Rebecca Kearns (1845 – 1922)

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Rebecca, my great, great grandmother, lived an eventful life. At the age of 15 she ran away from home. At 19 she was accused of stealing from a Bathurst hotel but never charged. Four months later in Forbes she gave birth to the first of five children with a man 14 years her senior. At 29 she was widowed but by 30 she had married a Swedish seaman with whom she would have 5 more children.

Rebecca’s Parentage & Early Life

Rebecca was born in 1845 to Honorah McCann, probably in Sydney. In 1846 Honorah married the ex-convict, Michael Kearns, and Rebecca was raised as Rebecca Kearns at O’Connell Plains, southeast of Bathurst. There seems to be no birth certificate or church record confirming that Michael Kearns was Rebecca’s father. The family historian, Colin Field, has proposed that Rebecca’s likely real birth record (NSW BDM: 352/1845) indicates that her father was George Chittick and that she was born in Sydney on 3 May 1845. George Chittick (originally Chitock, sometimes Chittock) was a mounted policeman who had arrived in the colony as part of the 99th Regiment of Foot in 1843.

The suggestion is circumstantial but persuasive: there are no other records for a Rebecca Chittick or a Honorah Chittick. There is no marriage record for George and Honorah. George continued his life as a Mounted Policeman with nothing indicating he had a wife and child. When Honorah married Michael Kearns Rebecca was 18 months old. For the sake of respectability It was common for a marriage to take place while a woman was pregnant. Genealogy is full of examples of the first child having a surprisingly brief gestation. But Honorah’s situation was entirely different: she was a young unmarried woman with a toddler.

While the suggestion that George Chittick was Rebecca’s father is persuasive was it possible in a logistical sense? Could George Chittick and Honorah McCann have met at the necessary point in time? To help with this question I searched through the NSW Colonial Secretary’s Records. George had arrived as part of the British Army and had then been seconded to be a mounted policeman so presumably there would be some records relating to his activities.

Below is what I discovered about George together with some information about Honorah.

YearNotes
184113 March 1841: Honorah McCann arrives in Sydney aboard the Berkshire, from Limerick, Ireland, aged 19, nursemaid, could read and write. (Honorah arrived as a ‘Bounty Immigrant‘. John Marshall of London being the bounty agent and Nicholas James in Sydney procuring employment).
April: George Chittock is listed as part of the 99th (Lanarkshire) Regiment of Foot. Private George Chittock No. 1422. The regiment was raised in Edinburgh.
1842The 99th Regiment escorts convicts sent to Australia
184314 Jan, Hobart. Regiment Headquarters established
20 Feb, Parramatta. Regiment Headquarters established
184413 May: Trooper Chittick is punished for ‘insolence’
17 August: Chittick is punished for ‘breaking out of barracks after hours’. This is 9 months before the birth of Rebecca.
1845Rebecca’s likely birth details: Rebecca Chittick, NSW BDM 352/1845 V1845352 62, Father: George, Mother: Honora, District LA (Roman Catholic Sydney, St James’), Date: 3 May 1845
If George Chittick is the father then he must have been with Honorah in August 1844, or soon after.
184626 October: Honorah marries Michael Kearns in Sydney. Soon after they settle in the Bathurst area.
184720 September: Trooper George Chittick donates 2s 6d to the Irish and Scotch Relief Fund 1
184923 February: “George Chittick (Trooper)” testified during the trial of Kenneth McKenzie for Horse Stealing. Chittick “got the filly at Mr Marks, at Snakes Gully” (c18km north of Bathurst). 2
28 April: Trooper Chittick testified during the trial of Mary Confort and Peter Carney, for Stealing and Receiving, that he guarded prisoners at a hut near Bigga (c100km south of Bathurst) 3
1850There is a letter dated September 1850 held in the NSW State Archives’. 4
It was written by the Commandant of Mounted Police, Parramatta to the Colonial Secretary “respecting the misconduct of Dismounted Trooper George Chittick of the Bathurst Division of Mounted Police” recommending that Chittick be returned to the 11th Regiment, to come into effect 1 October 1850. It calls Chittick “an indifferent character” and “perfectly useless” and also includes a list of some of Chittick’s infractions while a trooper including dates so I have added them above. (The 11th Regiment arrived in Sydney in 1845 and had a complex relationship with the 99th. It is possible that Chittick had been transferred between regiments while a Trooper or perhaps the Commandant of Mounted Police was simply confused about which regiment Chittick had come from).
31 December: the Mounted Police Force based on the British military was disbanded and replaced with a civil Mounted Police Unit.
1852November: An article in the Bathurst Free Press & Mining Journal 5 reports that 4 former members of the ‘Old Mounted Police’ (Hollingsworth, Chittock, Smith and Green) were mining for gold at Dirt Hole Creek near Tambaroora, which is north of Hill End.
By now Rebecca is 7 years old and living with Michael & Honorah Kearns at O’Connell Plains, south of Bathurst.
1853The Sydney General Post Office publishes a “lIst of Letters returned from the Country, and now lying at this Office unclaimed:”
Chittick George, Mounted Police 6
I suspect this was a letter from Henry, George’s father. By this time George had left the mounted police and was prospecting for gold so the letter never reached him.
1854There is a letter held by the NSW State Archives addressed to the Colonial Secretary entitled ‘Chitock George re 99th Regiment’ 7
Henry Chitock, George’s father, writes to the War Office seeking information about George. He enlisted in the 99th Regiment of Foot about 14 years ago, went to NSW with the regiment, “soon afterward” detached to Mounted Police, has not heard from him in nearly 11 years. At that time he was stationed in Wellington NSW. The letter was written from Linwood 29 August 1854 (Linwood is west of Glasgow, near Paisley).
The Colonial Secretary replied that George, had returned to 99th Regiment, then had been discharged, that he had joined the Sydney Mounted Police but was shortly after dismissed. He then joined the ‘Western Gold Police’ (used to escort gold transport) but then left that corp and is now working at diggings on the Turon River (south of Hill End). This final piece of information agrees with the newspaper article from 1852 above.
1856The 99th Regiment is recalled to Great Britain

My first observation is that George’s bosses were entirely unimpressed with his performance as a soldier and as a policeman. He seems unsuited to life in the army or in the police force. I’m not surprised that by 1852 he was prospecting for gold in the Bathurst area.

So could George have fathered Rebecca? It’s plausible but I don’t have any solid evidence. I don’t know precisely where Honorah was in August 1844. (Maybe I can find some records from the bounty agent, Nicholas James, to help with Honorah’s movements between March 1841 and Rebecca’s birth in May 1845). George absconded from his barracks at Bathurst on 17 August 1844. I don’t know when he returned. It’s tempting to think he was with Honorah. I looked for any information that would make a meeting with Honorah entirely impossible – such as his old regiment sending him to Hobart during the time in question. But there is nothing. Perhaps some DNA evidence will come to light linking Rebecca with the descendants of George.

For at least 6 years (1846-1852) George Chittick and the Kearns family were living and working in the Bathurst area. George was very mobile, first as a Mounted Policeman and then as a gold prospector. Michael Kearns and family were living and working at O’Connell and Wisemans Creek and Bathurst . I wonder if George and Honorah ever crossed paths. If the birth record in question is Rebecca’s then both George and Honorah knew the truth and Michael Kearns would have known too. I also wonder if Rebecca discovered that Michael was not her biological father.

When Rebecca married Michael Kearns in Sydney on October 26th 1846 he can’t have been a very attractive prospect as a husband. He was 10 years older than Honorah. He was a twice convicted convict. At the age of 15 he had been convicted in Dublin and sentenced to 7 years transportation to NSW, arriving in 1826. He gained his Certificate of Freedom in 1834, but in 1835 was again convicted and sentenced to 7 years transportation to the penal settlement of Norfolk Island. This famously was regarded as the harshest convict settlement in the British Empire. The year before Michael arrived, in 1834 an uprising resulted in the execution of 13 prisoners. He gained his second Certificate of Freedom in 1844. Honorah and Micheal were both in difficult situations; marriage may have offered a solution.

Soon after their marriage in Sydney they moved to the Bathurst area. For the next 40 years they lived at O’Connell and Wisemans Creek which is just to the south. It may be that Michael engaged in farming at O’Connell and sometimes in prospecting at Wisemans Creek. At one time he also owned a property in Ranken Street, Bathurst which he sold in 1862.

