HUDSON FAMILY PAGE

Compiled by Russell Hudson 20 July 2005. Updated 01 November 2006.

St Mary's Church, Longsleddale The picturesque valley of Longsleddale, Westmorland lies along the River Sprint to the north of Kendal in the eastern Lake District of Cumbria. My great-great grandparents, Thomas Hudson and Isabella Green/Hudson, lived on the small farming properties of Tillshole and Sadgill, on the western side of the river and near the head of the valley. St Mary's Parish Church lies on the eastern side of the River Sprint, about halfway up the valley. My great-great grandparents  were married in the church in 1815, and my great grandfather, William Hudson (1827-1908), was  baptised there in 1828. (Photograph Hud-lon-031, Russell Hudson, 1986)

Introduction

My great grandfather, William Hudson (1827-1908), came from the small farming community of Longsleddale, to the north of Kendal, in the eastern Lake District of England. He left England at the end of 1861 on the sailing ship "Star of India", arriving in Melbourne, Victoria  in early 1862. He headed to the Clunes district,  north of Ballarat, where the land sales of the 1840s had created opportunities for farmers, and the gold discoveries of the 1850s had resulted in rapid population growth and wealth creation. After working some years as a farm labourer he was able to purchase a small holding of his own on the rich basalt soils of the Smeaton Plains.

In 1873, William Hudson  married Mary Jane Goddard, the first daughter of James Goddard, an "exile" (a convict with a conditional pardon) from Hampshire, and Mary Askew, an assisted immigrant from Derbyshire. Mary Jane Goddard was born in 1853 at Murgheboluc, on the Barwon River, west of Geelong, Victoria, and had moved to the Clunes district with her mother after the death of her father in 1860.

On their farm, named "Sunny Brow", the couple were to produce seventeen children, and were part of a community which witnessed major developments in the mining of rich "alluvial", "deep-lead" and "quartz-reef" gold deposits. The details of their lives are revealed through a study of electoral rolls, school enrolment records, cemetery records, church records and newspaper articles. These have been amplified by the recollections of some older Hudson descendants.

More of the Story

The links associated with the Hudson Family page contain descriptions of William Hudson's home and family in Longsleddale, the details of his travel to Australia, the establishment of his farm "Sunny Brow", his marriage to Mary Jane Goddard, and records of their subsequent life in Australia.

The links also include descriptions of  May Jane Goddard's parents, James Goddard and Mary Askew, including details of the Hampshire origins of James Goddard and an account of how he came to be sent to Australia as an "exile" on the sailing ship "Joseph Somes", arriving at Geelong in 1847. Mary Askew's beginnings in Higham, Derbyshire are also described, as is her eventful voyage to Australia in 1852 on the sailing ship "Sir Robert Sale", her marriage to James Goddard in Geelong in January 1853, and her subsequent life in Victoria. In addition, there are brief descriptions of the lives of Mary Askew's half-brother Thomas and half-sister Ann, both of whom also emigrated to Australia.

A large database of the descendants of William Hudson and Mary Jane Goddard has been compiled as the result of the collaborative efforts of many members of the Hudson family.