jardines

Lizzie and John Jardine

Lizzie's stepmother Nora wrote in a clear-eyed way to her friend and step-daughter Rosa about her step-children and children. Here is what she had to say about Lizzie in 1884:

Lizzie is more virtuously & meritoriously cheerful now that the world pipes to her tune. She thinks babies the greatest blessing, sent by God, & sure to be cared for by a watchful Providence – is quite prepared for 13 – (as you were when Maud was born) & cannot understand anyone being discontented in a world which promises such a life of love & happiness to herself. Well she has not asked much from Providence to make her happiness with – only love & home – warmth – husband & children - & she is of such a healthy habit of mind & has such a firm trust in providence that her contentment is likely to last, especially as the Doctors say that her health is likely to hold good, while she is bearing children.1)

On 27 April 1882, the year before she married Elizabeth Catherine Murray-Prior acquired her own stock which was kept on Maroon, with the brand A1A.2)

This photo, from Nora M-P's album, is a rather indistinct one of Lizzie as a child. The next 5 are from her father's album. As they are labelled Lizzie Murray-Prior, they are presumably all before her marriage. The first is definitely so, as she too young to have her hair up, a rite of passage indicating the girl had become a woman.
3)
Her father labelled the next photo 'Mrs Jardine':

This photo of Lizzie was taken on 4 June 1878; the original is in QJO.4)

The NLA holds numerous photos of Lizzie and her later home, Aberfoyle Station.5)

Is this unidentified photo also Lizzie?6)

In TLM-P's 1888 diary (27 Sept), he noted Aberfoyle's rents (£258.8.0), rent for grazing rights (£115). He listed the 'available' land as 272 + 165 square miles; 'unavailable' land as 195+50 square miles, a total of 782 square miles.

Details of stock movements etc elating to Aberfoyle, see Andrew Darbyshire, A Fair Slice of St Lucia. Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior, St Lucia History Group research paper no. 8, p.85)), Aberfoyle was for sale in May 1901. Photos of Aberfoyle in the M-P papers, NLA.

TLM-P's papers at MLMSS 3117/Box 10/Item 4 include Balance sheet for Aberfoyle Station, Mitchell District, Queensland, 1888.

Two Lizzie Jardines

There can be confusion with 'Lizzie Jardine' - it is not a common name, but it was also the maiden name of Lizzie's sister-in-law. Jill Fleming points out the government's police boat cutter at Somerset, the 'Lizzie Jardine', was named after the original Lizzie nee Jardine, and not Lizzie nee M-P. That first Lizzie Jardine was 'noted for her beauty [and] married Colonel Wilbraham',7) actually Colonel Arthur Bootle-Wilbraham. The marriage took place at the fashionable church for weddings in London - St. George Hanover Square - on 19 July 1875.8) From his diary entry when TLM-P met up with Lizzie Bootle-Wilbraham at his daughter Rosie's home, at some stage he had asked her to marry him. After commenting on her 'same sweet smile', he wrote that 'Whilst she was talking I was thinking of the old days and what a difference it would gave made in both our lives if she had. [Wisely, given his wife would probably read his diary, he added] Hope she is as satisfied with her lot as I am.' Perhaps she was thinking the same or he became more cautious in his diary entries, as the next day Lizzie again visited Rosie but, while again displaying her 'nice smile', TLM-P found her 'thin and subdued looking'.9)

Lizzie and John Robert Jardine had three children. Information about these children and their descendants is available for private family use.


1)
Nora to Rosa, 15 June 1884
2)
Find My Past: Queensland Horse And Cattle Brands 1882, p.997.
3)
Provenance of last photo: T.A. & M.T. M-P
5)
M-P family papers, NLA, MS7801, Box 7, folders 43, 46.
6)
Provenance: T.A. & M.T. M-P
7)
Cairns Post, 5 December 1940
9)
TLM-P, Diary 18-19 July 1882
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  • Last modified: 2023/10/16 17:38
  • by judith