Mary Williams Austin gave her eldest son her family names. He was the first of three so named and he must have had a good education for he took Holy Orders and was first curate (in 1783) and later Rector (in 1787) of St Peter's, Speightstown, Barbados. He married twice, first Sarah Cookson by whom he had eight children, two dying young. On Sarah's early death he married, in 1798, Mary Forster Hendy. By this time it is probable that Sarah's children had been sent to England for their health and education. Only one of these ever returned to the West Indies.
Hugh Williams and Mary Austin followed the children to England and his two youngest sons were born there in 1799 and 1801. He became Chaplain to the Earl of Clanricarde but died aged only 44 and is buried in Bristol Cathedral where there is a floor marble to his memory. His widow remained in England and in due course married Major William Coffin by whom she had other children.Other notes:
He was a deacon, priest; Curate of St.Peters, Speightstown,
1783; Rector, St.Peters, 1787; in1799, he went to England
(Powers 47/173); was Private Chaplain to Earl of Clanricarde;
transcript of floor marble in Bristol Cathedral reads: "Hugh
Williams Austin of Barbados, died 1st Feb 1802, aged 43 years,
Carb II 83. Private Chaplain to Earl of Clanricarde."Will of Hugh Williams Austin, Parish of St.Peters, dated Apr 27, 1799:
Estate in B'dos and Demerara, half of Lowlands, Demerara.
Mariesburg on the E. Coast of Demerara. Wife: Mary Forster
Austin (now pregnant with child), residuary legatee. Children
by first wife: Eliza Robinson Austin, Henry Hinds Austin,
Sarah Austin, Ann Austin, Hugh Williams Austin; brother: William
Austin, executor. Proved B'dos Apr 8, 1802.WILL: Date: 27 Apr 1799 Place: Barbados See notes above
The name Mariesburg is confusing. There is no estate of that name on the
E.coast shown on the Guyana map. However it is known that Mariasburg
was the previous name of Lowlands.
All the children were born in Barbados but were sent to England, probably after their mother's death in about 1796. Only one ever returned to the West Indies.
Like his brother Hugh Williams, he was educated at Charterhouse. He became an officer in the East Midlands Regiment, a colonial regiment of doubtful repute. He died in his twenties, in Bermuda, possibly on his way to Spain to fight in the Peninsular War.
He was educated in Charterhouse, then in London, and then went up Oriel College, Oxford, where he matriculated in 1811, aged 17. He appears to have enlisted in the British Army, for he died an Ensign of the 77th Foot Regiment ‘At the Cove of Cork, Ireland, a few days after he had disembarked with the last division of the British Army from France’. [From the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1814, p. 508.]
After HWA's death, Mary married Major Coffin of Bath and had issue.
According to family history records, William was the second son of Thomas and Mary Williams Austin. However, his age at death, given on his tombstone is given as 64 years, which would imply that he was his parent’s first child. His life story is more fully documented than that of the other sons for he was J.G.A.'s grandfather, although nothing is known of his early youth except that he was the first of the family to leave Barbados for British Guiana, possibly even before it became a British colony. The Dutch encouraged settlers.
He acquired land in Essequibo and Demerara and named his estate in the former ‘Land of Plenty’ and in the latter ‘Lowlands’. Land of Plenty was about 8 miles west along the coast from the little township of Suddie, capital of the county. The only way of getting to Georgetown in those days was by coastal schooner, a tedious journey through the muddy water of the river deltas. Lowlands was more accessible, being only a few miles out of Georgetown on the East Coast of Demerara. Yet another Austin estate in Essequibo was La Belle Alliance but of this we know little.
It appears that other members of William's family had helped him buy the land as an investment and were co-owners of the properties. These partners included his brothers, Hugh Williams Austin and Thomas Austin, his half-brother John and, in later years even his wife's half-brothers, the young Gardiners. When there was a slump in sugar after emancipation of the slaves and the estates failed to pay, this led to a certain amount of unpleasantness and recrimination in the family.
William did not marry young - perhaps there were no suitable young ladies in the colony and in fact it was not until after his elder brothers death that he did so.
Whilst on leave in England in 1807 he stayed in Bath which, being near the sugar port of Bristol, was a favourite holiday resort for West Indians. Here he met and married one of the ‘belles of Bath’, Mehetabel Piercy (1782-1852), daughter of Jeffrey Piercy of Cork and Mary Gardiner (née Spiers, see Chapter 17, The Piercy Family). He was 48 and she just half his age. The couple remained in England where a son and daughter were born but by 1810 they had returned to Demerara and their third child was born at Lowlands at the end of the year. After living for six years in the colony, Mehetabel returned to Bath with the children, now six in number, where another daughter was born but did not survive. This stay in England was not as long as the previous one, for leaving the elder children with Mary Gardiner (née Gabbat Spiers, her mother) and Dr Gardiner, her step-father (see Chapter 17, The Gardiner family), the Austins returned to Demerara early in 1819. That year their youngest son, another Hugh Williams, was born at Land of Plenty. When this baby was only three months old his father, William, died and was buried in a plot behind the estate house. He must have been a man of some standing in the community for on his gravestone is written: -
‘... in his Public Duties he filled the situation of a Member of the Court of Justice as well as the Court of Policy with Impartiality and Satisfaction to the Public in general and died sincerely lamented.’
Now his widow's fervent wish was to return to England as soon as possible with her young children. A letter from her mother on hearing the sad news of William's death has survived:
‘Bath. Jan: 26th 1820.
My ever dearest Bell,
it is impossible for me to attempt to express the distress with which we were all overwhelmed by the melancholy account lately received and for which we were so little prepared as all our fears were about your health. We have entered most sensibly into your feelings on so trying an occasion, knowing well the severe pang the separation from your affectionate husband must have been to a mind like yours, but I have great consolation in the thought that in the height of affliction you have cause for thankfulness and that the same Almighty Power who in His Wisdom chastises, can and will support and comfort those who put their trust in Him. It must ever be a source of great comfort to you that you did not comply with our wish to remain in this country or you might have inclined to reproach yourself had you not gone out, and it also might be a painful reflection that the family might have thought your care and attention would have, in all human probability prevented the sad calamity. You have now nothing left to regret, but all the consolation to be derived from the reflection that from the day you became a wife, you invariably fulfilled all that duty and devoted attention could require and I trust I need not remind you that a double portion of duty and affection devolves now upon you, which only a strict care and attention to your own health can enable you to perform to your dear children who now stand in need of every attention on your part. I hope it may not be necessary for you to remain any time in the country but that you may be able to return to rejoin your beloved children and many friends who so tenderly admire and love your many virtues and by none of whom will you be more tenderly received than by a most anxious mother, who with longing and impatience wishes to fold in her arms a child ever held in the utmost love, and I shall be doing Dr Gardiner an injustice if I did not unite him with myself in every feeling of love and affection for you. I am happy to say your dear children are all well. William is with his Uncle John, where he is to remain till he goes with our George to Winchester, John for the present is with us. The girls have not yet returned from Major Goldfinches but I expect them daily.
If you have Miss Mattrass's direction, I think it is a pity you should delay in writing to her as I am sure from her great affection for you she would readily come to you. Poor Edward Austin has been very ill lately, he is now slowly recovering. Dr A. and family talk of leaving this next month for Demerara. I should suppose you will not meet as I have great hopes you may be able to leave long before they can arrive. I understand Mr and Mrs Bean are coming to this country next May. Though the opportunity of accompanying them, would, no doubt, be desirable, yet I am most anxious that you should not delay a Day longer in so fatal a climate than can possibly be avoided. We all unite in love and ardent wishes for your health and believe me, my ever dearest Bell,
Your tenderly affectionate mother,
Mary Gardiner.
Kiss the little darlings for us all. I think of directing this to Mrs William Austin as you might possibly leave before this can reach you ... Finding myself too late to send this by Packet, I have the opportunity of acknowledging yours of the 16th November. Indeed, my very beloved Bell, I truly feel for the heavy affliction you have sustained but I humbly trust that you will find aid and support from a Gracious and Merciful Being who never forsakes those who put their trust in Him. You have much left to be thankful for, a fine family of children and an independence for them. How different from your poor brother's family.
