Two successes at NSW State Archives !

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Seeing its so quiet, I thought I would like to spread some good news.

I have been a-hunting my Brazill family of maritime workers through TROVE , the Australian newspapers and the GALE newspapers website - I am especially interested in my ggg grandmothers brother-in-law and cousin (ie he married her sister, his cousin).

Samuel Custins Brazill was employed as a harbour pilot for Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) from 1835-1838.

I knew quite a bit about him from the TROVE, even finding a notice of his appointment and plenty about his financial and shipping woes and then his death.

The only thing I don't have is his baptism - he should have been baptised about 1794 in either Great Yarmouth or possibly in London. I think his parents should be Jacob Brazill and Mary Custins (or Custance).

I thought I would like to find out how he became a harbour pilot, and why. A slim chance I thought, as the 1830s are a difficult period to research in NSW - the Colonial Secretary ran the whole bureaucracy and there are some indexes, not collated anywhere except in each year of correspondence. Few passenger lists and fewer crew lists.

However, among the correspondence from the Master Attendant (Harbour Master) to the Colonial Secretary, was the recommendation to appoint Samuel Custins Brazill as a pilot, and his letter of application, in his own handwriting, and a description, to be included on his pilot licence. Also a leter of recommendation from Charles Mallard !

Samuel Custins Brazill (as he spelled it) declared that he had been a pilot at the River Plate (in Argentina) in 1824 and 1825. He came to NSW as second mate on the ship PERSIAN in 1834 under Captain Mallard. His licence describes him as 5" 7" and of dark complexion.

After his stint at the River Plate, he returned to London and married his cousin Elizabeth Brazill in Aug 1825 at St Dunstans in the East. Passenger lists are poor for the 1830s, but I found a list for the Persian, with Mrs Mallard aboard, but Elizabeth did not come out with Samuel, but was in Sydney by Nov 1838, when he died.

The other success was determining that a Frederick Reid mentioned in the Sydney Morning Herald as arrested for drunk and disorderly and sent to the Darlinghurst Reception House (for lunatics) was indeed OH's great-great-grandfather. In the records it gives his full name Frederick Moffat Read, although the spelling varies, it sadly says he was sent to Gladesville Asylum after 7 days.

The records of Gladesville Asylum show they kept him there for 18 months due to epilepsy due to drunkeness. He was much addicted to Colonial Beer, but the doctor thought he could be released after a year and a half, as long as he stayed away from alcohol. In his time there he was considered slow and quiet, quite useful in the woodyard, and over time the epileptic fits subsided.

It also described that he had been supported by his mother for the last 2 years before his commital, makes no mention of the "wife" and three children he was charged with neglecting in 1869.

I don't know what happened to him after his discharge from Gladesville, and am still searching for a definite death registration, although I have narrowed it down to just a few possibles.

Five hours well spent.

Di