James Esmond - Later Life

Later Life

Esmond suffered from Bright's disease later in life, and struggled with financial problems; the mining community sought government aid for him, though none was forthcoming, but public donations had raised £150 for his family by the time of his death. Esmond died on 3 December that year, 36 years to the day after the Eureka Stockade. Historian William Withers, in his obituary of Esmond on 5 December, wrote that he walked to the top of a hill overlooking Ballarat and saw a shining white shaft of granite marking the spot where the Stockade took place, a monument erected six years earlier to mark but not commemorate those who had died there. Withers' respectful tribute to Esmond, one of a number of Eureka diggers who had recently died, was unusual at the time, when the Stockade was still regarded by many as a disloyal rebellion.

Esmond was survived by his wife Margaret, their three sons and six daughters.