27 Mar Mary Anne Friend’s Diary
MARY ANNE FRIEND wrote a diary during her voyage out to Western Australia in 1829. She was the wife of the WANSTEAD’S master Captain Mathew Curling Friend and this trip has particular interest as Henry and Sarah Morley were travelling below decks as steerage passengers on this same voyage. In 2012 the State Library obtained Mary Anne Friend’s diary, a document of great Australian and WA significance, at a Christie’s auction of Australian art in London. This diary includes one of the few eye witness accounts of the establishment of the Swan River settlements at Fremantle and Perth in 1830. Jane Roberts was another diarist on board the Wanstead but the diary of Mary Anne Friend gives thew most information about the Swan River Colony.
Sarah Morley delivered her second child on board the Wanstead 5 weeks out from Fremantle and named her Joanna Friend after the captain. A sea voyage out to the Swan River Colony was usually three to six months and women commonly gave birth and frequently named their child after the ships captain. When I learnt about this diary I hastened off to the library and read it searching for a mention of the birth. I did expect that Mary Anne Friend would have mentioned it in her diary, especially as the baby was named after her husband….but not a word.
Jenny Davis and I were searching for information about Sarah’s personality and experiences as Jenny was writing and I was producing an oral history performance called Sarah of Enderslea Farm. Also we were looking for a theme to underlie the conversations between Sarah and her future son-in-law Daniel Baughan who was a ticket of leave man. This indifference by Mary Anne Friend to the birth of Joanna reminded me how class ridden English society was and how this was echoed in Perth society.
There was a sharp difference between ‘the Gentry’ and ‘the lower orders’ as evidenced on board the Wanstead. Even amongst the Gentry the was a class of colonists called ‘the six hungry families’. This term was used in the 1880’s and 1890’s to describe the six powerful families who were most influential in judicial, political and social circles. Henry Morley, in contrast, was always thought of as a ‘respected yeoman farmer’as he was called on his grave stone. Sarah would have been very conscious of class differences when the Convicts began to arrive in 1850 and added another social layer, and there was always interaction with the Aboriginals as another group.
There were a number of drawings in Mary Anne’diary. My favourite is one showing the horse box that was bought out on the Wanstead. The horse was killed en route by a severe storm. The Friends lived in the horse box for the six weeks they stayed in Fremantle so the accomodation for the Morleys must have been totally basic. Any hardship the Friends experienced would surely have been magnified for the Morleys.
As a postnote Mary Anne Friend’s diary cost $196,041. The State Library paid $115,000 and the difference was paid by the Federal Government through the National Cultural Heritage Account Fund.