Margaret Hill - a mystery solved...

 

Sometime in 1834, 20 year old Julia Fox commenced employment as a house maid for Miss Frances Harley, in her home in the village of Cowley, near Uxbridge, Middlesex in England.  Miss Harley was a single lady of independent means, the sister of the then Earl of Oxford, so this would have been quite a prestigious household.

Also in the Harley household at that time was young footman Thomas Whitley.  Julia apparently caught Thomas’s eye, and the pair formed a relationship. Julia claimed Thomas had pursued her and made promises of marriage, but when she realised she was pregnant in mid-1835, those promises disappeared and Thomas told her he could do nothing for her and she would need to take care of herself.

With her employer unaware of her predicament, Julia left her position and went to stay nearby with her brother until she could find other employment.  Her brother is not named but worked as a painter for a Coach Maker and had lodgings in nearby Uxbridge.

After a couple of months there, Julia found a position with a family named Todd, residing at 21 Somerset Street, Portman Square. This did not last long, as the family moved away.  By now at an advanced stage of her pregnancy, Julia took lodgings with a Mrs Bright of 13 Queen Street, Grosvenor Square, where her baby girl was born on 13 December 1835. The birth was attended by a neighbour, Mrs Burton from number 3 Queen Street.

With her baby only a month or so old, Julia had to find a means of support. She was recommended for a position as wet nurse, and left her own little girl in the care of Mrs Pearson at 178 Oxford Street while she went to feed another woman’s baby.  John Fearon, a solicitor, and his wife Jessy had recently become parents to a baby girl also named Jessy. They lived at 42 Chester Terrace Regents Park. Whether Mrs Fearon was unable to feed her own baby, or whether she followed the custom of women of her class and chose not to do so, is not known. However, she reported being very pleased with Julia and found her to be of good character.

By April of 1836, Julia had to consider further options to provide for her child. She made application to the London Foundling Hospital to have her little girl accepted for care there.

Early picture of Foundling Hospital 1754
http://catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/record=b1194805

The London Foundling Hospital first opened its doors to accept destitute children in 1741. The rules governing acceptance into the hospital changed in various ways over the years. By the time Julia was applying for her baby, the rules were that the child should be no more than 12 months old, the mother must be single, and the father unable to be held accountable.

Julia’s application was supported by character references and details of her situation, and after attempts to contact Thomas were unsuccessful, and correspondence to Miss Harley went unanswered, baby number 19891 was accepted into the Institution on 30 April 1836. We don’t know what name Julia had given her baby girl, but the following day she was baptised and became Margaret Hill.

The Foundling Hospital - Coram Story : Coram Story

Records held by the Foundling Hospital show that Margaret was “sent to the country”, a common arrangement for fostering. This would have been for about 5 years, before she returned to London where she was educated, learning to read and write. On 14 May 1850 Margaret made her Confirmation. Then at 15 years of age, she was apprenticed to Alfred Bowden, a surgeon, residing at 5 St Marks Terrace, Brompton, Kensington, to be instructed in household duties.

After 3 years, Margaret moved on from there to the household of Robert Henry Hill, of 2 Lloyd Square, Pentonville, to continue instruction in household duties. Margaret spent 2 years in this position, before leaving London for Southampton on 3 March 1856, where she sailed on 9 March on board the ship “Alfred the Great” for Geelong, Victoria.  Arriving in Geelong on 4 June, Margaret gained employment as a housemaid with a Mr. Anderson of Darneville, for an initial period of 3 months at a wage of 25 shillings.

We don’t know if this employment was extended beyond the initial 3 months, or if Margaret found other employment, but somewhere along the way she met my great grandfather James Dewar and they married on 23 June 1859 in Geelong.  

On her marriage certificate, Margaret named her parents as John Hill, a carpenter, and Mary Chipping. It is clear from the Foundling Hospital records that this is not true, and these names were part of her “new identity”. I wonder if Margaret herself knew this was not true?

What happened to Julia Fox after giving up her baby is as yet unknown, although I am currently exploring her story. She does not appear as Julia Fox in the 1841 England Census. It is possible that she married in the intervening years, making her harder to find.

