Ellen Carne

On 13 May 1854 at 29B Granby Street, Stoke Dameral (now an inner suburb of Plymouth, England), Ellen Carne was born.  She was the fifth child of Jane (nee Baker) and William John Carne.  One of the children had recently died and Ellen was named after this child.  She didn’t spend long in Stoke Dameral.  In January 1855 the young family set sail for Australia.  William John Carne was a mason – as was his father – and had presumably been enticed to Australia for work.  The family settled in Melbourne and a further four children were born.  Next door lived William’s brother, John Carne, and the two families were close (John Carne's family had also lived next door to the family when they were in Stoke Dameral).  

On Christmas day in 1865 some of the children went to Merri Creek, Northcote.  Ellen’s older brother William and his cousin Samuel were playing in the creek when they got into difficulty.  Ellen’s eldest brother went in to help the two boys, while George, Ellen’s cousin, ran to get help.  By the time assistance arrived, the three boys had disappeared and their bodies were found later in the day.  It is not known if Ellen was at the creek with her siblings.  This must have been a very difficult time for Ellen’s family…

When Ellen was 20 years old, she married Albert Samuel Joyce.  They married at her parents' home in Bedford Street, Collingwood on 5 January 1875.  Albert was a plumber and, like Ellen, had migrated to Melbourne as a young child with his family.  Ellen and Albert had eight children, the first child was born in late 1875: two of their daughters died as young children (in 1883 and 1890); the eldest son, William Frederick died (in 1898) when he was 20 (See entry for William Frederick Joyce).

Ellen's eldest daughter, Ellen Jane, married George Henry Green in 1898.  Ellen became a grandmother in 1900.  The photo below is of Albert Clifford Green with his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.  Quite an unusual feat in the early 1900s. 

Ellen Jane had a second son in 1904 but sadly died when she was 30 in 1905.

Her widower, George Henry Green, then married Emily Joyce – Ellen’s second daughter – in 1906, so Emily raised her sister's children plus they had one son together. 

Ellen and Albert lived in Stanley Street, Collingwood, before moving to 166 McKean Street, Collingwood and then to Beulah, George Street, Fitzroy.  Albert’s plumbing business was quite successful and they were financially comfortable.  Their youngest three children, Clarice Rose, Albert Charles and Leslie Samuel all married and had their own families.  Albert and Leslie both joined the newly formed Australian Public Service, much to the disappointment of Albert who wanted them to join his plumbing business. 

On 19 October 1927, Albert Samuel Joyce died.  Ellen continued to keep busy with visits to her family – her four children and 17 grandchildren – and she enjoyed a form of knitting called ‘tacking’.  One of her grandchildren remembers trying to help her out of the rocking chair she had on her deck.  Unfortunately Ellen then fell on top of her – over the years she had become a rather large woman - and her granddaughter felt quite squashed!

Ellen died on 7 August 1943 at the age of 89. 

Relationship to SNR = Great, great grandmother

Matilda Walpole

Brighton, Sussex is a lovely beach town on the southern coast of England.  Until the mid 18th Century Brighthelmston was a fishing village, but development of Georgian terraces along the beachfront and the patronage of the Prince Regent after his first visit to the town in 1783, the village because known at the fashionable resort of Brighton.   It was in the bustling town that Matilda Walpole was born in 1819. It is the very fact that it was a growing town that makes further investigation into exactly who Matilda was so difficult (there were so many churches!).  

On 11 January 1836, at the tender age of 18, she married Augustus Richard Hollebone - who had a rather impressive name and was twelve years her senior!  Eighteen months later, she and Augustus Richard left Plymouth, England on board the Andromache bound for Sydney, Australia.  

The Andromache was 468 tons (old measure), 35 metres long and about 10 metres wide at her broadest point. In Greek mythology, Andromache is portrayed by Homer as the epitome of the perfect wife.  I suspect that Matilda was also being a perfect wife by agreeing to the journey at this particular time!  She was seven months pregnant with her first child when the vessel departed.  Now, various members of my family tend to get seasick - including myself - and I cannot even begin to imagine how hard it must have been to get into the boat with over 200 other people KNOWING that you were going to give birth for the first time before you left the boat!  And for that alone, Matilda has my profound respect!

As third class passengers, Matilda and Augustus do not have their names recorded in the basic information about this trip, but, interestingly, the Rev Joseph Walpole and his wife were also passengers.  I have tried to determine if there is a connection, but with no success (both have a father called John?).

Matilda's first child, Augustus John Hollebone, was born almost exactly halfway into the trip - on 17 August 1837.  I just hope it wasn't a rough sea that day!

The Andromache arrived in Sydney, Australia on 31 October 1837.  Augustus, Sarah and baby Augustus were the first of my ancestors to set foot in Australia.  (If only they had sailed a few months earlier, Augustus may have been the first to be born in Australia - but that "honour" went to young Augustus' son-in-law!)

Matilda and Augustus 'settled' in Sydney and had a further six children: Eliza (1840), Charlotte Elizabeth (1843), Mary Ann Matilda (1845), Henry (1849), Elizabeth Catherine (1852) and Isabella Frances (1855).  The fact that three of these names had Eliza/Elizabeth in them (and all but Mary survived childhood) leads me to think that perhaps Matilda's mother had been called Elizabeth.  Something to discover one day!

Augustus was a tinsmith, but he tried a number of other positions as well.  One of Augustus's more interesting jobs, was as the first postmaster of the new Balmain Post Office!   Someone sent me a newspaper article about it!

On 26 January 1866 at William Street, Redfern, Matilda died.  She was 47 years old and the memory of her good nature has been passed down from generation to generation.  The younger children were cared for by their older siblings.  For unknown reasons Augustus Richard was estranged from the family by the time he died - just over ten years later.

Matilda means 'mighty in battle', and many would say that life for most women in the 1800s was a battle.  I think she did pretty well!

In 2004, members of the Hollebone family decided to honour our 'first Australian family' by putting the Hollebone name onto the Immigration Wall at Darling Harbour.  There was some discussion about what name to put.  We finally agreed to simply put 'Hollebone Family'.   

Relationship to SNR = Great, great, great, great grandmother

Jane Heard - 1824 to 1882

Some of her story...

On 15 August 1824, Catherine and John Heard baptised their new baby daughter in the Parish Church at Dolton, Devon, England.   She was their eighth child (although one daughter had already died as a child) and was their last - Catherine was 42.   Jane grew up in Dolton, which is a small village, in the south west of England. A very normal, little Devon village!

On 7 March 1846 she married John Spicer, a bootmaker, in the Parish Church.  John had been living in Dolton with his parents for a number of years.  He had just turned 22 and she was 21.  Over the next 15 years she gave birth to at least nine children, including one set of twins.  Six of these children survived childhood.   The two eldest children were baptised in Dolton; then more children were baptised in Devonport, 70 kilometres south, on the coast, and finally some children were baptised in Winkleigh, 10 kilometres from Dolton.   So Jane and John appear to have been zipping up and down Devon!  But ultimately spending more time on the south coast.  John Spicer died in 1870, when he was 46, at Stoke Damerel, a few kilometres from Devonport.  1870 was also significant because Jane became a grandmother – her eldest son and his wife had a daughter named Elizabeth Jane.    

This period was also interesting - decisions were made to leave England for the sunny shores of Australia. George, Jane’s second child, was the first to leave – on the True Briton, which sailed in January 1871.  William (the eldest son) and Henry (the surviving twin) were next to leave – along with William’s wife (also Jane) and baby Elizabeth - in October 1871 on the Colonial Empire.   Finally, in September 1873, Jane left England for Australia on the Somersetshire with her three remaining children:  John (the 3^rd son), age 22; Edwin, age 15 and Emily, age 12.  They all arrived as unassisted passengers.  This means that the government did not pay for their fares.

It’s hard to imagine what Jane was thinking when she arrived in her new country.  She was a 50 year old widow and still had dependent children.  It is possible that her sons supported her.  It doesn’t appear that any of her siblings were in Australia – although at least one cousin had also come to Australia. 

Maria Ashplant, Jane’s cousin, had arrived in 1859 with her husband and son.  They also went to Victoria.  However, before Jane had even left England, Maria died.  She was struck by lightning while working in the paddock near her home.  In any case, Jane must have met Maria’s husband, John Milton, who was farming.  On 26 October 1875 Jane and John married at Runnymede, a little village north east of Bendigo.  It’s impossible to know what happened to Jane from this time until her death in Melbourne on 16 September 1882, when she was 58.   John Milton appears to have remained in rural Victoria.  Potentially they were not living together as Jane died in Melbourne and didn’t have a gravestone on her death – she’s a mention on her son’s gravestone but he didn’t die until 1915.  

I called this some of her story, because I believe that the information unknown could be a lot more interesting that the known.  What was Jane’s childhood like?  What happened to Jane's parents?  Why did Jane and John Spicer keep moving?  How well did Jane know Maria Ashplant?  Did Jane and John Milton stay together?  Was Jane happy? 

[Relationship to SNR =  great, great, grandmother]