|
Frederick Werner Ahrendts and Mary Dorotea Cristina Godtknecht |
The family seems to have settled down in Armstrong and Colonia Wheelwright in the province of Santa Fe, where their three children were born in 1884, 1888 and 1891. |
|
George and Sophia Elizabeth Backler |
By 1881 they had found their way back to England and were living in Romford, Essex. Their daughter Caroline Sophia Elizabeth Backler (born 1869) was probably one of the children who died in Paraguay. |
|
Joseph and Susan Bailey children: George, Anne and Susan |
the family is mentioned in Annie's Memories; Anne and Susan attended St Bartholomew's School in 1875. In that same year their fourth child was born in Rosario. By 1881 the family had returned to England and was living in London. |
|
John and Mary Barrett children: Alice, Johanna, Elizabeth and Kate |
The Barrett family lived very close to the Manser family in London and both initially went to Chivilcoy in Argentina. In 1895, Mary appears living in Buenos Aires. |
|
Thomas Henry and Annie M. Booth child: Ellen M. |
The family lived in Buenos Aires for a few years, where two of their children were born. One of them died of measles at three months and was buried at Victoria Cemetery. They then returned to London and had four more children. |
|
Henry James Broad children: John Henry Broad and his wife Mary Ann Cundy, Thomas Henry, Lydia and Helena. |
The Broads were the only family from Cornwall who joined the Lincolnshire Farmers. Henry Broad, at 55, was one of the oldest colonists and a widower. He seems to have returned to Cornwall immediately and remarried in 1874 in England. John Henry Broad and Mary Ann Cundy re-emigrated to Cleveland, Ohio. Lydia Broad married Peter Schmitz at St John’s Cathedral, only a few months after arriving in Buenos Aires. |
|
Henry and Isabel Brownlow children: Clara Beck, Adelaide, Charlotte and Mary |
The Brownlow family is mentioned in Annie Kennett's Memories. Clara married, aged 16, in 1880 in St Bartholomew's Church and had eleven children born in Buenos Aires, Rosario and Chascomús. Adelaide returned to England and in 1891 was living in Nottinghamshire. |
|
Charles William (Willett) Burry and Augusta Hopkinson children: Sabina, Alexander Charles and Emma Ethel |
Willett died three months after arriving in Buenos Aires at age 47. In 1874 Sabina married John Harper at St John’s Cathedral in Buenos Aires and they had two children. John died in 1877 and soon after that the family returned to England. In 1881 they were living in Christchurch, Hampshire. Alexander married and had one son. |
|
Robert Bradshaw and Mary Butterworth children: Mary Helen, Rebecca, Annie E., Julia and Emma Martha |
Emma Martha, born in England just before the family left for Paraguay, was baptized at St John’s Cathedral in Buenos Aires in 1877. That same year Robert died at the British Hospital aged 41. By 1881 the family was back in England living in Newark, Nottinghamshire. |
|
James Cant and Mary Elizabeth Trigg children: Sarah and William |
Settled down in Buenos Aires, where they had another eight children. Four of these children died before they reached the age of 14 months. |
|
Henry and Mary Carr children: Mary Ann and William |
The Carrs settled down in Buenos Aires, where Henry died in 1899. Mary Ann married John Breingan and had two daughters, born in Buenos Aires in 1882 and 1889. |
|
John and Sarah Carpendale children: Alice and George B. |
Reuben, son of J. Carpendale, aged 1 month, died on 14 December 1874 from dysentry and was buried in the Antiguo Cementerio de Disidentes, Rosario, #196; the family moved to Córdoba, where John became an engine driver. John and Sarah had two more boys in 1876 and 1878. By 1881 they had returned to England and seem to have settled down in Holbeck, Yorkshire, where they had one more daughter. Eliza Carpendale, born 1871, may have been one of the children who died in Paraguay. |
|
Edward Chandler and Sarah Wiles children: Eliza, John Thomas, Harriet, George Edward and James |
