A difficult start to life

Madeline as a young woman.

This week I started writing up the early life of my great-grandmother, Madeline Geary Henderson. It strikes me as a particularly difficult series of events for a young girl to experience.

Madeline was born in 1855 in the Darling Harbour area of Sydney, the second child of Robert Geary Henderson and Hannah nee Wallbridge. Her father is described as a 'mariner' in the Parish register that records Madeline's baptism, but he was also the licensee of the Clarence Hotel in Erskine Street Sydney. The family probably lived at the nearby Dove Inn which was owned by Madeline's grandparents, Robert and Catherine Henderson.

An interesting twist that has confused some family historians arose from William Cowper, the minister who baptised Madeline at St Philip's Church of England. When he filled out the baptism register, he wrote her name as 'Adelaide', the same name as another girl baptised earlier on the same day. Under the laws of the time, this became Madeline's legal name, and was used on legal documents for many years, including her two marriages, even though she was always known as 'Madeline'.

Madeline was just three when her father left his wife and children and went to live with another woman at Woy Woy. Hannah and her children continued to live at the Dove Inn and Hannah took over the running of the Clarence hotel.

When Madeline was five, she was playing with her three-year-old brother when he accidentally set her dress alight. She suffered burns to her limbs and body and for the rest of her life wore long sleeves and full length dresses to protect and hide the scars from these burns.

Another four years passed before Madeline's mother and sister became ill. They had contracted tuberculosis. The sister, Catherine, died in 1866, followed by Hannah in 1868. Madeline's grandparents, Robert and Catherine Henderson took charge of Madeline and her brother Robert (the name Robert runs in the Henderson family!). But they were both too ill to care for the children, so at just 13, Madeline was sent to live at Mrs Ashley's boarding school at Newtown, an all-girls school.

Six months passed and Christmas arrived. Madeline spent the first of many Christmases at the school, while most of the girls went home or the relatives for the holidays. A few days after Christmas, Robert Henderson snr (the grandfather) arrived at the school just and took Madeline to her grandmother's bedside. Catherine Henderson did not survive and Madeline returned to boarding school immediately after the funeral on 30 December 1868.

Robert Henderon snr was already ill when his wife died and within a year he was also dead. In the course of three years, Madeline lost four of the people closest to her and she was separated from he remaining brother who was at a different boarding school. Her one piece of good fortune was a legacy from her grandfather's will. Robert Henderson snr left a substantial amount of property in trust for Hannah and her brother. This ensured that they would be able to complete a good education and they would have a secure income for life.

Madeline remained at the school until she was 20, when she married Joseph Keele, a clerk with the Public Service. But tragedy struck again, and five months after the wedding, Joseph died of scarlet fever and Madeline found herself a pregnant widow, just 20 years of age.

In 1876 she gave birth to a daughter (Josephine Laura Keele) and moved to live with her brother Robert (that is Robert Francis Geary Henderson) at Kincumber on Brisbane Water. Family legend has it that Madeline had been chased up a tree by a bull when a young man from a nearby property came to the rescue. This was Manasseh Ward who would become Madeline's lifelong wife and partner. But that is another story with its own joys and tragedies.

What tangled webs they wove

I was looking for information on Manasseh Ward's early life this week and was reviewing some of my saved snippets about the history of Brisbane Water. A small piece from 1952, written by Charles Swancott, caught my eye because of a brief mention of Manasseh. While re-reading the piece, my eye was drawn to a mention of the grave of a Mrs Bogan, a surname I remembered from my recent Henderson research. It took me a while to join the dots ... but the penny finally dropped.

To recap on a sordid tale from Robert Geary Henderson's story, he was named as a co-respondent in the divorce of James Bogan from his wife, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bogan nee Stratten in 1888. Robert was not found guilty in the case, but he was in a relationship with Elizabeth at the time and they eventually married in 1896 (Robert's third marriage).

My first instinct was that our branch of the family had no direct interest in the Bogan family, and really only a peripheral interest in Lizzie (or Gertrude as she was also known). But in a coincidence I spotted the name Bogan in the Ward side of the family tree as well.

Manasseh's eldest sister, Mary Ann Ward, married Rock Davis, a Brisbane Water shipbuilder. Rock and Mary Ann's daughter Eva Davis married William Bogan, who turns out to be James Bogan's older brother.

