Crawford family background

John Crawford

Extracted from the biography of George Williams and Jessie Crawford published in Nash: First Fleeters and Founding Families by Carol Baxter (2004).

 Maps and some other information about the Crawford’s selections are included elsewhere in the Williams/Crawford chapter.

Janet Crawford was generally known by the Scottish “diminutive” Jessie[a] and was born around the year 1842 in Cupar parish, County Fife, Scotland.[1]  County Fife is situated on the east coast of Scotland.[b]  Situated a short distance inland from St Andrews, Cupar was the county town of Fife until recent years having always benefitted from its position at the point where the roads from Falkland, St Andrews, Dundee and Edinburgh converged.[2]  The town was in fact one of the oldest burghs in Scotland.

 At least two generations of Jessie's forebears had resided in the Cupar area.  Her father David Crawford was the son of John Crawford and his wife Ann Elder and was baptised on 24 December 1815 in Cupar parish.[3]  By 1827 the Crawfords had settled in the village of Osnaburgh in nearby Dairsie parish where John was working as a weaver when two additional children were born: Patrick Alexander (1827)[c] and Ann Brabander (1830)[d].[4]  These younger Crawford children along with an older sister Levia[e] joined Jessie's family when they emigrated to NSW in 1848.

 The Crawfords were apparently still residing in Dairsie parish when David married Cupar parishioner Jean Fyfe on 21 December 1838 at Dairsie.[5]  Jean was born around the year 1811 and was the daughter of Arnant and Janet Fyfe of Cupar according to immigration records.[6]  Although signatures were not recorded in Scottish marriage records at that time, later records indicate that like a large proportion of the Scottish population David and Jean were both literate.[7] 

 David Crawford and Jean Fyfe had four known children born in Cupar parish as follows[f]: John (c1840), Jessie (c1842), David (c1846) and Robert (1848)[g].[8]  Although the Crawfords were evidently members of the Presbyterian church both pre and post-emigration,[9] baptism entries for their offspring are not found in the Cupar or Dairsie established church registers.  This no doubt was a result of the rift in the Scottish church in the mid-1800s.

Historically, the Scottish church had experienced numerous divisions and secessions over the previous couple of centuries although surprisingly most were not based upon fundamental differences regarding the interpretation of the scriptures but upon political differences.  One issue that kept emerging was that of patronage; that is, the right of a layman (such as the local laird) to appoint a minister even against the wishes of the kirk session.[10] 

 The patronage question became a serious issue from 1833 onwards.  In 1834 the church’s General Assembly passed a “Veto Act” declaring that no pastor should be imposed upon a congregation contrary to the wishes of the people.  However the legality of this Act was tested and rejected by the civil courts in 1838 and the court’s decision upheld by the House of Lords in 1839.  An appeal to the Queen in 1842 failed and the House of Commons voted and declined to alter the law in 1843.  Nevertheless, unwilling to be thwarted in this way members of the Scottish church voted with their feet.  At the Assembly of 1843 some 450 ministers (over a third of the total) left the established church and formed the Free Church of Scotland, this number nearly doubling within the following four years.[11]  

 As the entries for the Crawford family disappear out of the established church registers at this time it is evident that they too left the established church to join either the Free Church or one of the other secession churches founded at that time.  Ironically, within the following few years they left Scotland to settle in an area where the issue was no longer the nature of their religious representation but whether there was any representation at all.

 Emigration

 Despite having no relatives in the colony David and Jane and their four children sailed to Australia as assisted immigrants on board the Bermondsey in 1848.[12]  Also travelling on the vessel were David's siblings: Levia (aged 34), Patrick (aged 20) and Ann (aged 19).  Their parents John and Ann Crawford were still alive at this time and remained in Cupar.[13] 

 Surviving records reveal that David provided colonial authorities with the information that he was a farm labourer while his wife and sister Levia were noted as house servants and his two other siblings Patrick and Ann as farm servants.[14]  It is important to the note however that assisted immigrants often supplied “desired” occupations to the authorities to improve their chances of being accepted as assisted immigrants and obtaining employment and therefore that the occupations noted on their immigration records did not necessarily reflect their employment prior to emigration.  In fact as David’s father was a weaver it is quite likely that he had also been employed in the weaving industry.  

