People Australia

William Chase, n.d.

William John (also known as Chase) Chace (1818-1878) farmer, carter, strike leader

Birth: 1818 at sea, possibly off Sydney, New South Wales, son of Samuel Rodman Chace (or Chase) (1775-1826), a sea captain, born at Newburn, North Carolina, United States of America, and Marianne Letitia, née Collins (1791-1860), born in NSW. Marriage: 11 August 1858 at Little Para, South Australia, to Marion Macleod, later Low and then Moyes (1825-1919), born at Pabbay Island, Harris, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. They had three daughters and three sons. Death: 6 May 1878 at Devil’s Gully, near Surveyor’s Point, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. Religion: married with Congregationalist forms. 

• His mother was a daughter of David Collins (1756-1810), lieutenant governor of New South Wales.
• William arrived in South Australia about 1839. Worked as a labourer near Lake Alexandrina in 1845. The following year was living at Little Para, north of Adelaide.
• He was probably the William Chace, an ore carrier at Burra in 1848, who was an advocate of workers' interests generally. Leader of Burra ore carriers strike 1848.
• A pioneer settler and farmer at Surveyor’s Point, Yorke Peninsula, later known as Port Vincent, he was sometimes referred to as “Captain” Chase.
• Cause of death: natural causes (Coroner’s verdict).
• His widow married twice more after his death.

Sources
Michael Quinlan, 'Early Trade Union Organisation in Australia: Three Australian Colonies 1829-1850', Labour and Industry, 1 (1) January 1987, pp 61-95; M. Quinlan & M. Gardiner, ‘Researching Australian Industrial Relations in the Nineteenth Century’, in Patmore, G. (ed.), History and Industrial Relations, Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Teaching. Monograph No.1, (1990), pp.60-98.