The Story of Anne Ramsden

This is the story of my paternal 6x Great Grandmother, Anne Ramsden  (1701 - ?).

Anne was born in 1701 in Woodchurch, Kent, south-eastern England.

This village, on the edge of the Weald in Kent, had become firmly established in the 13th century.

It was part of the Woodchurch Parish which was quite large and covered an area of around ten square miles, almost entirely devoted to agriculture.

When Anne was born in 1701 her father George Ramsden was 28, and her mother Mary Tombes was 34.

Kent Baptism Register 1675-1812

Ramsden was a well-known family name in the village of Woodchurch.  The family name can be traced in baptism and death records all the way back to the 1550s; so it seems they had a long history with the little village in Kent.

All Saints Church in Woodchurch, Kent, England - etching dated 1882

Many Ramsden would have been baptised at this baptismal font in the All Saints Church, which was situated in the centre of the village.


Anne was baptised here on the 26th of October in 1701.




Anne's older sister Elizabeth had been born and baptised in 1700, but had died not long after.

After Anne's birth, at least three of her other siblings were born to parents George and Mary.

Another Elizabeth was born in 1703.  Anne would have been 2 years old.
Sarah was born in 1705.
Richard came along in 1707, when Anne was aged 6.

Bonny Cravat - still standing

By that time Anne's father, George, was the innkeeper of the Bonny Cravat Public House (as it was known then) in Woodchurch.  He was the innkeeper between the years 1706 until his death in 1719.


Anne and her siblings would have grown up in and around the public house, and would no doubt have helped out on many occasions as they grew older.


When George died in December of 1719, his widow (Anne's mother) Mary took over as innkeeper.  She ran the public house for a year.


Just six months before her father's death, Anne got married.  She was only 18 years old, and the circumstances of her marriage were very interesting indeed.  I've never come across a similar record of marriage with any of my other ancestors or members of my family tree, so it certainly piqued my interest.

It seems that there was a 'clandestine' marriage, a non-conformist service, between Anne Ramsden and Joseph Gilham in 1719.  Anne did not have banns posted at her own parish church, nor did she marry at the Church of England place of worship she, and generations of her family, had no doubt attended on a weekly basis.

Anne, aged 18, married Joseph, aged 22, on the 20th of July in the environs of Fleet Prison, known as the 'Rules' of 'Liberties' in London.  The streets around Fleet Prison was a place where couples could marry without breaking the law and outside the jurisdiction of the Church.

Fleet Prison by the artist Thomas Rowlandson, 1808

Their union was recorded in the 1667-1754 London Clandestine Marriage and Baptism Register.

This begs the question ... why?  At that time there were ecclesiastic laws that required couples to post banns of their intended union for three weeks before the marriage, and there were age restrictions.  Parental consent was needed for anyone younger than 21.

According to the details provided by Ancestry.com about this register:

"Most couples were married at the family church, but a significant portion of the population, for various reasons, chose to skirt these regulations and get married outside the church. Here, requirements were much looser. Grooms could be as young as 14, and brides 12. The bride and groom needed only to give their consent to the union for it to be recognized. Clergy and witnesses were not necessary, though they were often present to provide proof that the marriage had taken place. These marriages are commonly referred to as “irregular” or “clandestine.”   

The demand for clandestine marriages was met by institutions that considered themselves exempt from church canon and in some cases, by a cleric who simply flouted the regulations.   

Prisons like the Fleet became popular destinations for couples interested in quick, no-questions-asked nuptials because of the number of clerics imprisoned for debt who had nothing to lose and welcomed the income. Many of them lived in the “Rules” or “Liberties,” which were areas around the prison where prisoners could pay for the privilege of living outside the gates."

A drawing mocking the practice of elicit marriages. Taken from the 1864 publication The Book of Days by Robert Chambers.

The Clandestine Marriage Register record shows that Anne's husband was from the Boughton-Aluph (spelt Borton) Parish in Kent, and his occupation was 'husbandman'.  In the medieval and early modern period, a 'husbandman' was the term used for a free tenant farmer or small landowner, but in terms of rank, the social status for a husbandman was below that of even a yeoman.  Basically Anne's husband was a farmer who cultivated a very small plot of land in the Boughton-Aluph Parish.

