The Gilbert Children

I will now give you a short story about each of the eleven Gilbert children. Of course I cannot go too far for this little book would never finish. So I will take each in order of age

He was born on 9th July, 1806, probably at the home of his parents in the Hamlet of Mile End New Town, and he was baptized the next day in the Church of St. Matthew in Bethnal Green. His parents may have continued to live in that Hamlet until they moved down to New Inn Yard at Shoreditch where their other children were born.

As he grew, he would have been introduced to the weaving trade, and, when his mother migrated to New South Wales on 28th August, 1816, with three of her other children, he was left behind. I am of the opinion that it was by arrangement with his master for, as he was then ten years of age, he was probably an apprentice living with his master, for his mother was then living on her own, Samuel Gilbert then being a convict under sentence of transportation for 14 years. Although his father made a visit to England in 1843-44, I have no knowledge of young Samuel meeting him there. When his mother died on 21st February, 1827, the "Sydney Gazette", in reporting her death, stated that two of her children had died, and that would indicate that young Samuel had not lived until that date. A search might still be made in the Middlesex marriage records for his marriage before 1827, but would have been only 20 years of age then.

He was born on 3rd. November, 1807 in Hackney Road, London, according to the registration of his death by his widow. He was baptized during April, 1808, according to the register of the Church of St. Leonard at Shoreditch, his parents then living at Union Street. He migrated to New South Wales with his mother in the convict transport "Lord Melville", on 28th August, 1816. He went with her to Windsor for the family reunion and then down to Parramatta when his father received his Ticket of Leave in June 1817. As a youth, he worked in his father's bakery, and at the age of 24 years, he married Bridget Lynch, aged 16, at St. James Church in Sydney on 16th December 1833. She was the daughter of John Lynch, a convict who had been transported here in the ship "Brampton" in 1823 to serve seven years. Lynch petitioned the Colonial Secretary for a free passage for his wife, Margaret, and their three children, and they came here in the "City of Edinburgh" in 1828.

John Gilbert ran the family bakery business during 1843-44 while his father and his brother, Thomas, made a visit to England. They lived on the corner of Macquarie and Smith Streets in Parramatta. John Gilbert died on 26th July, 1866 at Parramatta, and his Widow Bridget Gilbert, died on 19th April 1886 at Woollahra. John and Bridget Gilbert had nine children.

They had one descendant whom I should mention, their grandson, John Gilbert McLaren, born on 15th October, 1871, at Parramatta. He became an important officer of the Commonwealth Government, being the Official Secretary at Australia House in London. Mrs. McLaren and their daughter, Mildred, were presented at Court in 1933 when, dressed all in white, they were introduced to King George and Queen Mary, quite an honour for Mildred, the Great Great Grandaughter of convict Samuel Gilbert. In 1935, John McLaren was knighted to become Sir John Gilbert McLaren, not bad for a Parramatta boy.

Born 7th January, 1812, at Bethnal Green. Baptized on 2nd February, 1812 at St. Leonard's Church at Shoreditch. She moved with the family to New Inn Yard at Shoreditch. When her father went to jail and her mother gave birth to baby Maria in 1815, Mr. Richard Lea, former Alderman and Sheriff of the City of London, and his wife, took over this little girl for Mary Gilbert. When Mary migrated to New South Wales in 1816, this child was left in London with the Leas. There is no further record of her. She is assumed to be one of the two children who had died before their mother, in 1827. But that may have been just guesswork on the part of her father. A check may be made, even now, to see if a Mary Anne Gilbert or Lea, aged about 20 years, appears in the marriage index for Middlesex in about 1832.

She was born on 6th May 1814, possibly at New Inn Yard in Shoreditch and she was baptized on 27th June, 1814 at St. Leonard's Church at Shoreditch. She migrated to New South Wales with her mother in the "Lord Melville" convict transport which reached Sydney on 24th February, 1817. She went with her mother to the family reunion with her father in Windsor, and, when he was granted his Ticket of Leave in June, 1817, she went to Parramatta to live with him.

The major event in her life was the death of her mother on 21st February, 1827, when she became the second child of the Gilbert family, and the eldest girl, then only 12 years of age. We have no dependable information on her life from then until her marriage on 26th May 1833. Her father and her brother John, were busily engaged in the family business in the Parramatta bakery during those six years, and she must have taken a large part in the maintenance of the family, which included five younger sisters.

She became the first wife of Timothy Brien of Seven Hills, at St. John's Church in Parramatta on 26th May 1833, the witnesses being her brother John, and her sister, Maria. Brien was a publican at that time, holding the licence for the Plough Inn in Phillip Street, Parramatta until 1837, when he became a fruitgrower at Seven Hills. He was born on 3rd. July 1813 at Seven Hills and died on 15th January, 1897, at Seven Hills. They had twelve children. She died on 30th April, 1862, at Seven Hills. Timothy Brien remarried on 28th October, 1867 to widow, Ann Small née Cote at West Maitland.

Among the many descendants of Charlotte Gilbert, I would list James Joseph Black who became an Assistant Commissioner in the New South Wales Police, and your author, William J. Cuthill, who was a member of the Victorian Public Service for 49 years in the Courts Branch, and who was the Chief Stipendiary Magistrate for the State of Victoria 1969 - 1974.

Born 12th. November 1815 at New Inn Yard, Shoreditch and baptized on 4th February 1816 at St. Leonard's Church of England at Shoreditch. She was born while her father was in jail in the "Justitia" hulk at Woolwich, and she migrated to New South Wales as the third member of the Gilbert children. When her mother died in Sydney on 21st February, 1827, she was 11 years of age, and she had to join with her sister, Charlotte, in caring for the younger children. She died on 25th January, 1883, at Parramatta.

