e m m a v i l l e

How I came to be Australian

I stumbled onto the Old Bailey online quite by chance, and discovered something rather interesting. The rather brief, Dickensian story related below (or typed out more legibly on the website),  records the trial of my ancestor, the same day he was sentenced to transportation to New South Wales, 189 years ago. 

In a nutshell, Robert Wynn kept watch while William Fuell used a key to break into Thomas Ludford Bellamy's house, steal some silver, before being spotted by the servants, whereupon a mob gave chase to the two, who tried to throw the silver away and escape, before being caught by George Welch, a toll-man at Battersea bridge and John Piper, a foreman to a ship-breaker at Battersea.

A painting of Battersea Bridge by Whistler

The mob gave chase!

The victim of this foiled theft possibly looked like this.

Thomas Ludford Bellamy as Robin Hood in Robin Hood by Leonard MacNally, Covent Garden theatre, 1806. National Theatre Archive.

 

Robert Wynn and William Fuell were aged 19 and 20 and they were both given seven years, the lightest sentence given to transportees (the other sentencing options, as they didn't say then, were 14 years or life). But really, all transportation sentences were for life, because even if they got their freedoms, the convicts never got back to England.

They stole a salt spoon, a salt cellar,  a dish and a wine strainer - total value  17 shillings.  I spent ages online looking at historical values websites, and changes in income, inflation and the cost and quality of goods means it is impossible to say exactly how much 17 shillings is in todays money, but if we use average earnings from the period it seems to be about £650 (~$AUD 1500). Which is quite a lot of money.  Although it didn't buy much. Or Silver cost a LOT more than bread.

The single most expensive item was a wine strainer, which may or may not have looked like this . Apparently they were necessary to remove the sediment from older wines, when being decanted into some other vessel.

How the family has risen in the world over the last two centuries! I now own a lovely pair of brushed steel salt and pepper shakers, a honestly gained as a birthday present from my Dad. And we can all afford wine without sediment, which we can decant straight into the glass and drink. There have been setbacks along the way, including a relative way back  shooting his wife in the head. I'm fuzzy on the details but I think it was this, not the shameful thieving convict past, which prompted the family name change.

Is criminality in the blood? I'm not sure. I was the watch person when Dave and I were caught in raid on the then NUS General Secretary's office, but we successfully got away with a lot of gear - policy volumes and tote bags.  More recently, Mum and I tried to scratch our names in wet concrete when the footpath outside my Grandma's house was redone. We were spotted and the concrete defacement watch person ran towards us. We escaped  into the garage and put the rolla door down in a hurry, then hid behind the curtains while the concrete was smoothed over. We were laughing hysterically and my Gran was quite perplexed.

Sorry about the last post, I seem to have lost it a little bit.

I am going to London on Friday, for a much needed break. I just got the most heavenly email from my cousin who I will be staying with.

[Cousin’s boyfriend] will pick you up from Victoria. Then we thought you might like to go to London Bridge area with [Cousin’s boyfriend] for lunch and a look around (Golden Hind - ship, Borough Markets - fantastic food, The Thames, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and lots more) Later he can drop you at the Tate Modern. I can meet you around there and we can have a drink at a pub or whatever you feel like.

I can’t think of anything I would like more.

Today, an email, from someone I would not call an especially close friend.

It is phrased in a friendly "I"m just curious" way, but basically it asks why, I am not doing a higher paid, higher status role than I currently hold, especially at my age.

It contains a back-handed compliment, of the "you are well qualified, deserving of more" nature, but essentially asking me to justify my level of achievement (or his percieved lack of) in my career so far.

There are a number of issues here:

Firstly, WTF? So what if you're curious? You don't know me well enough to ask me that - if you did you would know the answer, including the fact that I don't take kindly to judgemental questions like that. What do you think my answer is going to be - some full-hearted outpouring of my shortcoming, according to your lights? No. A rather defensive, if true, retort of "You are only three years younger than me, and in the same position as me, so really, are we all that different?"

