Isabella Ramsay's Origins

Many of the First Fleeters who arrived in Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788 never found a wife. There just weren't enough women to go round.

The story of the convict 'Robert Forrester, First Fleeter', published in January 2009, would never have been told if he'd been one of these men. Luckily, he found a mate in Isabella Ramsay, who arrived in Sydney Cove as a convict on 9 July 1791. Robert and Isabella had nine children together, making her one of the founding mothers of modern Australia. Their numerous descendants retain a keen interest in their story.

But who was Isabella and where did she come from?

The Ramsays

The details of Isabella's trial at Carlisle, Cumberland in 1790 (published in full in the book) narrowed the focus of the search for her to north-west England, on the border with Scotland. Her child-bearing years extended from 1794 to 1806, placing her date of birth somewhere between 1750 and 1780.

Isabella Ramsay's Place of Origin

Ten years ago, before the advent of Ancestry, Find My Past and the like, the International Genealogical Index (IGI) was the obvious place to start the search for Isabella’s family of origin. For baptisms of girls named Isabella Ramsay in the period 1750-1780, only two children emerged as serious options, both baptised in 1773 in Cumberland.

• The first child was Isabela Ramsey, daughter of Thomas, christened on 10 June 1773 at All Saints Cockermouth. (Source: Bishop's Transcripts, 1689-1830, Cockermouth, Cumberland, LDS Film 0090596)
• The second was Isabella Ramsay, daughter of William, baptised on 17 October 1773 at Workington. (Source: Bishop's Transcripts,  St Michael, Workington, Cumberland, LDS Film 90689, Items 4-6)

Ten years later, no-one else has emerged as a possible contender.

Cockermouth is not far from Workington and parish records are consistent with Thomas and William being brothers, along with another man named James Ramsay. Brief descriptions of their families follow.

Thomas Ramsay of Cockermouth

Thomas Ramsay was christened at the Presbyterian Church in Workington, Cumberland, in 1749 as a son of William Ramsay and Ann Buckingham.

He married Ann Paul in Gateshead, Durham, on 22 December 1765.

On 10 June 1773 at All Saints Cockermouth, three daughters of a Thomas Ramsey, hatter, were baptised. The youngest of the three was Isabela Ramsey. This baby was buried 17 days later, so could not have been the woman transported to New South Wales.

Two more children were born to Thomas and Ann.

If baby Isabela’s father was the same Thomas baptised back in 1749, then she was a cousin of the other Isabella who was baptised in 1773.

William Ramsay of Workington

William Ramsay was christened at the Presbyterian Church in Workington, Cumberland, in 1753 as a son of William Ramsay and Ann Buckingham. His age at death suggests that he may have been born around 1750. At that time, Workington was a major seaport and shipbuilding town.

William Jnr became a seaman, and in the course of his travels he met Mary Wind, who he married in Gateshead, Durham, on 22 December 1771. Gateshead was directly across country from Workington. His likely brother Thomas also married in Gateshead, in 1765. William and Mary lived in Gateshead for a short period before returning to Workington.

William Ramsay and Mary Wind had the following children:

1. Margaret Ramsay was christened in Gateshead, Durham, on 11 October 1772. Margaret, daughter of William Ramsay, was buried on 26 January 1777 at St Michael's in Workington, Cumberland. Her age was not given but she was four years old.
2. Isabella Ramsay, daughter of William Ramsay, and one of a set of twins, was christened at St Michael’s in Workington on 17 October 1773.
3. Ann Ramsay, daughter of William Ramsay, and the other twin, was christened at St Michael’s in Workington on 17 October 1773. Ann died before December 1777, when a second child named Ann was baptised.

Baptism, Ann & Isabella, daurs of Wm Ramsay

The record for the first Ann’s burial has not been found in the parish transcripts for St Michael’s in Workington, but the transcripts contain only two burials in December 1773, an unusually low number, suggesting that some records from the original registers were missing or illegible. Alternatively, it is possible that Ann was baptised twice, in 1773 and again in 1777.

Assuming that baby Ann did die in December 1773, it seems likely that the twins’ mother died too, as William Ramsay, a mariner, married a woman named Mary Ramsay at St Michael’s in Workington on 30 May 1774. Mary was possibly William’s first cousin, brought in to look after his two infant children (Margaret and the surviving twin, Isabella).

