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Winchester - the home of the Raymond Family. "Ralph Waller" - a diary of the voyage of the ship on which the Raymond Family went to Australia Thomas RAYMOND(3)
Thomas(3) was baptised at St Swithun-Upon-Kingsgate,Winchester on 9th July 1803 and he married Mary Ann Bowden at St Swithun-Upon-Kingsgate on 21st November 1830. At this stage he was a carpenter. Mary Ann gave birth to nine children altogether, all except two in Winchester. The first page in the family bible gives us the fascinating story of not only the dates of births and deaths in the family but, in many cases, the day of the week and hour of the day. It also gives us the sad story that four children were still-born, two of them in the same year only 9 months apart: another, William, born on 14th February 1837 died the same day, another, Frederick, born 4th April 1838, died within the year. Only three of the children survived to adulthood; their first born, Thomas(4), was born 13th September 1831. He is not on the shipping list of the "Ralph Waller" when the rest of the family went to Australia but he must have gone there at some time as he is listed on the Morman records as dying in Melbourne in 1858 aged 27. Perhaps he had gone there earlier at the time of the gold rush to make his fortune or to send back a report to his parents. Their eighth child, Mary Ann (my great-grandmother), was born 25th September 1839. I have no record of where she was born either in London or in Winchester. She died on 11th December 1865 in Melbourne, Australia aged twenty-six and their last child, George, born 29th October 1841 in London also died in Australia on 14th March 1876 aged 34. |
| The first page in the Raymond family 'bible' shows the family of Thomas(3) and Mary Ann Raymond(1), beginning with the marriage of Thomas Raymond(3) and Mary Ann(1) Bowden on the 31st November 1930 and ending with the birth of their grandson (my grandfather Edward Newman) who was born June 15th 1861. It is a sad list of many still births. All of the children predeceased their parents |
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As well as the death of my great-grandmother, Mary Ann(2)
Newman, the birth of her son, my grandfather, Edward is also
recorded. The deaths of Thomas(4) and George are recorded in the
bible but as no children for them are given I assumed that they
died without issue and that that was the end of the Raymond
family in Australia. I have now found that this was a completely
wrong assumption. Through the Internet, I have been contacted
by Maurice (Sonny) Raymond in Western Australia and Kenneth
Raymond in Victoria who are both descended from George, who, far
from dying childless, fathered 9 children, many of them
going on to produce large families of their own. Some of these
still live in Victoria, Australia and others are in
Western Australia. Descendants of George Raymond to Sonny
Raymond and his siblings in Western Australia are now on the
Raymond Family Tree. Much more investigation is needed into
this as there is also a possibility that Mary Ann's elder
brother, Thomas(4) also had a family.
None of the children of Thomas(3) and Mary Ann(1) Raymond survived their parents. What a tragic family. I know that Mary Ann(2) died of Tuberculosis and it is likely that her brothers did so too as the disease was very prevalent at this time. For some reason unknown to me Thomas Raymond(3) and Mary Ann left Winchester and moved to London where their youngest child, George, was born. Their eldest child, Thomas(4) had been baptised at St Swithun-Upon-Kingsgate but the two youngest children were baptised together when Mary Ann was nine years old and George was nearly seven at Holy Trinity Church, Paddington, London on 13th September 1848. In the census records and the shipping list Thomas(3)'s daughter Mary Ann(2) (my great-grandmother) is named as Marian and, to distinguish her from her mother, for the remainder of this account I will also call her Marian. In 1841 the Raymond family were living at 23 Portman Place in London and Marian's father, Thomas(3), described himself on the census as a "Gent. of independent means". All of this part of London was heavily bombed in the Second World War and has been completely re-built so it is impossible to identify any of their homes. By the census of 1851 the family had moved to 1 Bishop Street, Paddington and Thomas(3) is listed there as being "aged 48, House Agent, from Winchester, Hants". The house was also being used as an office for the business and Marian's elder brother, Thomas(4) (aged 20) was employed there as a clerk as well as living there. Another clerk, S.Butler, also lived there and Mary Ann(1) Marian and her father, Thomas(3). There was also a servant, Hank (?) Levens. Bishop Street is no longer there as such. There is a Bishop Bridge Road but how much of it is the original Bishop Street I do not know. Until recently (2008) I did not know why this family decided to emigrate to Australia in 1855 but thought that it may have been because there was a slump in England at that time and Thomas(3) may have found selling houses difficult. Maybe he thought that he would have a better chance in Australia. Another reason could have been that long sea voyages were supposed to be a cure for TB and it is very probable that Mary Ann(2) already had this disease. Through contact with another descendant of Thomas and Mary Ann Raymond (Michelle Richardson) in Australia I learnt that Thomas Raymond was bankrupt. She sent me copies of the announcement of this fact published in The Times on 18th December 1847 and the Gazetter on 25th May 1849. On 1st December there was an announcemnet in The Times saying that the partnership between Thomas Raymond and John Howcroft, auctioneers and estate agents No 1 Portland Terrace, London had been dissolved. So the reason for the family moving to Australia seems to be that