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Descendants of Charles Dornan
Charles
Dornan, son of Alexander Dornan, born ca. 1819,
Ballynahinch, County Down, Ireland ; 1
died 12 Dec 1852 2
Victoria, Australia, buried 14 Dec 1852. He married ca.
1839 in County Down, Ireland, Catherine Laverty,
born 1821 Ballynahinch, Magheradrool Parish, County Down 1;
died 1 April 1866 Pola Creek, Macleay River, New South Wales,
Australia, buried Frederickton Cemetery, daughter of Michael
Laverty (ca. 1798-1877) and Ann Boyd (ca. 1792-1867).
There were seven issue from the marriage.
Catherine married (2) on 2 June 1856 at Pola Creek, Macleay River, NSW, Augustus Raymond, born 27 Sep 1821 Camberwell, London, Surrey, England, chr. 4 Jan 1822 Christ Church, Southwark, London, England ; died 18 Jan 1877 3 Sydney, NSW, Australia, buried Old Church of England Section, Rookwood Cemetery (section E, row 10), son of Mead Raymond (1785-1843) and Ann Chapman (1785-1830). There were four issue from the marriage. Catherine's Cemetery headstone Surname Origin
Most hereditary
surnames in Ireland only came into use in the tenth
century by command of the illustrious King Brian Boru.
Historians believe Irish pedigrees are fairly accurate
back to the 6th and possibly to the 5th century.
The Dornan surname is the anglicized form of
the Gaelic surname Ó Dornáin or
Ó Doirnín where the Ó
indicated the ancient Irish name origin and descent
from the three sons of Milesius who had issue. According
to O'Cleary who in 1632 compiled The Annals of
The Four Masters in ancient days the Ó
was reserved for the Milesian Irish families of high
or noble rank.
County Down - Ireland
When Charles and Catherine Dornan arrived from
Ireland in New South Wales in Australia in August
1841 their immigration records had the age of
Charles as 22 (so born ca. 1819), and Catherine
as 20 (so born ca. 1821), and Alexander as 11 months
(so born Sept 1840). The names of Charles' parents
were given as Alexander Dornan and Anne and Catherine's
as Michael Laverty and Anne. Their birth places were
given as Ballanahinch, County Down and
the occupation of Charles as farm servant and Catherine
as house servant and it was stated Charles could read
and write and Catherine neither 5.
The town of Ballynahinch (sic) is located in Magheradrool Parish in County Down about 15 miles south of Belfast. According to the Knox History of County Down it had a population in 1841 of 911 when it is presumed the Dornan's left for Greenock in Scotland to join the ship for the voyage to Australia. Their New South Wales immigration arrival record had the religious denomination of Charles and Catherine as protestant. Their ca. 1839 marriage likely took place in the Church of Ireland which would have been the denomination in which Charles was baptised. As the immigration records of Catherine's later arriving in NSW brothers Denis and Michael Laverty had their denomination as Roman Catholic it follows Catherine would have been baptised at one of the Roman Catholic chapels in the area, the most likely being the R. C. chapel south of Ballynahinch in Magherahamlet parish, and when marrying as the saying went she ‘turned her coat’. As is the case with the surviving Church of Ireland and Presbyterian baptism and marriage records for the area, except those for the 3rd Ballynahinch Presbyterian, the baptism records of the Ballynahinch, Magherahamlet, and Dromara R.C. chapels all start too late for her baptism record. C of I marriage records for Magheradrool parish start from 1845 which is also too late for the ca. 1839 marriage record. The Tithe Applotment valuations of farm tenements for County Down date from 1827 to 1834. They listed several with the Dornan surname but none had the given name of Charles Dornan's father Alexander and there were none with the Laverty (Lougherty) surname. From records of Catherine's brother Michael Laverty it is known the surname of Catherine's mother was Boyd which was a name noted occurring in the applotment valuations in several parishes in County Down with the most common given names being John and several Samuel's - both given names bestowed by Michael and Ann Laverty on their children. In the NSW immigration arrival record Rev. Charles Boyd, vicar of the Ballynahinch Church of Ireland, certified as to the baptism register entry for Charles suggesting that was where he was baptised. Rev. William Mortimer a Church of Ireland curate at Magherahamlet Church of Ireland where Charles's Boyd's brother H. E. Boyd was the vicar certified as to Catherine's baptism entry. The absence in the tithe applotment valuations of the names of the fathers of both Charles and Catherine suggest by 1827 they were town dwellers or worked on farms tenanted or owned by others. In the case of Catherine's father such is also suggested by the 1861 census of Co. Cumberland in England where the occupation of her father Michael was given as - ‘formerly agricultural labourer’ 6. In 1853 when Catherine's ca. 1825 born brother Denis Laverty arrived in Sydney his immigration record gave Belfast as the abode of his parents Michael Laverty and Ann Boyd. By the time of the 1861 census of England, with their three younger sons ca. 1826 born Michael Jr., ca. 1833 born Samuel and ca. 1835 born John, they had relocated 160 kilometres across the Irish Sea to Cleator Moor near Whitehaven in the County of Cumberland (since 1974 located in the County of Cumbria) where they resided until their deaths. At the 1861 census the household included a grandson Michael born ca. 1846 indicating there was likely at least one other son of an unknown given name who had married ca. 1845 or earlier and was either deceased, had remained behind in Ireland, or in 1861 was living elsewhere in England or for some other reason was not listed. The after arrival history of Catherine's brother Denis Laverty who arrived in Sydney in Sep. 1853 on the Telegraph is unknown. The Immigration Deposit Journal for 1864 have that Catherine's husband Augustus Raymond in March deposited £18 towards the fares of her brother Michael Laverty (30), his wife Sarah (28), and two children Dennis (5) and Catherine (2) who subsequently arrived in Jan 1865 on the St. Hilda and settled on the mid-north coast of NSW at Taylors Arm where three more children were born and he died in 1888 7, 8. Emigration & Settlement at Macleay River
Charles and Catherine Dornan and infant son Alexander
arrived in Sydney in New South Wales with 277 other
immigrants on 28 August 1841 as bounty immigrants
on the Percy that left Greenock on the Firth
of Clyde in Scotland on 21 May 1841. It was not
a propitious time to arrive in the then British
colony. At Macleay River on the mid-north coast,
where it is indicated they settled sometime between
arrival in August 1841 and Dec 1842, the 1st March 1841
census recorded the district's population as 584.
It was a peak from which for some years the number
declined as the country as a whole experienced
its most major depression since first settlement
in 1788. The sharp decline in cedar prices caused
many employed in its extraction at Macleay River,
unable to earn an income adequate to substain
themselves and pay the £4 annual licence
fee, to leave the area. A letter published in
The Sydney Herald of 16 June 1842 stated
hundreds of sawyers had left the river in the
last few months with others leaving daily for
other parts of the colony and the few sawyers who
remained and their families presented a miserable
appearance. In the absence of official statistics
for any of the years in between the 1841 and 1851
census the extent of the decline is indicated by the
recollection of an early resident, who arrived at
the river as a 13 year-old in 1839, that when
growing up there he knew the name
of every white resident on the whole of the Macleay
which he said was not a difficult task as there
were less than fifty white men 27.
Two early 1970s publications contain erroneous accounts of the early history of Charles and Catherine Dornan at Macleay River and in respect of a purported disappearance without trace in 1852 of Charles. Marie H Neal's 1972 published history of the Macleay, titled Valley of the Macleay, quoted from a 1964 letter to the Macleay Valley Historical Society from a Charles & Catherine 1922 born great granddaughter as follows:-
Errors in the above accounts
It appears the claim that Catherine had a second given name of
Anne was an assumption based on the first child born in NSW
being named Ann. However there is no evidence Catherine
had Ann, or Anne, as a second given name. In Ireland
traditionally there was very strong naming pattern for the
eldest children with the first born son being named after
the father's father and first born daughter after the
mother's mother. First born daughter Ann's name obviously
came from Catherine's mother's given of Ann just as first
born son Alexander's from that of the father's father.
If Catherine had a second given name it would be expected
to have appeared in the 1841 immigration record and, in
the baptism record of at least one of her first seven
children and in at least one of the birth registrations
of the last four, and it would have appeared on her
Frederickton Cemetery headstone and in the church parish
and offical registration record for her 1856 marriage
to Augustus Raymond.
