Rachael Garrett HARRIS
Father:  ?                                                    Mother: ?

Rachael Garrett Harris (1836-1891) married Samuel John Claydon on 24 December 1858 and had two children, Rachael born 11 November 1861 at Mulbring and Ann born 3 September 1863 at Mulbring.

On May 20 1891 she was accidentally drowned by the capsizing of a boat at Lake Macquarie, aged 55, wife of (Samuel) John Claydon.  The local Mt Vincent correspondent to the Maitland Mercury says on Tuesday 20 May 1891: “the sad news of the accident which resulted in the death of Mrs Claydon and grandchild was received here with feeling of profound regret”. ( Mrs Claydon’s daughter was married to Mr Fred Brunker and it was their 2 year old son who drowned with her.

Rachael is buried at Mt Vincent NSW.

On another occasion a  local paper reported “that Mrs Rachael Claydon, whose husband keeps a Wine Shop three miles distant from the school (Brokenback), that Martin Steinbeck (the school teacher) had been drinking immoderately at her place, and that he had run up a score of eight shillings for wine, and that he had given his note of hand for the same, and that Mrs Claydon was obliged to lend him a horse to take him home”.  Both Matthew Stevenson and Thomas Blissett then stated “Martin Steinbeck was running about the paddock trying to escape from his children to the Wine Shop”.

The Teacher’s account of this is important as he tells how to get to the Claydon’s Wine Shop.  “Mrs Claydon’s house is situated at a distance of between 2 and 3 miles from this school, and the road to it, in dry weather, affords a pleasant walk through the mountain gap. (this means that it was somewhere near the OAK shop that today is at Freeman’s Waterhole.)  On Tuesday afternoon, after school, feeling that I had not fully recovered from the illness from which I had greatly suffered during the latter portion of the previous week, and believing that the exercise would help me to sleep better than I had lately slept, I set out on this walk.  I arrived at Mrs Claydon’s at about 6 o’clock in the evening, and having had tea with the family, and temperately partaken of such refreshments as one might look for at such a place, I returned home the same night before my family had retired to rest”.