According to family lore, John Travers was a merchant who traded molasses and salt cod fish, and who disappeared at sea sometime prior to 1832.
[6] By 1831, Mary was the owner of a hotel and tavern located at King’s Place, near present-day Duckworth Street, opposite the site of the National War Memorial.
[9] The Sons of Erin held their St. Patrick's Day dinner at the hotel in 1832, one local paper reporting the "entertainment was sumptuous and abundant, and served up in a style exceedingly creditable to the hostess" and was followed by "a plentiful discussion of good things, to which the melting strains of an Irish piper gave additional rest.
She also seized the Speaker's chair and hat, the mace of the Sergeant-at-Arms, and desks, books and papers belonging to the House of Assembly.
[12] Travers advertised the Speaker’s chair for sale in a local newspaper as being “elegantly upholstered and finished in black moreen and ornamented with brass.”[1] On April 3, 1833,Mrs.
In addition to the Speaker's Chair she listed a number of items including the following:1 LARGE DESK - Containing 8 Drawers filled with a variety of Books and Papers of every description.
1 SMALL Ditto, used exclusively by the Speaker; and filled also with Books, Papers, and a Portfolio of great value.... 1 LARGE CHAIR stuffed, superbly covered, and well and substantially built, used by the Usher of the Black Rod.
[14]Governor Thomas John Cochrane ordered payments to be made to Mary Travers totalling 85 pounds, 13 shillings, four pence (equivalent to £10,400 in 2023) for the use of furniture, coal, wood, candles, services and hire of servants; and 108 pounds, six shillings, eight pence (equivalent to £13,151 in 2023) for rental of her premises.
At some point after 1846, Travers and her seven sons and daughters moved to the Kildare Capes, Prince Edward Island, where they acquired a 3000-acre property.
He found some sail cloth amongst the debris and he wrapped the bodies and dragged them up the cliffs and buried them in the family cemetery in an unmarked mass grave.
[2] The local newspaper reported,[Died] At her residence, Kildare, Lot 3, after a long and painful illness, on Friday morning, 24th February last, regretted by a large circle of relatives and friends, Mrs. Mary Travers, formerly of St. John’s Newfoundland.