A twig on the Alford tree

It's taken a while, over 30 years, but I finally got around to having another go at finding a twig on the Alford tree. I first started looking for William James Alford in the pre-computer days and failed but when I checked this week I found him quite quickly. I thought he was a twig but it turns out it was a branch.

William's father, James Alford, had migrated to South Australia with his brother and sister-in-law, William and Ann. They came from a town in north Devon called South Molton and travelled to Australia on the ship 'Rodney' arriving in February 1855. Within the next twelve months William and Ann moved to Brighton in Victoria but James stayed a little longer. He had met Honora Fallon, from Sligo in Ireland, who had arrived in South Australia the previous year. They married at Encounter Bay near Victor Harbor, 26 October 1855. We don't know what work James did at that time but he had worked as an agricultural labourer in Devon so maybe he did the same type of work.

Their first child, William James, was born 26 Jul 1856 at McLaren Vale and in December of that year the family moved over to Brighton, Victoria and lived with William and Ann until their house was built next door. James worked at making bricks.

James wrote a letter home to his father, Jacob, in South Molton and mentions his son:

Brighton March 29^th 1857

Dear father

I write you these few lines hoping [hoping] they will find you and your family in as good health as we remain at present thank God.

My dear father we received your kind letter and sent you the answer of it 7 months ago. We wish to write to you agin [again] to inform you that we left Adelaide and came to Melbourne. We have been here 3 months. We are living at present with Wm [William]. We bought a peace [piece] of land from William Wise 7 lbs [£] and we are going to build a home on it next week. I am working with Mr Thomas Dewson since I came to Melbourne at making bricks. My wages is 3 lbs [£] per week the living is very reasonable flour is 12 … beef and mutton from 3 to 4 per lb, butter 3 per lb eggs 3s per dozen, tea 2s per lb, cheese from 1 to 2 s per lb.

Houses and land are very dear hear [here] also clothing and boots and shoes, so is furniture

Dear father you said in your last letter that sister Mary and Richard was coming out here. I should like to know whether they are coming or no. Give our kind love to Ann and Mary, there [their] husbands and all the children. William and Ann also the 2 children send there [their] kind love to you all. William James is growing a fine little boy. He is now 20 months old and he can walk all round the room by the chairs and call his dada...

And that was the last we knew of William James. The Alford family grew, James had a store at Brighton until at least 1871 and then they moved to land at Parwan near Bacchus Marsh in Victoria. Later they ran a store at Maddingly, Bacchus Marsh. James' wife, Honora, died in 1880 and James married again in 1882 and  some more children were born.

William James must have been with his father in the Bacchus Marsh area because this notice appeared in the paper in 1899, inserted by his sister Mary Ann who was six years younger and his nearest (in age) surviving sibling.

The Argus 29 Apr 1899 (and also The Australasian 6 May 1899)

So I searched the New Zealand newspapers online at Papers Past and found quite a few newspaper notices following his death. It seems that William James Alford had died at the Wellington Hospital because he had cancer of the liver. His occupation was a Sergeant Bombardier in the Permanent Artillery and must have been well respected by others in the Artillery and he must have been a member of several Lodges.

Evening Post, New Zealand 4 Mar 1899

New Zealand Times, 3 March 1899

Evening Post 4 Mar 1899

William James' wife, Emma, inserted a thankyou notice a few days later.

Evening Post 8 Mar 1899

I also found a notice announcing the marriage of Emma and William ten years earlier. The only notice I found was in the Auckland newspaper so maybe William was living there at that time and he certainly had property in Auckland when he died.

Auckland Star 29 Jun 1889

The family gets bigger.  I found the births of two children. Ruby Eleanor Alford was born 1890 and Arthur Vincent Alford was born in 1892. At the time of his death the Alford family was living at 14 Sussex Square but his probate papers mention a house on land in Albert Rd, North Shore, Auckland and land with two houses in St Aubyns Rd, North Shore, Auckland. (Both streets are in the Devonport area of Auckland) He was living in Auckland when he was promoted from Gunner to Acting-Bombadier a year before he died.

New Zealand Herald 11 Jan 1898

Ruby Alford married George Francis Watt in New Zealand in 1914 and died in 1949 aged 59. She had a daughter called Nina born in 1915 who died in 1933 and a son born 1923.

