It’s two days early but this week’s Trove Tuesday has a Valentine’s Day theme. From the Illustrated Australian News of February 21, 1883, comes “Bush Valentine”. Valentine’s Day was not the postman’s favourite day of the year as his workload increased significantly but whether he came by horse or bicycle, his arrival caused great excitement.
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS. (1883, February 21). Illustrated Australian News (Melbourne, Vic. : 1876 – 1889), p. 17. Retrieved February 10, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63186253
This is a particularly interesting find as my ggg grandmother, Margaret Diwell, who appeared as a witness at George’s murder trial, also arrived on the Duke of Richmond, along with her husband William. This answers the question has to how she came to know the Waines, other than the fact they lived reasonably close together.
I have a database of Duke of Richmond arrivals and I did a search but no George Waines. I then went to an online passenger list of the Duke of Richmond that I often refer back to. No George Waines.
So a-Troving I went. An article from the Bendigo Advertiser, reporting on the hanging of Waines, supported his arrival on the Duke of Richmond. But there seems to have been a case of mistaken identity Waines was keen to amend before his death.
EXECUTION OF THE CONVICT WAINES. (1860, July 18). Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 – 1918), p. 3. Retrieved February 3, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87945170
Back to the Duke of Richmond passenger list. George’s wife was Jane so I thought I would look at first names instead of surnames. Sure enough, there was a George and Jane Whainer both aged 29 from Yorkshire. George’s age matches his birth date of 1823, but Yorkshire? Both the Casterton Historical Society Newsletter and the article above, state George was born in Dorset, England, with the Bendigo Advertiser narrowing it down to Sherborne.
Back to Trove and look what I found:
POPULATION OF THE GOLDFIELDS. (1860, October 22). Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 – 1918), p. 3. Retrieved February 3, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87947401
George was from Yorkshire, Sherburn as opposed to Sherborne, Dorset. This and the claim George “was one of the most notorious poachers in the district” helps support something I found on the England and Wales, Criminal Registers (1791-1892). In 1849, George Waines of Yorkshire was sentenced to three months imprisonment on a charge of larceny. Maybe he wasn’t as squeaky clean as he wanted people to believe. No matter the impression he tried to project, nothing could save him from the gallows.
Using FreeBDM I found a marriage of George Waines in 1847, registered in the Scarborough district of Yorkshire. From the same Volume there are two Janes, Jane Winter and Jane Jewett
That settled, back to the original aim of my post, the friendship between Margaret Diwell and the Waines, particularly Jane. So it seems they met on the Duke of Richmond, the same ship another set of ggg grandparents sailed on, James and Susan Harman. The Diwells spent around five years in Portland after arrival, then they went to Casterton in 1858. The CHS newsletter says that once in Casterton, the Diwells lived close to both the Waines and the Hunts. As the Hunts purchased land off George Waines in 1856 at Casterton, the Waines must have arrived in town before the Diwells.
It sounds like Jane Waines would have been a good friend. The CHS newsletter describes her as “a comely woman, a vivacious personality full of joy and fun…” . George was not described in such a favourable way, although he did hold Jane in high regard.
EXECUTION OF THE CONVICT WAINES. (1860, July 18). Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 – 1918), p. 3. Retrieved February 4, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87945170
Of course I did wonder what happened to Jane after George’s death. George had thoughts about what she should do.
THE CASTERTON MURDER. (1860, April 30). The South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1858 – 1889), p. 3. Retrieved February 6, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1204764
On the Victorian Marriage Index, a Jane Waines married Thomas James Brooks in 1861. From there I lose her. I can not find a death record for either Jane or a Thomas James Brooks that I can definitely say is them. I can’t get a lead on the town Jane lived in so that is making it hard to search for her at Trove. I wonder if she stayed on in Casterton? Did Margaret Diwell see her again? Did Margaret and Jane’s relationship falter during the trial period, given Margaret also knew Mrs Hunt well. So many questions.
As the Harmans were also on the Duke of Richmond, I have a picture in my mind of James Harman, back in 1860 in Port Fairy, looking up from his paper of choice, maybe the Belfast Gazette and remarking “Do you remember the Waines and the Diwells from the ship Susan?”
Pioneer Women of Portland. (1934, May 24). Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 – 1953), p. 3 Edition: EVENING.. Retrieved January 29, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64285807
The booklet begins with a forward from Alice Frances Moss, a pioneer of women’s rights. She was the first President of the National Council of Women of Australia and Chair of the Victorian Women’s Centenary Council.
