THE STORY OF CHARLES AND MARGARET RICH (GIBSON)

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Romford, Essex, England, United Kingdom
Surnames/tags: Rich Gibson Keating

This is the story of an English convict and an Irish orphan girl. It is the story of poverty and struggle, of human foible and human strength. It is a story of limited hope built on the limited aspirations of two immigrants who left their homeland not by choice but by necessity. It is, essentially, an Australian story but it begins, on the one hand in village of Romford in Essex, England and, on the other, in the village of Bansha in County Tipperary, Ireland.

In 1836, the village of Romford in Essex stood well outside the urban sprawl of the city of London. But the metropolis was, nevertheless, within walking distance of the village. Local farmers could transport their produce and drive their livestock to the city markets while local tradesman addressed the passing parade moving to and from the capital. There was prosperity in this proximity and there were temptations in prosperity. Charles Rich, an eighteen-year-old youth from the village of Romford succumbed to temptation and decided to avail himself of some of this prosperity.

Midday on Thursday 23rd September 1836, found Charles Rich wandering near the farm of James Meakin just outside the neighbouring village of Hornchurch. Young Rich spoke to John Holly, a farm servant working for Meakin, and asked him a few questions about the sheep in Meakin's field. Later that evening Holly went to the nearby Harrow public house and saw Charles Rich again. Under cover of darkness Rich returned to Meakin's field, broke open the surrounding hedges and stole twenty head of sheep. By noon on Friday 24th September he was well on his way to London markets about fifteen miles from where he had stolen the sheep. He took his flock first to the Islington market north of the city but then decided to drive them on to the Leadenhall Markets in the heart of London not far from the Bank of England and virtually next door to the famous insurance house Lloyds of London. Here he sold ten of the sheep for slaughter to one broker and ten to another. Six or seven days later, Charles Rich was taken into custody and charged with stealing the sheep, which were valued at £1.10.0.^[1]

On 24th October 1836, Charles Rich appeared in the Central Criminal Court, London (The Old Bailey) to answer the charges. He was able to prove character references from a salesman, a tailor, a fishmonger and a stove maker all of Romford. But the evidence against him was too great. Charles Rich was found guilty of sheep stealing and was sentenced to transportation for life to New South Wales.^[2]

About the same year that Charles Rich was convicted (or perhaps a year or two later) a baby girl was born to Richard and Margaret Keating in the village of Bansha straddling the road from the town of Tipperary to the town of Clonmel in Ireland. The new addition to the family was called Margaret after her mother. Baby Margaret Keating had at least one sister, Mary, who was eight years old and at least one brother, Michael Keating, who was seven years old. Not much is known of the Keating family of Bansha. They were Catholic, were almost certainly very poor and were living in a part of Ireland, which was to be hit hard by the potato famine of 1845-1850. Educational opportunities were limited for the Keating children, most especially the girls, and although Michael Keating learned to read and write, his two sisters, Mary and Margaret, were only able to read. Certainly, throughout her entire life, Margaret Keating was unable to write her own name and when her name appeared on official documents it was variously spelt Caton, Keaton, Keatie, Keyton or Katie depending on how officials interpreted Margaret's heavy Irish brogue. By the time Margaret was 13 years of age both her parents were dead and her prospects in Ireland were bleak.^[3]

Charles Rich had no prospects in his homeland. His future lay entirely in a land he had never seen. He made his voyage to New South Wales aboard the Convict Transport Mangles, which left England in early March 1837, arriving at Sydney on 9th July of the same year. There were 310 male convicts on board the ship, Charles Rich being number 37-1089. For the record he was described as a shepherd, 20 years of age (other ship's entries have his as 18 years old). He was a Protestant who could both read and write. He was 5 feet 7 inches tall, of ruddy complexion, a little pock-pitted, probably reflecting some childhood disease, with light brown hair and blue eyes. His nose was a little twisted, he had a small perpendicular scar on the inner corner of his left eyebrow and had a small mole on his lower left arm.^[4] In the days before photographs, such descriptions were very important in identifying convicts and this description was to haunt Charles Rich in later life.

