Rachel Prentice

Australian Town and Country Journal 3 September 1913 p.28 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/263950189

When Rachel Prentice died in her home at Bark Huts in 1913, at the grand old age of 97, she was thought to have been one of the oldest residents of Sydney. She was survived by six of her ten children, 75 grandchildren, 38 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild. She had arrived in the colony as a baby in 1816 and married butcher, William Prentice in 1837.

In 1845 William Prentice moved his butcher’s business from the city to ‘the little wooden shop with shingled roof’[1] at the Bark Huts township on Liverpool Road, Druitt Town (Strathfield South) on the corner of Wallis Avenue (formerly Yarmouth Road). At that time the area was mostly wheat fields. But on the main road between Sydney and Liverpool, there was a need for a butcher’s shop to serve the passing trade.[2]

In 1858 William advertised a generous £5 reward for the return of his strayed – or stolen – bay draught horse.

Sydney Morning Herald 30 March 1858 p.8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13008199

In February 1867 Rachel was called as a witness when John Dixon was imprisoned for one month as a ‘rogue and vagabond’. He had called upon the residents and business owners of Liverpool Road, Druitt Town claiming to be collecting dues for the government.[3]

For many years before and after William’s death in 1882, Rachel helped run the business. In 1885 she signed the counter-petition against the incorporation of Strathfield Municipal Council, as did her youngest son, Rowland.[4] Sands’ Directory of 1886 lists her as Mrs R. Prentice, butcher, Liverpool Road, Strathfield.

In 1912, aged 96 she was still running the business and was even featured in the Sunday Times – of Perth![5]

Sunday Times (Perth) 26 May 1912 p.1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/57736918

Rachel was the granddaughter of Obadiah and Sarah Ikin, who had arrived in the colony in 1790 with the Second Fleet. Obadiah served with the NSW Corps, settled in Sydney and received a number of land grants. Rachel’s father, William (born in Britain in 1785) served as a bugler with the Corps while still a lad before returning to Britain, choosing to again make his permanent home in the colony in 1816. He ran a drapery business in the city before settling on a farm in Bankstown, later building and running the Ship Inn at Liverpool. As Quartermaster-Sergeant, he was also chief constable at Liverpool for some years, having a number of encounters with bushrangers.[6] Rachel’s schoolmaster was a former convict, transported for forgery.[7]

At the time of her death, in the weatherboard cottage adjoining the shop, she had been resident there for 68 years. According to newspapers of the time ‘this shop is the sole survivor of the original Bark Huts township. All the other houses have either tumbled down or been demolished.’[8]

Rachel Prentice was buried in the graveyard of St Thomas’s Church, Enfield. Most of her extensive family still lived locally.[9]

The Prentice butchery business continued but in September 1914 Rowland Prentice was fined £10 at Burwood Court for keeping dirty premises at his butcher’s shop on Liverpool Road. Inspector Keach of the Board of Health had found ‘the whole place dirty, the salting and sausage room especially being unfit for the preparation of food for sale. The roofs were in a dilapidated condition, the walls were covered with cobwebs, and the floors absolutely caked with dirt.’[10]

Amazingly the cottage and shop survived for many more years and was later owned by Rowland’s daughter, also named Rachael, who had married Alfred Daly in 1919. In 1989 their son, Ted was interviewed describing the property: ‘the original house consisted of two rooms, there was the dining room, bedroom, big kitchen at the back and a big laundry… It had a little porch on the front, the butcher shop was next door and the ice house was at the back.’[11]

In Strathfield Council’s valuation lists the property was often described as a ‘shack.’ The townhouses at 115 Wallis Avenue now stand on this site.

Butcher’s shop and cottage on the corner of Liverpool Road and Wallis Avenue (formerly Yarmouth Road), 1943. Courtesy Six Maps

Prentice Lane and Prentice Reserve in Strathfield South are named for this family who lived nearby. The Bark Huts settlement is remembered with the naming of Bark Huts Reserve in Elliott Street.[12] [13]

 

By J.J. MacRitchie

Local Studies Advisor

 

References

[1] Sydney Morning Herald 27 August 1913 p.11 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15445536

 

[2] Clarence and Richmond Examiner 20 June 1912 p.7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/61660254

 

[3] Sydney Morning Herald 9 February 1967 p.5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13143037

 

[4] New South Wales Government Gazette 11 February 1885 p.1077 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/221624805

 

[5] Sunday Times (Perth) 26 May 1912 p.1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/57736918

 

[6] Clarence and Richmond Examiner 20 June 1912 p.7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/61660254

 

[7] Sydney Morning Herald 27 August 1913 p.11 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15445536

 

[8] Clarence and Richmond Examiner 20 June 1912 p.7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/61660254

 

[9] ibid

 

[10] Evening News 23 October 1914 p.6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/114237035

 

[11] Interview with Mr Ted Daly, Mrs K. Mathieson and Mrs M. Jones by Wilma Drane, 23 September 1989. Strathfield Local Studies

 

[12] Jones, Cathy ‘Bark Huts Reserve, Belfield’ https://strathfieldheritage.com/parks-and-reserves/bark-huts-reserve/

 

[13] Strathfield Council. ‘Bark Huts Reserve, Belfield’ https://www.strathfield.nsw.gov.au/project/bark-huts-reserve/