People Australia

Mary Bell Campbell (1812–1897) was born on 16 November 1811 at Belmont Estate in Trelawny, Jamaica, second daughter of Scottish merchant Dugald Malcolm Ruthven (1752–1814) and Jamaican-born Mary, née Virgo (1775–1825).[1] Both her maternal and paternal lineages had longstanding connections to Jamaica, and both were associated with the Malcolm family, Lairds of Poltalloch, Scotland, to whom they were deeply in debt. Though Mary Bell was orphaned by the age of thirteen, family networks, an annual allowance provided by the Belmont Estate, as well as an advantageous marriage led her to respectable social standing in the Australian colonies of South Australia and Victoria.

Mary Bell’s mother, Mary Virgo, had been born in Jamaica on 11 July 1775, third of seven children to Jamaican-born parents James Virgo (c.1746–1790) and Rebecca Crouch Gallimore Wisdom (c.1750–1835).[2] James had inherited an interest in two sugar plantations, Water Valley Estate and Belmont Estate, both in the parish of Trelawny.[3] At the time of this inheritance, Water Vally Estate was heavily indebted to Neill Malcolm, 11^th Laird of Poltalloch (1738–1802), who foreclosed on the property in 1781 but allowed the Belmont Estate to remain in the Virgo family.[4] After the death of James Virgo in 1790, leaving seven young children under the age of sixteen, his wife Rebecca managed the Belmont Estate on behalf of their heirs until her death in 1835.[5]

Mary Virgo married Scottish merchant Dugald Malcolm Ruthven in Trelawny, Jamaica in 1796.[6] In 1803 Dugald inherited the Glennan Estate in Argyll, Scotland, but the property was burdened with debt owed to Neill Malcolm, 12^thLaird of Poltalloch (1769–1837).[7] Dugald Malcolm Ruthven declared bankruptcy, and the Glennan Estate was sold at public auction to Neill Malcolm in 1805.[8] Mary Bell Ruthven was only two years old when her father Dugald fell from a chaise and died at the Belmont Estate in 1814, aged fifty-eight.[9] Mary Bell relocated to England with her mother and siblings, James Virgo (1800–?) and Anna Rebecca (1809–1888), and newborn brother George Robert (1815–?).[10] Their mother Mary died in Brighton, England in 1825, leaving the children with an annual allowance and an interest in the ‘negro labour on Belmont Estate in Trelawny, Jamaica’.[11] Mary Bell and her siblings maintained an association with Jamaica. Her eldest brother James Virgo was a planter in Lucea Bay, Jamaica, and Anne Rebecca married and raised a family in St James, Jamaica before retiring to Brighton, England.[12]

On 22 September 1832 at Belmont Estate in Jamaica, Mary Bell Ruthven married twenty-six-year-old Lieutenant Envidale Savage Norman Campbell (1806–1859), captain in Her Majesty’s 22^nd Regiment.[13] The births and baptisms of their first three children, Norman Ruthven (1839–1863), Madeline Gertrude (1842–1878), and Malcolm Myddleton (1846–1900) Campbell reveal the couple moved between London and Jamaica.[14] When Mary Bell’s maternal grandmother, Rebecca Virgo, died in 1835 at the age of eighty-four the Belmont Estate was in debt, and in 1836 the £1346 1s 7d compensation for the lives of sixty-one enslaved people was awarded to creditor Philip John Miles and his nephew Thomas Kington.[15] Philip John Miles (1773–1845) held mortgages over many slave-holding properties in Jamaica and was one of Britain’s rare millionaires when he died in 1845.[16] Branches of the Kington family would go on to establish themselves in Melbourne and Lyttelton, New Zealand.[17]

In 1836 Norman Campbell received £178 2s 3d as compensation for eight enslaved people in Jamaica.[18] After he was promoted to major in 1849 he sold his commission and relocated with his wife and children to South Australia, where he represented an English copper mining company and briefly served as an appointed member of the 1851 Legislative Council.[19] While residing in South Australia, Mary Bell Campbell gave birth to twin boys, Reginald Shadwell (1851–1936) and Alfred Anderson (1851–1924).[20] Norman declared bankruptcy in January 1852, but this had little impact on his colonial career. He was cleared by the registrar in May 1852, and by June 1852 had secured a position as private secretary to Charles La Trobe, the first lieutenant-governor of Victoria, and the family relocated from South Australia.[21] Norman had become an acquaintance of La Trobe when serving with the 22nd Regiment in the West Indies. While continuing as his private secretary, Norman was awarded the position of Victoria’s registrar general in 1853.[22] Major Norman Campbell was fifty-two years old when he died unexpectedly in 1859 while visiting Hobart.[23] He left an estate of under £450 to his widow.[24]

Mary Bell outlived her husband by almost four decades. She died in Armadale, Victoria on 21 March 1897 at the age of eight-five.[25] She was survived by her three youngest sons; her eldest son and only daughter had predeceased her in 1863 and 1878, aged twenty-four and thirty-five respectively.[26] Two of her sons relocated to New South Wales, while Alfred Anderson Campbell, banker with the Melbourne Savings Bank, remained in Victoria.[27] Debt, insolvency, and early parental death had pursued the antecedents and household of Mary Bell Campbell, but longstanding connections to Jamaican land and slave holdings had provided a financial subsidy, just as military and imperial connections had supported her husband’s career and their social standing in the Australian colonies.

[1] ‘Mary Bell Ruthven,’ Jamaica Births and Baptisms, FHL Film No. 1291671, 83, via FamilySearch.

[2] ‘Mary Virgo,’ Church of England. Diocese of Jamaica. Baptism Records 1770–1871, FHL Film No. 4005265, 384, via FamilySearch.

[3] ‘Will of William Virgo,’ Island Record Office, Wills Liber 42, Folio 194, 2014, via FamilySearch.

[4] ‘Water Valley, Trelawny, Jamaica,’ Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, University College London, www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/161.

[5] ‘James Virgo,’ Caribbean, Deaths and Burials, 1790-1906, FHL Film No. 4005266, 334 via FamilySearch; ‘Belmont Estate, Trelawny, Jamaica,’ Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, University College London, www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/2724.  

[6] ‘Dougald Malcom Ruthven & Mary Virgo,’ Caribbean Select Marriages, FHL Film No. 1291671, via FamilySearch.

[7] Poltalloch Papers, DR/2/8/8, in Heather Frances James, ‘Mediaeval Rural Settlement, a study of mid-Argyll, Scotland’ (PhD Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2009) pp. 254-255, http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1380/1/2009jamesphd.pdf; David Dobson, Scots of Jamaica, 1655-1855, (Genealogical Publishing Company, 2011); David Dobson, Scots in the West Indies, 1707-1857, (Baltimore: Clearfield, 1998) p 124, via Ancestry.

[8] James, ‘Mediaeval Rural Settlement,’ pp. 254-255.

[9] ‘Dougal Malcolm Ruthven,’ 4 December 1814, Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880,’ FHL Film No. 4005266, 349, via FamilySearch; ‘Dugald Malcolm Ruthven,’ Prerogative Court of Canterbury Will, Probate 21 September 1831, via Ancestry; ‘Belmont Estate, Jamaica, Trelawny,’ Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, University College London, www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/2724.

[10] ‘James Virgo Ruthven,’ Jamaica, Births and Baptisms, 1752-1920, 8 Nov 1800, FHL Film No. 1291671, 56, via FamilySearch; ‘Anna Rebecca Ruthven,’ Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register, 1664-1880, Trelawny, 15 June 1809, 70, via FamilySearch; ‘George Robert Ruthven,’ Jamaica Births and Baptisms, 1752-1920, Trelawny, 3 May 1815, 96, via FamilySearch.

[11] ‘Mrs Mary Ruthven (née Virgo) Profile & Legacies Summary,’ Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, University College London, www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146648869; ‘Will of Mary Ruthven, Widow of Brighton, Sussex,’ Wills and Letters of Administration’, PROB 11/1756/112, proved 15 May 1829, The National Archives, Kew; C. J. Coventry, ‘Links in the Chain: British Slavery, Victoria and South Australia,’ Before/Now 1(2019), 36. 

