Joseph Douglass 1782-1865: First Settler at Kurrajong Heights NSW

http://members.pcug.org.au/~pdownes/douglass/index.htm 

A family genealogy site with background for the 1815 period in NSW and some beautiful images.

MELINDA KENDALL : HER LIFE AND WRITINGS

CANADA OR AUSTRALIA - WHERE WOULD YOU PREFER TO RESEARCH ?

Over the last few months , we have had cause to contact the Canadian National Library and Archives and to order copies of documents. These documents are from the period 1812-1813. They have been retrieved and copied for us . Extra attention has been paid to achieving as high a quality duplication as possible.

In the first place, a Canadian researcher, Richard LeLievre ,for free found the actual reel nos and file nos having only been provided with the names PATRICK MCNALLY and CHAMBLY COURT MARTIAL and then simply for the photocopying and mailing fee which came to $4.90 US we received app 8 pages being facsimilies of original handwritten documents of 1812. We also were refunded the  difference between the $15 we had sent  and the $4.90 they charged. They also included a free page due to having made a slight error in reel nos.

Now we attempt to acquire MELINDA KENDALLS Intestate papers from our own State Records office and here is the essence of what we have been told: They tell us that they do not operate a copying service for the insolvency files. (This is on top of NSW BDMS who have had money of ours since early 2008 and who no longer copy originals leaving us only with transcriptions which are inaccurate and do not provide the details we need . e.g. on Melinda and Basil’s marriage certificate below - not the lack of signature by Melinda. These details are NOT on transcription) Back to STATE RECORDS - who do not offer copying service. The representative of State Records informs us that Insolvency files contain a lot of financial/accounting records.

We has assumed that that would be the case and indeed hoped it would be. That is in fact one of the things in which we are interested.

The writer of the email then recommends that we use the standard copy order form ( for the service they do not provide?) Here’s the bite in it. The standard copy flat fee is $25.00  That allows for copies to the value of $5.00. The one we seek has $15.30 worth of copies on the file so an additional $10.30 would “need to be added to the Standard Fee of $25″. So $35.30 it will cost. Hello Canada ! Can we come and live with you ?

We live app 1000 kilometres from said office and operate on PhD income which could lead to our own intestate condition developing.

WHERE WOULD YOU PREFER TO RESEARCH ?

Thank You Canada. It has been a pleasure dealing with you.

As for you Sydney. Think Again.

CANADIAN NATIONAL LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/index-e.html

LiveJournal Tags: CANADIAN NATIONAL LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES,NSW STATE RECORDS OFFICE,INTESTATE PAPERS

THE WEEK OF UK NEWSPAPERS IS OVER

Well the week of access to the BRITISH LIBRARY HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS IS OVER. Now I am left bereft. Now I am left with rather a lot of cut and pasted articles to sort through. I will begin putting them up on this site and on LYNNE BELL SANDERS . They range from 1812 U.S. - CANADIAN WAR where Patrick McNally was court martialled through to MELINDA MCNALLY’S name in an English Newspaper following the death of Henry. I have collected snippets on all manner of background matters so bear with me and we will see what I have found amongst this mass of British Newspaper materials. Some might not directly appear to relate to Melinda but I shall include them because they are era appropriate and act as a diorama illustrating the world as it was in her time and a telescopic view of the Colony from the ” Mother Land”. 

OLD BRITISH NEWSPAPERS 19TH CENTURY

FOR THE WEEK JULY 4-11 - I AM LOCKED AWAY LOOKING AT OLD BRITISH NEWSPAPERS ONLINE. AND WRITING ON THE NELLIBELL49 BLOG.

