I have found an extra piece of information to fill out the picture of Elizabeth Catherine Hamilton, who married 1) Henry Nell, 2) Alexander Barreau.
It is regards to the death of her first husband, Henry Nell. He died in June, in Singapore. His occupation was recorded as innkeeper. I found this information from the Find a Grave website.
At age 23 Elizabeth accompanied her parents to Adelaide in October, 1837. Initially she was working on the land with her husband, Henry, and near her parents. But at some stage it seems Elizabeth and Henry were living and working in Singapore.
Only a few months after arriving in Adelaide, in July 1838, Elizabeth married Henry Nell, who was aged 42. Henry was a widow with 2 boys, aged 9 and 8. While initially he took up land near the Hamiltons, it seems at some stage he also was running a hotel in Singapore. They had two children who were born in SA in 1840 and 1842.
Whether Henry had owned the hotel in Singapore or was only working there is unknown. He may have owned the inn for some time and travelled between Singapore and South Australia.
On June 10, 1844 Henry died and was buried in Singapore. His death record records that he was an innkeeper. There are some stories I have heard from other researchers that he perhaps died in a shipping accident on the way to Singapore, but I don’t know the sources for this. I will have to do more research into that. If anyone reading this has any information please do let us know (comment below).
Henry is buried in Fort Canning Green, Singapore, in 1844.
This was a Christian cemetery located in the Fort Canning Park, in Singapore, open between 1834 and 1868. In 1954 the cemetery was converted to a park and most of the graves exhumed and the tablets placed into the walls. It appears the headstone for Henry Nell is one of those. See Find a Grave for further information.
One year later Elizabeth remarried, in Singapore. She married another hotel keeper, Alexander Barreau. One cannot help but think Alexander and Henry were connected in some way, perhaps working in, or owning, the same hotel.
Elizabeth was now a widow and looking after several children. This could account for her marrying relatively quickly after her husband’s death. Widows, especially with children, were very vulnerable.
As stated earlier, Elizabeth and Henry had two children, all born in SA. In November of 1844, just five months after Henry’s death, she gave birth to another child, Hamilton. She had the boy registered in SA. This would indicate that she had returned to SA by the time of his birth, or soon after. This supports the idea that perhaps Henry Nell had had a stronger connection with the inn in Singapore than just working in it, since Elizabeth had returned from Singapore, had the child, and by July the next year was back in Singapore and marrying another hotelkeeper.
By 1847 Elizabeth and Alexander were back in Adelaide, as their first child was born in June of that year. They appeared to have remained in Adelaide.
It would be interesting to know how extensive the involvement was in the hotel business, whether Henry owned the hotel, and perhaps even more hotels, or if he simply worked there.
While Alexander Barreau is known for links to shipping (working as a waterman) the hotel theme continues. He was working as a hotel keeper while in Singapore, and when he died in 1876 he was working as a barman in the Ship Inn at Port Adelaide.
[(1876, October 14). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839-1900), p. 5. Retrieved April 30, 2011, from TROVE]
Elizabeth continued on and outlived both husbands by twenty two years. She died in 1898 and is buried in Cheltenham Cemetery in Adelaide (it says she is cremated, but the authority assured me that is incorrect – a data input error).
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