Henry and Bertha

Above: Henry Bishop and the girl he fell in love with ( and perhaps snatched from under his Uncle's nose!), Bertha Hughan.These photos were taken in the early 1860s, prior to the pair getting married in 1865.

Tyntyndyer Station, Swan Hill

The above photo was taken at Tyntyndyer Station in early February 1862 by travelling photographers Burnell and Cole who were voyaging down the Murray River, taking photographs as they went.The people in the photo are not identified, although the Beveridge family owned Tyntyndyer and one or more brothers may be in the scene.The photographers also took a photograph at McCallum's 'Youngera Station' in front of Wirlong Homestead, and on the day the scene was captured Peter Beveridge from Tyntyndyer and his friend and guest Henry Bishop were visiting and feature in the photo. I think that Henry Bishop may also have managed to get himself into the Tyntyndyer photo as well..the mounted man on the extreme left looks very much like Henry, even though his face is not very clear. He has the same manner of bearing as Henry Bishop ( and the same hat!)

Joseph brings his nephew Henry to Melbourne.

Joseph Bishop was left bereft without his wife. He was 53 years old and childless, with a successful ironmongery business and no-one to leave it to when he died.A solution appeared to the latter the following year, when Joseph's brother William Bishop passed away in England, leaving an 18 year old son called Henry.
Henry had been schooled at Banbury School in Oxfordshire, and at the time of his father's death was a young man with his life before him.His only sibling, a brother named Charles William, had died in 1854 at the age of 8 years, and his mother Eliza Gilbert Bishop would have been torn when the letter from her brother-in-law arrived from Australia, suggesting that her only remaining child go and live with him in Melbourne to learn the ironmonger trade and become his heir.
There are two contenders for the ship on which Henry Bishop sailed to Australia- the 'British Trident' which arrived in early April of 1860, and the 'Orwell' which landed in Melbourne in May of 1861.
No age was given for the Henry Bishop who sailed on the 'British Trident', which left Liverpool on January 10, 1860.The Argus listed "The Revs. Messrs McGirr and O'Sea, Messrs H. Bishop and W.H Birds, and 113 in the steerage and intermediate. Francis Boyce Captain."
There are doubts about this ship due to a time discrepancy...William Bishop, Joseph's brother, died on September 2, 1859. Allowing for a letter with this news taking almost three months to reach Melbourne( c. early December 1859), and Joseph's reply and offer to take Henry into his home and business taking the same amount of time to get back to England (March 1860), the 'Trident' had already sailed in January.
There is one explanation for this...William's death certificate stated that he died of "chronic disease of the stomach" of 18 months duration. William was a Master Plumber and Glazier, both of which involved using lead. Lead poisoning, causing chronic stomach disease amongst other terrible symptoms, was a common killer of people working in these trades. If William had known his disease was incurable and he didn't have a great deal of time left, he may very well have let his brother in Australia know earlier, and Joseph's plan for Henry may have made its way to Lincolnshire prior to William's death.
The other possibility for Henry Bishop's method of arrival was the ship 'Orwell', which arrived in Melbourne in early May of 1861. On board was a passenger named Henry Bishop whose age was given as eighteen- our Henry was twenty years old at this time, but that is not a real issue as ages given on shipping records are notoriously 'dodgy'! What does give pause for thought, though, is the fact that this Henry Bishop was not named amongst the handful of Cabin Passengers as published in the Argus, and therefore must have been one of the 22 passengers accommodated in intermediate and steerage.One would think that a nephew of the wealthy Joseph Bishop would have been sent the fare to ensure his occupancy of a cabin room, if in fact his own mother did not have the money to buy his passage as a cabin passenger.
The earliest mention of Henry in Australia is in a letter written by Jospeh Bishop to Mrs Jessie Hughan McCallum of Youngera Station in Swan Hill. Dated December 19, 1861,the letters says in part:
" Pray accept my warmest best thanks for the hearty manner your kind invitation is given for Henry and myself to visit you- I am not so certain about my trip to England-therefore am doubtful whether I do "leave my boy" should I be fortunate enough to get off. I shall feel quite happy and comfortable as to the care and watchfulness that you, my dear Mrs McCallum and Bertha and Allan will bestow upon him- bless the dear boy. How sincerely I hope he will be pleased with the change."

