THE BRIDGET LINE
Patrick and Bridget Carrucan had six children, Michael (1828), Patrick (1831), Bridget (1833), Peter (1837), Martha and Mary.
In November 1853, their daughter Bridget left Ireland aboard the sailing ship Truro (departed Southampton 6/11/1853, arrived Port Phillip 16/3/1854), bound for Melbourne Town, arriving on the 31st January 1854 – a voyage of 86 days. We next hear of her in the hamlet of Eltham, on the West Bank of the Yarra River some 25 km north west of Melbourne. She met and married a widower, John James Coleman, at Culla Hill, the home of an earlier settler, Thomas Sweeney, whose family was later destined to link with ours.
History does not relate the circumstances of the meeting of John with Bridget. She came to Australia to work for Edward Fennessey of St Kilda, bonded for one month, wages £25 p/a after rations. The arrangements for this indenture are unrecorded. The mystery remains how did a humble twenty three year old working girl from County Clare meet and marry a forty five year old widower living some distance from the Melbourne Township?
As a widower, John brought into the union two children, William (13 yrs) and Mary (7 yrs). Hannah (16 yrs), John’s older daughter was married to William Jarrold, also of Eltham on the same date that John and Bridget wed.
They settled on a small block, later to be known as 'Coleman’s Corner' in North Eltham. Bordering Diamond Creek, the block, some 2-3 km north of the Eltham Township included an area prone to local flooding. John and Bridget erected a small timber dwelling, which still stood on this corner as recently as the 1990s. The Coleman block was to the west of Main Road.
Bridget and John had seven children, John Patrick (1857), Martha (1858), Peter (1869), Benjamin (1861), Bridget (1864), Margaret Kate (1865) and George (1867).
Martha married William West in 1878, Bridget married Gerald Martin in 1894 and Margaret Kate married James Sloan in 1888. Thus direct descendant lines now included Carrucans, Wests, Martins and Sloans.
John Coleman died at Eltham on Friday 30th Oct 1886 at the age of 75 years, having been paralysed for four years. His medical practitioner, it is recorded, had seen him one year before his death. His occupation is noted on his death certificate as ‘Gardener’.
In subsequent years, roadworks straightened the road and this corner of the main road to Diamond Creek. Now the old house has gone but much of the old Coleman farm continues in its agricultural role as it has been subsumed into the ‘Edendale Community Farm and Environmental Centre’, established and conducted by the Shire of Nillumbik.