The Story of Anne (Nancy) Littlejohns

This is the story of my paternal Great Great Great Grandmother, Anne (known as Nancy) Littlejohns (1801 - 1875).

My 3x great grandmother was baptised Anne, but was known as Nancy for most of her life.  This is apparently quite a common tradition for those of Irish heritage.

Huh???

The many peculiarities in Christian names in Ireland can apparently be divided into five different classes:
- names that can apply to both sexes
- names that are usually given to one sex, but are applied to the other
- diminutives that differ substantially from the original given name
- names which are different but for varied reasons are used interchangeably
- Irish equivalents for English names and English equivalents for Irish names


In the case of my 3x great grandmother, it seems that a common variation used for the given name of Anne, is 'Nancy'!  I just can't see the logic in it, and it seems that 'Nancy' was often used for the given name of Hannah as well!!!  It's confusing, and it certainly didn't help my research efforts.  For many years, I felt as though I had hit a brick wall, until a distant family member enlightened me about the use of 'Nancy' for those actually christened Anne.

For the purposes of this post, I shall refer to my 3x great grandmother as Anne (Nancy), using both names so it's clear for all who might be reading this story.

Anne (Nancy) was born in November of 1801.  Her father John Littlejohns was aged 29 at the time, and her mother Mary Ayears was aged 31.

St Sidwell's Parish Register - Baptisms and Burials 1772-1804

Anne (Nancy) was baptised at the same church where her father and mother had married in Exeter, Devon, England.

page from St. Sidwell's Parish Register - last entry

She was baptised at St. Sidwell's Church in Exeter on the 29th of November, 1801.

So far my research has only produced records showing six other children born to Anne's parents, John and Mary.

A boy named Henry was born in 1794, but died a month before his first birthday.
Frances (known as Fanny, which makes a whole lot more sense!) was born in 1795.
Mary Anne came along in 1797.
Jane was born in 1800 but died the same year.
John was born in early 1803, when Anne was only 1 year old.  Sadly, he died the following year, in 1804.
John Edwin was born in 1807, when Anne was 5 years old.

With the deaths of three of the Littlejohns children before Anne (Nancy) had turned 6,  Fanny, Mary Anne and John Edwin were to be Anne's (Nancy's) only siblings as she grew from a young child to an adult.  It appears that the family were quite poor and lived in impoverished circumstances for most of Anne's (Nancy's) childhood.  Father John worked as a fuller in the woollen cloth-making industry, which was not a well-paying job.

By the time Anne (Nancy) was born, in 1801, Exeter had a population of around 20,000 and was considered an important town in England.  This however changed very quickly as the industrial revolution more or less passed Exeter by, and other towns grew enormously in terms of size and economic importance.

Exeter decreased in size over the following sixty years and dwindled to becoming just a market town.  This coincided with the decline in its wool manufacture and tanning industries.  As a result, it ceased to be an important manufacturing centre and rates of unemployment grew, along with the numbers of impoverished people.

I imagine Anne (Nancy) and her siblings would have been sent out to work at a very early age.  Most likely my 3x great grandmother would have worked in one of the woollen manufacturing factories or worked as a servant / household staff.

When she was 20 years old, Anne (Nancy) married William Henry Browning in Exeter, Devon on the 28th of July 1822. On this record her name was recorded as Nancy.

You can see that Anne (Nancy) had not learned how to write her own name, as she signed her marriage record with a mark - an X.  My 3x great grandmother had not benefited from an education during her childhood, which would indicate her family was indeed very poor and most likely had no fixed address for any great period of time.  It was probably a tough childhood for Anne (Nancy).

The obligatory banns had been posted three times previous to her date of marriage, on three consecutive Sundays.  Obviously there were no objections made, so their marriage was solemnized in the presence of a James Legitt and John Marwood in 1822.



Anne (Nancy) and William Browning went on to have 11 children over the next 24 years.  The first seven of their children were all born in England, and the records of their births indicate that Anne (Nancy) and William moved quite often between Exeter in Devon, Anne's (Nancy's) home town, and Launceston in Cornwall, William's home town.  It's possible that this was the result of a constant search for work and the means to support their growing family, hence the constant moving between Anne's birthplace and William's.

Daughter Susannah was born in 1823.  She was born in Exeter.
Hannah was born in 1825, but the family had moved by then as she was born in Launceston, Cornwall.
John Thomas was born two years later in 1827, but the family was back in Exeter by then.
Caroline Penelope (my great great grandmother) was born in 1830, when Anne (Nancy) was 28 years old.

The family had fallen on really tough times by then though, as Caroline was born in the Poor House, and the family were once again back in Launceston, Cornwall.  The next three children were all born in Launceston, so it seems the family stopped moving for a while as they were likely dependent on parish relief.

William Henry was born in 1832.
Dinah was born in 1835.
Mary Anne was born in 1837.

Sadly, daughter Dinah was to pass away the following year, in 1838, when she was only aged 3.  Anne (Nancy) at the time was 37, and it appears that the family was once again living in the work house.  The living conditions they had to endure at this time might have contributed to the decline in the health of daughter Dinah, and ultimately caused her death.  I can imagine the heartache that Anne (Nancy) endured during these years as she and her husband tried to find work wherever they could, and when they couldn't, were forced to rely on parish relief and life in the poor house.

The workhouse that was in operation at this time in Launceston housed up to 40 inmates.  It was a building that had originally been a prison and the day-to-day life of the workhouse inmates would have been harsh, to say the least.

A mere 30 years previously the Quaker and prison reformer James Neild visited the workhouse in Launceston and reported that there was:

"a scene of filth, rags and wretchedness ... The large room below stairs has a mud floor; and whole families, men, women and children, pig together.  The upper room had several bedsteads in it, with the most ragged and dirty bedding I ever saw; the windows were small and close, the want of ventilation and decent cleanliness produced a stench almost insupportable.  I was in the room but a few minutes before I was seized with sickness, which obliged me to withdraw."

Nothing would have changed much by the time Anne (Nancy) and her family were living in that same workhouse.  It wasn't until 1838 that a new workhouse was built on acreage just outside Launceston.  The Browning family would not have known this newer, much larger and cleaner workhouse.

By early 1840, Anne (Nancy) and her husband William, had made the decision to take the opportunity to emigrate under what was known as the 'Bounty Scheme', leaving their country of birth to face the challenges of a new life in the far-off colony of Australia.

Anne (Nancy) and her husband were both in their late 30s when they made the decision to leave home and family and travel to the other side of the world.

I've been fortunate enough to have benefited from a lot of family tree research compiled and published by Esme Smith in her book: The Browning Story: Tracings From The Past, published in 2001.


Esme is a descendant of Anne's (Nancy's) daughter Mary Anne, whilst I am a descendant of Anne's (Nancy's) daughter Caroline Penelope.

According to Esme's book, Chapter 1 p.1 "It may have been the prevailing adversity of being poor that drove them to leave England.  Perhaps the conditions in the Poor Houses, where they had spent a number of years, were so difficult for the family that the parents were prepared to forego the known for the unknown.  The harshness of their circumstances may have caused them to believe that there was nothing to be lost in taking this journey."

Bounty Immigrant List showing William and Anne Browning and four of their children. 
 Their eldest daughters were listed separately under 'single females'.

The Browning family were members of a party of 158 assisted immigrants on board the ship 'Premier' which set sail from Plymouth, England on the 2nd of April, arriving at Port Jackson on the 1st of July 1840.  Assisted immigrants were individuals who were paid for or subsidized by another person or through an agency working on behalf of an employer in the colony.

At the time of their journey to Australia, Anne's (Nancy's) six children would have been aged between 16 and 3 years of age.  What strength of resolve and fierce willpower would a mother need to ensure the health and happiness of her children while undertaking such a voyage?

The ship did not touch land at any point on the journey, so the family would have endured a tedious three-month long trip on a crowded ship, with little food to eat and very cramped living conditions, although this would not have been a totally new experience for any member of the family really, given the time they spent living in the workhouse.  Sickness and disease were rife as well.  There was an outbreak of measles one week into the journey and the epidemic lasted for five weeks!

I can imagine the worries Anne (Nancy) must have had about whether or not her children would succumb to the disease.  Four babies did die on the journey, so Anne (Nancy) would no doubt have been particularly concerned about the health of her youngest, Mary Ann, who was aged 3 at the time.  Given that Anne (Nancy) had already lost a daughter when she was three years old, it must have weighted on Anne's (Nancy's) mind a great deal.

