Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Marion Agnes Hughan


Marion Agnes Hughan (above) was daughter number three for Robert and Hannah Hughan. She was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, on Sunday, November 5th, 1824.
  Her father, Robert Hughan, made several attempts to establish himself as a tea merchant in Suffolk and Essex, but failure drove the family to London where Hannah and her elder daughters kept the family financially afloat by taking in needlework.
   Whilst living in London two life-changing events happened to the Hughan family- the death of husband and father Robert Hughan, and the conviction and subsequent transportation of son Robert Hughan to Australia for the theft of a watch. Malvina, the eldest Hughan child, had also died in 1848, so it must have seemed to mother Hannah that her close-knit family was unravelling. The decision was made to emigrate to Australia themselves- daughter Laura went to Melbourne in the ship 'Tasman' in 1849, and convict Robert Hughan was sent to Moreton Bay on the Mount Stuart Elphinstone in the same year. The following year- 1850- Hannah followed with her three remaining daughters as part of Sir Sidney Herbert's Needlewomen Scheme, with Hannah acting as Matron to the first shipment of girls to be sent to Victoria from London.

   In 1850, at the age of twenty five years, Marion Hughan boarded the ship ‘Culloden’ with her mother, sisters Jessie and Bertha, and 38 other women between the ages of 17 and 36, to voyage to Australia. Hughan brothers Fergus and Allan also emigrated around the same time, but by what means is unknown. Eldest brother Oscar had travelled to America and Canada prior to his family leaving London, and found his way to Australia in 1853.
Two years after their arrival, Marion married a fellow Englishman, Henry Aulert Edmiston. Henry had emigrated to Victoria in 1849 on the ship ‘Tasman’, which also carried his future sister-in-law, Laura Hughan. Marion and Henry were married in the Presbyterian Church, Melbourne, in 1852.



   At the time of his marriage to Marion Hughan, Henry Edmiston was a storekeeper at Kyneton, who in partnership with a man named Fentum kept the gold miners of the district supplied with essentials, as well as providing a safe location at which they could sell their gold. On his arrival in Melbourne, Henry had been appointed to act as the Shipping and Commercial reporter for the Argus newspaper from May 15, 1850. The Argus soon recorded that on September 4, 1850, Mr Henry Edmiston had been appointed as Agent to the Argus for the district of Mount Macedon. On September 18, 1850, the Argus carried the following advertisement heralding the opening of Fentum and Edmiston:


On November 9, 1850, Daniel Bunce had a letter to the Editor published in the Argus, part of which read:
" At Kyneton we spent one night, and were not a little astonished at the improvements made at this little township, which can already boast of three stores. The one later built by Messrs Fentum and Edmiston would be a credit to a place established as many years as this has been months."

                                                 Above: From the Argus, October 31, 1851
   The above advertisement advises Fentum & Edmiston's willingness to supply all miners with the essentials needed to head to the newly discovered Mount Alexander diggings.
 Another report, penned from the Mount Alexander diggings on November 3, 1851, stated :
"Since Saturday morning, the scene has greatly changed- then a tent would be seen here and there, but now they are becoming inconveniently crowded, and the confounded bull and mastiff dogs chained to tents and drays compel one to have the eyes of an Argus, to escape feeling their teeth. On Saturday, dozens were arriving at a time; on Sunday hundreds; Monday and Tuesday one continuous line of new arrivals. Your Melbourne departures are but trifling compared to the arrivals from Ballarat and the surrounding country. Kyneton has but two men in it, and Mr Edmiston has allowed his carter to supply the deserted females of that village with water, otherwise they must go without."
  The Goulburn Herald of November 15, 1851, reported from the Mount Alexander diggings "About the  centre of this canvass village stand the stores of Messrs Fentum and Edmiston, Mr Hamilton and Mr Tucker. The former appears to be supplied with every necessary article, and at very moderate rates, when carriage is taken into consideration, and if they continue as they have begun, they will have no cause to regret the accommodation they give the diggers."
  On December 17, 1851, the Sydney Morning Herald reported: " Robberies are becoming rather fashionable of late....Messrs Fentum and Edmiston's store was attempted, but owing to a watch being kept, they did not succeed."
 In January of 1852, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that "Messrs Fentum and Edmiston are about opening an hotel at Kyneton"....it is not known whether Fentum went on to build the hotel himself, because his partnership with Henry Edmiston came to an end later that year in April.
   In March of 1852 the community of Mount Alexander/ Forrest Creek was up in arms about their settlement being dealt with severely by officials who were fining storekeepers and others for not having a licence. Fentum and Edmiston were fined 25 pounds - a very substantial amount for those times- for five men in their employ.
   For whatever reason, Henry Edmiston and Fentum decided to go their separate ways, with Henry heading for the Geelong district, and Fentum continuing with the goldfield stores.

 Above: April 2, 1852, Argus.
  Henry remained in the store keeping business, opening a shop in Mercer Street, Geelong.
The year following their 1852 marriage saw the birth of Henry's and Marion's first child…Claude Herbert Edmiston was born at Geelong on April 13,1853. His father's occupation was given as "Gentleman". He unfortunately died soon after his birth, and his death certificate gave the following details:
On 28 December, 1853, at Geelong, Claude Herbert Edmiston, aged about 8 ½ months, died of pneumonia, 4 days illness, certified by Dr. Spark, M.D. Buried 28 December, 1853, Geelong.

It must have seemed to Hannah Hughan that she would never have a grandchild…she had already lost her granddaughter Malvina Paton and then in 1853 daughters Laura and Marion both lost their baby sons.
In 1856, Marion’s brother Fergus McIvor Hughan published a small volume of poetry which included a poem titled “On Claude’s Recovery From A Severe Illness”:

I stood and beheld thee, Claude,
Pining and lowly,
And thought thou wert leaving us,
Surely, but slowly.
On thy pale marble brow
Suff’ring was seen;
And I thought of thee, sweet one,
And what thou had’st been.

Friends gathered round thee, love,
Weeping in sorrow,
Wrapping their sad heart In dread of the morrow;
And silently, solemnly,
Night shadows twined,
And the stars came and went,
Yet they left thee behind.

Then thy fond mother came, pet,
And sat by thy side,
And she kissed thee, and called thee
Her darling,- her pride;
And her hands touched the keys*
When thine eyes, before dim,
Beamed brightly again
At the music-breathed hymn.

Then I prayed, ‘Claudie,” darling,
The angels to bring
A robe of protection
Around thee to fling;
On the wings of the morning
I heard them pass by,
So I knew thou wert better,
And wept with deep joy.

Come, smile again, baby mine,
Prattle and say,
Can thou hear the sweet tones
Of the harps, far away?
Or, do the angelic forms,
Breathe in thine ear,
“Thou shalt stay with thy mother,
And we will be near?”

*The child being almost unconscious, the effect of music was tried, with the result recorded above.”

In 1854 a baby daughter arrived – Ada Josephine Edmiston. She was born at Ashby near Geelong on May 12, and was followed two years later by a sister, Claudine Malvina, who was born at Pitfield on September 20, 1856.

   Things appear to have been going swimmingly for several years after Marion moved with her husband to Geelong...at least on certificates concerning their children Henry was able to record his occupation as "Gentleman" rather than common old "storekeeper". Something happened to make Henry decided on a career change, however, because the following two advertisements began appearing in the Geelong Advertiser in June of 1856:





  One has only to read the descriptions of the household furniture for sale from the Edmiston home to realise the scale of opulence that they had been living in...for example, their bed was described as a  " massive elaborately finished four post bedstead with richly carved posts, heavy cornice, rings, hangings etc." I get the feeling that financial problems were behind the move and the dispersal of Henry's business and home...why else would you sell absolutely all of your family belongings rather than transport them to your new residence? Even kitchen utensils were being sold... it appears that the Edmistons were leaving Geelong with very little of their possessions.

    An advertisement from April 2, 1855, in the Geelong newspaper reads: "EGGS- from the finest breed of Cochin-Chin fowls, always on sale, by Henry A Edmiston, Mercer Street, Ashby."

   The advertisement which described the Edmiston belongings for sale also stated that Mr Edmiston was "leaving town for the interior". His movements for the remainder of the 1850s are uncertain, apart from a period as an inn keeper in Pitfield in 1856, but the next record of Henry describes him as " Henry A Edmiston, of Melbourne", and was a notification of his insolvency in June of 1859.

Above: The Argus, Friday, May 27, 1859.

Above: The Argus, June 2, 1859.

Above: Argus, June 8, 1859.

Above: Argus, June 23, 1859

Above: Argus, June 28, 1859


The family was residing at Brighton near Melbourne when Amy Beauclerk Edmiston was born on January 30, 1861, but had moved to New Zealand by the time daughter number four burst onto the scene in 1865.     Known all of her life as ‘Blanche’, Bertha Blanche Edmiston was born on February 6, 1865.
Last child – who was also the long-waited for son – was Leonard Allan Edmiston. He was born in New Zealand on May 25 1867.
I don’t know what Henry’s occupation was in New Zealand. The family is mentioned in two letters written in the 1860’s by Joseph Bishop, the uncle of the man who would marry Bertha Hughan in 1865. The first letter was written to Bertha herself, and the much older Joseph flirted with her like a teenager, and sweetly asks:

“ Have you heard from Mrs. Edmiston lately? She has written me once only since I left N.Z. I hear Mr. Edmiston will lose his appointment with Nebb (?? Hard to decipher) P___ Co. on account of their failure, and I cannot imagine where in Dunedin he can procure another one.”
-Joseph Bishop, May 20, 1862.

Find another position he must have done, because their final two children were both born in New Zealand.

The second letter was written to his nephew Henry Bishop in 1862, just after Henry had announced his intention to marry Bertha. Joseph blasted the members of Bertha’s family – with the exception of her sister Jessie McCallum and Bertha herself – and the Edmistons didn’t escape his scathing remarks:-

“ …Then there is Edmiston, his wife, and three children that will always and forever
be an expense and trouble to Mrs McCallum, and perhaps to you.”
-Joseph Bishop, August 6, 1862.

   When the Edmiston family returned to Australia from New Zealand, they settled at Ballarat. On November 4, 1869, the Ballarat Star newspaper published a report from the Ballarat Benevolent Asylum which mentioned receiving correspondence from Mr H A Edmiston, of Gordons, in regard to a case of distress at Gordons.

Only five years after the birth of their final child, Marion Edmiston was left a widow... at the age of 47 years, Henry Aulert Edmiston, native of London, England, and son of Charles and Ann Edmiston, died at Ballarat East on 23 February, 1872. The cause of his death was dysentery, and he had been ill for 12 days before succumbing to the disease. Details on his death certificate, which were given by Fergus McIvor Hughan, brother-in-law, journalist, Melbourne, included the following:
Born London, 22 years in Victoria. Occupation: clerk. Married in Melbourne aged 27 to Marion Agnes Hughan. Issue: Ada 18 years; Claudine 15; Blanche 7; and Leonard 4 ½.

Marion Hughan raised her children alone without remarrying, and lived a long life before passing away 38 years after her husband. The electoral roles of 1903 and 1909 reveal that she spent her later years in Hamilton, Victoria, living with her daughter Claudine. In 1903 their address was Skene Street, and in 1909 it was Martin Street. In both years her occupation, and that of Claudine, was ‘home duties’. Marion died at a house in Thompson Street, Hamilton, Victoria, on June 1, 1910.
The details on her death certificate were as follows:
‘ June 1, 1910, at Thompson Street, Hamilton, Marion Agnes Edmiston, 84 years old, of senile decay and exhaustion. She had suffered with the condition for three years, and her physician, Dr. James B. Hayes, had last attended her on May 20th, 1910.
Marion’s parents were Robert Hughan and Hannah Hughan, formerly Oakley. The informant on the certificate was an undertaker (name illegible) who was acting as an authorised agent.

