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Descendants of Maria Matilda Gordon
1. Maria Matilda Gordon
was born on 4 June 1817 on the military transport vessel
Matilda during a voyage from Cork, Ireland to
Australia with her father's 48th Regiment of Foot. She
was baptised on 4 May 1823 at Newcastle,
NSW 18 and died
4 June 1882 1
and was buried in Campbell's Hill Cemetery, Maitland, NSW, Australia.
From at least May 1837 to June 1842 she had a defacto relationship with Frank Adams, a son of Henry Cadwallader Adams and Emma Curtis born in 1809 in Ansty, Warwickshire, England and died on 19 Sept 1869, then a Captain in the 28th Gloucestershire Regiment of Foot 1. Maria subsequently had a defacto relationship with an unknown from which there was one issue. On 17 Mar 1849 she married in the Church of England at Maitland widower James Fullford who was born ca. 1815 in Deptford, England and died on 5 Jan 1880 17 at Maitland, NSW and was buried Campbell's Hill Cemetery.
After rejoining his 28th regiment he was stationed at Parramatta where he and Maria became embroiled in a scandal that erupted publicly after he was challenged to fight a duel. Duels were a breach of the peace and illegal in the colony. Frank Adams rebuffed the challenger (Mr. Catterell) who then affixed a placard to a fence outside the main gates to Government House highly defamatory of him. An extraordinary legal senario ensued, that instead of following the normal course of a reputation injured person seeking a remedy by instigating a civil action for defamation seeking damages, instead upon complaint to the Supreme Court by Frank Adams that an attempt had been made to incite him to fight an illegal duel the then Attorney General of the Colony, acting as Frank's personal legal representative when the matter came before the Court and it found a prima facie case was established that Frank Adams had been challenged to fight an illegal duel, was then in his official capacity as the senior crown law officer of the colony obliged to act to instigate a criminal prosecution against the duel challenger Mr. Catterell for inciting a person (who in the Attorney General's private capacity was his client) to commit a breach of the peace! Given the prominance of the persons named as in some way involved in the matter, such as the Governor of the colony Sir Richard Bourke and the Deputy Governor and Commander of the 28th Regt. Lieut. Colonel Cudbert French, and the salacious nature of the allegations contained in the affidavits not surprisingly the case was well reported by all Sydney newspapers and possessed of such elements would no doubt have been the subject of widespread gossip and interest as to the identity and unmarried status of Maria Gordon she being the daughter of Ann Gordon who until twelve months previous had been the longest serving Matron of the Parramatta Female Factory from where the masters and mistresses of the colony obtained their female domestic servants. From Jan 1838 to the end of May 1839 Frank Adams was stationed at Maitland and, after a month in Sydney, for the next eight months from July 1839 to Feb 1840 at Illawarra 4. It is said he obtained a grant of land at West Maitland at Horseshoe Bend upon which he built a hotel in 1840 named the ‘White Horse Hotel’ 16. Frank Adams left for England on leave from the regiment on 24 March 1840 on the Trusty 5. After two years absence from the colony he arrived back in Sydney on 7 March 1842 on the barque Maitla that had left the Downs on 26 Oct 1841 6. The reunion with Maria, and then 4 year old son Frank Jr., must have occurred very soon after the ship was released from quarantine as the next child Arthur was born nine months and 4 days later. However Captain Frank was not around for that happy event as after only three months back he departed Australia with his regiment for India destined to never return. He left Sydney on the 19 June on the Kelso in company with two other regimental transport ships the John Brewer and the Arab 7. It was probably fortunate for Maria they did not marry as she and Frank Jr. would have accompanied him to India and likely perished there soon after arrival as after the arrival of the regiment in Bombay the losses from disease of officers, other ranks, and their women and children were massive and included the commanding officer Lt. Colonel French. After two years in India Frank Adams married on 16 Sep 1844 at Poona (now Pune 75 miles SE of Bombay) a widow Ellen Straith and they had a family of five children 15. After the tour of duty in India the 28th regiment returned to England in 1848. From 1857 to 1865 his regiment was again in India and in 1866 relocated to Ireland. He was in command of the regiment in the Crimean War where it took part in the eleven month siege of the town of Sebastopol. The 28th was present when the allied bombardment of Sebastopol commenced on 17 Oct 1854 and it participated in the 8000 strong British force which repulsed the 60,000 strong Russian attack on the 5th Nov 1854 resulting in the Russians retreating later that same day leaving behind 15,000 dead and wounded. Following the declaration of peace in March 1856 the 28th regiment left for Malta on 24th May. By 1857 Colonel Adams had been honoured by the monarch with a CB (Companion of the Order of the Bath) and by the French government with the Legion of Honour. He achieved the rank of Major-General but it is not known when he left the 28th to take up the higher command. He died aged 60 on 19 Sept 1869 whilst on a voyage home to England 15. In a 25 Jan 1888 letter to Maria's sister Letitia Garmonsway in New Zealand Maria's niece Ada Gordon wrote of her ex-48th regiment soldier grandfather Robert Gordon - ‘I remember your father then showing me pictures of the Crimean War and the state of excitement he got into over at a battle on paper, he treasured up all these old illustrations for his grandchildren's benefit’. No doubt Robert Gordon intended them to be primarily for the benefit of his two born out of wedlock Adams grandsons. |
Compiled by J. Raymond, Brisbane, Australia
Created 23 Sep 2003 - last modified 24 Oct 2003