Mason Family History

Archibald McPhee & Christina McLeod

Husband

Marriage

Wife

Children


Their Story

Archibald McPhee was born in 1815 in Isle of Skye, Scotland. His parents were Malcolm McPhee and Margaret Morrison. He married Christina McLeod in about 1840 in Isle of Skye. Christina was born about 1811. Her parents were Alexander McLeod and Mary McDermot.

1851 Census

Archibald's family is listed on the 1851 census of Scotland, although he is not there when the census was taken.

Piece: SCT1851/109 Place: Bracadale -Inverness-shire Enumeration District: 2
Civil Parish: Bracadale
Folio: 84 Page: 2 Schedule: 3
Address: Colamyna

Surname First name(s) Rel     Age Occupation Where born remarks
MACPHIE Christy Head M F 39 Shepherd's Wife  Inverness-shire - Durinish
MACPHIE Christy Dau - F 12 Scholar  Inverness-shire - South Uist
MACPHIE Mary Dau - F 10 Scholar  Inverness-shire - South Uist
MACPHIE Norman Son - M 8 Scholar  Inverness-shire - South Uist
MACPHIE Jane Dau - F 2 Inverness-shire - Bracadale  Rhundunan

 

Archibald immigrated with his family from Scotland to Australia. Some of his brothers and sisters may also have come too.

The ship's record (the Priscilla) has the following details:
McPHEE Archibald 36, Christy 36, Christy 13, Mary 10, Norman 8, Jane 4 (Died 10-12-52), Infant born at sea (Died 8-12-52). They were emigrants assisted by the Highland and Island Emigration Society. "paid P/N £15-1-8"

"The emigration organised by the Highland and Island Emigration Society in the 1850's was the last substantial chapter in the story of the Clearances.  This society represented a short-term response to a specific problem in a particular geographical area.  The potato blight which brought on the Great Famine in Ireland earlier in the decade, struck the Isles and western Highlands in 1846.  Sir Charles Trevelyan, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, became very interested in the problems of the Highlands.  He properly saw emergency food supplies as a "useless palliative".  He wrote to the Sheriff Substitute of Skye, Thomas Fraser, concerning the necessity of adopting a final measure of relief for the Western Highlands and Islands by transferring the surplus of the population to Australia.  Trevelyan was joined in his concern and planning by two other distinguished civil servants, Sir John McNeill and Sir Thomas Murdoch.  These three were the backbone of the HIES in London although it is clear that much credit for the plan belongs to Thomas Fraser.

The support given to this project by the British public is amply demonstrated by the list of benefactors.  Queen Victoria gave £300, Prince Albert £105, three Scots Dukes £100 each, and various Members of Parliament, Anglican clergy, the Australian Agricultural Company, Mr Rothschild and many other prominent persons headed the list.  The Scheme ran from 1852 to 1857 and brought 4910 men, women and children from the Western Isles and western Highlands, mainly from Skye but the other areas were Harris, North Uist, Ardnamurchan, Morven, Strathaird, Raasay, Iona and St Kilda.
The passage was not easy, either.  The Georgiana experienced a mutiny by a gold-hungry crew, the Hercules has cases of smallpox, the Priscilla experienced many deaths from fever, and typhus broke out on the Ontario."

Taken from "The Scots in Australia – A Study of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, 1788-1900" by Malcolm D Prentis.

They came on the ship "Prescilla", which sailed from Liverpool for Victoria on the 13th October 1852, arriving in Melbourne on the 24th of February 1853. They were placed in Quarantine on arrival. There were 298 passengers (is this before departure, as some died on the way?). His widowed mother was on the ship as well.

This is from a quote from "The St. Kilda Heritage" an autobiography of Malcolm McQueen, published in 1995, the Scottish Genealogy Society Edinburgh.

We saw no land or vessel till we came near The Heads after 13 weeks. Three weeks after leaving, measles broke out and many died, about 80 old and young - largely owing to the ignorance of the doctor. He used to drive them on deck and they would be dead the next morning. At last the passengers rebelled and refused to allow the doctor to have his way; no-one died after that. I was the last man to take ill with it. My mother was laid up at the same time as I was. A young widow and another woman were very kind. Frank MacKenzie and Alex MacDonald were very kind to me. They did not live long after getting here. On our arrival we were placed in quarantine.