As for Thomas Whitley, the 1841 Census shows him still in service with Miss Harley at her London town house in Harley Street.  Miss Harley passed away in December 1848, so presumably her household was broken up after that.

Checking my DNA matches for the surnames Fox and Whitley, I found one shared match that traces back to a Julia Fox, but I need to explore that further.  For Thomas, I found 23 shared matches that trace back to a William Whitley and Hannah Parry, of Christleton, Cheshire.  The couple had eight children, the eldest being Thomas, born 1815. I think I’ve found my man!

Interestingly, William Whitley was convicted of larceny in 1833 and sentenced to 14 years transportation to New South Wales.  His wife Hannah and six youngest children followed him out in 1836.  So not only have I found my 2x and 3x great grandparents, but I can also now claim a convict ancestor!

The lives of Julia, Thomas, and William & Hannah will be stories for another day.

https://archives.coram.org.uk

The Dewar Family bible...

This post explores the family my great-grandfather James Dewar left behind in Scotland when he came to Australia as a young man.

The following document is all the information we had about that family. It is a certified transcript of family details from the Dewar family bible. This is a photocopy given to my family many years ago by a cousin of my fathers, who held the original. The document, certified in 1886 by his brother Alexander in Scotland, was sent to James in Australia. I’d love to know if any distant family member retains possession of the original bible.

The document is witnessed by R.M. Mitchell, Bailie of Glasgow on April 29th1886.  A Bailie was a legal position similar to magistrate or alderman, a bit like a Justice of the Peace in todays terms. If anyone knows what the initials D.R. represent, please let me know.

This piece of paper has been the basis of my research on the Dewar family in Scotland. Secondly, DNA testing has enabled me to trace James' siblings through matches with their descendants. 

James' parents were James Dewar, born 1st November 1792 to parents Adam and Margaret Mellor,* and Margaret Abercrombie, born 5th September 1795 to parents John and Isabella (nee Wails or Walls).

*Adam and Margaret's marriage entry lists her maiden name as Drysdale but this would appear to be an error since all other documentation records it as Mellor.

I am very grateful to another Dewar descendant, a DNA match and distant cousin in Scotland, who found Margarets parent's names in the Poorhouse Records in the Paisley Library in Glasgow and transcribed them. These documents are not available online.

Margaret Abercrombie's family were originally from Sterlingshire, but had moved to Lanarkshire by the time of her birth.

James and Margaret were married 6th July 1816 in Airdrie, New Monkland, Lanarkshire. The parish record indicates they paid 3 shillings & 6 pence to the parish. Like his father before him, James was a baker. The children were born in Kincardine, a village on the northern Forth shore in Fifeshire. By the 1841 census James was listed as a baker in the larger town of Dunfermline a little further along the Forth. 

 

Priory Lane, Dunfermline.
Location of James Dewar's bakers shop.

                                             © Katrina Vincent 2016      

By the next census in 1851, he was still a baker but they had moved to the village of Calderbank, Old Monkland, Lanarkshire.  This region was rapidly industrialising with coal and ironstone mining and the landscape was criss-crossed with private railways operated by the mine owners. In 1856 at the age of 65 while working as a surface worker for the Calderbank Private Mineral Railway, James was hit by a railway locomotive and passed away. His body was interred in the Wellwynd Churchyard in the nearby town of Airdrie.

Old Wellwynd Churchyard

                                   photo from Flickr         

According to the 1861 census, widowed Margaret was working as a cotton-winder and living alone in New Monkland. Her 1870 application for poor relief stated she had been a pauper for 4 years, being partially disabled due to her age of 75 at that time. This record also stated she had recently moved to Glasgow from Paisley. 

The 1871 census recorded Margaret as an unemployed winder. Living with her was 8 year old Jane Dewar, listed as niece, but actually her grand-daughter.  Jane was the daughter of Margaret’s son Alexander.  Margaret died at Springburn 25 July 1872, cause of death listed as old age.

Now for what I have found out about each of these siblings and their families.

