LIST 23 - TROISIEME DIZAINE - DEATHS
This list presents all the known deaths of the "Troisieme Dizaine", 2,512
in all or just over one third of the total.
The information presented for each death includes:
date of deathplace of death or church of burial
age at death Christian name father's Christian name father's family name mother's Christian name mother's family name parents' civil status at the time of the child's birth
parents' marital status at the time of the child's birth surname at the time of death.The list is arranged in date of death order. If there should be more than one
death on the same date or if only the year of death is known, the entries are
arranged alphabetically on the father's surname.
In this list no attempt has been made to distinguish between date of death and
date of burial, unlike baptisms, these are virtually the same.
The dates of death of 2,512 (36%) of the "Troisieme Dizaine" are currently known.
This is a smaller percentage than in the previous two volumes because
the death details were mainly sourced from the Pioneer Register project
which only researches up to the births of the grandchildren of the pioneers,
not their marriages and deaths, and unfortunately a high proportion of the "Troisieme Dizaine" were the grandchildren of pioneers.
The age at death is expressed in days if the child died younger than one month,
in months if younger than one year, otherwise in years. The years are
calculated to be rounded down, for example both a child dying at 1 year 1
month and 1 year 11 months would be listed as 1 year old at death. Unfortunately
the date of birth of nine of these are unknown meaning that no estimate can
be made of their age of death, three of these were infants who died at sea
on the way to the colony.
It is mainly the married women of course who would have a different surname
at death from that of her father but spelling variations care also included.The places of death gives a good indication as to how far and wide some
of the "Troisieme Dizaine" were dispersed in their lifetimes. Their were
many deaths in Tasmania/Van Diemens Land and well as several in Victoria,
Queensland, South Australia and New Zealand. It was not only the other Australian colonies that they spread to. There were
very many whose deaths are recorded in England and Scotland and no doubt many
more amongst those who left the colony to return 'home'. Sarah Jeffreys (nee Campbell) died in Madeira Spain, Elizabeth Bradley (nee Hovell) in Rome Italy
and Rebecca Bettington (nee Lawson) in San Francisco USA.In fifteen cases the person died at sea. Unfortunately the ship is unknown
for Eleanor Browne and William Harpur. Eight of these deaths were for children who died before reaching the colony:
son Fogarty 1813 'HMS Kangaroo'
William Middleton 1813 'HMS Kangaroo'
Sarah E Dodman 1815 'Northampton'
William Dodman 1815 'Northampton'
Samuel Drake 1815 'Northampton'
Sarah Drake 1815 'Northampton'
William Noble 1815 'Northampton'
George Kerr 1818 'General Stuart'
In 278 cases the place of death has not been supplied by the descendants
of the deceased, even when in 168 cases an exact date of death was given.
There are also nine instances where the place of death is known but not the
date, all but one occurring overseas. Whilst interesting to record they
have not been included in the general calculations in the tables below.Table 23.1. - Deaths - Date Unknown
Name Place Birth
-----------------------------------------------Erskine Johnstone Allan Scotland 1818
Robert Innes Allan Melbourne Vic 1801
Thomas Lindsey Browne England 1808
Rebecca Browne England 1810
Henry Lewis New Zealand 1815
Rebecca Lyttleton Ceylon 1813
George Smith South America 1820
John Waddy New Zealand 1819
John Wade San Francisco USA 1814
The person with the greatest longevity of the "Troisieme Dizaine" was Charlotte King (nee Fisk), who lived for 101 years 1 month and 15 days. Mary Ann Baker
(nee Smith) lived to 100 years 11 months and 17 days. Thomas Rice, who lived
for 98 years, was the longest living male.Jane Nicholl (nee Symonds) was the last survivor of the "Troisieme
Dizaine" dying on 14th July 1919. Another 203 lived into the 20th century,
and 20 of these had lives which spanned the Georgian, Wilhelmenian, Victorian,
Edwardian and second Georgian eras.
The first table listed below shows the total number of deaths each year from
1811 to 1825 and the number dying at each age. The main point is to illustrate
the sad infant mortality of the time, since by 1825 the youngest of the "Troisieme
Dizaine" would have reached the age of 5 years. Fortunately there was not the
same 'slaughter of the innocents' as occurred with the 'First Generation'
during the near starvation of the early years of the colony but 364 children did not survive their first year and 555 did not reach their 5th birthday with 638 deaths in total.
Table 23.2. - Deaths in the Years 1811 - 1825 Total inf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ?
-----------------------------------------------------1811 23 23
1812 39 38 1
1813 38 25 8 4 1
1814 45 26 9 7 2 1
1815 49 24 8 4 6 2 2 1 2
1816 37 25 5 4 1 1 1
1817 49 31 4 3 3 7 1
1818 80 51 11 6 1 7 2 2
1819 67 33 8 5 1 5 2 1 3 12:1
1820 109 70 13 7 6 6 2 2 1 1 1
1821 27 9 6 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 13:1 16:1
1822 24 3 4 5 4 2 1 1 3 16:1
1823 22 1 6 1 2 2 2 2 1 2 11:1
1824 14 3 2 2 1 2 1 11:1 19:1 23:1
1825 16 2 4 3 2 11:1 12:1 13:1 14:2
---------------------------------------------------638 364 76 48 32 35 21 18 12 6 3 6 4
The second table listed below shows the number dying at each particular
age. If the young colonist survived infancy and childhood they had a
very good chance of then living to a reasonable age, 779 or nearly one third,
reaching their biblical "three score and ten" or more. Table 23.3. - Deaths by AgeAge No. Age No. Age No. Age No. Age No. Age No. Age No. Age No. Age No. Age No.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
inf 364 10 11 20 14 30 8 40 25 50 19 60 31 70 33 80 40 90 14
1 76 11 12 21 15 31 9 41 21 51 19 61 27 71 40 81 38 91 13
2 48 12 7 22 9 32 17 42 19 52 21 62 30 72 38 82 39 92 5
3 32 13 4 23 17 33 13 43 20 53 23 63 26 73 50 83 28 93 5
4 35 14 12 24 11 34 23 44 16 54 21 64 31 74 43 84 29 94 2
5 21 15 8 25 6 35 19 45 18 55 11 65 36 75 38 85 29 95 3
6 21 16 7 26 14 36 16 46 15 56 11 66 27 76 39 86 31 96 4
7 13 17 6 27 9 37 13 47 16 57 23 67 29 77 47 87 21 98 3
8 10 18 12 28 13 38 23 48 27 58 22 68 42 78 44 88 23 99 1
9 12 19 13 29 13 39 24 49 15 59 31 69 42 79 56 89 21 >99 2
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tot. 632 92 121 165 192 201 321 428 299 52
Grand Total 2512
The third table listed below shows the percentage dying in each decade of life.
The first decade is the most dangerous with a 25% death rate. If a child survives
the first decade then the second is the least dangerous with a mere 4% death rate. The death rate then slowly rises until the eighth decade when it peaks at 17.1% before rapidly declining again as one might expect. Table 23.4. - Deaths in Decade PercentagesDecade Absolute Cummulative Cummulative Cummulative
sans Infancy sans Childhood ----------------------------------------------------------------Infancy 14.5% 14.5%
First 5 Years 8.5% 23.0% 9.9%
Second 5 Years 2.2% 25.2% 12.5% 2.9%
Second Decade 3.7% 28.9% 16.8% 7.7%
Third Decade 4.8% 33.7% 22.5% 14.0%
Fourth Decade 6.6% 40.3% 30.2% 22.6%
Fifth Decade 7.7% 48.0% 39.2% 32.6%
Sixth Decade 8.0% 56.0% 48.6% 43.0%
Seventh Decade 12.8% 68.8% 63.6% 59.7%
Eighth Decade 17.1% 85.9% 83.6% 81.9%
Ninth Decade 11.9% 97.8% 97.6% 97.4%
Tenth Decade 2.1% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
If the classical definition of "average life expectancy" is defined as
the age to which 50% of the population lives then for the "Troisieme Dizaine" ,
life expectancy was 52 years. However one can see from the tables that the huge infant mortality tends to skew the figures to a very young age. If those who
died in infancy (ie less than one year) are excluded from the calculation the average life expectancy rises to 60 years. If those who died in childhood (ie
less than five years) are excluded from the calculation the average life
expectancy rises to 64 years.
If would be interesting to compare similar figures for the mother country at the same period of time. Whilst the infant mortality is regrettable by modern
standards perhaps it may have been better than in England because of a milder
climate in the colony.
It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that civil registration
of deaths and burials commenced in New South Wales when the cause of death
was routinely recorded, the various church burial registers before this time
very rarely recorded the cause of death unless it was somewhat dramatic, a
murder for example or being run over by a cart. In the early days of the
colony death by drowning was a fairly frequent cause of death, especially
at times of flooding of the Hawkesbury river which was a reasonably frequent
event.
Thomas Dalton, sadly badly let his generation down by managing to get himself
hung.
As stated this list represents just over a third of the total known "Troisieme
Dizaine" . What can be said of the remaining two thirds ? In List 30 the reader
will find an analysis of the fate of the "Troisieme Dizaine" in general which
sheds some light on the missing members.To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the name
would be made on List 1 from which the date of death would be retrieved, secondly
using the appropriate date, the death would be located on this list and finally
an alphabetical search on the name would be made on the death date if there
should be more than one entry for that date which would certainly be the case
if only the year of death were known.
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