Benjamin Cheeseman and Jane Bass
(last updated 20 July 2009)
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Family
Life in Australia
Annie was still an infant when the family emigrated to Australia as
assisted passengers on the sailing ship Calliope.
This embarked from Southampton on 3 February 1853 and arrived at Port Phillip
in the colony of Victoria on 18 May 1853.[1]
Accompanying Benjamin and Jane and their family on the voyage out was
Jane’s illegitimate son Thomas, then aged 5 years, who was said then and
on his subsequent marriage and death certificates to be the couple's son.
Also on board was Jane’s 20 year-old sister, Emily Bass.[2]
On the year of their arrival, the home block was said to contain ‘a good house, kitchen and sleeping rooms, a 12-stalled stable, a store with sleeping rooms attached, a woolshed and stockyards’. Prior to the discovery of gold at nearby McIvor Creek in October 1852, the non-aboriginal population of the area was estimated to be around 400. There may have been as many as 20,000 in the area at the time of Benjamin and Jane’s arrival including, according to a visitor to the McIvor diggings, ‘the very worst class of humanity. Horse stealing, theft, and robbery with violence were of daily occurrence and, if their victims resisted in an effort to protect their property, there were cases where [the] robbers did not scruple to murder’. [4] At the end of their contract, the family left Heathcote and moved to Maryborough and then to Ararat where, like thousands of others, they hoped to make their fortune from gold mining. Some time between 1854 and 1866, Benjamin died where the versions of what actually happened to him differ slightly. Some in the family thought that he died of thirst on the 'Old Man's Plains' while trying to walk to the Orange goldfields. Others thought he was found wandering in a state of delirium on the 'Emu Plains' and was taken to the Ararat mental asylum where he died soon after admission. Whatever the truth of the matter, there is no official record of Benjamin's death or of his burial - his final whereabouts remains a mystery.
After Benjamin's death, it is thought that Jane (pictured on the
left) went to work as a governess and seamstress at the Bet Bet station located
near Maryborough. It was here that she met and was said to have married a
William Henry Robinson (there is no record of their marriage). Robinson
subsequently died in the Ararat Lunatic Asylum of a 'disease of the brain' on
20 May 1869. He was aged 50 years. William and Jane had no children. While at
Bet Bet, Jane (now known as Clara Jane) heard of the death by accident of her
third son Herbert William who died on 18 September 1862 after falling from a
horse while working as a farm servant on a property at Bung Bong near Avoca
(see below). After Robinson’s death in 1869, Clara Jane went to Carngham
where she lived with her sons Thomas and Alfred and their families until her
death at Madden’s Flat on 26 November 1888. Her death certificate, which
was informed by her eldest son Thomas, stated that she was a labourer’s
widow, had died from cancer of the uterus, and had been 36 years in the colony.
Benjamin and Jane’s Family
Benjamin and Jane's Family Tree
Herbert William Cheeseman
(1851-1862)
Herbert, who seemed to be known as Alfred when he was in Victoria (this has caused some confusion among the family; Teen believes, for example, that Alfred and Herbert were twins) was born in Hythe in Kent on 5 January 1851. He emigrated to Australia on the Calliope in May 1853 with his parents, Benjamin and Jane, brothers Thomas and Alfred and baby sister Frances. Herbert died on 18 September 1862 after falling from a horse while working as a farm servant on a property at Bung Bong near Avoca. As reported in the Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser on the 22 September 1862, the accident was the subject of an official inquest:
An inquest was held before Dr Laidman on Friday, at Bung Bong, on the body of a boy named Alfred Cheeseman, who met his death by a fall from a horse on the previous Wednesday. Deceased was a dairy boy to Mr Moody of Bung Bong, and left home on horseback to get back a bullock, but having been away until sundown, Mrs moody (who gave evidence) went to look for him, and found him lying under a small tree in the paddock not a quarter of a mile from the house. He said he had fallen off the horse and been hurt. The horse - a v ery quiet animal - had got itself to the paddock by itself. Mrs Moody carried the boy in and laid him on the sofa where he died. Dr South who had made the necessary post mortem examination, proved that the liver was extensively ruptured, which might have been the result of concussion and probably was so. Haemorrhage from the liver was the cause of death. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the evidence’
Herbert was buried in the Protestant section of the Avoca cemetery on 20 September 1962. His death certificate, which was informed by Charles T. Robards, a neighbour at Bong Bong, states that his father was 'Benjamin Cheeseman gardener', and his mother 'Jane Robertson [sic] (married before to B. Cheeseman)'. This could suggest that Benjamin was alive and working in the area and so had separated from Jane.
