On 14 March 1826 Thomas married Mary Gilbart (1805-1867) in the parish church of St Erth. Thomas was about thirty-two. The witnesses were John Gilbart and Sarah Gilbart, both of them probably relatives of the bride.
St Erth Church dates from the 14th century. Saint Erc was an Irish saint, one of the many Irish saints who brought Christianity to Cornwall. His remains are supposedly buried under this church, seen here from across the River Hayle.
Thomas and Mary’s first child, a son, Thomas was baptised at St Erth on 27 August 1826.
On the 1841 census Thomas was listed as a carpenter living with his wife Mary and five children at Bridge Terrace St Erth.
Francis Gilbart Edwards, youngest of the nine children of Thomas and Mary, was born 21 January 1848 at St Erth and baptised on 11 June 1848 at the parish church.
Shortly after the birth of Francis, the family emigrated to Victoria. They sailed on the Lysander from Plymouth on 21 September 1848 reaching Port Phillip on 13 January 1849.
In 1837 Mary’s sister Sarah (1808-1854) had married Francis Tuckfield (1808-1865), a Methodist missionary to the Aborigines at Buntingdale, near Geelong. The Tuckfields, who had been in the colony since 1838, may well have encouraged the Edwards to emigrate.
The passenger list of the Lysander shows the Edwards family was Wesleyan, with their native place given as St Ives. Thomas was 53, occupation wheelwright. Mary was 43. The passenger list records that they were accompanied by:
Thomas, age 22, farm labourer
John, age 19, mason
Elisabeth, age 17, nursemaid
James, age 13
Mary, age 11
William, age 9
Benjamin, age 5
Francis, infant
The older children could both read and write, William and Benjamin could read. One child, Francis, had died at St Erth in 1844 at the age of 3.
A family history compiled in 1964 by Thomas and Mary’s grandson Frederick James Edwards gives this account of their arrival and settlement in Victoria, from 1860 at Bullarook in the shire of Bungaree near Ballarat:
The time taken by the ship from Plymouth to Geelong was about 100 days. This ship “Lysander” of 475 tons had 238 passengers and there were 9 births and 7 deaths on the passage. The ship had one more trip to England for immigrants and bought back to Victoria the documents signed by Queen Victoria for the separation of N.S.W. from Victoria in 1851. It was then fitted out as a hospital ship and acted in that capacity for many years and acted as a Hospital Ship at the Crimean War.
The Victorian Government paid all shipping freight for tradesmen on all tools used by the trade. We have an anvil forged made and steel faced at the farm, brought out under those conditions.
The hardships of landing in a new country with no housing and a big family can be imagined. The father was a wheel right and carpenter and the eldest boys were also in the trade. And in Geelong, while there was plenty of work, later James with the eldest brother Thomas, who stayed with James and worked together through life, followed the gold rush without success, and then went farming at Little River, Buninyong and Bullarook where they stayed 14 years.
The farm at Bullarook proved quite a good farm, potatoes were the main crop. As the open up the land cry was on, and all the Western District was taken up they decided to select at Charlton. When the parents grew old they went to Bullarook with Thomas and James and died there and are buried in the old Ballarat cemetery, The years at Bullarook was 1860 to 1874 with the sale of the Bullarook land at £10 per acre gave Thomas and James a little money to start at Charlton. The finding of gold in Victoria brought thousands of immigrants from overseas and the service [surface] gold soon worked out and selectors took up land going north as the Western District was already taken over by squatters. These dates were from 1853 to 1870.
The land formerly owned by the Edwards family at Bullarook photographed in 2021; across the road a paddock newly ploughed for potatoes.
On 11 August 1867 Mary Edwards née Gilbart died at Bungaree of a disease of the womb aged 61 years. She was buried in Ballarat cemetery.
On 7 January 1871 Thomas died suddenly, of “congestion of the brain” at Bungaree. An inquest was held two days later. Thomas was buried with Mary in Ballarat.
The grave site of Mary and Thomas Edwards Wesleyan Section Ballarat Old Cemetery : WN, Section 08, Row 2, Grave 09 T The headstone is missing. Buried at this location are Mary Edwards nee Gilbart died 1867, her husband Thomas Edwards died 1871, and four grandchildren, the children of Mary and Thomas’s son William Edwards.
The maternal grandmother of my husband Greg—mother of his mother Marjorie—was Edith Caroline Edwards, the daughter of immigrants from Cornwall.
Documents kept in the family, probably based on family Bible records, give Edith’s date of birth as 6:45 p.m. 16 September 1871, and the place Sunnyside, Ballarat. The birth was registered on 20 September 1871 in the City of Ballarat.
Edith Caroline Edwards was the daughter of Francis Gilbart Edwards, a twenty-year-old farmer, born in St Erth, Cornwall, and Caroline Ralph, twenty-one, born in Camborne, about ten miles away. Both Francis and Caroline had come to Australia with their families as children.
Edith’s parents were married in Ballarat in December 1870. She was their first child. The birth registration informant was Francis Ralph, her maternal grandfather, occupation stonemason, who also lived in Ballarat.
By 1879, when Edith was seven, the family had moved from Ballarat to Adelaide. Two more girls had been born in Ballarat, and three more were born in Adelaide. The family returned to Ballarat when Edith was about fifteen. A boy was born there, but he died a year later. The family was then living in Richmond, a suburb of Melbourne. Another boy was born in Richmond in 1889.
On 12 December 1889, Henry Dawson and Edith Caroline Edwards were married at the Wesleyan Parsonage in Brunswick, another suburb of Melbourne. The marriage was conducted by Richard Fitcher, Wesleyan Minister, under license and according to the rites of the Wesleyan Methodist Church.
Henry Dawson was a twenty-five-year-old bachelor, born in Lincoln, England. His occupation at the time of his marriage was railway porter, and his residence was Brunswick, Victoria. His parents were Isaac Dawson, a hawker, and Eliza Skeritt.
Her marriage certificate records Edith Caroline Edwards as a nineteen-year-old spinster, born in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Her residence was Brunswick. Her parents were Francis Gilbart Edwards, a railway employee, and Caroline Ralph.
The marriage was performed with the written consent of Francis Gilbart Edwards, the father of the bride. The witnesses to the marriage were Francis Gilbart Edwards and Emma Manning.
Edith and Henry had eight children, all of whom survived infancy, and all of whom, unusually for the period, outlived both parents. They were:
As a railway employee, from time to time Henry was obliged to move to a new position. Their first daughter was born in Barnawartha on the northern border of Victoria. Their next child, Greg’s grandmother Stella, was born in Camberwell, a suburb of Melbourne in Victoria’s south. Their other children were born in Melbourne in the area around Brighton.
In 1909 Edith and her husband Henry registered to vote. They were living in McKinnon, a Melbourne suburb near Brighton. Henry was recorded as ‘railway employee’.
When their youngest daughter Annie was born in 1912 they were living in North Brighton. By 1914 they had moved to the suburb of Chelsea. They later moved to the neighbouring suburb of Chelsea Heights then to Murrumbeena, where by 1921 where were living at Neerim Road, near the railway station.
