Young and District Family History Group Inc.

23/06/2026

Another Article from Marty Barclay

Isabella Summerhayes nee Saywell – a lacemaker’s daughter

In the last column I said I would tell a story of a family who were early settlers in Young but outside of the family little is known of their life. George Summerhayes arrived in the hope of riches through gold and although he may not have become a millionaire, it seems he did well enough through his hard work and a little bit of prospecting for his family to live.
On the 8th of October 1865 at St John’s Anglican Church in Young, George Summerhayes married 17-year-old Isabella Saywell. The family believe they had been introduced by her cousin, F***y Eastlake nee Saywell. F***y had married George Eastlake when she was only 17, and they had started married life at the store George had at Spring Creek, Lambing Flat. Isabella was living with the Eastlakes when she married.
Isabella and F***y had known each other all their young and eventful lives, both were born in Calais, France and sailed at a young age with their parents to Australia. They arrived in 1848 as assisted migrants approved reluctantly by Lord Grey and aided by subscriptions from the good people of Nottingham where they Saywell family had come from.
In 1848 during a turbulent revolutionary year in Europe, a substantial number of English lacemakers who called Calais home, decided that they could no longer live there. Some had lived there for many years, leaving England during dire economic times to hope for a better life for their families in Calais. After the Napoleonic Wars, however, another "French" Revolution in 1848 was just too much for many families who had young children. Safety just 20 miles away across the English Channel was an obvious choice but life was a struggle for the lace workers, weavers and stocking makers and they faced the poorhouse if they returned. This made many think of Australia and they petitioned to be considered as assisted immigrants. The Saywell families of George and Jasper, two brothers from Nottingham were among those who sailed. Isabella, George’s daughter was still a baby, and Jasper’s young daughter Frances (F***y) was only 3 years old.
As young married women they would spend their lives in the Young area and the story of Isabella’s married life and family has been researched by the Young and District Family History Group. The researcher there is indebted to information available through Australian Society of the Lacemakers of Calais Inc. and their excellent website, Descendants of the Lacemakers of Calais telling their story.

12/06/2026

A Letter from Ireland is all about Irish Ancestry, the finer points of Irish Genealogy and Surnames - and connecting you with your Irish Heritage!

12/06/2026

Discover what’s new in Trove this June!

There’s no shortage of exciting new finds in Trove this month. From newly added images and books to stories of Australians in Asia during WWII, aviation manuscripts, music and more!

Start exploring Trove today: https://brnw.ch/21x3dUk

12/06/2026

Susannah Conn formerly Lewington nee Rivers

12/06/2026

The Rivers Family of Wombat
This is Marty from Young and District Family History Group with another story from our research. Some family names last in a locality and some disappear whether because there are daughters who take on a husband’s name or they simply move away. The Rivers Family of Wombat is one that is not known around town despite at one time running a hotel which was situated in Rivers Street, Wombat. A street not listed on modern maps which was possibly located around the turn off to Wombat village near the Wombat on the rock.
Elijah Rivers was convicted at the Old Bailey, Middlesex on 15 Jan 1829 and spent time on a prison hulk on the River Thames before he was transported to the colony of New South Wales on 22 May 1829 aboard the ship 'John'. He was sentenced to 14 years transportation for theft while working for a butcher in London and was 19 on his arrival in Sydney. His behaviour in the colony was obviously good as in 1836 he received his Ticket of Leave and just four years later he was given permission to marry a young widow, Mary Ann Davis nee Whittaker. The couple married in St Peter’s Anglican Church in Campbelltown where their children, Charles, Francis, Susannah, Sydney and Alfred were all baptized.
At the time of the goldrush Elijah saw opportunities around the Burrangong Goldfields and brought his young family to the area. He settled in Wombat where he was able to purchase land and to establish himself as a butcher. He and Mary Ann also ran an inn, one of several in the Wombat area at the time. In the 1870s the Wombat area had, The Commercial Inn or Hotel (Rivers), The Australian Arms (Charles Peter Lewington), The Royal Hotel (Solomon Myer), The Racecourse Inn (John McGrath), The Prince of Wales (John Lawrence Comerford), The Albion Inn (Sarah Yerbury) and near Wombat there was The Rose, Shamrock and Thistle (Charles Holmes). The Commercial should not be mistaken for the Commercial in Young as they were both open and licenced at the same time. The Royal is now the Wombat Inn.
Elijah did not have many years to enjoy life in Wombat as he died in 1869 leaving his wife and son Stanley to continue the inn and butchers. Mary Ann died in 1874 and the publicans license was held for a brief time by Sydney, but he died in 1876 and this is when the Commercial left the hands of the Rivers family as it was sold to Charles Peter Lewington. Susannah Rivers, the only daughter of Elijah and Mary Ann had married Charles Peter Lewington that year, so in some way it did not truly leave the family. She is later listed as the licensee of the Australian Arms, keeping a River’s family connection to the pubs in the area for a few more years.
Charles Lewington died suddenly aged 47 in 1883, leaving Susannah as a widow with a young son. She later remarried, Henry Conn and moved to Quandialla where she lived until she was 82 years old. She is buried in Bimbi Cemetery.
Young & District Family History Research room at Young Community Arts Centre, 2 Campbell Street Young is open Wednesday 10am-2.30 pm and Saturday 10am-1.00pm. We are available to help you with your research so why not come and see us.
Marty Barclay

Susannah Conn formerly Lewington nee Rivers
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article218420319

06/06/2026

06/06/2026

The Reverend John Dancer Thane
This is Marty from Young and District Family History Group with another story from our research.
John Dancer Thane was born in London in 1826, but as a young married man he and his wife travelled to Hobart where their first two children were born. They did not settle their and within a few years returned to England. John returned here after the birth of their fifth child and remained here for ten years. On his return he followed the diggers to Lambing Flat but not to seek gold, John wanted to care for the souls of the people of this wild gold rush town.
The Yass Courier reported in November 1861 that, ‘on last Sunday, the Rev. J.D. Thane, late of the Mariners’ Church, Sydney, and connected to the Congregational cause in the colony preached to a very attentive congregation in the temporary building in Burrowa-street.’
This was a town described by another gentleman of the frock who visited in the following manner, ‘of all the places I have ever visited this is the worst without exception.’ The Rev. Mr. Synge’s visit to Lambing Flat in October 1860 had seen him relieved of his horse, valise, his prayer book, and bible when he tied up to go into Mr John Allan’s store for a cup of tea.
In 1861, however, this genteel missionary gentleman, John Dancer Thane sought to and did establish what was certainly the first Congregational church and erected the first real church building of any denomination in Young. He was also the first residing clergyman in Young. He first purchased an old tent and patched in up, bought some old benches and a table then posted notices throughout the diggings about a Sunday morning service. Although sparsely attended he was undaunted and proceeded to rent a commodious iron building that was originally erected as a public house but never used for that purpose. Not much more than a year later sufficient funds had been raised by his congregation to contract J. Barnett to build a weatherboard structure with a split shingle roof and a louvred bell tower fronting Burrowa Street.
This building was where Wilder’s Bakery is today and recently some descendants of the Rev. J. D. Thane visited town and our research was able to direct them there to see the site of his church.
By 1868 the Church of England, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, Congregational and Roman Catholic faiths were all represented in town and the Rev. John Dancer Thane had returned to England where he and his wife added another four children to their family eventually settling in a parish in Cornwall where he passed away in 1902 at the age of seventy-five.

23/05/2026

Gladesville Hospital Cemetery - The forgotten cemetery - the forgotten people

Did you know that there was a cemetery at Gladesville Hospital? More than 1200 people are buried at this cemetery. The last recorded grave in 1893 is number 1226 in the burial register. After that time, burials took place at nearby Field of Mars. Burials at the hospital were conducted with due respect and reverence with members of the clergy attending as well as staff members. Each burial was in an allocated plot from at least 1869. A record of plot numbers has survived but unfortunately a comprehensive plan of plot locations has not.

The men and women buried in the cemetery were of all ages: several were in their 80s and there were some children in their teens, but most were in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s; there was also one infant. They came from all walks of life including
shopkeepers, schoolmasters, carpenters, mariners, bakers, house servants and more.

