Descendants of James Chambers

James Chambers, son of James Chambers and Mary Brockelhurst, born 1811 ¹ in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England; chr. 15 Mar 1812 ¹ St Michael, Macclesfield ; died 17 Jul 1864 ² Wombat, New South Wales, Australia. He married 3 Nov 1841 ² at Paterson near Dungog, NSW, Margaret Mackay, daughter of Angus Mackay (1795-1894) and his first wife Jane Clark, born 1820 Aberdeen, Scotland, chr. 1 Dec 1820 ³ ; died 8 Feb 1887 ² West Kempsey, NSW, Australia, buried in West Kempsey Cemetery.

Margaret married (2) as his 3rd wife on 9 Dec 1867 ⁴ at Macleay River, Augustus Raymond, born 27 Sep 1821 London, Surrey, England, chr. 4 Jan 1822 at Christ Church, Southwark, Surrey; died 18 Jan 1877, Sydney, NSW, son of Mead Raymond and Ann Chapman. No issue from her second marriage.

       The father of James Chambers was also named James and his mother was Mary Brocklehurst. They married on 6 Jan 1807 in Prestbury village located about 3 kilometres north of Macclesfield in the county of Cheshire in England with Manchester being the closest large city with a population of 95,000 in 1800 that by 1830 grew to 180,000. At the time of the marriage the groom was living in Macclesfield and as the marriage was in Prestbury it was likely the place of residence of Mary Brocklehurst’s parents. It is possible James Sr. was the James Chambers whose death was registered in Stockport in Sept Qtr. 1839 (vol. 19, page 191), located about 10 kilometres north of Macclesfield, and his wife the Mary at age 30 was buried there on 16 Nov 1818 or a Mary whose death was registered there in Dec Qtr. 1853 (vol. 8a, page ?). However the latter is by no means certain as an index to the 1851 census listed six named Mary Chambers aged from 3 to 51 years living in Stockport of whom any one may have been the Mary who died there in 1853. If James' wife Mary was the Mary Chambers buried at Stockport in 1818 he would likely have remarried. Such a marriage could have been that of a James Chambers to a Hannah Bythell on 4 Oct 1824 at Northernden located about 19 kilometres from Macclesfield ⁷¹.
      If as speculated James' father was the James who died in 1839 that was too early for the 1841 first available census so his occupation is not available from that source. However the death registration record should provide it. It is possible his father was employed in Macclesfield or a near village in the silk manufacturing industry. During the 18th century the British silk industry made considerable progress and by the year 1800 ranked as one of England’s greatest undertakings. One of the main provincial centres where it was established was Macclesfield. By 1800 Macclesfield had 1500 houses and a population of almost 9000. In the 1800s there was a significant migration of silk workers from Spitalfields (London) to Manchester and Macclesfield. Manchester in 1815 alone had 10,000 silk weavers. The industry became an asylum for handloom weavers from the cotton and woollen trades because mechanisation did not occur in the silk industry until later in the 19th century. By 1825 the population of Macclesfield was about 20,000. That year newspaper advertisments were seeking 4 to 5 thousand workers aged from 7 to 20 years for employment (in throwing and manufacturing) in the silk industry in Macclesfield and builders to immediately build 1000 houses there. It was thus possible it was in that industry that James Sr. was employed and intially also his 1811 born son James perhaps starting work as a labourer when very young before at age 18 joining the army.
        According to extracted parish records the couple had four children christened at Saint Michael in Macclesfield - viz. (1) Betty on 3 April 1808 (likely to be found in later records as Elizabeth - Betty being a common diminutive of Elizabeth), (2) Thomas on 22 Apr 1810, (3) James on 18 Mar 1812, and (4) Jane on 22 Jan 1815. It will be noted in Australia James bestowed his siblings names of Thomas, Jane and Elizabeth upon his children in birth order immediately following Mary (1843-1917) named after his mother, James Jr. (1844-1913) named after himself and his father, Angus (1845-1869) named after his wife's father Angus Mackay, and Margaret (1855-) named after his wife ⁷¹.

       James Chambers married Scotland born Margaret Mackay, the daughter Angus Mackay (1795-1894) and his first wife Jane Clark, on 3 Nov 1841 at Dungog when serving with the 4th Division of military mounted police which covered the Hunter Valley. With her father, his second wife Christina née Mackay, and six siblings, Margaret arrived in Australia on the James Moran which left Lochinvar in Scotland on 22 Oct 1838 and arrived in Sydney Harbour on 11 Feb 1839. Her father initially found work in Sydney with the government in his trade as a carpenter before moving to Dungog. In all he had sixteen children from his two marriages and when he died in 1894 at Bowraville on the mid-north coast of NSW his obituary stated he had 276 living descendants and was only four months shy of his hundredth birthday ⁶⁹ .
       No Chambers family event certificates or transcripts of the official registrations have been obtained by the compiler except for that of Margaret's second marriage in 1867 to Augustus Raymond and none have been provided by Chambers descendants. It is understood James' 1864 death registration listed no children's names but Margaret's in 1887 listed the names of her then living issue which if it conformed with the requirements should have also had their ages. Birth certificates for those born after official registration began in March 1856 should give the numbers of Margaret's previous issue, both male and female, enabling a progressive numerical verification. It is thought the best published source for the children's names and their descendants would be the 1991 published 600 page book mentioned above titled: Mackay-McKay Family History. It named eleven children and was published in 1991 following a 1988 Mackay family reunion held in Bowraville attended by approx. 2500 descendants. To some extent the early genealogy of the line would also appear in an unsighted by the compiler 1988 published Nancy Edge compilation of the genealogy of the Angus Mackay family ⁹.  In 2008 at the time of this compilation of the below given genealogy the number of James and Margaret Chambers descendants would presumably run to several hundred.
       Chambers papers deposited in the Mitchell Library by a descendant referred to below did not contain a family tree. However the manuscript librarian advised that when cataloguing the papers a former librarian drew up a tree relying upon notes contained in items numbered 1, 2, and 4 listed on the linked to in the immediately below section Mitchell Library card catalogue. That tree had the parents of James as James Chambers b. 1772 and Mary Brakkel, and named only eight of the eleven James and Margaret Mackay children and their married surnames etc. as follows - James Jr. d. 1913 (m. Angusena Bradley d. 1923 who had 8 children being - James, 5 other sons, and 2 dau's., Angus, Margaret (m. a Bell), Ellen (m. a Fenwick), Mary (m. a Graham) Thos (m. and had 4 sons), Jane (m. Taylor), William d. 8 yrs. The parents of James named in the deposited documents as James Chambers and Mary Brakkel was clearly incorrect as to the mother's surname. As his 1864 death registration has not been sighted what the informant then gave as the maiden surname of his mother is not known.

        Prior to her 1953 death Ida Ringland, a daughter of James Chambers Jr. and granddaughter of James Chambers and Margaret née Mackay, deposited the above mentioned Chambers family photos and papers in the Mitchell Library. For the list of the deposits see the Library's Manuscripts Index card catalogue. This unsighted by the compiler library deposit would be the source for incorrect claims re the history of James published in the 1990s. Whilst acknowledging a claim by the library depositer that James had been a Captain in the army was likely not correct, a 1991 published book titled - McKay/Mackay family history had as if factual other extraordinary and equally incorrect claims re the time James spent in the army. Stated was that he had directed the forming of paths in the Sydney Domain and made a large sunshade hat for the wife of Governor Macquarie from cabbage tree fronds and a stout pair of walking shoes from kangaroo hide and when she went out walking he had assisted her to a resting rock on the waterfront that he later had hewn out to form a seat on which he had inscribed - "Mrs Macquarie's Chair".
        In respect of these claims nothing more need be said than that Governor Lachlan Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth née Campbell (1778-1835) left Australia in 1821 when James was still only ten years of age and eleven years before he even arrived in the colony as a 4th regiment army private. The Mackay history book also stated quote that - "James had an illustrious military career". However all the records disclose is that from enlistment when in the army his rank was always that of Private and after he was seconded to the military mounted police until it was disbanded never more than Trooper. There is nothing in the records to give rise to the claim his army service was any more "illustrious" than that any other British Army soldier/Mounted Police Trooper who served from enlistment without any advancement in rank.

