1835 - Alfred Haughton's Eventful Year ...

One of the things I love about family history is finding previously unknown “cousins”, and sharing information.  You just never know what precious items might be tucked away in a shoebox at the back of a cupboard somewhere else in the world.

A couple of years ago, I connected with a third cousin. We share great-great grandparents Alfred Haughton (1808-1858) and Henrietta nee Osburne (1802 -1878). The Haughtons were Quakers, and lived at Ardreigh, near Athy in county Kildare, Ireland, where Alfred owned the mill on the River Barrow. I have written about my adventures exploring my Haughton ancestors in an earlier post.

I was able to give my new-found cousin some Haughton photographs from my family collection, and in return she shared a document recently found among some old family papers. What a treasure that turned out to be!

Alfred Haughton

photo from the Pilkington Family Collection, kindly shared by Tom Pilkington

1835 was an eventful year for the Haughton family. At the end of the year, Alfred sat down and wrote his review of the year’s events.  How amazing that we are able to read his own words now, almost 185 years later.

Review of the year 1835, by Alfred Haughton

Oh help me dear memory to count over the Lord’s love to me during the past year – & may my gratitude be daily increased & shown both by obedience to His commands & acceptance of His love.

In the Spring of the year a ruffian came into my house at night and would have killed me, but the Omnipotent enabled me to trust in Him and gave me courage & firmness, & made the other a trembling coward & no harm happened for the Lord protected me & mine

In the Summer when going to the sea with my wife and child, the horse fell under the car. I was thrown off with my boy in my arms but no harm happened for the Lord protected us. The same season I went to bathe, saw what I deemed to be deep water, dived down, came with force against a rock – but no harm happened for the Lord protected me.

In the Autumn my wife after giving birth to my daughter was on the brink of expiring but the Lord turned from the fierceness of His wrath – no harm happened for the Lord had mercy on me!!!

The same season the Lord put it into the hearts of my three brothers to make me a present of some hundreds of pounds – “for the silver and gold are His and He gives them to whomsoever He pleases” – and he tries every way to win me to His love. ----- -----

In this month Dick my first born, my darling boy was seized with fever – my beloved wife was so uneasy about him the milk she was nursing my baby daughter with became poisonous & had she given it her any longer my baby would have died – the dear infant suffered much from the want of the nourishment the Lord had so tenderly supplied. He shewed me His love by sending quickly a proper nurse for my child – my darling boy is recovering – no harm has happened in this chastening – Therefore “what shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me. I will take the cup of Salvation and call upon the Lord.”

*******

Alfred was the youngest son of Samuel Pierson Haughton (1748-1828) and his third wife Mary Pim (1762-1832).  The three brothers he refers to were likely his full siblings James, John and William, although he also had two older half-brothers.  All three were well established in their chosen careers by the time Alfred wrote this review. ‘Some hundreds of pounds’ would have been a considerable sum in 1835.

James Haughton (1795-1873)                 
Merchant and noted social reformer,     
active in the Temperance movement 
and anti-slavery cause. Often referred 
to as ‘Vegetable’ Haughton due to his 
vegetarian lifestyle.

By BPL - James Haughton, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9715198

John Haughton (1796-1845)                               
Miller – owned Barrow Mills in Graigue, 
Queen's county, (now county Laois).  
John Haughton’s wife was Louisa Courtauld 
Osburne, sister of Alfred’s wife Henrietta.

Silhouette picture of John Haughton. 

Kindly shared by Anita Hansen, Iowa, USA

William Haughton (1799-1877) 
Partner with his brother James in 
Haughton Merchants & Flour Factors 
based in Dublin.  Also Chairman of 
Great Southern & Western Railway 
Company of Ireland.

William Haughton. Picture shared on ancestry.com by Theo Haughton 2008

The baby daughter born in Autumn was my great grandmother Mary Haughton, who I have written about in Ordinary Women.  Her birthdate was 29th August, according to her baptism record.  Her brother, the little boy sick with fever, was named John, so perhaps Dick was a nickname used within the family.  John, Mary and their younger brother Henry were all baptised together in Painestown, Carlow on 7 March 1838.  

my great grandmother, Mary Haughton

photo from the Pilkington Family Collection

*******

2 May 1835 - Belfast Commercial Chronicle - Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland 

From Irish Newspapers at findmypast.com

It was also an eventful year for the ‘ruffian’ identified as Henry Rainsford.  As reported in the newspapers, Henry was charged and convicted on 9th July 1835 at the Kildare Assizes.  According to the harsh justice of the times he was sentenced to death by hanging, but records show that was later commuted to transportation for life. 

