STATHERS FAMILY STORY Hornsey, Hereford, Hurstville. The journey of a Family over 260 years. Village Blacksmith, Farm Labourer, Pauper, Farmer, and Migration to Australia. Author George Meredith Stathers STATHERS FAMILY STORY ISBN 978-0-9756801-2-4 NLA CiP: Dewey Number: 929.20994 Subjects: Stathers family; British – Australia; Hornsey (Hereford, England) - genealogy; Australia _ Emigration and immigration; Hurstville (NSW – genealogy; Great Britain – Emigration and immigration; Australia – emigration and immigration; Australian Author: Stathers, George Meredith OAM, FRACP Photos by Lois Joy Stathers. First Published 2015 Subjects: Stathers Family History - 1750 to 2008. Social and Historical details of Yorkshire in this period. Australian migrant experience in 1900s. Copyright © George Stathers 2015. All rights reserved. Contact for information George Stathers [email protected]. Frontispiece: photo of Robert John Stathers, Emily, and family on arrival in Australia 1915 Cover design and Self-Publication through CREMORNE1.COM Self-Publishing PO Box 305, CREMORNE NSW 2090 www.cremorne1.com . Stathers Family Story HERITAGE AND HISTORY Journey of 260 years Hornsey, Hereford to Hurstville. Compiled and Written by George Meredith Stathers Dedication To our forebears who emerged from poverty and enabled the present generations to live a better life. The legacy from our Forebears fashions our Present life and allows us to create possibilities for Future generations. As such, it is important to understand and preserve knowledge of our roots. 4 CONTENTS Page Contents 5 Introduction, Preamble & Format 7 Genealogy Stathers-Moore 14-19 Meredith-Crump-Harris 20-22 Chapter 1 Our Name 23 Chapter 2 Heritage 31 Burton Pidsea 33 Preston, Yorkshire 45 Keyingham 55 Chapter 3 Mappleton-Cowden 58 Chapter 4 Welsh-Hereford Families 72 Chapter 5 Harris Family 102 Chapter 6 Market Weighton 114 Chapter 7 Voyage to Australia 126 Chapter 8 Migration to New Land 134 Conclusions Memories & Afterthoughts 153 Photo Gallery 158 Index 167 5 Acknowledgements Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database rights 2010. John and Dorothy Harris for helping us to find our heritage, and for re-establishing our family ties and hospitality in 2007. To family members who have kindly given access to their information. Archives at Beverley Treasure House, Yorkshire. Margaret Szalay for invaluable help in proof reading and the journey to publication. To Evelyn, my son Ian’s partner, for introducing me to the mysteries of Indexing and final preparation of the text. To my wife and best friend Lois - for support, patience, company and photography.in this enterprise of the last 10 years - I am deeply thankful. 6 Introduction - where did we come from? At one time or another we all wonder about our past. Where did our forebears come from? What were the circumstances of their leaving their homeland, the hardships endured, the characters of the people? For families whose forebears migrate to another country their original roots often become obscured over time and distance. Prior to very recent days communication was basically by means of letters or spoken word. The old and new worlds are not only separate in a distance sense, but in traditions forged over the centuries. These traditions tend to slowly change or disintegrate as new identities develop in adaption to new environments and circumstances. For our family of Australian Stathers the English roots have become tenuous. The first generation that migrated to Australia in 1915 has now passed on. So it becomes important for future generations to try and record what knowledge we have because it will be rapidly lost in the clouds of time. In fact this has already started - the NSW Register of Deaths records as “unknown” the names of Emily Stathers’ mother and father. Knowledge of the past may not enhance our lives in a monetary sense but it leads to a better understanding of who we are and where we came from. This is a record of the story of the branch of the Stathers family who emigrated from England in 1915 - John Robert and Emily nee Crump, their three sons - George Alfred, Edgar Meredith, John Robert, and daughter. Dorothy. Frank and Bettina were later born in Australia, Frank dying in early infancy in 1920 at Manly. 