Who and What I Find (TE version)

Category: Places

  • 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/

  • 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

  • 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 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.

  • Townsend family of Coventry, Warwickshire

    I correspond with a third cousin I “met” through a collaboration website.

    She and I share a brickwall – the Townsend family of Coventry.

    My Great Great Grandmother was a lady called Harriet Mary Townsend, and she was born in 1811 to John and Mary Townsend, in Newmarket, Suffolk.

    Harriet Mary married a Charles Dixon in 1830 in Coventry.

    Harriet Mary and Charles appear to have had five children:

    • Ann Elizabeth Dixon b1832
    • a son Dixon b1833 (the register is burn-damaged and the name is unreadable)
    • Charles Matthew Dixon b1835
    • Henry Miller Dixon b1837

    Charles disappears – I would love to know where to! Thoughts are many and varied – he was in prison, he died, he was transported to Australia as a convict, he left the marriage – as I say, I would love to know…

    Meanwhile, Harriet Mary is living in Little Park Street with her mother Mary, who apparently ran a boarding house – as there were “lodgers” in the 1841 census. Namely, one Emanuel Miller…. see any coincidences, yet?

    Birth registrations show that Harriet Mary and Emanuel had at least 6 children and possibly 7:

    • Henry Miller Dixon b1837
    • Harriet Fanny Miller b1838
    • John James Miller b1840
    • Emma Barbara Miller b1842
    • Jane Ann Miller b1843
    • Fanny Miller b1844
    • Harriet Mary Miller b1850

    Henry Miller Dixon b1837 is my Great Grandfather. He arrived in Australia per the ship ALFRED in 1860 under the name Henry Dixon. He died in 1906 in Australia under the name Henry Miller.

    My third cousin is descended from John James Miller, so she has no difficulties in identifying Emanuel as her Great Great Grandfather!

    But, back to the Townsends – for a long time, I didn’t understand the Census entries that shows Harriet Mary’s mother Mary as INDEPENDENT. My cousin found a will for a William Townsend – it appears that William was Harriet Mary’s uncle, brother to her father John. It also appears that William was quite wealthy! His will allocates £1000s to a number of his nieces and nephews. Including Harriet Mary… and to his sister-in-law Mary, property.

    Who was William Townsend? Better still, who were William’s parents? They would be my 3Greats Grandparents!

    So – the first question is – “why was Harriet Mary born in Suffolk?”

    Second question – “who IS Henry Miller Dixon’s father? – Emanuel Miller or Charles Dixon?”

    Third question – “where did Charles Dixon disappear to?’

    Fourth question – “who are William (and John’s) parents – my 3GGrandparents?”

    Fifth question  – “how did William make his money?”

  • New website found – The Extended Craxford Family Web Site

    An email exchange has opened up new investigative avenues for the Tilley and associated families in Leicestershire.

    The Extended Craxford Family Web Site is, of course, about the Craxford Family in Cottingham, Northamptonshire. However, a branch of the Tilley family relocated there from Thorpe Langton, Leicestershire, in the late 1700s, thus creating the link!

    Alan Craxford has been most helpful in clarifying a number of questions I had, and I was most pleased when I could give a morsel back to him on a line he did not have!

    If you have ANY relations in the Leicestershire and Northamptonshire areas, I would suggest you check out the site:

    http://www.craxford-family.co.uk