Image shows immigrants between decks during voyages to Australia
3rd Great grandmother – Maternal mother’s line of Randall Family
Jessie Cumming, a native of Selkirk in Scotland, died at her daughter’s residence in South Grafton, New South Wales, on 28 August 1894, when she was 82 years old. She had been a resident of South Grafton for 19 years.
When Jessie Cumming was born in 1812, in Selkirk, Selkirkshire, Scotland, her father, Thomas Cumming, was 46 and her mother, Janet Stewart, was 35.
Jessie Cumming married James Smail on 18 January 1833, in Selkirk, Scotland. They had four children within 10 years:
James Smail, baker and his wife Jessie, together with their 6-year-old daughter, Janet and their 4-year-old son, Robert, had left Liverpool, England on 18 January 1839 and sailed aboard the bounty ship “Formosa” to Botany Bay. They arrived in Australia on 20 May 1839. The bounty paid by the colony was £18 each for adults and £5 each for children, a total of £46.
Soon after their arrival to Sydney in 1839, James worked as a baker at Millers Point, New South Wales. Within three years, in 1842, James and his family had moved to Kent Street, Sydney, New South Wales.
Our direct descendant Isabella Smail was born on 25 December 1843, in Sydney, New South Wales.
James Smail owned and lived on his properties at the corner of Bathurst and Sussex Streets, Sydney, New South Wales, from 1848-1859. The main part of the property was the Robert Burns Hotel and its adjacent bakery. James was Publican of the hotel and prospered from the nearby whaling industry.
The products of the early whaling industry were vital for the new colonies in Australia that relied heavily on whale products for survival and for export. Visiting deep-sea whalers also paid or traded to be resupplied. At one time thirty-nine local whaling ships were registered in Sydney, and they employed 835 men. The Robert Burns Hotel was located close to the present Darling Harbour.
Robert Burns Hotel as it appeared before demolition in 1909 and the current building on the same site.
The above photograph of the Robert Burns Hotel, Bathurst & Sussex Streets, c1909-13 is © City of Sydney. It is available from City of Sydney Archives. [File 000/000707. Record series NSCA CRS 51, Demolition books, 1900-1949. Citation NSCA CRS 51/482.]
Following the death of James Smail, aged 47 years, on 15 March 1860, his wife Jessie Smail, as Publican, managed the Robert Burns Tavern until 1875. She then moved to South Grafton and lived with her daughter Janet and son-in-law William Scott Cowan.
Jessie Smail née Cumming died at South Grafton, New South Wales, on 28 August 1894.
