Mid North Coast Pioneers - Newcastle to Lismore and beyond

MURDOCH FAMILY HISTORY

George and Agnes Anne Murdoch were Married in Glasgow on 22nd August, 1845

George was born in Glasgow on 12th July 1824. His parents were John Murdoch, a weaver, and Elizabeth Yule/Yuille. (1)

Agnes Anne Murdoch's parents were James Hogg and Christina Campbell. Agnes Ann was born in Aberdeen on 23rd August 1823. (2)

George and Agnes Ann Murdoch arrived in Sydney aboard the "Castle Eden" on 9th October 1848. They had an infant son John. George gave his occupation as agricultural labourer and Agnes Ann was a housemaid from Aberdeen. George Murdoch's father was living in Sydney in 1848 and so were his brother John and sister Martha. Agnes's mother lived in Glasgow. George could read and write and Agnes Ann could read.

My mother Dorothy Hellowell nee Murdoch was told by her grandfather that his parents George and Agnes Ann Murdoch first settled in the Hunter Valley but decided the land was not good so they came on to the Manning by bullock dray, settling at Cundle Plains. It is possible that they went to the Hunter also because George's sister Martha was living there. I believe she married a Robert Cameron in Maitland. Hector Murdoch told the story that his grandfather George liked scotch whisky and walked along the river bank to the hotel in Cundletown every day. Perhaps in their latter years George and Agnes Ann moved to a house in Cundletown. Agnes Blyton related to me that a cow was brought up to her Grandma's at Cundletown each day to be milked. Agnes B. said her Grandma was very Scottish. Agnes remembered a large grape vine at the front of the house.

George and Agnes had a total of 10 children, two girls and two boys pre deceased them. They had: John listed as an infant in Oct 1848 George b 23 Feb 1850 Annie Kirkwood b 1851 d. 1884 David b 1854 Elizabeth Martha b 1856 m Andrew Gilbert Isabella b 1857 m Rutherford Christina b 1859 m Oliver Robert b 1863 (when Agnes was 40) One male and one female no names given, possibly still born or died as children.

George Murdoch born 23 Feb 1850 at Red Bank (Pampoolah), Manning River (information gained from son Hector's birth certificate). He married Ellen Black who was born at Hinton on the Hunter River on 15 July 1854. They married in the house of John Black (Ellen's father), Cundle Plains, Manning River on 8 July 1874. They bought 85 acres of land on Oxley Island and called the homestead Fairview. The house had a mud floor and slab walls, and Ellen kept a gun behind the door. The natives used to peer through the cracks in the walls and Ellen gave them bread to make them go away. George worked on the roads to help pay the land tax while Ellen milked the cows. She made her own butter and had a butter pat with a thistle on it. George bought the land from Robert Cox.

Issue: (1) John b 22 July 1875 m 18 Oct 1899 to Emily Cause who had: Maurice m. Doreen Daphne m. Crawford Ray m May 1939 to Bertha Brown

(2) Catherine b 23August 1876 m 22 Dec 1903 to William James Donkin who had Murdoch b 30 Nov 1904 m May Hewitt Helen Margaret (Nell) b April 1906 m Joe Simmons d. 2006 Daisy Catherine b 4 Oct 1910 m Stan Lewis

Dorothy Josephine (Topsy) b 23 Nov 1915

(3) Ann b 4 Dec 1877 m 6 June 1900 to Will Cameron who had: Heather b 18 April 1902 m Gordon Weekes Lorna b m William Hudson Ross b 20 August 1910 m Elva Cohen George b 26 August 1906 m Polly Zucker

(4) Ellen (Nellie) b 17 Dec 1878 m 6 Sept 1904 to Charles Edward Starr who had: Lalla Myrtle b 21 July 1905 Helen (Nell) b 11 May 1909 m 4 May 1930 to Cecil Tout Edie b 5 Dec 1915 m Geoffrey Wallace Gummer Percy Clyde ( Tony) b 19 Feb 1919

