[repeated from Bridget’s page]
In 1840, we believe a child, Isabella, was born, although she does not appear to have been registered. On 17 December 1842 another daughter was born to Samuel and Bridget. They were living at Black Forest, which is just south of Evandale, in Tasmania. This baby was registered as Ann Hockey.
Next time the Hockey family pops up is in shipping records for 1847, where Sam, with wife and ONE child, are on the Will Watch, bound for Portland Bay. On the same boat is James Hockey, wife and 3 children.
So… only one child for Sam and Bridget, which must be Isabella. What happened to Ann? Did she die as a baby or as a child?
Now another little bit of family history that I have heard from Laurel Merritt is that Sam and Bridget came overland from SYDNEY, and buried a child at the foot of the Blue Mountains. So it is unknown as yet whether Sam and Bridget went on from Portland to Sydney and then back to Melbourne at some stage, losing another child on the way..
Some time in the next few years, Sam and Bridget parted company. Of course there are no divorce papers!
The Ballarat Times, Saturday 28 October 1854, List of Unclaimed Letters lying at the Ballarat Post Office for the month of September, corrected up to 25 Oct, includes the name of Samuel Hockey. So someone was trying to contact him on the goldfields shortly before the Eureka uprising on 4 Dec 1854. Perhaps his parents and/or sister to alert him of their immigration?
According to the Geelong rate books Samuel Hockey had a brickyard in Gertrude Street from1854-56.
In August 1854 Samuel was reunited in Geelong with his elderly parents and his widowed sister Charlotte and her four daughters who all immigrated to Australia on the Star of the East. Daniel and Ann Hockey, both aged 76 yrs, had not seen their son Samuel since he left Somerset 24 years earlier. Charlotte would have been ten years old when she last saw her brother.
In 1855 his only daughter Isabella married William Walter Guy in Geelong (Reg # 3055)
Samuel was a storekeeper in Virginia Street in 1858-60. after that he moved to Rokewood where he was a brickmaker.
In 1871 Sam married Eliza Hill (nee Banks Reg #3055 – so was he not legally married to Bridget?). Eliza was the widow of John Hill, and they had five children.
In 1872 Sam was Publican of the British Hotel at Rokewood, a fine old red brick building on the north west corner of the Cressy intersection. (Refs http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article150401185). While it was supposedly pulled down for second hand bricks in the 1980s, a cottage which was said to be the old British Hotel, Rokewood, was sold. However this latter building was made of sandstone, so perhaps they were used at different times as the hotel.
In 1881 James Hockey was named as the publican, however he never lived in this area, so it is believed that this is actually still Sam’s renewal. On Sam’s death in 1886, the hotel was sold as part of his estate.
SATURDAY, 21st MAY. For really positive sale by public auction. By order of the executors in the estate of the late Samuel Hockey, late of Rokewood (deceased). W. P. CARR has been instructed by the Executors in the above estate to sell by auction in his office, Great Ryrie street, Geelong, at 12 o’clock— The British Hotel and premises at Rokewood, with 3 acres 3 roods and 4 perches of land, being allot 59, Corindhap. Also, all that block of land known as Lyons’ paddock, at Rokewood, and containing about 7 acres. For particulars of title, etc., apply to J. L. Price, Esq., solicitor, Yarra-street. [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article150398316]
This WordPress site developed and maintained by Sue Thomson Contact: sue.thomson@gmail.com
Thomson Family History 