Honorah gave birth to their second child, Thomas, at or near Bathurst on July 20th 1847. It’s possible they are already living south of Bathurst at O’Connell and the birth was registered at Bathurst. (Thomas married in 1870 and had 6 children including a daughter he named Rebecca). After Thomas, Honorah and Michael had the following children:

  • Michael 1850 who died at 12 months of age in 1851.
  • Mary in 1853. She married in 1880 and had 5 children.
  • Sarah Jane in 1857. She married in 1878 and had 5 children
  • Michael in 1858. He married in 1883 and had 3 children
  • William in 1862
  • Teresa in 1865. She married in 1894 and had 1 daughter

Rebecca and John Higgins

At the age of 15 Rebecca ran away from home. By this time, 1860, the family was comprised of Michael (50), Honorah (40), Mary (7), Sarah Jane (3) and Michael (2). I’m making some assumptions here but there may be some truth to them. Honorah would have expected Rebecca to help with her three young siblings and the housework. Most 15 year-olds would be very unhappy about that. Meanwhile Michael had led a life of institutional punishment and brutality. The worst possible preparation for managing an unhappy teenage daughter.

Her father placed an advertisement in the newspaper

CAUTION. WHEREAS, my daughter Rebecca Kearns, aged 15 years, left her home without my consent, any person harbouring her after this date will be prosecuted according to law. Michael Kearns Bathurst. 23rd August. 8

By the age of 19 Rebecca was living with John Higgins near Forbes. Their first son, Thomas Steven Higgins, born at Bandon Station (located east of Forbes and owned by James Newell), would have been conceived about April 1864. But that may have taken place in Bathurst rather than Forbes.

The NSW Police Gazette recounts a fascinating episode from this part of Rebecca’s life:

"Stolen between the hours of 10pm and midnight on 24th August, from the Prince Albert Hotel, Russell Street Bathurst, the property of Simon Bulger, the landlord, a brown barege dress, a muslin delaine do., a white silk bonnet, trimmed with white feather and pink flowers, 2 pairs of girls drawers (embroidered), 1 girl's nightdress, with frill edging, a black straw hat, trimmed with black and red feathers, a black cloth mantle, bound with red, 1 black rack-comb, 1 piece of plain cotton crotchet work, and 2 books - one with a green cover, the name "R. T. Flannigan" written inside. Suspicion attached to Rebecca Kearns, a discharged servant, a resident of Bathurst, whose house has been searched, but no property found". 9

At this point in time, August 1864, Rebecca is four months pregnant, is living in Bathurst, seems to have been working as a servant at the Prince Albert Hotel but has been dismissed. The list of items she may have stolen is remarkable. The clothing seems appropriate for a day at the races, or a night at the opera, rather than to keep out the cold. ‘Barege’ and ‘delaine’ are quality fabrics used to produce high-end women’s fashion. Of course I’d like to know the significance of the two books taken. The Bathurst region had experienced a gold-rush during the 1850s and the growth in economic activity can be seen in the large number of hotels supported.

It’s hard to track Rebecca’s movements between running away from home in 1860 and living with John Higgins near Forbes late in 1864. I’d assumed that she had returned home to O’Connell but have no evidence for that. The obvious place to run to, from O’Connell is Bathurst, the nearest large town, which is about 20km away. The Police Gazette says that in 1864 she was a resident of Bathurst, that she was a discharged servant, presumably from the Prince Albert Hotel, and that her house was searched for stolen property. Perhaps she had been living and working in Bathurst during the four years since running away.

I don’t know when or how she met John Higgins. He had been living in and around Forbes since about 1857, working as a blacksmith and wheelwright. Bathurst is about 175km from Forbes. Looking at the birth places of John’s brothers and sisters it is apparent that while growing up he became familiar with various parts of the Sydney region, the Blue Mountains and the western plains. Traveling from Forbes to Bathurst for whatever reason would not have been unusual. John separated from his wife in 1860 and it is easy to imagine him meeting Rebecca in Bathurst sometime between 1860 and 1864. Keep in mind that in 1864 Rebecca was 19 year-old hotel servant and John was a 34 year-old blacksmith.

They did actually have something in common which they would have discovered. Rebecca’s mother, Honorah, was born in small village about 25km south of the city of Limerick, Ireland. John’s father, Thomas, was born in a small village about 25km south-west of the city of Limerick. Rebecca and John would have grown up hearing the same Irish accent and I’m sure they would have had a cultural connection.

John and his siblings had become well established in the Forbes area over the previous 20 years (and especially with Bundaburra Station):

  • Josiah Strickland married John’s sister, Mary Ann, in 1841 and owned Bundaburra Station (from about 1839?). From that time various Higgins siblings had lived and worked at Bundaburra and at other stations around Forbes.
  • John’s older brother, Thomas, married in March 1853 at Bundaburra and had his first daughter there in 1855, Catharine, who married a nephew of Josiah Strickland at Walla Walla Station in 1873. Tom was the publican of the ‘Dog and Duck Inn’ south of Forbes and was notable for being a friend of Ben Hall. (Interestingly their father, Thomas senior, had been the publican of the ‘Dog & Duck Hotel’ in Sydney’s Haymarket between 1830 and 1833).
  • John’s younger sister Catherine married at Bundaburra in May 1854 and had her first son there in June 1855.
  • John’s older sister Elizabeth had three children born there: 1866, 1868 and 1871.

