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.
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