The voyage to New South Wales was not pleasant - few convict ships were. One soldier and four or five convicts died en route and we know from the surgeon's report that the water closets were not properly fitted and their filth leaked into the convicts berths causing outbreaks of dysentery. Twice during the voyage, Charles Rich came down with catarrh and was treated in the ship's hospital. It is also possible that, on this voyage, Charles Rich struck up a friendship with another convict, George Gibson from the County of Cornwall. The name Gibson was to be important to Charles Rich in years to come.^[5]

Upon arrival in New South Wales, Charles Rich was assigned as a convict servant to Captain William Dumaresq of St Aubins in the Hunter Valley near Scone.^[6] William Dumaresq and his brother, Colonel Henry Dumaresq, a Waterloo veteran, were brothers-in-law of the former governor of New South Wales, Sir Ralph Darling, and had come to Australia with Darling in 1825. Both brothers served Darling in various official capacities. William Dumaresq retired from public office in 1829 amidst acrimonious charges from the Sydney press that Darling was favouring his in-laws and, for a number of years thereafter, Dumaresq devoted his energies to improving his St Aubins estate.^[7] By the late 1830's when Charles Rich was assigned to St Aubins, the two Dumaresq brothers were regarded as having the best-managed estates in the Hunter Valley. Reverend John Dunmore Lang, the fiery Presbyterian preacher and political activist, described Henry Dumaresq's St Heliers estate in the following terms:

One of the best-regulated estates in the colony is that of Colonel Dumaresq . . . The law on his estate is the law of kindness, and incitement to industry and good conduct are rewards, not punishments. The convict labourers reside in whitewashed cottages, each having a little garden in front. Prizes are awarded to those who keep their cottages in the best order . . . The result of such a system is just what might be expected; the men are sober, industrious and contented.^[8]

William Dumaresq's estate was also commented upon very favourably. Therefore Charles Rich was somewhat lucky to have been assigned to such a master as William Dumaresq. He could have done a lot worse.

As well as their Hunter Valley estates, both Dumaresq brothers had extensive squatting runs in New England. Henry holding the large Saumarez Run and William the adjoining Tilbuster Run. It was in the southern portion of Tilbuster, near is boundary with Saumarez that the city of Armidale would later stand. It would seem that Charles Rich was sent to work on Tilbuster Run sometime in the early 1840s when New England was still frontier country and Armidale was just a cluster of stringy bark huts along Dumaresq Creek. In September 1845, Charles Rich was granted a ticked of leave on the recommendation of the commissioner of the New England Border Police which was a special frontier police force based in Armidale.^[9] Rich was to stay in the New England region but was free to seek his own employment. On 10th August 1850, fourteen years after his original crime, Charles Rich was grated a conditional pardon.^[10] He was now a free man on the one condition that he never return to Britain. It seems that in the next few years Charles Rich worked mainly in New England and the Hunter Valley.

Half a world away the surviving members of the Keating family of Bansha, County Tipperary were making plans to leave Ireland for New South Wales. Michael, Mary and Margaret Keating had decided to emigrate, as had their cousins from nearby Kilmoynagh, James and Catherine Keating. The Keatings already had kin in New South Wales. Two first cousins of Michael, Mary and Margaret, named Bridget and Ellen Flynn, were living in Sydney. The Keatings boarded the immigrant ship David McIver as assisted immigrants in the winter of 1852 to sail for Australia. The ship arrived in Sydney on 19th May 1852. According to passenger details, Mary Keating was a 22-year-old farm servant and Margaret Keating a 14-year-old nursemaid. Their brother, Michael Keating, was described as a 21-year-old farm labourer.^[11]

It is not known how the other members of the Keating family fared in their new homeland. However, in 1854, Margaret Keating spent some time in Maitland where she met Charles Rich^[12], a man at least 18 years older that she. On 16th November 1854, Charles Rich and Margaret Keating were married in St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney by Father John Joseph Terry, the famous pioneer Irish Catholic priest who had just returned from his years of arduous labour in Van Dieman's Land.^[13] Shortly thereafter, Charles and Margaret Rich moved to Armidale and there, on 1st January 1856, their first child, Matilda Rich, was born. A second daughter, Elizabeth Rich, was born on 15th April 1857^[14] and was baptised on 13th December 1857 at the Armidale Catholic Church by Reverend John T Dunne.^[15]

