F is for Flintshire

In 1985, Helen Hudson nee Hughes (1915 – 2005), my grandfather’s first cousin, published a family history with the rather lengthy title, ‘Cherry stones: adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland; Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales; Hale of Gloucestershire, Langford Sidebottom, Cheshire; Shorten of Cork, Ireland, and Slater of Hampshire, England who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850, researched, compiled and written by Helen Lesley Hudson‘ (Berwick, Victoria: H.L. Hudson, 1985).

For me her book, based on papers, old letters, and paraphernalia she inherited from her father, is a researcher’s treasure-house. At the moment I’m preparing for a family-history trip to England, and I’m finding ‘Cherry stones‘ particularly useful, for it includes details of Helen’s travels to the “Old Country” visiting the places our forebears came from, and I’ll be doing something similar.

Helen and her husband Bill visited Holywell in Flintshire twice. She wrote about walking around the graveyard of the ancient church beside St Winifrede’s Well Sanctuary, where she found many graves of our Hughes family.

She also wrote about a visit she made to Trelawynydd, formerly known as Newmarket. My fourth great grandfather, Edward Hughes (1803 – 1876) was born at there. FindMyPast has the baptism records for Trelawnyd, Flintshire, and these include an Edward Hughes baptised 23 January 1803, the son of Edward and Ann Hughes. Helen gives Edward’s birth date as 17 January 1803. I am not sure what document she based this on. Edward Hughes is a common name – Hughes is the eighth most common Welsh surname – and there are plenty of other candidates for our Edward.

On 21 April 1821 Edward Hughes of Holywell, Flintshire married Elizabeth Jones of Ysgeifiog at Ysgeifiog. [Ysgeifiog pronounciation]. Ysgeifiog is less than five miles from Holywell. Helen’s tree had 1823 as the date of this marriage, but I have located a likely parish record at FindMyPast giving the date as 1821.

Samuel Hughes (1827 – 1896), their eldest surviving child and my third great grandfather, was baptised at the Great Crosshall Street Chapel of Welsh Congregationalists, Liverpool. The baptism record gives his birth date as 12 October 1827. Helen’s tree has 13 October 1827 and gives his place of birth as Liverpool. Edward Hughes was stated to be a joiner of Norris Street, Liverpool.

At the time of the 1841 census Edward, Elizabeth, four children (Samuel, Mary, Henry, and Eliza) and a child Goodman Jones, I assume a nephew of Elizabeth’s, were living at Drinkwater Gardens, Liverpool. Edward was a joiner. There were no live-in servants.

On 20 January 1849 Samuel Hughes arrived in South Australia on the Gunga, which had left Liverpool on 16 September 1848. Helen states that Edward, Elizabeth, Mary, and Henry also arrived on the Gunga but there seems no record on the passenger list of any other family member.

In 1851 I believe Edward and Elizabeth Hughes and one daughter, Mary, were living in Heathfield Street, Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales. Edward was a builder, employing 30 men.

I have not been able to find the immigration record for Edward and Elizabeth Hughes. Elizabeth died in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, and is buried in Brighton cemetery. Edward returned to England and died 4 May 1876 at South Norwood near London. A death notice in the Melbourne Argus  stated he was late of Sandhurst and the father of Samuel Hughes. He had been living with his daughter Mary Hewitt nee Hughes.

Helen Hudson wrote that there was a family story that Edward had lost a lot of money in Peruvian Bonds but she was not able to verify it. Nor can I. Helen also wrote that Edward was on the Bendigo diggings and that he and Elizabeth were living in View Street, Bendigo at the time of Elizabeth’s death.

I am glad that Helen wrote up her family researches in such detail. Much more information has become available since 1985 and online searching makes the task of finding and gathering information far easier than it was. I am sure she would have enjoyed researching today and verifying what she knew. I look forward to retracing her footsteps in Holywell during our visit to the United Kingdom in May.

St. Winifred’s Well or Holy Well, Flintshire, Wales. Line engraving by G. Hawkins, 1795 Image retrieved through Wikimedia Commons who obtained the file from the Wellcome trust.

Sources

• Hudson, Helen Lesley Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales … who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic, 1985.
• “Liverpool: Churches.” A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4. Eds. William Farrer, and J Brownbill. London: Victoria County History, 1911. 43-52. British History Online. Web. 12 March 2019. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol4/pp43-52.
• ancestry.com  – census records:
  • 1841 census : Class: HO107; Piece: 559; Book: 26; Civil Parish: Liverpool; County: Lancashire; Enumeration District: 35; Folio: 43; Page: 29; Line: 23; GSU roll: 306941
  • 1851 Wales census : Class: HO107; Piece: 2466; Folio: 145; Page: 57; GSU roll: 104215-104217

 

E is for enterprise

One of my fifth great grandfathers was Thomas Plaisted (1777 – 1832), who owned a wine bar in Deptford (I have written before about this, at Plaisteds Wine Bar). Deptford was a dockyard district on the south bank of the River Thames in south-east London.

