Provenance
Early Generations (2)
    1.        ♦ Robert Cross (1786…1864) m. Jane Jackson (1786…1840)
                         possibly connecting to Hobson and Fallowfield and Boldero
                        Robert Cross' other Marriages and Dalliances in Australia
                             Robert Cross and Phillis Gordon
                             Robert Cross and Catharine Thompson
                             Robert Cross and Mary Jane Adamson
                         Jane Cross' Relationship with John Horsley
    1.1          William Cross (1806…1863) m1. Ann Dillon (…); m2. Mary Ann Ratcliffe (…1850), m3. Margaret Hanna
    1.1.1       Jane Ellen Cross (1838…) 
    1.1.2       Mary Elizar Cross (1840…) m. David Morgan Jones (…?1912)
    1.1.3       Ann Marie Cross (1843…1912) m. Alexander Matheson (1837…1883)
    1.1.3.1    Annabella Mary Jane Matheson (1870…1956) m. Frederick John Herald Cross (1…1953)
    1.2          Ralph Jackson Cross (1808…1888) m. Mary Ellen Skinn (1819…1918)
    1.2.1       Jane Cross (1838…1929) m. Joseph Allan (…1908?)
    1.2.2       Ralph Jackson Cross (1841…1923) m. Elizabeth Margieson (1853…) 
    1.2.2.1    Albert Allen Cross (1893…1979) m. Ouida Idalia Cooke (1913…) 
    1.2.3       William Cross (1849…1939) m. Sarah Elizabeth Colless (…)
    1.2.3.1    Roy Macquarie Cross (1893…1959) m. Amy E Jones (…)
    1.3      ♦  Jane Cross (1809…1893) m1. Jeremiah Kay (1795…1840), m2. Thomas Millington (1807…1856-9), m3. William Price (1822…)
                          Jane Kay née Cross and Thomas Millington
                          Jane Millington née Cross (m1. Kay) and William Price
Possibly Related Lineages
Related Families from the same areas
Other (probably unrelated) Cross or Jackson Lineages

Provenance

The Cross and Jackson families traced herein lived generally in the East Riding, Yorkshire, England (ERY) about 1800; Robert Cross (born 1786) was transported to New South Wales, Australia, in 1814, his wife Jane and their three children arriving the following day as free emigrants.

Early Generations

1. Robert Cross (1786…1864) m. Jane Jackson (1786…1840)

Robert Cross was the son born c1786 at Hull, Yorkshire, England, to shoemaker WILLIAM CROSS and his wife MARY: perhaps this was William Cross of Sproatley, who married Ann Hobson in 1784.

Marie Tattam (pers comm, 10 December 1997), forwarded the following information from the Archivist, County Hall, Beverley, East Riding Yorkshire [dated 30 October 1997]:

“Unfortunately we do not hold apprenticeship records for Sproatley, either amongst the parish records or other sources here.
I note that you do not have a date or place of birth for William Cross who married ANN HOBSON on 1784. The marriage was by licence, the original bonds for which are at the Borthwick Institute, York. However, there is a printed index to the licences, in which William is described as age 22, of Sproatley, and Ann as age 17, also of Sproatley. There is no apparent baptism in the IGI to match…”

Robert married Jane Jackson in August 1806 at Humbleton, a village east of Hull in Yorkshire’s East Riding. Jane, the daughter of RALPH and JANE JACKSON, had been baptised at Humbleton in June 1786. Jane had at least one sibling, Ralph Jackson, born August 1784.

Jane’s parents may have been Ralph Jackson, 30, and JANE FALLOWFIELD, 20, married at Beverley (St John) [bond date 13 April 1776], both of that parish. [Source: Newsome, E.B. (comp), An Index to the Archbishop of York’s Marriage Bonds & Allegations, 1765-1779; Borthwick Lists and Indexes 10, 1993 [SAG]]. Beverley lies about 12 miles NW from Humbleton. Bartholomew’s Gazetteer (1970) has:

Beverley, mun. bor., par., and mkt-town, with ry. sta., L.N.E.E.R. Yorks., 8½¼ m. NNW. of Hull, 33¾ m. ESE of York by rail; 2404 ac., pop. 14,140; P.O. T.O. It is connected with r. Hull by a canal. The collegiate church of St John, or B. Minster, (13th century), is one of the finest Gothic structures in the kingdom, and contains the Percy shrine. B. Hall is a seat.

