Sadly all the East Perth Cemetery Records held by the parent company of Bowra and O’Dea have been destroyed without copy so a very large part of valuable grave site locations of those interred there by this company has been lost forever. We can find who was buried there from the death certificates but not the grave location in which they were laid to rest. Truly sad.
Although listed in the grave locations it is important to include two gravesites in this document because both have a connection to those buried in the unmarked graves.
The ravages of nature and time have all but obliterated the inscriptions on the headstone which reads:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF ELIZABETH GALLOP
WHO DIED 22 NOVEMBER 1872
AGED 47 YEARS
ALSO
JAMES GALLOP
HUSBAND OF THE ABOVE
WHO DIED 21 JANUARY 1880
AGED 68 YEARS
(By kind permission of the National Trust of Australia (W.A.)
The brothers Gallop, Richard aged 20, James (the first) aged 18 and Edward aged 15 arrived at the Swan aboard the Lotus on the sixth of October 1829 as labourers indentured to Colonel Peter Lautour. Lautour was somewhat of an enigma. A veteran of the Peninsular wars and the Battle of Waterloo he was sort of like a hero but a hopeless business man whose financial affairs could only be described as chaotic. He served a term of imprisonment in the Kings Bench Prison in London after being declared bankrupt and thus never made it to the Swan but the hard working Gallop brothers did. The Gallops, (all illiterate), were the younger sons of a yeoman farmer from West Sussex, Thomas Gallop. After Lautour’s bankruptcy in London his agent at the Swan, a bloke by the name of Wells, was unable to provide either, food, clothing or employment for those indentured to Lautour. Governor Stirling, to expediently absolve Wells from his obligation, released them from their indenture, thus leaving them free to sell their labour on the open market. It also left them on their on their own! As labour in the Colony was short the Gallops had no problems in obtaining employment. Edward, the youngest brother, worked for a period on Swan Location 25 for John Morgan. He then worked for a bloke named Bland on his property at York. Still later, he obtained gainful employment around the Guildford district. The elder brothers, Richard and James, worked as free labour for several employers until they somewhat fell on their feet when they took over the management of Henry Sutherlands property. Swan location 87, at Crawley Park for a fifty percent share of the profits. Swan Location 87 was originally owned by Armstrong’s friend and fellow Scot, Captain Mark Currie, Harbour Master to the Colony. The harder the Gallops worked so the greater their income. For them it was a good and profitable arrangement. However it is reported that they did not get on too well with Mrs Sutherland. Richard married Margaret Drew in 1842 and realised his dream of land ownership when he purchased a four-acre block in Perth and established a thriving and very profitable market garden and orchard. Richard and Margaret had six children. Edward had married Ellen Kelly in 1837. James Gallop retained a housekeeper when he married Elizabeth Spencer on the nineteenth October 1843 and she bore him twelve children (seven girls and five boys). Their children were, Sarah b 1844 d 1906, James (second) b 1845 d 1928 Sarah b 1844 d 1906, James b 1845 d 1928 Ann b 1852 d 1940, Charles b 1849 d 1920, Edward b 1854 1878 of sunstroke at the De Grey station, Caroline Hannah b 1855 d 1856, Elizabeth Emily b 1857 d 1931, John Richard b 1860 d 1880, George Frederick b 1862 d 1952, Mary Jane b 1863 d 1864 aged 8 months and is buried in the grounds surrounding Gallop House, Jane b 1865 d 1955, Alice b 1868 d 1868. James Gallop acquired a part Adam Armstrong’s now vacant property Swan Location 85 (Dalkeith) and established the famous Gallops Gardens. So successful was Gallops Gardens that it allowed Gallop to purchase the remaining portions of Swan Location 85 and his gardens produced much high quality fruits and vegetables.
Adam Armstrong was born 23 February 1788 at Smeaton, Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland and died at Ravenswood Western Australia on 29 September 1853 and is buried on the banks of the Murray River in Pinjarra, Western Australia.
Adam Armstrong married Margaret Gow on 16 Oct 1810 Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland.
Margaret Armstrong (nee Gow) was born on 15 May 1785 at Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. Margaret Armstrong died on 28 December 1824 at Camden, London, England and is buried at St. Pancras in London, Middlesex, England.
Adam and Margaret produced six children five boys and one girl.
When Adam Armstrong’s coal mining enterprises collapsed Adam moved from Scotland to Cheshire to Wales and London and engaged in an enterprise with Thomas Peel at 1 Eagle Place, Piccadilly, London and assisted Peel to recruit persons to join with Peels immigration to Western Australia scheme. In 1828 Peel had put forward his emigration scheme to the British Government and after a few concerns, such as the Crown not being liable if the scheme failed and not bearing any costs in its implementation, the Colonial Office agreed to Peels offer. However, a covenant of time was inserted by Under Secretary Twiss who set the 1st of November 1829 to be the final date for Peel to receive the 250,000 acres reserved for him on the Swan. A failure by Peel to arrive by that date would see the 250,000 acres allocated to other settlers anxious to secure prime land.
