AUS-NSW-Hunter-Valley-L Archives

Archiver > AUS-NSW-Hunter-Valley > 2004-11 > 1100639669


From: David Fitzsimmons <>
Subject: Re: [HV] A FAVOURITE ANCESTOR - Mary Lees. Part 15
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 08:14:29 +1100
References: <017c01c4cabd$ca4ead40$aa581ed3@ADOUGHTY>
In-Reply-To: <017c01c4cabd$ca4ead40$aa581ed3@ADOUGHTY>


Great storey Janice

A little more information relevant to Chapter 11 can be found on the website:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~yewenyi/234.htm
which says:

"Jury learned that his nephew, who had been in partnership with him in
a coach building and painting business had been embezzling the books.

If Jury stayed he would have to report his nephew for his crime and
this could either result in the death sentence or transportation for
Life to the Colony of Port Jackson for his brother's son. Jury was
afraid that he also could be charged over the embezzlement and could
end up in Debtor's prison. He had no other option open to him but to
flee with his family, leaving the farm and their furnishings behind
hoping that when sold this, would cover all debts outstanding."

This was pointed out to me by a Brendan Cramp.

Cheers

David Fitzsimmons
Canberra




On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 13:49:56 +1100, Janice Doughty
<> wrote:
> Good afternoon Marg and Listers,
>
> At last the story is coming to an end..............
>
> Between being a wife, mother and general hand on the farm, the granddaughter of convict Mary (Lees) Pearce, Mary Ann Cramp was also the local midwife and between all these duties, she also managed between 1862 and 1884 to give birth to 10 children, 5 boys and 5 girls, they were Thomas Henry 1862, Alfred Ernest 1866, Elizabeth Jane 1866, Josiah 1869, George Rueben 1871, William Clifford 1874, Hannah 1876, Lucy 1878, Naomi 1881 and Maria Sarah 1884, all the Cramp children survived to adulthood.
>
> Not that long ago two photographs were found, stored in the preverbal shoe box, which may help to solve the mystery of Elizabeth Pearce (nee Mcguiness) Mary Ann's mother. Not all the questions are answered, but we now know that she lived to a ripe old age. The first photograph is of a plumpish short elderly lady, sitting on a chair, dress in a fine black lace and taffeta dress of very good quality. She is wearing a quaint bonnet with a large taffeta bow tied on the left side of her chin, just under her left ear. She is holding an umbrella in her right hand and her left-gloved hand is resting on an open book, which sits on a small marble pedestal table. It is a studio photograph and she is posed. The lady appears to be in her late 70's, and the year could be around 1890.
>
> On the front of the photograph has the name of the photographer, R. Moore and underneath his name is the printed the word "Coonamble". Coonamble is a smallish country town on the Castlereagh River, 569 km north-west of Sydney in New South Wales. On the back of the photograph in Maria Sarah Doughty (nee Cramp's) handwriting are these words, "...my grandmother Elizabeth Pearce.." Later added by Sarah's daughter Marjorie are the words, "...my mother's (Sarah's) grandmother, Pearce..." So this is a photograph of Elizabeth, the little girl who at the age of 5 arrived on the female convict ship, Friendship, with her convict mother Eliza Macginnis and her 7 year old brother Thomas. She has a very strong set to her jaw, which also can be seen in photographs of her daughter Mary Ann Cramp, (nee Pearce) and many of her descendants.
>
> Another clue later came to light, with another photograph, which had been for years in a frame, it was taken out of the frame and stored in a shoe box with other family photographs, along the side on the white surround, was written, again in the hand of Sarah Maria Doughty (nee Cramp), "...my brothers Joe (Josiah), Bill (William) and Reube (George Reuben)..." The young men are posed with a false background, they are formerly dressed and are in their early 20s. Standing in front of the young men is a girl around ten years of age and she is also dressed in her very best. Sarah Cramp has noted that the little girl is "...a cousin Maude Evans, taken at Coonamble...", but no year is noted.
>
> So, we can now assume that the photograph taken of Elizabeth Pearce (nee Mcguiness), Sarah's grandmother, and the photograph of Sarah's Cramp brothers and Sarah cousin Maude Evans, must have been taken at the same time in the New South Wale's country town of Coonamble. One can assume that the family were there for either a wedding or a funeral. However, it is a long way from Binda for the Cramp family to travel, however we can assume that the elderly lady Elizabeth was with them, maybe Maude Evans it the clue that could solve this mystery. Who is Maude Evans? How is she related to the Cramps? At the time of the photograph Sarah Maria Cramp, whose writing is on the photographs, would have been around 6 to 7 years of age. She made these notes as an adult, many years later. So we are still left with a mystery concerning Elizabeth, was she living in Coonamble and her grandsons had come to visit her? Or did she travel with them from the Southern Tablelands to Coonamble to !
ce!
> lebrate some kind of family get together?
>
> On the morning of 11th July in 1914, George Cook Cramp woke from a deep sleep; he had a feeling that something was very wrong. He turned to his wife Mary Ann, who lay in bed beside him and immediately he knew that during the night her soul had left him, she was now at eternal peace. George got out of bed and dress in his best, he left his home and walked up the hill to the top of the property. As he walked one can imagine that he thought about his Mary Ann and how they had moved here so many, many years before. His son Thomas, the first born of his ten children, had purchased the top paddock from his father some years before and had built his family home there. George knocked on the door of his son's home and when Thomas opened it, George informed his son that his mother was dead, he then broke down and sobbed.
>
> George Cook Cramp never walked down that hill again to his beloved home, as he felt in his heart that it was no longer the same place and on the 5th December 1915, George Cook Cramp passed away on the property of his son Thomas. George died of 'senile decay'. George was laid to rest beside his wife Mary Ann in the Church of England section of Binda Cemetery.
>
> .............and so ends the story of Mary Lees a convict, a mother and a grandmother and her descendants and of a time and a place in our history we only can try to imagine.
>
> The end.
>
> Regards,
> Janice
>
> ==== AUS-NSW-Hunter-Valley Mailing List ====
> Please type surnames only in all caps . Helps them stand out from a computer screen
>
>

This thread: