#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 1 Fresh Start

#52 Ancestors 2020


Week 1 Fresh Start

All of my immigrant ancestors came to Australia for a fresh start.  For all of them it was a huge undertaking which meant a permanent severing of ties with their homes in England and Ireland – of sixteen of my direct ancestors who were born overseas, none was ever to leave Australia.  

The enormity of these decisions was compounded by the difficulty of communication between the new and the old worlds.  We take for granted now our ability to Skype and Facetime and send emails – some of my forebears couldn’t read or write at all.  Those who did would have to wait several months for a letter from “home” to travel by ship – and then several more for the reply to reach its destination.

But all of them were convinced that they had come to a better place for their futures, and they were right.

Perhaps none had better timing than the Power family – Peter and Mary and their children Patrick, Ann, Bridget (my 2x great grandmother), Anthony and Charles.  They lived in a village called Elphin In Roscommon, Ireland and they left in 1839.

A few years later, this part of Ireland was one of the first to record the appearance of the potato blight which was to devastate the country and decimate the population. 

On 12 October 1846, the local constabulary stated that 7,500 people were existing on boiled cabbage leaves only once in 48 hours.

The second failure of the potato crop in 1846 also brought a number of voluntary relief workers to the country. A young Quaker from Liverpool, Joseph Crosfield, passed through Boyle in December and reported:

“In this place, the condition of the poor previously to their obtaining admission into the work-house is one of great distress; many of them declare that they have not tasted food of any kind for forty-eight hours; and numbers of them have eaten nothing but cabbage or turnips for days and weeks.”

As was the case elsewhere, the potato failure put pressure on the local workhouses. To cope with the increase in disease, a 40-bed fever hospital was erected near to the Roscommon workhouse and an addition house was rented to accommodate fever patients, while local stables were fitted up for the reception of patients. However, at the beginning of 1847 the Roscommon workhouse was full and, under the terms of the 1838 Poor Law, had to refuse relief to other applicants regardless of their need. The suffering of the local poor was captured in the Dublin-based newspaper The Nation in March 1847: “In Roscommon, deaths by famine are so prevalent that whole families who retire at night are corpses in the morning.”*1

The Irish Famine Museum is now housed at Strokestown, near Elphin

Equally fortunate were Richard and Jane Mason, parents of my Australian - born great grandmother, Charlotte.  They too escaped the famine by leaving the village of Ballingarry in Tipperary in 1841.  Their first four children were born in Ireland and made the perilous journey with them – sadly the baby, Eliza, died shortly after their arrival In January 1842.

Mason family arrival documents

The Powers and Masons were able to travel to Australia because of the Bounty Immigration Scheme.

The Bounty Immigration Scheme was first suggested by Edward Gibbon Wakefield and the first set of Bounty Regulations was gazetted by Governor Bourke in October 1835.

Bounty immigrants were free immigrants whose passage was paid by the colonial government under the “bounty scheme” whereby an incentive was paid to recruiting agents in Britain to find suitable skilled labour and tradespeople, then ship them out to the new colony which urgently need them.

Newly married couples or single men and women were given preference – large families were rarely accepted*2. Selected immigrants were generally shepherds, ploughmen and agricultural labourers*3 with some tradespeople such as brickmakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, tailors and needlewomen.

Bounties were paid to the ships’ masters for the safe delivery of their passengers under the scheme,  Typical costs were:

·         30 pounds for a man and wife under 30 years on embarkation;

·         15 pounds for each single female 15y to 30y with the approval of the settler or the agent, and under the protection of a married couple or to stay with the family till otherwise provided for;

·         10 pounds for each unmarried male 18y to 30y (equal number of males and females, mechanics or agricultural labourers were to be encouraged by the settlers);

5     5  pounds for each child over 1year.

The Bounty Scheme was replaced by the Assisted Immigration Scheme of the 1840s and 1850s.  My English ancestors Charles and Eliza White, with their four children, and James and Eliza Golding (and 4 children) took advantage of this.  While there was nothing so dramatic as a famine to escape, they were certainly living in poor circumstances as agricultural labourers at a time of low wages, poor diet, insecure employment and unsanitary housing.

Eliza White 1827 - 1895

Like migrants everywhere, the first generation had hard lives as they worked to establish themselves in a new country.  But the next generation all had at least a basic education, and many of them owned property - advantages which were unthinkable for their counterparts back “home”.

*1 The Great Hunger in County Roscommon by Dr Christine Kinealy

*2 Four children would not have been considered a “large” family.