Henry Dawson died on his 65th birthday in Kyneton hospital. He worked for the railways. All the family worked for the railways. He retired from the railways at compulsory retiring age. Came up to Kyneton for a holiday, and got sick with pneumonia or something. He was put into hospital and died. This was about 1930.
Marjorie’s recollections are much in line with Henry’s death certificate, which records that Henry Dawson died on 30 July 1929 at Kyneton Hospital, Victoria. His usual residence was Murrumbeena. The cause of death was pneumonia and heart failure. He was buried at Kyneton cemetery on 1 August. He had been born on 30 July. Marjorie had remembered correctly.
Kyneton is 90 kilometers north of Melbourne. Henry and Edith’s daughter Stella and her family, including Marjorie, were living in Chewton, 30 kilometers from Kyneton at the time.
Marjorie also remembered her grandmother:
‘She was called “Mam”. From about 1929 Mam helped to run a “commune” farm near Glenlyon called “Circle View”. [This was during the Depression. Her husband Henry Dawson had died in 1929.] “Circle View” was on the Melbourne road on the right going to Melbourne on top of a hill. Also on the farm were her daughter Edith (Rachel, called Rae) with her husband Johnnie Jones (they had no children, but their adopted daughter Jean (later Suttie was with them); her daughter Beatrice with her husband Alf Sanday with their two children; her son Ernest with his wife Vera née Shand; and her daughter Annie and various children.’
Marjorie recalled when they were living in Malmsbury visiting “Circle View”. About the time she was aged fourteen to sixteen. They often drove over to visit on Sunday afternoons.
The 1931 electoral roll records Edith living at “Circle View” Glenlyon; her son Ernest was also at Glenlyon. His occupation was ‘assistant projectionist’. On the 1934 roll Edith, her son Ernest and daughter Annie are recorded at Malmsbury, eighteen kilometers to the north-east, where Edith’s daughter Stella and Stella’s family lived from about 1932 to 1937.
On the 1936 roll Edith, Ernest, and Annie were back in Melbourne in Glen Huntly, a suburb near Murrumbeena. By 1942 Edith was living at 61 Catherine Avenue, Chelsea; there was no one else with the same surname registered at the address.
Edith Caroline Dawson age about seventy in 1941
On 1 November 1946, Edith Caroline Dawson died at her home, 61 Catherine Avenue, Chelsea. The death was registered the same day.
She was seventy five years old. She was born in Ballarat, Victoria, and had lived in Victoria for 75 years [the informant was unaware she had lived in South Australia for part of her childhood]. Her father was Francis Gilbart Edwards, a railway employee, and her mother was Caroline Ralph. She had been married in Ballarat [actually Brunswick] at the age of nineteen to Henry Dawson. She was a widow at the time of her death.
Her children were Rachel Edith, aged 55; Stella Esther Gilbart, aged 52; Beatrice Violet, aged 50; Ruth Evelyn Elsie, aged 46; Herbert Leslie, aged 43; Ada Frances, aged 40; Ernest Henry, aged 37; and Annie Millicent, aged 33.
The cause of death was Angina pectoris for two months, mitral stenosis with regurgitation for two years, and cardiac failure for one day. Her death was certified by Dr. R. Storey, who last attended her on 1 November 1946, the day she died. The informant was Walter Rose, an authorized agent, [the undertaker] residing at Charman Road, Cheltenham.
Edith Caroline Dawson was buried on 4 November 1946 at Kyneton Cemetery with her husband.
DAWSON.— On November 1, at 61 Catherine Avenue, Chelsea, Edith Caroline, loved wife of the late Henry and loving mother of Rachel (Mrs Jones), Stella (Mrs Sullivan), Beatrice (Mrs Sanday), Elsie (Mrs Macleod), Herbert, Ada (Mrs Robins), Ernest and Annie, Aged 75 years.
DAWSON - The Funeral of the late Mrs EDITH CAROLINE DAWSON will leave our parlor, 241 Charman Road. Cheltenham, on MONDAY, at 8.30 a.m. for Kyneton Cemetery, arriving 10.30 a.m. W. D. ROSE & SON. Cheltenham. Phone Chelt. 42.
We have visited Henry and Edith Caroline’s grave at Kyneton.
Who were the parents of Thomas Edwards 1794 – 1871?
Thomas Edwards was one of the 3rd great grandfathers of my husband Greg. He died suddenly, of “congestion of the brain”, on 7 January 1871 at Bungaree, near Ballarat, Victoria. An inquest was held two days later. The coroner, who seems to have been advised by a member of the family, was the informant on Thomas’s death certificate.
1871 death registration for Thomas Edwards (marked with red star)
Thomas Edwards, born about 1794, was 77 years old when he died. He had been a wheelwright. His parents are recorded on his death certificate as John Edwards and Jane Edwards nee Gilbert. Thomas’s father was a labourer. Thomas had been born in Cornwall and had spent 22 years in Victoria. He had married Mary Gilbart at the age of 33, in about 1827. Eight children – 6 boys and 2 girls – are noted, but their names and ages are not given.
There is only one baptism for a Thomas Edwards about 1794 in south-west Cornwall: Thomas, son of John and Jane Edwards, was baptised on 6 July 1794 at Towednack, a village 5 miles north-west of St Erth.
Thomas Edwards married Mary Gilbart on 14 March 1826 in the parish church of St Erth. If he was 77 when he died in 1871, he was about 32 in 1826 when he married Mary Gilbart. The witnesses to the marriage were John Gilbart and Sarah Gilbart, both of them probably relatives of the bride.
The dates on Thomas Edwards’s death certificate are consistent with those on the Lysander passenger manifest and the marriage record.
Marriage of John and Jane Edwards, parents of Thomas
I am unable to find a marriage for a John Edwards and a Jane Gilbert or Gilbart. Some online trees have John Edwards as the husband of Jane Harvey, with their marriage on 21 June 1788 at Breage. On that marriage John is from Breage and a tinner by rank or profession, Jane Harvey is from Germoe. The witnesses were Thomas Edwards and Thomas Johns. Germoe is less than three miles west of Breage. I think this is the likely marriage of Thomas’s parents and that Thomas’s death certificate incorrectly gives his mother’s maiden name.
Siblings of Thomas Edwards
As stated above Thomas, child of John and Jane Edwards was baptised 6 July 1794 at Towednack, Cornwall. Between 1788 and 1820 there were only two other children baptised at Towednack to parents named John and Jane Edwards:
William baptised on 7 August 1796
Honour baptised on 21 October 1798
It seems unlikely that the John and Jane Edwards who were married in 1788 had only three children and that the first, Thomas, was born six years after marriage. I looked for other baptisms in south-west Cornwall for parents John and Jane Edwards in the period 1788 – 1820.
The neighbouring parish of Lelant also records baptisms of children with parents John and Jane Edwards. However, because some of these are in 1794, 1797, and 1798, thus overlapping with the children born to the Towednack family, it appears that the Lelant baptisms are for a separate family.
On 26 December 1805 there is a baptism of a Sarah Edwards to John and Jane Edwards at Breage, 7 miles south-east of St Erth and 12 miles south-east of Towednack. It is also the marriage place of John Edwards and Jane Harvey.