Marion was buried on June 3, 1910, at the Ballarat West Cemetery, by undertaker Hugh Loughlin.
She had been born In Ipswich, England, and lived in the state of Victoria for 60 years. Marion married in Melbourne at the age of 25, to Henry Edmiston. Issue of their marriage were Claude; Ada 55; Claudine 54; Amy 49; Blanche 45 and Leonard 43.’

Marion’s children, particularly her daughters, kept in touch with their cousins, and my great-grandmother, Olive Bishop, visited with the Edmiston sisters often. Because of this, we know a little of their lives:

Ada Josephine Edmiston:
In 1886, at the age of 32, Ada married Albert James Hodgkinson. Their marriage notice was published in The Argus on Wednesday 5 May 1886, and read:
"HODGKINSON-EDMISTON: On the 27th ult., at Christ Church, South Yarra, by the Reverend H.F Tucker, Albert James Hodgkinson, of Richmond River, NSW, to Ada Josephine Edmiston."
They had a son and a daughter, the latter of whom was quite an amazing woman in the independent manner of her great Aunt, Malvina Hughan. Her name was Lorna Hodgkinson (born May 13,1887 – 1951), and she became very well known as a Doctor through her work with handicapped children. From a website on the history of the Sunshine Home, which Lorna founded, came the following:

“ Sunshine Home began as one woman’s dream brought to effect against the odds. Dr. Lorna Hodgkinson was the first woman to graduate with a Doctorate in education from Harvard University. She overcame adversity; ‘doing the right thing’ in spite of obstacles, and succeeded in bringing dreams alive. She firmly believed that people with an intellectual disability should not be put into hospitals for the mentally ill and subsequently, using her own money and resigning her position with the NSW Education Department, she purchased a large house and land at Gore Hill on Sydney’s lower North Shore, where she founded Sunshine Home with only six children. Lorna then devoted her life to these children’s care, believing firmly in dignity, education and opportunity.’
HODGKINSON, LORNA MYRTLE (1887-1951), psychologist and educationist, was born on 13 May 1887 at South Yarra, Melbourne, daughter of Victorian-born parents Albert James Hodgkinson, sugar-planter, and his wife Ada Josephine, née Edmiston. The family settled in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. After Albert's death, his wife and daughter moved to Western Australia where Lorna attended Perth Girls' School. In 1903-06 she was employed by the Education Department as a pupil-teacher and took courses to qualify for the 'C' certificate. While working as an assistant (1907-12) at Perth Infants' School, she pioneered a class for mental defectives.
Between 1913 and 1915 Miss Hodgkinson taught at public schools in New South Wales. In 1917 the Department of Public Instruction appointed her to May Villa, near Parramatta, to teach mentally defective girls who were wards of the State. She obtained paid leave in 1920 and travelled to the United States of America where she studied the treatment of retardates. At Harvard University (M.Ed., 1921; D.Ed., 1922), she wrote her dissertation on 'A State Program for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Atypical Children in Public School Systems'. Back in New South Wales, in October 1922 she took up a post created for her by the department as superintendent (later supervisor) of the education of mental defectives.
In evidence before the royal commission on lunacy law and administration in 1923, Hodgkinson asserted that the system for dealing with mentally defective children was mismanaged. Her allegations provoked a public outcry. Albert Bruntnell, who held the portfolio of public instruction, ordered a ministerial inquiry which found against her on all counts. She was suspended from duty for 'disgraceful and improper conduct in making false statements and pretences', specifically in regard to the claims she had made about her formal education to gain admission to Harvard.
An investigation by the Public Service Board confirmed the charges, and in March 1924 Hodgkinson was censured and demoted to regular teaching duties. When she failed to take up her new position, she was dismissed. Impatient and indiscreet, she had fallen victim to the government's sensitivity over its handling of an issue on which there was growing public concern. The evidence that she had falsified her educational background was circumstantial, and the dean of Harvard's graduate school of education wrote a testimonial affirming her standing and achievement.
In April 1924 Hodgkinson advertised for residents to enter a new private school for mentally defective children; with six pupils, it opened later that year as the Sunshine Institute, Gore Hill. Initially a tenant, in 1930 she purchased a portion of the site (previously owned by the Theosophical Society in Australia) and spent the rest of her life building up the establishment to sixty pupils. She and her companion Ruth Nelson holidayed at Mona Vale with the children.
The main influence on Hodgkinson came from her Harvard mentors, especially Walter Fernald, founder of a residential state school in Massachusetts for the feeble-minded. Hodgkinson urged that such children be appropriately classified, segregated from the rest of the community and trained for later economic self-sufficiency. For the 'higher grade' of child, she favoured an additional system of vocational guidance and supervision; she envisaged that the 'less able' should remain—if need be, permanently—in a self-supporting, cottage-colony system. Her first priority, however, was the residential training school.
Despite her definite opinions on the appropriate treatment of retardates, Hodgkinson was a 'very retiring and private person' after her public humiliation. She was not a prominent speaker or writer, nor was she active in the emerging groups of professional psychologists. Nevertheless, she lectured on 'mental hygiene' on radio 2GB (the Theosophists' station) in 1927 and addressed the Australian Racial Hygiene Congress in Sydney in 1929. She had published a two-part article, 'Workers or Wasters: the Feeble-minded in America' in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1922 and a summary of an address she gave to the Women's Reform League appeared in the Woman's Voice in 1923.
Hodgkinson died of cancer on 24 March 1951 at Gore Hill and was cremated with Anglican rites; her ashes were interred in the grounds of the Sunshine Institute. She had brought to reality on a small private scale the vision she entertained for a large public venture. Immediately before her death she had converted the institute to a non-profit organization under a board of trustees, to whom she bequeathed the bulk of her estate, sworn for probate at £55,812. Renamed the Lorna Hodgkinson Sunshine Home, the institution expanded, while retaining her philosophy of individual care and development."

CLAUDINE MALVINA EDMISTON: born September 20, 1856, Pitfield, Victoria. Her parents were noted on her birth certificate as being 32 year old Inn Keeper Henry Edmiston, born in London, and 31 year old Marion Hughan from Ipswich, England. Like so many of the Hughan cousins, Claudine did not marry. She was a teacher, and died whilst touring England just prior to World War 1, on July 5, 1913.She can be found in the electoral roles of 1903 and 1909, living with her mother Marion in Hamilton, and posthumously on the 1914 role: Claudine Malvina Edmiston, 20 Hope Street, South Yarra, home duties.
AMY BEAUCLERK EDMISTON was born on January 30, 1861, at Brighton. She married a man named Charles Herbert Elliott, from England, in 1886. They had two children- Charles Stanley Henry Oliver, born at Toorak on May 16,1889, and a daughter named Marion Winifred who was born in 1896.


Above: Argus, July 8, 1886.

 A very unpleasant depiction of Amy's character was reported in The Age newspaper in August of 1891:-

"ALLEGED ILL TREATMENT OF A BOY.

The condition of a lad named William Clark, aged 11, was yesterday brought under the notice of the South Yarra police by some members of the local Ladies' Benevolent Society. Young Clark, who comes from Geelong, lives with Charles Herbert Elliott, shirt manufacturer, residing at Seaforth, Argyle-street, St. Kilda.

For some time past he has had charge of an office belonging to Elliott in Toorak-road, South Yarra, and on Monday evening he, according to his own statement, went off to sleep at the South Yarra railway station, and remained there all night. Next morning Mr. Elliott called at the office, and sent the lad home. Dissatisfied with his explanation, Mrs. Elliott took him in hand, and for a quarter of an hour, so the boy alleges, she belabored him with a walking stick, bruising him terribly about the arms and shoulders and legs. Evidences of the lad's severe punishment are still visible upon his body, and Dr. Sandford, to whom the boy was yesterday submitted for examination, expressed surprise at finding no bones broken, the injuries being of so serious a character. During the afternoon Sergeant Finlayson took out a summons against Mrs. Elliott for assaulting the lad, and brought young Clark before Mr. Bateman, .J.P., and had him remanded to the industrial school as a neglected child until next Tuesday, when the charge against his mistress will be investigated.” -The Age, Saturday 1 August 1891



                                                   Above: The Age, August 6, 1891

   Amy and her husband went their separate ways, and in the 1901 English Census, Amy Elliott appears as living in London with a man named George Enever. I discovered this unexpected turn of events quite by accident whilst researching for author Paul Terry. He was writing a book on the infamous Arthur Orton aka The Claimant aka Sir Roger Tichborne, and I had been asked to chase up what I could about Sir Roger's mistress, actress/singer Nellie Rosamond. Her real name was Lilly Enever, and the George Enever who was living with Amy Elliott and her children in 1901 was her brother.

Above: 1901 Census return showing Amy Elliott and her two children living in London with George Enever.
 
 Amy's relationship with George Enever had ended by the time the 1911 census was taken. George had been married for one year to Annie and they had a daughter who was not yet a month old.
The electoral roles track the movement of the Elliott family as follows:

1914: 19 Madden Street, Albert Park,Victoria.
Amy Beauclere Elliott, home duties
Charles Stanley Henry Oliver Elliott, engineer

1919: ‘Colchester’, Octavius Avenue, Caulfield East.
Amy Beauclere Elliott, home duties
Charles Stanley Elliott, splicer
Winifred Marion, clerk
1924: ‘Colchester’, Octavius Avenue, Caulfield East
Amy Beauclere, home duties
Charles Stanley, splicer
1931: ‘Colchester’, Octavius Avenue, Caulfield East.
Amy Beauclere, home duties
Charles Stanely, splicer
1936: 25 Octavius Avenue, Caulfield east
Amy Beauclere Elliott, home duties
Charles Stanely Elliott, splicer

Winifred Marion Charlotte Elliott married Robert Beveridge Downes in 1922.

Above: Grave of Amy Beauclerk Edmiston Elliott, New Cheltenham Cemetery, Victoria.

BERTHA BLANCHE EDMISTON: was born in New Zealand on February 6, 1865. At the age of thirty she married Vincenzo Carl Brun, in 1895. Their marriage notice was published in The Argus on May 11, 1895, and read:
" BRUN-EDMISTON: On the 6th ult, at the residence of the bride's mother, St. Vincent Place, Albert-park, by the Reverend S.C Kent, Vincent Brun to Bertha Blanche, youngest daughter of the late Henry Aulert Edmiston."
Vincent Brun was a very talented artist, who earned a living creating magnificent stained glass windows for the firm ‘Brooks Robinson’. Olive Bishop was given a beautiful plate painted with the face of a lovely woman which was created during the afternoon of one of her visits. It now hangs in the home of Olive’s grand-daughter, Margaret Sheridan (note: Marg died in December 2005, and before she passed away she gifted the plate to me, her daughter Jen Lamond. It now hangs in the lounge room at “Eurimbla’, beside the oil portrait of Malvina Hughan)
Blanche and Vincent Brun had two daughters – Elizabeth Vendramin Brun, born in 1897 at Armadale; and Marion Dorotea Brun, born in 1903.

