Sarah Hanmer
Contents
Background
Thought by many to be American Sarah Ann McCullough was born in London, England in 1827, the daughter of London Merchant William McCullough.[1]
Fourteen year old Sarah fell pregnant to accountant Frederick Ford and was sent away to Whitehall, Westminster to have her baby, Julia.[2] Unlike many women of that era Sarah kept her baby. Sarah married Comedian Henry Augustus Leicester Hanmer on 10 August 1844 while living in Bagnigge Wells. [3] The young child was given the name Julia Ford Hanmer.[4] Julia was to marry William Surplice, and both were present at Ballarat in 1854, and went on to lead lives of much interest and adventure.[5]
Sarah, her brother and her daughter, Julia arrived in Melbourne on the Lady Flora in 1853. It is thought they travelled via the Canadian goldfields where Sarah Hanmer may have picked up an American accent. She arrived in Ballarat without her husband, but was accompanied by her brother and daughter. [6]
Sarah Hanmer died in Adelaide.[7]
Goldfields Involvement, 1854
Sarah was known as Sarah Hanmer, Mrs Hanmer and Leicester Hanmer, she was an actress of some note at Ballarat running what is referred to as Mrs Hanmer’s Theatre at Red Hill[8]. In 1854 she started the Adelphi Theatre[9] in Esmond Street (initially a tent but later a weatherboard that became known as The Windsor).[10] Mrs Hamner became famous in vaudeville and melodrama.[11]
Charity events were regularly held at Mrs Hanmer's theatre, such as a benefit for the Miners’ Hospital on 11 October 1854. On 30 October 1854, a benefit concert at the Adelphi raised over £70 for the Diggers Defence Fund. [12]
Members of the Ballarat Reform League were scheduled to meet at the Adelphi Theatre at 2.00pm on Sunday 3 December 1854 to elect a Central Committee.[13]
Sarah Hanmer took Stockader James McGill to Smeaton after the Eureka Stockade battle.
Post 1854 Experiences
In 1855 Mrs Hanmer's company presented a locally written drama called "Stuck Up, or Life in the Bush," Ballarat's first locally written drama. The play, by Isaac Rodd, was held at Mrs Hanmer's Adelphi Theatre, a tent and canvas theatre in the Red Hill area of the Main Road through the diggings and featured visiting comedian Harry Jackson.[14]
From Ballarat Sarah went to Melbourne, Brisbane, returned to London, then New Zealand. [15] Her daughter, Julia Ford Hanmer, married William Surplice in 1856.
In the News
- BUNINYONG RACES - On the race-course there were three refreshment booths; the first, which was in connection with the grand stand, being kept by Mr Jamieson, of the Buninyong hotel, the second by Mr Skinner, of the Royal Exchange hotel,Buninyong, and the third belonging to Mrs Hanmer, who drove a roaring trade amongst her old Ballarat acquaintances. [16]
Also See
Further Reading
Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.
Other Sites
Clare Wright (2008): ‘New Brooms They Say Sweep Clean’: Women's Political Activism on the Ballarat Goldfields, 1854, Australian Historical Studies, 39:3, 305-321 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10314610802263307
References
- ↑ Notes from Lorraine May Brownlie nee Surplice emailed to 'Eurekapedia' on 30 March 2013
- ↑ Notes from Lorraine May Brownlie nee Surplice emailed to 'Eurekapedia' on 30 March 2013
- ↑ Notes from Lorraine May Brownlie nee Surplice emailed to 'Eurekapedia' on 25 March 2013.
- ↑ Notes from Lorraine May Brownlie nee Surplice emailed to 'Eurekapedia' on 30 March 2013
- ↑ Notes from Lorraine May Brownlie nee Surplice emailed to 'Eurekapedia' on 25 March 2013.
- ↑ Notes from Lorraine May Brownlie nee Surplice emailed to 'Eurekapedia' on 25 March 2013.
- ↑ Notes from Lorraine May Brownlie nee Surplice emailed to 'Eurekapedia' on 25 March 2013.
- ↑ Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
- ↑ Notes from Lorraine May Brownlie nee Surplice emailed to 'Eurekapedia' on 25 March 2013.
- ↑ Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
- ↑ Notes from Lorraine May Brownlie nee Surplice emailed to 'Eurekapedia' on 25 March 2013.
- ↑ Clare Wright (2008): ‘New Brooms They Say Sweep Clean’: Women's Political Activism on the Ballarat Goldfields, 1854, Australian Historical Studies, 39:3, 305-321.
- ↑ Clare Wright (2008): ‘New Brooms They Say Sweep Clean’: Women's Political Activism on the Ballarat Goldfields, 1854, Australian Historical Studies, 39:3, 305-321.
- ↑ http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/AUS-VIC-GOLDFIELDS/2005-10/1130375590, viewed 30 March 2013.
- ↑ Notes from Lorraine May Brownlie nee Surplice emailed to 'Eurekapedia' on 25 March 2013.
- ↑ Ballarat Star, 31 December 1856.