There is a baptism of Charlotte Edwards on 4 May 1810 at Gulval. Gulval is just under five miles south of Towednack and just under 6 miles south-west of St Erth.
Some online family trees suggest a James Edwards born about 1805 is also the child of John and Jane Edwards, however I have not located a baptism for him with a mother named Jane in the indexes of the Cornwall Parish Records (Online Parish Clerk OPC) database. I have found a baptism for James in Germoe on 4 March 1804 with father John and mother Jenifred; Jenifred is possibly a variation of Jane. There was also an Anne Edwards, daughter of John and Jenifred baptised at Germoe on 2 May 1802.
I am puzzled though that there were apparently no children born to that marriage before 1794. However, the list of all Cornish baptisms on the OPC database to parents John and Jane Edwards has no other likely candidates for these baptisms in the period 1788 – 1794.
But there is a John Edwards baptised in Gulval on 23 November 1788. His mother’s name is not given. On 28 November 1790 there is a baptism at Madron, a village two miles west of Gulval, for Francis Edwards son of John, also without the mother’s name. On 24 June 1792 Jane Edwards, daughter of John, was baptised at Madron, again without the mother’s name. On 9 May 1806 Elizabeth, daughter of John (no mother named) was baptised at Penzance. She appears on the Madron register. I think it very likely that these four children are siblings of Thomas.
Map of south-west Cornwall showing St Erth, Towednack, Breage, Germoe, Gulval, and Madron
To summarise, the possible family of John Edwards and Jane:
Birth year
Name
Baptism date
Baptism place
Parents
1788
John
23 November 1788
Gulval
John
1790
Francis
28 November 1790
Madron
John
1792
Jane
24 June 1792
Madron
John
1794
Thomas
6 July 1794
Towednack
John and Jane
1796
William
7 August 1796
Towednack
John and Jane
1798
Honour
21 October 1798
Towednack
John and Jane
1802
Anne
2 May 1802
Germoe
John and Jenifred
1804
James
4 March 1804
Germoe
John and Jenifred
1805
Sarah
26 December 1805
Breage
John and Jane
1810
Charlotte
4 March 1810
Gulval
John and Jane
Two of Thomas’s siblings, James and Charlotte, emigrated to Victoria, arriving in Portland on the Oithona in 1855 with their spouses and some of their children. Unfortunately, the death certificates for James and Charlotte give no details of their mother.
John, Francis, Jane, William, Honour, and Anne Edwards died in Cornwall. English death certificates do not record information about the deceased person’s parents and so will not help to confirm details of John and Jane Edwards.
I am yet to trace whether Sarah Edwards married or emigrated, and when she died.
Deaths of John and Jane Edwards
In May 1817 there was a mining accident at St Ives which killed John Edwards and injured one of his sons. The Royal Cornwall Gazette of 31 May 1817 reported:
A few days ago, John Edwards, of the parish of St. Erth, was killed, and his son for the present deprived of his eyesight by the untimely explosion of a hole in a mine near St. Ives. A person who called at the house of the survivor, was informed at the accident was occasioned by the use of an iron tamper, the powder and quills and a little rubbish had been put into the hole, but it had not been wet swabbed. It is to be hoped that this distressing event will deter all others from the use of such dangerous implements, and induce them to adopt such means of safety as [article ceases]
John Edwards was buried 24 May 1817 at Gulval. His residence was St Erth and he was 54 years old [so born about 1763].
On the 1841 census a Jane Edwards age 75 was living in St Erth in the household of William and Charlotte Thomas; Charlotte was Jane’s daughter. On 10 May 1842 Jane Edwards, age 76, was buried at St Erth.
Conclusion
The 1871 death certificate of Thomas Edwards seems reliable, though his mother’s maiden name appears wrong, possibly confused with his wife’s maiden name. His mother was probably Jane Harvey who married Thomas’s father John Edwards in 1788. John and Jane Edwards lived in the area of Gulval, Towednack, and Germoe in south-west Cornwall. They had ten children .
This post continues the transcription of the family history of the Edwards family at Charlton, Victoria, compiled by Frederick James Edwards (1884 – 1974). Charlton is in north-central Victoria in the east Wimmera. F.J. Edwards was Greg’s first cousin three times removed.
-2-
When the over all gold [alluvial gold] was booming, the squatters’ drovers became restless and left to go gold digging, and the squatters in desperation imported Chinese by the thousand, at one time 100,000 Chinese were here and they also left for the gold. They were paid by the squatters per month and keep. The pastoralists advertised In China and the Chinese paid £3 boat fare and brought their own food.
In 1862 the bill was passed to open up the land and started the selected going north. And in 1874 with his brother Thomas and a little money saved, James came to Charlton and pegged out two 320 acre blocks adjoining making the square mile. An Act passed in 1862 allowed a selector only 320 acres at £1 per acre with conditions such as, the selectors had to build, fence and clear with 10 years to pay off, which the selectors could not do, and the payment was extended from time to time.
The parish plan showing the two blocks selected by James and Thomas Edwards near Charlton
James Edwards went back to Geelong after selecting land in Charlton and married Elizabeth Ann Nicholas on 29th December 1874 and started making preparations to come to Charlton. They got together 4 horses, a buggy, a light wagon and bare necessaries and started off in the late autumn of 1875. It took two weeks to arrive at Charlton and heavy rain slowed the travel, it took three days to go from Charlton to the selection 12 miles out. It was a big trial especially for James Edwards’ young wife who had not been out of Geelong, she had known her husband quite a few years. She had three brothers and one sister Ellen, who married a Shire Secretary at Wagga and lived there all her life and reared a big family. Her own mother corresponded regularly and I remember how the letters were looked forward to. Our mother was a stout strong woman, as her father who, tradition says held the belt for wrestling In Cornwall.
The coming to Charlton, and the prospect of a home, allowed them to look forward to their future life. Her parents said to her when leaving, in 10 years you ought to be able to retire back to Geelong, little did they know the hardships of Pioneers. The first job after arriving at the selection was to build a home, which consisted of logs and mud, the roof was the tent and the house consisted of one room. With improvements to this they lived there three years, and during that three years they were building the home which we know. There were plenty of straight pine trees which were stood up 3 feet apart with slabs across and filled with mud.
I have often heard our mother say how lovely it was to get into this new house, bark of a big tree and flattened with weight was used a lot for roofing. A poem by Tom Murphy would fit in here
Wattle and Dab formed the walls of the hut From gumsucker saplings the highbeams were cut And the roof over the heads of my parents and I Was the bark of a box from the gully near by The furniture crude in the old fashioned shack Was the pine from the pine ridge a mile or so back And the hole still remains not far from the door Where they puddled the clay for the old earthern floor The flesh of the roo for mutton did pass And faces were washed in the dew laden grass This beautiful towel was the bright morning sun And the moon gave them light when the daylight was done Our porridge a corn twint, the wheat and the oat Whilst we coloured our tea with the milk from the goat But although they were days of trials and fears They but used them as steps did our old pioneers.