16 July 1835 - Mayo Constitution - Castlebar, Mayo, Republic of Ireland
From Irish newspapers at Findmypast.com

                                                                                                  14 August 1835 - Athlone Sentinel - Athlone, Westmeath, Republic of Ireland 

                                           From Irish Newspapers at Findmypast.com

Henry Rainsford (sometimes recorded as Ransford) was transported to New South Wales on the ship Hive, departing Cove on 24th August with 250 male convicts on board.  At least poor Henry didn’t have to spend months or years in prison before departing.  He left behind his wife Bridget and two children – 4 year old Elizabeth and 1 year old John. I wonder how Bridget fared with 2 small children to bring up on her own?

Henry’s arrival in NSW was a dramatic one, with the Hive running aground in the sand near Jervis Bay south of Sydney during the night of the 9th December.  After making it to shore with the loss of only one crew member, the remaining travelers had to await rescue from Sydney, finally reaching their destination on 24th December.

ANOTHER SHIPWRECK. (1835, December 14). The Sydney Herald (NSW : 1831 - 1842), p. 3. 

Retrieved July 6, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28654515

The story of the convicts on board Hive has been told in the book “The Luck of the Irish” by Babette Smith (Allen & Unwin 2014)

From the convict records, Henry was 36 years old, married with 2 children.  He was Roman Catholic and could read and write.  His former employment was as a boatman and labourer.  His convict record appears unremarkable, achieving a ticket-of-leave on 15th April 1844, the conditions of which confined him to the district of Penrith.  This was amended on 8th June to allow him to travel between Liverpool Plains and Penrith in the service of his employer Mr. John Single.  Henry was granted his conditional pardon on 9th June 1849, after which I have found no further record of him.  He may have moved to another colony, or even changed his name to conceal his convict background.

Ordinary Women ...

March is officially designated Women’s History Month, so to mark the occasion I thought I would post information about the lives of some of the women who came before me.  I’ve chosen to honour my four great-grandmothers, women from different backgrounds whose lives were typical of the times they lived in.  Although their lives were unremarkable in that context, they each faced challenging personal circumstances and lived through difficult times.  I am grateful for their lives, and for the strength and resilience passed down the generations. Here are their stories.

JANE POSTLETHWAITE 1868-1905

Jane was my maternal grandfather’s mother.  She was born at Queenstown (now St. Andrews) in Victoria, the sixth of eleven children of Abraham Postlethwaite and Ann Victoria nee Humphries.  As a child, her family moved to Tarrawarra near Healesville where her father had taken up a selection of land.  Abraham, a carpenter by trade, had emigrated from Cumberland, England as a young man.  Her mother Ann was born in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) and came to Victoria as a baby with her parents in the earliest days of Melbourne’s settlement.  I’ve written about Ann’s mother in another post here: The Enterprize Voyage.

I don’t know a lot about Jane’s childhood.  She was part of a large extended family on her mother’s side.    At 23, Jane became a single mum to baby Elsie, born at home in Tarrawarra.  Three years later she married my great grandfather Charles Gardner, in Brighton where he had a blacksmith business.  On her marriage certificate she is described as a “domestic”, but I don’t know if this was paid employment or simply home duties.  

I’d love to be able to say the couple lived happily ever after, but sadly this was not the case.  Their first baby Clara was born the following year but died as an infant. The next child Charles died at age 5.  Then came my grandfather Will, followed by Vera, Emily and Arthur.  Next, another Charles who also died in infancy.  Another baby proved too much for her and Jane passed away eighteen months later, five days after giving birth to her ninth baby, a girl named Jane.  Cause of death was pneumonia and heart failure.  She was thirty-seven years old.

Jane was laid to rest in Brighton Cemetery, her grave unmarked until 100 years later, when my cousin Brendon arranged a plaque and we had a family gathering of Jane’s descendants to mark the occasion.

Left with a young family including newborn baby, widowed Charles found a young woman with a baby of her own to move in as nurse/housekeeper. The arrangement became permanent when Charles married Margaret Fielding four months later in January 1906.  Sadly, baby Jane followed her mother to the grave only four days after the marriage.  Charles and Margaret went on to have another six children together. So, with Jane’s daughter Elsie, Jane & Charles’ four children, Margaret’s daughter Olive, and Margaret & Charles’ six children, it’s clear that blended families are not a new phenomenon!

