Notes
Note H637
Index
2009-11-01 - Singleton Historical Museum.
Ann Quinn, also husband Pat Quinn.
Searched through the Singleton Genealogy
Death : Lamplough, near Avoca Victoria, on Gold fields, died of consumption
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From Emily Hertel's Booklet
Robert and Dinah Hardy in Australia, 1827-1981 / by Emily Hertel. [SAG A6/HAR/19] 1981
Introduction
The prize of Australia fell to the British, although it was visited by many nations in ancient history, most of whom saw the barren west coast.
An Englishman, Captain James Cook, sailed along the east coast and realised the potential of this continent. As a result, Australia was colonised by the British, people from the other side of the world, who, flying the Union Jack, sailed their little sailing ships across the wide oceans.
The flag was raised in 1788 and Captain Arthur Philip, in charge of the First Fleet, set foot on Australian soil, and with great difficulty and hardship, established a penal colony.
Those convicts and seamen were the first white inhabitants, to be quickly followed by free settlers, and the foundation of the Australian nation was successfully laid.
To those great men, Captain Cook and Governor Philip, the nation owes a debt of gratitude.
And to the unfortunate people who were the prisoners, forcibly removed from their families, homes and country, landed in a faraway place after a miserable and long voyage, a place totally devoid of anything to give human comfort, we also owe an immense debt, for they were the first workforce, albeit unwilling.
From the cruel days of a penal settlement, to the influx of free settlers, the colony slowly expanded and began to trade, and most of the families born in Australia never knew or saw the homeland of their parents.
Among the free settlers came Robert and Dinah Hardy and their little daughter, Mary Ann.
Robert Hardy came to Australia under indenture as a coal and stone miner for the Australian Agricultural Company.
The following is quoted from papers from the National Library at Canberra. This information was sent by Ruth Bieri, a descendant of Robert and Dinah Hardy, through their son Robert.
“The Australian Agricultural Company was established in England in 1824 to develop fine wool in NSW. At first, the Company was granted one million acres between Port Stephens and the Manning River, but half of this was later changed for land at Tamworth and Quirindi.
The first group of shepherds and craftsmen left England in June, 1825, under a superintendent, Robert Dawson, and arrived in Sydney in November. At the same time, as these pastoral arrangements were being made, the Company became involved in negotiations to lease the coal mine at Newcastle, then being worked rather unsuccessfully by the Colonial Authorities.
Discussion began in London, in March 1825, and by October, the Company had appointed John Henderson, late of the Elgin Collieries, Fifeshire, as colliery manager in NSW, and he was busy buying machinery and getting together a cola establishment of seven or eight men, and their families.”
On June 2, 1826, the Court Minutes record (reference 160/89 p. 2740):
Mr Henderson, principal agent of the Company’s Coal Establishment, and the following six men engaged to act under him, having arrived in London from Newcastle, were admitted to appear before the Directors previous to their intended departure by the ship Australia, namely:
James Steel Brakesman
Adam Hewitt Enginesmith
John Thew Corver (or colliery basket maker)
Robert Hardy Collier
George Jewitt Collier
George Holt Collier
The list for the Australia charter party includes (reference 160/89 p. 2171/2):
Robert Hardy, aged 29 years
Mrs Hardy, aged 23 years
Mary Ann Hardy, aged ½ year.
Robert Hardy’s indenture for service with the Company as a coal and stone miner for seven years at £25 per annum was signed May 15th, 1826. (reference 78/1/7 p. 131).
The Australia, which had previously loaded sheep in Hamburg, sailed with the Coal Establishment from Spithead, Portsmouth, on July 27th, 1826. after arriving in Sydney on January 7th, 1827, by way of the Cape of Good Hope and Hobart Town, the Australia went on to Port Stephens to discharge passengers and cargo at Carrabean, now Carrington, on North Arm Cove, on January 13th.