It appears that Joseph was not able to make a living out of his plot of land though, because in November of 1719, a mere four months after the marriage, he signed a 'settlement certificate' in the parish of Woodchurch.

Map showing the distance between the Parish of Boughton Aluph and the Parish of Woodchurch

The married couple had left Joseph's parish and returned to Anne's parish to live. Basically, upon signing the settlement certificate, Joseph and Anne agreed that they (and their future children) would not become a burden on the Woodchurch Parish.  So, if Anne's husband could not support his wife and family and was in need of poor relief, they would not be allowed to remain in his wife's parish!

At this point in my 6x great grandmother Anne's story, I have so many questions that have remained unanswered ...
How did she meet Joseph?  He lived in a parish that was approximately 12 miles away from where Anne was born and lived.  How did they come to know each other?

Why was Joseph unable to make a living out of his plot of land?  Where was his family?  Were they not able to help out the young couple?

So many questions!  I can surmise the answer to my original question though. Why did Anne and Joseph feel the need to travel all the way to London to get married?

Anne was the daughter of a fairly well-known, possibly highly respected member of a family that had a long-standing association with the village of Woodchurch.  Anne's father had been the innkeeper in the village for a period of nearly 13 years by this point.  Perhaps Anne's father would have considered Anne capable of a far better match, given that it seems Joseph was rather poor.

Anne was also pregnant at the time of her marriage.  Anne and Joseph's first child was born at the beginning of March in 1720, in the village of Woodchurch, so that means Anne would have been about a month into her pregnancy when she and Joseph trekked all the way to London to be married.

So I'm surmising that Anne fell in love with a young man who would have been considered beneath her; fell pregnant; ran away with him to London for a clandestine wedding ceremony, as she believed her parents would not give the necessary consent for the union given her young age.  Then, once the deed was done, both of them realised they would need the support of family to establish a life together.

Were they received with love by Anne's father and mother upon returning to Woodchurch around November of 1719, when Anne would have been heavily pregnant with their first child?   Was Anne taken back into the fold?

Sadly, Anne's father (innkeeper of the Bonny Cravat Public House) died the following month, when Anne was still only 18 years old.  George Ramsden died in December of 1719, and it fell upon his widow Mary, to run the Bonny Cravat.  Unfortunately Anne's mother was only able to remain the innkeeper for a year, and it was sold.

What did that mean for Anne and her husband?  Had they been expecting to work alongside her parents in the public house?  Did they help out Anne's mother for that following year, until it became necessary to sell?

More tragedy was to follow for my 6x great grandmother, Anne.

Sadly, just over two months after the death of her father George, Anne gave birth to her son Richard, but he died a mere 10 days later.  Anne would have been 19 years old.

Anne and her husband Joseph went on to have another two children.

Joseph was born in April of 1721, when Anne was aged 20.

Sarah (my 5th great grandmother) was born in June of 1723, when Anne was 22.

Tragically, Anne's husband Joseph then died the following year, in 1724.

He was only 27 years old, and they had only been married for 4 years!  Anne was left a widow at the age of 23, with a two very young children.  Her son Joseph was only 3 years old and Sarah (my 5x great grandmother) was 11 months old.

I have almost no information about Anne's life after this event, as I have not been able to track down any record of her death or burial.  It seems I may eternally wonder what happened to poor Anne after she became a widow at such a young age and left with two very young children to care for.  Did she and her mother end up living together, or did she re-marry and start a new life elsewhere?
 


I'm joining Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2019 project / challenge.

The prompt for Week 17 of 2019 is 'At Worship'.

You can join by blogging or posting on social media with the tag #52Ancestors.

Check out this FB page:  Amy Johnson Crow

The Story of John LittlejohnS

First of all ... what a fabulous name!  This is the story of my paternal Great Great Great Great Grandfather, John Littlejohns  (1772 - 1865).

I'll start by talking about that surname!  In the long list of my ancestors' surnames, this particular one certainly stands out.  Compared to all the other surnames in my family tree, this one does feels out of place.  There's an immediate association that comes to mind when hearing this surname ... Robin Hood's rather large companion!

Little John was Robin's lieutenant, his second-in-command, and his name was one of three mentioned right at the start of the story-telling, in the earliest ballads about Robin Hood.  His surname was simply a whimsical reference to his size.

