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Category Archives: 52 ancestors

1919 influenza epidemic through my grandmother’s eyes

24 Monday Feb 2020

Posted by Anne Young in 52 ancestors, illness and disease, Kathleen, Through her eyes, Trove

≈ 10 Comments

The COVID-19 outbreak of recent months has been more than adequately destructive and frightening, but the influenza epidemic that followed World War 1 was far worse. In South Australia its progress was recorded in an odd way by my grandmother Kathleen Cudmore (1908-2013), the daughter of an Adelaide doctor.

In 1919, just eleven years old, she composed a hand-written newsletter called ‘Stuffed Notes’ [sic. I think because her toys were stuffed animals], about an imaginary hospital which had many cases of Spanish flu. On 14 March 2018 I blogged a transcription of her newsletter. Oddly enough, or perhaps not, the ebb and flow of cases of influenza she recorded in her newsletter follow much the same pattern as South Australian cases as a whole.

Kathleen and Rosemary

Kathleen and her older sister Rosemary about 1919

Stuffed Notes
StuffedNotes1
StuffedNotes2

 

Looking just at the mentions of Influenza (my transcription retains the original spelling and grammar)

February: There has been one case of influenza which was fatal. But we are glad to say no more cases have been proved influenza.

March: No more cases of Enfluenza have accured.

April: There has been one more case of Influenza. But he is recovering.

May: The are 8 cases of Influenza 2 deaths and 3 dangious cases all the rest are getting better.

June: Five cases of Influenza have accured 1 death and 2 dangirus the other two a getting better the outbreak of Influenza is very bad at present.

July: There are 10 cases of Influenza 3 deaths and 5 dangrous cases. Nurse Wagga is ill with Influenza so Nurse Sambo is taking her place. … Nurse Wagga is is not so very dangious but she is fairly bad.

August: Influenza
Cases = 12
Deaths = 4
Dangious = 3
Mild = 5

Nurse Wagga is quite well now and has gone away for a Holiday a Henly Beach.

We are not removing the Influenza cases to the Isolation Hospital at the Exhibition. As we heard the conditions are not very good.

September: There a five cases of Influenza but they are all recovering.

October: There were no deaths lately and most of the dangerous cases are getting better.

November: No more cases of Influenza have accrued.

Here is a graph of the number of influenza cases in Kathleen’s hospital:

Stuffed Notes Influenza graph

Here is a graph of South Australian influenza cases:

Influenza South Australian notifications 1919

Graph of South Australia influenza notifications, January–December 1919 from Kako, M., Steenkamp, M., Rokkas, P.J., Anikeeva, O. and Arbon, P.A. (2015). Spanish influenza of 1918-19: The extent and spread in South Australia. Australasian Epidemiologist, 22(1) pp. 48-54 Retrieved from the Flinders Academic Commons: http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/dspace/

I once thought that Kathleen’s “Stuffed Notes” had their origin in dinner-time conversation among the adults of her household, but recently I noticed that in early 1919 her father Dr Cudmore had not yet returned from the War, so the dinner conversation was not based on hospital information at the beginning of the year. Perhaps Kathleen followed Adelaide newspaper reports of the local outbreak.

Influenza South Australian newspaper articles 1919

1919 South Australian newspaper articles mentioning influenza by month (retrieved from Trove.nla.gov.au)

Mary Cudmore née Nihill (1811 – 1893)

20 Thursday Feb 2020

Posted by Anne Young in 52 ancestors, Adelaide, Cudmore, Limerick, Nihill, Tasmania, Through her eyes

≈ 1 Comment

My third great grandmother Mary Cudmore née Nihill (1811 – 1893) was born near Adare, County Limerick, Ireland, to Daniel James Nihill (1761 – 1846) and Dymphna Nihill née Gardiner (1790 – 1866). Mary was the oldest of their eight children, seven of whom were girls.

Mary Cudmore nee Nihill

Mary Cudmore née Nihill probably photographed in the 1850s

For some period, Mary’s father Daniel James Nihill, was employed as a schoolmaster at Cahirclough (Caherclogh), Upper Connello, about ten miles south of Adare. Daniel’s father James owned a large stone farmhouse near Adare called ‘Rockville’. Daniel and his family lived with James Nihill and cared for him until his death in 1835. The house and its associated estate, Barnalicka, were then passed to the daughters of Daniel’s older brother Patrick Nihill (died 1822).

[Rockville House, now known as Barnalick House, operates as bed-and-breakfast tourist accommodation.]

91c24-rockville001

On 15 January 1835 Mary married Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore who was from a village near Cahirclough, called Manister.

The Limerick Chronicle of 24 January 1835 reported the marriage:

At Drehedtarsna Church, in this County, by the Rev. S. Lennard, Daniel Cudmore, Esq. son of the late Patrick Cudmore, of Manister, Esq. to Mary, eldest daughter of Daniel Nihill, of Rockville, near Adare, Esq.

The Cudmores were poorer than the Nihills. Daniel’s parents had separated and his father had died in 1827 . About 1822 their mother, a Quaker, sent Daniel and his older brother Milo to be educated by fellow Quakers in Essex, England. In 1830, when Milo finished his apprenticeship to a baker and flour dealer, Daniel and Milo returned to Ireland.

Daniel seems not to have trained for a trade, but his mother found a position for him with John Abell, a family friend, who ran a hardware store in Rutland Street, Limerick. There he gained a working knowledge of the hardware business, which perhaps proved useful to him in his later career.

In January 1834 Daniel Cudmore sought permission to emigrate as an assisted immigrant to New South Wales, proposing that he would undertake to ‘explore the interior of New Holland’. His application was turned down. A newspaper notice in the Freemans’ Journal of 15 April 1834 made it clear that assisted emigration was available only to young and married agricultural labourers who intended to take their wives and families with them.

Daniel had known Mary Nihill for a some time. In 1833 he wrote a poem to her:

To Mis N—-l
Dear Mary, since thy beaming eye
First raised within my heart a sigh –
Since first thy tender accents clear,
More sweet than music, charm’d my ear,
My heart beat but for thee, love.

This heart which once so blythe and gay,
Ne’er owned before Love’s gentle sway,
Now bound by Cupid’s magic spell!
O! Words would fail were I to tell
The half I felt for thee, love.

Though far from Erin’s vales I stray’d,
I never met so fond a maid;
Though England’s fair ones vaunt their gold,
With all their wealth their hearts are cold –
I leave them all for thee, love.

And should Australia be my lot,
To dwell in some secluded spot,
Content and free from want and care,
Would’st then my humble fortune share? –
My hopes all rest on thee, love!

