The Story of Richard Joseph Brown

This post tells the story of my paternal Great Grandfather, Richard Joseph Brown (1861 - 1947).

Image taken from "The Browning Story: Tracings From The Past" by Esme Smith

                              

When my great grandfather Richard was born in May of 1861, his father, Henry Johnson Brown, was 41 years old and his mother, Caroline Penelope Browning, was aged 31.

(The details of the ages of Richard's parents as recorded on my great grandfather Richard's birth certificate appear to be incorrect, according to my research on both my great great grandparents, Henry and Caroline.  This seems to be a common occurrence on my ancestor records from this time!  It makes me wonder whether or not these people actually knew the date of their own birth, or whether the people recording the details were completely inept!  It certainly makes family research a complicated process sometimes.)

Both of Richard's parents, Henry and Caroline, had been born in England and had become pioneers alongside their parents in the area around the Richmond River in New South Wales, after emigration to Australia.  My great grandfather came from tough, resilient and courageous pioneering stock.

Richard was born in the town of Lismore, which sits beside a tributary of the Richmond River known as Wilson's River, in the state of New South Wales.

A major flood in Lismore in the late 1800s

Periodic flooding was part of life on the Richmond River, but strangely, in the year of Richard's birth, there were three major flooding events on the Richmond.  It was an historic year for the small town!

At the time of his birth there were already six siblings who had survived, and one sibling who had sadly passed away.

Henry Johnson (named after his father) had been born in 1847.
Alexander Johnson (known later as Sandy) came along in 1849.
John Thomas had been born in 1850.
Anne Caroline was born in 1853.
Elias had been born in 1856.  Sadly, he passed away two years later in 1858.
William Norman was born in 1858.
James Irving Clarke Stevenson came along in 1859.

By the time my great grandfather Richard was born, his father Henry was a hotel keeper and quite a prominent and well-known man in the Lismore community. He had built the first hotel in Lismore.  Henry had first established himself though as a cedar cutter and had then become a cedar dealer in the area.

Example of a cedar slab home

Working with huge planks of cedar, he had built the family home himself, and had then extended it to set up Lismore's first hotel.


Richard's father had apparently owned a number of plots of land around Lismore whilst his children were growing up, so I have made the assumption that they had quite a comfortable life during these years.

After Richard was born, there were to be another three siblings added to the family.


Eliza Duncan was born in 1863.
Frances Somers Hayes was born in 1865.
Lastly, Robert Frederick Bayley came along in 1867.  My great grandfather Richard was 5 years old by that time.

Tragically, Richard's father died in 1868, when Richard was only 7 years old.

Unfortunately, by this time, the family had fallen on hard times. Richard's father had been in bankruptcy court just the year before, as he had amassed quite large debts. Upon the death of Richard's father, most of the land and assets were sold off to pay off the creditors.

Richard's mother Caroline, now a widow with ten children, apparently held on to the family home and most likely carried on the hotel business so she could support her family.  I think I could rightly assume that my great grandfather, even at this young age, would have been helping out doing chores in the hotel and at home.

Richard's mother Caroline married again in 1874, when Richard was aged 13.  Sadly, his step-father died just a few months later, and Caroline was left a widow once more.  Four years later, Richard's mother married for the third time, in 1878.  By this time Richard was 17 years old.

History kept on repeating itself though, and Richard's second step-father died just a few years after he had married Caroline, in 1881 when Richard was 20 years old.  By now, Richard was working as a timber cutter, as his own father had done in his early adult years.

Two years later, in December of 1883, Richard married Ellen Cusack in Lismore. He was 22 years of age.

I will digress slightly once more to make mention of yet another difference in the details found on records pertaining to my great grandfather, Richard.

The record of Richard's marriage states that his name was Richard Gordon Brown, and not Richard Joseph as it had been recorded on his birth record. This name - Richard Gordon - also pops up on the birth certificate of his last daughter, and on a couple of his children's death certificates as well.

I found this a little confusing, and thought that once again there might have been an error made on the original birth certificate.  I then thought that perhaps, like a couple of the siblings born around the same time as Richard, he might in fact have had two middle names!  Both the sibling born the year before Richard, as well as the last-born brother, had two middle names.  Perhaps Richard actually had two middle names as well, but decided to just go with Gordon once he had become an adult!  It's all a bit of a mystery!

Richard (Gordon, or Joseph, or perhaps Joseph Gordon!) and his new bride Ellen, were married at the residence of one Reverend Hugh Livingstone, according to the rites of the Presbyterian Church.  Ellen, my great grandmother, was aged 21.  They went on to have four children during their marriage, all daughters!


During my family tree research I've found that most of my direct ancestral line had rather large families with a mix of sons and daughters ... apart from the family of my great grandfather Richard.  He is the only direct ancestor of mine to have such a small family, only four children, and he is the only one who had all daughters.  It's a bit of a record!

My grandmother Grace Olive was born in 1885.
Lillian Rae was born in 1887.
Elsie Myrtle was born in 1890.
Marcella May came along in 1892.

I've been unable to find out much information about the years of Richard's married life.  His name doesn't turn up in census records at all, which is slightly unusual, given that he lived until a ripe old age! 

I've also tried finding his wife Ellen, my great grandmother, in the census records between their marriage in 1883 and the year of her death, but have been unsuccessful there as well.

On their first daughter's birth certificate, it's recorded that the family were living in Lismore and Richard's occupation was listed as 'labourer', which seems to indicate that he was no longer working as a timber cutter a mere two years after his marriage.  'Timber cutter' was recorded on his marriage certificate as his occupation at that time.

It's true that by the mid 1880s, the timber cutting industry had slowed down and was not the prosperous field it had been in the early 1840s.  It's likely that Richard had been unable to find regular work as a timber cutter after his marriage, and had been attempting to find work wherever he could.  'Labourer' was also recorded on the birth certificates of his other daughters as well.

Can I perhaps deduce that Richard moved around a lot looking for work - hence no census records - and perhaps didn't live with his family much at all!  Did the girls grow up without the presence of their father in their lives?  How I wish I could have a conversation with my grandmother and ask about her childhood years.  Sadly, that is not possible, given that she died when I was quite young.

When Richard's last daughter Marcella was born in the early 1890s, he was aged 31.  Two years later, his mother Caroline passed away, and that was the beginning of rather a long period of grief and loss for my great grandfather.

After the death of his mother in 1894, Richard then lost his sister Anne in 1910.  In the very next year, 1911, Richard's second-born daughter died, Lillian, died.  She was only 24 years old!  It appears that she died shortly after childbirth. That would have been heart-breaking for all the family.  At the time, Richard was aged 50.

It seems that it was around this time that Richard moved from Lismore, where he had been born and had spent the first 50 years of his life.  He moved to an area known as Stanmore, an inner suburb of Sydney, New South Wales (as mentioned in his death notice and listed on his death certificate).

Richard's brother John Thomas died in 1918.  His brother Alexander died in 1931.  Brother William died in 1937.  Brother Henry Johnson died in 1938.  Sister Eliza Duncan died in 1938.  Both brother Robert Frederick and sister Frances Somers died in 1941.

Richard's wife Ellen died in 1942.  They had been married for 58 years.  By this time in his life, Richard only had one brother still living and three of his daughters (and their families).

Richard himself passed away in mid 1947, aged 87.  At the time he was visiting his niece in Lismore, as noted in his obituary.

The cause of death noted on his death certificate was a heart attack.

Sadly, my great grandfather was laid to rest in an unmarked grave at the East Lismore General Cemetery.



Special Note to any family members:  If you have information to share, can I graciously ask that you do so.  Please use the comments box below or email me.  It may prove to be invaluable to the story and provide future generations with something to truly treasure.