At the time of the birth of his second daughter, Charles Rich described himself as a bullock driver. He must have been able to save some money from his job, or related activities, for on 27th May 1857; Charles Rich attended a Crown Land auction in Armidale and purchased for £15 a half-acre block of land on the northeast corner of Brown and Dangar Streets overlooking the town.^[16] Despite the prevailing laws, which made it very difficult for married women to hold property, the Crown Grant for the land was issued in the name of Margaret Rich.^[17] This was a prime piece of real estate and Charles and Margaret Rich set up home here, erecting a strong, slab, and four-roomed cottage. The house was floored, which was not necessarily typical for those times, it had a brick chimney and a strong three-railed fence enclosed the land. Behind the house was a large well-built stockyard and nearby pigsties.^[18] In this home on 11th April 1859, a son was born to Charles and Margaret Rich. They named their first son Charles, after his father.^[19]

Given this fairly promising start, Margaret Rich may have expected to continue in Armidale in security and some modest prosperity. But such was not to be. Between 7 and 8 o'clock on the night of 11th July 1859, Constable John Callaghan and Thomas Child of the Armidale Police received information of some suspicious undertakings at Charles Rich's stockyards. The police went up to Brown Street to investigate. They found Charles Rich, local butcher Ralph Titcomb and Thomas Beament, a young servant of Titcomb skinning a bullock by moonlight. When questioned about the ownership of the beast, Charles Rich admitted that the beast was branded 'HD', the well known brand of Henry Dangar, the owner of the Gostwyck Run just south of Armidale, but Rich maintained he had purchased the animal earlier that day. Constable Child stayed at the scene while Callaghan went to fetch the chief constable, Lloyd Bradshaw. While they were waiting for Bradshaw to arrive, Charles Rich was heard to moan, "Oh my God what shall I do?" Bradshaw took charge of the hide and the next day he arranged for Arthur Hunter Palmer, the manager of Dangar's Gostwyck Run, to examine the brand. Palmer confirmed that the brand was Dangar's and that the beast was stolen.^[20]

Ralph Titcomb and Thomas Beament were arrested for cattle stealing and committed to stand trial at the following Quarter Sessions in Armidale. Beament was later released because of his youth and was excused for what was considered an unwitting complicity. Titcomb was sentenced to gaol. Charles Rich, however, escaped and immediately a warrant was issued for his arrest. A description of the fugitive, using exactly those words which had first been used to describe him as a young convict in 1837, was now published in the New South Wales Police Gazette.^[21] There was a reward of £5. An identical description was circulated amongst the police in Victoria.^[22]

The next few months were extremely difficult for Margaret. Her husband was on the run and she was left in Armidale with a small family and no kin to help. She had also been implicated in her husband's crime. The Armidale manager of the Australian Joint Stock Bank testified to her having cashed a cheque for £15 the day after the bullock was slaughtered.^[23] The cheque was drawn by Ralph Titcomb, the butcher, and made out to Charles Rich, obviously a payment for the carcass of the beast. It must have occurred to some people that Margaret Rich may have known about the cattle stealing before any arrests were made. Certainly a few months later, Margaret was walking home from town along Dangar Street and a resident, Mary O'Dell, came out of her house calling, "there goes the spy, go home and wash you dirty clothes, there goes the thief."^[24]

It is not known how Charles and Margaret Rich were able to communicate during this period of separation but they were certainly able to plan their future. In late September 1859, Margaret Rich put her house on the market and for the next six weeks it was advertised for sale, being described as situated in the most commanding position in Armidale.^[25] Despite this extensive advertising, the house and land were not sold at this time. It was probably towards the end of 1859 that Margaret Rich and her three children left Armidale. She must have joined her husband shortly thereafter because their next child, Henry, was born on 11th February 1861.^[26]

Charles and Margaret are next located on the goldfields of northern Victoria where their fifth child and third son, John, was born on 23rd October 1863. By this time however, Charles and Margaret had changed their name to Gibson. ^[27]Their new home was the gold town of Rutherglen, in the Murray River valley west of Albury, where gold had been discovered in September 1860 and a wild rush had begun.^[28] By 1863 the population had settled back to about 3000, about a quarter of what it had been in the frenetic days of the first rush,^[29] but more substantial buildings and the signs of more sedentary lifestyles had begun to emerge. In particular schools and churches testified to the growth of family life. As early as November 1860 the Catholic Church had established a school at Rutherglen and by 1863 this school had an average attendance of 72 pupils.^[30] This seems to have been the most successful of the early schools^[31] and it is likely that Matilda, Elizabeth and young Charles Rich Gibson received their first lessons in this school.

During the mid 1860s, Charles Rich Gibson was working the Clydesdale Lead, one of the deep lead mines in the area. There was little formal attention to mine safely in these early years and there were occasional fatal accidents caused mainly by cave-ins or methane gas explosions. There was such an explosion in one of the claims on the Clydesdale Lead in August 1863 only weeks before John Gibson's birth.^[32] Charles Rich Gibson was still working at the Clydesdale Lead when his next daughter, Emma, was born on 16th January 1866.^[33] Sometime after Emma's birth Charles Rich Gibson became ill.^[34] The nature of the illness is not known but is seems to have been degenerative and what was probably a regular income prior to the onset of illness now became intermittent. Much of the history of this family in the next ten years can be explained by reactions to, firstly, straitened circumstances and then abject poverty.

Margaret Rich Gibson must have some reliable support in child care from her husband, who was presumably working less frequently in the mines, and from here eldest daughter, Matilda, who was now ten years old. This support allowed Margaret to leave Rutherglen late in 1866 and return to Armidale. The purpose of the journey was to sell the house and land on the corner of Brown and Dangar Streets, which had failed to sell in 1859 despite its favourable position. The family needed the money. The house came on the market again in December 1866 and Margaret, by then in Armidale and going under the name of Rich, entrusted the sale to auctioneer Lloyd Bradshaw. He was the same Lloyd Bradshaw, who as Chief Constable of Police had investigated Charles Rich's crime seven years earlier. The land described as the prettiest building site in Armidale was auctioned at the Wellington Inn on Christmas Eve^[35] by once again there was difficulty in the sale.

The reason is not hard to find. There seems to have been a buyer - John Moore, Mayor of Armidale and a leading storekeeper and property dealer. But Moore obviously doubted Margaret Rich's good title to the land. This was because she was a married woman and her husband was not around to give his legal consent to the transaction. Moore obviously feared that Charles Rich may not have been in agreement with the sale and that the sale might even be disputed an invalidated at a later date. Even if Charles Rich were in agreement, Moore knew very well that he would be unlikely to return to New South Wales to sign the legal documents. There was a solution but it would entail cost and delay. John Moore insisted that Margaret Rich transfer her title to the land from the Old System of legal title to the new Torrens Title,^[36] which had been introduced into New South Wales in 1863. The major difference between the two systems of title was that the Government guaranteed the Torrens Title whereas the Old System was not. But the transfer process was extremely expensive and time consuming and Margaret Rich would have had to bear the cost without being able to pass that cost onto the purchaser. John Moore was nothing if not a shrewd businessman.

Eventually Margaret Rich sold the land to John Moore on 25th January 1867,^[37] and returned to her family in Rutherglen and to her new identity as Margaret Gibson. However there was one other strange connection between the Moore and the Gibson families. John Moore's eldest daughter, Mary, married a tobacconist George F Todman in 1875. The couple went to live in Sydney where Todman was influential in establishing the WD & HO Wills tobacco factory in the Sydney suburb of Kensington in the early years of the twentieth century. John Moores's youngest son, Edward Charles Moore married Amelia Maclean in 1894 and they, too, moved to Sydney. When George Todman died in 1923 the Kensington estate, which included much of the present suburb, passed to the control of Edward C Moore who proceeded to develop it.^[38] One of the new streets formed was named after Edward's wife Amelia (or Amie) Moore. The street was called Mooramie Avenue. Quite coincidentally, for many years the two eldest daughters of Charles and Margaret Rich Gibson and their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren lived in Mooramie Avenue, Kensington in a family association spanning almost 60 years.

The story of Margaret Rich Gibson's trip to Armidale demonstrates how completely dependant married women were on their husbands. Such women as Margaret had few chances of acquiring independent means and their fortunes rose or fell with those of their husbands. Margaret was to learn the harsher realities of the gendered social structure of nineteenth century Australia.

