#52Ancestors - Week - Week 23 - Going to the Chapel

St Philip's Church, Sydney - Sydney Architecture

When I saw this prompt in the #52 Ancestors I immediately thought of the church in Sydney where many of my ancestors would have worshiped in the early years of the colony and where some of my family, including my parents, were married.

Amongst the tall buildings of Sydney can be found St Philip's Anglican Church located at 3 York Street.

The first church service in the new colony at Sydney Cove was conducted by the Rev. Richard Johnson on Sunday 3 February 1788. Over the next five years Rev. Johnson held regular services, conducted marriages, baptised children and buried the dead. But he needed a church.

St Philip's, on the corner of Bligh and Hunter streets, was the first church built in Sydney. It was a wattle and daub chapel that existed from 1793 until it was destroyed by fire on 1 October 1798. The T shaped church building had a thatched roof and earthen floor. It could seat 500 people so it was quite large. During the week the building was used as a school run by the Rev. Richard Johnson and his wife Mary. Student attendance varied from 150 to 200 children.

The first service in the church was conducted by Rev. Johnson on 25 August 1793. 

My great x4 grandparents, William Roberts and Kezia Brown were married by Rev Johnson in Sydney on 14 August 1793 so they were probably not married in the new church. Their daughter, Mary (my x3 great grandmother), was also baptised on that day.

A month after the fire destroying the church in 1798, planning commenced  for a new church on land known as Church Hill - now Lang Park. This time a stone church would be constructed and the foundation stone was laid by Governor King on 1 October 1800. The Parish of St Philip's was proclaimed in 1802.

St Philip's Church Sydney 1809 - Dictionary of Sydney

St Philip's Church School opened in 1812.

On 27 October 1814, my great x3 grandparents, Simeon Lord and Mary Hyde married at St Philip's Church.

Not everyone was impressed with the style of the church building so the foundation stone for the third St Philip's Church was laid by Rev. William Cowper on 1 May 1848. 

The third St Philip's church building was designed by Edmund Blacket in the English Gothic Perpendicular Style.The church was constructed in sandstone with a slate roof and cost sixteen thousand pounds to build. The money to build the church was raised by the congregation. The new church was consecrated on 27 March 1856 by Bishop Barker, the Archbishop of Sydney and Archdeacon Cowper. The new church was built across the road from the old church.

Location of present church (left) and old church (right)

St Philip's Church in 1890s or early 1900s - Sydney Architecture

Interior of St Philip's Church - Pocket Oz Sydney

The naming of the church was originally influenced by the name of the first Governor in the colony - Arthur Phillip. Later churches were dedicated to Saint Philip, the Apostle. 

Over the years St Philip's Church has played an important role in Sydney's history.

My family's connection with St Philip's Church continued into the twentieth century when my parents, Ken Moses and Rosemary Lord, were married in the church on 11 February 1946.

References:
New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage - St Philip's Church of England
Sydney Architecture - Parish Church of St Philip
Registers of St. Philip's Church of England, Sydney, NSW, 1787-1937 - microfilm held at NLA (reel 1)
Anglican Church League - Richard Johnson First Chaplain to Australia
Church Hill - Pocket Oz Sydney

Unlocking family stories - Google Maps

Although I have mentioned using Google Maps as a research tool in other posts, it may be useful to look at how it can be used in a little more detail.

Recently I was writing a post about my great (x4) grandmother, Kezia Brown, and decided to check in Google Maps the village where she lived. The village is Severn Stoke in Worcestershire.

After searching for Severn Stoke I clicked Maps. Part of the map appears above with the red marker showing the location of the village and its surrounding countryside. The slide on the left of the map allows you to zoom in for a closer look at the image.

Dragging the 'yellow man' at the top of the slider and positioning him on a street allows to to have a street view of the village.

A white arrow appears and dragging the arrow allows you to 'walk' along the streets.
When exploring the village I saw a church in the distance and turned down the next road to locate the church where Kezia was baptised and where her parents were married.

Members of Kezia's family would be buried in the cemetery in the church grounds.
If I had typed in St Denys Church Severn Stoke into the search box the red marker would have located the church. If the red marker is not obvious on the screen you can use the cursor, or depending on the computer or device use the touch screen,  to drag the map to have a look at parts of the image not readily visible.