The Coopers Arms, also known as Plaisteds Wine Bar, in 2008 (photograph from Wikimedia Commons taken by Ewan Munro and uploaded by Oxyman) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 ]

According to my cousin Helen Hudson in “Cherry Stones“, her history of her forebears, Thomas Plaisted was born in Newnham on Severn in west Gloucestershire. His Plaisted ancestors were connected with the village of Castle Combe in Wiltshire. Helen describes an excellent ploughman’s lunch she had there.

Helen’s research was largely based on the work of Arthur Plaisted, who published “The Plaisted Family of North Wilts” in 1939. With the benefit of direct access to many more records and with the power of indexes and digitisation, current family history researchers differ from some of Arthur Plaisted’s conclusions.

Two records of my fifth great grandfather I feel confident about are:

• his marriage to Lydia Wilkes in June 1797 at St Bride’s Church Fleet Street
• his will of 1832 and associated codicil, where he names his wife and children. In the codicil to his will he stated: “I Thomas Plaisted do hereby acknowledge that the house known as the sign of the Coopers Arms Woolwich Kent has been from the taking of the above house and is now the property of my son John Plaisted and I do hereby direct that the Licences be transferred to him or to whom he shall appoint witness my hand this twenty ninth day of May one thousand eight hundred and thirty two”. John Plaisted (1800 – 1858) was my fourth great grandfather who in 1849 emigrated to Australia.

The wine bar survived under different owners to about 2010. According to Google Street View in 2018, the building was is being used as a laundrette. Although it looks Georgian, the facade of the building apparently dates from a renovation in the 1920s. The distinctive lamp may date from the original building.

I don’t know why my 5th great grandfather migrated from Gloucestershire to London, or if in fact it was his parents who migrated. London’s population grew from about three-quarters of a million people in 1760 to 1.1 million people in 1801, when the first reliable census was taken. The Plaisted family were among those migrants to London. Some of London’s population growth was due to reduced infant mortality: by the 1840s children born in the capital were three times less likely to die in childhood than those born in the 1730s. However, population growth attributable to reduced infant mortality was outweighed by increased migration and rising fertility.

Thomas Plaisted ran a successful business, which survived and was run by his descendants for most of the nineteenth century. The building was bought in 1890 by a Mr E.J. Rose, who continued to use it as a wine shop and bar. It changed hands several times in the twentieth century and finally closed about 2010.

Related posts

• Plaisteds Wine Bar
• P is for phthisis (tuberculosis)

Sources

• Hudson, Helen Lesley Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales … who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic, 1985.
• Plaisted, Arthur Henry (The) Plaisted family of North Wilts, with some account of the branches of Berks, Bucks, Somerset, and Sussex. The Westminster publishing co, Westminster, 1939.
• Ancestry.com. England, Select Marriages, 1538–1973  Name: Thomas Plaisted Marriage Date: 10 Jun 1797 Marriage Place: Saint Bride Fleet St, London,England Spouse: Lydia Wilks
• 1832 will of PLAISTED Thomas, Kent, Jul 463 [PROB11/1803 (451-500) pages 100 R&L] transcribed by Jeanette Richmond
• http://www.dover-kent.com/2016-project/Plaisteds-Woolwich.html
• https://www.chrismansfieldphotos.com/RECORDS-of-WOOLWICH/Woolwich-High-st-/i-4RT9wb2
• Clive Emsley, Tim Hitchcock and Robert Shoemaker, “London History – A Population History of London”, Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.0, 04 April 2019 ) retrieved from https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Population-history-of-london.jsp
• Google street view

V is for Valleyfield in Van Diemen’s Land

The first of my forebears to migrate to Australia was my fifth  great grandfather George Taylor (1758 – 1828), who arrived in Tasmania, then known as Van Diemen’s Land, in 1823. With him was his wife Mary née Low (1765 -1850) and some of his family. My fourth great grandmother, his daughter, Isabella Hutcheson née Taylor (1794-1876), followed ten years later, arriving about 1833.

 

“Valleyfield” Epping Tas. The “Taylors” have lived here for over 100 years. , about 1914 – about 1941 Photograph in the collection of the State Library of Victoria. Accession number H22546. A.C. Dreier postcard collection. Retrieved from https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/gid/slv-pic-aab47005

The Taylor family’s arrival in Hobart on the Princess Charlotte on 10 January 1823 was reported in the Sydney Gazette. George Taylor’s son, Robert, wrote a diary about their four-month voyage, mostly concerned with the weather. (Helen Hudson, a Taylor family descendant, covers the Taylor’s voyage in her family history book Cherry Stones, basing her account on Robert’s diary.)

MAGISTRATE FOR THE WEEK—JOHN PIPER, Esq. (1823, February 13). The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 – 1842), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2181641

George Taylor received a grant of land about 30 miles south of Launceston on the Macquarie River. He named his property ‘Valley-Field’. Three of his sons, George, David, and Robert, received grants of land nearby.

The land grant to George Taylor senior signed 30 June 1823 by Governor Brisbane. Image retrieved from ancestry.com (Copies of land grants issued 1804-1823. LSD354. Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, Tasmania, Australia.)

In January 1923 and January 1973 there were large family reunions to celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of the Taylor family in Australia.

After 182 years in the Taylor family the Valleyfield property was sold in 2005.

Further reading

• TASMANIAN FAMILY’S CENTENARY. (1923, January 12). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 – 1954), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23613784
• A more complete family history and full page spread on the reunion appeared on page 2 of the Launceston Examiner: (1923, January 11). Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 – 1954), p. 2 (DAILY). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page3215437
• FAMOUS PASTORAL PROPERTIES: Valleyfield (T) Has Been in the Possession of the Taylor Family Since 1823 (1941, September 13). The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 – 1946), p. 28. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article142144917
• Pioneer family remembers (1973, March 21). The Australian Women’s Weekly (1933 – 1982), p. 88. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51268754
• Hudson, Helen Lesley (1985). Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales … who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic
• Valley field Epping Forest
• Companion to Tasmanian History: The Taylor family

Related posts

• Trove Tuesday: George Taylor (1800 – 1826) killed by aborigines in Tasmania
• Australia Day: Climbing our family’s gum tree

A run on the bank in Beaufort

This week’s Sepia Saturday picture is a prompt for the topic of banking.

There are several bankers in my family tree. One of them is my great great grandfather Edward Walter Hughes (1854-1922).

E. W. Hughes from Hudson, Helen Lesley Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales … who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic, 1985.page 81.

Edward Hughes was manager of the Bank of Victoria at Beaufort, Victoria, 50 km from Ballarat. In 1883 when he married at the age of 29, Hughes was working with the Bank of Victoria, though possibly not, so far as I know, at its Beaufort branch. In 1906 he was manager of the Beaufort branch when his daughter Beatrix, my great grandmother, married. His son Vyvyan was born in Beaufort in 1888 but his son Reginald was born in Essendon, Melbourne, in 1886, so I assume Edward Hughes moved to Beaufort about 1887. He retired from his job of bank manager in Beaufort in 1919 due to ill health.

Bank of Victoria, Beaufort, 1890s – from Museum Victoria Reg. No: MM 001094

In mid-April 1893, while Hughes was manager at Beaufort, there was a run on the bank. The branch at Beaufort ran out of bullion and Mr Hughes travelled to Ballarat by the 2 p.m. train for more gold.

A DEMAND FOR GOLD. (1893, April 14). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article193438039

THE BENDIGO ADVERTISER. (1893, April 15). Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 – 1918), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88966637

When I think of a bank run I think of the scene from the film  of Mary Poppins when Michael wants to keep his tuppence to feed the birds.

There was a report that the bank declined to take deposits from some of their customers who had withdrawn their funds at the time of the run.

The Portland Guardian (1893, April 19). Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 – 1953), p. 2 Edition: EVENING. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65442835

The Beaufort depositors in the Bank of Victoria were right to be wary .  On 28 January 1893 the Federal Bank of Australia in Melbourne had run out of cash and closed. On 4 April the Commercial Bank of Australia, then one of Australia’s largest, suspended operations. Twelve other banks  followed in quick succession and depositors struggled to retrieve their savings.

On Sunday 30 April the Victorian Cabinet met and in an attempt to manage the financial crisis, decided to close all banks for the following week.

The Oxford Companion to Australian History summarises the crisis:

The drying up of British capital inflow after the Baring crisis of 1890 spelt the end of the over-extended financial system. As asset prices fell and borrowers defaulted, the lending institutions came under pressure.The fringe financiers fell first. Eventually, the banks too began to experience financial losses, falling share prices, and panicking depositors. Thirteen of Australia’s 22 banks closed their doors in 1893. All but two reopened within the year. However, all of the survivors had been forced to reconstruct.(page 58)

On 1 May 1893 the Bank of Victoria and other Victorian banks closed their doors for a week.

THE FINANCIAL CRISIS. (1893, May 2). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 5. Retrieved  from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article193419212

The Bank of Victoria re-opened at 2.30 on Wednesday 3 May. (SITUATION IN MELBOURNE. (1893, May 4). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article193417046)

On 12 May the shareholders and depositors of the Bank of Victoria approved a scheme of reconstruction. (THE BANK OF VICTORIA. (1893, May 13). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 15. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article193419451 LARGE MEETING OF DEPOSITORS. (1893, May 13). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 15. Retrieved  from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article193419452)

E. W. Hughes retired in 1919 aged 65. He died in 1922 in Melbourne.

What People are Saying and Doing. (1919, November 13). Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic. : 1885 – 1939), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146472785

I had trouble identifying the building of the former Beaufort Bank of Victoria. In the twentieth century the building, in Havelock Street, was converted to a Masonic Hall. A parapet was added incorporating the Masonic device of a square and set of compasses.  The building has since been subdivided into three flats and sold.

16 Havelock Street Beaufort from Google street view as at February 2010

The Bank of Victoria merged with the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney in 1927. The CBC merged with the National Australia Bank in 1982.

Sources

• Hudson, Helen Lesley Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales … who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic, 1985.
• Foster, S. G. (Stephen Glynn), 1948-, Aplin, G. J. (Graeme John) and McKernan, Michael, 1945- Australians, events and places. Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, N.S.W, 1987.  
• Davison, Graeme, 1940-, Macintyre, Stuart, 1947- and Hirst, J. B. (John Bradley), 1942- The Oxford companion to Australian history. Oxford University Press, Melbourne ; Oxford, 1999. 
  
• Wikipedia contributors, “Australian banking crisis of 1893,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_banking_crisis_of_1893 (accessed August 14, 2015). 