Rebecca and John had three children at Bandon Station: Thomas in 1865, John in 1866 and Mabel in 1870. I can only assume that this was the home that John and Mary were living in at the time of their separation in 1860. Bandon Station, which was about 20km upstream (east) from Forbes, was owned by James Newell who had arrived in the colony as an assisted immigrant in 1841. James Newell died in 1871 and Bandon Station was divided up by his children. This may explain why Rebecca and John’s remaining two children were born at Wowingragong; Winifred in 1871 and Arthur in 1873. Wowingragong was located about 10km south-west of Forbes.

Rebecca and John never married because John was still married to Mary Hume (nee Pembroke). Their children used the surname Higgins although on their birth certificates it says Kearns. In Rebecca’s 1922 obituary it says she was married twice but this was not true.

The Divorce of John Higgins and Mary Pembroke

In March 1874 Mary Hume began divorce proceedings and a court report is available from the Sydney Morning Herald 10

In order to be granted a divorce Mary needed to demonstrate that John was guilty of “adultery, cruelty and desertion”. She did so in excruciating detail. I won’t dwell on those details but I will extract some information relevant to Rebecca’s story.

Evidence/Testimony by MaryComments
Married John Higgins: 5 January 1852 at BowenfelsJohn is 20. Mary is 29. Mary had previously married George Hume in 1840  at the age of 18 and had 3 children but 2 had died by the time her husband died in 1850
John Higgins is now aged 45John is actually 42. Mary may have felt awkward about having a younger husband.
John Higgins has lived at or near Forbes for the last 17 yearsPlausible. Means that John and Mary moved to the area in 1857. John had family there.
John worked as a blacksmith & wheelwrightCorrect.
They lived together for 8 years after marriagePlausible, so until 1860
John Higgins evicted Mary from the house February 1860Plausible.
Mary stayed with Higgin’s sister on a number of occasions.Plausible. The sister may have been Mary Ann Strickland (nee Higgins) at Bundaburra Station
“Since he separated from his wife he has lived with co-respondent” (Rebecca).This seems unlikely. In February 1860 Rebecca had not yet turned 15 and was still living in O’Connell with her parents. After running away from home she lived in Bathurst and probably met John sometime later.
“For ten years he had been living with the co-respondent on the Lachlan, where they passed as man and wife.”This seems more likely. 10 years earlier would be 1864. Rebecca gave birth to a son in January 1865 at Bandon Station, near Forbes. In September 1864 the Police Gazette says she is a resident of Bathurst, so I would guess that Rebecca moved to Forbes late in 1864 and lived with John “as man and wife”.

The judgement granting a divorce stated that it would become absolute in 6 months, that is on 3 September 1874. However, John Higgins died 3 July 1874 at Bogabagil Station which is about 8km west of Forbes. An inquest was held into his death, after-all he was a young man and he died suddenly. Nothing untoward was found: “heart disease accelerated by intemperance and exposure”. So they were still legally married at the time of this death. This would make Mary a widow rather than a divorcee.

Rebecca and Nels and their Farm

Rebecca was now also a widow (not legally but de facto) with 5 children under the age of 10, but that is not to say that she had no support at all. By the time of John’s death Rebecca was part of the Higgins clan. Her children were the nieces and nephews of the Stricklands at Bundaburra. I suspect that John’s wife, Mary, had taken refuge at Bundaburra when she left John in 1860. The families of two other siblings of Mrs Strickland had spent time there. It is well-documented that in 1853 the 16 year-old Ben Hall, after breaking his leg in a horse-riding accident, was taken to Bundaburra to be nursed back to health by Mrs Strickland and her brother Tom Higgins. When Josiah Strickland died in 1881 his eulogists emphasized his hospitality and generosity. And so when John died I’m sure that Rebecca and her children would have found support at Bundaburra.

At about this time Nels Glauder arrived in the Forbes area. I’ve written a blog post about the early life of Nels. The family story is that:

  • Nels was a Swedish seaman.
  • He arrived in Melbourne on the Penelope and jumped ship because of the gold-rush.
  • He traveled northward and crossed the Murray River into New South Wales in 1873.
  • He was living in a shack on the Lachlan River near Forbes when he met the recently widowed Rebecca.
  • They married in November 1875 and resided on a farm (which they called Esrome Farm) on the banks of the Lachlan a few miles downstream from Forbes.