Charles Rich Gibson continued to flirt with disaster, possibly as a reaction to the threat of poverty, possibly for the thrill of the challenge. On 16th July 1867, he was charged with stealing a saddle, which the police had discovered in his house. His eldest daughter, Matilda, testified that she had found the saddle in a paddock and told her mother who had carried it home. The court believed her and gave Charles the benefit of the doubt and he was discharged with a caution.^[39] Margaret Rich Gibson, despite having a young family, was working at this time. In September 1867, she took her employer, Harland Cook, a Rutherglen brick maker, to court for non-payment of wages and won.^[40] It is quite possible that Margaret was working as a nursemaid, the occupation she professed when she arrived in Australia in 1852, and probably the most suitable job for her when she had very young children of her own to look after.

The family was still in Rutherglen in June 1868, when Margaret made a complaint against a man who had allowed his pigs to wander.^[41] However by October 1869, when their youngest son, George Gibson was born, Charles and Margaret had moved to the El Dorado goldfield not far from Beechworth in the Ovens Valley.^[42] It is most likely that Charles and Margaret took their family to El Dorado in search of work, which was plentiful from late 1868 when two major companies, the Great Extended Gold and Tin Mining Company and the Golden Lake Gold and Tim Mining Company commenced operations.^[43] These were the boom years of El Dorado.^[44] However the family was not to be blessed with good fortune. Shortly before George Gibson's birth, under circumstances not as yet known, Charles Rich Gibson was admitted to the Ovens Benevolent Asylum at Beechworth suffering from paralysis. His affliction was chronic, and the Benevolent Asylum, its final wing completed in 1870 to produce an impressive fascade of polychrome brickwork and elaborate Dutch gables,^[45] was to be his home for over three years.^[46]

Without Charles' income, intermittent though it may have been, the family was soon in great difficulty. In June 1870 Henry and John Gibson, aged nine and seven years respectively, were brought before the court in El Dorado as destitute children.^[47] The Bench of Magistrates ordered that they be sent away to an industrial school but this order was later rescinded.^[48] Obviously Margaret had convinced the Police Magistrate that she could look after the children.

In January or February 1871, Margaret Rich Gibson fell pregnant again for the last time. In the months that followed she reached the stage where she could no longer keep her family together. The year 1871 must have been the most difficult year of her life. Late in April her three middle children, Henry, John and Emma were brought again before the Bench of Magistrates in El Dorado charged with being destitute.^[49] At the hearing it was attested by the Police Constable in charge of the case that Margaret Gibson was an industrious woman but that she was unable to look after her children, having little food in her house and only one blanket to cover the entire family. Margaret explained that her husband had been ill for five years and had been an inmate of the Beechworth Benevolent Asylum for two and a half years. She pleaded with the Bench for help to allow her to keep the children but not only could the magistrates not help her, they explained that, if her children were sent to an industrial school, she would have to make weekly contributions on 2/6 each for their maintenance. The magistrates did not feel that the children were destitute in the sense contemplated by the Act, and the case was postponed.^[50]

This indecision on the part of the magistrates left Margaret in a dilemma. She could not provide for the children without assistance, which was not likely to be forthcoming, nor could she afford to send them away to an industrial school. Under these circumstances, the next incident was probably contrived. Henry, John and Emma were found begging in the streets of El Dorado. They were given a meal by the local blacksmith, Mr Bramston, and were then handed over to the police. The police took the children to their house and found it closed and the door locked.^[51] The children could now be classified as deserted children, within the scope of the Act, and sent away to an industrial school free of any maintenance costs by the parents. Henry and John Gibson were committed to the Sunbury Industrial School for five and six years respectively and Emma Gibson to the Industrial School at Ballarat for seven years.^[52] Early in May the three hapless children, under police escort, headed off for Melbourne and a new life in state institutions.^[53] The two boys stayed together, at one time serving on a nautical training ship. Emma experienced a variety of institutions being never more than twelve months in any one. Eventually Emma, Henry and John were discharged, presumably into their mother's care, in July 1876.^[54]

On 21st October 1871, Margaret's youngest child, a girl named Joanna, was born at El Dorado.^[55] Margaret Rich Gibson continued in El Dorado throughout 1872 probably picking up whatever work she could under the limitations of a baby in arms and a toddler who turned two that year. On 18th April 1872, Margaret took a woman named Catherine Bailey to court for a £2 debt for work and labour and won the case.^[56] Then on 17th January 1873, Charles Rich Gibson discharged himself form the Ovens Benevolent Society.^[57] A possible explanation for this action was that Margaret and the children were about to leave El Dorado and he wanted to go with them. Although records for this period have been difficult to find, it seems that Charles Rich Gibson died shortly after he left the asylum.^[58]

At some time between January 1873 and July 1876, the family left El Dorado and moved to Grahamstown near Adelong in the southern slopes of the New South Wales east of Wagga Wagga. There was an alluvial gold boom in Grahamstown at this time and so the family continued its search for gold. On 24th July 1876, Margaret's eldest daughter, Matilda Rich Gibson, described on her marriage certificate as 'living with friends', married a Grahamstown miner named Martin Kenny.^[59] One witness to the marriage was Charles Rich Gibson but may well have been Matilda's brother who was 17 years old at the time and could well have given his sister away if their father was dead. Ten months later the next eldest sister, Elizabeth Rich Gibson, married Thomas Allen, a miner of nearby Sheppardstown^[60] and so it would seem that the family was permanently settled in southern New South Wales near the town of Adelong.

Margaret Rich Gibson spent the rest of her life in Grahamstown and Adelong, initially caring for her two youngest children, George and Joanna. In 1895 Joanna married Alfred Baird and they moved afterwards to Sydney. In 1902, George Gibson married Lottie Godfrey and they lived in Adelong for most of the rest of their lives. Margaret's second daughter, Elizabeth and her husband, Thomas Allen, also made their home in Adelong where they owned a general store in the main street.

In the later years of her life, while she was capable, Margaret Rich Gibson lived in Adelong in a small three roomed hut furnished in the most basic manner.^[61] However, as she grew older, she suffered from senility and went to live with her son, George and daughter-in-law, Lottie, in Selwyn Street, Adelong. Early in May 1917 her health deteriorated and she became bed-ridden. On Friday evening 12th July 1917, Margaret Rich Gibson died. She was 81 years of age. Of the struggles of her life, her obituary said:

Her good health and indomitable pluck enabled her to pull through her ordeal[s], and as a nurse she was able to drive care from the door. . . The whole of the eight children survive their mother of whom they have reason to be proud. In their childhood she taught them the practical lessons of life, i.e. to work and win, and that no obstacles were insurmountable.^[62]

At the time of her death, her three oldest sons, Charles, Henry (Harvey as he was then known) and John (Jack), were living in Charters Towers, Queensland. Three of her daughter, Matilda (Mrs Kenny), Emma (Mrs Hawthorn), and Joanna (Mrs Baird) were living in Sydney and her daughter Elizabeth (Mrs Allen) and her son George were living in Adelong.

Margaret's death on 12th July 1917 was 58 years to the day after that cattle-stealing incident in Armidale, which had changed the family's fortunes so dramatically. With the passage of time, Margaret and Charles Rich Gibson were to have another link with Armidale. Their daughter Elizabeth, born in Armidale in 1857 married Thomas Allen in 1877. The second daughter of this marriage, Ida Allen, was born in Adelong in 1892 and in 1912 she married Robert Ferry from nearby Tumbarumba. Their first child was Allen Ferry, born in Adelong in 1913. Allen Ferry was my father and Charles and Margaret Rich Gibson were my great great grandparents.