The handwritten original is in the possession of one of my cousins. It appears that ‘Australia’ in the last verse was added well after its composition. This suggests that Daniel had decided to emigrate but had not yet decided where.

In 1835, as Mary’s grandfather James Nihill approached the end of his life, Daniel Nihill, perhaps recognising that he could have no expectations, and with little to keep him in Ireland, decided to emigrate to Australia. By their marriage, Mary and Daniel Cudmore qualified for assistance. On 11 February 1835 they left on the “John Denniston” for Hobart Town. Mary’s mother and two of her sisters travelled with them.

Six months later, after the death of Daniel’s father James in July, Daniel Nihill and Mary’s other sisters followed.

On his arrival in Hobart Daniel Cudmore applied for a teaching position. However, a review of his application found that it was not written by himself. Mary had written the document on his behalf. Nevertheless, such was the shortage of trained people, Daniel was engaged as a teacher and clerk at Ross, in the Midlands, seventy miles north of Hobart.

On 22 July 1836 Mary gave birth to her first child, a daughter called Dymphna Maria, at George Town, where Mary’s parents were teachers. George Town was a small settlement on the Tamar River thirty miles north of Launceston.

By the end of 1836, however, Daniel had moved back to Hobart, where he found work at De Graves Brewery, later to be known as Cascade Brewery.

A year later Daniel and Mary decided to try their luck in Adelaide, which had been proclaimed a colony on 28 December 1836. Daniel arrived on 15 April 1837. Mary, leaving her 14 month old daughter in the care of her mother, travelled on the “Siren” from Launceston to Adelaide with her father and sister Rebekah. Mary was pregnant, and on 11 October 1837 gave birth prematurely to a son, James Francis, on the “Siren” off Kangaroo Island.

On 3 December 1837 visitors from England, who were friends of Daniel’s mother Jane, called on the Cudmores. They wrote:

… at a hut we saw an elderly man sitting at the door, reading, we found it was the dwelling of Daniel Cudmore, son of Jane Cudmore of Ireland…and the old man was his father-in-law. D. Cudmore has greatly improved his prospects temporally by removing from Tasmania, where he was an assistant in the undesirable business of a brewer; he is here occupied in erecting Terra Pisa buildings and both himself and his wife are much respected.

Cudmore Daniel and Mary

Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore and his wife Mary probably taken in the 1850s

Daniel acquired his first block of land in North Adelaide in December 1837. By 1838 he was a partner in a new brewing company. Daniel farmed at Modbury, ten miles north-east of the main Adelaide settlement. In 1847 he inherited property in Ireland. This he sold to take up a pastoral lease in South Australia. In the 1850s and 1860s he acquired more pastoral leases in Queensland and New South Wales. Mary Cudmore appears to have had an active involvement in the management of the Cudmore properties. In 1868, for example, it was she who gave the instructions for the sale of a farm called Yongalain 1868.

Beside the two children mentioned above Mary Cudmore had 7 more:

  • Mary Jane Cudmore 1839–1912
  • Margaret Alice Cudmore 1842–1871
  • Daniel Henry Cashel Cudmore 1844–1913
  • Sara Elizabeth (Rosy) Cudmore 1846–1930
  • Robert Cudmore 1848–1849
  • Milo Robert Cudmore 1852–1913
  • Arthur Frederick Cudmore 1854–1919
Mary Cudmore nee Nihill AGSA

Mary Cudmore née Nihill (1811-1893): portrait in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia donated by her grandson Collier Cudmore

In 1862 Daniel Cudmore bought and extended a villa in the Adelaide Hills
at Claremont, Glen Osmond, five miles south-east of the city. There he
retired with Mary. Daniel died in 1891, she in 1893. They were buried in
the Anglican cemetery at Mitcham. In his retirement he had published a
volume of poetry, including the poem he wrote to Mary in 1833.

Claremont, Glen Osmond

The Advertiser TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1893. (1893, March 7). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25351396
The Advertiser TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1893. (1893, March 7). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1931), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25351396
Grave of Daniel and Mary Cudmore Mitcham (St Michaels Anglican) Cemetery
Grave of Daniel and Mary Cudmore Mitcham (St Michaels Anglican) Cemetery
Grave of Daniel and Mary Cudmore Mitcham (St Michaels Anglican) Cemetery
Grave of Daniel and Mary Cudmore Mitcham (St Michaels Anglican) Cemetery

The theme of this week’s post is ‘prosperity’. It is pleasing to suppose that beside Daniel and Mary’s material success, they prospered as a couple, joined together, through richer and poorer, for fifty-six years.

Related posts

  • Portraits of Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore and his wife Mary in the Art Gallery of South Australia
  • H is for the Cudmore family arrival in Hobart in 1835
  • Q is for questing in Queensland

Sources

  • 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 Cudmore family stories and transcripts of letters and documents. (Ritchie, Elsie B. (Elsie Barbara) For the love of the land: the history of the Cudmore family. E. Ritchie, [Ermington, N.S.W.], 2000.)
  • P. A. Howell, ‘Cudmore, Daniel Michael (1811–1891)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cudmore-daniel-michael-6335/text9913, published first in hardcopy 1981
  • Gunton, Eric Gracious homes of colonial Adelaide (1st ed). E. Gunton, [Adelaide], 1983.

Further reading

  • Cudmore, Daniel.  A few poetical scraps : from the portfolio of an Australian pioneer : who arrived at Adelaide in the year 1837  Printed by Walker, May &Co Melbourne 1882

Through her eyes: votes for women 1903

13 Thursday Feb 2020

Posted by Anne Young in 52 ancestors, Beggs, CdeC Australia, Eurambeen, politics, Through her eyes

≈ 1 Comment

My third great grandmother Charlotte Frances Champion Crespigny née Dana, lived from 1820 to 1904, a period of great change in the political status of women.

Charlotte Frances Dana

Charlotte Frances Champion Crespigny née Dana (1820 – 1904) photograph probably taken in the late 1850s

In 1902, when she was 82 years old, the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 granted Australian women the right to vote and the right to stand for election to the Commonwealth Parliament.

When the list of voters was compiled, Charlotte was recorded on the Electoral Roll for the polling place of Beaufort, Division of Grampians, State of Victoria, as Charlotte Champion, living at Eurambeen, occupation home duties. (Eurambeen was about 11 kilometers west of Beaufort.) Also on the Roll were her daughters Viola Julia Champion and Helen Rosalie Beggs née Champion Crespigny, both also living at Eurambeen with the occupation of home duties.

