3. THE IRISH CONNECTION -
RUTH BOYD
Ruth was almost half his age at 18 years and had
grown up without her father who had been consigned to Australia as a 40-year-old
convict,
in 1822, aboard the Isabella, sentenced to 14 years of penal servitude.
Alexander Boyd was one of almost 160,000 convicts serving time for an
offence which was often trifling. Due
to receive his certificate of freedom (No. 38/0202) on March 17th
1838, Alexander had petitioned the Crown in 1828 for the favour of his family
residing in the liberty of Coleraine, Ireland to join him by assisted passage.
Subsequently, Ruth had arrived in the colony in 1836 had met Joseph
and married him in the Church of England in the parish of St. Phillip, Sydney,
on June 14th, 1837.
Two absolute pioneers virtually alone in a strange,
hostile place had now come together to carve out their destinies in this hot
brown land .If Ruth dreamed of ever returning to the green fields of Coleraine,
Downderry, her dream would find scant chance of expression in the life she was
about to share with her Scottish husband who was fully intent on settling in the
native bush.
(photo taken about 1866: Ruth Boyd and possibly her father
Alexander Boyd - the convict)
(Click
on image to enlarge)
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