John Gordon (1838 - 1865)

Born 3 Jan 1838 in Newton Stewart, Penninghame, Wigtownshire, Scotland

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Ann (Temperley) Staton — married 6 May 1861 (to 28 Mar 1865) in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Descendants

Died 28 Mar 1865 at age 27 in Balmain, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

John Gordon was born in Scotland.

Birth
John was born on the 3rd January 1838 and baptised on the 17th January 1838. He was the lawful son of Wallace Gordon and Margaret Vernon. ^[1]

John Gordon birth and baptismal record

Census records
John appears with his mother and two sisters (Jessie and Isabella) on the 1841 census; and again with his mother, sister Margaret and brothers Wallace, Robert, and Samuel, on the 1851 census.

John Gordon migrated from Scotland to Australia.

John & Wallace Gordon Northern Light Passenger List

Emigration
John and brother Wallace emigrated to Australia by way of the ship Northern Light, arriving in New South Wales on the 9th May 1858.^[2]

Marriage and Children
John married Mary Ann Temperley in Sydney, New South Wales, on the 6th May 1861.^[3]
  Children
  Over the next couple of years John and Mary Ann had two sons, both born in Balmain:
    • Edward (1862–1862)
    • Wallace (1864–1913)

Tragedy Strikes the Family
As reported in the Empire on Wednesday 29th March 1865, a "terrific explosion" occurred at the dry dock in Waterview Bay, Balmain, the day before, where 3 persons were known to have been killed and 6 others dangerously wounded. Those killed were Joseph Porter, engineer's apprentice, aged 17, originally from London, skull fractured, scalded, and otherwise injured; John Gordon, turner, lower part of body smashed; scalded and bruised; and Robert Craig, fireman, leg blown off, and so disfigured that, he could only be recognised by his hands and the watch, chain and waistcoat he had been wearing. Craig left a wife and two children. ^[4]
As reported in the Empire on Thursday 30th March 1865, John's youngest brother, Samuel Gordon (who would have been aged 16), identified the body of his deceased brother, John, aged 27, an engineer. An inquest was begun on the 29th March, at which Dr Owen B Evans deposed that he was a legally qualified medical practitioner residing in Balmain, and that at around half past ten the previous morning he had been called to the dock where he found Joseph Porter and Robert Craig dead and John Gordon dying. Dr Evans described the conditions in which he found Porter and Craig and went on to say that Gordon died soon after his arrival.
The further examination of the witnesses to the inquest was postponed until Tuesday the 4th April at 10 o'clock.^[5]
As reported in the Empire on Wednesday 19th April 1865, the delayed inquest into the Mort's Dock explosion was concluded before the City Coroner, at the Warwick Castle Inn, Balmain, on the 18th April.^[6]

Death and Burial
John's sudden and unexpected death by a boiler explosion on the 28th March 1865 left his wife alone in a strange country with two small children.^[7]

Burial

John was buried in the Presbyterian section of the Devonshire Street Cemetery, New South Wales, row 2166, plot# P-up.^[8]

Re-Burial

When the Devonshire Street Cemetery was resumed in 1901, by the government of the day, to make way for a railway station, a mass exhumation and reinterment occurred. Where possible, family members were notified before the remains were lifted and shifted. John Gordon's remains were removed to La Perouse Cemetery at this time.^[9] In 1976 most of the 2825 moved gravestones were destroyed when the Botany Cemetery Trust created a new "low maintenance" lawn area. The remaining 700-plus stones were installed in concrete strips unrelated to the actual graves below. It is unknown if John's marker was one such preserved, but it is presumed not so.^[10]

Sources

1. ↑ scotlandspeople.gov.uk search: Gordon John Old Parish Registers record type births Date: 17/01/1838, Parish Number: 895/ , ref# 20 123, Parish: Penninghame (Purchased pdf in the personal files of Melanie Paul)
2. ↑ New South Wales State Archives and Records page 11: GORDON John 19 Northern Light 1858 Sydney and/or Newcastle and brother Reel 2138, [4/4795]; Reel 2477, [4/4976]
3. ↑ NSW BDM Marriages Registration Number: 307/1861
4. ↑ trove.nla.gov.au article 29th March 1865
5. ↑ trove.nla.gov.au article 30th March 1865
6. ↑ trove.nla.gov.au article 19th April 1865
7. ↑ NSW BDM Deaths Registration Number: 1450/1865
8. ↑ Australian Cemeteries Index id=15644698 (see below)
9. ↑ New South Wales State Archives Devonshire Street reinterment index search: Surname Gordon FirstName John Date of Death 28/03/1865 Cemetery where reinterred La Perouse Number Citation 414 NRS 15513 [P.030]; Reel 3721
10. ↑ Wikipedia Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park

• Family records and birth, marriage, death certificates or certified copies, journal entries, letters, held by family members.

Census records
freecen.org.uk entry: freecen.org.uk online index, Scotland Census records Newton Stewart Penninghame Wigtownshire

freecen.org.uk entry:freecen.org.uk online index, Scotland Census records Newton Stewart Penninghame Wigtownshire

Cemetery information
austcemindex.com id=15644698 entry: