Who and What I Find (TE version)

Category: Family Names

  • Edward COMBER b1820 Spitalfields

    It has only taken two years to finally find Edward COMBER b1820 in Spitalfields, Middlesex, England!

    Edward is my 2ndGreatGrandfather, and he has been an elusive man, to say the least.

    Over the years I have been searching, I have found numerous mentions of Edward but with conflicting information. The worst situation is the conflation of two men (Edward COMBER and Edward COMER) into one “super-Edward” who appears to have two wives and families over 200kms apart (please refer my post “Edward COMBER vs Edward COMER” for information I found in 2015).

    I was recommended to hire a Genealogical Researcher in the UK, which I did in August 2017. Rita has been quite diligent and has uncovered some of Edward’s secrets!!!

    Edward was indeed born in Spitalfields in/around 1820. While there is no Baptismal Registration found, as yet, there is a Workhouse entry for Edward aged 4, and his family. Yes, I have a family for Edward – I am so happy!

    Edward was born to James Comber and his wife Elisabeth. Edward had an elder brother, James Robert born 03 Nov 1818 while the family was living in Cock Lane, Smithfield, Middlesex, England which is very near Spitalfields. A sister, Elizabeth,  was born to the family in December 1824 and another sister, Ann, in/around 1827.

    Father James Comber was apprenticed as a weaver, but there are no Guild Records available that show he actually became a weaver. What we do know now is that James senior enlisted in the 50th Regiment of Foot (also known as Queen’s Own) in 1826. Brother James Robert also enlisted in the 50th Regiment of Foot in 1832, as a Drummer. [Refer my post “James Comber – NOT a nice man…“]

    The family moved with the Regiment, firstly to Ireland, then to NSW where they arrived in 1835 on the ship BLENHEIM as Guards on the Convict Transport. The Regiment was stationed in Windsor, just north of Sydney.

    Edward also enlisted in the 50th Regiment of Foot once arrived in Windsor in October 1835.

    Father James was discharged from the 50th Regiment on 31 May 1836 and he and Elisabeth apparently remained in NSW. Another daughter, Matilda, was born in NSW in 1837.

    Meanwhile, the 50th Regiment departed NSW for India, being stationed in Cawnpore (present name Kanpur) in Uttar Pradesh. Both brothers fought in the Gwalior Campaign in December 1843. Sadly, brother James Robert died in May 1844 in Cawnpore, and Edward was discharged from the 50th Regiment while stationed in Chinsurah & Loodianah in November 1845.

    Edward was back in NSW by 1849, where he applied for an “Irish Famine Orphan” with the NSW Colonial Secretary.

    He was obviously granted an orphan, as he and Elizabeth Mackey were married in Sydney in 1851!

    So – there he is – Edward COMBER – found him, at last!!!

  • Edward COMBER vs Edward COMER

    For such a long time, I have been looking into the COMBER family in NSW.

    I was so happy to find a lot of information on the internet about the man my 2Greats Grandmother, Elizabeth Mackie (also Mackay, McKay, McGee – lots of variations) married in 1851, in Sydney, New South Wales.

    I’m of the impression, now, that, looking at research results on sites like Ancestry and MyHeritage, people have tied what I believe to be two different men together to form one “mega-man”.

    My guy is Edward COMBER, died 1900 in Armidale. Edward Comber married Elizabeth Mackie/Mackay in 1851. They lived in Mulgoa, at Fernhill, for the remainder of the 1850s then moved north and their descendants are found in Muswellbrook, Tamworth, Coonabarabran, Narrabri – all over the north of New South Wales.

    It is thought that Edward COMBER was born in or near Spitalfields on 20 Dec 1820. At least, that is what my Grandmother said! Sadly, I have not been able to find any reference to COMBERs in that area for and around that date. I have, however, found an Edward born 1822, and a family called LE COMBER.

    Edward and Elizabeth (Mackay) COMBER had the following children:

    • Edward Comber (1852 – 1927) married Margaret Janet Johnstone
    • Elizabeth Comber (1853 – 1927) married Robert Hardy
    • James Coomber (1855 – 1927) married Matilda Dewson
    • Agnis Comber (c1856 – ?)
    • John William Mackay Comber (1857 – 1941) married Annie Barnes
    • Ann Tereasa Comber (1858 – 1939) married James Walter Buckley
    • Sarah Amelia Comber (1860 – 1941) married Thomas Leonard
    • George Westby Walker Comber (1862 – 1945) married Anna Maria Chilvers
    • Matilda Comber (1863 – 1867)
    • Mary Jane Comber (1865 – 1930) married Henry Chadband
    • George Comber (1867 – 1867)
    • William Henry Comber (1868 – 1945)
    • Margaret Louisa Comber (1872 – 1953)
    • and an un-named baby boy

    The other fellow is Edward COMER – he and his wife Ann (nee O’Rafferty) arrived in 1841 as Bounty Immigrants from Galway, Ireland per the ship RUNNYMEDE. Edward was born in/around 1816 in Ballynakill, Galway, Ireland and married Ann around 1840 in Galway.

    They had the following children in the Mudgee area:

    • Bridget Theresa Comer (1842 – 1934) married James Edward Callaghan (1838 – 1898)
    • Thomas Comer (1843 – ?) married Ellen Palmer
    • Michael Comer (1846 – 1918) married Emily A Catalin (Catabino)
    • Maria Comer (1848 – 1919) married John Boyling
    • Edward Comer (1854 – 1874)
    • John Henry Comer (1856 – 1936) married Mary Jane Johnas
    • Rebecca Comer (1859 – 1901) married James Ritchie

    The COMERs settled and lived in the Mudgee area until their deaths.

    I have proved, just recently (19 July 2015), that these are two separate men, after a visit to the Mudgee Family History Group to view their records for the area.

    So, my belief is that there is no way that one man could father 20+ children to two women over 200kms apart has been successfully supported!!!

    I am hoping that someone, somewhere, is looking into my Edward COMBER, too, and am happy to share my info to further the Comber family!

    UPDATE! – 2017-11-15 – Please refer to genimagus.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/edward-comber-b1820-spitalfields/

  • Ann Territt (aka Ann Terrett)

    Ann Territt (aka Terrett)

    She was born in or around Gloucester between 1786–1789.

    She was tried before the Gloucester Easter Quarter Sessions in 1810, charged with larceny. At that time, Ann had been a servant. She received a seven year term and was kept in prison for another two years prior to her transportation. Ann was first sent to NSW in 1812 aboard ‘Emu’ with about 40 female convicts on board. The ship was hijacked by American privateers and the passengers and crew were put onto the Cape Verde Islands until they were picked up and returned to England.

    Ann was re-sent to Sydney on the ‘Broxbornebury’, which left England on February 22, 1814.

    She worked at the female factory in Parramatta and one year later was given leave to marry William MAKEPEACE. She was given her freedom and after William’s death, she was listed as the publican of the ‘Black Swan Hotel’ in Sydney.

    Ann next married John WHEELER, a convict who had been assigned to work for Ann in 1826.

    Ann’s son, Jonas Wheeler, married Rebecca Hoy, daughter of Timothy Hoy (Admiral Gambier, 1808) and Bethia Freeman (daughter of James Freeman, Alexander 1788 and Mary Edwards (Mary Ann 1791).

  • Timothy Hoy

    TIMOTHY HOY (1782-1838)
    Timothy was born in Herefordshire, Essex, England. He was tried for breaking and entering the dwelling house of James Hawkins at Thorley, and stealing various articles of wearing apparel valued at £52.10s.0d. He was convicted at the Lent Assizes in Hertford in 1807 and sentenced to death. This was changed to transportation for 7 years. He came on the ship “Admiral Gambier” (1), which departed Portsmouth on 2nd July 1808 with 200 male convicts. The voyage took 171 days, arriving in Sydney on 22nd December 1808. Three convicts died on the voyage.

    Timothy was a brickmaker and stonemason, and helped in the construction of St Luke’s in Liverpool. In 1811 he married Bethia Edwards (1794-1864), daughter of James Freeman (Alexander 1788) & Mary Edwards (Mary Ann 1791). He was granted a Conditional Pardon by Governor Macquarie on 31st January 1820, and was granted land at Liverpool 5 months later on 1st July 1820. On his pardon he is described as 5 ft. 6 1/2 in. tall, dark ruddy complexion, brown hair and hazel eyes.

    In the 1822 Muster he was also renting land from Mr Dixon, with 15 acres of wheat, 1 of barley,1 horse, 2 horned cattle, and 2 hogs. This was most probably John Dickson, the husband of Susannah Martin, Bethia’s half sister. In the 1828 Census he had 100 acres at Liverpool called ‘White Hills’, 43 cleared, 30 cultivated, 4 horses, 30 cattle, and 1 convict working for him, named Begley.

    Timothy and Bethia had 11 children; William, James Harris, Susannah, Mary Ann, James, John, Elizabeth, Timothy, Regecca, Henry & Charlotte. Timothy died on 28th July 1838, and Bethia died on 1st December 1794. They were both buried at St Luke’s in Liverpool, Sydney

  • Mary Edwards (nee Mary Hopely, Mrs William Edwards)

    Mary Edwards was a convict aboard The Ship Mary Ann which sailed from England, on Wednesday, 16 February 1791 and arrived in Port Jackson on 9 July 1791, the first ship in the Third Fleet to arrive in Sydney. The ships Master was Mark Munroe. 

    Mary Edwards (maiden name Mary Hopely), wife of William Edwards, was born around 1766 in Herefordshire.

    In August 1789, both of them were arrested in Leominster where they then lived, and charged (Hereford 9 MAR 1790) with stealing shoes etc from a shop. William was acquitted, Mary sentenced to 7 years’ transportation. (It was that time in NSW history when the appeal had gone out for More Women, to redress the imbalance.) Mary was confined in Hereford Gaol until her departure aboard “Mary Ann” in February 1791.

    She lived with James Freeman, eventually married Abraham Martin, she retained her first husbands name from England.

    She had two children with James Freeman (Alexander 1788), Mary 1792-1801 and Berthina or Berthia 1794. Berthia married Timothy Hoy (Admiral Gambier, 1808). She had one child, Susannah 1800, with Abraham Martin.

  • Christopher Nowlan (aka Christy, aka Nolan)

    Christopher NOWLAN (also NOLAN) came here as a convict in 1826 on the ship Phoenix III, arriving 25 Dec 1826.
    He was tried in Trim in 1826 for Murder.
    He was 23 years old
    Sentenced to LIFE, he got a ticket of leave and a conditional pardon.
    He got permission to marry a Mary EDWARDS (daughter of Matthew Edwards, Portland 1833) in West Maitland who was aged 15 years and she came free (not a convict).
    Christopher’s calling or trade was Farmers Man.

  • James Freeman (Update)

    James was born in Watford, Herefordshire, England, around 1768. He lost his father when less than 18 months of age. By his teens, he was associating with a gang of thieves. In August 1783, James and his accomplices, Thomas Taylor & Thomas Rust, stole a watch & chain and a seal, worth eleven shillings, from John Seymour of Watford. On 11 Dec 1783, James and Thomas Taylor stole a half guinea, a shilling and sixpence from Thomas Baldwin. Thomas Taylor stole again in January 1784. Thomas Taylor, aged 30, & Thomas Rust, aged 21, were both hanged. 

    At 16 years of age, James was tried at the Lent session of the Hertford Assizes on 3rd March 1784, by Sir William Henry Ashurst Knight & Jerome Knapp Esq. Justices. He was convicted of highway robbery on the King’s Highway at Aldenham and was sentenced to death by hanging, but this was changed to 7 years transportation. This was the first prosecution from the Hertfordshire County which resulted in the convict being transported. He was sent to the Justitia hulk, where he spent 3 years before being transferred to the Alexander on 27th February 1787. 

    Three months later, at 19 years of age, he sailed from Portsmouth with the First Fleet on 12th May 1787. There were 11 ships commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip, who was commissioned as the first Governor of Australia. The 15,000 mile journey took just over eight months. The Fleet anchored at Botany Bay on 18th January 1788, then finally settled at Sydney Cove on 26th January. It arrived with 717 convicts, of whom 180 were women, guarded by 191 marines under 19 officers. The convicts’ average age was about twenty-seven years. The Alexander was Captained by Duncan Sinclair. It was the ship that had the most number of deaths on board. Sixteen deaths occurred before the ship had even set sail, mostly from typhus. 