ELIZABETH DUFFY 1873-1940

Elizabeth was my maternal grandmother’s mother.  The daughter of an English mother and an Irish father, she was the only child of both parents’ second marriage.  Born in Brighton, Victoria in 1873, when her father William was 65 years old and her mother 41.  

William was a bootmaker by trade, but was also a lay preacher and Sunday School Superintendent on the Brighton Wesleyan Circuit.  He had emigrated to Port Phillip from Donegal, Ireland, in 1840 with his wife and young baby. Another son was born soon after they arrived.  Her mother, Elizabeth Jennings, was from Atherstone in Warwickshire, England.  She and her first husband left England two weeks after their marriage, arriving in Port Phillip as assisted immigrants in 1852.  Together they had a family of seven children, although the two eldest both died as infants. Her husband died suddenly in 1868, leaving her a widow with her youngest child still a baby.

William and Elizabeth (senior) married in 1871, and two years later young Elizabeth was born. By all accounts her father was well-respected in his community, but given the teachings and customs of the Wesleyan Church at the time, one could imagine she had a fairly strict upbringing.  Her father died when she was only seven years old, and her mother when she was fourteen, leaving her in the care of her older half-sister Emily.

At nineteen, Elizabeth met and married John Grant, grandson of Scottish immigrants.  His father and grandfather had well established businesses and property in Brighton.  John was a wood & coal merchant, and the couple lived in Brighton where they raised five daughters including my grandmother Amy. 

Elizabeth died in 1940 as a result of heart disease.  She was 66 years old, and pre-deceased her husband by 8 years.  They are buried together at Brighton Cemetery.

MARGARET HILL 1835-1899

Margaret is my mystery great-grandmother, about whom I know the least.  She was my paternal grandmother’s mother.  Margaret was born in London, England in 1835 – two years before civil registration began.  According to her Australian marriage and death certificates, her parents were John (or James) Hill and Mary (or Margaret) Chipping.  I’m inclined to go with John & Mary as listed on her marriage certificate because it was herself providing that information, rather than James & Margaret listed by her husband for her death certificate.  She also stated her father was a carpenter.

Despite extensive searches, I have not been able to locate a baptism record for Margaret, and have not been able to locate the family on the 1841 or 1851 censuses.  There are one or two possibilities, including a baptism for a child named Margaret Hill in 1836 in the London Foundling Hospital, which needs further investigation. Nor have I been able to locate a marriage for her presumed parents.

UPDATE: As of 2026, I have confirmed my great grandmother is indeed the Margaret Hill baptised at the London Foundling Hospital. You can read her story here - Margaret Hill - A Mystery Solved...

Margaret came to Australia as an assisted immigrant in 1856, arriving in Port Phillip (Geelong) on the ship Arthur the Great.  She was aged 20, could read and write, and her occupation was housemaid.  I wonder what trepidation or excitement she must have felt about voyaging alone across the world to a new life in an unknown land.  On arrival, she was employed by a Mr. Anderson of Darneville for a period of three months at wages of 25 shillings.  I haven’t been able to find out if she extended her employment there, or moved on to another position.  

In 1859, Margaret married James Dewar in Geelong.  He was a Scotsman who was working as a quarryman.  The couple spent the next 11 years in the Geelong area where their first six children were born.  James then became involved in the lime-burning industry and they moved across to Rye on the other side of the bay where he was employed in the kilns.  My grandmother and her youngest brother were born there. 

By the mid-1870’s James and Margaret had moved again, this time to Waratah Bay to a new lime-burning venture where James was employed as manager.  This was an isolated location where contact in the early years of the settlement was only by sea.  It must have been quite a challenge for London-raised Margaret, coming from the comparative bustle of gold-rush era Melbourne and Geelong to adapt to this isolation, bringing up her children and educating them herself until a part-time school was established.  There is more about life at Waratah in the posts I wrote about James Dewar and Walkerville.

The only “memory” we have of Margaret comes from a grand-daughter, my father’s older 1st cousin, who wrote some memories of her childhood at Waratah in which she says her grandmother always wore a little lace cap.

Margaret passed away in 1898, after an illness of several days with bronchitis.  She was 63 years old. My great-uncle Fred wrote in his diary about hearing of the death of Mrs Dewar, and riding around the bay to pay his respects.  Margaret was buried in the little bush cemetery on the cliffs at Waratah, where her husband James joined her nine years later.

