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--- matilda_m-p [2026/07/07 22:18] – judith
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 European women living in what is now Queensland had a higher number of children than their sisters in the south, a phenomenon that was strongly supported by TLM-P and other politicians, 'spurred by fears of being engulfed, both numerically and culturally by foreign invaders'.((Kay Saunders and Katie Spearritt, 'Is there life after birth? Childbirth, death and danger for settler women in colonial Queensland', //Journal of Australian Studies//, 29, June 1991, pp.64-79.)) Matilda was exemplary in this regard, having 12 children during her 22 years of marriage. It is likely that her fecundity contributed to her early death aged 41. Additionally, each time she gave birth there was a real possibility of dying in the process: in 1878, for example, a pregnant woman in Queensland had 'one chance in 21 of dying in childbirth'.((Kay Saunders and Katie Spearritt, 'Is there life after birth? Childbirth, death and danger for settler women in colonial Queensland', //Journal of Australian Studies//, 29, June 1991, pp.64-79.)) Note that Aboriginal women were generally excluded from the statistics, though medical historian John Theale has argued that traditional Aboriginal maternal mortality was low. \\
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-Matilda had her children when her husband was struggling to establish himself. They were not wealthy at this stage and, at least for her first six births, she endured the rough isolation that characterised the life of women settlers in rural Queensland at the time. These conditions contributed to Queensland's death rate being higher than that of other Australian colonies.((D. Waterson and M. French, //From the Frontier. A Pictorial History of Queensland to 1920//, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1987, p.7.)) Repeated childbearing - in this age when abstinence was the only effective contraception - undermined her health. Matilda duly had 12 children during 1848-66, meaning she was pregnant for exactly half those 18 years, during which time she also raised eight and buried four of her children. It did not make it any easier that having four of her children die before her was statistically normal. Even in Victoria in the 1880s and 1890s, where health outcomes where better, by the time a married woman was 50 years old, typically 'about one-quarter of her children would have died'.((Peter McDonald and Patricia Quiggin, 'Lifecourse transitions in Victoria in the 1880s', //Families in Colonial Australia// ed. P. Grimshaw, C. McConville and Ellen McEwen, Sydney: George Allen & Unwin, 1985, p.77.)) It is also possible that she was pregnant at other times as we don't know if she had any miscarriages or stillbirths (stillbirths were not registered at the time).\\
+Matilda had her children when her husband was struggling to establish himself. They were not wealthy at this stage and, at least for her first six births, she endured the rough isolation that characterised the life of women settlers in rural Queensland at the time. These conditions contributed to Queensland's death rate being higher than that of other Australian colonies, including for inflants.((D. Waterson and M. French, //From the Frontier. A Pictorial History of Queensland to 1920//, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1987, p.7.)) Repeated childbearing - in this age when abstinence was the only effective contraception - undermined her health. Matilda duly had 12 children during 1848-66, meaning she was pregnant for exactly half those 18 years, during which time she also raised eight and buried four of her children. It did not make it any easier that having four of her children die before her was statistically normal. Even in Victoria in the 1880s and 1890s, where health outcomes where better, by the time a married woman was 50 years old, typically 'about one-quarter of her children would have died'.((Peter McDonald and Patricia Quiggin, 'Lifecourse transitions in Victoria in the 1880s', //Families in Colonial Australia// ed. P. Grimshaw, C. McConville and Ellen McEwen, Sydney: George Allen & Unwin, 1985, p.77.)) It is also possible that she was pregnant at other times as we don't know if she had any miscarriages or stillbirths (stillbirths were not registered at the time).\\
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-Much to the grief of her children, Matilda died when she was 41 years old at their home 'Montpelier' at [[wp>Kangaroo_Point,_Queensland|Kangaroo Point, Brisbane]] on 25 November 1868. She was buried in Brisbane Cemetery. She was not alone in suffering from tuberculosis in this pre-vaccination era: in Queensland it was the 'largest single killer of working adults throughout the colonial period', though Pacific Islanders were particularly susceptible. As well, at the time Queensland had a higher death rate from the disease than England.((Kay Saunders and Katie Spearritt, 'Is there life after birth? Childbirth, death and danger for settler women in colonial Queensland', //Journal of Australian Studies//, 29, June 1991, pp.64-79; Bernard Burke, //A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry//, Melbourne: E.A. Petherick, 1891-95, p.49; TLM-P, genealogical notes in John & John B. Burke, //A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland: M to Z//, London: Henry Colburn Publisher, 1846; Thomas Bertram M-P, //Some Australasian Families Descended from Royalty//, ms, n.d., p.7, NLA; {{http://www.cotyroneireland.com/bornburied/australia3.html|Len Swindley, Born Co. Tyrone, Ireland, Married & Died in the Colony of New South Wales, Australia 1837-1879}})) Matilda's death certificate indicates that the diagnosis was made two years before she died, shortly after the birth of her last child, Egerton.((Matilda M-P, Queensland Death Certificate, Registration B4732)) TLM-P's diary indicates that he was concerned enough about her health in 23 September 1864 to consider taking leave of absence from his employment as Postmaster-General.((Andrew Darbyshire, A Fair Slice of St Lucia. Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior, St Lucia History Group research paper no. 8,p.36)) Another possible indication of prolonged ill-health are the cheques to pay chemist bills in 1866-67 e.g. in June 1866 Mr W.J. Page Chemist was paid £3.16.6 and in June 1867 £5.7.3. As well there is a note in September 1867 regarding a cheque for £3.11.0 to Dr Hugh Bell that TLM-P thought had been paid previously. In March 1868, Dr Handcock was paid with a cheque for £10.8.6, suggesting numerous visits.((MLMSS3117/Box 9, list of cheques.))\\
+Much to the grief of her children, Matilda died when she was 41 years old at their home 'Montpelier' at [[wp>Kangaroo_Point,_Queensland|Kangaroo Point, Brisbane]] on 25 November 1868. The wording of her death notice was conventional. It was in //The Brisbane Courier//, 1 December 1868, p.1 and read: 'PRIOR.—On the 25th November, at Montpellier, Kangaroo Point, Matilda, the beloved wife of Thos. L. Murray Prior.' She was buried in Brisbane Cemetery.\\
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-Grief at her loss lingered. In 1882 her widower visited Lady Bowen, the wife of the first Governor of Queensland: she 'had tears in her eyes naming Matilda. She [Matilda] was so good, so kind she had never met a more unselfish woman'. Lady Bowen shook her head at the news TLM-P had remarried 'and still more when in reply I told her I had more children'.((TLM-P, Diary, 18 July 1882, ML)) TLM-P's list of cheques indicates that the regard was mutual as in October 1867 both Matilda and Rosa contributed to a testimonial to Lady Bowen, respectively £3.3.0 and £1.((MLMSS3117/Box 9))\\
+Matilda was not alone in suffering from tuberculosis in this pre-vaccination era: in Queensland it was the 'largest single killer of working adults throughout the colonial period', though Pacific Islanders were particularly susceptible. As well, at the time Queensland had a higher death rate from the disease than England.((Kay Saunders and Katie Spearritt, 'Is there life after birth? Childbirth, death and danger for settler women in colonial Queensland', //Journal of Australian Studies//, 29, June 1991, pp.64-79; Bernard Burke, //A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry//, Melbourne: E.A. Petherick, 1891-95, p.49; TLM-P, genealogical notes in John & John B. Burke, //A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland: M to Z//, London: Henry Colburn Publisher, 1846; Thomas Bertram M-P, //Some Australasian Families Descended from Royalty//, ms, n.d., p.7, NLA; {{http://www.cotyroneireland.com/bornburied/australia3.html|Len Swindley, Born Co. Tyrone, Ireland, Married & Died in the Colony of New South Wales, Australia 1837-1879}})) Matilda's death certificate indicates that the diagnosis was made two years before she died, shortly after the birth of her last child, Egerton.((Matilda M-P, Queensland Death Certificate, Registration B4732)) TLM-P's diary indicates that he was concerned enough about her health in 23 September 1864 to consider taking leave of absence from his employment as Postmaster-General.((Andrew Darbyshire, A Fair Slice of St Lucia. Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior, St Lucia History Group research paper no. 8,p.36)) Another possible indication of prolonged ill-health are the cheques to pay chemist bills in 1866-67 e.g. in June 1866 Mr W.J. Page Chemist was paid £3.16.6 and in June 1867 £5.7.3. As well there is a note in September 1867 regarding a cheque for £3.11.0 to Dr Hugh Bell that TLM-P thought had been paid previously. In March 1868, Dr Handcock was paid with a cheque for £10.8.6, suggesting numerous visits.((MLMSS3117/Box 9, list of cheques.))\\
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+Grief at her loss lingered. In 1882 her widower visited Diamantina, Lady Bowen, the philanthropic wife of the first Governor of Queensland: she 'had tears in her eyes naming Matilda. She [Matilda] was so good, so kind she had never met a more unselfish woman'. Lady Bowen shook her head at the news TLM-P had remarried 'and still more when in reply I told her I had more children'.((TLM-P, Diary, 18 July 1882, ML)) TLM-P's list of cheques indicates that the regard was mutual as in October 1867 both Matilda and Rosa contributed to a testimonial to Lady Bowen, respectively £3.3.0 and £1.((MLMSS3117/Box 9))\\
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 The love for Matilda was also reflected in the number of babies of the next generation of the family being baptised Matilda - though all were called by other names in their everyday life.