Category Archives: Victoria

B is for Buntingdale

03 Monday Apr 2023

Posted by in A to Z 2023, Methodist, Tuckfield, Victoria

≈ 12 Comments

Mid-Victorian England supported more than 20,000 Established Church clergymen—perhaps twice this number counting ministers of Dissenters and various other unorthodox sects—so I’d expect to see a few in my tree.

And there are. One, on my husband’s side, married to Greg’s third great grand aunt, was a Methodist minister named Francis Tuckfield (1808–1865), who in early colonial times set up an Aboriginal mission near Colac, in Victoria.

Tuckfield was a Cornish miner and fisherman who at the age of 18 became deeply convinced of the truth of Wesley‘s message. In 1835 he was accepted as a candidate for the Ministry and, following two years training at the Hoxton Theological Institution, was selected to serve as a missionary to the Aboriginals of the Port Phillip District (from 1851 the colony of Victoria).

On 13 October 1837, less than a month before sailing for Australia, he married Sarah Gilbart (1808–1854), the daughter of a Cornish Copper Company (CCC) manager at the Rolling Mills at St Erth, Cornwall. They were both 29 years old.

In March 1838 the Tuckfields landed in Hobart, and in July crossed Bass Strait to Melbourne on the ‘Adelaide‘. Their first child, a daughter, was born at Geelong on 12 August 1838.

Tuckfield made several exploratory trips in the Port Phillip district looking for a suitable place to establish a mission station, employing, it is said, William Buckley as translator. Buckley was an escaped convict, now pardoned and appointed government interpreter, who for a time had lived with Aboriginals.

In 1839 Tuckfield chose a site for his mission near Birregurra, ‘kangaroo camp’, five miles east of Colac. Governor Gipps granted the mission 640 acres, a square mile, with a large boundary reserve to prevent settlers from encroaching on mission land.

Tuckfield’s Aboriginal mission, the first in Victoria, was named Buntingdale, in honour of the Reverend Jabez Bunting, who after the death of John Wesley had become the most prominent Methodist in England.

The tribes of this area were nomadic, which made Tuckfield’s work at a single settled place difficult, and though the mission site had been carefully chosen to be at the junction of three or four tribal territories, rivalry and intertribal conflict was common. The Colac tribe (Gulidjan) offered most hope of success and at times Tuckfield travelled and lived with this group.

In 1840, scarcely a year after the mission was established, a fire destroyed many of its buildings.

By 1841 Tuckfield had become convinced that mission work could be satisfactory only among tribes completely divorced from white settlement. In 1842, with Superintendent Charles La Trobe’s approval, he travelled to Echuca, near the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers seeking a more suitable place a mission. However, neither the government nor the committee overseeing Tuckfield’s missionary endeavours favoured this idea. Many believed his missionary project had no hope of success.

Tuckfield continued at Buntingdale, keeping a small number of Aboriginals around him, attending to his school and gradually developing the area into a farming property.

The Birregurra experiment, however, was finally deemed a failure by the Victorian Government. In 1848 the site was abandoned, and in 1850 the mission grazing licence was cancelled. In 1851 the mission buildings were destroyed in the ‘Black Thursday’ bushfires.

The site of Tuckfield’s mission is now remembered with a small memorial cairn. The mission bell is housed in Christ Church, Birregurra.

Portraits of Francis and Sarah Tuckfield now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra

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 Maitland, New South Wales. She and Francis had eight children.

In 1857 Francis remarried, to Mary Stevens (1823-1886). They had three children.

In 1864 Tuckfield was appointed to the Portland Church, Victoria. In the following year he contracted pneumonia after attending a funeral, and died on 21 October 1865. He was buried in the Methodist section of the Portland cemetery.

The entry for Tuckfield in the Australian Dictionary of Biography summarises his achievements:

Tuckfield was an able and zealous missionary with a gift for native languages; the failure at Buntingdale must fairly be ascribed to causes beyond his control. Later he showed himself to be a greatly loved and self-sacrificing pastor.

Related posts and further reading

Wikitree:

Looking for William Sullivan (1839 – ?)

28 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by in DNA, Geelong, Sullivan

≈ 3 Comments

My husband Greg’s great grandfather Ebenezer Henry Sullivan, known as Henry Sullivan, was born on 7 August 1863 at Gheringhap, a small settlement near Geelong, Victoria.

Henry’s birth was registered by Matilda Hughes, his maternal grandmother. According to the birth certificate, his father was a labourer named William Sullivan, about 24 years old, born in London. His mother was recorded as Matilda Sullivan, maiden surname Hughes (but actually born Darby), aged 18, born in New Zealand. William and Matilda had been married in 1862, the previous year. Matilda had another child, Eleazar Hughes, born in 1861 to a different father, unnamed.

Birth certificate of Ebenezer Henry Sullivan

The 1862 marriage of William Sullivan and Matilda Frances Hughes took place on 6 October 1862 in Herne Hill, a suburb of Geelong, at the residence of the Reverend Mr James Apperley. The marriage certificate records William as 23, labourer, a bachelor, born in London, living at Gheringhap. William’s parents were named as William Sullivan, painter and glazier, and his wife Mary Barry.