RDAUS1901_100835__0055-00023

The Commonwealth of Australia 1903 Electoral Roll for the polling place of Beaufort, Division of Grampians, State of Victoria, pages 2 and 3 showing the surnames of Beggs and Champion. Image retrieved from ancestry.com

 

Oddly, it appears that Charlotte and Viola were recorded twice. There are entries  on page 4 of the roll for Crespigny Frances and Crespigny Constantia, also both of Eurambeen; Frances was Charlotte’s middle name and Constantia was Viola’s third given name. When names were collected for the roll the surname Champion Crespigny went over two lines and so did their given names. There was not enough space on the form: the result was two Roll entries each.

RDAUS1901_100930__0076-00062

The Commonwealth of Australia 1903 Electoral Roll for the polling place of Beaufort, Division of Grampians, State of Victoria, pages 4 and 5 showing the surname Crespigny. Image retrieved from ancestry.com

On the 1909 roll Viola’s surname was changed to Crespigny, with her full name recorded as Crespigny, Viola Julia Con. C. At that time she living at St Marnocks with her sister and brother-in-law.

A Victorian state election was held in October 1902 but for this women were as yet not enfranchised. The next year, however, there was a Federal election on 16 December and Charlotte and her daughters were eligible to vote.

The Federal Division of Grampians was retained by the sitting member Thomas Skene (1845 – 1910) of the Free Trade Party, an anti-socialist party which advocated the abolition of tariffs and other restrictions on international trade.

Charlotte and her daughters, from a prosperous family of graziers, probably supported Skene, a pastoralist. Voting was not compulsory, however, and though she was entitled to vote, Charlotte was unwell and probably unable to travel to the polling station at Beaufort to cast her vote.

There was provision for postal voting but it was very complicated, with specific witnesses required.

All in all, the story of my great grandmother’s enfranchisement is not especially remarkable. She was not a fire-breathing suffragist, but an ordinary person who, late in life, accepted a new political privilege with no great fuss.

Sources

  • Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903 retrieved through ancestry.com first published by the Australian Electoral Commission
  • Geoff Browne, ‘Skene, Thomas (1845–1910)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/skene-thomas-8441/text14837, published first in hardcopy 1988, accessed online 12 February 2020.
  • VOTING BY POST. (1903, December 9). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 9. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10586768
  • A new genealogy prompt ~ Through Her Eyes Thursday! #ThroughHerEyesThursday https://thishoosiersheritage.blogspot.com/2020/01/new-genealogy-prompt-through-her-eyes.html

Anne Champion de Crespigny (1739 – 1797)

02 Sunday Feb 2020

Posted by Anne Young in 52 ancestors, CdeC 18th century, probate, will

≈ 1 Comment

My sixth great aunt Anne Champion de Crespigny (1739 – 1797) was the sixth of seven children of Philip Champion de Crespigny (1704-1765) and his wife Anne née Fonnereau (1704-1782). She was born on 10 October 1739 and was baptised on 30 October 1739 at the Church of St Benet Paul’s Wharf, London.

Anne’s father Philip had a successful career as a lawyer. At one point he held the position of Marshal of the Court of Admiralty, its senior sheriff. Philip’s father Thomas Champion Crespigny (1666 – 1712), a Huguenot refugee, served in the English army. He died at the age of forty-eight, when Philip was only seven years old. Philip was indentured at the age of fourteen to Charles Garrett, procurator of the ecclesiastical Arches Court of Canterbury. In 1731 Philip married Anne Fonnereau, the daughter of a wealthy Huguenot merchant.

  • Philip and Anne had seven children, two of whom died young:
  • Jane Champion Crespigny 1733–died young
  • Claude Champion de Crespigny 1734–1818 the 1st baronet Champion de Crespigny
  • Susan Champion Crespigny 1735–1766
  • Anne Champion Crespigny 1736–1738
  • Philip Champion Crespigny 1738–1803 my 5th great grandfather
  • Anne Champion Crespigny 1739–1797
  • Jane Champion Crespigny 1742–1829

About 1765, Anne de Crespigny’s portrait was drawn in pastel by Catherine Read (1723 – 1778).

CdeC Anne H0046-L155543688

Anne de Crespigny married twice. Her first marriage, in April 1765, only two months after her father’s death, was to Bonouvrier Glover (1739 – 1780). Her second marriage, in 1783, was to James Gladell, later James Gladell Vernon (1746 – 1819). Anne had no children by either marriage..

Anne left a will dated 7 January 1797 probated in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 5 July 1797. At the time this was drawn up her residence was Hereford Street in the Parish of Saint George Hanover Square in the Liberty of Westminster and County of Middlesex. Her will refers to her marriage settlement, her husband James Gladell, her brother-in-law, the husband of Susan, Sir Richard Sutton, and to George Stainforth, husband of her cousin Fanny Stainforth, nee Fonnereau. She also mentioned and left money to:

  • her nephews Thomas Champion Crespigny (1763 – 1799) and Philip Champion Crespigny (1765 – 1851), sons of her brother Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738 – 1803) and his first wife Sarah
  • Her brother Claude Champion Crespigny, her sister in law Mary and her nephew William (1765 – 1829)
  • Her godson William Other Champion Crespigny, this would have been the son of William, grandson of Claude, born 1789 and died 1816
  • Her sister Jane Reveley, her brother in law Henry Reveley (1737 – 1798), her niece Henrietta Reveley (1777 – 1862), her nephews Hugh Reveley (1772 – 1851) and Algernon Reveley (1786 – 1870), and her niece Elizabeth Anne Roper (1773 – 1816)
  • Her niece Anne (1768 – 1844) the wife of Hugh Barlow and daughter of Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738 – 1803) and his first wife Sarah
  • Her four nieces Clara (Clarissa 1776 – 1836), Maria (1776 – 1858), Fanny (1779 – 1865) and Elizabeth Champion Crespigny (Eliza 1784 – 1831); daughters of Philip and his 3rd and 4th wives Clarissa and Dorothy
  • Right Honourable Alice Countess of Shipbrook, the widow of her husband’s uncle Francis Vernon (1716 – 1783)
  • Richard Glover (1750 – 1822), her brother-in-law from her first marriage

Following the probate records include a letter from Anne to her niece Henrietta, presumably kept because it describes how she wished to have some of her belongings dispersed. I have transcribed this below, keeping the original spelling.

March the 20th

My Dear Henrietta

As I am going to have an opporation performed that renders my recovery doubtful I write you these lines to say that my wardrobe and all that is in my drawers independant of my Trinket Box (which Mr Vernon is intitled to by right. As well as by my desire I leave to you conditionally that you will resave for your own use and benefit all that – is worth your acceptanttance desiring you will give everything else to my maid Mitrell (?) Who having lived but a few months with me is not intitled to great perquisites at the same time would give her what ever is not worth your acceptance an Ivory ffan which John Shore brought me from India & desire may be sent to my ffriend Lady Shelley as a small token of my Remembrance

Most affectionately A. G. Vernon

She died on 2 June 1797. This was recorded by The European Magazine, and
the London Review.

A scarf for General Birdwood

29 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by Anne Young in 52 ancestors, Bank of Victoria, Beggs, Champion de Crespigny, World War 1

≈ 2 Comments

Everyone knows about WWI comfort funds and the socks that were knitted for the Diggers in the trenches.

But have you heard about the scarf that was knitted for their commanding General?

Birdwood Gallipoli 1915 awm 6184034

Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. 1915. General William Riddell Birdwood (outside his dugout at Anzac. Photograph by Ernest Brooks and retrieved from the Australian War Memorial G00761

In 1916, Sophia, Mrs Philip Champion de Crespigny, (1870 – 1936), second wife of my great great grandfather, started a campaign to knit a scarf for General Birdwood, the popular commander-in-chief of Australian divisions on the front.

The first anniversary of the landing at ANZAC was observed on Tuesday 25 April 1916, with prayers and mourning for the dead.

Three days later ‘ANZAC Button Day’, with parades and many stalls and kiosks, was held in Melbourne to raise money for the troops. One of the attractions was a kiosk, ‘erected by the St. George Society’, an English patriotic society, where for sixpence patriotic knitters could add a row to scarf for General Birdwood.

Mrs Philip Champion de Crespigny was responsible for this money-raising idea.

Sophia Cde C nee Beggs 1894

Sophia Champion de Crespigny about 1894

Two of her sons and two step-sons enlisted during World War 1:

  • Hugh Vivian Champion_de_Crespigny 1897 – 1969 enlisted 30 August
    1914 and later joined the Royal Air Force
  • Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882 – 1952) enlisted 20
    May 1915
  • Francis George Travers Champion_de_Crespigny 1892 – 1968 enlisted
    10 November 1917
  • Philip Champion_de_Crespigny 1879 – 1918 enlisted 26 November 1918
    and killed in action July 1918

Within a week, a quarter of a yard had been added to Mrs de Crespigny’s scarf, with many sixpences added to the funds. She was aiming for 1½ yards.

Adelaide commentators seem to have been a bit over-critical. The edge of the scarf was wobbly, ‘goffered’ it was said, which means fluted or serrated. Knitters ply their needles differently, of course, at different tensions, so the collaborative scarf could not be expected to be perfectly uniform.

By mid-May Sophia de Crespigny had received so many applications for row-knitting that she hired a room at 349 Collins Street, not far from her husband’s office at 257 Collins Street [he was the general manager at a bank there], where she met prospective knitters between 10 o’clock and half past four on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

In June Sophia de Crespigny travelled to Geelong, where would-be scarf-knitters would find her at the Bank of Victoria in Malop Street.

The Geelong Advertiser reported that the scarf was khaki with a border of General Birdwood’s colours: red, purple, and black, and a touch of yellow. The scarf was now 2½ yards long.

By mid-August Birdwood’s scarf, completed, and yard longer than planned, was put on display in the window of Messrs Singer and Co. in the Block Arcade on Collins Street. There was also a book with the names of over 300 of its volunteer knitters. Sophia’s scarf campaign had raised £13. The Melbourne Lady Mayoress’ fund for Red Cross got £2 18/-, and £10 2/- was presented to the Y.M.C.A. for the benefit of the Australian soldiers at the Front (a national appeal).

Melbourne Punch 24 August 1916 page 32

Melbourne Punch 24 August 1916 page 32

Among letters received by General Birdwood, now digitised by the Australian War Memorial, is one from Sophia, Mrs Philip Champion de Crespigny, forwarding the scarf and the book of names of the ladies who worked on it.

Birdwood lettter 1 6098251
Birdwood letter 2 6098252
Birdwood letter 3 6098253

Letter from Sophia Champion de Crespigny to General Birdwood enclosing a scarf and a book with the names of the knitters. Retrieved from the Australian War Memorial Letters received by Field Marshal Lord William Birdwood, 1 June 1916 – 25 December 1916 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2084586?image=107

scarf AWM 4230193

I have not found a picture of General Birdwood in a scarf. This picture from the Australian War Memorial is from about 1915: The officer in the foreground, rugged up in a greatcoat and scarf, is possibly Major Harold A Powell of the Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC). The tents in the middle distance on the left are probably those of a field hospital; the location appears to be the Gallipoli Peninsula.

 

General Birdwood’s reply to Sophia de Crespigny was published in the Geelong Advertiser.

Birdwood letter Geelong Advertiser 1916 12 05 a

Birdwood letter Geelong Advertiser 1916 12 05 b

Birdwood mentions that his aide-de-camp Henry de Crespigny (1882 – 1946) was a cousin of Sophia’s husband [Henry was Philip de Crespigny’s 3rd cousin once removed]. Birdwood also mentions Dr de Crespigny and ‘his hospital’. This was the 1st Australian General Hospital in Rouen, commanded by Philip’s son – Sophia’s step-son – Constantine Trent de Crespigny.

Birdwood 1918 trench awm 4096023

General Sir William Riddell Birdwood visiting a Battalion Headquarters in the support line trenches in Ungodly Avenue in the Messines Sector, in Belgium, on 25 January 1918. General Birdwood is second from the left. Australian War Memorial image E01495

Across Australia many other scarves were knitted by ladies who gave their sixpences and shillings to raise money for the soldiers, and it seems more than likely that Sophia’s was not the first. I’m not a great knitter myself – I started a scarf in the 1980s, which forty years later is still less than a foot long – but I’m delighted to have a family connection with Sophia’s.