In another letter dated August 6th, 1862, 8 o'clock p.m, and written on paper marked with the address '37 Elizabeth Street', Joseph starts a letter to Henry with:
" My dear Harry, Here I am truly a bachelor all alone. I don't very well yet shake into the life and fancied I should like it better than I do."
This was written almost four years after Mary Ann Bishop's death- it seems as though he was still very much missing her.
Henry remained in Melbourne with Joseph for several months after his arrival, and was then sent to the huge Murray station near Swan Hill called 'Tyntyndyer'. Owned by the Beveridge Brothers who were friends of Joseph's,it was supposed to expose the young Englishman to the extremes of Australian farming and see if he was suited for the calling. Henry found himself more suited to courting the young woman next door, Bertha Hughan, and Joseph found himself writing to Bertha and gently but firmly warning her off keeping Henry away from the business at hand, which was learning sheep production.
He wrote "I have ten thousand thanks and kisses in store for you for the kindness and attention you bestow on my dear Harry. Bye the bye you have kisses in store for me when I come to 'Wirlong'(the name of the McCallum's homestead on their property'Youngera' where Bertha lived with her sister Jessie McCallum)- shouldn't I like to have a peep at you. I notice how nicely you describe the amusements of Harry and yourself, viz cribbage,ride, walk, fish etc. this is all very well and right- he should indulge in such pastime occasionally, but please young lady to bear in mind that I want and beg you will encourage all you possibly can his soon obtaining a thorough knowledge of sheep and their management- he has his living to get, his way to make in the world, beside which I may want him to be of use or render some service to this "old buffer" who is sometimes seized with the notion that he will require some such aid in his old days."
This letter was written on May 20, 1862, when Joseph was 57 years old and Bertha Hughan was 23, and other parts of the letter were so blatantly flirty that I wonder whether Joseph had Bertha firmly in his sights as the next Mrs Joseph Bishop. The letter started off:
" My dear Bertha,
Oh how CRUEL and UNKIND of you to say you hate me. What is to become of me if I lose your kind, affectionate, pretty approving smile. How can I be happy if Bertha frowns? I know I have been negligent, indeed I am an unmitigated scamp to allow your two kind letters of 12th July and 26th March to remain so long unanswered, but never did I think however great my fault that with my dear kind Bertha it would be an unpardonable one. Neither is it. Come let me beg you will write me one of your nice interesting notes, and say you forgive me- there you will- then I shall be happy."
It goes on..
" So you want me to send you my portrait do you? Well you just can't have it-tisn't to be had. You never saw such an old villainous looking prize fighting sort of chap in your life. Harry will tell you. What do you think of his? I presume he has one with him to show you."
He finishes off with " I do hope you will write me particulars of the passing events of Wirlong-waiting which I am my dear Bertha, Yours ever truly, Joseph Bishop."

Any plans that Joseph may have had concerning a relationship with Bertha Hughan would have crumbled with a letter he received from his nephew Henry just a few months later. In the letter- which I have never seen but which is referred to in the letter that Joseph wrote to Henry in response- Henry informed his uncle of his engagement to Bertha. I would love to know whether Joseph viewed the news as a shock out of the blue, or whether he had sensed what was coming as the two young people spent so much unsupervised time together in the Australian bush.
Henry had turned 21 years old in January of 1862, and despite Bertha always claiming that she was the same age as Henry, she had actually been born in January 1839 and so was two years older than him.

Mary Ann's Grave

Mary Ann Bishop was buried in the Melbourne Cemetery. Joseph had erected an imposing headstone consisting of a tall obelisk and the following inscription:

"In
memory of
Mary Ann
the beloved wife of
Joseph BISHOP
who died 2 Dec 1858
age 42 yrs."
In later years two more burials were interred with Mary Ann and the following inscription added:
"also
Berth BISHOP
died 26 Jun 1898
Guy Arnold BISHOP
died 16 Sep 1924."

Bertha was the wife of Henry Bishop, Joseph's nephew. Guy Arnold Bishop of one of their two sons. I'm sure that Joseph himself had every intention of being buried with his first wife in the impressive Bishop grave, but unfortunately he died interstate in Wagga Wagga, and was buried in a grave-probably unmarked-in Wagga Cemetery.
Joseph had a big sepia photograph taken of Mary Ann's grave in the Melbourne Cemetery. I have it somewhere, and when I remember where I've stored it (it being far too big to fit in a conventional album)I will include it in this entry.

Cemetery records re. burial of Mary Ann Bishop

Death of Mary Ann Bishop

Above: the death certificate of Mary Ann Bishop, Joseph Bishop's first wife.

During the middle of 1858, Mary Ann Bishop fell ill, and started being treated by Dr. Robertson. She was diagnosed as having ovarian dropsy, the main symptom of which was a large accumulation of fluid in the abdominal area produced by one or more cysts on the ovary. These cysts can transform into tumours of a huge size, producing very large amounts of fluid which most doctors chose to drain at regular intervals.
Poor Mary Ann declined rapidly- six months after she was diagnosed with ovarian disease she died.She was 46 years old, and had been in the Colony of Victoria for almost five years.
As can be seen from the death certificate above, Mary Ann's death was registered by her husband's business partner, Edward Keep.Despite Edward and Joseph not getting on several years later, Edward held Mary Ann in great esteem. I have a book given to Mary Ann by Edward with a complimentary inscription inside...I will try to find it and scan the inscription for this blog.

Joseph and Mary Ann-from Whittlesey to Melbourne.

Above: Two portraits of Mary Ann Measures who married Joseph Bishop in 1853.

Joseph Bishop lived with his first cousin, Mary Ann Measures, for some years prior to him deciding to take his business to Australia. She was the daughter of his maternal aunt, Eleanor Barnes Measures, and resided with her bachelor cousin in the capacity of a housekeeper.
The 1851 census also shows a 27 year old man named George Aveling living with Joseph Bishop. He had been apprenticed to Joseph between 1839 and 1844 as an ironmonger's apprentice,(Information as provided by George Aveling's great-grandson, Jack Aveling of Australia) and also decided to immigrate to Melbourne when his employer declared his intention to relocate to another country.
In 1853, Joseph, Mary Ann and George all booked passage on board the ship " South Carolina". The ship was scheduled to leave Liverpool on October 5, 1853, and on October 1 Joseph and Mary Ann were married in London. The family legend always stated that Joseph and Mary Ann were cousins who had married to satisfy convention, and that their marriage was a very happy one.
They were married at Saint Dunstan In The West, London, on October 1, 1853. Joseph at the time of the marriage had been residing in Fleet Street, London, and Mary Ann at Saint John's, Hampstead. Their fathers were stated as being Joseph Bishop, deceased, and Thomas Measures, Inn Keeper.

The two photographs above are very interesting in that they appear to be of the same portrait, with one being 'doctored' to appear much younger. The actual photograph of Mary Ann shows her as she appeared at the time of her marriage in 1853, aged about 41 years.The other portrait appears to have been painted over the second in an attempt to portray Mary Ann as she would have looked when she was younger.This portrait is in a small case with :Central Photographic Rooms, Messrs Cotton & Ware, 90 Cannon Street West, City".
Some investigation into this business gives the following information:
"Cotton, John Anderson.
Born in Deptford 1831.
Christened July 11 1831 in Deptford.
STUDIOS: 1. 90 Cannon Street West, City of London 2 floor 1854 - October 1856. Aka Central Photographic Rooms. Succeeded by Cotton & Wall. Inaugural member of committee of South London Photographic Society 1859.
Times adverts in mid - 1860s claimed established 1853." Source: photolondon.org.uk

This dating puts Mary Ann as one of Cotton's early customers.She is wearing a wedding ring, so the photo can be accurately dated between October 1, 1853, when she married Joseph, and October 5 when they sailed for Australia.
The 'South Carolina' arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday, January 4, 1854.The Argus newspaper reported that she had accomplished her passage from Liverpool in 97 days, having been detained 16 days by calms, 3 degrees north of the line."Her run from the longitude of the Cape was made in 23 days."
Joseph went into partnership with Edward Keep to form the business 'Bishop and Keep', an Ironmongers' firm based in Melbourne.The 1856 Electoral Roll reveals that Joseph Bishop, ironmonger, and his faithful employee George Smith Aveling were residing at Beach Road, Brighton.

Joseph's marriage to Mary Ann Measures, 1853.

Joseph Bishop in the 1851 census

Children of Joseph Bishop & Sarah Barnes. 1. Joseph Bishop

Joseph Bishop was the first child born to Joseph Bishop and his wife Sarah Barnes. He was born in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, in 1805.
Joseph remains a conundrum to me...his life story is a fascinating one of highs and lows, and certain events which occurred in his life require opinions to be made as to his character and moral fibre.I have the "facts" before me as presented to a court of law in one of these situations, but still find it impossible to make a decision as to what sort of a man Joseph Bishop was. That he was a proud, well-educated man is beyond doubt. He was also ambitious and took risks and chances in his financial life that generally succeeded but which let him down at the very end.He found love and happiness in his first brief marriage, and must have regretted his second marriage right up until his last breath on earth.
I have no details about the schooling and education of Joseph Bishop and his brothers, but Joseph in particular was a very well educated man. I have evidence of letters written by him, and his turn of phrase was certainly one of a man who had been well-schooled.
There is an entry in a 1839 Cambridgeshire Directory for "Joseph Bishop, Market Place, Whittlesey, Ironmonger, Tallow Chandler and Grocer". There is also a separate entry for J. Bishop, Market Place,agent to York and London Insurance.
I haven't been able to locate Joseph Bishop in the U.K 1841 census, but in the 1851 Census he has established himself as a Master Ironmonger at Market Place, Whittlesey.

Sarah Bishop in census returns 1851, 1861 & 1871

Sarah Barnes Bishop-life after the death of her husband Joseph.

Above:Another photo of Sarah Barnes Bishop taken by Elizabeth Higgins of Maiden lane, Stamford, c. 1860-61.

After the death of her husband Joseph in 1845, Sarah remained in Whittlesey for some years.When the 1851 census was taken six years later Sarah Bishop was still living on her own at Whittlesey.

By the 1861 census, however, she had joined her daughter-in-law Eliza Bishop in St. Pauls Street, Stamford, living in the same street but not the same house. A date of between 1851 and 1855 has been set for Sarah’s move from Whittlesey to Stamford. She was the sole executrix and beneficiary of her son Henry Bishop’s will, and when the will was proved on April 14, 1855, Sarah’s address was given as Stamford.
In 1861,Sarah Bishop was 78 years old, and her occupation was "Lady". With her was 17 year old servant Frances Broughton.
The 1871 census found her living by herself at 42 St. Paul's Street, Stamford, aged 87. Her occupation was "Living on annuity from husband".
Sarah Barnes Bishop died in early 1872, aged 87. I have applied for her death certificate, and will post it online when it arrives.

Photograph of Sarah Barnes Bishop, taken c. 1860

Above: My great-great-great-great grandmother, Sarah Barnes Bishop. This photo was taken by Stamford photographer Mrs Elizabeth Higgins. Elizabeth was the daughter of James and Hannah Goond. She was born in Saint Michael, Stamford, Lincolnshire, in 1828.On January 8, 1854, at Brentford, Middlesex, 23 year old Elizabeth married Henry Augustus Higgins, a 28 year old Chemist's assistant.
The 1861 Census for St. Michael, Stamford, found Henry and Elizabeth living with Hannah Goond, Elizabeth's widowed mother, who was earning a living as an inn keeper. Henry was still a Chemist's assistant, but Elizabeth's occupation was stated as being "Photographic Artist". Each census return for the next twenty years showed Elizabeth's occupation as 'Artist' or 'Photographer, until 1891 when it was given as 'Living On Her Own means'. The 1871 census showed that Elizabeth Higgins had taken on her 22 year old niece Annie B Hopgood as an assistant, and by 1881 Annie had been joined in this position by her younger sister Mary Hopgood.
Henry Augustus Higgins died in 1890 and despite Elizabeth no longer stating her occupation as 'photographer' in the 1891 census, her two Hopgood nieces who were still living with her were both listed as photographers.
All of the photographs that my great-great grandfather Henry Bishop carried with him to Australia from Stamford were taken by Elizabeth Higgins in the very early 1860s.

Joseph & Sarah Bishop in the 1841 Census.

Joseph Bishop and Sarah Barnes

My branch of the Bishop family originated from the town of Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, in the early 1800s. My g-g-g-g grandfather was Joseph Bishop, and his wife Sarah Barnes also came from a Cambridgeshire family.

I am yet to conduct much research into 18th century Bishops and Barnes families from Cambridgeshire- the records for Whittlesey don't seem to be available online on the good old LDS site, and the wonderful Cambridgeshire Family History Group site does not cover pre-1800.
There were several other Bishop families having children in Whittlesey in the first two decades of the 19th century alongside those born to Joseph and Sarah Bishop, and most probably these families were related. Until research is conducted using 18th century records,however, we can only speculate.

I know nothing of Joseph Bishop's parents or siblings, and all I know of his wife Sarah Barnes is that she had at least one sibling, a sister named Eleanor Barnes. Eleanor was born c. 1787, and married Thomas Measures on August 19, 1811, at Market Deeping in Lincolnshire.Eleanor and Thomas had at least one child, a daughter named Mary Ann, who was christened at Market Deeping, Lincolnshire, on May 13, 1812 (the IGI coverage of Market Deeping baptismal records stop in 1812)Mary Ann grew up to marry her first cousin Joseph Bishop, the eldest son of her mother's sister Sarah Barnes Bishop.
Thomas Measures was an inn keeper at Market Deeping. He was born in c. 1791, and five months after his wife Eleanor Barnes died in 1824, he remarried a woman named Eliza Godfrey and continued his profession as publican up until the time of his death in c. 1860.( Thomas Measures married Eliza Godfrey at Market Deeping on September 2, 1824) A Lincolnshire Directory of 1852 has an entry for "Thomas Measures, publican, Bartle Arms, High Street, Market Deeping."
Eleanor Barnes Measures died aged only 37 in 1824. She was buried at St. Guthlac, Market Deeping, on April 5, 1824.