Whilst the circumstances of the death of Charles Dornan are unknown today he did not as claimed in the quoted accounts just disappear without trace in 1852 when away in the south prospecting for gold or on his way back from there to Macleay River. One can only speculate as to why the fact of his death in Victoria in December that year was not known to the two 1922 and 1910 born grandchildren of eldest son Alexander (1840-1918) who respectively in 1964 and 1970 penned the above quoted accounts that stated he just disappeared without trace when away prospecting for gold. In that regard it should be said that the latter account seemingly just repeated the claims in the 1964 account. The baptism record of Catherine's youngest child Charles Jr., confirmed by her remarriage less than four years later to Augustus Raymond with her status recorded as widow, establish beyond any doubt that within two months of Charles's 1852 death it was known to Catherine he was deceased and presumably to her landlord and the neighbours on the John Verge owned "Austral Eden" property where the family were recorded as still residing on 10 July 1852 when the last born daughter Eliza was baptised and to others in the small Macleay River distict that then had a population of about 400 (at the March 1851 census the population of the McLeay (sic) Police District was 391 including 123 for the then private town of Kempsey that later became East Kempsey). That he was deceased was known to the visiting from Port Macquarie St. Thomas Anglican parish minister Rev. Thomas O'Reilly who baptised the four last born children. That church's parish baptism register entry for the baptism on 6th Feb 1853 at Macleay River of 9 Dec 1852 last born and second son Charles Jr. stated his father Charles was "deceased". Thus before the baptism Catherine had been either officially notified of his death and its cause, or after an unexpectedly prolonged lack of contact from Charles whose return had been expected, it was ascertained by inquiry of the police. The knowledge of his death would surely have been imparted by Catherine to her then 12 year-old eldest child Alexander who had to assume his father's place. The question that will remain forever unanswered is why during his lifetime was Charles's first born son Alexander seemingly reticient in telling his own children and grandchildren his father died in 1852 leaving subsequent generations to believe he had disappeared without trace and presumably had died? It is said in his old age Alexander recounted that the difficult years that followed his father's "disappearance" were ones of worry and despair and grindingly hard work on the property they had occupied and how he had loved and respected his mother for her courage 10. One can only imagine, with seven young children of whom the eldest was just 12 years old and the youngest only a few weeks old, the despair that Catherine must have experienced on learning of the death of Charles. Disregarding the possibility that when Charles died he was engaged in some form of nefarious activity in respect of which recounting same to his own children would cause them shame, one can only presume Alexander did not speak to his own children of his father's death as a known fact because at the time being only twelve he considered his father should not have left the family to go off prospecting being in his eyes tantamount to desertion. Given 12 Dec 1852 born Charles Jr. had an average gestation period of nine months the latest his father could have left to go prospecting would have been in early March 1852. Obviously the claim in the 1970 published family history that Charles Jr. was born three months after his father went prospecting cannot be correct as it would mean Jr. was born at the latest in June 1852 six months before his actual birth date recorded in the church parish baptism register. If the claim in the first quoted 1964 written account that he "disappeared" three months before Charles Jr. was born is taken to have been when the last letter advising of his prospecting success and decision to return to the Macleay was written it follows it was written in early Sept. 1852 about three months before he died in Victoria. As a successful prospector it would be expected a return journey to the river would have been by coaster to Sydney and thence by same to Macleay River which at the most would have been expected to take more than three weeks. If Catherine was not officially notified of his death with no further communication from her husband and a non-arrival months later such would have given rise to an inquiry of the Victorian police that ascertained his fate. Also contradictory to the claim in the quoted accounts Charles just disappeared in 1852 and was never heard of again is that such overlooked that less than four years later in June 1856 Catherine could not have legally married Augustus Raymond as under the law her marriage would have been been bigamous and known to be so to her fellow settlers in the small Macleay River community and the visiting clergyman who married them and to the police stationed there. Until a Divorce Act was passed in 1873 marriage in the colony of NSW was for life unless the person marrying was a widow or widower, could prove desertion for not less than seven years, or the person's spouse had been absent overseas for at least seven years. In the case of a person who simply disappeared and might well turn up again seven years had to first elapse before their spouse could remarry or the spouse would committ the crime of bigamy which was classed as a crime against the moral order of society. In 1856 it was a felony that if proven was punishable by penal servitude. For example in 1864 in the colony of Tasmania the criminal law provided that a husband or wife marrying for a second time could do so only if the spouse - shall have been continually absent from such person for the space of seven years then last past, and shall not have been known by such person to be living within that time. In 1864 upon a conviction for bigamy committed in that colony the person was liable for imprisonment for up to seven years and no doubt a similar term would have applied in 1856 in the colony of NSW. The Victorian BDM registry has the death of Charles indexed under the number 28740 and the name Charles Dorman (sic). Originally recorded in the burial register of St. Peter's Anglican Church, the oldest Anglican church still standing on its original site in the inner city of Melbourne, the record gave his age as 33 years (i.e. born 1819), date of death as Sunday 12 Dec 1852 and date of burial as 14th Dec 1852 7. He would have been buried in Melbourne's first burial ground now Flagstaff Gardens that was known to the early Melbourne settlers as Burial Hill. The record gave him as being of Melbourne. The Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV) online index of deposition files for inquests into deaths from 1840 has no entry for an inquest into the death of a Charles Dorman or Dornan suggesting the death was known to be from a natural cause and such occured in the infirmary or was certified to as such by a medical practitioner. No cause of death was recorded in the church register. A search of the then main daily Melbourne newspaper The Argus through to 24 Dec 1852 failed to find a mention of him by name but there was mention of out of town murders of unnamed persons as occurring a day either side of Sunday 12th. If he say had died in a hospital from severe dysentry resulting from food poisioning from a known source likely no inquest would have been required. Accounting for the variant surname spelling as Dorman and not Dornan is that his name may have been spelt phonetically or ascertained as such from a handwritten Miner's Right he carried with an "N" in the right viewed as an "M" 11. Occupation of Charles Dornan
The above quoted accounts are in most respects best
described as family folklore having incorrect
assumptions presented as facts. They are astray not
only in respect of the claimed disappearance of
Charles Dornan in 1852 when away prospecting for
gold but also as detailed below in respect of
him shortly after arrival in Sydney in 1841
having purchased from the Crown a small farm at
Pola Creek which was manifestly not the case.
It is quite possible Charles and Catherine arrived at Macleay River very shortly after their arrival in Sydney in August 1841. The 7 July 1844 baptism at Macleay River of their 1 Dec 1842 first born Australian child Ann establishes they were there before Dec 1942 12. Ann's 1860 marriage record did not have her birth place. However the official birth record of her 1861 born first child Agnes had her mother's birth place as McLeay River. If correct it means the Dornan family arrived at the river before Ann's Dec 1842 birth. As they arrived there in late 1841 or in 1842 when most residents there were itinerant cedar cutters who moved on they were among the very first white settlers. The published accounts of the family history quoted herein that claim Charles came to Macleay River to take up a small farm at Pola Creek he purchased in Sydney from the Crown within weeks of arrival from Ireland in 1841 are not correct. Daughter Ann's July 1844 baptism register entry had the occupation of Charles Dornan as a "labourer". If in 1844 he had been a tenant farmer or a farmer on his own land as claimed it would not have been so recorded. Thus this record alone establishes he did not come to the river as claimed as a land owner but likely came to work for someone there as a farm labourer which was the normal expectation for a bounty immigrant from Ireland whose immigration record on arrival recorded his occupation as a "farm labourer". The after arrival in Sydney small farm purchase claim was also incorrect because at no time in the decade of the 1840s did the government of the colony make available for purchase any small farms at Macleay River. It was not until 1850 that the Crown sold the first small farm there ! 13 Thus the actual Charles Dornan employment history at Macleay River from his arrival there to his death can only be speculated upon. As cedar extraction was the main commercial enterprise at Macleay River for many years it is possible after arrival in Sydney in August 1841 he was recruited there shortly off the boat and initially came to the Maclay River as a cedar cutter. Alternatively and thought much more likely is that he was recruited in Sydney as a farm labourer by an agent for a Lower Macleay landowner who prefered to employ newly arrived married immigrant farm workers for fencing, livestock husbandry, and tillage and growing of crops etc. to that of the locally available hard living and drinking and usually single cedar sawyers. Indications are he may have found work with Lower Macleay River landowner John Verge who in 1839 began to develop his four square mile (2560 acre) grant that had a six mile (10 kilometer) Macleay River frontage named Austral Eden. It was not until until July 1855 that Verge ran a series of advertisements in a Sydney newspaper advertising the availability of 3 or 4 year free of rent clearing leases of from 10 acres upwards on his "Austral Eden" grant. However earlier he likely made some clearing leases available there of which perhaps Charles may have become the tenant of one before leaving to go prospecting for gold in 1852. Suggestive John Verge must have granted some clearing leases on land he owned at the river before his July 1855 advertisments is that, in respect of leasing land to tenants in Yarravel parish on a land portion he purchased at auction in 1850, a notice in the Government Gazette dated 2 Feb 1855 advising of the resumption of a 7 acre strip for part of the road from Kempsey to Christmas Creek described the strip resumed as having upon it - "a hut belonging to one of Mr. Verge's tenants" 14. Suggestive in the 1840s Charles Dornan likely worked for John Verge and, perhaps late in that decade may have had a clearing lease on his Austral Eden 2560 acre grant, that after it was subdivided into 67 farm lots was offered at auction in Kempsey on 23 March 1918 with all but one lot selling at the auction, is that on 23 Sep 1849 when daughters Mary Lavender and Catherine were baptised and again on 10 July 1852 when daughter Eliza was baptised the Port Macquarie St Thomas parish baptism register recorded their parent's abode as Austral Eden and the occupation of Charles ambiguously as "settler". However he may have then still been a farm labourer as if by 1849 he had been a tenant on Austral Eden seemingly Thomas O'Reilly the curate at St Thomas' at Port Macquarie would have recorded him as a "farmer" or "agriculturalist" and not just as a settler? In his baptism register entries O'Reilly rarely recorded the father's occupation as a labourer with his most common description being "settler" with on occassions farmer, grazier, or agriculturalist. After his December 1852 death the occupation of Charles was recorded as "farmer" in the baptism register when son Charles Jr. was baptised in Feb. 1853. That "farmer" was recorded as his occupation suggests in the 1852 year of his death he likely held a clearing lease on the property. Also suggesting in 1852 he likely leased a small farming area on Austral Eden is that seemingly he would not have left his family to join the gold rushes unless there was in place secure accommodation for them and an ability for the family to sustain itself during the period of his intended absence. However that said in respect of his occupation from time to time the only certainty is that in July 1844 Charles Dornan did not lease or own a farm at Macleay River and was employed by someone at the river as a labourer and in 1852 when he went off prospecting for gold the family was residing on the John Verge owned "Austral Eden" property. In respect of recollections of Charles and Catherine's eldest son Alexander of the family's early days at Macleay River, Allan King a grandson of Alexander wrote in 1970 that his grandfather had often spoken of their fear and uneasiness of the aboriginals of the area and had told of how groups could arrive and stay camped near a residence fishing the river for weeks before moving on and that at night it had been particulary worrying to see their camp fires so near and figures continually flitting and moving in the shadows. He wrote that on many occassions his grandfather had told that with his parents he watched their camp fires at night whilst the younger children slept 10. Pola Creek Farm
Destined in future years to become the nucleus
of one of the most prosperous dairy farms at
Macleay River the first Dornan family owned land
holding was at Pola Creek. However it was not
purchased from the crown by Charles Dornan in 1841,
as asserted in the quoted accounts of descendants, but
purchased twenty months after his 1852 death by
his widow Catherine for £102/8/- at an auction
of crown lands held at the Port Macquarie Crown Lands
Office on 25 Sep 1854. That Catherine with seven young
children, whose husband when employed as a farm
labourer likely would have earnt about £20
per annum plus rations for his family, was in
the position so soon after his death to purchase
the farm portion and, then finance the cost of
clearing and fencing and constructing a dwelling
on it etc., suggests the family legend that Charles
was successfull in his gold prospecting had substance
and before or after his Dec.
