For the last two weeks I have described how my ancestor, Jane Wareham, married John Noble and they emigrated to Australia, only to become financially bankrupt. Her 61 year old mother, having also emigrated, had then joined them in a trek north to Rocky River to become part of the gold rush where she would die of dysentery two years later. With the death of one of their children and of someone working in their mine, these events must have left them devastated. Surely no other disasters would befall them ?
After this John and his family returned to Maitland where the third of seven children, Arthur, was born on 6th March 1859. On the birth certificate John was described as a "farmer". In the early days this wouldn't have brought him sufficient income to feed his ever growing family and perhaps this is why the Maitland Mercury reported in April 1859 that he had been awarded the tender to convey mail from Mount Vincent to East Maitland and back on horseback over a nine month period for a sum of £20 (in today's value this is about £1,800 using the retail price index).
Some, including me, might be surprised that Australia had the pound sterling. This was the case until 1910 when it became an Australian Pound and then in 1931 it became quite distinct from the British Pound after devaluation. On Valentine's Day 1966 it was replaced by the currency we now know, the Australian Dollar.
After this John and his family returned to Maitland where the third of seven children, Arthur, was born on 6th March 1859. On the birth certificate John was described as a "farmer". In the early days this wouldn't have brought him sufficient income to feed his ever growing family and perhaps this is why the Maitland Mercury reported in April 1859 that he had been awarded the tender to convey mail from Mount Vincent to East Maitland and back on horseback over a nine month period for a sum of £20 (in today's value this is about £1,800 using the retail price index).
Some, including me, might be surprised that Australia had the pound sterling. This was the case until 1910 when it became an Australian Pound and then in 1931 it became quite distinct from the British Pound after devaluation. On Valentine's Day 1966 it was replaced by the currency we now know, the Australian Dollar.
For the next 10 years everything seems to have moved on without incident until Jane died in West Maitland of "continued fever (typhoid), duration 14 days" aged just 42 on 25th May 1869. Her death certificate gave her husband's address as Mulbring Creek which is a small village just north of the village of Mount Vincent. She was buried the next day at the Church of England burial ground at Campbells Hill Cemetary in West Maitland. You may remember her husband was the undertaker who buried her mother in Rocky River; he wasn't the undertaker on this occasion ...... but her brother in law, William Norman (who was married to Frances) was !
John remarried after Jane's death in 1872 to Margaret Sarah Patterson. On his marriage certificate he was described as a storekeeper living at Mount Vincent. They would go on to have 6 children together between 1873 and 1886. This gave John a total of 13 children with the oldest being 31 years old when the last baby was born.
John remarried after Jane's death in 1872 to Margaret Sarah Patterson. On his marriage certificate he was described as a storekeeper living at Mount Vincent. They would go on to have 6 children together between 1873 and 1886. This gave John a total of 13 children with the oldest being 31 years old when the last baby was born.
Still living at Mount Vincent, in June 1881 John lost his treasured horse and a £1 reward was offered in the local paper for its recovery and delivery to "Mr Norman" (probably William).
Around 1891 John moved his family to the village of Aberglasslyn which is a suburb of Maitland. It looks from subsequent evidence that he probably started a farm there and became a full time farmer.
From 1891 to 1898 an advert appeared in the local paper each year asking for tenders to supply gravel for the Aberglasslyn Road and John was one of the farmers who presumably formed a group requiring gravel tracks to be prepared up to their farms after each winter had worn or washed their previous tracks away.
I speculated earlier whether John's disasters were all behind him ...... seemingly not !
It seems John's farm was built on an area where it was susceptible to flooding. I have found an article in 1893 explaining the setting up of a sub committee of local farmers as a result of a major flood in the area. John Noble and George Cobb were elected to represent the Aberglasslyn area. The flood of 1893 was said to be "memorable".
A further flood occurred five years later in 1898 and this was an extract from the article in the local newspaper :
I speculated earlier whether John's disasters were all behind him ...... seemingly not !
It seems John's farm was built on an area where it was susceptible to flooding. I have found an article in 1893 explaining the setting up of a sub committee of local farmers as a result of a major flood in the area. John Noble and George Cobb were elected to represent the Aberglasslyn area. The flood of 1893 was said to be "memorable".
A further flood occurred five years later in 1898 and this was an extract from the article in the local newspaper :
The farmers about Rosebrook were very heavy sufferers – all of them being more or less flooded – losing large quantities of corn, pumpkins, potatoes etc. Mr Michael Doran’s farm was completely submerged, and he lost pretty well everything. The same may be said of those a little lower down in the vicinity of Aberglasslyn. The waters made a clean sweep through them. It then names the farmers effected including John Noble, P.O’Brion and George Cobb. It goes on to say we are assured that in some places the water was almost, if not quite, as high as in the memorable flood of 1893.
Recovery from these floods must have been difficult for a farmer who relied on his crops but John was certainly someone who always seemed to bounce back one way or another. However he was now over seventy years old and three years later .......
......... John died, aged 76, on 1st May 1901 at Aberglasslyn. He died of "heart disease, epileptic form convulsions" with three years duration - perhaps caused or certainly exaserpated by the 1898 flood. His death certificate surprisingly says his doctor last saw him ten weeks before his death, but perhaps he knew he was dying and there was nothing more which could be done. He was buried at the Congregational Cemetery in East Maitland and the undertaker was W R Norman & sons, presumably connected to brother in law William Norman who had been undertaker at Jane's funeral.
His second wife died at Kearsley Shire, Aberglasslyn aged 87 in August 1931 and the newspaper reported that she was the relict of the late John Noble, a well known and esteemed resident of the Aberglasslyn and Mount Vincent districts. It says she had resided in Aberglasslyn for over 40 years, previous to which she resided at Mount Vincent for 26 years.
John must have left the farm in trust for his wife during her lifetime as, after her death, an article (see left) appeared in the local paper saying that it had been sold to one of their son's, Alexander, at the princely sum of £50 per acre - the 43 acres would therefore have been sold for £2,150, which if you adjust this by the retail prices index would amount to somewhere in the region of £120,000 in today's terms.
For someone who had experienced bankruptcy, had been responsible for causing his mother in law's early death and who had been flooded out of his farm on more than one occasion, this was a lot more than his descendants might have expected ...... although there were 10 of his 13 children still alive so it wouldn't have gone too far !
His second wife died at Kearsley Shire, Aberglasslyn aged 87 in August 1931 and the newspaper reported that she was the relict of the late John Noble, a well known and esteemed resident of the Aberglasslyn and Mount Vincent districts. It says she had resided in Aberglasslyn for over 40 years, previous to which she resided at Mount Vincent for 26 years.
John must have left the farm in trust for his wife during her lifetime as, after her death, an article (see left) appeared in the local paper saying that it had been sold to one of their son's, Alexander, at the princely sum of £50 per acre - the 43 acres would therefore have been sold for £2,150, which if you adjust this by the retail prices index would amount to somewhere in the region of £120,000 in today's terms.
For someone who had experienced bankruptcy, had been responsible for causing his mother in law's early death and who had been flooded out of his farm on more than one occasion, this was a lot more than his descendants might have expected ...... although there were 10 of his 13 children still alive so it wouldn't have gone too far !