Related posts

• K is for Kanatte General Cemetery in Colombo concerning Vyvyan, son of E. W. Hughes, who was born in Beaufort and grew up there. Vyvyan died during World War 1.
• Wednesday Wedding : 11 September 1906 de Crespigny and Hughes  the wedding of Beatrix, only daughter of E. W. Hughes, at Beaufort
• The Bank of Victoria in Collins Street concerning another of my great great grandfathers, Philip de Crespigny, who also worked for the Bank of Victoria

52 ancestors: 1839 arrival in Australia of Samuel Proudfoot Hawkins (1819-1867)

This year I will be taking part in the 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge initiated by Amy Johnson Crow. “The challenge: have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor.”

I have written before about Samuel Proudfoot Hawkins (1819-1867), who was my great great great grandfather. He arrived in Australia just over 175 years ago.

Cherry stones p. 44  “Probably an engagement photograph, but certainly of Jeanie and Samuel Hawkins taken about 1849.”

In 1839, when he was only twenty, Samuel Hawkins, ‘occupation storekeeper’, sailed from Greenock near Glasgow to Port Phillip (Melbourne), in the colony of New South Wales on the David Clark, the first ship to sail there directly with migrants from the United Kingdom. Hawkins travelled by himself. His eldest brother, Robert, and cousin, Thomas, had previously settled in New South Wales.¹

The David Clark in 1820 coming into the harbour of Malta – image from http://members.iinet.net.au/~pymble/David%20Clark/DavidClark.html

In 1839 the David Clark was chartered to bring the first bounty immigrants from Scotland to Melbourne. She left Greenock on 15 June 1839 with a piper, John Arthur, who was later first curator of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, playing Lochaber No More.²

The voyage was via Rio de Janeiro and the David Clark arrived at Port Phillip, Melbourne on 27 October, 1839.³

from the Caledonian Mercury 15 June 1839 page 3 retrieved through findmypast.com.au

As the Yarra at that time was unnavigable for a ship the size of the David Clark, the passengers were landed in boats at Sandridge (now Port Melbourne), the women being carried ashore by the sailors and men. Then came a long walk across the ti-tree flats and sandhills over what is now known as Fishermans Bend, Emerald Hill, (now South Melbourne) to the Queens Falls where they crossed the Yarra. Their chattels were brought on by dray and bullock wagon.⁴

 

Adamson, John (1841). MELBOURNE (Port Phillip). Lithograph similar to an engraving “Melbourne from the South Side of the Yarra Yarra 1839” Retrieved from the  State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/87604

Landing at Melbourne 1840, watercolour by W. F. E. Liardet. Original held by the State Library of Victoria. Image retreived from Wikimedia Commons.

In 1839 Port Phillip had a population of about 4,000 European settlers. The settlement on the banks of the Yarra River had commenced in 1835. It was named Melbourne in 1837.⁵

The Launceston Advertiser gave an account of the first experiences of the new immigrants to Port Phillip. After the five month voyage, the 229 immigrants were accommodated in tents, a temporary refuge set up by Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe. Most of the men and all of the women found employment immediately. On the evening of their arrival they danced in the open under the moonlight to the sound of bagpipes. Later that night they went to see a corroboree being held about a mile away.

PORT PHILLIP PAPERS—To Nov. 9th. (1839, November 21). Launceston Advertiser (Tas. : 1829 – 1846), p. 1 Supplement: SUPPLEMENT.. Retrieved January 5, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article84756256

In October 1839 Samuel Proudfoot Hawkins was employed by the surveyor Robert Russell.

State Records Authority of New South Wales; Kingswood New South Wales, Australia; Persons on bounty ships arriving at Port Phillip (Agent’s Immigrant Lists); Series: 5318; Reel: 2143A; Item: [4/4813]. Retrieved through ancestry.com.au. Samuel Hawkins is passenger 13 in the list of single men.
……….

Notes
<sup>1. Hudson, Helen Lesley Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales … who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic, 1985. p. 38
Janson, Elizabeth. “They Came by the David Clark in 1839.” In Victoria before 1848. OoCities.org, 1999. retrieved 04 Nov. 2013. <http://www.oocities.org/vic1847/ship/david39.html>. ↩
2. PIONEER VOYAGE MEMORIES. (1939, October 26). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 6. Retrieved January 5, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11231997 ↩
3. THE LABOUR SHORTAGE WAS DESPERATE —IN 1839. (1950, June 17). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 26 Supplement: Weekend Magazine. Retrieved January 5, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22836148
Pymble, Lance. “David Clark.” 1 Oct. 2009. Web. 4 Jan. 2015. <http://members.iinet.net.au/~pymble/David Clark/DavidClark.html>. ↩
4 Ward, Andrew. Port Phillip Heritage Review Version 15. Vol. 1., 2011. p. 16. Issuu. City of Port Phillip, 2011. Web. 05 Jan. 2015. <http://issuu.com/copponline/docs/120815015045-783dc9e9e1e044da8708329c8365cf4d/16>. ↩
5. “1830s Melbourne Named and Settled.” Immigration to Victoria – a Timeline. Museum Victoria, 15 Feb. 2011. Web. 5 Jan. 2015. <http://museumvictoria.com.au/discoverycentre/websites-mini/immigration-timeline/1830s/>. ↩</sup>

P is for phthisis (tuberculosis)

My fourth great grandfather (4*great) John Plaisted (1800-1858) died of phthisis, more commonly known as tuberculosis.