1852 death she likely received monies from that
source to enable her to purchase the farm.
Of 36 acres (14.5 hectares) the farm portion was situated in the then unnamed Parish of Kempsey in the County of Macquarie designated on the parish map as portion 11 and bearing Catherine's name as original grantee. It was situated on the south side of the river fronting Pola Creek at its entry to the river - today located 4¼ kilometers down the river from the cross river Kempsey traffic bridge and 1½ kilometres up river from where the 2013 commissioned 3.2 kilometer long Pacific Highway by-pass of Kempsey bridge crosses the Macleay River just north of the small town of Frederickton 15. After remarrying Augustus Raymond in 1856 Catherine continued to reside on the Pola Creek farm until her ten years later death. The Pola Creek farm portion was the first of ten adjoining creek and river frontage portions offered for sale by the crown that day in Sept 1854 and by purchasing it Catherine became the first purchaser of a small farm at Pola Creek. Prior to then no small farms had been sold by the crown on the southern side of the Macleay River. The only crown land alienated at Pola Creek prior to her purchase was a 1296 acre grant to Captain E. L. Adams he named "Hampden Hall" from which the current day Kempsey locality derived its same name. With an over one mile frontage to the Macleay River the Adams grant covered most of the headwaters of Pola Creek and adjoined Enock Rudder's private village of Kempsey subdivision (that later became East Kempsey) in which the first 35 lots were offered for public auction in Sydney on 26 Nov 1836. Following the 1839 death of Capt. Adams "Hampden Hall" was vested in his trustee A. B. Spark whose name appears on his portions on the parish maps and it was offered for sale in July 1841 as an unsubdivided property said to be suitable for dairying or tobacco growing. By purchasing the 36 acres at the auction Catherine not only became the first purchaser from the crown of a small farm on the south side (East Kempsey / Hampden Hall side) of the Macleay River but also the first woman to purchase a small farm (then termed a country lot) from the crown anywhere at the river and the fourth of a small farm sold by the crown after it first began to sell small farms at Macleay River in 1850. The only small farm purchasers preceeding her were William Smith, after whom the main street of Kempsey was named, and John Verge in 1850 and W. H. Kemp in 1852 of portions ranging in size from 109 acres to 266 acres in the parish of Yarravel on the north side of the river. At the time of her purchase a government town had not yet been proclaimed at Macleay River and no town lots had been sold there by the crown. Assuming Ann Chapman's pre-emptive purchase of 1320 acres, adjoining her husband's 170 acre 1857 private township subdivision he named Frederickton, was not made until near the expiry of the 14-year lease, and unless one or more women (unlikely) had purchased a lot in the Enock Rudder private township subdivision that became East Kempsey after the first lots in it were offered for sale in 1836, then Catherine's 1854 Pola Creek purchase would have made her, excluding a possible but unlikely purchase in the Rudder subdivision, the first woman to purchase either crown land or land previously alienated from the crown anywhere at Macleay River. Nine river frontage portions to the north of Catherine's portion 11 numbered from 12 to 20 were also offered by the crown at the same auction at which she purchased the 36 acres and were purchased by those whose names appear as original grantee on the above linked to Kempsey parish map - viz. north from Catherine's portion 11 being in order:- William Henry Lancaster, Bernard Gogerty, Thomas Rowe (2), The Rt. Rev. William Tyrrell D. D. Lord Bishop of Newcastle, Christopher Lawson (2), William Rothery, and John Verge. The availability for collection from the Registry of the title deed for Catherine's 36 acres was advertised in the Government Gazette early in January 1856 at page 34 and again a few months later at page 1160. After Augustus' death in 1877 the 1879 Government Gazette at page 3930 carried a notification an intermediate deed was ready for portion 11 for which a £1 fee was payable. Three weeks after the 2 June 1856 marriage of Catherine to Augustus Raymond portion 25 of 57 acres (23.1 hectares) situated on the south side of portion 11 and separated from it by a road reserve was purchased on 25 June 1856 in 15 year-old son Alexander's name at a crown land auction held upriver at Belgrave increasing the Pola Creek farm size to 93 acres (37.6 hectares) 15. At that auction the remaining three portions fronting Pola Creek to the south of portion 25, being portions 26 to 28, and four portions fronting the river, being 29, 33, 34 & 35, were also offered and purchased by those whose names appear on the parish of Kempsey maps - viz. John Hiller, Cobham Watson, Alexander Cochrane, Campbell Ker (3) and Amelia Paine. As shown on the above linked to parish map the sale of these 8 lots and the prior sale of 10 lots in 1854 making a total of 18 lots comprised all the crown land between "Hampden Hall" and the John Verge "Austral Eden" grant fronting the river and Pola Creek not alienated back in the 1830s by the six mile river frontage 2560 acre "Austral Eden" grant on the north and the 1296 acre "Hampden Hall" on the south. Catherine's Second Marriage
The June 1856 second marriage of widow Catherine
Dornan née Laverty to London born widower
Augustus Raymond (1821-1877), who arrived in South
Australia in June 1849 with his first wife Sarah
Terrey Sumerfield (1824-1850), took place at
the Pola Creek farm she purchased in Sept. 1854.
It was performed by Edward Holland the minister of
St. Andrews Presbyterian Church at Port Macquarie
where he was the third minister
having succeeded William McKee and the first
minister William Purves who in 1844 baptised
Catherine's two first born daughters Ann and
Jane 16.
From her marriage to Augustus Raymond Catherine
had four more children whose history and genealogy
is given on the Descendants of Augustus Raymond web
page. From her first marriage there had been seven
children. Her eleven children all married and there
were seventy-two known grandchildren of whom only
two were born before her sudden death on Easter
Sunday 1 April 1866 at the age of 45 years.
The 1970 Dornan family history publication stated at the time of the 1856 marriage of Catherine to Augustus Raymond he was a farmer-grazier from the Bellingen River. However that was not the case. There was no Raymond at that river until the late 1880's when Augustus and Catherine's 1864 last born son Edward moved there from Bowraville to set up business in the town of Bellingen as a wheelright and coachbuilder. After the passage of the Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1861, enabling selection beyond the limits of location, land first became available for selection and conditional purchase and was first selected in that district on 4 June 1863. When a great-grandfather of the compiler Walter Harvie arrived there about New Years Day 1863 he wrote that in addition to a shipbuilder and his partner on the lower river the district then comprised only about twenty white men mostly employed by a cedar cutter at Boat Harbour (later named Bellingen), just two white women, and hundreds of aboriginals, and the only domestic livestock was a grey horse. The settlers who followed brought the first cows walking them down the beach from the Macleay so maybe a surplus Dornan bred at Pola creek cow ended up at Bellinger River. The July 1856 Catherine and Augustus marriage record had his then occupation as a carpenter and joiner. It was a skill he would have acquired during a seven-year apprenticeship to his master lighterman father whose Raymond, Mead & Co. Thames River business also built lighters used to transport cargoes to ships. He likely built the house on the Pola Creek farm owned by Catherine in which his eldest son's obituary stated the family took refuge in its loft from the waters during the 1864 greatest known flood in the history of the Macleay River when a large number of dwellings on the upper and lower river were washed away and many families left destitute. Although by qualification himself a master lighterman in the six years that followed before he emigrated he must have pursued some studies as when Augustus Raymond arrived in Adelaide in June 1849 he gave his occupation as engineer - the same as recorded when he married in London earlier that year. After arrival in South Australia he managed and brought into production that colony's largest steam-powered sawmill. His first wife Sarah Terrey Sumerfield died on 25 May 1850 at Kensington in South Australia followed five weeks later by a daughter Sarah born five days before her death. By June 1851 Augustus was in Sydney where when giving evidence in a court case he gave his occupation as cabinetmaker. After then all that is known of early occupations in the colony before arriving at Macleay River and marrying Catherine Dornan in June 1856 is that for an unknown period he farmed elsewhere. In March 1859 he purchased at a crown lands auction a twenty-nine acre farm portion at Summer Island on the lower Macleay River on the northern side in Cooroobongatti parish almost opposite Kinchela. However there is no evidence he ever resided there. After the 1856 marriage until 1869, when he and his third wife Margaret Chambers nee Mackay whom he married in Dec 1867 moved to land purchased at Bowra (Bowraville), all records sighted have his address as Pola Creek. Following Catherine's death Pola Creek was given as his address in notifications in newspapers and in the Government Gazette in 1867 and 1868 in connection with the administration of her intestate estate and in 1869 re the registration of his horse brand. Catherine's Death
As Catherine was a pioneer Lower Macleay settler
of about 25 years standing with a large family of 11
children when she died in 1866 the then only Kempsey
newspaper The Macleay Herald likely reported on
her passing with a follow-up obituary. However whilst
it began publication two years before her death no
issue earlier than 1878 is known to have survived.
At Taree over one hundred kilometres to the south
the then weekly published The Manning River News
of 7 Apr 1866, pleading a lack of room as the reason
it was obliged to that week to condense the report of
its Kempsey correspondent, carried only the briefest
mention of her passing as follows - ‘‘I must
mention that Mrs Raymond died suddenly a few
days since, probably from heart disease. She
was apparently quite well a
few minutes before’’. Catherine is buried in
Frederickton Cemetery with the imposing headstone
pictured at the top of this article that allowed
space on it for the later addition of husband
Augustus whose 3rd wife instead of there had him
buried in Rookwood Cemeyery in Sydney 4.
Beside her are buried her
are her first Australian first born child Ann Ball
who departed in 1921 and a grand-daughter
Fleda May Bradley (the daughter of William Charles
Bradley and Catherine Dornan) who in 1897 at the
age of twelve years burned to death in her
pyjamas 25 .
Children of Charles Dornan and Catherine Laverty were: Children of Catherine Dornan and Augustus Raymond were: SECOND
GENERATION
1.
Alexander Dornan, b. Sept. 1840 1 Ballynahinch, County Down,
Ireland; d. 9 Jan 1918 (#1918-1399) Kempsey, NSW, Australia ;
m. 1872 (#1872-3253) at Rollands Plains reg. Port Macquarie,
NSW, Mary Mackay,
b. ca 1849 ; d. 28 Sep 1928 Kempsey, NSW, fourth daughter of
Alexander and Barbara Mackay of "Cogo", Rollands Plains.