After an offering of appreciation to pioneer women, there is the story of MrsStephen George Henty, the first European woman at Portland, to whom the booklet was dedicated. She is often called Mrs Stephen George Henty, but let us call her Jane (Pace).
There are the recollections of Mrs George Godwin Crouch (Marianne Trangmar) spanning from 1840 to 1917. Then, a list of “Worthy Pioneers” compiled by Sarah Jane Wadmore. Included is one of my favourites, Rebecca Kittson (Mrs William Lightbody) and Mrs Fawthrop, Jane Rosevear, wife of Captain James Fawthrop the life boat captain.
Following is the story of Mrs Richard Charlton Hedditch and further on a letter she wrote on Christmas Day, 1848, to her parents in England. Another woman often referred to by her husband’s name, she was Rachel Forward Read.
After some local poetry, comes “Belles and Beauties of the Early Days”. Those included are Misses Henty, Learmonth, Trangmar and Herbertson.
Finally is a list of Portland’s Pioneering Women. Women born or living in Portland prior to 1864 were eligible. This is where I found Margaret. The Diwells lived in Portland for about five years from the time of their arrival on the Duke of Richmond in 1852.
Margaret appears as Mrs William Diwell and her daughter-in-law, Frances Webb, is also listed as Mrs William Diwell. Frances just scraped in as she was born in Portland in 1863 to John Webb and Margaret Smith, who is also listed. This is a useful list as some entries have notes and maiden names.
After nearly two years of Passing of the Pioneers, I am beginning to have to dig a little deeper for pioneer obituaries but I have managed to find an interesting group for January. There are members of the Black, Herbertson and Guthridge families. Also a butcher, a baker and a newspaper maker. Then Sarah Jane Wadmore, an early Portland historian, and Mary Ann Skilbeck, a member of a family that left a legacy of value to historians today.
Don’t despair, there will still be many more Passing of the Pioneers and if the Hamilton Spectator ever finds its way to Trove, well, my life will be complete.
T.E. THOMAS: Died January 20, 1909 at Casterton. Mr Thomas was the owner of the Casterton Free Press and a former owner of the Port Fairy Gazette and was well-known for his journalism.
Mrs W. DEWAR: Died January 24, 1910 at Casterton. Arriving at Portland in 1861, the Dewars headed to Heathfield Station near Strathdownie where they were both employed. Later they moved to Casterton until their deaths. Mrs Dewar had nine children and lived to 84 years.
Archibald BLACK: Died January 20, 1912 at Camperdown. Son of Western Victorian pastoralist, Niel Black MLC, Archibald was born in South Yarra and educated at Geelong Grammar, Trinity College and Cambridge. He then settled in the Western District and was one of the first landholders in the Hampden area to recognise the potential for dairy-farming, an industry the area is today renowned for. His obituary and photo can also be found at Obituaries Australia
Thomas MORRISSY: Died January 1914 at Beeac. Tipperary born, Thomas Morrissey arrived in Victoria around 1860 and farmed around Ballarat. After two years he moved to Beeac were he farmed for the next 52 years. He was a member of the Colac P & A Society and took a keen interest in the affairs of the Colac Dairying Company.
Mrs George SEALEY: Died January 5, 1915 at Casterton. Mrs Sealey was born in Middlesex in 1833 and arrived in Victoria in 1854. She was a Casterton resident from 1855 to 1875, then Corndale for the next 35 years before returning to Casterton in the years before her death. She had a family of nine sons. One son lost his life during the Boer War. She left 50 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Patrick KINNANE: Died January 9, 1915 at Port Fairy. A Koroit resident for many years, Patrick Kinnane was born in Limerick, Ireland around 1827. He arrived in Portland about 1854 and worked for the Koroit Borough Council. He had a large family of four sons and five daughters and was buried at the Tower Hill cemetery.
Mary Ann SKILBECK: Died January 22, 1915 at Port Fairy. Back in the 1990s, I read The Diaries of Sarah Midgley and Richard Skilbeck: A Story of Australian settlers 1851-1864, edited by H.A. McCorkell. It has a lot about Port Fairy and the Wesleyan Methodist Church, both relevant to the Harman family. Mary Ann was a sister of Richard Skilbeck, and she married the brother of the other diarist, Sarah Midgley. This was a great read, giving an insight into pioneering life in the south-west of Victoria. Finding Mary Ann’s obituary has reminded me I must read it again. It is available online via the Midgleyfamily website, but I think I’ll wait until I get the hard copy from the library. The website does have a lot about both the Midgley’s and Skilbecks for those interested.
Obituary. (1917, January 8). The Casterton News and the Merino and Sandford Record (Vic. : 1914 – 1918), p. 3 Edition: Bi-Weekly. Retrieved January 26, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74488021
John TOOGOOD: Died January 18, 1917 at Hawkesdale. John Toogood was born at Princess Bridge, Melbourne in 1840. He married, for the first time, at Richmond in 1862 and he moved to Port Fairy in 1864. He then moved to Winslow near Warrnambool where his wife died. On to Hawkesdale where he ran a carrying and contracting business for some years before he turned to farming pursuits. He married a further two times, but both wives predeceased him.
PERSONAL. (1918, January 17). Warrnambool Standard (Vic. : 1914 – 1918), p. 3 Edition: DAILY.. Retrieved January 26, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74043412
Phillip Ormsby was born in Dublin and enrolled in the Dublin University to study medicine. His sense of adventure saw him leave his studies and sail to Melbourne on the large clipper, Champion of theSeas in 1854. He got his land legs in Geelong, then he went on to the goldfields at Ballarat for three years, farmed at nearby Learmonth and then purchased land on the banks of the Hopkins River near Ellerslie in 1865.
Like, Archibald Black (above), Phillip was remembered as one of the first to see the potential for dairy-farming in the area. He was one of the co-founders of the Western District Co-Operative Factories Company and served on the Mortlake Shire Council with two years as President. He was also secretary of the Mortlake Cemetery Trust.
Phillip married Jenny McKellar and they had four sons and seven daughters. Phillip died with the knowledge that is son was killed in France only months before.
Mrs Jane HEANEY: Died January 29, 1920 at Hamilton. Jane Heaney was one of Condah district’s oldest residents. She arrived from Ireland with her husband, Robert in 1856 aboard the General Hewitt . After 10 years at Heywood, the Heaney’s moved on to Condah Swamp, later known as Wallacedale.
Donald McINNES: Died January 9, 1924 at Warrnambool. Donald arrived on HMS Hercules after an horrendous voyage. His first job in Victoria was at the Kangaroo station near Hotspur owned by the McKinnon brothers, uncles of Donald. He never married.
Thomas HERBERTSON: Died January 17. 1932 at Portland. The Herbertson family have a long association with Portland. Thomas was the son of Robert Herbertson an 1840s arrival at Portland. Thomas was 81 at the time of his death and during his years in Portland worked as a saddler, then owned a saddlery business, before purchasing “Wattle Hill”, where he farmed and ran a successful orchard with his sons. He married Jenny Miller of Portland and they had a family of five children.
Frederick GUTHERIDGE: Died January 16, 1933 at Ullswater. Frederick Gutheridge was a member of a large family well-known for their longevity. They featured in this week’s TroveTuesday post for that reason. Frederick was the son of Richard Guthridge and Elizabeth Pitts. He married Alice Byrne and they had four sons and four daughters. Frederick also left eight brothers and sisters and a 95-year-old father.
Joseph JACKSON: Died January 16, 1940 at Camperdown. Joseph Jackson was a native of Armagh County and spent most of his years in Victoria at Camperdown. A butcher by trade, he ran a successful business for nearly 40 years. He was a committee member of the Camperdown Mechanics Institute and the Camperdown Turf Club. He was the longest-serving member of the Camperdown Bowling Club and had success locally and in Melbourne.
Sarah Jane WADMORE: Died January 1, 1941 at Portland. Sarah Wadmore was a woman after my own heart.
Sarah had a great interest in the history of Portland and with the approaching centenary of the town in 1934, she and two other local’s, Mrs W.F. Hedditch and Mr E. Davis of the Portland Observer produced a booklet entitled Portland Pioneer Women’s Book of Remembrance for the event. She was also the main force behind the Pioneer Women’s statue at Portland. Sarah’s obituary gives a detailed history of her life, including the loss of her father, a Cape Bridgewater pioneer, swept off the rocks when Sarah was only one month old. Sarah was a school teacher and never married.
John Charles HAUGH: Died January 12, 1943 at Geelong. John Haugh was born at Bri Bri around 1866. In his early life he went to Stoneyford, beginning work as a baker. He later worked for Camperdown baker, Mr G. Robertson. John was an original member of the Camperdown Brass Band and performed in local theatrical productions. He was a gate-keeper at the Camperdown Football oval for many years.