Electoral roles give the following information about the Brun family:
1914: Weybridge Street, Surrey Hills, Kooyong, Victoria:
Bertha Blanche Brun, home duties
Vincent Brun, artist
1919: 9 Wentworth Avenue, Canterbury, Kooyong
Bertha Blanche, home duties
Vincent, artist
Elizabeth Vendramm, music teacher
Also for 1919:
Bertha Blanche Brun, Weybridge St, Surrey Hills
Vincent Brun, 5 Wandsworth Rd, Surrey Hills, artist
1924: 9 Wentworth Avenue
Vincent Brun, artist
Elizabeth Vendramm Brun, music teacher.
Finally, son LEONARD ALLAN EDMISTON was born in New Zealand on May 25, 1867. He married Alice Maud Fielding in Victoria 1892 at the age of twenty five. The couple had the following children that I can locate in the Victorian and W.A birth index:
Leonard Allan Waterlow Edmiston: born 1893, Prahran. Died 1893, Prahran.
Vera Marion Edmiston: born 1894, Prahran.She was living with her father at 18 Churchhill Avenue, Subiaco, Western Australia, and working as a typist, in the electoral role of 1916. Vera married Arthur L. R. Sadler in Perth in 1921.
Myrtle Fielding Edmiston: born 1898, Fremantle, W.A Married Leslie D. Austin, 1920, Perth, W.A.
Henry Edmiston: born 1900, Cottesloe, W.A. Died aged one day.
Olive Bertha Edmiston: born 1902, Fremantle. Married Albert E. Gumbleton, 1928, Perth.
Leonard Waterlow Edmiston born 1904, Subiaco. Died when hit by a car in his home street at the age of ten years on July 27, 1914. On Wednesday 29 July 1914, in the West Australian newspaper, the following funeral notice appeared:
"EDMISTON: The friends of Mr and Mrs Leonard Allan Edmiston of 31 Hay Street, Subiaco, are respectfully invited to follow the remains of their late dearly beloved son LEONARD WATERSON to the place of interment, The Anglican Cemetery Karrakatta."
On Tuesday 4 August 1914, the same newspaper had the following announcement:
" EDMISTON: On July 27 at Subiaco, the result of a motor accident, Leonard Waterlow, aged 10 years, the twin son of L.A and A.M Edmiston, 31 Hay Street, Subiaco."
The newspaper report of the little boy's death makes incredibly sad reading:
"MOTOR FATALITY. BOY"S TRAGIC DEATH.
Last night, at Subiaco, Leonard Edmiston, a bright little lad of ten years, residing with his parents at 31 Hay Street, Subiaco, met his death in a tragic way, being knocked down by a motor car travelling down Hay Street, in that suburb.
The car, which was driven by Mr. Morris Crawcour, solicitor, of Perth, it appears was proceeding in a westerly direction, and it is said, at a low speed. Mr. Crawcour, in a statement made to the police last night, said that he was travelling along Hay Street and on reaching Thomas Street slowed down. Running on a free engine past the intersection of Thomas and Hay Streets, Subiaco, he noticed a figure run from the side footpath across the road. He applied the car brakes, but was quite unable to avoid mishap, the car striking the boy and knocking him down. Mr. Crawcour declared that the car was at the time travelling at such a slow pace that he brought it to a standstill within a few yards.
The condition of the lad was at once found to be serious, and with the aid of a number of people who witnessed the accident the boy was carried into the Children's Hospital, close at hand. The unfortunate lad's injuries were such, however, that he died when being carried through the institution.
The right side of the head on examination was found to have been badly injured, and a scrutiny of the car shows that one of the car lamp rests was broken.
An inquest will be formally opened this morning.
Mr Crawcour stated to a "West Australian" reporter subsequently that he had been informed that the lad, with others, had been placing threads across the street to amuse themselves by discomforting passersby. He had been told that a lady had fallen into the trap, and had endeavoured to remonstrate with the lads, who ran away from her. Mr. Crawcour added that he was travelling at a speed of about eight to ten miles an hour when he suddenly noticed a form in front of the car. He swerved to the right, but unfortunately was unable to prevent the accident."
Alan Waterlow Edmiston was born in Perth on April 24, 1906. He was living in Sydney and working as a bar man in the 1930 and 1936 electoral rolls, and in 1931 married Selma A. Field at Woollahra. He joined the RAAF in Sydney on July 8, 1940 and upon discharge in 1946 was posted with the 23 Squadron.
The same electoral roles place Leonard Allan Edmiston and his family in Western Australia from at least 1901. In that year, he and his wife Alice are noted as living at Charles Street, Beaconsfield, Freemantle. Leonard was a clerk, and his wife ‘home duties’. In 1906 there are two entries for Leonard and Alice- one identical to the one above, and the other for the address of Townsend Road, Subiaco, Perth, occupations still clerk and home duties.
Leonard Edmiston's wife died at the age of 47 in 1915, not even one year after the tragic accident that killed her son. Her death notice in the West Australian newspaper was as follows:
"EDMISTON: On May 17, 1915, at her residence 18 Churchill Ave, Subiaco, Alice Maud, the beloved wife of Leonard Edmiston, and fond mother of Vera, Myrtle, Olive and Alan Edmiston, aged 47 years. Deeply regretted."
Leonard Allan Edmiston, son of Marion Hughan, died on June 30, 1927:
" EDMISTON: On June 30, at Perth, Leonard Alan Edmiston, beloved father of Vera(Mrs A. Sadler, Osborne Park); Myrtle(Mrs L. Austin, Purracoppin), Olive (Perth); and Alan (Sydney) aged 60 years. No flowers by request." - West Australian, Friday, July 1, 1927.
In the same issue appeared Leonard's funeral notice:
" EDMISTON: The friends of the late Mr Leonard A. Edmiston, of Tootra Station, Moora, and formerly of Richie and Jackman, Perth, are respectfully invited to follow his remains to the place of interment, the Anglican Cemetery, Karrakatta."
Henry Aulert Edmiston's own family history is one worth repeating here, albiet briefly. He was born on May 10, 1824, at Number 10 North Buildings, Finsbury Circus, London, the son of James Charles Edmiston, a tailor, and his wife Deborah Ann Waterlow. Henry's baptism took place on May 29, 1824, at St. Stephen's Church, Coleman Street, City of London. I can find three siblings belonging to Henry:
Marie Pink Edmiston: born January 19, 1817, Somerset Street, City of London. Baptised St. Botolph Without Aldgate, City of London, on February 16, 1817. On the same day in the same church, her maternal first cousin, Charles William Waterlow, the son of James Waterlow, Law Stationer of Somerset Street (brother of Deborah Waterlow) and his wife Mary Crackell, was also baptised. Marie married William Kislingbury, a wine merchant situated in High Street, St. Andrews, Holborn, in London in 1837.
By 1841, William and Maria were the parents of 2 year old William and 10 month old Emily. The 1841 census reveals that amongst the six "assistants in the trade" that were living with the Kislingbury family was Maria's youngest brother, Henry Aulert Edmiston, aged 15.
Son Charles was born in 1850, and for whatever reason Maria and William had a combined baptism of four of their children - Arthur, Edith, Emily and William- at St. John The Evangelist, Brixton, Lambeth, on August 1, 1855.
To be continued...
Charles Spyers Edmiston: born September 9, 1819, Somerset Street, London. Baptised November 17, St. Botolph Without Aldgate, London.
Augustus Weston Edmiston: born February 17, 1822, Somerset Street, London. Baptised St. Botolph Without Aldgate, May 1, 1822. Emigrated to New Zealand. Died June 10, 1862, Remuera.

Laura Hughan's Children








As previously stated, only three of Laura’s children survived to reach adulthood- daughter Leila Paton from her first marriage, and daughters Bertha Susan and Laura Edith Murrell from her second.

1. LEILA GERTRUDE PATON. Born Geelong in 1854. Married Englishman Dr. Egbert Harrall Messina Florance, born March 17, 1845, Chester. Son of William Florance and German-born Eliza Lola Messeina. Married 1874, Geelong.
In 1875 the Mooroopna Hospital had its beginnings in a small hut on the north bank of the Goulburn River near the pumping station at Mooroopna. Mr Egbert Florence was the local chemist and he helped out in times of medical need. Progress saw the first local doctor attend to patients in 1877 with nurse, Mrs Eatwell and the hotel keeper Mr John Hardy helping out patients at night when Dr Dowson couldn’t attend. Dr Trood was appointed surgeon to the hospital in 1880 until he resigned in 1892 and went to Melbourne . Dr J W Florance was house surgeon in 1892 and was associated with the hospital for 44 years.
After residing in several Victorian towns, Leila and Egbert Florance finally settled with their large family at Cootamundra in NSW. Eleven children were born over a 26 year period:

A) Laura Eliza Messina Florance: born November 25, 1874,Shepparton, Victoria.

Laura Florance never married, and died in 1965.

B) JAMES EGBERT ARTHUR FLORANCE.
Born March 2, 1877, Mooroopna. Married Eliza Pinkstone in 1905, Cootamundra. Died October 25, 1955.
“Florence - Pinkstone. James EA Florence of Coolamon, son of Dr Florence of Cootamundra married Eliza Pinkstone, daughter of Fred Pinkstone of Cootamundra on Thursday.” Yass Courier 28.4.1905.
Enlisted WW1: Florance James Egbert Arthur : SERN Captain : POB Mooroopna VIC : POE N/A : NOK W Florance Eliza.


Enlisted WW2: FLORANCE JAMES EGBERT ARTHUR : Service Number - N233769 : Date of birth - 02 Mar 1884 : Place of birth - MOOROOPNA VIC : Place of enlistment - MANLY NSW : Next of Kin - FLORANCE ELIZA.

C) PAUL LOUIS FLORANCE.
Born February 16, 1879, Mooroopna. Married Tasmanian-born Ellen Elizabeth Henry in 1909. Practiced as a Doctor in Cootamundra. Died in Cootamundra on January 8, 1943, and his wife in 1968.

D) EGBERT AIKMAN FLORANCE: born March 14, 1881, Katamatite, Victoria. Died in infancy on March 19, 1882.

E) ROLAND MESSINA FLORANCE: born December 31, 1882, Philadelphia, USA. Married Tasmania Sophia Emily Henry. Died November 19, 1962, and Sophia his wife in 1969.

Five children: * Egbert "Edward" Messina Florance ( known as Toby) b March 17, 1913, Cootamundra. Changed his name legally from 'Egburt' to 'Edward'.Married Elizabeth Stewart Brook von Stieglitz in Tasmania in 1950 and had five children.

* Betty Huxtable Florance born November 19, 1915. Died 1973. Married Ewart Power Allen in 1936,Temora. One child-Adrien Florance Allen b 1939 d 1974;

* Barbara Hughan Florance born 14 September 1917,died March 23, 1967. Married 1. John William Mitchell, 1941, Cootamundra. Married 2.Werner Hans Hyman(1915-1966).Two daughters from second marriage.

* Cynthia Sophie Florance born June 18, 1922. Died June 15, 1994. Married John Smibert 1943, Woollahra. Three sons.

* Sophie Paton Florance born June 16, 1924. Died February 10, 1981.Married Penleigh Lambert A’ Beckett. Issue two sons two daughters.

Roland’s son Edward enlisted in WW2: FLORANCE EDWARD MASSENA : Service Number - NX1025 : Date of birth - 17 Mar 1913 : Place of birth - COOTAMUNDRA NSW : Place of enlistment - WILLOUGHBY NSW : Next of Kin - FLORANCE ROLAND. Was a Prisoner of War for 4 years.

F) KITTY LEILA FLORANCE: Born July 25, 1885. Died 1933, Cootamundra. Never married.

G) VICTOR AIKMAN FLORANCE: born May 24, 1888, Picton. Died July 1, 1942, New Guinea. Married Jean Spring, 1922, Sydney. Victor enlisted WW1
Florance Victor Aikman : SERN 2182 : POB Picton NSW : POE Cootamundra NSW : NOK F Florance Dr E H.

Two sons, including William Victor Florance b January 3, 1922, died New Guinea August 10, 1943.Enlisted in WW2: FLORANCE WILLIAM VICTOR : Service Number - NX117833 : Date of birth - 03 Jul 1922 : Place of birth - BONDI NSW : Place of enlistment - CAPE BARROS NSW : Next of Kin - FLORANCE JEAN.

Victor Aikman also enlisted WW2: FLORANCE VICTOR AIKMAN : Service Number - NGX508 : Date of birth - Unknown : Place of birth - Unknown : Place of enlistment - Unknown : Next of Kin - FLORANCE JEAN.

