The Field Family Newsletter, 7th Edition

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The FIELD Family Newsletter

7th Edition, September 2001, Edited by Dorothy Cefarin
Reprinted here with permission

Babies are beautiful

CONGRATULATIONS

JONES Owen John and Blake Stuart (Twins) born 2001 at Sutherland to Andrew and Narelle Jones (nee Strickland). Grandsons of Neil and Christine Strickland and is descended from Maria Collits/Strickland/Field.

HUTCHINSON Henry Alfred Francis born 2001 at Penrith to Donald and Katrina Hutchinson (nee Murphy). Grandson of Alfred (dec) and Monica Hutchinson (nee Strickland) and is descendent from Maria Collits/Strickland/Field.

ED: Thanks to Judith Strickland for the above information, it's wonderful to hear of the new additions to our family tree please keep us informed of any new arrivals.

As you know we are going to have another Field Family Gathering .... the hall is booked, the day is going to be great, and we look forward to seeing you there with all your charts, letter, photographs of your family tree..... See the last two pages for information also a map.

ED: If anyone has any information about Field's Gully and the house that stood there as told in the following letter, please let us know.

Letter from Dorothy Dengate

Dated: 2nd August, 2001

"I read about the Field Gathering in the Bully Tin yesterday, how I spent all of my childhood at Emu Plains. We (my father & sister) would go to Fields Gully to get rabbits. Do you know where this is and did the house there belong to Edward Field? I feel it did. I have been trying to find someone who knows if we can still get down there as I have been talking about it for years. The house was two stories and had a veranda top and bottom, it was falling down then and we were never aloud to go into it. It would have been about 1940 - 43."

A request has been made for information on the background of Elizabeth and Edward. The following background on Edward Field and Elizabeth Mitchell has been taken from Colin Field&'s "From A Distant Field" which you can access on www.pcug.org.au/~cfield/distantf/

EDWARD FIELD was enlisted as a Private on the 102nd Regiment of Foot, the New South Wales Corps, on 27 July 1789, some 7 weeks after its formation. He came to the Colony of New South Wales with the second fleet, arriving in Sydney on the "Scarborough" on 28 June 1790. On 13 December 1794 he received a grant of 25 acres on the west side of Iron Cove Creek, an area which is now Five Dock. That grant was subsequently revoked, and on 30 June 1803 EDWARD received in its place a grant of 100 acres of land at Castlereagh. He received a further grant of 100 acres at upper Cranebrook (now submerged as part of the Nepean Lakes complex) on 10/5/1809. On 8 August 1801 he was granted his discharge from the New South Wales Corps. In addition to his farming, he is recalled for his skills as a blacksmith. In particular, he is recorded as having provided blacksmithing services and sold produce to William Cox's team that constructed the first road over the Blue Mountains.

ELIZABETH (SARAH) MITCHELL, known as Betty Mitchell, was convicted on 6 March 1790 at the Assizes. Her crime was aiding and abetting in breaking into a dwelling in Studley, North Wiltshire, and the stealing of 5 cheeses and sundry other articles. Though recorded details differ on this question, her trial was most likely at Salisbury. She was sentenced to 7 years transportation. ELIZABETH was transported on the "Mary Ann", arriving Sydney 9 July 1791.

ELIZABETH (SARAH) MITCHELL's first child, a daughter names SARAH, was born 19 May 1792, the father being one JAMES WILSON. It seems likely that about that time ELIZABETH (SARAH) was assigned to EDWARD FIELD. The first four children of ELIZABETH and EDWARD were born out of wedlock, a not uncommon occurrence in the very early days of the Colony of New South Wales. In early 1805, they married at St John's Church at Parramatta.

Though troubled by serious flooding, the farm at Castlereagh was obviously a success. In the Gazette of 5 February 1809 it was advertised for sale. The advertisement describes it as "a capital farm at the Nepean...in praise of which too much cannot be said (including) upwards of an acre...laid out in an orchard containing some of the best trees any where to be procured, of the orange, lemon, peach and other kinds (as well as) a public pound".

Both EDWARD and ELIZABETH are buried in the old Castlereagh cemetery, which is located near the junction of Church Street and East Wilchard Road, Castlereagh.

ELIZABETH used the name SARAH from time to time, but no evidence has been found that it was never formally one of her names.

