Matthew Gross (1828 - 1887)

Born Mar 1828 in St. Anthony, Cornwall

Ancestors

Died 16 Sep 1887 at age 59 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

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Biography

Matthew was baptised on 23 March 1828. [PR] He was in the Royal Navy from 1845 when he entered as a "Boy". Then aged 21, he was ticketed as an"Ordinary Seaman" in the merchant navy on 26 April 1849 at Falmouth. He was described as 5'6", dark brown hair, a dark complexion and hazel eyes with no scars evident. [alphabetical register of seaman's tickets, BT114/10] He was next recorded as a 22 year old sailor residing at home on the 1851 census night. He sailed in a ship registered at Padstow on 8 August 1851 and returned 11 November 1851. He was detained in hospital for a time in October 1851 in Quebec. Family legend has it that he reclaimed land in Central Brazil and called it "Matto Grosso Land". He was supposedly the biggest coffee grower in South America [K.B.Frith-Jones] Probably the Matthew Gross 59 a shepherd of Port Lincoln who died at the Destitute Asylum on 16 Sept 1887. He entered the asylum three days earlier and reported that he arrived on the Nepthune (sic)on 25 October 1853 and had two brothers, one a messenger in Parliament House.[notes from Jean Bray, research coordinator South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society] A meeting was held on 9 Feb 1854 to discuss the many complaints about the passage on the government emigrant ship Neptune and the misbehaviour and incompetence of its captain. Sailed from Plymouth on 7 June. 317 passengers arrived, 18 having died on the voyage. Matthew is not amongst the passengers listed in the Adelaide Observer, but may have been a crewman.

Sources

• Baptism in parish register. Alphabetical register of seaman's tickets, BT114/10. great nephew K.B.Frith-Jones. Notes from Jean Bray, research coordinator South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society