Our mother was a wonderful woman and took her part in the pioneering of the district. A little woman named Jane Prichard came up with her and stayed with her for 10 years, a grand little woman. The first 10 years being the hardest for the pioneers. Our mother’s first born arrived in November 1875. She journed to her old home in Geelong for the event, the rest of her family were born at ‘Lamorna’. Ada the second girl was born in the tent, there was quite a big population coming there by that time, and a few of the old women acted as maternity sisters and the friendships in the District was a wonderful help to those old pioneers.
-3-
The Narrewillock school had 60 on the rolls and the families of those old pioneers always had 8 to 10 children, in fact 3 families adjoining us had 13 children. Within a few miles of our parents home there were a dozen big families, amongst the neighbours were the Douglass family of 12 only 1/2 mile away. Alec Coote, W. Coote and Tom Coote, O’Callaghan, O’Mearers, William, and a few others, all good neighbours and would all help one another.
For the first 10 years clearing the land carting water, and sinking storages was the big worry, the years 1875 to 1907.
The dingo gave them a worry, I have heard our father speak of the last dingo shot, he hid in a big bush one bright moonlight, expecting the old man dingo he came back to the kill of the night before and shot him. His 4 paws and tail were hanging up in the barn for many years. Kangaroos and Emus were all gone and driven back by 1880. About the early 80’s the rabbits put in their appearance, our father came home excited one day with a young rabbit and in a few years there was a plague of them. I caught the first fox in about 1890 with the sheep dogs. That was their first appearance and of course that pest will be always here now. The Shire gave a bonus of £1 a scalp and I got the £1 for the skin we kept for many years.
The native wild life that was on the Lamorna farm In the 1870s are now gone. Kangaroo, Emu, Native Cat, Wood mice, Curleu, Woodpecker, Ground Pluver, Chatterona Brown Bird, twice the size of a starling. The fox, rabbits and house cats, gone wild, are responsible for their disappearance.
Schooling for myself and four sisters was at Narrewillock five miles from home, the school had a few rooms attached, and an old man lived there named Brightwell, he kept the Post Office. Our eldest sisters did all their schooling there, later there was a school built one mile away from home called Hallam school, myself and youngest sister went mostly to this school. All walking was the order of the day. A teacher called Os Derrick stayed at Hallam four years and this was really the only schooling I received. Our parents lost one of the family, a girl they called Mary Beatrice who died of quinsy in 1880 which was a heavy blow to our parents. Two of the biggest worries was the shortage of water and money, and carting water was a constant job and sometimes from the Avoca River 7 miles. This worry was not realised [relieved] till 1921 the year I tapped the Marmal Creek and filled our dam, when the creek ran in the winter time. This creek ran eight years out of ten, the farmers are now served by a channel from Lake Lonsdale, in 1948.
On the 640 acres there were two patches of about forty acres without trees and these patches got more than their share of cropping, as the clearing of this was a big job. Our father bought a mower with two horses to pull in 1877 and a little peg drum thrasher to thrash the barley, and in about 1882 bought a stripper and winnow from South Australia which was wonderful in those days.
This type of stripper was used till the turn of the century. Our father bought the first H. V. McKay harvester in 1906 and from then on harvesting became much easier.
Advertisement for H.V. McKay, Sunshine Harvester Works in Sunshine, Victoria about 1911. This image appeared in The Leader (Melbourne) on 11 March 1911, page 31 with the caption “Young Australia at work; 500 bags of wheat harvested, unaided, by the Sunshine Harvester in a week by two boys, aged 12 and 13 years, sons of Mr. James Murphy, Sale.” This image retrieved from Flickr but the original source not given.
The horses named Darling and Jess were two good mares, they bred from them and their breeding was carried through right to the time the horses were discarded on the farms in about 1935, some farmers favoured horses earlier and some later. The prices for grain were too low for the farmers to prosper, the prices were controlled by spectator [speculators] being about 2/6 for wheat and as low as 1/- for oats, lambs 10/-. On less [Unless] a compulsory pool was established in 1916 but still no price fixed. In 1928 the Wheat Growers Association was formed which I was a foundation and executive member and from then on we gradually took control. The stabiliasion [stabilisation] scheme has been paying 12/- for quite a few years. I stayed on the State Council of the Victorian Wheat Growers Assoc. for five years and for the work and enthusiasm I put into the Association in the pioneering days, the Association at the Annual Conference in 1964, I was made a life member.
-4-
The season in this part of Victoria was uncertain, sometimes a very wet year and sometimes a drought. 1902 was the big drought and the next year 22 inches of rain. The big drought that I remember was 1902, 1914, 1920, 1929, 1940, 1944. I Frederick James took over the control of the farm in 1907. Nell the eldest married in 1902 to J. Findlay. Ada was music teaching in Ararat and Jean the youngest sister was with her, and Beatrice married P. Toose in 1909. I married in 1910 and had our 5 children there and for a while drove them to Narrewillock school but in March 1920 bought this house in Charlton and have lived there ever since. My wife Anne died 9th January 1963. Our family all turned out well they were all big, strong and good sports. Gwen (4 daughters) now Mrs. Richards, Bob married Joyce Parker (3 daughters) and is now at Beaumaris, Freda (1 son & 1 daughter) now Mrs. Piccoli and is now at Barraport. Joyce with two sons is on the farm, Nan (2 daughters) now Mrs. Nagel and lives at Black Rock.
The following is from my father James Edwards Diary.
1874. Met the surveyor from St. Arnaud and pegged out the two blocks at Narrewillock, the ground looks good plenty of grass but no water. I was married on 29th December 1874.
1875. Spent a few months in preparation in coming to Charlton, left Bullarook on 22nd May having lived there 14 years. My father has recorded they were very happy there. Arrived at the farm having spent 16 days on the trip. Very wet which made the travelling hard. First child born in November (Nell).
1876. Sowed the first patch of wheat, carting water.
1877. Second child born (Ada) .
1878. Drove to Geelong — one horse and buggy. We shifted to the new house having lived in a tent for 3 years.
1880. Rabbits were in plague proportion. Brought first stripper which proved a success.
1881. Lost two fingers, a sad event. Father suffered severely and was in St. Arnaud hospital for awhile.
1882. Started a Sunday school at Narrewillock which he kept on for 25 years.
1883. Shortage of water is causing hardship, sold 150 sheep 7/-.
1884 Received £11/7/3 as fathers share of Will B. Gilbart (London).
1885. Very bad year, 167 bags (4 bushels) total cheque £115/11/11.
1886. Another bad year 94 bags from 150 acres. Sold 61 bags for £34/19/6.
1887. First plague of Locusts.
1888. Sold 220 bags wheat price 2/10 ½ per bushel. Rev. Kirkwood started preaching at Narrewillock, he stayed there 20 years. Bought 125 sheep at 6/5d. , wheat price this year 1/9d.
1891. Sent two trucks of sheep and lambs to Melbourne, price £87/5/- for 226 sheep.
1892. Later sent 165 lambs to Melbourne, cheque £54/4/10. Bought stripper and winmower, the winmower is still at the farm. Bought cow and calf for £3.
1893. Sold 163 bags for 1/9 a bushel some at 1/7 ½, sold 115 bags oats @ 6 ½ d.
1896. Wheat price rose to 4/6 ½. 696 sheep were shorn, shearing cheque £5/2/- for shearers.
1897. Sent 130 lambs to Melbourne, cheque £41/1 2/10.
1898. Rented Howards 1200 acres for 3 years, £150 per year, this land is held now by Hillard, Blair, McGurk and L. Douglass.
1900. Ordered first seed drill, Massey Harris £45.
1901. Very dry, carting water takes the whole time.
1902. The first big drought, practically no rain for the year, horses went to Lang Lang and sheep sold, this from now on is written by F.J. Edwards.
1903. The year was good and from now on the farming system very much improved.
1905. We bought a H.V. McKay harvester which made harvesting from now on much easier.
1907. [1908] Uncle Tom died, he had been a great help mate to father all his life – age 81
1908. Our mother died, she had been in Ararat with Ada, but came home when she became sick – age 65.
1909. Sister Beatrice married P. Toose
1910. Myself married to Annie Morcon of Bendigo.
1914. Another drought, no wheat, the first big war started.
1916. Our father died this year aged 81 both he and our mother are buried in Terrappee cemetery.
1920. Been having good seasons, my wife and self bought our home in Charlton, we have five of our family.
1921. I sank the big dam at the farm 9000 yds it took three five horse teams about three months, a big job.
1925. Ken McPherson took wheat growing on the shares, he and his wife stayed five years.
1929. Another drought, sent 24 horses to Tatura on swamp country, Gerald Buckley property, stayed 6 months.
1930. The Wheat Growers Association was formed this year the first big move to organise the wheat growers as a foundation member. I stayed on the State Council five years. The next ten years was the depression years, fair seasons but low prices.
1931. Bob 21 was now working the farm, I made over Pratts and Howards 560 acres to him.
1941. Son Bob married and built the new home at the farm, costing about £3,000.
1944. Very bad drought, Bob Edwards took over the full management and bought O’Mearers land 500 acres @ £7 per acre.
1948. Bob bought 2,000 acre property at Ballan and left the farm.
1949. Joyce and Bob Chambers left the Bank and gradually took over the whole farm, bought Bob Edwards’ land for £20 per acre.
-6-
1963. 9th January mother died and is buried in Terrappee Cemetery, her passing has left a blank in the family.
1964. Another good season, the Chambers have two good boys, one 19 and the other 13, these boys should and I think will carry on and uphold the tradition of the Pioneers, and who will carry on the farm at Narrewillock.
Yesterday Greg and I drove to Charlton to look at the Wimmera land selected in 1875 by his great great uncles Thomas Edwards (1826 – 1908), James Edwards (1835 – 1916), and John Gilbart Edwards (1829 – 1912).
Last week I had found the properties on the parish plans, through the website of the Public Record Office Victoria. Thomas and James were in Narrewillock Parish north-east of Charlton. Comparing the plan to Google maps I discovered the road adjacent to the property was named—conveniently for us—‘Edwards Road’.
The land selected by Thomas and James Edwards from the Narrewillock Parish plan
John Gilbart Edwards settled at Yeungroon southwest of Charlton.
The land settled by John Gilbart Edwards from the Yeungroon parish plan.
Map of places visited near Charlton
We first found the property at Yeungroon, on Five Mile Road. The countryside nearby was in splendid condition after the rain. We stopped to look at a mob of sheep. They had a lot to say, much of it ‘maa’ rather than ‘baa’. Perhaps they were maa lambs, not baa lambs, a different breed.
Yeungroon
Afterwards we looked through the Charlton Golden Grains Museum. The volunteers there had sent me a comprehensive list of newspaper articles about the Edwards, including obituaries for Thomas and James. At the museum we saw photos of the Charlton H.E.S. (Higher Elementary School) Basketball team of 1925. A couple of the photographs had the granddaughters of James Edwards Gwen (1910 – 2006) and Freda (1913 – 2008) Edwards in them .
Charlton Golden Grains Museum is housed in the former Mechanics Institute. Gwen and Freda Edwards were part of the 1925 basketball team. F J Edwards was master of the Charlton Lodge in 1928.
Charlton: statue of Pompey Elliott who was born in Charlton; WW1 memorial; the Avoca River and flood markers; the main street.
Thomas died in 1908 at Charlton and was buried in Charlton cemetery. James, who died in 1916, was buried in Terrappee cemetery. We found their graves.
Charlton Cemetery is a mile west of the town. From the obituary published in the East Charlton Tribune, which had been shared with us by the Charlton Golden Grains Museum, we knew that Thomas was buried there. At the cemetery is a directory of the site, erected by the Rotary Club, which lists all the graves and their location. The grave of Thomas Edwards has no headstone, but we were able to determine which plot was his by confirming the location of the neighbouring headstone. It is rare to find such a useful finding-aid at a cemetery.
Charlton Cemetery: Thomas Edwards is buried in an unmarked grave.
Afterwards we visited the grave of James Edwards at Terrappee Cemetery, about 10 km northeast of Charlton. We knew in advance from FindAGrave that James’s grave there has a headstone.
James’s son Frederick James Edwards is buried next to James. Strangely, his gravestone has the wrong date of death. Frederick James died on 15 December 1974, the date confirmed by his death notice in The Age of 16 December.
Terrappee cemetery is a small bush graveyard, peaceful and calm, surrounded by enormous cultivated paddocks. It has a large peppercorn tree.
Terrappee Cemetery. Frederick James Edwards is buried next to his parents, unfortunately his gravestone records the wrong date of death.
Then we found their property, formerly known as “Lamorna”, which had been selected by James and Thomas Edwards. A new crop of wheat had sprouted. James Edwards’s diary recorded that he sowed his first patch of wheat in 1876, a year after his arrival.
The land settled by Thomas and James Edwards in 1875 with a new crop of wheat.
From Terrapee we came back to Charlton and after a pleasant roast lunch sitting in the sun on the verandah of the Cricket Club Hotel drove home to Ballarat.
Lunch on the verandah of the Charlton Cricket Club Hotel
I was pleased to receive a copy of a brief history of the Edwards family in Australia—one branch of it, at least—from one of Greg’s Edwards cousins, a descendant of his great great uncle James Edwards. Greg’s mother Marjorie was descended from Francis Gilbart Edwards, youngest son of Thomas and Mary Edwards nee Gilbart.
Marjorie was quite interested in her family history and passed on many stories to me. She was especially fond of retelling the history of her Edwards and Gilbart forebears and their connection with a missionary family named Tuckfield.
The history, six pages long, will be continued in future posts.
Page 1
HISTORY OF THE EDWARDS FAMILY
This short history of the Edwards Family was compiled by Frederick James Edwards, the son of James and Elizabeth Edwards who was born at the farm in 1884, ten years after the parents came there as Pioneers.
James Edwards was a great reader and very literary minded and from the time he arrived on the selection he kept a day to day diary from 1874 to 1901, and at the end of this history I will note the principle events of each year from year to year. It was partly from this diary that I got the particulars that is in this history.
For the benefit of future generations the following is a brief history of the Edwards families just prior to coming to Australia and since that time.
The founder of the Australian family was Thomas Edwards who was born in St. Earth [Erth], Cornwall in the year 1798 and during his manhood of the 49 years in Cornwall he had interests and worked in a foundry known in those days as Rolling Mills and manufactured principally mining equipment, carts, shovels and picks.
He married in 1826 to Mary Gilbart, the daughter of a prominent Methodist family. It is traditional that John Wesley stayed with the Gilbart family when founding the Wesleyan Church in Cornwall, they provided land for the first church and copper laid pulpit for the church.
Mary Gilbart’s elder sister came to Australia in 1838 as the wife of Rev. Frances Tuckfield, the first Wesleyan Minister appointed to Victoria.
Thomas and Mary Edwards had 5 sons and one daughter [7 sons and 2 daughters], the continuation of our family was the third son James, who was born on January 28 1835, at St. Earth [Erth] and came to Victoria at the age of 14 with all the family as immigrants and arrived in Corio Bay, Geelong on Christmas Day 1849 [13 January 1849] in the sailing ship “Lysander” and on account of the poor landing facilities and adverse wind did not land until the next day, The time taken by the ship from Plymouth to Geelong was about 100 days. This ship “Lysander” of 475 tons had 238 passengers and there were 9 births and 7 deaths on the passage. The ship had one more trip to England for immigrants and bought back to Victoria the documents signed by Queen Victoria for the separation of N.S.W. from Victoria in 1851. It was then fitted out as a hospital ship and acted in that capacity for many years and acted as a Hospital Ship at the Crimean War.
The Victorian Government paid all shipping freight for tradesmen on all tools used by the trade. We have an anvil forged made and steel faced at the farm, brought out under those conditions.
The hardships of landing in a new country with no housing and a big family can be imagined. The father was a wheel right and carpenter and the eldest boys were also in the trade. And in Geelong, while there was plenty of work, later James with the eldest brother Thomas, who stayed with James and worked together through life, followed the gold rush without success, and then went farming at Little River, Buninyong and Bullarook where they stayed 14 years.
The farm at Bullarook proved quite a good farm, potatoes were the main crop. As the open up the land cry was on, and all the Western District was taken up they decided to select at Charlton. When the parents grew old they went to Bullarook with Thomas and James and died there and are buried in the old Ballarat cemetery, The years at Bullarook was 1860 to 1874 with the sale of the Bullarook land at £10 per acre gave Thomas and James a IittIe money to start at Charlton. The finding of gold in Victoria brought thousands of immigrants from overseas and the service [surface] gold soon worked out and selectors took up land going north as the Western District was already taken over by squatters. These dates were from 1853 to 1870.
Greg and I have visited the graves of Thomas and Mary Edwards at Ballarat Old Cemetery.
The grave site of Mary and Thomas Edwards Wesleyan Section Ballarat Old Cemetery : WN, Section 08, Row 2, Grave 09 The headstone is missing. Buried at this location are Mary Edwards nee Gilbart died 1867, her husband Thomas Edwards died 1871, and four grandchildren, the children of Mary and Thomas’s son William Edwards. (Grave location identified with reference to the adjacent headstone of David Cooper at WN, Section 08, Row 2, Grave 08)
Fires covered a quarter of what is now Victoria (approximately 5 million hectares). Areas affected include Portland, Plenty Ranges, Westernport, the Wimmera and Dandenong districts. Approximately 12 human lives, one million sheep and thousands of cattle were lost.
In 1851 among our forebears these people were living in Victoria and would have experienced the frightening conditions that day:
Greg’s third great grandparents John Narroway Darby (1823 – ?) and his wife Matilda nee Moggridge (1825 – 1868) had separated and Matilda was living with David Hughes with whom she had a daughter Margaret born 1850 at Ashby, now west Geelong. In 1851 Matilda and her daughters Matilda (1845 – ?), Greg’s great great grandmother, and Margaret were probably living in Ashby. John Darby and their daughter Henrietta may have been living in Portland where John married for a second time in 1855.
Greg’s third great grandparents Thomas Edwards (1794 – 1871) and Mary Edwards nee Gilbart (1805 – 1867), were living near Geelong at the time of the death of their daughter in 1850. They later moved to Bungaree near Ballarat but at the time of the fires they were probably in the Geelong district with their children including their youngest son and Greg’s great great grandfather, Francis Gilbart Edwards (1848 – 1913).
Samuel Proudfoot Hawkins (1819 – 1867) and his wife Jeanie nee Hutcheson (1824 – 1864), my third great grandparents, were living in the Portland district. Their second daughter Penelope was born in July 1851 at Runnymede station near Sandford which had been settled by Jeanie’s brothers. Also at Runnymede was Isabella Hutcheson nee Taylor (1794 – 1876), Jeanie’s mother and my fourth great grandmother.
The fire did not reach Ashby or Geelong but a week later a report wrote about the conditions experienced that day in the Geelong district.
The peculiarity of the phenomena of Thursday, was the extraordinary violence of the hot blast by which the conflagration was kindled. Had the hurricane continued to blow during Thursday night with the same violence as during the day, the conflagration might have approached closer to the suburbs, and we might have been exposed to the fiery projectiles which were swept through the air, and which carried devastation to stations and homesteads that were thought to be secure. The violence of the wind, the intensity, breadth, and volume of the fire, the combustible condition of grass, trees, fences, train, huts, and houses, formed a combination that baffled both calculation and means of resistance; and had the fire reached Ashby, we could not have reckoned on the safety of Geelong.
FRIDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 14. (1851, February 14). Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1847 – 1851), p. 2 (DAILY and MORNING). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91917049
An account of the bushfire from the Portland perspective:
BUSH FIRES. (From the Portland Guardian.) Yesterday forenoon was a period of extraordinary heat, and we are sorry to say, of calamity also. The heat from 11 o’clock, am, until afternoon was most oppressive ; a hot wind blowing from the N.N.W. in a most furious manner. At this time the thermometer stood for an hour by one glass at 112° while by two others it reached 116° in the sun. The dust in the streets was most suffocating, penetrating the smallest crevices, and filling the houses. In consequence of the excessive heat and bush fires, the last day of the races was postponed, until this day, when they duly came off. About 12 o’clock a bush fire in the vicinity of the town began to rage with the utmost fury. It sprang up near the racecourse, and through the violence of the hot wind, threatened to consume the booths, and to envelope the persons who had assembled there in the flames, before time could be afforded them to escape. By a slight change of wind, however, the racers escaped ; but the resistless element swept away in its course the newly erected cottage of Mr Howard the collector of Customs, leaving time only to hurry away Mrs Howard and the family out of the house, before their residence became a perfect cinder So sudden and rapid was the progress of the flames that the fowls and goats about the premises were all consumed. The fire swept along before the wind, carrying away the fences, and all that stood in its way, for about a mile and a half, when Mr Blair, with the whole body of the constabulary, and others from the racecourse arrived in time to save his own hay-stack and residence. The utmost concern was felt in town at the same time, at the approach of the fire from another quarter. Burnt particles were whirling down the streets and flying over the tops of the houses in profusion. But a constable was not to be seen in town. Those of the inhabitants in their houses were making the best preparations which they could for themselves respectively , water carts and concentrated effort was at a sad discount. Several gentlemen did their utmost to prepare against a highly probable casualty, but the utmost which they could do was to warn others of the danger. Fortunately the wind moderated about two o’clock, and the apprehension passed away.
