Martha Davis was born in 1813 in Cork, Ireland.
At 21, she was among 202 young, unmarried Irish women who left the country on April 15, 1832, on a four-month-long journey to Port Jackson in Sydney.
Her relocation was part of the British Government’s London Emigration Commission scheme to implement formal immigration for ‘free’, husbandless women.
Martha was among the first government-sponsored emigrants, paid a bounty of £8 for her migration.
After serving as a plain worker for William Bradley of Goulburn, a job she started soon after her arrival, Martha married John Clark on February 17, 1835.
What is a plain worker?
A plain worker was a person who performed plain sewing or needlework as opposed to an embroiderer.
In December 1839, John opened the Traveller’s Rest Hotel, which later became The Royal.
Martha, with their children in tow, followed John to The Royal from their previous lodgings in Mitchelton, becoming the first family to inhabit Seymour’s oldest building.
Years after the family left Seymour, John died on April 10, 1857, and Martha married William McIntosh on April 17, 1858.
At the time, married women did not have the right to own property and once a woman married, her legal identity merged with her husband’s.
This meant that, under law, the property and money Martha acquired in John’s will would go straight to her new husband.
However, Martha saw a loophole and, on the day of their wedding, entered a deed of settlement with William, which meant she would not lose the inherited property.
The fact the deed was signed on their wedding day may indicate that Martha refused to marry William without his signature.
The deed of settlement enabled her to keep control of the property she brought into the marriage.
Martha died on March 21, 1868.
Decades later, an article appeared in the Kilmore Advertiser which recounted a memory from years before.
The 1895 article detailed the time Martha came face-to-face with bushranger Captain Melville.
The article read:
One morning, a shrill coo-ee drew her attention to a passenger on the opposite side of the river.
Although fully a quarter of a mile away, a glance showed her that the traveller was the notorious Captain Melville, the daring bushranger, whose very name caused a thrill of fear from Bendigo to the Ovens, and from Seymour to the Murray.
Mrs Clark saw no trade. She knew very well that Melville would help himself, if he felt inclined, and she decided to budge an inch.
... Then she saw the bushranger bring his rifle to the present, but she looked upon it as a piece of bluster.
Next instant a flash lit up the scene and before the sound of the explosion crossed the river, a bullet whistled through the door about three inches above her head.
Before she had time to realise the position, a couple of teams turned the corner and the captain had disappeared.
Shortly thereafter he struck up McKenzie’s station at Toolamba in presence of thirty shearers but retired to the hulks at Williamstown before he had an opportunity of paying a return visit to Mrs Clark.
Nancy Halpin of the Seymour and District Historical Society, who calls Martha “one very smart, wise and shrewd woman,” heavily informed this article.
If you find a particular piece of Seymour’s history interesting and wish to see it in a coming edition of The Telegraph, email editor@seymourtelegraph.com.au
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