The Chandler family lived in Chascomús till at least 1886, where Edward worked for “Wilson’s” camp (Estancia La Fe, owned by Robert Wilson). Three more of their sons were born in 1875, 1877 and 1879. Eliza Chandler married in Chascomús in 1877. John Thomas married in Córdoba in 1891. Both Harriet and George married Lincolnshire Farmers. James died aged 28 in Buenos Aires. The Chandlers seem to have finally settled down in Buenos Aires. Their daughter Charlotte Chandler (born 1870) may have been one of the children who died in Paraguay. |
|
William and Clara Clayton children: George and Rosalie |
George, born in London, attended St Bartholomew’s School in 1879-80, and Rosalie in 1879. Rosalie married William Woods and their son, Henry Elias Woods, was baptized at St Bartholomew’s in Rosario in 1895. |
|
John and Julia Cullen John and Mary Jane Coffee child: Louisa Julia |
Julia Cullen arrived in Argentina with her son John Coffee (with his wife Mary Jane and daughter Louisa Julia) and her second husband, John Cullen. John and Mary Jane died near San Nicolás in 1877. Louisa was only seven years old and was, probably, brought up by her grandparents. At about 18 she married Robert Jack and they had five children born between 1890 and 1900 in Buenos Aires. |
|
Henry and Dorah Cordes children: John Christian, George Henry, Albert Christopher and William Martin |
Henry and Dorah Cordes were German and moved to London, where their four children were born. After living in Buenos Aires for some time, they appear to have moved to Rosario. John Christian Cordes married in Buenos Aires in about 1884. Both George Henry and Albert Christopher Cordes married and lived in Rosario. |
|
Austin Dixon children: Austin, Lewis, Catherine, Charles William and Anne |
Austin Dixon was a widower when he left England with his children aged between 5 and 11. The family returned to England, where Austin re-married and lived in Worcestershire. He always kept a parrot as a memory of his days in South America. In 1901, both his sons, Austin and Charles, were postmen in Derby and married and had children. There was a sixth child, Albert (born 1870) who may have died in Paraguay. |
|
Henry Earl and Ann White child: Henry William |
Henry and Ann married in 1872, just before leaving for Paraguay. Their first child, Henry, was born in Itapé in Paraguay in May 1873. The family settled down near Azul, where Henry worked at Estancia La Lata. By 1880 they had four children, all of whom were baptized in Flores. In 1895 they were living in Tapalque, province of Buenos Aires. |
|
John and Emma Edwards children: Walter I., Emily, Clara, Arthur & Elizabeth. |
Soon after they arrived in Paraguay, their daughter Elizabeth died and Emma gave birth to a sixth child. They stayed on in Itá, Paraguay for at least one more year. A letter by Emma dated 1874 gives details of their life in Paraguay. |
|
Thomas Edwards |
A Thomas Edwards appears in the consular declarations as having been “assassinated at San Antonio de Areco” in the 1870s— he may or may not have been this same Thomas Edwards. |
|
Thomas and Sarah Foster children: William, Elijah, Asenath/Christina, Nephi and Mark. Joseph Welborn (Welbourne) also travelling with them. |
The Fosters, from Lincolnshire, arrived in Argentina with five children and a 6-year-old boy who had been living with them at least since 1871. Elijah settled down in Rosario, married and had three daughters. Asenath first lived in Buenos Aires and then in Rosario, married twice and had eight children. Nephi also married and had a son in Rosario. Thomas Welbourne, Sarah’s son by her first marriage, was also part of the Lincolnshire Farmers (see Thomas Welbourne below). Sarah’s nephew, Joseph Thorpe, was also a Lincolnshire Farmer (see Joseph Thorpe below). |
|
John Fox |
John Fox was Polish and was a butler in a London hotel. A fellow worker persuaded him to join the adventure. |
|
Henry Swaine Fradgley |
His brother, J. A. Fradgley, was an official in the Bank of England and reported in a letter to The Times that his brother had gone to Paraguay. |
|
Henry French and Catherine Safe children: Henry and Grace |
