Hedges that came to Australia

There were 4 children of John Hedges and Mary Waring  of Health & Reach, Bedfordshire, UK (that I know of..)

John Hedges  (1795 – 1887) à James

Sarah Hedges (1801 – 1861..71) à ….. àPeter ...

Thomas Hedges (1802 – 1881)

James Hedges (1813 – 1875) à Thomas, William

All four lived in or around Heath and Reach.

James Hedges (1825 – 1906) [son of John] immigrated to Australia aboard the Beejapore in 1857.  He had married Mary Jane MAHER in London in 1854  and they had one son (also James) when they arrived in Sydney, NSW as assisted immigrants.  James had been a navvie in England.    

[Assisted passages were granted by the Government to particular categories of immigrants, and their families, which were from time to time, particularly required in the Colony. The categories include farmers, farm labourers, vine dressers, labourers, mechanics and domestic servants. To be eligible they had to be unable to pay the full passage, they could not have resided previously in any Australian colony.]

They settled in Maitland (just outside Newcastle) for about 10 years before moving to Braidwood in 1866 probably working in the coal mines, on the roads or as a general labourer.  Gold had been discovered in Araluen about 20miles from Braidwood and James worked a small gold claim.  He was unsuccessful in making his fortune and moved up to Collector near Goulburn as a farmer’s labourer until he died.  All his sons worked with the Goulburn railways.

There was a serious typhoid epidemic around 1856/57 in the Leighton Buzzard area.  There are higher than normal deaths of not only children but also adults.  This may have been the reason why James immigrated.  He was also married in London in 1854 and may have been living there just before he immigrated.  There were many ships sailing to America, Canada and Australia – mainly wanting skilled labour and offering huge incentives (land, employment, money, free passage).  James and Mary may have been seduced by promises of money and a better life.  But I can only guess.

Later Hedges to immigrate to Australia were:

William Hedges (1845 – 1913) [son of James] when he was twenty years old, he immigrated to Australia in 1866.  He spent 11 months in Tasmania, 9 months in NSW and then came to Queensland where he lived in Sherwood, a Brisbane suburb.  William was a miner and at times a carpenter.  William also chased gold and he died at Pentland, a gold mining town between Charters Towers and Hughenden, Queensland.

Thomas Hedges (1834 – 1906) [son of James, brother to William] arrived in Morton Bay, Queensland (Brisbane) aboard the “City of Agra’ in 1877 with his wife Mary, and three children Thomas (19) Sarah (13) and William (4).  Thomas was a journeyman wheelwright in England and moved his family from place to place to continue in work.  He may have chosen to immigrate so that he could settle down in one place.  I have very little information on Thomas.

Peter … (1941 -  ) is the great-great grandson of Sarah Hedges.  He was born in Hendon, England and came to Australia in 1966.  Peter is an academic who came to Australia to study. 

Betsy Sarah Byers

Betsy Sarah Byers was born in Kyneton Victoria in 1866 to James Byers and Louisa Julia Kenworthy.  James came to Australia in 18  from Wetheral, Cumberland in the UK but Louisa was 1st generation Australian, also born in Kyneton, Victoria.  James and Louisa had 8 children.  Betsy was the second child and also second daughter.

She married John Bell in 1890 in Deniliquin, New South Wales.  John was a Scot from Dumfrieshire who came to Australia with his brothers Peter and Jim.  The Bells moved to Medway, near Dubbo and John bought "Langley Dale" in 1891.

John and Betsy had 5 children, 3 girls and two boys. 
 
Betsy died 14 July 1899 when her eldest daughter was 9 and the youngest was only 9 months old.  Below is an extract of a diary entry of MRS C.W. BROWN OF BRANSTON. DUBBO.

JULY 10. 1899; Monday evening 10 p.m. Rain, glorious rain, three inches has fallen since 10 o'clock yesterday morning and it is still falling. What a blessing it is. It will give the crops a chance to grow and the grass has improved already.

JULY 16. 1899: Sunday evening; Poor Mrs Bell has passed away from us. She died at twenty minutes to four o'clock on Friday morning last. She will be buried to-day. The hearse passed here at eight o'clock this morning on its way to Dubbo. The two Mr Bells [John and Peter] and Ben Byers [Betsy's brother] and his wife drove up soon after. They waited here for about fifteen minutes and had a cup of tea, then hurried off to overtake the hearse. The roads are in a fearful state, so heavy with all the rain that has fallen - we had some heavy showers yesterday. Tom and Walter went together in the sulky, Charly and Bewicke on horse-back. They will be all day getting in. The burial will take place about five o'clock. Mr and Mrs Ben Byres came all the way through from Obley (sixty miles) yesterday. Mr Hunt (their employer) took the telegram out to them that Walter sent them when he went in to Dubbo on Friday morning to arrange about the funeral. Mr Hunt gave them his own buggy and horses and sent a man on in front with two changes of horses. When they got to Dubbo they got another change and came on out. They got here at nine o'clock- we were surprised- we thought they might be up in time for the funeral but did not expect to see them out here. After they had a cup of tea they went on to Langlydale. Ben said he would like to see his sister before the coffin was closed. Bewicke went part of the way over with them. Charly had gone over with the hearse just before dark- he helped to put the corpse in the coffin.
I was with Mrs Bell from half past ten o'clock in the morning (on Thursday) til she died at twenty minutes to four on Friday morning. At dinnertime on Thursday Mr Bell started in to Dubbo to get some medicine for her and perhaps bring the Doctor back with him. She had been ill since Tuesday night and we were getting rather anxious about her. After he left she kept getting worse and I sent Luke Cheatham down to the mill a mile and a half away to ask Mrs Pye to come and stay with me till Mr Bell came back. She came just before dark-she was quite a stranger to me - I had never seen her before, but she had told Mr Bell when me saw her the day before, that she would come if she could be of any assistance. She was very kind and was a great help to me through the long weary hours that Mr Bell was away. Twelve hours from the time he left til he returned at a quarter to twelve o'clock.
When Mr Bell left to go to Dubbo he said he would try to get a horse at Branston, his own being in such low condition he was afraid it might knock up on the way in. I told him I was sure Charly would lend him his mare - she was being well fed and very fast.
As time wore slowly on and Mrs Bell got worse I became very anxious - she seemed so ill - I was afraid she might die before Mr Bell got back. About half past nine o'clock I sent Luke Cheatham over to Branston to enquire if Mr Bell had got a fresh horse there and what time they expected him back. To hurry him home as soon as he reached there and tell him that a Doctor was needed for Mrs. Bell. Luke did not take long to go to Branston and back again - he brought me word that Mr Bell had got a quick horse, that he left Branston at two o'clock and was expected back at eleven o'clock. Oh; those long weary hours, how slowly the time seemed to go. A quarter to twelve o'clock I heard his horse's footsteps at the gate. Mrs Bell heard it too. "That Jack," she said. I went out and met him, he told me what the Doctor said. We lost no time in applying the Doctor's remedies, but alas, they were too late - nothing could do her any good now. She had been sinking for some hours - still I hoped she might revive under the Doctor's treatment. A little before three o'clock she seemed much easier and I lay down on the bed in the next room to rest, leaving Mr Bell and Mrs Pye to attend to her. Twenty minutes to four Mrs Pye came and bent over "come and see her" she whispered. I went in and looked at her - she was dead - she had passed away without a struggle. Luke Cheatham left before daylight to bring Mr Jim Bell and his wife over. They came just after dinner time - the meeting between the brothers was very affecting. Walter went in to Dubbo and arranged about the funeral -took place on Sunday.
JULY 25. 1899. Wednesday evening. Ben and Mrs Byers came out from Dubbo to-day, they are having a three weeks holiday and will spend it with Mr Bell. I had a letter from Mrs Byers Snr; thanking me for my kindness to Mrs Bell during her illness.

AUGUST 4, 1899. Friday evening Mrs Jim Bell was here yesterday, she is going to stay at Langly til Mrs Byers comes up from Deniliquin next week .... The girls and myself are making the children's black dresses.