        James Chambers enlisted in the 4th (King's Own) Regiment at Liverpool in England on 22 March 1831 that came to Australia in 1832 and remained there until 1837 when it departed for India. He arrived on the barque Parmelia which left Sheerness in the South West of England on the 28 Jul 1832 and arrived in Sydney Harbour on 16 Nov 1832. He was part of the thirty-one man rank and file guard on the vessel, of whom twenty-nine were 4th regiment soldiers, who were escorting 196 convicts to the colony. On 1 Nov. 1834 he was seconded to the military police in which he served for fifteen years and 61 days - for the first ten months on foot and thereafter as a mounted trooper until it became a civil force and then again back in the army nominally for less than a year until his discharge ⁵ .
         In 1849 the decision was taken to abolish the military mounted police. James was discharged from it in November that year and rejoined the British Army as a private in the 11th Regiment. In a rare act of generosity the government allowed the discharged men to keep their cloaks. For mounted police returning to the army a parchment certificate dated Dec 1849 was provided giving details of their total army service up to then (his was 18 years and 301 days) and service in the mounted police. Over hundred and sixty years on his certificate, that gives his mounted police service as 15 years and 61 days, survives and is held by the Mitchell Library in Sydney. The 11th regiment Pay and Muster Rolls for the first three quarters of 1850 listed him on its effective strength but as "on furlough awaiting discharge". The Sept. Quarter 1850 roll gave his discharge date as 30 Sep. 1850, birth place as Macclesfield, and that he was a labourer at the time of his enlistment on 22 March 1831 ⁵.
        During the period from 1839 to 1850 his name appeared only once in the Mounted Police Defaulter's Book. The offence committed was recorded as "getting married without liberty" and the date it was committed as 10 Dec 1841 (note this date was in error as the church parish register had it as 3 Nov 1841). The punishment was that he be "dismounted" for an unspecified period - likely for a month or so ⁶⁷. James was not an NCO but if had held a rank he likely would have lost it as it was noted in April 1844 for the same offence Lance-Sergeant Abraham Kershaw was reduced to the rank of Trooper being the equivalent to a private in the army. At the time of the offence the commandant of the mounted police was Capt. J. W. Nunn of the 80th regiment which was the regiment in which James was a supernumerary - his substantive position having been transferred to that regiment when the 4th regiment left the colony for India in 1837. Presumably the reason why prior the approval of the commandant to marry was required would have been to enable the intended bride to be vetted to ensure she was of good character and not for example an associate of a bushranger marrying a trooper to gain access to inside information on intended police movements!
          Although the 11th regiment's pay and muster rolls recorded James was paid by it as a soldier until 30 Sep 1850, by notice in the Government Gazette of 19 Jul 1850 he was appointed Chief Constable at Wagga Wagga, where the holding of Petty Sessions had commenced in 1847 when a court room and watchhouse were built and the first Chief Constable (Michael Norton) who James replaced was appointed at a remuneration of £70 P.A. It was said the 1850's began with people "flocking down to Wagga Wagga and that in 1851 the Chief Constable there was responsible for the policing the maintenance of law and order over a wide area assisted by three ordinary constables and a watchhouse keeper ⁶⁸.
          There are mentions of James in the Wagga Wagga Bench Book that recorded the proceedings of the bench of magistrates there during the period he was the Chief Constable (AONSW reel #594). Less than two weeks after the gazettal of his appointment he was listed in the Government Gazette of 8 Oct 1850 as purchasing for the price of £4 a half acre block of crown land with a 66 foot frontage to Trail Street in South Wagga Wagga that was offered for sale at an auction of thirty-three town allotments held on 31 July 1850. This was the second auction by the crown of town land. The first was held on 29th Nov 1849 of the previous year following the proclamation of the town six days earlier on the 23rd Nov. The Chief Constable appointment there was certainly a step up in life for James with its attendant status in the community and remuneration of £70 P.A. being a significant advance on the approx. £20 P.A. with rations applicable when he was a British Army private. However his tenure in the office was short-lived as he resigned on 30th Sep. 1851 from the civil police force to join the gold rushes that began after the April that year announcement of the Hargraves discovery at the Ophir north-west of Bathurst of the first payable gold found in Australia. The appointment of his successor as Chief Constable was gazetted six weeks later on 14 Nov. 1851 ⁶.

          The afore mentioned unsighted by the compiler Ida Ringland Mitchell Library deposit would have also been the source for quite extraordinary claims re the gold prosepecting history of James etc. that appeared in a 1994 published book titled - When the river was the road that mainly covered aspects of the history of the NSW mid-north coast town of Bowraville and distict and some early settlers there ². James' mining and prospecting history would have began shortly after his Nov. 1851 resignation from the civil police. In April 1851 the discovery of payable gold was announced and by the time James resigned his police position on 30 Sep 1851 the rush that was to transform Australia was well underway with him being just one of thousands from all walks of life who left their occupations to chance their hand at obtaining riches. The cited 1994 Glenn Bradley authored book also stated his name was connected with Chambers' Creek situated in the Parish of Coleridge North West of Bathurst, a tributary of the Macquarie River that joins it about 4 kilometres south of its' junction with the Turon River, where it said he was "reputed" (i.e. by Ida Ringland) to have been the discover of a rich gold field to which a rush eventuated about seven years after his death resulting in the creek being named after him and likewise a town there that once had a population of 20,000 ! ⁷
          One might well ask is any aspect of the claimed naming of the creek and town after him actually correct? The answer is a resounding NO. Firstly the 20,000 population claimed is well astray. It would be surprising if at the height the speculative and mining activity there in 1872-73 the small town named Chambers that came briefly into existance and the reefs mined east of the creek had a peak population for more than a few months of even a tenth of the number claimed. The 20,000 would have been that of the whole Tambaroora goldfield area that included the principal town of Hill End located 11 kilometres to the north that in 1872-73 had 28 of the 52 hotels in the area. By comparison three were the most hotels noted for the town of Chambers!
          After it was floated in London in late 1872 the Sir John Moore Gold Mining Company installed in 1873 a stamping battery beside the creek for the crushing of ore brought across it from its mine on a flying-fox. It was said the company then employed one hundred men which not only made it the highest capitalised company to operate there but also the single largest employer in the history of the Chambers' Creek field ⁷. The linked maps show on an 1866 map of NSW the area north of Bathurst where Chambers Creek is located, the location and ruins of the red-brick constructed Sir John Moore quartz ore crushing battery chimney (extant in 1979), the southern extremity of the Chambers' Creek mining leases, the location of the once small village of Chambers south of the battery, and mentions in the 1875 to 1877 NSW Department of Mines Annual Reports of remnants of gold mining activity at the locality. The latter stated by the end of 1875 only three leases on the main line of reefs were being worked - Allen's, the Bismark & the Sir John Moore, of which the last named was still persevering at the end of 1875 with twelve men employed. By the end of 1876 all leases from the southern extremity of Hawkins' Hill just south of Hill End to Chambers Creek were entirely unoccupied ⁷.
          In respect of the claim of a gold field discovery there by James Chambers and a 1870s naming of the creek after him, the Mitchell Library manuscript librarian advised the compiler the Chambers family papers deposited with it 1953 that would have been the source of the claim in the Glen Bradley book do not contain any supporting documents. Maps showing where the various types of gold were extracted in the Tambaroora and Turon gold fields, newspaper reports, and other writings suggest the creek was not a source for alluvial gold extraction during the years to 1864 that James flourished although alluvial gold was extracted from the Macquarie River both above and below the creek's point of entry during the major gold rushes to the general area that began in June 1851. Early in July newspapers published suggestions by the NSW Government Geologist of places with potential for alluvial gold mining, which was then the only type of gold mining, actually directed the attention of prospectors to the section of the Macquarie River where Chambers Creek joined it. However he recommended specifically prospectors target the bar at the junction of the Macquarie and the Turon River and the big bar across the Macquarie three miles downstream at "Walgumbulla" which would have been no more than a mile below where Chambers' Creek entered the river. It is possible after resigning from the police that from late 1851 James became one of the thousands who spent some time at the Turon River diggings and at some of the other diggings on the Macquarie River and its tributary creeks as well as later at other gold mining areas in NSW and certainly in Victoria where some of his children were born ⁷.
          However the claim that the creek and township that sprang up beside it seven years after his death were named after him as the discoverer of a "rich gold field" there could not relate to the finding of alluvial gold there, of which in any case there is no evidence that alluvial gold was ever found in the creek, but to the discovery of quartz gold there by a man named Chambers that was mined from veins in the reefs and crushed to extract the gold upon which a royalty was payable to the goverment. There is no evidence gold in reef form was discovered at Chambers Creek until 1868 by when James Chambers had been dead for four years! Thus the claim Chambers Creek and the township that came into into existance there briefly were named after James simply has no merit. Following the reef gold discovery at the locality for a few years in the early 1870s a mining mania took hold there with the establishment of over ninety mining leases on the three reefs lying to the east of Chambers Creek with speculation in their purchase and formation of mining companies. In most cases the actual gold mining of the quartz reefs proved to be not payable and the area became deserted ⁷.
          So what are said to be the facts concerning the naming? According to books authored in the mid-1960s by lifetime Hill End area resident Harry Hodges the circumstance that gave rise to the naming of the creek as "Chambers Creek" was that following the discovery of reef gold there it was named after a Mr. Chambers who in partnership with another held a quartz mining lease on one of the three Chambers' Creek reefs. The first newspaper mention noted of mining activity at Chambers' Creek, that joined the Macquarie about 4 miles upstream from its junction with the Turon, was in the Sydney Mail of 30 May 1868. It had that the area that was drawing the interest of reefers and diggers was in rough country where bits of gold had been found here and there ⁷
          Stated in the cited Bradley book was that James Chambers died of apoplexy on 17 Jul 1864 at Wombat located about 13 kilometers south of Young and the death certificate recorded his then occupation as storekeeper at Wombat. Eight months earlier the 25 Sep 1863 birth registration for Wombat born son William gave his father's occupation as gold miner suggesting James may have mostly followed occupations associated with the precious yellow metal such as prospector and miner etc., in NSW and Victoria for about twelve years from the time he left the NSW civilian police force in Sept. 1851 until not long before his death when he became a store keeper most likely near the Wombat gold diggings ².