H) HUBERT OAKLEY FLORANCE: born March 5, 1890, Bungendore NSW. Died May 27, 1980. Married Dorrice Eloise Arthur, 1920, in Sydney.Issue two sons and two daughters. One son, Ian Hugh Florance, born April 1, 1920, Cootamundra, served in WW2.He joined the 21st Light Horse at the age of twenty, and both his and his father’s address was given as ‘Gundagai Rd, Cootamundra”.
Another son also enlisted in WW2: FLORANCE JAMES LOUIS : Service Number - 74771 : Date of birth - 10 Jan 1924 : Place of birth - COOTAMUNDRA NSW : Place of enlistment - SYDNEY : Next of Kin - FLORANCE HUBERT




I) FRANKLYN FOX FLORANCE: Born July 12, 1892,Braidwood, NSW. Died April 15, 1975, Sydney. Married Marion Emma Bredon, March 24, 1934, Sydney.Issue: one son.
Served WW1, then enlisted in WW2:
FLORANCE FRANKLYN FOX : Service Number - NX130557 : Date of birth - 12 Jul 1892 : Place of birth - BRAIDWOOD NSW : Place of enlistment - CHIDLOW WA : Next of Kin - FLORANCE MARION.



J) MARJORIE BERTHA FLORANCE: Born January 8, 1896, Cootamundra. Died April 12, 1986. Married Albert Chenery.

K) HEREWARD HARRALL FLORANCE: Born February 15, 1900. Died 1979. Married Dorothy Grace Pudsey-Dawson ( b c. 1866, England. Died Bowral NSW May 17, 1983). Married 1938, Kingsford.
Served WW2: FLORANCE HEREWARD HARRALL : Service Number - NX17511 : Date of birth - 15 Feb 1900 : Place of birth - ROBERTSON NSW : Place of enlistment - PADDINGTON NSW : Next of Kin - FLORANCE DOROTHY.

Leila Paton Florance died January 25, 1923, at Cootamundra. Her husband Egbert Florance died October 13, 1928, also at Cootamundra.




Leila's two half sisters, Bertha Susan and Laura Edith, never married or had children.

Laura Hughan

Above: This close-up of Laura Hughan's face, taken from the full-length photograph below, shows clearly that she inherited the distinctive Hughan facial features, including very pale blue eyes.



Laura Hughan was born on July 27, 1823, at Ipswich, Suffolk, the second child of Robert and Hannah Hughan.
Laura was twenty years old when her father died at their London home, and was the informant on his death certificate.
She was the first of the Hughan family to make the huge step of deciding to immigrate to Australia after the announcement of the transportation of her brother Robert in 1849. The passenger list for the ship ‘Tasman’ shows the following:

“ SINGLE FEMALES (NOT BEING MEMBERS OF FAMILIES)
12. HUGHAN, LAURA. 24 YEARS OF AGE. PROFESSION: NURSERY MAID. NATIVE PLACE: COLCHESTER, ENGLAND. RELIGION: PRESBYTERIAN. CAN READ AND WRITE. ARRIVED OCTOBER 28, 1849.’

This was accepted as ‘fact’ until this year (2003), when I obtained a copy of the marriage licence of Laura Hughan and her first husband, Arthur Paton. We had assumed that she had met and married Arthur after her arrival in Victoria, but this document proved that on June 11, 1849, in London, Arthur Paton had applied for a licence to marry Laura Hughan.


‘11th June, 1849.
Appeared personally Arthur Paton of the parish of St. Peter, Pimlico in the County of Middlesex, a bachelor, aged twenty one years and upwards, and prayed a Licence for the Solemnization of Matrimony in the Parish Church of St. Peter, Pimlico, aforesaid,
Between him and Laura Hughan of the said parish of St. Peters, Pimlico, a spinster aged twenty one years and upwards
And made Oath that he believeth there is no impediment of Kindred or Alliance, or of any other lawful cause, nor any Suit commenced in any Ecclesiastical Court, to bar or hinder the Proceeding of the said matrimony, according to the tenor of such Licence. And he further made oath that he hath had his usual place of abode within the said Parish of St. Peter, Pimlico, for the space of fifteen days last past.
A.Paton.’
The following day, Laura and Arthur were married in an official church ceremony at St. Peters Church, Pimlico. On Tuesday, June 12, 1849, engineer Arthur Paton of 53 Coleshill Street, the son of secretary Abram Paton, married Laura Hughan of Cottage Road, the daughter of tea dealer Robert Alexander Hughan. The officiating minister was Thomas Fuller, and the witnesses Helen Payne and Thomas Payne.


So it seems as though they were married just a week prior to the time when Laura Hughan was set to board the ship ‘Tasman’ ( which sailed from Gravesend on June 18,1849) in the capacity of someone’s governess. Arthur Paton didn’t travel with his new wife-he arrived in Victoria on board the ship ‘Culloden’ as a paying cabin passenger, alongside his mother-in-law Hannah Hughan and three sisters-in-law. When the couple were reunited, some thirteen months after their wedding, the Patons settled near Geelong. The following information was taken from an 1851 directory:

PATON, Arthur civil engineer, O'Connell street, Ashby ,1851 ,Geelong District
Port Phillip Directory


Three children were born to the couple. Their first two children, a son named Arthur and a daughter Malvina Margaret, died in infancy.

There is no record of baby Malvina’s birth, baptism or death, but she is recorded on the birth certificate of her sister Leila and the death certificate of her father Arthur.
Early church records show that baby Arthur Paton was baptised at St. Andrews Church of Scotland on February 13, 1853. His father Arthur was noted as being a teacher from Geelong, and his mother was named as being Laura Hughan.


The Geelong Advertiser of April 7, 1853, noted the following death:

‘PATON, A. Died April 5th, 1853. Arthur, seven weeks. Only child. Scotch College, Geelong.’

The following year daughter Leila Gertrude Paton was born at Newtown (Geelong). Her birth certificate revealed the following:
“ April 21, 1854, Newtown. Leila Gertrude Paton, daughter of Arthur Paton, 25 years old, of Manchester, England. Married 1849, London, to Laura Hughan, 26 years, of Ipswich, England. Siblings Margaret dec, Arthur dec."


Fifteen months later Laura Hughan was a widow with a little daughter to care for. Arthur Paton died on July 13, 1855, Newtown, having been ill for several months prior to his death. His death certificate tells us that 26 year old Arthur Paton died of “Atrophy, ill for some months-bilious with a tendency for dropsy”. His occupation was given as ‘engineer’, and his parents Abraham Paton, engineer, of Manchester, and his mother Margaret Paton, deceased. Arthur was born in Manchester, and had spent 6 years in Victoria. He had married at the age of 19 to Laura Hughan, at Eaton Square, London. Issue: Malvina Margaret dec; Arthur dec and Leila Gertrude 1 ½. The informant was Arthur’s brother-in-law Fergus McIvor Hughan, office clerk of Newtown.
Again, the local newspaper recorded the event:

“ Mr. Arthur Paton died 13th July, 1855, at Somerville Cottage,
New Town, aged 26 years.”

Although the information was not given on the death certificate, Arthur was buried in the Geelong Eastern Cemetery.

Laura Hughan Paton was left a widow with a baby daughter, so it isn’t surprising to read in the Geelong Advertiser of June 23, 1857, the following:

“ Married. On the 6th of June, at Somerville College, Herne Hill, by the Reverend Appelly, Mrs. Paton to Mr. W. Murrell, of Inverleigh.”


New Town, which was also known as New Town Hill, became the settlement of Newtown. Herne Hill was about a mile away, but in early 1855 the name New Town probably encompassed the whole district.


The marriage certificate of Laura Hughan Paton and William Murrell gives the following information:

“ On June 6, 1857, at the private dwelling of Mrs. Paton, Geelong, William Murrell /widower December 19, 1856 / 3 living children, 2 dead/ born Alcester, Warwickshire / storekeeper, aged 40/ present and usual residence Inverleigh/ parents James Murrell, auctioneer, & Susan Rimmer,
to
Laura Paton / widow July 13, 1855/ 1 child living, 2 dead/ born Ipswich, Suffolk/ aged 33/ present and usual residence Geelong/ parents Robert Alexander Hughan, tea dealer, and Hannah Oakley.
Witnesses: F.M. Hughan
Undecipherable.
According to the rites and ceremonies of the Independents, by me, James Apperly, officiating minister.”


William Murrell was a widower who had emigrated from England, and upon the death of his wife Charlotte in 1856 had been left with two London-born daughters and a son to raise. He was a storekeeper in Geelong and Devenish in North-east Victoria. Laura became step-mother to the two Murrell girls, Josephine and Charlotte, and son Ernest, as well as having three more children to William.
The 1851 English census shows William and his wife Charlotte living at 4 Kings Rd, St. Lukes, Chelsea, with their three children Ernest, Charlotte and Josephine, aged 7, 5 and 4 respectively. William was 38 and a master draper employing 3 men, and his birthplace was given as Alcester, Warwickshire. His three draper’s assistants lived at the same address, as did a general servant.(Note: On the Ancestry.com site, the Murrell family is indexed under ‘Murralt’).

Josephine Murrell, daughter of William and step-daughter of Laura, married storekeeper Samuel Tonkin in 1867. Both born in London, the couple had a large family of twelve children, born between 1868 and 1887:
1868: William James b Inverleigh
1869: Oliver Samuel b Rokewood
1871: Charlotte b Inverleigh
1872: Ernest Hector b Inverleigh
1875: Arthur Stephen b Avenal
1876: Gertrude Hooper b Avenal
1878: Annie Jane b Avenal
1879: Frederick Avenal b Avenal
1881: Winifred Bertha b Avenal
1883: Constance b Avenal
1885: Frank Bertran b Avenal
1887: Albert Victor b Avenal.

Laura Hughan’s elder step-daughter, Charlotte Murrell, married John Burness of Melbourne in 1868, and had a somewhat smaller family than her sister-
1870: Charlotte Murrell b Ballarat. Never married. Died Coburg 1951 aged 82.
1871: Ernest b Ballarat
1873: Rosetta Ethel b Ballarat
1875: Ida Margaret
1876: Unnamed child died at birth.
1881: Percy John

Laura Hughan and William Murrell added to their mixed family of four children – Leila Paton and Josephine, Charlotte and Ernest Murrell- by having two more daughters and a son of their own.
Bertha Susan Murrell was born at Inverleigh in 1858.
Laura Edith Murrell was born in 1860 at Inverleigh.
Percy James Murrell was born in 1862 at Inverleigh.
Laura was destined never to raise a son...like her first son Arthur, little Percy was not to survive his infancy. He died in the year following his birth, 1863, at his Inverleigh home. His death certificate revealed that he died at the age of 15 weeks, of hydrocephalia arising from diarrhoea, duration of 2 days. Dr. Childers attended the baby 4 hours before his death, and Percy was buried the following day in the Inverleigh Cemetery.


William died in 1891, aged 74, at Devenish, the son of James Murrell and Susannah Rimmer. Laura died a widow in 1908.
Her death certificate contains the following information:

‘ On September 26, 1908, at Claremont Avenue, Borough of Newtown, Victoria, 84 year old Laura Murrell, of senile decay, 9 months duration.
Her physician, Dr. Marwood, last visited her on the day of her death.
Her parents were Robert Hughan, tea merchant, and Hannah Hughan, formerly Oakley. Information was given by N.S. King, an assistant undertaker, who was also a witness at Laura’s funeral.
Laura was buried on September 28, 1908, in the New General Cemetery, Geelong, by undertaker W.B. King. The minister was named as M.E. Rashleigh.

Malvina Hughan


Malvina Hughan ( above)has always seemed to me to be an amazing woman of her time. The first born child of Hannah Oakley and Robert Hughan, she was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, on February 2, 1822.
She was very well educated, and as a young woman travelled to different countries on her own. She became a very competent linguist, particularly in the languages of Hebrew and Arabic. Rather than being a missionary worker, who tended to remain in the same area for several years at least, I believe that perhaps Malvina was a member of a society such as the Bible Translation Society. This society was formed in 1840 in Holborn, London, and their aim was “to translate, print and publish versions of the sacred scriptures, especially for the circulation in Baptist Mission fields, and for the support of colporteurs and bible women.” Malvina’s travelling, and her capacity as a linguist, suggests she may have been engaged in the translation of the Bible.
A deeply religious woman, in late 1845 Malvina married John Octavus Lord, a fellow religious traveller, and they continued to travel. Together they journeyed extensively throughout the Middle East and Mediterranean.
We are incredibly fortunate to have two of Malvina’s letters, which have survived from the 1840’s – one written to her mother in 1845 from Beyruit, and a shorter note written to her sister Jessie McCallum. They both portray a gentle, intelligent woman who had a strong empathy with the repressed peoples of the countries she was visiting. Her faith also shines through her words after 150 years….I look at the portrait of her that hangs on our wall and wish I could have known her.