*3 All four of the men of these families were agricultural labourers.  So too were the four Whitten brothers who came in the 1860s. Although we only know that Joseph came as an Assisted Immigrant it is reasonable to assume that the others did also.

#52 Ancestors Week 52 You

#52 Ancestors Week 52 You

Here’s what I know about me from my research.

 My parents and grandparents were all born in Australia

 Of my 8 great grandparents, all but 2 were born in Australia.  Those two, on different sides of the family, were both Irish.  One was Catholic, one Protestant.

 Of my 16 great great grandparents, only 2 were born in Australia.  They were both on my father’s side of the family. Charles Stanford, born on the Macleay River (Kempsey) in 1843  and Mary Barry, born at Bathurst in 1842. 

 Of my 32 great great grandparents, I know that 15 were born in Ireland, 8 in England, 1 in Scotland and 1 in New Zealand. 

That leaves 7 great great grandparents unaccounted for.  Some are almost certainly Irish – the wives of Michael Gleeson, William Crummy, and Robert Lucas.  The ancestry of William Barry and his unknown wife is a mystery, but he is our only possible convict and was probably Irish too. 

·       The two real enigmas are John Wilson (whose wife Ann was Scottish) and the mother of New Zealand born Edward George Morgan

Here’s what my DNA tells me:

·         59% of my DNA is Irish or Scottish

·         31% is from England, Wales and north western Europe

·       The other 10% is a mixture of Swedish, Germanic and Polynesian.

What I glean from this is at least the answer to one mystery – the mother of my 2 x great grandfather William George Morgan, born in NZ in 1831 to John Morgan, sailor and an unknown woman.  I now know that she was almost certainly Maori.

I can probably also continue to believe that some of my forebears were Huguenot, as family myth has it.  I have no proof yet.

Here’s what else there is to know about me.

I was born in the middle of the 20^th century in Australia, which is to have been born lucky.  I missed the Great Depression and WW11, and while I knew boys and men who served in Vietnam it was not a major upheaval in my life.   My father always had a job and my mother always stayed home. They were loving parents who cared about their community and made sure we did too.  They valued education and encouraged us to do well in school and sport.

I was well educated in the public school system at a time of good funding and good teachers.  In the country towns where we lived, almost all the children of school age went to the same school, so it was a fairly egalitarian experience.

I had a free tertiary education because of Government scholarships.

I have never been seriously ill, but I have been cared for in hospital a few times at almost no cost because of Australia’s universal health care system.

As a woman I have occasionally been discriminated against, but I have never suffered because of my race or culture or religion.

I have never gone hungry or unsheltered. 

All of this privilege is an accident of birth.

#52Ancestors Week 51 Future

#52 Ancestors Week 51  Future

I’m sure none of my ancestors ever gave a thought to the fact that one day one of their descendants would spend hours of time piecing the facts of their lives together and speculating about the way they lived.

They would never have guessed that the wonder of the internet would one day allow me to correspond with relatives all over the world.

One of the pleasures of the #52 Ancestors Challenge this year was the number of cousins – both mine and Paul’s – who we have connected with.  We now know more about my great-grandmother Mary Crummy, through meeting some of the family of her brother Thomas.  I have spent a morning with Lyn McLean, who shares Robert White with me as our great grandfather.  Descendants of Robert’s brother John have also been in touch via email.  We have connected with Dennis and Lorna Johnson – Dennis is Paul’s second cousin and his wife Lorna is a serious family historian who has written a great deal about the Johnsons.  I found Brian, another cousin of Paul’s when I recognised one of the stories in the Challenge as being about a common ancestor.  From Ireland, Laura Price of Shannonbridge has provided hitherto unknown information about the Kilroe family.

In 2020 I hope for more happy surprises like these.

And none of those ancestors would never have guessed that I could take a DNA test to find out more about my place in the world and who I am.  I am eagerly awaiting the results.  I expect lots of Celtic and English in my background and I hope it leads me to conversations with other distant relatives researching the same heritage.

And perhaps it might also reveal the mysterious 2% Polynesian that a distant cousin has found in his DNA, which could solidify our belief that Edward George Morgan, my New Zealand – born 2 x great grandfather was the child of the seafarer John Morgan and an unknown Maori woman.

#52 Ancestors Week 50 Tradition

#52 Ancestors Week 50 Tradition

In December 1964 my mother was (unexpectedly) pregnant with my youngest brother, Michael.  There was a heatwave in Dubbo, where we lived.

These were the reasons my parents gave for the creation of their first “Christmas Letter”, a family bulletin that became a tradition which lasted until my mother’s death last year.