Very few headstones were constructed above the burial plots. A number of those who died at the asylum were convicts, paupers or members of the community who had no living relatives in the colony. There were 24 intact headstones in January 1965, and these were relocated to the nearby Field of Mars Cemetery, Ryde.

The fate of the former hospital and the cemetery remained undecided for years. The Sydney Morning Herald of 25 June 2002 noted ‘Historic hospital site saved from development’. It advised that the previous plan, by the NSW Department of
Health - to allow substantial residential development on the Gladesville Hospital site - had been suspended indefinitely. The 1960 Act was repealed in July 2011 and no future development will be permitted on the cemetery site.

Excerpt from RDHS Publication for sale at RDHS Headquarters @ Willandra
Gladesville Hospital Cemetery 2023 edition.

20/05/2026

Legal Notices as Record Substitutes (NewQuicksheet)

Legal notices published in newspapers often serve as substitutes when original courthouse or vital records are missing. Because publication was frequently required by law, these notices may preserve information that no longer survives in official files.

Get the Quicksheet at https://theancestorhunt.com/blog/legal-notices-as-record-substitutes/

20/05/2026

This is Marty from Young and District Family History Group with another
story from our research. A story this month of a young doctor who seems to have been an interesting character.
Reginald Henry Kemp Bennett arrived in the Colony of New South Wales in the early 1870s. He had qualified as a medical doctor and surgeon in Dublin, Ireland in 1863, before heading to Australia. He was resident in Gulgong from 1872 through to around 1876 and may have been at Sydney Infirmary before that time.
In 1876 he advertised in The Burrangong Argus that he had commenced practice in Burrowa Street, Young, next door to the Commercial Bank. An article in the Gulgong Argus stated, ‘His departure from Gulgong was much regretted by a large circle of friends and admirers of his professional abilities.’
Dr Kemp married a young lady from the Young district that year, Sarah Chew and they settled in the town, but life was not smooth for the good doctor. He appears to have been a personable fellow who enjoyed the good life and did not lack in his conviction that he deserved such a life. Over the following years there are newspaper articles about him suing or being sued for money, constantly borrowing money and enjoying a gamble. In 1877 a warrant for his arrest was issued for forgery and uttering, his accuser was his brother in law, John Chew. Dr Bennett with his wife Sarah fled to New Zealand where he spent the next two years working on the South Island before coming back to New South Wales and handing himself in to the police. At the court case which expanded over several columns of a broadsheet newspaper he was found guilty of the lesser charge of uttering (the act of presenting a forged document but not necessarily have forged it oneself) and sentenced to two years gaol in Young. His mother-in-law spoke against him at the trial.
This did not slow the good doctor down and it appears he did not spend much time in gaol as he was found living in Grenfell and working as the doctor at Temora Hospital by 1881. There we find him in court again for defamation this time and then for a fi****ms charge. Not long after that charge Sarah had decided to return to Young, moved in with her family and a couple of years later he divorced her for desertion. Sarah’s mother took him to court for not paying the agreed maintenance for his children who were living under her roof.
By 1886 the newspaper reported he was insolvent but he survives this too and the following year The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser credits Dr. R. H. K. Bennett as the instigator of the introduction of electric light in Temora.
In the early 1890s he returned to Gulgong and a pharmacist colleague from Temora opened up a shop/surgery there with him. Dr Reginald H. K. Bennett died twelve years later at the age of 59, and his passing was remembered well in Gulgong, ‘as a fine figure of a man in his prime’ and ‘one of the ableist surgeons of Australia.’ His obituary did not appear in any other newspapers of the day.
Young & District Family History Research room at Young Community Arts
Centre, 2 Campbell Street Young is open Wednesday 10am-2.30 pm and
Saturday 10am-1.00pm. Our volunteers are available to help you with
your research and all money raised through research helps to keep the
research room open, so why not come and see us.
Marty Barclay
Edward Purchase's chemist shop, incorporating Dr. Reginald Henry Kemp Bennett's consulting rooms, Gulgong
Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales