The Searle Family

Ellen Skinner (nee Searle) aged 62

Ellen Skinner (nee Searle) was Pa Skinner’s mother. She was the sister of Henry Ernest Searle who was recognised as the greatest sculler of the late 19th century. Ellen died at the age of 93. I have one memory of her as a grey haired old lady lying in bed in a house next door to the Chatsworth Island Church of England (as it was then called). It was this Church that Mum and Dad were married in.

Ellen is buried in the Church of England section of the old Maclean cemetery, apart from her husband Thomas Kelly Skinner. It seems she did a runner with the bloke next door somewhere around the age of 40. The younger generation of the family was told she had died so there was quite a stir when she did a Lazarus many years later. This is her story.

Henry Samuel Searle was born in Devonshire in 1832 and was a shoe maker by trade. When the Franco-German war broke out he enlisted in the army and served in Holland for five years guarding the dikes. After returning to England he met and married Mary Anne Brooks. They sailed to Australia on the sailing ship Annie Moore, the journey taking 60 days. It appears that they sailed first to New Zealand and then to Sydney where the passengers were quarantined for six weeks because of an outbreak of small pox. 

They moved to Grafton, arriving on 1 May 1860 where Henry started a shoe making business. While work was plentiful payment was often by produce, such as potatoes and pumpkins, which meant there was little money to buy leather. Henry Ernest Searle was born in Grafton on 14 July 1866.

The family left Grafton to take up a selection of land on Esk Island, which is near Iluka at the mouth of the Clarence River on the Northern side. A slab hut was built and work began clearing the virgin scrub. The land was ploughed with a wooden plough with a steel share and wooden mouldboard pulled by a pair of bullocks.  Maize, potatoes and pumpkins were grown and  Henry opened a boot making shop. Mary baked damper, made her own yeast and used a camp oven. Ellen was born in 1869, the first white child born on Esk Island. Wild game was plentiful and was a good source of food while the dingoes were a menace. As Ellen grew she became quite accomplished with a gun and a rifle.

She was baptised at Lawrence, the nearest Church, by the Rev. John Hill Garven, who came to Australia in 1834 through the influence of the Rev. John Dunmore Lang.The trip from Esk Island was made by muscle powered boat.

Initially there was no school so Mary, who had been a teacher in England, taught the children at home. Once the school was opened in Womba Henry jnr. rowed his siblings to and from school each day, a total of 9.6 km or almost 50 km per week. Once every six months the children would accompany their father to Grafton to obtain supplies. This was a three day trip made in a row boat. Ellen and Henry would also pull the boat to Chatsworth to supply the local store with boots.

Ellen was the last of her generation. She earned a reputation as a sculler, winning many women’s events at regattas held at Maclean, Harwood, Palmers Island and Iluka. She raised nine children on Esk Island and at the time of her death was survived by five sons, two daughters, 26 grandchildren, 52 great grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Note: I have based this on a note hand written by Ellen and an obituary notice, dated 23/8/1962 that was, no doubt, in the Daily Examiner.