Descendants of Alfred Fanshaw Hamilton
1896 - with children Sydney & Lillian 32 Maria Jane Williams "Mary" was born 3 May 1867 1 Bellinger River, NSW, Australia; died 30 Jul 1954 2 Lithgow, NSW, buried 1 Aug 1954 2 in Church of England Cem., Wentworth Falls, NSW. She married (1) on 3 May 1886 3 at St. Barnabas C of E, George St. West, Glebe, Sydney, NSW, Alfred Fanshaw Hamilton (formerly Alfred Augustus Fanshaw) b. 6 Jan 1864 33, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England; d. 3 Aug 1914 5, Lidcombe, Sydney, NSW, buried 5 Aug 1914 5 in the Presbyterian Section of Rookwood Cemetery, one of the twelve children of Alfred Blacker Fanshaw (1835-1876) and Sarah Ann Winter (1832-1886) 33. She married (2) in 1914 6 reg. Bulli, NSW, Herbert Ernest Annesley d. after 1964 31.
Mary
was the first of the sixteen children of Jane O’Hara to be born at Bellinger
River in NSW after the family moved north from the Manning River where
her mother and first husband William Sheils settled following their
arrival from Ireland in 1855. Her birth was registered under the Latin
name of Maria but she was known by its English equivalent of
Mary.
According to his birth certificate her husband Alfred was born Alfred Augustus Fanshaw in Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England, a son of tobacconist and cigar manufactuer Alfred Blacker Fanshaw and Sarah Ann Winter. After arrival in Australia in the early 1880s he changed his surname from Fanshaw to Hamilton by adding Hamilton whilst retaining his Fanshaw family name as a second given name instead of Augustus. Also for Australian records, such as his 1885 army enlistment, marriage, children birth registrations, and his death record, his place of birth was incorrectly given as Glasgow in Scotland. That he changed his surname from Fanshaw to Hamilton, and was actually born in England not Scotland, was unknown to his descendants until May 2001 when contact was established between this compiler and a UK resident descendant of his brother - 1855 born Sheffield artist and art teacher John Fanshaw who with his wife is pictured below 4.
His English ancestry is fully documented from 1788 4. The Fanshaw family name is undoubtedly a variant of Fanshawe, thus goes back to Fanshawegate in Derbyshire, on record as a place from the 1200s. The surname is relatively rare in Australia where the 2001 online telephone directory listed only 14 named Fanshaw and 11 Fanshawe. Alfred's death record stated he had been in NSW for 33 years indicating an about 1881 arrival. According to a letter he sent from Elswick Street in the Sydney suburb of Leichhardt to his mother in Sheffield, England, enclosing the below two photos of himself and Mary, and likely written on 2 Jan 1890 but dated in error 2 Jan 1889, he arrived in Australia, possibly Melbourne, as a seaman on a ship on which there had been passengers named Hamilton. Explaining the circumstances of his change of name to Hamilton he wrote that after deserting the vessel on which he arrived, and subsequently discovering when applying at the shipping office for another berth as a seaman that he had been blacklisted, he adopted their surname as an alias so there would be no desertion record to debar him from in the future obtaining maritime employment 4, 7.
Before his 1886 marriage to Mary he enlisted in Sydney on 20 Feb 1885 in
the Australian Force raised for the war in the Sudan named the Infantry
Regiment of the New South Wales Contingent for Special Service in Egypt.
This contingent, raised and equiped by the government of the colony of
NSW, represented the first formal involvement of Australian soldiers in
an overseas war - the first of a long line of volunteers and regulars who
fought in diverse places ranging from the plateau of the Elands River to
the jungles and paddy fields of Vietnam. After word of the death of Major-General
Charles "Chinese" Gordon at Khartoum reached Sydney about noon on 11 Feb
1885 the next morning the NSW cabinet met in a special session and decided to
raise and send a 500 strong contingent for operations alongside the British
forces in the Sudan. The hastily recruited from scratch, trained, and equipped
contingent left Sydney on the 3 March 1885 on the Iberia and the
Australasian, arriving 29th and 30 March as depicted in the below
lithograph at the Red Sea port of Saukin in Sudan. During their seven week
period in Sudan they did not come into hand to hand combat with the enemy
although rifle and artillery fire was exchanged during which some were
wounded. There were also deaths from fever etc. in Sudan, on the return
journey, and shortly after arrival back in Australia. The force left Suakin
on the Arab for the return journey on 18 May arriving back in Sydney on
23 June 9. 
The landing at Suakin in Sudan in 1885 8
Albert was first noted in the Sydney Sands Directory for 1889 with the
occupation of plumber residing at Norton St. in Leichhardt. He and
Mary were residing at Rylstone 100 kilometers north of Lithgow when their
last child was born in 1901. However they did not appear there in 1903
in the first available Commonwealth electoral roll. They were next noted
in official records in the 1908 electoral roll residing in the Bulli sub
division of the Illawarra electorate at Coledale situated on the south
coast of NSW about 20 km north of the State’s third largest city of Woolongong.