The Bonds and Allegations 1750-1764 have a bond dated 19 November 1751 at Ackworth ERY between JOHN FALLOWFIELD, 21, of Hull, and ELIZABETH BOLDERO, 21, of Stapleton [there was a Stapleton parish in NRY on the River Tees, 2 miles SW of Darlington, and another in WRY, 3 miles SE of Pontefract]. Amongst the many Jackson entries was one of Ralph Jackson, 23, of Beverley and Eleanor Jackson, 21, of Hull, bonded at Holy Trinity Hull on 16 April 1762.

The Bonds and Allegations 1735-1749 have bonds dated 26 January 1737 at Beverley (St Mary) ERY between Francis Fallowfield, 27, and Elizabeth Sherwood, both of Pocklington [a market town on the L.N.E., ERY, 7 miles NW of Market Weighton and 16 miles SE of York by rail], and also of William Fallowfield, 28, and Anne Watson, 22, both of Holme/Spalding, bonded on 8 December 1737 (location not given).

The children of Robert and Jane Cross were:

• WILLIAM CROSS (born 1806 ERY, died November 1863, Penrith NSW),
• RALPH JACKSON CROSS (born January 1808 ERY, died 1888) and
• JANE CROSS (born December 1809, Hull ERY, died June 1893 NSW).

In 1813, pending trial on charges of burglary, Robert Cross was imprisoned in York Castle. Jane attempted to assist his escape, the Crown Calendar for the Yorkshire Summer Azzizes 1813 listing the following:

"No.15 Jane Cross (24) wife of Robert – 4th May... brought into the said Castle, a certain instrument called a saw, for the cutting of iron and with having delivered the said saw to her husband, to assist him in making his escape out of the said Castle …"

The York Herald on 7 August 1813 chronicled Robert’s crime as follows:

BURGLARY

ROBERT CROSS, GEORGE SEWELL and ROBERT TAYLOR were charged with burglariously entering the dwelling-house of Mr. Birtwhistle, of Howden, and stealing therefrom about 40l. in gold, 17l. in silver, several watches,gold rings, some trinkets and two hams. SARAH TAYLOR was charged with being an accessory before and after the crime.

Counsel for the Crown, Mr. STEES, and Mr. Hullock.
The circumstances of this case were very singular, it appeared in evidence, that Wm. Platt, who was admitted evidence on behalf of the crown, Robert Cross, George Sewell and Robert Taylor, met at the house of the celebrated Snowden Dunhill, on Tuesday night, April 6, where the plan of the robbery was arranged.Sarah Taylor, a young woman, sister of Robert Taylor, blacked the faces of George Sewell and Robert Taylor, and helped to equip them for the expidition. About 12 o'clock they left Snowden Dunhill's, and arrived at Mr. Birtwhistle's house, at Howden, about one o'clock; when they arrived, they effected an entrance by taking out a window of the dairy.—– William Platt was left below, and the other three proceeded up stairs to the bed-chamber of Mr. Birtwhistle, one of whom stood at his bed-side and demanded his money; he replied, he had none; but the same person insisted that he had Two Hundred Pounds and upwards. They then proceeded to ransack the house, and found in the closet in the lodging-room of Mr. Birtwhistle, about 37 guineas in gold, a 7s. piece, and 17l. in silver; they also took away with them several watches, gold rings, some trinkets and two hams. They remained in the house about half an hour, and returned again to Snowden Dunhill's about three o'clock in the morning. Sarah Taylor washed their faces, and cut them some rashers from the hams they had brought, which she prepared for them; they then gave her a 7s. piece and some silver. One of the Prisoners (Robert Cross) was apprehended on the Hull Coach, and the other two at the house of Snowden Dunhill. Part of the Property was found on each of the Prisoners. —These facts being clearly made out in evidence, the Jury retired for a few minutes, and found all the Prisoners –GUILTY."