Almost a century after her death, two of Malvina’s nieces, neither of whom knew her, sat down to write what they knew of the Hughan history. One of them was my great grandmother, Olive Bishop, who was the daughter of Malvina’s youngest sister, Bertha. The other was her first cousin, Ivy McCallum, the youngest daughter of Malvina’s sister Jessie. Following is what the pair scribbled down – in grey lead pencil – about their Aunt Malvina:

“ Malvina Hughan – the wife of Reverend John Lord. Died on the way home from Palestine where she had been travelling. Linguist – spoke several languages and at the time of her death was studying Hebrew- she learned in 3 months. The Rabbi of Jerusalem was so pleased he gave her his own copy of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible collectively).
Malvina lectured in London when she was 17 years old. The Earl of Shaftsbury was in/on (?) the chair.
She went out to Palestine to be married to Rev. Lord. Was quarantined because of the plague. He was allowed to talk to her only and when free they were married.
They had two babies who died. Malvina died at Salonica on the way home from Palestine. Baby died at Malta.’

The information that Olive’s son, Gordon Oakley, gave me in the 1980’s was as follows:

‘ Malvina had two children, both of whom died in infancy. Tragedy struck the young couple during their travels when returning to England from an excursion to Palestine. They both contracted typhoid fever in Salonica, and died there.’

Salonica, also known as Thessaloniki, is situated in Greece.

Recent research (March 2005) has at last given me the name of one of the two Lord babies who died in infancy. Son James or John Henry Lord died on April 19, 1847, at Malta. Details given in Maltese records state “Suddenly of croup, the infant son of the Reverend Lord, aged 5 months”.
This puts James’ month of birth as November, 1846. He must have been John and Malvina Lord’s first child, as the couple were married in December of 1845.

“ James Henry LORD, died 19th April 1847, suddenly of croup, the infant son of the Reverend Lord, aged 5 months.”
REF: Malta Family History Online ( website.lineone.net )

Two death notices were published in November of 1847 back in England, and both named the child as "John Henry" Lord, the infant and beloved son of John Octavus and Malvina Lord, aged five months. I favour the baby being named 'John Henry' as 'John' is a family name.


I had always interpreted Olive’s and Ivy’s information on the Lords as suggesting that John Lord died with Malvina whilst overseas. Over the past week I have discovered information that has made me change my mind about this…I now in fact know that John Lord returned to England, married a lady named Louise Hore in 1852, took his Holy Orders and lived a long life as Rector of St. Marys, Northiam, Sussex, where he had been born and had long family ties!

John Octavus Lord, Malvina’s husband, was born in 1824 at Northiam Rectory, Sussex, a member of a family with a long tradition in the church. Father, uncles, grandfather, brothers….all were men of the cloth, and John was born in the rectory where his father held the position of rector.

“20/06/1823 Name John Octavus LORD, son. Father's Name Henry LORD Mother's Name Sarah LORD Occupation Minister Abode Northiam Parish Northiam St Mary Notes Henry Lord DD, Rector” - From the Sussex Baptism Index.

After the heartbreaking loss of his wife and two infant children, John returned home to England. The 1851 census finds him at Bedford Square, St. Giles, London, staying at the home of his brother, James Lord, a wealthy barrister-at-law. John’s occupation was given as “Candidate for Holy Orders, Church of England”. This strengthens the evidence that he and Malvina were doing missionary-based work overseas, as during their marriage John was not yet ordained as an Anglican minister.

The ensuing decade was a very busy one for John Lord- he married Louisa Hore of Dulwich, Surrey, in 1852, and had increased his family by four sons and a daughter by the time the 1861 census had rolled around.
The Gentleman’s Magazine of 1852 carried the following entry:

“ At St. Giles, Camberwell, the Rev. J.O. Lord, youngest son of the late H. Lord, DD, rector of Northiam, Sussex, and Barfreystone, Kent, to Louisa, second daughter of James Hore Esq of Lincolns-Inn-Fields and Dulwich.”

He was back at his home in Northiam, having taken the position of Rector of Northiam parish. In a touching gesture, he named his first daughter Malvina. His sons were James H b c. 1854; John D b c. 1857; Hugh b c 1858 and Frederick b c. 1859.

From an 1867 Postal Directory comes the following information:
“The living is a rectory, value about £800 per annum, with residence, in the gift of the executors of the late Rev. W. E. Lord, D.D., and held by the Rev. John Octavus Lord.”

In 1871, John was still at Northiam, and the family had been added to by the birth of another son, Christopher Lord, in c. 1862.
The 1881 census reveals that John is a widower for the second time, and living at the rectory with two servants and a visitor. His wife, Louisa Hore Lord, had died at the Rectory in December ¼ of 1875, aged 49.
Name: John A. LORD Relationship Head Condition W Gender M Age 57 Occupation Rector Of Northiam Birthplace Northiam, Sussex, England Address Rectory, Northiam, Sussex, England 2. Name: Mary MABBS Relationship Housekeeper Condition U Gender F Age 38 Occupation Servt(Dom)(Housekeeper) Birthplace Dulwich, Surrey, England Address Rectory, Northiam, Sussex, England
3. Name: Henrietta SANTER Relationship Visitor Condition W Gender F Age 79 Occupation Visitor Birthplace Newenden, Kent, England Address Rectory, Northiam, Sussex, England 4. Name: Sarah MAY Relationship Serv Condition U Gender F Age 17 Occupation Serv(Dom)(Housemaid) Birthplace Canterbury, Kent, England Address Rectory, Northiam, Sussex.

Our Malvina Hughan’s namesake, Malvina Lord, was also found in the 1881 census, living with her brother in London:
Name: James H. LORD Relationship Head Condition U Gender M Age 27 Occupation Curate Of St Olaves Birthplace Ickeskaw, Sussex, England Address 148 Hanbury St, London, Middlesex, England
Malvina LORD Relationship Sister Condition U Gender F Age 25 Occupation – Birthplace Dartford, Kent, England Address 148 Hanbury St, London, Middlesex, England
In 1891 John Lord was still at the Northiam Rectory, but again was surrounded by family as with him were his daughter in law Alice Lord and her two little boys, 2 year old Wilfred and 8 month old Geoffrey.
The last census available in 1901 gives us our last glimpse of John Octavus Lord. At the age of 77 he is still rector of St. Marys, Northiam, and living with three female servants.
I have tried all avenues to find the details of Malvina Hughan’s death, all to no avail. It was prior to 1851, when her husband John was a widower back in England, but after the birth of son James in 1846. Family tradition has it that Malvina was the mother of two children, and James was her first, so I would guess that she died between 1847-1850.

Malvina’s brother, Fergus McIvor Hughan, published a book of poems in 1856 in his adopted home town of Geelong in Victoria. One of the poems was entitled “Mena”, and upon reading the verse it was obvious that he had written it for his eldest sister Malvina, using what must have been a pet name amongst her family. The poem reads as follows:



Mena.
Gently, fondly, softly bear her
To the place of rest,
Silent as her soul was wafted
Upwards by the blest;
Let the sods ye place above her
By sweet flowers be prest.

Hers was a spirit
Pure and mild,
Tender in love
As a little child;

By her hand
Was many a tear
Dried from the eyes
Of grief and fear;
In many a home
Where want had been,
“ Contentment smiled,”
And peace was seen;
Many a heart
To her laid bare,
Throbbed with delight
O’er vanquished care.


Her’s was the power
Which day by day
Scattered gifts
In the needy’s way.
Her’s the sweet smile
At whose glad sight
Morning dashed
Thro’ the shield of night,
Goodness linger’d
In her track,
And hope from its slumbers
Started back.

Gently, fondly, softly name her
When the shadows glide
O’er her tomb as calm as moonbeams
Rest upon the tide.
May thy virtues, darling Mena,
Circle far and wide

F.M. Hughan.







MALVINA HUGHAN’S LETTER TO HER MOTHER,
FROM BEYROUT, NOVEMBER 11, 1845.
‘To Mrs. Robert Hughan,
96 Westbourne Street,
Eaton Square, London, England.

In Quarantine at Beyrout,
11 November, 1845.
Tuesday.

My Dear Mother,
Since I left you I have travelled in Europe, Asia and Africa, not much in the latter quarter of our globe. I just realized I have been and seen something of Egypt. I have endured many trials and difficulties and experienced mercies from our Father in Heaven. He has carried me safely after nearly 4000 miles. Surely, that is cause for gratitude.
I arrived in Beyrout on Saturday, and was obliged to go into quarantine immediately. It is another trouble but doubtless it is best if you know that plague often breaks out in these eastern towns, especially Alexandria, a city in Egypt, and in Syria.
Whenever, therefore, a report leaves either place all passengers are obliged to enter a place called Lacyarelle where they have to stay a certain time, and if anyone touched them, or anything belonging to them, they too are quarantined directly.
Two Majors are here with me, who were fellow travellers from Egypt. Hither they are and have been very good and attentive to me.
I was afraid Mr. Lord would not have arrived, as I was not expected here for two or three weeks, but I am thankful to say he was here on Saturday when I arrived. He and Mr. Corebolt, a clergyman with whom he is staying, may come and see me as often as they like, only they must not touch me, not even shake my hands, or they too would be prisoners. We have four Arabs as guards who watch our every movement, and go wherever we go.

Dear John and I have been sitting by the side of the Mediterranean all the morning with my little Syrian maid and two guardsmen. We are not allowed to walk far and only by the sea side. Our stay here is to be thirteen days. It is very trying, but all right none the less. There has been no plague in these parts over many months, but the Pasha of Egypt and the Sultan are great enemies and annoy each other in this way.
This town is very pretty. Lebanon is its northern boundary. It is a splendid range of hills, and when the sun sets behind it the colours are (...part of letter missing). The houses are built on detached (missing) stone floors and bars of iron across windows instead of glass. Now the winter is on they are very cold indeed. Winters here are not like the winters in England... We expect, if the Lord (..missing..)married in about a fortnight (missing) anxious to have it done soon (missing) stay here for
a month or two (missing). John is not looking very well – he (missing) than he was when he left England (missing) trails this year. He desires his love to you.
How are you all? I should like to see you. Is Oscar getting on nicely with his studies? Tell him that great perseverance and trust in God will enable him to do all things. Give my kind love to all.
You will, I hope, get this about 5th or 6th next month, then if you will get a letter ready for me, you must post it by the 2nd of January or the first if you can. We have only post in Syria in a month. As I may still be here when your letters arrive, I think it will be better to write here as it can be forwarded if I leave for Lafet. I will write on a paper how you must address for me. It will be necessary to put “Mrs. Lord”, tho’ we are not yet married but long ‘ere your letter arrives we hope to be.
I would write more but if I do I shall lose the mail leaving at sunset. Sometime soon perhaps I may be able to send you further accounts of our journey. I wish I could stay the posting but I cannot. Goodbye, dear Mother. I have not been able to give John his seal at present, for he must not take anything from me.
Believe me ever your affectionate daughter,
Malvina Hughan.

The Consul’s Lady paid me a visit yesterday and was very kind, and offered to do anything she could for me. I am just hoping to see her again – farewell.”
LETTER FROM MALVINA LORD TO HER SISTER JESSIE MCCALLUM.

