The Hill Sisters

. Margaret Guthrie Forrest . Grace Campbell Ramsay . Mary Campbell Hay .

. Eliza Frances Caroline Ann Douglas Rich .

In a time when equality for women was well under par, the Hill sisters stand out as strong, enterprising women that travelled halfway around the world to a small community in a new colony and faced the challenges head-on. Apart from Margaret, they were not young girls on an adventure. Mary, in particular, was almost 50 years old when she left for Australia - an age when many women were looking forward to a quiet life at home. Part of the reason for their resilience and success might have been, as one person recalled, “They were real scotch” (reference). In the 18th and 19th centuries, Scotland had a well-educated population, and historians have noted that Scottish settlers were of “high quality” (reference). Whatever the reason, between the four sisters, they contributed a great deal in the early days of Bunbury and, through their descendants, made a lasting impact on both the City of Bunbury and the State of Western Australia.

When David and Mary Hill were bringing up their children in Dundee, Scotland, they would have had no idea that four of their daughters would play a major part in the early development of the town of Bunbury in the then-new colony of Western Australia. Mary (nee Campbell) originally came from Maybole in Ayrshire, Scotland (reference). Mary’s ancestors were from the black Campbells, a lowland clan of Ayrshire, best known for its treachery in the massacre of the Mcdonald Clan in 1692 (reference, reference). At some stage, Mary moved to Dundee and married David Hill. They had nine children, all of whom were alive when the first sister, Margaret Guthrie Hill, went to Western Australia with her husband William Forrest in 1842 (reference). 

The nine siblings gathered together in London on the eve of Margaret’s departure and jotted down a note Margaret took with her. It said: “London. When this you see remember me and keep me in your mind and not be like the weathercock that changes with the wind. When this you see remember me though many miles I from you may distant be.” On the other side of the note was July 1842, and the Hill children all wrote their ages with their signatures. This note survived until at least the 1930s when a young Sir Paul Hasluck, collecting materials to write a biography of Sir John Forrest, found it as a loose page in one of Sir John Forrest’s notebooks (reference). 

Over the years, tragedy struck more than once for these siblings. Two of the brothers were masters of sailing ships, and both were lost at sea with their ships. Another brother, a dock builder, migrated to Jamaica, where he died, while another son and daughter died in Scotland. The four remaining sisters gradually followed Margaret to Bunbury.

Margaret Guthrie Forrest (1821-1895)

As previously mentioned, Margaret, born in 1821, was the first sister to arrive in the Bunbury region with her husband, William Forrest. She was 21 years old, and William was three years her senior when they arrived. Their firstborn child, a daughter, Mary, had died in Scotland (reference). Mary gave birth to their eldest son, William, on the voyage out. William had trained as a mechanical engineer and worked as a millwright in Scotland. The Western Australian Company was advertising for people to immigrate and settle in Australind. However, the advertisements portrayed Australind as much more developed than it was, so Margaret and William decided to try their fortunes in the new colony. They came to Australia on the ship "Trusty" and were part of a group organised by Dr Ferguson, also of Dundee, who were granted free passage if they were of good character and behaved well on the voyage. They were also given a mattress for the journey, which they could keep in the new land.

They arrived at their destination on 6 December 1842, after a voyage of 127 days and were consigned to Marshall Waller Clifton, the Western Australian Company's agent. Clifton's home was more of a campsite than a residence at the time, and the new arrivals spent their first night out in the open and the next day endured the heat of the Australian summer under the shade of trees. While most immigrants gave up quickly and moved to other parts of the colony, William and Margaret Forrest stayed in the district. By 1844, William was working on constructing a bridge over the Brunswick River, and by 1845, he had built a windmill for grinding wheat on the bank of the Leschenault Inlet (reference). 

William and Margaret purchased land on the Preston River and set up a water mill on their property. The mill was successful, and William became more involved in the construction of public works. Though their fortunes went up and down, the Forrests gradually increased their landholding and established themselves in the district (reference). 

The number of children in the family also increased, and William and Mary Forrest eventually were the parents of nine boys. Margaret looked after the children and contributed to the family income by drying fruit and sending it to Perth to sell (reference). Sir Paul Hasluck, when researching the senior Forrests, said of Margaret, "Those who remember her speak with affection: 'A very nice homey person... You would never hear her speak bad of anyone. She was very kind. You felt that you liked her and could get on with her at once. She was a wonderful woman in the house, a great manager and level-headed. She used to be good to others in their troubles and never made a fuss about her own. "Sir Paul also added, "The character of both of them, but of Margaret Forrest particularly, was such that, in the district forty years after their death, it still shone through clearly in the conversations of the old colonists who had known them." (reference)

Their son John later became the first Premier of Western Australia. During his time as Premier, John Forrest was responsible for many large scale public works, including laying thousands of miles of railways. Two of the major public works built during the Forrest era were the Goldfields Water Scheme and the Fremantle Harbour Works. 

But as William Forrest said once," Ye talk a lot about John Forrest but let me tell ye this. Whair was John Forrest hae been but for Margot and me? "(reference)

Margaret was 73 years old when she died in 1895. The day after her death, the flag at the Perth Town Hall was flown at half-mast as a sign of respect (reference).

More information on William Forrest can be found in his biography: William Forrest 

Grace Campbell Ramsay (1818-1893)

The next sister to arrive was Grace, who set sail on 6 August 1858 on The Dolphin and arrived at Fremantle on 26 November (reference; reference). Grace, born in 1818, was the second oldest of the four sisters and 40 years old when she came to Bunbury. 

Two years after she arrived, Grace married widower William James Ramsay in 1860 (reference). William ran the Plough and Harrow Inn in Victoria Street which, when the building was being demolished in 1906, was described in the Bunbury Herald: "The establishment, while still in the flush of its youth and beauty, came into the possession of. Mr Wm. C. Ramsay, father of Mr Wm. Ramsay, of Minninup, and afterwards fell from grace to some extent by becoming a public house, as such being known as the Plough and Harrow. What a suggestion of quiet rural surroundings the name conveys, and how is the picture filled with besmocked rustics quaffing their mugs of nut-brown ale under the sheltering porch of the modest hostelry! But, alas, and truth to tell, there is no such gentle pastorale in the nigh-forgotten history of the Plough and Harrow. Rather it was the rendezvous of rough ploughers of the deep than simple settlers on the soil, the resort of hardy adventurers than the retreat of the bushland pioneer. For here it was that the men of the Yankee whalers who used to visit these latitudes and were want to seek the meagre shelter of the bay did frequently foregather in lusty carousal, and where schemes of contraband were often cunningly hatched. During its riotous days it was associated with names yet prominently connected with the South-West (reference)."

The Plough and Harrow was run in partnership with James Childs, who formerly ran a store on the property but had since gone into Bay Whaling and brewing colonial sugar beer. Childs had purchased a property on Mangles Road and lived on it until his death in 1846 (reference). James Ramsay, who had married Bridget Shanahan in 1853 and was now the father of three young children, gave up running the tavern in 1855 and purchased the Mangles Road property in 1856 (reference; reference; reference). By that time, the property had a substantial two-storey house on it which was known as the Minninup Homestead (reference). Unfortunately, Bridget died in 1956, aged 20, leaving behind the three young children - James, three years old, Anna, one year old and William, who was just a baby (reference).

In 1862, two years after Grace and William were married, tragedy struck again when William, aged 43, died, leaving Grace to manage the farm and bring up her three young step-children (reference). Grace brought up the children and managed the farm by employing ticket-of-leave men and eventually with the help of her stepson, James and his brother William (reference). William became well known for breeding horses (reference). An unknown person recalled Grace: "As a lad of about sixteen I had Sunday's dinner with Mrs Ramsay; she asked me to "have a wee drop of Scotch,' but her "wee drop" was three times more than I was used to and with nothing to break it down so I asked for water. Mrs. Ramsay threw up her hands in horror and said, "Why mon, you'll spoil it," but I preferred to spoil it, than to getting under the table." (reference).

Mary Campbell Hay (1814-1900)

Mary Hay, born in 1814, was the eldest of the four sisters. She came to Bunbury with her son, David, and the youngest of the sisters, Eliza, in 1863 when she was 49 years old.

