George Faulkner and Jane Williams, Sutton Forest, 1835

In August 1835 George Faulkner and Jane Williams's names appear in the NSW Register of Convicts' Applications to Marry.

It is the right George Faulkner - transported on the Eliza (2), sentenced to life, and 32 years old. He would turn 33 the following November.

Jane Williams was 22 and free. She had been transported on the Louisa which landed in Sydney on 2 December 1827. A needlewoman, born in London and convicted in Kent, she had been sentenced to seven years. On 3 October 1834 she received her Certificate of Freedom.

The Register of Convict Applications to Marry gives the clergyman's name - which is difficult to make out - but the place is Sutton Forest in the Southern Highlands of NSW. George Faulkner stated that he was single. Jane Williams, however, said that she was married and had one child. Like other applications where one or both parties were already married, the application was not granted.

I wonder if George Faulkner and Jane Williams let the absence of a marriage certificate get in the way.

Marks of punishment on his back

One thing I hadn't looked at was George Faulkner's gaol admission record from when he was arrested in 1872 and imprisoned in Goulburn Gaol. But someone else did, and they put in on ancestry.com.

In the Remarks column there's a description of his distinguishing features:

"Right lower eyelid of ----- nose. Short scar over right eye and scar under right eye. Marks of punishment on his back. Back much curved. Scar on left wrist."

The marks of punishment were presumably from when he was flogged in Newcastle almost 50 years before, for stealing coal from the mines. Twenty-five lashes.

He was 70 when he was admitted to Goulburn Gaol and had shrunk from his original five feet, three and a half inches to just five feet. His complexion was still "Fresh".

The Education column records that he could read and write.

Death of George Faulkner (son)

On 9 December 1912 George Faulkner, 66, dropped dead in a paddock at "Victoria Park", Mount Russell near Inverell. 

It was harvest time, and according to a grand-daughter, George Faulkner was in the habit of eating separately to his workers. No-one was present when he died.

News of his death was reported in half a dozen country newspapers with several noting that an inquiry would be held. If an inquiry was held, it wasn't reported. Probate was granted in March 1913.

A family historian writes that: "In due course, 'Victoria Park' (1200 acres) was sold to the Government for Soldier Settler Blocks". The returned soldier who won the homestead block (300 acres) in a ballot had rented 150 acres of farm land at 'Victoria Park' for around 12 months prior to the sub-division. He married one of the Faulkner daughters, Leila, on 25 February 1922, the year he took over the farm.

The same family historian adds that Mary Ann Faulkner (nee Selmes) moved to Sydney and bought a house at West Ryde where she lived until her death in 1937. Before leaving Mount Russell, she was presented with a silver dish with this inscription: 5/12/1921 To Mrs M. A. Faulkner and family. A token of esteem from Residents of Mt Russell and District. 

"Victoria Park" remained in the family until 1965. The homestead was demolished in 1979. There is a small brick house on the block, which is now 60 acres.

Gladesville Hospital for the Insane

On 14 June 1873, only a few months after his release from Parramatta Asylum, George Faulkner was convicted before James Styles, JP, for using obscene language in Cork Street, Gundaroo, "towards William Affleck of Gundaroo, to wit You bloody Scotch bugger, I'll break your bloody door and smash your bloody machinery".

Sentenced to three months in Queanbeyan Gaol, he was again separately examined by two doctors as required before he could be committed to an asylum.

Andrew Morton, surgeon, wrote that he had observed "his violent conduct in the gaol... - his obscene language - & at one time praying, quoting scripture & immediately afterwards blaspheming - cursing, swearing and altogether behaving as a Maniac with homicidal tendencies - his constant headaches & vertigo with confusion of thought & the wildness of his manner & eyes".

The jailer and warder told Morton that their prisoner "is increasingly so violent - threatening them & his fellow prisoners - that he had to be put under restraint - & that his habits were very filthy - & his insomnia".

John Newton MD noted similar observations - "his violent language, his obscenity, his threats to commit murder if called nicknames, his headaches and vertigo and the wildness of his appearance and manner".

