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Sarah Anna Goyder
(1823 - 1909)
Back in Wivenhoe, Sarah's sister Margaret was also losing her battle against
tuberculosis and on 2nd May 1871 she died. Her husband John was left with a young family
of four children, John, Mary, David, and Charles.
The news must have reached Sarah in Australia fairly quickly, because by September 1871
she was on board ship with her daughter Sarah Anna MacLachlan, sailing back to England. In
the words of her nephew John Martin Harvey:
These two devoted women, severing all their old ties in South Australia, set
sail in the Davitt and Moore sailing ship - City of Adelaide - and after a voyage
of three months, arrived in England to take up a new life and to form an anchorage for
their now drifting young relations.
John Martin Harvey makes three errors in this paragraph - not to be surprised at since
he was only eight at the time. The ship was not the City of Adelaide - he
confused this with the vessel that took his uncle George's children back to Australia
following their mother's suicide. The company which owned it was actually Devitt
and Moore.
 The other error concerns Sarah's remaining daughter, Sarah Anna, who
actually died during her return journey from England where she had gone seeking a cure for
her tuberculosis. According to her memorial on her aunt Margaret's grave in Wivenhoe:
Sarah Anna, eldest daughter of Sarah Anna McLachlan, of Adelaide, S. Australia,
who departed this life at sea Sept 28th 1871 and was solemnly committed to the deep in
40° 30 South Latitude and 53° East Latitude
A few months later, on 20th November 1871, George Woodroffe Goyder married his late
wife's sister in Australia. This required a change of South Australia law for it to go
ahead.
Her story continues...
© Chris Goddard, 27 November, 2004
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