Family Overviews

SPALDING

Our Spalding line commences with the family of William Spalding and Margaret Smith of Coupar Angus, Perthshire, Scotland.  They were married in 1786.

Some Spaldings came to Scotland from Flanders around 1300 particularly in the Dundee area, other Spaldings can be found in Airlie from 1430, Coupar Angus from 1520, Alyth from 1545, Monifieth from 1592 and Rattray from 1610.  The castle of Ashintully which is 2.5km north east of Kirkmichael was established in 1583 and some try to link their Spaldings to that line - but for many that would not be correct.

William Spalding and Margaret Smith's family in Perthshire, Scotland, separated into three main paths:

The above Peter Spalding who moved to Hamilton, Lanarkshire married Mary Thomson in 1818 at Hamilton and had a large family.  At least four lines from this family separately migrated to Australia:

The above William Spalding and Ann MacDonald had twelve children and they established themselves in the Balmain area of Sydney.  Peter McDonald Spalding the second eldest son born in 1868, married Mary Ann Elizabeth Driscoll the granddaughter of two Irish convicts that were transported to New South Wales in 1822 and 1831 respectively. They remained in the Balmain area.

Peter McDonald Spalding was a house painter as was his first son, who was also called Peter McDonald Spalding.  The younger Peter McDonald Spalding married Doris Jane Goddard.  Doris Goddard was the third daughter of Jane Storey and Stephen Goddard.  Stephen was the grandson of another convict pair who were transported to New South Wales in 1830 and 1836 respectively.

WHITTON

The name Whitton dates to the earliest periods of English history. It is Anglo-Saxon and derived from several places called Whitton and means white farm or hamlet.  Whittons were neither nobility nor peasant, but from the Yoeman class. The Whittons are my mother's line and they came from Bedale, Yorkshire where the family spent more than 300 years. They were mostly farmers or butchers.  The more recent came from the Kirkby Fleetham area in Yorkshire, England.  Some of the Whittons were long livers and had children late in life.  My mother, Phyllis Grace Whitton, was born in 1926 and her great grandfather Whitton was born in 1784.  The three generations took 142 years!    William Edwin Whitton migrated from Yorkshire to country New South Wales in 1907 in search of a dry climate to give his chronic chest condition a chance to improve.

It is most likely that William Edwin Whitton  met Grace Ethel Bailey in northern New South Wales while they were both living in the Goodooga area of North-West New South Wales.  William and Grace had both passed away by the time my mother was 12 years old.  It was the quest to find out about my mother's family that lead me into my genealogy research.

BAILEY

The Bailey family were blacksmiths from the Rickinghall area of Suffolk, England. The recent Baileys took the more gentle craft of tailoring. Grace Ethel Bailey was born in 1891 at Bury St Edmunds of Suffolk.  She became a children's nurse who made a number of trips from England to Australia as early as 1919 looking after the children of wealthy families.  Her charge included "Nobby" Clarke the son of Sir Rupert Clarke.  Grace then became nurse to the Richmond children at Goodooga NSW and travelled with the Richmonds back to England on a couple of occasions. 

The Richmond family, that is Major George Richmond and Griselda Richmond, had a property "Mogila" near Goodooga New South Wales, near the NSW-Queensland boarder.  Grace married William Whitton in December 1924.

GODDARD

In the mid 1700’s the Goddards lived in Chilton, then part of Berkshire.  Chilton lies between the Thames and the Downs in the Vale of White Horse district, of South West Oxfordshire, England.  Even now the parish of Chilton only has about 900 people.  George Goddard and his wife Elizabeth Butler’s second child, called Henry Butler Goddard, was baptised in 1779.  Henry became a farmer who together with his wife Sarah had eight children.  Their 6^th child Richard Goddard, baptised in 1815, became a tallow chandler and moved East from Chilton to London.  Richard Goddard married Charlotte Maunder in St James Westminster in 1839.  They had one child Stephen Goddard who was baptised at St Paul’s Hammersmith, London, in 1840. 

It was this young Stephen Goddard, my great great grandfather, whose own life came to a tragic seafaring end.  His tragedy was not long followed by the mysterious death of his young second son.

It is not known why Stephen left England for the South Pacific, but Stephen Goddard, almost 18 years old, departed London on 7 October 1859 and arrived at Auckland on 30 January 1860 on board the "African".   He must have had an interest in mechanics as he joined the Auckland Mechanics Institute in 9 February 1860.  This interest did not turn into a career, as it did for his son, as two months later he left Auckland.

Stephen Goddard then came to Australia, as a steerage passenger, on the "Kate" a barque of 341 tons, which arrived in Sydney on 11 April 1860 from Auckland.  Stephen quickly settled and married Sarah Ann Fullam on 21^st November 1862 in the Presbyterian Church.

