Bill and Alice Parry of Gosford

Bill and Alice Parry were the parents of Lena Parry, and my great-grandparents.

William Henry Parry (generally known as Bill) was born at Mangrove Creek in 1855, the eldest child of Griffith Parry Jr and Sarah Jane Watkins. His family moved into Gosford when he was a small child and he grew up on a property on the corner of Mann and Beane Streets which is now the Gosford goods yards. The block was two acres and there was a fresh water stream running close to the house. 

Bill was about 27 when he bought his first property, a two-acre block on the corner of Mann and Erina Street. The Gosford Hotel now stands on part of this property. He later bought the adjoining block, running along Mann Street so he owned the whole block of Mann Street from Erina to Faunce Streets. The blocks ran through to current-day Watt Street, although that was not there until some years later. Bill started work on his land, building a house, blacksmith/wheelwright shop and a hall that could be rented out for events.

Frances Alice Miller was born at Hartley in 1867, the youngest child of Job and Susan Miller.  it seems that she was always known as Alice in her family, but the order of her names changes over the years in official documents. Her father was a contractor working on the building of the western railway and the family moved west as the project progressed. Her father died in Dubbo in 1882 and it is possible her mother and the younger children moved to Sydney or the central coast.  

I have not discovered how or where Bill and Alice met, but they married in 1885 at Burwood. Bill was 30 and Alice 17. By this time it seems that Bill was working as a produce agent, and soon after the wedding he was in serious financial trouble. He claimed that he lost a lot of produce due to spoilage, but he seems to have been a bit liberal with the facts, so it is plausible that he over extended his finances with his building works. The Insolvency Court had to work on the basis of Bill's word, because his financial records were 'lost' overboard while he was travelling to Sydney for the hearing. How inconvenient! He was able to get a license to try to clear his debts and evade full bankruptcy.

Bill and Alice moved to the north coast where Bill found work in the sugar industry, driving sugar trains and possibly working as an engineer at a refinery. Their first two children were born near Grafton and Casino. The family moved back to the Gosford district when Bill finally cleared his insolvency and by 1889 they were living at Ourimbah. Bill again worked as a fireman and engineer at a shipyard for a time, then went farming at Ourimbah.

Around 1894 Bill finally returned to live in his home in Mann Street and he worked for a time as a wheelwright at his workshop in Mann Street. He continued to work as a wheelwright and blacksmith on and off for a number of years while he also dabbled in farming and selling wildflowers harvested from the bush. He bought a property at Kariong and set up a fruit and vegetable farm, but he never completed the house and eventually returned to live in Gosford. He started another vegetable farm closer to town, possibly in Dwyer Street, and by all reports this was a successful venture. We walked to the farm from his home in Erina Street each day.

In his later years, Bill lived largely apart from the rest of his family, preferring to live in a series of rough bush huts that abide by Alice's ideas of tidiness. 

My father, Laurie Ward, was Bill's grandson and remembered visiting him at one or another of his bush camps. There was always a pot of stew steaming near the fire - Bill would eat from it then top it up with more meat or vegetables. But Laurie's mother had always pre-warned her children not to eat any of 'grandfather's stew' - she was clearly worried about her father's hygiene.

Bill returned to live at the Erina Street home in his last months when he was too sick to remain in the bush. He was housed in a room that opened off the back verandah. Laurie's memories again give us a vivid picture of the old man, bedridden, but demanding. He would only drink the water from a particular waterfall on the Mount Penang Road and several times a week, one of his sons or sons-in-law would be sent on horseback to fetch a supply. Even though they tried, they could not substitute any other water and he could always tell if they cheated and used water from a closer waterfall, or from the tank.

Laurie had very fond memories of his grandmother, Alice. His family lived in Dwyer Street Gosford, and the Parry home in Erina Street was almost on their route to school. They would often be tasked with delivering eggs, vegetables or milk on their way to school and on those occasions Alice would insist on smoothing his unruly hair. He carried the warm feeling of her gentle grooming for the rest of his life.

Bill Parry died in 1936 aged 80. Alice remained in the family home, which she shared with her daughter Ethel and son Charles. She died in 1941 aged 73. She was survived by nine of her 13 children and 20 grandchildren. 

Griffith Parry Jr and Sarah Jane Watkins

 Griffith Parry and Sarah Jane Parry were the grandparents of lena Parry, and therefore my 2nd great-grandparents. Both were the children of convict fathers and their families were early settlers of the Mangrove Creek area.

Griffith William Parry was born at Macdonald River (now St Albans) in 1830, the son of Griffith Parry and Mary Ann Mustare.  He lived at Macdonald River for at least 10 years, and his father was a constable and farmer. The family moved to Mangrove Creek in about 1842, when Griffith was 12. His mother died two years later.

Sarah Jane Watkins was born in Sydney in 1832, the daughter of Thomas Watkins and Sarah Lewis. Her early years were spent in Sydney, where her parents ran an hotel. The family moved to Mangrove Creek in about 1839, when Sarah was six. 

By 1843, both Watkins and Parry families were settled on farms along Mangrove Creek. Their farms were about 10 km apart in a direct line, maybe 15 km by road or track. Both families were part of the close-knit Church of England Community and were clearly well known to each other. There would be several marriages between the two families in the 1850s.

The Mangrove Creek community consisted of mainly ex-convicts and their colonial-born children, with a few free settlers thrown in. The farms grew wheat, corn, vegetables, fruit and livestock. Their produce was taken to Sydney by boat. There was also a good supply of timber in the area and some families concentrated on timer-getting, producing hand-sawn planks, palings and shingles.The creek was a tidal tributary of the Hawkesbury River and was navigable for a good distance, which is why it was settled so early.

Griffith and Sarah married in  June 1854 and they made their first home at Mangrove Creek where Griffith worked as a farmer. Two children were born while they were living at the Creek. But life would have been hard, and there were a series of bushfires and severe floods that possibly convinced the young couple to move their small family to the growing town of Gosford. By the time their third child was baptised, they were living in Gosford.

Their first home in Gosford was a grassy paddock that I think was on the corner of Mann and Beane Streets. The land had been purchased by Sarah's brother, Charles Watkins in 1855, but it is not clear whether Griffith and Sarah bought the property, or just lived there. Griffith and Charles worked together at times. The property was two acres, so it is possible both families lived there. Griffith worked as a shingle splitter and later carpenter and teamster. On some early records, he is described as a 'rough carpenter' so it may have been working with rough bush timber. As a bushman, he would have been able to turn his hand to many tasks, but he remained a manual worker for his whole life.

Griffith and Sarah had ten children born between 1855 and 1875, and all but the last survived to adulthood. Samuel Parry was born in 1975 and only lived for six months. Just two years after Samuel's death, the older children started to marry and the first grandchild was born in 1878.

The family were forced to move their home in the early 1880s when it was in the path of the new railway being built to connect Gosford and Newcastle to Sydney. Their new home was in Mann Street, and may have been owned by their son William, who had purchased two large blocks of land totalling five acres.

In May 1881 Griffith was arrested and charged with ‘conduct denoting lunacy’ . Police records show that he was sent to Gladesville Asylum for one month ‘in default of sureties’. This is the only record that suggests that Griffith was ever in trouble with the Police or suffered from mental health problems. The fact that this incident seems to correspond roughly with the government acquisition of the family home may provide a clue to what occurred, but the rest of the full story has not yet been uncovered. My private theory is that Griffith was so enraged by the actions of the Government that he 'lost it' and refused to calm down.

As I have explained in a separate post, Griffith has been mistakenly blamed for his son's eccentricities  in a number of publications over the years, but I believe he lived out his last years living in Mann Street Gosford with his wife and son, Elijah. Elijah never married. Griffith was well respected in Gosford and was an integral part of the Church of England community. When he died in 1909, the Minister of the time made a note in the burial register, under the column for profession  'Griff was sextant here for many years. I tolled the bell for this burial'. Of 30 burials on the opening of the register, this is the only one to mention tolling of the bell. The sextant is the member of the parish council that looks after the church property.

Sarah Jane died four years later in 1913. Both were buried at Point Clare.

Griffith and Sarah Jane Parry were survived by eight of their ten children. They were also survived by 48 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren born during their lifetime.

Correcting a miscarriage of history

In my research I always try to collaborate the information contained in previous publications and in this case I think I have to correct a miscarriage of history carried out on Griffith Parry due to a careless error by an otherwise  good historian.  Many people have included the error in their tales about Griffith Parry, so it is time to correct the error.

When I first read about Griffith Parry in other family histories, they mostly included the story that Griffith Parry was an untidy man who lived his later life in bush huts around Gosford and on Narara Creek. This was interesting because I was told the same thing about his son, Bill Parry (William Henry Parry). By father remembered him from his childhood. Some of the family histories thankfully gave the source of their information, it was contained in the book Gosford and the Kendall Country by respected central coast historian Charles Swancott.

The tale begins on page 133 of my copy and the offending section is copied below.

Parry story from 'Gosford and the Kendall Country'

It was only on my second reading of the story, that I spotted the problem. The story starts off talking about William Parry, but ends up talking about his father, Griffith. Swancott has mixed up the two men at the end of the story by tying the first four paragraphs to the death of Griffith Parry in 1909. Bill Parry died in 1936. The story is clearly about William - 'Will was rather an untidy man...'.

The story was repeated in The Watkins Chronicle by Fay Fry, with a photo of Griffith as a disheveled figure dressed in rags. That sealed the deal I think!

So to correct the record. Griffith Parry Jr, who was married to Sarah Jane Watkins was not the man portrayed in Swancott's story - it was his son William Henry Parry, known as Bill I believe. I suspect that Griffith was not a rich man in his later life which would explain his appearance in the photos.

The lesson for other family historians - check the sources, read them carefully, and don't necessarily believe something because it was published by a respected researcher. We all make mistakes!