Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Fergus Hughan continued...
The year 1873 found Fergus Hughan in his mid-forties, unmarried and still drifting between jobs. Finally, on November 3, 1873, he was accepted for an appointment as a clerk with the Victorian Public Service, a position he was to hold for the next thirteen years. At the time of his death in 1887, Fergus was on a respectable wage of two hundred and forty pounds per year, and his clerical duty as detailed in the Victorian Government Gazette of 1887 was " writes letters'.
Almost a year later, on August 24, 1874, Fergus McIvor Hughan ended his bachelor days at the age of 45 years( although he took several years off his age on the marriage certificate and stated he was 42). At Pine Hill, Caulfield, in a ceremony conducted according to the rites of the Baptist Church,Fergus McIvor Hughan, of Colchester England, a civil service clerk, married 28 year old Mary Jane Lennox.
Mary Jane Lennox had been born in Sunderland, Durham, in 1846, the second child and first daughter of John Gordon Lennox and his wife Jane Rymer.Mary Jane also had a brother, William Rymer Lennox ( born 1844) and two sisters, both named Agnes, who both died in early infancy. Mary Jane came out to Australia with her mother, Jane Rymer Lennox, per the ship 'Bucephalus' in 1860. According to the Melbourne newspaper 'The Herald', the Bucephalus arrived in Hobson's Bay on May 3, 1860, after leaving Liverpool on February 1.There were five cabin passengers and 22 in steerage, Jane Lennox and her daughter being amongst the latter.
There is no sign of Mary Jane's father John Lennox- I cannot find the family in any census return in England, nor can I find the marriage of John Lennox and Jane Rymer.
Mary Jane's brother William Rymer Lennox also made his way out to Victoria, because in 1870 he married Alice Ann Webb. They were married at Caulfield on August 6, 1870, aged 25 and 23 respectively. William's occupation was 'bookkeeper', and his usual address 'Northcote'. Mary Jane Lennox, William's only living sibling, signed the marriage certificate as a witness.
The marriage notice appeared in the Argus on Saturday, August 13, 1870:
"LENNOX-WEBB: On the 6th inst., at the residence of the bride's father, Caulfield, by the Reverend James Ballantyne, William Lennox to Alice Ann, fourth daughter of Mr. James Henning Webb."
William and Alice had a son the following year, also named William Rymer Lennox. His birth was announced in the Argus of Tuesday, May 23, 1871:
"BIRTHS: LENNOX- On the 21st inst., at Northcote, Mrs William Lennox of a son."
In 1872 William Senior died at the young age of 27 years. William Senior's death certificate reveals that he died at Bay Street, Sandridge, at 6 a.m on the morning of May 7, 1872. His occupation was 'clerk', and his cause of death "injuries of the spine-abscess- 4 years". Parental details were given as "Father: John Gordon Lennox, merchant. Mother: Jane Rymer". He had been in the Colonies for 13 years, including one year in New Zealand and 12 in Victoria. This puts his year of arrival in Victoria as c. 1860, the same time as his mother and sister.
William's death notice appeared in the Argus newspaper on Wednesday, May 8, 1872:
"DEATHS: LENNOX- On the 7th inst., at Sandridge, William Rymer Lennox, late of Northcote, aged 27 years."
His funeral announcement appeared in the Argus the following day:
"The friends of the late Mr. William R. Lennox, late of Northcote, are informed that his remains will be interred in the Melbourne General Cemetery. The funeral will move from No. 83 Collins Street East on Friday, the 10th inst, at 12 o'clock punctually. Alfred Augustus Sleight,Undertaker, No. 83 Collins Street east, and High Street, St. Kilda."
His widow Alice remarried two years later. In 1874 she wed Lucius Warren Bowden, son of Alfred and Grace Elizabeth Bowden, who had arrived in the Colony of Victoria c. 1859.
"MARRIAGE: BOWDEN-WEBB: On the 3rd inst. at Christ Church, South Yarra, by the Rev. W. N. Guiness, Lucius Warren Bowden, second son of Dr. Alfred Bowden, to Alice Ann Lidmore, fourth daughter of J.H. Webb, Esquire." - Argus, February 5, 1874.
A reference has been found in the Victorian prisoners index c.1850-1900 (males) to Lucius Warren Bowden, but there are no details pertaining to his crime. The only information given from the Victorian Society of Genealogists database is as follows:
"Born: 1845
Birth Place: DEVONSHIRE.
Place: Victoria
Comment: PER LANSDOWNS TO VIC 1859, WIFE ALICE WEBBER ."
The Argus newspaper reported the crime of Lucius Bowden in October of 1877. While working as a clerk for the Victorian Mutual Building and Investment Society, Lucius had tried to forge a cheque for four hundred pounds. He was tried and found guilty, and sentenced to three years' hard labour.
Lucius and Alice had two children whilst living at Northcote....daughters Alice Grace Deacon Bowden ( b 1875) and Florence Ethel Bowden (b 1877).They moved to Hobart, Tasmania, and had another six children- Beatrice Fanny b 1881, Port Sorrell; Alfred James b 1883, Hobart; George Frederick b 1884, Hobart; Millicent Baskerville b 1887, Hobart; Henry Neville b 1890, Hobart, and Cyril Flemming b 1893, Hobart. The Australian electoral roles of 1914 and 1919 have Lucius and Alice Bowden living in Hobart North, and Alice Ann is still there in 1928.
Jane Rymer Lennox, the mother of Mary Jane and William Rymer, died in 1869:
"DEATH: LENNOX- On the 30th ult., at her residence, Urquhart Street, Northcote, Jane, wife of John Lennox, aged 45 years." -Argus, Monday, February 1, 1869.
"FUNERAL: LENNOX- Friends are respectfully invited to attend the funeral of the late Mrs John Lennox, to move from her late residence, Urquhart Street, Northcote, this day(Monday) the first of February, to the place of interrment in the Melbourne Cemetery, John Sleight, Undertaker, 83 Collins Street east."- Argus, February 1, 1869.
It seemed to me that if Jane's husband, John Lennox, had predeceased her, then she would have been referred to as "widow of John Lennox", not "wife", and there would have been mention that he was deceased.
I located a possibility for John Lennox, the husband of Jane Rymer and father of Mary Jane and William Lennox:
"DEATH: LENNOX- On the 12th inst., John Lennox, of Sunderland, Durham, England." - Argus, March 14, 1870.
"DEATH: LENNOX- On the 11th inst., at Melbourne, John Lennox, late of Sunderland, County Durham, aged 69 years." - Argus, March 29, 1870.
"INQUEST: An inquest was held on the body of John Lennox, aged 65 years, by city coroner Dr. Youl. Deceased was in the public service and had been in tolerable health, although he had had a fit about 12 months ago. Deceased had a fit while on the wharf on Friday, the 11th inst., and was taken to the hospital, where he died the same day, never recovering from the fit.
A post mortem examination showed the cause of death to have been sanguineous apoplexy, and a verdict was returned accordingly."- Argus, Wednesday, March 16, 1870.
Both Jane Rymer Lennox and her children were born in Sunderland, Durham, so this John Lennox seemed a distinct possibility. Finding a probate record for a John Lennox who died on March 11, 1870, proved beyond doubt that he was the husband of Jane Rymer. Probate was granted to his only son, William Lennox, book keeper, who along with his sister, Mary Jane Lennox, was the only person eligible to inherit any of his estate.
Now...back to Fergus and Mary Jane after a little diversion on Mary Jane's family....the research on the Lennox family has at least allowed me to solve the mystery of the second of the two witnesses on Fergus's marriage certificate. One was Bertha Bishop, the youngest sister of Fergus, and the other Alice Ann Bowden, previously unknown. We can now state that she was Mary Jane's sister-in-law, the recently remarried widow of Mary Jane's brother, William Rymer Lennox.
The newly married Hughans moved to 24 King William Street, Fitzroy, where their first child, Beryl Mary Hughan , was born on June 24, 1875. Her father registered the birth, again understating his age by saying that he was 43, and giving his profession as 'civil servant'.
Their second child, a son with the unusual name of 'Esca Oakleigh Hughan' was born the following year, but died of bronchitis a year later on September 11, 1878. The family was at this time living in Hoddle Street, Richmond. They were still at Richmond in 1879 when son Harold Rymer Hughan was born, but by the time their last child was born in 1882, Fergus and his family were living at Belmont Cottage, Roden Street, West Melbourne.
Fergus McIvor Hughan died on February 23, 1887, in his home at Chapman Street, Hotham. His employment at the time of his death was 'clerk', and although his age was given as 53 he was in fact almost 58 years old. The cause of his death was "pneumonia and diarrhoea" of 21 days duration, and he was buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery the following day. His time in Victoria was given as thirty years, which is incorrect as that would place his year of arrival as c. 1857, and we know that he was already in the colony as early as 1850.
Fergus's children at the time of his death were aged 11 ( Beryl Mary), 7 (Harold Rymer) and 4 (Hannah Jane). Mary Jane, his wife, did remarry, but not for ten years...on December 31, 1897, she married widower Thomas George Griffiths at Korumburra. Thomas was a Welshman who had had a family of six children with his first wife, Margaret Allan. She had died in Pateena, Tasmania, in 1896.
Mary Jane had seventeen years with her second husband before her death in 1914. She died on March 28, 1914, in Melbourne Hospital, of senility, debility, myocarditis and pulmonary oedema, and she was buried in the Melbourne Cemetery on March 30.
Almost a year later, on August 24, 1874, Fergus McIvor Hughan ended his bachelor days at the age of 45 years( although he took several years off his age on the marriage certificate and stated he was 42). At Pine Hill, Caulfield, in a ceremony conducted according to the rites of the Baptist Church,Fergus McIvor Hughan, of Colchester England, a civil service clerk, married 28 year old Mary Jane Lennox.
Mary Jane Lennox had been born in Sunderland, Durham, in 1846, the second child and first daughter of John Gordon Lennox and his wife Jane Rymer.Mary Jane also had a brother, William Rymer Lennox ( born 1844) and two sisters, both named Agnes, who both died in early infancy. Mary Jane came out to Australia with her mother, Jane Rymer Lennox, per the ship 'Bucephalus' in 1860. According to the Melbourne newspaper 'The Herald', the Bucephalus arrived in Hobson's Bay on May 3, 1860, after leaving Liverpool on February 1.There were five cabin passengers and 22 in steerage, Jane Lennox and her daughter being amongst the latter.
There is no sign of Mary Jane's father John Lennox- I cannot find the family in any census return in England, nor can I find the marriage of John Lennox and Jane Rymer.
Mary Jane's brother William Rymer Lennox also made his way out to Victoria, because in 1870 he married Alice Ann Webb. They were married at Caulfield on August 6, 1870, aged 25 and 23 respectively. William's occupation was 'bookkeeper', and his usual address 'Northcote'. Mary Jane Lennox, William's only living sibling, signed the marriage certificate as a witness.
The marriage notice appeared in the Argus on Saturday, August 13, 1870:
"LENNOX-WEBB: On the 6th inst., at the residence of the bride's father, Caulfield, by the Reverend James Ballantyne, William Lennox to Alice Ann, fourth daughter of Mr. James Henning Webb."
William and Alice had a son the following year, also named William Rymer Lennox. His birth was announced in the Argus of Tuesday, May 23, 1871:
"BIRTHS: LENNOX- On the 21st inst., at Northcote, Mrs William Lennox of a son."
In 1872 William Senior died at the young age of 27 years. William Senior's death certificate reveals that he died at Bay Street, Sandridge, at 6 a.m on the morning of May 7, 1872. His occupation was 'clerk', and his cause of death "injuries of the spine-abscess- 4 years". Parental details were given as "Father: John Gordon Lennox, merchant. Mother: Jane Rymer". He had been in the Colonies for 13 years, including one year in New Zealand and 12 in Victoria. This puts his year of arrival in Victoria as c. 1860, the same time as his mother and sister.
William's death notice appeared in the Argus newspaper on Wednesday, May 8, 1872:
"DEATHS: LENNOX- On the 7th inst., at Sandridge, William Rymer Lennox, late of Northcote, aged 27 years."
His funeral announcement appeared in the Argus the following day:
"The friends of the late Mr. William R. Lennox, late of Northcote, are informed that his remains will be interred in the Melbourne General Cemetery. The funeral will move from No. 83 Collins Street East on Friday, the 10th inst, at 12 o'clock punctually. Alfred Augustus Sleight,Undertaker, No. 83 Collins Street east, and High Street, St. Kilda."
His widow Alice remarried two years later. In 1874 she wed Lucius Warren Bowden, son of Alfred and Grace Elizabeth Bowden, who had arrived in the Colony of Victoria c. 1859.
"MARRIAGE: BOWDEN-WEBB: On the 3rd inst. at Christ Church, South Yarra, by the Rev. W. N. Guiness, Lucius Warren Bowden, second son of Dr. Alfred Bowden, to Alice Ann Lidmore, fourth daughter of J.H. Webb, Esquire." - Argus, February 5, 1874.
A reference has been found in the Victorian prisoners index c.1850-1900 (males) to Lucius Warren Bowden, but there are no details pertaining to his crime. The only information given from the Victorian Society of Genealogists database is as follows:
"Born: 1845
Birth Place: DEVONSHIRE.
Place: Victoria
Comment: PER LANSDOWNS TO VIC 1859, WIFE ALICE WEBBER ."
The Argus newspaper reported the crime of Lucius Bowden in October of 1877. While working as a clerk for the Victorian Mutual Building and Investment Society, Lucius had tried to forge a cheque for four hundred pounds. He was tried and found guilty, and sentenced to three years' hard labour.
Lucius and Alice had two children whilst living at Northcote....daughters Alice Grace Deacon Bowden ( b 1875) and Florence Ethel Bowden (b 1877).They moved to Hobart, Tasmania, and had another six children- Beatrice Fanny b 1881, Port Sorrell; Alfred James b 1883, Hobart; George Frederick b 1884, Hobart; Millicent Baskerville b 1887, Hobart; Henry Neville b 1890, Hobart, and Cyril Flemming b 1893, Hobart. The Australian electoral roles of 1914 and 1919 have Lucius and Alice Bowden living in Hobart North, and Alice Ann is still there in 1928.
Jane Rymer Lennox, the mother of Mary Jane and William Rymer, died in 1869:
"DEATH: LENNOX- On the 30th ult., at her residence, Urquhart Street, Northcote, Jane, wife of John Lennox, aged 45 years." -Argus, Monday, February 1, 1869.
"FUNERAL: LENNOX- Friends are respectfully invited to attend the funeral of the late Mrs John Lennox, to move from her late residence, Urquhart Street, Northcote, this day(Monday) the first of February, to the place of interrment in the Melbourne Cemetery, John Sleight, Undertaker, 83 Collins Street east."- Argus, February 1, 1869.
It seemed to me that if Jane's husband, John Lennox, had predeceased her, then she would have been referred to as "widow of John Lennox", not "wife", and there would have been mention that he was deceased.
I located a possibility for John Lennox, the husband of Jane Rymer and father of Mary Jane and William Lennox:
"DEATH: LENNOX- On the 12th inst., John Lennox, of Sunderland, Durham, England." - Argus, March 14, 1870.
"DEATH: LENNOX- On the 11th inst., at Melbourne, John Lennox, late of Sunderland, County Durham, aged 69 years." - Argus, March 29, 1870.
