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| James Johnson Bibbenluke 1857 MARY DENT AND JAMES JOHNSON.
Mary was born 1st July 1835 at Littleport on the Isle of Ely, an elevated area in the Fens of Cambridgeshire, England. Her husband James Johnson came from a farming family in the same village. An untitled poem written by James in 1878 when he was 54, gives us insight into their relationship and preparation for their journey to the Colony of NSW. Six and twenty years ago At length arrived the Saturday They married on 1st July 1852 in Union Chapel, Lewisham, London. It was her 17th birthday and James was 28. We can imagine them working hard for the next five months - living in Dacre Square - before departing England forever. On arrival in the Colony of New South Wales on 19th March 1853, according to the Immigration document Mary’s age has increased by two years while James’ has decreased by six possibly to make them more attractive to prospective employers. With them on board were her parents William and Susan Dent and their four children. They were all Wesleyans. We soon to Polynesia came Rough it was upon the sea While the Dents headed for Bombala in Southern Monaro, Mary and James’ destination was Woolway, a sheep property of 7,000 acres in the central Monaro district of N.S.W., near Berridale. One can only wonder how they felt on arrival and viewed the collection of paddock-stone buildings strung above the flood plain bordering Wullwye creek and whether she, like Henry Dyball five years before, was greeted by the local aboriginal tribe. How long they remained on this vast and isolated property is unknown and one now reaches a place of question and conjecture; a weighing up of the possibilities of their lives. Their employment at Woolway Station is unknown. In England, James is identified as a farm servant around the watery Fenland of Littleport, a vastly different environment to this dry and treeless plain requiring a large labour force to shepherd and move herds of sheep around. Mary, like some women, may have done some shepherding herself, or been a house servant employed with cooking and laundry. Perhaps the alien landscape and isolation proved too much of a contrast to the industrialised England they left behind. Maybe it was loneliness that saw them in Bombala two years later for the birth of their first child, my great grandmother Eliza, on 17th June, 1855. On a personal level, the next thirteen years would be productive ones for her as she gave birth in two and later three-year cycles. The birth of Susanna in 1857 is recorded in the Family Register as again taking place at Bombala, as was Margaret’s in 1859. The birth of John Henry on 9th May 1861, however, places them at Tombong Station near Delegate. Two years later, in 1863 the birth of Rowland John was recorded, followed by Mephibosheth [known as Mephi] in 1865, both at Bombala. During these years, James’ name appears in the Boyd and Company Account Book 1866, as a sheepwasher - 1858, shearer - 1859, shearer - 1861 and sheepwasher in 1865 at Bibbenluke Station which the Gazetter of the Australian Colonies described as the Station of Ben Boyd in the District of Monaro, fifty miles from Boyd Town. Whether he was permanently attached to the Station cannot be determined but as he was also at Tombong Station in 1861, it’s probable that he did the rounds of the Stations as required during the shearing season. It was the custom for Stations to employ shearers and sheepwashers for other seasonal work, such as wheat harvesting and shepherding and a poem written by James in 1879, appears to recall time he spent as a shepherd or drover. But now you’re faittly out of town But to recall my thoughts, I see, The fact that his name appears at Bibbenluke in the 1866 Boyd Account Book is somewhat confusing as, by 1847, Ben Boyd’s vast empire had already disintegrated due largely to labour difficulties aggravated by a depression in the early forties. His properties were offered for sale in 1855 and Bibbenluke and other Stations were bought in 1857 by William Bradley who appointed Henry Tollemache Edwards as his Supervisor. On that black-soiled plain, sheep accumulated pounds of dust whipped up by the frequent high winds. Regular rain was a rare occurrence and sheep were washed, not only to rid their fleece of grime but also of grease which was considered an unprofitable by-product, the weight of which added to transport costs. From early times on the Monaro, it was the custom to herd batches of sheep into the river where sheepwashers awaited them in the cold waters from the Snowy Mountains. in 1866 Mary and James made the move from the Monaro and their extended family and descended 2000 feet down the Tantlawanglo Mountain to the gentler climate of Candelo, where their last three children would be born. By the time they arrived in Candelo, the nearby whittled-down Kameruka Run had passed to Robert Lucas-Tooth, nephew of Frederick Tooth the Sydney beer baron of KB Lager fame. Evidence of their lives in Candelo is sparse apart from an item in the Bega Gazette of 11th August 1866, reporting that Mr. C. H. Witton’s store at ”Candalo” had been destroyed by fire and that “the fire was first discovered by the storekeeper, Johnson” and a listing in the National Directory of NSW, Eden District, the following year for J. Johnston at Candelo. In October that year, the Bega Gazette of 26th October, reported James attending a public meeting at the Kameruka Estate “to consider the proposal of a school at Candalo, Manager Henry Wren Esq., occuping the chair … a subscription list being opened James Johnson made a donation of £1.” The following year a meeting was again held on the Kameruka Estate to constitute a local school board made of up Henry Wren, squattor Charles Stiles, free selector John Keys with Kameruka's property manager Walter White as secretary, representing the Church of England and free selectors John Collins and Patrick Heffernan representing the Roman Catholic religion. According to the Application to the Council of Education dated 1st May, 1867, the population of Candelo was 250 and James was one of the parents who promised to send their children, pledging two. The poems he wrote, his way with words and handwriting, indicates a level of schooling in Cambridgeshire that led to aspirations for his own children. Perhaps it was six year old John Henry and four year old Rowland he had in mind, Eliza aged 12, Susannah 10 and Margaret 8, already having benefited from some schooling at Bombala. Mephi was 2 and Mary pregnant again with their fourth son, James; the Family Register recording his birth on 24th June, the following year In 1879, James took the coach up the Tantlawanglo Mountain to Bombala connecting with the coach and passing through Bunima, Bibbingluke, Nimmitabel (which he spelt Nymbitibelle) Rock Flat Springs, Bunyan, the Michelanglo Plains, Queanbeyan, Lake George and Goulburn, for an over-night stop. When asked by the coach driver - What is your name Sir? If tis fair, - he answered Next morning he continued the long journey by train, passing through Bowral to Sydney, and crossing the harbour in a paddlewheeler to Manly to visit his eldest daughter Eliza and son-in-law Constable John Leplaw, the village’s third policeman (1879-1884) James was 55. In a poem written that year to his wife, it’s almost as if he had a premonition of his death two years later and was giving Mary not only a declaration of his enduring love but the promise of a reunion on another plane of existence. But now arrived on nature’s hill We both seem up the hill together Mary was widowed when James died on 3rd August, 1881, leaving her, aged forty-six, with children Margaret and Lydia, Rowland, Mephi, Charles and William still at home. How she managed to support her family is open to conjecture but in 1883 her name appears in Moore’s Australian Almanac as the pound-keeper in Candelo, a position she apparently took over from James. A letter from John Leplaw in Manly to his brother-in-law Mephi dated 30th March, 1884, passed on a rumour that Mary, (aged 49) was going to marry “old Hammond the blacksmith in Candelo but … I should not care to see her marry an old joker like him for he is in direct opposition to her way of living …“ an opinion with which she apparently concurred, as she remained a widow. John also wrote Mephi - “I believe Henry has left Monaro and has gone down the
Mountain again. I think before he John Henry did in fact arrive at Manly and was still there a few months later when John, aged 29 years, died on 24th June from typhoid fever. His name appears on the Death Certificate as a witness and he most probably accompanied his sister Eliza - and nieces Harriet (8), Clara (6) and baby Mabel - back to Candelo, where she lived out her long life, dying at 92. Next year, on 4th March, 1885, John Henry married Ellen
O’Keefe at Candelo and took his bride back up over the Tantlwanglo mountain
to Bombala. Mary made the trip herself to visit her mother on the 17th
hoping that Mephi would come from Delegate, where he was working but,
despite his grandmother, Susan Dent’s, suggestion to him - “if you come next
week and take your pony back with you might be able to come when your mamma
is heare” apparently it didn’t happen. Susan wrote again – “she is quite
well but feels quite disappointed because you are not coming down to meat
her.” Mephi would marry Ada Hardaker in 1888. Their daughter Bertha recalled – “I knew Grandma Johnson and loved her dearly … She was a notable needlewoman and always inspected Mother’s sewing very closely, paying especial attention to the inside finishing. She died quite suddenly one afternoon, with her thimble still on her finger and needle stuck in her bodice.” Mary died on 12th December, 1906, and was buried in the Methodist section of Candelo cemetery with James. Descendants of James Johnson
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