the family is mentioned in Annie’s Memories; Henry and Catherine had four more sons, born in 1875, 78, 80 and 84. Henry found employment on the Central Argentine Railway, at first in Rosario and by 1880 in Correa, 58 kilometres west of Rosario on the line between Rosario and Córdoba; by 1884 he was the station master there; their eldest son, Henry Thomas, born 1870, attended St Bartholomew’s School in 1875, 1878-9; he later died in Correa on 18 Feb 1881 and was buried in the Antiguo Cementerio de Disidentes, Rosario, #316. |
|
Thomas Godward and Jane Price children: Charles Kennett, (Annie) Elizabeth Kennett (the author of Annie’s Memories)and Lillie Godward (born 1869) |
Thomas found employment in the Central Argentine Railway; of their children, Charles attended St Bartholomew’s School in 1875, 1878-9; his behavour described as naughty. Annie and Lillie attended St Bartholomew’s School from 1875-1878; Jane Godward died of tuberculosis in Rosario 27 Apr 1878, aged 39 years and was buried in the Antiguo Cementerio de Disidentes, Rosario, #255. Immediately afterwards, Charlie, Annie and Lillie were sent back to England to the care of relatives; at that time they resumed taking their family name Kennett. In time, Thomas Godward moved to Barracas, Buenos Aires, where he married Isabella Gillies from England at St John’s Church on 17 April 1886; they had three sons, Charles, John and Daniel |
|
John Goodman and Elizabeth Frost children: Mary, Amelia, Elizabeth and Jane |
the family stayed in Rosario, where John found employment as a bricklayer; Elizabeth attended St Bartholomew’s School in 1878; John and Elizabeth had a further son in 1877; of their daughters, Amelia married, aged 18 in January 1884, Elizabeth, aged 16 in March 1886 and Jane, aged 15 in November 1886. All four daughters had children. One of Jane Goodman’s daughters, Sarah Astbury married Paul Flook, also the son of a Lincolnshire Farmer (Annie Kennett). |
|
William Frederick Conrad Hadeler and Anne Callaghan children: Elizabeth Mary Sophia, William and Christian James Christian Hadeler |
The Hadelers had four more children after arriving in Rosario born in 1877, 1879, 1880 and 1882. Louisa and William went to St Bartholomew’s School from 1875 to 1879 and Christian James between 1878-1879. William died aged 11 in 1881 in Rosario. Elizabeth married Charles Caldicott in 1887 in Rosario. William’s brother—— also went to Paraguay. |
|
Thomas and Emma Hind children: John, William H., Mary E. and Thomas D. |
During their stay in Paraguay, another child was born, who appears on the passenger list as ‘Paraguay Hind’. No other record linked to this child has been found. |
|
George Henry and Harriet Hollidge children: George (with his wife Elizabeth Hope Manderson) and Harriet Amelia |
at some time later they were joined by their son Charles, born 1856 (baptized in Rosario in 1882) and Sarah born 1847; George found employment on the Central Argentine Railway; Harriet attended St Bartholomew’s School 1875-77; George Hollidge (Snr.) died of tuberculosis in Rosario on 4 August 1880 and was buried in the Antiguo Cementerio de Disidentes, Rosario, #299. Sarah Hollidge married James Moore in Rosario in 1874 and they had three children. George (Jnr) and Elizabeth, who married just before leaving England for Paraguay, had four children, all born in Rosario. Harriet was baptized in Rosario, a few years after their arrival from Paraguay. |
|
William John and Elizabeth Huggett children: John, Elizabeth Sarah and William |
Did not spend a long time in Argentina. By 1877 they were back in England living in London, where two more sons were born– one in 1877 and another in 1880. |
|
William Jarman |
Died on 24 October 1873 at the British Hospital in Buenos Aires, five weeks after arriving from Paraguay. |
|
W. S. Malcolm Jones |
Son of London solicitor Benjamin William Jones, he returned to England in February 1874. |
|
Nicholas and Eliza Kaltenbourn children: Nicholas, Emma and F. William |
Eliza and two of her children had to go into hospital upon arrival in Buenos Aires. Five weeks later her baby Rose was born. In January 1874 Nicholas fell off a rooftop (azotea) and died, aged 8. |
|
Wilhelmine Kerne children: Henry and Clara |