The first copies were typed on my father’s Olivetti and roneod on the school gestetner.  It went to the huge number of people on their Christmas Card list – probably about 150.  In the days before the widespread use of the telephone – and no social media – Christmas cards were the way people maintained connections, so they went not only to close friends and family but to distant relations and business associates and old neighbours and colleagues.

In that first letter, Dad wrote about each of us children – how we were getting on at school, our sporting prowess or other achievements, and also gave a picture of life in Dubbo as they approached the birth of their sixth child.  My elder sister Jenny had already left home and was working in Canberra.  He wrote that her love life “continued to amuse and confuse us all”.  And he made the announcement that he was to take up the Principal’s position at Dubbo High School in 1965.

The pattern was established.  Circular Christmas bulletins were not widespread in 1964 – people thought it a novel approach and many of their friends began to emulate it.  They wrote that they looked forward every year to receiving their annual update.  Typically, Mum would personalise each letter – Dad used to say that he wondered why he bothered when Mum felt the need to write lengthy postscripts to each one.

Mum took control of the letter when Dad began to develop dementia, in about 1990, and I was her scribe.  In the ensuing years we embraced computers, then photographic inclusions, then colour.   As we all grew up and established families of our own, it became customary for everyone to create a couple of paragraphs and send some photos to Mum and me, and I would piece it all together on my computer. In time, some of us began the tradition ourselves, but we were always part of Mum’s letter.

 

In the early 2000s, the NSW State Library put out a call for family Christmas letters as part of an acquisition project, and in about 2014 Mum featured in a Sydney Morning Herald story about the 50 years of her correspondence.  The journalist was interested in the changing way in which the letters had been prepared, and also in the long family saga that had unfolded over the years.  

To read the 54 years of Christmas letters is to read the history of our family, albeit a little sanitised.   There were never any serious attempts at censoring our lives but family dramas such as break – ups and divorces were downplayed.  New relationships were cautiously embraced and if they didn't survive then they simply disappeared the following year.  Academic failures were deflected.  Babies were always welcomed. 

When Mum died, just before Christmas 2018, I wrote one last letter.  At 93, her mailing list had dwindled over the years, but there were a few people on the list who had been recipients of that first letter in 1964, and who had tracked the story of our family through children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  This year, I sent them my family letter.

Bill and Gwynne Gleeson - October 1987

#52 Ancestors Week 49 Craft

#52 Ancestors Week 49 Craft

My father, Bill Gleeson (1913-1994) became a woodworker partly out of necessity but it became a life long interest and provided his family with all kinds of material reminders – quirky, practical and sometimes beautiful.

I think it began when he was a young teacher at Young, NSW with a growing number of small children who needed beds to sleep in.  He had become friends with an older teacher called Os Davis, who loved to make things out of wood and together they set about making a bed for my elder sister, Jenny.

Eventually there were three of these beds and I wish I had a photo of them – three narrow single beds with pink chenille spreads, lined up dormitory style in the bedroom that Jenny, Libby and I shared, until Jen reached her teens and got her own space.

The beds were practical, but Os and Dad soon began to branch out.  They discovered that the timber being removed from Young Courthouse as it was being adapted to house the new Young High School, was going to be destroyed.  It was beautiful red cedar – the “red gold” of the Australian rainforest.

One of the largest trees of the Australian rainforests, Australian Red Cedar (Toona ciliata) is reported to reach a height of about 60 m and a trunk diameter of 3 m. Trees of this size would be exceptional. It is one of Australia's few deciduous trees.

The bark is prominently cracked giving a tesselated appearance. New leaves are pinkish so that early timber cutters were able to spot trees in the rain forest. Has long sprays of small white flowers followed by dry fruits up to 2.5cm long. Rapid growing trees heavily buttressed. 

The heartwood is a handsome dark red. Some specimens are pink or even yellowish. Darkens with age. Growth rings are very prominent on back sawn boards. Buttress and crutch timber can be very heavily figured. A very distinctive pleasant smell.

It is highly regarded for top quality cabinet and furniture work, interior panelling, veneers, turning and carving, boat building and cigar boxes. Was used in railway carriages in early days of affluence…it is extremely light in weight.

Australian Red Cedar bears many similarities with Spanish Cedar (Cedrela odorata). It is sometimes referred to as Indian Mahogany*(1).

Dad and Os set about “rescuing” the doomed timber from the rubbish heap and took it home.  Two projects gradually emerged – a small coffee table and this handsome cabinet, which lived in all my parents’ houses and is now with my sister, Libby.

