Rabbitt, Daniel - I448

Steerage Class Passenger ♂

Daniel Rabbitt
Born abt 1849-50
Nationality	Irish
Born	abt 1849-50
Genealogy Data
Person ID	I448
Voyage Data
Voyage to Adelaide in 1873
Personal role	Steerage Class Passenger
Name on list	Daniel Ralbitt/Rabbett
Age on voyage	23
Occupation	Labourer
Joined place	London
Left place	Adelaide

Daniel Rabbitt was born in Ireland about 1848. His father was also named Daniel, but the place of birth is not known. (Nine out of every ten people called Rabbitt living in Ireland during the 19th century were to be found in County Galway.)

His elder brothers John (b ca1841) and Michael (b ca 1843) migrated to settle in South Australia during the 1860s, but when it was Daniel’s turn to leave home, he moved to England. There he took a labouring job in a chemical works at St Helen’s just outside Liverpool, but after two or three years he decided to join his brothers in South Australia.

Daniel was able to take advantage of an assisted passage opportunity, and travelled with a large group of migrants in steerage on the City of Adelaide that left London, then Plymouth, in April 1873. They arrived in Port Adelaide on the 3rd of July after a voyage of 12 weeks.

Shortly after his arrival, he secured a position as a labourer within the colony’s railway system. When the line between Kingston and Naracoorte in the narrow-gauge South-Eastern railway division was opened in 1876, he was promoted to ganger overseeing the team of workmen required to maintain the permanent way.

On 25 February 1878 Daniel Rabbitt married Mary Campbell at St Joseph’s Church in Penola.

Daniel continued in his role as ganger until he was retired from the Public Service on 30 June 1909. On that occasion it was said that he had “rendered good service to the State, and appear(s) to have health and strength to discharge (his) duties in a capable manner for some time yet, but (he has) passed the stipulated age”.

Daniel Rabbitt died in Lucindale on 11 May 1912 aged 64. His widow Mary was living at Unley in 1922 at the age of 70.

Mary Campbell

Mary Campbell had been born in Paisley, Renfrewshire in Scotland on 13 April 1852, the first daughter of Robert Campbell (1820-1913) and Margaret Nimmo (1823-1904), who had married there in 1845.

Robert and Margaret Campbell, with their first two surviving children, Mary (3) and Robert Bruce (1) secured assisted passages to migrate to South Australia on the ship Switzerland in 1855. They settled near Penola where five more Campbell children were born - William Colin (1856-1956), Margaret (1857 -1940), John (1860-1943), Ellen (1862-1902) and Alexander (1864-1940).

In 1877 the family moved to the newly-established settlement of Lucindale where Robert set up a small business that he carried on for the rest of his days. He took a keen interest in social and political matters. He survived his wife by nine years, and died in Lucindale on 15 March 1913 at the age of 94 years, having lived in South Australia’s south-east for nearly sixty years. He left five children, 27 grand-children and one great-grandchild.

The Rabbitt Children

Daniel and Mary Rabbitt’s first child John was born at Kingston SE in December 1878 but he died after only 5 weeks. From this time the couple moved to settle permanently in Lucindale, the logical mid-point of the railway line that Daniel was required to maintain.

Here were born their following eight children :

John Rabbitt 12 May 1879

Mary Ann Rabbitt 13 August 1881, who died in May 1890 at the age of 8 years.

Ellen Honor Rabbitt 12 June 1883

Ellen Rabbitt 30 November 1884

Daniel Rabbitt 1 October 1889

Mary Ann Rabbitt 12 March 1891

William Robert Rabbitt 2 February 1893

Michael Rabbitt 30 September 1894. After enlisting in the A.I.F. as early as August 1914, the very beginning of the Great War, serving on Gallipoli throughout that entire campaign, and being promoted to Sergeant, ‘Mick’ Rabbitt was killed in action in France on 10 May 1917 at the age of 22, unmarried.