While this fire was raging in the immediate vicinity of the town, Mount Clay and the farms in that locality were enveloped in one vast blaze. Mr Millard has again been a heavy sufferer in this latter fire, and has now lost the whole of his crops. Messrs Monogue, M’Lachlan and Dick, have partaken with him in his misfortunes. The work of years has been swept away from those industrious families and severe sufferers. Their fences, their crops, and their homes, have been annihilated at a stroke.
Just at the same hour the Bush Tavern, which has stood scathless for many years in the midst of a dense forest, and proved so often a place of shelter to the forlorn traveller from the pitiless storm of winter and the scorching heat of summer, is now a heap of ashes. The fire reached the buildings without warning ; and the few articles which were saved from the wreck ignited afterwards with the excessive heat which the burning houses created. The bridge across the Fitzroy has shared a similar fate with the house; a dray, and it is supposed a horse, have met a similar calamity.
At sea, the weather was even more fearful than on shore. Captain Reynolds reports that yesterday, when 20 miles from the Laurences, the heat was so intense, that every soul on board was struck almost powerless. A sort of whirlwind, on the afternoon, struck the vessel, and carried the topsail, lowered down on the cap, clean out of the bolt rope, and had he not been prepared for the shock, the vessel, he has no doubt, would have been capsized. Flakes of fire were, at the time, flying thick all around the vessel from the shore in the direction of Portland.
My husband’s fourth great grandfather John Gilbart, born about 1760, was a Cornish Copper Company (CCC) employee, promoted from Copperhouse near Hayle in West Cornwall to manager at the Rolling Mills at St Erth.
Cornish copper mining was at its most productive in the nineteenth century, declining as copper prices fell, from the mid-nineteenth century on. The Cornish Copper Company commenced smelting at Camborne in 1754. From 1758 it was located on the Hayle estuary, ten miles to the southwest. The mills at St Erth used water power to roll copper into thin sheets.
These sheets were used mainly to plate the bottoms of wooden ships. Coppering helped to prevent barnacles growing. This increased a ship’s speed and its lifespan. It also prevented worms from burrowing into the wood and weakening it. Sheathing with copper significantly increased the time a ship could remain in service between overhauls. It was held copper sheathing could double the number of ships at sea at any time”. In 1779 each ship on average required 15 tonnes of copper applied on average as 300 plates. The 14 tons of metal required to copper a 74-gunthird-rateship of the line still cost £1500, compared to £262 for wood. The benefits of increased speed and time at sea were deemed to justify the costs involved.
The ‘Royal Caroline’ painted by John Cleveley and in the collection of National Maritime Museum Greenwich. HMS ‘Alderney’ (1757) was built to the same shape and dimensions. In 1784 the ‘Alderney’ was described on Lloyd’s Register as being copper sheathed.
The Battery Mill ceased in 1809 when the Cornish Copper Company closed.
Derelict rolling mill, Landore, Wales. This mill was in use until the 1980s. I don’t think anything remains of the rolling mill at St Erth. Photograph from https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/946514
Hayle River near St Erth St Erth church can be seen behind the trees. The Hayle river reaches the sea about 3 miles north of here. Photograph from https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/182864
John Gilbart married Elizabeth Huthnance on 3 January 1798 at Gwinear. They had 13 children.
John Gilbart was a member of the first Copperhouse Methodist Society and the founder in 1783 of the St Erth Methodist Class. The first Methodist chapel was built in St Erth in 1796 and the present chapel was built in 1827.
The chapel includes a monument to Francis Tuckfield (1808-1865), who was one of the first of the few missionaries who attempted to convert Australian Aboriginals to Christian belief.
In 1837 Francis Tuckfield married Sarah Gilbart of Battery Mill, the daughter of John Gilbart. They departed for Australia less than a month later.
Picture of plaque kindly sent to me by the St Erth Methodist Church
The chapel also includes a monument to James Gilbart (1825 – 1923), grandson of John Gilbart. The plaque mentions John Gilbart “who built the first chapel at St Erth in 1783”.
John Gilbart died in 1837.
Row of houses in Battery Mill Lane The three houses were probably the count house and managers’ houses for the former Battery Mill (which used water power to roll copper). Image from https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3106054
In 1841 my husband Greg’s fourth great grandmother Elizabeth Gilbart nee Huthnance (1774-1847) was living in Battery Mill, St Erth. Her age was stated to be 65. Her occupation was given as ‘independent means’. In the same household were six of her 13 children, at the time all six unmarried:
John Gilbart aged 40.
Thomasine Gilbart aged 30.
Margerey Gilbart aged 25.
William Gilbart aged 25, iron factor.
Thomas Gilbart aged 25, farmer.
Jane Gilbart aged 20.
In the same household was Elizabeth Gilbart’s grand-daughter, Elizabeth Edwards, aged 9. Elizabeth Edwards was the daughter of Mary Edwards nee Gilbart, Greg’s 3rd great grandmother. The Edwards family which included five other children lived in Bridge Terrace St Erth. Perhaps Elizabeth was just visiting her grandmother overnight.
The household also included a female servant, Elizabeth Davey, aged 15.
James Gilbart, an iron factor, the son of Elizabeth Gilbart, lived in the adjacent cottage with his wife Ann Gilbart nee Ellis, aged 50, and two daughters, Ann Gilbart aged 14 and Maria Gilbart aged 10.
(These ages may not be strictly correct. In the 1841 census the census takers were instructed to give the exact ages of children but to round the ages of those older than 15 down to a lower multiple of 5. For example, a 59-year-old person would be listed as 55.)
Elizabeth Gilbart died on 1 July 1847, leaving a will that was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 18 December 1847. Her will mentioned annuities to be provided for various children, specific books and furniture
Sources
Pascoe, W. H CCC, the history of the Cornish Copper Company. Truran, Redruth, Cornwall, 1982.
1841 census viewed through ancestry.com: Elizabeth Gilbart: Class: HO107; Piece: 144; Book: 1; Civil Parish: St Erth; County: Cornwall; Enumeration District: 5; Folio: 72; Page: 19; Line: 12; GSU roll: 241266 ; Mary Edwards Class: HO107; Piece: 144; Book: 1; Civil Parish: St Erth; County: Cornwall; Enumeration District: 5; Folio: 69; Page: 13; Line: 1; GSU roll: 241266
Will of Elizabeth Gilbart proved 18 December 1847 viewed through ancestry.com The National Archives; Kew, England; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 2066
AncestryDNA has a new map feature currently in Beta mode and a group of AncestryDNA users is trying out the feature before it is launched.
I tried it by selecting one of Greg’s matches, SB, a person who is shown as being from Australia.
SB is an estimated 4th cousin DNA match sharing 22 centimorgans across 2 segments. I had messaged her twice a year ago when her match first came up but had no response. She has a small tree attached to her match showing two living parents and four deceased grandparents. Details for the grandparents showed:
Paternal grandfather: name but no middle names, death place Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, no birth or death dates
Paternal grandmother: name including middle name, death place Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, birth year 1927, no death date
Maternal grandfather: name but no middle names, birth and death place Sunshine, Victoria, Australia, birth and death dates 28 July 1915 and 12 November 1979
Maternal grandmother: name but no middle names, birth place Maryborough, Victoria, Australia and death place Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, birth year 1924 and death date 1 August 2005.