Passengers were landed at the Quarantine Station but those who were ill were kept aboard and the vessel was made a quarantine hulk. Scarlet fever was aboard when we arrived. Many who were well when landed got ill at the quarantine station and most of them died.

The total number of deaths was 42 - 31 on the voyage, mainly due to measles, and 11 at the quarantine station. These deaths were shown to be from scarletina (Scarlet Fever) but may have been caused by typhus.

The ship records Archibald as of "Rhuandunan MacLeod of MacLeod" which probably means that he was from Rhuandunan. Rhuandunan is the name of a headland at the southern extremity of the parish of Bracadale, in the Isle of Skye, Inverness, Scotland. The parish was in the patronage of the family of Macleod, of Macleod as was listed in this 1846 article.

The parish of Bracadale is in "the Isle of Skye, county of Inverness 12 miles (S. E.) from Dunvegan. This parish is washed on the south and south-west by the sea; it is about twenty miles in length, and eight in extreme breadth, and comprises 73,189 acres, of which 4878 are arable, and the remainder pasture and hill-grazing. The coast extends for about sixty miles, and is very irregular, being indented by numerous arms of the sea, and, though occasionally flat, is in most parts bold and rocky, and the beach very rough and stony ... The inhabitants generally are exceedingly poor, and upon the lowest scale with respect to clothing and food; the road from Inverness to Dunvegan passes through the district, and there is a post-office at Struan. At the village of Carbost is a celebrated distillery. A fair for the sale of black-cattle and sheep is held at Sligechan, on the third Tuesday in September. The parish is in the presbytery of Skye and synod of Glenelg, and in the patronage of the family of Macleod, of Macleod."

From: 'Berwick-upon-Tweed - Braidwood', A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1846), pp. 124-51. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43423. Date accessed: 27 June 2007.

The family settled in Yan Yean, Victoria. Archibald was a farmer. There is a McPhee’s Rd, in nearby Whittlesea, which may come from the family name.

Archibald died aged 78 years on the 9th April 1893, in Yan Yean. The informant was his granddaughter Elizabeth Marshall of Hazel Glen. He was buried two days later in the Hazel Glen Cemetery (now known as the Arthur's Creek Cemetery).

OLD YAN YEAN STORE AND POST OFFICE

The red corrugated iron shed which stands in Old Plenty Road, Yan Yean once served as storage shed for the old general store and post office. The Yan Yean store is believed to have been built by the McPhee family whose farm stretched back from the Old Plenty Road to the Plenty River. The date of construction of the store is not known, but was possibly between 1890-1900, following the opening of the Whittlesea railway line. The McPhee’s had first settled in the district in the 1860s. Various members of the McPhee family operated the store until 1917, when the business was sold to Mr. G. Parker. In 1914 a public telephone had been installed and in 1921 the Post Office transferred from the railway station. The storage shed, used mainly for grain and stockfeeds, was built during the 1930s. A notable event took place at the end of the Second World War, when local residents held a dinner in the shed to welcome home returned servicemen. In 1974 the Post Office was closed and the store soon after. Today the old store serves as a private residence. This group of buildings were a vital part of the once bustling Yan Yean township. The shed standing at the roadside gives some clue to a commercial centre at Yan Yean which has now completely disappeared.

(source: www.yprl.vic.gov.au/cdroms/heritage/13.pdf )

Christina

Christina died on the 6th June 1903 at Arthurs Creek. She was listed as a fruit grower on her death certificate. She died suddenly of heart failure. She was 28 when married to Archibald.

Relatives

There is a story of another McPhee from Yan Yean, possibly Archibald's brother, who had a still making whisky. One day while taking his product along the road and across a bridge, had an accident and all went over the side. McPhee died, and when two people came by and noticed this accident, they helped themselves to the whisky and failed to report the death until the next day.

 

References