Showing posts with label Tonkin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tonkin. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Bucket List 5 - Time and tide waits for no man

The Tonkin Line

JDT outside his first ironmongery in Lonsdale St, Melbourne

As detailed in my previous post, my 3*G-grandfather, Uriah Tonkin, and my 3*G-grandmother, Avis Dunstan, fell victim to Cholera in 1848 in Penzance, Cornwall. Their son, John Dunstan Tonkin sailed off to Melbourne in 1859 in the "Swiftsure". Eleven years elapsed, during which time JDT lived in London, married and sired 5 children. These are my father's direct-line ancestors.

The Selby Line
Manifest of the "Spartan", 1839

Swap over to my mother's ancestors, and the similarities are chilling. My 3*G-grandfather, John Selby and my 3*G-grandmother, Hannah Clift, brought their infant sons, John and Thomas to Australia aboard the "Spartan". They had been living in Lambeth on the south of the Thames when the younger son, Thomas, was born in September, 1837. They boarded the "Spartan" at Falmouth on 23rd February, 1839 and arrived in Port Jackson on 13th May. John, and his younger brother, Daniel, were sponsored to emigrate to New South Wales. They were "tradies", with a skill - carpentry - much needed in a quickly expanding metropolis like Sydney. They were 'imported' by a Captain Bull (I gather he paid the 'bounty') at a cost of £18 each adult, and £5 each child. John's 'native place' was Kent and Hannah's 'Campbell'. Both John and Hannah could read and write. Within 14 years (ie by 1853) John & Hannah Selby owned a freehold property in Franklin Place, Glebe, and along with it came a place on the electoral roll, and the right to vote.

What was the Bounty Scheme?
The "industrial revolutions" of the 19th century caused prosperity to pass the ordinary labourer by. Bad harvests led to an agricultural depression. The Corn Laws were passed so that food prices rose, wages fell, causing starvation to set in. In 1834 new Poor Laws led to the rise of Workhouses. The condition of village labourers continued to deteriorate until many reached such a state of despair that they were ready to revolt. This period became so distressing for agricultural labourers and tradesmen that parish officials began encouraging them to emigrate to N.S.W. In NSW there had developed a thriving pastoral industry where trained labour was in short supply. The Bounty Immigration Scheme was first suggested by Edward Gibbon Wakefield in the UK. The first set of Bounty regulations was gazetted by Governor Bourke in New South Wales in October 1835:
  • The persons accepted should be mechanics tradesmen, or agricultural labourers.
  • They should have references as to their character from responsible persons, such as the local magistrate or clergyman.
  • To prove their age they should have Certificates of Baptism.
Settlers in NSW were allowed to recruit their own workers in the UK, paying the emigrants' passages. Complaints from the settlers before 1841 were uncommon. The Bounty was refused on only about 1% of applications, mostly on grounds of age. This system lasted until 1845.

The final eerie similarity
John Selby & Hannah Clift unmarked in the Old Methodist section of Rookwood

In the summer of 1848, Lambeth was engulfed by a devastating epidemic of Cholera. Just as well that John & Hannah took their two young sons to the Colonies. John left with his brother, Daniel. The rest of his extended family was eeking out a meagre living in the papermills of Maidstone in Kent, where John (3*G-GF) had been born in 1812. John's father was also named John, and he had been born in 1782 in Sheffield in Yorkshire. His mother died young, and John joined the papermill drudge line young, moving from Sheffield, Yorkshire to Bolton-le-moors, Lancashire, where he was listed as a bleach seller. It was here that he married Alice Walker at St Peters. From Sheffield to Bolton-le-moors is about 50 miles. But the papermaking business was cut-throat with a surfeit of mills, producing low-quality product. John & Alice moved down to Maidstone in Kent to work in those satanic mills. And so John was born, and Daniel was born, and as with the way of things, they dreamed big dreams, and moved to Australia, leaving their parents and younger siblings to the squalor that camped around the gradually contracting mills in Maidstone. In 1841, John and Alice lived in Maidstone, with Thomas (13), William (10, and Emma (8). John and Alice both died in July 1849, and were buried together on 3rd August in the churchyard of St George The Martyr, Borough High St, London. Their death certificates state: John on the 28th after suffering for 5 days, Alice on the 30th after suffering for 13 hours.