Woodworking was, I think, a perfect way for Dad to unwind.  His  working life as a senior teacher, and then as the Principal of a large High School, could be quite stressful.  At home, “in the shed” with his timber and his tools, he was relaxed.  He gradually came to acquire a circular saw and a lathe (another school discard) and began to turn his hand to more complicated pieces of furniture.

But first, he built a house!

The family moved from Young to Glen Innes at the beginning of 1954.  There was a serious housing shortage in Australia immediately after the War, and the only place that could be found for this family of two adults and four small children was a two bedroom flat with a shared kitchen and bathroom.  I don’t know how they stood it for as long as they did, but they set about rectifying the situation as quickly as they could by buying a block of land and having plans for a house drawn up.

 Dad kept teaching, of course, but after school and on weekends he was a builder.  This was long before pre-fabrication.  He learnt to lay bricks so he could make the foundations.  All the timber framework had to be cut and raised.  He laid all the timber floors, made the timber window frames, and the doors.  He laid tiles in the bathroom.  Some of his mates helped him with the heavy stuff and Mum (who was pregnant again by the later stages of the work) was always there to hand him tools or hold the end of something.  It was a heroic effort and we moved in just before Margie’s birth in March 1956. 

The house that Bill built - photo taken some years later

After we moved to Dubbo (1960) there were other projects.  He built an extra bedroom and a garage on our first house there, and then, when the family moved to the last house, he realised we didn’t own a dining table big enough to accommodate everyone who might sit down to dinner, so he made one.  And some chairs too.

Michael, who was still living at home at the time,  says that the chairs actually incorporate bits of school chairs that were being discarded (coachwood *(2) and that the table top, chair seats and rungs were meranti*(3).  He used the above mentioned lathe to turn the legs.  This dining room furniture has a new home at Margie’s place.

This was practical, so for fun and creativity, he made a few other chairs including this one which now lives with John.

And some lamp bases, and another, more delicate, table.

None of Dad’s forebears would have had the time to indulge themselves in a craft like woodworking.  Nor, probably, could they have afforded the materials.  It was only because Dad had a regular job which paid relatively well that he could do this.  It gave him hours of pleasure, allowed him to be creative as well as provide useful objects for his family, and has given all of his children and grandchildren tangible reminders of him in their daily lives.

*(1)from “Bovalino – Fine Timber”

*(2)(Ceratopetalum apetalum, the coachwood, scented satinwood or tarwood, is a medium-sized hardwood tree, straight-growing with smooth, fragrant, greyish bark. It is native to eastern Australia in the central and northern coastal rainforests of New South Wales and southern Queensland, where is often found on poorer quality soils in gullies and creeks and often occurs in almost pure stands. C. apetalum is one of 8 species of Ceratopetalum occurring in eastern Australia, New Guinea, New Britain and various islands in the same region.

*(3)Meranti is a soft to firm hardwood timber commonly used for decorative purposes such as mouldings, furniture, panelling, joinery and window frames. It is a very versatile and durable timber for indoor applications and can be painted and stained. 

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#52 Ancestors Week 48 Thief

#52 Ancestors Week 48 Thief

Sadly, there is no shortage of candidates for this week’s blog.  All of the convicts I have researched in Paul’s family were thieves.

The first to arrive was 4 x great grandfather Peter McCann, aged about 30, who came on the convict ship Minerva which left Cork on 24 August 1799 and landed in Sydney Cove on 11 January 1800.  We do not know the nature of Peter’s theft, but he was tried at Monaghan, Ireland and sentenced to 7 years.  This was a standard sentence – in reality very few convicts ever returned to their native lands.

In Sydney, Peter met Mary Fitzgerald, who had arrived on the Atlas 1 in 1802.  Mary was only 16 at the time of her arrest and trial, in Waterford, Ireland.  She was given 7 years, and sentenced with her, for the same crime, was Eleanor Fitzgerald, aged 31.  We have never been able to ascertain whether Eleanor was Mary’s mother or sister or aunt, or another relative but they remained close throughout Eleanor’s life.

The Atlas 1 was a hell ship.  Of the 179 convicts who embarked, three died before the voyage began and another 63 men and 2 women died at sea.  Four more died before the ship made anchor and the large number of deaths resulted in an official inquiry which found that Captain Brooks had been greedy and negligent,*(1) although he managed to escape punishment.