Sarah Barnes, Eleanor's sister, was born in Whittlesey,Cambridgeshire, in c. 1783-85.She was married to fellow townsman Joseph Bishop in c. 1804, and the couple had at least six sons and one daughter between 1805 and 1817.Joseph Bishop's occupation has been given on various certificates as 'farmer' and 'auctioneer'. The 1841 census for Whittlesey has Joseph Bishop,65 years, auctioneer, and his 65 year old wife Sarah living at Low Cross, Whittlesey.Also living with them was 20 year old Sarah Green, a female servant.

The first of Joseph Bishop's six sons was born in Whittlesey in 1805, and named Joseph after his father. He was followed the next year by a daughter, Sarah, who died in infancy in 1806. Thomas Bishop was born in 1807; William in 1809; John in 1810; Henry in 1813 and Charles in 1817.

While not being overly wealthy, the Bishop family were affluent enough to be able to have three portraits done of three of the Bishop sons prior to photography becoming commonplace. I have these three portraits on my wall, and estimate that they originated in the late 1820s-1830s.One is much more crudely done than the others and the subject of this portrait is unknown , beyond being one of the Bishop brothers. The other two are positively identified as William and Charles Bishop, and I will reproduce them in the blog sections corresponding to each of the Bishop children.
Joseph Bishop the Elder died in early 1845 in Whittlesey. His wife Sarah remained in Whittlesey until about 1855, when she moved to Stamford, Lincolnshire, to be closer to her son William and his young family.

UPDATE AS OF OCTOBER 21, 2009: Yesterday there arrived in the mail two c.ds from the Cambridge Family History Society, containing the parish records from the churches of St. Mary and St. Andrew, Whittlesey and dating from the 1600s. These fantastic resources allowed me to take the Bishop family back another generation or two and fill in some siblings along the way.

My great-great-great-great grandfather Joseph Bishop was baptised on May 31, 1773, at St. Mary's, Whittlesey. He was the son of Joseph Bishop and his wife Eliza or Elizabeth Bishop. Other children born to Joseph and Eliza were Elizabeth baptised October 27, 1774; Sarah Bishop baptised November 25, 1776; and John Bishop baptised June 29, 1779 and buried August 25 of the same year.

There are two possible scenarios for the wife of Joseph Bishop the Elder. Parish records show that on October 7, 1761, at St. Marys Church Whittlesey, Joseph Bishop married widow Eliza Ground.There are no children baptised belonging to this couple at Whittlesey.

On May 28, 1772, Elizabeth Bishop, the wife of Joseph Bishop, was buried at St. Mary's, Whittlesey. Less than five months later,on October 2, 1772, Joseph Bishop married widow Elizabeth Cooley at St. Mary's. In late May of the following year, son Joseph Bishop was born.
Looking for details of widow Elizabeth Cooley, I found Eliza Earle married Samuel Cooley at St. Mary's, Whittlesey, on April 21, 1767.On the same day they also had a child, Richard Cooley, baptised. In 1769, the following burials took place in St. Mary's Churchyard...May 2, 1769: Richard Cooley, son of Samuel; May 24: John Cooley, son of Samuel; and August 21: Samuel Cooley.

My Bishop Family Connection

My connection with the Bishop family comes through my great grandmother, Olive Jessie Bishop, the eldest of four daughters born to English-born Henry Bishop and his wife Bertha Hughan.
The photo above is of Henry Bishop, my great-great grandfather, taken in the 1860s after his arrival in Victoria in 1860 per the ship 'Orwell'. The two death certificates above the photo are those of Henry's paternal grandparents, Joseph Bishop and his wife Sarah Barnes Bishop.
In a situation similar to that with my Hughan family, I am very fortunate to have been handed down to me a wonderful old photo album from the 1860s that Henry Bishop bought with him from England. I will be featuring all of these beautiful old photos in this blog, which include not only members of the Bishop family, but also neighbours who lived in the same street as Henry and his family in Stamford, Lincolnshire.
I will begin with Henry Bishop's grandparents, Joseph Bishop and Sarah Barnes, both from the township of Whittlesey in Cambridge, and follow the line through their son William, his son Henry and Henry's daughter Olive Jessie who was born in Australia.