OBITUARY

Hilton Raymond Field
7/8/1929 - 21/3/2001

Our sympathy is with the family of Hilton Raymond Field, his wife Norma and sons Tony and Paul. The funeral service was held on Monday 26 March 2001 at St. Patrick's Church, East Gosford (as they had been living in Erina for the past couple of years and attended this church) and it was a celebration of a very courageous life. The service was followed by the burial at Pinegrove Cemetery. His nephew Hilton Field felt it a great honour to be a pallbearer along with Hilton's only surviving brother Paul and other members of the family.

OBITUARY

Our sympathy is with June and David Eglon of Granville as in recent years they have suffered the loss of some family members.

1. June's father Robert Ronald Field born at Castlereagh on 13/4/09, passed away on the 16/11/99 aged 90 years. His mother being Lucie Ettie May (nee Buckley) and his father being Thomas Albert Field.
2. Robert Field's sister Edna Sylvia Field (who married Norm Johnson) also passed away on the 9/1/01 aged 96 years.
3. Edna Kelso (nee Walker) aged 70 passed away on the 12/8/00. Edna's mother Felice Gwendoline Field, sister of Robert and Sylvia.

They all lived at Penrith in the same street as June and David did at one time.

In the June edition there was an article about Elizabeth Richard's daughter of Sophia Field and Thomas Higgins. This is about her husband William Richards who was born on 30/6/1822. This is his obituary as printed in the Condobolin Lachlander on Wednesday 30/5/1906.

OBITUARIES

Mr. William Richards

There passed away of Monday 28/5/1906 morning last, at the great age of 84 years, the soul of William Richards, of Urah, one of the best known pioneers of the Lachlan River district. Born at Castlereagh, an old town on the Nepean, just below Penrith, he spend his early boyhood in the Hawkesbury River district. Sixty-three years ago he fared west, a member of that hardy bank of pioneers who made our country what it is, and who exploited and explored the Lachlan districts. He settled here, engaging in pastoral and agricultural pursuits the while. Always of a self reliant, persevering nature, he combated drought and flood, resolutely tackling all obstacles till he acquired valuable landed property in the district that witnessed his earlier struggles with fortune. His riverside home Urah, has been known for years as one of the choicest pastures on the Lachlan, and here Mr and Mrs Richards reared their family. Mr Richards was originally owner of Euglo station and sold that property to its present owner some years ago. Though at that very advanced age, the deceased gentleman retained his sprightly vigor and active mental faculties till a few weeks ago, when his final illness settled upon him. He gradually sank under the weight of years, and passed away peacefully and quietly on Monday last. He leaves a wife, five daughters and two sons to mourn their sad loss.

The daughters, all of whom are married are: Mesdames W.G. Innes, (Elsie Vale), T. Atkins, (Pine Grove), H.G. Innes (Clifton), Thomas (Parkes), and Lorking, (Parkes), while Messrs J.H. Richards (Rocky Hall, Parramatta), and R.W. Richards (Urah), are the two sons. The deceased was a brother of the late Benjamin Richards, proprietor of the Riverstone Meat Works.

The funeral left Urah on Tuesday afternoon at 2.30, and was followed by a large number of friends and mourners to the local cemetery. In this picturesque "God's acre" his last mortal remains were consigned to the earth from which; they spring, encased in a handsome polished cedar casket. Mr G.C. Driflield read the burial service. Numerous beautiful wreaths from sorrowing friends were laid on the newly filled grave.

The funeral arrangements were in the hands of Mr. F.W. Marlin.

We tender our sincerest regret to the bereaved wife, daughters and sons.

Below is the obituary of Elizabeth and William's son Thomas born 21/12/1843 and died 4/1/1905.

Mr. Thomas Richards

Early this morning Mr. T. Richards of Weebah, a well known and highly respected resident of the Lachlan passed away at the age of 61 years. Mr. Richards was born at Hartley and was connected with the old Hawkesbury family of the same name. He spent his youth in the historic town of Richmond, and arrived on the Lachlan some 44 years ago. Mr. Richards name was always connected with sporting matters, and he bore the reputation of being a thorough straight goer. The deceased gentleman leaves behind him a widow and a family of five girls and one boy. Among his relatives, who are well known in the Condobolin district, are Mrs. H.G. and Mrs. Warburton Innes, Mrs. Lorking of Parkes, Mrs. Atkins, Mrs. Thomas and Messrs. Jack and Doley Richards.

The late Mr Richards being a member of the local Masonic lodge, his remains will be accorded a public funeral. A Lodge of Sorrow will be held at the Masonic Hall tomorrow afternoon at 2.30 p.m., after which the brethren will attend the funeral in regalia. All members of the Craft are invited to attend.