Adam:

Born 28 October 1817 in Kincardine, Fife. Adam was the eldest son and became a baker, like his father and grandfather.

Adam married Lilias Beveridge, in 1843 in Crossford, Fifeshire.  The couple had five children born between 1844 and 1856. Lilias died from consumption in 1859.

The following year Adam married again, to widow Jane Chalmers nee Hunter. Jane had an infant daughter, Isabella, who was listed with the family in the 1861 census.

Adam and Jane had two sons born 1863 and 1867.

According to census records, Adam appears to have moved back and forth between Glasgow and Dunfermline several times over the years. By 1893, the couple were back in Glasgow where Adam applied for poor relief. Adam passed away in the Glasgow Poorhouse on 21 July 1894 due to cerebral apoplexy – a stroke, as we know it today.

His wife Jane was admitted to the poorhouse in January 1895, wholly disabled due to rheumatism and bronchitis. She died there in 1897.

John:

Born 20 Oct 1819 in Kincardine, Fife.  He was baptised in 1822 at the same time as his sister Isabella (b1821) in Tulliallan parish.

John became a tailor, and in the 1841 census was living in Airdrie with his uncle Robert Abercrombie and family.

John married in 1843 to Mary Muir.  They had two children – Marion in 1844 and James in 1846. Marion appears to have died young as no further evidence of her found. James went on to become a Minister of Scottish Free Church.

According to the bible document, John died 10 October 1846.  I have not been able to locate a death or burial record for him.  His wife Marion subsequently had two more children with unknown father(s).

I have a DNA match to a descendant of John via his son James.

Isabella:

Born 5^th September 1821 Kincardine.

Married 13^th Nov 1844 in Edinburgh to John Ure.

Isabella and John had no children of their own, but they seem to have taken on the care of her niece Mary Buchanan, born 1856, who appeared with the couple in the 1861 & 1871 Scotland census. Mary and her husband James Brownlie were still living with Isabella & John in the 1881 census, and in 1883 both couples emigrated to the USA.  The Brownlies and the Ures settled in New York.

Isabella was widowed sometime before 1902, but I have not been able to pinpoint an exact time. She remained with the Brownlie family until her own death in 1909.

I have a DNA match to Brownlie descendants in the USA.

Margaret:

Born 6 October 1823 in Kincardine.

Married December 1846 to Michael McLauchlan, a railway worker.

The couple lived in various locations around Glasgow. They had 6 children but it appears only two daughters, Isabella b 1855 and Agnes b 1858, survived to adulthood.

In her later years, Margaret was living with her nephew Samuel Dewar, a son of her brother Alexander. Date of death possibly 1912, but not confirmed.

Janet:

Born 1 August 1825 in Kincardine.

No further confirmed information regarding Janet.

Given that there is no death listed for her in the family bible it is reasonable to assume she was still living at the time the transcript was made in 1886, when she would have been around 60 years old. 

There are a couple of potential marriages for a Janet Dewar, and a couple of census records for a single Janet Dewar, but nothing which will conclusively identify the correct Janet. I’m hoping one day another DNA match will appear! 

Mary:

Born 8^th June 1827 in Kincardine.

Married 16 Dec 1848 to Alexander Fordyce Buchanan in Paisley, Renfrewshire. Alexander was a printer.

10 children identified.

The family emigrated to New York, USA in 1866, where their youngest child Thomas was born.  

Alexander obtained employment in an oil cloth factory, eventually taking over and forming the company A.F Buchanan & Sons in Westchester, New York.  The village of Buchanan was named for the contribution made by the Buchanan family to its development.  History of the Village of Buchanan.

Mary outlived her husband by 2 years, dying in 1902.

I have several DNA matches to Buchanan descendants.

James:

My great-grandfather, born 20 April 1929 in Kincardine.

You can read his story in my previous blog here.

Became a weaver in Scotland, according to his mother’s poor house relief application.

James migrated to Australia in about 1852. He married Margaret Hill in 1859 in Geelong, Victoria.  They had 8 children. He became manager of Lime kilns in Waratah Bay. I’ve written about the Waratah Lime Works in another post here.

James died in 1907, and is buried with his wife Margaret in a little bush cemetery in Walkerville, Victoria.

James Dewar
from Pilkington Family Collection

Alexander Jaffery:

Born 22 September 1832 in Kincardine.

He married in 1855 to Elizabeth Baillie in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire.  The couple had seven children before Elizabeth died in 1868.

Alexander then married Elizabeth’s younger sister Janet in 1871 and had seven more children with her.

Alexander worked as a furnaceman for the ironworks.  He died in 1892 in Glasgow.

Interestingly, the list of James and Margaret's children indicate that the family followed a traditional naming pattern, with the first 4 children named for each of the grandparents, the next (James) after his father, then two girls Janet and Mary named for James and Margarets sisters. Only youngest child Alexander Jaffray is an outlier and was possibly named for a family friend or person of influence.

Somebody’s Darling …

In keeping with what seems to have become a tradition for my Anzac Day posts, I thought for this year I would use this poem which I found in an album belonging to my grandmother’s sister, my great-aunt Belle Dewar.  

We stumbled across Aunty Belle’s album only a year or so ago, tucked into a bookcase at my brother’s home.  No-one recalls ever seeing it before, and no-one knows how it got there, but it must have been passed on at some time by an older family member.  The album is dated 1884, when Belle would have been about nineteen.  It contains poems and writings which obviously struck a chord with her, as well as sketches and autograph-style entries from family and friends.

This particular poem was entered in the album on 26/09/1885 by “Madge”, who I think was the wife of Belle’s eldest brother Jimmy.  Although it pre-dates the Anzac era, the sentiments expressed are just as relevant today, highlighting the tragedy that is war.  Somebody’s Darling was written during the American Civil War by Marie Ravenal de la Coste, a nurse in Savannah, Georgia whose own fiance had been killed while fighting with the Confederate army. It was first published in 1864.

SOMEBODY’S DARLING

Into a ward of the white washed walls,
Where the dead and dying lay,
Wounded by bayonets, shells and balls,
Somebody’s darling was borne one day.

Somebody’s darling so young and brave
Wearing yet on his pale sweet face,
Soon to be hid by the dust of the grave,
The lingering light of his boyhood’s grace.

Matted and damp are the curls of gold
Kissing the snow of that fair young brow;
Pale are the lips of delicate mold –
Somebody’s darling is dying now.

Back from the beautiful blue-veined brow
Brushed all the wandering waves of gold;
Cross his hands on his bosom now;
Somebody’s darling is still and cold.

Kiss him once for somebody’s sake,
Murmur a prayer soft and low;
One bright curl from it’s fair mates take;
They were somebody’s pride you know.

Somebody’s hand has rested there;
Was it a mother’s soft and white?
And have the lips of a sister fair
Been baptized in the waves of light?

God knows best! He was somebody’s love,
Somebody’s heart enshrined him there.
Somebody wafted his name above,
Night and morn on the wings of prayer.

Somebody wept when he marched away,
Looking so handsome brave and grand;
Somebody’s kiss on his forehead lay;
Somebody clung to his parting hand.

Somebody’s watching and waiting for him,
Yearning to hold him again to her heart;
And there he lies with his blue eyes dim,
And the smiling child-like lips apart.

Tenderly bury the fair young dead,
Pausing to drop on his grave a tear;
Carve on the wooden slab at his head,
“Somebody’s darling slumbers here.”

Marie Ravenal de la Coste,

Savannah, Georgia 1864

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. 

James Dewar …

                                   James Dewar 1829-1907

James Dewar

                                                                 from Pilkington Family Collection

My great-grandfather James Dewar was born in the village of Kincardine, on the Firth of Forth in Perthshire, Scotland on 20 April 1829. He was the seventh of eight children born to James Dewar, a baker, and his wife Margaret Abercrombie.

In times past Kincardine was a prosperous sea port and major ferry point for crossing the Firth. In the early 1800’s it comprised major ship-building yards and associated industries, salt-mining works, a distillery and collieries.  In 1819 Kincardine village had a population of 1200, although many more people would have lived in the surrounding area.

