Many Queenslanders will have heard about Henry Readford, commonly known as Harry Redford. He is remembered in legend, in legal precedent, in written histories, in monuments and sculptures. His epic droving trip with stolen cattle from Bowen Downs in central Queensland to South Australia has been marked through modern day Cattle Drives. 

In contrast, his wife of 30 years, Elizabeth has disappeared from history, without a photograph being located to remember her. Elizabeth Jane, my great grandaunt, was born in 1839 in Richmond, New South Wales as the second daughter of Richard Skuthorpe and Elizabeth Ezzey. She was baptised in the local Church of England the following month.

At 21 years, she married Jonathan Snell, a landholder from Maitland. By 1863, Jonathan, with his partner Esrom Baldwin, had leased 125 square miles (32,375 hectares) in five pastoral holdings along or near the Balonne River in southern Queensland and had offered 200 head of ‘very prime’ cattle from the Balonne for sale at Maitland.[1] Jonathan also held property in Maitland, including the Bird-in-Hand Inn, of which he was the licensee for several years.

Elizabeth and Jonathan had a daughter Eva Anne in 1861 and son Albert J in 1862 before Jonathan’s untimely death in August 1863 aged just thirty years. Elizabeth and their children’s future was very well considered in Jonathan’s will. [2] He bequeathed to her the properties in Maitland as well as his share in the land and stock held in Queensland, and secured these assets for her (and their children) in the event of her re-marriage.  Four of the Queensland runs were sold in 1866, the fifth in 1869. Elizabeth Snell returned with her children to the Hawkesbury where she gained a publican’s licence at Albert House in the Windsor district.

In April 1871, Elizabeth married Henry Readford, in Mudgee, Henry’s birthplace and family home. Elizabeth had been to school with Henry in Windsor and said to have been his ‘sweetheart’. Her brothers, Richard Tertius and Thomas James Skuthorpe were his mates. Elizabeth and Henry’s daughter Jemima Mary Elizabeth was born in Mudgee in January 1872.[3]

Henry was far away at the time of Jemima’s birth – he was under remand in Queensland and being held in Rockhampton on his way to Blackall to face charges of stock theft.  While the major and infamous charge of the theft of Bowen Downs cattle was dismissed, Henry was later charged with stock theft (1877) and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. During the years that followed, Henry moved frequently as pastoral pathfinder, drover and station manager, primarily in central and north western Queensland and the Northern Territory. His life story has been told elsewhere, most completely and accurately by Patrick McCarthy in The man who was Starlight.

Glenlea sale advertisement, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 November 1888.

While Henry was moving around New South Wales and Queensland in the first half of the 1870s to avoid arrest, Elizabeth and Jemima may have lived in Walgett or Warren among members of the Readford family. However in May 1885, Elizabeth was advertising superior apartments for gentlemen in Glebe Point, Sydney. This was at Glenlea, 4 Mary Street, a residence of brick on stone with a slate roof. There were nine rooms, stables and a coach house. Her husband is listed at the address in the Sands Directory of 1886 (as a glazier rather than as a grazier). It is likely that she had left by 1887 when Henry B Stiles was listed as living there.[4] 

Elizabeth moved back to her own family’s neighbourhood when, in January 1892, she advertised ‘The Cedars’ as a boarding establishment for people in Richmond. During that year it was the location for art classes held by local artist, Mr Price.  However, Elizabeth put the house with eight rooms, kitchen, stables and paddock, and her furniture on the market in May 1893 and announced that she was joining her husband on a station in the ‘back country’.[5] Elizabeth may have joined her husband during the 1890s: alternatively she may have been living in a house in Darlington, Newtown in Sydney in a house rented by Henry in 1896.[6]

However, Henry visited Richmond the following year before leading an expedition to find a stock route from Queensland to Western Australia. The expedition was abandoned until the drought across the west of Queensland broke, and Henry returned again to Richmond to visit in May 1900.[7] 

In January 1901, Elizabeth was joined by her sisters Mary Ann Cooper and Emily Archibald at the funeral service for their father Richard Skuthorp, held at Kurrajong, near Richmond. Just two months later, she lost her husband, Henry who drowned attempting to cross the flooded Corella Lagoon, while manager of Brunette Downs in the Northern Territory. Despite Elizabeth Skuthorpe /Snell/ Readford seldom being mentioned as the wife of the well-known Henry Readford/Harry Redford within his history, she did not sever her ties with him throughout his adventurous life.

Elizabeth’s next shift to the Glebe in Sydney was to be for a longer term. In 1903, she was at Westmoreland Street, then at 136 St John’s Road Forest Lodge. Her eldest daughter Eva Snell, who had married bicycle salesman Isaac Phizackerley, was living in Sydney.  Son Albert Snell married in Broken Hill in 1892. Elizabeth’s widowed sisters also lived in Glebe and her young brother Henry Skuthorpe in Drummoyne. The close Skuthorpe family ties were evident.

Elizabeth Jane Readford (Skuthorpe/Snell) died in a private hospital in Chatswood in her 86^th year and was buried in the Northern Suburbs Cemetery. Although a woman with independent means following the death of her first husband Jonathan Snell, she regularly chose to lease or purchase boarding houses and was granted the appropriate licences. Her money enabled her to choose large houses and her family connections with landholders attracted her to facilities able to stable horses. The continued absence of her second husband was not completely strange to her as several of her brothers’ wives remained in the Hawkesbury while their husbands spent time in western Queensland.

[1] Queensland Government Gazette, 26 September 1863, p. 639; Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 20 June 1863, p. 4.
[2] Supreme Court of New South Wales, Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, Jonathan Snell, Queensland State Archives, ID 2801670.
[3] Patrick McCarthy, The man who was Starlight, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1987. pp. 15, 67; Registry of BDM, marriage and birth registrations, https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au.
[4] Queensland Police Gazette, 3 November 1875, p. 136; Sydney Morning Herald, 28 May 1885, p.5, 28 February 1885, p. 17, 24 November 1888, p. 18; Sands Directory, 1886, part 3 p. 213;  Edsburg and Glenlea, The Glebe Society, https://glebesociety.org.au/street/edsburg-and-glenlea/.  The house remains and has been restored in recent years.
[5] Windsor and Richmond Gazette, 7 January 1892, p. 8, 16 July 1892, p.4 and 16 May 1893, p. 4.
[6] Sands Directory, 1896, Part 3, p. 224.
[7] Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, Monday 11 January 1897 p 2; Windsor and Richmond Gazette, 16 January 1897, p. 4 and 5 May 1900, p.3.