You will now I hope, make every exertion and fortify your mind to enable you to undertake the voyage and meeting with those tender objects which will require every energy on your part to fulfil your duty and love for the offspring of so beloved a husband. I am grieved and disappointed that you should think it necessary to continue months in that fatal climate as I was led to suppose from Dr Austin that you might leave without delay.
Your dear girls came to us the day before yesterday. I shall keep them until I get everything requisite for them. They read your tenderly affectionate letter with great emotion. Let me entreat you not to delay a moment longer than you can avoid to come to us. I need not, I hope, assure you of every wish on our part to make you comfortable. Our valued friend Miss Smith, feels most sensibly for your heavy affliction. She desires her most affectionate love to you.
Mrs Connor and Miss Lapp have expressed great anxiety about you. Poor Miss Fleming shed tears when Dr G. told her of the calamity which has befallen you. As for the ring, which you expressed a desire for in your dear children's letter, perhaps if would be as well to defer getting one till you are here. At all events I shall wait to hear from you before I order one.
For the last two months I have not taken animal food, but I live entirely on arrowroot which agrees so well with me that I am not willing for the present to give it up. Therefore I shall feel obliged by your sending me some. Edward Austin has kindly supplied me for present use.
Dr Gardiner desires me to assure you again of our united and tenderest love and believe me once more,
Your affectionate mother,
M. Gardiner.
Feb: 3rd. Your dear children who are all with us at present, desire their best love and duty to you and pray that you will soon come over.’
In 1916, almost one hundred years after William Austin's death, his great grand daughter was staying with friends in the neighbourhood of Land of Plenty, and went in search of the old estate house. This is what she wrote to D.H.A.:-‘ ... All that is left of the imposing avenue we were looking for are a few dejected palms with oleanders between them. The place where the house stood was marked by two mahogany trees in front and behind are the remains of an orchard with some decrepit sapodilla and star-apple trees. It evidently faced the sea and it must have been pretty looking down the long avenue, but there is no sign of any stones of either the house or works (boiling-house etc). All is swampy and overgrown with rice, but we went further back still and came to a huge silk cotton tree, a 'jumby tree', which stands out for miles around. Underneath it is an iron railing about 20 ft square, in which, also surrounded by another iron railing, is a tomb about 4 ft. high and built of brick. On the top of a slab, the lettering of which is as clear as the day it was carved, recording that William Austin is buried there, who died on November 3rd 1819 aged 60 years, leaving a widow with seven children.’
The present owner of the estate, although not related to the Austin family, continues to tend and keep tidy this burial plot. There is another small burial plot on Lowlands estate which is now part of Hope plantation and still grows sugar.Other notes:
Plntn Land of Plenty owned by William and his half-brother, John.Lived at Lowlands, previously called Mariasburg, of 195 acres, where some children were born.
Also associated with Mainstay, Essequibo, next to Land of Plenty.
One can imagine the family discussions which took place in 1820 when Mehetabel Austin, now widowed, and her small children eventually returned safely to Bath. What plans should she make to bring up her seven fatherless children the eldest of whom was only twelve? What was best for the future? She had to remember that the Demerara estates on which she was dependent for a livelihood were not the sole property of her late husband but others depended on them too.
With this in mind she finally decided to settle in Germany where the cost of living was lower than in England. She removed her family to Godesburg, a small town on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite Bonn. The four girls were to be educated there but the boys were left for schooling in England, joining their mother and sisters for the long holidays. Here Mehetabel spent most of her thirty-three years of widowhood, but there is mention of her travelling to Demerara in 1831, possibly on business and she undoubtedly visited relations in England from time to time.
The sisters in Bonn were joined later by two Wilday girls, Fanny and Emma who were connected by marriage, as well as by their nephew Cecil, the son of their youngest brother Hugh Williams.
This ménage was in existence for almost the whole of the Victorian era and only came to an end on the death of Mehetabel Ann aged, 83 in 1897.
