Author Topic: Identifying a skeleton!!! Dr Inch from Drayton near Toowoomba Qld about 1861?  (Read 16179 times)

Offline Andcarred

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I am trying to identify a Dr Inch from Drayton near Toowoomba Qld about 1861.  It's a long story so I will try to condense.  Trove came up with a report on 4 March 1895 of a skeleton being found near Mudgee with a letter addressed to a Mr R J Inch of Blackheath nearby.  Another man wrote to the paper saying he had known a Dr Inch in Drayton in about 1861 who had since disappeared and maybe it was him.   No Christian name given.

The letter (12 March 1895) went on to say that Dr Inch was married to Miss Cramp, the daughter of John J Cramp who was the telegraph operator in Drayton at the time.   Only problem is Miss Cramp was actually Mrs Walter Bennett at the time and there is no marriage to anyone else.  I think Marianne Cramp left Sydney with her father only and that her husband had deserted her and left Australia (all supposition, no proof).  She went on to have 4 sons, 2 born in Drayton 1860/62 (Charles & Frederick) and no births registered, and then 2 born in Banana, Qld (Walter and John).   No mention has ever been made of a Dr. Inch although the family always suspected Walter Bennett was not the father of the 4 boys.  The next two born in Banana Qld were registered with no father named and the certificates stamped illegitimate.  Their death certs give Walter Bennett as their father.

The family thought the father's identity was forever lost when Marianne died in Banana in 1923 at the age of 90.  Frederick Bennett's death cert gave his father's name as William with no surname.  Was he William Inch?  The letter to the paper went on to say that Dr Inch was a highly educated man and a good specimen of an Englishman.  Why then was he working as a ganger on the railway and living at Bigge's Camp in Grantham and then at Drayton.  This leads to speculation that he could have been a doctor who maybe became an alcoholic and perhaps a remittance man from England.   

The father of Marianne's 4 boys was known to have come in and out of their lives at irregular intervals and it seems likely Marianne has left him in Drayton when she went to Banana but he may have visited on odd occasions as remembered by one of the sons. 

Before this article in the paper was discovered the family had thought there was no possible hope of finding out who the father might be.  If anyone thinks they can shed some light on this problem I can give a bit more detail about Marianne but nothing on William Inch.  I have trawled through BDMs, Trove, immigration records, English census, cemetery records etc but cannot come up with any more information myself about a William Inch except that there was a notice in the paper to all owners of licensed premises in Tambo (which is near Banana) not to serve alcohol to a William  Inch who was a blacksmith in Tambo.  Any connection - who knows? ??? ??? ??? 

Andcarred
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Offline majm

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Re: Identifying a skeleton!!!
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 20 May 15 05:44 BST (UK) »
Hi there,

I am so NSW centric that I have been known to confuddle Drayton NSW and Drayton Qld even at RChat  :-[  :-[  :-[

And of course, you mention Mudgee as well.    Well, Drayton NSW is postcode 2849, and it is ever so close to Mudgee NSW at postcode 2850.   

Can you unconfuddle me please.  :) 

Cheers,  JM
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Offline Andcarred

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Re: Identifying a skeleton!!!
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 20 May 15 06:40 BST (UK) »
Hi JM,

I was unaware that there is a Drayton in NSW.   The Drayton I am speaking of is at Toowoomba, Queensland.   It used to be a separate suburb in the old days but as Toowoomba has grown it has sort of swallowed up Drayton into it's suburbs.

Andcarred
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Offline whiteout7

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Re: Identifying a skeleton!!!
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday 20 May 15 06:56 BST (UK) »
Reading this trove article he certainly sounds like a remitance man

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/171377200?searchTerm=%22DR%20Inch%22%20Drayton&searchLimits=

Maybe we need to find out who  Mr R J Inch of Blackheath, NSW is?

Could he be  "INCH-BLACKFORD.-March 8, 1881, at the Presbyterian
Church, Eskbank, R. J. Inch, of the Lithgow Brewery, to Harriet Ann, eldest daughter of R. Blackford, Lithgow"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/70954738

Where did R J Inch die and how old was he, where was he born, what was his full name?

Sounds like his wife was buried in Rookwood cemetery NSW, was he buried there?
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/17402577

Are they Harriet Ann Blackford (b. 1862) m. Richard Jeffrey Inch (b 1852 in St Austell, Cornwall, England to Charles Inch (a cooper by trade) and Eliza Jeffree?

Was Dr Inch his brother? Wad the Dr an epithet because he was educated or was he a real doctor?
Wemyss/Crombie/Laing/Blyth (West Wemyss)
Givens/Normand (Dysart)
Clark/Lister (Dysart)
Wilkinson/Simson (Kettle or Kettlehill)


Offline majm

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Re: Identifying a skeleton!!!
« Reply #4 on: Wednesday 20 May 15 06:59 BST (UK) »
Agh, 

So the skeleton was found near Mudgee NSW in 1895 and you are wondering if may have been the skeleton of a Dr INCH, who went missing in 1861 on the Darling Downs, Qld as a letter was found on the Mudgee skeleton, and that letter was addressed to a Mr R J INCH at Blackheath NSW and the letter has details about that Dr INCH. 

Cheers,  JM
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Offline majm

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Re: Identifying a skeleton!!!
« Reply #5 on: Wednesday 20 May 15 07:21 BST (UK) »
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/13626458 SMH 4 Feb 1887

This seems to be the Mr R J Inch  :)

Richard Jeffrey INCH

Cheers,  JM
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Offline majm

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Re: Identifying a skeleton!!!
« Reply #6 on: Wednesday 20 May 15 07:31 BST (UK) »
https://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1712271/

Richard Jeffrey INCH, a Boer War Veteran who did not return.

JM

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Offline Andcarred

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Re: Identifying a skeleton!!!
« Reply #7 on: Wednesday 20 May 15 07:46 BST (UK) »
Hi again,

I don't know anything at all about the Inch family.  Most of them seem to come from Cornwall.  I also have no idea if he was a true doctor or not.  It would be a big help if we even knew his Christian name.

Marianne Bennett's father John Cramp died in Banana in 1873 and she had all 4 boys (the last one born 1874) baptized in St Johns Cathedral in Brisbane in 1876 and said their father was Walter Bennett and he was a tea planter at Assam in India.   This is clearly untrue as the two born in Drayton were not registered at all and the two born in Banana had their birth certs stamped "illegitimate".  It is also possible that neither Bennett nor Inch were the father of the last two boys.

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Offline Aussie1947

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Re: Identifying a skeleton!!!
« Reply #8 on: Wednesday 20 May 15 07:59 BST (UK) »
Hi,

October 1861.

George Sydney Inches, his son is seeking Sydney residents, friends of the late Dr Charles Inches, RN.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/13055984?searchTerm=

Gerry