The story about the gold-rush sounds plausible although the 1870s is late. Gold was discovered in Victoria and NSW in 1851. Forbes had it’s own gold-rush in 1861 which had seen the population grow rapidly. By the 1870s gold prospecting was still attractive to the hopeful but the rush was long over.

The provenance of Esrome Farm is open to speculation. By 1893 it is clearly shown on a council map as being owned by Nels Glauder. In 1881 the local newspaper reported amongst the stock movements: 

June 13 - 500 sheep, Fenn's Crossing to South Blowclear, Nels Glauder, owner in charge. 11

It indicates that Nels owned the sheep, or maybe it indicates that the landowner was in charge of the sheep movement.

The origin of the name ‘Esrome Farm’ is also open to speculation. When my grandfather visited the farm in 1989 the then owner, Adrian Girot, said that he was not aware of that name and when his father bought the property from A. D. Low he named it Bon Accorde.

The name had been used before in the colony. In about 1833 Alexander Watt purchased a property just west of Bathurst which he named Esrom. Watt’s wife, Hendrika Johanna Klingenberg, was born in Copenhagen and they had both lived in Denmark. They named the property after ESrom Abbey which is north of Copenhagen. Nels would have been aware of the abbey. He came from Blekinge which had been part of the Kingdom of Denmark for hundreds of years prior to it being conquered by Sweden in 1658. Western Denmark and southern Sweden have strong cultural and linguistic links. Rebecca had lived in Bathurst so she would have at least heard of the Esrom Estate. So I think they named it after the abbey using the Bathurst estate as inspiration.

Before Rebecca died in 1922 Nels sold the farm to John Davidson Low, the president of the Forbes Chamber of Commerce 12. The obvious question is ‘how did Nels come to own this farm?’ There is no evidence that Nels arrived in Forbes with money. He was living in a shack on the Lachlan. There is no evidence that John Higgins and Rebecca owned property. John worked as a blacksmith and occupied a house on whichever station he was currently working.

The Jacky Bundaburra Story

Colin James was the great grandson of Josiah Strickland, through his daughter Mary Ann who married Frederick Morrow at Bundaburra in 1875. In 1991 Colin wrote down a story concerning the Strickland family which he had been researching for some time. The gist of the story is that one of the Strickland daughters at Bundaburra Station had a child with an aboriginal man. To keep this a secret the Stricklands gave the child to a local family, close to them, to raise with their other children. Beyond this basic story a collection of rumours spread regarding which daughter was the mother, the name of the child and which local family raised him. I won’t go through Colin’s examination of the various theories. Instead I’ll just list what Colin regards as the most plausible details.

  • The mother was the Strickland’s youngest daughter, Eva, who was born in December 1861.
  • The child was named William Aaron Strickland, known locally as Billy Aaron, born in about 1875. Later his name was conflated with that of another prominent aboriginal man from the area: Jacky Bundaburra.
  • There is some confusion about his name. On his birth certificate it is ‘William Aaron Strickland’. It is ‘William Arran Strickland’ on his death certificate in 1938. His age is given as 66. Place: Forbes. NSW BDM: 17831/1938. The newspaper report of his death just uses William Arran 13 perhaps to obscure the connection with the Strickland family.
  • Eva had an intellectual disability and had no capacity to raise a child. She lived at Bundaburra her whole life, never married, and died at the age of 43. If she was the mother then she would have been about 14 at the time of the birth.
  • The foster family was that of Rebecca and Nels Glauder, whose 5 young children were the nieces and nephews of the Stricklands.
  • In return for raising the child the Glauder family would be provided with some farm land.

There was a lot going on at Bundaburra in 1875. Rebecca and her young children may have been living there following the death of John. Eva may have given birth. Nels was in the area. I don’t think the entire solution was engineered in one stroke by Josiah Strickland. “Nels, if you marry Rebecca and foster an extra child I will give you a farm”. Although it is a very neat solution to a thorny problem.

  • Rebecca needed a husband to provide a home and food and help raise her children.
  • Nels was a fit young man who certainly later proved himself to be an able farmer and provider. But at that time his prospects were not good. If his plan was to become rich in the goldfields then that had not happened – instead he was working as a labourer and living in a shack. (Nels had a long and physically demanding life. In 1891 at the age of 44 he won a rowing race on the Forbes Lagoon 14. I have a photo taken in 1911 showing Nels and his extended family. He would have been 66 years old and he looks fit).
  • The Stricklands needed someone to support Rebecca and her children and perhaps to raise the unexpected addition to their family. They did have abundant land at their disposal.

