Lowen & Nancy’s Introduction
Album 1 Tom Bilston and Alex Bilston Family
Nancy Hardy’s Family Album - The Clarke Family Album
Nancy Clarke (nee Hardy) and Lowen Clarke set about organising a huge collection of old family photos into 11 separate albums by theme.
Lowen’s introductory notes:
I have given it both titles, as in the main the photographs and families depicted are on Mrs Nancy Clarke's side of our family. This is an interesting trait of the Wheeler-Bilston family trees. I think there are many reasons, firstly, today, in Australia, we like to trace back to a genuine First Fleeter, (this is done mainly on the female side), and secondly, Nancy Clarke's father died when she was very young, as so it was her mother's family that provided most of the family stories, and thirdly, it is that family which easily traces back to an obvious 'patriarch', though we will see he never was one, and fourthly, within the Clarke family itself, this has continued, perhaps accelerated by a slight lack of interest on the part of Cal Clarke's own family to pursue history.
If, indeed, there is a singular trait of the Hardy - Bilston - Wheeler group, it is a desire to record the past, honour the past generations, to remember. There are many historians of the family. Unfortunately, there is an equal tendency to be daunted, find the maze a hard one to work through, and so, leave various works unfinished.
Many of the photos here actually come from unfinished collections by Nancy, Aunty Anne, Uncle Ward, Nana Freda, and so on.
Yet, it is the fact that it is all their albums that gives this the depth and the breadth to make it live, beyond the dubious interests of tracing family trees.
There are many different perspectives available. There is a history back to the First Fleeters, the Pioneer stories, the Drift to the Cities, the sorrow of early and premature death, Wars and Peace. But there are individual stories to follow too.
As to perspective, though, it is better if there is a personal point of view. This will mainly be Nancy's.
So, many people from different parts of the family, specific and general, may find interest here. As to the Clarke boys, they must remember they can choose their heritage: and look at their father's side too.
And that is but one area that needs further research. The Hardy line is poorly understood, and too, the Wheeler line itself. Researching the origins of all these lines in the UK will reward anyone who undertakes it.
Organisation of the Albums is based solely on photographs. There is in any collection a certain ramshackleness that is vital to creating interest. Too strict a rendering along time or bloodlines or straightening out memories logically, can be disaster. First, it seemed best to deal with Tom Bilston and His Pioneering sons and daughters. Then, move back to the past beyond that, and forward to the future.
There will need to be a greater section on the Clarke Family, and I hope those in it will work on this.
Thomas Bilston was born in Birmingham on the 27th March 1808. Birmingham at that time was becoming a prosperous industrial city in the Midlands, in Warwickshire, now in the County of West Midlands. (see attached booklet about Birmingham)
His mother kept an Ironmongers shop, so perhaps his father had died early.
He probably came from a middle class background. This is indicated by the fact that he was tried for either stealing or forging promissory notes, i.e. cheques.
He covered over his convict beginnings, but there will be some truth in the facts of his stories. He may well have had quite some money by the time his sentence was done and he arrived in Victoria. His Aunt, Aunt Preston left him money, and his father in law, Wheeler, probably helped out too.
So, by the time he arrived in Victoria very soon after the first Colonists, he had the ability and the wherewithal to soon do well.
Tom arrived in Melbourne on June 6th 1838, from Hobart, and managed various runs, till moving to Western Victoria, where he took up land.
He arrived with his wife, Ann, whose father was William Wheeler, a sea captain, and mother was Elizabeth Guy, the daughter of a First Fleeter. They married at New Norfolk on23 4 1835.
Ann lived from 8 10 1819 to 5 6 1877.
Tom and Ann arrived with one child, William, at Port Philip. In all they had eleven children.
Album 2 Hardy, Casterton
Of the children of Alexander Heywood, Freda was the mother of Nancy.
She married Victor Hardy, and they lived at Casterton, in a house called Exeter, and on a farm called Inverell, which Victor owned and Uncle Frank managed with his wife Annie Bettsworth, nee Bilston.
Album 3 The Hardy Family Continued
Of the children of Alexander Heywood, Freda was the mother of Nancy.
She married Victor Hardy, and they lived at Casterton, in a house called Exeter, and on a farm called Inverell, which Victor owned and Uncle Frank managed with his wife Annie Bettsworth, nee Bilston.
Album 4 Drift to Melb commentary
GROWING UP IN MELBOURNE - THE DRIFT TO MELBOURNE
After the untimely death of Victor Hardy, Freda took her children to Melbourne. She bought a large house in Williams Road, Toorak, though she often rented it out while she moved from suburb to suburb.
The house remained in the family, till after Freda's death in 1953.
The other sisters, Anne and Kate, followed in the drift to Melbourne, though they stayed in Casterton a few years. Nancy remembers trips to the family farm, Inverell, which Frank and Anne continued to manage.
Album 5 The Social Whirl Starts.
Meeting friends and spouses. Approx 1935 to 1946
Album 6
War WW2
Local and Overseas.
Album 7
Annie’s Photos
Great Aunt Anne. These are scanned from the folder of prints and negs.
Album 8
The Generations change
New families of the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s
Album 9
The Generations change
New families of the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s
Album 10
Nancy
Album 11
Calvert
Annie’s Glass Slides