In 1840, Mary was married to John Hay, a carpenter and shipwright, in Dundee, Scotland (reference). They had four children: John, born in 1841, died when he was 19; David Alexander, born 1844, came to Bunbury with his mother; Margaret, born in 1845, married John Storrie and settled in Glasgow; and William, born 1849, may have died in infancy (reference; reference; reference). Mary's husband, John, died in 1854, and after his death, Mary ran a store in Dundee while bringing up the children (reference).

Mary, David and Eliza came over on The Strathmore, leaving England on 22 December 1862 and arriving in the colony on 27 March 1863 (reference; reference). Soon after arrival, Mary and David acquired a ₤400 loan guaranteed by William Ramsay and used it to take over a business from Mr Hyman Lipschitz located in the Canberra Buildings in Victoria Street. They began trading as M. Hay & Son (reference; reference). A few years later, they acquired a parcel of land from Mr Lipschitz on Victoria Street that stretched from Wellington Street to Princep Street. They converted a pre-existing building on this land to the "Dundee Store", named after their hometown in Scotland. This was located at approximately 113 Victoria Street, the current Sports Marine store (reference). The store sold a mixture of goods including fresh produce, drapery, cutlery, ironmongery and confectionery (reference). 

It seems the homemade confectionery was popular, as Mr Lewis Moulton recalled in 1936 when talking about his childhood with the Spencer boys, Sir James Mitchell and Sir Newton Moore: "The boys used to go down to Mrs David Hay's store to buy lollies. Mrs Hay was an aunt of Lord Forrest and made Scotch rock" (reference).

Mr George Withers, who was employed in the store as a young boy, recalled those times in a Southern Times newspaper article in 1929: "Farmers would come in long distances and take out six months' supply, and I will remember how delighted any employer would be (I was general assistant in-store) to see them come in with a long order, which it would take probably a day to execute. There was no six o'clock closing in those days. Shutters had to be taken down at sunrise and shop swept out, and closing time was any time from 8 to 11 o'clock at night, as it suited the whim of the "boss." No annual holidays, and showtime, once a year, was a busy time for the "boy" and all hands. No chance of visiting the show grounds. There was no thought of sending out for orders, people came along and got what they wanted and carried it home — no delivery carts. The only goods I ever remember delivering were Government orders, such as gaol, hospital or lighthouse. Many a time have I carried a tin of kerosene on my shoulder (and I wasn't very big) from the shop (Mrs Hay's) to the top of lighthouse hill, and no step, but all sand. Whenever I was sent on. a message my instructions always were "Haste ye back, my boy. I'm luppnin on yon" and "the' I says it as shouldn't" I always did." 

In the same article, Mr Withers described some of the produce sold and traded by Mary and David Hays. These include:

Dairy 

"Bunbury has always been a good dairying district, and several family names have been prominent in that industry to the present day, notably Rose, Clifton, Johnston and other families. "Bunbury butter" (made on the farms) had such a good name that it was very common to see it posted up in the city as produced here when no doubt it never saw the district. The farmers would bring it in kegs, varying from 40 to 80 lbs. weight, and it would be shipped to Fremantle, as there were no railways in those days."

Potatoes

"Potatoes also were a staple product. I understand that one of our biggest growers, James Rodgers of Australind, and his sons continue on the same property. There would be great rivalry between the two chief storekeepers, Mrs Hay and Mr Spencer, for the purchase of his crop — generally paid half cash and half stores as hay and grain were not produced to any great extent, and chaff would be cut by hand cutters and put into all sorts of receptacles, including wool bales."

Apples

"Apples were brought in from Bridgetown, from Blechynden's, Allnutt's, Wheatley's and others, in bullock drays, packed in straw, in large drapery cases. They brought at the rate of 6/6 per bushel, English standard bushel measure."

Tea and Sugar

"Tea and sugar was imported, chiefly by John Bateman, who had a line of sailing vessels plying between Fremantle and Singapore and Mauritius. Sugar came in "mats" of various sizes from about 40 lbs. to a hundredweight, and there were a number of grades, from brewing sugar, which had to be chopped out of the mats, to best white crystal, similar to the sugar now in common use. Tea was in packages or boxes, varying from 12Ibs. to 45lbs. Tobacco came in "quarter tierces", weighing about 3001bs. and consisted of old negro bead, generally, 16 sticks to the pound."

Condiments

"Jams, sauces and other delicacies were all imported from Great Britain."

General Produce

"There was always great excitement unpacking new goods.The main supplies were bought twice a year, Mrs. Hay going up by coach on Monday and generally returning on the following Tuesday — it was two days journey each way — leaving four days to complete the business and then a week or so later they arrived by boat, weather permitting."

Treacle and honey

"Treacle and honey were sold in bulk, and treacle or molasses was brought in by Yankee vessels in casks of 30 to 40 gallons. It was then emptied into a container for retail purposes."

In the same article, Mr Withers described an incident with treacle which showed that Mrs Hay could be formidable to even to her son: "I was generally sent to do this filling and on one occasion was called away while it was being drawn off and forgot to go back. Later on Mr D. A. Hay brought a customer in to sample some sugar and tea, when he found himself sticking to the floor. He was a good sport, so did not tell his mother, but advised me to clear it up, pronto! before she saw it. Needless to say I did, but 20 or 30 gallons of treacle were lost." (reference)

Mary and David expanded their business, and by 1869 had stores in Busselton and Bridgetown (reference).

Unfortunately, the business M. Hay & Son was forced into bankruptcy in 1893 (reference; reference; reference; reference). Mary applied for a discharge from bankruptcy in the same year, which must have been granted as she began trading again on a reduced scale as the Dundee Store until 1885 (reference, reference)

Mary was 86 years old when she died in 1900 (reference)

Eliza Frances Caroline Ann Douglas Rich (1830-1902)

Born in 1830, Eliza was the youngest of the four Hill sisters by some years. She was 33 years old when she arrived in Western Australia with Mary and David Hay in 1863 (reference). Being young and single, Eliza probably helped her sister Grace with the young children for the first few years and ran a small store in Bunbury (reference). However, five years after she arrived, in 1868, she married George Rich. Born in Taunton, England, George, from a farming family, came to Western Australia under engagement to the Imperial Government in 1855. He resigned from his government position not long after he arrived, moved to Bunbury and purchased land at Dardanup and other properties. George was an excellent farmer, known for his vast knowledge of agriculture. If show exhibits are a guide, George was quite diverse in agricultural pursuits. Over the years, exhibits at the Bunbury show included homemade marmalade, parsnips, pigs, ham and bacon, red wine and prize-winning draught horses (reference; reference; reference). He also produced and exported wool (reference). He was a Judge at the Agricultural show in later years (reference).

George also had other interests, including the timber industry in which he was involved in the first exports of timber from the colony (reference). In 1871, he was awarded the contract to build a new head on the wharf (reference). In 1874, he became a mail contractor and continued this for five and a half years (reference; reference). George was also the first licensee of the Burlington Hotel. George was a community man and was elected to the Bunbury Council in 1876 (reference). He was also made a Justice of the Peace in 1894 (reference).

George and Eliza lived at Taunton Vale, the farm at Dardanup and in 1865, there was a fire while the family was at the Bunbury Show. The dwelling house survived, but several buildings were destroyed (reference). In 1897, the Riches built a ten-room villa on the farm to retire to (reference). Today this house is a heritage-listed property known as Taunton Vale Homestead (reference).

Eliza was 75 years old when she died at home in 1902 (reference). George died two years later, in 1904, aged 78 years, after a long illness (reference). George was a reasonably wealthy man when he died as the part of the estate that went to probate was passed at £9,210, which was worth between 1 and 2 million dollars in 2020, and that did not include properties in trust (reference).

George and Eliza had two daughters - Mary Campbell, born in 1869 and Grace Ramsay, born in 1871 but died the following year when she was only eight months old (reference). Mary married Charles Reynolds from Busselton in 1906 (reference).

Researched by Gaye Englund for the Museum of Perth