In early colonial days the disease was a part of daily life and few families were lucky enough to avoid it. There was no cure. The usual medical advice was a move to a warm, dry climate, a nutritious, nourishing diet, and complete rest. 

According to the 1841 census, John Plaisted was a wine merchant in Camberwell, Surrey, England. But in 1847 he sold his business and retired to South Devon.  In 1849 he sailed to Australia on the Rajah arriving in Adelaide in 1850 with his wife, six children and his sister-in-law. His wife’s brother and sister had already emigrated to Adelaide. Although we don’t know for sure, it seems quite possible that he came to Australia as the climate would be better for his health. (Hudson, Helen Lesley (1985). Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales … who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic. Page 58)

Adelaide was recommended as a good climate for tuberculosis sufferers. Charles Hill, for example, who emigrated to Adelaide in 1854, came in the hope the climate would be beneficial.  (Goldsworthy, Kerryn (2011). Adelaide. NewSouth Publishing, Sydney page 68 retrieved from Google books http://books.google.com.au/books?id=567RCN4BIoMC&pg=PA68)

The Plaisted family moved to Melbourne. They were living at 100 Collins Street when John finally succumbed to his illness.

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium. The most common type is an infection of the lungs.  A common symptom is a persistent cough and later coughing up blood.  The patient loses his appetite and then weight. Other symptoms include a high temperature, night sweats and extreme tiredness. Tuberculosis was a slow killer; patients could waste away for years.

Tuberculosis was often seen as a romantic disease. In 1821 most famously the poet John Keats died aged 25. In 1828 Lord Byron wrote  “I should like to die of consumption. The ladies would all say, ‘Look at that poor Byron, how interesting he looks in dying!”

John Keats in his Last Illness, engraved after the sketch by Joseph Severn, from the book The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, May to October, 1883 By Joseph Arthur Palliser Severn 1842-1931 image retrieved from http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/8684451/8684451/

The graph below shows that the death rate from tuberculosis was 4,000 deaths per 1 million people in 1838 fell to around 3,000 per million in 1850. In the 1800s nearly a quarter of all deaths were due to tuberculosis. In Australia in the late nineteenth century tuberculosis was the leading cause of death, “20 times deadlier per capita than all cancer conditions today put together.” In Australia there are still about 1,200 cases each year but it is relatively under control. However, worldwide 1.7 million people still die of the disease each year. (Britton, Warwick. “TB in Australia.” Infectious Diseases. Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology, 14 Apr. 2014. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. <http://www.centenary.org.au/p/ourresearch/infectious/tuberculosis/TB_in_Australia/>.)

Graph of Death rates from respiratory tuberculosis in England and Wales from Integrating nutrition into programmes of primary health care, Food and Nutrition Bulletin Volume 10, Number 4, 1988 (United Nations University Press, 1988, 74 p.) retrieved from http://preview.tinyurl.com/lyodwzf  “Death rates from respiratory tuberculosis in England and Wales shows the fall in tuberculosis in England and Wales before BCG or therapies such as isoniazid and streptomycin were available. Similar declines were observed for the other common infectious diseases. McKeown concludes that improvement in food supplies and nutrition is the only reasonable explanation for these declines in mortality. Similar trends are occurring in developing countries today in areas in which some nutritional improvement has occurred despite little or no access to medical services.”

Other blog entries about the Plaisted family  and their relations:

• Tabitha Plaisted 1806 – 1891
• The Green family in Australia

Family stories

LIn the fifth week of Shauna Hicks’s series of blog posts about genealogical records the topic is family stories.

Before we had computer databases, family history was largely passed down by stories.  For example, my mother-in-law had a very clear idea of who her forebears were for several generations and was able to give brief outlines of their lives for ancestors back to the early nineteenth century from the top of her head. I have been able to verify the family history with records, and what she set out for me from memory was remarkably accurate.

On my side of the family, several relations have written family history books thereby preserving many family stories.

My father wrote Champions of Normandy which covers the early history of the Champion de Crespigny family to the time they migrated to England at the end of the seventeenth century.  Among other documents, it is based on a number of manuscripts held by different family members, as well as the registration of the family with the College of Arms in 1697. (de Crespigny, Rafe Champions in Normandy: being some remarks on the early history of the Champion de Crespigny family. R. de Crespigny, Canberra, 1988.)

My third cousin twice removed, Stephen de Crespigny, has gathered an enormous amount of family history. He collected information, documents and stories, but also had drawn up a comprehensive family tree in the early 1990s.

One of the three sheets of the Champion de Crespigny family tree compiled by Stephen de Crespigny

 

Helen Hudson née  Hughes (1915 – 2005) my first cousin twice removed, was an enthusiastic family historian.  She compiled a book, Cherry Stones,  covering her forebears (which coincide with my father’s father’s mother’s family). I have found it a useful resource and am very pleased she wrote it.  It was published in 1985 and is an amazing effort considering she too had no computer database or access to the material we now have through the internet.  Helen’s father Reginald Hawkins Hughes (1886 – 1971), brother of my great grandmother, had collected papers and paraphernalia of his ancestors and kept it in what she called a “tin trunk” which Helen inherited.  The book has much original material such as transcriptions of early letters. (Hudson, Helen Lesley Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales … who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic, 1985.)