East Kempsey Anglican Cemetery Alexander farmed at Pola Creek where by conditional purchases and purchases from others he expanded the mid-1850s purchased 93 acres to about 350 acres plus 151 acres upriver in the parish of Kalateenee, and developed it into one of the most prosperous dairy farms on the river. Two sons went to the First World War of whom the youngest was wounded in France in 1916 and had a leg amputated above the knee, and the other was killed in action in March 1918 near the small French village of Villers Bretennoux. 17.2. Ann Dornan, b. 1 Dec 1842, bapt. 7 Jul 1844 18 as recorded in the baptisms register of the 1840 established St Andrews Presbyterian parish at Port Macquarie ; d. 14 Dec 1921 19 (#1921-17192) reg. Kempsey, NSW, buried 16 Dec. Frederickton Cemetery ; m. 5 Sep 1860 (#1860-1876) at Frederickton, Macleay River, NSW Edward Ball, b. 1836 Cornwall, England; d. 19 Dec 1877 (#1877-6291), age 41, Macleay River (accidently). Ann Ball née Dornan 19 Ann's husband Edward died accidently on 19 December 1877 when crushed by a bull he was handling 20. His death registration does not have the name of either parent and instead has his age as 41 years (i.e. born in 1836) provided by the informant. Consistent with the death record age of 41 the birth registration record for his 1861 first born Australian child Agnes, a first person record as the father was the informant, gave his age at 11 October 1861 as 25 years (so also born 1836). That record gave his birth place as Cornwall consistent with the birth place given on his cemetery headstone. The names of his parents were also absent from the official registration record of his 1860 marriage that took place in the School House at Frederickton, as was his age, birthplace, and father's occupation. His parent's names are also not available from a marriage entry in the All Saints Parish of Kempsey marriage register as unlike the baptism and burial registers for that parish that date from 1858 the marriage registers before 1885 have not survived. The upshot is that there are no Australian records available that identify his parents 21. 3. Jane Dornan,
b. 1844 18, bapt. 7 Jul
1844 18 as recorded
in the baptisms register of the 1840 established St Andrews
Presbyterian parish at Port Macquarie ; d. Jan. 1878 (#1878-6828) ,
reg. Macleay River NSW ; m. 1872 (#1872-1254) reg. Paddington,
NSW, John Sylvester Connors,
b. 1851 Tasmania, Australia ; d. 1902 (#1902-1764) at Gladstone,
NSW, bur. Frederickton Cemetery, son of Daniel (1825-) and Mary
Ann O'Brien (1827-).
Jane died of typhoid fever in 1878 at "Greenfields" - a property with a river frontage located three kilometers north of Frederickton that was later owned by the two sons of her step-brother A. M. Raymond. Later that same year her husband John Connors remarried Catherine Agnes Garner (1856-1939) and between 1879 and 1902 had twelve more children. He died by his own hand (asphyxia by drowning) in 1902 at Gladstone and his death registration record had his occupation as saddler 23.4. Mary Lavender Dornan, b. 12 May 1846 18, bapt. 23 Sep 1849 likely at Macleay River - as recorded in baptism register of St Thomas Church C of E, Port Macquarie; d. 26 Sep 1919 (#1919-24158) reg. Macksville, NSW ; m. July 1866 (#1866-2278), James Bradley, b. 1841 ; d. 1918, buried 20 May 1918 Rookwood Cemetery, son of William Bradley (1815-1892) and Elizabeth Mackay (-1890) who married at Dungog in NSW in 1840. The funeral notice in the Sydney Morning Herald of 20 May 1918 for her husband James Bradley named the six married surviving children and their spouses as - Mr & Mrs May, Mr & Mrs Eichman, Mr & Mrs Mackay, Mr & Mrs Duchie, Mr & Mrs J Bradley and Mr & Mrs W Bradley. Nambucca Heads General Cemetery Children of Mary Lavender Dornan
and James Bradley were:
5.
Catherine Dornan, b. 17 April 1848 18,
bapt. 23 Sep 1849 likely at Macleay River - as recorded in the
baptism register of St Thomas Church C of E, Port Macquarie ;
d. 25 Apr 1938 (#1938-9145) reg. Macksville, NSW ; m. August 1873
(#1873-283) reg. Macleay River,
William Charles Bradley, b. 13 June 1848 at Paterson,
NSW; d. 22 Dec 1928 Macksville, NSW, son of William Bradley (1815-1892)
and Elizabeth Mackay (-1890) who married at Dungog in NSW in 1840.31. i. Catherine Bradley 32. ii. Elizabeth Ann Bradley, 33. iii. Islet Mary Bradley 34. iv. Jessie Bradley 35. v. William Herbert Bradley 36. vi Charles Alexander Bradley 37. vii. James Albert Bradley Macksville General Cemetery
6. Eliza Dornan, b.
10 July 1850 18, bapt. 10 July 1852 at Macleay River - as
recorded in the baptism register of the C of E parish of St Thomas
at Port Macquarie; d. 9 Oct 1920 (#1920-19594) reg. Macksville, NSW;
m. 1876 (#1876-3113) reg. Macleay River, Edward Joseph Crispin,
b. ca. 1848 ; d. 17 May 1921.
Macksville General Cemetery In 1970 Allan King wrote - "The Crispins owned the adjoining farm on the Kempsey side of the Dornan property. Some time later it was sold to the O'Dell family 10. At some time they must have moved to the Nambucca River district as the name of E. J. Crispin as the selector appears on two adjoining portions #70 and 75 at Utungan in the parish of Bowra on the northern side of Taylors Arm Creek with a nearby portion having as its selector son Leslie E. East Kempsey Anglican Cemetery
THIRD
GENERATION
8.
Charles Lewis Dornan, b. 1873 (#1873-12629) reg. Macleay
River, NSW ; d. 1874 (#1874-7444) reg. Port Macquarie, NSW.
9. Donald McKay Dornan, b. 1874 (#1874-13025) reg. Macleay River, NSW ; d. 18 Nov 1957 Kempsey, NSW ; m. 1901 (#1901-9401 reg. Kempsey; Emily Anne Hodgson, b. ca. 1875; d. 20 Nov 1969. East Kempsey Cemetery In 1970 Allan King wrote -"in 1921, Donald Dornan with his wife and four children, George, Alex, Winnie and Ruby returned to Pola Creek to take over the old home property. He had been away for nearly twenty years and had owned and worked properties, first at Alstonville on the Richmond River, and later Gayndah, a rich farming district in Queensland" 10. 10. Catherine
Ann Dornan, b. 1875 (#1875-13580) reg. Macleay River, NSW ;
m. 1899 (#1899-8314) reg Kempsey, George
William King.
Children of Catherine Ann Dornan and George William King were:11. Edward Adin Dornan, b. 1877 (#1877-14306) reg. Macleay River, NSW (birth indexed under Doran) ; d. 19 Dec 1956 10 (#1956-33374) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; m. 1917 reg. Kempsey (#1917-7995), Sylvia Winifred Secomb, b. ca. 1883 (#1883-21857) reg West Kempsey; d. 26 Oct 1942 10Kempsey, dau. of Thomas & Jane Secomb. East Kempsey Cemetery Not long after Alexander's death his widow and her two daughters Barbara Effie and Mary went to live in Sydney and the property was subdivided, with Adin Dornan, the second eldest son, taking the west side portion of the Pola Creek property and Donald , the eldest son, the homestead block. Not having any son to carry it on after Adin's death his portion of the property was sold 10. 12. Alexander M Dornan, b. 1879 (#1879-16240) reg. Macleay River, NSW (birth indexed under Doman) ; d. ca. 1858 Queensland ; m. 1911 (#1911-6901) reg. Rockdale, NSW, Dora J. Sutton. He was a farmer and grazier at Wondai in Queensland. Children of Alexander M Dornan
and Dora J Sutton were:
73. Robert Sutton Dornan 13. Barbara Effy Dornan, b. 1882 (#1882-20280) reg. West Kempsey, NSW (birth indexed under Doonan); d. 28 Oct 1968 (#1968-41679) at Roslyn Hospital, late of Hurstville, reg. Sutherland, NSW. 14. Victor Charles Dornan, b. 1884 (#1884-23622) reg. Kempsey, NSW; d. 1884 (#1884-10466) reg. Kempsey, NSW. 15. Mary Lavinia Dornan, b. 1885 (#1885-24438) reg. Kempsey, NSW; d. 1972 (#44492) reg. Sutherland, NSW. 16. Stanley Robert Dornan, b. 1888 (#1888-26676) reg. Kempsey, NSW; d. 1972 (#1972-43452) reg. Kogarah, NSW ; m. 1916 (#1916-9530) reg. Sydney, Mary Learmouth. 17. Leonard Hastings Dornan, b. 1891 (#1891-17812) reg. Kempsey, NSW; d. 30 Mar 1918 - killed in action in France. East Kempsey Cemetery In 1970 Allan King wrote - "Two sons of Alexander and Mary Dornan went to the First World War. ... Leonard Hastings, the second youngest son, was killed in action on the 20 March 1918. He was shot and killed instantly by a sniper's bullet as he was crossing freshly ploughed ground with his platoon late in the afternoon, near a small French village of Villers Bretennoux. Ten years later, his two brothers, Donald and Adin visited the A.I.F. cemetery on the outskirts of the small village of Villers Bretennoux and saw the grave of their younger brother" 10.18. John Lyle Dornan, b. 1894 (#1894-17329) reg. Kempsey, NSW; d. 4 Mar 1970 (#1970-12495), of South Cronulla, reg. Newtown. In 1970 Allan King wrote -" Two sons of Alexander and Mary Dornan went to the First World War. John Lyle, the youngest son, was wounded in France in 1916 and had his right leg amputated above the knee. Returning from overseas in 1917 he eventually became a dental surgeon and had one son Roger " 10.19. Agnes Jane Ball, b. 1861 (#1861-8754) reg. Macleay River ; d. 1929 (#1929-18181) reg. Murrwillimbah, NSW ; m. 1882 (#1882-5168), Frederick William Salmon. Childen of Agnes Jane Ball and
Frederick William Salmon were:
74. i. Leonard Augustus Salmon 75. ii. Sylvia Emily Salmon 76. iii. Ivy Constance Salmon 77. iv. Henry R Salmon 78. v. Leslie A Salmon 79. vi. Albaney G Salmon 80. vii. Amy A M Salmon 81. viii. Alfred R. Salmon 82. ix. Olive B Salmon 20. Catherine Ball, b. 1863 (#1863-9016) reg. Macleay River; d. 1865 (#1865-4268) reg. Macleay River, NSW. 21. Charles Edward Ball, b. 26 Dec 1865 (#1866-9933) reg. Macleay River; d. 28 Aug 1928, buried Frederickton Cemetery ; m. 3 Jul 1895 (#1895-5102), Annie Amelia Clegg, b. 28 Sep 1870 ; d. 29 May 1960 (death indexed as Annie Aurelia #1960-17443), bur. Frederickton Cemetery, daughter of John Clegg (1829-1917) and Elizabeth Jane Christian (1836-1927). Headstone Frederickton Cemetery Charles E. Ball's store at Kinchela The father of Charles' wife John Clegg married at Macleay River in 1857 and had 17 children. He had properties near Frederickton and at Warrell Creek. After John Clegg's 1917 death 700 head of cattle were offered at a dispersal sale. The next year part of his homestead property near Frederickton named "Sandhurst Vale" sold for £4250 with the balance selling at auction in January 1918 for £9250 to Augustus Mead Raymond of Bellingen - a step-uncle of Charles Edward Ball. 22. Annie Maria Ball, b. 1868 (#1868-11097) reg. Macleay River, NSW ; d. 1958 (#1958-24634) reg. Kempsey; m. 1886 (#1886-5815) reg. Kempsey, Thomas Henry Salmon. Children of Annie M Ball and
Thomas Henry Salmon were:
89. i. Ethel T Salmon 90. ii. Albert E Salmon 91. iii Claude A Slamon 92. iv. Ilma M Salmon 93. v. Vivian V Salmon 94. vi. Clarice V Slamon 95. vii. Eunice W Salmon 23. Eliza Matilda Ball, b. 1870 (#1870-1843) reg. Macleay River, NSW ; d. 1958 (#1958-23084) reg. Kempsey; m. 1903 (#1903-8618) reg. Kempsey, Thomas Brown. Children of Eliza Matilda Ball
and Thomas Brown to 1912 were:
96. i. Edward B Brown 97. ii. Matilda M Brown 98. iii Athol W Brown 24. Amy Constance Ball, b. 1873 (#1873-12643) reg. Macleay River, NSW ; d. 1938 reg. Kempsey (#1938-24361) ; m. 1898 (#1898-1212) reg Kempsey, George Millard. Her birth registration
has Edward and Ann as her parents. Her death registration
has them as Henry and Ann.
Childen of Amy Constance Ball and George Millard were: 99. i. Henry George Ball Millard 25.
Albert E Ball, b.
1875 (#1875-13480) d. 1875 (#1875-7202) reg. Macleay River, NSW.
26. Henry Parnell Ball, b. 1877 (#1877-14177) reg. Macleay River, NSW. d. 1941 (#1941-22078) reg. Kempsey; m. 1900 (#1900-4015) reg. Kempsey, Eva May Mackay, b. 1880 (#1880-17074) reg. Kempsey ; d. 1962 (#1962-25337) reg. Kempsey, daughter of James Alexander Mackay and Marion Smith. Children of Henry Parnell Ball
and Eva May Mackay to 1912 were:
100. i. Una M Ball 101. ii. Ivy A Ball 102. iii. Ethyl M Ball 103. iv. Henry E Ball 104. v. Vera V Ball 105. vi. Mabel G Ball 106. vii. Charles P Ball 107. viii. Hilton Cedric Ball 27. Julia Connors, b. 1873 (#1873-11000) reg. Grafton ; d. 1950 (#1950-22223) reg. Kempsey 28. Elizabeth Jane Connors, b. 1874 Sydney, NSW, Australia (no indexed birth reg.) ; m. 1898 (#1898-3467) reg. Kempsey, David J Worboys. Children of Elizabeth Jane Connors and David J Worboys were:29. Charles Sylvester Connors, b. 1875 (#1875-6941) reg. Armidale, NSW ; d. 1879 (#1875-6941) reg. Macleay River, NSW. XX. Ellen C Connors, b. 1876 (#1876-7148) reg. Armidale, NSW - her parent given names are indexed as John & Jane E. No death to 1964 or marriage for her is indexed. 30. Isabella Connors, b. 1877 (#1877-4869) reg. Paddington, NSW ; d. 1879 (#1879-6402) reg. Macleay River. 31. Catherine Bradley, b. 1867 Macleay River; m. George May 32. Elizabeth Ann Bradley, b. 1869 b. Macleay River; d. 1949 Macksville, NSW: m. 1893, John F. Eichmann, son of John Frederick Eichmann & Mary. 33. Islet Mary Bradley, b.1871 Macleay River; d. 1925 Hurstville, NSW. 34. Jessie Bradley, b.1873 Nambucca River; d. 1942, Annandale, NSW. 35. William Herbert Bradley, b. 1875 Nambucca River; d. 1942, Annandale. 36. Charles Alexander Bradley, b.1879 Nambucca River; d. 1970 Sydney. 37. James Albert Bradley, b. 1884 Nambucca River; d. 1954 Five Dock, NSW ; m. 1915 Newtown, Alice Nolan. 38. Abertha Adeline Bradley, b. 1874 ; m. 1895 George R. Rowe at Kempsey - spelt Bertha on certificate. 39. Charles D. Bradley, b. 1877 40. Betsy Bradley, b. 1879 41. William E. Bradley, b. 1882 Bellingen; d. 1915 Macksville. 42. Fleda May Bradley, b. 1885 Bellingen: d. 1897 Nambucca - aged 12 years. 43. Harold Frederick Bradley, b. 1888 Bowraville; d. 1975 Bowraville ; m. 1916 at Kempsey, Iris Isabelle Riddel, d. died in 1969 at Armidale, dau. of Peter & Margaret Riddel. 44. Betsy Bradley, b. 1889 Bowraville, NSW. 45. Adrienne Olive A Bradley, b. 1891Nambucca; d. 1965, Balmain; m. 1915 t Bowraville, Robert Edwards. Name spelt "Adderinne C. A" on marriage certificate. 46. Charles W Crispin, b. 1877 (#1877-19036) reg. Penrith, NSW ; m. 1899 (#1899-6073) reg. Macksville, NSW, Charlotte F Gill. In 1970 Allan King wrote - "One of Eliza's sons, another Charles, eventually joined a lesser known religious sect called the Dowietes, and Charles Crispin, following his leader, migrated to the United States and settled in the city of Chicago, where he continued his trade as a builder. In 1923 he was visted by Mr. Stan Dornan of Penshurst. Charles Crispin at that time expressed a desire to return, however, with his family and financial commitments, it is unlikely that he ever had the opportunity to visit Australia" 24, 10.47. Ethel Jane Crispin, b. 1878 (#1878-19816) reg. Parramatta, NSW ; d. 1965 (#1965-23283) reg. Taree, NSW ; m. 1907 (#1907-1750) reg. Macksville, NSW, Frank Schmitzer, d. 1940 (#1940-7431) reg. Bellingen, NSW. 48. Leslie Edward Crispin, b. 1880 (#1880-17049) reg. Macleay River, NSW ; d. 1953 (#1953-6433) reg. Macksville, NSW ; m. 1900 (#1900-6164) reg. Glebe, NSW, Alice Marion Gill, d. 1950 (#1950-23426) reg. Macksville, NSW. 49. Charles Augustus Dornan, b. 1881 (#1881-19582) reg. Macleay river, NSW ; d. 1940 (#1940-12674) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; 50. Catherine Jane Dornan, b. 1882 (#1882-20331) reg. West Kempsey, NSW ; d. 1882 (#1882- 9433) reg. Kempsey, NSW. 51. Ivy May Dornan, b. 1883 (#1883-21919) reg. West Kempsey, NSW ; d. 1884 (#1884-10450) reg. Kempsey, NSW. 52. William Patrick Dornan, b. 1884 (#1884-23738) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; d. 1953 (#1953-32075) reg. Macksville, NSW ; 53. Ernest A Dornan, b. 1887 (#1887-26077) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; 54. Jessie M Dornan, b. 1889 (#1889-25325) reg. Kempsey, NSW. 55. Elizabeth P Dornan, b. 1890 (#1890-17739) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; d. 1891 (#1891-7696) reg. Kempsey, NSW. 56. Ethel T Dornan, b. 1892 (#1892-18319) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; d. 1893 (#1893-7591) reg. Kempsey, NSW. 57. Leslie R Dornan, b. 1894 (#1894-17382 reg. Kempsey, NSW ; 58. Bertie L Dornan, b. 1895 (#1895-23364) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; 59. Elsie I Dornan, b. 1900 (#1900-22915) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; 60. Ethel M Dornan, b. 1905 (#1905-14007) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; m. 1924 (#1924-8478), Harold Fraser, reg. Kempsey, NSW. FOURTH
GENERATION
61.
George H
Dornan, b.1904 (#1904-4676) reg. Marrickville, NSW
62. Alexander R Dornan, b. 1906 (#1906-21344) reg. Ballina, NSW 63. Winnie Dornan, b. 1908; d. 5 Dec 2005 64. Ruby C Dornan, b. 1910 (#19010-35531) reg. Ballina 65. William B. P. King, b. 1900 (#1900-10250) reg. Ashfield, NSW ; d.1928 (#1928-18154) reg. Ashfield, NSW. 66. Raymond Dornan King, b. 1902 (#1902-17014/) ; d. 1966 (#1966-21119) reg. Hurstville, NSW. 67. Stanley A King, b. 1905 (#1905-34239) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; d. 1979 (#1979-11519) reg. NSW. 68. Mabel J. G. King, b. 1906 (#1906-10072) reg. Sydney, NSW ; d. 1906 (#1906-3936) reg. Sydney, NSW. 69. Allan Wallace King, b.1910 (#1910-4901) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; d. 2 Oct 1984, late of Cronulla, Sydney, NSW. 70. Clifford Mackay King, b. 1912 (#1912-50893) reg. Waratah, NSW ; d. 1981 (#1981-4718) reg. NSW. 71. Jean Heather Dornan, b. ca. 1922; d. 20 Jan 1972 Kempsey 72. Gwendoline Mary Dornan, m. reg. Hursville, NSW (#1949-16875), Oliver Wendall Morris. 73. Robert Sutton Dornan, b. 1916 ; d. 12 Sep 1999 aged 83 at Wahroonga , NSW. 74. Leonard Augustus Salmon, b. 1883(#1883-21900) reg. West Kempsey 75. Sylvia Emily Salmon, b. 1884 (#1884-23715) reg. Kempsey 76. Ivy Constance Salmon, b. 1885 (#1885-24521) reg. Kempsey 77. Henry R Salmon, b. 1887 (#1887-25912 reg. Kempsey 78. Leslie A Salmon, b. 1888 (#1888-26646) reg. Kempsey 79. Albaney G Salmon, b. 1890 (#1890-17653) reg. Kempsey 80. Amy A M Salmon, b. 1892 ()#1892-18220) reg. Kempsey 81.. Alfred R. Salmon, b. 1896 (#1896-15777) reg. Kempsey 82. Olive B Salmon, b.1899 (#1899-12884) reg. Kempsey 83. Clarence Macleay Ball, b. 1895 (#1895-35954) reg. Kempsey ; d. 1987 Kempsey ; m. 1922 (#1922- 16434) reg. Kempsey, Ethel P Bevitt. 84. Gladys M Ball, b. 1896 (#1896-31496) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; m. 1917(#1917-11907) reg. Kempsey, Rupert B Geary. 85. Ilene M Ball, b. 1898 (#1898-12908) reg Kempsey ; m. 1922 (#1922-2328) reg. Kempsey, Steve McCabe. 86. Sylvia C Ball, b. 1905 (#1905-4346) reg. Kempsey, NSW. 87. Clifford R Ball, b. 1905 (#1906-14245) reg. Kempsey. 88. Edward Lambert Ball, 1908 (#1908-36615) reg Kempsey ; d. 23 Jan 1976, bur. East Kempsey Cemetery ; m. 1938 (1938-21655) reg. Kempsey, Ruby Alice Boyter. 89. Ethel T Salmon, b. 1887 (#1887-25943) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; 90. Albert E Salmon, b, 1889 (#1889-25459) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; 91. Claude A Slamon, b, 1889 (#1889-25459) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; 92. Ilma M Salmon, b. 1892 (#1892-18145) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; 93. Vivian V Salmon, b. 1894 (#1894-17516) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; 94. Clarice V Slamon, b. 1897 (#1897-22596) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; 95. Eunice W Salmon, b.1900 (#1900-32265) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; 96. Edward B Brown, b. 1904 (#1904-33152) reg. Kempsey 97. Matilda M Brown, b. 1906 (#1906-35325) reg. Kempsey 98. Athol W Brown, b. 1912 (#1912-44110) reg. Kempsey 99. Henry George Ball Millard, b.1909 (#1909-26163) reg. Kempsey ; d. 1937 (#1937-25743) Kempsey. 100. Una M Ball, b. 1900 (#1900-22962) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; m. 1935 (#1935-20551), Cyril A Constable, reg. Kempsey. 101. Ivy A Ball, b. 1903 (#21905) reg. Kempsey, NSW. 102. Ethyl M Ball, b. 1905 (#1905-24093) reg. Kempsey, NSW. 103. Henry E Ball, b. 1907 (#1907-36321) reg. Kempsey, NSW. 104. Vera Victoria Ball, b. 1909 (#1909-37656) reg. Kempsey, NSW; d. 1982 (#1982-106119) NSW ; m. 1952 (#1952-11076) reg. Kempsey, NSW, Keith Daniel Davis. 105. Mabel G Ball, b. 1912 (#1912-5330) reg. Kempsey, NSW. 106. Charles P Ball, b. 1915 (#1915-13044) reg. Kempsey, NSW ; m. 1934 (#1934-18101) reg. Kempsey, Phyllis E Saunders 107. Hilton Cedric Ball, b. 1918 (#1908-3897) reg. Kempsey, NSW; d. 1944 (#1944-69) reg. Sydney, NSW. 108. William C Worboys, b. 1898 (#1898-12870) reg. Kempsey, NSW. 109. Amy I Worboys, b. 1900 (#1900- 13484) reg. Kempsey, NSW. 110. Albert E Worboys, b. 1902 (#1902-13078 ) reg. Kempsey, NSW 111. Elsie M Worboys, b. 1907 (#1907-36304) reg. Kempsey SOURCES: 1 Assisted (Bounty) Immigration, AONSW reel #1336 - The immigration and ship records gave the birth place of Charles Dornan , Catherine and son Alexander as Ballanahinch, Co. Down and their respective ages as 21, 20 & 11 months. The parents of Charles were given as Alexander & Anne Dornan and Catherine's as Michael & Anne Lougherty (the surname spelling is a phonetic variant of Laverty - both Dornan and Laverty being Irish names respectively anglicised from O Dornain and O Laith Bheartaigh, with the former found mostly in Co. Down in the area adjoining Co. Antrim). The person certifying as to registry of baptism for Charles was the Rev. Charles Boyd vicar of the Ballynahinch C of I, and for Catherine it was Rev. William Mortimer curate of Magherahamlet C of I church where the rector was Rev. H. E. Boyd who was also rector of Dromara C of I and the brother of Rev. Charles Boyd (the reason a C of I vicar and not an R. C. priest certified as to the register of baptism as was stated in the immigrant's application is not known and can only be speculated upon. It has been suggested Catherine was perhaps her mother's eldest child and her mother Ann Boyd was either the widow of a protestant Boyd or Catherine was born out of wedlock and baptised as a protestant before her mother married Michael Laverty). The Ballynahinch birth place of both Charles and Catherine could mean they were either born in that town or it was the nearest large town to where they were born. The above arrival record and details are as researched and advised by Carmel Stuart. Note: - the "Digger" CD-ROM titled Bounty Emigration to NSW 1828 to 1842 has the Dornan family surname incorrectly indexed as Doran. In other unrelated Australian family records it has been noted spelt as Doonan, Donan, Dorman. 2 The Victorian BDM registry has the death of Charles indexed under the number 28740 and name Charles Dorman (sic). Originally recorded in the burial register of St. Peter's Anglican Church, the oldest Anglican church still standing on its original site in the inner city of Melbourne, the record has his age as 33 years (i.e. born 1819), date of death as Sunday 12 Dec 1852 and date of burial as 14th Dec 1852. He would have been buried in what is now Flagstaff Gardens - Melbourne's first burial ground that was known to the early Melbourne settlers as Burial Hill. The record gave him as being of Melbourne. If there an inquest held in 1853 into his 12 Dec 1852 death the depositions file for such would be held by the Public Records Office of Victoria whose Coroner's Inquest holdings date from 1840. In Sept 2014 these files were not available online and were accessible to researchers by first obtaining the file number from a computer in a reading room and then ordering it online for viewing in the PROV reading room. A digitalisation project was underway to make these records available online through the PROV web site. 3 Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Jan 1877, DEATHS - Raymond - January 18, Augustus Raymond, late of Macleay River, in the 55th year of his age. THE FRIENDS of MR. AUGUSTUS RAYMOND are invited to attend his funeral; to move from his late residence, No. 20, Banks-street, Chippendale, on Saturday Afternoon, at 2 o'clock for the Necropolis. J. and G. Shying and Co., Undertakers, 717 George-street South, 120 Oxford -street. 4 The inscription on the Catherine Raymond Frederickton cemetery headstone reads - "Sacred to the Memory of Catherine. The beloved wife of Augustus Raymond who went to her rest on the morning of Easter Sunday 1866. Leaving a husband and many children to deplore their loss. A little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me because I go to the Father. John XVI 16". Catherine died intestate. The NSW Government Gazette for 1867, p. 2933, carried a Supreme Court notification that 14 days after 31 Oct 1867 an application would be made to grant letters for administration of Catherine's estate to eldest son Alexander. For location of the admin. packet see - NSW State Records web site - "Index to Early Probate Records" where the reference for the holding is - "probate 1867, Macleay River, Series NRS 13502 item 6/4195". 5 Assisted (Bounty) Immigration, AONSW reel #1336 - the family arrived with 280 other immigrants in Sydney from Greenock, Scotland on 28 Aug 1841 on the Percy. The immigration and ship records gave the birth place of Charles Dornan and Catherine as Ballanahinch, Co. Down, their respective ages as 21 and 20 & son Alexander 11 months, and parents of Charles were given as Alexander & Anne Dornan and Catherine's as Michael & Anne Lougherty (the surname spelling is a phonetic variant of Laverty - both Dornan and Laverty being Irish names respectively anglicised from O Dornain and O Laith Bheartaigh with the former name found mostly in Co. Down and adjoining Co. Antrim). The person certifying as to registry of baptism for Charles was Rev. Charles Boyd vicar of the Ballynahinch C of I, and for Catherine Rev. William Mortimer curate of Magherahamlet C of I church where the rector was Rev. H. E. Boyd who was also rector of Dromara C of I and brother of Rev. Charles Boyd (the reason a C of I vicar and not an R. C. priest certified as to the register of baptism as it was stated in the immigrant's application is not known and can only be speculated upon. It has been suggested that Catherine was perhaps her mother's eldest child and her mother Ann Boyd was either the widow of a protestant Boyd or Catherine was born out of wedlock and baptised as a protestant before her mother married Michael Laverty). The Ballynahinch birth place of both Charles and Catherine could mean they were either born in that town or it was the largest town to where they were born. The above arrival record and details researched and advised by Carmel Stuart. Note: - the "Digger" CD-ROM titled Bounty Emigration to NSW 1828 to 1842 has the Dornan family surname incorrectly indexed as Doran. 6 1861 Co. Cumberland census occupation of Michael Laverty Sr. advised by Carmel Stuart who also advised his 1877 death registration, for which his son John was the informant, had it as labourer, and that Augustus Raymond as the informant for wife Catherine's 1866 death registration gave her father's occupation as ‘dealer’. 7 Advised July 2008 by Camel Stuart of NSW 8 Assisted Immigration to NSW, AONSW microfilms - 1853 Telegraph reels 2137 & 2465 (name of relative in colony given as sister Catherine Dornan), 1865 St. Hilda reels 2139 & 2483 (name of relative in colony given as brother-in-law Augustus Raymond, Pola Creek, County Macquarie, NSW). 9 Marie H. Neil, Valley of the Macleay, Wentworth Books, Sydney, 1972, p.47 - citing as source Miss J. Dornan to Macleay River Historical Society, 1964. 10 Allan King, A History Trail : The Story of the MacKay and Dornan Family, quote from the booklet of about 50 pages published in 1970 held in 2008 by the Macleay-Hastings Library at Kempsey. Note - the Historical Society Museum at South Kempsey holds facsimilies of the diaries of the farming activities for 1892 of Charles and Catherine's son Alexander as described in a June 1988 Chronicle of the Macleay River Historical Society titled: The Dornan Diaries 1892. 