 In addition to recording occupations, immigration records also provided details of literacy.  David, Jean[h] and their eldest son John (aged 8) were all literate while Jessie (aged 6) could “read only” and was in “good health.[15]  Naturally no details of literacy were noted for their younger two children, David (aged 2) and Robert an infant,[16] the latter probably having been born shortly prior to their voyage.   

 The Journey

 As a six-year old, Jessie was likely to have remembered her family’s journey – probably predominantly by rail – from Scotland through England to the town of Plymouth on the south coast where they embarked on the immigrant ship Bermondsey.  Sailing from Plymouth on 8 September 1848, the family had to endure a voyage of only three months and interestingly were not deposited in Sydney but instead travelled directly to Twofold Bay where the vessel anchored on 9 December 1848.[17]

 Of the approach to Twofold Bay, Wells’ Gazetteer - published the year of their arrival - remarked:[18]

 The first object which strikes the eye, when approaching Twofold Bay from the North … is the Light-house … which is nearly completed.  It is a tower, composed of white Sydney sand-stone, in blocks averaging half a ton each in weight.  Its height, when finished, will be 76 feet, its diameter, 22; and it is not an exaggeration to state, that it is the finest building of the kind in Australia.  

 The lighthouse had probably been completed by the time the Crawford family sailed into Twofold Bay.   

 In the three days following their arrival, the immigrants were examined by officers of the immigration board who were stationed at Twofold Bay.[19]  The shipping port there was largely the brain-child of entrepreneur Benjamin Boyd who arrived in NSW in 1842.  Intent upon “further developing the resources of Australia and its adjacent islands” he concentrated upon the southern route to Twofold Bay and Hobart, establishing Twofold Bay as his coastal base due to its access to the Monaro hinterland and the steady stream of livestock, wool and tallow.  Two small townships were developed including Boyd Town where a hotel, church, houses, stores, salting and boiling-down works, jetty and lighthouse were erected.[20]         

 The Crawford family apparently settled in Boyd Town as baptism records list David as a labourer at "Boyd" when his youngest child James[i] was baptised in July 1850.[21]  Wells’ Gazetteer published in 1848 also provided a description of Boyd Town:[22]

 At Boyd Town there is a convenient jetty, 300 feet long; and … an abundance of water, and every description of provision and vegetables [so] both Boyd and East Boyd are favourite resorts for shipping.

 Presumably David found employment with one of the many businesses operating there and settled his family in the town for a few years.   

 In addition to establishing a shipping port at Boyd Town, Benjamin Boyd was responsible for the completion of the road from Twofold Bay to the Monaro district, a labour “though acknowledged to be a most important one, was postponed year after year by the local government, from a fear of its impracticability”.[23]  Not surprisingly, within the following two years Jessie’s family had ventured from Boyd Town to the Monaro district where they were residing when her aunt Ann Crawford was married in an Anglican ceremony in February 1852.[24]  Jessie’s father served as a witness to the wedding and recorded his residence as “Maharatta, Bombala” at that time.[25] 

‘Maharatta’[j], situated a short distance south-east of Bombala, was a cattle and sheep run held under licence by Charles Throsby,[26] nephew and heir of surgeon/explorer Charles Throsby who was responsible for the “discovery” of the Queanbeyan district in 1820.[27]  David Crawford was probably working as a stockman or shepherd for Throsby’s[k] superintendent in the 1850s while salting away as much money as possible in order to follow the advice of the old hands to “put everything into two legs and a good piece of land”.[28]

 The Crawfords had evidently acquired livestock and were subleasing land at Byadbo by the early 1860s, apparently within the ‘Currowong’ run[l] as David was recorded as a grazier in Jessie’s marriage certificate in November 1862.[29]  Within the following year David had also found his “good piece of land”, taking advantage of the recently legislated Free Selection before Survey land laws to acquire land at Byadbo.