William Ramsay and Mary Ramsay had the following children:

1. James Ramsay, son of William Ramsay, was christened at St Michael’s in Workington on 2 July 1776. James was buried on 11 February 1799 at St Michael's in Workington. No age was given, but he was aged 22.
2. Ann Ramsay, daughter of William Ramsay, was christened at St Michael’s in Workington on 7 December 1777.  She married the mariner Leonard Crosthwaite at St Michael’s in Workington on 21 July 1796. He died at sea soon after their marriage, along with two brothers (Source: The London Chronicle, Vol 82, J Wilkie, 1797, p 482), but not before fathering a son Leonard Crosthwaite Jnr, who was baptised at St Michael’s in Workington on 29 January 1798 as the son of Leonard (dec’d) and Ann Crosthwaite. 
   Ann survived as a grocer, later helped by her son, and remained a widow until her death at Beckfoot, on the coast north of Workington, in the district of Holme Cultrant Abbey. She was buried at St Michael’s in Workington on 14 June 1832, her age given as 57 years. As a precise calculation, the age at death puts her date of birth between 15 June 1774 and 14 June 1775, in between the two baptism records for Ann Ramsay, but ages given at death are often an approximation. In Ann's case, the informant was likely her elderly father or her son.
3. Elizabeth Ramsay, daughter of William & Mary Ramsay, was christened at St Michael’s in Workington on 20 February 1780. Elizabeth, daughter of William Ramsay, was buried on 19 April 1799 at St Michael's in Workington. No age was given, but she was 19 years old.
4. Mary Ramsay, daughter of William & Mary Ramsay, was christened at St Michael’s in Workington on 10 February 1783. Mary, daughter of William Ramsay, mariner, died on 5 October 1807, and was buried two days later at St Michael's in Workington. She would have been 24 years old.

The names Isabella Ramsay later chose for her Australian-born children led to the conclusion that her father was indeed William Ramsay of Workington. Isabella Ramsay’s four Australian daughters were named Elizabeth, Margaret, Ann and Isabella, the same names as for herself and her half-sisters, except for Mary. Perhaps Mary was not chosen as a name in Australia because Bella and her step-mother Mary did not get along.

Only one of Isabella’s siblings lived long enough to marry, which also fits with her own apparent death at a relatively young age.

Yet another point of support for this being Isabella’s family of origin is the disappearance of Isabella from parish records (Bishops Transcripts) in Cumberland. No marriage was recorded for Isabella, and no burial, whereas the life cycle for the rest of this family can be traced, except for her twin, as noted. Isabella’s departure from Cumberland is therefore consistent with parish records.

Isabella’s step-mother Mary, wife of William Ramsay, mariner, was buried at St Michael’s, Workington on 11 January 1819. Her age was stated at 68 years.

Isabella’s father William lived on for another thirteen years. He died two months after his daughter Ann, and was buried at St Michael’s in Workington as an 82-year-old mariner, on 11 August 1832. His entire family in Cumberland had predeceased him, except for his grandson Leonard Crosthwaite, who died in 1867, unmarried and childless. William probably never knew about the fate of his daughter Isabella and his numerous grandchildren on the other side of the world.

James Ramsay of Whitehaven

Isabella’s uncle James Ramsay was christened in 1756 at the Presbyterian Church in Workington, Cumberland. He was a son of William Ramsay and Ann Buckingham.

James Ramsay and his wife Dinah née Banks lived in Addison’s Alley, Whitehaven, a booming seaport a little further to the south of Workington. At the time it was the second busiest port in England, after London. Baptisms for James and Dinah’s four children were recorded in the Scotch Presbyterian Church in James Street, Whitehaven between 1778 and 1784. Their daughter Dinah died in 1782, aged two years.

James Ramsay was buried in St Nicholas Old Chapel, Whitehaven on 26 January 1785. Six weeks later his youngest daughter died, also named Dinah. Dinah was left to care for her surviving daughter Nanny and son James.

Dinah remarried on 30 January 1788, to a man named Archibald Stoup. Both of Dinah’s marriages are recorded in the parish records of St Nicholas, Old Chapel. Dinah remained a resident of Addison’s Alley, where two Stoup children were born, Mary in 1788 and Alexander in 1792, and the Stoups then moved, as Dinah’s last child Isaac Stoup was born at Michael St, Whitehaven in 1796. All three Stoup baptisms are recorded in the same parish records as their Ramsay half-siblings.

Note

The above details provide an updated version of Appendix 5 in the book  'Robert Forrester, First Fleeter', a book which contains much more about Isabella herself and is currently being revised. The new book won't include the above genealogical details, to save space, so they are 'preserved' here. This culling will leave room in the Second Edition of the book for all the new perspectives on the lives of Robert Forrester and Isabella Ramsay, collected over the past ten years.

Please email me if you'd like to join the waiting list for the new book. For further details, see my website.