Sources

  • ANZAC BUTTON DAY (1916, April 29). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 19. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2099087 
  • ITEMS OF INTEREST (1916, May 9). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 8. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2097012 
  • Melbourne Letter. (1916, May 10). Critic (Adelaide, SA : 1897-1924), p. 24. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212165326 
  • “Goffer.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/goffer 
  • LADY KITTY IN MELBOURNE. (1916, May 20). Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 – 1931), p. 7. Retrieved January 28, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article164664340 
  • ITEMS OF INTEREST (1916, May 15). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 8. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2105490 
  • GENERAL BIRDWOOD’S SCARF. (1916, June 1). Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 – 1929), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article132736659 
  • GENERAL BIRDWOOD’S SCARF. (1916, June 5). Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 – 1929), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article132737110 
  • NATIONAL FUNDS. (1916, August 17). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 9. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1613276 
  • GENERAL BIRDWOOD’S SCARF. (1916, August 23). Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 – 1929), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130692189 
  • THE LADIES LETTER (1916, August 24). Punch (Melbourne, Vic. : 1900 – 1918; 1925), p. 32. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121078394 
  • GEN. BIRDWOOD’S SCARF. (1916, December 5). Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 – 1929), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130671603 

 

Other scarves were also knitted for General Birdwood during 1916

  • MOSTLY ABOUT PEOPLE. (1916, May 16). Kyneton Guardian (Vic. : 1870 – 1880; 1914 – 1918), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129594972 
  • EVERY WOMAN (1916, May 20). The Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1912 – 1923), p. 10 (NIGHT EDITION). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201904003 
  • FROM NEAR AND FAR. (1916, May 31). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15639838 
  • Park Fence Must Go (1916, June 9). Malvern Courier and Caulfield Mirror (Vic. : 1914 – 1917), p. 1. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130658111 
  • RED CROSS (1916, July 16). Sunday Times (Sydney, NSW : 1895 – 1930), p. 25. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121347053 
  • SOCIAL CHAT (1916, July 31). The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 – 1954), p. 7. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223365185 
  • FOR WOMEN. (1916, August 30). The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 – 1930), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article239216093 
  • PRESENTATION SCARF. (1916, August 24). Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918), p. 4. Retrieved  from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133706220
  • SCARF for GENERAL BIRDWOOD. (1916, December 14). Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129391992  
  • BALLINA WAR CHEST. (1916, September 16). Northern Star (Lismore, NSW : 1876 – 1954), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92970437 
  • “MAGNIFICENT MEN.” (1916, November 3). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15701183 
  • GENERAL BIRDWOOD’S SCARF. (1917, February 6). The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 – 1933), p. 8. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20155560

In memory of lost homes

19 Sunday Jan 2020

Posted by Anne Young in 52 ancestors, Adelaide, Albury, Ballarat, Canberra, Castlemaine, Lilli Pilli

≈ 2 Comments

The cynical French epigram “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” (The more change she is paid [when shopping], the more a lady will choose…)* describes it nicely: someone who has money left over from his purchase of a house will use it to choose additions and alterations and then, unsatisfied with the change he’s got out of it, will bowl the whole thing over and build a new home for himself on the cleared site.

* [perhaps I have not translated exactly 😉 ]

Many of the houses I recall from my childhood and later years have been destroyed by their new owners.

Of course the new owner is entitled to rebuild, and – who knows? – the new house may be more comfortable. It is not cheap to maintain an old house, and some new houses may be measurably better in every way. Even so, it is sad to see a place you knew and loved simply discarded like a worn-out shoe.

The house I grew up in and where we spent the first 30 years of our married life was bulldozed by its new owners.

Arnhem Place Red Hill May 2003
Arnhem Place Red Hill May 2003
20100321 Arnhem Place in afternoon 001
3 Arnhem Place dining room 2010
3 Arnhem Place sitting room 2010
3 Arnhem Place study 2010
3 Arnhem Place verandah 2010

The beach house my parents built when I was a child was badly damaged by termites, which had penetrated the concrete foundations. This was discovered too late for the house to be saved and it had to be torn down.

old St Barbary

My parents’ beach house when it was newly built in the 1960s

My paternal grandparents’ house in Adelaide was bulldozed by the people to whom it was sold.

deCrespigny 1959 81 Esplanade_0002
deCrespigny 1959 81 Esplanade_0001
deCrespigny 1959 81 Esplanade_0003
81 Esplanade abt 1966 (dating based on other pictures nearby including Nicholas)
81 Esplanade abt 1966 (dating based on other pictures nearby including Nicholas)
Me as a young child on the verandah of my paternal grandparents' house
Me as a young child on the verandah of my paternal grandparents’ house

My maternal grandparents’ house was extensively renovated after their death.  Although parts of it remain unchanged, the re-modelled house has quite a different feel to it.

19 Ridley Street about 1966

Me on my scooter outside my maternal grandparents’ house

The house of my mother-in-law, in Albury, was sold after her death. Then her pretty garden was cleared. Soon afterwards the house itself went.

Hovell Street Albury
front garden Hovell Street
Hovell Street bird bath
Hovell Street Peter's first steps on front fence
Hovell Street back garden with lemon tree
Hovell Street Peter back garden
Hovell Street Peter Charlotte gardening
Hovell street grandchildren gardening
Hovell Street Marjorie bush house

Greg’s mother Marjorie Young nee Sullivan in front of her bush house in the back garden

Hovell Street Greg 1966 Jim Windsor's car

1966: Greg sitting on the bonnet of a 1959 Plymouth. Jim Windsor, a family friend and the car’s owner is behind the wheel. Not sure who is in the passenger seat, probably Greg’s mother Marjorie. The car is parked in the street outside the Young family home.

Hovell Street Greg 1966

Greg outside his home in Albury 1966

My children liked playing in the garden, my son took some of his first steps clinging to the front fence, and there was the most magnificent and prolific lemon tree in the back garden.

Greg’s maternal grandparents’ house in Castlemaine, which he remembers as a lovely old place with chooks and a vegetable garden, has gone. Next door there’s now a car-wash. Down the road is a large estate of new houses, all made out of ticky-tacky. They all look just the same.

Sullivan Home 19 Elizabeth Street Castlemaine

There is an exception. The house of Greg’s early childhood in Ballarat still stands. Out the back Greg can remember a large stable. It’s still there.

505 Drummond Street about 1993

Ballarat snowman back yard 1949

1949 snowman in the back garden of the Ballarat house

For the most part the houses as physical structures have gone, but I will continue to remember them as warm homes I used to know and love.

Longing for ancestors

16 Thursday Jan 2020

Posted by Anne Young in 52 ancestors

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This week’s prompt for the 52 ancestors series is “Long Line”.

Here’s a long line: (with many millions of other people) I can trace my family back to William I of England, one of my 28th grandfathers. I’m lucky to have forebears whose doings were documented, doubly lucky that the relevant records were preserved. This was their long suit.

Bayeux_Tapestry_William_Hastings_battlefield

Bayeaux tapestry: Duke William raises his helmet so as to be recognized on the battlefield of Hastings. Eustace II, Count of Boulogne points to him with his finger.

