove and Armidale and could find no reference to Thomas.

My last positive reference for Thomas McMillan is in the NSW Government Gazzette of March 1899 where he is listed in a petition opposing the incorporation of Hillgrove. (Also listed are his son Thomas McMillan and Alfred Fisher).

A search of the voting lists for an Archibald McMillan shows up in 1906 at Day Dawn (a gold mine near Cue) in the Division of Coolgardie as a miner...but he is the only McMillan listed. Then your eye is immediately drawn to the two names below his: Archibald McMiller and Agnes McMiller, both living in the same area and with this second Archibald's occupation listed as a miner. So I'm thinking if this is indeed Thomas and Agnes, and there is a mispelling of the name, then these "McMillers" won't show up again in the voting lists. A quick search shows that there are no other records for an Archibald and Agnes McMiller. Perhaps he was christened "Archibald Thomas" but he used "Thomas". It's strange that it crops up towards the end of his life.

Electoral Roll for Coolgardie Division, 1906.

I also know that his grandson, Edward Alcock, son of Alice, died of typhus at Day Dawn in 1902, so perhaps they all moved there together.

I found another reference in the Murchison Advocate, the Cue/Day Dawn paper:

On Monday Thomas McMillan was charged on a count of wandering and not being under proper control. Sergt. Simpson states that McMillan had been drinking heavily and came to the police station and gave himself up, as he thought he was getting the d.t's. A first offender for drunkenness he was let off with a caution.

- Murchison Advocate, Saturday 8 March 1902

Of course, the name was probably not particularly uncommon.

Further to this, although Archibald junior was married to Elizabeth Wilson in 1903, they don't actually show up on the registers together until 1910, so it's plausible that he would be registered in the same area as his parents. And Elizabeth Wilson is still showing to be registered in Leederville in 1903 under her maiden name. Agnes is listed in 1910 as a widow.

Allowing for time to publish the electoral roll, it seems that Thomas might have died in Western Australia between 1905 and 1910. There is an unnamed "McMillan" buried in the Coolgardie cemetery 15/09/1904 in the Presbyterian section, although I have no evidence that the family ever resided in the Coolgardie/Kalgoorlie areas.

In 2018 I visited the Yilgarn History Museum at Southern Cross. According to their rates books, Agnes went from married to widow between years 1911 and 1912.

A Thomas McMullen was buried in the Methodist section of the Boulder Cemetery on 2nd April 1904, aged 65, with the note "Re-interred from the Boulder Pioneer Cemetery". A search in Trove shows this not to be my relative.

A Thomas McMillan aged 59 died 23 July 1911 and is buried in Fremantle Cemetery grave 0259 Mon E section Presbyterian. Of course his age doesn't fit but errors are common in death certificates.

The answer probably lies buried in the State Records Office of W.A.

Perhaps he died in the Eastern States, and Agnes followed her daughters - except for Agnes junior - over to the West.

My search goes on.

(Ivan Fredericks (1864–1904), known as Russian Jack, was a goldminer of the Western Australian gold rush in the 1880s. In 1885 he pushed his sick friend in a wheelbarrow 50 km to Halls Creek for medical attention. A statue was erected to him in that town. He died in poverty and is buried in Fremantle Cemetery. Ivan Fredericks (Russian Jack))