Finding Frederick Foot.

There is little available information on the Frederick Foot who informed Governor Gipps of the murders of a large group of Aboriginal people  (Wirrayaraay) at Myall Creek, Liverpool Plains in 1838.  In all accounts he is usually described as a free settler, landholder, or grazier.  I had for some time wanted to research Frederick Foot, where he came from and what became of him.  The resulting research gives a short biographical account of Frederick.

(* The name Foot is spelled as either Foot or Foote often for the same person, Frederick’s various records reflect this but the family does seem to consistently use the variation Foot which I have maintained.)

Frederick Isaac Foot, was born about 1808 in Banville, Down, Ireland.  He was one of at least 14 children of James Foot, JP (1770 – 1836) and Sophia Isaac d’Olier (1772 – 1858) of Banville, County Down, Ireland.  His parents were both born and married in Dublin but his ancestry is a mix of Irish, English and French Huguenot.

The first accounts of Frederick in Australia are in Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) where he was appointed an Inspector of Weights & Measures – to enforce the Weights & Measures Act – in October 1834.  He had arrived in Hobart Town, in March the previous year on the ship William as a 1st cabin passenger, accompanied by another Mr Foot.  This is probably his brother William Foot, who was appointed to this same position the following year.   The William’s ship manifest contains the following remarks for the journey –

Made our passage from Liverpool in the course of 122 days, experienced occasionally some heavy weather; had the misfortune to lose Captain Tho[ma]s Boag our commander who died 27 Jan[uar]y, who was complaining for about a period of five weeks previous to his death, the mate David Boag took command of the vessel.

At the expiry of his appointment in Hobart Town, Frederick departs on the New York Packet to arrive on 19 August 1835 at Port Jackson, New South Wales.  Frederick makes his way north to the area of West Maitland, New South Wales.  It’s been established he was settled in the Liverpool Plains area in June 1838 when he tried to inform Inspector Edward Denny Day of the murders on Henry Dangar’s station as told to him by  William Hobbs.  He then continued to ride all the way to Sydney to inform Governor George Gipps.

Frederick’s run seems to have been transferred from the original licensee John Gaggin who had ‘… obtained licenses from the Colonial Treasurer for depasturing stock beyond the boundaries of the colony,from the 23d to the 29th June, 1838, inclusive, on payment of the established fee.’  On the pasturage or depasturing license dated 27 June 1838 for J Gaggin (of Sydenham) for property on the Gwydir River, Liverpool Plains, it is noted ‘No. 6 of List 29 to Mr Foot’.  From 1839 to 1845 Frederick is paying the annual fee of £10 for the depasturing license for the station Mara Creek on the Gwydir River, Liverpool Plains.

The following month Frederick’s brother Theophilus Foot arrives, with his wife Ellen née Nesbitt, in New South Wales via the Amelia Thompson.  Their disembarkation was delayed while the ship was held in quarantine. 

…that the disease which committed such ravages among them broke out about the 1st of April, and was at its height while crossing the equator. The number of deaths which occurred at sea were thirty-seven, of whom seventeen were adults (ten men and seven men) [sic].  The disease which proved so fatal to the children was the small-pox; and that which cut off so many adults was a malignant typhus or gaol fever. Since the arrival of the ship at Spring Cove three persons died, making a total of forty deaths.

 

By 1842 their brother William is in NSW where he married Bessy Nesbitt at Theophilus’ residence at Oakville, on the Hunter River.  Then in 1845 both Frederick and William’s names are on a depasturing licence for Piedmont Station.  They don’t keep it long as by late 1846 Piedmont Station is for sale and purchased in March 1847 by Daniel Capel.

William & his family have moved on to Sydney and they will later move to Victoria while Theophilus & his family eventually move to Queensland.  Frederick departs Australia altogether. 

He makes his way to the United States via Trinidad.  In May 1849, he arrives in Baltimore, Maryland on the brig Standard.  He’s now 40 with his occupation given as farmer on the ship’s passenger list.  In the 1850 US census he owns a farm in Meriden, LaSalle, Illinois.  Still in Illinois, he is naturalised a US citizen in 1854. 

There is a record of a marriage for a Frederick Isaac Foot on 25 May 1855 to May O Rouke  in LaSalle, Illinois.  It seems unlikely to be another Frederick Isaac Foot at this time and place, but is not clear what has happened – a error in the records, has Mary died or they have quickly separated?  He does marry Eliza Elliot (born 1830 in Louth, Ireland), a few months later on 9 August in LaSalle.  Frederick and Eliza went on to have two children, George, born about 1856  and Fannie Ellen born about 1858.