"INQUEST: An inquest was held on the body of John Lennox, aged 65 years, by city coroner Dr. Youl. Deceased was in the public service and had been in tolerable health, although he had had a fit about 12 months ago. Deceased had a fit while on the wharf on Friday, the 11th inst., and was taken to the hospital, where he died the same day, never recovering from the fit.
A post mortem examination showed the cause of death to have been sanguineous apoplexy, and a verdict was returned accordingly."- Argus, Wednesday, March 16, 1870.
Both Jane Rymer Lennox and her children were born in Sunderland, Durham, so this John Lennox seemed a distinct possibility. Finding a probate record for a John Lennox who died on March 11, 1870, proved beyond doubt that he was the husband of Jane Rymer. Probate was granted to his only son, William Lennox, book keeper, who along with his sister, Mary Jane Lennox, was the only person eligible to inherit any of his estate.
Now...back to Fergus and Mary Jane after a little diversion on Mary Jane's family....the research on the Lennox family has at least allowed me to solve the mystery of the second of the two witnesses on Fergus's marriage certificate. One was Bertha Bishop, the youngest sister of Fergus, and the other Alice Ann Bowden, previously unknown. We can now state that she was Mary Jane's sister-in-law, the recently remarried widow of Mary Jane's brother, William Rymer Lennox.
The newly married Hughans moved to 24 King William Street, Fitzroy, where their first child, Beryl Mary Hughan , was born on June 24, 1875. Her father registered the birth, again understating his age by saying that he was 43, and giving his profession as 'civil servant'.
Their second child, a son with the unusual name of 'Esca Oakleigh Hughan' was born the following year, but died of bronchitis a year later on September 11, 1878. The family was at this time living in Hoddle Street, Richmond. They were still at Richmond in 1879 when son Harold Rymer Hughan was born, but by the time their last child was born in 1882, Fergus and his family were living at Belmont Cottage, Roden Street, West Melbourne.
Fergus McIvor Hughan died on February 23, 1887, in his home at Chapman Street, Hotham. His employment at the time of his death was 'clerk', and although his age was given as 53 he was in fact almost 58 years old. The cause of his death was "pneumonia and diarrhoea" of 21 days duration, and he was buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery the following day. His time in Victoria was given as thirty years, which is incorrect as that would place his year of arrival as c. 1857, and we know that he was already in the colony as early as 1850.
Fergus's children at the time of his death were aged 11 ( Beryl Mary), 7 (Harold Rymer) and 4 (Hannah Jane). Mary Jane, his wife, did remarry, but not for ten years...on December 31, 1897, she married widower Thomas George Griffiths at Korumburra. Thomas was a Welshman who had had a family of six children with his first wife, Margaret Allan. She had died in Pateena, Tasmania, in 1896.
Mary Jane had seventeen years with her second husband before her death in 1914. She died on March 28, 1914, in Melbourne Hospital, of senility, debility, myocarditis and pulmonary oedema, and she was buried in the Melbourne Cemetery on March 30.
Fergus's story in 'The Aboriginals of Victoria'
From: "The Aboriginals of Victoria" by Robert Brough-Smyth Vol 1, published 1878, John Ferres, Government Printer, Melbourne.
Fergus McIvor Hughan
Fergus McIvor Hughan was born on Friday, March 13, 1829, in Colchester, Essex. He was the sixth child and third son born to Robert Alexander Hughan and his wife Hannah Oakley, and his splendid name came from the Sir Walter Scott novel ‘Waverley’ in which the character Fergus McIvor is a hero in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.
Fergus spent his early years in Colchester, and was not yet ten years old when his family moved to London for work. His father was a failed tea merchant, and the family had to rely on income provided by sewing and needlework carried out by Hannah Hughan and those daughters old enough to help her.
As a young man, Fergus published a small volume of poetry which is very autobiographical, and in a poem dedicated to his sister Bertha he describes their childhood:
As a young man, Fergus published a small volume of poetry which is very autobiographical, and in a poem dedicated to his sister Bertha he describes their childhood:
To My Sister Bertha
Do you ever think, dear Bertha,
When the white-lock'd winter came,
How we gazed upon the pictures
He painted on the payne;
Or, how we cluster'd round the hearth
When the breath of eve was cold,
And listen'd to the simple tale,
Our cherished mother told.
Or, how we closed the shutters,
And let the curtains fall,
To watch her snowy fingers sketch
The rabbit on the wall;
Or build frail palaces of cards,
Reared but to tumble down;
So, like the friendship of the world,
First smiles, and then a frown.
And how we often fortune tried,
With key and molten lead;
So happy, that we heeded not,
How swift the evening fled,
Till warned that we must place aside,
Our play things and our cares,
And bow, before our mother's knee,
To offer up our prayers.
And then, the holy kiss she gave,
The soft, fond words "good night',
Filled up the chalice of our hearts
With exquisite delight;
And when in dreamland we had roved,
Like spirits for a while,
The morning would bring back again
Her saint-like happy smile.
Or, does remembrance, Bertha,
Ever waft across thine ear,
The songs the robin sweetly sung,
To glad the dying year?
When Flora ope'd her lattice,
To listen to the sound,
And dropt from out her bosom,
Pure snow-drops on the ground.
Or, how when Spring, with gladden'd step,
Came skipping merrily, Along the dell, the blossoms smiled
Upon the lilac tree;
And when the sky was angry,
And sullenly looked down,
The sunbeams lovingly would come,
To kiss away the frown.
Tis many, many years ago,
And some have pass'd away;
Home's sacred circle broken,
And ringlets dash'd with grey;
But our mother still is with us-
Be this our earnest pride,
To nourish, love and bear her up,
On life's tempestuous tide.
I have wander'd far, dear Bertha,
And many changes seen,
But ne'er forget our childish sports
Upon the village green;
And ever o'er my rambling way,
And ever in my dreams,
The influence of thy loving words
In bright refulgence gleams.
And, oh! I trust that you and I,
May hopefully pursue,
The journey of this life, and glean
Thoughts beautiful and new!
May virtue be your guiding star,
Then angel songs will swell,
And seraphs echo back the theme,
She "doeth all things well".
The entire volume of Fergus Hughan's poetry can be found on googlebooks, and within its pages can be found many references to his family.
In October of 1839, when Fergus was 10 ½ years old, his parents applied for him to be accepted into the Royal Caledonian Asylum School in London. The Highland Society of London had launched an appeal in 1808 to raise money for an Asylum to house and educate the many young Scots who were roaming the streets of London, having been orphaned by the Napoleonic wars. It took seven years to raise sufficient funds and to prepare the necessary Act of Parliament needed to create the Asylum.
The first Asylum was opened in December 1819 in Hatton Garden "for supporting and educating the children of soldiers, sailors, marines, &c. natives of Scotland, or born of indigent Scottish parents resident in London", and was replaced in 1826 by a newly built Asylum in Copenhagen Fields, Islington. It remained there for 77 years and lent its name to the "Caledonian Road". The children were well known in London for their distinctive school uniform, which consisted of Highland dress in the Royal Stewart tartan.
The first Asylum was opened in December 1819 in Hatton Garden "for supporting and educating the children of soldiers, sailors, marines, &c. natives of Scotland, or born of indigent Scottish parents resident in London", and was replaced in 1826 by a newly built Asylum in Copenhagen Fields, Islington. It remained there for 77 years and lent its name to the "Caledonian Road". The children were well known in London for their distinctive school uniform, which consisted of Highland dress in the Royal Stewart tartan.
Children were admitted from the ages of seven till ten years, and were maintained as live-in students until they were 14. At this age they were placed into apprenticeships, and exchanged their distinctive Highland dress uniforms for a plain suit of clothes. It was a boys-only school until the mid-1840s, after which time girls were also admitted.
Fergus’s application form gives his birth year as 1830, whereas it is given as 1829 on the form of his brother Allan. It may have been altered to make Fergus younger by a year and thus allow him to scrape in under the ten year age limit.
Fergus appears in the 1841 census as a pupil living at the Royal Caledonian School in Islington, aged 11.
Fergus was fifteen years old when his father died in 1844, and so would have been placed out in his apprenticeship. I have no way of knowing what this was or who he worked for, but it may have been to do with book keeping or similar as he worked as a clerk upon his arrival in Victoria.
Fergus’s application form gives his birth year as 1830, whereas it is given as 1829 on the form of his brother Allan. It may have been altered to make Fergus younger by a year and thus allow him to scrape in under the ten year age limit.
Fergus appears in the 1841 census as a pupil living at the Royal Caledonian School in Islington, aged 11.
Fergus was fifteen years old when his father died in 1844, and so would have been placed out in his apprenticeship. I have no way of knowing what this was or who he worked for, but it may have been to do with book keeping or similar as he worked as a clerk upon his arrival in Victoria.
The earliest trace I can find of Fergus Hughan in Australia is in the Sydney Morning Herald of October 2, 1850, which states: "Petty Sessions-Port Phillip. His Excellency, the Governor, has appointed Mr. Fergus McIvor Hughan to be Clerk of Petty Sessions at Mount Macedon in the District of Port Phillip." On November 9, 1850, Fergus had published in the Argus newspaper a notice regarding licenses for Hawkers and Pedlers, and signed it "Fergus McIvor Hughan, Clerk of Petty Sessions, Court House."
In May of 1851, Fergus had a poem published in the Argus, titled "To My Native Country ", and his address was still given as 'Mount Macedon.
In 1851 mention is made of him in a Victorian Government Gazette as being the Mount Macedon Post Office Post Master.
In May of 1851, Fergus had a poem published in the Argus, titled "To My Native Country ", and his address was still given as 'Mount Macedon.
In 1851 mention is made of him in a Victorian Government Gazette as being the Mount Macedon Post Office Post Master.
He was about 20 or 21 years of age when his mother and sisters immigrated to Victoria in 1850.Fergus and probably his youngest brother, 13 year old Allan, must have arrived in Victoria sometime during 1850.
It seems as though Fergus's appointment in Mount Macedon lasted only until late 1851...on December 23, 1851, a poem by Fergus was published in the Argus, and his address was given as " 'Youngera', Lower Murray." This was the station belonging to his sister, Jessie Hughan McCallum, and her husband Alexander. From here Fergus moved down to Geelong, and became a resident of the town for some years.
In 1853 Fergus was involved with the celebrations for the commencement of Victoria's first provincial railway, from Geelong to Melbourne..."As Governor La Trobe left the Council Chambers he was introduced to F.M Hughan, who read to him and presented his original poetic memento of the occasion. It was printed on satin."
It seems as though Fergus's appointment in Mount Macedon lasted only until late 1851...on December 23, 1851, a poem by Fergus was published in the Argus, and his address was given as " 'Youngera', Lower Murray." This was the station belonging to his sister, Jessie Hughan McCallum, and her husband Alexander. From here Fergus moved down to Geelong, and became a resident of the town for some years.
In 1853 Fergus was involved with the celebrations for the commencement of Victoria's first provincial railway, from Geelong to Melbourne..."As Governor La Trobe left the Council Chambers he was introduced to F.M Hughan, who read to him and presented his original poetic memento of the occasion. It was printed on satin."
In August of 1854, Fergus was again trotted out as Geelong's resident Bard on the occasion of Sir Charles Hotham's first visit to Geelong. The latter's response to Fergus's lengthy tome, which was read aloud to him by Fergus, was as follows:
" The beautiful poetry with which you have clothed the language of your warm-hearted address demands a reply in language of a kindred nature. To this, unfortunately, I am a stranger. I am a man of arms, not versed in poetic flights of fancy. I can, however, appreciate the beauty of your composition, and am glad to thank you for the kind and warm sentiments contained in the language in which you have clothed your address."
I am not one to judge mid-19th Century poetry, but suffice to say that I am not a huge fan. Fergus Hughan's Ode to Sir Charles Hotham ended thus:
" May Justice ever guide thine arm of power,
To scatter blessings like a summer shower
Alike on all, that all may bloom more fair,
Like Joy upstarting from the grave of Care.
Thus nobly act, that when thy spirit flies,
Blessings may bear it gently thro' the skies.
Children will lisp thy name, men fondly tell
Thine arduous mission was performed well.
The page of history shall embalm thy name,
In blazing letters as the child of fame,
Sorrow will oft her harpstrings mournful sweep,
And memory stand beside thy tomb to weep."
The Port Phillip Herald of November 13, 1854 reported on his lecture on poetry which was delivered to the Geelong Literary and Scientific Society..." A lecture on poetry was delivered on Monday evening to the members of the Geelong Literary & Scientific Society by Mr. F.M Hughan. The attendance was numerous as usual."
Upon arrival in their new country, Hannah Hughan with her daughters Bertha and Laura and Laura’s husband Arthur Paton had settled in Geelong, which is probably the reason why Fergus also took up residence in the district. He may have lived with his sister and mother, and he was certainly fond of his nieces and nephews as testified by the poems dedicated to them in his book.
In 1855 a letter by Fergus Hughan was published in the Geelong Advertiser on November 27, and his address was given as 'Somerville'. On July 30 previous, he had registered the death of Arthur Paton, his brother-in-law, and recorded his own details as "office clerk, New Town". Arthur and his wife Laura Hughan were living at 'Sommerville Cottage, New Town" at the time of his death, so if Fergus wasn't living at 'Sommerville Cottage' with his sister's family at the time of Arthur's death, he certainly was within several months.
In 1856 Fergus published his book of poems entitled "The Emigrant". He was referred to in print several times as "Geelong's own poet laureate". A letter written by Fergus on March 25, 1856, gave his address simply as 'Geelong', and was an application for the post of "Collectorship of the electoral list for the electoral district of Geelong". Accompanying his own letter was a reference letter from A. Thomson, the Mayor of Geelong, supporting the suitability of Fergus for the task.
In the infamous 1862 Joseph Bishop letter ( in which the uncle of Fergus's future brother-in-law, Henry Bishop, was scathing in his comments about the Hughan family), Fergus received the full blast of Joseph's wrath...
" Fergus YOU know, no punishment or privation or pain this fellow may undergo will give him half his desserts, because I look upon him as the cause of all the trouble and misery this family have for years suffered, struggled with. This wretch had an appointment as clerk on the bench at Kyneton which from his degraded drunken, smoking habit he lost- and from that circumstance their troubles commenced. And what has he done or been since? Look at him now and say."
This period at Kyneton may have been anywhere between 1857-1861. In January of 1857 he was still in Geelong, having signed a petition there in an attempt to proclaim a portion of Geelong 'Barwon South Municipality'.
In 1861 F.M Hughan had published in the Melbourne Herald a poem which he penned in memory of Bourke and Wills called 'The Lost Explorers'. This poem was later selected by Wills' father for inclusion in a narrative he published about his son.
Over the next few years Fergus Hughan had many poems published in newspapers, including one which was commissioned for the first edition of the Riverine Herald on July 1, 1863. In 1866, the Geelong Advertiser published 'May and I', and it was signed "F.M Hughan, Inverleigh, January 27, 1866."
On February 22, 1872, Fergus registered the death of his brother-in-law Henry Edmiston, clerk, at Ballarat, and stated on the certificate that he was a journalist from Melbourne. The following year, in November of 1873, Fergus was given an appointment as clerk with the Victorian Public Service.
In between different jobs and postings, Fergus also managed to find the time during the 1850s and the first part of the 1860s to assist his sister Jessie Hughan McCallum on her station, 'Youngera' on the Murray River near Swan Hill. Both he and his younger brother Allan Hughan worked closely with the Aboriginals who lived on 'Youngera', and Fergus was quoted with an 'interesting anecdote" in R. Brough-Smyth's 1878 publication "The Aboriginals of Victoria- Volume 1".
Fergus was definitely at 'Youngera' in 1865, the year of his sister Jessie's death. A notice appeared in the Victorian Police Gazette as follows: " Swan Hill- impounded at Swan Hill Pound, 25 August, 1865, by F.M. Hughan Esq for Alexander McCullum (sic) Esq, Youngera. Trespass, 1s. each. Chestnut filly, bay mare, dark bay colt, dark bay mare. John benbow, Poundkeeper'.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Plate decorated by Vincent Brun, husband of Bertha Blanche Edmiston.
This beautiful plate was painted by Vincent Brun for his wife's cousin, Olive Bishop, during an afternoon visit. I am posting it for Vincent's great-grand-daughter, Arabella, who has just made contact with me through this site as a fellow Hughan descendant who is putting together her family story. I am absolutely thrilled to hear from her, and I encourage other long-lost relatives to do the same...this family information is here to share for us all.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Marriage certificate of Margaret McCallum and Horatio St. John Clarke
Above: The marriage certificate of Jessie Hughan's elder daughter, Margaret McCallum, to much-older surgeon, Horatio St.John Clarke.
Sketch of the Mallee properties in 1865
Above is a sketch of the major stations and properties of the Mallee region of Victoria in 1865. Note the location of the McCallum's station, 'Youngera' on the banks of the Murray River.
Death certificate of Jessie Hannah Hughan McCallum
Above: the death certificate of Jessie Hannah Hughan McCallum
My Hughans in the 1841 U.K census
Time has not permitted me to keep on schedule with the putting together of my Hughan story for blogging purposes, so in between battling with Spring weeds in my rose beds, I am sharing several random pieces of Hughan information prior to getting stuck in to finishing the story of Fergus McIvor Hughan, and starting on the saga of the most well-known of my Hughan clan, photographer Allan Ramsay Cunningham Hughan.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The two Alexander McCallums
ALEXANDER McCALLUM....ONE IDENTITY, TWO DIFFERENT MEN.
In the late 1830’s-early 1840s, two young men from Argyll in Scotland bearing the name of Alexander McCallum (or MacCallum- both variations were commonly used, as well as the occasional use of M’Callum) arrived in the young colony of Victoria. Both soon became the owners of large sheep grazing properties, and over the next 150 years history became so blurred with regard to their life stories that time has merged the two men into one.
The wife and children of the older Alexander McCallum, who belong to my Hughan family tree, have been attributed to the younger Alexander, while this Alexander’s substantial land holdings have been noted as belonging to the older Alexander. Fortunately, certificates obtained from the departments of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Victoria and England have verified that Alexander McCallum was definitely two different men, as the following evidence will prove.
Firstly, the common story regarding the mythical Alexander McCallum is typified as follows :
· Name: Alexander McCALLUM
· Birth: 24 FEB 1814 in Oban, Argyllshire, Scot.
· Note: Bapt. 15 April 1814
· Arrived: 1838 Port Phillip District 1
· Death: 5 SEP 1862 in Lake Connewarre, Vic., Aust.
· Region: 'Dunach Forest' aka 'Mount Greenock' near Maryborough
Took out licence for Mount Greenock Station 1841. Applied for licences to depasture cattle at Tragowell and Mount Hope, between Loddon River and Kow Swamp. Name of Mount Greenock Station changed to Dunach Forest Run in 1848 when property was surveyed, and AM took a 14 year lease - 63,360 acres, capacity 16,000 sheep - Andrew Aldcorn and James Forsyth also had a financial interest. Tragowell - 120,820 acres, capacity 1,500 cattle and 10,000 sheep. Mount Hope and Mount Pyramid - 97,280 acres, capacity 12,000 sheep - sold to William Campbell 1848.August 1848 gold found in creek at Daisy Hill, on neighbouring Glenmona Run.
· Father: Malcolm McCALLUM Mother: Anne MACINTYRE
Marriage 1 Jessie Hannah HUGHAN b: ABT 1835 in England
Married: 14 JUL 1851 in Melbourne, Vic.
Children
Margaret McCALLUM b: 1854 in Wimmera, Vic.
Gilbert McCALLUM b: 1855 in Wimmera, Vic.
Ivy McCALLUM b: 1858 in Vic.
Source: Ancestry family trees: World Tree Project. Contributor: skills@impulse.net.au
This is taken word for word from a researcher descended from the same McCallum family who held the extensive Dunoch Forest and Mount Greenock Station runs, and is representative of the commonly held belief that this Alexander married Jessie Hannah Hughan.
The two Alexander McCallums were both born in Argyllshire almost ten years apart - one in Kilmore and Kilbride parish and the other in Inisheil parish.
My Alexander was born first- he was baptised on September 4, 1805 in Inisheil parish, the son of Gilbert McCallum and Margaret Campbell. Other siblings were Mary (b 1790); Anne (b 1793); Catherine (b 1794); Alexandrina (b 1797); Jean (b 1799); Kenneth (b 1801); and Margaret (b 1802).
Alexander Number two was born on February 17, 1814, and baptised on February 24, 1814, in the parish of Kilmore & Kilbride, Argyllshire. His parents were Malcolm McCallum and Ann McIntyre, and other siblings were: Peter (b 1807); Donald (b 1809); Lachlan (b 1811); Christina (b 1816); Charles (b 1818) and Malcolm and John (b 1822). There is also an entry in the fore- mentioned family tree for a Dugald McCallum (b c. 1800 d 1860, Geelong), but I have not located him in old parish registers as yet.
Alexander the Younger always stated that he was from Oban, Argyllshire. Oban is only 3 miles NNW of the parish of Kilmore and Kilbride. Dunach is also very nearby- hence the naming of his Victorian property ‘Dunach Forest’. Alexander the Elder’s birthplace, however, is about 22-23 miles ENE of the parish of Kilmore & Kilbride.
Alexander the Elder arrived in Sydney on the ship ‘Formosa’ on May 28, 1839. With him was his elder brother Kenneth McCallum. Their details as given on their Entitlement certificates (1839- Cornwall to Hashemy reel 1301) are reproduced as follows:
Unmarried male Immigrant: Alexander McCallum
Arrived by ship: Formosa
Brought out by: A.B Smith & Co
A native of Argyleshire- son of Gilbert McCallum(farmer) and Margaret Campbell of the same place.
Calling: Farmer
Person certifying registration of baptism: Declared to be under 30, before R. campbell, J.P, Argyllshire
Age: 28 years in November, 1839
Character, and person certifying same: Very good. R. Campbell, J.P., Argyllshire
State of bodily health, strength and probable usefulness: Good
Religion: Presbyterian
Remarks: reads and writes. No complaints
Unmarried Male Immigrant: Kenneth McCallum
Arrived by ship: Formosa
Brought out by: A.B Smith and Co.
A native of Argyllshire- son of Gilbert McCallum( farmer) and Margaret Campbell of the same place.
Calling: Manager of cattle and farm in general
Age: 30 in October, 1839
Person certifying registration of baptism: Stated to be about 30, before J. Campbell, J.P., of Argyllshire
Character, and person certifying same: Very good. M. Fraser, Minister, Argyllshire, and others of same place.
State of bodily health, strength and probable usefulness: Good
Religion: Presbyterian
Remarks: reads and writes. No complaints.
The recent (June 2008) online release by Ancestry.com of early assisted immigration records to NSW has revealed that on the same ship as Alexander and Kenneth was another McCallum. Gilbert McCallum, aged 25 and born c. 1814, also arrived on the ‘Formosa’. Carrying the same name as our McCallums’ father, one would think that this Gilbert would be related, but consulting the entitlement certificate for Gilbert reveals that whilst his father was Gilbert McCallum, his mother was named 'Ellen' rather than 'Margaret.
It was important when applying for inclusion on the bounty ships that unmarried men were under 30 years old- hence the swearing by a Justice of the Peace that the immigrant was under this age. In the case of Alexander and Kenneth McCallum, however, large liberties were taken with the actual truth. At the time of their arrival in Sydney, Kenneth would have been about 37 and Alexander about 33.
The family story tells that Kenneth met a tragic end at the hands of Aboriginals...no date or place are forthcoming, but early NSW church records show the death of a Kenneth McCallum, aged 46, in 1850. No other information is given, but this is most likely the right Kenneth as the age is correct to within a few years and there is no record of another Kenneth McCallum in Australia in this time period. (Early church records for NSW also encompass Victoria as the latter did not become a colony in its own right until 1851)
The Port Phillip Gazette reported Alexander and Kenneth McCallum arriving in Melbourne from Sydney on December 12, 1839. The book “The Story of the Mallee” by Alfred S. Kenyon states that Alexander McCallum occupied ‘Yangorah Station’ (later changed to ‘Youngera’) in September 1846, and obtained a license which he held until 1870.
The elder Alexander McCallum was about 47 years old when he married 17 ½ year old Jessie Hannah Hughan in 1851. Jessie had arrived in Victoria from England on board the ship ‘Culloden’ in 1850. She was part of the first consignment of needlewomen being sent to Victoria from England under the Female Emigrants Scheme, and her mother Hannah Hughan was the matron in charge of the young women. Also on board were Jessie’s sisters Marion and Bertha Hughan.
It is understandable how the younger Alexander McCallum was mistakenly thought to be Jessie’s husband. On the wedding certificate there is no mention of age, birthplace or parents- nothing in fact to distinguish the groom from another who shared his name.
The birth certificates of the elder two children born to Alexander and Jessie Hughan give information about their father:
Margaret McCallum’s birth certificate from September 19, 1852: Registered March 1854 by her father in Melbourne. He recorded his age as 48 (therefore born c.1804), birthplace as Scotland and occupation as ‘sheep farmer’.
Gilbert McCallum’s birth certificate from June 29, 1854, was also registered in Melbourne by his father Alexander McCallum. He stated that a Grazier from Argyllshire, and was 48 years old (a slight reduction of his real age by a couple of years)
Finally, Alexander McCallum’s death certificate from May 30, 1871, states that he was 66 years old, and formerly a proprietor of “Sheep walks” in Australia. He died in Leavesden Asylum in Watford, Essex, England.
Alexander McCallum the younger never married at all. He died on September 5, 1862, at Connewarra, Victoria. Details given on his death certificate, which was registered by his brother Malcolm McCallum, merchant of Lake Connewarra, are as follows:
Alexander McCallum, gentleman, aged 47 years, died of phthisis pulmonalis of 6 weeks duration. Parents Malcolm and Anne McCallum. Father’s occupation: customs officer. Buried in the Kensington Cemetery on September 9,1862. Born in Oban, Scotland; 23 years in Victoria. Single.”
Details of the administration of his estate: 4/346 Alexander MacCallum. Upper Loddon, settler. Died 5/9/1862. Administration granted May 14, 1863, to J. Martyr, attorney under power (see references from the Victorian Government Gazette in the following pages).
These latter announcements mentioned that Alexander McCallum was late of Dunoch Forest, Upper Lodden, Colony of Victoria, and that distribution of his estate was being conducted by Joseph Martyr, a solicitor from Geelong, who was acting for Donald McCallum of Athol Place, Perth, Scotland. Donald was an elder brother of Alexander, and he himself died only a few years later on 23 February, 1868, aged 58 years.
Alexander McCallum, husband of Jessie, left a will which he had written on 16 February, 1856. In his will he states:
“and I give and bequeath all that my Station called ‘Youngara” in the Wimmera District in the said Colony and also all other Stations in the said colony or in the Colony of NSW or elsewhere belonging to me and also all and every my leasehold estates and all my live and dead stock, goods, chattels, monies and securities for money, debts and personal estate and effects whatsoever..”
He basically leaves everything to his wife and children (Margaret and Gilbert, who were not named specifically...Ivy was not yet born), with bequests to his sisters Catherine and Margaret McCallum.
I don’t know what land holdings beside ‘Youngera Station” were held by Alexander McCallum as I have not consulted Victorian land records. I only know for certain that Alexander McCallum the Elder owned ‘Youngera Station’- his other land holdings, if any, have not been investigated as yet.
Without a doubt that there were two Alexander McCallums who were land owners in Victoria during the approximate period 1840s-1860s....Alexander McCallum( 1814-1862, son of Malcolm McCallum & Annie McIntyre) of Dunoch Forest, French Island, Tragowell and other properties, AND Alexander McCallum (1805-1871; son of Gilbert McCallum & Margaret Campbell) of ‘Youngera Station’.
In the late 1830’s-early 1840s, two young men from Argyll in Scotland bearing the name of Alexander McCallum (or MacCallum- both variations were commonly used, as well as the occasional use of M’Callum) arrived in the young colony of Victoria. Both soon became the owners of large sheep grazing properties, and over the next 150 years history became so blurred with regard to their life stories that time has merged the two men into one.
The wife and children of the older Alexander McCallum, who belong to my Hughan family tree, have been attributed to the younger Alexander, while this Alexander’s substantial land holdings have been noted as belonging to the older Alexander. Fortunately, certificates obtained from the departments of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Victoria and England have verified that Alexander McCallum was definitely two different men, as the following evidence will prove.
Firstly, the common story regarding the mythical Alexander McCallum is typified as follows :
· Name: Alexander McCALLUM
· Birth: 24 FEB 1814 in Oban, Argyllshire, Scot.
· Note: Bapt. 15 April 1814
· Arrived: 1838 Port Phillip District 1
· Death: 5 SEP 1862 in Lake Connewarre, Vic., Aust.
· Region: 'Dunach Forest' aka 'Mount Greenock' near Maryborough
Took out licence for Mount Greenock Station 1841. Applied for licences to depasture cattle at Tragowell and Mount Hope, between Loddon River and Kow Swamp. Name of Mount Greenock Station changed to Dunach Forest Run in 1848 when property was surveyed, and AM took a 14 year lease - 63,360 acres, capacity 16,000 sheep - Andrew Aldcorn and James Forsyth also had a financial interest. Tragowell - 120,820 acres, capacity 1,500 cattle and 10,000 sheep. Mount Hope and Mount Pyramid - 97,280 acres, capacity 12,000 sheep - sold to William Campbell 1848.August 1848 gold found in creek at Daisy Hill, on neighbouring Glenmona Run.
· Father: Malcolm McCALLUM Mother: Anne MACINTYRE
Marriage 1 Jessie Hannah HUGHAN b: ABT 1835 in England
Married: 14 JUL 1851 in Melbourne, Vic.
Children
Margaret McCALLUM b: 1854 in Wimmera, Vic.
Gilbert McCALLUM b: 1855 in Wimmera, Vic.
Ivy McCALLUM b: 1858 in Vic.
Source: Ancestry family trees: World Tree Project. Contributor: skills@impulse.net.au
This is taken word for word from a researcher descended from the same McCallum family who held the extensive Dunoch Forest and Mount Greenock Station runs, and is representative of the commonly held belief that this Alexander married Jessie Hannah Hughan.
The two Alexander McCallums were both born in Argyllshire almost ten years apart - one in Kilmore and Kilbride parish and the other in Inisheil parish.
My Alexander was born first- he was baptised on September 4, 1805 in Inisheil parish, the son of Gilbert McCallum and Margaret Campbell. Other siblings were Mary (b 1790); Anne (b 1793); Catherine (b 1794); Alexandrina (b 1797); Jean (b 1799); Kenneth (b 1801); and Margaret (b 1802).
Alexander Number two was born on February 17, 1814, and baptised on February 24, 1814, in the parish of Kilmore & Kilbride, Argyllshire. His parents were Malcolm McCallum and Ann McIntyre, and other siblings were: Peter (b 1807); Donald (b 1809); Lachlan (b 1811); Christina (b 1816); Charles (b 1818) and Malcolm and John (b 1822). There is also an entry in the fore- mentioned family tree for a Dugald McCallum (b c. 1800 d 1860, Geelong), but I have not located him in old parish registers as yet.
Alexander the Younger always stated that he was from Oban, Argyllshire. Oban is only 3 miles NNW of the parish of Kilmore and Kilbride. Dunach is also very nearby- hence the naming of his Victorian property ‘Dunach Forest’. Alexander the Elder’s birthplace, however, is about 22-23 miles ENE of the parish of Kilmore & Kilbride.
Alexander the Elder arrived in Sydney on the ship ‘Formosa’ on May 28, 1839. With him was his elder brother Kenneth McCallum. Their details as given on their Entitlement certificates (1839- Cornwall to Hashemy reel 1301) are reproduced as follows:
Unmarried male Immigrant: Alexander McCallum
Arrived by ship: Formosa
Brought out by: A.B Smith & Co
A native of Argyleshire- son of Gilbert McCallum(farmer) and Margaret Campbell of the same place.
Calling: Farmer
Person certifying registration of baptism: Declared to be under 30, before R. campbell, J.P, Argyllshire
Age: 28 years in November, 1839
Character, and person certifying same: Very good. R. Campbell, J.P., Argyllshire
State of bodily health, strength and probable usefulness: Good
Religion: Presbyterian
Remarks: reads and writes. No complaints
Unmarried Male Immigrant: Kenneth McCallum
Arrived by ship: Formosa
Brought out by: A.B Smith and Co.
A native of Argyllshire- son of Gilbert McCallum( farmer) and Margaret Campbell of the same place.
Calling: Manager of cattle and farm in general
Age: 30 in October, 1839
Person certifying registration of baptism: Stated to be about 30, before J. Campbell, J.P., of Argyllshire
Character, and person certifying same: Very good. M. Fraser, Minister, Argyllshire, and others of same place.
State of bodily health, strength and probable usefulness: Good
Religion: Presbyterian
Remarks: reads and writes. No complaints.
The recent (June 2008) online release by Ancestry.com of early assisted immigration records to NSW has revealed that on the same ship as Alexander and Kenneth was another McCallum. Gilbert McCallum, aged 25 and born c. 1814, also arrived on the ‘Formosa’. Carrying the same name as our McCallums’ father, one would think that this Gilbert would be related, but consulting the entitlement certificate for Gilbert reveals that whilst his father was Gilbert McCallum, his mother was named 'Ellen' rather than 'Margaret.
It was important when applying for inclusion on the bounty ships that unmarried men were under 30 years old- hence the swearing by a Justice of the Peace that the immigrant was under this age. In the case of Alexander and Kenneth McCallum, however, large liberties were taken with the actual truth. At the time of their arrival in Sydney, Kenneth would have been about 37 and Alexander about 33.
The family story tells that Kenneth met a tragic end at the hands of Aboriginals...no date or place are forthcoming, but early NSW church records show the death of a Kenneth McCallum, aged 46, in 1850. No other information is given, but this is most likely the right Kenneth as the age is correct to within a few years and there is no record of another Kenneth McCallum in Australia in this time period. (Early church records for NSW also encompass Victoria as the latter did not become a colony in its own right until 1851)
The Port Phillip Gazette reported Alexander and Kenneth McCallum arriving in Melbourne from Sydney on December 12, 1839. The book “The Story of the Mallee” by Alfred S. Kenyon states that Alexander McCallum occupied ‘Yangorah Station’ (later changed to ‘Youngera’) in September 1846, and obtained a license which he held until 1870.
The elder Alexander McCallum was about 47 years old when he married 17 ½ year old Jessie Hannah Hughan in 1851. Jessie had arrived in Victoria from England on board the ship ‘Culloden’ in 1850. She was part of the first consignment of needlewomen being sent to Victoria from England under the Female Emigrants Scheme, and her mother Hannah Hughan was the matron in charge of the young women. Also on board were Jessie’s sisters Marion and Bertha Hughan.
It is understandable how the younger Alexander McCallum was mistakenly thought to be Jessie’s husband. On the wedding certificate there is no mention of age, birthplace or parents- nothing in fact to distinguish the groom from another who shared his name.
The birth certificates of the elder two children born to Alexander and Jessie Hughan give information about their father:
Margaret McCallum’s birth certificate from September 19, 1852: Registered March 1854 by her father in Melbourne. He recorded his age as 48 (therefore born c.1804), birthplace as Scotland and occupation as ‘sheep farmer’.
Gilbert McCallum’s birth certificate from June 29, 1854, was also registered in Melbourne by his father Alexander McCallum. He stated that a Grazier from Argyllshire, and was 48 years old (a slight reduction of his real age by a couple of years)
Finally, Alexander McCallum’s death certificate from May 30, 1871, states that he was 66 years old, and formerly a proprietor of “Sheep walks” in Australia. He died in Leavesden Asylum in Watford, Essex, England.
Alexander McCallum the younger never married at all. He died on September 5, 1862, at Connewarra, Victoria. Details given on his death certificate, which was registered by his brother Malcolm McCallum, merchant of Lake Connewarra, are as follows:
Alexander McCallum, gentleman, aged 47 years, died of phthisis pulmonalis of 6 weeks duration. Parents Malcolm and Anne McCallum. Father’s occupation: customs officer. Buried in the Kensington Cemetery on September 9,1862. Born in Oban, Scotland; 23 years in Victoria. Single.”
Details of the administration of his estate: 4/346 Alexander MacCallum. Upper Loddon, settler. Died 5/9/1862. Administration granted May 14, 1863, to J. Martyr, attorney under power (see references from the Victorian Government Gazette in the following pages).
These latter announcements mentioned that Alexander McCallum was late of Dunoch Forest, Upper Lodden, Colony of Victoria, and that distribution of his estate was being conducted by Joseph Martyr, a solicitor from Geelong, who was acting for Donald McCallum of Athol Place, Perth, Scotland. Donald was an elder brother of Alexander, and he himself died only a few years later on 23 February, 1868, aged 58 years.
Alexander McCallum, husband of Jessie, left a will which he had written on 16 February, 1856. In his will he states:
“and I give and bequeath all that my Station called ‘Youngara” in the Wimmera District in the said Colony and also all other Stations in the said colony or in the Colony of NSW or elsewhere belonging to me and also all and every my leasehold estates and all my live and dead stock, goods, chattels, monies and securities for money, debts and personal estate and effects whatsoever..”
He basically leaves everything to his wife and children (Margaret and Gilbert, who were not named specifically...Ivy was not yet born), with bequests to his sisters Catherine and Margaret McCallum.
I don’t know what land holdings beside ‘Youngera Station” were held by Alexander McCallum as I have not consulted Victorian land records. I only know for certain that Alexander McCallum the Elder owned ‘Youngera Station’- his other land holdings, if any, have not been investigated as yet.
Without a doubt that there were two Alexander McCallums who were land owners in Victoria during the approximate period 1840s-1860s....Alexander McCallum( 1814-1862, son of Malcolm McCallum & Annie McIntyre) of Dunoch Forest, French Island, Tragowell and other properties, AND Alexander McCallum (1805-1871; son of Gilbert McCallum & Margaret Campbell) of ‘Youngera Station’.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Robley children-children of Ivy Jessie McCallum
Above:Stella Jessie Alice Robley, eldest child of Henry Edward Robley and Ivy Jessie McCallum. Born August 3, 1887.
Stella Robley as photographed by her cousin Roland Oakley Bishop.
Above: Two of the four Robley sisters...Lois on the left, and Norma on right.
Additional photos of Ivy Jessie McCallum
Above: Ivy Jessie McCallum, taken during the period in which she lived with her Bishop cousins and aunt and uncle, Bertha and Henry Bishop.
Above: Ivy Jessie McCallum
Above: Ivy Jessie McCallum with her husband Henry Edward Robley.
Above: Ivy McCallum
Ivy Jessie McCallum, daughter of Jessie Hughan and Alexander McCallum
Ivy Jessie McCallum was the third and final child born to Alexander McCallum and his wife Jessie Hughan. She was born on board the ship ‘Royal Charter’ while it was crossing the Irish Sea off the west coast of England, carrying her parents and siblings, Margaret and Gilbert.
The McCallum family had boarded the ship in Melbourne on Saturday April 10, 1858, when Jessie was about six months pregnant. They had obviously hoped to be safe on English soil by the time the baby arrived, but it wasn’t to be, and Ivy was born ‘at sea’ on July 11, 1858.
Ivy’s first 2 ½ years were spent in England, Scotland and France as she travelled with her family and aunt, Bertha Hughan. For health reasons her father Alexander did not return with them to Melbourne when they sailed on board the ship ‘Themis’ at the end of 1860.
Ivy’s first 2 ½ years were spent in England, Scotland and France as she travelled with her family and aunt, Bertha Hughan. For health reasons her father Alexander did not return with them to Melbourne when they sailed on board the ship ‘Themis’ at the end of 1860.
Ivy would have had no memories of her own of her father, as he died in 1871 when she was almost thirteen, and she had never seen him again after they parted company in England when she was two. Even more tragically, she only shared her life with her mother for seven years...Jessie Hughan McCallum died of a lung infection late in the winter of 1865.
The three motherless McCallum children were taken in by their newly married aunt, Bertha Hughan, who had wed Henry Bishop in March of 1865. The McCallum family station, ‘Youngera’, near Swan Hill, continued to be managed by their uncle Allan Hughan and other employees, but the children resided with the Bishop family, first at Mount Rowan near Ballarat, and then various suburbs of Melbourne.
It has also been suggested in recent years that Ivy Jessie lived at neighbouring ‘Tyntynder Station’ with the Beveridge family for a short period after her mother’s death.
In 1868, Ivy’s brother Gilbert sailed off with his uncle Allan Hughan on a pearling adventure along the west coast of Australia. Ivy was living with the Bishops at Mount Rowan, where her uncle Henry Bishop was a storekeeper. Two cousins arrived during her time at Mount Rowan- Roland in 1866 and Olive in 1868.
By 1870 the family had moved to Trinity Cottage in Hotham, a suburb of Melbourne. Bertha and Henry had another child whilst living here, a son named Guy Arnold. Daughter Violet was born in 1874 at Victoria Parade, Fitzroy, and then the family found themselves residing at ‘The Hermitage’, Jolimont, when Myrtle Bishop was born in 1877.
Ivy’s youngest Bishop cousin, Daphne Lorna Josephine, was born at Inkerman Street, St. Kilda, in 1878.
The three motherless McCallum children were taken in by their newly married aunt, Bertha Hughan, who had wed Henry Bishop in March of 1865. The McCallum family station, ‘Youngera’, near Swan Hill, continued to be managed by their uncle Allan Hughan and other employees, but the children resided with the Bishop family, first at Mount Rowan near Ballarat, and then various suburbs of Melbourne.
It has also been suggested in recent years that Ivy Jessie lived at neighbouring ‘Tyntynder Station’ with the Beveridge family for a short period after her mother’s death.
In 1868, Ivy’s brother Gilbert sailed off with his uncle Allan Hughan on a pearling adventure along the west coast of Australia. Ivy was living with the Bishops at Mount Rowan, where her uncle Henry Bishop was a storekeeper. Two cousins arrived during her time at Mount Rowan- Roland in 1866 and Olive in 1868.
By 1870 the family had moved to Trinity Cottage in Hotham, a suburb of Melbourne. Bertha and Henry had another child whilst living here, a son named Guy Arnold. Daughter Violet was born in 1874 at Victoria Parade, Fitzroy, and then the family found themselves residing at ‘The Hermitage’, Jolimont, when Myrtle Bishop was born in 1877.
Ivy’s youngest Bishop cousin, Daphne Lorna Josephine, was born at Inkerman Street, St. Kilda, in 1878.
Judith Laging, Ivy’s granddaughter, wrote that Ivy was the first pupil enrolled in the new Presbyterian Ladies College in east Melbourne when it opened in 1875. She would have been 16 or 17 years of age at this time. Helen Porter Mitchell, better known worldwide as opera singer Nellie Melba, also started school at PLC in 1875, although she was almost three years younger than Ivy.
Ivy McCallum married at the age of 27 years in 1885.Her husband was 24 year old Englishman Henry Edward Robley (known as ‘Edward’) who had been in the colony for only three years. He was the son of William Nevison Robley, a joiner and cartwright from Northumberland, and Jane Forster, and with his twin brother Joseph William Robley had been born at Broadfield House, Warden, Northumberland, in 1864.
Henry Edward Robley arrived in Melbourne on board the ship ‘Sorata’ in March of 1882. His granddaughter Judith Laging wrote in a letter:
“Edward, as he was called, had a brother James who was the Australian representative for Nobels selling explosives. He urged H.E.R to emigrate, and he sailed on the ‘Sorata’. James lived in Adelaide. He married Louisa someone. Their children were Lena, Nevison, Harry, Victoria, Vernon and George Laing.”
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ROBLEY FAMILY.
Henry Edward Robley’s brother, James Hindhaugh Robley, was the eldest child of William Nevison Robley and Jane Forster (others were Ann Isabella, Robert Anderson, George Nevison, twins Henry Edward and Joseph William and two daughters named Mary Jane who both died in childhood).
James Hindhaugh Robley seems to have been an intriguing character. In 1873 in the district of Hexham, Northumberland, he married 23 year old Jane Waugh. She died three years later in 1876, aged 26. A daughter, Mary Jane Robley, was baptised in the parish of Newbrough on May 2, 1875. Her parents were noted as being James Robley, carpenter, and Jane, of Broadfield House.
There is a marriage in the U.K marriage index for the December ¼ of 1879 for a James Hindhaugh Robley to either Mary Riley or Catherine Wardhaugh, but no further information about this marriage has been forthcoming.
James had immigrated to Australia by the time the 1881English census had been taken, and the next trace of him comes on his 1880 marriage certificate. On December 20, 1880, at Ballarat, Victoria, 28 year old James Hindhaugh Robley , a commercial traveller, married 23 year old Mary Ann Frood. It was stated that James was a widower as of 1876, and that he had two living children from his previous marriage. He had been born in Hexham, Northumberland, to parents Nevison Robley, builder, and Jane Forster. James’ wife Mary Ann was the daughter of plasterer William Frood and his wife Matilda Granville Colwell, and had been born in Ballarat in 1857.
Mystery surrounds the marriage of James and Mary Ann. They had one child together, a son named James William Robert Robley, who was born in Ballarat in 1881.Mary Ann Frood Robley died on June 16, 1938, in Ballarat, and her only issue was recorded as ‘James William Robert, 57 years”. Her death certificate stated that she had married James Hindhaugh Robley in Ballarat when she was 23.
It seems James Robley parted ways with his wife Mary Ann, as he started a new family with Louisa Charlotte Klapproth in Sandhurst from 1885. An online index of cases mentioned in Victorian Police correspondence offers the following information:
ROBLEY: Mary Ann nee Frood. Writes in 1894 asking the police to help in getting documents retained by Adelaide solicitor George F. Mitchell. These include her marriage in 1880 and false registration of the births of William Nevison Robley and Louisa Victoria Robley to mother Louisa Charlotte Klapproth.”
Recently located ( July 22, 2008) in a Victorian Police Gazette was the following:
“DESERTERS OF WIVES AND CHILDREN. James Hindhaugh Robley is charged, on warrant, with deserting his wife, Mary Ann Robley, Eureka Street, Ballarat east, in December 1883. Description:- Englishman, 41 years of age, about 6 feet high, stout build, round features, light brown hair. When last seen had moustache only. Is a commercial traveller. Supposed to be in Bendigo or working for Briscoe and Co, Little Collins Street, Melbourne. 15 April, 1893.”
Mystery solved!!!!
The birth certificate of William Nevison Robley was registered by Louisa Charlotte Klapproth, and she invented a fictitious marriage date to help legitimize her son’s birth. He was born on November 10, 1886, in Sandhurst, the child of 31 year old James Robley, traveller and 28 year old Louisa Charlotte Robley formerly Klapproth, who had been born in Launceston, Tasmania. Louisa stated that she and James had married in South Yarra, Melbourne, on October 8, 1884, and that they had another child, Caroline Ivey, who was one year old.
‘Klapproth’ is a very rare name, and only several were recorded in the BDM indexes for the period 1850-1900. Louisa is most likely the daughter of Herman Klapproth and Caroline Hopp who registered the births of two children in Tasmania in the 1850s. This is supported by the fact that her first child with James Robley was named Caroline, and that another son was given the middle name ‘Herman’.
Vernon Herman Robley was born on April 26,1894, in Adelaide, South Australia (information taken from his service records from WW1 as downloaded from the National Archives Australia website)These records also recorded that he spent six years at St. Peters School Collegiate, Adelaide, and passed the Senior Public Examination, Adelaide University, 1912. His next of kin was father, James Robley, of Gilbert Street, Gilberton, South Australia.
Ivy McCallum married at the age of 27 years in 1885.Her husband was 24 year old Englishman Henry Edward Robley (known as ‘Edward’) who had been in the colony for only three years. He was the son of William Nevison Robley, a joiner and cartwright from Northumberland, and Jane Forster, and with his twin brother Joseph William Robley had been born at Broadfield House, Warden, Northumberland, in 1864.
Henry Edward Robley arrived in Melbourne on board the ship ‘Sorata’ in March of 1882. His granddaughter Judith Laging wrote in a letter:
“Edward, as he was called, had a brother James who was the Australian representative for Nobels selling explosives. He urged H.E.R to emigrate, and he sailed on the ‘Sorata’. James lived in Adelaide. He married Louisa someone. Their children were Lena, Nevison, Harry, Victoria, Vernon and George Laing.”
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ROBLEY FAMILY.
Henry Edward Robley’s brother, James Hindhaugh Robley, was the eldest child of William Nevison Robley and Jane Forster (others were Ann Isabella, Robert Anderson, George Nevison, twins Henry Edward and Joseph William and two daughters named Mary Jane who both died in childhood).
James Hindhaugh Robley seems to have been an intriguing character. In 1873 in the district of Hexham, Northumberland, he married 23 year old Jane Waugh. She died three years later in 1876, aged 26. A daughter, Mary Jane Robley, was baptised in the parish of Newbrough on May 2, 1875. Her parents were noted as being James Robley, carpenter, and Jane, of Broadfield House.
There is a marriage in the U.K marriage index for the December ¼ of 1879 for a James Hindhaugh Robley to either Mary Riley or Catherine Wardhaugh, but no further information about this marriage has been forthcoming.
James had immigrated to Australia by the time the 1881English census had been taken, and the next trace of him comes on his 1880 marriage certificate. On December 20, 1880, at Ballarat, Victoria, 28 year old James Hindhaugh Robley , a commercial traveller, married 23 year old Mary Ann Frood. It was stated that James was a widower as of 1876, and that he had two living children from his previous marriage. He had been born in Hexham, Northumberland, to parents Nevison Robley, builder, and Jane Forster. James’ wife Mary Ann was the daughter of plasterer William Frood and his wife Matilda Granville Colwell, and had been born in Ballarat in 1857.
Mystery surrounds the marriage of James and Mary Ann. They had one child together, a son named James William Robert Robley, who was born in Ballarat in 1881.Mary Ann Frood Robley died on June 16, 1938, in Ballarat, and her only issue was recorded as ‘James William Robert, 57 years”. Her death certificate stated that she had married James Hindhaugh Robley in Ballarat when she was 23.
It seems James Robley parted ways with his wife Mary Ann, as he started a new family with Louisa Charlotte Klapproth in Sandhurst from 1885. An online index of cases mentioned in Victorian Police correspondence offers the following information:
ROBLEY: Mary Ann nee Frood. Writes in 1894 asking the police to help in getting documents retained by Adelaide solicitor George F. Mitchell. These include her marriage in 1880 and false registration of the births of William Nevison Robley and Louisa Victoria Robley to mother Louisa Charlotte Klapproth.”
Recently located ( July 22, 2008) in a Victorian Police Gazette was the following:
“DESERTERS OF WIVES AND CHILDREN. James Hindhaugh Robley is charged, on warrant, with deserting his wife, Mary Ann Robley, Eureka Street, Ballarat east, in December 1883. Description:- Englishman, 41 years of age, about 6 feet high, stout build, round features, light brown hair. When last seen had moustache only. Is a commercial traveller. Supposed to be in Bendigo or working for Briscoe and Co, Little Collins Street, Melbourne. 15 April, 1893.”
Mystery solved!!!!
The birth certificate of William Nevison Robley was registered by Louisa Charlotte Klapproth, and she invented a fictitious marriage date to help legitimize her son’s birth. He was born on November 10, 1886, in Sandhurst, the child of 31 year old James Robley, traveller and 28 year old Louisa Charlotte Robley formerly Klapproth, who had been born in Launceston, Tasmania. Louisa stated that she and James had married in South Yarra, Melbourne, on October 8, 1884, and that they had another child, Caroline Ivey, who was one year old.
‘Klapproth’ is a very rare name, and only several were recorded in the BDM indexes for the period 1850-1900. Louisa is most likely the daughter of Herman Klapproth and Caroline Hopp who registered the births of two children in Tasmania in the 1850s. This is supported by the fact that her first child with James Robley was named Caroline, and that another son was given the middle name ‘Herman’.
Vernon Herman Robley was born on April 26,1894, in Adelaide, South Australia (information taken from his service records from WW1 as downloaded from the National Archives Australia website)These records also recorded that he spent six years at St. Peters School Collegiate, Adelaide, and passed the Senior Public Examination, Adelaide University, 1912. His next of kin was father, James Robley, of Gilbert Street, Gilberton, South Australia.
James and Louisa Robley had four sons serve in WW1:- first to join was Vernon Herman in 1914, followed by Henry Foster in March 1916, William Nevison in August of 1916 and George Laing in December 1917. Three of the four made it safely back to Australia...eldest son William Nevison Robley was killed in action at Polygon Wood, France, on 25 or 26 September 1917. Like the relationship of his parents, mystery surrounds William Nevison Robley. For some reason unknown to this researcher, he enlisted in the A.I.F under the alias “Laing Morrison”. His address at enlistment was “Mawla”, Miller Street, Box Hill, the same as his brother Henry Foster Robley. His father was stated as being James Morrison, ‘Newbrough’, Kings park, South Australia, then later amended on his form as ‘Father J.H Robley, c/o Elders Smith & Co Ltd, Adelaide, S.A’.
William Robley had made his will in London on June 4, 1917, and his sole beneficiary was his “sister”, Mrs. Maude Robley, ‘Malwa’, Miller Street, Box Hill. This in fact was his sister in law, Elizabeth Maud Robley (formerly Murdoch) who had married his brother Henry in 1914.He signed his will as ‘Laing Morrison’- in fact it wasn’t until after his death that his name was officially recognised as ‘William Nevison Robley’. His records contain a statutory declaration from his brother Vernon Herman Robley, dated May 4, 1918. It states:
“ I, Vernon Hermann Robley, Lieutenant, Australian Imperial Force, residing at 2 Gilbert Street, Gilberton, South Australia, declare that I am the brother of the soldier who enlisted as No. 4089, Private Laing Morrison, and that the above is an assumed name, his correct name being William Nevison Robley. His father and next of kin is Mr. J.H Robley, residing at 2 Gilbert Street, Gilberton, South Australia. I desire that the soldier’s name and that of his next of kin may be amended on his records.”
William Robley had made his will in London on June 4, 1917, and his sole beneficiary was his “sister”, Mrs. Maude Robley, ‘Malwa’, Miller Street, Box Hill. This in fact was his sister in law, Elizabeth Maud Robley (formerly Murdoch) who had married his brother Henry in 1914.He signed his will as ‘Laing Morrison’- in fact it wasn’t until after his death that his name was officially recognised as ‘William Nevison Robley’. His records contain a statutory declaration from his brother Vernon Herman Robley, dated May 4, 1918. It states:
“ I, Vernon Hermann Robley, Lieutenant, Australian Imperial Force, residing at 2 Gilbert Street, Gilberton, South Australia, declare that I am the brother of the soldier who enlisted as No. 4089, Private Laing Morrison, and that the above is an assumed name, his correct name being William Nevison Robley. His father and next of kin is Mr. J.H Robley, residing at 2 Gilbert Street, Gilberton, South Australia. I desire that the soldier’s name and that of his next of kin may be amended on his records.”
Because of the location of the Robley family in South Australia, where online birth, death and marriage records are at present sadly lacking, I have not completed any further research into the family of James Hindhaugh Robley.
Ivy’s first child was born on August 3, 1889. Named Stella Jessie Robley, she was joined three years later by her only brother, Vernon Edward Robley. He was born on December 26, 1892. Three more daughters followed: Lois Ivy on June 12, 1895; Norma Olive on March 19, 1898 and finally Evelyn Margaret on July 9, 1902.
The family residence was “Tremaine” at Cromwell Crescent, Hawkburn, a suburb of Melbourne, and the children all spent their formative years and beyond in the happy home.
Of the four Robley sisters, only one married. Youngest child Evelyn Margaret Robley married her second cousin, Harry Gordon Oakley in 1950(their grandmothers were sisters- Jessie and Bertha Hughan) after he had returned safely from service overseas in WW2. They had no natural children of their own, but adopted a son whom they named Hughan in honour of their mutual maternal history.
Vernon Edward Robley, the only son of Ivy McCallum and Edward Robley, married in England whilst serving with the A.I.F in WW1.On 27 October, 1919, at Hampstead, Vernon married Sophia Winifred Burfitt, daughter of Albert Herbert Burfitt and his second wife, Sophia Hall. They had three daughters and two sons:
Verna Winnifred Robley born December 6, 1920. Married __ Grey on April 16, 1942.Died October 29, 1992.
Alison Margaret Robley: born August 19, 1923.
Judith Ethelwyn Robley: born June 14, 1929.
Ian Burfitt Robley: born August 6, 1930.
Stuart Edward Robley: born June 27, 1932.
Sophia Winifred Burfitt Robley died when her children were still quite young. She died at 104 Shannon Avenue, Newtown, Geelong, on July 19, 1938, aged only 42. Sadly, she had also lost her own mother at a very young age- Sophia Hall Burfitt had died at the age of 37 years in 1895, when her daughter Sophia was only an infant. In fact, her mother’s death had been registered before Sophia’s birth- the latter in the December ¼ of 1895, and the former in the March ¼ of 1896. This suggests that Sophie Hall Burfitt died at the birth of her daughter or very soon after late in 1895.
Sophia Burfitt Robley’s cause of death was given as ‘Hyperpiesis’ (which is defined as “persistent and pathological high blood pressure for which no specific cause can be found”) and cerebral haemorrhage. She had been suffering from the former condition for six years.
The family residence was “Tremaine” at Cromwell Crescent, Hawkburn, a suburb of Melbourne, and the children all spent their formative years and beyond in the happy home.
Of the four Robley sisters, only one married. Youngest child Evelyn Margaret Robley married her second cousin, Harry Gordon Oakley in 1950(their grandmothers were sisters- Jessie and Bertha Hughan) after he had returned safely from service overseas in WW2. They had no natural children of their own, but adopted a son whom they named Hughan in honour of their mutual maternal history.
Vernon Edward Robley, the only son of Ivy McCallum and Edward Robley, married in England whilst serving with the A.I.F in WW1.On 27 October, 1919, at Hampstead, Vernon married Sophia Winifred Burfitt, daughter of Albert Herbert Burfitt and his second wife, Sophia Hall. They had three daughters and two sons:
Verna Winnifred Robley born December 6, 1920. Married __ Grey on April 16, 1942.Died October 29, 1992.
Alison Margaret Robley: born August 19, 1923.
Judith Ethelwyn Robley: born June 14, 1929.
Ian Burfitt Robley: born August 6, 1930.
Stuart Edward Robley: born June 27, 1932.
Sophia Winifred Burfitt Robley died when her children were still quite young. She died at 104 Shannon Avenue, Newtown, Geelong, on July 19, 1938, aged only 42. Sadly, she had also lost her own mother at a very young age- Sophia Hall Burfitt had died at the age of 37 years in 1895, when her daughter Sophia was only an infant. In fact, her mother’s death had been registered before Sophia’s birth- the latter in the December ¼ of 1895, and the former in the March ¼ of 1896. This suggests that Sophie Hall Burfitt died at the birth of her daughter or very soon after late in 1895.
Sophia Burfitt Robley’s cause of death was given as ‘Hyperpiesis’ (which is defined as “persistent and pathological high blood pressure for which no specific cause can be found”) and cerebral haemorrhage. She had been suffering from the former condition for six years.
At the time of her death her children were Verna Winifred, aged 18; Alison Margaret aged 15; Judith Ethylwyn aged 9; Ian Burfitt aged 8 and Stuart Edward aged only 6.
Vernon Robley married again four years later. In 1942 he married 43 year old Dora Galbraith, a widow whose husband James Campbell Galbraith had died at the young age of 31 in 1930. Dora had been born Dora Amy Kennedy in 1899, the daughter of Thomas Kennedy and Grace Little. She had married James Galbraith in 1926, and I do not know if they had children before James’ death in 1930. One of the family birthday books records the birth date of Marjorie Grace Galbraith on December 4, 1928- this would fit in with the small four year time period in which Dora and James were married.
Dora Kennedy Galbraith Robley died in 1983, aged 83 years. Her husband Vernon Edward Robley died on December 22, 1962, just four days short of his 70th birthday.
Of the other Robley siblings, children of Ivy Jessie McCallum and Henry Edward Robley, their years of death are as follows:
Norma Olive Robley: died Prahran 1974 aged 76 years.
Stella Jessie Alice Robley: died 1976 aged 88 years.
Lois Ivy Robley: died 1982, Yarrawonga, aged 87 years.
Evelyn Margaret Robley Oakley: died Yarrawonga on December 3, 1995, aged 93.
Vernon Robley married again four years later. In 1942 he married 43 year old Dora Galbraith, a widow whose husband James Campbell Galbraith had died at the young age of 31 in 1930. Dora had been born Dora Amy Kennedy in 1899, the daughter of Thomas Kennedy and Grace Little. She had married James Galbraith in 1926, and I do not know if they had children before James’ death in 1930. One of the family birthday books records the birth date of Marjorie Grace Galbraith on December 4, 1928- this would fit in with the small four year time period in which Dora and James were married.
Dora Kennedy Galbraith Robley died in 1983, aged 83 years. Her husband Vernon Edward Robley died on December 22, 1962, just four days short of his 70th birthday.
Of the other Robley siblings, children of Ivy Jessie McCallum and Henry Edward Robley, their years of death are as follows:
Norma Olive Robley: died Prahran 1974 aged 76 years.
Stella Jessie Alice Robley: died 1976 aged 88 years.
Lois Ivy Robley: died 1982, Yarrawonga, aged 87 years.
Evelyn Margaret Robley Oakley: died Yarrawonga on December 3, 1995, aged 93.
Ivy Jessie McCallum Robley died on February 19, 1949, at Hawksburn, aged 90 years.
Ivy’s husband, Henry Edward Robley, also died at the family home, ‘Tremaine’, 12 Cromwell Crescent, Hawksburn. Aged 80 years, he died on June 15, 1942.
Gilbert McCallum, son of Jessie Hughan and Alexander McCallum
Gilbert McCallum was born on Saturday, June 29, 1854, at Youngera Station in Victoria’s Wimmera district. He was the second child and only son born to Scotsman Alexander McCallum and his wife Jessie Hughan.
When only six and a half months old, in February of 1855, baby Gilbert accompanied his parents and 2 year old sister Margaret on the ship ‘John Bell’ on a trip to Britain. They were away only eleven months, returning in January of 1856. In October of 1856, the McCallum family boarded the paddle steamer "Gundagai", with the children's grandmother Hannah Hughan acting as their nurse, and sailed down the Murray to Adelaide.
In the autumn of 1858 the family again sailed for England, this time on board the ship ‘Royal Charter’ and accompanied by Gilbert’s young aunt, Bertha Hughan. This time they stayed away for two and a half years, returning in January 1861 on the ship ‘Themis’.
Gilbert had gained a sister, Ivy Jessie McCallum, who was born on the voyage to England, but lost access to his father Alexander, who had not returned to Australia with his family.
It was Gilbert’s mother Jessie who raised her three young children and managed the station, with the help of her sister Bertha and brothers Fergus and Allan. In March of 1865 Bertha married Henry Bishop, whom she had met several years previously when he was living and working with Peter Beveridge on neighbouring ‘Tyntynder Station’.
A mere seven months later Bertha found herself leaving her new home in Ballarat and heading back to ‘Youngera’ on a devastating mission- to comfort three motherless children and become their surrogate carer.
Jessie McCallum had died of pneumonia on October 31, 1865, after getting wet while visiting a sick neighbour. Gilbert was only eleven years old, and his sisters Margaret and Ivy were 13 and 7 respectively.
Gilbert remained with his aunt Bertha Bishop and her husband for almost two years until his maternal uncle, Allan Hughan, purchased a schooner named ‘Pilot’ and decided to set sail from Melbourne to navigate the west coast of Australia as far as the islands of the Dampier Archipelago. His mission was to dive for pearls (or rather mother-of-pearl, which was far more valuable than the pearl itself in that period) , and also to collect plant specimens along the way for good friend Professor Ferdinand Von Mueller who from 1853 had been appointed Victorian Government botanist.
When only six and a half months old, in February of 1855, baby Gilbert accompanied his parents and 2 year old sister Margaret on the ship ‘John Bell’ on a trip to Britain. They were away only eleven months, returning in January of 1856. In October of 1856, the McCallum family boarded the paddle steamer "Gundagai", with the children's grandmother Hannah Hughan acting as their nurse, and sailed down the Murray to Adelaide.
In the autumn of 1858 the family again sailed for England, this time on board the ship ‘Royal Charter’ and accompanied by Gilbert’s young aunt, Bertha Hughan. This time they stayed away for two and a half years, returning in January 1861 on the ship ‘Themis’.
Gilbert had gained a sister, Ivy Jessie McCallum, who was born on the voyage to England, but lost access to his father Alexander, who had not returned to Australia with his family.
It was Gilbert’s mother Jessie who raised her three young children and managed the station, with the help of her sister Bertha and brothers Fergus and Allan. In March of 1865 Bertha married Henry Bishop, whom she had met several years previously when he was living and working with Peter Beveridge on neighbouring ‘Tyntynder Station’.
A mere seven months later Bertha found herself leaving her new home in Ballarat and heading back to ‘Youngera’ on a devastating mission- to comfort three motherless children and become their surrogate carer.
Jessie McCallum had died of pneumonia on October 31, 1865, after getting wet while visiting a sick neighbour. Gilbert was only eleven years old, and his sisters Margaret and Ivy were 13 and 7 respectively.
Gilbert remained with his aunt Bertha Bishop and her husband for almost two years until his maternal uncle, Allan Hughan, purchased a schooner named ‘Pilot’ and decided to set sail from Melbourne to navigate the west coast of Australia as far as the islands of the Dampier Archipelago. His mission was to dive for pearls (or rather mother-of-pearl, which was far more valuable than the pearl itself in that period) , and also to collect plant specimens along the way for good friend Professor Ferdinand Von Mueller who from 1853 had been appointed Victorian Government botanist.
Apart from a small crew, also on board the ‘Pilot’ was Allan and his wife, Phoebe Hughan, their two small daughters Ruth and Marion, and 14 year old Gilbert McCallum ready for the adventure of a life time.
A letter still exists from November 1868 which was written by Gilbert to his sister Ivy back in Ballarat. It was in the possession of Ivy’s granddaughter, Judith Laging, who kindly shared it with me. The ending of the letter has unfortunately been misplaced by me, but it is such a wonderful piece of history that I will copy what remains to me as follows:
Fremantle,
November 23, 1868.
My Dear Ivy,
I was very delighted to receive your nice long letter but very sorry you and Roland have been so ill and I trust you both will get strong again. I need not say that I hope Roland is a good boy for I never knew him to be otherwise and such a contrast between his size and little Marion’s but I wish you could hear her sing nearly any tune if you once commence it and she will beat time with her hands. I am very glad to hear that Roland talks so nicely.
I suppose you will not have Miss Hodgkinson with you anymore. I expect she was very angry with me when she heard that her woolwork accompanied us to Western Australia. I expect that you will have a large flock of pigeon before I return and also plenty of fowls.
The ship we have is only a small one but it is a splendid sea boat that is it rides upon the large waves just like a cork and very seldom a wave washes the deck. We have such a nice cabin though it is only a small one with small beds let in at the sides and curtains to draw close. On opposite side of the stairs is a good sized cabin which Uncle and Aunt use for a bedroom.
The ship looked very bad at first for she had not been painted for a long time but we have painted her white inside and the bottom rail of the bulwarks and every place near the deck is blue and the hull is black so that she is quite nice. We are building a storeroom to put the ship’s stores into. Some of the sailors proved very dishonest for they stole a lot of the spirits.
We were very unfortunate for having such bad weather to King George’s Sound but very fortunate to have such fine weather from there to here as Cape Leuwin is a very bad place to pass in stormy weather, but we have passed the bad coast and will have fine weather though it will be in one of the hottest places which are called the tropics.
I am really very sorry that old Ivey is so near death but more so to hear he carries on such bad ways when so near the grave.
But I forgot to tell you what Fremantle was like. It appears to be a very poor place all covered with sand. The glare of the sun in Summer must affect the eyes of the inhabitants very much. I cannot walk down the street without putting something over my eyes for the glare of the white road with the sun shining on it.
King George’s Sound is but a small township but has one of the finest harbours you could wish for. In the scrub surrounding the township grow some of the most beautiful flowers. Some are like scarlet bottle brush and other sorts of which are really lovely.
The pier here is not very large and vessels anchor at some little distance off. There are large sailing boats called lighters that carry about 30 tons which come close to the ship and carry their cargo to shore.
We are going to take several passengers and some cargo to Nichol Bay but I only know the name of two gentlemen- Dr. Mayhue and his wife and Mr. Broadhurst,( rest missing)”.
This Mr. Broadhurst was Charles Edward Broadhurst (1826-1905), who with his wife Eliza (1839-1899) arrived in Fremantle in 1865 bound for the North-West. He became involved in the pastoral industry, pearling, fish canning (at Mandurah), and had guano interests in the Abrolhos Islands. Charles Edward Broadhurst was also member of the Western Australian Parliament, and is considered by many to be one of Australia’s first true entrepreneurs.
In 1872 Broadhurst brought to Western Australia the S.S Xantho, a former Scottish paddlesteamer which had been fitted with the engine from a Crimean war gunboat. For several months it powered its way up and down the coast with its loads of whaling equipment, lead ore, pearl shell, general goods and passengers, including convicts from Rottnest island and Malays who worked as divers. A short time after its arrival the Xantho sank, having been overloaded with lead ore coming down to Fremantle from Geraldton. The ship made headlines again in 1985 when her engine was recovered after 114 years under the sea.
It seems that prior to embarking on this big and expensive venture, Charles Broadhurst joined Gilbert McCallum and the Hughans on their little ship to test the very first diving suit to be tried in the North west pearling industry.
While Gilbert’s life aboard the ‘Pilot’ would have been very exciting, it would have also had its moments of danger. Apart from the wild weather experienced when living at sea, there were also reports of the ‘Pilot’ being threatened by the aboriginal natives of Enderby Island who were furious over past pearlers kidnapping their women. There was also trouble amongst the crew, with a report in April 1869 of a drunken row aboard the ‘Pilot’.
By May 8 1869, the ‘Pilot’ was back in Fremantle with 15 bags of pearl shells, and she sailed for Melbourne on May 29. On Tuesday June 29, Gilbert McCallum sailed back into Port Phillip, and presumably returned to the welcoming home of the Bishop family and his sisters.
Nothing is known of Gilbert’s life for the next five years. He most probably received a good education, since the Hughan family set such importance on schooling. He next appears in documentation in the form of another letter written to his sister Ivy in 1874. This letter was sent from Balnagowan, Queensland, on September 5, 1874. Balnagowan was a 44 square mile Station that had been settled by John Cook in 1862.
The first permanent settler on the Mackay (Pioneer) River was John Cook who came to the district with Lewis Ross and James Muggleton. In October 1862 Ross and Muggleton built a homestead and formed the second station on the river. Although the area was originally known as ‘Shamrock Vale’, Ross named the run ‘Balnagowan' as it reminded him of his native home in northern Scotland. In 1874 Cook also purchased the unstocked Wandoo station from A.T. Bell. Following Ross’s death in 1870, Cook assumed responsibility for Balnagowan despite a legal dispute between the two families that was not settled for some decades, and although local properties experimented in sugar production, Balnagowan remained a cattle grazing property.
A letter still exists from November 1868 which was written by Gilbert to his sister Ivy back in Ballarat. It was in the possession of Ivy’s granddaughter, Judith Laging, who kindly shared it with me. The ending of the letter has unfortunately been misplaced by me, but it is such a wonderful piece of history that I will copy what remains to me as follows:
Fremantle,
November 23, 1868.
My Dear Ivy,
I was very delighted to receive your nice long letter but very sorry you and Roland have been so ill and I trust you both will get strong again. I need not say that I hope Roland is a good boy for I never knew him to be otherwise and such a contrast between his size and little Marion’s but I wish you could hear her sing nearly any tune if you once commence it and she will beat time with her hands. I am very glad to hear that Roland talks so nicely.
I suppose you will not have Miss Hodgkinson with you anymore. I expect she was very angry with me when she heard that her woolwork accompanied us to Western Australia. I expect that you will have a large flock of pigeon before I return and also plenty of fowls.
The ship we have is only a small one but it is a splendid sea boat that is it rides upon the large waves just like a cork and very seldom a wave washes the deck. We have such a nice cabin though it is only a small one with small beds let in at the sides and curtains to draw close. On opposite side of the stairs is a good sized cabin which Uncle and Aunt use for a bedroom.
The ship looked very bad at first for she had not been painted for a long time but we have painted her white inside and the bottom rail of the bulwarks and every place near the deck is blue and the hull is black so that she is quite nice. We are building a storeroom to put the ship’s stores into. Some of the sailors proved very dishonest for they stole a lot of the spirits.
We were very unfortunate for having such bad weather to King George’s Sound but very fortunate to have such fine weather from there to here as Cape Leuwin is a very bad place to pass in stormy weather, but we have passed the bad coast and will have fine weather though it will be in one of the hottest places which are called the tropics.
I am really very sorry that old Ivey is so near death but more so to hear he carries on such bad ways when so near the grave.
But I forgot to tell you what Fremantle was like. It appears to be a very poor place all covered with sand. The glare of the sun in Summer must affect the eyes of the inhabitants very much. I cannot walk down the street without putting something over my eyes for the glare of the white road with the sun shining on it.
King George’s Sound is but a small township but has one of the finest harbours you could wish for. In the scrub surrounding the township grow some of the most beautiful flowers. Some are like scarlet bottle brush and other sorts of which are really lovely.
The pier here is not very large and vessels anchor at some little distance off. There are large sailing boats called lighters that carry about 30 tons which come close to the ship and carry their cargo to shore.
We are going to take several passengers and some cargo to Nichol Bay but I only know the name of two gentlemen- Dr. Mayhue and his wife and Mr. Broadhurst,( rest missing)”.
This Mr. Broadhurst was Charles Edward Broadhurst (1826-1905), who with his wife Eliza (1839-1899) arrived in Fremantle in 1865 bound for the North-West. He became involved in the pastoral industry, pearling, fish canning (at Mandurah), and had guano interests in the Abrolhos Islands. Charles Edward Broadhurst was also member of the Western Australian Parliament, and is considered by many to be one of Australia’s first true entrepreneurs.
In 1872 Broadhurst brought to Western Australia the S.S Xantho, a former Scottish paddlesteamer which had been fitted with the engine from a Crimean war gunboat. For several months it powered its way up and down the coast with its loads of whaling equipment, lead ore, pearl shell, general goods and passengers, including convicts from Rottnest island and Malays who worked as divers. A short time after its arrival the Xantho sank, having been overloaded with lead ore coming down to Fremantle from Geraldton. The ship made headlines again in 1985 when her engine was recovered after 114 years under the sea.
It seems that prior to embarking on this big and expensive venture, Charles Broadhurst joined Gilbert McCallum and the Hughans on their little ship to test the very first diving suit to be tried in the North west pearling industry.
While Gilbert’s life aboard the ‘Pilot’ would have been very exciting, it would have also had its moments of danger. Apart from the wild weather experienced when living at sea, there were also reports of the ‘Pilot’ being threatened by the aboriginal natives of Enderby Island who were furious over past pearlers kidnapping their women. There was also trouble amongst the crew, with a report in April 1869 of a drunken row aboard the ‘Pilot’.
By May 8 1869, the ‘Pilot’ was back in Fremantle with 15 bags of pearl shells, and she sailed for Melbourne on May 29. On Tuesday June 29, Gilbert McCallum sailed back into Port Phillip, and presumably returned to the welcoming home of the Bishop family and his sisters.
Nothing is known of Gilbert’s life for the next five years. He most probably received a good education, since the Hughan family set such importance on schooling. He next appears in documentation in the form of another letter written to his sister Ivy in 1874. This letter was sent from Balnagowan, Queensland, on September 5, 1874. Balnagowan was a 44 square mile Station that had been settled by John Cook in 1862.
The first permanent settler on the Mackay (Pioneer) River was John Cook who came to the district with Lewis Ross and James Muggleton. In October 1862 Ross and Muggleton built a homestead and formed the second station on the river. Although the area was originally known as ‘Shamrock Vale’, Ross named the run ‘Balnagowan' as it reminded him of his native home in northern Scotland. In 1874 Cook also purchased the unstocked Wandoo station from A.T. Bell. Following Ross’s death in 1870, Cook assumed responsibility for Balnagowan despite a legal dispute between the two families that was not settled for some decades, and although local properties experimented in sugar production, Balnagowan remained a cattle grazing property.