In March, Robert Dawson, the Company’s agent in NSW, reported to the London Court from Sydney that (reference 78/1/2 p. 4):
“The Australia unloaded her cargo at the Establishment at Carrabean and the miners and their families have now been provided with Huts and other such accommodation as I have been able to afford them. They well remain there until it is finally arranged at what place Mr Henderson will be fixed. That gentleman proceeds with me to Newcastle on my way to Port Stephens today to survey and report on the coal fields there. He has recently been employed in searching for coal in the neighbourhood of Parramatta, where on the banks of the river he has found coal but of what quality and to what extent he has not been able to ascertain. As soon as he has seen the Newcastle field he will return to Sydney and make a more minute examination at Parramatta.”
It was soon agreed that there was no coal in a location suitable for working at Port Stephens, and Henderson and miners spent the next few months boring on the Blaxland Estate at Parramatta.
In May, 1828, however, the Company’s colonial (advisory) Committee in Sydney decided that the Company’s coal mining prospects were not good and decided to recommend to the Court in London that the Coal Establishment be disbanded. The reasons for the Committee’s discouragement included (reference, 78/1/2 p. 176):
1. Information that good coal had been discovered at the new colony at Swan River
2. Information that good coal had been discovered on the Ganges in India. (Coal from NSW was intended for the India trade).
3. The continued opposition of Governor Darling and his wish to continue the Government mines at Newcastle.
4. The vast expense of starting a coal mine. (The original plan was to take over the Government mines).
5. Doubt as to whether the Company was in a legal position to buy land if a suitable coal mine was discovered at Parramatta.
While the Committee in Sydney awaited the Directors’ decision from London, the miners continued work at Parramatta. In November, 1827, John Henderson was “Directed to ascertain the expectations of the persons engaged under him so as to enable the Committee to make such an arrangement as shall be satisfactory and equable between them and the Company.” (reference, 78/1/7 p. 52: ).
On December 18th, the Committee agreed: “That as it is expedient to release them and the Company from the obligations stipulated in those documents (indentures) the option of a free passage to England for them and their families together with the amount of six months wages to each man or an equivalent gratuity to those who should be inclined to remain in the colony be offered.”
The miners were apparently not interested in the offer, and in February, Mr Henderson, being under notice to quit, the miners were sent to Port Stephens to work as directed by Mr Dawson (the Company’s agent), and James Macarthur took charge at Port Stephens.
In about July, Macarthur discovered on reading the miner’s indentures that their families were not entitled to rations although they had been issued. To that point, an order was made to the storekeeper at Carrabean to stop the issue forthwith.
In August, three of the miners - George Jewett, John Thew and Robert Hardy - travelled to Sydney to put their case to the Colonial Committee. The Committee ascertained that the men had come straight to Sydney without making enquiries of either the storekeeper or James Macarthur, and they were adjudged to have forfeited all claims upon the Company under their agreement.” (reference, 78/1/7 p. 55).
At a meeting on September 17th, it was agreed to cancel the indentures from September 20th. Jewitt and Thew returned to Port Stephens to collect their families and there seems to be no further reference to them or Robert Hardy in the despatches.
Despite negotiations in London with the colonial Office, the question of the coal mines remained unresolved for some time.
John Henderson returned to England, and it was not until Sir Edward Perry, the Company’s new Commissioner, arrived at Port Stephens in January, 1830, that the matter was revived. John Henderson returned to Newcastle in April 1830, and shortly afterwards, the Company received a grant of 500 acres at Newcastle, which included the Government coal mines.
The Company was to retain an important interest in the Newcastle coal industry until the 1920s. in the meantime, they had large pastoral interests in NSW and Queensland, and more recently, Western Australia. The company transferred its head office from London to Tamworth, NSW, at the end of 1975.”
Robert Hardy, 1795
Robert Hardy was born at Lane House, Chester-le-Street, Durham, England on August 2nd, 1795.
His father and mother were Edward and Mary Hardy (nee Harty) from Durham, England, married on May 29th 1791, at Houghton-le-Spring, Durham.
Robert married Dinah Clark at St Hilda’s Chapel, South Shields, Durham on February 3rd, 1823. Robert was 27 and Dinah was 21 years of age. They eventually had eleven children.