1862 marriage certificate of William Sullivan and Matilda Hughes

On 12 June 1865 at Ashby, Geelong, William and Matilda had a daughter, Margaret Maria Sullivan. The informant on the birth certificate was her maternal grandmother Matilda Hughes. The father was named as William Sullivan, farmer, deceased, aged about 25, born in London.

On 20 November 1865 Margaret Maria Sullivan died, five months old. A Coronial inquest was held, where it was revealed that six months after their marriage, a few months before Henry was born, Matilda was deserted by her new husband William. Matilda Sullivan maintained that the father of the baby Margaret Maria was William Sullivan, who had visited her twice since their separation. At the time of the baby’s death Matilda Sullivan worked at Geelong Hospital. Her two younger children were cared for by their grandmother.

The inquest heard medical opinion that the baby had starved to death. The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against the grandmother [Matilda Hughes], and the mother [Matilda Sullivan], as being an accessory to it.

In April 1866 Matilda Hughes and her daughter Matilda Sullivan were called upon to surrender to their bail, but they did not answer to their names.

On the 15th May 1866 the ‘Geelong Advertiser‘ reported on court proceedings relating to the abandonment of two year old Henry Sullivan. It was said of his mother, Matilda, that “her husband had left her, and was supposed to have gone to New Zealand, whence no tidings were heard of him, and she had recently left Geelong with some man with whom she had formed an intimacy, and had deserted her children”. The child, Henry Sullivan, was admitted to the orphanage.

I have found no subsequent trace of William and Matilda. Nor have I found any record in London of William Sullivan before he arrived in Australia. I have also not been able to trace his parents William Sullivan, painter and glazier, and his mother Mary Barry.

Moreover, other than as descendants of Henry Sullivan, neither Greg nor any of his Sullivan cousins have any Sullivan relatives among their DNA matches.

When Greg first tested his DNA he had a strong match to Helen F. from New Zealand and also to her great uncle Alan W. Since 2016 I have been in correspondence with Helen who, with me, is attempting to discover how we are related. Helen has a comprehensive family tree. We have since narrowed the relationship to her McNamara Durham line.

Helen recently wrote to tell me that she had noticed some matches descended from a William Durham, son of a Patrick Durham. Patrick Durham, it seems, was the brother of Joanna NcNamara nee Durham, Helen’s 3rd great grandmother.

I have placed the matches in DNAPainter’s ‘What are the odds?’ tool. It appears likely that Greg and his Sullivan cousins are descended from Patrick Durham. We don’t yet have quite enough data to be sure whether they descend from William Durham or one of his cousins.

What are the Odds tree (tool by DNAPainter.com) with shared DNA matches of Greg with descendants of Joanna Durham; at the moment we do not have a great enough number of sufficiently large matches to form a definite conclusion. The cousin connections are a bit too distant.

William Durham was born about 1840 in Finsbury, Middlesex, England, to Patrick Durham and Mary Durham née Barry. When William Durham married Jemima Flower on 9 April 1860, he stated that his father was William Durham, a painter and glazier. (There are several other records where Patrick Durham is recorded as William Durham but is clearly the same man.)

1860 marriage of William Durham to Jemima Flowers
Comparing the signatures of William Durham on the 1860 marriage certificate to William Sullivan on the 1862 marriage certificate. They seem to be similar.

William and Jemima had two children together, one of whom appears to have died in infancy. The other, also called William Durham, left descendants, and some of these share DNA with Greg and his Sullivan cousins and also with Helen and her Durham cousins.

On 19 October 1861 William Durham, his wife and two children, were subject to a poor law removal. The record mentions his parents.

London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Poor Law Registers; Reference: BEBG/267/019 retrieved through ancestry.com

Jemima died about a week later and was buried 27 October 1861 at Victoria Park Cemetery, Hackney.

I have found no trace of William Durham after the Poor Law removal. Did he emigrate to Australia and change his name?

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Wikitree: are these two the same man?

Visiting the Avoca and District Historical Society

20 Sunday Nov 2022

Posted by in Avoca, Cross, genealogical records, Homebush

≈ 1 Comment

In the 1850s and 1860s George Young, my husband Greg’s great great grandfather, followed the Victorian gold rushes from Beechworth to Maryborough. He settled finally at Lamplough, a few miles south-east of Avoca.

On his father’s mother’s side Greg’s great grandfather Frederick James Cross, who had been born at Buninyong near Ballarat to a gold miner, took up mining and later farming near Homebush, a few miles north-east of Avoca. John Plowright, another of Greg’s great great grandfathers, also worked as a miner at Homebush.

The Avoca and District Historical Society http://home.vicnet.net.au/~adhs/ was founded in 1984. It has amassed an extensive card-index of references to Avoca people and events, compiled from many differerent sources. This material has not been published online, so if you are researching Avoca family history it is well worth a visit. For a small fee the Society will look up material on your behalf.