In the 1880s when these events were taking place, Brisbane Water was a small community, so it is not surprising that such family connections would occur. There were not that many families to choose from when it came to choosing a partner.

Looking at the timeframe of the events, James Bogan and Lizzie Stratton married in 1876, about a year before Manasseh Ward and Madeline Geary Henderson married, so it is likely that the young couples were known to each other. The two women were about the same age and living in the same community. 

William Bogan and Eva Davis married in 1880 and given Eva was Manasseh's niece, we can assume that Manasseh and Madeline also know this couple. So it would have been a serious social embarrassment for Madeline when her father started a family with Lizzy Bogan while Lizzy was still legally married to James Bogan. 

I have not discovered any information on the relationship that existed between Robert Geary Henderson and his eldest surviving child, Madeline, but we know that she thought him a 'wastrel'  (a wasteful person, spendthrift, idler or good-for-nothing). They must have maintained some level of contact and Manasseh Ward is listed as one of the witnesses to Robert's burial at Veteran Hall in 1908.

Manasseh Ward - the not so wild colonial boy

Manasseh Ward 1911

Manasseh Ward was one of the most prominent men of his time in Gosford. During his lifetime, Gosford was a country town still steeped in the pioneering traditions of the Australian Bush. Manasseh's life stands as a bridge between the convict era of colonial New South Wales and the Commonwealth of Australia that we know today.

Manasseh was born on 25 August 1851 at Killcare. His parents were both former convicts who were by that time free and well established in the area. They had a thriving timber business and a small sailing ship trading to Sydney every week. Manasseh was their seventh child and their second son. Their home was near present day Killcare, but at that time it did not have a name and was usually called 'Near the Heads'. William had lived there for about 25 years, 14 years with Catherine. There were six older children who were all living when Manasseh was born.

Manasseh was baptised at Kincumber on 23 November 1851 by Rev Alfred Glennie, the newly appointed Church of England Minister for the Brisbane Water district and Kincumber was the nearest church to Killcare. In neat, legible writing Glennie recorded that the 'Abode' of the parents was 'Near the Heads',  and the 'Quality or profession' of the father was 'Mariner'. The column heading for father's occupation  is evocative of the times, where the upper class did not have an occupation, and their 'Quality' would shown as 'Gentleman'. The implication is that people with a trade were of lower 'quality'.

Manasseh had one older brother, four years older, named Ephraim. There is little doubt that the parents, William and Catherine, drew inspiration from the bible in naming the two boys. In biblical tradition Manasseh and Ephraim were the sons of Joseph (of the coat of many colours story) and it was a blessing to say 'May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh'. In an interesting aside, in the Bible, Manasseh is the elder of the two brothers, but Ephraim was given precedence because his grandfather prophesied that Ephraim would be the greater of the two. 

Shortly after Manasseh was born the family moved to live at Kincumber. Many years later, Ephraim recalled the moving day:

The little vessel was brought into commission and loaded two days before the real shift. On that eventful morning she sailed; but there was an overland party as well, with the small folk and two horses. We all arrived safe and sound at new house – new to us, but old as buildings go – and very glad we were to be at the journeys end.

Manasseh and his brother learned bushcraft at the feet of their father who was practised in the arts of both the bush and the sea. But it is likely that they also learned from the indigenous people who were still living in the area. There are several mentions in the history books that Darkinjung man Billy Falkner was a trusted employee of the Ward family and 'helped raise the children'. (Charles Swanscott attributes Billy's employment to Manasseh, but Billy died before Manasseh had children, so he must have been working for William and Catherine). Ephraim and his older sister Mary Anne both wrote stories about the aboriginal people that suggest to me at least that they were familiar and possibly friendly with the first people of their area.

Whatever the source of Manasseh's knowledge, he grew up to be a superb bushman who had a deep love for the Brisbane Water and Gosford district. He would have had a number of options when it came to choosing his path in life. His father's business interests and contacts included farming, timer-getting, timer milling, timer trading, and coastal shipping. Ship building was also an option, with several of his older sisters marrying into the prominent shipbuilding families in Brisbane Water. Ephraim trained as a shipwright under their brother-in-law Rock Davis.

But Manasseh loved the heavy horse and bullock teams that dragged freshly-cut timber from the dense bush to the loading points on the waterfront where it was loaded onto small sailing vessels for transport to Sydney. He became well known in the district for his skill with horses.

Manasseh was 24 when his father died. He was still living with his mother at the family home at Kincumber. If family stories are correct, within a few months of his father's death, Manasseh went to the rescue of a young woman on a nearby property who had been trapped up a tree by a bull. The young woman was a widow named Madeline Keele (nee Henderson) who would later become his wife. When it became clear that Manasseh and Madeline would marry, Catherine gave Manasseh the old family property at Killcare on the understanding that this was to be his only inheritance from his mother and father's estate when the time came.

Source of a schism

This week I have been finalising the first draft of the chapter on Robert Geary Henderson and his first wife Hannah (nee Wallbridge). It is the most complicated story in this family history, partially because Robert married three times, but also because of the division that existed between the children of his different partners.

• Robert's first family was with Hannah Wallbridge. They had three children, two of whom survived to adulthood, namely Madeline Geary Henderson and Robert Francis Geary Henderson. Robert deserted Hannah and her children a little over two years after their third child (Robert Francis) was born.
• The second family was with Elizabeth Delaney. They had six children, four of whom apparently survived to adulthood being Robert Frederick Henderson, Patrick Bin Henderson, Herbert Geary Henderson and Charles Arthur Henderson. I say apparently because we know almost nothing about Herbert and Charles.
• The third family was with Gertrude Stretton. They also had six children, four surviving to adulthood being Florence Catherine Henderson (known as Kathleen), Kenneth Geary Henderson, Nellie Gertrude Henderson and Archie Geary Henderson.

The first source of family tension was Robert's desertion of his first family and the fact that he started his second family while still married to Hannah. Hannah subsequently died of tuberculosis and Madeline and Robert Francis spent the rest of their childhood in boarding schools.

The second source of tension came from the legacy of Robert's father, Robert Henderson snr. The elder Robert was a wealthy businessman with a diverse property estate. It seems that Robert snr may have been displeased with the character of his two sons and left a complicated will that divided his property into four parts. He left one part each in trust for the two children of his son's first marriage (Madeline and Robert Francis). The other two parts he left in trust for his sons, Robert jnr and Thomas. The Trusts gave the two men a life interest in the property, but they could not sell or otherwise dispose of it. After the son's died, the property was then to be divided among Robert snr's grandchildren (this is a simplified view and it was not quite as simple as that).

The will meant that Madeline and Robert Francis were left quite well off, receiving perhaps 25% of their grandfather's estate. They would also receive a residual share of Robert jnr's 25% after he died (that is another 4% of their grandfather's initial estate). In contrast, Robert Frederick Henderson would receive the equivalent of about 4% of his grandfather's estate and that only after his father died.

The third source of tension was the unfair treatment of the children born out of wedlock. Robert Francis, Patrick, Kathleen, Kenneth and Archie were all born before their parents were married, but Robert Francis and Patrick were legitimised by their grandfather's will, which named them as specific beneficiaries. Herbert, Charles  and Archie were born after Robert snr died, but were entitled to a share of their grandfather's estate because their respective parents were married before they were born. But Florence, Kenneth and Nellie were born out of wedlock, after Robert snr's death, so they were not named in his will. Under the laws of the time, they were not entitled to a share of their grandfather's estate.

There were several court cases fought over the will and the various trusts that resulted from it. Reading between the lines of the accounts available to me, I suspect that few if any of the children in the second and third family received any inheritance at all. Some had sold or mortgaged their rights to third parties. There is certainly nothing in their lives that suggested that they had any money.

I have struggled to write a summary of Robert Geary Henderson's legacy. The only contemporary account I have to work on comes second or third hand from his eldest daughter, Madeline Geary Henderson, my great-grandmother. She reportedly thought her father and brother (Robert Francis Geary Henderson) were 'wastrels' and she disapproved of their drinking and promiscuity.

I find it hard to judge harshly at this distance in time. Robert Geary Henderson was the long-awaited first child after 15 years of marriage. His father was an energetic and ambitious businessman, busy in multiple enterprises. So was the son spoiled by an indulgent mother, but starved of fatherly guidance? Was his character to blame? Or did he just have no time for the restrictive social normality of his times? It strikes me that the schisms in his family probably had a lot to do with his father's will and the different treatment handed out to the grandchildren.

So for now I have loaded the draft chapter and the resources I have used onto the website and I will have another go it it when I get to the second draft stage in the coming months.