Christiana Jewell (1824-1863)

Christiana was born in 1824 in Crowan, Cornwall, England, the first the daughter of Isaac and Sarah Jewell. She had three older brothers (Thomas, William and Isacc) at the time of her birth, and was christened on 02/05/1824 in the local Crowan church. Her parents would go on to have 5 more children after Christiana - Salome, Ann, John, Abraham and Elizabeth Jane. According to census records, it appears the family were employed in the mining trade.

Christiana's 'Jewell' name can be traced back three generations in Crowan, and the three more generations to a marriage in 1659 in St Gluvias. Christiana's ancestors are as follows:-


 * John Jewell and Thomasine Roberts, married 05/06/1659, St Gluvias
 * John Jewell (b 1666) and Jane Kempthorne (b 1666), married 1693, Blisland
 * John Jewell (b 1694) and Welmots Skews (b 1694), married 1716, Cury
 * William Jewell (b 1721) and Dorcuks Bosanko (b 1720), married 25/06/1749, Crowan
 * William Jewell (b 1757) and Jenifer Bosanko, married 05/11/1779, Crowan
 * Isaac Jewell (b 1796) and Sarah Harris (b 1799), married 01/06/1819, Crowan

Christiana's father died when she was on 11 years old, in 1835. It appears that her mother helped feed the family by working in the mining trade, as she listed as a miner in the 1841 census for Poldrous Moor, Crowan, along with some of here sons. Christiana is not listed with the family in this census and is located as a 15 year old servant with the Thomas family in Camborne (Milltown), a town north of Crowan (she is listed under the name of Christian). Her sister Ann was also a servant with the Eddy family in Biscaverran Croft, Crowan.

Marriage
At the time of her marriage in 1846, Christiana was from Camborne which is 4kms away from Redruth. Her husband was Thomas Teague, who was born on the 7th January 1825 in a town called Phillack, which in 13kms from Redruth. His parents were Martin and Ann. In Cornwall, Thomas was employed in Milling and farming (his own father was a miller). The couple married on August 13th 1846 at the registry office in Redruth, when she was 22, and he was 21. Almost immediately after the marriage, the young couple set sail for Australia on the “Abberton”, a barque of 525 tons with Thomas Pain as master. They arrived in Port Adelaide on Sunday December 13th 1846.

A biographical account of Thomas Teague's life was written in 1889 in the book “Aldines History of South Australia”. The book stated that the couple lived in Adelaide first, where Thomas was employed, but ill health forced him to give up after a few months. They moved out to the country, Thomas taking up employment at the newly operational copper mine called ‘Kitticoola’ which was 15 miles from the township of Palmer. This mine was set in a beautiful set of rolling hills in a valley next to Reedy Creek.

Mining
When the gold rush began in California, Thomas traveled there on the ship “Robert Henderson” which departed 15th February 1850. Thomas was one of those who struck it lucky, but according to what he told Aldine’s history, ill health meant he had to return and & he went back to mining at Kiticoola. Australia soon had its own gold rush in Victoria and again Thomas got the bug. It is recorded in the book “The Cornish Miner in Australia” by Phillip Payton, that Thomas set off to Victoria in January 1852 with a John Dunstan. He went to Forest Creek. He arrived back in Adelaide on 9th September 1852 on the brig ‘Punch’. Thomas only stayed in Adelaide a couple of months, and returned to Forest Creek in December. There he stayed until April 1853, when through a ‘Fair Share’ type agreement, he had success. The Reedy Creek mine was not producing enough copper at this time, so the family moved away to Adelaide for a year where Thomas was involved in carting. Christiana had produced four duaghters by this time, Sarah, Emma, Ellen and Julia, and two sons who had died in infancy - Thomas and Martin.

Peachey Belt
In 1854 the young family moved out north of Adelaide to the Salisbury area. They first leased section 3134. On 3rd April 1856, the family moved west of Salisbury and took up section 3242 and then section 4027. This area was known as Peachy Belt.

It was here that Christiana gave birth to five more children, all girls, named:- Lavinia, Priscilla, Matilda, Rosina and Lydia Christina.

Only 4 months after Lydia was born, Christiana died in October of 1863 as a result of disease of the liver. Her death was recorded in the Register newspaper. Thomas buried his wife at Zoar Methodist Cemetery at Penfield.

10 months later Thomas remarried to Elizabeth Turner (nee Rowe) at Gawler River. Elizabeth would go on to have 5 children for Thomas, 3 being sons who survived. Christiana had produced 9 daughters and two sons who had died. This apparently made Elizabeth highly favoured, and it is generally known that Thomas treated the girls of his first marriage rather cruelly as a result.



Children

 * colspan="3" bgcolor="#FFfce0" style="color: #000000;" |Children of Thomas and Christiana Teague
 * colspan="3" bgcolor="#FFfce0" style="color: #000000;" |Children of Thomas and Christiana Teague