The Avoca and District Historical Society is located in the former Avoca Court House on High Street
The Society is open the first and third Wednesday of each month from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm from February to mid-December but special openings or research by the Society can be arranged

Greg and I have visited the society many times. Some of the index material there includes information from

  • Church congregations
  • Funeral arrangements
  • Lower Homebush school register
  • Honor Roll
  • letters
  • Newspapers
  • petitions
  • Photograph collection
  • Police
  • Rates books
  • School committee
  • Vaccinations register

A sample of the index cards held by the Avoca and District Historical Society concrning the Cross family

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The 1898 will of Ellen Cross

18 Tuesday Oct 2022

Posted by in Cross, Cross SV, Murray, Snake Valley, will

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In May 1898, three years before her death, my husband Greg’s great great grandmother Ellen Cross née Murray (1836–1901) made a will providing for her unmarried daughters and leaving two specific bequests, her piano and her husband’s medicine chest.

Ellen, born in Dublin, emigrated to Australia in 1854 She was 17 years old and her occupation on the passenger list was domestic servant. In 1856 at Buninyong near Ballarat she married James Cross, a gold miner from Liverpool, trained as a chemist (druggist). They had eleven children, ten of them born in the small mining town of Carngham, west of Ballarat, where she and James had settled with their first child in about 1858.

James died of dysentery in 1882, and Ellen, forty-five years old, became a widow with ten children (one child had died young). The youngest child was three. Ellen continued to live in Carngham. I do not know how she managed to support herself and her large family.

From her will it appears that Ellen was a straightforward and practical woman. I was interested that she had a piano. I am not sure when she would have learned to play. Also caring for so many young children as a widow, when she might have had a chance to play.

As they grew older the children remained close and in touch with each other. Most of them, however, moved away from Carngham.

Ellen Cross and family about 1890. Picture from a great grand daughter of Frederick James Cross and great great grand daughter of Ellen.

Public Record Office Victoria: Wills (VPRS7591) 78/447 Ellen Cross: Will; Grant of probate; Residence : Snake Valley ; Occupation : Widow ; Nature of grant : Probate Date of grant: 16 Apr 1901 ; Date of death: 4 Mar 1901

This is the last Will and 
Testament of me 
Ellen Cross 
of Snake Valley 
Widow of the late James Cross.

After payment of all my just debts and funeral & testamentary expenses I Give Devise and Bequeath unto my children Frederick James Cross, Ellen Hawkins, George Murray Cross, Ann Bailey Cross, Elizabeth Grapel Cross, Jane Bailey Snell, Mary Gore Cross, Isabella Murray Bowes, Harriet Mercer Cross, and Margaret Plowright Cross, all monies now in my possession, or that I may become possessed of, to be divided in equal parts among them.

I devise my house & furniture to my unmarried daughters, Ann Bailey, Elizabeth Grapel, Mary Gore, Harriet Mercer and Margaret Plowright. In the event of either of these marrying, the property shall remain for the benefit of those still unmarried, and in the event of all marrying, the house and furniture shall be sold and the proceeds divided among all my children then living, in equal parts.

I will and devise my “Piano” to my two daughters Harriet Mercer and Margaret Plowright, jointly.

I bequeath my late husbands medicine chest to my son George Murray Cross for his sole use and benefit.

And I hereby appoint Frederick James Cross and Ann Bailey Cross Executors of this my Will in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 20th day of May 1898

Witnesses to Ellen’s signature were Josephine Margaret Williams and Matthew Daniel Williams of The Vicarage, Smythesdale.

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Wikitree: Ellen (Murray) Cross (1836 – 1901)

Jane Bailey Snell née Cross 1866 – 1930

17 Monday Oct 2022

Posted by in Carngham, Cross, Cross SV, photographs, Snake Valley

≈ 1 Comment

Several of the great great grandfathers of my husband Greg, attracted by the lure of instant wealth on the goldfields, came to Australia in the 1850s and 1860s.

One was James Cross (1828–1882), from Liverpool, who married a Dublin girl named Ellen Murray (1837–1901) at Buninyong near Ballarat on 28 March 1856.

James and Ellen moved to Carngham from Green Hill at Durham Lead, a few miles south of Ballarat, after the birth of Frederick James Cross (1857–1929), their oldest son. Their second child Ellen (1859–1903), was one of ten more children, all born at Carngham, the youngest in 1878.

Carngham, 27 km west of Ballarat and 4 km north of Snake Valley, was a gold-rush settlement, surveyed and proclaimed a township in 1855. The Ballarat Star reported the rush to Carngham in November 1857; the Cross family’s move from the Green Hill alluvial diggings was probably partly in response to this news.

James Cross died in Carngham from dysentery on 31 January 1882. His youngest child was just three years old.

A photograph of Ellen Cross and ten of her children (Thomas had died young) taken about 1890.

Jane Bailey Cross, the sixth child of James and Ellen, was born on 3 August 1866. She is seated on the right of the above photograph.

On 26 December 1895 Jane Bailey Cross married George Snell at the Anglican Holy Trinity Church, Carngham. A marriage notice placed in the Melbourne Age 25 January 1896 reads:

SNELL—CROSS – On the 26th December, at Holy Trinity Church, Carngham, by Rev. M.D. Williams, George, youngest son of late Richard Snell, to Jane Bailey, daughter of late James Cross, both of Carngham.

