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The Rope-Pulley Association was started unofficially in the mid 1980’s by a lady called Barbara Drady. She wanted to bring together all her “cousins” who are descendents of the First Fleet convicts Anthony Ropes & Elizabeth Pulley. The group had many picnics and meetings in places such as the Old Castlereagh Cemetery, where many first fleeter’s are buried. We have put new headstones on our ancestor’s graves there, and have been helped by Penrith Council, who have fenced the cemetery.
We are all interested in researching the lives of the Rope-Pulley family. We are fascinated by the many amazing achievements of this family and all their children and grandchildren. The stories are shared and will be passed on to future generations, so the history of our country will not be lost.
The Rope-Pulleys still meet on a quarterly basis, and our last meeting was held at the Ropes Crossing community Corner. All our members enjoyed the facilities, and new visitors to the area were impressed by the housing and the surrounding landscape. It looks very different to the days when Anthony and Elizabeth and their family lived in a small shack and farmed the land around them.
Rope Family Infamy
Many of the Rope’s were skilled craftsmen. They had to learn to work with wood and make bricks in order to build the city of Sydney that we now all love.
George Rope was one of the first grandsons for the Ropes. He moved to Mudgee to farm with his brother Robert. George was such a skilled carpenter, that he was asked to build the first gallows for Mudgee Gaol in 1875. In a twist of irony, a few months later he got to use the facility, after he murdered his sister-in-law whilst he was in a drunken rage.
James “Toby” Ryan was another grandson, who is noted for better things. Toby was a butcher and a horse trainer. He was well respected in the Nepean area and become a Member of the Legislative Assembly for NSW. He served in this office from 1860 to 1872 he also became the First worshipful Master of the Penrith Masons in 1862. Toby built Emu Hall for his family it still sits on the banks of the Nepean River. He built the first two bridges across the Nepean area, both of which were washed away by floods. Toby wrote a book about his life in 1894. It is a treasured piece of family history as it describes not only his life, but many political and social events of Australia in the 1800’s.
Susannah Ropes was the 4th daughter of Anthony and Elizabeth. Her daughter Mary Ann, married James Hackett. They had several shop businesses in St Marys. Ropes Crossing honours Susannah’s memory by naming Susannah Drive after her.
There are many more stories in this family; you can visit our website to see some of them and the early family trees. The website is still evolving, and will be updated over the coming months www.mywebsite.bigpond.com/rope-pulley.
Anthony and Elizabeths Wedding
Anthony Rope came on the First Fleet ship “Alexander”. Elizabeth Pulley came on the First Fleet ship “Friendship” midway from England and she was transferred to the “Prince of Wales” to make way for fresh supplies of animals. They met when the convicts were allowed to mingle on 6th February 1788 and they were married on Monday 19th May 1788.
After the wedding ceremony, a wedding dinner was held in a tent. The main meal was Goat Pie. All the wedding guests were questioned about the goat meat later. They claimed that the goat was dead when they found it, to be found guilty of killing the goat would have meant instant hanging. Luckily they were found Not Guilty.
Their first child Robert was baptized on 7th November 1788.
This is an extract from the diary of George Worgan, a Surgeon who sailed with the fleet. I have attached a copy of it from the State Records Online collections.
2nd June 1788
“About a week ago, a fine she goat belonging to one of the gentlemen, was found dead, and some fleshy parts cut off, and today two men were taken up on suspicion of having killed this goat, and made a pie of some part of it, but it appeared that they found the goat dead, its entrails torn out and otherwise mangled as if some animal had been eating of it, and as it was at the time perfectly sweet, and one of the men was to be married the next day, they took the liberty of cutting some of the meat off, to make a pie for the Wedding Dinner.”
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