The Judge, speaking to eight prisoners arraigned before him, intoned with thunderous, righteous wrath:

"Prisoners! you have been severally convicted, by Juries of your country, on clear and satisfactory evidence, of crimes which subject you to the punishment of death. It is a lamentable sight to see so many stand at the Bar, to receive the last awful sentence of the law, and still more lamentable, because most of you were well able, by the exertion of your bodily powers, to have maintained yourselves to honest industry.
George Sewell, Robert Cross and Robert Taylor, the crime of which you have been convicted is that of Burglary, that is of breaking into a dwelling-house, in the night, for the purpose of plunder: it is necessary for the protection of mankind, that that season, which nature claims for repose should be secured by the strongest sanctions of the law from the attacks of daring violence: that of which you have been convicted, was of a most atrocious and daring nature — You, accompanied by another person, who (Fortunately for the purposes of public justice) has given evidence against you, went, with your faces blacked and your persons otherwise disguised, to the house of Mr. Birtwhistle; after breaking into the house, you went into the bed-room of Mr. Birtwhistle, whom you compelled by intimidation, to lie still in bed, and forced his servant to lie down by the side of her master, until you executed your scheme of plunder; After remaining half an hour, you departed with gold and silver watches and rings to a considerable amount, after keeping the family, during this period, in a state of most dreadful alarm, which spoil you afterwards divided at the house whence you set out on this lawless enterprise. Such a daring gang of offenders are seldom heard of; and it is necessary, for the purposes of public justice, that you should suffer the sentence of the law; you, therefore, can have no well-grounded hope of any mercy being extended towards you."

Following this address were many illegible words concluding with

"… hanged by the neck until you are dead, and may [the] Lord have mercy on your souls".
                 [per Sandra Nixon, "George the Convict", The 1788-1820 Gazette pp2-4, Jan-Feb. 1986]

The York Herald of 31 July, 8 and 10 August 1813 also notes of George Sewell that he was a blacksmith 29 years old living at Beverley YKS when arrested. Perhaps his only crime, George was eventually sent to Australia for seven years, arriving on 16 October 1814 aboard the 450 ton Somersetshire, built in the Thames in 1810. The transport commanded by Alexander Scott brought 200 male convicts, of whom one died en route. [A funeral for a George Sewell, aged 55 years, was conducted at S James’ Church of England, Sydney, in 1837 ].

Snowden Dunhill and associates were described in 1864 as "… that notorious highway man … and his gang of thieves, were the terror of the district. The daring and extensive depredations of these vagabonds were astonishing, who invested their chief with a mysterious and unenviable fame …". Robert Taylor was a son of Mrs. Dunhill to a former husband. One hundred years later he was summed as a petty thief, "a poor imitation of Dick Turpin". Many members of the Dunhill/Dunning family were to appear before the courts and several were sentenced to penal servitude in the colonies [The Bunyan Tree, Journal of the East Yorkshire Family History Society, No. 22, 1985]. Anne Simpson (Glenngar@bigpond.com, 11sep2003) is a descendant of Robert Taylor.