Jane Bailey Cross and George Snell on their wedding day.
Photograph kindly provided by a great grand daughter of Jane and George Snell.
Jane Bailey Snell, photograph in the collection of her great grandaughter

George Snell was a Snake Valley butcher.

Jane and George had six children:

  • Marjorie Merle 1898–1959
  • Richard Murray 1900–1975
  • Reginald Cross 1902–1959
  • Mona Robina 1904–1905
  • Sydney Oswald (Peter) 1905–1946
  • Dorothy Isabel (Dorrie) 1905–2001

On a visit to Ballarat in 1993 Greg and I were delighted to meet Dorrie Brumby and her husband John at their home in Snake Valley. Dorrie was kind and warm; John, joking that he was not John Brumby the Leader of the Opposition in Victoria, showed us his collection of home-made windmills.

Jane Snell died on 3 March 1930 at Carngham and was buried in Carngham Cemetery near her parents and her brother Frederick. George Snell died in 1944.

The grave of Jane Bailey Snell and her husband George in Carngham cemetery photographed in 2011. The grave is next to that of Frederick James Cross (Jane’s brother) and three along from James Cross and his wife Ellen (Jane’s parents).

Recently I was contacted by a great granddaughter of Jane who shared the two photographs of Jane and photographs of other family members. She wrote “It has always seemed like something of a lottery in families as to who ends up with the photos so sharing images seems like the sensible thing to do.” I am very grateful to members of our extended family who help to preserve our history by sharing their photographs.

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Wikitree: Jane Bailey (Cross) Snell (1866 – 1930)

From the Geelong orphanage to gardener

10 Monday Oct 2022

Posted by in Geelong, orphanage, Sullivan

≈ 10 Comments

My husband Greg’s great grandfather was Ebenezer Henry Sullivan, born at Gheringhap near Geelong on 7 August 1863. Ebenezer’s father was William Sullivan, aged about 24 years, a Londoner. His mother was Matilda Sullivan nee Darby, age 18, born in New Zealand. The birth of Ebenezer was registered on 3 September 1863 by his grandmother Matilda Hughes of Gheringhap; there were no other children from the marriage at that time.

William Sullivan labourer and Matilda Frances Hughes (in fact Matilda Darby, for her stepfather was David Hughes) both of Gheringhap, had been married on 6 October 1862.

In 1861, two years previously, Matilda had given birth to a child, Eleazer surnamed Hughes, by a different father. The baby Eleazar was farmed out, cared for by a woman in the country—a ‘nurse’—for 5 shillings a week.

Six months after their marriage, a few months before Ebenezer Henry was born, Matilda was deserted by her new husband. About a year later, on 12 June 1865, Matilda gave birth to a third child, given the name Margaret Maria Sullivan. The father, she said, was William Sullivan, who had ‘visited’ her twice since their separation.

Matilda Sullivan worked at Geelong Hospital. Her two younger children were cared for by their grandmother.

On 20 November 1865 Margaret Maria Sullivan died, four months old. At the inquest, medical opinion was that the baby had starved to death, and the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against the grandmother [Matilda Hughes], and the mother [Matilda Sullivan], as being an accessory to it.

In April 1866 Matilda Hughes and her daughter Matilda Sullivan were called upon to surrender to their bail, but they did not answer to their names. I have found no further trace of Matilda Sullivan née Darby.

On 28 May 1866 the Geelong Advertiser reported on the case of Mary Sullivan, an unmarried mother of three, who was charged with stealing. Mary was sentenced to 14 days imprisonment. A “poor old woman” who lived in the house with Mary was left in charge of these children and another child who had been abandoned by another woman named Sullivan. I do not know if this Mary Sullivan is connected to William.

On the 15th May 1866 there had been another report in the Geelong Advertiser of a child and a young woman called Sullivan:

The attention of the Bench was again called, yesterday, to the case of the young child left in the care of a woman named Sullivan, who now seeks to shift the responsibility she undertook to Mr Hughes, the stepfather of the mother. Mr Hughes appeared in the Court and refused the charge of the child, who, he said, had been placed collusively by the mother with the woman, with a foregone intent to abandon it. He had undertaken the care and education of an elder child to save his stepdaughter from shame; but her subsequent career had been of a nature to preclude any further favourable consideration of her conduct. She had been twice married, and her husband had left her, and was supposed to have gone to New Zealand, whence no tidings were heard of him, and she had recently left Geelong with some man with whom she had formed an intimacy, and had deserted her children, leaving the one in question with the woman Sullivan, who had been pre paid for its keep for a fortnight, at the end of which time it was planned that the child should be left with the stepfather, a scheme that was defeated by Constable Collins, who saw the woman depositing the child at the stepfather’s premises, and warned her of the consequences of the act. The Bench refused the application of the woman Sullivan, who avows that she will not keep the child any longer. A warrant will be issued for the apprehension of the mother, who, it will be remembered, was the parent of the infant upon, whom an inquest was held at Ashby some time ago.

