Married life for William and Catherine

William Ward and Catherine Mitchell married at St Phillip's church in Sydney in February 1837. They did not waste any time starting a family and their first child, Mary Ann, was born about 10 months after the marriage.

Seven children were born while they were living at Killcare. Mary Ann was born in 1837, Catherine Jnr in 1840, Sophia Jane in 1842, Agnes Elizabeth in 1845, Ephraim Mitchell in 1847 and Emily in 1849. The first house was a simple timber dwelling, but as business improved they built a stone house further up the hill.

In about 1850, the family moved to Kincumber where they purchased a property named 'Toorigal'. I have seen mention that this may have been an Aboriginal word for the area, and that it is is the origin of the name 'Terrigal'. Manasseh was born soon after the move to Kincumber. He was born in 1851, followed by twins Emma Jane and William in 1855 and John William Alexander in 1857. Baby William did not survive and the Gosford Pioneer register lists his death on the same day he was born, so he may have been stillborn. It is significant I think that even in those tough pioneering times, William and Catherine only lost one child. All the rest survived to adulthood.

William was about 58 and Catherine 40 when their last child, John, was born, but perhaps they had an idea he would be their last, so they gave him all the names that they had in reserve!

Everything I read suggests that William and Catherine were a very active and busy couple, who both worked on managing their wide-ranging business interests. Clearly Catherine had help in the house almost from the beginning and the 1841 census shows she had a female servant living with the family.

I have also seen mention of an Aboriginal servant who helped raise the children. This was Billy Fawkner, also known as 'King Billy'. Charles Swancott's book 'Gosford and the Kendall Country' attributes this relationship to Manasseh, but Billy died in 1875, which was before Manasseh had children, so I think it was William and Catherine who employed Billy.

I have heard several other vague stories about the family's interaction with the Aboriginal people and it left me with the impression that they were on friendly terms with them. Given that Billy Fawkner is often described as 'the last of his tribe', I suspect that most of the interaction would have been before 1875.

A lot of what we hear today is about the negative interactions between Aboriginal people and the new settlers. And there was a frontier war fought on the Central Coast over several decades. But I have also read that some ex-convicts had a better relationship and benefited greatly from the knowledge of country that the indigenous people had.

My branch of the Ward family seems to thrive on stories. My Dad told us a lot of tales that he had heard as a child. It is sometimes hard to work out who the story is really about. I would be very interested in hearing any stories that people may have. Even though many are hard to verify, they sometimes lead to important discoveries.