Thomas George Cheeseman
(1846-1908)
Thomas
was born Thomas George Bass in Hythe in Kent on 4 May 1846 and baptised at St
Leonard’s church on 5 August the same year. His mother was Jane Bass and
his father was a labourer named George Hayward. The 1851 census shows him
living in Hythe with his grandparents Thomas and Frances (Harriet) Bass and his
uncle Robert Bass, a fisherman. Thomas emigrated to Australia with Benjamin and
Jane Cheeseman and their family in 1853. On 26 September 1867, he married Ann
Eliza Cobold (1848-72), daughter of George Cobold and Sarah Yates, after banns at the local Church of England at Smythsdale in
Victoria. He was a labourer and bachelor aged 21 years, she was a 20 year-old
spinster. The wedding certificate states that Thomas’ parents were
Benjamin Cheeseman, a labourer, and ‘Jane Robinson (by second
husband)’ whose maiden name was Bass. It also shows that both Thomas and
Eliza then lived at the adjoining township of Carngham, the service was
witnessed by Alfred John Cheeseman and Ellen Cobold, and that all parties
signed their names.
Following Ann’s death in Carngham in January 1872,
Thomas married a widow and seamstress, Sarah Ann Shaw (1848-1922), at the Holy Trinity
Church at Carngham on 6 August 1873. Sarah, born Sarah Ann Stokes, came from
Little Storton in Bedfordshire in England. Her parents were William and Frances
Stokes (nee Bonnett) and she had four children by her previous marriage (one of whom, Margaret Shaw aged 12 years, died of diptheria in 1879). The
wedding was witnessed by Thomas’ sister, Frances Mary Lucas, and John
Stokes. The certificate of marriage shows that Thomas was living in Carngham
and working as a miner and that his parents were Benjamin Langford Cheeseman, a
‘deceased labourer’, and ‘Jane Robinson, late Cheeseman
(Bass)’. The couple lived at Snake Valley and Preston Hill at Carngham after their marriage and had seven children: Thomas Langford Cheeseman (1874-1935), Frances Jane Cheeseman (1877-1966), George Alfred Cheeseman (1880-1964), Charles Cheeseman (1883-1949), Margaret Shaw Cheeseman (1885-1968), Ellen Eliza Cheeseman (1887-1968) and James Robert Cheeseman (1890-1977).[5]
Thomas died on 8 August 1908 and was buried at Carngham. His widow Sarah then
went to live at Smythsdale where she died on 4 January 1922. She is buried next
to Thomas at the Carngham cemetery. What of their children? Thomas Langford Cheeseman, sometime publican of the United States Hotel at Snake Valley, enlisted in the First AIF and embarked from Melbourne on the RMS ORONTES on 16 August 1916. He served in the 39th Battalion and returned to Australia on 30 April 1919. Thomas had married Annie Mansfield (1864-1949) at Carngham in 1899 and had one child we are aware of, Thomas George Cheeseman (1900-1909), who accidently drowned in a water hole known as the Blue Dam at Snake Valley. As the Riponshire Advocate reported on 13 November 1909:
A sad drowning fatality occurred at Snake Valley on Saturday; two boys who were returning from a shooting excursion, being the victims. Thomas cheeseman nine years of age and son of the licensee of the United States Hotel, and William Suttie eight years of age left their homes early in the morning and as they did not return in the evening some relatives and friends formed a search party. At about midnight the boys clothing was found on the bank of a water hole known as the blue dam, and in about four feet of water Thomas Charles Suttie stepped on the body of his brother. He lifted it to the surface and then fainted. He also was in danger of drowning but was rescued in time. CheesemanÕs body was then brought up. The bodies were removed to the respective homes where most pathetic scenes were witnessed. The interrment took place on Monday at the Carngham cemetery. There was a large gathering of sympathisers. A verdict of accidental drowning was returned.
