Mary (Franklin) Price (1814 - 1894)

Born 1814 in Bengal, India [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of John Giles Price — married 1838 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Descendants

Died 1894 at about age 80 in Malvern East, Victoria, Australia

Biography

Mary Franklin was born in India about 1814. She was the Natural daughter of James Franklin and is mentioned in his Will as such.

Mary Franklin went to Tasmania as the ward of Sir John Franklin, her uncle, when he was appointed Lieutenant Governor.

In 1838 Mary Franklin married John Price in Hobart Tasmania.

‘“MARRIED—On Tuesday, 12th June, at St. David's Church, Hobart Town, by the Venerable the Archdeacon, JOHN PRICE, Esq., third son of the late Sir ROSS PRICE, Bart., of Trengwainton, Cornwall, to MARY, eldest daughter of the late Major FRANKLIN, of the 1st Bengal Cavalry, and niece to His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor.”’^[1][2]

Mary Price died in East Malvern Victoria Australia in 1894. ^[3]

Mrs J. Price, whose death was chronicled on October 2, at the age of 80, had some remarkable colonial experience. - She was a daughter of Major Franklin ,of the First. Light Bengal Cavalry, and niece cf Sir John Franklin the Arctic explorer, whom she accompanied to Tasmania when he took up the governorship of the island.

She married, in 1838, Mr John Giles, fourth son of Sir Rose Price, of Treguainton, Corn wall. Her husband was chief police magistrate of Hobart, and was actively engaged in breaking up the bushranging gangs that infested the place. Subsequently he was appointed commandant of Norfolk Island, which position he held for some years. Later on he accepted the Inspector-Generalship of the Penal Department of Victoria, refusing the LieutenantGovernorship of Canada. He was murdered by convicts in 1857 at Williamstown.

While in Tasmania, during the period her husband was chief police magistrate, Mrs Price lived on the far side of the Derwent, and was left quite unprotected except for some eight bloodhounds imported by. Mr Price. This was at the time (remarks the Australasian) the notorious gang of Cash, Cavanagh, and Jones was about and had it not been for these dogs the gang would have killed Mrs Price and her children by way of revenge against her husband.

The last letter Sir John Franklin wrote her was dated from 'The edge of the ice.' Mrs Price was a cousin of the late Lord Tennyson, and in her early days was a friend of Hallam, Gladstone, and Trench (Archbishop of Dublin). She had four sons and four daughters. The eldest is the hon. J. F. Price, C.S.I., now Chief Secretary to the Government of Madras ; James Franklin, who served in the navy, and was with the sea force under Admiral Sherrard Osborne operating in conjunction with the Chinese Gordon in the Teiping rebellion — he was murdered at Santa Cruz, by the blacks ; Colonel Tom Price, commanding the mounted rifles ; Emily, unmarried; Anna, who married the Rev. Mr Hayward, vicar of Inglewood and Jane, married to Mr George Knox, of Sydney.

Mrs Price arrived in Melbourne in 1853, when Canvas Town was a feature. The Pentridge stockade was at that time a wooden building, built of tarred logo, ironically christened the ' Crystal Palace.' She saw some very stirring times at Norfolk Island, including the attempted rising of convicts, when the guardianship was weakened at the time of the Eureka riots. One of the convicts got over the wall into the storeroom, where Mrs Price was serving out store, and faced her with, threats. Presence of mind and courage carried Mrs Price safely through a trying time until help arrived, and the ruffian was secured.^[4]

Research Notes

• Source for her birth/baptism not found
• Mother’s name not found

Sources

1. ↑ http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8748734
2. ↑ https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD36-1-3$init=RGD36-1-3p139j2k
3. ↑ BDM Victoria Deaths 1894/13905
4. ↑ Tasmanian (Launceston, Tas. : 1881 - 1895), Saturday 27 October 1894, page 45