My great great great grandfather Philip Chauncy wrote  memoirs of his sister and his second wife.  These were republished in 1976. (Chauncy, Philip Lamothe Snell Memoirs of Mrs Poole and Mrs Chauncy. Lowden, Kilmore, Vic, 1976.) The State Library of Victoria also holds a manuscript of his journal of his trip to Australia and other family history and biographical notes he made.

My Great grand uncle James Gordon Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1865 – 1938) wrote a history of the Mainwaring family back to the entry of Whitmore estate in the Domesday Book of 1068. (Cavenagh-Mainwaring, James Gordon The Mainwarings of Whitmore and Biddulph in the County of Stafford. An account of the family, and its connections by marriage and descent; with special reference to the Manor of Whitmore. J.G. Cavenagh-Mainwaring, about 1935.) The estate of Whitmore where my cousins now live has never been sold since the entry in the Domesday book but always been transferred through inheritance, albeit sometimes through the female line.

More recently the wife of my father’s cousin, Christine Cavenagh-Mainwaring, has produced an updated  history of Whitmore and the family. (Cavenagh-Mainwaring, Christine and Britton, Heather, (editor.) Whitmore Hall : from 1066 to Waltzing Matilda. Adelaide Peacock Publications, 2013. ) I was very pleased to be given a copy of the book by Guy and Christine when I saw them in Adelaide last month.

Christine provides an update on what happened to Gerald Mainwaring (1854 – ?) though she also has not been able to trace what happened to him eventually.  My blog entry deals with him being tried for murder but he was not hanged as the jury effectively cast a ballot to decide his fate. His sentence was commuted to penal servitude. Apparently he was released on licence on May 16, 1894. The family story is that Gerald made his way to Whitmore where his brother Percy (1857 – 1927), the Rector of Whitmore, would not let him into the house, gave him a five pound note and an overcoat and sent him away.  Perhaps Gerald changed his name and returned to Canada. There seems no record of him after that time.

There are lots of other family stories in Christine’s book to follow up on and to research further.

In the 1990s James Kenneth Cudmore (1926 – 2013), my second cousin once removed, of Quirindi New South Wales, commissioned Elsie Ritchie to write the Cudmore family history. The work built on the family history efforts of many family members.  It was published in 2000.  It is a very large and comprehensive work and includes many many Cudmore family stories. (Ritchie, Elsie B. (Elsie Barbara) For the love of the land: the history of the Cudmore family. E. Ritchie, [Ermington, N.S.W.], 2000.)

A collection of family history books.

 

Emma Rothschild, a Professor of History at Harvard University, has studied the Johnstone family in a scholarly history of the eighteenth century in order to gain an insight into the development of the British Empire.  Barbara Johnstone (1723 – 1765) was my sixth great grandmother and it is she and her siblings who are the subject of this book. The source material included the oldest brother’s letter book which was in an Edinburgh library. (Rothschild, Emma The inner life of empires : an eighteenth-century history. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. ; Woodstock, 2011.  Book review: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-inner-life-of-empires-by-emma-rothschild-2347490.html)

Among other stories, I learned from the book that in 1759 Barbara separated from her husband Charles Kinnaird (1723 – 1767). He had succeeded to the barony in the peerage of Scotland as 6th Lord Kinnaird in 1758. Barbara awarded £130 per year and £100 pounds for furniture. She did not have access to her children. Her husband stated she had committed no crime other than ill nature.

Barbara, Baroness Kinnaird by Allan Ramsay, 1748 portrait retrieved from http://thepeerage.com/p3036.htm . Barbara Johnstone was the daughter of Sir James Johnstone, 3rd Bt. and Barbara Murray. She married Charles Kinnaird, 6th Baron Kinnaird, son of George Kinnaird and Lady Helen Gordon. She died on 21 October 1765

It is a bit intimidating when so much family history has been written to attempt one’s own study.  However, I have found plenty more family history to research while enjoying the stories published by others.

 

Trove Tuesday: Samuel Proudfoot Hawkins

TABLE TALK. (1867, April 29). Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser (Vic. : 1842 – 1876), p. 2 Edition: EVENING. Retrieved November 3, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64637763 TABLE TALK. (1867, May 6). Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser (Vic. : 1842 – 1876), p. 2 Edition: EVENING. Retrieved October 29, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64637812

Samuel Proudfoot Hawkins (1819–1867), born on 30 April 1819 at Dumfries, Scotland to Robert Hawkins (1770–1841) and Penelope Hawkins née Carruthers (1765–1845), was my great great great grandfather.

In 1839, when he was only twenty, Samuel Hawkins, ‘occupation storekeeper’, sailed from Edinburgh to Port Phillip on the David Clark, the first ship to sail there directly with immigrants from the United Kingdom.   He travelled without any immediate relatives. His eldest brother, Robert, and cousin, Thomas, had previously settled in New South Wales. (Hudson, Helen Lesley Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales … who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic, 1985. p. 38) (Janson, Elizabeth. “They Came by the David Clark in 1839.” In Victoria before 1848. OoCities.org, 1999. retrieved 04 Nov. 2013. <http://www.oocities.org/vic1847/ship/david39.html>.)