One of the families in the article are the Guthridges of Carapook and Charam. It was the story of the patriarch of this family, Richard Charles Guthridge, that inspired me to hit the microfiche readers around 20 years ago and begin the search for my family. The Herald-Sun ran an article about Richard and his long-lived family. Nana cut it out as it mentioned the married names of the Guthridge girls with Hadden, Nana’s maiden name, one of them.
Of course, we thought we must be related to this great pioneer in some way. Well we weren’t. My Haddens were from Scotland and the Hadden boys, James and William, that married into the Guthridge family were from Ireland. Maybe the Irish Haddens could have been originally Scots, but as I would have to go back to the early 1800s, I don’t think I’m that desperate to find a distant link.
The article gives the total age of ten members of the Guthridge family as 768 years. It also mentions the Humphries family of Hamilton with an average age of 60.
LONGEVITY IN FAMILIES. (1951, January 4). Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 – 1953), p. 3 Edition: MIDDAY.. Retrieved January 28, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64427264
There is no doubt that the Guthridge family, with all 10 siblings alive when the youngest was 68 ( Richard lived to 95), was a big effort, but is the Humphries family average remarkable?
When I look at my families, most of them have had siblings that died at a young age and as far we know, all the Humphries were alive in 1951, with the youngest 50.
When I averaged the ages of the Harman children that came to Australia, using their age in the year of brother James Harman’s death, aged 86, I get an average age of 75. Fantastic, but I cheated because Reuben died in 1883 and I didn’t count his age or the siblings that died before the family left England. The Harmans have, however, also had an article published about their longevity.
The Hadden family is a little more accurate. If I average the ages in the year the first sibling passed away, Margaret in 1927, I get an average age of 69. That’s really good. The ages were 80, 77, 74, 66, 63, 55. My gg grandfather William was the 80-year-old and he was still working at Mokanger Station at that time.
Have I sent you scurrying for the calculator? Let me know your best average age.
Easy - Ellen Barry arrived in 1840 on the Orient. But you have heard enough about Ellen and her husband Thomas Gamble, another early arrival (and possible convict). Most of my other ancestors were 1850s Assisted Immigrants. Maybe I could go with a hunch.
My ggg grandparents James Bishop and Sarah Hughes have been difficult to research. I eventually discovered they married in Adelaide in 1852. A few years ago, on the passenger list of the Lysander an 1840 arrival to Adelaide, I found Robert Hughes, his wife and four daughters.
Shipping Report. (1840, September 8). Southern Australian (Adelaide, SA : 1838 – 1844), p. 3. Retrieved January 26, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71619943
As Sarah’s father was Robert, I’ve kept the Lysander filed away in my mind (yes, there are probably better places), occasionally having a search around the records hoping for something new.
For this post, I decided to try to find, the arrival date of either Sarah or James, but I had to choose. Firstly, I would need to cough up, pay $20 for a digital image of a Death Certificate simply because I was short of clues. This was still cheaper and faster than ordering a hard copy of their South Australian Marriage Certificate.
I’ve posted about James before and I know something of him but nothing of Sarah except she gave birth to 11 children, but I did want to know more. Also, as Sarah passed away before her husband, the informant would most likely have been James and, if he was still of sane mind, information would be more accurate than that on his own certificate. He died 10 years later in 1895 and his informant may not have known the detail I was after.
Based on that reasoning , Sarah it would be. So I begrudgingly happily paid $20 and waited, with fingers crossed for the digital image to appear. More often than not when I order a certificate, I end up disappointed. I was, on this occasion, pleasantly surprised. The column I was most interested in was “How long in the Australian colony”. It read, “14 years in South Australia”, in Victoria…almost illegible but it looks like 34 years. What do you think?
It does not prove that Sarah came on the Lysander but it does qualify her as an early arrival, so let the story begin.
I have told much of the Bishop family story in the post Jim’s Gone A-droving but what of Sarah’s story? I know so little about her but with help from Henry Lawson’s “The Drover’s Wife” one can wonder and imagine what life was like for her. While I don’t believe that she felt the isolation experienced by Lawson’s “wife” she must have felt the same loneliness.
Sarah Hughes was born in Brighton, East Sussex, England in 1834 to Robert Hughes and Mary Godfer. Robert was a sailor according to Sarah’s Death Certificate. As a child, Sarah arrived in Adelaide. By 1852, aged 18, she had met and married James Bishop from Dorset, nine years her senior. They lived at Thebarton an Adelaide suburb. Eight days short of their nine month anniversary, Sarah and Jim welcomed a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, named after her two grandmothers.
For most of his working life, Jim was a drover. The following article describes a James Bishop, working as a shepherd near Gawler, South Australia in 1853.
This could well be my Jim, off working early in the marriage. I have often wondered why only one child was born during the Adelaide days from 1852-1855/6, considering the speed of conception of the first child and frequency of the later children. Maybe Jim was away working? Could the gaps between the eleven children be a measure of Jim’s absences?
Baby Mary passed away in 1855 and this may have been a catalyst for a move.
Family Notices. (1855, March 26). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 – 1900), p. 2. Retrieved January 24, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49308047
Or was it gold? Jim and Sarah next turned up in Ararat where a new lead was found in early 1856.
Would life as a miner’s wife be any different to a shepherd’s wife? The goldfields were harsh for women, in the minority and left alone while their husband’s sought to change their fortunes. There was the cold (and Ararat can get very cold), the mud, the heat and dust. Home was either a tent or hut. Settled in Ararat, Sarah gave birth to three children in four years, including my gg grandmother Elizabeth, and at best, if lucky, a midwife assisted or another miner’s wife. Disease lurked on the goldfields, a constant worry for a mother with young children.
Seemingly luckless, the Bishops moved to Mount Gambier. Jim would have turned to droving by this time. While they were in Mount Gambier, Harriet was born in 1860 and Ellen in 1862.
By 1865, the family had moved to the Macarthur/Byaduk area and in the same year, after a break of three years, Sarah gave birth to a daughter. She called her Mary after the child she lost 10 years before.
During Jim’s absences, he often took cattle to the Adelaide markets, Sarah would have faced the harshness of the land on her own. By 1870, she had eight children from a newborn to 14. That year, Jim selected 16 acres at Warrabkook, out of Macarthur. At least the older boys could have helped her with daily farm tasks and Elizabeth, 13 and Harriett, 10, with the babies.
Sarah’s relationship with James is something I wonder about. Nine years younger than him and only a girl when they married. Drovers were stereotypically hard-drinking men adapted to long periods alone. Margaret Kiddle in her book, Men of Yesterday, A Social History of the Western District of Victoria described drovers as “…hardbitten, sunburnt and blasphemous.”(page 411) How did Jim adjust back at home? The peace of life on the road with a mob of cattle would be very different to a home full of children. Did Sarah do as Lawsons’ drover’s wife and not make a fuss?
In 1878, one of Sarah’s boys committed an act that would break any mother’s heart. Second son George and two other young men were charged with the rape of Mary Ann McDonald, an incident that rocked the district. That charge was later dropped, however George was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment on a charge of indecent assault.
As Lawson’s “Drover’s Wife” killed a snake that terrorised the family in their home, her eldest son, with some sense of her emptiness, declared “Mother, I won’t go drovin’, blast me if I do”.
For Sarah this was not the case. Eldest son Charles worked as a drover.
PASTORAL INTELLIGENCE. (1890, January 15). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1956), p. 6. Retrieved January 25, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8583931
Third son Robert worked as a drover.
The droving blood ran deep. The 1913 Electoral Roll lists Sarah’s grandson Hubert Nathaniel Gurney Bishop, with the unmistakable name and son of Charles, as living in Longreach, Queensland. I believe this his him.
Sarah died on May 15, 1885 at Byaduk from pulmonary tuberculosis. Buried at only 51 at the Macarthur cemetery. The Wesleyan minister presided. On Sarah’s death certificate her profession was not home duties, or wife or even mother. It was a role that was all of those and more…drover’s wife.
After I wrote this post I watched Australian country singer Luke O’Shea ‘s take on The Drover’s Wife. Pass the tissues please.
SOURCES:
Excerpts of Henry Lawson’s short story “The Drover’s Wife” from Queensland Country Life – EPICS OF THE BUSH. (1936, June 11). Queensland Country Life (Qld. : 1900 – 1954), p. 7. Retrieved January 26, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article97158517 and Henry Lawson’s Stories of the Bush. (1936, June 18). Queensland Country Life (Qld. : 1900 – 1954), p. 7. Retrieved January 26, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article97158597
