Joseph Holmes of Holmesville: an update

I’m overwhelmed by the response to my first blog post here, about some addresses jotted down in a notebook by my great-great-grandmother.  Within months, I had been contacted by two descendants of the founder of the town of Holmesville, 90 miles north of Sydney in New South Wales; and by a new third cousin, who still lives near Wigan, in England, where my maternal grandmother originated.

Thanks primarily to this new cousin, we may have pieced together most of the puzzle.

My g-g-grandmother Ellen Hulme (1820-1866) was one of at least 10 children of William Holme who married Sally / Sarah Hill in 1806.  Those ten were:

• Hannah or Ann (1807-1850) * Joseph’s mother – see below
• Margaret (1809- )
• Elizabeth (1812-<1833) )
• James (1815- )
• Samuel (1819- <1827)
• Ellen (1820-1866)  *** my g-g-grandmother
• John (1823-1891>) *** emigrated to Australia with Hannah’s son Joseph in 1856 aboard HMS Herald but returned later to England
• Samuel (1827- )
• Sarah (1831- )
• Elizabeth (1833-1848)

Hannah – although she never married – probably had four children:

• Joseph (1831- ) *** emigrated to Australia (HMS ‘Herald’) in 1856 and founded Holmesville
• Levy (1836-1854)
• Charlotte (1839-1851>)
• Mary Ann (1848- ) * emigrated to Australia aboard ‘Scirocco’ in 1863/4

Less than a year after Hannah’s death in 1850, her daughters Charlotte and Mary Ann were listed on the 1851 census as the daughters of Samuel Hill, a 43 year old weaver.  In 1841, her son Levy had been recorded with the same Samuel and his parents (alas, relationships aren’t given in the 1841 census).  When Joseph arrived in Australia aboard the ‘Herald’ in 1856, he claimed his parents were Samuel and Hannah .  Was Samuel his true father?  If so, why did he not marry Hannah?  Was he, perhaps, a cousin … or even an uncle?  Hannah’s mother was Sally/ Sarah Hill: Samuel’s father was James Hill: could they have been brother and sister?  But, if so, surely the girls would have been listed on the 1851 census as Samuels nieces, not daughters?

I also found the arrivals of John and Joseph in Australia on the ‘Herald’ in 1856, and Joseph paying the passage of his sister Mary Ann (also recorded in my gg-grandmother’s casting book) when she arrived aboard the ‘Scirocco‘ in 1863 or 1864.

As I said at the end of that first post … isn’t t’internet wonderful?

Joseph Holmes of Holmesville, NSW

My great-great-grandmother, Ellen Holmes of Pemberton near Wigan, made various notes in a ‘casting book’ – a 100-page quarto hardbacked notebook – which had belonged to her younger sister Elizabeth who had died in 1848, aged 15.  Ten years previously, Ellen marked her name with a cross – as did her husband – when they married. It may be that Elizabeth had been teaching her to write, or to improve her writing and spelling. On the very last page someone wrote an address:

Joseph Holmes
Hollow Flat
neer Minma Coal
and copperas works
neer Newcastle New
South wales
Australia

Naturally, I just HAD to search t’net for him: and much to my surprise, found a remarkably close match. It seems a suburb of Newcastle – north of Sydney – may have been named after him!

Name Origin: The suburb took its name from Joseph Holmes an early land-holder and settler of the area. Early Land Grants: Portion 49 (Teralba Parish) granted to Joseph Holmes 19 February 1895. This 100 acre grant lay west of Apple Tree Road (formerly known as Minmi Road). Early Subdivisions: D.P.3442; 7/3/1898. Subdivision bounded by Elizabeth, William and Margaret Streets and Apple Tree Road. Part of Portion 49. Joseph Holmes divided IO acres of his grant into 250 allotments, which were sold at 20 pounds each (10 pound deposit, and 8% interest on quarterly balance). Early Settlers: Joseph Holmes and his wife Mary, although not among the very early settlers of the area, were important to the town’s development The Holmes’ settled with their large family on 10 acres at “Holy Flat“, Estelville. The family kept a dairy and supplied Minmi with milk. Joseph worked in the mines. It is believed that he and his son Samuel introduced a method for top-holing and firing coal to Seaham No. I Colliery. The Holmes also derived an income from their land and building dealings.

So, then, what relation was Joseph to my gg-g’ma Ellen? In 1851, Ellen (now married to a coal-miner, James Miller) is living in Marsh Green, a hamlet on the edge of Pemberton near Wigan. Nearby (according to the 1851 census) a Joseph Holmes, 19-year-old coal-miner, is lodging at the ‘Duke of York’, The head of the household is Simon Miller – ‘Victualler and Coal Miner’, living with his wife, son (yet another coal-miner) and daughter. I believe Simon was the brother of Ellen’s husband, and named his daughter Cicely after their mother. HER maiden name was Melling: and another lodger was Thomas Melling, aged 26: – perhaps her nephew? Also lodging with them were Levy (15) and Samuel Holmes (24). Could all three be brothers or cousins of Ellen? There are two other links with New South Wales.

A few pages earlier is another, similar address, this time for a John Holme – and Ellen had a brother John, born in 1823. – and, earlier in the book, an entry reads:

“Mary Ann Holme left Wigan October 26th year of our lord 1863 [or is it 66?] to Joine the Ship Siroco” Another internet hunt for that ship turns up a reference to another family who sailed on her:

[they] “set sail on the ship “Sirocco” from London on Thursday November 5th 1863, bound for Sydney Town, N.S.W. The “Sirocco” arrived in quarantine on January 28th 1864,and was inspected by the board of immigration on February 5th.”

– it appears the Sirocco was on a regular run between Britain and Australia – settlers one way, sheep the other, perhaps? But returning to Holmesville … this, I think, was the home of Joseph’s son Samuel, in the 1900’s:

(image from https://history.lakemac.com.au/page-local-history.aspx?pid=1085&vid=20&tmpt=showmedia&narid=48&cat=Photograph&medid=5943&objid=5846 – that site has lots of other photographs including one photograph of the family outside it here

[see an update here: https://branchesnroots.wordpress.com/2013/11/09/joseph-holmes-of-holmesville-an-update/]