In 1841, within three years of Samuel’s arrival, an S.P. Hawkins is listed as a land surveyor, with offices in Lonsdale Street, in Kerr’s Melbourne Almanac and Port Phillip Directory. (http://members.optushome.com.au/lenorefrost/kerr.html )  He appears to have begun his land surveying career working for Robert Russell, the first surveyor of Melbourne.

From Melbourne Samuel moved to the Western District, first to Portland and then to Melville Forest, near Coleraine. (pdf of Victorian Heritage database listing for Melville Forest homestead complex  vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/reports/report_place/23456 )
In 1849, at the age of thirty, Samuel married Jeanie Hutcheson (1824 – 1864).  Jeanie’s three brothers had also settled in the Portland district.

Cherry stones p. 44  “Probably an engagement photograph, but certainly of Jeanie and Samuel Hawkins taken about 1849.”

 Samuel wrote to his brother James in 1849

I know not whether in my last letter I acquainted you with my changed condition of life from the single to the married. To describe who and what She is is impossible to be intelligibble. Her name is Jeanie Hutcheson, the sister of 3 respectable settlers on the Glenelg River and with this introduction, seasoned by my love and esteem, I beg to introduce her to your notice and remembrance (Cherry Stones p. 43.)

They had eight children.  In 1864, after an illness of seventeen days, Jeanie died “disease of stomach and liver” and the complications of a miscarriage.  She was 40 years old. Their children were aged from two to fifteen years.

• Isabella Hawkins (1849 – 1916)
• Penelope Bell Hawkins (1851 – 1898)
• Robert James Hawkins (1853 – 1854) 
• Robert James Hawkins (1854 – 1893) 
• Georgina Hawkins (1856 – 1944) 
• David Hawkins (1858 – 1922) 
• Janet “Jessie” Hawkins (1860 – 1944)
• Jeanie Hawkins (1862 – 1941) (my great great grandmother)

Cherry Stones p. 46.

In 1865 Samuel married Mary Adamson (1843 – 1908), governess of his children. They had two children. The first died in infancy and the second was born on 23 July 1867, just over three months after Samuel’s death on 22 April 1867.

• Mary Hawkins (1866 – 1866) 
• Samuel Melville Hawkins (1867 – 1947)

Samuel Proudfoot Hawkins’s death certificate states he died of delerium tremens and exhaustion after an illness of one week. He was 47 years old. (Victoria Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages; death certificate 5050/1867)

Delirium tremens can occur when you stop drinking alcohol after a period of heavy drinking, especially if you do not eat enough food. Delirium tremens may also be caused by head injury, infection, or illness in people with a history of heavy alcohol use. It is most common in people who have a history of alcohol withdrawal. It is especially common in those who drink 4 – 5 pints of wine or 7 – 8 pints of beer (or 1 pint of “hard” alcohol) every day for several months. Delirium tremens also commonly affects people who have had an alcohol habit or alcoholism for more than 10 years. (Dugdale, David C., III MD. “Delirium Tremens.” MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 20 Mar. 2011. retrieved 04 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000766.htm>.)

Today delirium tremens, which is sometimes fatal, is usually treated in hospital. Symptoms include body tremors, changes in mental function such as hallucinations, confusion and restlessness, and seizures. (MedlinePlus)

Samuel’s grave is in Portland North Cemetery, where he is buried with his first wife and their infant son  Robert James Hawkins (1853-1854).  His second wife died at Kyneton in 1908.

Probate was granted on the estate of Samuel Hawkins, Esquire of Melville Forest Station on 4 July 1867.  His estate was estimated to be valued at £14,000.  (Probate files held by Public Record Office of Victoria reference 6/328)  Today the value of his estate is in the order of $2 million up to nearly $13 million; the lower value is based on the changes in the retail price index and the higher value on the changes in average earnings. (Using the conversion calculator at http://www.measuringworth.com which is based on shifts in purchasing power of British pounds).

Wednesday Wedding : 11 September 1906 de Crespigny and Hughes

My great grandparents Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882 – 1952) and Beatrix Hughes (1884 -1943) were married 107 years ago today.

Family Notices. (1906, October 24). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 1. Retrieved September 11, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9656721

When looking at the material on Vida Goldstein yesterday, I noticed that a wedding picture was included in the collection donated by Leslie Henderson who was the young bridesmaid.  The other attendants were Miss Edith Minchin (Beaufort) and Miss M. L. Hamilton (Ballarat). Mr George Perry, of Melbourne, was best man, and Mr Balcombe Beggs and Dr. Dunhill were the groomsmen.

