QUEEN VICTORIA MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY


CHS 46


THE EMILY McRAE ARCHER COLLECTION

Women, Northern Tasmania
Rural Life, Northern Tasmania



INTRODUCTION

THE RECORDS

1.Correspondence
2.Miscellaneous Items

OTHER SOURCES

INTRODUCTION

Emily McRae (1833-1877) arrived in Melbourne with her father, James Butler
McRae, and younger sister Fanny aboard the Roxburgh Castle in 1853. Her mother
had recently died and it was hoped that a better climate would improve the health of
her consumptive sister. Sadly this was not to be, for 11 year old Fanny died in
November of that year.

Later in the 1850s Emily and her father visited Tasmania where they sojourned at
“Hagley House” and the Retreat Brewery, Deloraine. Emily returned to Tasmania
early in 1859, staying for some months with Adolphus Frederick Rooke, farmer,
brewer and Member of the House of Assembly, and his wife Susan Kinder Rooke
(nee Archer) at their property “The Retreat”, near Deloraine. Mrs Rooke was the
sister of Thomas Kentish Archer, soon to be Emily’s husband.

Emily (27) and Thomas (42) were married in Melbourne on 12 January 1860. They
made their home at “The Retreat” (sometimes referred to as “Retreat Farm”), now the
site of the Ashley Youth Detention Centre. In a letter to her mother’s sister, Eliza
Reed in England, dated 13 March 1860, Emily wrote that she was retaining McRae as
part of her name.

James McRae came to live with Emily and Thomas not long after her marriage. After
“The Retreat” was destroyed by a disastrous fire in October 1874, the family lived at
“Quamby Plain”, Hagley.

Nine children were born to Emily and Thomas before her untimely and sudden death
on 9 April 1877 at the age of 44. She was survived by her husband, three daughters
and four sons. Her eldest daughter, Susan, known as Archie, was sent to school in
Melbourne just three months before her mother’s death.

Emily and her aunt Eliza Reed maintained a regular correspondence for 25 years and
these letters to and from Emily comprise most of the collection. The letters, most of
them dated, cover Emily’s life from when she was a girl in England until the time of
her death in Tasmania.

The collection was donated to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in May
1995 with an additional item donated in March 2002 (no. 20/2).

1.Correspondence

Letters to Emily

1 From mother, England (photocopy) 1843

2 From James Butler McRae (father), England, to Emily 1846-1861
in England, 1846-1852; From James Butler McRae (father),
Victoria, to Emily in Melbourne and Tasmania, 1857-1861

4.1 From Eliza Reed (aunt), England, to Emily in England 1853-1859,
and Melbourne nd

4.2 From Eliza Reed (aunt), England, to Emily in Tasmania 1860-1867
(letter dated 6 January 1860 wishes Emily “many
returns of the day”)

4.3 From Eliza Reed (aunt), England, to Emily in Tasmania 1868-1877

5 From Emma Gill (friend), London, also undated letters 1854-1868
(including joint letter with Amy Jeffries), 1854-1859;
From Marianne Rooke (daughter of T K Archer’s sister
Mrs Susan Rooke), Retreat, [near Deloraine] (letter
dated 1 May (no year), 1856-1858; From Thomas Kentish
Archer (husband-to-be and husband), Tasmania, to Emily
in Melbourne and Tasmania, 1859, 1868

8 From Louise McRae (cousin), London 1859

9 From Marion and ‘Pigmy’, (friends), “Crosby Lodge”, 1859
[Launceston] (for information on “Crosby Lodge”
see Jenny Gill The story of the Launceston Homoepathic
Hospital, Launceston, 1990. The hospital’s first
premises were in the former “Crosby Lodge”, owned by
the Gilmore family. Letter from ‘Pigmy’ c December
1859 mentions “The Gilmores are talking of going to
England”)

10 Florence, Margaret and Jane Tripp (friends), South 1860
Yarra

11 Lizzie (former servant), Melbourne 1860

12 From Alice McRae (cousin), England 1864-1868

13 From Emma McRae (cousin), London 1864

14 From Elizabeth Emma Bourne (cousin), London, 1865-1866
(perhaps the same person as Emma McRae)

15 From Julia M Brind (cousin), England 1866-1867

16 From Jennifer McRae (cousin), England 1866

17 From Eliza Bridges (sister of James McRae), London, 1870
also an undated letter, and undated letter from E
Evans, who lived with Eliza Bridges

18 From Mary McRae (wife of John McRae, James Butler 1876
McRae’s brother), England

19 From Susan Archer (eldest daughter), Melbourne 1877

Letters from Emily

20.1 To Eliza Reed (aunt), in England 1852-1869

20.2 To Eliza Reed (aunt), in England (letter dated 1870-1877
25 October 1874 includes transcript)

21 To Emma (carbon copy of letter from Collingwood 1854
dated 2 November 1854 says it is a year since
Fanny died)

Letters to Eliza Reed

22 From Betsy Wayland (friend), Romford 1821

23 From James McRae (brother-in-law), on board 1853-1878
Roxburgh Castle, from Melbourne and Tasmania
(letter dated 12 April 1877 refers to “poor dear
Mary Ann”, possibly Emily’s mother)

24 From J Herbert McRae (James McRae’s nephew), 1864-1865
London

25 From Eliza Bridges (James McRae’s sister), London, 1867-1872
(includes a letter written by E Evans)

26 From Susan Archer (Emily’s eldest daughter), [1869]
“Retreat”

27 From Ethel Archer (Emily’s second daughter), 1877-1878
“Quamby Plain”

Letters from Eliza Reed

28 To James McRae (brother-in-law) 1851

29 To Fanny McRae (niece) nd .

30 To Eliza Bridges (James McRae’s sister) 1869

Letters to James McRae

31 From Fanny (daughter), England 1851

32 From John McRae (brother), London 1863

33 From Alice McRae (niece), London c1864

Letters to Susan Archer

34 From Emily Archer (mother), Quamby Plain, and 1877
Thomas Archer (father) (typescript)

35 From Ethel Archer (sister), Quamby Plain, Retreat 1877-1923
Brewery, 1877; From Clifford Archer (brother), Quamby
Plain, 1877; From Eliza Reed (great aunt), London, 1878;
From Mrs Stephanie Green (relative?), London, 1923

2.Miscellaneous Items

39 Envelopes addressed to Emily, James McRae and Eliza
Reed; undated and mostly unsourced cuttings from
English publications; locks of hair from various family
members; 2 visiting cards for “Mr Thos. Kentish Archer”
and one for “Mrs Thos. Kentish Archer”; part of invitation
to Mr & Mrs Archer to a ball given by Governor & Mrs
Gore Browne, 28 May no year, with note on reverse by
Emily; miscellaneous fragments

OTHER SOURCES

Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Community History, 1995.P.0464

QVMAG, Community History, secondary file, Personal-C (Clark) ‘The ancestors of
Captain William Clark: memoirs collected by Mrs Joseph Archer of Panshanger,
Longford, 1899’, 9 pages of typed notes, with a second copy filed under ‘Personal-W
(Weston)’

Australian historic records register, Canberra, 1989, entry under Pedley

Scott and Barbara Bennett, A biographical register of the Tasmanian parliament
1851-1960, Canberra, 1980

Jill Cassidy, Deloraine’s industrial heritage: a survey, Launceston, 1986, p.32

Neil Chick, The Archers of Van Diemen’s Land, Lenah Valley, 1991

Cyclopedia of Tasmania vol.2, Hobart, 1900, p.349, article on T K Archer

Tasmanian Pioneers Index

Victorian Pioneers Index