“I am sorry to hear, my dearest Jessie, that you are so unwell. I hope God will be pleased to make you better soon. Write to me as soon as you can, and tell me how you are.
The poor Jews in Lithuania are enduring such cruel persecution from the Prussian Emperor. He has ordered them all to leave the Kingdom in a few weeks, 21,5000 families are turned out of their homes in the winter, which is very cold there, and no home have they to which they can go. My heart aches for the sufferings of these unhappy people, and earnestly do I pray God to hasten the time, when His Mercy shall be shown to them and they shall one again be His believing Happy people. Are you not very sorry for them dear?
We have one Jewess with us and another is coming on Thursday from Palestine Palace to be our school maid. Goodbye dear Jessie.
Your affectionate sister Malvina.”

Hannah Oakley & Robert Alexander Hughan










































Above: Jessie Hannah Hughan, one of five daughters born to Robert Alexander Hughan and Hannah Oakley.


Hannah Oakley was born on November 5, 1801, at Ipswich, Suffolk, England. At least, this is the information given on her 1860 death certificate... the application forms for two of her sons to attend the Royal Caledonian Asylum School in London give her birth place as the parish of St. Botolph, Borough of Colchester, Essex. According to Hannah’s death certificate, her parents were John Oakley, a miller by trade, and his wife, Hannah, maiden name unknown.
No trace has been found of any mention at all of this family, although family legend states that Hannah had a brother, John Oakley, who made a fortune in Jamaica.
Hannah married a Scotsman, Robert Alexander Hughan, in Ipswich on September 20, 1820. Their first three children were born in the city…daughters Malvina in 1822, Laura in 1823 and Marion in 1824.

Robert Alexander Hughan was born at Burns Park, Creetown, a small town in the parish of Kirkmabreck, Kirkcudbright, Scotland. There is only one record for a Robert Hughan baptised in this period -’Robert Hughan, baptised October 17, 1795, son of Alexander Hughan and Agness Herris’.
According to Robert’s death certificate and the inscription on his grave stone, he was 47 years old when he died in September of 1844. This puts his year of birth at c. 1796-97 – a close match to the baptismal entry. However, an 1844 application for his son Allan to attend the Caledonian Asylum School in London states that Robert Alexander Hughan was born at Burns Park, Kirkmabreck, and was 48 years of age. The application was completed in March of 1844, putting our Robert at the same age as the Robert baptised in October of 1795.
At some time in the mid- 1820’s, the young Hughan family moved down to Colchester in Essex. An entry in ‘The London Times’ newspaper of Monday, November 7, 1825, may provide a hint as to the reason for the move…

“ INSOLVENTS: November 1, 1825. Robert Hughan, Stratford, St. Mary, Suffolk, tea dealer.”

It seems as though Robert Hughan was not a business-minded man...the London Gazette has several references to his business failings:

" March 26, 1825: The partnership hitherto existing between us the undersigned William Burton and Robert Hughan, of Cambridge, tea-dealers and drapers, is this day dissolved by mutual consent. Dated this 17th March, 1825. Robert Hughan. William Burton."

" November 5, 1825: Robert Hughan, late of Ipswich, in the county of Suffolk, but now of Stratford Saint Mary, in the said county, Tea-dealer, that he is in insolvent circumstances and is unable to meet his engagements with his creditors."

"May 3, 1826: Petitions of Insolvent Debtors to be heard at the court in Portugal Street, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, Middlesex, on the 21st day of June 1826, at nine o'clock in the forenoon. Hughan, Robert, formerly of Ipswich, Suffolk, and at the same time of the town of Cambridge, draper and tea dealer, afterwards in partnership, at Cambridge aforesaid, with William Burton, trading under the firm of Burton and Hughan, Tea Dealers and Drapers, and late of Ipswich and of Stratford Saint Mary, both in Suffolk, Draper and Tea dealer."

“ Hughan, Robert, formerly of Ipswich, Suffolk, and at the same time of the Town of Cambridge, Draper and Tea- Dealer, afterwards in partnership, at Cambridge aforesaid, with William Burton, trading, under the firm of Burton and Hughan, Tea-Dealers and Drapers, and late of Ipswich, and of Stratford Saint Mary, both in Suffolk, Draper and Tea-Dealer.” May 30, 1826.


On April 4, 1828, a notice states " Notice is hereby given that the partnership lately subsisting between us the undersigned Hugh Mitchell and Robert Hughan, of Wisbech St Peters, in the Isle of Ely, in the county of Cambridge, drapers and tea dealers, was dissolved by mutual consent on and from this 29th day of March instant. Hugh Mitchell, Robert Hughan".

17 February, 1835, we find "Robert Hughan, formerly of Ipswich, Suffolk, tea dealer, then of Stratford, same county, same business, and lastly of Colchester, Essex, tea-dealer and Grocer" insolvent.

First son, Oscar Hughan, was born at Colchester in 1826. His obituary stated that Oscar was in fact born ‘ in the Hermitage, an old-time monastery in the Roman town of Colchester’, but since other portions of Oscar’s obituary read like an boy’s own adventure book, this piece of information can be taken with a grain of salt!
Youngest child Bertha’s death notice in 1898 stated that her mother was from ‘The Chase’, Colchester.
A total of nine children were born to Robert and Hannah – three definitely in Ipswich, four sons and a daughter most likely in Colchester, and last child Bertha in London. Baptismal records have not been located for the Hughan children, as they were Presbyterian, and this religion is not well covered by the IGI.
I have always been curious as to the unusual naming of the Hughan children, particularly since the Scots tend to adhere to a very rigid naming pattern of family names. Besides Robert Alexander Hughan naming a son after himself, the other children were given names not found previously in the Hughan family tree. Research has shed a light on three of the children and their names, and tends to suggest that Robert Hughan was much more of a scholar than a businessman. The eldest Hughan son and daughter were baptised Oscar and Malvina. ‘Oscar and Malvina, or the Hall of Fingal’ was an opera adapted from the works of James Macpherson, and published in London in 1791, scored for harps and uilleann pipes. In MacPherson’s Ossianic poems (1765) Malvina is the lover of Oscar, grandson of Finn MacColl.
Although the Ossian legends are Irish-based, the story of Malvina and Oscar is a very Scottish one- a simplified version of their sad story follows....There was a very kind and beautiful maiden named Malvina, who was betrothed to Oscar, the bravest of all warriors. One autumn day, as Malvina sat waiting for her beloved to return home from battle, she could see, far in the distance rising out of the mist, a figure was limping over the heather clad moor.
It was Oscar's faithful messenger, who, wounded and weary, knelt before her and gave her a sprig of purple heather. He told her that Oscar had been slain in battle, and as he lay dying, had plucked the heather and asked that it be given to Malvina as a token of his eternal love.
As Malvina listened, tears fell from her eyes onto the purple heather, and it immediately became white. With each step she took, her falling tears turned every patch of the purple heather-clad moors to white.
Even in the depths of her sadness, the kind and beautiful Malvina wished that others might be happier than she, and she prayed “May the White Heather, a symbol of my sorrow, bring good fortune to all who find it."
This legend is the story behind why finding white heather is considered to be extremely lucky.
Fergus McIvor Hughan was the sixth Hughan child, and was also named for a hero of Scots literature- Fergus McIvor was a character in Sir Walter Scott’s novel ‘Waverley’, a Highland rebel involved in the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion.
Allan Ramsay Cunningham Hughan was child number eight, and the final of four sons. He was recorded only as ‘Allan Ramsay Hughan’ in the 1844 application form for him to attended the Caledonian Asylum school, so it is not known when the addition ‘Cunningham’ was made.
Allan Ramsay was a famous Scots portrait painter of the 18th century, and he himself was the son of another Allan Ramsay who was a Scots poet and author. Allan Cunningham was another Scots poet and writer of traditional ballads, and lived in the same times as Robert Alexander Hughan (Allan Cunningham being born in Blackwood, Dumfries, in 1784 and being buried at Kensal Green London in 1842).
Bertha Hughan, the youngest daughter, may also have been named after a Sir Walter Scott novel, as a character by this name appears in the novel ‘Count Robert of Paris’.
Poetry ran strong in the veins of the Hughan children, particularly Fergus and Oscar, and it is easy to imagine them learning to love the writings of the Scots poets at their passionate father’s knee.
Robert Alexander Hughan was a tea merchant, and we always presumed that he was very wealthy. All of his children were extremely well educated, even the girls which was unusual for the time. At the time of Robert’s death in 1844, the Hughan family was living at 96 Westbourne Street, sub-district of Belgrave in the registration district of St. George Hanover Square, a very affluent area of London.
However, Bertha’s birth certificate of 1838 has the family living at an address in Goldsmiths Row, and the 1841 census, after much painstaking searching, finally pinned the family down in Blacklands Street, Chelsea, where Robert was noted as being a ‘traveller’. The details on the census were as follows:
Robert Hughan / 40 / traveller/ not born in county (Scotland)
Hannah Hughan/ 35/ not born in county
Sarah (should be Laura) Hughan/ 18/ N
Marion Hughan/ 16/ N
Robert Hughan/ 12/ N
Jessy Hughan/ 8/ N
Allan Hughan/ 4/ N
Bertha Hughan/ 2/ Y


Three children were missing from the family group, and were eventually found elsewhere in London. Eldest child, Malvina Hughan, was living at ‘East side of the Green’, the Green being Bethnal Green, in the Middlesex borough of Tower Hamlets. She was listed as being 15 (remembering that in the 1841 census, ages were rounded down to the nearest 5 or 10, so she would have been aged from 15 to 19). Her occupation was stated as being a teacher, as was that of her 20 year old housemate Lucy Ramsey. Also living in the same residence were 75 year old Isabella Harsbury from Scotland, and her 15 year old servant Martha Henderson.
11 year old Fergus Hughan was at school in London, at the Caledonian Asylum School, which was a live-in school for sons of native-born Scotsmen in London. He must have received an excellent education there, as samples of his writing and poetry from later years are beautifully written.

Eldest brother Oscar I expected to find at a public boarding school somewhere, as a letter written by Malvina to her mother in 1845 asks her ‘Is Oscar getting on nicely with his studies?’ He was finally found in the 1841 census under the name of “Hoscar Hughan”, living as a servant for 20 year old spinster Mary Louisa Edwards, who was of independent means. She must have been quite wealthy, because another two female servants, Jane Brown and Elizabeth Warden, also lived under her roof. I love the recording of “Oscar” as “Hoscar”, which is the way a well-to-do lady would have pronounced his name.


In June of 2006, information arrived from the Royal Caledonian Asylum in London, which still operates to this day. It contained two wonderful documents, the applications for the two youngest Hughan boys, Fergus and Allan, to attend the school in 1839 and 1844 respectively.
The first, dated October 21, 1839, contains the following information:

“To the Directors of the Caledonian Asylum,
The humble petition of Robert Hughan of 3 Goldsmith Row, Hackney, in behalf of the child Fergus Hughan, the child of Robert and Hannah Hughan.
That the said child Fergus Hughan is the lawful child of Robert and Hannah Hughan as by the annexed certificates will appear:
That Robert Hughan was born in the parish of Kirkmabreck, Kirkcudbrightshire, is about 40 years of age and Hannah Hughan (whose maiden name was Oakley) was born in the parish of St. Boltoph, Colchester, County of Essex, is 37 years old. Your petitioner married September 20th, 1820 and has children living as under
Malvina born Feb 1822
Laura born July 1823
Marion born November 1824
Oscar born November 1826
Robert born May 1828
Fergus born 13th March 1830, the object of this petition
Jessy born December 1833
Allan born March 1837
Bertha born January 1839.

The petitioner has been engaged many years in the tea trade, but failing business, has had no employment (save two weeks) these eighteen months of which he has resided in London, and subsisted by the labour of Mrs. Hughan and daughters who work at stock making &c.
Your petitioner humbly prays that the said Fergus Hughan may be admitted into the Caledonian Asylum, and that he may continue therein as long as the Directors thereof shall think fit; and be disposed of, when of a proper age, as an apprentice or servant, according to the provisions of the Act of Parliament.
Signed: Robert Hughan

I do hereby recommend the said Fergus Hughan as a fit and proper Object to be admitted into the Caledonian Asylum.
Signed James Kemp.
I have known the Petitioner Robert Hughan 20 years. To my belief he has conducted himself ___ _____ ____. James Kemp.
I, Robert Hughan do hereby solemnly declare that the circumstances stated in the foregoing petition are true, and that to the best of my knowledge and belief, the said Fergus Hughan is free from scrophula, of a sound constitution, and in the enjoyment of perfect health and intellects.
Signed: Robert Hughan
Declared at Hatton Garden on this 21st day of October, 1839, before me, _______(??)
Four and a half years later, Robert applied for his youngest son, Allan, to attend the Caledonian Asylum. His employment situation, or lack thereof, had not changed, and he was still relying on his wife and daughters to support the family with their needlework. The information on the application was much the same, and once again James Kemp acted as a ‘subscriber’ who recommended Allan to the Directors.
While Fergus was accepted and was living at the school at the time of the 1841 census, it is not certain whether or not Allan actually got to attend. Marked on his application was ‘Postponed for want of certificates’. His father had signed the application on March 14, 1844, at the Police Court Bow Street, before D. Jardine. Six months later Robert was dead, and Allan’s educational future is not known.
Robert Hughan’s death certificate is quite difficult to read, but the main cause of his death looks to be ‘ chronic meningitis with effusions’. I have an old photograph of Robert’s grave in London. On the reverse, in very faint spidery writing, it reads ‘ Jessie H. Hughan’. This dates the photo as pre-1851, which is when Jessie married and became Jessie McCallum.
At a later date, somebody added ‘Hampstead Cemetery’, which I accepted as fact until I discovered that the Hampstead cemetery had not been opened for burials until the 1850’s. Further research revealed that Robert was in fact buried in the burial ground of St. George Hanover Square in London. The inscription on the grave stone reads:

‘ SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF
ROBERT ALEXANDER HUGHAN ESQ,
OF CREETOWN, KIRKCUDBRIGHT,
DIED SEPTEMBER 22, 1844, AGED 47 YEARS’.

Unfortunately, it is impossible for the descendants of Robert Hughan to visit his grave, because in 1889 the disused burial ground was converted into the now-beautiful Mount Street Gardens.
In 1854 an Act of parliament closed over-crowded burial grounds in central London. The original burial ground of St George Hanover Square had been laid out in 1730, so by 1854 there had been almost 125 years worth of burials conducted in what was not an overly-large area.
The Mount Street Gardens were laid out in 1889, and all of the gravestones- including Robert Hughan’s- were removed to the gardener’s tool shed. They remained there until the shed was demolished in 1931, and then presumably destroyed. Fortunately, the City Engineer’s Office made a copy of the inscriptions on each stone, and these records are now stored at the Westminster Archives Centre.


Forty two year old Hannah was left a widow with nine children ranging in age from 23 to 3.
The eldest child, Malvina, was to marry in the year following her father’s death. Next daughter Laura married in June of 1849, just prior to her emigration to Australia.
According to Oscar Hughan’s obituary, he left London for Canada in c. 1846.
It was middle child, Robert Alexander Hughan, who was to provide the biggest surprise and become the catalyst for his siblings and mother leaving England for Australia. But more about him later....
Hannah Hughan was recorded as being ‘matron’ on the ship ‘Culloden’ which arrived in Australia in 1850. The Culloden carried a mixture of assisted and unassisted passengers. For years I could only locate the 42 assisted passengers, all female except for a Mr. Walford, and most aged between 17 and 36. The exceptions in age were two of the four Hughan females on board – ‘Mrs. Hughan, Marion 24, Jessie 18 and Bertha 11.’
What happened to Allan and Fergus? There is no clue anywhere as to how these boys arrived in Victoria. Oscar came via Canada and America, and Robert had set the ball rolling when exported as an exile convict in 1849, but the younger boys appear just to have materialized in the Colony! I had hypothesised that perhaps they had been paid passengers on board the ship “Culloden’, but when I finally located a list of paying passengers for that ship the boys were sadly not to be found. The was, however, one surprise to be found amongst the paying passengers- Arthur Paton, who had married Laura Hughan in 1849 just prior to her emigrating.


I wondered what sort of purpose the ‘Culloden’ had served with its small all-women assisted passenger list, and then all was revealed when I consulted the ‘Port Phillip Herald’ of Monday, June 3, 1850.
The actual article is to be found in the following pages, and it was reprinted from ‘The Weekly Dispatch’ of March 3, 1850. Its headline was ‘Departure of Female Emigrants for Port Phillip’, and it went on to tell in depth of the circumstances surrounding the boarding of the Culloden by the thirty eight women who had been carefully selected to be part of the Female Emigration Scheme.
Headed by an English politician named Mr. Herbert, the group was known as the Female Emigration Society, and concerned itself with the relocation of young women from overcrowded London to the Colony of Victoria.
Mainly needlewomen, the women were selected after being interviewed, and it was the Society’s first shipment of such women who left on board the Culloden in March of 1850.
The article mentions twice ‘the matron’ who was placed in charge of the women, and although she wasn’t mentioned by name, it was Hannah Hughan who sailed on the Culloden in that capacity.
I don’t know if daughters Marion and Jessie were included in the ranks of the young women in the Scheme, or if they simply sailed with their mother.Prior to Hannah and her girls leaving for Victoria, they would have been required to reside with the other prospective emigrants at Hatton Garden Female Lodging House. In 1848 Hatton Garden was taken up and offered as a lodging house for 58 respectable single women. Upon the formation of the Female Emigration Fund soon after, Sidney Herbert applied for the transfer of the house to his organization, at an equitable rent, in order that it might be used as a home for the female emigrants under their care, in preparation for their departure.
The whole procedure for selection for emigration involved a number of steps. After an initial interview with a District Committee, each girl would have been given a detailed 16 question application paper. They were required to return the paper, together with references from two respectable householders of their parish, a medical certificate and a certificate from a magistrate or clergyman.
If selected, as previously mentioned, the applicant‘s next stage was to stay in the Fund’s Emigrant Home at Hatton Garden until the next sailing. The purpose of their stay in the home, as stated in the words of the Female Emigrants Fund, was “to best ascertain the real value of the testimonials and recommendations, and for the acquisition of any elementary instructions in domestic economy which they may appear to require”.

Whilst on the voyage, the emigrants were expected to “conform to their identity as seamstresses: to perform as God-fearing, industrious, moral, respectable, submissive workers, and as potential wives”. The Fund made meticulous arrangements for matrons (of which our Hannah was the first), surgeons and school masters to accompany them to their new lives. The schoolmaster was to report to the matron “any instance of forwardness of manner or improper expression of behaviour of any of the girls.”
The Rules for the matron included the following:
“You are to make it your daily endeavour to collect around you in the afternoon all the young women; and while they are employed in needlework, you should propose that some of those best qualified should read to the rest occasionally.”
All told there were 16 rules for Hannah Hughan and the other matrons to enforce, five of which involved specific procedures for keeping the emigrants employed with needlework on board ship. The final advice given to each matron was “In carrying out the above rules, you must depend for the maintenance of your authority with the Emigrants, on your influence with them, rather than any direct power which can be given to you...and not...be discouraged by meeting with great adversity of temper and disposition.”
The Fund’s attempts at regulation were examined in an enquiry held into the voyage of the ‘Culloden’ and the 38 emigrants which arrived on July 6, 1850. The surgeon had reported that the male cabin and intermediate passengers, on the same deck as the female emigrants, had “tried all means to keep up intercourse with the single females...passing bottles of wine or beer down through the ventilator to them”, and as a result he had to visit the needlewomen’s cabin two or three times a night.
One of the girls, 18 year old Lucy M. Edwards, a servant ‘out of place’ from the Holborn/Westminster area of London, was employed upon her arrival by Mr. Westley of Melbourne at a wage of 12 pounds a year. She wrote to her father back in England:
“The ship when it was rocking afforded me great pleasure for to see the things rattling about ; plates and dishes rattling; the children crying; the girls a going into fits; the Captain a giving orders; the Matron ordering the girls to be quiet because of the Captain.”
Lucy also reported that events didn’t go as smoothly as reported upon arrival at Port Phillip:
“ We came ashore at night on account of there going to be a mutiny with the sailors and the captain, because he would not give them their discharge when they came and asked him, so they all struck and would not do anything so he sent for the police constables and he kept them on bread and water until a great many of them ran away.”
Some of the letters written back to England were published by the Fund to encourage other girls to emigrate. Twenty year old Fanny Hickmott from Southwark was engaged upon arrival by Mrs Simmons of Melbourne for ten pounds a year, and wrote about Port Phillip:
“It is a good place for all maids to come to for they are sure to get a husband. I am not married yet, but I shall be before long- before you get this- to a young man who came out on the same ship. There was a mother and four sons and four daughters, and this is one of the sons that I am to have, and _____ is to have another and ____ is to have a third. If you can, prevail on my sisters to come to me, and all shall be done both by me and Richard that can be done to make them happy.”
Matilda Read, who had been a servant in London before emigrating on the ‘Culloden’, was another whose letter home to her family was published:
“We have been here now about ten months, and I have had very good situations, the last of which I left to be married.
I was married on the 5th of January last to Mr Charles Servante, brother to ‘Little Jane’, as you call her. I have been very comfortable since, and am very contented. Jane has a comfortable good place, and twenty pound a year wages.” (This Jane was Jane Elizabeth Servante who was a fellow emigrant on the ‘Culloden’, and she married William Mills in Melbourne in 1852.)
Even famous author of the time, Charles Dickens, wrote of the ‘Culloden’ and her passengers:
“Intelligence has been received of the arrival in Australia of the first parties of Female Emigrants despatched by the Commitee of the Female Emigration Fund. The ship ‘Culloden’, with a party of 38 girls, arrived, all well, at Port Phillip on the 6th of July. The ship ‘Duke of Portland’, with 65 on board, arrived, all well, at Adelaide, on the 2nd day of August.
The young women are stated to have behaved with great propriety during their passage out, and to have had good health throughout their voyages.j

The most favourable testimony is borne to the good conduct of those in charge of the emigrants, and to the well working of the arrangements which were made by the committee here on their behalf.
Both at Melbourne and at Adelaide this immigration appears to have been very favourably regarded by the colonists. Of the 38 landed at Port Phillip on the 8th of July, it appears by the Melbourne papers that 31 were engaged as servants at wages varying from 12.7 to 20 pounds a year before the evening of the tenth, and subsequent advices state that every one of the girls had obtained employment.
The Ladies’ Committee at Port Phillip, who provided for the reception of the young women at Port Phillip, appear to have been most favourably impressed by their appearance and demeanor, and one of Melbourne’s papers says “they appear to belong to a class of immigrants peculiarly adapted to this country, and apparently possessed of that happy buoyancy of mind, and that hearty determination of purpose, that will enable them to act well their part in any of the many situations of usefulness which lie so invitingly before them.’”
From: The Household narrative of Current Events by Charles Dickens, 1852.

Also from the Hampshire Chronicle November 15th 1851:

[London] The Female Emigration Fund continues, we understand, to carry out
the objects for which it was established in a most satisfactory manner. The
first party of 30 young women left England for Port Philip on the 25th of
February 1850, and 17 other parties followed at short intervals to Adelaide,
Sydney, Canada, Launceston, Cape of Good Hope, Hobart Town and New Zealand,
and gratifying intelligence has in most of these cases been received of the
comfortable and lucrative situations obtained by the emigrants soon after
their arrival. The emigrants were respectable young women, their ages ranging
16 and 21, the greater part of them having been employed as domestic
servants, and the others as needlewomen. They appeared to be very cheerful
and sanguine as to their future prospects.


FROM MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1850:

PORT PHILLIP HERALD.