Wilhelmine and her husband Ernest, a surgical instrument maker, had been living in London for about five years when they decided to join the Lincolnshire Farmers. Ernest seems to have died in Paraguay and his youngest son, also Ernest, may be one of the children who died in Paraguay. Mrs Kerne and her two surviving children were sent back to England immediately with funds collected in Buenos Aires. |
|
Edward and Mary Ann Kettle child: William |
Edward found employment with the Ferrocarril del Sud as an engine driver and the family first lived in Barracas, then in Chascomús, moved to Altamirano and finally returned to Buenos Aires. They had six more children after arriving in Argentina, four of which died before they were 14 months old. Mary Ann died in the mid-80s and Edward married Susan Trigg, with whom he had two more children. |
|
Alfred Henry King and Louisa Joslane |
They spent very little time in Argentina and found their way back to England, where their three children were born in 1875, 1876 and 1879. |
|
John Knight |
Emma appears to have died soon after their arrival in Argentina. John re-married in 1879 in Rosario. |
|
Jacob and Sarah Lesser |
Apparently, they were looking for a free ride to Buenos Aires but were taken on to Paraguay. They do not appear on the passenger lists arriving in Argentina so they probably managed to leave Paraguay by their own means. |
|
Eliza MacPherson (married to Liddington) children: George (or John?), Malcolm MacPherson and Jessie MacPherson Liddington |
Eliza McPherson arrived in Buenos Aires with three of her children. She was a widow – her husband George may have been amongst the dead in Paraguay. She did not stay in Argentina for long. In 1879 she arrived in New York with her son Malcolm and died there in 1898. Malcolm married, had five children and died in New York in 1930. John returned to England and in 1891 was living in Essex, married with three children. George (Jnr) emigrated to New York about a year before the rest of his family left for Paraguay, married and died in New York in 1898. In 1880 Jessie was also living in New York, where she married, had three children and died in 1922. |
|
Timothy and Margaret Manser children: Mary, Margaret, Michael, Patrick and Enora |
The Manser family lived in Brentford, London, very close to the Barrett family. When they arrived in Argentina both families went to Chivilcoy. Their youngest child, Enora, was born in Paraguay. |
|
Charles and Dinah Matthews children: Charlotte, Janet and William |
In 1895 William (Jnr) was living in Almirante Brown, Buenos Aires, was married and had two children. |
|
William Morris children: Harriet, William and Henry |
William Morris’s wife had previously died in England; he stayed in Rosario and died there on 12 April 1896; his elder son, William Case Morris, born in Soham, Cambridgeshire in 1864, subsequently went to Buenos Aires in 1886 to find work; he became deeply involved in the Methodist Church’s mission in La Boca; he then became a member of the Anglican Church, was ordained and served as a missionary of the South American Missionary Society, working among poor immigrants in Palermo, Buenos Aires, from 1897-1932; he founded schools, industrial schools and orphanages; he is still given a place of honour in the history of Buenos Aires and commemorated by a statue of him in Palermo Park; the one remaining thriving institution founded by Morris is the El Alba Home, Longchamps, Greater Buenos Aires. He died in his native Soham in 1932. |
|
Charles Mott and Maria Collerson children: Charles and Maria Collerson |
Charles and Maria left England with their son Charles, aged 8. Maria was pregnant and soon after they arrived at their land in Itapé, their baby Maria was born. When the Lincolnshire Farmers were rescued, the Motts chose to go to Ranchos, a very small town in the province of Buenos Aires, where Charles Mott worked at Estancia Los Ombúes, owned by Dr Gibbings. Maria was baptized there in 1874. They then appear to have moved to the city of Buenos Aires, where their son John Collerson was born. In 1883 they made their final move to Texas, USA, where most of them seem to have settled down. Charles worked for the railway and lived on a farm, where his ‘cows and mares did well’. In 1892 his son Charles was living in California. |
