Timothy here was one of eight brothers, two of whom were transported to Australia as convicts, one of them being Charles dealt with in my post of 7th July 2012 .
I searched for him for years, then in 2007, I discovered
that a Timothy Ginn aged 26 had taken assisted emigration in 1851 to the State
of Victoria in Australia. (State of Victoria Archives). There are records in the National Archives showing that Timothy Ginn of Farnham received assistance from the local Poor Law Union
.
He left London
on the 874 ton wooden hulled steamship
“Statesman” on 28th
June 1851, after a 77 day voyage arriving at Geelong
on 14th September
1851 and stepping straight into the “Australian Gold Rush” which
had started in Victoria
a month before his arrival. The men of Geelong apparently all
decamped to the Goldfields of Ballarat and beyond. (see Marten Syme – Shipping Arrivals and
Departures – Victorian Ports 1846-1855: copy at Society of Genealogists)
On 21 September, 1851 the Melbourne
Argus reported,
The
whole town of Geelong
is in hysterics, gentlemen foaming at the mouth, ladies fainting, children
throwing somersets (somersaults) with excitement. All the ruffians and rogues
from Melbourne and the "scum of convicts
from Van Dieman’s Land" (later Tasmania)
moved in a surge towards Ballarat.
(Source: quoted in
Valmai Phillips, Gold Bay Books, Kensington NSW, 1984, p. 16)
It was perfectly possible
for he and his brother James (living in Tasmania) to meet, they were separated by 150 miles of the
Bass Straits. I was fascinated to
discover in the Tasmanian Archives ( ref POL 220/2 p197) that James Ginn only
every left Tasmania once, in 1852 taking ship
on the “SS Gem” to sail for Melbourne. He was alone.
I think it very likely he was visiting his brother.
I have no idea whether
Timothy got caught up in the Gold Rush, but do know that he went to live in
Cobden, a small town that was established soon after he arrived in
Australia and which lies in a very rich
agricultural area of Victoria west of Melbourne. The town was and is known as the “Dairy
Capital of the World” because the grass is so green and it has a vast number of
dairy farms. Tim was an agricultural
labourer and in 1880 married Margaret Farrell, an Irishwoman of 44 and (not
surprisingly, dtr of a dairyman) at the Presbyterian church at nearby
Camperdown. Timothy was only three when his
Mum died and, sadly, when asked by the parish clerk he could not even recall
her Christian name. The couple
unfortunately do not appear to have ever had any children, which is not
surprising given Margaret’s age.
The couple continued to
live at Cobden and Timothy died there on 31st October 1911 with a quoted age
of 85 but was nearly 87. He was then a
gardener and was stated to be born Essex.
There appears to no registration for Margaret but I have discovered from the
online cemetery record that she died in 1914.
I was very pleased to have traced Timothy after so many years of
searching. The couple are buried in
Cobden Cemetery and their gravestones are shown below.
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