The evidence conundrum

One of the biggest pitfalls in family history research (for me at least) is making false assumptions. A case in point is the ownership of the 100 acres to the north of Veteran Hall. This farm was 100 acres and was known as 'Mount Pleasant'.

Joan Taylor included this in one of her maps as belonging to Robert Henderson, but not in another. There is also a sketch of the farm in the Henderson Box in the Mitchell Library. I have assumed that this is evidence that Robert probably owned Mount Pleasant. Then I spotted something curious in the advertisement for the sale of Veteran Hall. The advertisement right appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on Christmas Eve 1906 (after Robert Geary Henderson's death).

On my first reading there are three separate parcels of land for sale, two of 100-acres and one of 50 acres. One of the 100-acre farms is Veteran Hall and the 50-acre farm is the grant adjoining Veteran Hall to the west. So was the other 100-acre farm 'Mount Pleasant', or the 100-acres between Veteran Hall and Davistown, which we know that Robert owned?

The answer is in the advertisement immediately below the first one - titled Boxing Day at Woy Woy. This is advertising blocks for auction on 'Mount Pleasant Estate'! This makes it less likely that Robert owned Mount Pleasant. Robert's Will allowed his son Robert Geary Henderson the use of Veteran Hall for his lifetime and then to be split between his children. Robert Jnr died on 5 November 1906, just 7 weeks before this advertisement, so the Trustees were wasting no time in liquidating the Estate. I doubt there would have been time to have already sold Mount Pleasant and for the subdivision to have been surveyed and put on the market.

The auction for blocks on the 'Veteran Hall Estate' was on Boxing Day 2007, a full year after the above advertisement. I have found a copy of a poster for this auction. The 50-acre farm is apparently called the 'Eastways Estate'. The north-west corner of the other 100 acres should have been where the '100 foot reservation' is shown, but I have not located the details of that subdivision.