Elizabeth Whitehead.

 Back in 2021 I wrote a post about Henry Nicolls, you can read it here Henry  This lead me to wonder about Elizabeth his first wife, but not enough to do anything then. In the past couple of weeks I've done some research on Elizabeth and while I still haven't found out what happened to her, what I found has been very interesting.

Searching for any information about Elizabeth, I find her birth/baptism recorded twice on the New South Wales, (1) 6576 Vol 1B and 2) 439 Vol 10).

The first one has missing information and the second one includes them and reads;

Christian Name: Elizabeth

When born: 2 September 1823

Date of ceremony: 9 May 1824

Where ceremony performed: Parish of Post Macquarie

Where registered: St. Thomas, Port Macquarie

Father: John WHITEHEAD

Mother: Esther

Abode: Port Macquarie

Quality or profession: Prisoner

Very interesting.

A search of records has shown that both John and Esther were convicts. John arrived on the Elizabeth (1) in 1820 and Esther on the Mary Ann(3). Searching the Colonial Secretary's papers I found that Esther applied to marry three times, each one a different male, with John being the third one.

John and Esther  married in Liverpool in 1823 and he is then sent to Port Macquarie. I an making an assumption that Esther was sent as well, but I haven't looked into that, yet.

Next I find Elizabeth being admitted to the Parramatta Female Factory in October 1827, with the parents listed as John and Esther. (Another mystery to explore.) She would have been 4 years old.

What happens to Elizabeth between 1827 and when I find her marriage to Henry Nicolls, is at yet unknown. On 3 December 1838 Henry and Elizabeth marry at Windsor and she is only 15 years old.

Henry and Elizabeth move to Goulburn and had three boys, that I know off. She then disappears.

What happened to her, is a yet unsolved. Henry thought she was alive, as he did put notices in the paper, say that if she contacted him, he would let her know how the boys were.

While Elizabeth isn't a direct ancestor, I am curious as to what happened to her.