Thomas Worden and Ann Eva

Thomas Worden was born on 27/6/1835, the son of Thomas Worden and Jane Huntington, who were married in Plymouth St Andrew's on 1/10/1833. Thomas' birth date is given in an obituary (see below), and the date is consistent with his age as recorded in various other places: the 1841 census (taken on June 6th) gives his age as 5, the 1851 census (taken on March 30th) gives his age as 15, and parish register entry for his marriage on 19/12/1854 (see the I.G.I.) gives his age as 19.

The obituary says that Thomas was born in "the Parish of Indellion", Cornwall, but although the 1841 and 1851 census records show the family living in Endellion, the 1851 record gives Thomas' birth place as Plymouth, Devon. The same record says that Thomas' father, brother (Isaac) and sister (Elizabeth) were all born in Endellion, and surely the fact that Thomas' birthplace is not listed as Endellion can only indicate that indeed he was not born there. I have not obtained a parish register record to confirm it, but I am confident that Thomas was born in Plymouth.

Thomas' mother was born in St Germans, Cornwall, and a census record says that her mother (Elizabeth Pinch) was also born in Cornwall, although I have been unable to discover in which parish Elizabeth Pinch was born. The origins of John Huntington, the father of Thomas' mother, are unknown to me. It is quite possible that he came from the north of England, where the name Huntington is much commoner that it is in Cornwall and Devon.

Ann Eva was born in Wendron, Cornwall, in 1835, the daughter of Samuel Eva and Elizabeth Caddy, who were married in Wendron on 19/1/1824. The record of her marriage to Thomas (see the I.G.I.) provides confirmation that she was born in 1835 (since, like her husband, she was 19 on 19/12/1854), and also confirms that her father's name was Samuel. We can also be confident that her mother's maiden name was Caddy, since one of Ann's brothers was named Richard Caddy Eva.

The censuses of 1841 and 1851 each list two Ann Evas of roughly the right age, but the one that married Thomas Worden was definitely the daughter of a Samuel Eva, and the 1841 census information then identifies her uniquely. The other Ann Eva was aged 6 at the 1841 census. At the time of the 1851 census both Ann Evas had left home and were working as house servants, one at Gweek and one at Higher Scarsick. Their ages are given as 16 and 15 respectively, meaning that the latter is (probably) ours. Both Ann Evas were born in Wendron, as were all other members of our Ann Eva's family, with the exception her youngest brother (Richard Caddy Eva). He was born in Altarnun in about 1846, and the family (without Ann) was living in Altarnun in 1851.

Thomas Worden and Ann Eva were married in Linkinhorne, and two weeks after their marriage they left England for South Australia, sailing on the Hooghly (see the passenger list), which departed Plymouth on 3/1/1855 and arrived at Port Adelaide on 19/4/1855.

Why Thomas and Ann chose to be married in Linkinhorne is a mystery to me, since I have no record of either of them ever living very near to Linkinhorne. Perhaps they had to search for a church that could marry them before their ship was due to sail.

Thomas Worden's name appears on electoral rolls for the South Australian district of Barossa in the 1890's and 1900's; his address is given as "near Williamstown" and his occupation as "sawyer".

The following obituary of Thomas Worden appeared in a Gawler local newspaper in 1920:
"The late Mr Thomas Worden, who died on August 9, was an old and highly respected resident of Williamstown, having lived in the district since August 1856. He was born in the Parish of Indellion, Bristol Channel, Cornwall, on June 27 1835. He was married on 19th Dec 1854 and arrived in Australia in the ship named "Hoogley" on April 15 1855. Mr Worden, whose wife predeceased him, 35 years ago, leaves four sons, Messrs T. S. H. and E. J. Worden, Williamstown, I. J. E. and A. E. A. Worden, Victoria, and seven daughters, Mesdames G. Wilson, A. Johnson, W. Gower, S. Hammatt, W. Kennewell (all of Williamstown) and J. Buckley, Mannum, and P. Howlett, Willaston. There are 45 grandchildren and 19 greatgrandchildren."

Searching South Australian marriage records and Victorian death records has yielded further information on the descendants of Thomas and Ann.

• The T. S. H. Worden mentioned above is surely Thomas Samuel Huntington Worden, who married Harriet Lewis Coombe Pope on 25/1/1894 at St George Church Gawler. The groom was 37 and the bride 26. Thomas Samuel Huntington Worden died at age 70 and was buried on 8/6/1926 in the Williamstown Public Cemetery. Harriet Lewis Coombe Worden died at age 81 and was buried on 23/9/1948 alongside her husband.

  Presumably the 50 year old Annie Harriet Coombe Worden who was buried on 3/11/1946, also in Williamstown Cemetery, was their daughter. I believe that they also had a son, because at some point I came across a record of a marriage of one Samuel Thomas Pope Worden. His bride's name was Ellen Kathleen Williams, but unfortunately I neglected write down any further details. Samuel Thomas Pope Worden died in 1973.

  On 7/11/1914 a 20 year old Alfred Huxley Worden, son of Thomas Worden, married Clementina Eliza Wyatt (aged 19) at the residence (near Salisbury) of her father, George Wyatt. However, the groom's father was apparently not T. S. H. Worden but some other Thomas Worden, whose wife was named Mary Ann Rowland (according to a record submitted to the IGI).

• The I. J. E. Worden mentioned above is surely Isaac Josiah Eva Worden, who died in Mansfield, Victoria, in 1937, aged 79.
• The A. E. A. Worden mentioned above is probably Albert Edward Augustus Worden, who died in Ancona, Victoria, in 1932, aged 72.

• The Mrs G. Wilson above was Eva Jane Amelia Worden, who married George Wilson (son of James) on 18/10/1881 at Holy Trinity Church Lyndoch. The bride was 20 and the groom 22.

  George Wilson died at age 74 and was buried on 29/9/1933 in the Williamstown Public Cemetery. Eva Jane Amelia Wilson died at age 79 and was buried on 1/3/1941 alongside George.

• Alice Anna Worden, daughter of Thomas Worden, married Robert Johnson, son of William Johnson, on 1/10/1884 at St George Church Gawler. The bride was 21 and the groom 23.

  Alice Anna Johnson died at age 82 and was buried on 5/1/1946 in the Williamstown Cemetery.

  A record submitted to the IGI lists nine children of Robert and Alice Anna: Gertrude Muriel Johnson (b. 12/7/1885, Yatta Creek), Charles Johnson (b. 6/7/1887, Williamstown), Vera Ann Eva Johnson (b. 12/7/1889, Williamstown), Alick Johnson (b. 13/9/1892, Williamstown), Irene Adelia Johnson (b. 19/6/1894, Williamstown), Robert Johnson (b. 10/4/1896, Williamstown), Auriol Ruby Johnson (b. 7/7/1898, Williamstown), Francis Laurence Johnson (b. 14/1/1902, Willaston), James Henry Johnson (b. 16/4/1905, Rose Park, Adelaide, d 26/11/1980).

  Robert Johnson enlisted in the AIF on 15/8/1917. His service record, which can be viewed online, shows that at the time of his enlistment he was single and was a Blacksmith's Improver. He embarked for England on 17/10/1917 and served in France in 1918 and 1919. He returned to Australia on 22/2/1920, and died on 10/6/1954.

  Alick Johnson enlisted in the AIF on 2/11/1916. His service record shows that at the time of his enlistment he was single and a Bullock Driver. He embarked for England on 24/1/1917 and was sent to France on 24/9/1917. He was wounded (gassed) in Belgium on 30/10/1917 and returned to England. He went absent without leave in London from 8/2/1818 to 14/3/1818, during which time he was married and contracted venereal disease. He was sentenced (on 17/4/1918) to 90 days detention and forfeiture of pay for the 158 days from 8/2/1918 to the end of his detention. The unserved balance of his detention (namely, 40 days) was remitted when he was sent back to France on 5/6/1918. He was returned to England on 10/4/1919 and returned to Australia, with his wife, on 5/8/1919.

  The certificate of Alick's marriage to Ethel Freeman is included with his military record. It shows that she was 21 years old and the daughter of John Freeman, a deceased compositor. Her address prior to marriage was 26 Cromwell Road, South Kensington. Alick died at age 61 and was buried on 2/6/1954 at Williamstown.

• Richard Warwick Worden, not mentioned above but a son of Thomas Worden, married Emma Ellen Gower (daughter of James) on 3/4/1889 at Lyndoch Church. The groom was 24 and the bride 25. I believe that this couple had a son who was also named Richard Warwick Worden; some further information about the younger Richard is presented below. The fact that the elder Richard was not mentioned in his father's obituary presumably indicates that he predeceased his father. Indeed, it seems likely that he died before 1902, since by that time Emma Ellen had become the de facto wife of Percy Augustus Kennewell (who had a previous wife who was still alive).

• The E. J. Worden mentioned above is undoubtedly the Ernest Joseph Worden who died at age 84 and was buried on 24/8/1951 at Williamstown. He is buried alongside his wife, Edith Charlotte Worden, who died at age 61 and was buried on 15/9/1941. Ernest and Edith were married in St Peter's Church, Williamstown, on 13/12/1906; the list of marriages from which I obtained this information gives the bride's name as Edie Charlotte Rice.

  A web page called "Rice Family History", which seems to no longer exist, gave some information about Ernest and Edith. In particular, it gave some information about Edith's Rice relatives, but unfortunately all that I recorded was Edith's birth date (12/12/1872) and the fact that her name was given as Charlotte Edith rather than Edith Charlotte. However, information about Edith's ancestors can be obtained from a RootsWeb WorldConnect Project website called "The ROADS Family of Buckinghamshire, and One-Place-Studies of Waddesdon, Grendon Underwood and Wotton Underwood". Their Charlotte Edith Rice page says that she was born at Sandy Creek S.A. on 12/12/1872.

• The Mrs J. Buckley above was Edith Adeline Worden, who married Franz Joseph Buckley (also called Joseph Frank Buckley) on 12/5/1891 at St Peter's Church Williamstown. The bride was 22 and the groom 28. For more information see the Edith Adeline Worden page of the Barlow family website.

• The Mrs W. Gower above was Elizabeth Cordelia Blanche Worden, who married James William Gower (son of James) on 11/6/1891 at PM Manse, Gawler. The bride was 21 and the groom 30. Apparently this James William Gower was the brother of the Emma Ellen Gower who married Richard Warwick Worden (see above). Elizabeth Cordelia Blanche Gower died at age 83 and was buried on 8/11/1954 in the Williamstown Cemetery.

  James and Elizabeth had a son named Walter James Gower who enlisted in the AIF on 16/11/1915. His service record is available online. His age at enlistment was given as 24 years and 2 months, which means that he was born in September 1891, or thereabouts. He was a Police Constable and unmarried at the time of his enlistment. His war service was spent in Egypt, from April 1916 to November 1917. He was wounded in his left arm in April 1917, and although he returned to active service in August he was admitted to hospital again in September, and then returned to Australia to be discharged. He died on 10/1/1933.

• The Mrs S. Hammatt above was Laura Gwendoline Worden who married John Stuart Hammat (sic) (son of William) on 25/4/1899 at the residence of Rev. J. J. Darwin. The bride was 22 and the groom 29. Laura and John are also buried alongside each other in the Williamstown Cemetery. She was 77 when she died, and was buried on 5/4/1955; he died at age 81, and was buried on 5/12/1950.

• The Mrs P. Howlett above was Ambrosine Adelia Worden.

• The Mrs W. Kennewell above was Geraldine Mildred Worden, who married William Thomas Kennewell (son of William Henry) at St Peter's Church Williamstown on 10/1/1905. The bride was 24 and the groom 30.

There are several Wordens buried at Willaston, and the burial records held by the South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society also include many Wordens. These people were not not necessarily closely related to my Wordens, since one George Worden and family came to South Australia in 1849 on the Samuel Boddington. This family was at St Cleer at the time of the 1841 census, and I have not been able to make any connection between them and my Wordens. However, there was an Eva Worden buried in South Australia in 1895, and it is tempting to believe that she was related to Thomas and Ann.

Richard Worden

A Richard Worden, who was surely the son of Richard Warwick Worden and Emma Ellen Gower, enlisted in the army on 14/1/1915. A digitized copy of his war record is available on-line courtesy of the National Archives of Australia. At his enlistment Richard Worden was aged 25 years and 5 months, he gave his occupation as drover and his next of kin as his mother, Mrs P. A. Kenenwell (sic), of Wolfram Street North Broken Hill. His mother's de facto husband, Percy A. Kennewell, had married had married Amelia Alice Morris on 26/9/1891, and they had a son (Thomas) who was born in 1892. Amelia Alice Kennewell also gave birth to daughters Jane, Lucy and Margaret, in 1895, 1897 and 1899 respectively, but in each case the birth record does not give the father's name. Amelia Alice Kennewell died in 1957. Percy and Emma Ellen had children named Dorothy, Edwin Percy (b. 10/2/1902), Marjorie and Jessie. Percy A. Kennewell died in Broken Hill in 1931, Emma Ellen Kennewell died in Victoria in 1947.

Richard Worden's service record shows that he served at Gallipoli in October, November and December of 1915. He was in Egypt for most of the rest of the war. He contracted malaria in 1916. He returned to Australia in August 1919, and lived in Broken Hill, where in 1920 he married Clara Bray. Richard died in Broken Hill in 1973; according to the NSW death record his full name was Richard Warwick Worden, and the given names of his father and mother were Warwick Richard and Emma Ellen. His wife Clara died in Broken Hill in 1970.

The Kennewells

An Ancestry World Tree Project website called "The Cottle Chronicles" has a Thomas Kennewell page which lists Percy Augusta Kennewell as one of the children of this Thomas Kennewell and his wife Mary Ann (née Francis). Percy was born on 13/1/1871. Amongst his several siblings were an elder brother Mark Albert Kennewell, born 24/6/1860, who married Dinah Ann Adams. These were the parents of the noted author Myrtle Rose White. Mark Albert Kennewell was buried on 15/5/1931 at Willaston; Dinah Ann Kennewell was buried on 27/5/1949, also at Willaston. Another elder brother of Percy was George Richard Kennewell, born in the early 1850's, who married Elizabeth Davey. One of their children, born on 23/6/1882, was named William Henry, but he was obviously not old enough to be the William Henry Kennewell whose son William Thomas married Geraldine Worden in 1905. It seems to me more likely that William Thomas Kennewell's father was another one of Percy's brothers, namely the one the Cottle Chronicles website calls Kenneth William Henry Kennewell. A RootsWeb WorldConnect Project website called "Kennewell" has a Thomas Kennewell page that says that Thomas had a son named William Henry.

Thomas Kennewell, with his parents Richard and Jane and six siblings (Jonathan, Sarah, Richard, Jane, George, James) came to Australia on the Canton in 1846.