Secondly, this says a lot about the person asking the question, namely that he is under the crucial maturity threashold of 25 years old. I do know people who are younger than this who are sensitive and aware, but in my experience 25 is the age that the clueless and blithe confidence of youth fades away. It's about the point that people realise that the conveyer belt of school, university, first job, travel just ends. That being a clever clogs with big ambition doesn't just get you there and that life can be a bit unfair and unpredictable and that life progression doesn't stick to a timeline.

Thirdly, the email has hit a bit of a sore point. I haven't risen swiftly up the ladder of professional success, and I got a lot of knock backs that hurt a lot, but I am at the start of a ladder that I want to climb. It was hard, living in Sydney, not having very much money, certainly not nearly as much as all of my friends, studying in the evening and sticking to my goals, even when it all seemed too hard. Especially those quiet panics late at night when you wonder if you're ever going to get there, when there are so many people trying to do the same thing and not getting anywhere. But, I stuck with it, and I worked hard and surrounded myself with lovely supportive friends and told myself that if I stuck with it I would get there eventually.

And I think I have. I think I was lucky to get the job I have now, against other applicants and I think I will keep moving forward.

It's not a race, to see you can get there fastest in life. And you should never see yourself in competition with your friends. All of my friends are working hard, plotting their own course and tackling obstacles in their lives, and I think we help and support each other.
Of course, friends, colleagues, family all form opinions of each other and their choices, but I would prefer if people judged me in private, behind my back, thanks. I don't think insatiable curiousity is really a good enough excuse for asking someone to justify themselves to you.

So, how to reply?

Dear *Friend*, are you fucking serious? who do you think you are? - just curious! - Emma

Dear *Friend*, Save this email you have sent me. Look at again in three years. You will squirm with embarassment, but you will have your answer, your wise older "friend".

Dear *Friend*, Are you offering me career advice? Are you offering me a job? Oh no, you pissed off your main client is not giving you any work right now? - what did you do? just curious! Emma

Any suggestions?

It has not stopped raining across Europe for the past 10 days. It rains and it rains. This past weekend was another Catholic long weekend. I had a weekend of sunshine and walking in the Rhineland planned, and looking out at the grey, wet days I was at a loose end, restless and annoyed. I just mooched around on Saturday feeling grumpy and bored.

But on Sunday I woke up to rain lashing my windows and made a coffee and realised I needed to just give in to the weather and enjoy it. I got out my book of vouchers the city gave me when I registered as a resident, which gives me free entry to all the museums and art gallerys. I went to the Kunst und Austellungshalle der Bundesrepublic Deutschland for a special exhibition on the Russian Soul . It was beautiful and surprising and afterwards I went to my favourite coffee shop, a place that almost comes close to cafe 130

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Some of my favourite German sweets. First up: Strawberry Yogurt Milka. A summer-only flavour , I now find. I was very frustrated at not finding it in the shops when I got here in February. Inspite of the incessant rain it is now in my local discount sort-of-supermarket. I bought a large block 

Nimm 2 Lach Gummis (Take two laughing smiles, or something)  - Fruit and leaf shaped jelly lollies, not Binkas, but still pretty good. Not just for the taste, but because they come in big bags and you can make them into flowers and faces and stuff. It feels like you are eating fruit when really you probably aren't.

 

Thanks be to the Catholic church, for it brings public holidays to our lives here in the Rheinland. Three long weekends in May alone, and another in early June. Mind you, if I were paying 9% of my income to the church, I would be demanding a few extra days off too.

Last week it was Christihimmelfahrt, literally Christ's flight to heaven day (Ascension day). The sun was shining, the church bells rang out, and all over the country German men engaged in the traditional festivities -- going out into the countryside, drinking, then getting on their bikes and riding with a portable CD player blaring bad German pop, or just singing.

The mass immigration of Turkish people to Germany is something to be thankful for too, as they completely ignore religious holidays and open their kebab shops, without which we would all starve.

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I did some work I am actually rather pleased with, that you can see here.