Another first

I was wrong to describe James and Eliza Golding as the first of our ancestors to arrive from England.  Twenty years before, in 1838, William and Elizabeth Stanford arrived as assisted immigrants on the “Woodbridge”.  (Their son Charles, born at Macleay River, as Kempsey was known, later married the Golding’s daughter, Susan - they were our 2x great granddparents.)

William and Elizabeth were both natives of Wiltshire.  William’s parents, George and Hannah lived near Salisbury, in an area called Great Wishford.  Elizabeth came from Wylie, about 10ks away.  They are described on their arrival papers as being in sound health, both able to read and write, both Methodists.  Elizabeth must have been pregnant as just a few months later she gave birth to twin girls, Hope and Maria, who both died.

They settled on the Macleay River, now Kempsey.  Their five surviving children were born there.  Sarah (1839), Charles (1843), Elizabeth (1844), Stephen (1845), Christina (1847).  William died in 1868, and Elizabeth married again three years later to a former convict called John Rolt Carter.  She died in 1892, and was buried in Kempsey.