Sarah Ann, born at Maitland NSW, was not a genteel lady as will be shortly seen.  This is not surprising since she was the 2^nd child of seven from Henry Fulham and Mary Reid.  Henry, a shoemaker of the Roman Catholic religion, was a convict transported from Dublin in 1830 having been convicted as a pickpocket.  Mary Reid, a protestant, was a convict transported from Belfast in 1836 having been convicted of stealing a tub.  Mary also was obviously not of the genteel disposition being described in 1842 as 5 ft 2 inches tall with a fair ruddy and freckled complexion, brown hair and hazel eyes. She had lost a front upper tooth and had a horizontal scar on the right side of her forehead. Her nose was a little cockeyed and she had a scar on the ball of her left thumb and a scar near the knuckle of her forefinger of her left hand.

Young Stephen Goddard obviously liked the sea and working on ships.  He listed his occupation as a steward when he married Sarah Ann Fullam.  This was probably talking up his occupation a little as in December 1862, Stephen Goddard was a Pantryman, aged 22, on the "Wonga Wonga" a coastal steam ship, which regularly travelled Sydney to Melbourne.  It can only be assumed that on this ship, that Stephen formed a friendship with another Stephen, Stephen Halloran, aged 20, who was the 3rd Cook. Stephen Halloran, later became the second husband of Stephen Goddard's wife Sarah Ann.

Stephen Goddard was regularly listed as a Pantryman on a range of ships that operated out of Sydney Harbour: the "City of Melbourne"  from January 1863 to July 1863; the steam ship "Clarence" which did the Brisbane run from November 1863 to April 1864; and the steam ship "Cawarra" from November 1865. 

These ships returned to Sydney about each one to two weeks and it was during this time that Stephen Goddard and Sarah Ann had two children: Stephen Goddard, my great grandfather, on 26 March 1863 and then Richard Thomas on 11 July 1865.  Both were born in Sydney at home in Park Street and Druit Street respectively - clearly close to the Sydney wharves.

The children would have barely known their father as he was away so often, but more tragically because on 12^th July 1866 the “Cawarra” was shipwrecked at Newcastle harbour with the loss of all passengers and crew except one.  Stephen’s body was never found.  No death certificate was ever issued.  Stephen may have been one of the desperate souls seen washed from the wreck in the attached article, that I have plagiarised from various sources, “The Great Gale and Wreck of the Steamer 'Cawarra' “.

After Stephen’s death Sarah Ann Fullam married Stephan Halloran on 21 May 1867 and had two more children.  It is not clear if Stephen Halloran continued his career as a ship’s cook, but in 1873 when Stephen Halloran was not on the scene, Stephen Goddard’s second son Richard, aged 7, died from acholic poisoning in Grafton NSW.  The article from the Clarence and Richmond Examiner - Tuesday 6 May 1873,  “Shocking Death Through an Overdose” relates.  I don’t think that Sarah Ann Fullam was the best of mothers!  Sarah Ann died in Sydney in 1879.  The inscription on her headstone at Rockwood Cemetery says "Sarah Ann wife of Stephen Halloran died 25 February 1879 aged 39”.

STOREY

The first Storey to settle in Australia was William Storey who was born at Sunderland, England in 1838. His parents were John Storey and Jane Bainbridge, his father being a shipwright, the family trade which the son also followed.  

William Storey moved to New South Wales with his wife, formerly Elizabeth Gahan, and two children in about 1863. In total they had nine children, many went into politics with the 6th, John who became Premier of New South Wales.

William Storey was one of the pioneer shipbuilders of Australia. He initially built ships at Jervis Bay, later at Bateman's Bay, and then proceeded to Waterview Bay, Sydney, to build for Captain Thomas Rowntree.   William seemed to move to Sydney on his own. Elizabeth then also decided to move the family to Balmain. 

Elizabeth and young family travelled  to Sydney in their own sailing boat. This has been variously described as being 14, 16, 18ft., long but more likely would have been about 22ft. long with a good beam and very seaworthy with a competent crew. Boats were a way of life for this family. If the date is correct, that is 1875, the children's ages would be Mary Ann 16, William (jnr.) 12, Jane 10, Elizabeth 8, John 6, Thomas 4, Henry 2, and Gilbert 1. The 320 kilometres to Sydney with 8 children in an open boat, in the Tasman Sea that can be as wild, rough and as brutal as any stretch of water on this earth, would have been quite an adventure.

GAHAN

The Gahan family are Irish and John Gahan and Ann Leary settled in London having a family of about 10 children. At least four of the children of John Gahan and Ann Leary migrated to Australia (John in 1854, Elizabeth in 1864, Henry between 1861 and 1866 and James Newton before 1861).  John had various occupations from Merchantile Clerk, School Master at a Catholic School and possibly a plasterer. 

Elizabeth Storey previously Gahan, with two children, arrived in Sydney aboard the St Hilda on 30 January 1865. The shipping records state her husband William Storey’s address as Mort Street, Balmain, which indicates he was already in Sydney awaiting his family’s arrival. The shipping records also indicate that Elizabeth’s mother was Mrs J. Ann Gahan of Leadenhall St, City London.   Leadenhall Street London in 1837 is shown in the attached picture.