The Bulli area on the south coast, and Lithgow 140 km west of Sydney, were
major NSW coal mining areas. In both the 1908 and 1909 electoral rolls
Alfred’s occupation was listed as “miner”. When he died
in 1914 the record gave his occupation as farmer.
Children of Mary Jane Williams and Alfred Fanshaw Hamilton were: SECOND GENERATION
1. Unknown Male Hamilton b. 1889?; d. 1889? 12 2. William H Hamilton b.1889 13; d. 1889 14 3. Sydney George Hamilton b. 20 Jul 1891 15 Leichhardt ; d. 15 Apr 1964 11 Concord, Sydney; m. 12 Sep 1918 16 in Bishops Hull Church of England Parish Church, Somerset, England, Bessie Emily Burrow b. 21 Jun 1893 17 at Bishops Hull, Somerset, England; d. after 1964, daughter of John Burrow and Emily Cridland. Not listed in Lithgow in the 1988 roll for the Calare electorate. Sydney George served in the Army for 7 years from 1912 to 1919 including 4½ years service abroad during WW I. When he married in England in 1918 his first cousin Henry James Williams Jr., who had put his age up and enlisted in the 1st A.I.F. when only 15½ years of age, was serving in France and his uncle Charles Williams was in England as a volunteer worker in the armaments & munitions industry. When first noted in Lithgow in the 1921 electoral roll Sydney's occupation was given as railway employee. For over thirty years prior to his death in the Concord Repatriation Hospital in Sydney he resided at 2 Burton Street, Lithgow. Children of Sydney George Hamilton and Bessie Emily Burrow were:4. Lillian Beatrice Hamilton b.1894 18 reg. Hurstville; m. (1) in 1911 19 reg. Woonona Samuel J Bradley d. 1914 20 reg. Bulli, NSW, son of Thomas and Eliza Bradley. She married (2) in 1918 21 reg. Redfern, NSW, Frederick Dingwall. Lillian may have received her name from her father’s youngest sister Lillian Ada, and her second given of Beatrice from her mother's younger sister Beatrice Gaffney. Both Lillian and second husband Frederick were noted in the 1950 & 1953 electoral rolls listed in the Thirroul sub division of the Cunningham electorate residing in Main St., Coledale. In the 1964 roll Lillian was listed residing alone at Lot 77, Squires Crescent suggesting husband Frederick had possibly passed on. Children of Lillian Beatrice Hamilton and Samuel J Bradley were:5. Alfred Roy Hamilton “Roy” b.1899 22 at Rylstone, NSW; d. 5 May1924 23, 24 reg. Penrith, NSW. Unmarried and no issue. 6. Eileen M Hamilton b.1901 25 at Rylstone, NSW; d. 1901 26 reg. Rylstone, NSW.
THIRD GENERATION
7. Olive Hamilton b. after 1918. She married James Houlison at Lithgow in 1942 27. She first appeared in the electoral roll in 1947 in her parents household at 2 Burton Street. From the 1949 electoral roll through to the last checked roll for Feb. 2001 the couple have been listed at 2 Stephenson St. Lithgow. They had three children. 8. Henry George Hamilton b. after 1918; d. August 1998; m. before 1947 Daphne Melba 'Unknown'. He and his wife first appeared in the electoral rolls in the 1947 Lithgow sub division of the Macquarie electorate with his occupation given as machinist. By 1949 the couple were at 7 Boundary St. in Lithgow where they were still listed in the 1964 electoral roll for Macquarie. The four children of Henry George Hamilton and Daphne Melba included:9. Alfred James Hamilton b. after 1918; m. after 1953 Murial Mary 'Unknown'. He first appeared in Lithgow in the 1947 electoral roll and also appeared in 1950 and 1953, with his occupation given as butcher in his parents household at 2 Burton Street. In the 1964 roll he was listed as a butcher residing with his wife in Lithgow at Great Western Road, South Bowenfels. Only Murial appeared at this address in 1988 in what was then the Calare electorate suggesting Alfred may have been deceased. Two possible children noted listed at Bowenfels in the 1988 electoral roll were Douglas William Hamilton and Robert James Hamilton. 10. Albert George Bradley b. 1912 28 reg. Woonona; m. 1939 29 reg. Hornsby, Kathleen Winifred Heaney 11. Keith Athol Dingwall b. after 1918; m. before 1950 Eleanor Joyce 'Unknown'. They were noted in the 1950 & 53 electoral rolls for the Thirroul sub division of the Cunningham electorate residing at 5 Northcote St., Coledale, and were both still listed at the address in the 1964 roll in what had become the Austinmer sub division of Hughes. In the 1988 roll for Hughes only wife Eleanor was listed at 55 Squires St. in Coledale, suggesting husband Keith may have been then deceased. About 25 km to the north at Helensburgh in Swan St. there was listed a possible son Ian Keith Dingwall and his presumed wife Judith Gail. 12. Roy Dingwall b. after 1918 (untraced)
