Part 7 cont ...The Harris family of Derbyshire – pioneers of the Swan Valley, Western Australia from 1833.
Elizabeth Harris
1819 - 1863
Family Search shows Elizabeth Harris
christened on 19th November 1815 at Pentrich, Derby. Elizabeth , Joseph and Lucy’s second
daughter, remained unmarried throughout her 27 years in Western Australia. Elizabeth
born in 1819 was 14 when she arrived on
the Cygnet and returned to England with
her mother in 1860. She is last known to be living with her mother Lucy, sister
Mary and John Yule in 12 Bridge Ave Hammersmith in the 1861 census. Little else was known about her except that
The Journal of the Derbyshire Archeological and Natural History Society Vol
XXVI May 1904 lists her as having died unmarried. She died 1863.
The Harris family returned to England just prior to 1861 census
Mary Harris m Henry Churchman Gregory
1825 – 1901 1823 - 1903
Elizabeth Frances Gregory
1869 - 1940
Mary Harris was born in 1825 in Bakewell Derbyshire. Having come to the Colony when she was just 7 Mary would have barely remembered life in England. She also returned to England on the “Lord Raglan” in 1860 with her mother and sister, leaving her childhood sweetheart behind. In 1861 she too is living in Hammersmith with her mother, sister Elizabeth , and nephew John Yule.
As was mentioned previously the Harris family lived near the Gregory family. The five Gregory brothers were sons of Joshua Gregory of Farnsfield, Nottinghamshire and his wife Frances née Churchman. The father had received a land grant in the new Swan River settlement and in Oct 1829 the family arrived in the Lotus 4 months after settlement. The sons were Joshua, Francis, Henry, Charles and Augustus .
Three of the five brothers became well known for their exploration. In 1846, with his two brothers, F. T. Gregory and H. C. Gregory, Augustus made his first exploration. With four horses and seven weeks' provisions they left T. N. Yule's station 60 miles north east of Perth on 7 August 1846 and explored a considerable amount of the country to the north of Perth, returning after an absence of 47 days during which they had covered 953 miles (1534 km).
A plate from Wendy Birman’s book Gregory of Rainworth
Augustus and Francis trained as surveyors, and were successful explorers in Western Australia from 1846-61. They found coal at Irwin River, galena at the Murchison River and tracts of pastoral land. They were competent geologists of whom the Government Geologist Woodward said in 1890 that "they did such good work that no professional geologist would be ashamed to own it". Settlers wanted to know where new runs would be found in the interior of Australia, and Augustus Charles Gregory undertook to lead an exploration with his brother Francis Thomas and they took along a third brother, Henry Churchman The first and second named brothers were attached to the Department of the Surveyor-General, and they received permission to take 3 months leave in 1856 to explore in Northern Australia. Augustus was the most notable of the sons for he was knighted and both he and Francis Thomas Gregory have separate entries in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
On July 2, 1856 Gregory left an inscription on a large boab tree (so-called Gregory's Tree), indicating where he left a letter in case the expedition team should get lost.
Here’s the remains of the famous Gregory Boab tree.
To travel from the easternmost point of Australia, Cape Byron in New South Wales, to the westernmost point of Australia, Steep Point in Western Australia, you would have to travel 4100 kilometres (km). The Gregory’s expeditions were extensive as can be seen in this sketch.
Henry Churchman Gregory born 2 years before Mary would have been a playmate in the early days. When Mary left to return to England Henry had been in Queensland (which incorporated Western Australia) and parts of New South Wales looking for coal. Wendy Birman in her book called “Gregory of Rainworth” wrote that during the 1850s Henry made several excursions to the country beyond Sydney. He went to Wollongong, the Hunter River, Maitland, Brisbane Waters and Parramatta. all following up his interest in the coal fields, He was a member of the North Australian Exploring Expedition in 1855-56 and was considered "the life and soul of the organisation", being addicted to practical jokes.
Henry
Churcham Gregory
Henry was troubled by a chronic chest complaint and left Australia in 1863 to live in England. Four years after Mary had returned to England the pair married on 30th March 1864 at St Pauls Church Hammersmith, Kensington, Their daughter Elizabeth Frances Gregory was born in Little Nunden, Hertsfordshire in 1869 when Mary was 44 years old.
The West Australian Times (Perth, WA : 1863 - 1864), Thursday 7 July 1864
From then on the census shows them living in 1871 at High St Buntingford with mother in law Lucy Harris and their daughter. In 1874 she inherited effects of under £2000 from her unmarried brother Herbert R Harris.
1881 and 1891 sees them at 1 Keysham Bank High St Cheltenham with Mary and Elizabeth Jnr. Mother in law Lucy was living with them in 1881. It shows Gregory living off land and dividends and Lucy living off the profits of land. Clearly they can live off the profits of their time in Western Australia.
1871 census Mary Gregory with her husband, infant daughter and mother Lucy
With the deaths of Robert Strelley Parker in 1883 and his sister Mrs Georgiana Eckersley in 1896 Mary their cousin received a bequest of the Denby Old Hall Estate. Mary died just before the census in 1901 in Kent. The Probate calendar lists her effects as £7029.
1901 census sees Henry and his daughter Elizabeth living in a house called “St Clairs” at Sydenham Hill with a visitor- Eliza A Sutherland, who the Gregorys had met in WA. He also has 4 servants. A little while later Henry died age 79 on 29/7/1903 at 140 Holland Rd Kensington Middlesex. He is buried at Norwood cemetery Lambeth. His effects of £6607 went to his only child Elizabeth Frances Gregory.
Elizabeth Frances Gregory 1911 census
Eight years later the 1911 census has Elizabeth living on private means at Byrne Cottages Forda Cawsend, New Plymouth.
She held a chief interest in Denby Old Hall from her Mother. The Story of Denby Old Hall and its Owners records her as being in possession of some interesting relics of the families who had held Denby Old Hall. Some of these were:
- a portrait of Grace Strelley nee Roby her Great Great Grandmother, wife of William Strelley
- her Great Grandfather’s handsome oak chair initialed RS
- her Great Grand Aunty Lucy’s silver “patch box” (sister of Robert Strelley)
- portrait of Grace Gresley her 4th Great Grandmother
- portraits of her Great Grandparents, Robert Strelley and Elizabeth Clayton- her Grandmother Lucy’s parents.
How fittingly this reunites a family who veered so far away from its Derby roots via Western Australia and back to England and the bosom of a family neither she nor her mother would have entirely understood. Denby Old Hall fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1967.
sorry site –Denby old Hall demolished 1967
Elizabeth Frances Gregory of Forda Cowsand Cornwall died 12th April 1940 at Hoe Park Nursing Home 9 Hoe Park Terrace, Plymouth. Her effects of £22,027 (resworn £21,313) appear to have been distributed by John Thorpe Perry,solicitor, Rev Archibald Collingwood Stephens, clerk and Richard Gover Ford, solicitor. It is unclear from the probate register as to who received her considerable wealth accumulated from Strelley, Harris and Gregory inheritances.
Elizabeth did however leave a bequest of £2000 to the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia for a memorial to perpetuate the names of her father and uncles for their exploration work in Australia.
The Sydney Morning Herald Saturday 10 August 1940
No comments:
Post a Comment