SB shares DNA with Greg’s 2nd cousin HS. It would seem on the basis of this connection that the most common recent ancestors will be on Greg and HS’s Dawson or Edwards line. HS and Greg share great grandparents Henry Dawson (1864 – 1929) and Edith Caroline Dawson nee Edwards (1871 – 1946).
Using the Victorian birth, death and marriage indexes, I developed a private non-indexed tree based on the data I had for SB. I started with the maternal grandparents. But I did not seem to be coming across familiar surnames and was quickly reaching back to the UK and areas that did not match those where Greg’s forebears came from.
I next looked at the paternal grandparents. I was having trouble finding their marriage and identifying the death of the paternal grandfather. However I successfully found the death date of the paternal grandmother from a death notice on the Ryerson index, a free index to death notices appearing in Australian newspapers. (The death notice is recent and can be viewed online.) Using the deceased search facility for the Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, I was able to find the burial site of the paternal grandmother and confirm the death details of the paternal grandfather, who had been buried in the same plot. From there I was able to trace the paternal grandfather’s pedigree using the birth, death and marriage indexes. It was reasonably quick and trouble-free. Within 3 generations I had a surname I recognised.
index record from the registry of Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria
Charlotte Victoria Edwards (1834 -1924), born St Erth, Cornwall, United Kingdom, and died Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia, was already on my main family tree although I did not know she had come to Australia and did not have her marriage or death details. Charlotte is Greg’s 1st cousin 4 times removed and SB’s 3rd great grandmother. Greg and SB are 5th cousins once removed. Their most common recent ancestors are Greg’s fourth great grandparents John Edwards and Jane Edwards nee Gilbert.
Charlotte was the daughter of Greg’s fourth great uncle James Edwards (1805 – 1883), and the granddaughter of Greg’s fourth great grandparents John Edwards and Jane Edwards nee Gilbert. James Edwards married Mary Nicholas and they had at least six children of whom Charlotte was the third oldest.
Charlotte and her family arrived in Portland, Victoria on 30 January 1855 on the Oithona, which had left Southampton on 16 October 1854. There were 344 immigrants on board. James Edwards was a 50 year old agricultural labourer from Cornwall. He was accompanied by his 47 year-old wife Mary and two children, Elizabeth aged 9 and John aged 4. Their religious denomination was stated to be Church of England and James and Mary, but not their two children, could read and write. The disposal register listing their disembarkation intentions noted he was “on own account” and address Portland. Three older daughters, Mary (Mary Ann), Jane and Charlotte were enumerated separately as they were then 23, 22 and 19. All girls were said to be Church of England and they could all read and write. The register stated that Mary went to Mrs Nicholson of Portland, Jane went to Thomas Must of Portland and Charlotte went with her father. One sun was enumerated separately. James was 17. He was described as an agricultural labourer from Cornwall, his religious denomination was Church of England and he could read and write. The disposal register noted he was “on own account” and address Portland.
Passenger list from the “Oithona” showing James, Mary, Jane and Charlotte Edwards as single passengers. Image retrieved from ancestry.com from database held by Public Records Office Victoria.Register of Assisted Immigrants from the United Kingdom. Microfiche VPRS 14.
Also on the Oithona was Charlotte Thomas nee Edwards (1811 – 1887) and her husband William Thomas, a mason. Charlotte Thomas was the sister of James and Thomas Edwards.
James’s brother Thomas Edwards (1794 – 1871) had arrived in Victoria in 1849. I assume James Edwards and Charlotte Thomas and their families came out as their brother Thomas recommended immigration to them. I do not know however if they met up in Victoria.
One of my husband’s great great grandfathers was Francis Gilbart Edwards (1848-1913).
He was born at St Erth, Cornwall, on 21 January 1848, youngest of the nine children of Thomas Edwards (1794-1871) and Mary née Gilbart (1805-1867).
Francis Gilbart Edwards was christened at the parish church of St Erth on 11 June 1848. On the christening documents his father’s occupation is given as carpenter.
On 27 December 1870 Francis Gilbart Edwards married Caroline Ralph (1850-1896) in Ballarat. At the time of his marriage Francis’s occupation was declared to be farmer.
Francis and Caroline had ten children:
Edith Caroline (1871-1946), Greg’s great grandmother, born Ballarat, Victoria
Lucy Gilbart (1873-1908) born Ballarat
Helena Mary Francis (1876-1950) born Ballarat
Annie Tuckfield (1879-1906) born Port Adelaide, South Australia
Elizabeth Christina (1881- ) born Gladstone, South Australia
Ethel Augusta (1885-1963) born Kensington, South Australia
Benjamin Gilbart (1887-1888) born Ballarat, died Richmond, Victoria
Stanley Gilbert (1889-1917) born Richmond
Ernest Francis Gilbart (1891-1901) born East Brunswick, died Brighton
Arnold Leslie Morton (1893-1904) born Brighton, died Elsternwick
The oldest three children of Francis and Caroline were born in Ballarat. Sometime between 1876 and 1879 the family moved to South Australia, and three more children were born there. A seventh child was born in Ballarat in 1887. Not long afterwards the family moved to Melbourne. In March 1888 their then youngest son died in Richmond. Three more sons were born in Melbourne. From the place of birth information on their birth certificates, it appears that the family moved from Richmond to East Brunswick, Victoria. In 1893 the youngest child, Arnold, was born in Brighton and died a year later in Elsternwick. (Richmond, East Brunswick, Brighton, and Elsternwick are suburbs of Melbourne.)
On 1 December 1887 Francis joined the railways as a carriage cleaner.
In 1894, due to ‘a reduction in his wages and sickness in the family’, Francis became insolvent.
On 22 July 1896, after six week’s illness, Caroline Edwards died of cancer of the uterus. At the time the Edwards were living in Grant Street, Brighton.
Francis Gilbert Edwards, seated on the left, was photographed at the 1911 wedding of his daughter Ethel Augusta Edwards to James McCorkell
On 29 March 1913 Francis, who had been ill for twelve months, died of diabetes, at Primrose Crescent, Brighton. His occupation was given as railway employee.
Francis Edwards died intestate. His estate, valued at £1076:13:1, included two houses, one at Primrose Crescent Brighton and the other at Male Street Brighton. Each was valued at 500 pounds. Also in his estate was money in the bank, a gold watch, jewellery, and a cow.
Gilbart, the maiden surname of Francis’s mother, has often been used in the family as a given name. Francis Edwards used it consistently as his second personal name. There have been variant spellings. My mother-in-law Marjorie insisted that Gilbart should be spelled with an ‘a’ rather than an ‘e’. Her mother, granddaughter of Francis, was christened Stella Esther Gilbart Dawson. Sometimes, however, the name is spelled ‘Gilbert’, perhaps because of a recording error and at other times perhaps quite deliberately. Stanley Gilbert Edwards (1889-1917), a son of Francis Gilbart Edwards, spelled it with an ‘e’ when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in World War 1 and when he married.
Anne's Family History 