Thomas Hutchens and Elizabeth James

Thomas Hutchens was born at Treen, Cornwall, on 12/5/1826. His parents were John Hutchens and Sarah Rowe. He came to South Australia in 1848 on board the Santipore, describing himself as a Shoe Maker and Farmer.

After his arrival Thomas lived on Hindley Street, Adelaide, for about a year. At that time his uncle, William Hutchens, who came to South Australia on the Waterloo in 1840 with his wife Mary Ann and children William, Mary Ann and John, was a storekeeper on Hindley Street. After Hindley Street Thomas went to Woodside, conducting a boot and shoe business there from 1849 to 1852. But he later abandoned this occupation in favour of farming.

In 1851 Thomas was appointed Treasurer and one of the Trustees of the Woodside Wesleyan Church, a position he held until shortly before his death.

The Old Wesleyan Church, Woodside

Elizabeth James was the daughter of Richard James and Sarah Harvey, born in Sancreed on 9/7/1826, according to her gravestone, and baptized on that same day, according to FamilySearch.org. (The Cornwall OPC record of her baptism has the date as 4/7/1826, evidently due to a transcription error.) She came to South Australia in 1847 with her father (by then a widower) and six siblings, on board the Phoebe.

Grave of Thomas and Elizabeth

Thomas Hutchens and Elizabeth James were married at the Church of St John in Adelaide on 20/8/1850. Thomas described himself as a shoemaker living at Mount Barker; Elizabeth described herself as a dressmaker living on Grenfell Street Adelaide. The witnesses were Richard James and Sarah James. The witness Sarah was Elizabeth's sister, also known as Sally, who was almost exactly 22 years old; the witness Richard was presumably Elizabeth's father, since her brother Richard was only 16 at the time.

Thomas and Elizabeth's marriage certificate

Thomas and Sarah had three children:

• John, b. 23/7/1851;
• Sarah Ann, b. 29/6/1853;
• Richard James, b. 5/10/1855.

Thomas visited the Victorian goldfields in late 1852 and 1853, giving up his boot and shoe business. I suppose that his pregnant wife Elizabeth and infant son John did not travel to Victoria. Presumably he did not find any gold, since he did not stay there for long.

The birth registration records for the first two children (John and Sarah Ann) give Thomas' occupation as Shoe Maker, but the birth registration record for the the third child (Richard James) gives his occupation as Farmer.

The following report about the Charleston School is of particular interest to me since it mentions my ancestor Sarah A. Hutchens as the top mental arithmetic student. Also mentioned are her younger brother Richard J. Hutchens, and two Hughes children, Mary A. and William, whose parents William Frederick Hughes and Mary Stodart were also my ancestors. Note that at this time Sarah A. Hutchens and William Hughes were 10, and Richard J. Hutchens and Mary A. Hughes were 8. I think that "First Class", "Second Class" and so forth must refer to levels of achievement, with the older children naturally achieving more than the younger ones.

The Register 11/11/1863

No doubt this was a one-teacher school. James Wardlaw Disher was appointed to teach at Charleston in 1863. The Mrs Standrin mentioned in the last line was probably not a teacher but someone who assisted the teacher in some way. I saw another newspaper article (dated 1/11/1859) that mentioned the Rev. Mr Standrin of the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Charleston.

In 1871 Thomas was appointed Clerk and Overseer of Works to the District Council of Onkaparinga. From about 1874 he was an auctioneer and land agent. He became wealthy enough to be able to gift substantial quantities of land to his children.

The Register 21/11/1862

Elizabeth died on 4/8/1883, and is buried in the Wesleyan Methodist (now Uniting) Church Cemetery at Woodside. The inscription on her gravestone reads as follows:

A devoted wife, a most affectionate mother
and a sincere friend.

---

Afflictions sore long time she bore.
Physicians were in vain;
She found no ease till God did please
To free her from her pain.

