Mary Wade Descendants through her son, William Brooker

Mary Wade Descendants through her son, William Brooker

Brooker Family

The story of Mary Wade's descendants through her son William Brooker.

The Mary Wade History Association (Editorial Committee)

Mary Wade to us : a family history, 1778-1986. Mary Wade History Association, Cromer, N.S.W, 1986.

1986

Norma Campbell

en-au

Mary Wade’s second son, William, was born on Norfolk Island in 1796. As he is listed in the Victuall Book of that year as “Wade - convict’s child”, there is no clear identity of his father. Mary, on her return from Norfolk, shared consecutive relationships in New South Wales with Teague Harrigan and Jonathan Brooker, both of whom were convicts on Norfolk Island at the time of William’s birth. However, her long-standing relationship was with the latter, who became the father figure in William’s life.

William is next mentioned in the NSW muster of 1806 as one of three children living with his mother at Sydney Cove. Mary was assigned as housekeeper to Teague Harrigan who had since gained his freedom. A Harrigan family reminiscence has it that their home was a tent by the Tank Stream, Sydney’s earliest water supply, now situated beneath Pitt Street. At about this time a child born of the Harrigan-Wade relationship died. The death occurred in 1803 and is recorded in the Mutch Papers and in St Philip’s church records.

It seems that Mary’s relationship with Teague Harrigan ceased when he departed on a whaling expedition, as related elsewhere in this book. Jonathan Brooker then renewed, or established his association with Mary, and the couple settled near the Hawkesbury River where another child, John, was born in 1809. William would have lived with his parents in the Hawkesbury district until the family made its move to Airds (now Campbelltown) a year or so after John’s birth. The family soon increased with the births of three more children: Elizabeth (1810), Mary (1812) and James (1814). Jonathan at this time was a landholder, supporting his family as a carpenter. In 1811 he received a land grant of 60 acres in the Illawarra region but did not immediately settle on it. This land, situated at Corrimal, north of Wollongong, was inherited by William as eldest son at law when his father died in 1833.

On 10th February 1817 William married Sophia Mitton, eldest of ten children born to a convict couple, John Mitton and Catherine Lahey. John Mitton had received an unconditional pardon while employed as a police constable at Toongabbie, upon his apprehension leading to a conviction of a person using an illegal still. Catherine had been transported for forgery, having attempted to make a copper coin look like a shilling. William was about 20 when he married; Sophia was 16. On 5th April 1821 William became a landholder at Airds, on receipt of a Macquarie grant of 60 acres. It would appear that he had learnt the carpentry trade from his father and that he worked as a carpenter and joiner in the Campbelltown area. Sophia was 19 when her first child, Mary Ann, was born in March 1821. She bore eleven more children during the next 25 years. The last of her children, twin boys, were born in 1846 when Sophia was 45. St Peter’s Church records reveal that William, having such a large family, could not pay his pew rents and cleared his debt by completing building tasks for the Church. No doubt many couples with large families would have acted similarly.

In 1826 William was a suspect in the sensational murder of Frederick Fisher at Campbelltown. There had been ill feeling between Fisher and William after Fisher short-changed him for his work on Fisher’s Inn, the Horse and Jockey. Fisher lost a court case held over the matter and maintained a deep grudge which finally resulted in his stabbing William after an argument in the Horse and jockey in 1825. Fisher was charged and convicted but received a surprisingly light sentence of six months imprisonment and a fine. William gave forth to a loud display of bad temper at this judgement in the court room, and was rebuked by the magistrate. As a result of this connection with Fisher, William became a prime suspect when Fisher’s badly bashed body was discovered buried in a swamp in October 1826. In fact, William was not responsible for the murder. The assailant committed and found guilty was George Worrall, with whom Fisher had shared residence and signed over custody of his property while serving time in prison for the assault on William. During Worrall’s trial, evidence was also given that Fisher had attempted to default William’s brother-in-law, Nathaniel Boon. William qualified to serve as a juror on 4th December 1826. Testimony to his skill as builder is provided by the fact that William, a Protestant, successfully tendered for and proceeded to construct the roof of the Catholic Church at Campbelltown. The 1828 Census listed him as the holder of 60 acres in the Parish of St Peter, County of Cumberland, 20 acres of which were cleared and stocked with 10 or 20 head of cattle. On 15th May 1852 he increased his holding in the Campbelltown district through the purchase of his father-in-law, John Mitton’s Macquarie grant (Portion 131 Parish of St Peter); and in addition to this, he had earlier acquired Charlotte Wair’s land (Portion 130). William also inherited his father’s 60 acres on the Illawarra, but he sold this to his brother, James.

By 1865 William had moved part of his family to Wagga, joining other relatives already settled there. In the Lake Albert district his sister, Mary, lived with her husband, Henry Angel; while in the Albury district, his son, William, resided. William’s second daughter, Sarah and her husband, Edward Rudd, also made the move to Wagga. Edward, the youngest son of Thomas Rudd of Campbelitown, had three brothers who were settled on the Murrumbidgee. Edward acquired land by the Albury Road and raised a family there.

The Robertson land Acts were clearly encouraging a southwest drift of settlers from Campbelltown towards Wagga and Albury.

When William moved to the Lake Albert area, south of Wagga, his son James and his wife, Mary Ann (nee Jamison), chose to live on William’s Wagga property. Via one of Mary Ann’s descendants, her granddaughter, Hazel Denton, the following incident has been preserved. Apparently, neighbours of William and Sophia, the Holders, contracted typhoid. On learning of this, Mary Ann left her baby with her mother-in-law, Sophia, in order to nurse the Holder family. However, as she had to breast-feed her baby, she would cross a paddock and come to the fence where Sophia would pass the baby over for feeding. Such was an example of the kind of cooperation that existed amongst pioneering families.

Upon William’s death in 1885, James inherited the Lake Albert property he had worked with his father. Most of the land acquired is still held by members of the family.

William’s eldest daughter, Mary Ann, married James Warby in 1824 and had five children. James died in 1849 and Mary Ann married Thomas Byrne in 1853, later having two children to him. The couple became licencees of the Australian Hotel in Wagga, which was renovated by William for them. According to an 1872 description of the building, it was situated on 1½ acres on the high side of the street and because of its trade was known like other successful hotels as a ‘quartz reef’, having 55 rooms, several private suites, being a brick building with kitchens and outhouses at the rear. Today it still stands, an arcade being constructed within its walls.
Only one child from Mary Anne’s marriage to James Warby had issue namely, James Edward Warby who in 1865 married Sarah Lakeman and had 12 children. It appears James E. Warby dealt in property and settled on ‘Billenbah’ near Narrandera, where a fine home was built. Tragedy struck in January 1911 when two young men working for him murdered his wife and his youngest daughter, Amy Mayo. For this crime they were hanged.

William’s first son, William, married a widow, Elizabeth Henrietta Warby, whose first husband was Robert Warby, brother-in-law of William’s eldest daughter. William raised children from Elizabeth’s first marriage as well as children of his own. They lived in the Albury area on a farm eventually absorbed into the city of Albury.

William’s daughter, Elizabeth, married Reuben Hannan and lived near her father at Lake Albert now a suburb on the southern side of Wagga.

Jonathan married Elizabeth Rea (later Ray) at Wagga on 5th December 1860. The couple had 10 children, four of whom married and settled in the Wagga district.
Sophia Jane (known as Jane) married John Bentley who started the Wagga Express. They had eight children. When Bentley died in 1880, Jane married Samuel Larkins. She appears on the Wagga electoral roll of 1908, but cannot be traced after this date. Her eldest son, Richard, was a milk vendor residing at 2 King Street Newtown, Sydney, in 1908. He was married and had issue, but no further details about him are known.

Joseph Henry died in 1840 when only 10 months of age.

Eliza married William Munro who had died by 1869 when she then married Arthur Lenon. She died at Liverpool in 1877 and was buried next to her grandfather, Jonathan Brooker, in St Peter’s Churchyard, Campbelltown. Her tombstone states that she had ‘5 children lament her loss’ but no details about them can be found.

The last of William and Sophia’s children were the twins, Joseph and Henry. Joseph did not marry, and died at Wagga in 1929. An obituary in the Wagga Advertiser states that his twin, Edward was alive at the time but we have no further information about him.
With the sole exception of Eliza then, all of William’s children settled permanently in the vicinity of Wagga and Albury. Their story, in the main, is that of pioneering stock who participated in the southwestward drift of smaller landholders from Campbelltown to the eastern Riverina. Hardworking and respectable, they had before them the example set by William, the Norfolk Island born son of convict parents, who himself never shied from heavy toil. It is recorded of William for example, that at the age of 96, three months before he died he carried two kerosene tins full of water from a nearby creek to his home. Doubtless a great number of William’s descendants showed similar strength and determination in their struggle to make good in a harsh land.

Mary Wade to us : a family history, 1778-1986. Mary Wade History Association, Cromer, N.S.W, 1986.