Surname Saturday. Vaughan.

I’m enjoying sharing my surnames with you.  Have you looked at the Surname Database, yet?

This week I’m looking at Charlotte Chasmar’s husband Henry Vaughan. I think he is an intriguing man as it has taken many years to find small details about him.

I first encounter Henry, as my Great-grandmother’s Isabella Mary Ann’s father.  I then find his marriage and death but little else. This was pre-computers and not knowing much else about him, I set him aside.

With the computer age growing rapidly Henry was taken out,  dusted off and looked at solidly. Where was he born? When did he arrive? What work did he do? Some of these I was able to answer by carefully reading the certificates I had.  Place of birth, Middlesex, England around 1810.  Arrival date??? Occupation, Tailor is given on Isabella’s birth certificate, commission agent on his marriage certificate, and he states he was a widower and nothing is listed on his death certificate. Widower, interesting, is this why he didn’t marry Charlotte until 1858?

Searching through arrivals, back from 1847, I’m given a helping hand by another Vaughan researcher. Henry was a convict. A search reveals that he was tried in January 1824, with theft, grand larceny! His crime stealing 150lbs of soap, value approximately 21/-. Sentence transportation.  The transcript on the Old Baily web site makes an interesting read.

Next I find Henry on board the ‘Florentia’, arriving in Sydney in January 1828. He was sent to work at Pitt Town, near Windsor, NSW. 1831 sees Henry receiving his ‘Certificate of Freedom’ and it is here that I learn that Henry was born in 1795 , stood 5’4” tall, with a ruddy complexion, light brown hair and grey eyes.

Other details start to come to light, he was declared bankrupt in 1842 and then this was discharged. There is talk that his family paid him to stay in Australia, still to be proven. In 2015, using Find My Past, I find Henry’s will. He leave the business to his son Henry Edward Vaughan and the rest to his beloved wife Charlotte. He asks that the older boys look after the younger children, that they buy a house for Charlotte to live in. It was a lovely document to read.

Henry died 2 March 1871 and on his death certificate it has, 4 males, 3 females, living, 2 females deceased. The children are recognised.  Charlotte lives another 22 years and the children are all still living and named on her certificate.

So I still need to find how they met and who he was married to, probably back in England.

Bye for now,

Lilian.