On 24 June 1873 Morton and Newton signed a medical certificate certifying George Faulkner "to be of unsound mind, and a proper object for reception into a Lunatic Asylum". He was transferred to Goulburn Gaol on 28 June and from there to Gladesville Hospital for the Insane.

George Faulkner died of pneumonia in Gladeville Hospital on Oct 14th 1875. The death certificate gave his age as 75 and stated that he was married and had two children, "further particulars unknown". He was buried in the hospital cemetery.

Selmes family from Brede, Sussex in NSW

There are still Selmes in Wheo, New South Wales, where Eliza Jane (aka Mary Ann) Selmes was born in 1860.

Wheo or Wheeo is a locality rather than a village, about 23 km west of Crookwell, off the Crookwell-Boorowa Road, in the Southern Highlands of NSW. It is high undulating country with snow in winter, old bluestone buildings and gravel roads lined with poplars. Pines form windbreaks across the hilltops.

Mary Ann's father's parents, James Selmes and Maria Cook, had arrived in NSW as assisted immigrants on the Lady Nugent in 1838. James Selmes was a farm labourer, aged 26, Maria was 24, and they had three young children - Alfred, James and Harriet. They were Protestants, from Brede, Sussex. According to the Frater family website, they settled at "Springfield", now a heritage-listed farm estate, near Goulburn. At some stage they settled on what was presumably their own farm, in Wheo.

On 27 July 1854, the Sydney Morning Herald reported a court case in which a man named Arthur White was "charged with stealing two horses, the property of James Selmes, a carrier, residing in Goulburn". It is not clear if this is James Selmes snr, or his son James who would have been 19. The item continues: "It appeared that the horses were stolen, on the night of 11th July, out of a paddock belonging to H. G. Marsh, at whose inn, on the Sydney road, Selmes put up on the night in question" (p. 2).

Mary Ann's parents, James Selmes jnr and Amelia Howarth married in Tumut in 1857. They seem to have lived with his parents in Wheo for a few years. Their first child, Henry George, was born in Gundagai, but Mary Ann was born in Wheo in 1860 and five of the next six children were born there as well. The last four (Elizabeth aka Lila, Edward, William Albert and Edith Phoebe) were born in Wallacetown (near Junee), Wagga Wagga, Junee and Wagga Wagga respectively.

On 23 January 1892 the Town and Country Journal reported the death of James Selmes snr.: "News is just to hand of the death of Mr. James Selmes, of Wheeo, who met with an accident on Saturday last through falling off a load of wheat. The deceased, who is 80 years of age, and who has resided here for 35 years, was much respected by all classes, and his death has caused general regret".  
 

Red Lion Inn in Brede, Sussex

The Red Lion is a fairly unprepossessing roadside country pub from the outside, but step through the door and you'll find huge oak beams, an open hearth, and cosy nooks. Dating back to the fifteenth century, the pub now boasts a restaurant with imaginative contemporary food.

While we were at the bar the chef wandered past, wondering if we were staying for dinner. The fish was fresh from Hastings that morning. We had bream with a sort of deconstructed paella - although not described in quite those terms - and another fish dish with potatoes dauphinoise and fresh peas in a veloute sauce.

There is a point to this. Instead of local councils having stupid sister city relationships with arbitrary places in China, Japan and elsewhere, whose only purpose seems to be to facilitate junkets for local councillors, why not have sister pub relationships for the people. We could start with Grazing Restaurant at the Royal Hotel in Gundaroo and the Red Lion Inn in Brede. The respective local councils could re-allocate their sister city budgets to fund it.

James Daniel Selmes from Brede, Sussex

Driving from Rye to Hastings a few weeks ago, I noticed a turn-off to Brede, the village in Sussex where Mary Ann (Eliza Jane) Faulkner's father, James Daniel Selmes, was born in 1835 or thereabouts. (All I know is that he was 22 when he married Amelia Howarth in Tumut on 23 June 1857, his father was a farmer and his mother's name was Maria Cook.)

Most of the old gravestones in Brede's Church of England graveyard (pictured) are illegible, but one can be made out. It is the grave of a Mary Ann Selmes, wife of another James Selmes, who died on 12 February 1875.

Although most of the Selmes in the world can apparently be traced back to Sussex, no-one in the Red Lion Inn knew anyone by that name.