Send an e-mail to: Amanda TaylorSend an e-mail to: Amanda TaylorThe following article was written and researched by Grace Douglass & Laurel Legge and published in their book 'Along the Windsor Richmond Road' 1985 (ISBN 0 9589831 0 0 and ISBN 0 9589831 3 5) and is subject to copyright. Written permission is held from the late author Grace Douglass for the writer to publish contents via the Internet. However, although this book is in the public domain, it still remains copyrighted material and may not be copied for any reason without permission. I do not have the right to give permission to others to reprint the book. I was only given permission to put it on line. All copyrights stay with Grace Douglass & Laurel Legge and whoever they appointed, for control of the book. Under no circumstances may it be reprinted for profit.
Extractions of parts of the information for personal use with references to the book as the source is encouraged
Today it is considered fashionable, almost the 'in-thing' to be able to claim a convict or two in one's ancestral past, but unfortunately this was not always the case. Almost every person who states their ancestors were among the Pioneer of the Colony of New South Wales - those whose forefathers came before 1820 - have at least one or two convicts in their background. Every member of the Ezzy Family can lay claim to at least two, some as many as four before they get past the first generation of their Family Tree, and depending upon which branch or line they descend from they could have as many as seven or eight by the end of the second generation.
The first generation of the Pioneer Families of this country, were born into a Penal Colony, where the greater proportion of the inhabitants were convicts, and a class structure like that existing in England, had not begun. In these early years every man, woman and child, lived undeer the same conditions, ate the same food, and suffer the same privations. By 1800, however, this state of affairs began to slowly change. Word had filtered back to England that this country had potential to be more than just a place to banish it's unwanted and undesirable subjects, it could possibly be a place of promise and opportunity for the free settler, and so slowly they began to arrive, six or eight in that vessel and a dozen in the next, sharing their journey, with each successive load of convits. Slowly, but surely a class structure began to emerge - the 'Haves' and the 'Have-nots', only in this case the 'Haves' were the least desirable - they HAD a convict, not in their past, but in their immediate background!
At first the free settlers were mainly those people looking for a better way of life than they had in England, but gradually the more wealthy settler began to arrive when he realised that the infant Colony far away to the south of thw World, was indeed a land of promise and plenty. This latter type of settler could afford to import materials to build a more elaborate home, he had money to buy the goods displayed for sale in the shops that were beginning to flourish, and he could afford to send his sons and daughters back home to England to be educated. So with the passing years the friction worsened between the offspring of the two types of classes of settlers.
For the most part the convicts settled down to a useful productive, crime-free life after they served their sentence, but, nevertheless, the first generation was very conscious of their background. When it came the tiime for the first generation to settle down and raise their family, they tried very hard, with every increasing ingenuity to blot-out the convict image from their parent's past. The population was increasing so rapidly annd also moving farther and farther out into new unsettled areas, that it became quite easy to cover one's tracks, as it were, and gloss over 'how' one's parents had arrived in the Colony. However, even if your neighbour did not enquire into your Family's background - for the most part not wishing you to enquire into his, - the second generation began to ask questions, as all children will, about 'why' and 'how' and 'when', and so was born, out of necessity, what I chose to call 'Family Folk-lore'.
They were not lies, the majority of them were based on at least half-truths, some were even full-truth, in so far as they went, but not necessarily the WHOLE TRUTH, or ALL OF THE TRUTH. The first generation started with them and the second generation enlarged or improved on them, and the third generation accepted them as fact, without question, and so passed them on.
At this point of time in the Colony's history many sons and grandsons of parents who had arrived in chains, had by toil and diliegence, (and sometimes sheer good-luck) outsripped the fortunes of the sons of the free-settlers. Their living standards improved, the children of families living in the more closely settled areas began to receive more-or-less regular schooling, and it was possible for a man to attain social and economic security based on his own efforts. The two-class society still more-or-less existed - the 'Haves' and the 'Have-nots' only now they had a slightly different application. However, even those who had attained a far better standard of living in this new Country, than 'grandfather' could ever have hoped to gain in the old, still had this terrible fear of admitting to their beginnings, it was a social stigma, and so with each generation the Family-Folk-lore increased and grew until the WHOLE truth was securely hidden and forgotten.
Toward the latter end of the 19th Century most small communitues had their own regular local nespapers, copies of which have survived in our marjor libraries. Thes have been used as a rich source of reference material by writers of modern-day newspaper articles, and historical accounts, and this has helped to spread the 'tales' even further, and make them more believable, and harder still to quash. Unfortunately the 'Folk-lore' was firmly established prior to the arrival of these early newspapers, so not all that we are able to find there can be claimed to be the WHOLE TRUTH. Nevertheless it is most interesting to examine these stories to see how much truth is behind them. I have already spoken about Samuel Broughton's writings in the early Windsor and Richmond Gazette under the pen-name of 'Cooramil'. To write these articles Boughton relied on the memories of others, and therefore reaped a good supply of Family Folk-lore, based soley on 'my father told me...'
The Hawkesbury district, being on the of the earliest settled areas of the Colony, was the birth-place or starting out point of a great many family lines which began with a convict or two. The Ezzy Family line, of course, started with one and one so-called 'free' person, although Jane, herself, may have had other ideas about that! All of the first-generation Spouse lines originated in the Hawkesbury, also, and thus Boughthon's 'Reminisences' and pages of the Hawkesbury newspapers contain many stories of our own personal Folk-lore.
The only way to over-ride and look behind these stories is to go back to the beginning of the history of the Colony and find for yourself from those Official Records which have survived, what, in fact, really did happen. To day more and more people are becoming incearsingly interested in their fore-fathers and their doings, and convicts in one's background is no longer a social stigma, more like a badge of achievement! There are many avenues open to the aspiring Genealogist who wishes to dabble in the past. More and more pre-1900 records are being put on open access and it is a rich and rewarding experience to search back through the passages of time, although at tiimes one has to be devious to achieve the ultimate aim - the arrival of the convict ancestor, or military person, or free-settler, as the case may be, in the Colony. To reach the 'fact' you have to wade back through the 'fiction' but don't discard it, it is still part of your inheritance, albeit, born out of necessity of the times.
The Receipe for good Folk-lore seems to have been, if one of your ancestors was a convict and the other 'free' then ignore the former and expand the attributes of the latter. If on the other hand, you were unfortunate enough to have two convict ancestors, then simply ignore the whole thing and 'weave him a new set of clothes', or at best a half-truth to cover his arrival. The first alternative seems to have applied to Henry Lamb, who affects the line of descent of all those who belong to John Ezzey's portion of the Ezzy Family Tree. To make him appear 'grander' and thus remove the stigma of William Ezzy, the Family promoted Henry to Sgt. Lamb. At least that gave him rank! However, Henry's Pay Lists on file at the Mitchell library, tell their own story. Henry joined as a private, served as a private and was still a private at the time of departure from the New South Wales Corps. The only thing that surprises me here, is that by the time Samuel Boughton got to hear of him, he had not gained yet another stripe or two! There are several references made to Henry Lamb by Samuel Boughton, based, of course, on what Family members had related to him, always referring to him as Sgt. Lamb. It was said that the members of the Ezzy Family who served in the Boer War took after their military grandfather, completely ignoring the fact, that after all their name was Ezzy, and they had two grandfather!
The Mayo Family, another of our major Spouse Families, had a slightly more difficult problem, their line started with two conficts, so they adoped the 'new-set-of-clothes' approach. Mr. Boughton's first reference to John Mayo's arrival was to say that he had been 'an old soldier from India who had arrived in the Colony with his wife'. He later corrected this statement, but only to say that Mr. Mayo had been 'a sailor, not a soldier', and that eh 'couple had come separately and married here'. As to what countries John Mayo had visited before he came to the Colony, or what his occupation had been, we are uninformed, as it does not come withing the scope of this History, but he arrived as a convict, as did his future wife, Mary Weldon.