Robert died of consumption on June 27th, 1861, aged 64 years, at Lamplough, on the goldfields near Avoca, Victoria. He was interred in the burial ground at Avoca. There were no headstones in this burial ground, so it is virtually impossible to identify Robert’s grave site. He probably died in a tent, as Pat and Trevor Hardy (from Queanbeyan, NSW) visited Lamplough and said there were no houses.
In 1828, Robert Hardy was 32 years of age. At this time, he was a quarryman, address - Pitt Street, Sydney, and it was said they conducted a hotel in George Street [though no data has yet been found regarding this anecdote - MMT 2008-07-12]
They were also at Port Stephens, Singleton, Ballarat and others places in Victoria. Most of the children were baptised at St Philip’s Church of England, Sydney, except for George, who was baptised at the Garrison Church, the Rocks, and Benjamin, who was baptised at Singleton.
Dinah was a nurse and was involved in midwifery. She delivered many babies in the colony, and later practiced at Singleton. It is said she attended to the backs of the unfortunate convicts who had been whipped [flogged].
Here are some addresses, which give some idea of the location of the Hardy family and their activities over the years:
• June 20th, 1828 - at Port Stephens, where their third child, Thomas, was born.
• June 1830 - Robert was described as a miner.
• September 29th, 1840 - Robert was a stonemason, Dulwich, Glennies Creek area, and son Benjamin was baptised in Singleton.
• October 25th, 1841 - Dinah was at Maitland, a witness to the marriage of their daughter Mary Ann, to William Taylor
• 1844-1845 - Robert was described as a stonecutter and lived at Clarence Street, Sydney. Dinah was described as a midwife.
• September 17th, 1846 - Robert was a quarryman and lived at Argyle Street, Sydney. Son George was baptised at the Garrison Church.
• 1847 - the family was still at Argyle Street, and Dinah was described as a midwife.
• 1853 - the Hardy family was in Victoria, and bought land at Lake Burrumbeet, close to Ballarat
• June 27th, 1861 - Robert Hardy died at Lamplough, near Avoca, Victoria
• 1862 - Dinah was back at Singleton
Dinah now lived in a house in John Street, Singleton and practiced her profession as a midwife. She made a claim for a pre-emptive lease of 40 acres. She sold the land at Lake Burrumbeet in Victoria to her son-in-law, William Taylor in 1866 for £85.
For ten more years (from 1862), Dinah acted as a midwife at Singleton, her name appearing in the Register of Births thirteen times (the register of Births at Singleton - the last entry was made May 24th 1872). She attended the birth of her grandson, Joseph Dowling Hardy at Singleton ion February 2nd 1864 . Joseph later drowned in the Cuttabri Flood of 1890 at Wirrah Creek, at the age of 21.
On January 21st, 1872, Dinah Hardy, midwife of Singleton, married Johann Kling, a widower of German nationality, of Muswellbrook, NSW, at the Church of England, Singleton. At this time, Dinah was 70 years of age.
From May, 1872, there is no more news of Dinah, now Dinah Kling. It is not known were she died, or was interred. But it appears that she did not die in NSW, unless her death was not registered. And a search has been made in Victoria and Queensland, but no trace of her death has been found. [Dinah died April 9th, 1879 in Greta, NSW, and is interred at Branxton Cemetery. Her Death Certificate shows her recorded as “Dina Clean”-MMT 2008-07-12].
Information has been given to me that Robert Hardy, using convict labour, quarried stone from the Argyle Cut, at Millers Point, in the Rocks Area of Sydney. The stone was used for buildings in early Sydney.
He was said to be the first underground manager of the first Australian coal mine at Port Stephens. He was known as a contractor and stonemason. He is described on his son Benjamin’s Death Certificate as an “Imperial Service Man”. It is also said that Robert was granted a block of land on Observatory Hill, but this land was so stony, he exchanged it for a bottle of rum, which was so scarlce it was used for Legal Tender.
At one time, Dinah and Robert Hardy lived in a cottage which was close to where the pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge now stands. The children swam in the harbour.
