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Allegiance Certificate

Among those who made South Australia their home in the nineteenth century was Heinrich Spierl. He settled in Edwardstown and worked as a blacksmith. The Migration Museum holds both a ticket of passage and an allegiance certificate in Heinrich’s name. It is interesting to note that the spelling of his name changes.

The ticket of passage, recorded in German, documents that ‘H. Spierl and Frau aus Lebum’ sailed on 8 June 1846 from Bremerhaven to Port Adelaide. The allegiance certificate refers to ‘Heinrich Speerel’, of Lebenstein in Sachsen. Perhaps the change of spelling is an attempt to anglicise the name, or it may simply be an anomaly.

The certificate documents Spierl’s allegiance to his new state, South Australia, in 1849. Documents like this one demonstrate the commitment immigrants make to their new country. They also give us a sense of changing perspectives of identity. This document records an immigrant who once identified as German publicly proclaiming himself as a British subject.