 Portion 1, Byadbo parish – David Crawford

 David described himself as a resident of “Byadbo Currawong” when he selected 40 acres of land on 12 November 1863.  His selection was noted as lying “on the North West side of the Road to Gippsland between Biddi and Wollondibby Runs – 7 miles from the first named Station east and 18 miles West of the latter commencing at a stake 10 yards north of a well”[30] and Byadbo Creek is shown in a survey to cross his south-eastern boundary.[31]       

Map 1: David Crawford’s sketch showing the location of his selection

The surveyor received instructions in April 1864 to survey David’s selection however as he explained in a letter to the Surveyor General in August 1865:[32]

 The land applied for is situated in the cattle route from Bombala to Gippsland and distant 18 miles from any purchased land (Wollendibby) and seven miles from Biddi on the Snowy River, the only known position for connection of Survey.  I therefore beg to enquire if I would be justified in making the Survey from either of these positions, the cost of which would far exceed the amount of deposit paid. 

 The surveyor had evidently written to David Crawford in September 1864 to inform him of the problem[33] and David responded on 8 October 1864:[34]

 I have no wish that extrey (sic) expences should be incurred on my account but that until my purchase has been surveyed I cannot get it fenced which I wish to do as soon as it is surveyed.  I have marked on the sketch as near as I can the situation of my purchase.  The Little or Dry River takes its rise among the ranges all round Byadbo winds through Mrs McGuigans Run and joins the Snowy at the lower end of Wollendibby Run.  

 When the surveyor communicated his concerns to the Surveyor General in August 1865 he added that he had asked David Crawford to allow the survey to “stand over” for 12 months and enclosed David’s response and attached sketch[m].[35]  Evidently this was considered satisfactory as the survey was not completed until November 1867 – four years after selection[n].[36]  

 Meanwhile David signed his three-year declaration in January 1867 noting that the improvements comprised a house, garden, paddock, barn &c valued at a surprisingly large £200.[37]  However the surveyor provided a lower estimation, reporting in November 1867 that David was present and that his improvements comprised a slab house of 4 rooms, barn, work house, garden with paling fence, sheep yard, stock yard, and 50 rod of dogleg fencing to the total value of £80.[38]  

 Evidently David’s selection was used as a base for his sheep run and in fact later reports reveal that the land was unsuitable for agriculture, as proved to be the case for much of the Monaro district.  The surveyor observed at that time that the land consisted of stringy bark and gum forest, scrubby in places with soil of a light character [39] while a report a few decades later noted that the selection was “surrounded by very high rough mountains, the road is inaccessible to wheeled traffic … [and] there is no land on this holding suitable for agricultural purposes.[40]

 The Crawfords apparently remained at their selection until 1870 as electoral rolls record David Crawford snr as qualified to vote by reason of his leasehold at “Big Edbow” – an early version of Byadbo - in 1869/70 and 1870/1.[41]  Soon afterwards they apparently left Byadbo although they retained the selection until the mid-1880s.  On 30 April 1887 David’s widow Jean sold the selection to grazier James Hayden of “near Delegate” for £40.[42]  Hayden had in fact married George Williams’ niece Elizabeth Hyland in 1870[o].[43]

 Portion 33, Nelson parish – David Crawford

 From Byadbo the Crawford family headed north to Bobundarah where in January 1871 David Crawford selected 320 acres on the southern bank of Dog Kennel Creek, later known as Portion 33 in the parish of Nelson[p].[44]  The surveyor reported in March 1871 that David was resident and that his improvements comprised an "iron gunyah" valued at £5 indicating that the Crawford’s housing conditions were primitive at that time.  The land consisted of well-grassed downs with permanent water from Dog Kennel Creek and although "destitute of timber … it is 4 or 5 miles to the nearest timber, fit even for firewood".[45] 

 David was evidently suffering from serious medical problems a year later, signing his last will on 7 March 1872 shortly before his death.  After describing himself as a “grazier and farmer” of Dog Kennel and revealing that he was “sick and weak of body but of perfect mind and memory” he declared that he bequeathed “to Jane my dearly beloved wife” all his real and personal estate and made her his sole executor[q].[46]  David died in March 1872 and was buried in Bombala cemetery.  Probate of his £100 estate was granted to his wife on 15 October 1873.[47] 

 The three-year declaration for Portion 33 was due early in 1874 and on 19 February Jean signed the declaration describing herself as the "widow of David Crawford of Springfield, Dog Kennel Run".  She noted improvements comprising "housing and fencing" valued at £320 and added that the property was the bonafide residence of "my late husband and myself".[48]  On the same day Jean attempted to transfer Portion 33 to George Williams however problems arose with the conveyance as the land was still registered in her late husband's name.[49]  She was ordered to prepare a new transfer noting her status as widow and executrix[50] however no further action was taken until the late 1870s[r]. 