Peter and Mary had two children before Peter drowned at Windsor, NSW in 1806.  Their eldest child, Nicholas married Catherine Johnston in 1826.  Catherine had arrived in the colony at the age of 6 with her mother, Rosetta Johnston, (4 x great grandmother) who was transported for 7 years for stealing.  Rosetta was born in County Louth, Ireland in about 1787 and tried at Surrey Assizes in March 1814.  She stole “three pieces of sheeting, value 27 shillings, and one shawl, value 30 shillings.

Rosetta and Catherine travelled on the Northampton which arrived in June 1815.  Dr Joseph Arnold had been appointed Ship’s Surgeon on the Northampton, which no doubt accounts for its low mortality rate (4 deaths).  The surgeon reported to Governor Macquarie:

“I have the honour to report to your Excellency that Anne Williams, Anne Watling and Rose Johnson, three convicts embarked in this Ship, have made themselves useful during the voyage as attendants on the sick, and have acquitted themselves to my satisfaction.”

Rosetta met and married John Beale *(2) in the colony; their marriage performed by the infamous Samuel Marsden (“the flogging parson”), and four months later Catherine was discharged from the Female Orphanage at Parramatta into their care.

Although John Beale was not a blood ancestor, he made such an impact on the family that two generations later, one of Charles and Mary McCann’s sons was named “John Beale McCann”

Charles and Mary’s eldest son, Charles William McCann was Paul’s great grandfather.  His wife, Esther was also descended from convicts.  Her mother, Lavinia Roberts was the daughter of William Roberts and Agnes McMillan. (3 x great grandparents) I have written about Agnes before (#52 Ancestors – Week 2).  She was transported at the age of 15 after a tough life on the streets of Glasgow, and several convictions for theft.  The final conviction was for stealing some clothing in the company of her friend, Janet Houston, who was also sentenced to 7 years to “parts beyond the seas”.  This was to be Van Diemen’s Land, a notoriously inhospitable place for convicts.

Agnes survived her incarceration.  She gave birth to a son, Frederick Lee, in 1841, and somehow managed to keep him alive at a time when the children of female prisoners had an horrific mortality rate.

When she was finally free, William was waiting for her.  She had met him in 1840 when she was being held in Oatlands Prison (Van Diemen’s Land) for being insolent.  William had been there at the same time - for celebrating his ticket of leave rather too boisterously.  He had ridden a horse recklessly ( and drunkenly) through the main street of the town and for this transgression had been given 14 days of solitary confinement on bread and water. 

William Roberts was born William Watson, in Lancashire, England.  His was apparently a ‘good’ family – his father Isaac was a coach builder. As a young man, William had tried his hand at picking pockets but he seemed not to be skilful enough.  He was arrested in 1827 for stealing one shilling and sixpence, and three halfpence and because it was his second offence the judge imposed a sentence of 14 years transportation to parts beyond the seas. He arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1828 on the William Miles.

William was not a model prisoner.  Less than a month after his arrival, he was punished for absconding with “two days on the treadwheel”.  Six weeks later he was given two more days, this time for skipping the mandatory church muster.  A year later while working on a road gang, he was punished with 25 lashes for insolence.  The lashes were delivered with a cat-o-nine-tails – nine knotted leather strips with lead weights fastened to the ends, designed to rip and tear into the skin.

The treadwheel

 Agnes and William raised a family of 8 children, including Fred Lee.  They moved from Tasmania to the goldfields of Ballarat and then finally to the northern rivers of NSW.  None of the family seems ever to have been in trouble with the law again.

Paul’s paternal grandmother, Alma Barrow was also descended from convicts - Rebecca Bloxham and John Hooper (3 x great grandparents.)  Rebecca was sentenced to death in 1826 for the crime of “Robbery On A Person”. This sentence was commuted to transportation for “the period of her natural life” following petitions for clemency by her widowed mother, Ann Bloxham and the rector of her local parish. The petition tells of a “steady, industrious girl who, after being forced to move to Leicester to look for work, had her morals corrupted but was now penitent.”  Rebecca arrived on the Harmony on 27 September 1827 and married fellow convict John Hooper in Newcastle in 1829.

John Hooper too was sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to Van Diemen’s Land, but he managed to escape from Hobart and head north, where he survived for a short time before being found and charged with bushranging and theft.  He received 200 lashes and was sent to the much harsher penal settlement of Newcastle.

