“James, the oldest son, who was my great, great grandfather [i.e.Mona Harrison’s GGGrandfather], married Jane Rycroft at St. Pauls Church in 1818. Jane was probably the daughter of William Rycroft, a warehouseman of Chapel Alley, and Nancy Whalley.  James and Jane had seven children, all baptized at St. Peters. Five children survived babyhood, two dying in 1824.  According to photographs of portraits, James was a stocky looking man with a mass of hair and whiskers.

Nathaniel, James’ father died in 1831 and his will shows that he owned 15 houses in Prescott Row and Pickop Street, they were left in trust to his widow and 30 years later, his descendents were still trying to get the trust wound up.

In 1837 there was a splendid procession and fireworks display for the accession of Queen Victoria and there were further celebrations in 1840 for her wedding, presumably the Birtles family enjoyed all these. Nevertheless, somewhere about 1845, James and Jane decided to emigrate, not very far, just to Douglas in the Isle of Man. One day they loaded their belongings, their four daughters and one son, (or maybe only three daughters as Mary Ann was married by now, though with her own two small daughters, she soon joins the family in their new house). James rented Ballacubbon, a farm in Richmond Hill, somewhere near where there is now a home for old horses!  James, now nearly 50, farmed there for some years, leaving two brothers to carry on the family business in Liverpool.”

“Why this sudden enthusiasm for Island life!  About this time the Island population was expanding considerably due to the migration of families from England, Ireland and Scotland. The 1840s were the Hungry Forties and the time of the Great Famine in Ireland. In Liverpool one in every two children died before they were 11 and hundreds of people slept in alleys and doorways or lived in crowded cellars; emigrants came from Europe as well as Ireland, en route to America, but many, exhausted and without money, stayed in Liverpool.  The poor dare not apply for parish relief in case they were sent back; by 1880 Liverpool was a city of 600,000 inhabitants, although probably one tenth were destitute. Other big towns were nearly as bad, so perhaps it is not surprising that the Isle of Man was a welcome alternative.

On the island, trade was increasing because of the increasing tourist trade, despite the poverty in English cities and agricultural areas, there was, in contrast, a growing middle class.  Many Manx families were emigrating and small shopkeepers from England settled in the Island in their stead.

In 1847 the only son James Wilson Birtles became an apprentice seaman. He is described as having brown hair, grey eyes and a ruddy complexion. I don’t know when James junior went to sea but he was at Ballacubbon at the time of the 1851 census and also in June when he married Mary Johnson, daughter of Samuel, a bookseller, Duke St., Douglas.  The Johnsons had also emigrated to the Island, in their case, from Manchester.

1850 started a busy decade.  James Wilson Birtles and his new wife, aged 21 and 24 set off for the gold fields of Australia. This would still have been a trip of 90 to 100 days, with possible storms in the Bay of Biscay and the round the Cape of Good Hope. How did they travel? Steerage, between decks with open berths, would have been very Spartan. Possibly their parents paid the money for cabin class, about £25 each, with 4-6 berths in a  cabin, or maybe James worked his passage as crew. They would need to take mattresses and bedding; pots and pans; crockery and cutlery as well as candles, lamps, extra food and other provisions.  Their first child was born in Forest Creek in 1854, Emma Grace’s first summer was hot and thunderous, but she survived and was joined by a second girl, Eliza Ann, born in Bendigo in 1856.  Apart from this we know nothing of their time in Australia.  Gold was discovered in 1851/52 and the rush to the Forest Creek goldfield began in November 1851, so that quite soon up to 10,000 people were at work there. Canvas cities grew up among the muddy tracks and soon there was a second influx from California. It seems the initial excitement was soon replaced by acute home-sickness and some disillusion; it was a question of ‘adjust or go home’; new immigrants were warned that 1) they needed to work twice as hard as any navvy; 2) the weather would be burning sun or pouring rain; 3) there would be flies and mosquitoes (and the diseases they carried); 4) they would work in rain, hail, sun, snow, mud and they would drink muddy water.

‘They’ll charge you 7/- for a pint of mouldy peas,

six and ninepence farthing for a pound of rotten cheese.

Of going gold digging my friends, I’ve had my fill.

May Devil take Australia, I’ll live with old John Bull.

All them that like to emigrate, across the sea may go.

But they’ll never catch me again off to Australia- o’

£350 was necessary to buy a dray with horses or bullocks and stores. Flour was £24 a ton in Melbourne but £200 a ton in the goldfields, Bendigo was a seven day trek from Melbourne. Life in the goldfields was turbulent and the bitterness and the frustrations lead to riots and rowdy meetings. Melbourne was a brash city of red brick and stucco, but by 1855 there was a period of some settlement and the development of a degree of respectability although it was a long time before the sidewalks did not become quagmires after any rain.  It is amazing to visualize the ladies in long gowns in such surroundings and even more to think of “keeping house” (and having babies) in the primitive conditions of the diggings.

 It seems unlikely that James and Mary made any notable gold strike, as by 1860 they were back in the Isle of Man again with their two small daughters, and there they took over the Pier Inn on the North Quay of Douglas Harbour, an Inn much frequented by the sailors and fishermen and somewhat rough element of the population”