She married Edwin Williams in St. James Church in Sydney on 20th August, 1833. He had been baptized on 10th September, 1810, at St. Philip's Cathedral in Birmingham, the son of convicts John and Elizabeth Williams who were both transported here for 14 years. Edwin came out in the convict transport "Providence" with his mother in 1832. Edwin and Maria Williams had 17 children. At his marriage, he was a carpenter, and they lived in Pitt Street, Sydney. He died on 30th June 1895.

She was their first Australian child, being born on 4th January, 1818 after her father had received his Ticket of Leave and that had moved down from Windsor to Parramatta. She married William Tindale on 23rd February, 1837 at Parramatta. He was said to have been the son of convict John Tindale who had been transported here for 14 years in the "Guildford" in 1812, but he was really the son of William and Elizabeth Wybrow, born 7th August, 1819. William Wybrow was also a convict who had arrived here in the "Ganges" and who had married Elizabeth Clarke or Crookshank at St. Phillip's Church in Sydney on 20th March 1809. Sarah Tindale died on 13th November, 1891 at Harris Park, and William Tindale or Wybrow, died on 22nd August 1879. They had 13 children.

It would take some pages to describe the marriage tangles here, but William Tindale took that surname after his mother left Wybrow and went to live with John Tindale. So there is really no Tindale blood in the Gilbert family. John Tindale was a prominent citizen in early Bathurst. This family gives us our Vice Regal connection with the Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King. Frances Emma Tindale, the daughter of William and Sarah, married John King Lethbridge on 28th April, 1864 at Penrith. He was the grandson of Governor King, whose youngest daughter, Mary King, had married Robert Copland Lethbridge, the father of John King Lethbridge, in London on 25th July, 1826.

Born 9th October, 1819 at Parramatta. Baptized at St. John's, Parramatta on 2nd January, 1829. She suffered the loss of her mother in 1827, along with her sisters. She married William Fullagar on 4th February 1840 at St. John's, Parramatta. He was born on on 28th March 1816 at Parramatta and died on 8th August, 1894, at Parramatta. He was the son of John Fullagher who was convicted in 1809, and transported for life in the "Ann", arriving here in 1810, and his wife Esther Latham, who was also a convict, she having arrived in the "Wanstead" in 1814. Hannah Fullagar died on 3rd May 1852 at age 32, at her residence, the Star Inn, on the Western Road. They had seven children. William Fullagar obtained a licence for the Star Inn on the Western Road in 1847, where he had extensive sale yards. After Hannah's death, he married Sarah Frances Cox, and they had eleven more children.

Born 26th June, 1821 at Parramatta, and baptized at St. John's on 21st October 1821. He died on 16th August 1912, at Parramatta. As a boy, he went to Bradley's school in George Street. When he was 21 years of age, his father took him on his voyage to England in the barque "Alfred", leaving in March, 1843, taking four months to get there. They returned in the ship "Persian" on 27th December, 1844. While they were away, his brother, John, looked after the bakery.

"I took a trip to England when I was 22, and King Edward was a two year old baby. I went to Windsor Castle and saw him and the Queen and the two princesses, Alice and Beatrice. I also went on board the "Victory" and saw where Nelson was shot"

He married twice. His first wife was Emma Jane Critchley, whom he married on 19th June 1848 at Parramatta. She was born in 1829 and died on 16th August 1878. They had a family of 14 children. In early times he kept the toll bars on the Sydney, Western, and Windsor Roads. He left a long story of the early days which was published in the "Sydney Morning Herald" of 27th November, 1911, which is too long to be included here. He became a fruitgrower at Mount Pleasant in his later years and, at his death, he was living in Bourke Street, Parramatta North.

We have no details of his second marriage. Even his son, Thomas, did not know of the details when he registered the death of his father, who had died at the age of 91.

Born on 7th August, 1822 at Parramatta. Baptized on 2nd. June 1823 at St. John's Church at Parramatta. Died on 27th December 1865, at Prospect. She married William Best on 11th August, 1840, at Parramatta. He was born on 9th April, 1816 at Seven Hills. He was the son of convict, George Best, who had been transported here to serve seven years and who had arrived in the "William & Ann" in 1791, and convict Martha Chamberlain who had come here in the "Indispensible" in 1797 to serve seven years as well. William Best was the licensee of the Kangaroo and Emu Inn on the Windsor Road in 1847, and later he became a wealthy pastoralist in the Wagga Wagga area, and at Tangmangaroo, near Yass. He died on 3rd October, 1902 at Seven Hills. They had six children.

We know so little about this little girl. In the Census of New South Wales in 1828, she is recorded as being three years old, born in the Colony, and Protestant, and, at that time, she was living at the Male Orphanage Institution at Parramatta. It would seem that she had been put there on the death of her mother, who had just died, eleven months after the birth of her brother, William. Her brother, Thomas, did not seem to have known of her when he registered his father's death in 1875. If you can go through the records of marriages in about 1845, you may find that Martha Gilbert, born in Parramatta, might have married, quite unknown to the rest of her brothers and sisters, to whom she must have been just a little girl in an orphanage.

He was born on 23rd March, 1826 at Parramatta and was baptized on 2nd July, 1826 at St. John's Church. He died on 26th October, 1838, at Parramatta. We know nothing more about him at present.

We cannot list here their thousands of descendants, but we have listed many of them in our 350 pages of Gilbert history, so that all of that is not lost forever.

Chapter 12.