Sarah Eleanor Pryor (1849-1916)

#52ancestors

In records, Sarah Eleanor Pryor went by different names – Sarah, Eleanor or Ellen, mainly the latter. Ellen was born in Cornwall 1849, barely a month before she embarked, along with her parents and siblings, on the Eliza, which took them from England to South Australia.

Ellen’s father, Joseph, was a blacksmith, and the family went to Burra as Joseph had a job in the copper mine there. Later the family moved to Donnybrook, a settlement near Clare, in the Clare Valley. It is here that Ellen met her future husband, Richard Grenfell, ten years her senior.

Marriage of Sarah Eleanor Pryor and Richard Grenfell – The Adelaide Express 23 November 1865 – nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207605283

Ellen and Richard lived in many mining camps and towns, including Broken Hill, NSW, where, over a period of 10 years, their 3 sons died. What a tragic thing to bear.

Family Notices – Barrier Miner 27 April 1898 nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44210429

GRENFELL.—In loving memory of Clement Grenfell,who died April 27, 1887, aged 21 years : also, Harry Grenfell, who died September 8,1892, aged 19 years also, Cyprian Grenfell, who died October 19, 1896, aged 24 years.

Far away by the jasper sea
Three forms are walking side by side,
And now and then they bend to gaze
Over the ocean wide

And three of us but walk and pray
beside a dark and boundless sea;
We cannot pierce the radiant glow
That folds the other three.

They watch above the rolling world,
Waiting till one, at God’s command,
Shall cross the space that lies between
This and the further land.

And, oh ! I long for the years to pass;
And, oh ! I cry for the time to be
When they who are watching with eager eyes
Shall bond and beckon me.

Inserted by their loving parents and sister.