Shadrack Pearce

The information presented here has recently been supplemented with data obtained from Don Pearce of Perth West Australia, for which I am very grateful. Don has been researching the exact same ancestors as myself because he is descended from Shadrack through Randolph Hobson. Don's information is far greater than mine with about 8000 people in his database. Don may be emailed by clicking here Don Pearce

Throughout this page I use the spelling of Shadrack with the "ck" on the end. This is done just for convenience and I have no aversions to any of the alternative spellings such as Shadrach and even Shadrick. Both of which appear in the records to which I make reference.

We don't have any photographs of Shadrack, but I have included a photograph of a steamer trunk (shown below) which legend has it was part of Shadrack's luggage used on the trip to Australia. There are absolutely no identifying labels or marks that would confirm this however.

Included in our records is a good copy of Shadrack's marriage certificate to Emily Berne at St Mary's of Birkenhead on August the 25th 1847. He is described as of full age and having an occupation as a shoemaker. His father Aaron's occupation is also a shoemaker.
Emily Berne is 18 years of age and her father John Berne is described as a Mariner.
Shadrack and Emily's marriage certificate is Entry # 417 of St Mary's of the parish of Birkenhead, County of Chester. Marriage witnesses are John Berne and Mary Ann Pearce. Both signed by their marks. Recently we have confirmed that Mary Ann was Shadrack's sister.

Don has visited England and states "No further records of any Pearce family was found in the records of St Mary's covering the period 1815-1835, or of christenings in the period of 1848-51. Same for Be/urne."

However Don did find that Shadrack (born in Oxford on the 12th of December 1828) was probably the forth child of Aaron Pearce and Damaris King. We now have records extending back to about 1690 for this family line which have come mainly from the Thame church records. (the IGI has references to the christenings of seven Pearce Children including Shadrack) For further information on Shadrack's parents and siblings refer to Aaron Pearce of 1801 and the line of descent summary data either by clicking on these two links or on the navigation strip at the side of this page.

The other data for Shadrack and Emily includes

• 1856/7 Electoral roll Shadrack PEARCE, shoemaker Heidelberg, Heidelberg Division
• Shadrack's birth cert ? WIRRAL XIX 231
• Shadrack's death cert # 8059 died at Melbourne hospital. Shadrack's cause of death is given as Asthma, Moebus cordis and emphysema, occupation still shoemaker. He is buried in the New Cemetery Melbourne.
• Emily's death cert # 13928 Emily died of Senile decay.

I have always wondered, did Shadrack decide to emigrate in order to join the gold rush, or was the gold rush just coincidental?
I am still to follow up on the strong possibility that Shadrack had made use of assisted passage available at that time. He probably would have made a good living plying his trade as a shoemaker without the uncertainty of rushing off to the goldfields, so perhaps that is the reason he seems to have been content to remain a shoemaker on the outskirts of Melbourne and later in Seymour. He didn't seem to go near any goldfields although there was one false rush to the Seymour area about that time.

As a footnote, it should be noted that Heidelberg was way out in the bush in those days. The Heidelberg school of painters were featuring the bush scenes of the area some 30 to 40 years after the above electoral roll entry.

When Shadrack and family arrived in Melbourne it had only been in existence for about 15 or 16 years as a township and comprised unmade dirt roads which produced choking dust in the summer and were muddy streams in the winter. The following sketches show the rapid growth of the township.

As you can see the well laid out grid pattern existed very early. Most of the dwellings at this stage were tents or other makeshift constructions. The wider area in the river is what became known as the Pool of Melbourne or the turning basin and it is situated below a rock outcrop that acted as a slight natural barrier to progress of the larger vessels up the river. This outcrop was where Queen's Bridge now stands

The next sketch shows the extent of the building in just three years. Along the wharf at the river edge there are already stone buildings for such edifices as the Customs House, the Police Offices and Lockup, a Soda Water Factory, a Booksellers, a Bakery, a Brewery and no less than eight Hotels or Taverns.

Not everyone thought much of Melbourne at this time as can be seen from the caption under the next sketch. There were other problems as well, apparently the lack of decent sanitation led to the nickname of Smelbourne and the river flooded about every 10 years to make life a bit more exciting.

This final photograph (taken in 1856) shows Australian Wharf in the Yarra, with the growing suburb of Emerald Hill (later South Melbourne) in the background.
The ships are typical of those bringing migrants to the Gold Fields and are now awaiting the return cargoes of wool, gold dust and passengers.
This view is taken from the top of the scaffolding for the new gas works and it shows the low lying swampy ground to the south of the Yarra. This means that we are looking in the opposite direction to the two earlier views of Melbourne as shown above.