7 In addition our remaining UK family roots through the Harris family in Herefordshire are explored and expanded in a personal sense. The story emerges from records made from several sources including George Alfred Stathers - “uncle George” - the eldest son of John Robert and Emily - who had tried over the years to maintain contact with the UK family members. Added to his role are recollections from family tradition, genealogy research, and from personal conversations and observations made during a trip to the United Kingdom in 2007. This enabled a reuniting with the Harris family in Hereford who share a common ancestry through the Crumps - John Harris’s grandmother was the sister of Emily, our grandmother. This account is not meant to be a recitation of achievements or even of a complete genealogy record. The intention is to record events and people so that in subsequent times others may research their own story. In chronological terms the research covers the events, real and suspected, from 1750 up until the early 2000s. A sketch of the first generation in Australia is made but no attempt is made to broaden this in detail or to record the life course of the current living generation - this is for a later project or for others to record in a more objective manner. Out of this background comes family traditions and narrative. In turn this becomes a new story in a new land which owes its existence to the past and present. The future will run its own course but influenced significantly by the inheritance from our forefathers. This is important knowledge and why this task is undertaken. 8 Preamble The period covered by this family history encompassed massive change in the political and social environment. There were the French and American revolutions in the period 1770-80 which began to break the traditional social order with concepts of freedom, liberty, and democracy. These events represented a potential massive transfer of power from a landed elite to a newly emerging urban based population. The embryonic Australian nation was given birth by these events in 1788. In Ireland these movements led to the revolution of 1798 which also shaped the future makeup of our family. In the midst of this were the Napoleonic wars which lasted until 1815 - and was followed in England by severe economic depression particularly in the rural countryside. On 16 August 1819 in London the cavalry charged a crowd of 80,000 people that had assembled in London to hear a reformer talk about giving everyone the right to vote. 1 Nine were killed and over 400 wounded. There were other disturbances of like nature and a major political conflict between the governing power block and the population at large was evolving.2 This lasted throughout the 1800s with periods of greater or lesser effects on society. The paradox was that this was in the phase of expansion of English imperial and industrial might with large scale growth and restructuring of populations. There was dislocation of the rural life patterns which had been relatively stable for centuries - factors such as the steam engine, railways, urbanisation, and changing 1 “William Charles Wentworth”, Tink, Andrew. 2009. Allen & Unwin. 2 Also Poor Law Amendment Act 1813. 9 concepts of liberty and social order initiated hope as well as fear. There were other empires developing, especially German, with the inevitable clash for dominance as experienced in 1914 with World War 1. The after effect of that conflict, besides the huge human cost, was the beginning of the breakdown of traditional land ownership in England. At a village level life in the early phases of this story life followed the patterns of many ages. It is difficult to conceptualise life as it existed on an everyday basis. The horrors for those on the lower levels of society are exposed in books such as “Useful Toil” by John Burnett.3 From an Australian perspective Geoffrey Blainey offers a parallel insight - there was no electricity until the mid-1850s, transport was horse based, there were few comforts for the average person. The fruits of the rapidly evolving scientific revolution were still to be realised.4 Between 1800-1900 London increased in population from one to six million with consequential breakdown in public health and living standards.5 Similarly with personal relationships, the world was small and local, especially for the average person. Marriage prospects must have been limited but it seems from this family history that children were baptised, marriage preceded by the issuing of Banns, and divorce was virtually unknown. Life expectancy initially in the 1800s was around 40-45 years and illnesses such as tuberculosis were rife. This was the period before Pasteur had identified “germs” as a cause for disease 3 “Useful Toil” Burnett, John.Penguin. 1984. 4 “Black Kettle and Full Moon.” Blainey, G. 2003. Penguin 5 “Sophia”, Anita Anand. 2015. pp. 80-81.Bloomsbury. 10 and the era of antibiotics was still many decades away. Maternal and infant mortality was a major factor in family life. Inheritance patterns continued in the old ways with the eldest son inheriting and the daughters being dependent on marriage matches. So it was inevitable that with this scene individuals and families looked for greener pastures. Australia with its apparent opportunities and freedoms was very enticing especially once transport became a viable option through such schemes as the Bounty movement. This story then needs to be read with this précis in mind and to interpret the various personal decisions made in a different societal context.