    Four weeks after their arrival, on 27th February 1788, James was again in trouble for stealing flour, with a mate, William Shearman from Berkshire. They were charged with feloniously and fraudulently taking and carrying away 15 half pounds of flour valued at 15 pence, the property of Michael Dennison, Robert Abel, and William Waterhouse. Shearman was sentenced to receive 300 lashes, and James was sentenced to death. He received Australia’s first Conditional Pardon on 1st March 1788, on the condition that he became the Public Executioner till he served out the remainder of his sentence, and remain in NSW for life. So James became Australia’s first hangman. He was reluctant to do his duty but complied when the Marines were ordered to shoot him. After he served out his sentence he worked as a farmhand. 


    James earned 100 lashes and stoppage of his grog 11 Dec 1789 for being drunk and out of his hut after 10.45pm, this was only two weeks after he had to hang Ann Davis. He remained a labourer, labouring at Richmond N.S.W. He died a pauper at Windsor 28 Jan 1830, buried St Matthew’s Anglican Church in an unmarked grave, aged 67.

    He had two children by Mary Edwards (maiden name Mary Hopely (Maryann 1791)) [q.v. https://goo.gl/F1hwKw], Mary 1792-1801 and Berthina or Berthia 1794. Mary Edwards had left him by 1800 for Abraham Martin.

  • James Freeman

    I’m in the process of conversing with a distant relative located in New Zealand, and “my old pal” James Freeman entered the conversation.

     

    James is an interesting character. Not much is known (by me!) about his early days. My research has shown he was convicted in Hertford, Hertfordshire, at the Assizes in 1774.

    Transported on the ship ALEXANDER, he arrived with all the other First Fleeters in Sydney Cove in 1788. As may be known, the First Fleet arrived with only half the planned supplies (due to Admiralty incompetence and greed), so the colony was in dire straights by the end of the 1st month and all on Australian soil were on half or even quarter rations.

    Freeman was tried with William Shearman for stealing 15 allowances of flour, sentenced to death, pardoned on condition he became the public hangman. He had to hang that day Thomas Barlett (qv) reluctant to do so, the marines had orders to shoot him, if he didn’t do so.

    James went on to be assigned as a laborer to a fellow in the Windsor/Richmond area, north west of Sydney.  Upon his Absolute Pardon he continued to live in the area.

    He remained a labourer, labouring at Richmond N.S.W. He died a pauper at Windsor 28 Jan 1830, buried St Matthew’s, aged 67.

    He had two children by Mary Edwards (arrived as part of the Third Fleet on the MARYANN in 1791), Mary 1792-1801 and Berthina or Berthia 1794. Young Mary died aged 9, and Berthia married Timothy Hoy (Eighth Fleet 1808). Mary Edwards had left him by 1800 for Abraham Martin

  • James Bird HILL (1 Mar 1801 – 31 Jul 1839) – (originally posted as a Page on this site 2012/05/29)

    James Bird Hill was born in Burton Overy, Leicestershire, England on 1 March 1801 to parents James Hill and Catherine Bird.

    James Bird Hill enlisted in the (now) Queen’s 2nd Royal Regiment of Foot; the Regiment is known to have been stationed in Dublin, Ireland, Bombay (Poona [now Pune] and Colobah) in/around 1832 and also Ghazni, Afghanistan in 1839.

    James enlisted under the name of James Bird, and married Ann Jarvis in September 1820, before the Regiment was moved to Ireland.

    The Regiment was posted to Bombay, and was eventually engaged in the First Afghan Wars. James Bird Hill was reported to have died in Ghazni (after the first battle of Ghazni) of Typhoid and starvation on 31 July 1839.

  • Sgt Edward MACKAY (c1800-c1842) (originally published as a Page on this site in March 2009)

    Sgt Edward Mackay (also: Mackie, Mackey, McGee and other variants) is thought to have been born c1800 in County Monaghan, Ireland (possibly in Trim).

    He enlisted in the 63rd Regiment and was eventually posted at Macquarie Harbour, Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania), where his daughter Elizabeth was baptised in 1832.

    The 63rd Regiment was reassigned to India (thought to be around Bombay/Poona) c 1835-6.

    Edward is thought to have died at sea, between 1836-1840.

    He had married Ann, and they had 3 known daughters:

    • Mary Jane, who married Robert Devlin Smyth
    • Elizabeth, who married Edward Comber
    • Sarah

    Edward is also thought to have been married prior to Ann – possibly to a Mary and also possibly had a son, William John Mackey.
    —

    I am looking forward to researching him at the National Archives in Kew, sooner rather than later!