          At the time of the 1864 death of husband James the youngest child William was only nine months of age. The 26 November 1867 marriage of the eldest daughter Mary was registered at Young, about 50 klms north-west of Murrumburrah which is about 30 klms south-east of Wombat. Murrumburrah was recorded as Margaret's usual place of residence when she married less than a month later. Perhaps she did not attend Mary's marriage as it was only 23 days later on 19 December 1867 she married at Pola Creek at Macleay River as his third wife London born widower Augustus Raymond whose second wife had died the previous year leaving him with four young children aged from 4 to 9 years to care for.
          It is possible the photo at the top of this article of the three Mackay sisters and a small boy, with Margaret the one seated and the boy perhaps Margaret's then almost 4 years old son William who was fated to die on 7 Sep 1971 aged seven when crushed by a tree he and his same same age half-brother Edward Raymond fell on his parents Capeharrow Hill at Bowraville farm when they were absence at a funeral, was taken at the time of the Raymond marriage as the other two sisters Elizabeth Bradley and Jane Gaddes resided in the area - Elizabeth at Macleay River and Jane Gaddes at nearby Rolland Plains that by then had access to Macleay River and Kempsey via a dray trafficable road over the range. The marriage registration record, with some information extracted from the Parish register, had her age as 42 years. After Augustus Raymond selected 100 acres on 6 May 1869 in the parish of Buckra Bendinni just west of Bowra (Bowraville) they left Pola Creek and moved there and then about 1872 to Sydney where Augustus died in 1877. Details of his history incorporating a link to a web page for his family in England is at : Descendants of Augustus Raymond

       When Margaret's second husband Augustus Raymond died on 18 Jan 1877 death at 56 years of age resulting from an injury to his spine causing paralysis and bronchitis his will left Margaret a life interest in his estate. In the Trades Section of The Sydney Sands Directory for 1875 he was listed as a Cab Proprietor at 5 Ultimo Street in Ultimo and then in the Sands for 1877 in the Trades Section as a grocer at 20 Bank Street in Pyrmont. In the year after his death there the grocery business was relocated. The Sands for 1879 listed Margaret as a grocer at 29, 31 Athlone Place in Ultimo and also as residing there. She was listed as a cab owner (i.e. a hackney cab) in the trades section of the Sydney Sands Directory for 1880 and also as a grocer at 25, 27 Athlone Place in Ultimo and in the alphabetical section at 25, 27/29 & 38 Athlone Place. Athlone Place joined George Street (Broadway) on the Pyrmont/Darling Harbour side and was resumed by the Sydney City Council in 1906 when some 400 dwellings and a maze of tiny lanes in the area were resumed and all the houses removed. Pre-resumption archival photographs of premises in the street may be held by the Sydney City Archives in 15 City Council “Condemnations and Demolitions” books for the period 1900-1928.
       Margaret likely sold the hackney cab and sold or closed down the Athlone Place grocery business in 1881 as she was not listed in the Sydney Sands for 1882 which was also the approximate year an 1914 published article on her stepson Samuel Raymond said he had moved to Bowraville after ceasing to run his late father's grocery business in Sydney. No grocers were listed in the Sydney Sands for 1883 at Athlone Place in Ultimo .
       For an unknown period Margaret resided in a house in Mount Vernon Street in the Glebe locality of Forest Lodge. When her daughter Ellen married John Fenwick in May 1880 Ellen's place of residence was given as Forrest Lodge and same for daughter Margaret when she married the following month. In 1880 son Thomas lived at Glebe in Short Stret. In August 1880 the names of Thomas and Margaret's stepson Samuel Raymond were consectively listed with over 1000 others in a published list of electors requesting a person to nominate for election as the Member for Glebe at the next parliamentary elections. A transcript of a January 1882 letter written from Sydney when Margaret's brother Robert Mackay was visiting his first wife who was a patient in the Infirmary gave the address as "O'Dorny House" Mount Vernon-street, Forest Lodge suggesting by then Margaret either rented the Forest Lodge house or had purchased the lease. The Sydney Sands Directory for 1883 listed Margaret at Mount Vernon St. in Glebe and in the Sands for 1884 she was last listed anywhere in Sydney as residing at "O'Dorney house" in Mount Vernon St. It seems the house was also referred as "Dorney House" as a young man named H. Torrance placed advertisments seeking a position in The Sydney Morning Herald in Feb 1884 giving his residence as "Dorney House, Mount Vernon-street, Forest Lodge". He may have been a boarder as by then a tram line to Forest Lodge ran along Parramatta Road to Derwent Street in Glebe and then via Catherine and Mount Vernon Streets to St Johns Road and Pyrmont Bridge Road. In June 1881 tenders had been called for the construction of the section of tram line from Glebe Point through Mount Vernon Street and thence to Pyrmont Bridge-road.
       Mount Vernon Street was in the Bishopthorpe Estate that included Westmoreland and Derwent streets. The land comprising the estate was subdivided by the Anglican Bishop of Sydney into 238 allotments and offered from 1856 on 99-year leases. Mentions of O'Dorney House noted in newspapers do not clarify whether Margaret had purchased the lease, rented it, or had been a boarder there. An advertisment in the SMH of 1 April 1876 offered it for rent at a low six shillings a week described it as being of six bedrooms, pantry, kitchen, bathroom, and large yard etc.
       Her husband Augustus died on 18 January 1977. Seven months later the SMH of 25 August 1877 carried an advertisment for a mortagee auction as a single offering of the lease of O'Dorney House and of Leonards House with the land title given as Lot 12 Section 6 of the Bishopthorpe Estate describing the parcel as a well-known leasehold situated on the east side of Mount Vernon Street (i.e. the north-east side where the houses are today odd numbered) and mid-way between Catherine Street and St Johns Road with land measurements of 40 feet street frontage and 106 feet depth extending back to a lane (Ed. Mount Vernon Lane) with each house having front and back verandas, six bedrooms, kitchen and washshed with water laid on and good yards with side and back entrances. Stated was that there was 95 years to run on the lease with a £8 and 6 shillings per annum ground rent and rent for the two houses as £1 and 12 shillings - i.e. a more appropriate sixteen shillings a week for each house.
       It seems unlikely Margaret purchased the lease of the two houses which presumably would have cost her from about £1500 so more likely rented O'Dorney. By 1880 all her children were married so she would hardly have had a need for a six bedroom house for herself but there were at least stepsons Samuel and Edward Raymond and stepdaughter Sarah Raymond plus perhaps if still unmarried foster children Helen and Margaret of unknown surnames. Suggesting she may have boarded there, or ran it as a boarding house with staff, was an advertisment in the SMH of 8 Dec 1880 worded - WANTED - a strong GIRL, Mrs. Bedding, O'Dorney House, Mount Vernon-street, Forest Lodge.

  
LEFT: Margaret outside the house in Glebe - photo held by Bowraville Museum ⁷⁷
RIGHT: The same house as #17 in the street in 2017

       Above is a photograph of the likely 1860s built Mount Vernon Street house with Margaret standing in front. One hundred and thirty five years on extant in this short street were over a dozen dwellings seemingly dating from about the same time with iron roofs of same alternate coloured sheets and some with identical timber picket fences. Margaret's 1887 Kempsey death registration, for which son James Jr. was the informant, gave the cause of death as heart disease and her age as 64. Son James was likely the James Chambers who about that time was the publican of the East Kempsey Hotel. Margaret was buried in West Kempsey Cemetery. However the published West Kempsey cemetery headstone transcriptions do not list a headstone. It may be her grave was not listed because a once in place wooden cross had long rotted away or if a stone marker was of soft sandstone and had weathered to an extent it was unreadable or had fallen and broken into pieces.

SECOND GENERATION

1.    Mary Chambers, b. 19 Aug 1843 ⁷² Dungog, NSW, Australia; d. 29 April 1917 ⁷² (#1917-6641) Wombat, NSW, reg. Murrumburrah, NSW, buried C of E Section of Wombat Cemetery (grave unmarked but listed with others on a memorial plaque in the cemetery). She married 25 Nov 1867 ⁷² (#1867-1667) reg. Young, NSW, Thomas Graham, d. 1902 (#1902-16755) Young, NSW, son of George Graham and Jane.

2.  James Chambers, b. 18 Mar 1844 ⁷², chr. 31 Mar 1844 ^{8, 10} Dungog, NSW, Australia; d. 1913 ¹¹, Rockdale, NSW. He married in 8 Dec 1869 ^{12, 72} at Macleay River, NSW, Angusena "Sena" Bradley, b. 1 Apr 1844, Paterson, NSW; d. 1923 ¹³ reg. Rockdale, daughter of William Bradley (1815-1892) and Elizabeth Mackay (1819-1890).

3.  Angus Chambers, b. 1 Oct 1845, Dungog, NSW, Australia, chr. 12 Oct 1845, Dungog ¹⁷; d. Nov 1869 ^{18, 19} reg. Macleay River, NSW, buried Backbutt Cemetery, Bowraville.

5.    Thomas Chambers, b. 6 Oct 1849, Muswellbrook, NSW, Australia, chr. 28 Oct 1849 ²³; d. 1930 (#1930-19314) Grafton, NSW. He married in 1871 (#1871-2581) at Macleay River, NSW, Charlotte Gogerty, d. 1885 (#1885-11415) Nambucca River, NSW, daughter of Bernard Gogerty and Charlotte. He was likely the Thomas Chambers who was listed in the Grenville's 1872 Post Office Directory as a "farmer" at Frederickton just north of Kempsey. In 1880 when son Bernard died he resided at Short Street in Forest Lodge in Sydney.