 Portion 17, Wellington parish – Robert Crawford 

 Meanwhile, on the same day that David Crawford selected Portion 33 of Nelson parish his son Robert Crawford – who was to marry George Williams’ niece Frances Mary Crisp in 1873[s] - selected 320 acres on the northern bank of Dog Kennel Creek [Portion 17] nearly opposite Portion 33.[51]  Both selections were probably used jointly by father and son and were later to pass to George Williams.  The surveyor reported two months later that Portion 17 was well grassed and destitute of timber and that about 50 acres could be cultivated.  He added that Robert was resident upon the selection and that his improvements comprised a "gunyah and stockyard" valued at £30.[52] 

 Robert probably settled there with his bride as his declaration signed in February 1874 recorded the selection as his bonafide residence and described improvements comprising "houses and fencing" valued at £320.[53]  The land was alienated to Charles Wright of Bobundarah on 3 September 1874[54] - probably as a straight transfer rather than as a mortgage - and then resold to George Williams on 15 February 1877[t].[55]   

 Portions 84 & 130, Nelson parish – Jean Crawford

 Six months after attempting to sell her late husband’s Portion 33 to George Williams, Jean Crawford instead selected 50 acres in her own name on 3 September 1874 [Portion 84].  As the land was situated some distance south of her husband’s selection[56] it was therefore considered the first selection in a new series forcing Jean to relocate to the selection in order to fulfil the conditions of purchase.  Nevertheless, her intentions in acquiring this land were no doubt to serve as a “dummy” for George Williams rather than to increase her landholding for her own purposes. 

 The surveyor reported improvements valued at £20 on Portion 84 in January 1875[57] while Jean's declaration in November 1877 described "building and fencing" improve-ments valued at £50 and stated that the selection was her bonafide residence.[58]  It is interesting to note however that Jean was apparently residing at George’s home in July 1875,[59] so she probably spent only a proportion of her time on her selection in order to fulfil the residential conditions.    

 Jean was no doubt again dummying for George on 27 January 1878 when she selected an adjacent 400-acre block [Portion 130].[60]  The two blocks were transferred to George Williams on 1 January 1879 after Jean’s one-year residency requirement on Portion 130 had been fulfilled.[61] 

 Portions 110 & 139, Nelson parish – Jean Crawford

 Jean’s decision to retain Portion 33 in 1874 rather than transfer it to George Williams was no doubt part of George’s strategy to maximise his “dummying” options although dummying had technically been made illegal by the Amending Act of 1875.[62]  Three months after transferring Portions 84 and 130 to George Williams, Jean increased her landholding in the Dog Kennel area by selecting another 200 acres on 24 April 1879 [Portions 110 and 139] and noting that the selection was an additional conditional purchase to Portion 33.[63]  Such selections required a coterminous border with the original selection so it is interesting to note the narrow corridor between Portion 33 and the north-western corner of Portion 130 as shown in Map 2.  Evidently when Portion 130 was selected the land was deliberately measured in such a way to facilitate a later additional conditional purchase to Portion 33.

Three months after registering her selection, Jean transferred Portion 33 as well as her new 200-acre selection to George Williams.[64]  Attached to the transfer was a letter from the Crown Solicitor’s Office in Sydney noting that David Crawford of Dog Kennel, Manaroo, had left his estate to his wife Jane by his will dated 7 March 1872 and that she had been appointed sole executrix and could sell his property.[65]  It is curious that Jean was able to sell her recent selection within the one-year residential requirement however perhaps this letter served to override the residential requirement.  

With the sale of Portions 110 and 139 Jean relinquished all of her landholdings in the Bobundarah district however she does not appear to have returned to Byadbo at that time.  She was recorded as a resident of “near Nimmitabel” in 1887 when she sold her Byadbo selection[66] suggesting that she had probably relocated to Glenbog with her daughter Jessie and the Williams family in 1884.  Jean died on 9 October 1894 and was buried in Bombala cemetery with her husband.[67]  Her unmarried granddaughter Sarah Williams – daughter of George Williams and Janet Crawford - was also buried there in 1944.[68]

Endnotes