What is the most likely sequence of events? John Higgins died 3 July 1874. I think Rebecca would have moved to Bundaburra soon afterwards. She would have needed immediate family support and I think the Stricklands would have provided it. The other date I have is the marriage of Rebecca and Nels: 20 November 1875. What I don’t have is anything about the purchase of the farm they later lived on, which they called Esrome Farm. Nels is definitely listed as the owner by 1893. But I need to do some land title research to find out how and when he came to own it. When it was sold in 1921 it was reported that Nels had resided there for 44 years, that is, since 1877. That number looks like it has been calculated so I find it persuasive. However, I understand that to own land ‘foreigners’ needed to become naturalised British Subjects. Nels became naturalised on 4 July 1879. So maybe it took a few years for the solution to fully unfold.

A plausible series of events might be:

  • 1875-76: Rebecca and children are living at Bundaburra after the death of John Higgins. Nels arrives and marries Rebecca
  • 1877: Rebecca, Nels and children move to Esrome Farm. Nels Pierce is born.
  • 1879: Nels becomes naturalised and ownership of the farm is transferred to him. Christina is born.
  • Young Billy Aaron may have be been added to the family at any stage

The idea that the Stricklands gave land to Nels and Rebecca to allow them to raise their Higgins children, and whatever children they would have themselves, is entirely consistent with Nels’ later actions. Apparently there was an unwritten agreement that when Nels eventually sold the farm the proceeds would be shared between the surviving Higgins children only. This seems to have happened and all the Glauder/Higgins siblings and their descendants remained on good terms for his entire life. Nels’ actions suggests that the farm was to be held in trust for the children of John Higgins until he and Rebecca could no longer operate it as a working farm.

Regarding Billy Aaron, I should mention that from the Glauder/Higgins descendants I have not heard anything about Nels and Rebecca raising an aboriginal child. Nels lived with Christina and her 5 children (including my grandfather) until 1936 and I think if Nels (or Christina who was perhaps only 4 years younger than Billy) had talked about it, it would have been passed down.

One possibility is that Billy didn’t stay with the family long enough for the Glauder children to remember it, and the older Higgins children chose not to speak about it out of respect for their Strickland relatives.

Life at Esrome Farm

Nels and Rebecca had their first child on 2 February 1877. They named him ‘Nels Pierce’. This may have been the first time Nels had looked closely at how children were named in English speaking countries. It is very different to the traditional Swedish method which is patronymic, that is, the father’s first name is taken and turned into a surname. For example, John Nelsson for a boy or Mary Nelsdottir for a girl. In English a common naming convention, at that time, was to use the names of male relatives for boys and female relatives for girls. This was the typical pattern:

  • 1st son – father’s father
  • 2nd son – mother’s father
  • 3rd son – father
  • 4th son – father’s eldest brother
  • 1st daughter – mother’s mother
  • 2nd daughter – father’s mother
  • 3rd daughter – mother
  • 4th daughter – mother’s eldest sister

Of course the convention was often not followed. The names of prominent people were also used such as those of kings, queens and heroes. The old convention became less popular towards the end of the 19th century. But genealogists still use the naming of children as an indication of family relationships when combined with other evidence.

Nels’ father was named Per or sometimes Pehr. That name sounds very odd in English so I can see why they chose Pierce as a middle name. Pierce was a name used by the Collits family, who were well-known to both the Higgins and Stricklands, and therefore to Rebecca. Unfortunately Nels Pierce died at the age of two in 1879.

Meanwhile, also in 1879, Rebecca gave birth to a daughter they named ‘Christina Mary’. Nels had a younger sister named Christina or Kristina. Rebecca had a younger sister named Mary. Christina Mary is my great grandmother.

In 1882 they had a son: ‘Nels Percy’. This is clearly a second attempt to commemorate Nels’ father’s name.

‘Joseph Michael’ was born in 1884. Michael was the name of Rebecca’s father, while Joseph was a popular name at the time which had been used several times in the extended family.

Lastly, in 1887 ‘Honorah Joanne’ was born which commemorates the two mothers. Nels’ mother was named Johanna. I think the name Honorah was getting out of fashion so she was known as Nora.