The cat - o - nine tails

A public flogging

It has become a cliché that convicts were transported for “stealing a loaf of bread” but it is nevertheless true that the nature of the thefts for which many were transported seems paltry to our eyes.  Many so-called criminals were poor and attempting to support themselves and their families on meagre earnings.  Stealing food and clothing was a matter of survival.  Like many other convicts, those in this story went on to build families and become good citizens of the fledgling nation of Australia,

*(1) Captain Brooks had stowed the ship with private goods for sale in Sydney.  Because the ship was so overcrowded, the air scuttles had to be closed in heavy weather, which meant that no fresh air reached the prisoners below deck.  During the passage they were all confined with two leg irons and one on their necks, secured by a heavy padlock.  Scurvy was a major cause of illness and death due to inadequate rations and poor water supply.

*(2) John Beale was charged with burglary in 1812 and sentenced “to be hanged by the neck until he be dead.”  He was reprieved and sentenced to be “transported beyond the seas for the rest of his natural life”.  His crime was “burglarously with force and arms attempting to steal two prayer books value fifteen shillings and sixpence, the goods and chattels of James Gattey and one other prayer book value two shillings and sixpence the good and chattels of John Hough Jackson”

On 17 April 1819, John Beale was appointed by the Governor to be Keeper of His Majesty’s Prison at Parramatta.

#52 Ancestors Week 47 Soldier

#52 Ancestors Week 47 Soldier

I have written before (Week 21 – Military) about several family members who joined up to fight in WW1, and a little about William Johnson, Paul’s 3 x great grandfather who was a regular soldier for some years in the 19^th century.

William was born in Essex, England to Joseph Johnson and his wife Esther Monks.  According to William’s death certificate, Joseph was also a soldier although we don’t know much about him as he disappears from the records.  Perhaps he was also fighting in the Napoleonic Wars.

William enlisted in the Royal Staff Corps, probably when he was very young.  This was a messenger and orderly regiment of the Defence Services which began its military term in 1813.  After the end of the Napoleonic War in 1815, the Regiment served in different parts of the British Empire including Australia and the West Indies.

William was serving in Barbados when he met his future wife, Martha Sarsfield Donovan.  She was a young widow who had given birth to two children but by the time she met William her husband and daughter had died and her son was to die the following year.*(1) We know that Martha’s family had been in Barbados for several generations and that some of them were plantation owners so we must assume that they were also slave owners.  Martha’s death certificate states that her father was a schoolteacher, but this may not be correct as the informant made other errors.

Martha and William’s first son, William, was born in January 1821, and the couple was married the following February 1822 when Martha was 25, and William 19.

Towards the end of 1825, No 3 Company, Royal Staff Corps was posted to Australia.  The officers were either civil engineers or surveyors and the NCOs and Privates were skilled or semi-skilled tradesmen.  It was intended that the Corps would, in part, replace a number of the civilian Overseers of Convicts and thereby reduce costs but this scheme was unsuccessful.  The majority of the Staff Corps men were young and inexperienced and unable to control the convict labour.  The Company was ordered to disband and the men given the option of settling in Australia or staying in the army to be posted elsewhere.  Grants of land were given to encourage them to stay.

William was a blacksmith and a First Classman of the Royal Staff Corps.  In Sydney they had two more children (Mary Ann 1826 -28 and Mary 1828).   When the regiment disbanded, he was discharged (on 24 June 1829).  The family chose to stay but unfortunately, William’s small land grant was at the area then known as Maroota, 49kms north west of Sydney on an early road constructed by convict gangs to link Sydney with the fertile Hunter Valley. Attempts to settle this land failed as it was barren and sandy and could not support soldier settlers and their families*(2). 

William found work in the Hunter Valley and his next two children were born there *(3)on a property owned by a fellow soldier called Archibald Bell (whose name records his crossing of the Blue Mountains now known as Bell’s Line of Road). The next daughter Martha was also born in this area, then the last child, John was born at Port Macquarie in 1838.

At about this time, William petitioned the new Governor of NSW, George Gipps for another land grant, but it was refused.  Gipps noted on the petition that “Grants of land are discontinued and it it is not in my power to give..”  

Governor Gipps' note on William's petition

 By this time the eldest daughter, Mary was married to Charles McCann, a wheelwright.  The whole family seems to have packed up with them and moved south to the goldfields of Ballarat.  Family legend has it that Charles and William combined their two skills to create the large carriage vehicles known on the goldfields as McCann Wagons. 

The birth records of Charles and Mary’s children show that from the early 1850s until the late 1860s the family moved between the goldfields of central Victoria and the Northern Rivers of NSW.  On modern highways, this is a distance of 1700 kms – it is difficult to imagine how complicated and difficult it would have been by horse drawn wagon, wearing cumbersome clothing and accompanied by several small children.  There was the option of coming by boat – also a long and hazardous journey which we know other family members did in this period.

Despite the difficulties the extended family seems to have done the trip at least twice.  William and Martha finally settled with many of their children and grandchildren in the rich cedar country around Teven Creek near Ballina, where most of the men were engaged in timber cutting.

We know from the diaries of William Glascott (Week 24 – Dear Diary) that William Johnson was in the area, and that he was still plying his trade as a blacksmith, with a “shop” in Ballina.

William died on 29 May 1873.  The cause of death was given as chronic gout, from which he had suffered for 26 years.  Martha outlived him by 8 years, and they were both buried in the East Ballina cemetery.

 *(1)William Clement (husband) died 17 February 1817.  Sarah (daughter) died 15 July 1818.  Daniel (son) died 6 Oct 1821.

*(2)Later this land proved ideal for a variety of crops including orchards and it is now known as the Hills District, a wealthy residential area of Sydney

*(3) Jane 1831 and Esther 1833

#52 Ancestors Week 46 Poor Man

#52 Ancestors Week 46 Poor Man

There was never any doubt about my subject for this week’s prompt – my 6 x great grandfather who is described in one record as “William the Pauper”

William Titford was born in Wylye, Wiltshire in 1725, to William Titford and his wife Elizabeth (nee Taylor).  His father, grandfather, great grandfather and two of his sons were also called William, which perhaps explains why one record saw the designation “the Pauper” an important way to distinguish him from the others.

An illiterate peasant from a long line of such, William left very little paper trail for the genealogist, but we do know a few facts of his life. 

In 1748 he was employed as an Under Shepherd at Wylye Manor.

On 22 April, 1751 he married Christian Duke in the parish of Tefont Evias (near Wylye).  The following year, Christian gave birth to a son, William, who died soon after birth.  In 1755, they had a son (another William) then in 1758 my 5 x great grandmother, Jane, was born.

By 1761, William was Shepherd of the East End flock of Wylye Manor.  The records tell us that a Head Shepherd in 1860 would earn 7 shillings per week.  The staple diet was bread and beer – if William and his family ate a loaf of bread every day then the cost for a week was about 15% of his wages.  We can imagine that life was a constant struggle. 

Perhaps this might explain why, in 1763, William was charged with An Infringement of Customs of the Manor. I don’t know what crime or misdemeanour William committed and it’s difficult to find out, but a common “crime” was trespass and this could have included grazing his sheep in the wrong place.

Here is an explanation of the system from a history of the small town of Bovey Tracey, in Devon.

 What we do know is that certain customs were confirmed in the records from as early as 1614. In his study of one hundred and thirteen English manors, Waddell (2012, p. 278) analysed their customs and found variations, which was understandable given that coastal, rural and town areas had different needs. Certain customs, however, seem to have been fairly general, because everywhere needed to ensure law and order and that rents were collected. Courtenay’s Steward summed it up in 1747 by saying that:

THE CUSTOMS The customs covered the process of administration and regulation, and the appointment of officers to carry out various duties. The court leet and court baron were held twice yearly within one month of both Lady Day and Michaelmas, and at other occasions as needed. The Lord of the Manor, who was also Lord of the Borough, appointed a steward to hold the courts leet and courts baron for both the manor and borough on his behalf. Annually the Michaelmas Court appointed a jury of local freemen to deal with its duties. A foreman was sworn in, followed by eleven or twelve homagers. The minutes of the borough court 1665 described it as a law court and it appointed a jury of eleven men plus the portreeve as foreman. The freeman requirement for office, rather than just being a tenant, meant that eligibility as a juror was kept within a more elite group of residents. These were the local merchants, businessmen and farmers. As with courts throughout the country the jury appointed various officers, who were freemen, to carry out certain tasks for the smooth running of the manor and borough (Pollock and Maitland, 1968, p. 43). They were sworn in annually at each borough and manor Michaelmas Court from at least 1665. As only freemen could serve, the courts were not representative of all in the area and poorer tenants and sub tenants could not be office holders. It was possible to hold two offices at the same time as shown by the pound keeper also being the crier in 1750. Officers were appointed by the jury and sworn in annually at each borough and manor Michaelmas Court from at least 1665.

The Infringement of 1763 seems to have been William’s only brush with the law.

In 1788, as the first white settlers were arriving to colonise NSW, Christian died. 

By 1800, William was living on Parish Relief, perhaps in the poorhouse.  His son William and daughter Jane were both married and he had four grandchildren, Charles, James and Elizabeth Titford and George Dowdell. 