So what about the surname of my ancestor, and his father before him?  The information is scant on the topic of the origin of this surname, other than mentioning that it's one of a large number of surnames dating from the Medieval Period with the prefix 'Little'.  It supposedly was used as a means of endearment or explanation, to suggest a younger son or daughter who was much loved.

Another interesting point is that apparently those with the surname Littlejohns (with an 's') lived mostly in the West Country of England; whereas those with the surname Littlejohn (without the 's') resided in Scotland.  My ancestor has the 's' on his surname and did indeed hail from the west country.

There is one other fascinating fact that I can't resist sharing.  The year of my 4x great grandfather's birth was the same year that Captain Cook began his second voyage aboard the ship The Resolution in search of Terra Australis ... the great southern continent where I was born!

A rare photo of the old Church of Saint Mary Major

When my 4x great grandfather John was born in 1772, his father Henry Littlejohns was 31 and his mother Sarah Cleave was 27.

John was baptised in February of 1772 at the original Church of Saint Mary Major in Exeter, Devon, England.  It no longer stands, as it was demolished in 1865.


There was only one sibling alive at that time of John's birth.
Elizabeth had been born in 1767.
Sally came along in 1769, but had died in 1771.

When John was aged 4, another sister Sarah was born in 1776.  Sadly, she died the following year.
In 1778, Mary was born, when John was 6 years old.
So it seems that John grew up with just one older sister, and a younger sister.

Exeter sits on the River Exe in Devon, south-west England.



At the time of John's birth, it was an economically powerful city based on a history of strong trade in woollen cloth.  This industry employed thousands of people.

In the early 1770s, Celia Feinnes (A Scotswoman who kept a journal as she journeyed on horseback around England) remarked on the "vast trade" and "incredible quantity" in Exeter, recording that "it turns the most money in a week of anything in England", between £10,000 and £15,000.  

Celia stated that the "whole town and country is employed for at least 20 mile around in spinning, weaving, dressing and scouring, fulling and drying of the serges (woollen cloth)."

This was certainly true for John.  By the age of 13, the U.K. Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices' Indentures (1710-1811) record shows an entry for John Littlejohns in February of 1785.  He was apprenticed to a man named Edward Pim in Exeter, Devon as a 'fuller'.  John had followed in the footsteps of his father Henry, who was also a 'fuller', and (according to family stories) worked right up to the day of his death when he was aged 89.

According to Wikipedia:  "Fulling was a step in woollen cloth making which involves the cleansing of cloth (particularly wool) to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and to make it thicker. The worker who does the job is a fuller."

https://www.tuckershall.org.uk/hall/history/processes/14-fulling-or-tucking

Fulling Mill 1764

A quote taken from the website 'Exter Memories: Exeter's Woollen Industry'.

The Fulling Mills
The finishing of the cloth was centralised at Exeter - the abundance of water power in a small area allowed the mills to finish the cloth, ready for export. Before fulling, the cloth was soaked in stale human urine, which contains ammonia and fuller’s earth to aid the process. This process would cleanse the wool of oils, dirt and other impurities and thicken the fibres by matting the surface texture. Every night, urine was collected from taverns, inns and houses by men from the 'piss cart'. The wool was pummelled with large square wooden hammers, or fulling stocks, tripped by wooden cams, directly driven by the water wheel. 


The more I read about the occupation of 'fuller' (sometimes referred to as 'tucker'), the more I became convinced that it would have been hard, laborious work in an environment that would have reeked with the stench of urine.

In 1788, when John was 16 years old, his mother Sarah died.  She was only aged 43 at the time.  It must have been a devastating blow for John's father Henry, as well as John's sisters Elizabeth (aged 21) and Mary (aged 10), and indeed John himself.  I imagine the small family became even closer.

It seems John was still apprenticed to Edward Pim (spelt Pym this time) in 1792, at the age of 20!  That does seem like rather a long apprenticeship, but perhaps that's how it was back then.  The record states that John Littlejohns was of the St. Edmund Parish in Exeter, Devon.

St. Sidwell's Church, Exeter

Just a few years later, John married Mary Ayears at St. Sidwell's Church in Exeter, on the 19th of December 1797.



John was 25 years old, and his bride was 27.



