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After the sudden death of his father
in 1837,
Alfred was
fostered by Dr William Sherwin, the Colony's first born doctor, and his
brother
Edward was fostered by Mr Thomas Deane Rowe a clty businessman after
whom Rowe Street is named. There is no record of Alfred’s life up to
the time he married Frances but as he made his live on the land it is
thought possible that Dr Sherwin assisted
him to buy property in the Mittagong district. Frances's brother
William made
mention in a letter of Dr Sherwin being in Mittagong in the 1850's.
Although it
is mere conjecture it is thought that after her marriage to Thomas
Troy, Louisa's
(Hanks) three ''Keith'' children lived with them but as they had seven
children
of their own it is doubtful if Thomas would have been able to give much
assistance to Louisa’s two older sons.
The first nine of Frances's eleven
children were born in the
Mittagong district some being baptised at Holt Trinity Berrima, and
some at Christ
Church Bong Bong.
About 1873 the family set of for
Cullinga near Cootamundra
where Alfred bought a property which they named The Meadows. Their son
Ernest,
who was about twelve at the time kept a diary in which he recorded
events during
his long life. He described the ten-day trip over flooded creeks and
makeshift roads
when be travelled an a covered dray with his mother and younger
brothers and
sisters while his father and two older brothers drove their herd of
cattle on
horseback. They camped each night by the roadside and Frances made
dampers in the camp oven for their evening meal.
Alf and the boys set to
work clearing the land and soon
built a home at The Meadows where the two youngest children were born
Two other
children died within six months of each other ln 1881 Oscar, the
seventh child
died from a fall from a horse at the age of twelve and next year
Florence, the ninth
died just after her ninth birthday.
Frances was almost forty five when Oswald the youngest was
born and sadly when he was only fifteen months old she died from
ovaritis (inflammation
of the ovary) on 8.1.1885. She was buried in the Church of England
section of Cootamundra Cemetery.
As his family grew up
Alfred helped them search for and
settle on properties of their own. No doubt after Frances died the
older children
would have helped by looking after the younger ones, although after a
couple of
years most of the responsibility would have fallen on Isabella as the
older
ones married and settled on their own properties. By 1889, with the
fifth child
George about to marry Emily Rolfe there were only Isabella now
twenty-two,
Andrew – eighteen, Minnie - thirteen, and Oswald - almost six, at home.
It was then that Alfred
married a second time to Agnes
Creney at Cootamundra. Agnes was born in 1838, daughter of George
Donald and Jean
nee Galbraith (1810 - 20.11 1891). In 1859 at Yass she married James
Cole a wheel-wright
and by him had 5 children - ( 1 .Alexander Cole, b. 1860, who was a
surveyor
and was killed by aborigines in Northern Territory; 2.Emily Cole.
b.1861: 3. Agnes
Cole b.1862. d.10.10.1945, married Patrick Kenny, a Catholic, who
served in 13th
Battalion in World War 1; 4. James Scott Cole b .21.1 2.1864, m
I6.6.1897 to Isabella,
daughter of Francis and Alfred; 5.Janet Cole who died aged twenty one,
accidentally poisoned while nursing at Prince Alfred Hospital. James
Cole left
Agnes and the family and went to Victoria, possibly to look for gold,
and she never
heard of him again. In 1879 she married Ambrose Ceeney (as spelt In
records).
Agnes died about 1906 and
Alfred then married a
third time
to her sister Jean (Jane) Young, in Brisbane, Jean nee Donald had
previously
married a handsome Army Captain Montrose Young and by him had a son
Montrose
(who also became an Army Captain), and three daughters Australia
Adelaide: and
Blanche. Then Capt. Young was arrested and returned to England and
charged with bigamy. Jean was so upset by the disgrace that she took
the children
to New Zealand. When his wife died in England, Montrose returned to
Australia then went to New Zealand where he remarried Jean and they
returned to Australia and had another son, Alexander.
By the time of his third
marriage Alfred had
left his two
youngest sons, Andrew and Oswald to look after the Meadows and moved to
Sydney. He purchased four blocks of land in Moruben Road Mosman, and
built a house on
Number 12 where he died on 30.7.1929. The family had his body taken
back
to
Cootamundra for burial on 1.8.1929. An obelisk in the Church of England
portion
of Cootamundra Cemetery marks the resting place of Frances and Alfred;
and of
Oscar and Florence who died young, and of their daughter Minnie and her
husband
Walter Boxsell.
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