William died in 1806 and was buried in a pauper’s grave in Wylye on 25 March of that year.

#52 Ancestors Week 45 Rich Man

#52 Ancestors Week 45 - Rich Man

My great grandfather Robert White was not a rich man in any material sense of the word.  But he had a rich life and was deeply mourned by his family and community on his death.

Robert was the youngest child of Charles and Eliza White (nee Andrews).  His 3 older brothers and sister were all born in England and travelled to Australia with their parents when they were small children.  The family paid 6 pounds for their voyage on the “Blundell”, arriving on 7 May 1853.  Charles was described as a gardener, and both he and Eliza could read and write.

They appear to have gone to Lismore, NSW almost immediately so perhaps they had connections there, although we know that all of their many siblings remained in England.  Charles became the first foreman of works for the Lismore Municipal Council and also kept a market garden in South Lismore all his life.  He was a popular exhibitor of his produce at local shows.

Robert was born in 1867, when his parents were both in their 40s and his next sibling, John, was 15.  He had the limited education afforded country children of the time – he probably left school at 12 – but he was an autodidact who never stopped reading and being curious and interested in the world.  My father remembered that he was an avid reader of “The Bulletin”, “Smith’s Weekly” and the Sydney Mail (a paper Dad recalled as being like the “London Illustrated News”.)  He was an early member of the Labor Party, although he became more conservative as he got older.  Most significantly, he was interested in local politics.

Robert’s sister, Jane, who was 20 years older than her brother, was married the year before he was born, to Robert McKenzie.  Their son Charles was only two years younger than Robert and the two men were friends who became fellow Councillors on the Lismore Municipal Council.  Robert was first elected in February 1901 as an advocate of sewerage for Lismore and after this term he served with only two short breaks until his death in 1932.  Charles was elected in 1906 and served 17 terms as Mayor during his long career.

Robert fought for Municipal services and for equality all his life.  As well as the campaign for sewerage, he wanted better educational facilities and was largely responsible for the South Lismore Public School being expanded to full Primary school status just in time for my father to attend it (1921).  He had given not only his time; some of the land on which the school stands had been donated by him, and he became the first President of the P & C Association.  For five years he was Honorary Secretary of the Lismore Hospital (until 1908) and he remained a Board member for many years after that.  He was the strongest voice for another crossing of the Wilson River to connect North Lismore more easily to the centre of the city.  Fittingly, the bridge was named the Robert White Bridge (1926). He was also an environmentalist before his time – he was concerned about the health of the Richmond River as early as the beginning of the 20^th century when it was still navigable, but gradually being choked by water hyacinth and his supervision of work by the Richmond County Council resulted in better weed control.

Three of Robert White's descendants at the unveiling of the new sign - 2017

His concerns for a more equitable society were behind his involvement in the Friendly Society movement.  He joined the Manchester Unity Oddfellows as a young man, and subsequently held leadership positions including that of Grand Master of the local Lodge (elected 1905) and then Grand Master of NSW (1912-14). 

Robert White the Grand Master

He was interested in the work of the local agricultural and horticultural associations too.  He was the first President of the Lismore Show Society and of the Lismore Horticultural Society and a judge at many shows up until the time of his death.  The love of flowers was fostered within the family – his daughters Nellie and Sis (Mabel) were successful exhibitors at many Lismore Shows, and two of Nellie’s daughters became florists.  Robert himself was responsible for the first plantings of street trees in Lismore.

Robert White the gardener

One could be forgiven for thinking that all of this public service must have come at a cost to his family.  That doesn’t seem to have been the case.  He was loved and respected as a husband, father and grandfather.  Although he died long before I was born, I and my siblings and cousins all heard stories about him from our parents and grandparents.  He was a towering figure in their lives.

Lismore gave Robert White a huge funeral and people lined the streets as his hearse drove by.  The NSW Grand Master of the Manchester Unity wrote a lengthy obituary which concluded:

Not "How did he die? ' but "How did he live?'

Not "What did he gain? " but "What did he give? "

These are the units to measure the worth

Of a man as a man, regardless of birth.

Not "What was his station? but "Had he a heart? "

And "How did he play his God-given part? '

"Was he ever ready with word of good cheer, to bring back a smile, to banish a tear?

Not "What was his Church? nor ' 'What was his creed?

But "Had he befriended those really in need?

Not "What did the sketch in the newspaper say?"

But "How many were sorry when he passed away?"

 A rich life indeed.