View of Sydney Cove - 1838, by Conrad Martens

Thankfully all of the Browning family survived the trip and landed safely in Port Jackson on the 1st of July, 1840.

Although both Anne (Nancy) and her husband William were really close to the cut-off age for eligibility for assisted migration (40 years of age), they had a family which included four daughters, two of whom were close to a marriageable age.  This was considered an asset, as the colony had very large numbers of young men looking for brides!  No surprise then that Anne (Nancy) and her husband were accepted for the assisted immigrant scheme, despite their ages.

Map from Esme Smith's book: 
The Browning Story: Tracings From The Past p.17

Even after three months of sailing, the travelling continued for the family after they had arrived in the colony.  The Browning family were all employed by the Australian Agricultural Company on the company's holding at Carrington, Port Jackson.  

This was a fifteen hour journey on another smaller ship further north.  It was here that William began working as a shepherd.

Map showing some of the sheep stations
the Brownings worked on as shepherds - including Carrington

Anne (Nancy), and the younger children, would have worked alongside William while it's likely the two older daughters were employed as servants in one of the large property houses at either Carrington or Stroud.

While at Carrington, another son was born to Anne (Nancy) and William.

Francis came along in August of 1841, just over a year after Anne (Nancy) and her family had arrived in Australia.  My 3x great grandmother was aged 39.

During the next month, September 1841, Anne (Nancy) saw her eldest daughter Susannah married to Joshua Craven, a convict assigned to the AA Company.

Just four months later, in January of 1842, the second eldest daughter Hannah was also married. She wed Thomas Norton, also a convict who had been assigned to the AA Company.

It seems that Anne (Nancy), her husband and the rest of the family left the AA Company and Carrington sometime after the weddings of the two eldest daughters.  By the end of 1842 her son John Thomas would have been 15 years old; daughter  Caroline Penelope (my 2x great grandmother) would have been 12; son William Henry would have been 9 years old; daughter Mary Anne would have been aged 5; and baby James Francis would have been 1 year old.

Over the next few years, Anne (Nancy), husband William, and the children that were still living with them, moved around a lot.

George Bishop, Surveyor-General's Office, New South Wales 1872 [Public domain]

According to the information in Esme Smith's book, "it's likely that the Brownings moved, initially to Ward Stephen's holdings in the Hunter River District (marked in red), and then to the New England area (marked in green) and finally to the Richmond River District. (marked in yellow)" (p. 22)


By June of 1842 Anne (Nancy) and husband William were employed as part of a family team of shepherds who drove Ward Stephen's flock down from the highlands of New England, to the rich plains of the Richmond Valley on the coast (later to become known as the Lismore area).

Ward Stephen's station 'Runnymede' highlighted on map

It was here that Ward Stephens moved to Runnymede where he built his homestead, and the Brownings went there as employees.  Sadly, whilst Anne (Nancy) was working alongside her husband at Runnymede, her daughter Susannah passed away back up on the highlands of New England, in Stroud.  Susannah was only aged 20 at the time and had been married for just two years.

It appears that Anne (Nancy), William and their younger children remained working for Ward Stephens for at least another five to six years.  During this time in the Richmond River district Anne (Nancy) and William had another three children.

Joseph was born in 1845.
Elizabeth was born the following year, in 1846, but died just a few weeks later.
Matthew came along in early 1848.  Anne (Nancy) was aged 45.

By this time however, Ward Stephens, their employer, had sold his property Runnymede and the Brownings had moved on once more.  They had taken another shepherding job, together with members of their family, at Maryland Station back up on the New England Tablelands.  Maryland, then owned by Matthew Henry Marsh, was in the Darling Downs area, which was still part of New South Wales at that time.

According to Esme Smith's 'The Browning Story: Tracings From The Past:

"The family's employment at Maryland commenced on 4 May 1848." (p. 30)  ...
"When William and Nancy arrived at Maryland Station, they had with them their children, John, William, Mary Ann, Francis, Joseph and Matthew.  There they worked as shepherds and watchmen at a wage of  £70 per annum.  This is a rather large annual wage given the times. ...so it probably meant that it included the work of the other members of the family."  (p. 31)

By 1848, their daughter Caroline Penelope (my 2x great grandmother) had married.  She was aged 15 when she wed Henry Brown in 1846, and was now a mother herself.  It appears Anne (Nancy), her husband William and six of their children, had followed their daughter Caroline and her husband Henry to Maryland Station, as Henry had started work there in March of 1848.