 

Another long line: one branch of my descent has had a long, enduring association with Whitmore, a Staffordshire manor, in the same family for more than 900 years. No long division there.

Whitmore Hall 1841

Whitmore Hall in 1841

Whitmore Domesday

The entry for Whitmore in the Domesday Book

 

And there’s long line as in the line of the surname ‘Long’. I can do this one too (my family tree is wide as well as long):

  • Harriet Frances Jane Long (1857 – 1938) was the mother-in-law of one of my husband’s great aunts.
  • James Long (no dates) was the husband of the sister-in-law of my first cousin six times removed
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1882), the American poet, was the father-in-law of my 3rd cousin 4 times removed.

Perhaps occasionally family history feels a bit like long-lining, a commercial fishing technique, where hundreds or thousands of baited hooks are set out in the hope of catching at least something. You can never be sure quite what you’ve dredged up, but it’s a long path that has no turnings, be in it for the long run, every crowd has a silver lining, and for those with Irish ancestors, including me, it’s a long way to Tipperary. Take the long view, go long in the market, and line them up. Just don’t be long-winded.

Related posts

  • Back to 1066 via the Mainwaring family
  • D is for Domesday
  • Beginning to look at my Irish family history
  • Limerick fact and fiction

Wedding of Linda Victoria Fish and Gilbert Payne Mulcahy at Creswick 1921

09 Thursday Jan 2020

Posted by Anne Young in 52 ancestors, Fish, Sepia Saturday, Wedding

≈ 2 Comments

Linda Mulcahy née Fish (1895 – 1970), the daughter of Alice Fish formerly Reher née Young (1859 – 1935) and Thomas Fish (1873 – 1949), was my husband’s first cousin twice removed.

On 8 June 1921 she married Gilbert Payne Mulcahy (1894 – 1979). Below is a copy of one of the wedding photographs, given to us by Lindsay and Mary George in 2011. (Lindsay, grandson of Elfleda Cecilia Anna George née Reher (1884-1970), is Greg’s 3rd cousin. Elfleda was the half-sister of Linda Fish.)

Fish Linda marriage to Mulcahy 1921

With the women, hair bobbed, wearing straight, short, drop-waist dresses, picture hats low on the foreheads of the bridesmaids, and the enormous bows of the flower girls, the photograph is easily dated to the 1920s.

The marriage was announced in The Argus of 13 July 1921:

MULCAHY—FISH.—On the 8th June, at Presbyterian Church, Creswick, by the Reverend K. C. Billinge, Gilbert Payne (late A.I.F.), youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Mulcahy, of Auburn, to Linda Victoria, elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T Fish, of Creswick.

I have not been able to find a newspaper report of the wedding, and I cannot identify everyone in the bridal party.

The father of the bride, Thomas Fish, is on the left. It seems odd that Alice Fish, mother of the bride, was not included in the photo. Perhaps she was taking it?

Linda’s sister, Alice Pretoria Emma Fish (1900 – 1958) is standing beside her father. Alice married Ernest George Aldrich in 1922.

The groomsmen are not named, nor is the second bridesmaid. She was probably one of Linda’s half sisters: Gertrude, Elfleda, or Mary Reher.

The flowergirls are Gertrude Isabel George born 1915, daughter of Elfleda George née Reher, and Pearl Ramelli born 1913 who in 1936 married Elfleda’s son Norman George (1912 – 1968); Pearl is the mother of Lindsay George who gave us the copy of this photograph.

John Narroway Darby

08 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by Anne Young in 52 ancestors, court case, Darby, New Zealand, Portland, Tasmania

≈ 3 Comments

One of my husband’s 3rd great-grandfathers was a compositor and printer named John Narroway Darby.

John Darby was born in 1823 in Exeter, Devon, son of a joiner and carpenter named Joseph Darby (abt 1780 – 1865) and his wife Sarah Darby née Narroway [sometimes spelled Narraway]. Joseph and Sarah were married in 1807. They had at least six children of whom John, baptised on 3 March 1823 at Saint Mary Major, Exeter, was the third.

At the time of the English census of 1841, John, then a printer’s apprentice, was living in Exeter with his parents and three siblings.

In July 1842 following the publication of banns, John married Matilda Priscilla Moggridge (1825 – 1868) at St Mary Arches, Exeter. The consent of Matilda’s parents had been given.

Five months later Matilda and John emigrated on the Westminster to New Zealand. The Westminster was the first planned emigrant ship from England to Auckland. It sailed from Plymouth on 4 December 1842 and arrived 31 March 1843.

On a February 1844 list of all men within the District and Town of Auckland in the Colony of New Zealand and liable to serve on juries, there is a John N. Derby, compositor, living in Queen Street, Auckland.

Auckland Queen St 1843

Queen Street Auckland in 1843 from page 53 of The Project Gutenberg EBook of The City of Auckland, by John Barr, first published 1922 and retrieved from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46925/46925-h/46925-h.htm#Page_53

In April 1844 John Darby wrote to the editor of the Auckland Chronicle with his views on the future of the Government Printing Office.

Darby John 1844 letter

Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 2, Issue 37, 18 April 1844, Page 2

In December 1844 John Narroway Darby was in court over a forged promissory note, and in March 1845 he was indicted for issuing a shilling forged debenture. He was acquitted by the jury.

On 12 April 1845 Darby, with his wife and two children, left Auckland on the Sir John Franklin for Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land [Tasmania]. The Hobart Courier described the voyage as “a tedious passage of twenty five days.” The schooner carried 33 passengers, including 26 children, with a cargo of 12,000 feet of New Zealand timber and 12 parcels of printing apparatus. The ship brought news of the Maori Wars. The Tasmanian and Austral-Asiatic Review stated that the schooner was “laden with families flying from the Maories”

Matilda Frances Darby, the younger child of John Narroway Darby and Matilda Darby, was baptised in Hobart on 30 November 1845. She had been born on 14 March 1845.

Darby baptism 1845 RGD32-1-3-P588

from Tasmanian Lincs database https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1089444 Name: Darby, Matilda Frances Record Type: Births Gender: Female Father: Darby, John Harroway Mother: Matilda, Elizabeth Date of birth: 14 Mar 1845 Registered: Hobart Registration year: 1845 Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1089444 Resource: RGD32/1/3/ no 2603

Apart from a mention on the shipping record, I have found very little about the other child of John and Matilda Darby. He, or she, appears to have been born in New Zealand about 1844 and seems to have died in Australia before 1855.