On 11 June 1866 Henry Sullivan, whose parents had deserted him, was committed as a state ward to Geelong Orphanage. His birthdate was given as 1862 but in fact he had been born in 1863, so he was a little less three years old. He was blind in one eye; family stories have this the result of a magpie attack.

Geelong orphanage buildings photographed October 2022

On 23 June 1873 Henry Sullivan was recommitted for a further five years.

On 28 April 1876 Henry Sullivan was licensed out to Mr Jas M Jenkins, a market gardener in Moorabbin.

On 28 May 1878 Henry Sullivan was licensed out to Mr Wm George of 72 Brunswick St Fitzroy for one month at 4/- per week.

On 23 June 1878 Henry Sullivan was discharged as a state ward. He was just under 15 years old.

Henry continued to work as a gardener. He married Anne Morley on 17 February 1887 in Victoria. They had five children and 27 grandchildren. He died on 1 June 1943 in Victoria at the age of 79, and was buried in Cheltenham Cemetery.

Henry Sullivan about 1940 at his home “Navillus”, 7 Evelyn Street, East Bentleigh with his wife, a daughter-in-law, and a granddaughter, Elaine Sullivan, from the collection of a cousin and used with permission

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Philip Champion de Crespigny, General Manager of the Bank of Victoria

07 Sunday Aug 2022

Posted by in Bank of Victoria, CdeC Australia, Melbourne, World War 1

≈ 2 Comments

My great great grandfather Philip Champion de Crespigny (1850 – 1927) was General Manager of the Bank of Victoria.

One of my cousins recently obtained a photograph of the staff of the bank in 1917 from the Historical Services Curator of the National Australia Bank (which was formed by the amalgamation of the Bank of Victoria with the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney in 1927 and the National Bank of Australasia in 1982).

Staff of the Bank of Victoria in 1917

The photo appears to have been taken on the roof of the bank’s head office in Collins Street. There are no names with the photo, but clearly recognisable seated at the centre is Philip Champion de Crespigny.

Philip Champion de Crespigny in 1917

His obituary notice in the Argus (Melbourne), on 12 March 1927, outlines Philip de Crespigny’s banking career:

[Crespigny] joined the service of the Bank of Victoria in June, 1866, as a junior clerk. After spending a few years in country districts in service of the bank he was promoted to the position of manager at Epsom, and he filled a similar position at other country towns. Subsequently he was placed in charge of the South Melbourne branch of the bank. At the end of 1892 he was appointed assistant inspector, and he continued to act in that capacity until 1908, when he took the office of chief inspector. In 1916 he became general manager of the bank in succession to Mr George Stewart.

At the time of his first marriage, to Annie Frances Chauncy in 1877, Philip de Crespigny was the manager of the Bank of Victoria branch at Epsom five miles north-east of Bendigo. His oldest son Philip was born there in 1879. In early 1882 Philip moved from Epsom to Queenscliff, a small town on the Bellarine Peninsula, 30 kilometres south-east of Geelong. The Bank of Victoria was at 76 Hesse Street. Philip’s son, my great grandfather Constantine Trent, was born at Queenscliff in March 1882. Philip’s wife Annie died at Queenscliff in 1883.

In 1886 Philip transferred to be manager of the Elmore branch, forty kilometres northeast of Bendigo. In 1887 he was appointed manager of the South Melbourne branch. In 1888 he became Assistant Inspector of Branches, and was appointed Inspector of Branches in 1908. In 1916 he became the bank’s General Manager.

Another obituary, in the Melbourne Herald of 11 March 1927, notes that Philip was remembered for his “ability as a financial expert [and this] was known throughout Australia. During the war period, he gave his services freely to the Government, his advice having been of the greatest value to the country.”

A 1918 photograph of the Bank of Victoria’s office in Collins Street shows an advertisement for the 7th War loan.

In its half-yearly reports during the war the Bank made mention of employees who had been killed in action or died of wounds.

Philip had six sons of whom the four eldest served in the war and one, Philip, was killed in 1918.

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Wikitree:

Remembering E Walter Hughes (1854 – 1922)

02 Saturday Jul 2022

Posted by in Bank of Victoria, Beaufort, Hughes

≈ 3 Comments

Edward Walter Hughes, my great great grandfather, was born on 11 July 1854 in Noarlunga, South Australia, second of the eight children of Samuel Hughes and Sally Hughes née Plaisted.

On the 11th instant, at Kingston, Noarlunga, Mrs Samuel Hughes, of a son.

South Australian Register 13 July 1854

When he was two years old the family moved to Bendigo in Victoria, where his grandfather Edward Hughes was in the timber business. Samuel Hughes moved to Melbourne with his family where he set up an importing and timber merchant firm with the name ‘Hughes Lord & Co’.

Walter Hughes and his brother John went to school at Scotch College from 1867 – 69. In 1869 the family moved to Mount Gambier, in South Australia, where Samuel again founded a timber business.