I have found records for or evidence of (from other family descendants) seven children born to John and Mary.  I have also found records that show at least four were baptised at St. Sidwell's Church.


Henry was born in early 1794, but sadly died before he was one year old.
Frances (known as Fanny) was born in 1795.
Mary Ann came along in 1797.
Jane was born on the 15th of June in 1800, but sadly passed away a mere three months later.
Anne (known as Nancy), my great great great grandmother, was born in November of 1801.
John was born in May of 1803, but sadly, he too died in 1804 when he was less than a year old.
Another son, named John Edwin, was born in July of 1807.  At that time, my 4x great grandfather was aged 35.



I know very little of John's adult life beyond these facts.  I have not yet been able to find evidence of his year of death, or where he was buried; nor have I found out what happened to his wife Mary, or his only surviving son John Edwin.

His three surviving daughters included Anne (known as Nancy), my 3x great grandmother, who emigrated to Australia with her family in 1840, and the immigration record indicates that both her parents were alive at this point.  John would have been in his late 60s by that stage.


Special Note to any family members:  If you have memories to add, photos or 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.

I'm joining Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2019 project / challenge.

The prompt for Week 16 of 2019 is 'Out of Place'.

You can join by blogging or posting on social media with the tag #52Ancestors.

Check out this FB page:  Amy Johnson Crow

My DNA Story ... My Irish Roots Are Deep!

This week my blog post is a little different.  Instead of telling the story of one of my ancestors, I'm going to talk about my own DNA story.

When I began my family tree research journey back in 2010, I had very little to go on.  I mean very little!

I had the names of my parents and their birthplaces. I had a few of the names of my maternal and paternal aunts and uncles, along with my maternal and paternal grandparents ... 21 names in total, all born in Australia, and that was about it!!  The only other thing I had in my favour was my strong desire to find out much, much more.

Part of the family tree - going back 6 generations

It has become a passion of mine, and I have made considerable headway into piecing together many of the branches of the family tree.  Admittedly, the tree is a bit lopsided at present, and there are some rather stunted branches!

In the years since I first started my research, I began to notice a definite trend in the story of my ancestors.

It seemed that so many of my immigrant forebears came from Ireland.  They were part of the Irish diaspora. The deeper I dug, the stronger my attachment to that country grew.




Uncovering such a deep ancestral connection helped me understand an experience I had many years ago.

Photos taken during our 2005 trip

I distinctly remember the feeling that overpowered me on my very first trip to Ireland in 2005, long before I began researching my family tree.   At that stage I knew almost nothing about the history of my family.  I barely knew anything about the history of my own mother and father, let alone any of the people that came before them.

My husband and I drove off the ferry that had carried us across from Wales, and as soon as we stopped driving and set foot on Irish ground, both of us got a little emotional.



It felt like we had come home after being away for an endless amount of time.  Neither of us could explain why we felt that way, as we were both unaware back then of just how deeply our Irish heritage went.  It was a profound experience, and it's become more and more meaningful over the course of the last five years as we've visited Ireland three more times since 2014.

After our last trip to Ireland, I felt the need to order a DNA kit just to quell my curiousity.  I knew my Irish heritage was deep and strong, but I still wasn't quite prepared for the results!  My DNA ethnicity map looks like this:

97%   Central Ireland & Ulster, Ireland.       3%   Southern England.

An overwhelming number of my ancestors appear to have come from the North Leinster and East Connacht area of Central Ireland, as well as

the South Downs and North Louth area of Ulster, in Ireland.

A teeny tiny smattering of my ancestors came from Southern England.

I am very proud to say I'm Australian, born and bred, but alongside that, I am so very proud to have such a strong bond with Ireland.  It's in my DNA.

It was Ancestry.com that provided me with the opportunity to learn so much about my family tree, and enabled me to find family in Ireland.  I've now made connections with a number of second cousins, walked lanes that my ancestors walked before they left their home forever, and stayed in homes on ancestral family farms.


I have 1,786 people on my family tree - maternal and paternal branches.  As I said, I started with 21, so now I have a much more interesting picture of my family.



On the Irish side of my heritage, I've been able to trace back various Irish ancestors to the mid to late 1700s, including ...

Benjamin Conner and his wife Sabina
Patrick Hickey and his wife Mary Price
Sheedagh McNamara and his wife Ellen Hogan
Patrick Farley and his wife Nancy Smith
Michael Cusack and his wife Mary Green
David Burke and his wife Mary Whelan
Thomas Crotty and his wife Brigid Wyse
Patrick O'Donnell and his wife Margaret Rafter

and I've traced a couple of other Irish ancestors back to the early 1800s, including ...

Patrick Downey/Muldowney and his wife Elizabeth Reynolds
Thomas Farrell and his wife Anne Conoly
Patrick Muckian and his wife Sarah McCann
Richard Joy and Eleanor Knox

On the English side of my heritage, the fartherest I've traced an ancestor is way back to the birth of a man named John Kelsham in Kent, around the year 1454.  He was my 14th great grandfather! 

Of course many of my more recent ancestors were immigrants to Australia ... hence the place of my birth.  It was either the generation of my great or 2x great grandparents who made the trip to the southern hemisphere to begin a new life.  Their stories all tell of the most amazing, determined, courageous and tenacious individuals; working-class, poor immigrants who ended up being unsung pioneers in various areas of New South Wales and Queensland.

An interesting fact:  On my maternal side, it was the generation of my great grandparents who all immigrated to Australia, between 1883 and 1888.  On my paternal side however, it was the generation of great great grandparents who all immigrated, between 1839 and 1849.  Strange, how that worked out!

I've already posted each of their stories, so I've linked these posts to their names in case anyone is interested in having a further read.

These are all my maternal great grandparents who immigrated:
Edmond O'Donnell
Bridget Burke
Owen McCane (Muckian)
Margaret Farrell

These are all my immigrant paternal great great grandparents:
William Connors/Conners
Ellen Hickey
Adolphus Hukins
Mary Ann Farley
Henry Johnson Brown
Caroline Penelope Browning
Patrick Cusack  (convict)
Eliza Exton

I'm joining Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2019 project / challenge.

The prompt for Week 15 of 2019 is 'DNA'.

You can join by blogging or posting on social media with the tag #52Ancestors.

Check out this FB page:  Amy Johnson Crow

The Story of Susannah Lancaster

Now for the story of my paternal Great Great Great Grandmother, Susannah Lancaster  (1813 - 1879).

Susannah was christened on the 1st of April, 1813 in the Parish of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England.  Unfortunately the record of her baptism does not provide the full name of her mother.  Her father was recorded as Charles Lancaster, but her mother's name was simply recorded as Sarah.  This is one of the brick walls I've hit in my family tree research.  I've been unable to get back further on this side of the family tree despite a number of years of research.

Old map showing Manthorpe near the Belton Estate (1856)

My 3x great grandmother Susannah's baptism record does indicate that the family was living in the village of Manthorpe, which was part of the Belton Estate, along with other nearby villages.  In the 1800s, Manthorpe was a relatively small place, mainly consisting of estate worker's cottages with a couple of farms in the village and two or three small outlying farms.

Belton House / Belton Estate

The majority of the population would have worked for the Belton Estate, either in Belton House or the surrounding estate land which covered around 500 hectares.


An interesting side note is that the trade/profession of Susannah's father is listed as 'cordwainer'.  A cordwainer was apparently a shoemaker who made brand new shoes out of new leather, in contrast to a cobbler, who mostly mended shoes!  Susannah's father's clients were most likely the family and staff of Belton House.



Further research has uncovered that there were 13 children in total born to Charles Lancaster and his wife Sarah (Susannah's parents and my 4x great grandparents).  On every single record the parents' names are recorded as Charles and Sarah Lancaster, so that has not been helpful in discovering the maiden name of Susannah's mother.

The story of my 3x great grandmother's siblings goes like this:
Hannah was born in 1797.
Sarah was born in 1799, but died just 3 days after her birth.
Another Sarah was born in 1800.  Sadly she also passed away later in 1814, aged just 14.
Charles was born in 1801.
Mary came along in 1802, but she passed away in 1817, also aged 14.
Ann was born in 1804.
Christopher was born in 1807, but he died in 1810, aged 2.
Edward was born in 1808, but died in 1809.
Another Edward was born in 1810.
Lucy was born in 1811.

My 3x great grandmother Susannah came along in 1813 and at that point, there were 7 siblings still living.

