A descendant's narrative family history of the Barber, Wyer, Avery and Davis families of colonial New South Wales, archived by the Wayback Machine from users.skynet.be/lancaster (the live site is gone). Compiled, so quality 1 by default — but unusually careful for its class: it quotes the Old Bailey sessions papers, Newgate prison calendars, certificate-of-freedom butts, English provincial newspapers and Australian musters at length and distinguishes what it has seen from what it has been told. Its transcriptions are used here as leads and as the only text for records that are paywalled or Chrome-only; where a primary record was reachable it is cited on its own.
Death: 1 March 1841 aged 49 (b. abt 1792) "Horse Doctor". Burial 3 March 1841. Parish St Saviour, County of Argyle.
Compiled page, reporting the burial register, which I have not seen. It fills a null: this tree had his death date but no place and no burial. The parish of St Saviour, County of Argyle is Goulburn, so the burial place is entered as Goulburn. The stated age 49 at 1 March 1841 gives a birth about 1792, which agrees with this record's ABT 1792 but not with the 1828 census, where he is 37 or 38.
Joseph's father was named John. He worked as a farrier in the Parramatta, South Creek, Windsor and Richmond area in the 1830s then moved to the Goulburn area where he died in 1841. A history of Goulburn lists him as the first vet or horse doctor in Goulburn.
Compiled page. The underlying evidence it names is the sequence of his children's baptism entries, which record the father's trade at each date: "Henry Barber. Born 25/1/1837. Baptised at St Saviour Argyle, whereupon the father was said to be a Cookbundoon Farrier"; "John Barber. Born 1/9/1838 ... the father was said to be a Goulburn Horse Farrier"; "Mary Ann Barber ... Baptised at St Saviour Argyle, whereupon the father was said to be a Goulburn Horse Doctor". The claim to be the first veterinarian in Goulburn is attributed to an unnamed local history and is not evidenced here.
William Barber. Born 22/3/1823. Died 26/4/1826. By this time John was assigned to I Mills of Liverpool.
Compiled page, quoted from its list of John and Jane's children; I have not seen the register. The same author's WikiTree profile for the mother gives "William Barber. Birth 29 Mar 1823. Baptism 18 May 1823" at Liverpool St Luke, citing Ancestry's Sydney Anglican Parish Registers record 61177/231529 — a week apart from the date here, and not reconcilable without the register itself. The 1824 Liverpool population book independently lists a William "born 1822 in the colony", "Son of John and Jane Barber", and the 1825 general muster lists him with his mother as "William (2.5)".
Lucy (Louisa) Barber. Born in Paramatta 20/5/1825 (St. Luke's Liverpool). She later married John Bryan in Goulburn 23 December 1842. Died 17/12/1902. Note: the 1825 records show that by now John was able to be assigned to his own wife, who was free, but was still not free himself.
Compiled page. The 1825 general muster independently lists "Joseph (4)" and "William (2.5)" with Jane but not this child, who would have been born within weeks of it. She is the best-evidenced of the eight for the parent link: her own 1902 death registration is reported to give her mother's maiden name as "Jane Dwyer", and her mother's consent to her 1842 marriage at Goulburn is what identifies Jane Wyer with the Jane Taylor who remarried that year. Both statements are second-hand here; the certificate has not been seen.
Andrew Barber. Born 29/2/1828, baptised 15/6/1828 at St John's Paramatta. Note that John Barber the father is now a farrier, and had received a certificate of freedom 21/4/1868, between the birth and baptism. I have received information that he married Phoebe Rose in 1849 and/or Margaret Cook 26 Dec 1877 at Matchams Land, Gosford.
Compiled page, quoted as it stands including the obvious slip "21/4/1868" for 1828 — the certificate of freedom is in the Sydney Gazette of 23 April 1828, which is exactly the window the sentence describes, and that notice is cited on the father. The 1828 census independently lists an "Andrew (8m)" in the household, consistent with a February 1828 birth. His marriages are hearsay on this page and are not proposed.
Mary Ann Barber. Born/baptised 17 or 11? October 1840. Baptised at St Saviour Argyle, whereupon the father was said to be a Goulburn Horse Doctor. Died 1845.
Compiled page. The compiler's own hedge "17 or 11?" is preserved in the quotation and is why the date is entered as the month only. The same page confirms her position in the family elsewhere: "She had 7 more children with John, the last being Mary Ann b. 17.10.1840, who died in 1845."