By 1841, James senior had moved his bakery business to Dunfermline, ten miles away in the neighbouring county of Fifeshire. Only James junior and his younger brother Alexander were still living with their parents.  Later, the family moved again, to the village of Calderbank in Lanarkshire, where Margaret Abercrombie had come from. The 1851 census recorded James (senior), Margaret and Alexander living at Pettigrew’s Land, Calderbank.  James was still listed as a baker, while 19 year old Alexander was employed as a puddler in the local coal mining industry. There is no record of great-grandfather James with the family at this time, and I have been unable to conclusively identify him in the 1851 census in Scotland.

The circumstances surrounding James’s emigration to Australia are subject to speculation as I have been unable to establish with any certainty when and why he arrived. His death certificate states his time in the colony as 51 years in Victoria, giving an arrival year of 1856.  The closest match I have found is 20 year old James Dewar who sailed from Glasgow on the Brooksby, arriving in Port Phillip on 14 October 1852.

The 1850’s were the height of the Gold Rush to Victoria, and it is reasonable to assume the goldfields would have been the destination of most single young men arriving in the colony at this time. In 1856 there is a James Dewar on the Electoral Roll listed as having a Miner’s Right at Golden Point near Castlemaine. The following year, a newspaper report of a land sale at Castlemaine records James Dewar as having purchased 28 acres on Golden Point Road for the sum of £36.10.0. There are newspaper listings of unclaimed mail for James Dewar, held at the GPO Melbourne between 1852 and 1854, and at Castlemaine Post Office between 1855 and 1857.  Although this scenario would fit with what we know about James’ life, there is no certainty that this is the same man.

Golden Point diggings 1852

Ham, Thomas, and D. Tulloch. GOLDEN POINT, MT. ALEXANDER. [picture], 1852. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/266975

The first conclusive evidence of James in Victoria is his 1859 marriage to Margaret Hill in Geelong.  English-born Margaret arrived in Port Phillip in 1856, giving her occupation as housemaid.  According to their marriage certificate, James was a quarryman. They settled in the Geelong area, where six children were born between 1860 and 1870.  At the time that daughter Rosa was born in 1866, James was a ratepayer in nearby Batesford.

James was a member of the Corio branch of the Sons of Temperance Society between 1867 and 1869.  This was a brotherhood movement founded to support its members in resisting the evils of alcohol, spread the temperance message and provide assistance in times of distress.

By 1871, the family were living at Tootgarook on the other side of Port Phillip Bay, where James was appointed to the Primary School committee.  In 1872 a seventh child was born, and in 1874 my grandmother Evelyn completed the family.  On both birth certificates, James’ occupation is Limeburner. Lime was an important ingredient for Melbourne’s building trade, and lime kilns were established in the area from the 1830’s.

In 1874, reports appeared in the news about a potential site for development of a lime industry at Waratah Bay on Victoria’s southern coast.  By 1878 James was appointed manager of the new works, a position he held until his death. The settlement of Waratah, later renamed Walkerville, grew around the kilns on the foreshore, with access only by sea in the early years.  (I have previously written about the history of Walkerville in another post.) Additional civic duties James performed were Post Master, Electoral Registrar and Assistant Inspector of Fisheries. Throughout his time at Walkerville, James held the contract for maintenance of the wharf and jetty lights, being paid an additional £15 per annum.  Family stories suggest he also acted in the capacity of Undertaker. Margaret undertook teaching the children of the settlement until a teacher was appointed.

In a memoir of her life at Walkerville, grand-daughter Hope remembers her grandfather’s broad Scots accent and sometimes lurid language as he supervised the loading of bagged lime into the ships at the jetty.  The loading required meticulous attention because of the combustible nature of lime should it come into contact with water during the voyage to Melbourne.  Hope also recalled James spending time in his extensive vegetable garden behind his home.

