Adelaide (Ada) Baker, the second eldest of six siblings was born on 22 February 1856 in London to parents Daniel Thompson Baker and Ann Dorling, who lived in a comfortable residence at 390 Oxford Street in Soho, London: about where Oxford Circus is located. The Bakers employed housemaids, one of whom accompanied Ada to school before bringing her home in the afternoon for music lessons with a private tutor. The children lived in sophisticated gentility, they were not asked to do household chores. Ada recounted to her granddaughter one day that she hadn’t so much as washed a handkerchief before emigrating to Australia at the age of 20.

Daniel Baker was a successful heraldic artist, an astounding achievement considering he was born ‘deaf and dumb’ according to census records. Heralds conducted ‘visitations’ which meant they travelled around the county to ensure coats of arms were being used correctly. Heralds wielded considerable influence. If someone was displaying arms they were not entitled to, Heralds were known to smash windows, and even deface a tombstone or a carving using the wrong arms.

A Herald’s salary may not have been excessive but they interacted with people of influence including royalty, and were granted opportunities to participate in regal and traditional pageantry. Heralds dressed in heavy gold-encrusted tabards, and played an important role in coronations, State Openings of Parliament, State funerals, and services of the Order of the Garter.

The Bakers originated from Fakenham in Norfolk but Daniel seemed to be the only one ending up in London an extraordinary outcome given his lifelong disabilities. Daniel’s brothers did well, Josiah, a farmer had 240 acres at some stage, most likely leased, and another brother was an ironmonger. Out of all the children Daniel seemed to be the only one born without the ability to hear or speak. He enjoyed a 20-year marriage with Ann Dorling who bore no disabilities; it was a match that produced three daughters, one being Ada, and a son Herbert born 5 June 1867.

Discovering Daniel Baker’s disabilities on the UK census forms was startling. The form includes two columns describing an individual’s disability; one is titled ‘Condition’, and the other on the far right-hand side, is ‘Whether’ allowing for more detail to what is stated under ‘Condition’. Classifications under the ‘Whether’ column include 1. Deaf-and-Dumb; 2. Blind; 3. Imbecile or Idiot; and 4. Lunatic.  Considering the financial success Daniel received from his livelihood, (based on Ada’s description of her upbringing) Daniel must have been an extraordinary man, talented and evidently a strong personality and very independent.

Ada’s mother Anne died in 1868, possibly due to complications following the birth of Herbert, born in 1867. With three teenage girls (Ada was 12) and a toddler son in need of a mother, Daniel married Hannah Carter two years later, a woman who was only 11 years older than Ada. Unlike Ada’s mother, Hanna shared the same disabilities as Daniel, in that records noted her as ‘deaf and dumb from birth’. She bore Daniel Baker a boy and a girl.

The years leading up to Ada’s departure from England saw a lot of upheaval within the family. Her older sister Emily emigrated to South Africa, settling in Cape Town and became a teacher. According to Ada’s granddaughter, as Ada was reaching womanhood her father was set on marrying her off to one of his middle-aged gentleman friends. Ada wasn’t having a bar of it. After trying to emigrate for several years, finally, after turning 20 she secured free passage on a 2,235-ton ship called the Indus which departed London on 17 February 1877. The journey took nearly three months including sailing via the Cape of Good Hope, before landing in Keppel Bay on 2 June 1877. I can’t help but wonder if Ada was able to see her sister Emily during the ship’s stopover.

Indus anchored in the South Reach of the Brisbane River, Brisbane, 1876. Public domain. Image from SLQ

Before any passengers were allowed to transfer from the Indus to the small steamer ‘Mary,’ Dr Salmond and T.P. Pugh Esquire, from the Immigration Board, boarded the Indus to carry out personal examinations. The doctor found ‘the ship very clean, no sickness on board, and the sanitary arrangements perfect in every way.’ The passengers, all being immigrants from England, were taken up the Fitzroy River to Rockhampton. After wading ashore at Rockhampton “through awful mud,” Ada was taken in by a Rockhampton family for the first three months.

The ship’s cargo listed under imports was published in the local paper on 5 June 1877. It included amongst a long list of items; 30 hogshead of ale, 30 cases of wine, 20 half-hogs heads vinegar, 814 bundles of hoops, 179 boxes of tin plates, 200 bundles of wire, 25 anchors, hollowware (metal tableware such as sugar bowls, creamers, coffee pots, teapots, soup tureens), one case knife polish, one case of glass paper, tools, nails, brass tubing, paint and varnish, drugs, 500 bags of salt, spun-yarn, one case of Morocco skins, furniture, etc.^[1]

Ada spent her first three years in Queensland working in domestic service. I think the Rockhampton family who took Ada in on her arrival in the colony had their work cut out for them. However, their efforts must have been effective because Ada found work with Mrs Hartley, mother of solicitor, Mr A.R. Hartley, and a Dr Humphries and his wife who lived in Townsville.

On 7 February 1880, Ada married the German blacksmith Charles Frederic Benke in a Lutheran Church in Mackay. She described her first impressions of Mackay as “for the most part scrub”, and that she was one of three white girls living there at the time. Ada and Charles had three children very close together. William Christian Frederic, born five months after his parent’s marriage was registered under the name of Baker for reasons unknown. Two daughters followed, Laura Augusta Mary, born 17 Oct 1881 and Mary Augusta Benke born 4 September 1883. I have written about Ada in an earlier blog titled ‘Death of a Blacksmith’ in April 2023 which includes more details about the children.

We don’t know what happened to Charles Benke but in 1884 he is out of the picture and Ada along with her only surviving child, William aged four, takes up with Charlie Sturwohld, another German blacksmith who it seems was Benke’s employer in Mackay. Ada’s relationship with Charlie Sturwohld ended around 1906, and the following year Ada married John (Jack) Jessop, a Lincolnshire man, in Mackay. Ada’s marriage certificate described her as Adelaide Bankie, widow.

Jack Jessop, nine years younger than Ada, was a kindly man, completely dedicated to his wife, who for the last 15 years of her life (Grandma Jessop as she was remembered by her great-grandchildren), was fiercely independent and loved to play the piano. No surprises as to who she inherited her determination and sense of independence from. Jack died on 28 December 1934, and after a short illness, Ada passed away at 11.15 am on Wednesday 22 November 1935 in her home at 4 Wellington Street Mackay. Grandma Jessop was survived by five children, 12 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. 

[1] One hogshead of ale was defined as equivalent to 58 beer gallons (221.8 litres) https://www.google.com/search?q=hogshead+of+ale&rlz=1C1JZAP_enAU721AU736&oq=hogshead+ale&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l2.5017j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8