Nepean Times - Saturday, 11 April 1936

Mr. David Broadbent

The death took place at a private hospital, Liverpool on the 30th March of Mr. David Broadbent, after a brief illness. Deceased who was born in Yorkshire (England) was 86 years of age and for 36 years was attached to the Education Dept. Practically all his teaching life having been done in the Bathurst, Maitland, Parramatta and Nepean districts. He retired from the service 26 years ago his last appointment being at Castlereagh.

Deceased's wife predeceased him by 7 years. He leaves three sons viz., William (Glenfield) Frank (Randwick) and David (Castlereagh).

After a short service the funeral took place in the Methodist portion of the Liverpool Cemetery. Rev. Mr. Little officiating.

Elizabeth Field 1818-1900 married Joseph Stanton 1802-1884
Grandaughter - Clarice Stanton 1884-1939 married David Broadbent 1884-1948 (son of deceased David Broadbent)

Another interesting story of:

"The Old Schoolmaster"

by L.J. Blake B.A., B.Ed.

It was Mary Green - lovely, dark-haired Mary, the Irish colleen from Tuam near the River Clare in County Connacht - who first interested me in the old gentleman.
Not that I ever had the happiness of knowing Mary. And that was a pity for, with her lively Celtic wit and sturdy self-reliance she must have been quite a lass. But, unfortunately she was wed when, if the records are correct, she was aged only sixteen or seventeen - and that was back in 1852.

But meeting Mary 'mid the dust of old documents helped stir to life the ghost of another sturdy pioneer, James Routledge or Rutledge as he later spelled the name. James, the schoolmaster, has his story scattered through various papers and notebooks. Because he was on of Australia's early teachers I feel it is time that what is know of his story was finally collated. And, had it not been for the generous assistance of Mr. C.D. Richardson, the Mitchell Librarian, such valuable material about Rutledge would never have been unearthed.

Amongst this material is an undated manuscript by Rutledge himself - Recollections of Early Methodism in new South Wales - in which his origins become sketchily clear. Of Irish birth (he recalls seeing a revival meeting in Ireland in 1839) he came to Australia about 1840 which his sister Margaret and brother Thomas. He began his teaching and local preaching career in Australia in the Castlereagh district but, as he was referred to nine years later as "an old schoolmaster", he was, on arrival here, apparently a man of mature experience.

The First school in which he taught was, as were so many schools of the eighteen thirties and forties, held in a Church; in this instance the Wesleyan Church at Nepean in the Castlereagh district. He was one of the four local preachers of the Windsor Circuit - "an Englishman, a Scotsman, and Irishman and a Welshman" - who met at Richmond by the Hawkesbury River in 1841 to discuss church affairs.

He has mentioned meeting this year a Mrs Stanton "whose sister afterwards became my wife", Lucy Ann Routledge (they were married in the Church where he taught and preached and where "my brother Thomas was buried and there I buried my sister Margaret and her husband") bore him a daughter Maria and, in 1843, a son Arthur.

By his own account Rutlege taught at the Wesleyan school until 1845. Four years later he was apparently in charge of a Wesleyan school at Parramatta with a government allowance of 25 pounds a year, paid by the Denominational Schools Board which Fitzroy had set up the previous year. The Report of Day Schools for the Parramatta circuit stated that his "school has been commenced during the year and is creditably conducted and at the recent half-yearly examination, gave general satisfaction to the visitors".

This report was tabled at the July meeting of the Methodist Church of Australia. However a peculiar discrepancy occurs in the records at this stage. In a letter addressed to the General Superintendent of Wesleyan Missions, 20th February 1849 it was stated that "Mr Routledge is an old master, but who for a few years past has not been employed by us, in consequence of his having been obliged by family circumstances to remove to a distant part of the country. He commence about eighteen months ago a school at Parramatta under our patronage and is now for the first time placed on the list of Government schools."

During the family's sojourn in Parramatta a second son, traced only by the initials W.W., was born. The grant of 25 pounds a year plus fees was little enough for the family and the schoolmaster must have found a frugal life necessary. Therein lay his reason for transferring from the denominational to the national schools.

George Rusden, agent for the N.S.W. National Board of Education made a brief tour of the Moreton Bay district in 1850. After a successful meeting with parents at Brisbane he rode to Ipswich and thence to Drayton on the Darling Downs.

Pioneer settled of the Darling Downs - men such as Hodgson and Elliott - had cleared a dray track from the head of Westbrook Creek, past the Springs between Sugarloaf and One Tree Hill and thence through the swamp to the Spur on the Dividing Range by which a way was found to Brisbane. Along this track Rusden rode.