Frances Jane Cheeseman married George Robert Wright (1878-1944), eldest son of Joseph Robert Wright and Julia Sophia Nice, at Carngham in 1904. They had two children: Eva Lillian Wright (1906-80) who married George Malcom Iverson Carr and Robert Gordon Wright (1908-74) who married Lorna Winifred Lester.
George Alfred Cheeseman, who worked as a carpenter, married Jessie May White (1878-1967) at Snake Valley in 1906 and had three children we are aware of: Stanley James Cheeseman (1907-80) who married Janet Ferguson, Ivy May Cheeseman (1908-84) who married Alan Bell and Muriel Rose Cheeseman (1910-24).
Charles Cheeseman, a labourer, married Emily (Emma) Beatrice Gardiner (1885-1950), daughter of John Morris Gardiner and Grace Adelaide Mark, at Carngham in 1902. They had eight children all born at Carngham: Grace Adelaide Cheeseman (1902-04), Annie Irene Cheeseman who married Gilbert Ringin, Emma Beatrice Cheeseman (1908) who married David Slater, Edith Joyce Cheeseman (1912) who married William Mark, Charles Thomas Cheeseman (1914-75), William Cheeseman (1919) who married Una Quilliam), Alfred John Cheeseman who married Daphne Daniels, and Donald Philip Cheeseman (1925).
Margaret Shaw Cheeseman married Thomas Formby and had two children, Elsie Maud and John Raymond Formby.
Ellen Eliza Cheeseman (1887-1968) married Thomas Suttie (1883-1963), son of Robert Suttie and Elizabeth Swinton, and had three children: John Ernest Suttie (1908-53), Thelma Ann Suttie (1917) who married Sydney Howlett, and Thomas David Suttie (1921-76).
James Robert Cheeseman married Gertrude May Gardiner (1894-1970) in 1914 and had six children: Clarice, Phyllis, Gladys, Allan, Edward and Lorna Cheeseman.
Frances Mary Hannah Cheeseman
(1852-1919)
Frances
Mary Cheeseman (or Annie as she was know) was born in St Leonard, Hythe in the
county of Kent on 13 December 1852. In May 1853, she emigrated with her family
to Port Phillip in Victoria on the Calliope. Annie married a Nathaniel Lucas at the Church
of England, Carngham on 5 December 1870. She was a domestic servant aged 17 and
he was a bachelor and wood splitter aged 25. The marriage was witnessed by
Frances’ brother Thomas Cheeseman and a Hannah Jane Lucas. Frances’
mother, Jane Robertson [sic], had provided written permission for her daughter
to marry. Nathaniel Lucas was born in Everton in Tasmania in 1845 and moved to
Victoria with his family when he was nine years old. His parents were James
Lucas, a wheelwright, and Elizabeth Sides. James was the son of two First Fleet
convicts: Nathanial Lucas (born at Kingston in Surrey in England in 1764) and
Olivia Gascoyne (Severn Stoke, Worcester, England, 1763) who married on Norfolk
Island in 1791 and moved to Liverpool where the elder Nathaniel died in 1818.
Details of Nathaniel and AnnieÕs family are given on the Lee family history website, and Ross GammonÕs ÔGammonÕ site on Rootsweb (dated 11 April 2006).
Nathaniel and Annie Lucas had seven children: Annie Elizabeth Lucas
(1872-1953) who married her cousin, John Samuel Lucas in Shepparton in 1896 and had five children: Percy William, John Andrew, Esther Emily Mary, Reginald Roy Nathaniel and Amy Doris Lucas.
Nathaniel Henry Lucas (1876-1937) who married Louisa Jane Britton (1877-1929), the daughter of Robert Britton and Eliza Victoria Sivyer, at Mooroopna in 1897 and had ten children: Frances Jane, Ivy May, Sarah Emily, Nathaniel Robert John, Gladys Marjorie, Annie Olive, Thomas Henry, Linda, Nellie Harcourt and Millie Hazel Lucas. Details of Nathaniel and LouisaÕs family can be seen on Bernadette DowlingÕs Rootsweb site ÔKenny/DowlingÕ (last updated 30 April 2006).
Elizabeth Jane Lucas (1878-1947) who married Gilbert Ernest Dean (1875-1961) in 1903 and had eight children: Irene Dowling, Robert, Florence Edith, William Ernest, Herbert Nathaniel Richard, Jack Ronald Oliver, Maud Frances Emily and Gilbert James Aneas Dean.
Frances
Amy Lucas(1881-1964) who married Walter Paisley (1874-1949) and had six children.
Mary Ann Olive Lucas (1883-1910) who had two boys, Alfred Henry and Nathaniel Harold Lucas.
James Herbert Lucas (1885-1950) who married Kathleen O'Connor (1886-1972) in 1906 and had four children: Margaret Mary Frances, James William Nathaniel, Harold and Kathleen Lucas.
Thomas Charles Alfred (1889-1897).
Frances died in her home in 60 Vaughan
Street Shepparton on 20 December 1919 of bronchial pneumonia and was buried at
the Shepparton cemetery two days later. The following brief obituary was
published in the Shepparton Advertiser on 22
December 1919: ‘Mrs Frances Mary Lucas (wife of Mr Nathaniel Lucas) of
Vaughan Street died on Saturday, aged 67, the cause of death being
broncho-pneumonia. The deceased, who was born in Kent England, was held in
great esteem by a large circle of friends. She leaves a family of three sons
and four daughters. The funeral took place this afternoon at the Shepparton
cemetery’. Nathaniel Lucas died at his home in Vaughan St Shepparton on
18 July 1932 aged 87 years.
Alfred John Cheeseman
(1849-1922)
Alfred was born John Alfred Cheeseman at Lympne in Kent on 9 Mar 1849 (his mother Jane signed the birth certificate with a cross). He emigrated to Australia with his family in 1853 and eventually settled at Carngham where he had a range of jobs including agricultural labourer, miner, and wood cutter and splitter. Indeed it is more than likely that he would have worked for James Telling, Charles Nunn or one of the other fencing contractors who, during the mid- to late-1860s, put up hundreds of miles of post-and-rail fences around the runs at Carngham, Lang Willi, St Enoch’s and Eurambeen. Carngham (a derivation of the aboriginal word ‘Kurnam’) was named as a site for a new township in March 1852 but remained as a virtual adjunct to Philip Russell's Carngham sheep station until after gold was discovered near the town. According to Hugh Anderson (1985:64-5), there were 459 Europeans in and around Carngham in 1857 including 109 children and 23 ‘scholars’. ‘Of the male adults, one third were alluvial miners (99), and there were three squatters and twenty-seven farmers employing respectively ten and twenty-nine labourers between them. Other occupations listed are those of shopkeeper (12), butcher (7), carrier (6), and wood-splitter and fencer (5).
Alfred was the best man at his brother Thomas’ first marriage to Annie Eliza Cobold in Carngham in September 1867. Thomas and his wife Annie were, in turn, witnesses to Alfred’s marriage to Jane Elizabeth Wright in the Church of England at Carngham on 16 May 1870. Jane was born in the village of Broughton in Huntingdonshire in England in 1827. Her father was John Saunders Wright who married his cousin Sarah Bodger at Grafham in Huntingdonshire on 28 February 1848. John and Sarah and their daughter Jane Elizabeth emigrated to Australia in 1852 where John was contracted to work on Philip Russell’s sheep station at Carngham. John and his family lived initially at Mount Cole, which was then covered with virgin forests of Messmate, Blue Gum, Manna Gum, Stringy Bark and Yellow Box, but moved to Carngham in 1865 after John bought a block of land there. According to Hugh Anderson’s history of the Ripon Shire, John Wright worked for Philip Russell for all of his life, initially as a carrier and then as the Carngham station overseer (a position later occupied by his eldest son Joseph Robert Wright). He died on 25 November 1888 of sanguineous apoplexy and was buried in the Carngham cemetery.[6]
After their marriage, Alfred
John and Jane Elizabeth (pictured on the left) initially lived in Carngham where their first two
children, Herbert Benjamin (1871-1938) and Sarah Jane Cheeseman (1872-1948),
were born. During this time many squatters and other large land holders in New
South Wales were in the process of fencing their land in order better to
control their grazing stocks. Between 1871 and 1879, the overall length of NSW
fences grew by a factor of 40 to around one and one quarter million kilometres.