The year after Susannah was born, her older sister Sarah (the 2nd) died at the age of 14.
A third Sarah was born later that same year, in 1814.
William was the last child, born in 1818.

Susannah would have been surrounded by 8 siblings during her early childhood, but then her sister Mary died in 1817 when Susannah was 4 years old.

All the children in the family were baptised at Church of England St. Wulfram's Church in Grantham, which was the seat of the Grantham Parish.  Their home was recorded as Manthorpe, which was just over a mile by foot from the church, (which is likely to have been the mode of transport for the family back then).  There was no church in Manthorpe until much later, in 1848.

St. Wulfram's, in nearby Grantham, would have been (and still is) a very impressive looking church!

It would have been something of a grand occasion taking children to be baptised in the spectacular font inside that church.



That is something I would definitely love to see one day, now that I know so many of the Lancaster family were baptised in that very font, back in the late 1700s and early 1800s.






In 1833, Susannah, then aged 20, gave birth to a daughter named Harriett.

On Harriett's baptism record, (which was added right at the bottom of the page!), it was noted that she was illegitimate.

Harriett was baptised at the same church as her mother - St. Wulfram's.

Interestingly though,
Susannah appears to have given a false name as the mother's name was recorded as 'Harriett'.

Susannah was not married at this time, and was still living in the hamlet of Manthorpe.

I imagine life would not have been easy for an unwed mother, especially in a small village where everyone would know your business.

Two years later, in 1835, Susannah married James Exton.


 They were married in All Saint's Church in the village of Fenton, in the Grantham Parish.

This was about a 14 mile walk away from Manthorpe, and quite a way from where they lived.


It was also quite a long way from the Church in Grantham where Susannah and all her siblings had been baptised.


I do wonder why they chose to go so far away for their wedding.  Perhaps it was not considered an ideal union by their respective parents!

Parish Marriage Register - Fenton 1835.

On the marriage record, James's surname was incorrectly spelt.  It was written as Exon, instead of Exton, which may mean he was not well known by anyone associated with the parish church.

Whatever the reason for travelling so far away to be married, they started their married life together in Manthorpe.  Susannah was 22 years old when she married.  Her husband James was aged 18.  Over the next 18 years they went on to have 9 children. 

Daughter Sarah was born in 1835.
Eliza came along in 1837.
Ann (known as Annie) was born in 1839.  Susannah was now aged 26.

1841 Census for the township of Manthorpe in the Borough of Grantham, Lincolnshire

In 1841, the Census record shows that Susannah, her husband James, and their daughters Sarah, aged 6; Eliza, aged 4; and Ann, aged 2; were all living in Manthorpe, in the Parish of Grantham.  Susannah's sister Sarah, aged 20; and her first-born daughter, Hannah aged 8, were also living at the same address.

Another daughter, Emma, was born the following year in 1842.  By then, my 3x great grandmother was aged 29.  Big life changes were about to happen.

A mere two years later, in March of 1844, Susannah, her husband James, her first-born daughter Harriett, and the couple's four daughters Sarah, Eliza, Ann and Emma; all boarded the ship The Briton to sail to Australia.

The family was part of the assisted immigrant scheme and made the 162-day voyage in the hope of a new life, a better life.  I can imagine the long journey would have been very tough for Susannah, taking care of her five children in the cramped, smelly, unhealthy space in the bowels of the ship.   

Assisted Immigrant Passenger List for the 'Briton' in 1844.

The records indicate that Susannah's occupation in England had been 'farm servant', whilst her husband's occupation was listed as 'farm labourer'.  These skills were regarded as valuable in the colony of Australia.

It was noted that Susannah could read, but she could not write.  Her religion was listed as Episcopalian, and her age was recorded as 29.  She was in fact 30 years old when she boarded the ship.  Her husband had been engaged by James Kenworthy of Richmond River in New South Wales, under the Assisted Immigrants system.

The Briton landed in Sydney in June of 1844, but the family had to wait for nearly another three weeks before they could disembark.  Once they were able to leave the ship, they boarded another boat and sailed to the Richmond River, ready to start work on their employer's station.

