William was son of James in my last post. He married Mary Wade (of Canadian birth, but probably a soldier's daughter) at Edmonton (Weld Chapel Southgate) in 1853.
They had a son (Walter) in 1854, while working at Heighton
in Sussex. They returned to Great Hormead, and whilst
there (in early 1857) had a second son, Henry Thomas.
A scheme was introduced in the mid-19th century whereby
aspiring emigrants could gain sponsored paid passages to outposts of the
Empire. The scheme was introduced for
several reasons: the British population had risen too steeply, while colonies
were crying out for new settlers.
Equally, the powers that be were anxious to relocate many of the
children of the rural labourers, now rapidly facing unemployment as new
technology took their jobs. William and
Mary applied for a place on this scheme.
In 1857, William and Mary and the two children travelled to
Liverpool, from where they sailed on "The Alfred" bound for New South Wales, Australia
The ship berthed in New
South Wales on April 23rd 1857, and William obtained work
with a Mr Campbell, of Duntroon, a prominent local landowner. This was near Canberra,
except that Canberra
did not actually exist then.
The following story about William Ginn is to be found in
"Tales and Legends of Canberra Pioneers" by Samuel Shumack (a
contemporary of William's):
"Sometime during 1857,
William and his family arrived in Duntroon and he was engaged as a
ploughman. The harvest of 1857-8 was a
splendid one, and during Christmas some of Mr Campbell's guests were in the
harvest field and expressed admiration of the crop, one saying that it was the
best that he had seen that year.
"Well" Mr Campbell said, "I have the best farm hand now I
ever had - William Ginn". Several
farm hands heard this compliment of Ginn’s efficiency and were offended, and
one of these was Albert Mayo. Some
months later, firewater [i.e. drink] caused a great commotion on the station,
and Billy Appleyard was for several days unable to perform his duties as wood
and water joey. One evening, he went to
see Mayo, who was suffering from the same malady and said - "For God's sake Albert, give me a
nobbler (more booze) or I'll die".
Mayo handed Billy a frying pan handle, and said "Go down and knock on Ginn's door, and when he opens it, knock him down with this and I'll give you a bottle of rum". The night was very dark, and Billy went down and knocked on the door of Ginn's hut. Ginn opened the door, and Billy then struck him with a blow across the mouth, knocking out four teeth and splintering his jaw. Ginn staggered back dazed, and Billy was preparing a second blow when Ginn closed with him, knocked him down, dragged him to the woodheap and had his axe in hand when Mrs Ginn intervened and prevented an awful tragedy. Ginn was a very quiet man, and was surprised at this hostile action to injure him; however, he was later told that jealousy was the reason behind the attack.”
Mayo handed Billy a frying pan handle, and said "Go down and knock on Ginn's door, and when he opens it, knock him down with this and I'll give you a bottle of rum". The night was very dark, and Billy went down and knocked on the door of Ginn's hut. Ginn opened the door, and Billy then struck him with a blow across the mouth, knocking out four teeth and splintering his jaw. Ginn staggered back dazed, and Billy was preparing a second blow when Ginn closed with him, knocked him down, dragged him to the woodheap and had his axe in hand when Mrs Ginn intervened and prevented an awful tragedy. Ginn was a very quiet man, and was surprised at this hostile action to injure him; however, he was later told that jealousy was the reason behind the attack.”
So, early Australia
was a bit rough and ready, but I think that William handled the situation quite well.
William worked for Campbell (and other farmers around Canberra) for a number of
years. At one time, the family lived at
Blundell's Cottage (now a Pioneer Memorial - a museum: see photograph). They had more children in Australia.
In 1874 (or so) William Ginn acquired his own farm about 10
kms north of what is now Canberra's
Civic Centre. This area is known as
Ginn’s Gap to this day. His Ginn
descendants farmed this until 1960, when the family sold it and bought another
in the same area.
William Ginn did have some contact with his English
relations, because family legend has it that his brother Henry visited him, which I have proved to be correct by researching Henry's service as a seaman.
The year 1995 was the 150th anniversary of the founding of Canberra, and William Ginn
is considered one of its pioneers. The local newspaper ran a special
commemorative edition in which he was featured.
He died in 1904, aged 82, and lies in St John's churchyard, along with Mary (who
died in 1917, aged 92 )
William and Mary had four children:
Walter - died in Sydney, NSW in 1925; unmarried.
Henry - Henry married Elizabeth Winter at Canberra in 1899, they had four children. At his father's death it was left to Henry and his brother
Walter to run the farm. Henry inherited it when Walter died unmarried. He managed it until his death in 1939 in Canberra. Elizabeth
died in 1960.
Agnes - married Thompson Lawson in 1886. She died in Canberra in 1946
Gertrude - died unmarried in Canberra in 1953
Gertrude and Agnes Ginn in c. 1880
Acknowledgement
I am indebted to my correspondent Bill Toone (a descendant) for the
vast majority of the information on William and Mary.
Thank you for taking the time to publish the story about William Ginn.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Ginn acquired about 1,000 acres of land over his lifetime in what is now the Australian Capital Territory. The land was acquired in small lots typically 40 acres and a condition for that land was that the land had to be lived on for a period of time. To satisfy this requirement William Ginn's family members each lived on a block, often in the company, but not necessarily close company, of the local aborigines.
Most of that land was taken off William and many other landowners in about 1908 when the then Federal Government resumed the land to create the Australian Capital Territory. The farmers were given a small compensation and allowed to continue farming as tenants. William and his family eventually moved onto freehold farm land outside of the Australian Capital Territory and became independent farmers.
The remnants of William Ginn's land that was just outside the Australian Capital Territory Border was passed through the generations to the 4th generation William Ginn.
The cottage shown in the photograph is a now a museum and called Blundell's Cottage. This was built for William Ginn, his wife Mary and their children. They lived in that cottage from about 1860 to 1874 when they moved onto their own land.
The cottage is located on the shores of Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin and is the only historical home in the parliamentary triangle.
One of the significant aspects of Bludell's Cottage is that it is a record of what life was like for the average person. Most of the other historical buildings in Canberra were built and occupied by the landed gentry at that time.
The story about William having his jaw broken and that no one was punished is one of many stories of the Australian society at that time. At that time and for a long time afterwards the law was applied selectively, first level for the aristocracy and second level for everyone else, except the aborigines who unfortunately had no protection from the law at all.
William and Mary Ginn never left Canberra Park. Canberra Park was the name they gave to the land they acquired on the Limestone Plain in what was later to become part of the ACT. They had two sons Walter and Henry and two daughters Agnes who married Tom Lawson and Gertrude who never married. When William died in 1904 the land passed down to Walter, Henry and Gertrude. After the boundary of the ACT was surveyed around 1908 portions of their blocks were now on the NSW side of the border and remained freehold land. Walter Ginn who never married worked the land on the NSW side of the boundary which he named Dungarvon. Henry married Elizabeth Winter and they had four children: Ethel, Lillian, James and William. The family continued to work the land until Henry died in 1939 at which time the property passed down to Henry and Elizabeth's eldest son James Henry Ginn except for a block named Bungaree which went to their second son William John Ginn. When Walter Ginn died in 1925 Dungarvon passed down to James Ginn but after their father Henry's death James and his brother William swapped blocks: James took over the Bungaree block because Bungaree adjoined Canberra Park on the ACT side making it easier for James to move stock around and William took over the title to Dungarvon. With the expansion of Canberra the suburbs crept closer and closer to Canberra Park and in the early 1960s fearing their leases would be cancelled James and Hilda Ginn sold the ACT leases and bought land on the Nanima Road NSW. William and Ida Ginn continued to farm Dungarvon until William's death in 1989. On his death Dungarvon was divided amongst William and Ida Ginn's three children.
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