Sometime before 1850 John and Matilda Darby separated. In 1850 Matilda had a child, Margaret Hughes, born at Ashby near Geelong, Victoria. The father’s name was David Hughes. Margaret died in 1858. Ten years later, on 4 May 1868, Matilda Darby, claiming to be a spinster, married David Hughes. She died one month later, on 5 June.

It seems to me likely that Matilda Darby, knowing a formal union with David Hughes would be bigamous, refused to marry him until she had news that her first husband John Darby was dead. It is also possible that Matilda Darby, very ill, with not long to live, sought to regularise her relationship with Hughes as best she could. They had lived together for nineteen years; a form of marriage was possibly a kind of consolation
for them both.

John Darby appears to have been less concerned than his wife Matilda about committing the crime of bigamy. When on 21 July 1855 in Portland, Victoria, he went through the form of marriage with a woman called Catherine Murphy he claimed he was a widower, the father of two children, one living and one dead.

Darby Murphy Portland marriage

Name John Darby Spouse Name Catherine Murphy Registration Place Victoria Registration Year 1855 Registration Number 2765

In August 1855 John Darby of the Portland Guardian advertised for a printer’s apprentice.

In 1856 John Darby was listed on the electoral roll in Portland, living at Gawler Street, printer, entitled to vote as receiving a salary of £100 from T.E. Richardson.

I have found no further mentions of John Darby or  Catherine in Australian birth, death or marriage indexes, nor in other records.

In the Tumut and Adelong Times of 22 October 1866 a John Darby is recorded as having successfully sued the printer of the Braidwood News for £6 3s. wages. It is possible that this is our John Darby but I have found no further records of John or Catherine Darby in New South Wales.

DNA evidence links Greg and his cousins to Matilda Frances Sullivan née Darby but as yet no further back on the Darby line.

Related posts

  • Poor little chap
  • Triangulating Matilda’s DNA

Sources

  • FindMyPast  
    • Record set Devon Baptisms  First name(s) John Narroway  Last name Derby Birth year 1823  Baptism year 1823 Denomination Anglican  County Devon Baptism place Exeter, St Mary Major  Mother’s first name(s) Sarah Father’s first name(s) Joseph
    • Matilda  Last name Mogridge  Banns year 1842 Banns date 03 Jul 1842  Parish Exeter, St Mary Arches Spouse’s first name John  Spouse’s last name Darby Residence Exeter St Mary Steps Spouse’s residence Exeter St Mary Steps  Denomination Anglican County Devon Country England Archive reference 332A/PR/1/13 Archive South West Heritage Trust  Record set Devon Banns Category Life Events (BDMs)
  • Ancestry.com
    • English 1841 census Class: HO107; Piece: 267; Book: 4; Civil Parish: St Mary Major; County: Devon; Enumeration District: 14; Folio: 25; Page: 45; Line: 23; GSU roll: 241331
    • Jury Lists: Auckland 1842-1853
    • Tasmania, Australia, Passenger Arrivals, 1829-1957 Reports of ships arrivals with lists of passengers; Film Number: SLTX/AO/MB/3; Series Number: MB2/39/1/8
    • 1856 electoral roll for Portland, Victoria, Australia
  • Whyte, Carol. “Passenger List of Westminster, Cork, 4 December 1842 to Auckland.” New ZealandGenWeb Project, Carol Whyte, 2014, www.newzealandgenweb.org/index.php/regions/auckland/44-source-records-auckland/60-passenger-list-of-westminster-cork-4-december-1842-to-auckland.
  • PapersPast – an online collection of digitised New Zealand newspapers and periodicals
    • Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 2, Issue 37, 18 April 1844, Page 2 retrieved from https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ACNZC18440418.2.9 
    • Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 2, Issue 72, 19 December 1844, Page 2 retrieved from https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ACNZC18441219.2.7 
    • Auckland Times, Volume 3, Issue 112, 4 March 1845, Page 3 retrieved from https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AKTIM18450304.2.13 
    • Daily Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 99, 8 March 1845, Page 2 retrieved from https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DSC18450308.2.10 
  • Trove – online Australian digital reproductions of newspapers, journals, books, maps, personal papers, as well as archived websites and other born-digital content compiled by the National Library of Australia
    • THE COURIER. (1845, May 8). The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 – 1859), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2948660 
    • SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE. (1845, May 10). The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 – 1859), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2948650 
    • To the Editor of the Review. (1845, May 8). The Tasmanian and Austral-Asiatic Review (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1844 – 1845), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article233612148 
    • Family Notices (1855, July 23). Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser (Vic. : 1842 – 1843; 1854 – 1876), p. 2 (EVENING). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71572567 
    • Advertising (1855, August 9). Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser (Vic. : 1842 – 1843; 1854 – 1876), p. 1 (EVENING). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71572645 
    • SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20TH. (1866, October 22). The Tumut and Adelong Times (NSW : 1864 – 1867; 1899 – 1950), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144775228 
  • from Tasmanian Lincs database https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1089444   Name:  Darby, Matilda Frances  Record Type: Births Gender:  Female Father: Darby, John Harroway  Mother: Matilda, Elizabeth Date of birth:  14 Mar 1845 Registered: Hobart Registration year:  1845 Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1089444 Resource: RGD32/1/3/ no 2603
  • Victorian births, deaths and marriages
      • Name Margaret Hughes Birth Date Abt 1850 Birth Place Ashby, Victoria Registration Year 1850 Registration Place Victoria, Australia Father David Hughes Mother Matilda Registration Number 22395
      • Name Matilda Priscilla Craddock Spouse Name David Hughes Marriage Place Victoria Registration Place Victoria Registration Year 1868 Registration Number 1485
      • Name Matilda Hughes Birth Year abt 1825 Age 43 Death Place Victoria Father’s Name Mogridge John Registration Year 1868 Registration Place Victoria Registration Number 3957
      • Name John Darby Spouse Name Catherine Murphy Marriage Place Victoria Registration Place Victoria Registration Year 1855 Registration Number 2765

Trove Tuesday: Arrival of Francis and Sarah Tuckfield

05 Tuesday Jun 2018

Posted by Anne Young in 52 ancestors, Birregurra, encounters with indigenous Australians, Gilbart, immigration, Methodist, St Erth, Trove Tuesday, Tuckfield

≈ 3 Comments

One of my husband Greg’s fourth great aunts was a Cornishwoman, Sarah Tuckfield née Gilbart  (1808-1854).

Sarah and her twin sister Thomasine were born on 22 July 1808 at St Erth, a sand and clay mining town about 5 km from St Ives. They were the seventh and eighth children of John Gilbart (1761-1837) and Elizabeth Gilbart née Huthnance (1774-1847).

John Gilbart was manager of a copper rolling mill at St Erth. He had been a member of the first Copperhouse Methodist Society (Copperhouse was a foundry and its associated district in east Hayle), and in 1783 he had founded the St Erth Methodist Class, the local Wesleyan group meeting.

Francis Tuckfield (1808-1865) was a miner and fisherman, who at the age of 18 was convinced by the truths of  Methodist nonconformism. He became an active local preacher and in 1835, at the age of 27, was accepted as a candidate for the Ministry. He received two years training at the Wesleyan Theological Institution in Hoxton in London. On the completion of his studies Tuckfield was selected to be a missionary to the Aboriginals of the Port Phillip District (later became the colony of Victoria, Australia).

On 13 October 1837, less than a month before his departure, Sarah Gilbart and Francis Tuckfield were married at St Erth. They were then both 29 years old.

Seppings 1838 arrival Hobart Tuckfield

SHIP NEWS (1838, March 20). The Austral-Asiatic Review, Tasmanian and Australian Advertiser (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1837 – 1844), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232476273

In March 1838 after a long sea voyage Francis and Sarah Tuckfield landed in Hobart, Tasmania. In July the Tuckfields crossed Bass Strait to Melbourne on board the Adelaide. Sarah’s first child, a daughter, was born at Geelong on 12 August 1838.

Tuckfield made several exploratory trips about the Port Philip district looking for a suitable place to establish a mission station. (He is said to have employed William Buckley as a translator on these journeys. Buckley was an escaped convict who for a time had lived with Aboriginals. He had since been pardoned and given a job as a government interpreter.)

In 1839 he chose a site near Birregurra, 10 km east of Colac. Governor Gipps granted the mission 640 acres, a square mile.

The Birregurra experiment, however, was rapidly deemed a failure by the Victorian Government. In 1848 it was abandoned, and in 1850 the mission grazing licence was cancelled.

 

Geelong Advertiser 1848 07 01 pg 2

SATURDAY MORNING, JULY 1. (1848, July 1). Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1847 – 1851), p. 2 (MORNING). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91457661

 

Francis Tuckfield was afterwards appointed to a succession of churches, first in Victoria and later in New South Wales. On 6 June 1854 Sarah died at the age of 45 in West Maitland, New South Wales. She and Francis had eight children.

 

Tuckfield Sarah death Maitalnd Mercury 1854 06 07 pg 3

Family Notices (1854, June 7). The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 – 1893), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article690022

 

In 1857 Francis remarried, to Mary Stevens (1823-1886). Eight years later, in 1865, he died at Portland, Victoria.

Portraits of Francis and Sarah Tuckfield are held by the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.

Tuckfield Francis

Francis Tuckfield, portrait in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia

Tuckfield Sarah NPG

Sarah Tuckfield, portrait in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia

With only the bare facts of her life to draw on, it is very difficult to form an impression of Sarah Tuckfield the person. A history of the Birregurra mission portrays her as a dutiful daughter, devout Methodist, and devoted and capable wife and mother:

Sarah shared not only her father’s love of music and deep Christian conviction, but also his generous strength of character. She was a practical girl, who made an excellent teacher in the Sunday School, and was thoroughly trained in the housewifely arts by her mother. She also took an interest in the sick and incapacitated people in St Earth, who loved her for her kind ways and skills in nursing.

Le Griffon, Heather and Orton, Joseph Campfires at the cross : an account of the Bunting Dale Aboriginal Mission 1839-1951 at Birregurra, near Colac, Victoria : with a biography of Francis Tuckfield. Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2006. page 18.

But this – no doubt well-meant – encomium gets us no further. ‘Love of music’ to a Methodist meant hymn-singing; ‘deep Christian conviction’ covers everything from humble faith to pharisaical self-righteousness; ‘generous strength of character’ sounds suspiciously like stubbornness; ‘thoroughly trained in the housewifely arts’ might mean a drudge; and her kind ways with the sick and infirm makes her look like the village Lady Bountiful.

Sarah’s marriage at the age of 29 to a penniless Methodist preacher and her willingness to endure the hardships of missionary life on the far side of the world seem rather noble and self-sacrificing, but these were the usages of the times. She was getting no younger, and her prospects, probably never great, were shrinking. Wives followed their husbands, and she perhaps found some satisfaction in being able to help with his missionary endeavours.

Sometimes, of course, images delineate character better than words. The National Portrait Gallery painting of Sarah Tuckfield conveys a certain measure of self-assurance and sense of purpose, especially when her image is viewed with that of her husband. The artist has drawn them with much the same mouth, giving her an air of steadfastness and strength of will; he looks feminine and ineffectual. He looks coyly at the viewer; she stares beyond, into the future.

We’re left wondering. Could it be that it was Sarah who turned the Cornish miner into the Methodist preacher, urged him to attend the Hoxton Institution, encouraged him to emigrate, and supported him in his mission?

Sources

  • C. A. McCallum, ‘Tuckfield, Francis (1808–1865)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/tuckfield-francis-2747/text3887, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 5 June 2018.
  • Le Griffon, Heather and Orton, Joseph Campfires at the cross : an account of the Bunting Dale Aboriginal Mission 1839-1951 at Birregurra, near Colac, Victoria : with a biography of Francis Tuckfield. Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2006.
  • Wikipedia contributors. (2017, December 13). Gulidjan. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 09:27, June 5, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gulidjan&oldid=815258681
  • “St.Erth Methodist Church.” St Erth Parish Council, St Erth Parish Council, 31 Aug. 2013, sterth-pc.gov.uk/st-erth-methodist-church/.
  • “St. Erth Methodist Church.” About Us – St. Erth Methodist Church, St. Erth Methodist Church, www.sterthmethodists.co.uk/aboutus.htm.
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Pages

  • About
  • Ahentafel index
  • Books
    • Champions from Normandy
    • C F C Crespigny nee Dana
    • Pink Hats on Gentle Ladies: second edition by Vida and Daniel Clift
  • Index
    • A to Z challenges
    • DNA research
    • UK trip 2019
    • World War 1
    • Boltz and Manock family index
    • Budge and Gunn family index
    • Cavenagh family index
    • Chauncy family index
    • Cross and Plowright family index
    • Cudmore family index
    • Dana family index
    • Dawson family index
    • de Crespigny family index
    • de Crespigny family index 2 – my English forebears
    • de Crespigny family index 3 – the baronets and their descendants
    • Edwards, Ralph and Gilbart family index
    • Hughes family index
    • Mainwaring family index
      • Back to 1066 via the Mainwaring family
    • Sullivan family index
    • Young family index

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