From the State Library of Victoria, item donated by L. Henderson http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/241952

 The book Cherry Stones by Helen Hudson includes a copy of the wedding invitation and a transcription of a long newspaper article on the wedding detailing the wedding and the presents. ( Hudson, Helen Lesley (1985). Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales … who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic  pages 84-7)

Wedding  – Dr TRENT CH. de CRESPIGNY TO MISS B. HUGHES
(newspaper was not specified)

Trove Tuesday: Vida Mary Jane Goldstein (1869 – 1949)

Vida Goldstein (1869 – 1949) was my first cousin three times removed and stood for the Senate in 1903, 110 years ago. Although she was not elected, she was the first woman in Australia to stand for election to the Federal parliament and one of four women who were the first in the British Empire to be nominated and to stand for election to a national parliament. She was also a key campaigner for the vote for women in Victoria.  She has an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography and also on Trove. (Janice N. Brownfoot, ‘Goldstein, Vida Jane (1869–1949)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.  Retrieved September 10, 2013, from http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/goldstein-vida-jane-6418/text10975) (Goldstein, Vida (1869-1949). (2008). In Trove. Retrieved September 10, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-599050)

Vida was a relative from my Hughes branch and I first learned of the family connection through Helen Hudson née Hughes (1915 – 2005) who enjoyed researching the family history and wrote a book, Cherry Stones, which I have found tremendously useful in following up on her research. ( Hudson, Helen Lesley (1985). Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales … who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic )

 

Vida was the daughter of Isabella née Hawkins (1849 – 1916) and Jacob Goldstein (1839 – 1910). Isabella was the sister of my great great grandmother Jeanie (1862 – 1941) who married Edward Walter Hughes.

 

Last weekend’s election prompted me to search for mentions of Vida’s political career.  She has been the subject of several books and I have come across a memorial mentioning her name at Parliament House in Canberra.  When researching Avoca at the time of World War 1, I noted that as a candidate at that time only four people voted for her from Avoca; but then again she had not visited the town to campaign.

In 1903 her campaign for the senate received wide coverage.  Trove newspaper search has 353 items in its newspaper database for 1903.  The coverage is across Australia, not only in Victoria; newspapers as far afield as Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, Broken Hill, New South Wales, and Brisbane, Queensland reporting on her campaign.

Meetings were well attended and usually reported on at length with details of the speeches and questions to the candidate.  Here is a short report of a meeting at Echuca in northern Victoria.  It is a small town but she had an audience estimated at 600 to 700.

THE SENATE. (1903, December 11). Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 – 1918), p. 3. Retrieved September 10, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article89494011

Vida gained more than 50,000 votes and ranked 15th out of 18 candidates for the four senate seats.

THE SENATE. (1903, December 22). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 5. Retrieved September 10, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10589115

Vida spoke about the aftermath of the election:
 

A LADY CANDIDATE’S OPINION. (1903, December 24). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1931), p. 5. Retrieved September 10, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5025504

 

My search on Trove found a picture of her I had not seen before.

 

The image is from the collection of the State Library of Victoria. Their catalogue entry: 

• Title: Miles Franklin [and] Vida Goldstein [picture]
• Publisher: ca. 1900-ca. 1920 
• Date(s): 1900 
• Description: photograph : gelatin silver ; oval image 6 x 4 cm., on double mount 18 x 14 cm. 
• Copyright status: This work is out of copyright 
• Terms of use: No copyright restrictions apply. 
• Identifier(s): Accession no(s) H42756; H42756a 
• Subjects: Goldstein, Vida, 1869-1949 ; Franklin, Stella Maria Sarah Miles, 1879-1954 ; Feminists — Australia ; Gelatin silver prints ; Group portraits
• Index terms: Australia; women’s movement; suffragettes; feminists; authors; Miles Franklin; Viva Goldstein [sic]
• Notes: Title inscribed on mount l.l. and l.r. 
  Detailed view digitised. 
  Miles Franklin was born in Tumut, N.S.W.; published My Brilliant Career 1901; involved with feminist movement; left for the U.S.A. 1906; returned to Australia 1927; died 1954. 
  Vida Goldstein was born in Portland, Victoria 1869; became involved with suffragette movement; ran for the Australian Senate 1903; addressed the United States Congress in 1902; died 1949. 
• Contents/Summary: Miles Franklin is half-length, to right, Vida Goldstein standing behind her. 
• Source/Donor: Donated by Miss Jean Robinson, 1980. 
• Link to digitised item: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/136880 
• Link to this record: http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=MAIN&reset_config=true&docId=SLV_VOYAGER1787491 

I did not previously know of any connection with Miles Franklin, an author whose works I enjoy very much and who came from areas around Canberra which I used to visit often (Brindabella, Tumut, Goulburn, Talbingo). I also wonder of the connection with Jean Robinson, I am not sure who she is, a puzzle for another day.

 

Exploring further in the State Library’s collection I found more items which I must research further to explore this branch of my family. Included were these photos:

Group of people at river, including Vida Goldstein 1885 – 1892. Vida Goldstein – left foreground, holding stick. Col. Goldstein [Vida’s father] – seated in centre with a little girl on his knee. I [presumably Leslie Henderson, donor of the photograph] do not know who she is. George Reid – extreme right, standing. From the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/242093

Vida Goldstein at a picnic, probably at Lorne. Vida is second from right in front row holding a paper & with a billy in front of her. The donor of the photograph, Vida’s niece, Leslie Henderson (1896 – 1982) did not know any of the other people in the photograph. From the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/242166

There are many more items for me to follow up in the State Library’s collections when I get a chance.