John “Skip” Bailey

2.1
Thomas Farmer Senior

The 1st Generation of the Farmer family to settle in Australia arrived aboard the “Sulphur” from England. He was Thomas Farmer Senior (Snr), a private in the 63rd Regiment and his wife Ann Sophia (nee Evans).

The “Muster Book” for the 30th January 1830, reported that there were:

“64 officers and men
22 women
19 children comprising the Detachment of the 63rd Regiment.”

In letters between Lord Fitzroy Somerset and the Navy commissioners during December 1828, special arrangements were made to draft married soldiers from the 63rd to take part in the expedition to the West coast of Australia. Normally army regulations limited the number of wives accompanying their husbands’ Regiments to six wives to every 100 men.

An account of the voyage and settlement of 63rd Regiment to the Swan River Colony was re-counted in a newspaper article about the ‘Sulphur” in 1935. [4] This article mentions Thomas Farmer as a member of the 2nd Company of the 63rd Regiment and his wife Ann and two boys, Thomas Junior (Jnr) (1827 – 1891) and William (1828 – 1887) as passengers on the ‘Sulphur”.

Soon after arriving in the Colony, Thomas and Ann were to have two more boys, Samuel (1830 – 1930) and Joseph (1832 – 1897).

Thomas and Ann’s story has been told in a condensed article on the website Redcoat Settlers in Western Australia 1826-1869.

But soon after arriving in the Colony, Thomas Snr died in a tragic accident. The full circumstances in which Thomas lost his life was in the evidence presented at the Coroner’s Inquest into his death.

Coroner’s inquest evidence [5]

A record of his burial at the East Perth Cemetery shows his cause of death.

Thomas Farmer Senior Burial Record [6]

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[4] West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Thursday 17 January 1935, page 19
[5] Battye CSO 20/155 (microfilm)
[6] Red Coat Settlers in Western Australia 1826 - 1869