I wonder if John & Daniel, way out in Australia, even knew this had occurred.
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Thursday, January 9, 2014

Bucket List 4 - Adding flesh to the bones

The motivation behind family history research is not always easy to put into words. For mine, there is nothing more moving than to discover a crumbling headstone, or a tumble of briars sans headstone, knowing that the dust of a living person now, and forever, resides beneath. Some folks leave a small pebble. Some folks leave a silk flower. I rest a hand on the headstone, or squat, and rest my hand on the bare earth and tell them they have not been forgotten.


And then I return to my research to find out how they lived, and how they died, and why they made some of their decisions. The latter is always the more difficult.


But, just this week I have made progress. Herewith, follows the story of John Dunstan Tonkin (JDT), from Penzance, Cornwall, my great-great-paternal-grandfather.

I mentioned in my previous post that while doing the listing of all my direct-line ancestors, by generation, I realised that three of them - in the same line - died in 1848:
  • Miriam Tonkin, nee Pascoe, died in 1848 (January), aged 77, in Helston, Cornwall (my 4*great-grandmother)

  • her son, Uriah Tonkin died in 1848 (Jul/Aug/Sept), aged 56, in Penzance, Cornwall (my 3*great-grandfather), and

  • his wife, Avis Tonkin, nee Dunstan, died in 1848 (Oct/Nov/Dec), aged 58, in Penzance, Cornwall (my 3*great-grandmother).

So, in 1848, JDT lost his grandmother, his father, and his mother.
JDT is my focal point because HE is the one who took the bit between his teeth and came to Australia by boat.


The 1841 census - the first national census conducted - showed Uriah and Avis living with family members Jane (a 20 yo dressmaker), John (an 18 yo apprentice), Celetia (a 12 yo scholar), and Ellen (a 7 yo scholar) in the Green Market in central Penzance. Penzance, like many coastal towns in Cornwall, tumbles down hillsides to the sea. The Green market is where Market Jew Street swings around into Alverton Street. Uriah was a chandeler, an ironmonger for fishing-folk if you will. His chandelry would have been at that intersection where Morrab Street comes up the rise from the Esplanade. So, Uriah was not poverty stricken, nor was he wealthy. He was the shop-keeper class, the backbone of the nation. The poverty stricken lived further up the hillside in St Clare Street, or Pendarves Road, Or further east in Penwith Street. Or down beside the Esplanade in Battery Road. No, Uriah and his family were safely ensconced in the middle. But, he lived on a hillside. And all things rush down to the sea.


The Green Market, 1925
In July 1848, the government of the United Kingdom passed the first Public Health Act to ensure that the very worst towns looked after the most vulnerable. Victoria had been on the throne for 11 years. John Russell (Whig/Liberal) was having his first shot as Prime Minister. Moving in September, Penzance was one of the first towns to appoint a Health Inspector, who wrote in his February 1849 report
“There are, in fact, no sewers in Penzance; no sewer rate is levied. There is no house drainage in Penzance."
During 1841, the death rate from cholera, for that it was, had been 22 per thousand; in 1848, the death rate was 20.9 on a larger population. The average age in Penzance during the period 1830-1850 was 28 years. Family trees riddled with the deaths of children.The first wave of cholera struck the UK in 1832, brought by travelers returning from the sub-continent where it was rife. But how was it transmitted? Could it be purged by slash-bleeding? By hot compresses? By sucking leaches?


Two views of The Cholera Field Churchyard
There are three Anglican cemeteries in Penzance: The Paul Parish Churchyard; The Cholera-Field Churchyard; and, The Paul Schoolroom Churchyard. In addition, there is/was the Municipal "Sheffield Road" Cemetery; a Quaker Cemetery, and a Jewish Cemetery. In the Cholera-Field, the headstones were lined around the perimeter from the beginning. I have searched the available lists, and although there are Tonkins aplenty, they are not MY Tonkins. In addition to his mother and father, and grandmother, there are 4 sisters that I am unable to account for. This does not mean they succumbed to cholera, just that their death is not easy to locate.


I have tried to show the direction of the effluent in this sloping town on a google map. I am not too good at that, but here goes: St Clare Street and Pendarves Poag are the two markers closest to the top. The Green Market is the marker smack bang in the centre. Penwith Street is on the right, and Battery Road is along the waterfront. Market Jew Street, runs right across the centre of the map.



View Market Jew St in a larger map
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Sunday, December 29, 2013

Bucket List 1 - How did I happen to be an Australian?

My parents: Laurie Tonkin and Olwen Selby

Since retiring from full-time blogging (and, indeed, well before that and prompting it), I have been working on my family tree. Since my father died, it became obvious to me that I had so much stored in my head that would be lost, as Dad did, too, and lost his was.

So, I set myself a task of taking my four grandparent family-tree-branches (lines) back out of Australia. The lines are:
Tonkin
Cole
Selby, and
Hughes.
The Tonkin and Cole are my father's lines. The Selby and Hughes are my mother's lines. I have now traced each line back to the United Kingdom.
L to R: Grandpa Tonkin, Grandma Tonkin, Grandpa Selby, Grandma Selby
L to R: Will Tonkin, Sylvia Cole, Roy Selby, Ollie Hughes

Of course, with each successive generation of ancestors, one doubles the number of lines to juggle. And, as a researcher, I had to make decisions about how lateral to make each line, ie was I after only depth, or was breadth of interest, too. Both my father's lines only went back three generations, meaning both the Tonkin and Cole lines went back to my great-great-grandparents (2*G-GPs), which is to about 1850. However, one of my mother's lines went back five generations to my great-great-great-great-grandparents (4*G-GPs), which is to about 1800. But this was coupled with my maternal grandmother being a first generation settler.

But how to record all this? I have extensive records on Ancestry.com. I have the ability to print trees via "Family Tree Maker". But, history is not just names and dates. The study of history has moved on from William the Conqueror and 1066; from Vladimir Lenin and 1917. History, to be real and to be engaging, has to tell the sociology of the time; has to put the ancestor into context, warts and all, has to breathe life and blood into a simple working-class bloke from the boon-docks. By writing a series of posts, here, I hope to fray this piece of string, to find its length, where it starts, and how best to show off its warp'n'weft. So, dear reader, you are my test bunnies.
When researching family history, and recording the results, many codes are used. The three logos above are ones I use. Other researchers choose differently. The first logo indicates the person was a convict. The second logo indicates the person died before reaching adulthood (21). The third logo indicates the person died in childbirth. Logos are only used if a photograph is not available.

So, let's do the convict ancestors.

Grandpa Tonkin did not have any convicts on his paternal TONKIN LINE. The Tonkins (parents and four children)arrived into Melbourne on the 'Swiftsure" in March 1857 from Penzance, Cornwall. However, Grandpa Tonkin had two convicts on his maternal CHAPMAN LINE. William Chapman was transported (stealing money, 7 years) to Port Jackson in the "Susan" in 1834. Charlotte Webster was transported (10 years, but don't know what for) to Port Jackson in the "John Renwick" in 1838. BTW, transportation to NSW ceased in October 1850. They married in March 1843. My father's maternal COLE LINE had no convicts in sight. His great-grandfather, Stephen Cole, arrived into Melbourne aboard the "Red Jacket" in May 1860, with my father's grandfather, Charles, arriving on the "Swiftsure" in April 1862 together with his mother and siblings.

Grandma Selby (Olwen Hughes) met my grandfather, Roy Selby, in London during WW1. She was from Tywyn, Wales, and was a maid. She arrived in Sydney between November 1919 (when Roy returned from service) and May 1920, when they married in Enmore. So, no convicts on my mother's maternal HUGHES LINE. However, my maternal grandfather's line has three convicts The SELBY LINE migrated to Port Jackson in May 1839 as Bounty Migrants on the "Spartan" (both parents and two sons). No convicts there, but the younger of those two boys married Mary Ann Puckeridge, whose paternal grandfather, Joseph Puckeridge, was transported (stole 75 yds of material, sentenced to death but remitted to life in the colony) to Port Jackson in the "Earl Cornwallis" in June 1801. Both Mary Ann's maternal grandparents were convicts: Thomas Hughes was transported (for life, but no idea what for) to Port Jackson upon the "Perseus" in 1802; Susannah Smith was transported (14 years for I know not what) to Port Jackson aboard the "Wanstead" in January 1814, and married Thomas Hughes in 1816.

The BOTTOM LINE:
Joseph Puckeridge, 1801, "Earl Cornwallis" (my 4*G-GF)
Thomas Hughes, 1802 "Perseus" (my 4*G-GF)
Susannah Smith, 1814, "Wanstead" (my 4*G-GM)
William Chapman, 1834, "Susan" (my 2*G-GF)
Charlotte Webster, 1838, "John Renwick" (my 2* G-GM)
It is interesting that the ancestore who became shopkeepers, sailed of their own volition into Melbourne, whereas the ancestors who were inner-city working-poor "tradies" were sent at the King's leisure into Sydney!
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