Children of Thomas Chambers and Charlotte Gogerty were:
    35.  i.     Thomas Chambers
    36.  ii.    Angus Chambers
    37.  iii.   Annie Chambers
    38.  iv.   Bernard Chambers
    39.  v.    Margaret Chambers
    40.  vi.   James Chambers
    41.  vii.  George Chambers
+  42.  viii. Charlotte Chambers
    43.  ix.   William Chambers.

6.    Henry Clarke Chambers, b. 7 Dec 1851 ⁷², Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia, chr. 3 May 1852; ²⁴. 

       She married in June 1880 at Ross Street, Forest Lodge according to rites of Presbyterian Church. Her husband John's residence was Balmain & Margaret's was given as Sydney ⁷².

      Her father's occupation at the time of her birth was miner. The 1994 Bradley book listed her as a James & Margaret child with no source given. No birth registration was noted in NSW or Victoria. However the small north-east of Victoria town of Yackandandah located between Beechworth and Wodonga was a gold mining area. It has old gold mining areas featuring shafts and diggings and was known for its alluvial wet mining techniques. She was not listed as a James & Margaret child in a tree drawn up by a Mitchell Library librarian when cataloguing the Chambers family papers lodged with the library in 1953.

9.    Ellen Chambers, b. 1860 ⁷³ Victoria, Australia, d. 1 Sep 1938 (#1938-14858) ⁷⁰ Petersham, NSW (note the NSW Death Index in error has her father's name as Thomas). She married 8 May 1880 ⁷²  (#1880-552) at Sydney, John Fenwick, d. 9 Jan 1931 ⁷⁰ at Drummoyne, NSW, son of William and Jane Fenwick.

10.   Jessie Chambers, 28 Jan 1862 ⁷² at Womat, Burrangong, NSW, Australia, reg. Binalong (#1862-5356); d. 26 Mar 1862 ⁷² Spring Creek, Wombat, Burrangong, buried 27 Mar.1862 ⁷² at Young (#1862-2791) reg. Binalong, NSW.

11.   William Chambers, b. 25 Sep 1863 ⁷² (#1863-15616) Wombat, NSW, d.  7 Sep 1871 ⁷². (#1871-4189) Bowra, Nambucca River, reg. Macleay River, NSW.

THIRD GENERATION

12.   Thomas H. Graham, b. 1868 (#1868-6869) Young, NSW, Australia ; d. 1929 (#1929-17803) reg. Young, NSW. He married in 1906 (#1906-5836) reg. Young, New South Wales, Ellen Nichols (the NSW marriage index recorded her as Nellie Nicholls).

      Ellen was perhaps the Ellen Graham who died aged 78 years on 12 Sep 1959 who is buried in Wombat Cemetery in an unmarked grave where her burial is listed with others on a wall mounted memorial plaque. Prima facie she would have been the Ellen Graham whose death with her parents given as John Frederick and Mary was registered (#1959-21286) that year at Chatswood.

13.   Margaret E. Graham, b. 1870 (#1870-19353) Young, NSW; d. 1915 (#1915-5973) Parramatta, NSW. She married in 1898 (#1898-2162) reg. Young, Henry J. Wilson.

14.   George Richard Graham, b. 1872 (#1872-20246) Young, NSW.  He married in 1903 (#1903-6061) at Gulgong, Annie Lincoln, b. 1879 (#1879-18194) Gulgong, NSW, daughter of George Lincoln and Elizabeth.

15.   Mary Jane Graham, b. 1875 (#1875-22342) Young, NSW; d. 1959 (#1959-26477) Young, NSW. She married in 1894 (#1894-5081) at Murrumburrah, NSW, Alexander Thompson.

16.   Florence Charlotte Graham, b. 1877 (#1877-23662), Young, NSW; d. 1965 (#1965-11809) Temora, NSW. She married in 1897 (#1897-4432) at Young, Henry Winbank, b. 1870 (#1870-19513) Young, NSW: d. 1955 (#1955-24778) Temora, NSW, son of William Winbank and Catherine Anne.

17.   Ellen Sarah Graham, b. 1879 (#1879-26751). She married 1900 (#1900-1662) Murrumburrah, NSW, James Arthur Lynch, d. 1947 (#1947-12005) Murrumburrah, son of William Denis Lynch and Mary.

18.   Adeline Gertrude Graham, b. 1882 (#1882-29484) Young, NSW; d. 1969 (#1969-16325) Campsie, NSW. She married in 1906 (#1906-11558) Young, NSW, John R. Hilder.

20.  Lila Chambers, b. 16 Oct 1870^{25, 73} Pola Creek, Macleay River, reg. Macleay River; d. 1958 ²⁶, reg. Sydney. She married (1) 1894 ²⁷ reg. Sydney, Frederick Charles Kennedy, d. 1926 ²⁸ reg. Newtown, NSW; son of John Kennedy and Sarah. She married (2) in 1939 ²⁹ at Tingha, NSW, Henry Trevithick, d. 1952 ³⁰ reg. Liverpool, NSW, son of Thomas Trevithick and Sarah.

Children of Lila Chambers and Frederick Charles Kennedy were:
     86.  i.     John F. C. Kennedy
     87.  ii.    Edna I. S Kennedy
     88.  iii.   Maxwell James Kennedy

22. William Angus Chambers, b. 22 Jul 1875 ^{33, 73} Womabt near Young; d. 1942 ³⁴, Wyong; m. 1905 ³⁵ at Maclean, NSW, Ann M. Benson, b. 1889 ⁶⁵ Maclean, NSW, daughter of William and Margaret Benson.

Children of William Angus Chambers and Ann M Benson were:
     89.  i.     Angus F. Chambers                 
     90.  ii.    Ronald L. Chambers
     91.  iii.   Alma M Chambers   
     92.  iv.   William E Chambers (TWIN)
     93.  v.   Thomas G Chambers (TWIN)
     94.  vi.   Herbert H Chambers

23. Henry Percival Chambers, b. 8 Apr 1878 ^{36, 73} Bowra, Nambucca River; d. 20 Dec 1879 ^{37, 73}, Chippendale, Sydney, NSW, buried 22 Dec 1879 Necropolis Cemetery, Rookwood.

26. Ida Chambers, b. 21 Mar 1887 ^{42, 73}, Kempsey, NSW, Australia; d. 1953 ⁴³, Paddington, NSW. She married in 1909 ⁴⁴ Sydney, NSW, Alfred Charles Ringland, b. 1884 ; d. March 1969 ⁴⁵ reg. Balmain, NSW. There were no issue to 1918 registered in NSW. She donated Chambers family memorabilia and photos to the Mitchell Library in Sydney.

27    Adeline Gertrude Taylor, b. 1868 Young, NSW; d. 1887 Cowra, NSW. She married in 1886 at Young,  Thomas Hayes.

28    Ellen Jane Taylor, b. 1870 Young, NSW; d. 1962. She married in 1886 reg. Young, Henry Whybrow, son of Robert & Emily Amelia Whybrow.

30.   Amelia Blanche M. Taylor, b.  1878 Young; d. 1960 Murrumburrrah. She married 1901 Murrumburrah, James Robert Whybrow b.1881; d. 1947 Murrumburrah.

33.   Lila Jessie Taylor, b. 1883 Young; d. 1952 Harden . She married in 1901 at Cootamundra, William Henry Whybrow, b. 1879 Young; d. 1963, son of Robert Whybrow and  Emily Amelia.

34.   Frances Charlotte M. Taylor, b. 1888 Young; d. 1968 Forbes. She married in 1911 at Young. Alfred G. Lemon b. 1881 Murrumburrah; d. 1944 Grenfell, son of William and Charlotte Ann Lemon.

42.   Charlotte Chambers, b. 1883, Glebe, NSW; d. 1946 Leeton, NSW. She married 1902 in Young, NSW, Edward. T. Magann, d. 1943, son of James and Rose Magann.

46.    John Henry Fenwick, b. 1882 Glebe, NSW; d. 1960 Kiama, NSW. He married in 1907 at Granville, NSW, Florence E. May.

47.   Oliver Stanley Fenwick, b. 1885 Glebe, NSW; d. 1954 Kiama. He married in 1913 at Balmain, Alice E. Stewart.

48.   Leonard Livingstone Fenwick, b. 1887 Glebe, NSW; d. 1948 Manly, NSW. He married in 1914 at Sydney, Annie Jesson.

49.   Roland Raymond Fenwick, b. 1890 Glebe, NSW; d. 1958 Ryde, NSW. He married in 1914 at Sydney, Ellen Begbie.

50.   Cecil Thomas Fenwick,  b. 1892 Glebe, NSW; d. 1953 ?. He married in 1917 at Balmain,  Honorah C. O’Brien.

FOURTH GENERATION

SOURCES:
¹   Birth year of 1811 based on age 53 given in NSW Death Index for his Young, NSW death registration - i.e. if correct indicating a birth before 18.7.1811). Macclesfield in Cheshire in England. Maclesfield place of birth is as given in the record of his 30 Sept. 1850 11th regiment army discharge in the regiment's Muster Roll for Sept. 1850 (AJCP reel #3708). Cheshire was given as county of birth in both his 1841 church parish marriage record and 1864 death regisration. His 1812 St. Michael, Macclesfield christening date and parent's names are as per the IGI, supported by other records as detailed below in source footnote ^#71. NOTE: his parents names were not given by the informant for his 1864 death registration. Contradictory to Macclesfield in Cheshire being his birth place is a suggestion, not considered reliable as thought likely theresult of a mix-up of his record with that of another person, that his attestation at the time of army enlistment in 1831 may have had his birth place and the place of enlistment as Huddersfield in West Yorkshire located about 42 kilometres north of Macclesfield.
²   Glenn Bradley, When the river was the road, 1994, p. 118 - James Chambers date of death given as 17 Jul 1864 (NSW Death Index #1864-3112 - died Young, NSW, aged 53 years (Note: as the index had the age at death it signifies the informant was not able to provide the names of either parent).
    p. 116 has 3 Nov 1841 as date of the James Chambers/Margaret Mackay marriage and that date has been adopted in this compilation. Elsewhere a date of 8 Nov 1841 has been noted (3 and 8 in indistinct handwriting appear similar). They conflict with the date of 10 Dec 1841 given in the mounted police Defaulters Book as being when James committed the offense of marrying without the approval of the commandant - a date that was clearly incorrrect. The marriage is not indexed in the NSW Marriage Index. The church parish record gave Paterson and not Dungog as the marriage place and recorded that James was a native of Cheshire and a resident of Dungog - another listed on the same page in the same handwriting recorded the marriage Margaret Mackay's sister Elizabeth to William Bradley - him a native of Edinburgh and resident of Dungog having taken place on 10 Aug 1840 at Dungog (copy provided by Karen Dimond).
³   Glen Bradley op. cit. p. 96 - "Baptism: 1 December 1820 -- Angus Mackay, furniture dealer, and his spouse, Jane Clark, had a daughter, named Margaret baptised by Reverend Mr. Doig, in the presence of George Mackay a labourer and Robert Calder, carter. (ED. note - Rev. Robert Doig was one of the ministers of Aberdeen and married Angus Mackay & Jane of St. Nicholas, Aberdeen, on 26 Mar 1815 in his house. Presumably the church where the baptism occurred was the Galic Chapel, in Galic Lane, as that was where Murdock Mackay married in 1823).
      Margaret Mackay's age was given as 17 in two lists of government immigrants aboard the James Moran that departed Lochinvar on 10 Oct 1838 and arrived at Sydney on 11 Feb 1839 - see Assisted (Bounty) Immigrants 1839, AONSW reel #1303 & reel #2654 for the post arrival disposal statistics. These records listed her father Angus as aged 40 at the 10 Oct 1838 embarkation and that he was initially employed by the Government as a carpenter at a wage of £2 per week. The immigration record indicated Margaret was to turn 17 on 4 Dec 1838 which appears in error as means she would have been born 4 Dec 1821 which conflicts with the claimed 1 Dec 1820 christening date given in the cited Bradley book? One has to wonder if the christening record as claimed in the book is entirely factual as at p. 96 the book also claimed her age in the James Moran passenger list was 19 whereas in fact it was clearly listed in two places in the immigration records as 17. In those records her elder sister Elizabeth was listed as aged 18 on embarkation and on a list of immigrants dated the day after arrival in Sydney her age was given as 19. Based on an age of 17 at embarkation on 10 Oct 1838, rather than the alternative of a 4 Dec 1838 birth, it follows Margaret was born between 11 Oct 1820 and 10 Oct 1821 which is consistent with the claimed christening date of 1 Dec 1820. Thus it has been concluded, if the christening record is accurate, she was born in Oct. or Nov. 1820.
⁴   NSW Marriage Index #1867-2289 - the date is as given in Glenn Bradley op. cit. at p. 118. (ED. a slightly different date of 19 Nov. was noted elsewhere).
⁵   AJCP War Office (WO) 12 microfilm reel #3696 - on the 4th Reg't. Pay & Muster roll for June Qtr. 1831 he was listed under the regimental number 901, enlistment date as 22 Mar 1831, place of enlistment as Liverpool, age as 18 (indicating an 1812 birth), height 5' 6½", and that the 3rd part of the bounty was paid to the recruit in the amount of £2.10.0 & his pay commenced from 24 Apr 1831. On reel #3697, the roll for the quarter 1 Oct 1832 to 31 Dec 1832, he was listed as "on board" the Parmelia to 19 Nov 1832. Details of that vessel's arrival at Sydney on 16 Nov etc. are as given in the Sydney Gazette of 19 Nov 1832.
     The 4th's Pay & Muster rolls (reel #3697) for the months of Nov. & Dec 1834, the first two quarters of 1835, and the first two months of Sept. Qtr. 1835, listed him as "Foot Police". The roll for the month of Sept. 1835 was the first to list him as "Mounted Police". So for the first 10 months from secondment to the military police he was classed as in the foot police before officially classed as a mounted trooper.
     He was listed in the 4th's Pay & Muster Roll for Sept. Qtr. 1837 (reel #3882) before its departure for India, as having been transferred effective 1 Aug 1837 to the 80th Reg't which had arrived in the colony a few months previous and on whose rolls he was subsequently listed with the regimental number 1447 (on a couple of occasions as 1478). When the practice of separately listing a regiment's supernumeraries who were attached to the mounted police he was listed in that section of its Pay & Muster Rolls followed the listing of the regiment's private soldiers. When the last of the 80th Reg't embarked for India on 11 Aug 1844 it's roll for 1 July to 11 August 1844 listed him in the supernumeraries section but there no notation of the date and name of the regiment to which the supernumeraries were transferred. The 11th, where he ended up after his discharge from the mounted police, did not arrive in NSW until mid 1845. In its' Pay & Muster rolls his regimental number was 2641, and although discharged from the mounted police in Nov 1849, his name was not listed as an "effective" in that regiment's roll for Dec. Qtr. 1849 (reel #3707). However from 1 January 1850 he was listed in its' rolls for the first 9 months of 1850 as being "on furlough awaiting discharge" and as paid by it from 1 January. His discharge date was recorded as 30 Sept. 1850 in the Sept. Qtr. 1850 roll (reel #3708). That record gave the same date of enlistment of 22 Mar 1831 as had been given in 4th's roll for June Qtr. 1831. It gave his occupation at enlistment as labourer, birth place as Macclesfield, and place of discharge as Sydney. At all times in the rolls for the 4th, 80th & 11th he was listed as not holding a rank.
     The Mounted Police nominal roll at 31 Mar 1848 listed him as a "trooper" and gave his date of joining the Mounted Police as 1 Nov. 1834 (AONSW reel #2901). The Defaulters Book 1839-1850 (AONSW reel #2901) listed his 4th Regt. enlistment date as 25 Mar 1831. However it is considered a transcription error - the more likely date being that of the 22 March given in two places in the Pay & Muster Rolls.
     Details of army & mounted police service of James Chambers given on this web page are said to have come from research by David Murphy into the mounted police from its' creation in 1825 under Governor Brisbane up to 1850 and the Governor's Body Guard from 1801 to 1834 etc., that were donated by the researcher to NSW State Records, where held under the title "The New South Wales Mounted Police 1825-1850" and reference 363.MUR. However the data given for James Chambers on this web page is obviously in error in respect of the claim his birth place and place of 4th Reg't enlistment was Huddersfield. In fact as per the 4th & 11th Reg't Pay & Muster Rolls, it was respectively Macclesfield and Liverpool. Also in error is that his army rank was not as stated on the web page a Lance-Corporal at the time he joined the military police force on 1 Nov 1834 but in fact as per the Pay & Muster Rolls he was at all times a "private". Also the 11th Reg't ay & Muster Rolls contain nothing to confirm the claim on the web page he was discharged from the army on medical grounds, although 13 years previous when in the mounted police the rolls did record he spent 88 days of the 92 days of Dec. quarter 1836 in the general hospital or the regimental hospital. That he was fit enough to join the civilian police after his army discharge suggests otherwise although that he was on furlough from the regiment for at least the nine months prior to his discharge at least raises a query as to the reason for such a long leave period on full pay as does his discharge without purchase 6 months before he completed the 20 year minimum service period? However it is possible the slightly premature discharge without purchase was in his case allowed because he had secured a position in the civilian police. As the relevant records and David Murphy's research have not been sighted by the compiler it has been assumed the claim on the page he was in the Governor's Body Guard in 1834 after joining the military police is correct - but it may not be.
⁶  Glenn Bradley op. cit., p.p. 117-118 - no source for the 30 Sep 1851 resignation date was cited. It may have been corro in the Registers of Colonial Secretary Letters Received for 1851 (AONSW reel #2939). The fact of his resignation about that time is confirmed by a notice in the Government Gazette of 14 Nov 1851 of the appointment of William A. Hines as his successor as Chief Constable at Wagga Wagga.
      Unfortunately with a few exceptions information in the Bradley book re James Chambers and family is considered incorrect or garbled. James did not purchase as claimed in the book lots 13 and 21 in Trail Street - he purchased only allotment number 13 which was listed in the subsequent gazette notice as item #21. The military mounted police were not disbanded as claimed in 1848 - the decision to disband the force was not even taken until 1849 and it was not completely disbanded until 31 Dec 1851 - the date by which the remaining members were ordered to report at Sydney (see - John S. O'Sullivan, NSW Mounted Police, Rigby, Adelaide, 1978). In saying the mounted police was disbanded in 1848 Bradley implied James would have have been discharged that year. However another source, said to be based on research by David Murphy into the mounted police today held by NSW State Records, gives his date of discharge from the mounted police as 1 Nov 1849 - the same year the Bradley book says he joined the civilian police in the month of December. December 1849 would accord with a 1 Nov 1849 discharge date. However as by then he had not served the 20 years required of a British Army soldier he would normally after taking any leave due, and unless permitted to buy his way out for the usual sum of £20,, would have returned to the 11th regiment in which he was a supernumerary. In contradiction of the book's claim he joined the civil police in Dec. 1849 is that the 11th regiment's quarterly Pay and Muster Rolls show him as on its effective strength, and paid as a soldier with the rank of private for the full nine months from 1 Jan 1850 until discharged from the army on 30 Sep. 1850 although he was listed during that interim period as "on furlough awaiting discharge". So for some two and a half months (18 Jul 1850 to 30 Sep 1850) he was seemingly in receipt of two lots of pay - one as a soldier in the 11th and the other as the Chief Constable at Wagga Wagga. However it seems unlikely he would have been receiving two lots of pay for the full 9 months to 30 September!
⁷  Ibid - the 1994 published Bradley book did not claim it was a fact that James' name was connected with the naming of Chambers' Creek where it said he had discovered a "rich" gold field and a town with that name was established - merely that it was "reputed". Although no source for this amazing claim was cited it would be no more than a repetition of an identical unsupported by documentation claim understood made in the Chambers family papers deposited in the Mitchell Library 41 years previously by James Chambers granddaughter Ida Ringland (1887-1853).
     The complier considers it is definitely not correct that the creek and town were named after James. Also the town, of which nothing remains today, was not as stated by Glenn Bradley named Chambers' Creek but in fact was named Chambers. Bradley also incorrectly asserted, worded as if it were a fact, that "Chambers Creek" once had a population of 20,000!
     Frankly the three claims are considered preposterous. The purported population was obviously just a repetition on an inadequately researched claim made by an L. Ward in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald of 17 June 1939 in which the writer said when recently in the area he had noted of the once town site that not even a brick or suggestion of a wall remained! If the 20,000 population had been correct it would have made this small creek that ceased to run in dry springs and summers at the height of mining activity there in 1872-73 the second largest population center in the colony with a population one seventh the 1872 approx. 140,000 population of Sydney & suburbs - all on about 40 acres beside a small creek surrounded by some very rocky and rough country indeed! Nearby Hill End was the main center that supplied the services to the Tambaroora Gold Field area in which the Chambers' Creek leases were located with the Chambers' Creek area being in the nature of a suburb. For the licensing year 1872-73 it was said Hill End had 28 hotels of the goldfield's total of 52. In respect of Chambers Creek a 1999 published book titled A Glint of Gold by Kerrin Cook and Daniel Garvey (p. 282) stated that following the finding of gold there in 1871 miners flocked to creek in their "hundreds" - note not thousands. If the Herald's roving article writer had claimed a peak population during the 1871-72 mania of one tenth the 20,000 that at least would have made some sense! What likely happened is when the article writer upon his return to Sydney, and called at the Mines Department to enquire about Chambers Creek mining history before writing the short "Ghost Chimney" article, and was told no records existed prior to 1871, it was mentioned by the clerk that for a period in the early 1870s the area had once had a population of 20,000 and he took that to mean it was the population of Chambers and Chambers' Creek instead of the whole Tambaroora goldfield or that of the area of Hill End and the nearly settlements such as Chambers! The Cook & Garvey book said a township was laid out there with several allotments sold, 3 hotels sprang up, and because there was no cemetery the graves of the only two who died there (two little girls) lie on the slope of a hill.
       This account has it that early in 1873 the Globe Company installing a crushing machine there to which the local mines sent their stone - with all ore previously having been transported to Hill End or Sofala for crushing and some even sent to Sydney. However much lower than expected concentrations of gold in the stone caused the shareholders in the various mines to panic (for example the Bismark touted in its prospectus its field would yield 300 grains of gold per ton of ore crushed but it was actually achieving about 11 grains when at that time a yield of 100 to 125 grains - being one fifth to a quarter of a troy ounce - was the minimum necessary for a mine to be payable). The result was the miners left the area in droves, with machinery seized to pay outstanding debts, and the Chambers village became deserted with mining at the creek not recommencing until later in 1873 following the floatation in London of the Sir John Moore Gold Mining Company with a capital of £100,000 when several smaller claims there also restarted mining. However it was said that by October 1874 virtually all work had again stopped.
       According to A Glint of Gold the naming history of the creek was published in a book by Harry Hodge on the mining history of the Hill End area titled The Hill End Story vol. 1. The history was that quartz gold was first found alongside the creek in 1871 and claims were then established on three lines of reef named - the General Bourke, the Nuggety and the Kurrajong - the latter being the one nearest to the Macquarie River. Implying its source was the Hodge book, the book stated the creek was named after Mr. Chambers who held one of the claims on the Nuggety Lead in partnership with Cooksons with the other fourteen claim holders on the Nuggety reef having been - Bell & Macartney, Icely Smelters, John Bull, Allen's, Toms, Burford & Yeo, Burns, Hunt, Schroder, Lester, Piggott, Burfitt, Brooke, and Bailey & Dargin. Harry Hodge was a lifetime resident of the Hill End area whose grandfather had arrived there in 1852, and his books detail the mining history of the Hill End - Tambaroora goldfields. The first of the two bearing the title The Hill End Story were published in 1964 in a limited edition of 500 and both in new editions in 1980.
     The rush to the Turon began in June '51 only a few weeks after the rush to the Ophir began. On 4 Jul 1851 the Government Geologist was reported in the Argus as suggesting the great bar in the Macqaurie at Walgumbulla (or Wallgumbulla), three miles below its junction with the Turon, was a prospective site for the finding of alluvial gold. By the time James Chambers resigned from the police on 30 Sep 1851 the banks of the Turon were already heavily populated with miners. On 13 Aug. 1851 the Sydney Morning Herald reported - "The banks of the Turon River are occupied from near its source to its junction with the Macquarie, a distance of upwards of 100 miles." On the 29th Sept. 1851 it reported - "We have recently been informed by those who have traversed the Turon from one end of the diggings to the other, who have pioneered and prospected the creeks in the neighbourhood, who have visited the heights and the gullies, that the population there for the present month has been estimated as high as 16,000, and that the lowest estimate formed is 9000 persons". Nine months later on 15 July 1852, specifically re the area south of the Macquarie-Turon junction where Chambers Creek joins the Macquarie, it reported - "The digging grounds on the Macquarie below the junction, are turning out very well ...". Three weeks later on 7 Aug 1852 it was more specific - reporting - "On the Macquarie, a little below the junction of the Turon, parties are making 9 ozs. gold per day. The diggers are in high spirits with the prospect this field opens out to them, and astonishing results are expected as soon as the season will admit of its being properly worked."
      In addition to the daily metropolitan newsapers of the day, many of which are increasingly becoming available and searchable online, a source for further information on gold mining activity in the area during the lifetime of James Chambers would be the 28 May 1851 to 1862 issues of Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal held on microfilm by the State Library of NSW (ref. RAV/FM4/353). At the time of compilation the earliest newspaper mention of Chambers Creek entering the Tambaroora goldfield mining picture noted was in the 14 Oct 1871 issue of The Sydney Mail viz: "The line of reef which, as we have before stated, extended from Green Valley on the north, to the Turon River on the south, or a distance of about eight miles, has now been traced southerly to Chambers' Creek, ten miles further on, the country showing all the same peculiarity of feature which marks the line on the table land". Thus this report confirms the accounts in the two cited books that quartz gold was not discovered at the creek until 1871.