30. Elizabeth Austin
Unmarried
Unmarried
Unmarried
We know very little about this third son of Thomas and Mary Williams Austin. He married a Barbados lady, one Charlotte Payne, connected with the Paynes who then owned Bissex Hill Plantation and he was a ‘Practitioner of Physick’. His will was proved in St Michael, Barbados, which seems to show that he practised there, but on the other hand he died and was buried at Lowlands, Demerara. Possibly he was on a visit to his brother William, who was not yet married, and fell a victim to the ‘fatal climate’.
Other notes:
Will of Thomas Austin, Jr. of St.Michael, Practitioner of
Physick, dated July 6, 1794 - Wife: Charlotte; son: William;
brothers: Hugh Williams Austin, William Austin. Will approved
1797
Sister of John Alleyne Payne of Bissex Hill Plantation, St.Joseph, Barbados
He is named as Richard Barker Austin in Dora Burslem and Audrie Manning’s ‘An Old Colonial Family, 1685-1900’, the ‘Barker’ presumably deriving from his mother’s maiden name. However, in all the records we have consulted, he is named Richard Austin, with no ‘Barker’.
Richard was ‘promoted to care for a respectable school within the limits of the parish of St Thomas, Barbados’. According to correspondence kept in the Lambeth Palace Library of the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1795 he was recommended to Bishop Beilby of London by the vicar, Rev. J. Brome, as a candidate for Holy Orders. The recommendation cites him as being ‘of regular morals, scholastic proficiency and modest merit’. Later in 1795, he received in London, from Bishop Beilby, ‘£40 to perform the Ministerial Office of Priest in the Island of Barbados’. He also received a bounty of £70 to defray the charge of his passage from London to Barbados. From 1796 to 1804 he was Rector of St Joseph parish, Barbados. He was officiating minister at All Saints’, New Amsterdam, Berbice, from 1817 until 1822 when he was forced to resign his position after preaching a sermon that angered the planters and the then governor of British Guiana, John Murray. Richard was married three times, the first to Sarah Stanton who did not long survive, leaving with him two small children, a boy Wiltshire Stanton and a girl Sarah who died in infancy. His second wife was Mary Jane (‘Joanna’) Wentworth, the daughter of William Wentworth of St Michael’s, Barbados, and Surinam. She had come to Barbados with her parents from New Hampshire. It seems likely that she and her parents were actually English, and had lived in New Hampshire for some years. A Paul Wentworth, Mary Jane’s uncle, was a mercurial and colourful character related to Governor Wentworth of New Hampshire. Paul was rich, owned plantations in Surinam, was a benefactor of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire (he gave the college some scientific instruments) and had a grand house in Hammersmith, London, where he entertained lavishly. It seems that after Paul died, his plantation Kleinhoop (on the bank of the Cottica River in Surinam) was passed on to Joanna and, on her death in 1806, inherited by Richard. The plantation was of 500 Dutch akkers (similar to British acres), and had 150 slaves (a very high ratio of slaves to land, possibly indicative of the owner’s sympathetic treatment of his slaves) and produced sugar. In Dutch documents, W. P. Austin is given as the Director; R. Austin and the widow of P. Wentworth as the owners; and R. Austin as the administrator. Joanna left three little children, William Paul, Mary Jane and Charles Adye. By this time Richard had accepted a curacy at Kleinhoop, Surinam where he married a Dutch lady referred to as the ‘Widow Poppelman’ (née Grear), who probably cared for his motherless children. She had none of her own. Richard died on Plantation Catharina Sophia, Surinam, though he and Widow Poppelman are buried in Kleinhoop.
Mary Jane (‘Joanna’) Wentworth, the daughter of William Wentworth of St Michael’s, Barbados, and Surinam. She had come to Barbados with her parents from New Hampshire. It seems likely that she and her parents were actually English, and had lived in New Hampshire for some years. A Paul Wentworth, either Mary Jane’s father or brother, was a mercurial and colourful character related to Governor Wentworth of New Hampshire. Paul was rich, owned plantations in Surinam, was a benefactor of Dartmouth College (he gave the college some scientific instruments) and had a grand house in Hammersmith, London, where he entertained lavishly. It seems that after Paul died, his plantation Kleinhoop (on the bank of the Cottica River in Surinam) was passed on to Joanna and, on her death in 1806, inherited by Richard. The plantation was of 500 Dutch akkers (similar to British acres), and had 150 slaves (a very high ratio of slaves to land, possibly indicative of the owner’s sympathetic treatment of his slaves) and produced sugar. In Dutch documents, W. P. Austin is given as the Director; R. Austin and the widow of P. Wentworth as the owners; and R. Austin as the administrator. Joanna left three little children, William Paul, Mary Jane and Charles Adye (the name Adye is a contraction of Adam).
Little is known about the first son of Richard Austin and his wife Joanna. He seems to have survived to manhood, for he is named as a director of Kleinhoop Plantation in Surinam and is mentioned as a witness in the death certificate of Richard Austin in 1851.
Known as the Widow Poppleman
She was Dutch.
Grear is probably Dutch for Green
This second son of Thomas Austin and Mary Barker was a doctor of medicine, described as an ordnance surgeon and therefore must have been attached to the Army in Barbados for some time during his career. He was owner of Plantation Spring Hall on East Coast, Demerara and co-owner with his half-brother William of Land of Plenty in Essequibo and seems to have visited British Guiana from time to time. In 1833 he contributed 500 dollars (a quarter of the total cost) for the erecting of a chapel and schoolroom on the nearby plantation of Aberdeen.
He was married three times, his first wife being Laetitia Whitfoot, née Dear, who died in Barbados in 1801. A mural tablet in white marble (made in London in 1803) to her memory in St Michael’s Cathedral reads:
COELUM QUID QUAERAMUS ULTRA?
Sacred to the Memory
of Mrs. LAETITIA AUSTIN
(Wife of John Austin, Ordnance Surgeon)
Who in early youth submitted to the irresistible Law of Nature
Resigning this transitory life in pious hope of a never fading Crown of Glory
As a just but tender tribute to her exalted worth and to perpetuate the
Remembrance of their tender tho' short-lived Union
Her disconsolate partner erected this unavailing
Testimony of Conjugal affection.
Sublime in genius and in learning blest,
Of every female excellence possessed,
Farewell my best beloved! Whose heavenly Mind
Truth, purity and strength with softness joined
Devotion, undebased by Pride or Art,
With meek simplicity, and joy of heart.
Tho' sprightly, gentle: affable, sincere;
And to thyself alone a Monitor severe.
Malice herself on thee can fix no stain
For if she strives to wound her effort's vain.
Unblamed, unequalled, in each sphere of life
The tender sister, step-mother and wife.
O thou beyond what verse or speech can tell
My faithful Friend, my best beloved, farewell!
This amiable and accomplished woman arrived from ENGLAND in September 1801 and was removed by a fever November the 19th following.
Lamented by All with whom she became acquainted, tho’ for the shortest period.
The step-children referred to must have been her first husband’s. She left two little children from her marriage with John. The Latin heading translates as ‘Beyond Heaven what are we to seek?’
John Austin is occasionally mentioned in letters, the first time being when his niece, the daughter of his half brother Edward Austin, was captured by an American privateer and taken to Boston, Mass. in 1813.
‘She was sent to school in Medford, Mass. under the care of Gardner Greene a friend of her uncle, Dr Austin.’
He is also referred to by Mary Gardiner in her letter of condolence to her daughter Mehetabel on the death of the latter's husband.
John Austin’s second wife was a Miss Carpenter, who died without issue soon after her marriage. His third wife, who he met and married in Demerara, was Mrs Mary Parkinson, née Reading, the widow of William Parkinson. William Parkinson (ca 1748-1803) was born in Delaware, but owned Plantation Grove, East Coast Demerara. From the reference to an American friend and the fact that John died in Philadelphia, it seems likely that he and Mary settled in the USA. They had two children. Mary lived latterly in Stratford, Connecticut, with her son Thomas, where she died there in 1853. Her son Thomas was later buried next to her.
Nee Dear
Mrs Mary Parkinson, née Reading, the widow of William Parkinson. William Parkinson (ca 1748-1803) was born in Delaware, but owned Plantation Grove, East Coast Demerara.
