The Story of Adolphus Crittenden Hukins / Memories ... January 26

This post tells the story of my paternal Great Grand Uncle, Adolphus Crittenden Hukins  (1849 - 1897).

Our Common Ancestors are:  Adolphus Hukins and Mary Ann Farley.

I'm publishing this post on the anniversary of his birth.

 Anniversary of a Birthday :   

(For my 'Family Anniversaries' page)

Today is the anniversary of the birth of my paternal Great Grand uncle, Adolphus Crittenden Hukins.  Even though he was born so very long ago and obviously I never got to meet him, he holds a special place in my heart as he was born on the day we know as 'Australia Day'.

Australia Day is the official national day of our country, although this day wasn't adopted as Australia Day until 1935 so my great grand uncle would never have known about it.

• Adolphus Crittenden Hukins was born on January 26th in 1849.

"What a fabulous name!" I hear you say.  My thoughts exactly!

'Adolphus' was his father's first name and yet despite extensive research, I have not been able to find evidence of any other Adolphus in the previous four generations of that family!  I'm at a loss to know why he was named so.

The Hukins family had been living in the the county of Kent in England since at least 1700 (I haven't been able to get any further back) and the stock standard Christian names in the family had been John, James or Richard.  Where on earth 'Adolphus' came from will likely remain a mystery.

'Crittenden', on the other hand, was the first name of his father's brother (who tragically died soon after the family's arrival in Australia), and the surname of his father's grandmother, Elizabeth Crittenden.  The Crittenden family had been living in Kent since at least the early 1600s so there was a long family history of the name as a surname.  In Adolphus's case however, it had become his middle name.

• Adolphus Crittenden Hukins was the son of Adolphus Hukins (an English immigrant) and Mary Ann Farley (an Irish immigrant).

• He was born in Sydney, New South Wales.

• I have not been able to find a birth record for Adolphus Crittenden, but I have however been reliably informed by distant cousins that he was indeed born on this date.      

• I was able to track down a transcript of his baptism record.  That gives the date of his baptism as March 4, 1849, just over a week after his birth.

• The transcript of the baptism record also shows that Adolphus Crittenden was baptised in the parish of St. Lawrence, one of the four parishes that existed at that time in Sydney, located in the southern portion of Sydney.

• Adolphus was the first of 13 children born to Adolphus and Mary. 

• The first of his siblings was born in 1850 when Adolphus was one year old, and the last of his siblings was born in 1869 when Adolphus was 20.

• By the time Adolphus Crittenden had turned 1 year old, the family had moved from Sydney to the small township of Jamberoo, outside Kiama, on the southern coast of New South Wales.  It was there that his father bought land and established a farm.

• The very early years of Adolphus's childhood would have been spent living and working on his father's farm, and probably helping out on the farms of his grandfather and two of his uncles, which were close by.

• Adolphus Crittenden's father (I'll refer to him as Adolphus Senior from now on) also became an inn-keeper, following in the footsteps of quite a number of family members from previous generations back in England.  By 1855 he was running a pub named 'Four In Hand' in the town of Kiama, which was about 11 kilometres away from the family farm.  

• It seems that Adolphus Senior had kept the farm, but the family had moved to Kiama to live.  Adolphus Crittenden would have been 6 years old when the family moved into town.

• Unfortunately, Adolphus Senior did not experience great success as a publican, and financial troubles raised their ugly head quite early on.  In 1858 insolvency proceedings were bought against Adolphus Senior and he lost the pub.  Adolphus Crittenden would have been 9 years old when all this was happening.

• By the time Adolphus Crittenden was in his early teens, his father was in trouble with the law, mostly because of public drunkenness.  Then, by 1873, Adolphus Senior lost the family farm following a damages claim bought against him.  Adolphus Crittenden was 24 at this time, but it's likely he had already left home and had begun his own life. 

• By 1877 Adolphus Crittenden was living in Albion Park, north-west of Kiama, and working as a horse-breaker.

• He was no longer known by his full Christian name, Adolphus Crittenden.  He was now known as Crit or Chris.

• Adolphus Crittenden (Crit / Chris) Hukins became quite well-known across the Illawarra Region as a steeplechase rider.  He was apparently quite a familiar contestant at jumping events in all the metropolitan and country shows across the region and beyond.

• In 1892 Adolphus Crittenden paid quite a hefty price for a horse with a good track record in jumping hurdles.   £200 would have been a very large sum of money in those times, but obviously Adolphus Crittenden was confident he investing wisely.

• Adolphus Crittenden became quite the successful show jumper / steeplechase rider, winning first place many times riding his horse named 'Mingoola'.  The following newspaper item shows the Grand Jumping Contest results from the Bowral Show in March of 1897 and A.C. Hukins is listed as the winner of that event.

• Tragically, he died quite unexpectedly just a few months later, on the 20th of October, 1897.

• Death notices appeared in quite a number of newspapers across the Illawarra region and in the city of Sydney.

• The following short notice appeared in several newspapers including  The Maitland Weekly Mercury (30 Oct 1897 p12), The Wagga Wagga Express (23 Oct 1897), The Sydney Morning Herald (21 Oct 1897 p6), and The Sydney Mail & New South Wales Advertiser (4 dec 1897 p1164). 

• This appeared in The Freeman's Journal (30 Oct 1897 p20).

• This notice appeared in the Bowral Free Press & Berrima District Intelligencer, but this time Adolphus was named as Mr. A. C. Hukins

• This notice appeared in The Sydney Mail & New South Wales Advertiser (4 Dec 1897 p1164), giving some insight into how he was thought of in the general community.

•  An obituary was published in both the Bowral Free Press & Berrima District Intelligencer (30 Oct 1897 p2) and  The Kiama Independent & Shoalhaven Advertiser (23 Oct 1897 p2).  His name was recorded as Mr. Crit Hukins in the Bowral Free Press article and as Mr. Chris Hukins in the Kiama Independent.

• As the obituary states, Adolphus Crittenden suffered quite a lot towards the end.  Such a terrible way to go and all because a splinter got lodged under one of his fingernails!

• His death certificate states he suffered from "traumatic tetanus" for 3 days.

• Adolphus Crittenden Hukins was buried at the Church of England Cemetery in Albion, New South Wales.  I have not yet been able to find the exact location of his last resting place.

• As an aside note:  For those who might be wondering what happened to Mingoola after his owner's death ... well the poor horse died the following year!  The following newspaper item states that he "dropped dead .... while exercising"!