Mary Burdett Salisbury (1851-1936)

Family Stories > 4th Generation

Mary Burdett Salisbury – Her Early Years

Her Parents

Mary Burdett Salisbury’s parents were Susan House and Richard Burdett Salisbury.

The House family, headed by Mary Burdett’s grandfather, John Stagg House, had emigrated from Frampton Cotterell in Gloucestershire in England in 1841 and settled in Stanley, Tasmania when Susan House was only 8 years old. The Stagg family who had done quite well for themselves after their arrival in the coastal settlement of Stanley, also referred to as Horton and Circular Head, owned rental properties, a large farming property and hotels. Many of their descendants still live in Tasmania and in the Stanley area in particular.

At some stage Richard Burdett Salisbury travelled from Lancashire in England and tried his luck in Tasmania where he met Susan House. My research indicates that he worked in some of the hotels in Stanley for the House family, learning the business. He may have also taught school children, but I can find no actual evidence of this, except on his marriage certificate he gave his rank as ‘Schoolmaster’. At a later date, he also signed his name on his second daughter’s birth certificate, adding the suffix ‘B.A.’ which could indicate Bachelor of Arts, but again, I found no evidence of the legitimacy of this.

Mary Burdett Salisbury’s parents, Susan House and Richard Burdett Salisbury were married in the little parish church in Stanley in March 1850.

1851 - Birth

The following year Richard Burdett and Susan’s first baby arrived – the focus of this story - Mary Burdett Salisbury, who was born in Circular Head, Tasmania on February 24, 1851.

Name:                                                           Mary Burdett Salisbury
Birth Date:                                                   24 Feb 1851
Birth Place:                                                 Tasmania
Registration Year:                                      1851
Registration Place:                                    Horton, Tasmania, Australia
Father:                                                       Richard Albert Salisbury
Mother:                                                      Susan House
Registration Number:                                238

Ancestry.com. Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922

1851-53 – Melbourne

Sometime shortly after the birth of Mary Burdett, her father, Richard, decided to take his young family across Bass Strait to Melbourne. Having had experience in the running of hotels in Tasmania, he was well equipped in 1853 to manage the Crown Hotel at the corner of Queen and Lonsdale Streets, Melbourne where the family lived.

American & Australasian Photographic Company (1870). Looking east along Lonsdale Street from the Crown Hotel (on the right) and Council Club Hotel, both on the corner of Queen Street, Melbourne.

1853 – Birth of Ellen Burdett Salisbury, Sister for Mary Burdett

The second child and sister to Mary Burdett arrived on September 2, in 1853 whom they named Ellen Burdett. She was born at the Crown Hotel and Richard signed the registration for the birth as ‘R. B. Salisbury, B.A.’ with a flamboyant flourish!

Details on the Birth Registration for Ellen Salisbury are –

               When Born -                                                 Second September 1853
               Where Born -                                               Crown Hotel, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
               Name, Sex -                                                Ellen, Girl
               Name & Surname of Father -                      Richard Burdett Salisbury
               Profession, Birth Place of Father -             Hotel Keeper, aged 32, Lancashire, England
               When & Where Married -                          1849, Circular Head
               Previous Issue -                                         Mary, 2 years
               Name, Maiden-name, Age of Mother -   Susan Salisbury, formerly House

Birth Place of Mother -                                Gloucestershire, England
Informant of Birth -                                      R.B. Salisbury, B.A., Father, Hotel Keeper, Crown Hotel, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
When Registered -                                       Fifteenth October 1853, Register Office, Melbourne

1856 – Residence

After several years at the Crown Hotel, Mary Burdett’s father took over the job as publican of the Cavan Hotel at 44 Queensberry Street, Carlton. Neither the Crown nor the Cavan hotels are standing today. The Cavan Hotel was near the Exhibition Building gardens. The family also lived at the hotel. And quite close by also in Queensberry Street, lived a man by the name of Whiteside McWhinney, who according to the census of that year, was a clerk earning £100 per year.

1856 – Birth of William Burdett Salisbury, Brother for Mary Burdett

Richard and Susan’s third child and brother to Mary Burdett, William Burdett Salisbury, was born in 1856 at the Cavan Hotel.

Name:                                                         William Burdett Salisbury
Birth Date:                                                   Abt 1856
Birth Place:                                                 Melbourne, Victoria
Registration Year:                                      1856
Registration Place:                                    Victoria, Australia
Father:                                                       Richard Burdett Salisbury
Mother:                                                      Susan Backhauss (stet)
Registration Number:                                325
Ancestry.com. Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922

1857 – Death of Father

Mary Burdett was just 6 years old when her father, Richard, contracted tetanus and died from the resulting excessive haemorrhage on November 24, 1857. Richard was 36 years old and this left Mary Burdett’s mother, Susan with 3 little children below the age of 6 years. Her father was buried the day after his death on November 25 at the New Cemetery, Melbourne (Melbourne General Cemetery).

DIED.
On the 24th November, at the Cavan Hotel, Queensbury street, North Melbourne, Mr Richard Burdett Salisbury (native of Anglesea, Wales) aged 36 years.
Much respected.
Leaving a wife and three children to deplore his loss.
Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), Wednesday 25 November 1857

I suspect it was not Mary Burdett’s mother who placed the death notice, as Richard’s birthplace was given was Wales, yet Richard had provided Lancashire as his birthplace on the birth registration of his daughter just three years earlier.

Twenty-four-year-old widow, Mary, was in no position to take over the role as publican of the Cavan Hotel, so the licence was transferred to a new applicant on December 1 in 1857.

1858 – Re-marriage of Mother

It is possible that Susan’s family were all in Tasmania which left her alone in Melbourne, so it is not surprising that she married the Irishman, Whiteside McWhinney, who was by this time running a general store just two or three doors up from the Cavan Hotel in Queensberry Street. Whiteside was about 25 years of at the time of the marriage and it is interesting that Susan used the name of Susan Burdett Salisbury when she re-married, taking the middle name which her husband, Richard had used, as her own.

1859-1870 – Stepfather

Susan, her three young children and their stepfather, Whiteside, continued to live in Melbourne and during the next years added another five children to their family. They were Margaret Elizabeth McWhinney, born 1859, John Alexander McWhinney, born 1862, Thomas Louden McWhinney, born 1866, Arthur Henry McWhinney, born 1867 and Susannah Matilda McWhinney born 1871. Their youngest daughter, Susannah died at about 2 years old in 1873.

Mary Burdett Salisbury lived in many places including Emerald Hill, St. Stephens Street, Richmond and Swan Street, Richmond during the last 11 or 12 years of her life before her marriage to Roberts Launder, but having so many young siblings in her family and step-family must have given Mary Burdett much experience in raising and caring for small children, a fact which may account for her having only one of her own children fail to reach adulthood.