Henry Salter and Margaret Steed


Henry Salter
Henry Salter was born in Ottery Street, St Mary Devon, England 1816 to Charles Salter (1790-1832) and Mary Allen.  He had a trade as a baker and worked in Bristol. He was found guilty at Bristol Quarter Sessions on the 4th November 1837 of stealing “one basket and one cloth” belonging to his master James Morgan. A basket and cloth was the way that the earlier bakers used to deliver bread.

He then went to work for Glue Manufacturers at Redcliffe where on 7th January 1839 he stole “four cakes of unfinished glue, four cakes of other glue and unfinished glue” belonging to his master Henry Proctor.


Margaret Steed
He was “sentenced to be transported beyond the seas for the term of seven years.”

Henry arrived in Sydney on 8 December 1839 on the Barossa. He is listed as age 23, able to read and write, Protestant, single, Trade or Calling as baker, height 5ft 3 3/4 inches, ruddy freckled complexion, brown hair, grey eyes, Particular marks "scar on outer corner of left eyebrow, two pockpits on right side of forehead, woman MR on upper, two tobacco pipes, two pots and two glasses, HSM & RN, a man and woman on lower right arm, flower pot, man standing on a barrel, child and cottage on lower left arm"

Henry was given his ticket of on 4th January 1844 with a note allowed to remain in the Police District of Bathurst. He worked as a baker and farm labourer around the Bathurst area, where he met Margaret Steed. Henry is listed as the 1878/79 Electoral roll for The Bogan as a resident at Llambaddon, Macquarie. This property, later called Warrie Flats, had been purchased by his son Charles in 1875.

Henry's crime in the Bristol Mercury 11 Nov 1837
Margaret Steed, domestic servant, arrived in Australia on the Carnatic on 1st January 1853. She was part of 42 female assisted migrants who emigrated under what was the called the bounty scheme and bought out under the "needlewoman classification".

Margaret was born in London on 21 August 1822 in Norris Street, St James, London to James Steed (1801-1850) and Eleanor Evans (1787-1847). Baptised 10th September 1822 at Westminster, St James (Piccadilly) church, "to James & Eleanor Steed of 45 Whitecombe Street, Glass Cutter." Margarets brother, James was born 8th January 1824 and baptised at St James on 1st February "son of James & Eleanor Steed of Dean Street, milkman." Unfortunately there is no gravestone at the graves of James and Eleanor Steed in the Kensal Green Cemetery, London. There had been once, but it had broken off and was now just a patch of grass. It is a huge cemetery and they are buried very near the famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Records list Margaret’s occupation as needlewoman and her age adjusted to 30 (Assistant Immigrant must be under the age of 30), she was actually 31. Margaret is listed as Domestic Servant, Religious Independent with her parents James and Eleanor both dead.

Margaret and Henry were married at The New Inn” or "Green Swamp Inn" at Green Swamp on 7th July 1853. Green swamp is located on the Walang Road which is off the highway between Bathurst and Lithgow. The marriage certificate has Henry’s surname listed as Sutter. A witness to the Marriage Certificate was Christopher Roberts as the Inn Keeper.

Henry and Margaret had four children. Charles James Salter born 1854, Henry John Salter born 1856, Arthur Fredrick Salter 1860 and Alfred Wallace Salter in 1862.


Green Swamp Inn

Location of the Green Swamp Inn

The births of Margaret & Henry's sons

Margaret's marriage notes

Wallace Alfred Salter
Our Dear Father 
Peacefully sleeping resting at last 
Life's weary troubles and suffering all past 
Inserted by his loving children
Elizabeth Salter (wife of Wallace)
My dear wife and our dear mother 
Long days and nights she bore the pain 
To wait for cure was all in vain 
But God alone who thought it best 
Did ease her pain and give her rest 
Inserted by her loving husband sons and daughters
Charles Salter
No headstone and no foot name
OLD DUBBO CEMETERY LC2 ROW 7
OBITUARY WALLACE SALTER
Death of Mr Wallace Salter - A well known and popular personality in the west for about half a century passed away in a private hospital in Dubbo on Tuesday afternoon— Mr. Wallace Alfred Salter, who was in his sixtieth year. Mr. Salter was born at Corowa, but as a boy came to Dubbo with his parents, and the family home was at Warrie Flat. That family has now become a very numerous one in this district, and all are shining examples of the success that lies within the reach of all who apply themselves with industry to the work in which they may be engaged in this land of opportunity. The deceased was twice married, his second wife surviving him. There is an excellent family of three sons and four daughters, all of whom are helping the Dubbo district to achieve its destiny. Mr. Salter was a man of many parts, in common parlance, he could turn his hand to almost anything, and do it well. He was noted for his tireless industry, and it might be said of him, that, though he had been two months in the hospital, after a serious operation, he died in harness, for he worked right up to the time he was compelled by wracking pain to seek medical advice. His death is a loss to the district, and it deeply deplored by his largo circle of relations and hosts of close friends. He was just such a man as won friendships wherever he was. His cheerfulness was proverbial. He was noted for his happy disposition. Though he liked company, he preferred to enjoy it at his home, where every happiness reigned, and where hospitality was dispensed on a lavish scale. He was a man who had made good comparatively early in life, notwithstanding that he had to contend against more opposing natural conditions than have to be confronted by the men on the land at present. And having made good, he came to Dubbo to live and take a rest, but the call of his rural surroundings at Mountain View, where he lived and worked for some years, was irresistible. The town or city life had no allurements for him. Were there many more of his type there would be no wail heard about the drift to the city and the abandonment of production. The song of the birds, the purling of the brooks, the lowing of the cattle, and the soughing of the wind in the arcadias were the sweetest music to his soul, and the most pleasing sights were the productions of his fields, the resplendent glories of a bounteous spring. Proud of the results of his labor on his farm when the seasons were auspicious, nothing was so lovely to him as his cultivated fields, where large increase had blessed the fruitful plain, and he with joy beheld the swelling grain, whose heavy ears, to-wards the earth reclined, waved and trembled in the whisking wind. The funeral was one of the largest witnessed in Dubbo for a long time. Almost everyone in Eumungerie came to Dubbo to show their sympathy with the bereaved one, and to pay a tribute to the character of a very worthy man. Mr. J. R. Tighe had charge of the arrangements, and before the hearse marched a number of his brethren of the Lodge Talbragar (I.O.O.F.). The service at the graveside and at Holy Trinity, were conducted by the Rector, Rev. C. W. Leavers, and Brother H. Howard read the service of the Order to which the deceased belonged.