1848 was also the year that the second eldest daughter, Hannah, re-married.  She had been widowed around 1846, when she was aged just 21, and soon after becoming a mother for the first time.  It's likely that Hannah, with her daughter Mary Ann, had also joined the family soon after the death of her first husband and had moved onto Runnymede Station when the family had been working there.  Hannah then followed the family to Maryland Station where she met her second husband.

Anne (Nancy) and her husband William left Maryland Station sometime between 1851 and 1853.  When their daughter Mary Ann married in late 1853, when aged 16, the family were living in the Armidale area.  It's possible Anne (Nancy) and William were working on one of the other properties owned by March, either Salisbury Court or Booralong, which were both in the Armidale district.

By early 1855, Anne (Nancy) and William were living in the Tamworth area, on Goonoo Goonoo Station, a property owned by the A. A. Company.  This is where their son William Henry married.  Their daughter Mary Ann and her husband were also living and working on Goonoo Goonoo, and were witnesses at the wedding.  As Esme Smith stated on p. 38 of her book "It is likely that various members of the family were again working for the A. A. Company at that time."

Sometime between 1858 and 1859, the family appears to have moved back to the Richmond River District / Lismore area.  Then in mid-1864 Anne's (Nancy's) husband William made an application for the purchase of some land, a block of 40 acres, on the western back of Terrania Creek.  This is where Anne (Nancy) and William built their own home and where they finally settled.  Their property was known as 'Rosehill'.

Their son Francis bought a block of 40 acres right next door to his mother's and father's block, and both William and son Francis, along with the other younger sons Joseph and Matthew, began working as timber-getters.

Anne's (Nancy's) husband William died at Rose Hill a mere 3 years later, in 1867.  He was buried at the Rosehill burying grounds.  Anne (Nancy) remained living at Rosehill until her death in 1875, when aged 74.

The years between 1840, when the family arrived in Australia, and 1864, when the family finally had their own home, would have been years of back-breaking hard work with quite austere and challenging living conditions for Anne (Nancy), as the wife of a shepherd.

Information gleamed from an article titled:  Shepherding in Colonial Australia, written by John Pickard in the 2008 edition of 'Rural History' indicates that there was no idyllic life for a shepherd,  "the reality in colonial Australia was brutally different.  ...  They worked in isolation, with poor accommodation and rations, exposed to a range of diseases, and were relatively poorly paid."  (pp. 55-56)

Replica of a bark gunyah

Living conditions would have been quite primitive (by our standards!)  It's likely that the first type of accommodation for Anne (Nancy) and her family would have been a tent or a bark gunyah - a temporary structure made with bark and tree branches - until a proper shepherd's hut was erected.  They may have even lived out in the open for a time.

Shepherding was a nomadic lifestyle and Anne (Nancy) went with William wherever work could be found; living, working and raising their family in temporary homes quite a long way away from towns and settlements.  They would have lived quite an isolated existence, apart from the day-to-day presence of their own family and perhaps the occasional meeting with other shepherds and their families.

"The logistics of shepherding in the Australian colonies varied somewhat, but most often ... shepherds were based at an outstation which consisted of a hut with a set of yards made of moveable hurdles for each shepherd (where the sheep were penned at night).  Some outstations had fixed yards made of brush or logs.  These outstations were five to twenty-four kilometres from the head station." (Shepherding in Colonial Australia p. 56-57)

"A well-established outstation had a pole-frame hut, perhaps eleven feet wide by twelve or fifteen feet long, covered with bark stripped off suitable Eucalyptus trees, or shingles.  The bark roof would be held down with a framework of logs pegged together.  The fireplace would be lined with stones and clay, and smoke dissipated up a bark chimney."

The artist impression shown here was an idealised version of a well-established outstation.  It's highly likely the artist never ever saw one for himself!

A more commonplace hut would have been "slabs with bark roofs about twenty-four by ten feet, with two rooms ... and there would be a slab fireplace for cooking, a three-legged pot and a bucket would be all the household business.  The floor was just the ground."  (Shepherding in Colonial Australia p. 65)  This is likely to have been the home that Anne (Nancy) would have been familiar with.

