My big day out

Since Covid began I haven’t travelled very far from my home. I have been as far north as New Norfolk, Pontville and east to Orford. So on Monday, I decided to take off for a longer drive to Evandale which is near Launceston in northern Tasmania.

A trip generally about two hours was at least half an hour longer due to road works. Some might have related to flooding in the Midlands and along the South Esk River last year but most was part of the improvement of the Midlands highway.

Arriving in Evandale just after 11am I headed to the information centre where I knew they have a history room for researching families of the district. My main reason for going to Evandale was the folders I am putting together relating to the different ancestral families I have who began their Tasmanian lives in the Evandale municipality. I wanted to know whether they would like these folders to keep in their history room once I have finished them. No good me doing all the work only to find they don’t want the folders.

A volunteer at the centre contacted Barry Lawson who is the president of the Evandale History Society Inc. Barry was down at the National Trust building Clarendon doing some gardening as a volunteer and wouldn’t be back in Evandale till mid afternoon.

I wanted to visit the townships or areas where my ancestors had lived and Clarendon was near Deddington, so I said I would drive down there to talk to Barry during his lunch break or morning tea. We had about 30 minutes chatting and I found they would love to have anything related to families in the district but they are gradually trying to digitize everything rather than having lots of paperwork. So I think I might have to include a USB with lots of PDFs of the information I have on my families as well as giving them the folders.

Now it was time to visit Deddington, English Town and Blessington, the main areas where the Davey and Colgrave families lived.

1: Evandale was originally a military outpost. It has had a variety of names including Morven and Paterson Plains. It is on the banks of the South Esk River and in 1836 they were going to tunnel through a hill at Evandale to supply water to Launceston but this idea was abandoned. Nowadays the town is known for the penny farthing races, their Christmas decoration shop (my niece wondered why I didn’t stop off there too) and art galleries (my sister-in-law asked if I had visited the Archibald prize winning displays or maybe it was the Glover prize?)

Penny farthing races

2: Clarendon is a National Trust property originally owned by James Cox and built in 1838. It was built by convicts but they were well treated and James was part of the group of people who wanted abolition of convict transportation in the late 1840s. He preferred bounty immigrants as they more often had the skills needed for developing a farm and property. One of my Davey ancestors – Emily Jane Davey married Trevor Cox at the Nile in 1914. Trevor was born at Clarendon in 1883 and his parents were another James Cox and Elizabeth Sarah Wilson Thirkell.

Clarendon

3: Nile is a very small village which has also changed names over time. Much of the land was owned by James Cox and he gave the land to develop Lymington as it was originally known. Many of the small cottages were built for his workers. Marion Sargent from the Launceston Historical Society, Tasmania wrote about the Nile and can be found on their Facebook group dated 17 March 2019. My picture below is of the WWI memorial and sign leading to St Peters Church.

Nile, Tasmania

4: Deddington is a small hamlet with just a few houses but it is the Nile Chapel which keeps it on the map. Apparently there are only two towns in the world named Deddington so people in each village have a combined website about Deddington. They include lots of images and history of both places with links to other pages. Deddington is also the closest town to the property of Patterdale where John Glover the famous artist lived. He is buried at the chapel.

5: English Town was way up in the hills below Ben Lomond. My relatives who lived there were mainly farmers or sawyers and sold wood to locals down in the valley. I expected to see the remains of buildings when I visited but the area is now a pine plantation with many roads closed off to the public. It was a very steep, winding road but out in the open, you could see great views over the area of Deddington. I mention a lot about English Town in my Susan Boyd biography. During extremely bad weather the road to English Town would be impassable because of the flooding of the Nile River. At the junction of English Town Road and Ragged Jack Road is Daveys Road. Not sure if that is named after my Davey ancestors or an R.A. Davey mentioned as a lessee in the area (don’t know who this person is but maybe related to Thomas Davey who was in the Launceston area in the 1820s and 1830s)

The most common surnames in the English Town area were Colgrave, Davey, Lindsay, Tuck, Kaye, Robotham, Brown, Duff, Hamilton, Owen, Ryan and Hawkins. This can be found by using the app called TheList and using the topographic basemap then adding the layer of historic map and charts – Land District Chart.

6: Blessington is over the hill from English Town. This is where my Davey family lived and my grandmother was born. There is also an Upper Blessington further up the road. As you can see from the biographies I have researched, some records say they lived at English Town, others at Deddington and yet others say Blessington. Check the distance between from my mileage chart below. My dad was a telephone technician and we always looked out for telephone exchanges when we drove anywhere on holidays. So this photo is for dad. It was built on land originally owned by James Cox.