It will probably never be known just how 20 year old Gilbert McCallum found himself on a big cattle station in northern Queensland in the 1870s, although it must be remembered that his maternal uncle, Robert Hughan, had lived and worked in the region since his arrival as a convict exile in 1849.He worked on cattle stations and was involved in droving big mobs of cattle for his employers. Robert didn’t move down to Victoria to live until about 1879-80, so he was definitely in Queensland at the time of his nephew’s arrival at Balnagowan. Another Uncle, Allan Hughan, also had contacts in Queensland after spending time there in the 1860s droving sheep.
Whatever the case, Gilbert found himself living and working at Balnagowan Station for the Cook family, and from the contents of his letter to his sister it is very apparent that he had a wonderful experience:
Whatever the case, Gilbert found himself living and working at Balnagowan Station for the Cook family, and from the contents of his letter to his sister it is very apparent that he had a wonderful experience:
“ Balnagowan,
September 5, 1874.
My Dear Sister,
I daresay you are waiting anxiously for your letter, but I met with an accident just after I wrote to Aunt Bertha. I was run into a fence by a colt I was riding and broke my arm. It was the right one- of course I could not write sooner. I can only send a brief note for if I use my fingers too much they get painful and I cannot hold a pen.
Mrs. Black is going to Melbourne shortly and will call to see you. I have given her all sorts of news to tell you. I have got a number of alligator eggs I will send down as soon as the schooners run direct to Melbourne.
I must tell you the great chase we had a little time ago after a great old alligator. He was seen some time before at what we call the Upper Crossing, about a mile above the house, but he took up his abode in a deep part of the river. I expect he knew we wanted him for he never came to light till the morning we captured him.
The blackboy first saw him near the boat landing just at the bottom of the garden. We all went out armed with rifles. I fired at him and hit him in the head, and then we got the boat and gave chase. He came up to the surface with his great mouth open and one of the men threw a rope over his under-jaw. When we got the end of the rope to the bank we all caught hold of it and pulled him up on the land and then tied him fast.
We fired a regular battery into his head, and then left him till the next morning, intending to skin him.
When we went to him next day he was half in the water and had a tremendous strain on the rope, but he was too far gone to hurt anybody so we proceeded to skin him. When we had the skin half off he turned right over on his back. I never saw anything so hard to kill. I believe if we had skinned him carefully, he would have gone back into the river and never mist his hide.
We measured him and found him 16 feet long, about 7 feet round his body, his head was 3 feet 4 inches long and his mouth 2 feet 10 inches long.
I must leave off now dear, write to me at once.
Give my love to all.
And dear believe me ever your affectionate brother,
Gilbert.”
September 5, 1874.
My Dear Sister,
I daresay you are waiting anxiously for your letter, but I met with an accident just after I wrote to Aunt Bertha. I was run into a fence by a colt I was riding and broke my arm. It was the right one- of course I could not write sooner. I can only send a brief note for if I use my fingers too much they get painful and I cannot hold a pen.
Mrs. Black is going to Melbourne shortly and will call to see you. I have given her all sorts of news to tell you. I have got a number of alligator eggs I will send down as soon as the schooners run direct to Melbourne.
I must tell you the great chase we had a little time ago after a great old alligator. He was seen some time before at what we call the Upper Crossing, about a mile above the house, but he took up his abode in a deep part of the river. I expect he knew we wanted him for he never came to light till the morning we captured him.
The blackboy first saw him near the boat landing just at the bottom of the garden. We all went out armed with rifles. I fired at him and hit him in the head, and then we got the boat and gave chase. He came up to the surface with his great mouth open and one of the men threw a rope over his under-jaw. When we got the end of the rope to the bank we all caught hold of it and pulled him up on the land and then tied him fast.
We fired a regular battery into his head, and then left him till the next morning, intending to skin him.
When we went to him next day he was half in the water and had a tremendous strain on the rope, but he was too far gone to hurt anybody so we proceeded to skin him. When we had the skin half off he turned right over on his back. I never saw anything so hard to kill. I believe if we had skinned him carefully, he would have gone back into the river and never mist his hide.
We measured him and found him 16 feet long, about 7 feet round his body, his head was 3 feet 4 inches long and his mouth 2 feet 10 inches long.
I must leave off now dear, write to me at once.
Give my love to all.
And dear believe me ever your affectionate brother,
Gilbert.”
The 1874 Post Office Directory of Queensland shows that H.Murray was the manager of Balnagowan Station, and most likely would have been Gilbert’s boss under the direction of John Cook.Gilbert next surfaces in NSW, as manager of a big station near Broken Hill called ‘Mulculca Station’. He wrote a letter to his cousin, my great grandmother Olive Bishop, from Mulculca in February 1897, and was named as ‘Gilbert McCallum, Mulcula” in the Yewen’s Directory of Landholders for 1900.
To follow is a sketch of Mulculca Station as it was when Gilbert managed the property. He drew it for Olive, and notes on the bottom “Ask Guy if he can improve on this. The proportions may be a bit out, but this is about how the places are situated where your most amiable cousin reignes as boss.” ‘Guy’ is Olive’s brother, Guy Bishop, who must have visited Gilbert.(NOTE: Guy may not have neccessarily visited Gilbert..he was a draughtsman, and Gilbert may simply have been suggesting that Guy may have been able to better draw a plan of the station based on Gilbert's sketch)
It was while Gilbert was up north that he met and fell in love with a girl from Broken Hill. Caroline Gibson Kitchen was born on October 30, 1874, so she was about twenty years younger than her husband. Known as ‘Carrie’, she married Gilbert McCallum in 1910 at Broken Hill. Gilbert was aged 56, and his wife Carrie Kitchen was 36.
Gilbert and Carrie did not have any children. They moved to South Australia, and both died there- Gilbert first in 1936, and Carrie some twenty five years later on August 31, 1961. Gilbert was buried at Woodville, South Australia.
Gilbert and Carrie did not have any children. They moved to South Australia, and both died there- Gilbert first in 1936, and Carrie some twenty five years later on August 31, 1961. Gilbert was buried at Woodville, South Australia.
Photographs of the St. John Clarke children
Cyril Wilberforce St. John Clarke
May De La Pryme St. John Clarke
Horatio St. John Clarke
Ethel Stowe Clarke
Children of Margaret McCallum & Horatio St. John Clarke
Above: Cyril Wilberforce St. John Clarke, elder son of Margaret McCallum
and Dr. Horatio St. John Clarke
and Dr. Horatio St. John Clarke
1. KATHERINE MURIEL IRENE ST JOHN CLARKE.
Katherine Clarke was the first child born to Dr. Horatio St John Clarke and his wife Margaret MacCallum. She arrived in September of 1874, and was born in the Clarke home in Victoria Street, Richmond.
Her first sibling, a brother named Cyril, was born when Katherine was 17 months old, in February of 1876. Just a few months later, in late July, toddler Katherine fell ill with bronchitis. Despite being doctored by her surgeon father, 21 month old Katherine died on Saturday, July 29, 1876. She was laid to rest five days later in the Boroondara Cemetery at Kew.
Katherine Clarke was the first child born to Dr. Horatio St John Clarke and his wife Margaret MacCallum. She arrived in September of 1874, and was born in the Clarke home in Victoria Street, Richmond.
Her first sibling, a brother named Cyril, was born when Katherine was 17 months old, in February of 1876. Just a few months later, in late July, toddler Katherine fell ill with bronchitis. Despite being doctored by her surgeon father, 21 month old Katherine died on Saturday, July 29, 1876. She was laid to rest five days later in the Boroondara Cemetery at Kew.
2. CYRIL WILBERFORCE ST. JOHN CLARKE.
Cyril Wilberforce St. John Clarke was the second child and first son born to his parents, Horatio Clarke and Margaret McCallum, on Thursday, February 24, 1876.
As a young man he served his country in the Boer war and later also joined the A.I.F to fight overseas in World War 1.Records show that at the time of his joining the 4th Australian Commonwealth Horse, Cyril was a 25 year old law student from Upper Ferntree Gully, Victoria. His next of kin was given as his mother, Margaret Clarke, from Hawthorn. It was stated that on completion of his service in 1902 he sailed to England from South Africa aboard the ship ‘Custodian’ on July 15, 1902.
Cyril’s military career in the A.I.F was dogged by ill health, and his war record as found on the Australian National Archives website runs to over 170 pages, many of which deal with medical board findings. A brief summary of Cyril’s war service was given by his wife Elsie in a letter dated June 11, 1967, in which she was applying for the new Anzac medal on behalf of her deceased husband. It reads in part:
“ My husband, Lieutenant-Colonel C.W St John Clarke died December 8, 1965. His military record is as follows:
Major Cyril Wilberforce St John Clarke enlisted August 20, 1914. Embarked October 19, 1914. Major of 4th Light Horse, served Egypt, Gallipoli and later 29th battalion in France. My husband, being in a Mounted Regiment, was not at the Gallipoli Landing but, having discarded the horses, he went to Gallipoli one week later.
Incidently, my Husband also served in the Boer war- which, of course, does not concern Gallipoli!! Yours truly, Elsie G. Clarke (Mrs C.W St John Clarke).”
Cyril Wilberforce St John Clarke married Elsie Gwendoline Vagg at Cobden, Victoria, in 1912, when he was aged about 36 years of age. They had two children:
Douglas Hughan MacCallum Clarke born October 26, 1918. Served WW2, service no. VX121590.
Gwendolen Clarke born 1922.
Cyril Clarke worked as a solicitor throughout his adult life. He died of bronchio-pneumonia on December 8, 1965, at Newtown, Geelong, at the age of 89 years. He was buried in the Boroondara Cemetery, Kew, on 10 December, 1965. His wife Elsie Gwendolen Vagg Clarke died on November 21, 1978, aged 88 years.
Cyril Wilberforce St. John Clarke was the second child and first son born to his parents, Horatio Clarke and Margaret McCallum, on Thursday, February 24, 1876.
As a young man he served his country in the Boer war and later also joined the A.I.F to fight overseas in World War 1.Records show that at the time of his joining the 4th Australian Commonwealth Horse, Cyril was a 25 year old law student from Upper Ferntree Gully, Victoria. His next of kin was given as his mother, Margaret Clarke, from Hawthorn. It was stated that on completion of his service in 1902 he sailed to England from South Africa aboard the ship ‘Custodian’ on July 15, 1902.
Cyril’s military career in the A.I.F was dogged by ill health, and his war record as found on the Australian National Archives website runs to over 170 pages, many of which deal with medical board findings. A brief summary of Cyril’s war service was given by his wife Elsie in a letter dated June 11, 1967, in which she was applying for the new Anzac medal on behalf of her deceased husband. It reads in part:
“ My husband, Lieutenant-Colonel C.W St John Clarke died December 8, 1965. His military record is as follows:
Major Cyril Wilberforce St John Clarke enlisted August 20, 1914. Embarked October 19, 1914. Major of 4th Light Horse, served Egypt, Gallipoli and later 29th battalion in France. My husband, being in a Mounted Regiment, was not at the Gallipoli Landing but, having discarded the horses, he went to Gallipoli one week later.
Incidently, my Husband also served in the Boer war- which, of course, does not concern Gallipoli!! Yours truly, Elsie G. Clarke (Mrs C.W St John Clarke).”
Cyril Wilberforce St John Clarke married Elsie Gwendoline Vagg at Cobden, Victoria, in 1912, when he was aged about 36 years of age. They had two children:
Douglas Hughan MacCallum Clarke born October 26, 1918. Served WW2, service no. VX121590.
Gwendolen Clarke born 1922.
Cyril Clarke worked as a solicitor throughout his adult life. He died of bronchio-pneumonia on December 8, 1965, at Newtown, Geelong, at the age of 89 years. He was buried in the Boroondara Cemetery, Kew, on 10 December, 1965. His wife Elsie Gwendolen Vagg Clarke died on November 21, 1978, aged 88 years.
3. MAY DE LA PRYME CLARKE.
May De La Pryme Clarke was born on May 26, 1877. Her elder sister Kate having died the year before May’s birth, she became the eldest surviving daughter of Margaret MacCallum and Horatio St. John Clarke.
Not much is known by this researcher about the life of May Clarke. She never married, and died on October 30, 1955, at the age of 77 years. Electoral rolls from 1903,1924 & 1931show her living with her mother and sometimes siblings, and her occupation as ‘home duties’.
May De La Pryme Clarke was born on May 26, 1877. Her elder sister Kate having died the year before May’s birth, she became the eldest surviving daughter of Margaret MacCallum and Horatio St. John Clarke.
Not much is known by this researcher about the life of May Clarke. She never married, and died on October 30, 1955, at the age of 77 years. Electoral rolls from 1903,1924 & 1931show her living with her mother and sometimes siblings, and her occupation as ‘home duties’.
4. HORATIO ST. JOHN CLARKE.
Horatio St. John Clarke was the second son and fourth child born to Horatio and Margaret Clarke. He was born on November 23, 1879, in Richmond, Victoria.
Like his elder brother Cyril, Horatio served his country in both the Boer War and WW1. He was twenty years old when he joined the 3rd Victorian Bushmen, regimental number 724. His occupation was given as ‘farmer’, and his address 72 Victoria Street, Richmond. There was a comment on his record in the Oz-Boer Database Project that Horatio had been a member of Cameron’s Scouts, one of alleged Boer sympathisers within the 3rd Victorian Bushmen and also served in the Cyclist Corps.
The main duty of the Cyclist Corps was despatch riding, but they were also used for a variety of jobs as needed. One of their more obscure tasks was the transporting of carrier pigeons, as travel by horseback tended to unsettle the birds!
When World War 1 broke out in 1914, Horatio and his brother Cyril signed up for service abroad. Horatio joined the 8th Reinforcements of the 4th Light Horse on July 1, 1915, but later transferred to the 1st Anzac Cyclist Corp. He was 35 years old at the time, and a farmer from Richmond.
Horatio embarked from Melbourne on board the “Kyarra” on August 20, 1915, and by December 1915 was in Alexandria. In March of 1916 he transferred to the Cyclist Corps, 1st Australian Division, then in July 1916 listed as being with the reorganised 1st Army Corps Cyclist Battalion. Between May 1916 and February 1917 Horatio was serving in France, then on February 20 found himself in Hospital with inflammation of the left knee joint. The same condition flared again several times over the next two years during Horatio’s service in France, but he always rejoined his unit after responding to rest and treatment.
Horatio never married after his return to Australia, and he lived a long life before dying in 1961 at the age of 82 years. He died at the Dunbar Private Hospital, Emerald, Victoria, on July 31, and until then had been living at 1 Yarra Grove, Hawthorn, with his spinster sister, Ethel Clarke.
5. ETHEL STOWE ST. JOHN CLARKE.
Ethel Clarke was the final child born to Dr. Horatio St. John Clarke and his wife Margaret McCallum. She was born on October 23, 1880, and like her sister May and brother Horatio, never married.
Ethel had an excellent education when young, and led a very full life. She was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies College in Melbourne, and then attended Trinity College at Melbourne University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.
Prior to World War 1, she took up secretarial and teaching work. Whilst travelling in India in 1915 she enrolled as a V.A.D (Voluntary Aid Detachments) and volunteered to work at St. Johns Hospital until 1916, and then in the same capacity at Somerville College Hospital in Oxford, England, for six months. Somerville College was a women’s college that had been temporarily converted into a hospital during WW1.
From 1917 to 1920 Ethel served as Unit Administrator in the Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary (Q.M.A.A.C). She joined the Q.M.A.A.C on December 3, 1917, and worked as a high ranking administrator in various hospitals and hostels. An extensive file exists for Ethel St. John Clarke on the National Archives Documentsonline site. In it are several glowing references from people as diverse as Bishop Montagu Stone-Wigg, the Bishop of New Guinea; to Captain James Florence of the A.I.F who was related to Ethel through their Hughan grandmothers being sisters; to Owen Thomas Lloyd Crossley, vicar at All saints, St. Kilda, from 1905 to 1910, and later Bishop of Auckland.
Horatio St. John Clarke was the second son and fourth child born to Horatio and Margaret Clarke. He was born on November 23, 1879, in Richmond, Victoria.
Like his elder brother Cyril, Horatio served his country in both the Boer War and WW1. He was twenty years old when he joined the 3rd Victorian Bushmen, regimental number 724. His occupation was given as ‘farmer’, and his address 72 Victoria Street, Richmond. There was a comment on his record in the Oz-Boer Database Project that Horatio had been a member of Cameron’s Scouts, one of alleged Boer sympathisers within the 3rd Victorian Bushmen and also served in the Cyclist Corps.
The main duty of the Cyclist Corps was despatch riding, but they were also used for a variety of jobs as needed. One of their more obscure tasks was the transporting of carrier pigeons, as travel by horseback tended to unsettle the birds!
When World War 1 broke out in 1914, Horatio and his brother Cyril signed up for service abroad. Horatio joined the 8th Reinforcements of the 4th Light Horse on July 1, 1915, but later transferred to the 1st Anzac Cyclist Corp. He was 35 years old at the time, and a farmer from Richmond.
Horatio embarked from Melbourne on board the “Kyarra” on August 20, 1915, and by December 1915 was in Alexandria. In March of 1916 he transferred to the Cyclist Corps, 1st Australian Division, then in July 1916 listed as being with the reorganised 1st Army Corps Cyclist Battalion. Between May 1916 and February 1917 Horatio was serving in France, then on February 20 found himself in Hospital with inflammation of the left knee joint. The same condition flared again several times over the next two years during Horatio’s service in France, but he always rejoined his unit after responding to rest and treatment.
Horatio never married after his return to Australia, and he lived a long life before dying in 1961 at the age of 82 years. He died at the Dunbar Private Hospital, Emerald, Victoria, on July 31, and until then had been living at 1 Yarra Grove, Hawthorn, with his spinster sister, Ethel Clarke.
5. ETHEL STOWE ST. JOHN CLARKE.
Ethel Clarke was the final child born to Dr. Horatio St. John Clarke and his wife Margaret McCallum. She was born on October 23, 1880, and like her sister May and brother Horatio, never married.
Ethel had an excellent education when young, and led a very full life. She was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies College in Melbourne, and then attended Trinity College at Melbourne University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.
Prior to World War 1, she took up secretarial and teaching work. Whilst travelling in India in 1915 she enrolled as a V.A.D (Voluntary Aid Detachments) and volunteered to work at St. Johns Hospital until 1916, and then in the same capacity at Somerville College Hospital in Oxford, England, for six months. Somerville College was a women’s college that had been temporarily converted into a hospital during WW1.
From 1917 to 1920 Ethel served as Unit Administrator in the Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary (Q.M.A.A.C). She joined the Q.M.A.A.C on December 3, 1917, and worked as a high ranking administrator in various hospitals and hostels. An extensive file exists for Ethel St. John Clarke on the National Archives Documentsonline site. In it are several glowing references from people as diverse as Bishop Montagu Stone-Wigg, the Bishop of New Guinea; to Captain James Florence of the A.I.F who was related to Ethel through their Hughan grandmothers being sisters; to Owen Thomas Lloyd Crossley, vicar at All saints, St. Kilda, from 1905 to 1910, and later Bishop of Auckland.
Montagu Stone-Wigg wrote of Ethel:
“ Miss Ethel St. John Clarke, B.A., has acted for several years as Organizing Secretary to the New Guinea Mission in Victoria. I gladly testify to the thoroughness with which her work has been carried out and am sorry that a rearrangement of the organization for Missions in Victoria is likely to lead to her work coming to an end. If so, I can freely recommend her as capable and conscientious.”
H.J Melbourne of Bishopscourt, Melbourne East, wrote:
“ Miss Ethel St. John Clarke, B.A., has acted as Secretary for the New Guinea Mission in the Province of Victoria for some years, and has done work with diligence, courtesy and success. It would be difficult to speak too highly of her services, whilst her manners and good sense have commended her to everyone connected with the Mission.”
Ethel Clarke returned home to Australia in 1920.
“ Miss Ethel St. John Clarke, B.A., has acted for several years as Organizing Secretary to the New Guinea Mission in Victoria. I gladly testify to the thoroughness with which her work has been carried out and am sorry that a rearrangement of the organization for Missions in Victoria is likely to lead to her work coming to an end. If so, I can freely recommend her as capable and conscientious.”
H.J Melbourne of Bishopscourt, Melbourne East, wrote:
“ Miss Ethel St. John Clarke, B.A., has acted as Secretary for the New Guinea Mission in the Province of Victoria for some years, and has done work with diligence, courtesy and success. It would be difficult to speak too highly of her services, whilst her manners and good sense have commended her to everyone connected with the Mission.”
Ethel Clarke returned home to Australia in 1920.
In March of 1942, Ethel wrote to the A.I.F Base Records Office in Canberra to enquire about her eligibility to receive Service and Victory medals for service during the period 1914-1919. She detailed her service as follows:
“I left Australia in 1915, served as a nursing V.A.D at St. Johns Hospital in India till 1916.At Somerville College Hospital, Oxford, then served as Unit Administrator in Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary from 1916-1920 when I was repatriated to Australia as our Corps was finally disbanded in that year.”
Ethel Clarke spent her later years living with brother Horatio in Hawthorn. She died on August 29, 1964, at the age of 83 years.
“I left Australia in 1915, served as a nursing V.A.D at St. Johns Hospital in India till 1916.At Somerville College Hospital, Oxford, then served as Unit Administrator in Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary from 1916-1920 when I was repatriated to Australia as our Corps was finally disbanded in that year.”
Ethel Clarke spent her later years living with brother Horatio in Hawthorn. She died on August 29, 1964, at the age of 83 years.
Photograph of Margaret McCallum St. John Clarke
Above: A beautiful portrait of Margaret McCallum Clarke.
Children of Jessie Hughan and Alexander McCallum
1. MARGARET McCALLUM: Margaret McCallum’s start to life was a tumultuous one. Her nineteen year old mother Jessie Hughan McCallum had arrived in the colony of Victoria only two years previously, and in that short time had married a Scots squatter some 28 years her senior, moved to a very sparsely settled region of the Lower Murray and learnt how to help manage a 90 square mile sheep station.Towards the very later stages of Jessie’s pregnancy the Spring rains came, and with them came a rise in the waters of the Murray River. They continued to rise, until the very safety of the homestead, ‘Wirlong’, was in jeopardy. At the point of evacuation becoming necessary, Jessie went into labour, and it became a race against time to find her a safe place to give birth. And so, in a tent hastily pitched to provide crude shelter, on a sand hill near a stockman’s grave, Margaret McCallum made her entrance into the world, on Sunday, September 19, 1852.
Although Margaret’s early life was spent on an isolated sheep station, she travelled quite extensively for one so young. In February of 1855 she travelled with her parents and baby brother Gilbert to London on the ship ‘John Bell’, returning the following January. Two years later, aged almost six, Margaret and her family returned to England for a more prolonged visit of 2 ½ years which also included Scotland and France.
Alexander McCallum, Margaret’s father, did not return with his family to Australia, and was not reunited with his wife and children again. Jessie McCallum both raised her children and managed her ‘Youngera’ station up until her tragic death at the age of 31. She had become soaked during a visit to a neighbour, and the resulting chill developed into pneumonia. After an illness of 12 days, the local Swan Hill doctor Benjamin Gummow could do no more for her, and on Tuesday, October 31, 1865, Jessie McCallum died of disease of the lungs in her ‘Wirlong’ home.
Margaret was not yet 13, and had lost her mother and access to her father. She was taken into the home of her newly married aunt, Bertha Hughan, who had been a frequent visitor at ‘Youngera’ throughout Margaret’s life. Bertha and her husband Henry Bishop were living at Ballarat, and remained there until about 1870 when they moved to Melbourne. Margaret’s siblings Ivy and Gilbert also stayed with the Bishops, although Ivy also spent time with the Beveridge family at Swan Hill and Gilbert joined his uncle Allan Hughan on a pearling expedition to Western Australia in the late 1860s.
Margaret was living with the Bishops in Fitzroy in 1873 when she married a much-older doctor with the grand name of Horatio St.John Clarke. She surpassed even the 28 year age difference between her parents, as her husband had been born in Tickhill, Yorkshire, in 1819...thirty three years before Margaret’s birth!
Horatio was the son of William Stowe Clarke, also a surgeon, and his wife Jane Maria Blackborn, who had married in 1809. Other children born to the couple were Sophia in 1813, John in 1814, Robert Stow in 1816 and Caroline in 1817. Various directories for the town of Tickhill in the 1820s and 30s show that William Stow Clarke was a surgeon there until his death in early 1838. Just two years before, William had arranged for his son Horatio to become indentured to William Overend of Sheffield, surgeon and apothecary. The document was signed on May 21, 1836, and in it Horatio promised to “learn the profession, Art and Mystery of a Surgeon, Apothecary and accoucher in all its ways and means whatsoever” for a period of five years.
In the 1851 census Horatio was living at 39 Cursitor Street, ‘Liberty of the Rolls Extraparochial, St. Thomas, Finsbury’, with his 36 year old brother, John Clarke. Both were the only lodgers at their address, and John’s occupation was given as ‘landed proprietor’. Horatio’s occupation was given as “Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Licenced accoucher , Lying In Hospital, Dublin. Practicing as a surgeon to Accoucherer.”
An accoucher was a doctor who specifically assisted women in childbirth.
At some time during the period 1851-1855, Horatio St. John Clarke immigrated to the colony of Victoria. He was definitely in Melbourne by 1856, as the electoral roll for St. Stephen’s division, Richmond, for that year shows an entry for “Horatio St. John Clarke, surgeon, 132 Simpson’s Road, Richmond, legally qualified, surgeon.”
Margaret McCallum married Horatio St. John Clarke on September 22, 1873, at St. Peters, Church, Melbourne. Margaret’s age was given as 21 and her husband’s as 54, and the minister who officiated at the ceremony was Rev. Bean.
A newspaper cutting held by Judith Laging, Margaret’s great-niece, revealed the following information:
“ CLARKE-MacCallum- On the 22nd ult., at St. Peter’s, east Melbourne, by the Rev.Bean, H. St. John Clarke F.R.C.S., J.P, to Margaret, eldest daughter of the late Alexander MacCallum, Esq, Youngera, Lower Murray.”
Their first child was a daughter named Katherine Muriel Irene Clarke. She was born in September of 1874, and sadly died 21 months later of bronchitis. She died at Victoria Street, Richmond, on July 29, 1876, having been ill for 48 hours. Her father acted as her physician, but to no avail, and his baby daughter was buried on July 3, five days after her death.
The notice in a Melbourne paper read:
“ CLARKE- On the 29th ult., at Yarraville, Richmond, Katherine Muriel Irene, daughter of H. St. John Clarke, F.R.C.S. Eng., aged one year and nine months.”
The Clarke’s second child was a son named Cyril Wilberforce St. John Clarke (pictured on the following page). He was born on February 24, 1876, at Richmond, and so would have been just five months old when his sister Katherine passed away.
The following year the Clarke’s second daughter was born. Named May De La Prime, she arrived on May 26, 1877.
Another two years were to pass before the next child was born- a second son who was named Horatio St. John Clarke after his father. Horatio was born on November 23, 1879, at his family’s Richmond home.
Finally, the last of the five children born to Margaret McCallum and Horatio St. John Clarke made her appearance into the world on October 23, 1881. She was named Ethel Stowe Clarke, and like her siblings was also born in Richmond.
Dr. Horatio St. John Clarke died on June 30, 1895, at the age of 76 years. His wife Margaret was almost 43, and their children were aged 19(Cyril), 18 (May), 15 ½ (Horatio) and 12 (Ethel). Horatio had been suffering ill health for two years, and the eventual cause of his death was given as “Cardiac dilation & failure; bronchitis & general dropsy”. His death certificate states that he had been in Victoria for about 44 years, which puts his year of arrival as c. 1851-2.
The following declaration was published in the London Gazette on January 19, 1897, almost 18 months after Horatio’s death:
“HORATIO ST. JOHN CLARKE Deceased.
Pursuant to the Statute 22nd and 23rd Victoria, chapter 35, entitled " An Act to further amend the Law of Property, and to relieve Trustees."
NOTICE is hereby given, that all creditors and other persons having any debts, claims or demands against the estate of Horatio St. John Clarke late of Victoria-street Richmond in the Colony of Victoria Surgeon who died on the 30th day of June 1895 and of whose personal estate in England letters of administration (with his will annexed) were granted to Henry Edward Burgess of No. 1 New-square, Lincoln's-inn London England Esquire(the lawful Attorney of Margaret Clarke Widow the sole executrix of the said will residing in the said
colony) by the Principal Registry of the Probate Division of Her Majesty's High Court of Justice in England on the 8th day. of January 1897 are hereby required to send particulars in writing of their debts, claims or demands to the said Henry Edward Burgess at No. 1 New-square, Lincoln's-inn, London aforesaid on or before the 15th day of July 1897; and notice is hereby given that at the expiration of that time the said administrator will proceed to distribute the assets of the said testator among the parties entitled thereto, having regard only to the debts, claims and demands of which he shall then have notice; and that he will not be liable for the assets or any part thereof so distributed to any person or persons of whose
debt, claim or demand he shall not then have had notice.
—Dated this 15th day of January 1897.
WOODROOFFE and BURGESS 1 New-square,
Lincoln's-inn London Solicitors for the said
Administrator.”
- From the London Gazette, 19 Jan 1897.
Electoral rolls have helped to trace Margaret McCallum Clarke’s movements after her husband’s death. In the earliest online roll of 1903, Margaret Clarke is living in Tough Street, Hawthorn, with her two daughters, May and Ethel, and son Cyril. The women’s occupations were given as ‘home duties’, while Cyril’s was ‘independent means’.
In 1909, Margaret and her girls were still at Tough Street, Hawthorn, and were recorded there for the last time in 1919.When sons Horatio and Cyril joined the A.I.F in 1915, their mother’s address was given as “Youngera”, Yarra Street, Hawthorn. This was Horatio’s address in the 1919 electoral roll.
Margaret Clarke spent the latter years of her life at Black Rock, at 3 Karakatta Street, in another house named ‘Youngera’ after her childhood home. She appears at this address on the electoral rolls from 1924 until 1931, living with her daughter May.
Margaret McCallum Clarke died in her Black Rock home on Wednesday, January 1st, 1936, at the age of 83 years. She was buried the following day at Boroondara Cemetery, Kew, in the same grave as her husband Horatio.
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