[12] ‘James V. Ruthven, Planter, Atholl Lodge, Lucea Bay,’ United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers, 1751-1921, via Ancestry; ‘Samual Anderson and Ann Rebecca Ruthvin, Marriage, 20 December 1827,’ Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880, FHL Image No. 4620487, via FamilySearch; ‘Anna Rebecca Anderson. Death, 1888,’ England and Wales, Death Registration Index 1837-2008, Brighton, Sussex, England, vol 2B: 191, via FamilySearch.    

[13] ‘Marriages,’ United Services Magazine, 1832, Part 3, 10, p 574, via Ancestry. 

[14] ‘Norman Ruthven Campbell,’ Baptisms, St Margaret’s Anglican Church, Westminster Abbey, London, MA/01/02/015, via Ancestry; ‘Madelina Gertrude Campbell, Baptism, Port Royal, 1842,’ Jamaica, Church of England Register Transcripts, 1664-1879, FHL Film No. 1291769, 126, via FamilySearch; ‘Malcolm Myddleton Campbell, Baptism, Saint Luke, Chelsea, 1848,’ London, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906, via Ancestry.  

[15] ‘Rebecca C Virgo. Burial, 2 April 1835,’ Jamaica Burial Records 1826-1844, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, FHL Image No. 004620491, 173, via FamilySearch; ‘Jamaica Trelawny 22 (Belmont Estate), Claim Details, Associated Individuals and Estates,’ Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, University College London,www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/claim/view/21199.

[16]  ‘Philip John Miles, Profile & Summary,’ Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, University College London,www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/19118.

[17] Zoë Laidlaw & Georgina Arnott, 'National biographies and transnational lives: Tracing connections between slavery and settler colonialism,’ Australian Journal of Biography and History, 6 (2022), 155, 161.

[18] ‘Envidale S.N. Campbell, Profile & Summary,’ Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, University College London, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/24063.

[19] Richard Refshauge, ‘Campbell, Envidale Savage Norman (1806–1859),’ Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/campbell-envidale-savage-norman-3155; ‘Extract of Letters from Mayor Norman Campbell,’ South Australian (Adelaide), 21 November 1850, 4; ‘Opening of the Legislative Council,’ Adelaide Observer (South Australia), 23 August 1851, 5.

[20] ‘Campbell, Alfred Anderson,’ Birth Registration, District Adelaide, 18 July 1851, 3/249; ‘Alfred A Campbell,’ Melbourne General Cemetery, 2 August 1924, Find a Grave Online Database, www.findagrave.com/memorial/193177213/alfred-a-campbell; ‘Campbell, Reginald Shadwell,’ Birth Index, Adelaide, South Australia, 18 July 1851, 3/249; ‘Reginald Shadwell Campbell,’ Death Index, Liverpool, New South Wales, 1936, 10713.

[21]  Refshauge, ‘Campbell, Envidale Savage Norman (1806–1859),’ ANU; ‘Government Appointments,’ The Argus (Melbourne), 1 July 1852, 4; ‘Domestic News,’ Adelaide Times (South Australia), 10 June 1853, 2.

[22] ‘Domestic intelligence, Registrar General,’ The Argus (Melbourne), 4 January 1854, 5; Madonna Grehan, ‘Charles Joseph La Trobe and the regulation of everyday life: Implementing the Birth, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act in Victoria 1852-1858,’ LaTrobeana: Journal of the C J La Trobe Society, vol 14, no 2, July 2015, 10, www.latrobesociety.org.au/LaTrobeana/LaTrobeanaV14n2.pdf.

[23] ‘Death,’ The Courier (Hobart), 8 January 1859, 2; ‘News of the Day,’ The Age (Melbourne), 11 January 1859, 4.

[24] ‘Envidale Savage Norman Campbell’, England & Wales, National Probate Calendar, 1858-1995, via Ancestry.

[25] ‘Family Notices Deaths,’ The Prahran Telegraph (Victoria), 27 March 1897, 4; ‘Mary B Campbell,’ Melbourne General Cemetery, Parkville, Melbourne, Church of England Section P, No. 250, Find a Grave Online Database, www.findagrave.com/memorial/193177212/mary-b-campbell.

[26] ‘Family Notices Deaths,’ The Argus (Melbourne), 28 April 1863, 4; ‘Family Notices Deaths,’ The Argus (Melbourne), 20 April 1878, 1.

[27] ‘Family Notices Deaths,’ The Prahran Telegraph (Victoria), 27 March 1897, 4.