Large fencing contracts and plenty of money was available for those willing to
work hard. Alfred John took up the challenge and, between 1874 and 1877, was in
charge of teams of men who were fencing off sections of the Riverina district
around Wagga Wagga. Jane and her young family went with him and throughout this
period were forced to live a harsh, isolated and nomadic life in which they
constantly shifted from one temporary
'fencers' hut' to the next.
According
to a brief account of her life, published in the Ripon Shire Advocate in 1911, Jane Elizabeth and her young family
encountered many great hardships. ‘She has told us how on one occasion
she was compelled to carry her sick child and walk a distance of 18 miles to
secure medical aid, and on another occasion she found they had
“entertained an angel unawares” in the shape of a murderer fleeing
from the police’. On another occasion, Jane, another woman and their
families were confronted by aboriginal bushrangers who demanded food and
supplies. They gave them what little they had and were warned that if they
informed on the escapees they would be punished. During this time, Alfred John
and Jane had three more children: Christina Flora May (who was born at north
Wagga Wagga in 1875 and died at Carngham from diptheria four years later), John Thomas (1876-1960)
and Annie Agnes (1878-1944). It is possible that Christina may have been named
after the wife of John Cheeseman, a farmer who was then living at north Wagga
Wagga and may have been Alfred’s uncle.
The family returned to Victoria in 1879 where they lived first at Carngham and then at Madden’s Flat near Morchup and Mount Emu. It was here that Alfred John’s mother, Jane Robinson, who had returned to Carngham after the death of her second husband, Henry Robinson, died on 26 November 1888. Around 1893, Alfred John bought a small property (called Forest Farm) at Eurambeen near Beaufort. As the farm wasn’t viable, Alfred had to supplement his earnings by working in the mines and cutting and selling firewood (sometimes he would go back to Mount Cole to burn wood for charcoal).[8] During this time, Alfred John and Jane had a further eight children: Alice Amy (1880-1917), Alfred William (1882-1949), William Charles (1883-1951), Ada May (1885-1921), Ellen Frances (1887-1926), Emily Grace (1889-?), Rosina Olive (1891-1969), and Ralph Edward (1895-1961).
By the turn of the century, the population of Beaufort was approaching 1000 and the town itself boasted in ‘the way of societies, an agricultural society, athletics club, racing club, branch of the ANA, lodges of the order of Oddfellows, Rechabites, Good Templars and L.O.L.; a Girls Friendly Society, Ladies Relief Society, Volunteer Fire Brigade and a drum and fife band’ (Ripon Shire Advocate, 18 June 1887). While life over this period was probably easier than in the early days, it was not without its dangers, fears and tribulations. In April 1898 Alfred and Jane’s son, John (who was 22 years old at the time), came down with typhoid fever. According to the doctor’s report, published in the Ripon Shire Advocate, this arose because the premises on which he lived were ‘insanitary owing to the fact that the bushes around [the home] served as closets for men around … Cheeseman was in the habit of drinking water from holes in the bush and the supply for the family was obtained from holes in the Ding Dong Gully’.
Alfred John and Jane Elizabeth Cheeseman and their family in Carngham in around 1897.
From left to right and top to bottom: Ada, William, Alfred, John, Herbert, Ellen, Alice, Alfred John,
Jane Elizabeth Sarah, Sarah's son Alfred Haggis, Annie, Emily, Ralph and Rosina.
One of Alfred and Jane’s sons, Alfred William, served in South
Africa at the end of the Boer War and two other sons, William Charles and Ralph
Edward (pictured on the right), left Beaufort in 1916 and 1915 respectively to serve in the
First World War.[9] On another
occasion, towards the end of his life and while visiting his son Alfred William’s
farm at Skipton, Alfred John’s own house at Forest Farm was robbed and
then burned down either as a result of lightning strikes or a bushfire which
had been purposely lit. According to Teen, all he managed to salvage from the
house were a framed picture of his mother, Clara Jane Robinson, a reading lamp
and a large plate. Offsetting these trials and disappointments were other, much
happier occasions. These included the ‘old pioneers’
night’, held at the Mechanics Institute at Beaufort on 17 December 1910,
at which Alfred and other original settlers, including J. B. Cochran, H. M.
Stuart and W. C. Pedder, reminisced about the early days and were toasted -
along with ‘The King’, ‘Kindred Societies’, and the
Branch President of the Australian Natives’
Association - for their contributions to the life of the district. Other happy
occasions were the marriages of the old couple’s children to the
offspring of other families and friends in the district. By the turn of the century three of their children had married, their eldest son Herbert Benjamin and eldest daughter, Sarah Jane, to brother and sister Elizabeth and Edward Haggis, and a younger daughter, Annie Agnes (pictured on the left), to a Melbourne jeweller, George James
Cowl. 
The 'Oallclose3' Family Tree on Ancestry.com (last modified on 11 July 2008) states that George was the youngest son of William Cowl (1831-1911) and Hannah Maria Dickenson (1833-1901). We understand that he and Annie went to live in Melbourne after their marriage and had three children there: Esther Christina Cowl (1900-69) who married Albert Houston (1895-1971) and had three children, Nancy, George and Evelyn; Linda May Cowl (1908) who married Clarence Clifton and had one child, Donald; and Nona Alice Cowl (1917) who married twice, first to Jack Marsden in 1937 and second to Joseph Daly. She had four children altogether: Robert Judith, Linda and Peter.
In the years leading up to the First World War seven more of Alfred and Jane's children married and left the family home. John Thomas married Ada Mary Morris, daughter of Thomas Morris and Ann Leslie, at Howel in Victoria in 1902. They had three children we are aware of: Clarence John Cheeseman (1903-79) who we think married Teresa Mary Wood; Alfreda Mary Cheeseman who died an infant and Leslie Morris Cheeseman (1910-75) who married Marian Campbell Johnston and had four children. John's younger sister Alice Amy married Richard Alfred Wills (1878-1942) on Christmas day in 1905. The couple lived on a farm at Goorambat near Benalla where Alice died in 1917 aged 36 years. They had three children: Isobel, Reginald and Joyce. In 1906, William Charles and Ada May married Jane ‘Jinnie’ Anderson and William Thomas Allan respectively. William and 'Jinnie' had three children and Ada and William two. Four years later Alfred William married Alice Maud Laurence at Narrandera and Emily Grace married Victor James Mills at Frankston on the outskirts of Melbourne.
His military record, available online at the Australian Archives, shows that Victor Mills, who died at Heidelberg in 1964, served as a private in the 7th Battalion during the First World War. He and Emily had two boys before Victor left for France - Victor jnr and John. Some in the family think that Emily may also have had a daughter, Sheila Grace Cheeseman, born after the war. Emily's niece, Christina ('Teen') Bainbridge nee Cheeseman tells us that Emily and her two boys lived with Emily's family at Beaufort during all the war years. 'When the war ended, they received a letter from Ralph [Emily's brother] saying the ship he was coming home on contained Victor Mills and that it was "a pity he was coming when so many better men would never come again". When that letter arrived', Teen continues, 'Emily took the boys to his mother's in Ballarat and left them there'. It seems she feared resuming her life with Victor and saw leaving him as her only way out of 'a bad marriage'. The real shame was that her decision also led her to be separated from, and ostracised by, her own loving family. 'Aunty Ada was the last of the family to see her, long after we went to the Mallee, Ada just shut the door on her, said she was with an Army officer and was well dressed'.
In 1913, Alfred and Jane’s youngest daughter, Rosina Olive married John Alexander George Tulloch, a sawmiller, at St Andrew's Anglican Church at Beaufort. Their wedding certificate shows that Rosina was a spinster living at Beaufort and John was a bachelor whose normal abode was Warburton in Gippsland. The marriage was witnessed by Rosina's sister Ellen Frances Cheeseman, Mary Bailey and George Krick. It would have had a bitter-sweet affair in that it occurred after Jane Elizabeth’s death at Beaufort on 20 May 1911.[10] Nonetheless the ‘pretty wedding’, as it was described by the correspondent to the Ripon Shire Advocate, seemed to be a happy, even a joyous occasion:
As the bridal party entered the church the bridal hymn was sung by the choir. The groom was supported by Mr Ralph Cheeseman as best man and Mr George Krick as groomsman [George was the spouse of Rosina’s mother’s youngest sister, Julia May Bodger Wright]. The bride who looked charming and was given away by her father, and attended by the Misses Nellie Cheeseman and Mary Tulloch as bridesmaids was attired in a lovely gown of ivory silk muslin… She wore the usual wreath and veil and a handsome chain bangle, the gift of the bridegroom, and carried a striking bouquet of scotch heath.
After the wedding ceremony
Mr Cheeseman entertained a numerous company
of guests at the wedding breakfast and subsequent social evening at the
Societies Hall where toasts were drunk and hearty congratulations given and
acknowledged amid much good natured merriment. The travelling dress was a saxe
blue coat and skirt, tagel hat trimmed with white marguerites. Presents were
numerous and costly.
Rosina and John lived away from Beaufort after their marriage and had two children we know of: Annie Jean Elizabeth Tulloch who was born at Richmond in Melbourne in 1915 and later married Albert Brown; and John Alexander James Tulloch (1919-82).
In 1917 Rosina's sister, Ellen Frances, married Stiven/Steven Blackie at Moonee Ponds in Melbourne in 1917. Their marriage certificate shows that Stiven was a 44 year-old railway ganger who was born at Ballarat but was then living at Horsham. Ellen was then living at 93 Green St Richmond in Melbourne. Her usual address was Forest Farm in Beaufort. Stiven's parents were James Carnegie Blackie, an engineer, and Eliza Campbell. 
The marriage was witnessed by Lily Miller Scott and Ernest Robert Campbell. Rosina and Stiven had only one child, Ralph Carnegie Blackie (1918-76). She died in Northcote in Melbourne on 21 March 1926 from the effects of breast cancer (she was probably staying with her older sister Jane Haggis nee Cheeseman). Her death certificate states that she was then 38 years old and normally lived at 15 Windamere Street in Ballarat. The informant was her husband Stiven who was present at the death. Ellen was buried at the Fawkner cemetery in Melbourne the following day. Stiven died at Ararat in 1945.
Finally in 1918 Ralph Edward sent news from England that he had married Elizabeth (‘Bessie’) May Palmer on her parents farm at Tavistock in Devon. Ralph, who described himself as a grazier, had met Bessie while he was recuperating from wounds received on the western front. The wedding was attended by Ralph’s older brother William Charles, Bessie’s parents, and her best friend May who had helped her nurse the wounded during the war.
After Jane Elizabeth’s death Alfred (pictured on the left towards the end of his life)
initially lived by himself at Forest Farm. During a visit to his son Alfred
William’s farm at Skipton, Alfred’s house at Forest Farm was robbed
and burnt down. He then lived with Alfred and Alice and their family at Skipton
for a number of years. Winnie and Teen remember him telling them stories from
the bible and sitting with their other grandfather William Joseph Laurence by
the open fire in their lounge room and arguing for hours on end about politics
in both England and Australia. Alfred grew steadily frail and unwell and, in
the last years of his life, moved to live with his daughter Ellen
(‘Nellie’) Blockie in Ararat where he could be close to the
hospital. He died in Ararat on 16 June 1922 and, as recorded by the Ripon
Shire Advocate was buried
at the Beaufort cemetery the following day.
The death occurred in the Ararat hospital, on Thursday, from an internal complaint of Mr Alfred Cheeseman who was about 70 years of age. Deceased was a respected resident of Beaufort for many years before returning to Skipton. His wife pre-deceased him eleven years ago and he leaves a large family of grown-up sons and daughters. One of the sons is Mr Wm Cheeseman, Lake Goldsmith and two others (Messrs Fred and Ralph Cheeseman) reside at Skipton. The remains of the deceased are to be interred at Beaufort … The late Mr Cheeseman was at the Ararat diggings with his parents and later the family went to Carngham to reside. [He] had a family of five sons and eight daughters three of whom (together with their mother) pre-deceased him. The remains of the deceased were interred at the Beaufort cemetery on Saturday, the funeral being attended by many old friends of the family. The coffin (which was of polished wood and silver mountings, and was covered with beautiful floral tributes of sympathy, was borne to the grave by Messrs Wm Allen, S. Blackie (son-in-law), W. Chibnall and M. Dames (Brothers-in-law). The pall bearers were Messes J.A.W. and R. Cheeseman (sons), J. Wright, J.T. Glover, W. Shaw and W. Stokes (nephews).