AUGUST 7, 1899. Thursday evening. Mrs Byers will be in Dubbo to-morrow morning, Ben has gone in to-day to meet her and bring her out.

AUGUST 17, 1899. Thursday evening, Mr Montgomery [the Presbyterian minister] has paid us his final visit ... He was sorry he could not make a longer stay with us, we are extremely sorry that he is leaving Narromine, he has been coming here for over seven years and we will miss him. There have been a lot of changes around us lately, changes that sadden one, changes that must come sooner or later. Deaths and partings that wring the heart.

John Bell remarried 10 years later in Orange, NSW.  He had no other children.  John died 5 January 1939 in Dubbo, NSW.

Squire Sutton

Ron>Hylene>John Thomas>William Williamson>William>Squire

Squire Sutton was born July 1789 in Cheshire, England probably in the Stockport/Cheadle area.  He was enrolled in the Stockport Sunday School for Jul 1785, Jul 1798 [parent: John Sutton] and Sept 1801 [ guardian: William Sutton]. The Stockport Sunday school was founded in 1784, and became the largest Sunday school in the world. It was situated on London Square, Wellington Street Stockport behind the town hall. Before the days of universal education, children would be employed in the cotton and hatting industry from a very early age, Sunday Schools provided the one source of Education available before the passing of the 1870 Education Act.

In 1810, at the age of 21, Squire married Hannah Buswell.  They were married in Cheadle even though she came from Westcott Barton in Oxfordshire. Squire Sutton was a labourer in a factory when he married Hannah, who came from a reasonably well off family.  Her uncle Martin Buswell owned substantial lands in Claydon, Oxfordshire and Farnborough, Warwickshire. 

Hannah and her sister Sybilla Wheeldon, received a substantial inheritance upon the death of their first cousin 1x removed, Mary Longe (née Buswell), daughter of Martin Buswell, in 1825. 

Hannah and Squire had 8 children, all born in Stockport, Cheshire.  The second eldest William is my ggg-grandfather. 

On 6 June 1841, census night, Squire Sutton, his wife Anna[sic] and two sons Daniel (15) and John (20)worked a farm outside of Farnborough.  In a separate household, but still on the farm, was his son William (30), his wife Esther and their children Anna, John&William, and Thomas (6wks).  William Williamson, his wife Amelia and their 3 daughters Eliza(3), Elizabeth (5) and Sarah (15mths) were also on the farm.  I think that William was Esther Sutton's brother.  Both William S. and William W. were cotton dealers, while Squire Sutton is listed as a farmer.

Squire and their sons Thomas, William and Daniel continually hounded Hannah for money.  They lived a well-off lifestyle and seemed to alternate addresses between Cheshire, Banbury and Farnborough.  But in 1847 Squire was imprisoned for debt in Chester Gaol (see previous post Jan 2008). His son, William was also declared a bankrupt on 26 May 1848, by the Court of Bankruptcy, Manchester,

The lands however still belonged to Hannah as her son Thomas sold the Farnborough lands to the Great Western Railway in 1861, 12 months after her death.  The remaining land was passed onto Hannah's grand-daughter Emma Sutton (daughter of John) who sold the remaining lands and left the area to settle in South Dorset.

In 1848 Hannah sought a legal separation from Squire, agreeing to pay him £26 per annum, plus a further £4 per annum, to assist him in obtaining a dwelling or lodgings. Until their separation,once Hannah received her inheritance, he styled himself a Farmer and a Gentleman, later becoming a Publican, a Cotton Waste Dealer, a Shopkeeper, and a Cotton Spinner.

By 1851, Squire aged 61, was a lodger in The Warren Alms Houses in the Folley to the East of St. Mary's Parish Church. The Folley was a narrow pathway between Millgate and St. Mary's Gate in Stockport.

Squire died in 1856 in Neithrop near Banbury, Oxfordshire aged 66.  He had been visiting his son Daniel who was Publican at the Hare and Hounds in Neithrop.

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