John Charles Playle was from Essex and arrived in Western Australia in 1842, placing him among the pioneers of the Swan River Colony.
John was born in the village of Stebbing in 1821, one of the five children of John and Susan Playle (nee Whitehead). John’s grandfather was also named John Playle and his paternal grandmother, Ann Playle, was born Ann Pawsey. The Playles were long term residents of Essex and their names appear regularly in the Stebbing and Harlow parish registers.
John’s birth family was recorded in the 1841 UK Census when they were living in Harlow. John had just left home but his siblings Richard, William, Ann and Frederick were still there. In the next censuses in 1851 and 1861, after John Charles had emigrated to Australia, the family was still living in Harlow.
John Charles emigrated to the Swan River Colony on the Simon Taylor, the same ship that brought the Roser family to Fremantle. John married the Rosers’ daughter Lucy in 1849 and the couple settled in the Avon Valley.
The Swan River Colony was still in its early developmental phase when John and Lucy married. After a promising start there had been setbacks such as falling wool prices and there was only a small growth in the population by the end of the 1840s. Immigrants were still reluctant to come out to the Swan River as it had received bad reviews in the UK. The historian Frank Crowley claims that Western Australia was on a firm footing,1 but Younger2 says ‘immigrants were still shunning the backward and isolated colony in the west’ in preference for the more established settlements on the east coast’. The population of the whole State was less than 5000 in 1848.
The Rosers and Playles consolidated their positions during the 1840s. Although the colony was going through growing pains they had opportunities here that they didn’t have in the south of England.
[tbc]- Crowley, F.K. 1960. Australia’s Western Third: A History of Western Australia from the First Settlements to Modern Times. Macmillan, London, pp. 30-31
- Younger, R.M. 1970. Australia and the Australians. Rigby, Adelaide
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