Robert Cross, convict, was transported to Australia for life, and arrived in Sydney aboard the Surrey on 27 July 1814. Jane, with their two sons William and Ralph and daughter Jane, disembarked as "Free Settlers" from the female convict ship Broxbornebury the next day. [Some Census and Musters shew the children as having arrived aboard the Surrey]. Both vessels had departed England on 22 February, the Surry at least had called at Rio de Janiero. In the Historical Records of Australia ?Macquarie noted regarding these vessels:

" 5. Out of one Hundred and twenty female Convicts Embarked in the Broxbornebury, two died on the passage and 118 have been landed here. By the Ship Surrey, on board of Which Two Hundred Male Convicts had been Embarked, One Hundred and Sixty four only Arrived, 36 having died on the passage of an Infectious and very Malignant Fever; there died Also on board one Serjeant and three Soldiers and ten Men belonging to the Ship's Company, Including the Master or Commander, the Surgeon, the first and Second Mates and Boatswain. Thus deprived of her Officers, She Arrived here in a peculiarly distressing Situation, the Fever Still raging on board. A Detachment of the 46th Regt., under the Command of Brevet Major Stewart of that Corps, Arrived in her, having acted as a Guard on the Convicts during the Voyage. In Consequence of the Danger to be Apprehended, I Caused the Ship and every person on board to be put under a Strict Quarantine (*see note 57), until the Fever should subside. All the persons Infected were landed and encamped on the North Shore of Port Jackson opposite to Sydney, Where they were Attended by Doctors Wentworth and Redfern of the Civil Medical Establishment, and I am happy to add, that with very few exceptions these Unfortunate people recovered under the humane and Skilful Attention of those Gentlemen. The Disease being thus overcome, the Quarantine was terminated on the 18th of August, and the Convicts brought to Sydney and Inspected; they Were then distributed in the Usual Way Among the Settlers. As it is Supposed that the Disease in a great degree Originated in the Neglect of the Master and Surgeon of the Surrey, I have made a Communication on the Subject by the Present Occasion to the Commissioners of the Transport Board, and transmitted them the Report made to me by Doctor Redfern on the Causes to Which he has been inclined to attribute the deplorable Mortality Which Occurred. I do myself the Honor to transmit Your Lordship's Copy of this Communication and Report for Your Lordship's Satisfaction.

1. Mr. Jeffery Hart Bent, Judge of our New Supreme Court, Arrived by the Broxbornebury, and Sir John Jamison (*see note 58), Mr. Horsley and Mr. George Williams with the Reverend Benjamin Vale, Assistant Chaplain, and several free Women, Wives of Convicts, Arrived as Passengers by the same Opportunity. Many of these Women having large Families of Children, and None of them having the Means of Subsistence, I have been Under the Necessity of putting them All on the Store for some time; had not this Act of Humanity been extended to them, they must have perished for Want of Food. The Fever on board the Surrey has deprived Several of them of their Husbands, by Which Means these poor Women Are bereft of every Means of Support for themselves and their Children, .....

2. Not having received any Communication from Your Lordship or Mr. Goulburn respecting Sir John Jamison, Mr. Horsley or Mr. Williams, I have been at a Loss to know how far I am Warranted in treating them as Free Settlers, being at present Obliged to rest my Conduct on their Representations of Your Lordship's Intentions towards them. Having however Good Reason to think favourably of the two former Gentlemen, I have promised Sir John a Grant of 1,500 Acres and Mr. Horsley one of 1,000 Acres...."

Jane and Robert Cross in Australia

On arrival in Sydney, Jane and Robert Cross went their individual ways, although they and their children continued seemingly harmonious friendships. The 'strongmade' Robert Cross was assigned to Jamison, son of Surgeon Thomas Jamison of the First Fleet [1814 Muster]. Robert worked at Bathurst from January 1816 until June 1818 for William Cox, who following the construction of his road across the Blue Mountains had been given the task of constructing public works and buildings in the newly founded town of Bathurst . For services rendered Robert was granted a Conditional Pardon on 31 July 1818 .