Charles Avery . Born 19 Jul 1830, Windsor. Baptized 19 Sep 1830. St Johns Parramatta. Married Ruth Kemp in Grafton in 1852, and also Louisa Philp, 29 Oct 1874 in Grafton. He died 14 Dec 1911 Lower Ulmarra, and was buried 15 Dec 1911 Ulmarra NSW. He had an amazing 14 and 15 children respectively from each wife.
Compiled page, the whole entry, and the ONLY evidence for this child — quality 1, deliberately. A complete NSW BDM birth index sweep on AVERY with father JOHN and mother CHARLOTTE, 1829-1856, returns twelve rows covering eight of his siblings and none for him, which is a checked negative with its own positive control. That is odd rather than fatal: his birth falls eight weeks after his parents' marriage of 24 May 1830 (registered 4892/1830), and a baptism at St John's Parramatta in September 1830 ought to be in the same register CB or CA that holds the family's other entries. His two marriages and twenty-nine children are leads only; no spouse or child is created.
He died 14 Dec 1911 Lower Ulmarra, and was buried 15 Dec 1911 Ulmarra NSW.
Compiled page. Lower Ulmarra is not a separate place row in this tree, so Ulmarra is used. The Australian Cemeteries Index has no Avery inscription at Ulmarra (checked this session: the cemetery is indexed, the surname returns nothing there). A death in 1911 IS within the NSW civil register, so a death search on AVERY Charles 1911 with parents JOHN and CHARLOTTE would confirm both the death and the parentage in one row — the cheapest fix for the weakest child in this proposal.
Mary Ann Avery . Born 6 Mar 1832 in Sydney and baptised 7 July 1833 St Philips Sydney. She married John Henry McMahon, 26 Jun 1848 at Sydney, Holy Trinity. She died 28 May 1878 Harrington Place, Sydney, and was buried the next day in the Sydney Necropolis. She had four children.
Compiled page, for the day, the churches and the marriage. The long gap between birth and baptism, and her sister's baptism at the same church six months later, is what makes the pair of register entries for Charlotte Emma (165/1833 and 155/1834) legible as a birth and a baptism rather than two children.
Died 10 Jul 1886 and was buried the next day in West Kempsey Cemetery.
Compiled page. Searched for and NOT found in the Australian Cemeteries Index: no Avery inscription at either Kempsey cemetery matches an 1886 death (control: the index does hold his parents at 8187554/8187555 and his brother Richard William at 8187505). Either the stone is gone or it was never transcribed. An 1886 death IS within the NSW civil register and would name both parents.
Robert Henry Avery. Born 28 Jul 1839 Sydney and baptised 8 Sep 1839 St Phillips Sydney. Married Rosetta Helps 20 Sep 1864 St Johns Stroud NSW. Was buried 29 Apr 1893 West Kempsey Cemetery, after having died the day before.
Compiled page, for the day and the marriage. His marriage to Rosetta Helps is independently visible in the Australian Cemeteries Index through their son: "John (Jack) Avery | 28 Aug 1933 | 67 | Kempsey West | father Robert | mother Rosetta (Helps)".
Was buried 29 Apr 1893 West Kempsey Cemetery, after having died the day before.
Compiled page. Not in the Australian Cemeteries Index under Avery at Kempsey (same control as for his brother John). Within the civil register, so a death search would name his parents.
William Avery. Born 14 Oct 1841 Clarence River NSW. Married Margaretta Gill, 3 Sep 1863 Stroud NSW. Was buried 17 Nov 1910, Tuncurry NSW, after having died the day before.
Compiled page, the whole entry, and the only evidence for this child — quality 1. The complete NSW BDM birth sweep on these parents returns no row for him. That absence has a plausible cause rather than being a doubt about the child: the two children born on the Clarence River, this one in 1841 and Eliza Florence in 1843, are precisely the two missing from the index, and the Clarence in the early 1840s was newly opened country with no settled parish keeping returns. Their sister Sarah, born back in Sydney in 1845, IS indexed. The move to the Clarence is also the compiler's explanation for why Charlotte Emma's husband Joseph Barber later took his own family north to the Macleay.
Was buried 17 Nov 1910, Tuncurry NSW, after having died the day before.
Compiled page. The Australian Cemeteries Index has no Avery at Tuncurry (checked this session). No place id is set because Tuncurry is not a row in this tree. A 1910 death is in the civil register and would name his parents — the cheapest way to secure this child, whose birth the index cannot.
