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Orphan Number: 514
Orphan: William BROOMHALL
Mother:,
Father:,
Mother's ship:
Father's ship:
Age when admitted:14yrs
Date admitted:10 Jun 1833
Date discharged:8 Jun 1835
Institution(s):Queens Orphan School
Discharged to: James Sly, Hobart
Remarks:
References: SWD28 This is the same orphan who was admitted under the name William Brohmill (504) according to the meeting minutes of the Committee of Management (SWD24). Both he and his brother Vincent were admitted as Bromhill and later known as Broomhall.


This orphan has been claimed by: Keith Graham

William Broomhall - no 514 -  aged 14 years was one of a cohort of possibly 7 children who were placed in the Orphan School within months of each other in 1833.

Their common link was that they were child survivors of the Hibernia tragedy which occured earlier in 1833 when the emigration ship the Hibernia carrying 232 people caught fire and sank mid Atlantic with only 79 people surviving and only 7 of the 50 children on board survived, of which William Broomhall was one of those surviving children.

The other Hibernia children placed there in 1833 were Edward Hudson - 2671, step son of my g.g. Grandfather Thomas Graham, also a Hibernia survivor and four Campbell children - Eliza 755, James 756, Mary Ann 757 and Thomas 758 all placed within months of each other as their surviving parents were too unwell to care for them.

It may also be that Sarah Bushton 707  was also a Hibernia survivor placed in 1833, though the records of the Hibernia survivors name her as being Ann Bushton.

It would have been a traumatic ordeal forall the survivors following the Hibernia sinking, especially the children involved. For 6 days in three grossly inadequate rowing boats and meagre provisions they endured awful conditions until they were rescued by two ships, one being the convict ship Lotus bound for Australia.

The chances of the boats reaching their intended destination, the eastern coast of Brazil, were slim but amazingly the surviving crew members had navigated them on course for 600 miles in 6 days, but any storm or lack of remaining provisions would have paid a heavy toll on their lives and they still had a long way to go before reaching land.

The survivors were taken to Rio de Janeiro and then onto Hobart Town where they were assessed by the Hobart Town Relief Fund Committee and some children were placed in the Orphan School. 

Only William Broomhall was a genuine orphan, his parents having died in the Hibernia tragedy. He had a surviving brother Vincent but he appears not to have been placed at the Orphanage.

The author of this summary is not related to the Broomhall family, only indirectly to Edward Hudson, but has undertaken extensive research on the Hibernia tragedy in 1833.

William's later life has not been researched by the author.



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 Site last updated June 2021