John Ferry

Department of Social Sciences

University of New England

Armidale, NSW

May 1993

Sources

1. ↑ Henry Buckler, Central Criminal Court: Session Papers, (Twelfth Sessions, held 24th October 1836), George Herbert, London, 1836, pp. 1056-1057.
2. ↑ Ibid., p. 1058
3. ↑ List of Immigrants per Ship David McIver (arrived 19 May 1852), Assisted Immigrants Inward to Sydney, Immigration Department, Archives Office of New South Wales, 4/4923.
4. ↑ List of 310 male convicts by the ship Mangles, (arrived 9 July 1837).
5. ↑ Surgeon’s Report per ship Mangles, Public Records Office, London, Admiralty Medical Journals, 1785-1856, Admin 101/47 Archives Office of New South Wales.
6. ↑ N G Butlin, C W Cromwell and K L Suthern (eds), General Return of Convicts in New South Wales: 1837, Australian Biographical and Genealogical Record together with the Society of Australian Genealogists, Sydney, 1987, p. 511.
7. ↑ Nancy Grey, ‘Dumaresq, Henry (1792-1838) and William John (1793-1868)’, in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 1, 1788-1850, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1966, pp. 333-335.
8. ↑ Ibid., p. 334
9. ↑ Ticket of Leave No 45/1604, Charles Rich, Ticket of Leave Butts, Office of the Principal Superintendent of Convicts, Archives Office of New South Wales, 4/4202, Reel 957.
10. ↑ Conditional Pardon No 50/572, Charles Rich, Register of Pardons, Conditional and Absolute, Office of Principal Superintendent of Convicts, Archives Office of New South Wales, 4/4472, Reel 794.
11. ↑ List of Immigrants per ship David McIver.
12. ↑ ‘Death’, Tumut and Adelong Times, 19 July 1917 (page numbers not known).
13. ↑ J Eddy, ‘Therry, John Joseph (1790-1864)’, in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 2, 1788-1850, pp. 509-512.
14. ↑ Birth Certificate for Elizabeth Rich, born 15 April 1857, Births Registers, Armidale Court House.
15. ↑ Baptismal entry for Elizabeth Gibson, Baptismal Register 1853-1861, Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Joseph, Armidale, f. 45.
16. ↑ Result for Lot 32, Sale List of Sale held by Public Auction in Armidale, 27 May 1857, Lands Department of New South Wales, Bridge Street, Sydney.
17. ↑ Crown Grant to Margaret Rich, 7 September 1857, No 57/1666, Register of Town Purchasers B, Land Titles Office of New South Wales.
18. ↑ ‘Sale by Auction – The Key of Armidale – House, Land with Improvements’, Armidale Express, 24 September 1859, p. 3.
19. ↑ Birth Certificate of Charles Rich, born 11 April 1859, Register of Birth, Armidale Court House.
20. ↑ Sworn evidence of Lloyd Bradshaw, John Callaghan, Thomas Child, Arthur Hunter Palmer, Thomas Beament and Henry Peter Stacey, 14 July 1859, Minutes of Proceedings, 19 April 1859 to 11 November 1861, Bench of Magistrates, Armidale, Archives Office of New South Wales, 4/5491, ff. 47-55.
21. ↑ ‘Armidale’, New South Wales Reports of Crime, No 58, 21 July 1859, p. 2, Archives Office of New South Wales, 1/3356.
22. ↑ ‘Armidale’, Victoria Police Gazette, no 30, 28 July 1859, La Trobe Library, LTGMF. 121.
23. ↑ Sworn statement of Henry Peter Stacey, 19 July 1859, Minutes of Proceedings of the Armidale Bench of Magistrates, op. cit., f. 55.
24. ↑ Sworn statement of Margaret Rich, 25 October 1859, case of Margaret Rich v. Mary O’Dell, Minutes of Proceedings of the Armidale Bench of Magistrates, op. cit., f. 81.
25. ↑ Armidale Express, 24 September; 1 October; 8 October; 15 October; 22 October; 29 October 1859.
26. ↑ At this stage no birth certificate has been located in Victoria or New South Wales for Henry.
27. ↑ Entry 23468, Birth of John Gibson, 23 October 1863, Register of Births in the District of Wahgunyah, Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
28. ↑ Brian Lloyd, Rutherglen, Shoestring Press, Wangaratta, 1985, p. 12.
29. ↑ Ibid., p. 27.
30. ↑ Education Department of Victoria, Vision and Reality: A centenary history of state education in Victoria, Education Department of Victoria, Melbourne, 1973, p. 907.