In about 1870 Walter joined the National Bank of Australasia in South Australia; he ended up in charge of its Naracoorte branch. He resigned in 1873 when his father Samuel returned to Melbourne to establish Samuel Hughes & Co, Importers and Merchants. At this time, the family lived in Moonee Ponds.

In Melbourne, Walter, then nineteen, joined the Bank of Victoria. He was posted for some time to Dunolly as relieving officer, but by 1882 had returned to Melbourne.

Edward married Jeanie Hawkins in Dunolly on 25 September 1883.

HUGHES—HAWKINS.—On the 25th ult., at the Presbyterian Church, Dunolly by the Rev. J. W. Lawson, brother-in-law of the bride, Edward Walter, eldest son of Samuel Hughes, Tan-y-ffordd, Ascotvale, to Jeanie, youngest daughter of the late S. P. Hawkins, Melville Forest Station, Coleraine.

The Argus 2 October 1883

They had four children, the first two born in Melbourne, the second two in Beaufort, where Walter had been posted by the Bank of Victoria:

  • Beatrix 1884–1943
  • Reginald Hawkins 1886–1971
  • Vyvyan Westbury 1888–1916
  • Cedric Stuart Castlereagh 1893–1953
Walter and Jeanie’s four children – Reginald, Beatrix, Cedric and Vyvyan, in 1902
Early April 1916 – (back) Jeanie, Olive Hughes (Chatfield), Vyvyan, Walter (seated) and Beatrix de Crespigny (Hughes); (front) Nancy and Geoffrey de Crespigny
The Bank of Victoria in Beaufort in the 1890s – from Museum Victoria Reg. No: MM 001094
E. W. Hughes

Walter spent thirty-three years working for the Bank of Victoria in Beaufort. Busy in local affairs, he was described on his retirement due to ill-health in 1919 as “one of the most active residents of Beaufort”.

BEAUFORT.
VALEDICTORY.
Over £50 was subscribed for the purpose of making a presentation to Mr E. W. Hughes (for 33 years manager of the Bank of Victoria, Beaufort) prior to his departure for Melbourne. A number of representative citizens met Mr and Mrs Hughes on Monday, and expressed their appreciation of their valuable services to the town and district. On behalf of the people of Beaufort and district, Mr J. R. Wotherspoon presented Mr Hughes with a pigeon blood ruby ring and a purse of sovereigns, and Cr R. A. D. Sinclair (shire president) presented Mrs Hughes with a solid leather travelling bag. Both gentlemen referred in eulogistic terms to the good qualities of Mr and Mrs Hughes as citizens, expressed regret at their departure, and wished them health, prosperity and happiness in the future. Their remarks were endorsed by Messrs E. J. Muntz, G. H. Cougle, and A. L. Wotherspoon. Mr and Mrs Hughes feelingly returned thanks.

The Ballarat Star 23 October 1919

On 2 July 1922 at his home at 19 Oakwood Avenue, Brighton, Walter died at the age of sixty-seven, from diabetes and heart failure. He was buried in Brighton Cemetery.

The remains of Mr. Edward Walter Hughes, 67, who died on Sunday at Oakwood avenue, North Brighton, were interred today in the Church of England portion of the Brighton Cemetery. The Rev. Perry Martin officiated at the graveside. Born in South Australia, Mr. Hughes had lived in Victoria for 50 years. He was manager of the Bank of Victoria at Beaufort for 30 years. He has left a widow, two sons, and a daughter. The funeral arrangements were carried out by Monkhouse and Son.

The Herald (Melbourne, Victoria) 4 July 1922

HUGHES On the 2nd July at his residence, 19 Oakwood Avenue, Brighton. Edward Walter, the beloved husband of Jeanie Hughes, aged 67 years. (Private Interment.)

The Argus 4 July 1922

Mr Edward Walter Hughes died on Sunday at North Brighton. Born in South Australia, Mr Hughes had lived in Victoria for 50 years. He was manager of the Bank of Victoria at Beaufort for 30 years. He has left a widow, two sons, and a daughter.

The Ballarat Star 5 July 1922

Walter Hughes was something of a poet, and some of his verse was published in various newspapers between 1902 and 1916. My cousin Gordon Hughes has compiled a booklet of his poems, “E. W. Hughes’s Poems”, and has kindly given me his permission to attached it here.

Poems – E. Walter HughesDownload

One of his poems was published in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News with the remark that “Mr E.W. Hughes, of Beaufort, has followed up his recent successes, by winning the ‘Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News’ first prize of £1 1s for the best verse of eight lines descriptive of Cup Day. He also was placed third in the paper’s competition for best anecdote of a Melbourne or Caulfield Cup day.”

These successes, however, were insufficient foundation for a career as professional poet and, like the Lloyd’s bank-clerk T.S. Eliot, Walter Hughes did not abandon his day job. [It is interesting to note that Eliot had a high opinion of the cultural significance of Derby Day, and horses, though not necessarily thoroughbreds, appear in his verse, among them the famous lonely cab-horse who steams and stamps.]

CUP DAY
'Tis the Melbourne Carnival once again,
and the heart of the sportsman is glad;
Though a stranger would think at the
Flemington show we'd all gone galloping mad.