Unfortunately, Susannah's and James's employer died in September of 1844, not long after the family had arrived.  They were left unemployed for a period, as the station had been bought and added on to a nearby property.   It seems the family moved on to Tomki station for a while, but that didn't seem to last long though, because by the end of 1844 Susannah, James and the family arrived on Runnymede Station to work for Ward Stephens. They settled into a hut besides Back Creek and began the working life of shepherds.

Northern Star (Lismore, NSW), Saturday 14 March 1925, page 9

Many years later, an article appeared in the March 1925 edition of the Northern Star newspaper that was titled "River Romance:  Story of Pioneering Days of Over 80 Years Ago".


The article was a collection of memories retold by Ann Kin in 1918 about her days living on the Richmond River.


Part of that article tells the story of the Extons arrival at the sheep station at Back Creek.

"At this time Mr. and Mrs. Exton and their family came over from Tomki, where they had been employed by Mr. Barnes, and spent some time with the King family till a house was built for them. After living in that for a few months they were sent to live at the place where Mr. King had the encounter with the blacks."

The article goes on to tell how Susannah "saved the camp".

"One day the children noticed some bushes moving about, and drew their mother's attention to them. Mrs. Exton saw at once that it was the blacks on the same hill walking towards the house with the bushes in front of them. She immediately went in and dressed herself in Mr. Exton's clothes, got the gun and paraded in front of the hut, showing the gun, until Mr. Exton and a shepherd came home." 

I think the statement made by the author of this newspaper article sums up perfectly the person of my 3x great grandmother:  "Many of the present generation little dream of the wonderful resource, pluck and energy which characterised the lives of those of the earlier days who blazed the trail of civilisation on the north Coast; nor do they think of the hardships, often terrifying, which were the almost daily experience of those hardy men and women."

Life would have been very challenging and probably terrifying at different stages.  Susannah sounds like a courageous woman, determined to care for her family and work hard to make a life for them all, alongside her husband.

Susannah and James went on to have four children after they had arrived in Australia.
William was born in 1845, the year after their arrival.
Thomas came along in 1847.
Elizabeth (known as Betsy) was born in 1849.
Lucy was born in 1851.  By this time Susannah was aged 38.

Susannah outlived her husband James.  He died in 1876 when Susannah was aged 63.  Just a few years later though, Susannah passed away as well.

In November of 1879, Susannah died at the age of 66.

The death certificate states the cause of death was debility, which she had suffered for about 9 months.

The details of her age were incorrect, as she had not yet reached the age of 70.

She had lived in New South Wales for 35 years, and she was survived by all of her children.

Susannah's first-born daughter Harriett Lancester-Exton, married English convict John Michael Jones when she was aged 14.  They had a family of nine children.  Harriett then married Englishman Henry George Brown when she was 36 years of age, and they had two children.

Susannah would have met both Harriett's husbands, and all of her grandchildren, Harriett's eleven children.

Daughter Sarah Exton married Irish convict James Hugh McGuiness when she was 23 years old.  They had a family of eight children.

Susannah would have known all these grandchildren as well.

Daughter Eliza married Irish convict Patrick Cusack when she was 15 years of age.  The had a family of eleven children, all of whom were born before Susannah passed away.

Daughter Ann (known as Annie) married Englishman William Clark when she was 14.  They had eight children.  Annie then married James Thompson when she was aged 37, and they had one son.

Susannah would have met both these sons-in-law and all these grandchildren as well.











Daughter Emma married James Dooley when she was 17.  They had a family of six.  Susannah would have only known four of these grandchildren.

Northern Star -Wednesday 22 July 1925 p7

Son William Exton never married.


He became a well-known figure in the Richmond River area.  His wrote quite a lengthy article for the Northern Star newspaper in 1925, in which he told his life story in some detail.

Son Thomas married Australian-born Eliza Silke Hughes when he was 20.  They had six children.

Thomas went on to found a business empire all his own, primarily in the timber industry.

Susannah would have only met five of these grandchildren.

Daughter Elizabeth (known as Betsy) married Francis Thomas McQuilty at the age of 16.  They had ten children.


Susannah would only have met five of these grandchildren.

Daughter Lucy married Irishman James McDonough when she was 17 years old.  They had a family of nine children.  Susannah would have known only five of these grandchildren as well.


Special Note to any family members:  If you have memories to add, photos or 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.

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