31. ↑ Lloyd, op. cit., p. 39.
32. ↑ Ibid., p. 56.
33. ↑ Entry 18401, birth of Emma Gibson, 16 January 1866, Register of Births in the District of Wahgunyah, Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
34. ↑ ‘Destitute Children’, Ovens and Murray Advertiser, 22 April 1871, p. 3.
35. ↑ ‘Valuable Town Allotment For Sale’, Armidale Express, 22 December 1866, p. 3.
36. ↑ Application to Bring Land under the Provisions of the Real Estate Act, Land Titles Office of New South Wales, Primary Application Form, 7567, Archives Office of New South Wales, 6/10050.
37. ↑ Certificate of Title, Torrens Title Registers, Land Titles Office of New South Wales, Vol 39, Folio 77.
38. ↑ Barry Brice, ‘John Moore’, typescript of an unpublished paper dated 22 April 1992 (in Author’s possession), p. 14.
39. ↑ ‘Rutherglen Police Court’, Federal Standard, 17 July 1867, p. 2.
40. ↑ Case No 1, Margaret Gibson v. Harland Cook, 27 September 1867, Rutherglen Petty Sessions Registers, 11 June 1866 – 21 August 1868, Public Records Office of Victoria, VPRS 345.
41. ↑ Case No 2, Margaret Gibson v. John Pym, 12 June 1868, Rutherglen Petty Sessions Registers, VPRS 345.
42. ↑ Entry 22096, Birth of George Gibson, 31 October 1869, Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
43. ↑ Dudley Sheppard, El Dorado of the Ovens Goldfields, Research Publications Pty Blackburn Ltd, 1982, pp. 50-51.
44. ↑ Ibid., p. 19.
45. ↑ Carole Woods, Beechworth: A Titan’s Field, Hargreen Publishing Co, North Melbourne, 1985, pp. 121-122.
46. ↑ Admission of Charles Gibson, 16 October 1869, Admissions Register, Ovens Benevolent Asylum, Beechworth Hospital Archives.
47. ↑ ‘Destitute Children’, Ovens and Murray Advertiser, 21 June 1870, p. 3.
48. ↑ Case No 434, Police v. Henry Gibson, El Dorado Petty Session, Cause List Book, 16 July 1869 – 31 May 1872, Public Records Office of Victoria, VPRS: 1516, Unit 1.
49. ↑ Case No 134, Police v. Henry Gibson, John Gibson and Emma Gibson, El Dorado Petty Sessions, Cause List Book, 16 July 1869 – 31 May 1872, Public Records Office of Victoria, VPRS: 1516, Unit 1.
50. ↑ Ovens and Murray Advertiser, 22 April 1871, p. 2.
51. ↑ Ovens and Murray Advertiser, 2 May 1871, p. 3.
52. ↑ Case No 150, Police v. Henry Gibson, John Gibson and Emma Gibson, 28 April 1871, El Dorado Petty Sessions, Cause List Book, 16 July 1869 – 31 May 1872, Public Records Office of Victoria, VPRS 1516: Unit 1.
53. ↑ Mountable Constable Anthony Strahan to the Superintendent of Police, Beechworth, 9 May 1871, Police Department, Public Records Office, VPRS 937, Unit 413.
54. ↑ Entries 5349, Henry Gibson; 5350, John Gibson; and 5353, Emma Gibson, 3 May 1871, Admission Registers, Industrial and Reformatory School Office, Victorian Public Records Office, VPRS 4527, Units 3 and 10.
55. ↑ Entry No 23040, Birth of Joanna Gibson, 21 October 1871, Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
56. ↑ Case No 166, Margaret Gibson v. Catherine Bailey, 18 April 1872, El Dorado Petty Sessions, Cause List Book, 16 July 1869 – 31 May 1872, Public Records Office of Victoria, VPRS 1516: Unit 1.
57. ↑ Admissions Register, Ovens Benevolent Society.
58. ↑ The obituary of Margaret Rich Gibson, written in July 1917, stated that ‘just on 45 years ago Mrs Gibson had the full burden of the world’s troubles cast upon her by the death of her husband’. See Tumut and Adelong Times, 19 July 1917.
59. ↑ Entry 4301,Marriage between Martin Kenny and Matilda Gibson Rich, 24 July 1876, New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
60. ↑ Entry 3107, Marriage between Thomas Allen and Elizabeth Rich Gibson, 15 May 1877, New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
61. ↑ Schedule No 1, Real Estate, Stamp Duties Office, Death Duties Branch, Deceased Estate File 81622, Archives Office of New South Wales, 20/630.
62. ↑ Tumut and Adelong Times, 19 July 1917.