11 Violence and robbery and murders were then frequent in Melbourne and on the goldfields and on roads in between. The edition of Monday 13 Dec. reported that it was said a murder had been committed on Saturday night (11th) at Murder's Flat, Chokeem Gully with the murderer apprehended by the police. On Tuesday 14 Dec. it reported news had come that morning of a body being found in the neighbourhood of Reedy Creek where the body of a murdered person had been found the previous week. 12 In the NSW BDM Indexes her birth indexed under the surname spelling of DORMAN (sic) reference V1842-4567-121 although clearly DORNAN in original - see image at the incorporated link of entry in Register of baptisms, burials and marriages, Presbyterian Church, Port Macquarie (St. Andrews) AONSW microfilm reel #5046. 13 Perhaps the claims that after arrival in Sydney in 1841 Charles Dornan purchased the Pola Creek farm from the government arose from an assumption that such were available for purchase based on a letter from a Macleay resident published in a newspaper in February 1841 that claimed in respect of "some of the fertile plains on the banks of the McLeay" that the government's "Survey Department has likewise caused a considerable tract of country upon the fertile and extensive plains on the banks of the McLeay to be measured out into small farms not exceeding sixty acres ; each for the purpose of being sold, not by auction, but by private contract, agreeably to the plan understood as Lord John Russel's New Land Regulations, which were recently officially published and which seems to give satisfaction in the northern colony." The survey in question could only have been that by Clement Hodginson on the north bank of the Macleay River or by James Ralfe on the south side. In April 1840 the Surveyor General of the colony wrote to assistant surveyors Hodgkinson and Ralfe requesting them to respectively survey parishes on the north side of the river (later in County of Dudley) and on south side (Counties of Macquarie and Vernon). In March 1841 Ralfe submitted his survey. The area on the northside of the river was outside the bounds of location and the County of Dudley within which the north side parishes were to be located was not formally created until 1848 and then only with provisonal boundaries. The letter writer was a strong advocate for the crown making available fertile river front land for small farms but his assumption that the 1840-41 surveying meant an availability of same was imminent was well astray and amounted to no more than wishful thinking on his part. In respect of the "Land Regulations" - the northern colony that Lord John Russell the Secretary of State in England for the Colonies proposed was to begin at Manning River and, was to have its own government and legislative council, did not eventuate. In respect of the contracting referred to the regulations provided that crown lands in the proposed third southern colony, that was to extend to Port Phillip and whose northern boundary was to be the Moruya, Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers, could be pre-paid for in England at a set price of £1 per acre by persons wishing to emigrate before they left and upon arrival they could choose an area for their land and then present the land order obliging the government to survey the choosen acreage at its expense. Persons already in Australia could purchase land in the proposed southern colony for the same set price but for the time being the sale of crown land by auction in the proposed northern colony was to continue and in the central third colony centered on Sydney comprising the rest of NSW auction was to remain the method disposal of crown land. The fixed price sale scheme applicable to land in the proposed southern colony was beset with flaws and was abandoned in August 1841 before Lord Russell and the Whig government lost office that year. The first farms (termed Country Lots) offered for sale by Crown at Macleay River were in the parish of Yarravel on the opposite side of the river to Pola Creek. Four portions fronting the river, of which part later became the Central Business District of Kempsey, were offered by the Crown at auction in March 1850. They ranged in size from 109 to 140 acres. Two were purchased by William Smith after whom the main street of Kempsey that runs through the portions took its name of Smith Street and the other two by John Verge. A fifth portion of 266 acres with frontages to both the Macleay River and Christmas Creek, that had been part of the previously held under licence "Glenrock" run, was purchased by John Verge at the same auction. The several portions situated in between were not auctioned by the crown until 1855. 14 The Sydney Morning Herald 15 Sep 1842, page 2 had - "As to the expectation of Mr. Verge's intention to throw open his fine and extensive estate on the banks of the McLeay, with ten miles of water frontage, into small farms, on clearing leases, it is to be regretted that there appears no probability of this gentleman commencing so laudable an undertaking. He has an immense quantity of cedar growing thereon and has been offered a very high price for it, as it stands, but at present appears no way disposed to part with it, or forward it to the Sydney market himself, as was expected. Establishing that when the Dornans' arrived at Macleay River in 1841 or 1842 John Verge was running sheep on his "Austral Eden" grant is that following the discovery of the stands of cedar at Bellinger River and the influx of cedar there the same newspaper reported on 21 Oct 1842 - "My informant is a person in whose veracity I can place much confidence. He has just arrived from the Bellinger River, where Mr. Verge of the McLeay, has recently removed a flock of sheep, the first person who has yet squatted thereon". Presumably the sheep were to provide mutton to the cedar cutters who were establishing themselves there after the 1842 reporting of the stands of cedar growing on its banks. 15 New South Government Gazette 23 Aug 1854 - as per the The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River Advertiser 30 Aug 1854, page 1. The portion 11 and portion 25 grants were before the introduction of Volume and Folio numbers for land titles and the titles for the two respectively had the dates of 1.10.1855 and 4.12.1856. The later adjacent purchases by Alexander Dornan of portions 67 & 68 had respectively the titles as - Vol. 34, Folio 58 & 67. 16 Rev. James Cameron, M.A.. D.D. Centenary history of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales (1905, Angus & Robertson), p.246 - "This is a very old parish, and dates as far back as the year 1840. In 1841 the church and manse were erected substantially of brick. ... The Rev. Wm. Purves was the first minister and came to the district in 1840. He carried on work for about eight years, and was succeeded by the Revs. Wm. McKee and Edward Holland." 17 Allan King, A History Trail : The Story of the MacKay and Dornan Family - a 1970 published booklet of aprox. 50 pages with photos. 18 The NSW Birth Index entries for the six Australian born children are as follows:- (1) Ann V1842 4567 121, (2) Jane V1844 4568 121b, (3) Mary Lavender V1846 526 44a, (4) Catherine V1848 537 44a (actually V1848 527 44a immediately following Mary Lavender in the church baptism register), (5) Eliza V1850 663 44A, (6) John (i.e. Charles) V1853 703 44A). NOTE: In 2013 a child named Catherine with parents Charles & Catherine was NSW BDM indexed with the baptism reference of V1849 527 44A. There is no such record and the child did not exist. The entry is a duplication and corruption of Catherine's 1848 birth year to 1849 with a "10" increase in the record number. Images of the six parish baptism register entries with details of the respective AO reel numbers etc. appear at the link. 19 Date of Ann Ball née Dornan's death - death notice from The Sydney Morning Herald of 19 Dec 1921, and burial details and Ann's photo provided July 2013 courtesy of Kerry Slack. 20 Australian Town and Country Journal 29 Dec 1877, p. 37 - "It is our melancoly duty (says the MACLEAY HERALD) to record the death of Mr. Edward Ball, of Long Reach, occasioned by the attack of a vicious bull. On Tuesday evening last, about 7 o'clock Mr. Ball was attending to the animal, which was tethered, when he became entangled in the chain and fell. The animal turned on him and kelt with all its weight on him. All efforts failed to remove the beast until he was shot. Dr. Gabriel was in attendance on the unfortunate man the same night. It was deemed advisable to remove him to Kempsey, that he might be under the contant care of the doctor. He died on his way up at Frederickton, on Wednesday morning. He leaves a wife and a large young family. The bull had been in Mr. Ball's charge for two or three years and had never exhibited any vice towards him ; he was nevertheless conscious that that he could not be safely trusted, and warned Mrs. Ball and the children against meddling with him." Probate of the will of Edward Ball who died on 19 Dec 1877 was granted on 15 May 1878 - his probate packet is held by NSW State Records as: Series 3 #2334 (record series 13660). A 1993 published book on the history of the Nambucca River by historian Norma Townsend titled Valley of the Crooked River mentioned at page 60 in connection with an Edward BALE (sic) having been a selector in the Nambucca-Bowraville district that he was the husband of Ann Dornan. It may have been a typo or spelling error overlooked when the manuscript was proof read, an alias, or a reversion to a real name changed to BALL sometime to prior to his 1860 marriage. In respect of this marriage the book's author had access to the records at the Kempsey Court House. The conditional purchase records at Land and Property would clarfify as to the surname and the portion number and parish of the selection. 21 The officiating minister at the 5 Sep 1860 marriage of Edward Ball to Ann Dornan was Rev. F. R. Kemp (1827-1877), son of in 1839 Upper Macleay settler Major William Kemp, formerly the Anglican minister at Warialda and after at Kempsey the minister at St Thomas' at Port Macquarie. Bishop Tyrrell of the Diocese of Newcastle purchased land for a church at West Kempsey in 1857 and in 1858 declared Kempsey a parish. Rev. Kemp was sworn in as its first minister on 12 March 1859. The Parish of Kempsey baptism and burial registers dating from 1858 were microfilmed in 1981 by the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS ) and are publically available for viewing at LDS Family History Centres and at participating public libraries across the ditch in New Zealand and elsewhere in the world other than in Australia. The LDS film of the parish of the Kempsey marriage registers only commence from 1916. However Trove lists the Anglican Church Grafton Centre's marriage register holdings as commencing from 1885 thus indicating an extra 31 years have become availble since the LDS church filmed the records. 