|
Patrick and Johanna Murphy children: Ellen, Patrick, Mary, John, Abby and Johanna |
When the Murphys arrived in Argentina, Patrick went to work at Estancia Negrete (owned by David Shennan) in Ranchos. It was at about this time that the first ever polo match was played in Argentina, precisely at the Estancia Negrete. In 1877 Helen/Ellen Murphy married Thomas Allen, lived in Chascomús, Flores and Bahía Blanca and had eight children. Honor Philomena Murphy (another daughter though must have arrived after the Lincolnshire Farmers) married Louis Rundie and had two children. |
|
Joseph Nash |
Joseph Nash married Petrona González (1849-1922), and later established himself as a farmer at the Estancia Los Corralitos, Bell Ville, Province of Córdoba. See Juan Delius’ website |
|
Owen Newman and wife children: Owen Henry Mrs Newman’s sister also travelled with them to Paraguay. |
Owen Henry Newman was one of the babies who died in Paraguay. A few weeks later, both Mr and Mrs Newman were murdered in their sleep while living in Itapé. Mrs Newman’s sister found her way back to England thanks to a collection raised by the Rector of Swanscombe. |
|
Daniel and Margaret O’Keefe children: Michael, Jane and Mary |
The O’Keefes settled down in Chascomús. They had two more children in Argentina, born in 1879. May be the same family referred to on this website |
|
George Papworth and Eliza Maynard child: Annie |
Lived in Buenos Aires for about four years, where they had another two children. One of them died as a very small baby and was buried at the Victoria Cemetery. They then returned to England and had two more children. |
|
William Isaac Porter children: William Isaac, Mary Ann, Alfred Charles, Bennett and George |
William Porter arrived in Buenos Aires with five children and died seven months later. His son William married in 1885, lived in Barracas and had four children. Mary Ann also married and went to live in Córdoba. She had three children. Alfred, at 17, was killed in an accident on the Ferrocarril del Sud. Both Alfred and William (Snr.) were buried at the Cementerio Victoria in Buenos Aires. |
|
Eliza Pratt children: Ann, Eliza, Alfred, Clara, Louisa and Charles Edward |
Only half of the Pratt family came out to Paraguay: Mrs Pratt and six of her children. The other four and her husband, William Pratt, seem to have stayed in England. They all seem to have returned to England by 1891. In 1881 Alfred was living in Islington. In 1891 Charles was working in a library, married and with four children. His sister Clara was living with them. William Pratt died in 1879 and in 1881 Eliza was living with Louisa in Islington. Eliza died in Islington in 1891. |
|
John Charles Robertson and Isabella Watson children: John S., Arthur Swale, Edith Isabella, Mary Agnes, Alice M. and Edward Fenton |
The Robertsons were one of the few families from Yorkshire. By 1891 John and Isabella were back in London with two of their daughters: Alice and Mary. Arthur seems to have stayed on in Buenos Aires working as an accountant for the railway. In 1888 he married Helen Warren and they had three sons. Edith married Francis Younger, a merchant who was about thirty years older. Edward died at 16 and was buried at the Cementerio Victoria. |
|
Mackinson William Sanders and Anne Chartres child: Alice |
The Sanders arrived in Buenos Aires with two children, Alice and Mackinson Francis Albert, who was baptised in Buenos Aires in 1881. Still, only Alice appears on the official immigration lists. They had another four children and in 1895 appear on the census living in Quilmes, Buenos Aires. |
|
John Scoffield and Elizabeth Chapman children: Cecil James, Mary, Walter, Hiram and Norman |
