#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

52 Ancestors #2 William Roberts

William Roberts is the second member of my family who travelled to Australia with the First Fleet aboard the Scarborough.

The book, A Rich Inheritance: William Roberts and Kezia Brown - their background and their family published c 1988, contains two volumes of research providing information about William Roberts and his family. Since then resources on the Internet have helped provide additional information.

William Roberts was born in Cornwall, England possibly in 1756. Family trees on Ancestry suggest that his father was John Roberts (1717-1792) while his mother was Jane Lugg (1727-1793). They were from St Keverne, Cornwall. The Cornwall OPC Database provides information about birth, death, marriage and other records in Cornwall. On 28 August 1757 a William Roberts (son of John and Jane Roberts) was baptised at St Keverne. On 1 July 1778 at Helston, Cornwall, William Roberts married Mary Russell (1757-1802). They had three children, Mary, William and Robert who was born after his father had been arrested.

In August 1786 a Launceston newspaper reported that at the Bodmin Assizes William Roberts was tried for stealing five and a half pound weight of yarn, the property of William Moffat of Launceston. William was sentenced to seven years transportation. He was a prisoner at the Bodmin Jail which had opened in 1779 so conditions were possibly not as bad as in some of the other gaols in the country. During the day the male prisoners were employed at tasks such as sawing wood, cutting and polishing grave stones or weaving on the prison looms.

On the 25 September 1786 William was transferred to the hulk, Dunkirk, anchored at Plymouth. Hulks were old ships used to house prisoners. During the day the convicts usually worked in chain gangs carrying out tasks such as dredging or working on the roads. At night the convicts slept in an over crowded area between the decks. William remained on the hulk until 21 March 1787 when he was transferred to the transport ship, Charlotte. Ten days later he was transferred to the transport ship, Scarborough. On 13 May 1787 the First Fleet left Plymouth and spent the next eight months travelling to New South Wales. Details of this arduous trip can be found in an earlier post on this blog First Fleet Voyage to Australia.They arrived in Sydney Harbour on 26 January 1788.

Almost two and a half years after his trial William arrived in this new colony on the other side of the world from his family in Cornwall, including a son he probably never saw. He now had to make a new life. Initially the convicts would have lived in tents and later wattle and daub huts. The climate was very different from home in Cornwall. Apart from anything else the seasons were back to front. Arriving in New South Wales in the middle of summer would provided a challenge to the convicts and soldiers in the new colony. The ships had brought provisions but it was necessary for crops to be planted to sustain the colony and herds of animals to be developed from those brought out on the ships. The land around the first settlement proved unsuitable for the growing of crops so it was necessary to look for better land that could be used for farming. There was a shortage of skilled labour among the convicts required to build the new settlement. So far no record has stated William's occupation in Cornwall but he may have possessed some carpentry skills as family stories suggest that he had worked in this field in his first years in the colony.

William's seven year sentence ended in August 1793. Convicts were allowed to remarry after seven years separation from their former spouse so on 14 August 1793 William married Kezia Brown, a convict who had arrived in New South Wales with the Second Fleet. They were married at St Phillip's Church in Sydney by the first clergyman in the colony, Richard Johnson. William and Kezia already had two children, William and Mary, and then added a further eight children to the family, Sarah, James, John, Robert, Maria, Harriett, Ann and Edward.

Like many of the convicts, William appears to have had little formal education - when he signed his will he signed it with his mark - however this was not a barrier to making a successful living in the colony. Once he was free, William became a farmer. On 8 January 1794 he received a grant of 30 acres of land near Sydney. In September 1800 he sold the land for sixty pounds. In 1796 William Roberts received, from Governor Hunter, a grant of 50 acres of land in the district of Mulgrave Place (near Windsor). Initially William rented some of this land to other settlers thus earning additional money to support his growing family and purchase additional land. In June 1809 William purchased 50 acres from Thomas Hobby. The land was known as Hobby's Farm. He later purchased additional land in the town of Windsor. By all accounts William made a success of farming. The General Muster of 1822, two years after his death, described Hobby Farm as comprising of 20 acres of wheat, 8 acres of maize, 6 acres of barley and half an acre of potatoes. Half an acre of the property was devoted to a garden and orchard. The rest of the land was pasture. At the time of the muster there were 40 cattle and 50 pigs.

William Roberts died on 14 February 1820 aged about 64. He was buried at St Matthew's Anglican Church Cemetery in Windsor.

He was my great (x4) grandfather.

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.

First Fleet Voyage to Australia

Two members of my family were convicts travelling to Australia on the First Fleet.

George Guest (also written in some records as Gess) was born at Prestbury, Gloucester in 1767. On 4 March 1784 at Gloucester Lenten Assizes he was sentenced to death on two counts of theft for stealing ten live pigs and a chestnut mare. The sentence was reduced to seven years transportation to America. Initially the seventeen year old was taken to the hulk Censor. At the end of February 1787 George was transferred to the Alexander to leave for New South Wales with the First Fleet.

William Roberts was born in the Cornwall region possibly in 1755. Little is known about his life in England. At Bodmin Assizes in August 1786 William Roberts was charged with stealing five pound 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.

The Alexander was the largest transport ship in the First Fleet measuring 114.3 feet in length and 31 feet wide. The barque built  ship with a quarter deck consisted of two decks without galleries or figurehead and had three masts. Two sets of figures have been provided for the weight of the ship but it was probably between 445 and 452 tons. The master of the ship was Duncan Sinclair, the surgeon was William Balmain and there were 195 male convicts aboard when the ship sailed.

The Scarborough was slightly smaller than the Alexander measuring 111 feet 6 inches in length and 30 feet 2 inches wide. The height between decks was 4 feet 5 inches. The ship consisted of two decks, had three masts and was rigged as a barque. Two sets of figures have been provided for the weight of the ship but it was probably between 411 and 418 tons. Another record provides the weight as 430 tons. The master of the ship was John Marshall, the surgeon was Denis Considen and there were 208 male convicts aboard when the ship sailed.

Most of the convicts on the Alexander embarked at Woolwich on January 6, 1787 though a few were boarded at Portsmouth. The convicts boarded the Scarborough at Portsmouth. Gales and bad weather delayed the loading of convicts and provisions on all the ships but eventually they anchored off the Motherbank near Ryde on the Isle of Wright across from Portsmouth. A plaque on the seawall at Ryde commemorates the departure of the First Fleet. Sixteen men from the Alexander died as the waited from March to May for the ship to sail. Some of the bodies of convicts who died at this time are buried at St Anne's Church on the Isle of Wight. It has been suggested that a reason for the high number of deaths was because a number of the convicts had been in poor health when they left the gaols.

The ships left England on Sunday 13 May 1787. On 20 May trouble was reported to be brewing on the Scarborough when the master of the ship was informed of a possible plot being organised by a group of convicts to take control of the ship. Two convicts were transferred to the Sirius where they each received 24 lashes before being transferred, in irons, to the Prince of Wales.  The ships then continued on the journey to Teneriffe arriving on 3 June. By this time there had been another five deaths on the Alexander and 21 prisoners were on the sicklist. The convict quarters on the ships were overcrowded and  infested with rats, cockroaches, bugs and other vermin. For the first week at sea the convicts were still in irons but once these were removed they had more freedom to move around and experience the novelty of being at sea. At Teneriffe the prisoners received the luxury of fresh food. John Powers, a convict from the Alexander, tried to escape in the jolly-boat but was recaptured the next day.

Leaving Teneriffe the weather was extremely hot with frequent rain squalls and little wind making progress in sailing difficult. With this leg of the trip taking longer than anticipated the daily water ration was reduced. The ships crossed the equator on July 14 with the sailors and marines paying tribute to King Neptune. The winds had improved so the water ration was increased to two quarts per person each day. The ships arrived at Rio de Janiero on 5 August where they stayed until 4 September checking the ships and replenishing supplies.

Under sail again the ships experienced storms and heavy seas resulting in the ships rolling and pitching and shipping water. The winds allowed the ships to travel quickly but the prison quarters would have been constantly wet, the convicts seasick and not allowed on deck. The conditions for the convicts must have been horrendous. Generally, though, the prisoners were well behaved except for one group who planned to escape once the ship reached the Cape of Good Hope. Three seamen helped these convicts obtain an iron crowbar and other possible weapons but the plot was revealed before the ship reached the Cape. John Powers, the ringleader of the group, was transferred to the Siruis where he spent the rest of the voyage in irons nailed to the deck and the seamen involved in the plot were also transferred to the Sirius. The informer spent the rest of the voyage aboard the Scarborough. It was not only the prisoners who were at times troublesome but the conditions and length of the voyage were also reported as affecting the tempers of the officers and crew on some of the ships. Crew members who misbehaved were severely punished with marines on the Scarborough receiving between 50 to 150 lashes for offences. The ships finally arrived at Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, on 11 October.

The next month was once again spent obtaining supplies for the ships. Fresh food was available most days when in port which must have been a welcome change from slated and dry rations. The Dutch were not helpful in making available provisions but Captain Phillip and his officers purchased any livestock and fodder offered. The animals travelled primarily on the Sirius and the three storeships but the female convicts on the Friendship were transferred to the Lady Penrhyn, the Charlotte and the Prince of Wales to make way for sheep.

The fleet of ships left Cape Town on 13 November. Initially there were good winds but a week into the journey the ships were becalmed. This was the followed by a period of strong winds and high seas . By the 25th the weather was again moderate and the decision was made that the Supply accompanied by the Alexander, the Friendship and the Scarborough would go on ahead of the other ships. The weather grew colder as they sailed through gales and heavy seas. Once again the ships pitched and rolled and were swamped by water. The only diversion was the sighting of whales and seabirds including albatrosses, petrels, garnets and gulls. By December 6 the ships entered thick fog which must have been a frightening experience for all on board, especially for the convicts  once again confined below deck, as the ships rang their bells and fired the guns on the warship to alert each other of their position in the fog. The weather was extremely cold and the convicts must have suffered with only their normal clothes and one blanket to keep them warm. By 22 December the weather was again fine with a good sailing wind and the ships made good progress. On 5 January the coast of Van Diemen's land was sighted. Heavy seas again as the ships sailed up the Australian coast and the three transports arrived at Botany Bay on 19 January, one day after the arrival of the Supply. The remaining ships arrived the following day.

The ships on the voyage from England to Botany Bay had travelled 15,063 miles and had taken between 250 and 252 days to complete the journey. The average daily run was approximately 82 miles with an average speed slightly exceeding 3 knots per hour.

Captain Phillip decided that Sydney Cove would make a better settlement than Botany Bay so the eleven ships sailed into Port Jackson on 26 January.

• Bateson, Charles. The convict ships 1787-1868. Library of Australian History, 2004