DEPARTURE OF FEMALE EMIGRANTS FOR PORT PHILLIP.
( From the ‘Weekly Despatch’, March 3, 1850)
Mr. Herbert’s Association has practically commenced its operations. The Female Emigration Society, it will be remembered, was called into being by that portion of the series of letters in the ‘Morning Chronicle’ on ‘Labour and the Poor’, devoted to the condition of the needle-women of the Metropolis. The object of the Association is sufficiently denoted by its title. It seeks to transplant to a new and rising country that species of labour for which there is least demand here, and that class of individual which, in our existing state of society, are at once most suffering and the most helpless.
On Monday the first party of female emigrants, sent forth under the auspices of the society, proceeded down the river to the ship ‘Culloden’ lying at Gravesend. The society have refrained from chartering a ship exclusively for their emigrants, believing it to be better policy to send them by small parties on board the ordinary class of vessels, so as to get rid, as far as possible, of invidious distinctions, and to merge the young persons sent out under their auspices in that general tide of emigration which is now seething in so fast from our shores to the shore of the Australian Continent.
The ‘Culloden’ sailed from the river on Tuesday. She may touch at one of the Cape de Verd Islands, in case of being detained long in the ‘Chops’ of the Channel, but the probability is that the white cliffs once lost sight of, she will steadily hold on her unchanging course for her ultimate destination – Port Phillip.

The young female emigrants for whom the Association has provided berths on board the ‘Culloden’ met on Monday, by appointment, at the Frenchurch Street terminus of the Blackwall Railway. There was also collected several principal members of the Committee, who had determined to see the first party of their protégés fairly off upon their long but hopeful voyage.

Thirty eight was the number of female emigrants who constituted the party destined for the ‘Culloden’. They assembled punctually to their time at Frenchurch Street Station, were regularly mustered and answered to their names previously to the starting of the train.
Their heavy luggage had been, of course, already stowed away on board, but most of the girls carried parcels, or small bundles, and each was provided with a stout canvass bag of sand, to be used, as we understand, for drying the berth-deck after scouring.
The girls were, in a few instances only, accompanied to the railway by their friends and relations. There were, of course, in these cases touching and affectionate farewells given and taken, but there were no manifestations of the despairing grief, none of these painful outbreaks of emotions, which we have more than once witnessed upon similar occasions. On the contrary, although ‘some natural tears they shed’,hope, buoyant hope, was evident in the ascendant in the breast of the vast majority of the emigrants, and cheerful tones would ever and anon break out amid sobs, and smiles shone forth through tears.
From Blackwall, the Satellite steamer conveyed the party down the river, and in due time, by an ebbing tide, which almost counterbalanced an easterly breeze, the steam boat swept up alongside the good ship ‘Culloden’, anchored off the Terrence Pier at Gravesend, her stout bulwarks dotted with anxiously peering heads, evidently waiting, with great interest, for the advent of their compagnon’s de voyage. The ‘Culloden’ is a full-rigged ship of about 750 tons burden – a stout, bluff-built and serviceable merchantman – possibly not a very quick craft in light breezes, but likely, in all probability, to be all the snugger, therefore, when labouring over a mutinous sea- the scud flying fast to the lea-ward, and two reefs in the topsail.
Arriving alongside, the emigrants and their friends at once proceeded aboard. The Culloden is a regular poop-ship, carrying cabin passengers. The deck arrangements are of the usual class. The launch – ‘Old Harney’ as the men-of-war’s men call the boat- furnishes a convenient pen for the sheep, while the pigs are stowed away beneath the shelter which she affords. A couple of life boats are suspended a little abait, while the ship carries the usual quarter-boats star board and lea board.
The arrangements on the berth-deck are different from those adopted on board Government emigration vessels, affording a greater degree of privacy, but in the opinion of very competent judges, not being by any means so advantageous in respect to the supply of light and fresh air.
Let us briefly attempt to sketch the coup d’oeil ‘tween decks. Imagine then running from the foremast right aft, a dim shadowy corridor , illuminated only by the square patches of light streaming down the open hatchways. Right fore and aft extends a long narrow table, with raised ledges, so as to avert, as far as possible, the chances of smashing crockery in a rolling sea, while a framework about the centre of the board, hung all along with mugs and jugs, shows that the dining table answers the purpose of a beaufet(sic) as well: on either side of a long range of what men at sea call bulkhead, and men on shore partition, composed of white unpainted wood, screens off the sleeping berths- the humble state-rooms of the main deck- from what may be called the living and sitting room. The single men are bestowed for’ard, the married couples are disposed amidships, and the single women sleep aft. Let us push aside the sliding door, and glance into one of the many chambers which, for four or five months, are to be the sleeping apartments of from five to ten young women. In the former case, imagine a ‘nook’- that is the most expressive word we can find- about seven feet by five. The seven feet are to be measured transversely from the bulkhead to the ship’s side. Along them are four berths, two on either side, the berths being, in other words, shallow boxes without lids, fitted beds and blankets, and not at all devoid of a certain air of compact snugness.
Along the side of the ship, beneath the small air hole, runs the fifth berth. The oblong patch of floor is principally occupied by a chest destined to contain the clothes to be worn on the voyage, and above it, and close to the fifth berth, is a curious extempore-looking wash-hand-stand, with a due allowance of tin basins. The larger ‘state-rooms’ are of course fitted up on the same system of ingenious economy of space.
Right aft, just inside the stern windows, and commanding an uninterrupted view of the wake, is disposed a labyrinth of berths, arranged so as to form quite a large sleeping room, and laid out with curious ingenuity, so as not to leave a square inch of room unoccupied. It was pleasant to see how satisfied the emigrants seemed to be with their novel accommodation – how fussily each girl arranged her parcels upon her bed, and with what innocent importance she announced to all querists that that was to be her berth. After the first brush of sea sickness is got over, we doubt not but that the ‘Culloden’ will prove a comfortable and orderly ship.
The thirty eight young women, dispatched by the Female Emigration Society, consist, we believe, of individuals selected with anxious and discriminating care- excellent (sic) testimonials as to moral and industrial character having been exacted and full enquiry instituted in each case.
The emigrants were plainly but comfortably and warmly clothed, and presented a very different appearance to that which they had exhibited on the first application to the committee.
On the voyage, educational training is, as far as possible, to be conjoined with needlework. The matron is to arrange her charges into classes, for the purpose of scriptural and general reading, with instructions in writing, arithmetic and geography. A great quantity of calico has been put on board, supplied by a large city house at cost price, with models of shirts generally used in the ‘bush’, and the products of every girl’s industry during the voyage will be delivered to her on landing.
In addition to the usual ship allowance, Mr. Herbert sent on board a quantity of ‘concentrated milk’ to be used on high days and holidays throughout the voyage.
After the emigrants had been finally mustered on the quarter-deck, the Reverend Mr. Quekett (sic) addressed a few words to them. They had in a body attended the Rev. Gentleman’s chapel the Sunday evening before, when an address suitable to the occasion was delivered . Mr. Quekett merely took then last opportunity of recommending to them the strict observance of the rules of the ship, and entreated them to be in all things obedient to the Matron and all other authorities placed over them.
This appeared to be the most trying moment. Many of the poor girls broke into open lamentation, others turned aside and wept silently, but the time was up- the steamer again alongside.
There were hearty shakes of the hand, and fervently expressed thanks and good wishes, and promises to write long and speedily, and then to the shrill call of the boatswain’s whistle, the bulwarks were crowded fore and aft, and, under three good hearty English cheers, the Satellite shot up the river on her return.’
- Port Phillip Herald, June 3, 1850.


The family story passed down to my grandfather by his mother (Olive Bishop, Hannah’s granddaughter) was that upon arrival in Victoria, the family had to camp on the beach at Sandridge (Port Melbourne) until accommodation was secured. This supports the story of fellow-traveller Lucy Edwards who wrote of passengers having to disembark in the night because of the threat of mutiny between crew and captain.

Not everyone was as supportive of the Female Emigrants Scheme as the writer of the previous account- research has shown that there existed a very vocal group against Mr Herbert’s endeavour.
Beth Harris, author of ‘Famine and Fashion: Needlewomen in the 19th Century” had the following to say in regard to the Female Emigration Fund:-
“ In 1849 Sidney Herbert’s Fund For Promoting Female Emigration attempted to use the iconic figure of the distressed needlewoman to raise funds and establish popular support, to assist “the most helpless of their sex-the working women of this country” to emigrate.
In the next four years, the fund assisted over one thousand women to emigrate to Australia, New Zealand, British North America and the Cape of Good Hope. In order to achieve this immense philanthropic effort, the Fund and the emigrants adopted the discursive construction of the symbolic needlewoman. This iconic figure was portrayed as industrious, hard-working and independent, but cruelly denied the just rewards of her labour, and so particularly deserving of redemption from her awful fate.The Fund’s philanthropic scheme was laid bare by a series of Australian Colonial enquiries into the untoward events on the voyage, and upon arrival at port.
The ‘Culloden’ enquiry was concerned with the treatment suffered by emigrants such as Ellen Ellis, a lace transferor from Holborn, who was also sent to Port Phillip, and destined for a narrow escape from the evil intentions of the Master of the ship, whom the Fund had employed to protect her from harm.”


Jessie Hughan (pictured above) married soon after her arrival, and set off to the sparsely settled lower-Murray region near Swan Hill. Her sister Bertha and brother Allan often stayed with her on the ‘Youngera’ property, and Allan managed ‘Youngera’ after the McCallums and Bertha returned from a 2 ½ year jaunt to England, Scotland and France from 1858-1861. Brother Fergus also joined them at ‘Youngera’ on occasion prior to his marriage.
Married daughter Laura lived with her husband Arthur Paton at Geelong, and Hannah herself lived here for a period after arriving.
Hannah Hughan lived for almost ten years in her new country. She died at her home in Bay Street, Brighton, on March 14, 1860, after a twelve month battle with cancer. An interesting story surrounds Hannah’s headstone…. When her daughters Jessie McCallum and Bertha Hughan returned to England for a visit in 1858, Hannah asked them to bring her back a headstone made by an English stone mason, of English stone. The girls did this, and Hannah kept the stone in her bedroom until the time finally came to use it. The inscription carved upon it was simple –


‘ HANNAH HUGHAN
born 5th November, 1801.
Died 14th March, 1860.’

There is a small hitch in this story, in that Jessie and Bertha were still in England at the time of their mother’s death in 1860.Either Hannah’s daughters must have sent the stone back by ship before their return, or in fact it was Jessie that obtained the headstone during an earlier excursion to England in 1855-56.
The information on Hannah’s death certificate was supplied by her son-in-law, Henry Edmiston, of Brighton. It revealed that 58 year old Hannah had been treated by Dr. J.J. Hallet, and had succumbed to her disease the day following his last visit on March 13.
She was buried in the Brighton Cemetery on the day after her death, in the Presbyterian section (her son Robert Alexander Hughan was interred in this same grave some 55 years later).
Presbyterian minister Rev. A. Ramsay, of Melbourne, was the officiating minister – he had also married Jessie Hughan to Alexander McCallum in 1851.
Research conducted by the Brighton Cemetorians group in 2006 located and photographed the grave of Hannah Hughan. It is lying horizontally, and it is easy to pick out the inscription in the lower right hand corner which reads as follows:

“C. Wilkins, 90 Euston Place, London.”

Hannah’s marriage details were given as her having been married in Ipswich, Suffolk, at the age of 18 years to Robert Hughan. She had been born at Ipswich, Suffolk, and had been in the Colony of Victoria for 9 years and 9 months. Her children were given as follows:
Malvina dead; Laura 36; Marion Agnes 34; Oscar 32; Fergus McIvor 28; Jessie 26 ; Allan Ramsay Cunningham 21; Bertha 20.
Hannah’s fourth son, Robert Alexander, was forgotten – he fitted in between Oscar and Fergus. I believe that this omission was either quite deliberate due to Robert’s convict status, or Henry Edmiston was ignorant as to Robert’s existence. The former is more plausible than the latter since Henry would presumably have known of the presence of another Hughan brother-in-law, albeit one that lived over 1000 miles away in another part of the colony. All the same, the convict taint was keenly felt amongst families in the nineteenth century, particularly those families such as the Hughans who considered themselves well-bred and educated, despite their economic difficulties.