Thomas Raymond was insolvant. On 2nd January 1855 the family embarked on the "Ralph Waller" in Liverpool (why Liverpool when they lived in London?) for Melbourne, Australia and arrived three months later on 11th April 1855. "Ralph Waller" had three different classes of passenger; Cabin passengers, Intermediate and Steerage. There is no certainty in what class the Raymonds were as on the shipping list there is no distinction that I can see. On arrival in Melbourne however the Cabin passengers are mentioned in a newspaper account and the Raymonds are not amongst those so they must have been either Intermediate or Steerage passengers. As Thomas(3) had recorded himself in the 1851 census and on the birth certificate of his son, George as "a gentleman" I feel that he was very class conscious. I cannot imagine him travelling steerage with the `hoi polloi' so I guess the family must have travelled as Intermediate passengers which would have given them a cabin for themselves. However I guess we will never know this for sure. A J.Butters was also on the "Ralph Waller" and he kept a diary which I have been able to obtain from the Mitchell Library, The State Library, Sydney. Although he does not mention the Raymond family it is a very interesting account of the voyage. It seems to have been a very well run ship, with very little illness and no deaths. This is in big contrast to some other diaries of voyages which I have read where captains seem to have been very inefficient, sailors drunk and unruly and sickness and deaths reported very regularly. The "Ralph Waller" struck an iceberg in the Southern Ocean and only a miracle saved all on board from drowning. There was an interesting account written in the Melbourne newspaper "The Argus" after the arrival of the "Ralph Waller" of the near disaster and the praise all the passengers gave to the master of the ship, Captain Lewis, on the way he handled a very difficult and dangerous situation. The Raymond family, consisting of Thomas(3), Mary Ann and their children Mary Ann(2) - listed as Marian (aged˙(15) and George (aged 13) landed after their ordeal to face a new life in a new country completely strange to them. |
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Amongst the records at the State Library of Victoria there is the Electoral Roll of 1856 on which a Thomas Raymond(3) is listed as a householder at 119 Little Collins Street, Melbourne. This may be our Thomas(3). They would have been in Melbourne for one year at this time. In the Trade Directory of 1859 there is a Thos. Raymond, builder at Kerr Street, Fitzroy and in 1869 Thos. Raymond, builder, 17 Hanover Street, Fitzroy. This latter is certainly "our" Thomas Raymond(3) as we find later that his daughter, Mary Ann(2)'s son, Edward, my grandfather, was born at this address. Kerr Street is not very far away so both these entries could be for Thomas Raymond(3). In 1869 there is only the brief entry of Thos. Raymond, builder, Fitzroy, which again could have been "our" Thomas. Mary Ann(2) had married Edward Ford Newman in 1860 and had a son, Edward, in 1861. Another thing that happened in 1860 was that Thomas was discharged from his bankruptcy. I have copies of a document sent to me by Michelle Richarson stating this and also I received from a researcher in Melbourne the following information. From the insolvency index:
What trivial amounts these seem to us today. |
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In 1865, when Edward Newman was only four years old his mothe, Mary Ann Newman, née Raymond, died of Tuberculosis. I expect it was impossible for Edward Ford, the widower of Mary Ann Newman, to look after his little son so the child's grandparents, Thomas(3) and Mary Ann Raymond(1), took over the task. So, they who had lost so many of their own children, had a grandson to look after, Edward, my grandfather. Judging from what I have been told by my grandfather, Thomas(3) and Mary Ann(1), never got over their homesickness for England. They always compared Australia unfavourably with England and extolled the beauties of England so much that my grandfather grew to hate the sound of it. He grew up a true Australian with a great love of the Australian bush. Mary Ann Raymond(1) died, aged 80, on 3rd May 1880 when Edward was aged 18. Thomas Raymond(3) died in the Benevolent Asylum, Hotham, a home run by the Benevolent Society (when Edward was 23), on 29th August 1885, aged 85 (his death certificate gives his age as 82). On the certificate the reason for death is given as "Inanitis" which I am told means starvation. He had been admitted to the Benevolent Asylum nine days previous to his death on the advice of a doctor as he had suffered a very bad double rupture. (In the information I received from the State Library of Victoria about this they wrote "A double rapture and old age".)!! This possibly prevented him from eating and perhaps explains the death by Inanitis, or maybe he had just neglected himself after his wife died. I find this very, very sad. Here was Thomas(3), a man who in London in 1841 was described as a gentleman of independent means, who in 1851 lived in a big house in Bishop Street, Paddington, employing two clerks and a servant and who later in Melbourne seems to have been a prosperous builder ending in a benevolent home and dying of starvation with apparently no one to mourn him. The information about him on his death certificate is very incomplete. His occupation is given as a carpenter. It is stated that he is "believed to be a widower"! and in the column for particulars about children is the word "not known". Where were his grandchildre, Edward, my grandfather and the children of George. Why were they not there to give information and care to their grandfather? There is some feeling that there had been a bad rift in the family and this does seem a distinct possibility. |
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