Fitzgerald, Eliza

At the time of the 1841 Census Eliza Fitzgerald was assigned to Berrima’s Chief Constable, Noel Chapman. She had arrived on the Isabella in 1840 when she was 22 (24) years old and was from Kings County, Ireland (present County of Offaly).[1] (Full name Elizabeth.) She was a housemaid, sentenced to transportation for seven years for stealing silver spoons. In January 1842 she married 30-year-old James Lodge at Sutton Forest. Lodge was an ex-convict, of Berrima.[2] She was a Catholic: he was a Protestant. Both Eliza and James are listed as being in Berrima Gaol at some period between 1840 and 1847, possibly as debtors rather than for a crime.[3]

James Lodge arrived on the England 2 in 1835. He was born in 1812 in Hampshire, England and was sentenced to transportation for seven years – the nature of his crime not stated. His official certificate of freedom is dated 1843 but the marriage to Eliza records him as free by servitude at that time. (It also has Eliza’s age as 22.)

There is evidence of a son, James, being born to the couple and some evidence that James, at least, was in Goulburn in 1878 where he is entered into the Goulburn Gaol records and listed as a blacksmith.[4]

[1] Ancestry.com. Australia, List of Convicts with Particulars, 1788-1842

[2] NSW Register of BDM V1842650 26C/1842

[3] Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930; Series:2019; Item:6/5430; Roll:1873

[4] NSW Register of BDM V18502118 67; and Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930; Series: 2229; Item:6/5433; Roll: 1876