Narissa Phelps for the Lennox Wave

Elizabeth Silke Horseman, a nursemaid aged just sixteen, arrived in Australia with her family in 1841. She was the daughter of William Horseman, a barge-builder and carpenter— the Horseman men generationally working as bargemen. Her mother, Eliza nee Evans was a schoolmistress, and three of Elizabeth’s seven siblings immigrated with her from England.

In 1843, aged just 17, Elizabeth married Richard Hughes, a boatman. The first years of her marriage were challenging ones. Elizabeth’s first child, Georgina, died in 1846 aged one and the following year Elizabeth lost her father, who drowned with the sinking of the Sovereign off Moreton Island.

The water was a cruel master and it was work on the rivers that was to bring Elizabeth and her four surviving children to this area about 1857. Richard operated his ferries on North Creek, servicing the needs of cedar-getters and settlers alike. Elizabeth meanwhile had an increasingly large family to care for. Her first child born in this district was named Marion Richmond Hughes, a tribute to the river itself. Five more children followed, the last when Elizabeth was aged 44. Heartbreak continued with the birth and death of baby Robert Evans Hughes in 1859 and of Richard Hughes who was born and died on the Richmond River in 1868. Elizabeth’s surviving children would have been educated by their literate mother, a rare asset in these early days of settlement. Perhaps she taught other children too, although records reveal little of Elizabeth’s pioneer life other than the family owning 40-acres at North Creek.

Elizabeth died in 1893 aged just 66 years. She was buried in the Ballina Pioneer Cemetery overlooking the water which had had figured so significantly throughout her life.  

An early settler’s home in the Ballina area. Elizabeth Hughes nee Horseman would have lived in such a home Ref: Edward Forde: album of sketches of New Zealand & NSW ca 1857-1862. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.