The Bonwick Transcripts (BT10 p4020) includes a mention of Robert’s activities and conditions during October 1817 in the Bigges Appendix in which John Pollett gave evidence regarding his employment by William Cox after employment by Richard Lewis [the evidence was originally sworn at Parramatta on 12 August 1820]:

I was employed in planting potatoes in 1817 when I first came. it was about October of that year, and near an Acre. Two horses belonging to Government and that went with Mr Oxley drilled it. Patrick Downey, T Bullock, Deny the Cooper, Robert Cross and I Butheridge drilled and planted the Land. I don’t know what quantity the Crop produced. The Potatoes were issued out as Rations in seven Pounds per Week. We had then seven pounds of Flour and ten and a half pounds of Beef…

The 1819 Muster shows Robert as a landholder in the Windsor district. The Bonwick Transcripts (BT24 p1066) includes a List of Persons in the Districts of the Hawkesbury who were formerly Convicts who reside on or hold Land by Grant, Purchase or as a Tenant. Prepared by Wm. Cox, J.P., at Windsor, 24 October 1820, with amongst others the following entry: (October 1820, Richmond.):

Name	How free	Acres Granted	Acres Purchased	Acres now	Tenant marked T	Remarks
Robert Cross	CP	100	48	15	T	To Richd Lewis

The 1822 Muster has him residing as a tenant in the Windsor district with 8 acres of land, all cleared with 7.5 acres under Maize, 0.25 acres of potatoes and 0.25 acres as an orchard, with two hogs and 15 bushells of maize as well.

Robert and Jane Cross' Other Marriages and Dalliances

Robert Cross and Phillis Gordon

The 1828 Census lists Robert with his two sons at Wallis Plains near Maitland. They had 20 acres of land all cultivated and 14 head of horned cattle. Listed in the Census as housekeeper to Robert is Phillis Gordon, who lived in the household together with her son JOHN. John was born in 1819. Although his real father was a John Bond, he went under the name of John Cross and his death certificate names his father as Robert Cross; it is not known whether Robert adopted John . Phillis, born c1790, died in 1834, and son John after his marriage to Margaret Bailey farmed at McDonald Valley, where there were two big Bailey clans. John and Margaret had five girls.

Robert Cross and Catharine Thompson

In December 1830 Robert and his sons were in the Singleton district farming 200 acres of leased land. Robert, aged 47 years, married 29 year old Catharine Thompson at Maitland by Banns with the consent of the Governor (Darling) in July 1833 ; spinster Catharine, who had been transported in the transport Forth II, was on bond at the time. The Forth was a barque of 369 tons, built at Leith in 1826, which had left Cork IRL on 3 June 1830, sailing direct to Port Jackson which she gained 131 days later on 12 October. The Forth had conveyed 120 female convict to the antipodes. When Catharine married Robert in 1833, both lived in the parish of Maitland.

It is not known if Robert was divorced from Jane, or if there were any children of his marriage to Catherine which is not shewn on his death certificate.

Robert Cross and Mary Jane Adamson

Robert (a widower) married Mary Jane Adamson (m1 Livingston) (spinster) at Whittingham near Singleton in March 1846 (his death certificate gives November 1842), the witnesses being Thomas Everill and Ellen Richardson both of Singleton. As Mary Livingston, a kitchenmaid aged 26, married with a son, Mary Jane had been tried at Perth, Scotland, for stealing and sentenced to 14 years. According to Marie Tattam (1988) a “convict named Mary Livingston - alias Mary Adamson - [arrived] on the “Mary Ann” in 1839”, and it is possible though not yet proven that she is the person who became Robert Cross’ third wife. Perhaps Adamson had been her maiden name to which she reverted in Australia .

Robert Cross appears to have stayed around Singleton for some time, at least two children resulting from his relationship with Mary Jane:

• ROBERT ADAMSON CROSS (born at Singleton in September 1843; married Elizabeth Ann Edgley, two boys and five girls being their issue; in 1903 was a carpenter on the property “Curragundi” north-west of Moree),
• HENRY CROSS (born and died in 1850) and
• perhaps a female.

Farmer Robert Cross, aged 87 years and ten months, died at High Street, West Maitland, in September 1864, the informant on his death certificate being his wife Mary Jane Cross nee Adamson, signing with her mark. The certificate makes no mention of either the Thompson or the Gordon relationships.

Jane Cross' Relationship with John Horsley

John Horsley,son of John Hors(e)ley and Mary Morris (married 26 March 1768 at St Martin in the Fields, Westminster, London), who had come to the Colony as a free settler in 1814, was granted large areas of land at Liverpool. He eventually settled on his property and built "Mark Lodge" as his home, where Fairfield Hospital now stands [per information from Marie Auld [marielauld@exemail.com.au, 10 January 2007] who also notied John and Jane's first two children].  He applied for the position of the Bench of Magistrates in 1823 and in 1825 was appointed Coroner of Liverpool. Jane went to Horsley in 1814 as his housekeeper at Liverpool. Although Horsley had a wife in England who later remarried, Jane bore him six to eight children before he died at Liverpool aged 66 years and was buried there in February 1834 ; the children included:

• FRANCES M HORSLEY (“Fanny”, born 1816 NSW; married Joseph Kenyon in 1834 at St John’s CoE, Liverpool NSW)
• JOHN HORSLEY (born 1818; married Corrinne Day and they in turn had (amongst other children) John (b1861) who married Kezia Adeline Shield: these were the grandparents of Marie Auld [marielauld@exemail.com.au] who … would be very interested to learn of any information … regarding Maria Horsley's second marriage),
• MARY MORRIS HORSLEY (born April 1820; residing at Bankstown in 1837),
• CAROLINE HORSLEY (born 1821),
• CHARLES WILLIAM HORSLEY (born September 1824),
• ELIZA VIVIAN HORSLEY (born July 1826),
• GEORGE HORSLEY (born September 1827) and
• CHARLOTTE HORSLEY (born May 1830).
  

No record of a divorce between Robert and Jane has yet been located, and all references save her burial details apparently refer to her as Jane Crofs of Cross . Nor was Horsley divorced from his wife Maria, who had stayed behind in England:

Exmouth, Devon

5th Sept. 1834

Sir,

I request to be informed if the death of John Horsley, Esq., Coroner of the Liverpool District, N.S.Wales, on the 4th Feby. 1834, be correct and Official, as I am his Wife or Widow,

and your Obedt. Servant,

Maria Horsley.

Frequently in the early years of colonial Australia emigrants, both convict and free, assumed by separation the status of divorcee after a few years.

Jane continued to live at Liverpool until her death in June 1840, aged 50 years. Jane was interred beside Horsley in the old St Luke's cemetery at Liverpool as Jane Horsley . The headstones of early pioneers are now not in the grounds of St Luke's, but in a special Pioneer Cemetery located at the entrance to Liverpool City on the Hume Highway from Sydney.

1.1 William Cross (1806…1863) m1. Ann Dillon (…); m2. Mary Ann Ratcliffe (…1850), m3. Margaret Hanna

William Cross, eldest child of ROBERT CROSS and JANE JACKSON, was born c1806 in Yorkshire. William was a sawyer when he applied for a grant of land in 1831. William lived in the Maitland and Singleton areas, mainly as a miner but also involved in some farming and at one stage working as a butcher.

MaryEd Hartnel [ahartnel@bigpond.net.au, 12feb2007] added some information regarding William that she considers correct, viz.

William Henry Cross was born abt 12 july 1807 at Sproatley, Yorkshire. His first wife was Anne Dillon born 1816 died 1837 … married 29 Nov 1831 at Christ Church Parish, Newcastle. They had four children:

• Robert b 1832 d 1833
• Ellen b 1834 d 1834
• William b 1835 d 1836
• Marg b 1837

Ann is buried beside the grave of Captain John Horsley, 1st coroner of the Liverpool district

William married Mary Ann Ratcliffe in January 1838 in the Presbyterian Scots Church at Maitland, witnessed by John Cross and Jane Kay (their marks). Mary A Ratclife was baptised in a Roman Catholic ceremony in the Maitland area in 1819, the daughter of farmer JAMES RATCLIFFE and his wife MARY of Harpers Hill (between Maitland and Newcastle, resident there in 1837).

Mary bore William one male and three or four female children [birth locations per MaryEd Hartnel]: