Journeys in Time: Mary Jarvis

Profile:

Mary JARVIS

(nee Jelly)

(c.1790 - 1855)

Mary Jelly was convicted at the Leicester Borough Quarter Session on 11 January 1819 and she was sentenced to seven (7) years transportation to New South Wales. At the time of her conviction she was 30 years of age and her occupation was listed as a cook/housemaid. She sailed from England (and Ireland) on the 399 ton convict ship Lord Wellington. There were 121 convict women on board, as well as 45 children and a detachment of the 24th Regiment. The ship arrived in Sydney, via Rio de Janeiro, on 20 January 1820 without any loss of life. When the women disembarked they were forwarded to Parramatta, Liverpool and Windsor for distribution.
Mary became a chambermaid at Government House and obviously became quickly acquainted with George Jarvis, Lachlan Macquarie's Indian manservant. The couple were married at St Philip's Church, Sydney on 22 March 1820 by the Rev. William Cowper. Their first child, a daughter, was born on 19 December 1820 but she died within a week (on Christmas Day).

Governor Macquarie granted Mary an absolute pardon on 1 September 1821 and this allowed her to accompany her husband back to England when the Macquaries returned to London in February 1822 on board the Surry. When the ship left Sydney, Mary was 5 months pregnant and on 5 May she gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth (1822-1894), in St. Salvador, Brazil.

George accompanied the Macquarie's during their trip to France, Italy and Switzerland from December 1822 to July 1823; along with Elizabeth's new waiting woman, Francis Charlotte Bender, and the Edinburgh-educated, Robert Meiklejohn, who had been employed as a tutor to young Lachlan Macquarie Jnr. Mary and Elizabeth Jarvis remained in Britain, presumably on Mull. When the Macquaries returned to take up residence at 'Jarvisfield' in early 1824 the Jarvis family were briefly reunited, before George was again required to accompany Macquarie to London in April 1824. George was present at Lachlan's death-bed in London on 1 July 1824.

After George Jarvis' death in January 1825 Mary, continued to live on Mull for the remainder of her life. An illegitimate son, William Robertson, was born to her in c.1826. Then, in 1829, Elizabeth Macquarie established the Macquarie Trust, whose direct purpose was to provide a separate trust annuity of £24 per annum for Elizabeth Jarvis, 'a female infant of colour who was born at St. Salvatore in the month of May 1822'.

When Elizabeth Macquarie finally moved back to Mull in late 1831/1832 Mary worked on the estate as her maidservant. Mary was present (with D. M. McLean) at Elizabeth's death-bed at Gruline House on 11 March 1835. She requested the assistance of other Macquarie relatives with the funeral preparations for the woman whom she had served as a maid for the past fifteen years.

Mary Jarvis (nee Jelly) died on 5 November 1855 and was buried in the Tobermory Churchyard; her daughter Elizabeth married John Dewar on 22 April 1845 and died at Tobermory in 1894, aged 72.

REFERENCES
Primary Sources:
Principal Superintendent of Convicts: Bound Indents 1820-21 p.30.

Colonial Secretary: Register of Absolute Pardons and Registers of Recommendations for Absolute Pardons 1791 - 1843. [AO Reel 800: 1 September 1821 p.60].

Copy of letter D. McLean to John Gregorson 11 March 1835.
[ML DOC 2425 (a) Original in National Library of Australia].

Secondary Sources:
Bateson, Charles. The Convict Ships 1787-1868. Glasgow, Brown, Son & Ferguson, 1969 [2nd edition]

Cumpston, J.S.Shipping Arrivals and Departures, Sydney, 1788 -1825. Canberra, Roebuck, 1977.

Ritchie, John.Lachlan Macquarie; a biography. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1986 pp.182, 190.,/p>