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BIOGRAPHYFrank and Mary EastoeFrank Eastoe married Mary Phillippo in 1818 in Fakenham, Norfolk, England and Amelia, their first child was born there in 1819. Frank worked for his father, William, and his spendthrift older brother John. William was a cloth merchant or draper and his business was seriously stressed by John. As a business partner with access to the accounts, John borrowed heavily from them and lost almost all of it. William knew that John, as his elder brother and partner, would inherit the business, so he set up a reserve to help Frank start a business on his own, but John spent it all. In 1828 the business was on the edge of collapse, so Frank had to leave.
After leaving his father's shop, Frank set up his own draper business, but without financial backing, times were very difficult. Amelia, now 12, could have worked in the shop, but it was more important for her to look after the younger children, so her mother could help in the shop full time. The economy continued to slide and, only a year later, even Mary's assistance was not enough and the business failed. With neither job nor income, Frank relocated his large family several times looking for work.
Over the years the family had grown. Amelia was followed by James, George, William, Elizabeth Anne, Mary Ann, Hannah, Hephzibah, and Zacchaeus. By the time Zacchaeus, the youngest, was born, the family was living in Norwich and nearly destitute.
Peter Phillippo, Mary's father, was a ne'er-do-well. When his building business got into financial trouble, he fled to America, leaving his wife, Sarah, at home. Ostensibly, he left to visit a brother-in-law, but it was mostly to avoid his creditors. He was gone for several years, but when he returned, he wanted to emigrate to America. Sarah firmly declined to join him, but he managed to convince Frank and Mary to go with him to the land of opportunity. In 1831 he abandoned Sarah again, left for America and disappeared from history.
Mary and Frank managed to raise enough money for an Assisted Passage, but had decided against America. They were aware of Peter's shortcomings and chose instead to take their family to Montreal in Upper Canada. New immigrants, especially those with business skills, were being welcomed. Their ship sailed across the North Atlantic, up the St Lawrence River and waited out three weeks of quarantine before they finally landed in Montreal.
Many other migrants were not as fortunate. Hundreds of passengers, mostly poor Irish fleeing the Potato Famine at home, died from cholera and tuberculosis on the long sea voyage. When the ship finally reached the quarantine anchorage in the St Lawrence River, they faced three weeks or more of quarantine within sight of their new country. Uncounted lives were lost by those attempting to swim ashore to escape from the ships.
If an outbreak on the ship was bad, quarantine lasted until the last cases either recovered or died. On some ships there were no living passengers left and the dead were offloaded and buried in mass graves. When they were finally cleared to land, a "medical exam" by a dubiously qualified person was sometimes required for the immigrants to disembark, no doubt for a small fee. Under one of Montreal's bridges there is a monument dedicated to the thousands who died. The survivors often settled in the neighbourhood of what now is Pointe Saint Charles where many francophone families today have Irish surnames.
Frank set up a draper business and rapidly became successful and respected in the business community. Business was so good, he was able to move his family from the crowded immigrant quarter into more comfortable accommodations. He and Mary ran the shop, while Amelia stayed at home looking after the children. Staunch Baptists, and the fact that Mary's uncle, the famous Rev. Dr. James Phillippo, was a well-known abolitionist Baptist missionary in Jamaica, probably eased their introduction into the Baptist community.
Montreal had a terrible health problem each summer. When hot weather arrived there were annual outbreaks of cholera, typhus and other deadly diseases in the closely packed immigrant quarter. In 1834 a typhoid epidemic broke out, killing hundreds of new arrivals. The outbreak became so severe it spread to the general population. Frank, Mary and six of their children died, only three daughters survived (Amelia, Hannah and Hephzibah). Orphaned, alone in a new country and far from any relatives, the Eastoe girls were split up.
Adoptions of orphans were informal and, with Montreal's seasonal epidemics, there were always orphans needing help. Older girls were sent to work and younger ones were sent to orphanages set up by the city. The children who were adopted often become household servants and there were certainly cases where they became little more than slaves to their "adopting" family.
The various churches also arranged adoptions with families from their own parishes who were generally kinder to orphans. The children remained with their adoptive family, but could be released into the care of relatives if they were able to come and get them. It is likely that their church cared for the Eastoe girls as their parents had had such strong ties with the Baptist community.
Hannah, aged ten, and Hephzibah, aged five, were adopted within the Baptist community and stayed for two or three years until their grandmother, Sarah Phillippo, was able to come out from England and take them home. The date of their return is not known, but Sarah appears in the 1841 census of East Dereham, Norfolk with both Hannah and Hephzibah living with her.
Amelia was sixteen when her parents died but, instead of being sent to work, the Baptist churches arranged passage for her to live with her famous uncle Rev. Dr. James Phillippo in Jamaica.
Source: Amelia, by Jim Saunders, Comox, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
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Chris Korte's New Zealand Genealogy Project