In the grandstand the shimmer of silk is
seen; on the flat the simmer of fun;
And the "Books" on the Hill, with the
pencil and quill, are laying the "odds" – bar none.

In the saddling paddock, before "The Cup" race,
the "punters" are keen on their "tips",
And wagers are laid in stentorian tones,
and also by feminine lips.

Horses in line—they're off!—and the sheen
of the colours passing the crowded stand
Makes a race to remember—no matter who
wins—the "Gem" of this Southern land.

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Wikitree:

X is for Xiàmén

28 Thursday Apr 2022

Posted by in A to Z 2022, Avoca, China, Plowright

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In 1881 my husband Greg’s great great grandparents John Plowright (1831 – 1910) and Margaret Plowright née Smyth (1834 – 1897) adopted a boy—their grandson—named Frederick Harold Plowright. The child’s father was James Henry Plowright; his mother was Elizabeth Ann Cooke, née Onthong.

Elizabeth Ann Onthong was born in 1862 in Avoca, Victoria, to Thomas Onthong and Bridget Onthong née Fogarty. The Onthong family later used the surname Cook (or Cooke). Elizabeth was the fourth of six children; she had four brothers and one sister, Mary Ann.

Elizabeth’s parents Bridget Fogarty and John Tong were married on 17 October 1855 in the Church of England vicarage at Carisbrook.

Marriage certificate (Victoria Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages) for FOGARTY, Bridget and TONG, John; Year: 1855, Reg. number: 2887/1855

The marriage certificate has them both living in Avoca. Neither could sign their name.

John Tong, son of William Tong storekeeper, was born in Amoy, China. His occupation was cook, and he was 26 years old. The certificate notes that he “could not tell his mother’s name (Chinese)”. This presumably meant that he was unable to transcribe the sounds of her name into English letters. He was probably also illiterate in Chinese.

Bridget Fogarty was born at Burr (Birr), King’s County (now County Offaly), Ireland. She was a servant, she stated her age was 21, and her parents were Michael Fogarty, farmer, and Ann Whitfield.

John Tong’s birthplace Xiamen 廈門 (pinyin: Xiàmén) is a city on the Fujian coast of China. For many years, the name, pronounced ‘Emoui’ in the Fujian dialect, was rendered ‘Amoy’ in Post Office romanization.

Amoy’s harbor, China. Painting in the collection of Sjöhistoriska Museet; image retrieved through picryl.com.
Xiàmén is 7,300 km north of Avoca, Victoria. Map generated using Google maps.

At the end of 1854 it was estimated that more than 10,000 Chinese lived and worked on the Victorian goldfields. In 1855 alone more than eleven thousand Chinese arrived in Melbourne, many of them indentured labourers from the province of Fujian via the port of Amoy.

John Tong arrived before the Victorian parliament passed the Chinese Immigration Act 1855, legislation meant to restrict Chinese immigration by imposing a poll tax of ten pounds upon every Chinese arriving in the Colony and limiting the number of Chinese on board each vessel to one person for every 10 tonnes of goods. (£10 was worth about $9,000 today in comparing average wages then and now [from MeasuringWorth.com])

Though at the time of his marriage John Tong’s occupation was cook, he later worked as a miner at Deep Lead near Avoca. Three of his sons were also Avoca miners.

John Tong was also known as Thomas or Tommy Cook. Tommy Cook was mentioned several times in the newspapers. In 1866 he was noted as having “attained considerable proficiency in the English language.” In 1871 his son William gave evidence in a court case and he, William, was the son of “Thomas Cook, a miner, residing at the Deep Lead, Avoca.” In 1875 Bridget bought a charge of assault against her husband, Ah Tong, alias Tommy Cook. He was described as “a tall, powerful, and rather wild-looking Chinaman”. Bridget said he “was very lazy, and when he got any money would go and gamble it away.”

In October 1890 Tommy Cook and his son George Cook gave evidence in the inquest of the death of George Gouge. From the report in the Avoca Mail:

Tommy Cook deposed – I am residing at Deep Lead, near Avoca. I am father of George Cook. Knew deceased. I found the body lying about six o’clock on Friday morning about 200 yards from the hotel …

MURDER AT AVOCA. Avoca Mail 7 October 1890

I do not know when and where John (Tommy Cook) died nor where he was buried. Bridget died in the Amherst hospital in 1898 but her death certificate had no details of her marriage or children.

In 1935 the “Weekly Times” had a picture of an old hut on the Avoca gold-diggings.

READERS’ CAMERA STUDIES (1935, February 23). Weekly Times (Melbourne,
Vic. : 1869 – 1954), p. 38 (FIRST EDITION). Retrieved
from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223890597

A newspaper clipping published in the 1930s claims that this was the hut of Henry, George, and Frank, three of the sons of John and Bridget. The hut was said to have been known as “Cook’s Hut”.

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T is for Tattaila

23 Saturday Apr 2022

Posted by in A to Z 2022, Homebush, New South Wales, teacher, Wilkins

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My husband Greg’s great-great-great grandfather was a gold-rush digger named George Young. He and his wife Caroline had thirteen children, including twins, Charlotte and Harriet, who were born on 13 July 1861 in Lamplough, a mining settlement about four miles south of Avoca, Victoria.