22 In 2013 a web page at: http://www.grahamtall.co.uk/family_history/Ball%20Family/migration%202.htm was purporting it was a fact that Edward Ball's parents were Ethan Ball and Agnes Carne and he was born in St Columb Minor in Cornwall and christened there on 30 Nov 1834 under the surname of Baul making him 43 and not 41 when he died in 1877. However contradictory to the parent names and the place of his birth being a factual is that the Australian records referred to have an 1836 date of birth not 1834. By itself that there was an Edward Ball listed in a household in Cornwall at the 1841 and 1851 census is not enough to identify him with certainty as the age at baptism is contradicted by Australian records and that in the UK census. Also some persons and families were not enumerated at a census and indexers missed people because the name was unreadable or was incorrectly read etc. (e.g. when Findmypast first made available its version of the 1841 UK census it advertised it had 20% more names than Ancestry's version). Also people born in one county before 1841 could moved to another county by the time of the June 1841 census so be listed elsewhere. As it stands it seems to this compiler there is no proveable basis for the web page author's Edward Ball parentage claim so the claim they were Eathan and Agnes Ball is speculation presented as fact contradicted by the age of 41 given at death and 25 when Edward's first child birth was registered in Oct 1861. Whilst the naming of Edward's first child suggests his mother's given name was likely Agnes the absence of Eathan in a son's name makes that less certain. In the absense of confirmation in his children birth registrations that he was actually born in 1834 and not in 1836 it is possible he was the Edward Charles Ball christened on 7 Aug 1836 at Mevagissey in Cornwall whose parents were likely the Edward Ball and Elizabeth Sweet who married in Mevagissey on 9 Feb 1834 or others. It was claimed on the web page a Margaret Agnes Ball died at Kempsey on 12th August 1863. However that claim is not supported by any identifiable record. Official birth and death registration began in NSW in 1856 and there is no indexed death for a Margaret or an Agnes Ball to support the claim. Seemingly it is being said she died intestate but the only Margaret Agnes Ball in the NSW probate indexes is one who died elsewhere 97 years later in 1950 who had probate grants in 1950 and in 1974 and there is no indexed estate administration grant for anyone of that name to support an intestacy. Reference is made on the web page to a Henry Ball. There were several named Henry Ball who died in NSW in the 19th century. There was a Henry Ball who married Elizabeth Salt in the Newcastle/Hexham area in NSW in 1853 who was at the Macleay River in 1872 as the birth of a daughter Laura there is indexed. There was also a James W Ball who married elsewhere in 1864 who also had a child birth registered there in 1867 and a William Ball who had a birth registered there in 1868. It is possible none were related to the Edward Ball who married Ann Dornan. An Edward Ball married in 1860 but he was at Goulburn from then until his death. He became a member of the NSW Parliament and was born in 1827 at Lewisham in Kent and his father Edward was a hairdresser. Not ringing true at all is a story on the same UK web page that William Gaddes and Ann's husband Edward Ball were life long friends who ran away together from a school at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne after jointly assaulting a school master there in 1846 when both were aged 14 (i.e. that would make Edward Ball as born ca. 1832 and not the record based 1836!) and that thereafter they were shipmates for eight years who after arrival in Victoria ca. 1854 together mined for gold at Sandhurst (Bendigo) in the colony of Victoria where it was said they quote - "accumulated enough wealth to see them through the rest of their lives" so relinquished their claim to the other syndicate members and left to explore the colony. The author of that story Alex Gaddes (1922-1997) is known in other instances to have, starting from a fact, embroided it so remarkably with his assumptions so as to became mostly completely untrue. In this instance the proveable fact was only that his ancestor had been a gold miner in Victoria who experienced a degree of success in his mining there. The claim on the web page, in a quotation from the story about William Gaddes, that the Edward Ball who married Ann Dornan and William Gaddes (1830-1902) were schoolmates very obviously cannot be correct if Edward's parentage was as claimed as at least until the 1851 census that Edward Ball was still in his parents household in Cornwall so could not have run away to sea with William Gaddes in 1846 and that Edward Ball's father was a tenant farmer or farm labourer and not a Cornish miner as the story said was the occupation of the father of the "Ned" Ball in the story. According to a Feb. 1830 baptism record and the 1841 census of England seemingly William Gaddes was a twin with Christina Gaddes born in Co. Cumberland (now Co. Cumbria) most likely in 1829 or very early 1830 whose father Richard was a blacksmith who died in that same county in 1862 and was listed there at both the 1851 and 1861 census so highly unlikely he was at any time a blacksmith on other side of England at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. William Gaddes would thus have been 16 in 1846 and not the 14 given in the story as the age he ran away from home with a "Ned" Ball and joined the crew of a ship at the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne docks and went to sea. It appears the author of the story arrived at an 1846 run-away year by a calculation - first deriving an 1832 birth year from the 1902 death year age 70 on his headstone and then adding to it 14. However whether the run-away year was 1844 or 1846 Gaddes would still not have been in Cornwall at school with the Edward Ball whose father was Ethan Ball and mother Agnes Carne and equally their son Edward could not have been in another place at a school with William Gaddes at any time in the 1840s. The same web page also contained significant errors re the early history at Macleay River of Ann Dornan's parents etc. of which its author G. Tall was advised by way of drawing his attention to the content of this and another web page. His Ball genealogy web page just rehashed and, years later such remained unaltered despite it being clearly demonstrated to him to be incorrect, the long discredited as erroneous 1972 published claims that Ann's Dornan's father Charles had purchased a small farm at Pola Ceek from the crown in 1841 and in 1852 had just disappeared without trace etc. (see footnote #18 above). There is no evidence Ann's husband Edward Ball was wealthy let alone had enough money to last him a lifetime when he married Ann Dornan in Sept 1860. It was not until after 1862 by way of a conditional purchase from the crown he acquired an uncleared portion of Macleay River river frontage land below Kinchela on terms that would have required of him a £23/10/- deposit with the balance payable over three years that if any remained unpaid bore interest at 5%. Hardly behaviour expected of a man with enough money in about 1856 to last him a lifetime! Before then it seems Edward Ball was likely a tenant farmer who had possibily taken up a clearing lease at Austral Eden or elsewhere at the Macleay made available by a large landowner such as John Verge. It seems probable the author of story about his ancestor William Gaddes, when searching the marriage indexes for an Edward Ball who might fit the "Ned" Ball in the story he composed about his ancestor, noted that there had been a born in Cornwall Edward Ball at Macleay River so adopted him for the Ned in his story who he wrote was a lifetime friend of his ancestor who died in 1902 at Bowraville. He likely did not know Edward had died 25 years before his ancestor so did not fit the Ned who was his ancestors lifetime friend. It appears he was selected for the role simply because of a not to far away geographical proximity to his ancestor who for over 30 years prior to his 1902 death had settled at Bowraville. Maybe the handed down to him legend had only identified his ancestors fellow gold miner and lifetime friend as "Ned"! As regards William Gaddes having become very wealthy from gold mining, depending on how one defines wealth it would be correct in so far as that from alluvial or reef gold mining in Victoria he did acquire what was a condiderable sum then that at least in part he carried with him in a readily negotiable form when he arrived in Sydney from Victoria. It would not be unexpected for him to have had in addition at least an equal amount in the form of a draft on a Victorian bank. An average worker then earned between £50 and £100 per annum. He had 4 or 5 times that amount (£400) with him in the form of gold sovereigns and about 64 ounces in gold dust and nuggets but having left it unattended in his lodgings apparently permanently lost it when robbed of it in early May 1856 after arrival in Sydney when staying in Palmer Street. If he had in addition a draft he could have deposited it with a Sydney bank and with whatever was in his pockets at the time may perhaps still been left with considerable funds at his disposal. As it is indicated in the next year or so he purchased 866 acres at Rollands Plains near Port Macquarie, that maybe would have cost him at least 400 pounds, he must have had some additional funds especially as he later acquired closer to the town an additional 1025 acres 26. However his late 1860's conditional purchases near Bowraville do not indicate any great wealth and in 1902 when he died it is indicated he was almost broke. There was no will probate or administration grant and the mortgagees had foreclosed on the initial Rollands Plains purchase and earlier on two others near Port Macquarie rural land acquisitions. Within a few weeks of being relieved of the readily realisable assets the story is that he met visiting Mackay ladies in Sydney and moved back with them to Dungog where in July 1856 he is recorded as marrying 16 year-old Jane Mackay, the daughter of Angus & Christina Mackay who arrived in Australia in 1839. After the birth of their first child there on 14 May 1857, that year or the next with other Mackay relatives they moved to Upper Rollands Plains. 23 History submitted by poster "pwelsh152" in since discontinued Ancestry.com MUNDIA database. 24 The Illinois State Archives death certificate database to 1950 listed two named Charles Crispin - Charles W Crispin who died on 23 Sep 1947 in Waukegan Township and Charles R Crispin who died 27 Aug 1944 in Zion City - both places in Lake County. Whilst the second "W" initial of the former fits, the Zion City place of death of the latter "R" was the headquarters of the Dowietes religious sect who were anti-smoking and believed in divine healing and whose founder and leader Rev. John Alexander Dowie visted Australia in 1904 before his 1907 death. 25 Glenn C. Bradley, When the River was the Road (1994), p. 70. 26 The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 May 1856 - "Five prisoners were discharged from custody, the evidence not making out the charges against them ; among these were the two men apprehended on suspicion of having having stolen 160 soveriegns and gold dust of the value of £240 the property of William Gaddes, lately of Melbourne, on his way to Sydney."    Empire, Wednesday 7 May 1856, "The two men remanded on Saturday on suspicion of having stolen 160 soveriegns and £240 in gold dust and nuggets from a lodging-house in Palmer-street, were discharged, the evidence admitting of suspicion only against one of them. Mrs. Ibbotson, keeper of the lodging-house in which the robbery occurred, No. 79, Palmer-street, having shown some alarm lest suspicion should attach to herself and husband, his Worship assured her there was not the slightest imputation against them." 27 The Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate 1 July 1922 - Obituary of R.A.H. Kemp. |