It was usual that when married couples were employed, the husband shepherded and the wife was the hut-keeper.  Children were expected to look after sheep from an early age as well. It's likely that Anne (Nancy) and the younger children would have slept in the hut at night; whereas her husband William and the older boys most likely slept in a watch-box or even in the open near the yarded flocks of sheep, keeping guard against predators such as the native dogs, the dingoes.


There would have been the constant dangers of snake bites and accidents, and no chance of  prompt medical assistance.  There is likely to have been the constant fear of Aborigines as well, as relationships between the white settlers/squatters and the indigenous people were strained, to say the least.


The diet would have been extremely monotonous, based essentially on meat, damper and tea.  "Shepherd's wages included rations which would most likely have been:  ten a half pounds of meat, ten and a half pounds of flour, seven ounces of sugar, three and a half ounces of soap, two ounces of salt per man per week.  (Shepherding in Colonial Australia p. 66)


Throughout all of this it would have fallen upon Anne's (Nancy's) shoulders to keep the family together and to keep her family fed, housed and healthy.  Given that the entire family remained close-knit and close-by for her entire life (and onwards with the following generations), it seems Anne (Nancy) was the rock on which this family built their lives.

When Anne (Nancy) left her homeland and her own family far, far behind, I have no doubt she would have had some trepidation about the future.  I can't imagine what it would have been like to leave everything behind, including your own mother, father and siblings, to travel so very far away.  Did she keep in contact with her family back in England?  I doubt that very much, given the life she experienced as the wife of a shepherd and the fact that she never learned to write.

It's unlikely she would have known about the deaths of her father and her mother.  It's unlikely she would have known much about the lives of her sisters Fanny and Mary Ann, her brother John Edwin.

Anne (Nancy) passed away in early 1875.  The details on Anne's (Nancy's) death certificate were recorded by son Matthew, but are not all correct - Anne's (Nancy's) father's name was listed as Thomas, whilst her mother's name was listed as Martha Killark.   Neither of these pieces of information are supported by the details provided by Anne (Nancy) herself upon emigration to Australia.

New South Wales Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists - 1828-1896
- Anne Browning (nee Littlejohns) 1840

The assisted immigration passenger list for those arriving on board the ship Premier in 1840 shows Anne's (Nancy's) parents listed as John and Mary.  Perhaps an explanation of the mismatch between the details on these records can be found in the fact that it's unlikely there was much communication between Anne (Nancy) and her English family, so therefore it's unlikely her son Matthew would have been in possession of the true facts.

At the time of her death, Anne's (Nancy's) family was quite large.  Eight of her children were still alive, and there were around 44 grandchildren living at that time ... with many more to come!

Her daughter Hannnah had married twice and still had 8 surviving children.
Her son John Thomas had married and had 8 children by then.
Her daughter Caroline Penelope (my 2x great grandmother) had married twice by this time, and still had 10 surviving children.
Her son William Henry (known as Bill) had married and had 5 surviving children.
Her daughter Mary Ann had married and had 10 children.
Her son James Francis had married, but had no children at that time.
Her son Joseph Edward had married and had 3 children by then.
Her son Matthew had married just the year before.

The Browning (Littlejohns) dynasty had been well and truly established in the land downunder!


Some of Anne's (Nancy's) children or grandchildren:

Top row:  granddaughter Caroline Maris Kean nee Browning with her children
Middle row L to R:  granddaughter Harriett Thomas nee Wright, granddaughter Sarah Ann Smith nee Bustard, and grandson John Thomas Brown.
Bottom row L to R:  grandson James Irving Stevenson Brown, granddaughter Eliza Stevenson Duncan Brown and grandson William Edward Wright.

Top row L to R:  grandson Thomas Charles Bustard and wife, grandson Arthur John Browning and wife
Middle row L to R:  grandson Richard Joseph Brown ( my great grandfather), his brother Richard Brown, and grandson William Henry Browning Jnr. with his mother Sarah.
Bottom row L to R: daughter Mary Ann Bustard nee Browning with her husband, granddaughter Martha Ann Reeves nee Bustard, grandson William Francis Browning.

Top row L to R:  grandson Joseph W Browning and family, and son Matthew Browning.
Bottom row L to R:  granddaughter Margaret Alice White nee Browning, and grandson Alexander Johnson Brown.


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.