FOURTH GENERATION
13. Julie Hamilton b. after 1942 m. 'Unknown' Cameron 14. Annette Wood b. aft. 1942 m. 'Unknown Woods' Sources:
1 NSW Birth Certificate #1867-11067 - transcript courtesy of Gustav Schaefer of NSW. 2 NSW Death Certificate #1954-25563 - copy courtesy Julie Cameron & Gustav Schaefer of NSW. 3 Copy of church marriage register (NSW BDM #1886-00905) - copy courtesy of Julie Cameron & Gus Schaefer 4 Emails dated 22, 28, 30 May 2001 from Patricia Anning of the U.K. who holds the original 1889 letter and photos of Alfred & Mary, and has documented the genealogy/history of the Fanshaw family back to 1788. 5 NSW Death Certificate #1914- 11193 - d. Rookwood State Hospital & Asylum - cause Tabes Dorsalis & cardiac failure - copy courtesy Julie Cameron & Gustav Schaefer. 6 NSW BDM Indexes #1914-15484 7 He is not listed under Fanshaw or Hamilton in Ship’s Deserters 1852-1900, by Jim Melton (Library of Australian History, Sydney 1986) 8 Australian War Memorial Collection - #14435 hand-coloured lithograph 55.8 X 70.6 cm - artist unknown. 9 But Little Glory: the New South Wales Contingent to the Sudan, edited by Peter Stanley (Military History Soc. of Australia, Canberra 1985) 10 Certificate of Discharge from the NSW Contingent dated 3 July 1885 at Sydney, signed by Lt. Col. H. Wells. 11 Family records provided in a letter dated 2001 from Julie Cameron to Gustav Schaefer. 12 In addition to the 5 children whose names are known, there was another male child born between the 1886 marriage and the July 1891 birth of Sydney G., as disclosed by Sydney G’s birth certificate having stating 2 male children were deceased and the 2 Jan 1890 letter to England confirming there had been two children of whom one lived 2 days and the other 6 weeks. However prior to Jan. 1890 only the birth and death of one such son William H. is recorded in the NSW BDM Indexes on issue at year 2001. Unless a revised issue of the BDM Indexes in future identifies the other child, his name etc. will only be able to be established from an inner Sydney (Surry Hills, Glebe, Leichhardt area) church parish baptism or cemetery burial record - the most likely years for the birth being 1887-89. However, whilst there is nothing to indicate the two pre 1890 deceased male children were twins, if they had been there is a possible candidate listed in the NSW Indexes who could qualify as a twin of William H. who lived 6 weeks longer than him, whose parents names may have been garbled in either the actual death registration or in the NSW BDM indexes. There is a 1889 Leichhardt death registration for an Arthur H. Hamilton, with parents names given as William and Mary Hamilton indexed in number 1944 registrations after the death of William H. 30. Whilst likely the two pre 1890 deceased male children were buried in Rookwood Cemetery, where their father was later buried in 1914, there is no headstone for them or for him listed in the SAG Transcription Indexes. Accordingly the actual cemetery plot records of the Rookwood C of E cemetery administrator would need to be consulted to determine the two children's burial details. 13 NSW BDM Indexes #1889-04880 14 Ibid #1889-02647 15 NSW Birth Certificate Indexed as #1891-18960 - copy courtesy Julie Cameron & Gustav Schaefer 16 GRO (England) Marriage Cert., registered Taunton Dist. - copy courtesy Julie Cameron & Gustav Schaefer 17 GRO (England) Birth Cert., registered Taunton Dist. - copy courtesy Julie Cameron & Gustav Schaefer 18 NSW BDM Indexes #1894-16572 19 Ibid #1911-15274 20 Ibid #1914-12151 21 Ibid #1918-07561 22 Ibid #1899-24860 23 Ibid #1924-08101 24 NSW Supreme Court Probate Indexes - Admin. Grant #1924-124924 - DOD 5/5/1924 of Coledale and Wentworth Falls. 25 NSW BDM Indexes #1901-35673 26 Ibid #1901-15303 27 Ibid #1942-30895 28 Ibid #1912-52277 29 Ibid #1939-15526 30 Ibid #1889-04591 31 Listed in Lithgow in the Macquarie electoral roll for 1964. 32 Image from a photocopy provided courtesy of Gustav Schaefer of NSW. 33 Birth Certificate obtained by and provided courtesy Patricia Anning of the U.K. 34 Images of the 1890 seven page letter & its enclosure photos courtesy of Patricia Anning of the U.K. 35 Image of John Fanshaw & wife provided courtesy of Patricia Anning of the U.K. Compiled
by John Raymond, Brisbane, QLD., Australia
Page first posted 8 June 2001 - last updated 15 Oct 2001  |