 

http://nellibell49.wordpress.com/

 

SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIAN GENEALOGISTS HAS PROVIDED AN OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE A LOOK AT GALE CENGAGE LEARNING’S  OLD UK NEWSPAPER FILES AND I AM TAKING THAT OPPORTUNITY. http://www.sag.org.au/ http://find.galegroup.com/

 

Flickr Tags: SCOTLAND,NEWSPAPERS,HISTORY,ENGLAND,SUTHERLAND SHIRE,BELLS,READYS. DEVON,IRELAND,SURREY,SANDERS,JULLIAN,KENDALL FAMILY,MELINDA KENDALL,ROSCOMMON,CANADA,MONTREAL,100 REGIMENT,CHAMBLY,GRAFTON.ILLAWARRA,SYDNEY STREETS 19TH CENTURY,POETRY,MCNALLY,MCDERMOTT

POEM BY RACHEL HENNINGS-TAYLOR

FROM THE LETTERS OF RACHEL HENNINGS

a POEM EVOCATIVE OF MELINDA’S BELLAMBI’S LAKE and written in the late 1870s but from a very different family background despite many commonalities of Colonial Experience.  The last of Rachel’s letters are written from the Illawarra - Wollongong matters at a time similar to that of Melinda.

 

SPRINGFIELD,

MARCH 25TH 1878

My Dearest Etta,

I am afraid I have two letters of yours unanswered, but I rather delayed

replying to the last, in order to make some inquiries about the old

King’s friendship with Grandpapa. From Hannah Dashwood’s note, which you

forwarded to me, however, I suppose you no longer want the information

you asked for.

However, for our own satisfaction, I ascertained beyond a doubt that the

intimacy was during our grandmother’s life and not after Grandpapa had

married Mrs Buxton. I think it was the Princess Sophia, not Amelia, who

was thrown from her horse near Poxwell, and lay ill there for some days,

and it was on this occasion, I suppose, that she presented the silver tea

and coffee service to Mrs Henning.

Amy has the teapot, and I think the Edmund Buxtons have the coffee-pot.

The inscription on the former I got Amy to copy for me; and it is as

follows:

The gift of her Royal Highness the Princess Sophia to Elizabeth Henning,

September 21st 1799.

Grandpapa did not marry Mrs Buxton till 1808 (see Life of Sir Fowell

Buxton), so this inscription settles the question at once.

In 1811 the King was pronounced insane and the Prince of Wales appointed

Regent, so I suppose his trips to Weymouth were over by that time, or a

year or two earlier.

The illness of the Princess Sophia was most likely the beginning of the

acquaintance, and it must have continued some time after our

grandmother’s death, for I remember a story of Aunt Harriet’s–she kept

house at Poxwell after Mrs Henning’s death–and she said that on one

occasion the Royal party were lunching there, and she was handing a tray

of something to one of the royal dukes (I think the Duke of Sussex), and,

seeing her standing, he got up and insisted on her sitting down and

waited on her himself.

Then there was a story of the old King taking up our father in his arms,

when he was a very small boy, and asking if he knew who he was, and being

very much delighted when the child replied “Grandpapa King!” And you must

remember Grandpapa’s pet story about his meeting the King out riding

shortly after our grandmother’s death, when he was in great sorrow, and

how the King desired his train to fall back, as “he wanted to speak to

Henning alone”, and then, riding on with him; “he talked to him like a

father” and advised him to marry again, for the sake of his young family:

“But mark my words! Mark my words! Mark my words, Henning! If you ever

expect to find another such woman as your first wife, you will be

disappointed.” I remember exactly how Grandpapa used to move back his

plate and tell that story.

Another of Grandpapa’s stories was that one day the King came from

Weymouth and inquired for Mrs Henning, and was informed by the servant

that she was washing lace. The King had a way of repeating his words:

“Washing lace, washing lace, is she? Then I’ll go and help her.” A

comic-paper published in Weymouth produced an illustration of the King

and Mrs Henning over a wash-tub, washing lace together.

I am certain it was at Poxwell, not at Weymouth, that the King used to

visit, because while at Poxwell Grandpapa was farming the estate himself,

but when he went to Weymouth he was a banker (and, if you recollect, it

was the run on that bank that ruined him), and another of his stories was

that one day he was complaining to the King of the difficulty of getting

sufficient men to make the hay, and the next morning he found a small

detachment of soldiers drawn up before the door, they having been sent by

the King with orders to make Mr Henning’s hay. I believe they performed

more in the way of consuming bread and cheese and beer than in haymaking.

I have been able to get the inscription on the gold cup, which Biddulph

keeps at his bankers’ and I dare say he will get it out at the new baby’s

christening and fill it with claret cup to drink his health. The

inscription is as follows:

First of all there is the Royal coat-of-arms on the gold cup, then:

Honi soit qui mal y pense.

Dieu et Mon Droit.

Given September 26th 1800, to Edmund Henning, of Poxwell, in the county

of Dorset, esquire, by his Majesty King George III.

In some of your summer trips you ought to go to Weymouth and visit the

old places. It, is a pretty drive of about four miles to Poxwell. It must

have been a fine old place once, built in a square round a court and with

stone-mullioned windows and a large low hall with oak rafters and a great

oak table where, very likely, “sacred Majesty took his déjeuner”, and a

fine old brick gateway, or, rather, gatehouse, with a small chamber over

it, where there is a legend that some heiress of the Henning family was

shut up for contumacy, and betimely escaped therefrom with her lover.

I used to hear a great deal of family history from Uncle and Aunt John

Henning, but I have forgotten it now. There was an old place called

“Henning’s Crookston” where our great-grand-papa lived, and where all his

family were brought up. Then there is a most picturesque old manor house,

called Radypoll, close to Weymouth, which also belonged to Grandpapa and

afterwards to Uncle John.

Wolverton was a very fine old place with an ivy-covered gatehouse as

large as a modern cottage and the house a sort of castellated building.

Biddulph was the rightful heir to these properties.

I do not think you have read this poem of mine, so I will inflict it on

you:

THE DAYS OF CHILDHOOD

The happy days of childhood, how swift they fleet away;

How soon beneath the world’s cold breath its feelings must decay,

Its fervent warm affections, its confidence and truth,

With all its bright imaginings and cherished hopes of youth.

The gladsomings and gaiety its sunny light that throws

O’er every time and scene till all in its own bright sunshine glows.

Alas! That life’s dark clouds should e’er that fairy dream destroy

And overcast that rosy dawn of innocence and joy.

There is no spot so lovely as our early childhood’s home,

And thither still the heart returns, wherever we may roam;

The tangled brakes where wildflowers grew its overshadowing grove,

Its streamlets and its valleys claim our first and latest love.

There is no joy like that we felt when in the springtide hours

We bounded o’er the wild, free hills, and plucked the mountain flowers

Where tall fern waves and harebell blue with purple heather blend

Such gay, unfettered happenings with the years of childhood end.

There are no friends like those who for our infancy have cared,

And no companions dear as those who all its pleasures shared.

Oh, what is like a mother’s love, or who her place can fill

When her cheering smile has passed away and her gentle voice is still!

And none can e’er such sympathy in weal or woe impart

As a sister gives who aye hath shared each feeling of the heart;

And where shall we such shelter find, in trouble or in harm,

As in the sure protection of a brother’s shielding arm?

We may form new ties of friendship and other bonds of love,

But they are not like the flowery links that our happy childhood wove

For the world its chilling influence upon our hearts has thrown,

And though the chain may sparkle still, its first bright glow is gone.

How often when around the earth the shades of twilight close

And evening’s gentle hand hath hushed all nature to repose

The visions of the past arise, and many a vanished scene

To memory appears, as though no change had ever been.

And mid the stillings of that hour we seem to hear a sound

Like whispers from the spirit-land breathed in the air around;

Voices of those whose pilgrimage has long been ended here,

O’er whom the quiet grave has closed since many a weary year.

And for a while as once we were again we seem to be;

Again we feel the gaiety of a soul unworn and free.

But the dream decays, and life once more assumes a dreary hue,

And all its sad realities again stand forth to view.

There are hours of happiness on earth, but their sunshine may not last.

And the joyous days of childhood must be soon for ever past.

They are like the gleams of treacherous light that on the storm-cloud play

Then fade away, and deeper gloom succeeds the short-liv’d ray.

I must conclude. Fond love to Mr Boyce and the children and to yourself.

Believe me, dearest Etta, your most affectionate sister,

RACHEL TAYLOR

TWEED AND GOLD COAST FAMILY HISTORY AND HERITAGE ASSOCIATION

http://www.tweedgoldcoastfamilyhistoryheritageassociation.bravehost.com/resources.htm

 

GOLD COAST FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY INC.

Australian History: Selected Websites. NATIONAL LIBRARY

Australian History: Selected Websites

http://www.nla.gov.au/oz/histsite.html