Kezia left home when she was about 18 and travelled to the town of Gloucester. Google Maps can help you locate the distance between locations.

Click the Get Directions box at the top left of the screen and then fill in the two locations. Click the blue Get Directions box.

Google Maps shows the possible route between the towns. The roads would have been different two hundred plus years ago but an indication of possible routes is provided.

In the panel on the left of the map one set of directions is provided. However what I found useful was the number at the top of the directions which indicated that the distance between the two locations would have been 24 miles. This provides an indication of the journey undertaken by Kezia to travel to Gloucester in 1789.

52 Ancestors #3 Kezia Brown

Kezia Brown was born in 1771 in Severn Stoke, Worcestershire. Her parents were Aaron Brown and Mary Farley. On 10 March 1771 Kezia was baptised at St Denys Church at Severn Stoke.

Part of the existing Church of St Denys was built in the 12th century.

When her grandfather, William Farley, died in May 1787 he left Kezia the sum of three pounds which she inherited when she turned 18. By 1789 Kezia appears to have left home and is working as a labourer in the garden of a property belonging to Mr James Wheeler and his family in Gloucester, approximately 24 miles from Severn Stoke. In July 1789 Kezia contracted smallpox and was looked after by the Wheeler family for six weeks. On 20 August 1789 Kezia ran away from the Wheeler house and was found by Edward Wheeler at Norton, probably on her way home to Severn Stoke. She was arrested for allegedly taking with her items belonging to the Wheelers.

On 9 October 1789 at Gloucester City Sessions Kezia was tried for the theft of one black silk cloak and hood, one piece of black lace and one piece of black ribbon, one flannel petticoat, one dimity petticoat,, two shifts, three muslin aprons, one shawl, five caps, one apron cloth and one check apron. She was found guilty and sentenced to seven years transportation.

In November 1789 female prisoners from county gaols were taken to the transport ship, Neptune. The ship was to carry 421 male convicts and 78 female convicts to New South Wales. On the short journey from Plymouth to Portsmouth a number of convicts died and were buried at sea. Unfortunately this was a sign  of worse things to come as the mortality rate on the Neptune during the voyage was 31% with 147 male convicts and 11 female convicts dying during the six month voyage. The contractors were paid for each convict who boarded the ship with no concern for the number who arrived in the colony alive. The contractors were also allowed to sell any surplus stores when they reached the colony so convicts were expected to survive on minimum rations. An enquiry was held when the ships returned to England however that did not assist the convicts who had had to endure incredible hardship.

The ships of the Second Fleet were due to leave England in December 1789 but stormy weather postponed the departure. Instead they set sail on 19 January. The Neptune arrived in New South Wales on 28 June 1790. Charles Bateson's book, The convict ships 1787-1868 (2004) and Michael Flynn's book, The Second Fleet: Britain's grim convict armada of 1790 (1993) describe in detail the Second Fleet voyage. The following two posts in this blog - Second Fleet and Second Fleet Ships Notes - provide some information about the journey.

By the time the ships of the Second Fleet arrived supplies in the colony were running low and there was general dismay when it was realised that instead of ships carrying much needed supplies the ships carried additional people that the colony had to support. The condition of the new arrivals added to the despair of those attempting to manage the colony. Under the circumstances it is amazing that so may convicts did survive.

Once settled in her new environment Kezia shared accommodation with William Roberts. Their first child, William, was baptised in Sydney on 4 September 1791. A daughter, Mary, was born 15 June 1793. As William had a wife and family in England, William and Kezia had to wait seven years from the day of his sentence before they could marry. On 14 August 1792, William and Kezia were married at St Phillip's Church in Sydney. William and Kezia had an additional eight children, Sarah born 1795, James born 1798, John born 1801, Robert born 1803, Maria born 1805, Hariett born 1807, Ann born 1809 and Edward born 1813.

From 1804 William received a number of grants of land initially near Sydney and later in the Windsor area where the family eventually settled. They lived on a property known as Hobby Farm (named after the original owner of the land, Thomas Hobby) which they successfully farmed. There were challenges as the area near the Hawkesbury River was prone to flooding and from time to time there were disputes between settlers. There would also have been disputes in the area with the Aboriginal people who had been displaced when Europeans started subdividing the area. Kate Grenville has written about the challenges of surviving in the early years of the colony in her novel, The Secret River, the first book in a trilogy written about this era.

When William died in 1820, Kezia and her family continued to live at Hobby Farm. The General Muster of 1822 provides information about the land and livestock belonging to Keziah Brown. In her final years Kezia lived with her son, Robert, in Richmond where she died on 22 June 1854 aged 83.

The two volume work, A rich inheritance: William Roberts and Kezia Brown, their background and their family (1988) provides additional information about what is known about the life of Kezia.

Kezia was my great (x4) grandmother.

Notes from mc2 - William Roberts & Kezia Brown

William Roberts was born in the Cornwall region possibly in 1755. Little is known about his life in England.[Later research has shown that, before his arrest, that William Roberts married Mary Russell in Heston, Cornwll, in 1778 and they had three children. http://connectingthefamily.blogspot.com/2014/01/52-ancestors-2-william-roberts.html ]

At Bodmin Assizes in August 1786 William Roberts was charged with stealing five pond and half weight of yarn, property of Wm Moffatt of Launceston resulting in a sentence of 7 years transportation. He was taken to the hulk, Dunkirk moored in Plymouth Harbour where he was kept with other prisoners until he was transferred initially to the convict ship Charlotte and finally to the convict ship Scarborough during March 1787. On the 13th May, 1787 the ships of the First Fleet left for Botany Bay.

Kezia Brown was born in Severn Stock, Worcester, in 1771, the daughter of Aaron and Mary Brown (nee Farley).

c 1779 Kezia left home and headed to Gloucester where she worked as a labourer in a garden belonging to James Wheeler. When she contracted smallpox she was was allowed to stay in the house to recover. On 20th August 1789 she left the house, taking with her items of clothing possibly belonging to the family of her employer. She was tried in Gloucester and sentenced to seven years transportation to New South Wales aboard the Neptune, part of the Second Fleet, arriving at Sydney Cove on 28th June, 1790.

In September 1791, William, the first son of William Roberts and Kezia Brown was baptised. A daughter, Mary, was born in June 1793. In August 1793, William Roberts and Kezia Brown were married at St Phillip's Church, Sydney, after the expiration of William's sentence suggesting that he may have been married in England.

Early records are unclear but William Roberts may have received a grant of 30 acres of land near Sydney in 1794. In 1796 he received a grant of 50 acres of land near Windsor which he let. He later purchased land from Thomas Hobby which was part of the property farmed by the family in the Windsor area until the 1950s.

William Roberts died at Richmond, NSW on 14 February 1820.
Kezia Brown died at Richmond, NSW on 26 June 1854.

William and Kezia had ten children: -

• William 1791 - 1863
• Mary 1793 - 1863
• Sarah 1875 - 1815
• James 1798 - 1877
• John c1801 - 1880
• Robert 1803 - 1873
• Maria 1805 - 1868
• Harriet c1807 - 1857
• Ann 1809 - 1876
• Edward 1813 -1890

Mary Roberts married Richard Holland.

In 1988 the William Roberts and Kezia Brown Family Association Inc published a two volume work -
A Rich Inheritance: William Roberts and Kezia Brown - their background and their family.

Second Fleet Voyage to Australia

Kezia Brown was born in Severn Stock, Worcester, in 1771, the daughter of Aaron and Mary Brown (nee Farley).  Around 1779 Kezia left home and headed to Gloucester where she worked as a labourer in a garden belonging to James Wheeler. When she contracted smallpox she was was allowed to stay in the house to recover. On 20th August 1789 she left the house, taking with her items of clothing possibly belonging to the family of her employer. She was tried in Gloucester and sentenced to seven years transportation to New South Wales aboard the Neptune, part of the Second Fleet.

Unfortunately the logs of the Second Fleet ships no longer exist so information about the voyage is limited to letters written by those on the ships, a few diaries and reports written about the large death toll resulting from the voyage.

The Neptune was the largest ship in the fleet at 809 tons (according to the contractors), had a crew of 83 and was built on the Thames in 1779. Flynn describes the conditions on the ship (pp 32 -33). Most of the male convicts were housed on the orlop deck  which was the third deck from the top and measured 75 feet by 35 feet and the height of the convict quarters varied from 6 feet six inches to 5 feet seven inches. There were four rows of probably open ended cabins (a row on each side of the ship with two rows in the middle).The convicts slept in bunks or hammocks in very crowded conditions. There would have been no portholes. Lights burned in the aisles until 8 pm and then all was dark.Convicts were chained by wrists, legs or ankles and in some cases a convict was chained to another convict. Six men formed a mess with one being released to collect the rations for the week and to cook meals for the mess in communal coppers below deck provided that there was no heavy weather. Consequently the convicts had to do without hot food for days at a time. Life was a little better for the 78 female convicts who lived in a section of the upper deck and were released from their chains. They were allowed on the Quarter Deck during the day while at sea. The female convicts were kept separate from the male convicts and the crew were also not meant to have access to them though, as some of the female convicts became pregnant during the voyage, this order was not always observed. Conditions were bad aboard the Neptune but they did not have to contend with additional problem on the smaller ship, Surprize, which shipped large quantities of water during heavy seas and were therefore confined in a wet as well as an unhealthy prison.

On 15 October 1789 the three transport ships left Deptford where they had been fitted out in order to embark the soldiers who were to replace the marines at Port Jackson and the convicts. On 19 October the Neptune had embarked two officers, 43 men forming the New South Wales Corps and two wives. One of the soldiers was John Macarthur who sailed with his wife, Elizabeth. On 11 November four male and 27 female convicts left Newgate Gaol to board the Neptune while 61 female convicts from country gaols, including Kezia, were the next to come aboard. The next day 83 male convicts from the Justia hulk and 41 from the Censor hulk at Woolwich were brought aboard. The ship then sailed to Plymouth where, on the 28th November, 300 convicts from the Dunkirk hulk embarked. The Neptune then sailed from Plymouth to Portsmouth but on this short journey a number of the convicts died and were buried at sea. Some bodies which were apparently just thrown overboard without being weighted down, washed up along the coastline near Portsmouth. By 21 December a number of free women who had lived with male convict plus children of convicts were also aboard the ship. D'Arcy Wentworth also travelled as a passenger on the Neptune.

The departure of the Second Fleet was delayed by stormy weather. Reports on the conditions on board the ships had been circulating via government communications however they were generally ignored. The ships arrived at the Motherbank on 12 January 1790 but the storms delayed the sailing of the fleet until Sunday 17 January when the skies cleared and a westerly wind enabled sailing.

Three days after departure the ships, now in the Bay of Biscay, encountered a storm lasting all day. The rest of the 84 day journey to the Cape of Good Hope was reasonably good but the temperatures in February were often very high. The ships crossed the Equator on the 25th February and arrived at the Cape on 13 April. By this time many aboard the ships were suffering from scurvy. Consequently supplies of fresh meat and vegetables were ordered to be served on each of the sixteen days they were in port to try and counter the condition. However it was reported that on the second leg of the voyage rations on the Neptune were cut to compensate for the purchase of fresh food at the Cape. The ships left the Cape of Good Hope on the 29 April with the Surprize arriving at Sydney Cove on 26 June 1790 and the Neptune and the Scarborough arriving on the 28 June.

The length of the journey, compared with the journey of the Lady Juliana, was relatively short stopping at only one port for just over two weeks en route. However this meant that the amount of fresh food available to those on board was limited resulting in illness, particularly scurvy for a large proportion of convicts and crew. The male convicts were also kept in irons for much of the journey whereas the irons were removed after the first week unless a punishment was being imposed for the the convicts of the Lady Juliana and the Neptune.

The arrival of the ships at Port Jackson with their cargo of sick passengers and reports of the the many deaths during the voyage caused concern among many in the colony and also in some quarters when news of the voyage reached England. Although reports were written and investigated and articles written in the press, those responsible were not punished. However from 1792 conditions on the convict ships were improved. Contracts stated that an initial payment would continue to be paid for each convict embarked but an additional payment would be made for each convict arriving at the colony alive. Each ship would also have a naval surgeon to ensure that the welfare of the convicts was protected.

• Bateson, Charles. The convict ships 1787-1868. Library of Australian History, 2004
• Flynn, Michael. The Second Fleet: Britain's grim convict armada of 1790. Library of Australian History, 1993