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FERGUSON/HAMILTON/WILKIE: Clyde Co. Papers.

Clyde Company Papers: Official letter containing Andrew Wilkie’s request for his brother James Fernie Wilkie to be brought to Victoria - and to bring a gun. HOW THE WILKIES CAME TO PT PHILLIP: Andrew Wilkie, the eldest son of David Wilkie and Mary Fernie, married Isabella Henderson at the Kinglassie Presbyterian Church at Auchterderran on June 12, 1845. Their first child Janet was born August 15, 1845 at Auchterderran. David Stewart Wilkie was born Kinglassie 1.1.1848 and John born at Kinghorn 1.12.1850. In 1851 the Colony of Port Phillip was suffering from a serious shortage of farm labourers because men were leaving their jobs and heading for the goldfields. Sheep station owners of the colony’s Western District, many of them Scots, looked to their homeland for labourers willing to emigrate. The Clyde Company, one of the largest landholders, was mainly controlled by wealthy Scottish merchants. Their manager was George Russell who was born at Cluny in Fife. His brother John Russell of Kirkcaldy was Government Emigration Officer for Fifeshire in 1851 and he engaged men from the district to work for the Clyde Company in the colony. Andrew Wilkie was one of the labourers engaged by the Clyde Company. With his wife Isabella and three children - Janet 6, David 3, and John 1 - they sailed on the ship “Mangerton” which arrived at Point Henry, Geelong on June 5, 1852. The passenger list shows that Andrew and Isabella could read and write, and that they had £8 in paper money. The voyage took 105 days, beginning with very bad weather forcing the ship to put into Greenock, leaving there on February 21, 1852. Andrew appears to have worked at the Upper Station, Leigh River until March 1854, and possibly at the Golfhill Station until August 1855 before becoming Overseer at Langi Willi Station, Skipton. In 1853 at Upper Station Andrew arranged the Clyde Co. to have his brother James migrate. NOTES BY BETTY JAMIES

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