The third son of Thomas Austin and Mary Barker became a merchant in Barbados. He married Susanna Gill, the daughter of a doctor. He died aged 28 leaving a baby son, Richard Barker, named after his uncle the clergyman. Joseph’s will, signed the day before he died, left his brothers William, Richard and John as executors for Susanna ‘now pregnant with child’. This child, born early the following year (1802) was a daughter whom her mother named Joseph Gibson in spite of her sex. This Joseph Gibson Austin married William Edward Pierce and they had ten children.
She was born in Barbados and married James Hendy (1778-1809) of that Island in 1799 and they had a daughter, Alice Henery Hendy (1806-1881). Alice Henery Hendy married the Revd Octavius John Straker (1808-1867), Rector of St Michael’s, Fort Wellington (a village in Berbice, west of the Berbice river) and they had five children, a daughter who was stillborn, John James (1831-1875), Alice Redwar (1833-1834), Henry Lugar (1835- ) and William Austin (1837-1845). Henry Lugar Straker married Ellen Campbell in Georgetown in 1873. Many of their descendants now live in Canada. Elizabeth Alice’s second marriage in 1811 was to Thomas Whitfoot Greaves, also of Barbados. They had three children, Elizabeth Grace, who married in 1830 and had children; Edward Austin who died a bachelor; and Thomas, who lived in Barbados.
Elizabeth Grace Greaves, who married in 1830 and had children
Edward Austin Greaves who died a bachelor
52. Thomas Greaves
Thomas Greaves, who lived in Barbados.
12. Edward Austin
Edward Austin, Thomas Austin’s eleventh child, was known as ‘The Black Prince’. He was the owner of plantation La Belle Alliance in Essequibo, co-owner with his half brother William Austin (1759-1869) of Lowlands in East Coast Demerara, one-time owner of Plantation Prospect, also in East Coast, Demerara and Plantation Tarsis, and he also owned the extensive property in Georgetown which later became Government House. He must have been the wealthiest of his generation of Austins and was described by a contemporary as a ‘handsome man and always well dressed.’
Like his father he married three times. His first wife was Anna Maria Skeete, daughter of Reynold and Rebecca Skeete of Holetown, Barbados. They were married in 1801 and she died the following year at the birth of her daughter, also named Anna Maria (1801-1836), the story of whose runaway match with her cousin William Austin (‘The Old Dean’) has been related earlier.
Edward remained a widower for nine years and then married Mary Pauline Piercy (1791-1811). The following letter was written by Mary Pauline Piercy to her sister Mehetabel Austin in Bath on the birth, of the latter’s eldest daughter Mary. The letter is written from Weymouth where Mary Pauline was staying with friends and Edward, the Black Prince, is mentioned in the postscript.
‘Weymouth. Sept 9:th 1809. Saturday night 8 o'clock.
My darling Belle,
Now that I think you are able to sit up and read a few lines, allow me, my dearest sister, to congratulate you on the birth of a daughter, of whom I shall at present say no more than that I hope she may in every respect resemble her amiable mother. I was made most happy by hearing of your having so good a time and I trust that, by now, not hearing today, all is going on as we can wish. Are you able to nurse? I was going to ask what kind of baby but of that I shall judge when I have the happiness of seeing you all, which will now be in three weeks. I think it is an age since we parted, but, thank God; in a short time I shall not be separated again from a sister I adore and would give up any gratification to be always with ... How does darling William like his sister? Mr Cole left us this morning for Bath, he will give you a full account of us all. We expect him back to us Wednesday next. Whilst he was with us, we went to Lulworth and spent the day there. Our party consisted of the Falconers, Evanses, DeLancys, Parrishes and Gordons, in all twenty- three. We went at 7 in the morning and returned between 9 and 10.