Peel had negotiated the purchase of two ships in early 1829 to service his scheme, the Gilmore and the Hooghly. The third ship, the Rockingham was also chartered. Time and circumstance was not an ally of Peel for due to circumstances beyond his control the Gilmore hove to off Rottnest Island on the 15 December 1829, six weeks past the due date for the completion of the agreement, and thus, by doing so voided the obligation of the Crown to award the promised land-grant of 250,000 acres. Thus when Peel went ashore he was not surprised but nevertheless shattered to learn that the promised 250,000 acre grant had, in the short six weeks he was overdue, been allocated elsewhere. Peel appealed most strenuously to Governor Stirling, but all to no avail. The hapless passengers on the Gilmore celebrated Christmas on board and remained there until 31 December. Still, Stirling had an obligation to placate the other settlers to the colony. Whatever the case, Peel did not receive the grant that he argued was his by right. A week later, after much discussion, dissention and negotiation, Stirling persuaded Peel to accept the grant of an alternative 250,000 acres further south from the Swan River and his original allotment. The grant started about 16 kms south of Fremantle, running east for 25 kms to Armadale, then running south for another 56 kms, and west to Pinjarra and on to Mandurah. The western boundary being the coastline where the Indian Ocean lapped at its shores! Along the northern perimeter of the grant, Peel had Armstrong survey an area for the establishment of a town site (Woodman’s Point today), which Peel named Clarence, after the Duke of Clarence and it was here that the Gilmore settlers began to establish themselves.
Armstrong and his fellow settlers set up camp as best they could, but it turned out to be an awful place: A total disaster! Poor quality land, unbelievable sweltering summer heat and the incessant flies, coupled with extremely cold winds off the Indian Ocean and steady deluging rains during winter. Sadly, their perceived paradise turned into a hell on earth. So bad was it that due to the conditions and lack of proper food, water and shelter that 39 of these hardy, hopeful souls perished of scurvy, dysentery and pneumonia in 1829/30. At a later date their bodies were re-interred at the now non-existent Alma Street Cemetery in Fremantle.
They were poorly prepared, poorly clothed, poorly housed and not provided with the proper sustenance to combat the wrath of nature in this hard, unforgiving land. A research paper published by Fremantle academic, Doctor Shane Burke in Historical Archaeology and reported in the West Australian by Dylan Caporn, suggests that the conditions were so bad that the settlers were forced to bum their prized furniture and other possessions, timber from shipwrecks and other sources.
Eventually, after complaints by the settlers, Lt-Govemor James Stirling was forced to intervene. When Stirling discovered the extent of these people’s struggling, he realised that he could not let these people disappear or starve to death, so he granted the indentured to leave and the camp collapsed. Some moved to the Swan River Colony and others returned home to England, much the worse for the experience of a failed immigration. To make matters even worse the soil at Clarence was unfit for cropping and within two years the Clarence settlement was deserted. When Adam Armstrong and his Family disembarked the Gilmore, Adam Armstrong was 41 and the ages of his children were: Francis Fraser 16, George Drummond 12, John Gow 11, Laura Powell 10, Adam Jnr 8, and Christopher 6
and Adam and his family moved to a property he secured on the banks of the Murray River at Pinjarra. However there was much strife between the settlers and the indigenous population that Armstrong feared for the safety of his family and was removed back to the Swan where he acquired a 320 acre plot that he named Dalkeith and built a residence there for himself and family, commenced farming there and remained there until he tired of subsistence farming and moved back to the 1200 acres he held at Ravenswood, Pinjarra. His children by now were aged: Francis Fraser, 25 years (Francis had married Mary Mews on the 1st August 1836 and was no longer involved in the property and had struck out on his own), George Drummond, 21 Years, John Gow, 20 years, Laura Powell, 19 years, Adam jnr, 17 years and Christopher, 15 years. It has been recorded that Adam, being of a strong religious persuasion conducted daily bible lessons for his family which left a strong impression on Francis Fraser, his eldest son, who became a dedicated lay preacher in the Wesleyan Church.
Francis Fraser Armstrong (b 22 November 1813 in Edinburgh Scotland – d 22 May 1897 in Perth Western Australia). Married Mary Ann Mews (b 19 February 1819 England – d 26 April 1886 Perth) on 1 August 1836 in Perth Western Australia. They are buried together and memorialised in the East Perth Cemetery, Perth Western Australia.
In Memory of
- Francis Fraser Armstrong and wife Mary Ann (nee Mews )
- Francis Fraser and Mary Ann produced 16 children – 6 Boys and 10 Girls:
- Francis George Armstrong b 1837 d 1840
- Elizabeth Mary Ann Armstrong b 15 July 1839 – d 29 April 1872
- Ann Amelia Armstrong b 15 January 1841 – d 14 August 1888
- Christina Laura Armstrong b 27 May 1843 – d 14 November 1904
- Frances Margaret Armstrong b 1 March 1845 – d 1852
- Francis Gow Armstrong b 7 June 1847 at Rottnest Island Western Australia – d 28 June 1932 at Geraldton Western Australia
- Jessie Augusta Armstrong b 25 February 1849 – d 21 January 1928
- John James Armstrong b 22 March 1841 – d 1851
- Adam William Armstrong b 27 March 1852 at Fremantle – d 14 January 1915 at East Fremantle
- Sarah Susanna Wells Armstrong b 21 January 1854 – d 20 June 1928
- Thomas Pope Armstrong b 5 April 1856 – d 7 July 1928
- Nathaniel Mews Armstrong b 9 April 1858 – d 26 October 1925
- Georgina Eudora Armstrong b 4 October 1860 – d 30 October 1929
- Alethia Edwina Mercy Armstrong b 27 November 1862 – d 31 January 1908
- Lillian Armstrong b 1864 – d Date and Place Unknown.
Francis Fraser became an expert translator for the aboriginals, among other worthy attributes, and often represented them in court and in other matters. Francis Fraser was well renowned for his aboriginal schools, which he ran with the help of his wife, Mary Ann (nee Mews). He was also a dedicated lay preacher in the new Wesley Church in Perth and is celebrated in a stained glass window in that particular building. He befriended and recorded the language of the Nyungar people in Western Australia. He also held a position on Rottnest Island as protector of Aborigines.
Francis Fraser Armstrong is also celebrated in a footpath plaque in St. Georges Terrace in Perth.
Written by Bob Couzens
