Christy (Christie), Abel and wife

On the 1841 Census Abel Christy and his wife are recorded as having one child, a son aged between 7 and 14 years. Abel was over 45, his wife between 21 and 45. They had arrived as free settlers and their son was born in the colony. Abel lists himself as a ‘Mechanic or Artificer’ (tradesman) living in a wooden house alongside the Market Place. All were Church of England.

Abel Christy’s name appears on a website that records information extracted from the British Parliamentary Papers of 1833 XXVI 279 showing emigrants from Gt Britain and Ireland between 1825 and 1832.[1] Those listed have received loans to assist their emigration following the establishment of the Board of Emigration in 1832. Abel is listed as a blacksmith and the £20 loan is for two people.[2]

His name (as Able Christie) is on the list of steerage passengers of the ship Mail that arrived in Sydney on 2 December 1832 from Liverpool. Here he is recorded as a tin smith from Scotland. There are two other Christies on board, one listed as Mrs Christie, the forename/title on the other unclear There is no record of a child coming with them.[3]

These are the only records found that fit the details in the 1841 census and neither record indicates the age of either Abel or his wife. But given that he was over 45 at the time of the 1841 census Abel must have been at least 36 when he emigrated. It seems probable that, given the nature of Berrima in 1841, Abel took up his trade as a blacksmith.

Christie may have come to Berrima on account of Arthur Maynes, appointed the government foreman of works to the gaol and courthouse in 1840, and who was on the same ship out to Australia, an assisted immigrant from Ireland.

There is the death of an Abel Christy recorded in 1842 but with no district given.[4]

^[1] http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/australia/1825-1832.shtml#nsw. Accessed 2017

[2] SRNSW. Persons on early migrant ships (Fair Copy); Series: 5310; Reel: 1286

[3] On the same ship was Arthur Moyes and his wife, Eleanor. Moyes was to come to Berrima in 1840 as the government foreman of works to the gaol and courthouse

^[4] SRNSW BDM Records V1842928 103