In his later years, James had a leg amputated after a wound became infected, a potentially fatal condition in the years before antibiotics.  On the 4^th October 1907, the men working on the jetty noticed smoke billowing from the bedroom window of the manager’s house. They hurried back to find the old Scotsman unconscious on the floor. Apparently he had been lighting a candle and suffered a stroke.  The burning mattress was dragged onto the beach, where Hope remembers it smouldering all day.  James lingered for 6 days, passing away on 10^th October 1907.

James was interred beside Margaret, who had died in 1899, in the cemetery on the hill above the bay where he had lived and worked for 30 years. His estate valued at £2438 was divided equally between his eight children.

Dewar graves - Walkerville Cemetery 

                                                                                                        © Pilkington Family Collection

Today, Walkerville is a quiet and picturesque place, popular in summer for boating and fishing. A few holiday homes dot the hillside behind the remains of the kiln chimneys, and a single timber pillar remains of the long jetty which once curved out into the bay. The wall containing the fireplace of James Dewar’s home has been incorporated into a retaining wall along the roadside leading to the beach.

This work was originally written for the "Introduction to Family History" unit, University of Tasmania's Diploma of Family History.  A fully referenced PDF of this biography is available on request.

Walkerville … a Trove Tuesday post.

Tucked away in comparative isolation on Victoria’s southern coastline is Walkerville – one of my favorite places to visit.  Walkerville lies in the north-western curve of Waratah Bay, sheltered from the prevailing westerlies and providing a spectacular view across the bay to Wilson’s Promontory. 

This was where my grandmother grew up, and the place has always been special to me.  I doubt if there has been a single summer in my life which has not included a visit to Walkerville for picnics, beach rambles or a bushwalk. 

But Walkerville hasn’t always been a quiet place.  For a period of about 50 years in the late 19th & early 20th centuries, Walkerville was a thriving little community based on the important lime-burning trade.

Walkerville 2015 © K. Vincent

                                  
In October 1874, the following small paragraph appeared in The Age newspaper:

                                          

NEWS OF THE DAY. (1874, October 12). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 2.

                                                                    Retrieved February 4, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201532936

The article heralded the beginning of a new industry for the colony of Victoria.  Lime was in high demand for the building industry, and marble was mostly imported.  The area had been surveyed in 1868 by Lieutenant H. J. Stanley of the Admiralty & Colonial Marine Survey.  He had reported good anchorage in this south-west corner of Waratah Bay, except during south & south-easterly gales.

      Stanley, H. J. (Henry James) (1868). Australia, South coast, Victoria. Waratah Bay. Hydrographic Office, [London] http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8396398

Consequently, the ‘township’ of Waratah was proclaimed in February 1874, with a view to the area’s suitability as a port for servicing the gold diggings at Stockyard Creek (now Foster).
In May of 1875, a group of enterprising businessmen from Melbourne chartered the steamer Williams, leaving from Sandridge Pier for Waratah Bay to inspect the location.

 

                                    

NEWS OF THE DAY. (1875, May 3). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 2.

Retrieved February 4, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article202135764

The full account of the trip, in the same edition, can be read here:  WARATAH BAY AND ITS LIMESTONE DEPOSITS

 

MARBLE CLIFFS, WARATAH BAY. (1875, June 14).

Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers (Melbourne, Vic. : 1867 - 1875), p. 84.

Retrieved February 4, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60446295

The group wasted no time in commencing operations, with the formation of the Waratah Bay Lime & Marble Company – just four months later, in September, Melbourne newspapers carried advertisements calling for tenders for the erection of lime kilns at Waratah Bay.

  

Advertising (1875, September 7). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 3.

Retrieved February 4, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article7419065

The following year, Bright Brothers & Co., shipping agents, advertise for a vessel for the shipment of lime from Waratah Bay to Melbourne.

                                      Advertising (1876, October 9). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 1.