Another Spouse Line Family, that of John William John, 'switched sides', or so it would appear. The descendants of this Pioneer claimed he was anon-comissioned officer in one of the regiments that arrived at a very early date, and that he had taken an active part agains the rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill. They even displayed his sword on the wall of their home, and claimed it had been stolen the night before the battle and was later found on one of the leading rebels. Well, this story could be half-truth, the swordd may be been found on the rebel, and John William John may have taken part in the Vinegar Hill uprising, but I would question on whose side he fought, for he most certainly was not (at the time of his arrival) a non-commissioned officer, he came with a convict status.
With the advent of the newspaper, Obituaries became the recognised way of honouring a resident of long-standing in the Community. It was once such Obituary in the Windsor and Richmond Gazette that gave this Chapter it's title - 'Grandfather was an Englishman'. When Emily Ashton passed away quite some years after her husband had gone to his final resting place (she came from a family that was blessed with longevity), her family must have supplied this answer when asked who had been her spouse, for the Obituary quite plainly states that her 'late husband had been an Englishman'. Well, after all, it was most likely the truth, most convicts were! There was no need to say 'how' that Englishman arrived, but it does leave the researcher in later years with the wrong impression of Thomas Ashton's background.
When I first started researching I thought that the members of the third generation were simply evading or covering up the issue, but now, having delved a lot further, I feel they honestly believed it to be the trugh. Joseph Ezzy (son of John) when interviewed at one stage during the latter part of his life, claimed that 'his grandfather' which could have been William Ezzy or Henry Lamb - had been employed as an Orderly in the home of Governorn Phillip. I don't feel this statement can even be one-quarter truth, just pure camouflage. The 'Royal Admiral' which transported William to the Colony, was the vessel which brought letters giving the ailing Governor permission to return to England, and he left the Colony less than two months after the Ezzy Family arrived. In any case, William, an unskilled Brewer's servant was not, in the least likely to have been employed in the Governor's household. So far as Henry Lamb Henry would have needed the rank of Sgt., at very least, to have set foot in the Governor's residence.
One member of the third generation, Rowland Ezzy, was Baliff of the District Court and also the Small Debts Court at Windsor for many years, and when interviewed at the time of his retirement, stated that his Grandfather had come with Governor Macquarie, and that the samue Governor had made him his first appointee to the Police Force at Windsor and later was the first man to be granted land at Windsor by him also. Of course, Rowland Ezzy had two Grandfathers, John Ezzey and Thomas Cross, the former was born here and the latter came as a convict prior to Governor Macquarie's appointment and arrival. However, there is still an element of truth in Rowland's claims. His great-grandmother, Jane Ezzy, was the FIRST WOMAN to be given a grant of land in the Hawkesbury, although by Hunter, not Macquarie. His great-grandfather Henry Lamb, had been given a grant of land by Macquarie, and the family still have the Deeds signed by him to prove it. Finally, his grandfather John Ezzey was a District Constable appoiinted from the Windsor Branch to the District of North Richmond. However, this last appointment was not until 1828 and Governor Macquarie had left the Colony some eight years previously.
There is another form of information handed down from Father to son over succeeding generations, that I choose to cal 'Family Scuttle-bug'. It is a collection of facts, overheard or half remembered and handed down, often with a complete loss of identity as to which ancestor it relates to. It must be remembered that every person has two grandfathers, four great-grandfathers, eight great-great-grandfathers, and so on, the number doubling each time you go back another generation. So it is quite easy when family memories and family stories are recounted, for the lineage of the 'grandparent' to be confused. Let us examine some of them and the truths that lie behind them.