SCOTT

The Scott line commences with William Scott whose son Thomas Scott, was a master mason of Bothwell, Lanarkshire Scotland.  Thomas was born in 1739.  Thomas' son John was also a master mason.  This John Scott and his wife Sarah Lochhead had a large family in Bothwell, and according to oral family history, their third daughter, Janet Scott, most likely while working as a servant, had an upstairs-downstairs affair with a William Houldsworth.  A possible William Houldsworth and his family have been included but this still needs confirmation.  There are at least two DNA matches to Jane Margaret Scott that have HOULDSWORTH's as a common ancestor which tend to confirm this verbal family history.  James Scott the result of this affair took some money but not the name of his father.  James worked all his career in the Coltness Iron Works, established by the Houldsworths.  James married Ann McMillan and after her death married her younger sister Marion McMillan.  The McMillans were the daughters of a Blacksmith who also worked at the Coltness Iron Works.  The Coltness connection does not end here as Robert Scott the first son of James and Marion McMillan also commenced his distinguished steel career in the Coltness iron works.  Robert Scott went on to become the Managing Director of the Atlas Steel Foundary and Engineering Company, Ltd., at Armadale.  Robert's youngest son William Scott took an interest in the sea becoming a master mariner. He met Margaret Baxendell on board the "New Australia".  They married in 1953 and migrated to Sydney, Australia with their family of three girls in 1970.  In 1980 William Scott again took to the sea skippering a boat around the Torres Strait for five years.

HOULDSWORTH

Henry Houldsworth was born in Nottingham in 1774 the son of Henry Houldsworth and Ann Hooton. He left Nottingham for the Manchester Cotton Mills and then to Glasgow and founded a family that for nearly ninety years increased and prospered. Towards the end of 18th century cotton spinning had begun to take its place among Scotland's major industries.

Henry expanded the cotton business, and by 1831 was the second largest cotton spinner in Glasgow. This business he afterwards moved to Cheapside Street, Anderston, where he carried it on in partnership with his two sons, William and John, under the firm of Henry Houldsworth & Sons.  The Houldsworths saw that iron was to be the mainstay of Glasgow, and accordingly the Anderston Foundry and Machine Works was started also in Cheapside Street. This fired his interest in the iron industry. In 1836 he bought the Coltness Estate near Wishaw in Lanarkshire and set up the Coltness Iron Works in 1839. 

The success of Coltness led to Henry Houldsworth founding the Dalmellington Iron Company at Dunaskin in 1848. The tremendous energy of the Houldsworth family and the technological change of the 19th century  transformed the once pastoral south west of Scotland into a booming industrial heart of an Empire.   Verbal family history advisd that a William Houldsworth (possibly the brother of the above Henry Houldsworth) was the father of James Scott - a result of an upstairs/downstairs affair.  Some DNA evidence supports this advice.

McMILLAN

The McMillan family originated in Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland from the 1600's.  Thomas McMillan a tinsmith married Margaret Bell in Ayr and moved to Lanark in 1801. Their second son Thomas became a Blacksmith at the Coltness Iron Works in Cambusnethan and married Margaret Dickson in 1834.  Their eldest and third daughters, Ann and Marion married James Scott of Bothwell, Lanarkshire.

WATSON

The Watson family originated in Lanarkshire at least from about 1790.  William Watson died in 1836 and was an estate manager. His son, also called William Watson was born in 1831 and became a property owner and spirit merchant.  His estate contained significant wealth.  This William married twice and the two families went their separate ways. The sons from the first family went to Australia in 1879 and 1886.  The first daughter of the second family, Janet Lindsay (Jenny) Watson married Robert Scott in 1911.  Their youngest son William Watson Scott a descendant of the second family migrated to Sydney, Australia with his family in 1970 almost a hundred years after the first Watsons.

Further detail on this interesting family is detailed in the Watson Family story.

BAXENDELL

The Baxendell family have been traced back to the 1550s although then called Backstondeine.   They have consistently lived in Lancashire.  Around the 1750 the Josiah Baxendell was a master cabinet maker in Liverpool. This trade was also followed by his son Joseph.  It took a number of generations before the Baxendells moved into corn milling in the 1840s with Robert Baxendell and his uncle.  This career was then followed by successive generations of Walter, and Eustace and again by Robert Baxendell who became a director of David Baxter and Sons, of Cheadle Heath. In 1925 Robert Baxendell married Evelyn Crook.  Their daughter Margaret Baxendell married William Watson Scott in 1953 and together with their three daughters migrated to Sydney, Australia in 1970.

CROOK

The Crook family were cotton manufacturers from Bolton Lancashire.  As far back as 1780 Joshua Crook was a cotton spinner as were the successive generations of Joshua and George Harris Crook.  George married Annie Bradshaw in 1895 and their only daughter Evelyn Crook married Robert Baxendell in 1925.  The Crook family made a key civic, industrial and social contribution to the history of Bolton and this is reflected in the fact there is still a street with the family name in the town.

To find any person in the website use the Alphabetical Surname List.