The Duke of Cambridge arrived here this day. The Prince of Wales and Duke of York are expected next week. Dr Gardiner preaches tomorrow before Royalty. Princess Mary has expressed herself much pleasure at it. We go on Tuesday next to the muster at a ceremonial hall which is expected to be very full. I came here with a Resolution not to go out anywhere and nevertheless have broke through it and become once more a Rake. I have been to three balls and three parties since I came here and Mrs Gordon leads me into all sorts of dissipation. I still continue to bathe three times a week and find it agrees with me well. I find myself much fatter than when I left Bath. I am become quite a stout sailor and hope to be the best of the crew going to the West Indies. I shall hope that the first letter you write, dearest Belle, will be to me. I shall quite dance with joy when I once more see your handwriting. You will, I trust, be quite stout by the time I see you. (The letter is torn here.) ... I find I must conclude as we are summoned to bed sooner than usual in consequence of being up so late last night. With our united love and best wishes for your speedy recovery, believe me, my dearest Belle, always to remain your affectionate and attached sister,
Mary Pauline Piercy.
P.S. Mamma had a letter the other day from Mrs Luard in which she expresses herself much displeased at Eliza's not answering her last three letters and again requests, in case of my changing my resolution of accompanying you to the West Indies, that I should go and spend the winter with her. She says that Edward Austin is not going to remain in business as he has twelve hundred a year at present and, she adds 'he has still more'. Once more, Adieu, love to Austin and the darlings.’
It might have been better for Mary Pauline to have accepted the invitation of her friend Mrs Luard but perhaps she was already interested in handsome, well-dressed Edward Austin. He returned to Demerara, Mary Pauline kept to her resolution to be ‘the best of the crew going to the West Indies’ and she married Edward there in May 1811.
The sad end of the story of gay little Mary Pauline can be read on the inscription of a grave in the family burial plot at Lowlands:
‘Sacred to the memory of
Mary the deceased wife of
Edward Austin, a daughter
of Jeffrey Piercy Esq: and born
in the County of Cork, Ireland
She died in the 21st year of her age
in the Colony
on the 19th day of September 1811
Lamented by all who knew her.’
She had survived less than six months and it is no wonder that her mother Mary Gardiner wrote so bitterly of ‘the fatal climate’ in her letter of condolence eight years later to her other daughter Mehetabel, begging her not to remain in Demerara a day longer than necessary. In this same letter Mrs Gardiner mentions that Edward was in England, evidently for his health for she says that ‘poor Edward Austin has been very ill lately but is now slowly recovering’.
He recovered and returned to Essequibo where eventually he married his third wife, Miss Maria Miller, described as a ‘very handsome woman’. She was the sister of the Rev. Miller, a clerk in Holy Orders who was Rector of Holy Trinity Church, Essequibo.
Edward died in early middle-age and was buried with several brothers and sisters in Bourda Cemetery but the mural tablet to his memory is in Holy Trinity Church, Essequibo near his old home. It says:
‘Sacred to the memory of Edward Austin Esq:
of Plantation Belle Alliance
a considerable benefactor to the Church.
He died in Georgetown on 26th June, 1825
aged 46.’
Daughter of Reynold and Rebecca Skeete of Holetown, Barbados
Sister of Mehetabel Piercy
Inscription on grave at Lowlands:
"Sacred to the memory of
Mary the deceased wife of
Edward Austin, a daughter
of Jeffrey Piercy Esq: and born
in the County of Cork, Ireland.
She died on the 21st year of her age
in the Colony
on the 19th day of September 1811
Lamented by all who knew her."Died without issue.
She fell a victim to the fatal climate of Demerara shortly after her arrival there in 1811.
She was the sister of the Rev. Miller, a clerk in Holy Orders who was Rector of Holy Trinity Church, Essequibo
She married Harris Thorne of Barbados who was lost at sea. They had two children, Benjamin, and a girl named Jemmott. Benjamin married Mary Evanson of Barbados and they emigrated to the USA. Jemmott married Rev. J. Allison of Demerara, who became Rector of St Swithins, Demerara.
17. Henry Timothy Thornhill Austin
He married a Miss Otterbein, a relation of J.G.A.’s music master many years later. They had a daughter, Henrietta, who married Van Nooten. There was a son from this marriage, but he died young. After Henry Timothy died, his wife married a second time, a Mr. J. Forrester.
56. Henrietta Austin
There was a son by this marriage, but he died young.