By Kay McMeekin
The extended family of Hair/McKerrow/Miller left on three different sailings to Alberton near Melbourne in Australia over 4 years.
William Hair, a muslin weaver, and several of his children left Cumnock for Australia in the 1850s. Weaving was in decline in Scotland at this time.
First to go in 1853 were two related families: Miller brothers one of whom was married to a daughter of William Hair. Cumnock weaver John Miller 1814-1896 and his wife Jean Ronald and 5 children sailed from Wemyss in Fife on the Fortune. An infant daughter Janet died on the journey. They arrived on 2nd May 1853 and settled in Scone, New South Wales where they had 2 more children.His younger brother Andrew Miller, 29 his wife Jane Hair and their 2 small children Helen 4 and William 2 sailed with them. . John paid £8 for him and his family for the voyage and Andrew paid £5, They were assisted passages. The Millers changed the spelling of their name to Millar in Australia.
Next in 1854 were three of Jane Hair's brothers emigrated on the Hilton: John Hair his wife Helen MacDonald and their daughter Jane. They sailed on the Hilton out of Liverpool and were engaged by J S Carey in Alberton for 6 months. They arrived in Melbourne on 7 July 1854. John Hair married Helen MacDonald in 1841 and they had two daughters. In the 1851 census they were living at Elbow Lane with 8 lodgers. Maybe they were running a lodging house as there were several in Elbow Lane. He was a labourer and chimney cleaner. The younger daughter Agnes must have died soon after as she didn't go with them to Australia in 1854.
On the same sailing were his younger brother Robert Hair, a farm labourer, and his new wife Christina Lees. They were also going to Alberton but it's not clear who engaged them.
The Hilton which arrived on 7 Jul 1854 had 481 government assisted places as reported in the Argus
Skip to 1857 and father William Hair, the third brother William McMillan Hair and his new wife Jane Muir, sister Margaret and her husband George McKerrow all sailed on the Black Eagle leaving Liverpool on 1 March 1857 and arriving 6 Jun 1857, a journey of over 3 months. William and Jane don't appear to have had any children.
Also Robert Girvan and Agnes McMillan (niece of William Hair's wife Jean McMillan) emigrated to Australia on the Emma in arriving in Port Jackson, Sydney on 31 Jan 1857. Their daughter Agnes died on the journey. They went to New South Wales.
William McMillan Hair seems to have done well for himself. He had an estate of £13,000 and he left £500 to the church, £1000 to William McKerrow and amounts of £100-£300 to various relations in Scotland and Australia.
Several members of the family moved to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia after gold was found there in 1893. Robert Lees Hair found success there.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_West_Australia/Robert_Lees_Hair
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