The Register 6/8/1883

Thomas married Christian Uren on 6/9/1884; she was a 43 year old spinster, he was 58. They eventually separated, some 13 years after their marriage. Grantley Hutchens says that according to stories passed down through the Hutchens family, Thomas married Christian for love, but the love was for her money. Christian died on 24/9/1910; Thomas died on 27/12/1914 and is buried with Elizabeth.

Grantley Hutchens has gathered a substantial amount of information about the descendants of Thomas and Elizabeth in a book entitled The Family History of Thomas Hutchens (distributed within the family only). Here we shall content ourselves with a small part of this information.

John

Thomas and Elizabeth's son John married Jessie Georgina Fenton, daughter of John Fenton and Georgina Walters, on 17/2/1876, at John Fenton's residence in Woodside. They had 16 children: Richard (20/7/1876–7/7/1952, married Hannah Watt), Thomas (28/10/1877–19/3/1918, married Selina Teague), John Fenton (20/1/1879–29/9/1953, married Helen Henrietta Kirk), Frank (26/3/1880–28/5/1962, married Rose Lydia McKenzie), Florence Elizabeth (1/7/1881–13/3/1965, married Samuel Hotchon Hillam), Jessie Francis (24/9/1882–12/6/1970, married Albert John McKenzie), Harriet Fenton (17/10/1883–2/1/1979, married James William Floyd), William (28/10/1884–4/7/1952, married Florence Mary Samwell), Elizabeth (10/1/1886–31/5/1954, married Herbert Duncan McKenzie), Sarah Olive (12/9/1887–11/6/1888), Arthur Ernest (19/2/1890–7/6/1977, married Myrtle Ada Cook), Mabel Mary (27/5/1891–22/10/1958), Myrtle May (23/10/1892–9/8/1951, married Murray Clyde Rose), Edmund (11/1/1894–23/6/1957, married Pretoria Ceclia May Rollbusch), Reginald (7/9/1896–21/4/1965, married Gwendoline Irene Elizabeth Helen Rosa Harrison, née Purdie), Clarence Mark (7/9/1896–26/3/1897).

Reginald and Gwendoline are buried at Woodside in the Uniting Church Cemetery; their grave is shown above.

At first John and Jessie settled on a farm in the Hundred of Coomooroo, near Morchard, but they later returned to John's father's farm at Woodside, and then another farm at One Tree Hill. It is believed that all the purchasing of land was arranged and paid for by John's father.

John died on 15/3/1926, Jessie died on 1/10/1943.

The following newspaper items pertain to various incidents in the lives of John and Jessie or their children. With regards to the "serious vehicle accident" item, I should mention that Richard and Hannah's third child (Gordon Henry) was born on Saturday 9/8/1902, the day of the accident. Richard had evidently gone to get his mother-in-law so that she could help in the house, but it did not work out as intended.

The Register, 14/6/1888 The Advertiser, 29/3/1897 The Advertiser, 9/9/1904 The Advertiser, 12/3/1914 The Advertiser, 17/5/1918 The Advertiser, 19/3/1919

The Advertiser, 12/8/1902 The Advertiser, 5/3/1913 The Advertiser, 24/10/1916 The Advertiser, 6/4/1917 The Advertiser, 25/8/1917 The Advertiser, 20/3/1919

John and Jessie are buried in the Woodside Uniting Church Cemetery; the stone marking their grave is shown below.

FATHER In loving remembrance of JOHN HUTCHENS died March 15 1926 aged 74 beloved husband of J. Hutchens also JESSIE dearly beloved wife of the above died Oct. 1st 1948 aged 89 years

Sarah

Thomas and Elizabeth's daughter Sarah Ann married George Laurence Hughes; they are discussed on another page.