7: White Hills is where I turned off to head back to Evandale. There was a property near here called Curraghmore and this was where the Dixon family first settled. David was a shepherd for Mr Henry Stevenson. Henry had married in 1838 to Elizabeth Lette who owned her own property in the district.

So once back in Evandale, I revisited the information centre to thank the volunteer who had set me on my journey. I then headed home via the Nile Road which meant I didn’t have so much road work to worry about. I also wanted to check out what the roadkill was like on this particular road as I had often seen dead wombats and wallabies. This time the road was virtually clear.

My Mileage on this trip

  • Home to Evandale via Mud Walls Road – 172km
  • Evandale to Clarendon – 11
  • Clarendon to Deddington – 12
  • Deddington to English Town turnoff – 7
  • Turnoff to English Town and return – 20
  • Turnoff to Blessington – 10
  • Blessington to White Hills – 21
  • White Hills to Evandale – 10
  • Evandale to home via Nile Road and Mud Walls – 177

Total : 440km of which 49 was gravel road

Readers: What interesting journey have you done during Covid?

Lots of children

I am starting to put together some folders on my ancestor couples and making sure I have all their children and grandchildren included. I found an obituary for a daughter of John Davey and Ann Dixon who are my great great grandparents.

Mary Elizabeth Davey, the eldest daughter, was born at the Nile (near Evandale) in 1861. She married Adam Brown on 15 January 1879 at the home of her father John at English Town near Evandale. Witnesses were her older brother William Davey and Victoria Brown.

The obituary tells me the family lived at Russell Plains (near Launceston) for 16 years, where Adam worked as a shepherd for Mr Frank Archer.  They then lived at Eastbourne (near Avoca) for four years and finally English Town. Mary bought the farm belonging to her father after he passed away in 1888. She and her family remained there until her death in 1923.

Mary’s husband Adam died accidentally in 1916 and in that 37 years of marriage, Mary gave birth to 17 children.

  • 1879 – Henry Robertson – Blessington
  • 1881 – Richard – Adam Burston – Constable Deddington
  • 1882 – William – W Purkiss Friend – Launceston
  • 1884 – George – Foster Priestley friend – Invermay- born January
  • 1884 – Robert – Russell Plains – born December
  • 1886 – Annie – W.L Harwood – Constable Invermay
  • 1887 – George – T Kirkwood – Constable Deddington
  • 1888 – Esther – Russell Plains – W.L Harwood – Constable Invermay
  • 1890 – Adam Richard Charles Henry – Russells Plains – E Clements, widow, Russells Plains
  • 1891 – Mary (Nell) – Prossers Forest – W.L Harwood – Constable Invermay
  • 1894 – Adam – Russells Plains
  • 1895 – May – Prossers Forest – James Rouse – farmer, Prossers Forest near Newnham
  • 1898 – Mary Amy – Evandale?
  • 1899 – Walter – Eastbourne
  • 1901 – Esther
  • 1902 – Jessie
  • 1903 – Pearl

Children who died before Mary’s death in 1923 were:

  • 5 Apr 1881 – Richard survived for 11 days – cause of death debility
  • 21 Feb 1889 – Esther survived 2 months – cause of death marasmus
  • 11 May 1890 – Thomas (is this George born 1887?) survived 2 years 10 months – died in hospital from diphtheria
  • 22 May 1890 – Adam survived 5 months – died in hospital from diphtheria
  • 21 Apr 1904 – Pearl – cause of death not found yet

I have not been able to find the third child dying from diphtheria as mentioned in the obituary.

In Adam’s memoriam in 1917, mention was made of a son called John Thomas. Maybe this is one of the George who I have not been able to find any information on.

Most of the other children lived to beyond 60 years old raising many children of their own.

  • Henry – 9 children from 2 marriages
  • William – married once – possibly 5 children but he died in his 40’s
  • Robert – unknown
  • Annie Selina WALTERS – 6 children
  • Adam John Jack – unknown
  • May – never married
  • Mary BAKER – 3 children
  • Esther (Etty) TREADWELL – unknown
  • Jessie WINFIELD – 2 children

In mid 1922, about 8 months before her death, Mary went to New Zealand to visit her sister Hannah Selina Maru nee Davey.

Both Mary and  Adam are buried at St Andrews Uniting church cemetery in Evandale.

Readers: Do you have any ancestors who had 15 or more children from one marriage?

John DAVEY

John Dav(e)y was born 21 Jan 1834 as the 4th out of 12 children. His parents were John Dav(e)y (1800-1874) and Mary Anne Jennings (1807-1883). He was born at Clyst Honiton, in the county of Devon in England. A year later, his older brother Thomas passed away aged 7. In 1836, another brother was born and given the name Tom. In 1837, he lost another sibling Mary his oldest sister.

Local church and graveyard at Clyst Honiton

Siblings

  • 1828 – Thomas – died in 1835
  • 1830 – Mary – died in 1837
  • 1832 – Selina
  • 1836 – Tom
  • 1838 – Herman – died in 1843
  • 1840 – Mark
  • 1843 – Luke (DNA match to a descendant)
  • 1845 – Herman
  • 1848 – Matthew Adam
  • 1851 – George
  • 1854 – Michael

Looking at the various births of John’s siblings some are born in Clyst Honiton, others in Heavitree and Clyst St George. The following is from Whites Devonshire Directory published in 1850 found on the relevant village pages at GENUKI.

  • CLIST HONITON, a village and parish on the east side of the river Clist, 4 miles E. by N. of Exeter, contains 467 souls, and 1760 acres of land.
  • The village of HEAVITREE, one mile E. of Exeter, has many neat houses, and is said to have derived its name from having been formerly the place of execution for the city.
  • CLIST ST. GEORGE, or Clyst St. George, a scattered village and parish, 1½ miles E by N. of Topsham, and 4 miles S.E. of Exeter, has 370 inhabitants, and 1001 acres of land.

In the 1841 English census, the family, including the children Selina, John, Tom, Hermon and Mark, were living in the village at St Georges Clyst. John senior was a carpenter.

By the 1851 census, John senior was aged 45 and his occupation was a master carpenter. John junior was an agricultural labourer. Living at home with their parents and John were Mark, Luke, Herman and Matthew. They were living in South Wonford in the parish of Heavitree.

John junior set sail on barque Wanderer under a bounty immigrant scheme. The ship master was John Woodcock. They left London 31 October 1854, the Downs on 3 November 1854, finally arriving in Hobart Town 13 February 1855. A total of 182 souls arrived safely from England and Scotland.

According to the shipping records John was 20 years old, religion Church of England and he could read and write. His occupation was farm servant. George Meredith was the name of the person on whose application John was sent out. Three other single men were also employed by George Meredith who would be reimbursed by the government for part of the cost of the bounty ticket.

John was occasionally mentioned in the ‘Meredith papers’ which are housed in the State Library Archives in Hobart.  He was recorded last at ‘Cambria‘ in January 1857.  His wages at this time were 7 pounds and 10 shillings per quarter.

Marriage and children

John Davey and Annie Dixon were married at the Manse at Evandale, Tasmania on 18 July 1859. John was a bachelor aged 26 while Anne was a spinster aged 18. Witnesses to the marriage were Hannah Dixon and William Costley.

Over the next 29 years until John died, the couple raised seven sons and five daughters to adulthood. They lived in English Town, near Evandale, Tasmania. The photo shows the newspapered walls inside the house as taken in 1987.

 

  • 1860 – William John – grandmother Mary was the informant from Evandale
  • 1861 – Mary Elizabeth – father John, labourer from Nile was informant
  • 1863 – Hannah Selina – father John, labourer
  • 1865 – George – father John, farmer
  • 1867 – Emma Louisa – father John, labourer
  • 1869 – Adam – father John, farmer from Camperdown
  • 1872 – Charles Wesley –
  • 1873 – Frank Thomas aka “Thomas” –
  • 1876 – Samuel Percy aka “Frank” – John Griffin, constable from Deddington was informant
  • 1878 – Harry – father John, farmer from Blessington
  • 1880 – Eliza Amy – Adam Burston, constable Deddington
  • 1885 – William – George Wills, constable Deddington
  • 1885 – Ellen Anne –

Searching through the Tasmanian Names Index, the births of Charles, Frank and Ellen Anne are not found.

Sometime in the 1870’s John’s younger brother George also immigrated but he headed to New Zealand.

On 6 May 1873, John was charged with larceny and spent three months in gaol in Launceston. A report of the crime was written up in the local paper and he was named in the police gazette for 1873.

In February 1874, his father John senior passed away at Heavitree, Devon, England. His mother Mary Anne passed away in 1883 also at Heavitree.

John must have had a tough life in Tasmania as he worked for many farmers around the Evandale area and would have had to ride a horse or walk to get to each farm.

John passed away in 1888 aged 55 years old. He died from jaundice according to his death record. He left his wife Annie to bring up 6 children under the age of 15. What a sad Christmas in 1888!