John first left Paraguay and arrived in Buenos Aires on 29 September 1873. Elizabeth left a month and a half later, arriving in Rosario on 13 November. The committee then paid for their transfer to Buenos Aires, to join John. Cecil returned to England and lived in Nottingham. In 1883 he married Mary Smart and they had six sons. Hiram Scoffield married in 1885, had two children and appears in the 1895 census living in Buenos Aires. |
|
Edmund Sealy and Harriet Arabella Weston children: Arthur Gilbert Evans, Minnie Evans, William Thomas Evans and Agnes Roberta Lilly Sealy. |
Other than Lilly Sealy, Harriet had three children from her first marriage who also travelled with her to Paraguay. Arthur married in 1880, had five children and settled down in Córdoba. William married in 1887 and died in about 1889. Lilly Sealy (who appears as Lilly Evans on the passenger lists) attended St Bartholomew’s School in 1875 and married John Henry Jackson (another Lincolnshire Farmer) in 1894 in Rosario. They went to live in Tandil and had two children. |
|
Annie, Walter, Eliza, Edward, Cecil Albert and Janet Sharpin |
The six Sharpin children, aged between 5 and 15, arrived in Buenos Aires with no parents. Annie married five years later in Buenos Aires and had eight children. |
|
Michael Thomas Shrewsbury and Matilda Freakley children: Thomas Freakley, Robert Michael, Matilda Katherine, Albert Ernest and Rosalie Ann |
The detailed Shrewsbury family tree is available on this website. |
|
George and Anne Slater children: Elizabeth Slater, William Slater, Matthew Jackson, John Harry Jackson, Alfred William Jackson and Edwin Slater. |
George and Anne Slater travelled with three different sets of children. Elizabeth and William Slater were from George’s first marriage. Matthew, John and Alfred Jackson were from Anne’s first marriage to William King Jackson, who died in 1867. George and Anne then married and had two more children: Charles and Edwin Slater. Annie Kennett refers to Anne Slater in her Memories when she says, ‘When we was in the train it was just like being in cattle trucks, and a poor woman Mrs Slater tried to jump out of the window because her son Matthew was gone away with some natives. They had to hold her back or she would have got out.’ The Slaters and Jacksons settled down in Rosario. George and Annie had three more children, born in 1875, 77 and 79; George found employment on the Central Argentine Railway. John Harry married Agnes Roberta Lilly Sealy, another Lincolnshire Farmer, and had two daughters. Alfred Jackson attended St Bartholomew’s School between 1875 and 1876. In 1891 he married and had one daughter. Charles Slater, born in 1870, does not appear on the passenger list arriving in Rosario and may have been one of the children who died in Paraguay. |
|
Richard Sly and Sarah Penfold children: Alfred Abel Sly, Charlotte Laney, Martha Laney, Amy Sly, Joseph Robert Laney, Edith Ada Sly, Matilda Laney, Victor Sly, Bertha Sarah Hatton Sly and Susannah Sly |
Richard Sly was married four times. None of the four children from his first marriage went with him to Paraguay. Alfred Abel Sly was the only child from his second marriage to Elizabeth Hutton. Amy, Edith, Victor and Bertha were his children by his third marriage to Susannah Hatton. Susannah Sly (born 1870) was his youngest child from his marriage to widow Sarah Penfold, their next-door neighbours. Four of Sarah Penfold’s children by her first marriage went to Paraguay: Charlotte, Martha, Joseph and Matilda Laney. Sarah Penfold died in Chascomús, only a year after arriving in Argentina. Richard Sly died in Buenos Aires in 1895. Alfred Sly married twice and had eight children. He first married Elizabeth Craigdallie, who died in 1885. His second marriage was to Harriet Chandler, another Lincolnshire Farmer. Amy Sly married Charles Hawkes and had five daughters. Edith Sly married William Carshey and had two daughters. Victor Sly married Isidora Benites, had ten children and worked for the railway in Salta. He died in Tucumán in 1947. Bertha Sly married William Stewart, had three children and died in 1929. Charlotte Laney first married William de Maurice and had one daughter. When she became a widow, she married Frederick Leake and had four more children. Martha Laney married Joseph Pitt and had one son. She died in 1882, a few days after her only son. Matilda Laney died in Chascomús in 1879. |
|
James and Charlotte Smith child: James |
James Smith was born 2 February 1873 in Itapé and baptized in Buenos Aires. In 1874 they returned to England and settled down in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. They had three more children born 1875, 1877 and 1880 |
|
George and Sarah Tarbottom |
Had been servants in the River Plate area and used the Lincolnshire Farmers scheme to return. They did not stay in South America – by 1891 they were back in Yorkshire. |
|
Joseph Thorpe and Sarah Shield children: Lucy Alice, Sarah Ann and Daniel |
Four months after arriving in Buenos Aires both Lucy Alice and Sarah Anne died. Six months later their mother also died. Joseph then returned to England, where he re-married. His son Daniel went to live with his uncle in Lincolnshire. He eventually married, went to live in Nottingham and had four children. Joseph’s aunt (Sarah Thorpe married to Thomas Foster) and his cousin Thomas Welbourne were also Lincolnshire Farmers. |
|
Mark Webb and Susan Good children: Alice, Esther Annie/Hester and Amy |
The family initially settled down in Buenos Aires, where one more son (James William Webb) was born in 1879. Alice married John Treadway in 1876 and had eight children. They lived in Chascomús. Hester married Alfred Henry Weyler and had four children. They lived in Rosario. Amy Webb married Robert Thomas Tamplin in 1887, had six children and lived in Buenos Aires. Mark and Susan had two other children: Emily (born 1863) and Alfred (born 1870), who may have been amongst the children that died in Paraguay. |
|
Thomas Welbourne and Frances Lunn children: Jane A., John Thomas and Daniel |
Thomas Welbourne’s mother was Sarah Thorpe, also a Lincolnshire Farmer (see Foster family). John married in 1890, settled down in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire and had four children. Daniel married in 1893 and settled down in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Thomas and Frances settled down in Grantham, Lincolnshire and had three more children. Thomas died in 1902 and Frances in 1912. |
|
Sources Annie Godward's Memories. George, Rvdo. David M. Historia de la Iglesia Anglicana en la Argentina, Buenos Aires, 2010, 164 pp., illus. 8 pp. on William Case Morris, pp. 85-95. Pages available online on this website: Register of Burials of the Antiguo Cementerio de Disidentes, Rosario. 1861-1901 UK census 1895 Argentina census |
|
|
Walter Seymour returned to England and to two lawsuits which arose from the scheme in Paraguay that kept him busy. One of the trials was brought forward by a colonist who said he had not received the land he had been promised and another by tradesmen in Paraguay and Buenos Ayres who had provided Seymour with food for the Lincolnshire Farmers. Seymour said, ‘as long as I was out of it with a whole skin and my liberty I had to consider myself lucky, and though I might be called a fool for ever getting into it, and though I left it, without a stain on my character. I had the trouble, worry and expense of two trials on which I was a witness and had to see that I was well advised and kept clear of any responsibility.’ At one stage, he considered taking matters further and he received offers for questions in Commons and Lords but he decided to drop it because he felt, ‘To whom would it do any good?’ In 1878 a rumour circulated that Seymour, in total misery, had committed suicide in Rosario but this was proved wrong. In 1910, he published Ups and downs of a wandering life which includes two chapters on Paraguay and one on his experience in Fraile Muerto, Argentina. John Billiatt returned to London and while many of the colonists were already being removed from Paraguay, he wrote letters to the Standard newspaper trying to raise awareness of the colonists’ plight: ‘Will you kindly allow me space in your valuable paper to draw public attention to the position of the English emigrants in Paraguay sent out under my charge, as they are in a most lamentable condition. (…) Radically misstated was the information given at the outset causing a great amount of misery and loss of life. My reason for addressing you is in the hope of raising a sufficient amount of public interest to be able to remove the survivors to some English colony or at least to Buenos Ayres and send the widows and orphans back to England, as there is not the slightest hope for them in Paraguay.’ Billiatt’s letters and pleas came too late. He never fulfilled his promise of returning to Paraguay to fetch the colonists. Fortunately for the immigrants, while these pleas were taking place, others had already made all the necessary arrangements to solve their problem. After the disaster in Paraguay, John Billiatt and his family returned to South Australia, where he earned a living as an educator and conducted his own school. He became a member of the Freemasons and also immersed himself in community affairs. At a public meeting in1883 he gave a talk on 'A trip to Paraguay'. Billiatt and his family returned to England in 1889. While living there he was visited in 1913 by the Premier of South Australia who presented him with a gold watch in recognition of the part played by him during Stuart's successful crossing of Australia in 1862. Billiatt died on 6 April 1919, aged 76. Alexander Francis Baillie, who was the assistant manager of the scheme in Itapé, returned to England and, based on his experience in Paraguay, wrote the novel A Paraguayan treasure: the search and the discovery, published in 1887 in London. One of the characters, Major Robert Ganton, travels to Paraguay as one of the Lincolnshire Farmers. For about twenty years he was the Paraguayan Consul in London. In 1893 he was interviewed by the Brisbane Courier about the possibility of setting up an Australian colony and he referred to his own experience with the Lincolnshire Farmers. He said, ‘I have had some little experience, having been more or less instrumental in the sending out of a considerable number of would-be settlers ; but the majority of them would not settle down to steady work. They would not put their hands to the plough, either literally or figuratively, and the results were exactly what might have been anticipated. I must confess, though, they were not the right sort of immigrants, being chiefly the wastrels and failures of our great cities.’ Alexander Baillie died in London in 1910. Rev. W. T. Coombe, who did so much to support the Lincolnshire Farmers in Rosario, died suddenly in 1878. St Bartholomew’s School, where so many of the Lincolnshire Farmers’ children were educated, is still a very active educational institution in Rosario. Frederick R. St John, Chargé d’Affaires in Buenos Aires between 1872 and 1876, then held diplomatic posts in several South American countries, Constantinople and Serbia. St John retired in 1901 and was awarded a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. In 1905 he published Reminiscences of a Retired Diplomat, dedicating a chapter to the Lincolnshire Farmers and how the funds were raised to rescue them from Paraguay. Máximo Terrero's appointment as Paraguayan Consul was terminated in 1872 and he continued doing business in London. He died in 1877. Gregorio Benítez, who travelled to England to sort out the problems caused by the loans and the emigration scheme, succeeded Máximo Terrero as Paraguayan Consul in London. He then held other diplomatic and government posts in Paraguay. In 1876 he published a report on the loans which had led to the Lincolnshire Farmers emigration scheme. Using a controversial style, he also published Manifiesto al Pueblo Paraguayo y a mis amigos y de los abusos y las víctimas del Crédito Público Sud Americano en Londres. Gregorio Benítez died in 1910. José Militao Segovia, the Brazilian merchant who had provided food for the immigrants while they waited for their removal to Buenos Aires, had to wait for years to collect from the Paraguayan government. The Argentine general Bartolomé Mitre, who supported the colonists while they were in Asunción waiting to be removed to Argentina, returned to an active political life and founded the La Nación newspaper. He died in 1906. |