⁸    Glenn Bradley, op. cit., p. 118.
⁹    Nancy Mackay Edge, Our Highland Heritage: Angus McKay of Sutherland, 1988. In 2008 copies were still available from: Mrs. N. M. Edge, 7 Laurel Av., Edgeworth, NSW, 2285. Ph. (02) 4958 3221. The catalogue of the Macksville, NSW, library listed a not for loan copy and a one is held by the Bowraville Folk Museum.
¹⁰  NSW BDM Index - Baptism #V1844-477-162A
¹¹  Ibid Death #1913-12231
¹²  Ibid Marriages #1869-2618
¹³  Ibid Deaths #1923-16913
¹⁴  Glenn Bradley, op. cit., p. 133
¹⁵  Norma Townsend, Valley of the crooked river, 1993, p. 126 citing as source for the names of the two householders - de Milham to Post Master General, 15 September 1882, Post Office File, Bowraville, 1869-89, Australian Archives.
¹⁶  Ibid, James Chambers bankruptcy date 27 Feb 1890 2132/2; 10/22625. See also listed in NSW State Records online Bankruptcy Index giving occupation as a butcher at Kempsey.
¹⁷  Baptisms #V1845-500-48 (father's occpation given as "mounted police").
¹⁸  Norma Townsend, op. cit., p. 235 - see transfers CP 69/2770
¹⁹  NSW BDM Index - Deaths  #1869-4350. For November as month see - Norma Townsend op. cit. p.p. 59, 60.
²⁰  Norma Townsend, op. cit., p.p. 59, 60.
²¹  Glenn Bradley, op. cit., p. 33
²²  Baptism #V1847-1081-49 (father's occupation given as "mounted policeman").
²³  Ibid #V1849-512-50 (father's occupation given as "trooper").
²⁴  Ibid #V1851-1175-51 (father's occupation given as "miner").
²⁵  NSW BDM Indexes Births #1870-11946
²⁶  Ibid  Deaths #1953-16630
²⁷  Ibid  Births #1894-869
²⁸  Ibid  Deaths #1926-4911
²⁹  Ibid  Marriages #1939-15120
³⁰  Ibid  Deaths #1952-8815
³¹  Ibid  Births #1873-12804
³²  Ibid  Deaths #1947-12575
³³  Ibid  Births #1875-22483
³⁴  Ibid  Deaths #1942-23848
³⁵  Ibid  Marriages #1905-4466
³⁶  Ibid  Births #1878-15329
³⁷  Ibid  Deaths #1879-2197
³⁸  Ibid  Births #1882-20514
³⁹  Ibid  Deaths #1962-10167
⁴⁰  Ibid  Births #1884-23840
⁴¹  Ibid  Deaths #1970-33165
⁴²  Ibid  Births #1887-25884
⁴³  Ibid  Deaths #1953-26828
⁴⁴  Ibid  Marriages #1909-10283
⁴⁵  Ibid  Births #1884-5071
⁴⁶  Ibid  Births #1894-2653
⁴⁷  Ibid  Deaths #1895-5862
⁴⁸  Ibid  Births #1896-6207
⁴⁹  Ibid  Deaths #1898-8039
⁵⁰  Ibid  Births #1906-37735
⁵¹  Ibid  Deaths #1974-8193
⁵²  Ibid  Marriages #1928-11359
⁵³  Ibid  Births #1905-34782
⁵⁴  Ibid  Births #1907-4825
⁵⁵  Ibid  Deaths #1907-5455
⁵⁶  Ibid  Births #1908-27013
⁵⁷  Ibid  Marriages #1933-2705
⁵⁸  Ibid  Births #1910-16448
⁵⁹  Ibid  Deaths #1911-1372
⁶⁰  Ibid  Births #1910-16447
⁶¹  Ibid  Deaths #1911-1370
⁶²  Ibid  Births #1911-36258
⁶³  Ibid  Deaths #1972-64835
⁶⁴  Ibid  Marriage #1934-9394
⁶⁵  Ibid  Births #1889-17935
⁶⁶  Alex S. Gaddes, Red cedar Our Heritage, 1990. p. p. 59, 60. - In respect of the ownership of the mentioned Burra Burra farm the author must have confused James Chambers Jnr. with his father James Snr. who he said was a prospector who it was said had started a gold rush at place that was later named Chambers' Creek. He wrote James Snr. suffered an injury and some years later died at Young leaving his widow Margaret on his Burra Burra farm where she was living when she met and married Augustus Raymond. However as James Snr. died in July 1864 at Wombat near Young two months before the first selection occurred anywhere on the Nambucca it was impossible before his death for him to have had a farm at Burra Burra that later became known as Burrapine. Burrapine is situated at the junction of Taylors Arm Creek and Sheet O'Bark Creek at least 20 kilometers SW of Bowraville and about 12 kilometers north of Taylors Arm. Up there no land would have been selected until into the 1870s so there was no way as claimed by Alex Gaddes that James' widow Margaret was living on his "farm" there when she met and married Augustus Raymond in July 1867 at Macleay River. It is just a pure fiction - an incorrect assumption presented as a fact. The 1867 marriage record in fact stated Margaret's usual address was Murrumburra which is 19 miles SE of Wombat where her first husband Janes died. Very likely Margaret Chambers met Augustus Raymond at Macleay River where from at least 1856 he was living at Pola Creek when she either staying at Macleay River with her eldest son James Jr. or visiting her sisters Elizabeth Bradley and Jane Gaddes. Her sister Elizabeth's husband William Bradley was a witness to the 1867 marriage to Augustus. Norma Townsend, op. cit p.p. 59, 60, had access to the Kempsey Court House BDM registration records and noted Margaret's son James Chambers Jr. was farming at Macleay River when he married in 1869 so presumably he was also there farming in 1867 when his mother married Augustus. There is no evidence before his 1864 death that James Chambers Snr. had any involvement whatsoever with either the Macleay or Nambucca Rivers or James Jnr. had any involvement with the Nambucca district before he selected portion 21 of 51 acres in Buckra Bendinni parish in 1869 just west of the village of Bowra (later and today named Bowraville) adjoining his brother's portion 6 that in turn adjoined their father-in-law Augustus Raymond's portion 5 - all selected in 1869.
    The John Robert Bradley anecdote re the naming of Bull Creek is at p. 105 in the book.
⁶⁷  As soldiers on secondment from a British regiment mounted police troopers and their NCO's were subject to military discipline. As with a cavalry regiment, in the mounted police the punishment of being "dismounted" for a period was not uncommon. In addition to marrying without prior permission the defaulter's book recorded it as a punishment imposed, alone or in addition to another penalty, for offenses such as: - disrespect to an NCO, being drunk, being absent from barracks all night, absence from a Tatoo, when acting as stableman being absent from the stables, ill-using of a horse, having a horse or barracks in bad order etc. In one case it was noted imposed three times consecutively as a penalty on trooper Isiah Barker - firstly in Nov. 1840 for the same offense as James Chambers of getting married without liberty, then again four months later for being drunk and allowing a prisoner in his charge to get drunk, and then for the third time in March 1842 for being drunk and assaulting an old man in Parramatta. They were the only three offenses recorded for this trooper.
     Over 90 names were listed in the 1839-1850 Defaulter's Book - each on a separate page with in one case the number of offenses committed (15 of which were for drunkenness) requiring two pages. Some of the other punishments ordered were:- forfeiture of pay for up to a month, confinement to barracks, confinement in the cells or in a civilian goal (such as Berrima), solitary confinement with or without hard labour, up to 7 days marching drill, stoppage of the grog ration for from 7 to 14 days. For some offenses a trooper was just admonished or forgiven. In less than a handful of instances was the offender reported to His Excellency the Governor and ordered to re-join his regiment.
     A punishment, of particular interest due to a relevance to James Chambers who at the time it was committed was about to get married and would have needed money to purchase a wedding ring, also noted as the most serious punishment ordered during the 11 years covered by the Defaulter's Book, was a 13 months sentence of imprisonment with hard labour imposed on trooper John Riddell for on 5 Sep. 1841 having through neglect lost the pay for the mounted police detachment at Dungog where James was serving and where not long after he married.
⁶⁸  K. Swan, A History of Wagga Wagga, 1970, pp. 34-54.
⁶⁹  He died Sunday 14 Oct 1894 although it is understood the death certificate gave thedate as the 15th. Contradictory to him having been born as stated on 28 Jan 1795 (as sourced to the date in his army enlistment) are the James Moran immigration records that in two places gave his age as 40 at embarkation on 10 Oct 1838 (i.e. born between 11 Oct 1797 and 10 Oct 1798).
⁷⁰  The following Sydney Morning Herald notices provided courtesy of John Henry Fenwick descendant Gordon Fenwick
10 Jan 1931 p. 11 DEATHS - FENWICK - January 9, 1931 at his residence, 4 Therry-street, Drummoyne, John, dearly beloved husband of Ellen, and loving father of John, Stanley, Leonard, Roland, Cecil, Nellie and Clarence.
10 Jan 1931 p. 11 FUNERAL - FENWICK The Relatives and Friends of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. FENWICK and FAMILY, Mr. and Mrs. S. FENWICK, Mr. and Mrs. R. FENWICK and FAMILY, Mr. and Mrs. C. FENWICK and FAMILY, Mr. ClLARENCE FENWICK, and Miss N. FENWICK are invited to attend the Funeral of their beloved FATHER, FATHER-IN-LAW, and GRANDFATHER. John FENWICK: to leave 4 Therry-street, Drummoyne, THIS SATURDAY, at 3.15 p.m. for Church of England Cemetery, Field of Mars. Motor Funeral.
10 Jan 1931 p. 11 FENWICK - The Relatives and Friends of Mrs. D. HOPKINS and FAMILY are invited to attend the Funeral of their beloved BROTHER and UNCLE, John Fenwick: to leave ...WOOD COFFILL LIMITED
2 Sep 1938 p. 9 DEATHS - FENWICK - September 1, 1938 at her residence 4 railway Street, Petersham, Ellen Fenwick, widow of the late John Fenwick of Drummoyne, aged 75 years. At Rest.
2 Sep 1938 p. 9 FUNERAL - FENWICK - The Relatives and Friends of Mr and Mrs JOHN FENWICK, Mr and Mrs STANLEY FENWICK, Mr and Mrs LEONARD FENWICK, Mr and Mrs ROLAND FENWICK, Mr and Mrs CECIL FENWICK and Mr ARTHUR WATSON and FAMILIES are kindly invited to attend the Funeral of their dearly loved MOTHER and GRANDMOTHER. Ellen Fenwick: to leave her late residence 4 Railway Street, Petersham, THIS Friday AFTERNOON, at 2 o'clock for Church of England Cemetery, Field of Mars. - J. J. CROCKETT and CO PTY LTD, Leichhardt.
⁷¹  As per ¹ above the James Chambers birth place was Macclesfield in Cheshire in England as given in the 11th regiment's Pay & Muster Roll for Sept. 1850 (AJCP reel #3708) record of his 30 Sept. 1850 army discharge. Sources for the 6 Nov 1806 marriage of his father James Chambers to Mary Brocklehurst are LDS Church compilations that in 2012 were titled - "Cheshire Bishop's Transcripts, 1598-1900" index and "England, Cheshire Parish Registers, 1538-2000". Their children baptism sources were LDS Church compilations for - (1) Betty "England, Cheshire Parish Registers, 1538-2000", (2) Thomas "Cheshire Bishop's Transcripts, 1598-1900", (3) James both Parish Registers and Bishops Transcripts, and (4) Jane same as James plus "England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975".
A possible Elizabeth (aka Betty) marriage was to Samuel Stone on 16 Dec 1832 at 'Mottram in Longdendale' in Cheshire - Mottram is located about 23 kilometres from Macclesfield. Also in Mottram a possible was that of a Jane Chambers on 24 Feb 1840 to Robert Hutchinson who was aged 24. Another possible for Jane in Cheshire (no town given) was on 24 Feb 1840 to James Bain. Note - the titles of the compilations given above may change in the future - for current compilation titles see the LDS Church web site.
⁷²    Mackay-McKay Family History (published 1991).
⁷³    As per email advices in Apr 2012 and certificates from James Chambers Jr. (1844-1913) descendant Karen Dimond.
⁷⁴    It was noted in February 2009, claimed in an online Chambers family genealogy compilation that provided no source citations, that Henry Clarke Chambers was Henry Chambers who married Hannah Jane Langley at Rylestone in NSW in 1879 who between 1880 and 1890 had seven children whose births were registered as - Charlotte Frances, Henry James, Edith, Albert Cecil, Herbert E, an unnamed son, and Septimus John Everett. However when the web site author Joanne Mackay was requested by the compiler in June 2009 to substantiate the claim that this Henry Chambers was in fact Henry Clarke Chambers by advising him of proof from either his death or marriage registration nothing was forthcoming. The author very obviously had nothing to substantiate what on her part was merely an unwarranted supposition being presented to readers as a fact.
        According to Commonwealth Electoral Rolls for the Robertson electorate, the Henry Chambers who married Hannah Langley was a coachman at the Henry Charles White owned the "Havilah" east of Mudgee, and his eldest son Henry James a groom there. Next born son Albert Cecil was a boundary rider at Pipeclay near Mudgee and the last born son Septimus lived and worked in that area and at Rylestone. Son-in-law Frederick Meers likely also worked on the same property. Both this Henry Chambers and his eldest son Henry James died only seven weeks apart in 1919 (reg. # 20501 & 20531) presumably during the world-wide flue pandemic, with the son being the first on 15 July 1919 . This Henry's death registration provided neither of his parent's names. It gave his age as 75 years calculating to an 1843 to 1844 birth year. However his cemetery headstone, that gave his death date as 3 Sep 1919, had his age as 65 years calculating to a ca. 1854 birth year which was likely the more correct as it gave him the same birth year as wife Hannah who according to her death registration died at Buckaroo about 10 kilometres NE of Mudgee also with no parent names provided. Her DOD was 23 Feb 1931 and the death registration record had the same age of 77 years as that on her cemetery headstone calculating to a ca. 1854 birth year.
         December 1851 born Henry Clarke would have been 67 and not 65 when Henry of "Havilah" died in 1919. So without Henry of Havilah's parent names, age and birthplace (obtainable from his 1879 marriage registration record), which obviously had not been consulted, the claim he was James and Margaret's son has no foundation whatsoever and is very obviously just supposition. Apart from the marriage record the only relevant record would be the death registration of Henry Sr. of Havilah. To be indicative he was as claimed actually 1851 born Henry Clarke his birth place would need to be listed in the record as Wagga Wagga!
⁷⁵    The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 Sep 1871, KILLED BY THE FALL OF A TREE - The Macleay Herald reports that on Saturday last the Coroner (Captain Thornton) held an inquest at the house of Mr. Augustus Raymond, at Nambuccca River, on the body of a child named William Chambers, lying dead at the residence of Mr. Raymond. The following evidence was taken:- Angusena Chambers deposed: I am the wife of James Chambers, and reside at the Nambucca River : about 1 o'clock on the 7th instant I heard the cries of Mr. Raymond's son, and on going to see what was the matter I found the deceased lying on his face under a tree ; he was quite dead ; the child that was crying said that they were falling trees, and as the deceased was running away it fell upon him ; the child that was with the deceased is eight years old, and does not know the nature of an oath, the deceased would be eight years old on the 25th of this month : his parents had gone to a funeral, and the rest of the family were at the river washing, about fifty yards from the house : there were no men about the place, and I sent for Mr. Hammon, who came and removed the body. Thomas Hammon deposed : I reside at Mr. Malony's, near Mr. Raymond's ; between 1 and 2 o'clock on the 7th instant two boys came to me, and asked me to take their brother from under a tree ; on going to the spot I found the tree upon part of the body : I got a lever and removed the tree, and Mrs. Chambers took the body out : it was quite dead ; I then removed it to the house. Augustus Raymond deposed : I am a farmer, residing on the Nambucca River ; the deceased was my stepson ; I was absent at a funeral when the occurence happened ; I examined the body, and found the back of the head broken in ; the chest was smashed in, and his legs bruised all over : death must have been almost instantaneous : the tree is about twelve inches in diameter, and about thirty feet long. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that the deceased, was accidently killed by the falling of a tree. (NOTE: The Macleay Herald began publication in the same year of 1864 as occurred the highest and most disasterous flood in the history of the river since the white settlement in Australia. Prior to ceasation of publication in 1888 only three of the weekly issues have survived - above extracted from the National Library TROVE newspaper database).
⁷⁶    The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 Sep 1880, The Friends of Mr. THOMAS CHAMBERS are respectfully invited to attend the Funeral of his late beloved SON, Bernard : to move from his residence, Short-street, Forest Lodge, THIS (Monday) AFTERNOON, at quarter to 2 o'clock, for the Necropolis ...
⁷⁷    The photo of James Chambers appears at page 125 in the 1991 Mackay Family Association published book titled - The Mackay-McKay Family History. The book is held by the Bowraville Museum and National Library of Australia. The photo of Margaret Chambers née Mackay and two of her sisters and a young boy appears at page 120 and that of Margaret standing in front of her house in Glebe at page 164.
     In the photo of the three sisters the compiler favours Margaret Chambers née Mackay as the one seated at front. It is possible the photo was taken at the time of the Dec 1867 marriage of Margaret to Augustus Raymond at Pola Creek at Macleay River, as sister Elizabeth Bradley was at the Macleay (her husband to be William Charles or his father William was a marriage witness), and Margaret's half-sister Jane Gaddes could easily have attended from the 866 acre part of the once Major Innes owned "Cogo" property at Upper Rollands Plains where six of her children were born before the family moved to Bowraville ca. 1870. By 1867 the mailman's track from Rollands Plains to the Macleay, once suitable only for travel on horseback, was replaced by a dray trafficable road over the Marlo Merrican range. If such was the case likely the young boy (appears to be 3-4 years old) was Margaret's 25 Sep 1863 born son William who did not to live beyond his 7th year. However it could have been taken on a family occassion at any time between the 1867 marriage and late 1872 or early 1873 when Margaret left the mid-north coast to reside in Sydney or after about 1884 to 1885 when it is indicated Margaret returned to the Macleay where she died in Kempsey in 1887. Elizabeth's died in 1890 and the much younger half-sister Jane at Bowraville in 1931.
     Based on the 1880s photo of Margaret standing in front of her house in Mount Vernon Street in Glebe she would be the one seated center with the young boy beside her. The caption on the photo in the 1991 published The Mackay-McKay Family History identified Margaret as seated in the center with her 20 years younger half-sister Jane Gaddes née Mackay standing on the left and sister Elizabeth Bradley née Mackay on the right. If it was taken at the time of the 1867 marriage to Augustus Raymond naturally Margaret would have been seated in the center. However a card to which a copy of the photo is attached held by the Bowraville Museum has a note written on it that Jane Gaddes is on the left with Margaret Chambers standing on the right and Elizabeth Bradley in the center. Glenn Bradley in his 1994 book titled When the river was the road had just a cut-out from the photo of the sister in the center identifying her as Margaret Chambers. A 1990 published book by Alex Gaddes titled Red Cedar Our Heritage simply said the photo was of Jane Gaddes and sisters Margaret Chambers and Elizabeth Bradley without as is the usual practice with published photos stating the names of those appearing are from L to R. Photos of Jane Gaddes taken in her old age confirm she had a relatively narrow face and took more after her father Angus who was of slight build than mother Christina whose photo suggests the opposite.