February 1894 was a tragic month for the family. On 2 February Rebecca’s daughter Mabel (who by then had married and become Mabel Burt) died of “acute nephritis” at the age of 23. Four days later Nora died of diphtheria at the age of 7. A further tragedy occurred in 1896 when 12 year-old Joseph was killed in a farm accident.

Nels Pierce, Mabel, Nora and Joseph are all buried together in Forbes Cemetery.

By the turn of the century Nels and Rebecca were operating a successful farm mainly growing wheat and grazing sheep, but also growing fruit, oats and lucerne. In 1905 Christina married Alfred Ferguson who was from Warwick, Queensland and had come to Forbes to work in the flour mill. Between 1905 and 1917 they had five children. The first-born was my grandfather, Ken.

In 1912 a journalist wrote a piece for the local newspaper after he traveled the area by bicycle. In it he recounts his time at Esrome Farm:

Leaving Forbes at 10.30 on Monday morning last, I set out on my bike to make a tour of the country along the Lachlan River, on each side of the Forbes-Condobolin Road, as far as Bedgerabong, and now (17/12/12) that I am arrived at my destination
it is my pleasure to sit down and chronicle my happenings, and what I saw and heard along the road.
"ESROME"
The first place I came to, after crossing the bridge over the lagoon, and proceeding a couple of miles off the road, near the river, was the fine property of Mr Nels Glauder, situated at Finn's Crossing. Here the hum of the harvester could be clearly heard, and a fine lot of wheat they are getting, six bags to the acre off a paddock just finished, and every hope of doing still better from a paddock which they were just starting on that morning. They cut about 70 tons of hay. Mrs Nels Glauder entertained me for quite a while, relating most interesting reminiscences of her early advent to the town of Forbes, of the days when Forbes was the centre of a great gold rush and the town had a population of 62,000. I left "Esrome" with pleasant memories of the smiling faces of three bonny little grandchildren, who are only recently from Sydney. 15

A wonderful insight into the lives of the people living at this time can be found in the published reports of court proceedings. Thankfully the newspapers of the day employed court reporters to record the disagreements and misdeeds of local residents. Nels did have some brushes with the law but mostly involving his troublesome son, Nels Percy.

September 1877In an article complaining about how onerous it is for jurors to travel from Parkes to attend the courthouse at Forbes, the writer says in passing: “Nels Glauder, assault, not guilty” 16
January 1899“William Morgan v. Nels Glauder, assault. Dismissed” 17
March 1918“At the Forbes Court , yesterday, Percy Nels Glauder was charged with unlawfully, assaulting Nels Glauder, and occasioning actual bodily harm to the said Nels Glauder.
Inspector Jones stated the man who was ill-treated was the father, of defendant, and was ordered to the hospital by the doctor. On inquiry that morning, it was found the in-juries sustained were not so serious as at first thought.
Defendant stated his father had attacked him with a knife and fork. His father had nearly killed him on several occasions, and would have done so on this occasion only he interfered. A remand until April 8 was granted, bail being allowed, self in £ 100, and sureties of £ 100″. 18
April 1918“Percy Nels Glauder (on remand) was charged with assaulting Nels Glauder and occasioning him actual bodily harm. Mr. Moloney appeared for the accused.
The father, Nels Glauder, appeared and said he had no evidence to offer. The P.M. discharged accused and said he hoped the father’s leniency would be appreciated.” 19
“Nels Percy Glauder was charged with assaulting Nels Glauder, thereby occasioning actual bodily harm. Mr Moloney appeared for defendant. Nels Glauder went into the box, and said he did not wish to go on with the case, as he had forgiven his son.
The P.M. thereupon discharged defendant.” 20
April 1919“Nels Glauder asked that an order be made preventing the sale of intoxicating liquor to his son, Nels Percy Glauder. The P.M. directed that an order be made for a period of 12 months.” 21
February 1920“Nels Percy Glauder, 37, pleaded guilty to using threatening language to Margaret Glauder (his wife) at South Lead on the 30th instant. The wife told the Bench that defendant came to her father’s house and threatened to kill her if she did not go home with him. He had been drinking heavily for some time, and she was afraid of him. When in drink defendant did not appear to know what he was doing, and was very bad tempered. Sergeant Hanney: He split his father’s head open once, didn’t he? The wife: Yes, but that was some time ago.
Fined, for the language, 20/- or 7 days. Defendant was further bound over to be of good behaviour for a period of 12 months, and, in the event of failing to find a surety of £20, he was to be imprisoned in Bathurst Gaol for a period of six months.” 22

Drunkenness was a particular social problem in the colony. Nels’ son Nels Percy clearly had a drinking problem and I think if not for the financial backing of this father (£100 bail was an awful lot of money in 1918) he would have ended up in gaol and possibly a downward spiral. During the later court appearance Sergeant Hanney remembered that Nels Percy had assaulted his father previously and was probably annoyed that the accused appeared to be evading proper punishment for his bad behaviour.

Other family members also had drinking problems and I understand that as a response some family members, especially the women, were very anti-alcohol. I have a photo of Nels wearing a white ribbon on his coat which is a symbol used by the Women’s Temperance Movement. He is photographed with two women relatives, the daughter-in-law and grand-daughter of his stepson John Higgins. I understand that Christina also would not allow alcohol in the house.

Selling Esrome Farm

In January 1917 Nels has his first attempt at selling or leasing parts of the farm.

TO SELL OR RENT.
The property near Finn's Crossing, three miles from Forbes, comprising 203 acres. The land is of good quality, and the river flows right past it. Portions would be suitable for Chinamen's gardens. I will sell or lease in suitable blocks.
Apply
NELS GLAUDER,
Finn's Crossing. 23

At this time Rebecca is 70 years old and Nels 69. Nels may have had hopes that either Nels Percy or Christina and Alfred would take over the farm but that was not to be. It seems that Nels Percy and partner Margaret moved from Forbes to Grenfell and by 1914 they were living in Sydney. Christina, Alfred and family lived at Esrome Farm for some years after their marriage in 1905. My grandfather, Ken, had many fond memories of growing up on the farm with his brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents. Ken told a story that at some stage his father and grandfather had a series of disagreements over irrigation on the farm. Alfred wanted to install irrigation pumps from the river. Nels was against it. The result was that Alfred moved his family from Esrome Farm in to town. Alfred was the foreman at Harris & Co. Flour Mill and had the use of a cottage in the mill-yard. The mill was located on Union Street just up the hill from the corner with Farrand Street. It may be that Nels was prompted to try to sell or lease part of the farm in 1917 by the move of Christina’s family to the mill-yard. My mother says that by the age of 14 her father, Ken, was working as a porter at the Forbes train station which was across the road from the flour mill. That would have been 1919.

Nels finally sold the farm at auction in 1920 and in March 1921 he and Rebecca moved to the mill-yard cottage to stay with Christina and her family.

Rebecca died March 16 1922. Her obituary is accurate except for the marriage to John Higgins and that she was probably 76 when she died not 77. 24 At the end of the obituary it reads: “The funeral is to take place this afternoon at four o’clock, to the Church of England cemetery at Forbes”. It doesn’t mention that in death Rebecca was reunited with John Higgins, who had been waiting in Forbes Cemetery for 48 years. That’s a sentimental interpretation. Another interpretation is that when Rebecca lived with John Higgins and had five children she became part of the Higgins/Strickland clan. That part of Forbes Cemetery is dominated by the impressive monument to Josiah Strickland who died in 1881 (and his wife Mary Ann who died 1918). Just above is the grave of John Higgins (died 1874) whose grave was enlarged to accommodate Rebecca in 1922.

Moving from Forbes

A lot happened during 1922 and 1923. Only six months after Rebecca’s funeral Christina, Alfred and their five children moved to the suburb of Rosebery in Sydney (6 Asquith Avenue, Rosebery). According to my grandfather, Ken, this was on the recommendation of ‘Auntie Winnie’ (Winifred Moses nee Higgins/Kearns) who was already living in Rosebery just around the corner (at 63 Tweedmouth Avenue). Nels stayed behind in Forbes to wind up their affairs.

Alfred had been ill for some time. He died in Rosebery 8 August 1923 at the age of 48. His obituary says that prior to his death he had spent three weeks in South Sydney Hospital and then the final four weeks of his life confined to his bed at home. The family usually described his illness as respiratory and relating to his work as a flour miller but his obituary describes it as a ‘kidney and heart complaint’ 25.

Late in 1923 Nels sold a property in Farnell Street, Forbes 26 and then moved in with the rest of the family in Rosebery. At this time Nels was aged 77, Christina 44, Ken 18, Allan 16, Rex 13, Beryl 9 and Daphne 6. I have some reminisces written by Daphne including some about the sleeping arrangements in the 2-bedroom house: Grandfather Nels slept in the front bedroom; Mum, Beryl and Daphne slept in the other bedroom. The three boys and any male visitors all slept on the back verandah. Daphne also said the reason for the move from Forbes to Sydney was ‘so the boys could find work’.

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