Although the means of travel in those early days were horse drawn vehicles such as buggies, coaches, sulkies, and bullock wagons and drays, Robert and Dinah, always with young children, moved freely about the country. They made trips into Victoria in a bullock wagon, the popular mode of travel for those pioneers. It was a rough life.
They faced and overcame great hardship. There was heat, cold, rain, insects and other unpleasant creatures of the earth and undergrowth. Food had to be carried, plain, monotonous and stale. Water had to be found and carried, coming from whatever source was available, and used in the condition it was found. There were little children in drays and bullock wagons and babies, and I wonder how they coped with it all. And there were pregnant women, standing the chance that their babies would be born en-route. There was no education on these journeys, except perhaps, lessons in survival. Hazards were everywhere and emergencies occurred such as breakdowns, bushrangers, and unfriendly aborigines. There was also the bad element among the people to be contended with.
The came from many lands and gathered together on the goldfields. A feature also of those days was the large number of Chinese who flocked to the goldfields in every part of Australia. I wonder if they out numbered the Europeans.
It is a fact that the Hardy family made journeys to the Yackandandah goldfields in Victoria, and also to Ballarat and Melbourne. At that time, too, there was trouble on the goldfields near Ballarat and the Eureka Stockade event took place - history in the making.
There would be others on the road to Melbourne and various destinations. So there was help and support along the way. We must admire the strength and self-reliance of those early pioneers. Their ability to cope with whatever situations arose, especially trouble with the vehicles on the road. There was the necessity always for feed and water for the bullocks and horses. An array of necessary things was carried - the Billy can, axe, knives, shovel, sledge hammer, claw hammer, grease, over, the most necessary anvil, salt tea, flour, corn, meat, sugar, porridge, the quart pot and pannikin, medicines, castor oil, and probably senna tea. Spare equipment for the bullock team such as a spare yoke. There was no end to what could be carried on a wagon. In what safe place, I wonder, did they carry the money? And, I suppose, firearms had to be carried for protection and tobacco for those who smoked.
In 1853, when the family arrived in Victoria, their daughter Hannah was a very young child. They all survived the journey, no deaths, despite the hardships and ever present dangers. Just as their daughter, Mary Ann, on a small sailing ship, when little more than a baby, arrived at her destination safely, all the children were kept safe and well on their various journeys.
They were brave, capable, resourceful and versatile, and contributed to a great extent by their presence, to the welfare of all, and the goodness of the early years of Australian history. No doubt, they fell under the spell of this country, so different from their homeland, and I wonder if they ever realised that they, along with everyone else of this era, were the only white people to se Australia in its wild beauty, its untouched flora and fauna, before the destruction of timber and the pollution of streams and air occurred. Before the creeping devastation wrought by the white man in the name of progress; before rare creatures became extinct and destructive animals, vermin and noxious plants were introduced.
They were rewarded with joy and achievement to offset hardship and perhaps loneliness, and as the years went by, the primitive colony became a thriving young nation. They sang the songs of home, recalled the wealth of English, Irish and Scottish poetry, and memorised the swinging ballads of this new country. And the families of the first pioneers, the children born in Australia knew only primitive Australia and listened with wonder to the stories of the home countries.
They saw and marvelled at the sparkling water of the harbour and oceans, the blue haze of the mountains, the sunny skies, the fierce white frosts, the dreaded droughts and floods, the thousands of acres of fertile soil and untouched forests, stretching before the eyes to infinity. The quietness of it. The only humans occupying this vast land were the dark people, alas for them, now to be pushed aside by peoples from other nations, the relentless march of time.
The ships sailing into the harbour, and gradually increasing in number, were a source of never-ending interest to the colonists, brining more people, more goods, and news from home, as well as taking produce back to the Home Country. Our great wool industry began, too, as various people brought back sheep to the colony. John Foveaux established a large flock of Spanish Merinos on Seven Hills Farm. This farm was bought by John Macarthur and his wife Elizabeth, a woman of great purpose, who increased the flock to over 5000 sheep. The Reverend Samuel Marsden was also very prominent in the sheep breeding industry, and many other people participated.
The seeds, cuttings, and plants from other lands flourished here. Figs, grapes, melons, citrus fruit, wheat, all luxuriant and prolific in good seasons. The wondrous Tank Stream gave water to the settlers, to be finally lost in a maze of concrete. The mysterious Granny Smith apple grew and smiled on Australia, and later, the world, to become the world’s most versatile apple. Not to be forgotten, likewise, appeared the Rebecca Perfection Peach and the Cole Pear.
As Robert and Dinah grew older, the stories of vast deserts to the centre and west, and tropical jungles to the north were emerging. There was great interest in the valiant efforts of the explorers.
Some items of interest:
• NSW Government Gazette, 1862. Claim for Pre-emptive Lease number 42, name of applicant Dinah Hardy, area of freehold, Co. Durham, Parish of Broughton, Local Land Agency, Singleton.
• Dinah Hardy, widow, residing at Darlington, Singleton, sold land to William Taylor, storekeeper, of Darlington, for £85. Land situated County of Ripon, Parish of Burrumbeet, Colony of Victoria. Situated at Lake Burrumbeet. Block 48, on the Government Road to Ballarat. Signed on December 11th, 1866.
• Mrs Dinah Hardy owned and lived in a three bedroom house in John Street, Singleton, made of wood, it was a shop with a shingle roof, on floor, value 161/-.
• Singleton Times 8/5/1867 - Dinah Hardy had her rates reduced from 15/- to 13/-. This was a record of the Municipality Appeals Court on Monday May 6th, 1867.
• Robert Hardy’s English forebears have not been traced. We have found one brother, William Hardy, born September 6th, 1789 at Lumley, Durham, England.
• Dinah’s family, the Clarks, have yet to be traced.
The children of Robert and Dinah Hardy were:
• Edward
• Mary Ann
• Thomas
• William
• Robert
• Margaret
• John
• Benjamin
• Joseph
• George
• Hanna
Edward Hardy (1824)
Edward Hardy died in infancy in England.
Mary Ann Hardy (1825)
Mary Ann Hardy was born in 1825 at Cramlington, Northumberland, England. She was baptised on January 15th, 1825 at Cramlington. Mary Ann married William Taylor on October 25th, 1841 at Maitland, NSW, when she was 15 years of age.
William Taylor was born on February 2nd, 1812 at Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, and was 29 years of age when he married Mary Ann. He was a shoemaker and came to Australia from Nottingham when he was 19 years old. His father was a weaver in Nottingham, and his name was William also. The maiden name of his mother was Elizabeth Towe. William senior and Elizabeth were married at St Mary’s Church of England, Nottingham on June 26th 1806.
When Mary Ann Hardy and William Taylor were first married, they lived in Lochinvar , six miles from Maitland, from 1841 to 1860. they were at Singleton in 1867. William purchased the land at Lake Burrumbeet, Victoria, from his mother-in-law, Dinah Hardy, in 1866 for £85.
William died at Dangar Village, Narrabri on July 30th, 1886, so apparently the Taylor family was at Narrabri for a time.
Mary Ann was pre-deceased by five of her children, and William died 33 years before her. Mary Ann died on April 15th, 1919 at Adamstown, NSW aged 94 years, while she was living with her daughter, Hannah Handley, and was interred in the Church of England portion of the Sandgate Cemetery in Newcastle.
Ben Taylor’s daughter, May Griffith, said William Taylor had abundant red curly hair.
Mary Ann Taylor was a big handsome woman, capable and wise. She gave willingly to those who needed help, and was highly esteemed in the communities in which she lived. It is said she once found a bag of sovereigns in an old mattress. She kept them for those in need and after each sovereign was given out would say “That is the last of the sovereigns”.
The children of Mary Ann and William numbered 12:
• Dinah
• Elizabeth Ann
• William Robert
• John
• Thomas
• Benjamin
• Hannah
• George Hardy
• Eliza Jane
• Joseph Towe
• Edward Thomas
• Henry James
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