On 2 October 1882 Charlotte married George Edward Wilkins at the Avoca Anglican church, St John’s. Charlotte was 21, employed as a domestic servant. George was 25, a miner from Percydale, five miles west.

St John’s Church, Avoca

Charlotte and George had three children: Ethel born in 1883 in Avoca, and George and Eva, born in 1884 and 1886 at Tattaila (sometimes spelt Tataila or Tattalia), near a large grazing run of that name at Moama in New South Wales, across the Murray river from Echuca.

Satellite view of Tattaila and countryside from Google maps
Google street view of Tataila Road

They had moved to Tattaila because, no longer a gold miner, George Wilkins had become a teacher, appointed in October 1884 to the school there, with his position formally recorded as Classification 3B on the New South Wales Civil Service list in 1885.

Sadly, George and Charlotte’s daughter Eva, born on 21 January 1886, died three days later, according to her death certificate from premature birth and inanation (exhaustion caused by lack of nourishment). She was buried on 25 January in the grounds of the Tattaila Public School.

Why in the school-grounds? Sadly, there seems to have been nowhere else, no suitable burial place within range. Perhaps this arrangement provided some consolation for the parents.

In July 1887, a year and a half later, with George Wilkins still the Tattaila schoolteacher, Lord Carrington, Governor of New South Wales, passed through on a tour of inspection. The Sydney “Australian Town and Country Journal” wrote:

'EDUCATIONAL.-Not long ago I was in the Moama State School, listening to the children practising " God Save the Queen" for the Governor's visit. On that occasion the children of Latalia [sic], under the charge of their teacher, Mr. Wilkins, amalgamated with those of the Moama School under the charge of Mr. Bruce, and the practising was done under Mr. Wilkin's tuition. The children acquitted themselves admirably, subsequently earning praise from Lord Carrington, and, what was, perhaps, much dearer to the infantile heart, a whole holiday. I was considerably impressed with the progress evidently being made by the children, and not a little astonished at the advanced curriculum of the State schools in this colony. Children in New South Wales are being educated in many things of a practical as well as a scientific nature which are neglected across the border. The inference is obvious.'

The local “Riverine Herald“, published in Echuca, had predicted on 16 July that:

'Mr Wilkins has taken a good deal of pains to coach the scholars up, and their singing yesterday showed that they had profited by his teaching. The children kept time very well and sang the Anthem with considerable expression, so that they should acquit themselves very favourably on Tuesday next.'
His Excellency Lord Carrington, Governor of New South Wales, photographed about 1887. Retrieved from the National Library of Australia.

In 1889 George E Wilkins of Tattaila was promoted by examination to Classification 3A.

At the end of that year, he transferred to the Victorian education system, appointed in December 1889 as head teacher at School 1798, Major’s Line, near Heathcote. (‘Major’s Line’ refers to wheel tracks left by the NSW Surveyor-General Major Mitchell in his 1836 journey of exploration.)

On 1 January 1891 George was ‘certificated’—approved to teach, and appointed as a teacher—by the Victorian Department of Education. In October 1891 he transferred to School 1567 in Richmond and appointed junior assistant on probation. It was noted on his file that George gambled, but otherwise the probation inspection was satisfactory.

In 1892 George Wilkin’s appointment was confirmed, and he was also qualified to teach military drill. In 1893 he was transferred to School 2849, Rathscar North. His annual reports were positive. In 1899 he was
transferred to School 1109, Mount Lonarch. In 1901 he transferred to School 3022, Warrenmang. In 1902 he was at School 2811, Glenlogie. Later that year he returned to Warrenmang. In 1907 he was transferred to Homebush School, 2258. All these schools were in in the Central Highlands administrative region. He remained at Homebush until December 1921, when ill-health forced his resignation.

George Wilkins with his pupils in about 1896 at Rathscar North. From the 1988 book by Neville Taylor (1922 – 1992): Via the 19th Hole : Story of Convicts, Battlers and High Society. Neville was the son of Eva Taylor nee Squires.
George Wilkins, his children Ethel (1883 – 1955) and George (1884 – 1909), and wife Charlotte. Photograph about 1898.

Though not formally employed by the Education Department Charlotte Wilkins helped her husband with his teaching duties, brought up their children, and raised two of her nephews after their mother, her sister-in-law, died in childbirth. Charlotte was also busy in her local community. I have found no mention of Charlotte in Tattaila district newspapers, but in later years the Avoca newspapers give some better account of her activities there. for example as a hostess for various functions associated with the Homebush Soldiers Comforts Fund during World War I.

Lower Homebush School photographed some time between 1910 and 1920. In the back row are Laura Squires, Charlotte and George Wilkins. Laura Squires was sewing mistress from 1910 to 1920. She married George Wilkins after Charlotte’s death in 1925.

On 2 April 1925, following three years of paralysis, Charlotte died in Lower Homebush at the age of 63 and was buried in Avoca Cemetery.

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