Compiled page. The year and the age only, from which the ABT 1820 birth is derived and nothing else. Joseph remarried on 30 June 1853, which is consistent with a widowing in 1852 but does not prove it. The NSW death index has not been searched for her.
Eliza Florence Avery. Born 4 Dec 1843 Clarence River NSW, and baptised 17 Mar 1844 Grafton C.E. Married John Clarke 14 Nov 1864 Myall River NSW. Died 17 Feb 1919 in Drummoyne NSW, and was buried soon after in Rookwood Cemetery NSW.
Compiled page, the whole entry, and the only evidence for this child — quality 1, deliberately. The complete NSW BDM birth sweep on father JOHN and mother CHARLOTTE, 1829-1856, returns no row for her, and none for her brother William born on the same river in 1841, while every sibling born at Sydney, Parramatta, Windsor or Goulburn IS there. Two missing children, both Clarence River births in the early 1840s, is a coverage gap in a frontier district rather than a doubt about the family. Her marriage in 1864 and death in 1919 are both inside the civil register, where a row would name her parents outright.
Died 17 Feb 1919 in Drummoyne NSW, and was buried soon after in Rookwood Cemetery NSW.
Compiled page. She would be indexed as Clarke; the NSW death index has not been searched for her, and a 1919 row would name both her parents — the single best fix for the only child in this proposal still standing on a family history alone. Her sister Matilda Ann's 1872 row shows what such a search returns: "JOHN A | CHARLOTTE".
Sarah Avery. Born 26 Nov 1845 Sydney, and baptised 14 Mar 1846 St Andrews Sydney. Married George Bramble 18 Apr 1864, St John's Port Stephen's NSW. Died 5 Apr 1928, Gloucester NSW.
Compiled page, for the day, the church and the marriage. Note the movement it implies: Clarence River 1843, Sydney 1845, Clarence River again by 1847 — consistent with a sawyer following work, which is the trade her father is given in her mother's death registration.
Compiled page. No place id is set because Gloucester, New South Wales is not a row in this tree — and there is a real trap in setting one carelessly, since Gloucester is also an English county town. She would be indexed as Bramble.
George Henry Avery. Born 23 Nov 1847 and baptised 6 Jan 1848, Clarence R Grafton. Married twice: Rachel Cook, 24 Sep 1873, Kempsey, and Ellen Baker 13 Dec 1898 Kempsey. Was buried 18 Sep 1928 in West Kempsey Cemetery, after having died two days earlier.
Compiled page, for the day, the baptism and the marriages. His first marriage to a Cook at Kempsey in 1873 is worth flagging: his sister Charlotte Emma's eldest son Andrew Bartley Barber married a Margaret Cook at Kempsey in 1901, so the two families intermarried twice a generation apart.
Matilda Ann Avery. Born 23 Mar 1850, Swan Creek Grafton, and baptised 2 Jun 1850 in Grafton Church of England. Married James Robinson in 1871, and died 1872 in Sydney.
Compiled page, for the day, the locality and the marriage. She married and died within about a year, which usually means childbirth; her sister Charlotte Emma named a daughter Matilda in 1863, before this.
Richard Avery. Born 22 Oct 1852 Sussex St Sydney and baptised 5 Dec 1852 St Phillips Sydney. Married Sophia Dorrington in Euroka 22 August 1875, and then Elizabeth Baker, 9 July 1892. Was buried 7 Jun 1908, W.Kempsey Church of England, after dieing the day before.
Compiled page, for the day, the street and the baptism. His first wife Sophia Dorrington is independently in the Australian Cemeteries Index as "Sophia Avery (Durrington) | 20 Jan 1884 | Kempsey East | father William | mother Mary Ann | spouse Richard", and his second wife Elizabeth Baker as "Elizabeth Mary Avery (Baker) | 5 Jul 1935 | 76? | Kempsey West | father James | mother Ellen (Mansbridge) | spouse Richard William".
William Avery. Born 14 Oct 1841 Clarence River NSW. Married Margaretta Gill, 3 Sep 1863 Stroud NSW. Was buried 17 Nov 1910, Tuncurry NSW, after having died the day before.
Compiled page. The DAY, 3 September, and the place, Stroud, come only from here; the registration supplies the year, the parties and the district. Stroud sits within the Port Stephens registration district, so the two agree.
Charlotte's parents were John Abel Avery and Charlotte Emma Davis, both convicts, who married by permission on 24 May 1830 at St Johns Church Parramatta. The permission is dated 19 May.