The 1860 US census shows that Eliza, with their two young children, are living next to her parents George & Fanny Elliot in the city of  LaSalle, while Frederick, now a grocer, is in the city of Amboy in the neighbouring county of Lee.  It is likely to be his own establishment given the values of his real and personal estates.  Did he divide his time between his business in Amboy and Eliza and their children in LaSalle?  The following year the American Civil War would commence, putting Frederick and Eliza further apart.

On the 26 December 1863 at LsSalle, Frederick enlisted to join the Union Army, which his military records state was his place of residence with his occupation as merchant.  At the age of 55 years, Frederick would have been considered too old to enlist which is likely why he has changed his age to 45 years, considered the maximum age for enlistment at the time.  His military records show he was then mustered in on 8 February 1864 at Springfield, Illinois; a private in the 14th Regiment, Illinois Cavalry.  (Originally posted with Company C he was transferred to Company B during his service.)   His records provide a physical description of Frederick – 5′ 7″ tall with a fair complexion, light hair and blue eyes.

At the end of the Civil War his records indicate he was mustered out on 22 June 1865 at Quincy, Illinois however information on the 14th Cavalry indicate that the regiment completed their duty at Pulaski, Tenn., until July 1865 and were mustered out at Nashville, Tenn., July 31, 1865.  This is interesting as it is in Pulaski, Tennessee where a 62 year old Frederick Foot is recorded working as a book agent in the 1870 census, while Eliza is with her son George, a farmhand, is keeping house for her father George Elliot still in LaSalle.  Their daughter Fannie is residing with her mother’s relatives in the town of Dimmock, LaSalle.  

At age 73 Frederick was admitted to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (North-Western Branch) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 21 October 1879, and this is where he is found in the following years’ census.  He is still married to Eliza though she remains at LaSalle.     

The Northwestern Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers is one of three original branches of the National Asylum approved by President Lincoln in 1865 to provide care for volunteer soldiers who had become disabled during service in the Union forces during the Civil War. Milwaukee was designated as the site of the Northwestern Branch in 1866 and construction of the first buildings on the site began in the fall of 1867.

The nineteenth century campus was designed to aid in the recuperation of the veteran and to ease the transition back into society. The core contained elements of a village, including a post office, library, recreation hall, theater, chapel, and recreation areas.

During its first three decades of the Branch’s operation, federal officials placed increasingly broad demands on the facility, resulting in higher than expected membership numbers. Originally the home was intended to provide recuperation and to house soldiers who could not return to society. However, the aging and the number of infirm veterans increased by the 1880s, resulting in more long-term members rather than temporary convalescent patients and in greater demands for care of elderly soldiers.  (From a summary on The Wisconsin Historical Society’s website)

Frederick remained at the Home for the next 10 years and he died in the hospital 8 January 1890 from old age.  He is interred in the Home’s Cemetery in Block 4 Row 6.  Eliza died 28 September 1916 and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery, La Salle where many of her Elliot family are also buried.

Frederick Isaac Foot’s upright marble headstone can be found in the rows of similiar headstones at the Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin which was originally known as the Soldiers Home Cemetery. [ https://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/wood.asp ]

(Photo:  from Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com), memorial page for Frederick I Foot (unknown–8 Jan 1890), Find a Grave Memorial no. 2907344, citing Wood National Cemetery, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, USA ; Maintained by US Veterans Affairs Office.)

Select Bibliography

  • A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Ireland – Bernard Burke, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies
  • Baltimore, Passenger and Immigration Lists, 1820-1872
  • Illinois, Northern District, Naturalization Index
  • Illinois, Databases of Illinois Veterans Index, 1775-1995
  • Illinois, Marriage Index, 1860-1920
  • Maryland, Baltimore Passenger Lists, 1820-1957
  • New South Wales, Australia, Unassisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1826-1922
  • New South Wales, Australia, Depasturing Licenses, 1837-1846
  • New South Wales Government Gazettes 1832-1863
  • New South Wales State Archives & Records
  • Tasmania, Australia, Passenger Arrivals, 1829-1957
  • Trove, National Library of Australia
  • U.S., Burial Registers, Military Posts and National Cemeteries, 1862-1960
  • U.S. Federal Censuses
  • U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938
  • U.S. Veterans’ Gravesites, ca.1775-2006