The marriage of Bertha Hughan to Henry Bishop

Above:1. Page from the front of a beautiful leather-bound bible that Allan Hughan gave his sister Bertha as a wedding gift.
2. Henry Bishop, Berth Hughan's fiance at the time that this photograph was taken. It was taken on March 2, 1864, and they were married almost exactly a year later.

By the time their marriage came around, neither Bertha or Henry were at Swan Hill. Joseph Bishop had purchased the Soho Foundry at Ballarat, and Henry was working for him in the capacity of manager. Bertha was living in St. Kilda at the time of the wedding, not at Youngera as might have been expected. No occupation was given on her marriage certificate, so she wasn't living with anyone in the capacity of a governess, companion or the like. I looked around to see what the rest of her family was doing in March of 1865...Laura was living and raising her family in the Geelong district; Marion was in New Zealand with her family; Fergus was also in the Geelong area; Oscar was in Bourke; Jessie at Youngera and Robert was in Queensland. It was with Allan's family that I hit pay dirt...while Allan himself was all over the place in 1865( in March he was in Sydney, for example), his wife Phoebe and five year old daughter Ruth were living in St.Kilda.
Phoebe Hughan gave birth to her second daughter in October of 1865, so at the start of 1865 she would have been in the early stages of her pregnancy. Five years between children was a lengthy gap in the 19th century...Phoebe was an older mother- eight years older than her husband- so she may have had trouble falling pregnant or suffered through miscarriages. I imagine that Bertha would have been staying with Phoebe in the Hughan's St.Kilda home both for company and support.
On Wednesday, March 8th, 1865, at Christ Church, St. Kilda, 26 year old Bertha Hughan was married to 24 year old Henry Bishop( although of course the marriage certificate showed that Bertha was also 24, due to her slicing two years off her actual age from the time she met Henry!)
Henry's present residence was given as St.Kilda, usual residence as Ballarat. His birth place was Stamford, Lincolnshire, and his parents William Bishop, merchant, and Eliza Gilbert. His occupation was 'manager'.
Bertha's present and usual address was St.Kilda. her birth place was London, and her parents Robert Alexander Hughan, tea merchant, and Hannah Oakley.
They were married by David Seddon,a British Church of England minister who had arrived in Melbourne in 1851 and had been the first incumbent of Christ Church, St. Kilda.
Witnesses to the event were Peter Beveridge of Tyntynder and George John Arnold.
After their wedding, Bertha and Henry resided in Ballarat for several years, with Henry initially working for his Uncle. Joseph Bishop had purchased the Soho Foundry in 1864, and remained its owner for several years until business took a turn for the worse.The metal working businesses and foundries of Ballarat initially made their money from the booming mining industry- the requirements for tools, engines, boilers and other equipment were huge, and foundries such as Soho, Phoenix, Grenville and Nettles all did very well from the mining industry. As mining demands began to drop,however, foundries diversified to encompass other industries, such as railway and larger engines.
In May of 1864 the Soho Foundry turned out two locomotives that were delivered to the Southlands line in New Zealand. Joseph Bishop's foundry also made the first steam powered boat to be launched on Lake Wendouree in 1865.