THE AUSTRALIAN STORY

George and Eliza Goddard were the family’s first connection to Australia. In 1852, they and their four children left England to start a new life in Australia; they travelled as free settlers and brought some of their furniture and other possessions on the voyage.

They started their voyage from the Port of Plymouth on Tuesday, the 24th of August 1852, onboard the 961-ton, three-story sailing ship ‘The General Hewitt’captained by John Gatenby. The ship arrived in Sydney (Port Jackson) on Christmas Eve, Friday the 24th of December 1852, a voyage of 122 days (four months). The children’s ages on this long and gruelling voyage were approximately Henry (8), John (6), William (4) and Mary Ann (2). Commander Gatenby had two months in Sydney before his next voyage. On Wednesday, the 29th of December 1852, The Empire (Sydney) advertised for freight and passengers for the journey aboard the ‘General Hewitt’ that would sail back to London on the 20th of February 1853.

The ‘General Hewitt’ (Hewett) was built by Matthew Smith from Howrah, Calcutta, and she was launched in 1811. Her specifications were – length overall: 147 ft 2 in (44.9 m), length keel: 118 ft 7 in (36.1 m), beam: 37 ft 9 in (11.5 m), depth of hold: 15 ft 0 in (4.6 m), propulsion: Sail, armament: 1814:18 x 18 Pounder Carronades or 14 guns. She was built from the finest materials, including teak with copper fastenings, iron knees and standards. She had a full poop and topgallant forecastle, with an excellent height between decks of 9.6 feet below the beams. She had a unique below-deck ventilation system using pipes and above-deck vents to help remove stale air from the lower decks. This ventilation system was an invention of the owner and voluntarily fitted at his expense to ensure passenger comfort and well-being.

The family travelled below the main deck as steerage passengers and shipped furniture and other personal belongings. This included a dining table and chairs, a sideboard and engraved silver cutlery. Family members in Australia have retained some of these items. At that time, the passage to Australia was advertised as costing from £18 to £25 per adult.

Eliza kept a diary of most of the voyage; her last entry was on the 30th of November 1852. The journal was transcribed in 2008 by Alan F. Taylor, the husband of Jan Hindwood, Marjorie Goddard’s daughter. Marjorie was one of two daughters to William Joseph Goddard and Ada Darcy. The original diary and transcript are at the New South Wales State Library. Titled Eliza Goddard’s journal of her voyage to Sydney onboard the sailing ship General Hewitt, 1852.

George left England less than a year after his mother died and just over two years after his father died. He also left his siblings behind, including his brother John Goddard, the owner and lessee of the White Horse Inn in Dorking, Surrey, and William Henry Goddard, who remained a prosperous farmer at Parsonage Farm in Iver. Eliza’s mother had also died but left her father in England; he was a gardener at the Ozleworth House Estate. Ozleworth is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. She also left behind her sister, Mary Ann Arthur, who died in 1874.

It was a massive commitment to move his young family to Australia. What was his motivation? Was he lured by gold and the prospect of a better life for his family? Did the Corn Laws Repeal of 1846 devastate his farming business? The price of grain crashed, and cheap imported grain was allowed to flood the market. His thrasher machine business would have also suffered with the reduction in local gain production.

Records tell us that George, Eliza, and their four children had settled in North Sydney from at least 1858. In the Sands Directory for 1858, 1859, 1861, 1863, and 1864, George’s occupation was recorded as a ‘Grocer’ in St Leonards (as it was then known). In 1858, George was the only recorded Goddard living on the North Shore in the Sands Directory. This was six years after arriving in Sydney.

George and Eliza’s third-born son, William Reuben Goddard, became the family’s first boat builder. He served an apprenticeship with Mr William Alfred Dunn of Lavender Bay before establishing his boat shed in Berry’s Bay, McMahons Point. The first-born son, Henry George Goddard, ended up in Cowra, working for Mr H. H. S. Francis Saw Millers in Cowra, New South Wales. The second-born son, John, ended up in St George, Queensland, working as an Overseer and Shire Clerk for the Balonne Shire. Mary Ann became a devoted worker for the Australasian Wesleyan Methodist Church in North Sydney and Crows Nest.