Peter Leckie
Contents
Background
Peter Leckie was born in 1826 in Greenock, Scotland. Peter was an only child, like his father (also named Peter Leckie) he was a mariner. Peter married Hannah Cowan in Greenock in November 1850. Peter worked his passage to Australia as a sailor.
Hannah Cowan, Peter's wife, was born in 1833 on the Wee Cumbrae Isle in the Firth of Clyde, Ayrshire, West Kilbride, Scotland. Hannah followed her husband Peter Leckie to Australia in 1853, on the Screw Steamer Lady Bird, arriving in Victoria in 1853. Hannah earned her passage as a nursemaid for James, the child of the first Mayor of Ballarat, Matthew Campbell. They pitched a tent on the site of the Eureka Stockade. [1]
Goldfields Involvement, 1854
At the time of the Eureka Stockade riot Peter could not go out, as Hannah hid his trousers. Hannah sheltered behind a sea chest in a tent, the Campbell child in her arms with bullets whistling overhead.[2]
Post 1854 Experiences
Hannah and Peter had 8 children, they named one of their sons Matthew Campbell Leckie. They had two children in Ballarat, then settled in Scarsdale and built a cottage on a Miners Right in Cemetery Lane. When alluvial gold was exhausted he worked underground in a mine on Staffordshire Reef. Peter contracted TB and died aged 59 in 1884; he is buried in the Scarsdale/Smythesdale Cemetery, Victoria, Australia.
When Peter died Hannah shifted to Brunswick and was a shopkeeper there. Two of her daughters, Hannah and Isabella had a grocery store at 5 Audley Street Coburg. Their mother Hannah died in 1912 and is buried in Coburg Cemetery with 3 of her daughters.[3]
See also
Further Reading
Corfield, J., Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.