(5) May b 7 May 1880 m. Frederick Edward ( Ted ) Pengilly who had: William John Arthur (Jack) b 28 Sept 1911 m Marjorie d 18 Nov 1978 Almina Agnes b. 28 May 1910 m 1. John Whitton 23 Dec 1939 2. Les Cox 27 Jan 1961 Almina d 16 oct 1976

Ron b. 26 Sept 1917 m Marian d. 29 Jan 1980

(6) George b 9 Sept 1881 m Harriet Mudford who had: Ernie b. m.1 Rita McLaughlin m. 2. Olive Reed Edna b. 27 April 1912 m Arthur Keppie d. Oct 2006 Laura m Allan Connors Essie m Henry O'Shea ( mother of Margaret Love) Dulcie m Reg Edwards

(7) Josephine b 4 Sept 1883 Never married d. 13 Jan 1955

(8) Sophia b 16 March 1885 m. 4 Oct 1910 to George Henry Manion who had: Ina Keith Clifford b. 28 May 1918 d. 20 Dec 1980

(9) Hector b 13 July 1886 (Born on his mother's 32nd birthday) m 29 March 1911 to Edith Somerville who had: Dorothy Lilian b 14 January 1917 ( mother of Margaret De Giorgio)

George Robert b 16 March 1921 ( father of Wendy and Bruce) d. 28 Dec 2006 Hector Kendall b 27 November 1923 ( father of Pamela, Kenneth, Cherie and Geoffrey) d. 28 Jan 1996

(10) Agnes b 28 May 1888 m 1. Ted Sloane, who died 20 June 1918 France buried at Fran Villiers (not sure of spelling) 2. Robert Blyton b 25 Nov 1886 d. 1 Nov 1972 Agnes and Bob had one son Neville Blyton, who lives in Melbourne and worked for H.C. Sleigh (Golden Fleece Petroleum). Agnes died 16 August 1984 aged 96. I visited Aunt Agnes many times and she did not want to speak of her first husband, it was obviously still very painful. She assisted me in identifying family photographs.

(11) Rebecca Ivy b 21 Sept 1889 m. Don Woods who had: Lilian b 5 Jan 1923 Flora b. Percy ( Chipper) b. 1927 Donald b.

(12) Alice b 2 Dec 1890 m. Ray Shepherd Alice died 13 July 1923 ( on my grandfather Hector's birthday, Alice's baby Betty was only 4 weeks old when her mother died).

(13) Clifford Peers b 7 Dec 1892 m. Myrtle Horneman 17 August 1938. Cliff's cousin Mona Tilson was married to Clarrie Horneman, brother of Myrtle.

A Murdoch ancestor Admiral Peers fought at the battle of Trafalgar with Nelson according to Harriet Mudford ( Mrs George Murdoch). I have never checked this story, however it also seems possible that Clifford's mother Ellen may have given him the name after her maternal grandmother, Mary Young Pierce who was born in 1816 in County Clare.

George's brother John was born in Glasgow on 5th November 1819. He married Helen Anderson Turnbull on 26th December 1836, at Duke Street Church, Glasgow. John and Helen Murdoch arrived in Sydney ten years earlier than brother George, aboard the "Portland" in December 1838, with their infant son John, born in Glasgow on 19th February 1838. (3) Death certificate John Murdoch, (son of John Murdoch and Elizabeth Yuille) died 1868, aged 48, confirms his parents names. He drowned at Tombong, near Delegate and is buried in Delegate NSW. John and Helen had settled at Tombong and had a family of 11 children.

I found a birth record in 1977 at New Register House, Edinburgh......... Glasgow July 1824 James Murdoch weaver and Margaret Rupell a law son George born 7th July witness Thomas Aitken and Allan wright

The birth date is almost the same as for George son of John Murdoch and Elizabeth Yuille(Yule). I have not found out if the two are related.

1. The shipping record State Archives is where I got the record of George's parents names, and also on his death certificate.

2. Agnes Anne's parents names confirmed on the shipping record and also on her death certificate.

3. source: Jim Turnbull and Mina Caldwell (1983) Brooklyn, Ando, NSW (25 miles from Bombala). Mina's grandparents were John Murdoch and Helen Anderson Turnbull.