The exact day and the church come only from here. The YEAR is corroborated independently by both spouses' Australian Cemeteries Index inscription pages, which each carry "BDM Marriage Reg /1830" — a registration in 1830 whose number the transcriber did not record. The NSW BDM marriage index has not been searched for this couple (Chrome only); that search is listed in my report.
Joseph's first marriage was to Agnes Kelly of Tarlow 3/2/1845 at St Saviours Goulburn. They were both said to be living in Tarlow. She died 1852 age 32. I am not aware of any children from this marriage.
Compiled page, for the day, the church and the couple's residence. Independently supported by what is already on Joseph's record: the Sydney Morning Herald of 5 October 1842 describes him as "living near Tarlow Gap, within seven miles of Goulburn", and this entry has him marrying a woman of Tarlow at Goulburn three years later.
At the Isle of Ely assizes last week, John Bentick, for stealing six lambs, the property of Mr T. Cave, of Witchford: and John Barber, for stealing a bay mare, the property of Mr R.Burgess, of Wainfleet: - were both capitally convicted, and received sentence of death, but were afterwards reprieved.
A compiled page's transcription of the Cambridge Chronicle and Journal of 25 February 1814, p. 3, which I have not seen: the British Newspaper Archive is paywalled and the paper is not on Trove. It is the fullest account of the conviction that already sits on this record through the England & Wales Criminal Registers row ("John Barber | Feb. 1814 | Cambridgeshire, England | Death"). The same page places the theft: the Stamford Mercury of 24 December 1813 advertises a bay mare stolen from a pasture at Wainfleet All Saints, Lincolnshire, on the night of 16 December, ten guineas' reward offered by Mr Robert Burgess; the Norfolk Chronicle of 15 January 1814 reports the offender committed to Ely gaol on 30 December by Robert Hardwick Esq. of Wisbech. The same page says he had been a stable hand and "was born about 1792 in Suffolk", but says explicitly that no record naming his parents is known and hedges the orphan tradition — so no birthplace is proposed here.
Jane Wyer or Wire is very hard to trace. She came to Australia free but as the child of a female convict who had a different surname (indeed, this female convict used two different ones), to be discussed below, and as a free child in shipping and census records she appears namelessly. What's more, when she is recorded, people frequently got her name wrong, writing Dwyer, Myer or Ware.
Evidence for the aka name rows added in this proposal. The spellings are not competing guesses at one true name but what the colonial clerks actually wrote, so each is recorded as its own row rather than being lost in prose. Wyer is the spelling in the 1821 marriage register and stays the primary name.
Cert. of Freedom - Notes: No.: 29/657 Date: 30th June 1829. Ship : Asia (2); Master : Reid; Year : 1822; Native Place : High Wickham, Buckinghamshire; Trade or Calling : Chimney Sweep; Offence : ---------; Place of Trial : Middlesex Goal Delivery; Date of Trial : 12 Sept 1821; Sentence : Seven Years; Year of Birth : 1802; 5 feet 5 inches; Complexion : Swarthy; Hair : Dark Brown; Eyes : Hazel.
Transcription, on a compiled family-history page, of the certificate-of-freedom butt. Quality 1 because I have not seen the butt: the register is Ancestry's NSW Certificates of Freedom and needs a browser. The same page transcribes the Old Bailey sessions paper for the trial ("JOHN AVERY was indicted for stealing, on the 4th August, one silver spoon, value 3s., the goods of Thomas Welch Hunt ... GUILTY. Aged 20. Transported for Seven Years") and the Newgate prison calendar entry of 12 September 1821. Note the internal conflict: a 1802 year of birth here, but "AGED 79 9/12 YEARS" on his monument, which would put it about April 1800. Neither the ship nor the native place has been confirmed against a record I have read.
Charlotte had already passed away 3 August 1874, aged 65, she was buried the next day in West Kempsey. John her widower was named as a sawyer in the death registration. Her birthplace is marked as London, and she had been 48 years in the colony.
Compiled page, reporting her NSW death registration, which I have not seen. Two facts here are worth chasing: a London birthplace and 48 years in the colony at 1874, i.e. an arrival about 1826 — consistent with the same page's transcript of her Old Bailey trial on 26 October 1826 ("CHARLOTTE DAVIS was indicted for stealing, on the 22nd of October, at St John at Hackney ... the property of Henry Pelling, her master ... GUILTY - DEATH. Aged 17"), a capital conviction that would have been commuted to transportation. Nothing here is asserted on the record; it is recorded so the trail is not lost.