Richard

Thomas and Elizabeth's son Richard James married Emily Alma Bartlett, daughter of George Bartlett and Ann Chandler, on 1/9/1882. She was born in Chippenham, Wiltshire, on 29/12/1854. They had 11 children: Laura Ann (9/4/1883–12/10/1959, married Albert Arthur), Percy George (21/4/1884–14/4/1986), Alma Bessie (14/5/1885–11/12/1907), Harold Richard (7/8/1886–8/1/1971, married Lucy Mabel Jamieson), Cornelius George (28/10/1887–8/1/1971, married Bessie Power and Rye Elsie Nankervis), Sarah Amy (4/2/1889–27/10/1970), Thomas Roy (23/11/1890–23/4/1909), John McDougall (13/12/1891–26/5/1961, married Ettie Louisa Smith and Sylvia Alexandra Ross), Mabel Lucy (15/6/1893–2/11/1982, married Alexander McDonald Ness and John Rodney Lukes), Emily Mollie (23/2/1896–13/2/1940, married Horace David Smith and Jack Vincent Drage), Ruth Bartlett (2/4/1898–11/1954, married Donald Claude McDonald).

Emily Alma Hutchens died on 3/4/1898, the day after the birth of her last child. Emily is buried at Orroroo. The baby (Ruth Bartlett) was adopted out, acquiring her foster parents' surname, Bungey. Mollie, the second youngest child, was brought up by Richard's sister Sarah and brother-in-law George Hughes.

The Advertiser, 6/4/1898
The Advertiser, 12/4/1898	The Advertiser, 12/4/1898

Richard and Emily's daughter Alma Bessie committed suicide by drowning. According to The Family History of Thomas Hutchens, the story passed down through the family is that she had become pregnant.

Richard and Emily had a farm in the Hundred of Coomooroo, near Orroroo, bought for him by Richard's father. The initial purchase was of sections 84NE and 85, comprising 640 acres. Richard later acquired section 44 (315 acres) and section 86 (520 acres), so that altogether he had 1475 acres. He sold section 44 in 1885 and section 520 in 1896. After Emily's death Richard decided to give up farming, and the remaining two sections were sold in April 1899.

Richard was a Councillor, and he was District Clerk for Orroroo from 1896 to 1902. In April 1899, after selling the farm, Richard bought 6 acres on section 226 in the Hundred of Walloway. The town of Orroroo is in the Hundred of Walloway; so this purchase presumably indicates that Richard moved into the town, or very near it.

The Advertiser, 11/5/1904 The Advertiser, 30/9/1910 The Advertiser, 6/4/1917

The Advertiser, 2/2/1909 The Advertiser, 23/2/1911 The Advertiser, 6/12/1907

The Orroroo property was sold on 3/5/1904, and Richard moved to Mount Gambier, where he worked as an agent for Massey-Harris, makers of agricultural machinery. He married Mabel Winifred Taylor on 3/9/1904, in Mount Gambier. Some time after this the family moved to Adelaide, where Richard worked for Clutterbuck Brothers, another agricultural machinery company. Then Richard went into the hotel business, as publican of the Lucindale Hotel (in South East S.A.) in 1907, then the Eureka Hotel in Red Hill (in the Mid North) from 1908 to 1911, and finally the Selbourne Hotel at 144 Pirie Street Adelaide.

Richard committed suicide on 5/7/1916.

The Advertiser, 16/6/1915 The Advertiser, 6/7/1916

The Advertiser, 8/7/1916

According to The Family History of Thomas Hutchens, "stories handed down through his brother's family indicate that Richard was disowned by his father because he got Emily 'into trouble' and was a hotel-keeper", and "stories handed down through Richard's family indicate that there was a split in the family because he was in the hotel business and not religious, like his brother John". But, as is pointed out in the book, Richard's wife was only two months pregnant at her marriage, but John's wife was four months pregnant at hers. Moreover, the family split occurred before Richard went into the hotel business.

I can believe that Thomas, as a prominent member of the Woodside Wesleyan Church and a paragon of respectability, had come to disapprove of hotel-keepers, despite the fact that his parents and later his sisters had kept the Logan Rock Inn in Cornwall, besides which his brother John was an inn-keeper, and even his carpenter brother Edwin at some stage kept a beer shop. However, it seems to me rather likely that the split occurred because Richard got his name very prominently into the newspaper as co-respondent in a divorce case. I am sure that this would not have gone down well with Thomas! The evidence was fully reported in The Advertiser of 14th May, 15th May and 16th May 1902, and the allegations were proved.