MARY HAUGHTON 1835-1884

Mary was my paternal grandfather’s mother.  She was born near Athy, county Kildare in Ireland, the second of six children born to Alfred Haughton and Henrietta nee Osburne.  The Haughton's were part of a large Quaker family, although it doesn’t appear that Alfred and Henrietta were practicing Quakers themselves.  Alfred owned the Ardreigh mill on the River Barrow just outside the market town of Athy, so Mary and her siblings were born into quite a privileged lifestyle.  

Her education would most likely have been at home, provided by a governess, although it is possible she may have attended a nearby Quaker school for some lessons.  Like most girls of her class, her education would have included art , music and embroidery.  A sketchbook belonging to Mary’s sister Sarah Anne is still in the family, and some of her sketches can be seen on this page.

At 23, Mary married Thomas Pilkington of Ennis in county Clare.  Earlier that year, her brother John had married Thomas’s sister Maria.  The Pilkington’s were minor Anglo-Irish gentry and Thomas acted as a land agent for the vast Connyngham estate.  He also served as Magistrate and JP on the local court circuit. 

After their marriage, Mary moved to her husband’s family home Waterpark, in Ennis.  The couple had nine children and unusually for the times, all survived childhood.  Mary’s life as the Lady of a small estate would have revolved around housekeeping, directing the servants, supporting her husband in entertaining, and a regular round of visiting local gentry. She would have also been involved in “good works” distributing charity to the poor.

This lifestyle came to an end for the family with the sudden death of Thomas in 1884, dying in his sleep from heart disease.  Eldest son Tom inherited his fathers estate as was normal for the times, however it transpired that Thomas had been living beyond his means for some time, and left a large debt with minimal assets.  Although the eldest two sons were already established with their own careers at this time, Mary still had three unmarried daughters aged 18 – 23, and four young sons between 7 – 17 years to bring up.  Thomas’s aunt Charlotte describes his passing in her journal, writing  “poor Mary and nine children, in an agony of grief”.
  
Following her husbands death and the change in her circumstances, Mary’s own health suffered.  She was 48 years old and only six months later, despite seeking treatment in Dublin, she died from an abscess in her kidney caused by a kidney stone.  According to the doctor on her death certificate, the duration of her illness was six months.  Mary was interred in a family grave at Mt Jerome Cemetery in Dublin.  Possibly due to the transport costs involved, she was not reunited with her husband in his resting place in Ennis. 

Kildare to Longford

The Barrow Walk

Thursday 22nd May.
After a late night caused by the sounds of "Gangnam Style" and the like coming from the bar next door, I awoke to a slightly overcast but otherwise fine morning.  My plan for the day was to take a walk along the Barrow Way from Athy down past Ardreigh to another old mill at Levitstown, a distance of around seven or eight kilometres.  The Levitstown mill was also a Haughton mill at one time, owned by Frederick Haughton, a nephew of Alfred's.  There is nothing left of the mill at Ardreigh, but I wanted to see the area.

Ardreigh Mill 1861
from Sarah Haughton's sketchbook

The Barrow Way is a National Waymarked Trail extending a distance of 100 kilometres from Robertstown in northern county Kildare to St. Mullins in county Carlow. The trail follows the old tow-paths along the banks of the Barrow River and Grand Canal.

Cromaboo Bridge & White's Castle, Athy

I set off, first heading to the shops to get some lunch supplies, and as I walked over the Cromaboo Bridge, I noticed a canal boat tied up at the dock with a group of people standing around.  When I returned from the shop fifteen minutes later to begin my walk, the boat had gone.

I walked along the trail towards Ardreigh, enjoying the solitude of the morning.  As I approached Ardreigh Lock, there was the boat I had seen earlier, just about to navigate the Lock.  So an added bonus for me to see it in operation. 

Ardreigh Lock

I got into conversation with the boat owner, Clifford Reid, who was interested in my historical association to the Ardreigh area.  He was able to point out to me where the mill had originally stood, and directed me to the mill-race, which is all that remains to indicate the industry which once took place here.  After watching the boat pass through the lock and set off down-river, I wandered around the area and took a few photos.

Ardreigh Mill-race

From our previous trip to Ireland, I had been led to believe that the original Ardreigh House where Alfred & Henrietta lived and raised their family, was no longer standing, so I didn't investigate on this trip.  Unfortunate in the extreme, as I have discovered since arriving home that Ardreigh House is still standing and occupied by a local historian.  And here I was, standing within metres of it, and not knowing it!