Statement - 'That William Ezzy had a brother who 'came free' or 'came latter'. Possibly this is a reference to John and Charles having a brother (James William) who came 'free' although, if he came at all, and was not born here, a problem we have not been able to solve, then he came the same time as the other members of the original Family. It is just a generation mix-up thinking that it was a brother of William's rather than his sons'.
Statement - 'That the Family were given a large grant of land in Sydney', sometimes lengthened to include 'Woolloomooloo' or 'Waterloo'. There is no evidence of any GRANT being given to any early member of the Ezzy Family in Sydney, itself. There could, of course, have been purchases made of original grants to persons outside the Family structure, but if this had been the case I feel we should have found some mention of them, one way or another, in the amount of material we have sifted through to obtain the information for this account of our History. Jane Ezzy and John Boulton had the land in George Street, Sydney, and there were the various sites in the Rocks area, but all of these are documented, they were not large, and also they were purchases or leases and not free grants. There is nothing to sugges, so far as we can find, that either of our two main Spouse Line Founders - Henry Lamb and John Bootle - had free grants in Sydney, either, although Henry Lamb was given one on the North Shore (opposit present-day Royal North Shore Hospital), which he did not take up, possibly due to the fact that he was moved to Windsor about the same date.
Each early Spouse Family marrying into the Ezzy Family has it's own share of Family Folk-lore and Family Scuttle-bug, but most of them can be traced back to a 'reason' or a 'source' and the truth established. Similarly individual members of the Family have their own private stories surrounding them, this has come about by the fact that they lived such isolated lives, that only fragments of their daily existence filtered back to be recounted to the next generation. Edwin Richard Ezzy (Charles son of John ), George Henry Ezzy (Richard son of John ), and several others were living legends withing their own lifetimes, and it was most difficult to separate 'fact' from 'fiction'.
There is jone one other piece of information I feel should be aired here. Whilst it is neither Folk-lore not Scuttle-bug, it is never-the-less a story that cannot be proven, but is, I feel worth consiering. One of the branches of my own personal Family Tree, quite unconnected with the Ezzy/Ezzey line. I had a relative who wrote and published a History of the Blue Mountains. He was a reliable researcher, a member of the Royal Australian Historical Society, and a member and office-bearer of the Blue Mountains Historical Society. Whilst he was researching the information for his Blue Mountains' History he showed to my Mother a published book which stated that 'William Ezzy supplied the horses for the crossing of the Blue Mountains'. When it was related to me in later years, when I became interested in researching the Ezzy Family History, I took it to mean the 1813 crossing by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth. Despite extensive enquiries made at the Royal Australian Historical Society, Blue Mountains Historical Society, Windsor Historical Society and Mitchell Library, I have been unable to establish the name of the Book, past or present, which could have contained this statement.
Furthermore, it was pointed out to me by the Windsor Historical Society that as the 1813 crossing stated out from the Penrith area and went up over the mountains from Emu Plains, there would have been no reason to obtain horses from Windsor. However, it has occured to me of recent years that there was more than ONE crossing of the Blue Mountains - there were, of course, several - and one group of them DID set out from the Hawkesbury. Archibald Bell, accompanied by three men and two natives, set out from Richmond on 6th October 1823, along with the Assistant Surveyor, Robert Hoddle. On this journey they followed a route which Archibald Bell had mapped out the previous September, having made two unsuccessful shorter journeys in the previous weeks of the same year. One any one of these journeys they could have used horses purchased in the Windsor area. Unfortunately my Mother saw the account a long time ago, and my relative is long since deceased, so I am unable to enquire the title of the book or confirm the information, however, I felt it worth stating the facts here in the hope that some furture member of the family may stumble across the information a a time yet to come and attest to the claim that William Ezzy DID supply the horses for the crossing.
Written in 1985 by Grace Heather DOUGLASS nee BUDDLE (2 Jun 1927 to 6 Nov 2003).
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