OUR AUSTRALIAN FAMILY STORY
I am a family historian & a gatherer of facts, not a story teller but I will attempt to write a Brief history of my Australian Family.
It begins in the County of Cambridgeshire with the birth of Poley as was written in the parish baptism records on the 13th May 1827 the second son of John Jaques & Susanna nee Worland. By the time Pawley was a young man work was hard to find because now the farmers had machinery to take the place of the large workforce that was needed before to plant & reap the crops. So it was Polley (on the court record) was first charged with “Larceny” on the 6th January 1843 at the age of 15 years. No prosecution took place. His second appearance on 7th January 1847 for “Sheep Stealing” at the age of 19 years & to the surprise of everyone present the Jurors found him not guilty. Cambridge Chronical Account His third appearance before the courts was later that same year because on the 11 April 1847 he & Chester Fell broke into the house of William Watson of Great Eversden and stole food money and clothing. On the 1 July 1847 they were found guilty and sentenced to 10 years transportation to the “Colonies”. After spending a month in solitary at the local prison he was sent to Cambridge Prison on the 29 September 1847, then on the 23 December 1847 he said goodbye to his parents & home county and was moved to the “YORK” hulk in Gosport Hampshire awaiting his journey to Australia. On the 10 March 1851 he was placed aboard the ship “PYREENES” for his voyage to Fremantle West Australia, arriving on the 28th June 1851. On his voyage out he saw the Doctor on the 7th April 1851 with the complaint of Phlymn And was off duties for Seven days. He convict number in West Australia was 436 & he received his ticket of leave on the 28 June 1851. He then worked for Walter Padbury of Perth a butcher from 27th September until May 1853, working on his own account until 3rd September 1853 he left for Victoria Plains with Mr Lefroy . In Newcastle
( later to be renamed Toodyay) he worked as a farm labourer for Mr Bates
It was here that he met his future wife Hannah Dew and on the 1 January 1859 in the School House they were married. His life was short as he died when he was only 50 years of age, with heart disease, which may have started with his stay on the cold and damp York Hulk.
Hannah DEW age 13 yrs arrived with her parents Heffer & Jane Dew plus her sibling’s James age 10 yrs, Charles age 8 yrs, Thomas 6 yrs & Eliza age 2 yrs, aboard the “CLARA” which arrived 3 September 1853. The family were also from the county of Cambridge and the village of Harston which was only a few miles from where the Jaques family lived. The family moved to Newcastle where he found work with Mr J.T.Cooke and daughter Hannah found work as a farm maid with Mr Sewell. In the book Old Toodyay & Newcastle they have her as Bridget Dew and on looking at the original list it has ~ sign in front of Dew not a ditto mark. Also from the book “Brides Ships” by Rica Erickson she states that the family were from the poorhouse which is in correct, as they were from Harston & the Poorhouse was in Chesterton. Heffer was not successful in his new country due to ill health but his children were given a better life. Heffer who was given his mother’s maiden name also was before the court in Cambridge at the age of 28 yrs with his fellow villagers for A RIOT due to the machinery being used on the farms, they appeared on the 30th June 1848 at the County Sessions and were all found not guilty.
Heffer died at the Mount Eliza Mens Home in Perth on the 7th January 1895 age 70 years & is buried at the Old East Perth Cemetery in a paupers grave, but no records can be found as to when & where his wife Jane died, so if you can help please email me. |