Retrieved February 5, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5905249

                                                        
(1879). Loading lime, Waratah Bay. Alfred May and Alfred Martin Ebsworth, Melbourne  from SLV, originally published in Australasian Sketcher

Transporting lime by sea was not without danger, as the risk of fire was significant if the cargo should become wet.   The process of burning limestone in the kilns produces quicklime, a highly caustic powder which generates high temperatures when in contact with water.  The quicklime produced in the Waratah kilns was bagged for shipment to Melbourne, and if the ship encountered heavy weather at sea, the risk of water entering the hold and triggering the chemical reaction which would cause spontaneous combustion was significant. 

The history of the lime industry at Waratah is peppered with stories of fires on board ship.  The first recorded was that of the Phoenix in November 1876, shortly after Bright Bros. placed the above advertisement.

                                                         

LOSS OF THE KETCH PHOENLY (1876, November 18). Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), p. 15.
Retrieved February 5, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220460919

Other similar events occurred over the following years:

1884 Gazelle  nla.news-article70043636

1886 John & May  nla.news-article9119108

1908 Meeinderry  nla.news-article10655073

1913 Centurion  nla.news-article7290275

1918 Wyrallah  nla.news-article7290275

1927 Defender  nla.news-article140800200

An article in The Age 5 February 1877, reporting on the voyage of HMCS Victoria to Sydney and return, mentions the jetty at Waratah being under construction.  

                                  

Walkerville jetty

from Pilkington family collection

My great-grandfather, James Dewar, was appointed manager of the new lime works.  The exact date of his appointment is not known, but first reference I have found to him at Waratah is 1878.

                                                                           

James Dewar 1829 - 1907

Manager of Waratah lime works

from Pilkington family collection

James Dewar was a Scotsman who came to Australia in the 1850’s, and probably spent time on the Central Victorian goldfields.  On his marriage certificate in Geelong in 1859, he is listed as a quarryman.  By the time my grandmother’s birth was registered in Tootgarook in 1874, his occupation was lime burner.  It is reasonable to assume he was at that time employed at the lime kilns in Rye. 

James Dewar continued as manager of the Waratah kilns until his death in 1907.  During that time, he also served as post-master, electoral officer and registrar for the little community.  Upon his death, his son Alexander Dewar succeeded as manager, and when he went off to World War 1, brother Jim took over.

Over the course of its history, the Waratah kilns changed hands several times.  The name of the original township of Waratah was changed in about 1890 to Walkerville, named after William Froggatt Walker, Commissioner for Customs, who was part of a consortium which took over the kilns from Bright Bros. in 1884.  Later, in 1892, ownership changed again to Andrew A. McCrae.  

                                                          

Walkerville kilns & jetty c1900

from Pilkington family collection

Increasing transport costs and competition from railways, combined with reduced demand from the building trade, eventually made production of lime at Walkerville uneconomical.  The kilns closed finally in 1926, although the nearby kiln at Bell Point struggled on for another year or so.  Following closure, and with no other employment opportunities in the immediate area, the workers and their families moved away, leaving Walkerville deserted.   Gradually, the bush reclaimed the surrounding area, and the jetty and kilns deteriorated.

deteriorating jetty - date unknown

from Pilkington family collection

                                                          

Today, Walkerville is a quiet little holiday destination, popular with campers and fishing enthusiasts.  Homes change hands rarely, and for premium prices when they do.  Apart from the ruins of the kilns which dominate the beach, and the little cemetery up on the cliff, there are only small reminders of the industry and activity which once took place.

Walkerville township from jetty 1928

from Pilkington family collection ©

One stone wall containing the fireplace and chimney is all that remains of James Dewar’s residence, and now forms part of the retaining wall on the roadside.  A few patches of nasturtiums and some pea-flowered climbers among the bush are relicts of the former cottage gardens.  Just a single timber pylon survives from the jetty which once curved 300 feet out into the bay.

                                                                      

great-great-granddaughters of James Dewar, with last remaining jetty pylon

© K. Vincent 2012

    
In recent years, efforts have been made to protect the remains of the kilns and prevent further deterioration.  Signage has been created to inform the visitor of the history and significance of the area.  A short climb along a steep path leads to the little cemetery where James & Margaret Dewar lie at rest with others from the early settlement.

                                                             

Walkerville kiln 2015  © K. Vincent