So, off down the trail again.  Sections of the trail were well-maintained, while other portions were overgrown.  It was an easy walk, as the pathway is basically flat all the way.  Enjoyed seeing the birdlife and wild flowers along the banks.  I passed a couple of men on a fishing expedition, and a lady walking her dog, but other than that I had the trail to myself.

Arriving at Levitstown, there was the river boat tied up again, and the passengers enjoying lunch on the riverbank. They invited me to join them for a sausage and a very welcome cup of tea.  Turns out they were a group of men from the Athy Mens Shed on a day outing to Levitstown and back.

Levitstown Mill

After lunch, Clifford asked if I would like to travel back to Athy on the boat with them. Well, the boat clearly didn't travel very much faster than I could walk, but it seemed like a good opportunity to do something different, so I accepted readily.  Seriously, accepting a ride in a boat with 12 strange men is not something I would EVER consider doing at home in my ordinary life, but hey, that's what holidays are for!  And what a wise decision it turned out to be, because not 15 minutes along the way, the heavens opened and down came an absolute deluge, accompanied by thunder and lightening.  Very grateful for the shelter of the boat, without which I would have been one very wet and miserable traveller!

Back in Athy

Meeting up with Clifford proved to be beneficial in more ways, as he later sent me a copy of a photo he had of the Ardreigh mill, and also put me in contact with the local historian who now lives in Ardreigh House.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable and productive day!

Athy, co Kildare

Wednesday 21 May.
Athy was the home of Alfred and Henrietta Haughton, my Haughton great-great-grandparents, where Alfred owned the mill at Ardreigh, just out of town.  I arrived here around midday after driving up from New Ross in the morning.

I am sitting in the late afternoon sunshine on the banks of the River Barrow in Athy, co. Kildare.  Today has been a beautiful sunny day.  The otherwise peaceful scene was a little spoiled by the group of yobs and their dogs further along the bank, clearly a bit worse the wear from alcohol.  But they've now moved on and I have the space to myself.

River Barrow, Athy

I went out for a trip to the Quaker museum at Ballitore when I first arrived.  The museum is housed in the old home of Mary Leadbeater, who wrote "The Annals of Ballitore", published in 1862.  The book is available as an e-book via this link, and provides a wealth of information about the Quakers and their lives.  Mary's father, Alfred Shackleton, conducted a boarding school at Ballitore, where several of the Pilkington and Keane sons attended.
The museum was interesting and provided a good snapshot back in time.  I thought I had read that there were tea-rooms there as well, but apparently not, so en route back to Athy I stopped at Birrtown House, where I enjoyed afternoon tea and a wander through the beautiful Birrtown gardens.

Mary Leadbeater's home,
now Quaker Museum & library,
Ballitore

Information from a Haughton document I had researched stated that Alfred and Henrietta are buried in "the Athy burial-ground".  There are three cemeteries in the surrounds of Athy, and I really had no idea which one it might be.  I found St. Michaels Old Cemetery just down the road from where I am staying, so that seemed like a good place to start. On the site is the ruins of an old medieval church.

I wandered in, only to be confronted by row after row of seriously weathered and unreadable headstones, with the occasional legible one dating to the early 20th century, much too late for what I was seeking.  After wandering a couple of rows, I had decided that, without anything else to go on, my task was fruitless and settled for just soaking up the atmosphere.  As I turned to leave I sent a silent message - "c'mon g-g-granny, give me some help here" - and there not 20 metres along the path, with a beam of the late afternoon sun shining directly on it, at the base of a large yew tree, I found it!   A substantial granite headstone with an iron railing surround, and quite well-preserved in that the inscription was quite readable looking from side on, so that the lettering was highlighted by shadow.

 

"TO DIE IS GAIN" Phil 1:21



IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF

 

ALFRED HAUGHTON

25th May 1858

 

"PRESENT WITH THE LORD" 2 Cor 5:8

"COMPLETE IN HIM" Col 2:10

 

AND OF HIS WIFE

 

HENRIETTA

18 July 1878

 

"I SHALL BE SATISFIED WHEN 

I AWAKE WITH THY LIKENESS" 

Ps 17:15

 

 

 



 

After yesterday's experience in New Ross, I truly believe that my ancestors are helping me out (well, some of them, anyway!)