Arthur worked as a carpenter and enlisted in the army in WW1. He served in Egypt and France. He also enlisted in WW2 and served in the home militia. According to his army papers he married in 1940 but the name of his wife is not given. Arthur died 17 Feb 1979 in Auckland, New Zealand.

William's widow, Emma, married again in 1900 to Berry Osgood Cozens. She died in 1935 aged 70. She must have been born about 1865 making her ten years younger than William James Alford.

Trove Tuesday: Maddingly Park

I've mentioned Phil's Great-uncle James Alford before, and probably will again, but in this post I'm discussing an aspect of his life I discovered in the National Library's digitised newspapers on Trove.

In the 30 years since his arrival in Australia James had moved from South Australia to Brighton, Victoria then to a farm at Parwan near Bacchus Marsh for a few years. In about 1880 he moved with his family to Maddingly, across the river from Bacchus Marsh, and they ran a store and hotel there for about ten years.

He quickly established himself as a useful member of the community as evidenced in a newspaper report published when the faamily left for Ballan in 1890.

Bacchus Marsh Express 1 Nov 1890

There's more to James' story but for now I just want to note two newspaper reports of James and Elizabeth's gifts to the town. Across the road from the Alford's store and hotel there was, and still is, a park called Maddingly Park. In the 1880s the council decided to landscape the park and plant the gardens. James Alford donated the iron fence around the fountain and his wife, Elizabeth, donated a substantial sundial. As far as I know both installations no longer exist. I wonder if they're in storage somewhere.

Bacchus Marsh Express 10 Nov 1888

Bacchus Marsh Express 10 Apr 1889

Maddingly Park c1936
Booklet - Bacchus Marsh Centenary Celebrations, Federation University
 Australia Historical Collection

Trove Tuesday: Ploughing a straight furrow

Wheel plough, Fife Folk Museum. (Image copyright Kim Traynor)

James and William Alford were brothers and they migrated together in February 1855 from Devonshire in England to South Australia. They were agricultural labourers in Devon and must have learned how to plough properly because both of them were very successful in ploughing competitions in South Australia and Victoria.

In the newspapers at Trove I've found quite a few articles detailing their successes and also those of William's sons, Thomas and George. Here's a taste.

James was living near Encounter Bay in South Australia when he entered this ploughing competition with a horse-drawn wheeled plough (similar to above) and took out first prize.

...

...

South Australian Register, 4 August 1855, p.3

 

Photo taken from Rosetta Head (the Bluff) west of Victor Harbor, showing the vicinity of the ploughing match.

The Fountain Inn mentioned above still exists. It's now a B&B called 'Yelki by the Sea'. James left South Australia and moved to Victoria. He also appears to have left farming and I can't find any other references to him as a ploughman. But his brother William was a farmer in Victoria and entered quite a few ploughing matches (Bendigo, Baringhup, Marong, Warragul, Buln Buln) as a competitor and was later a judge. Ploughing matches were very popular events in the 1800s.



Ploughing Competition. Powerhouse Museum collection (on Flickr)

Bendigo Advertiser, 25 June 1869

The Lennon plough used by Alford was made by Hugh Lennon's company in Melbourne. His single and double furrow ploughs were hugely popular and William Alford seems to have also liked them very much. [Ned Kelly also used one of his ploughs to make his metal armour.]

William ALFORD, son of Jacob ALFORD and Mary WEBBER was born in 1827 in George Nympton, Devon, England. He died on 15 Jul 1903 in Warragul, Victoria, Australia. He married Ann ROGERS, daughter of Philip ROGERS and Mary ? on 21 Mar 1851 in George Nympton, Devon, England. She was born in 1828 in Meshaw, Devon, England. She died on 05 Feb 1906 in Warragul, Victoria, Australia (At the home of George Henry Alford.).

James ALFORD, son of Jacob ALFORD and Mary WEBBER was born on 27 Jan 1832 in Devon, England. He died on 08 Sep 1895 in Ballan, Victoria, Australia. He married Honora FALLON, daughter of Owen FALLON and ? on 26 Oct 1855 in Encounter Bay, South Australia, Australia. She was born in 1833 in Sligo, Ireland. She died on 27 Feb 1880 in Parwan, Victoria, Australia. He married Elizabeth KELL, daughter of John KELL and Elizabeth AGNEW in 1882 in Victoria, Australia. She was born about 1845 in Ireland. She died on 29 Sep 1939 in Ballan, Victoria, Australia.