Henry Gentle

[Neil Todd]

Wow, I learn something new every day. I found "Wikipedia" has a site on Woodville

Has pics of the Store and the church and the old house falling down now, which would have been built in the 1850's.

See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodville,_New_South_Wales

Neil

[stevew101]

Hi Muss, Giblet, Neil,

Thank you all for everything which you have managed to find out 

Neil/  Thank you for the link to Dunmore House - it is fascinating, and is great to see the condition that it is in now.  Would Henry have been buried in the churchyard which you mentioned? 

The newspaper article about the drowning is fascinating.  Most of Henry's problems always seem to be as a result of too much to drink.  I am now wondering that if he married Mary Powers in 1854, it raises the possibility that they may have had children, which would lead me to long lost cousins in Australia.  If anyone has access to the records, would they be kind enough to search for possible children?

Once again many thanks to you all.   I have plenty to read at the moment.

Steve

[Neil Todd]

The expression for Henry's wife was he was legally dead. So both he and his wife were completely free to marry again. Once transported  for life it meant life and no one was free to go back. Some wives actually petitioned to be with their husband and many actually came out as free settlers. Once allotted to someone they weren't actually imprisoned and were almost free to walk about anywhere on the property and do the allocated work, should they run that was a very different manner and could get another 10 years or more along with a flogging to work at hard labour. There weren't heaps of runners, really nowhere to go anyway. Henry is more likely interred at Morpeth cemetery it was the largest close one at that time. They (Henry and Mary)had no children that I can find.

I just came back from Maitland and drove past Dunmore House and over the bridge. I have come across many people who have had ancestors that worked on the many properties in the Durham County area. I always say this to people.... for over 800 years that I can find my relatives lived in Durham County England until my ancestor got tired of the coal industry taking up all the land around them and he decided to get out. First to London then America then back to London then on to Australia in the early 1850's. In the end I ended up in Durham County NSW named after the original.

Neil

[stevew101]

Hi Neil,

Thank you for that.  I never realised that they were able to marry again.  Thanks ever so much for all that you have passed on.

[Aussie1947]

Neil,

Thanks for the attachment with the map of Paterson area.  I'm researching my wife's family and on one side she has family whom were cleared from from the Isle of Skye and came out on the Midlothian in 1837 and were settled, with many other Highland families by Dr Lang at Paterson.

Gerry

[Neil Todd]

From what I know Dr Lang was a very strict Presbyterian who had a compassionate fair heart but an extremely short fuse for misbehavior. Unlike other areas all of his workers got Sundays off, had to go to church and were given extra rations for the evening meal on Sundays. I believe that they butchered a beast once a week and everyone ate hearty. Some old convicts stayed on when their sentence was over, others had their trade helped out and a rental home albeit small in an area away from the main house, but out of the flood area. For Steve and yourself the whole of the area from Maitland to the sea is a giant river delta with some of the richest soils in the country. Pretty much flat as a tack with heaps of rivers and streams it is prone to flooding and many have lost all in these since european settlement. All of the large properties built their large homes on the hills dotted about.

For steve a link to Morpeth cemetery. No headstone memorials in any cemetery for Either Henry or Mary.
http://austcemindex.com/cemetery.php?id=343
Neil

[giblet]

This might be of some interest for you.

  Previously married convicts were permitted to remarry after seven years' separation as long as their spouse was abroad, even if they were still living. The Government encouraged marriage between convicts as it was seen as a means of rehabilitation and more desirable than de facto relationships.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/convicts/res-10.html


I couldnt find any births for kids for Henry.

[majm]

This might be of some interest for you.

  Previously married convicts were permitted to remarry after seven years' separation as long as their spouse was abroad, even if they were still living. The Government encouraged marriage between convicts as it was seen as a means of rehabilitation and more desirable than de facto relationships.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/convicts/res-10.html

http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/seminars/finlay.html

Governor Macquarie really pushed and pushed for marriages to encourage the Sydney residents (convict, former convict, or simply 'came free')  to have morals  and desist from "living in sin"

Cheers,  JM

[Neil Todd]

For Gerry, The Midlothians as you called them did an awful lot in this area and as a result many bits and pieces have Scottish connotations. I live in a area that is surrounded by Scottish names half the suburbs/towns are Glen something or other. In fact the property I am on goes back nearly two hundred years and was settled by previously scottish people by the name of NOTT. The little investigating I have been able to do has them as friends of Dr Lang. They have just renamed the crown road I am on Notts Lane.

Thomas and Charity had one hell of a tribe I think.

Neil