At the Springs he found a stopping place for settlers' drays, a place which has carried the obvious name of Drayton. Bill Horton ("The Fiver") had an inn there, "The Bull's head", and one Meehan an opposition grog shanty. The place also boasted a general store and course for picnic race-meetings. J.C. Burnett under instructions from the N.S.W. Surveyor-General, Major Mirchell, had survey the township site as well as a road south to Warwick.

That had been in 1848 when the first agitation for a public school occurred. Rusden called his meeting in 1850 and was promised immediate support for the establishment of a national school at Drayton. A committee of patrons which included publicans Horton and Meehan and the storekeepers Handcock and Alford, lodged a request in July 1850 with the National Board in Sydney for the grant of 150 pounds toward the cost of a national school at Drayton. It is significant the first two national schools in Moreton Bay District were at Brisbane and Drayton.

By 1851 the committee had the school ready for a teacher. The National Board offered the position to James Rutledge who accepted. With his wife and three children he journeyed north to the Downs to open the new school in September.

With the family came Mary Green. Mary has been described as a companion to Lucy Ann, James's wife, but it seems more likely she was employed to help care for the three children. But Mary warrants fore that a passing comment.

"She was tall, very slender and had long ropes of jet black hair, her hands were lovely - white and long and exquisitely shaped." She too had come from Ireland - from the village of Tuam by the River Clare. By one of those queer quirks of nomen clature the Irish village of Castlerea was only some score of miles north west of Tuam.

Settled in at Drayton Rutledge soon discovered that, financially, he was going to be in difficulties. Dr. Wyeth has described the unpleasant situation which Rutledge unwittingly developed. He appealed to the National Board for an increase in his salary of 40 pounds a year and was granted an extra annual bonus of 5 pounds. But this was not enough. The large school he had hoped for with its concomitant of satisfactory fees to bolster his meagre salary, was non-existent, living costs in the remote settlement proved much higher than in Sydney.

The Board permitted him to obtain 10 pence a week in fees for each pupil. Rutledge went a step further by offering extra tuition for a number of pupils at a shilling a week. It is pitiful now to think that those extra tuppences could have been so important to him. And his proposal had the unfortunate result that, when incensed parents withdrew their youngsters from the school attendance fell lower still.

The rumpus between schoolmaster and parents flared for the time until the parents agreed to guarantee their teacher a guinea a week in fees. To meet such a guarantee parents gave voluntarily what they could but when "McLeod offered 2 shillings and 6 pence for five children in 1852 Rutledge demanded more."

Parents again protested indignantly. The little town seethed with such hostility towards the schoolmaster that the National Board, in response to complaints from both sides, insisted that the patrons fix a scale of fees. The was done. Enrolments climbed steadily to thirty four and, by the next year, Rutledge's financial position was rather more stable.

But in the midst of all this turmoil over finances Mary Green had left them. The cause was a personable young Welshman who sometimes rode into Drayton from a far-west surveyor's camp to collect the mail. He had once been speared by the blacks, he had a remarkable bullocky mate known as Hell-Fire George, his mind was stuffed with all kinds of bush-lore and optimistic dreams of the west lands. And he fascinated sixteen-year-old Mary.

Lucy Ann helped plan the wedding. Tom Davis and Mary were wed in 1852 and set off by bullock wagon for Tom's beloved west. But Mary, years later, was to remember fondly young Arthur Rutledge whom his parents planned should be a minister of the church.

In March 1854 Sir Charles Fitzroy, on his gubernatorial visit to the Moreton Bay District, travelled out to Drayton. So important was education regarded by His Excellency that he visited Drayton school to conduct personally the examination. In his role of inspector Fitzroy "was presented with a fulsome address composed entirely the youngsters, so it was said, and written beautifully by a boy not ten years old."

Fitzroy was delighted. He commended the schoolmaster on the quality of the instruction- and that must surely have been the finest moment Rutledge ever had.

But he had no desire to stay in Drayton. In 1855, giving as his reason the ill-health of his children, Rutledge applied for a transfer. The Board granted this and the family moved away to Clarence Town.

What happened to him after that is perhaps still hidden in the records but it is doubtful if he lived to see his son Arthur become, in 1883, not a minister of the Church but Attorney-General for the State of Queensland.

When Mary and Tom Davis came back to live in Drayton the Rutledges had gone but Mary named her eighth child after the small boy she had cared for in the early fifties. Her eighth child, Arthur, was born in 1868. Most folk remember him better as Steele Rudd.

The original of this article is in the Mitchell Library, Sydney.

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED PLEASE

David and June Eglon spoke to a man who showed them some old photos of Thomas Albert Field holding a baby sitting in a chair outside a slab hut. If possible they would like a copy of this photo and are willing to pay for it. If you have this photo please contact the editor.

In answer to another question asked - Emmaline Field b. 12/12/1872 at Penrith married 24/1/1894 at Penrith to George Bellingham b. 17/4/1871 of Camden d. 1926 Penrith. Emmaline d. 10.1.1934 Penrith.

Does someone know the answer to this please?

Elizabeth Mitchell had a child named Sarah to a James Wilson before she married Edward Field. A James Wilson came out as an Able Seaman with the 1st fleet on the flagship HMS Sirius, is this the father of Sarah or was there another James Wilson?

Mary Ann Stanton

2nd child of Joseph and Elizabeth Stanton
Born: 25/11/1839
Bapt. 25/12/1839 by Rev. Henry Fulton.
Died: 9/10/1918 at Orange aged 78 years.
Married: 25/12/1857 to McCausland Lamrock aged 25, Saddle and Harness Maker, born 1833, died 6/7/1908 son of James Lamrock, farmer of Penrith and Jane Cuthbertson.
Witnesses: John Stanton, Sarah Lamrock
Minister: Rev. Theo Beagley of Wesleyan Chapel, Castlereagh.

McCausland Lamrock

There came to Orange in the year 1880, a native of Londonderry, Ireland whose contribution to district life of Orange was to be a valuable one.

His name was McCausland Lamrock.

Accompanied by his father James to NSW, he later settled at Kurrajong, on the Hawkesbury River. Like most of the early immigrants who took up residence on the Hawkesbury, Lamrock lived long - until the age of 77 years of age.

On arrival in Orange this pioneer tradesman already controlled saddlery and harness shops at Penrith, Bathurst and Forbes, and later establishing shops at Orange and Dubbo.

While resident of Orange he built a terrace of houses in East Orange which still bears his name, together with a number of fine homes.

For many years he conducted an auctioneering business to advantage.

Lamrock reared a fine family, apart from giving a good contribution to development of Orange.

James Lamrock died 1/6/1890 at the residence of his daughter Mrs.Paine Cullenbone, Mudgee in his 93rd year.

McCausland Lamrock b.1833 d.1908 at Orange.
Arrived 1852 per "Agincourt"
Also Ann Jane b.1834 d.1860;
Cuthburt b. 1836 d.1907 Gulgong;
James b. 1797 d. 1890 Kurrajong.

In one paper it states McCausland Lamrock was born in 1831, Cumber, County Derby, England.
Has anyone further information as to the correct place he was born or where he came from?

PLEASE BRING ALONG TO THE GATHERING ANY STORIES, PHOTOS ETC. THAT YOU HAVE ON YOUR FAMILY SO THAT IT MAY BE PRINTED IN THE "FIELD FAMILY NEWSLETTER", LITTLE TIT-BITS ON THEIR LIVES CAN BE INTERESTING TO US IN THIS DAY AND TIME. SEE YOU ON 13TH AT MELROSE HALL, IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND PLEASE SEND THEM TO ME.. REGARDS DOROTHY CEFARIN

FIELD FAMILY GATHERING

ON SATURDAY 13th October 2001
MELROSE HALL - EMU PLAINS
Corner of The Great Western Highway and Park Street

The family gathering of the descendants of Edward and Elizabeth Field (nee Mitchell)

Bring along all your wall charts of family trees, letters, photographs, and anything else for us all to see, discuss and find out more about our ancestors.
Put your displays out on tables or pin them up on the wall

Bring a picnic lunch.. Tea, coffee and cordial provided at a small cost

The "Block and Tackle" Band will delight us with old ballads and we hope a sing-a-long get-together.

We have face painting for the younger generations

Wine and goodies to be raffled.

Family Tree information and past editions of The Field Family Newsletter will be available to those wishing to purchase

We hope to have Joy Murrin a Transcription Agent with us to give a talk on how to get NSW B.D.& M. Certificates, also certificates from England & Wales, Scotland, Ireland & New Zealand.

No RSVP are required, just turn up after 9am and have a great Field Day.
Please photocopy this and send to all of your relatives.
A donation of $3 per adult is sought on the day to defray costs.

Organised by:
Dorothy Cefarin
24 Eggleton St.
Blacktown 2148
Phone 02 9671-2129
doff202@comcen.com.au

David Rawsthorne
PO Box 139
Lithgow 2790
Phone 02 6353 1843
david@davidrawsthorne.com