Are you able to help connect Colonel Samuel Blackall?

Question

Colonel Samuel Blackall was Queensland, Australia's second colonial governor.  He died in office (after having lost his two wives and two children).  I've written a bit of a bio but am unable to connect him to the Tree.  I suspect access to Irish records will help, however I don't have access.  Are you able to help, please?

Comments

Of interest is that Adelaide's residence just prior to her death had been Sierra Leone, where her father served as Governor from 1862 until 1865 when he became governor in chief of the West African settlements.  It looks as though she died en route from Sierra Leone to (presumably) Ireland, going by the wording of her Will.  (Of minor note is that her effects were worth less than £5 (because she was female and owned nothing of her own).)

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I've created a profile for Adelaide, attached her to Samuel and to Ernest Cochrane, so Samuel should show as connected in about 24 hours from now.

I have not given her a mother, because of my concern regards the date conflicts.

I'm fairly sure she was born in Ireland, given where Samuel was at the time, but have not yet found confirmation.  I also don't have a PLACE for the marriage to Cochrane, just the date.

ETA the profile link.

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Samuel's son, Robert, was born about 1834 according to a reference in a book (found on googlebooks).  It is listing his birth (1834), when he married Mary Emily Gifford (1867), and when he inherited Coolamber Manor (1871).

This pretty much confirms that Robert and Adelaide have to be the children of the first wife, not the second.

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I've added a profile for Robert, but have not connected a mother yet (as with Adelaide).

There are a number of websites/blogspots naming Catherine Bond as the mother, despite that she did not marry Samuel until 1858 and both Robert and Adelaide were born in the 1830s .. .. ..

I just don't get it (any more than I get how people link parents that weren't even born before the child).

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You're a champion, Melanie. In the last couple of days you have uncovered sourced data that all the biographes appear to have missed (or has it been one biographer that others have simply copied?).  Sorry to put you to all this bother but isn't the hunt always so exciting?

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Oh, the hunt is wonderful!  :)

I think it might be that one started it and everyone else copied it.  I just don't get why nobody questioned the dates.  I looked at the Bond marriage several times, but it remained 1858, no matter how I tilted my head, or where I placed my tongue between my teeth.

I have info for Samuel's grandson Charles that you might take a look at once I get the profile up.  English military, not Aussie, but I have as much as I have found so far.  Twice Mentioned in Despatches, Killed while on Active Service in France.  I haven't found his marriage yet, and am wondering if it was in South Africa.

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Samuel's grandson Charles - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Blackall-63

I'd love to have more detail for his military service.

If there is anyone reading along who thinks they can help with Charles's marriage to Alice Evelyn LNAB-unknown - feel free to jump in.

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Tremendous work, Ken, Melanie and Marion. I see Samuel Blackall is now connected. Thanks all of you.

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All we need now if for all the places with INcorrect info to change it! 

(Just look at marriage #1.  Marion found the record, with the correct name.  Why can't others?)

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Thanks Marion and Melanie.  I'd be lost without you.

Answer 1

An update to this "saga" of discovery, thanks to Marion Poole for the information regards the first marriage of Samuel to Georgiana Rowles (who signed as Georgeina) in 1833 - not "Catherine Bowles".

Last week I made the time and sent a correction in to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, and have just now received this response (the bold emphasis is mine) :

Dear Melanie (if I may)

Thanks for taking to time to point out the errors in our article on Samuel Blackall. As you say, these errors have been perpetuated in publication after publication and it is indeed time they were corrected. I have asked our online person to enter the changes. They should appear within a couple of days.

 Once again, my thanks.

 Best wishes, Malcolm

Dr Malcolm Allbrook

Acting General Editor, Australian Dictionary of Biography

Acting Director, National Centre of Biography

Editor, Australian Journal of Biography and History

Chief Investigator, 'An Indigenous Australian Dictionary of Biography' (ARC Discovery Grant)

 

School of History

Research School of Social Sciences

The Australian National University

(edited to re-add the bold) 

Comments

Fantastic work, Melanie.  As always.  Thank you. Regards, Ken

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Thanks for the star, but it still belongs to Marion.

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I have submitted corrections (regards Samuel's marriages and children) to a few places, but this was the hardest as they requited the primary documents, and I didn't have that for the 1833 marriage to Georgiana until the other day.

This is also the ONLY place that has responded at all.

Answer 2

First name(s) Samuel Wensley

Last name Blackall

Year 1824

County -

Record set Alumni Dublinenses - 1924 Edition

Category Education & work

Subcategory Schools & Education

Collections from Ireland

© Findmypast

Comments

First name(s) Samuel Wensley

Last name Blackall

Year 1857

Place -

Parish -

County Longford

Covering date Jan-Apr 1857

Volume 044

Document 008

Record set Landed Estates Court Rentals 1850-1885

Category Census, land & surveys

Subcategory Land & Estates

Collections from Ireland

© IIM & Findmypast

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Were there 2 of the same name?

First name(s) Samuel Wensley

Last name Blackall

Residence Street, Longford

Marriage year 1833

Parish St George, Hanover Square

Spouse's first name(s) Georgeina

Spouse's last name Rowles

Spouse residence St George Hanover Square

County Middlesex

Country England

Archive

City of Westminster Archives Centre

Record set Westminster Marriages

Category Life Events (BDMs)

Subcategory Parish Marriages

Collections from England, Great Britain

Westminster Archives

Transcriptions © brightsolid online publishing

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Richard Millard Head Married Male 52 1799 Trunk Maker Middlesex, England

Mary Millard Wife Married Female 34 1817 - Witheridge, Devon, England

Ann Leet Servant Unmarried Female 18 1833 House Servant St Giles, Middlesex, England

Ann Pinchin Servant Widow Female 46 1805 House Servant Hatfield Peverel, Essex, England

Robert Stevens Visitor Unmarried Male 38 1813 Gentn Fulham, Middlesex, England

Samuel W Blackall Lodger Unmarried Male 41 1810 Major Ireland

Hugh Mc C Barklie Lodger Unmarried Male 24 1827 Gent Ireland

First name(s) Samuel W

Last name Blackall

Relationship Lodger

Marital status Unmarried

Sex Male

Age 41

Birth year 1810

Occupation Major

Birth place Ireland

Birth place as transcribed Ireland

Birth town -

Birth county -

Street Craven Street

Town -

Parish St Martin in the Fields

City Westminster

County London, Middlesex

Hamlet -

Parliamentary borough Westminster

Municipal ward -

Registration district St Martin in the Fields

Archive reference HO107

Piece number 1481

Folio 200

Page 23

Record set 1851 England, Wales & Scotland Census

Category Census, land & surveys

Subcategory Census

Collections from Great Britain, England

© brightsolid online publishing ltd

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Thanks, Marion. I'll study these in the morning (just passed midnight here).  Yes, I'm intrigued by the Bowles and Rowles.  They're almost too coincidental.  And maybe there were two Samuel Wensley Blackalls about that time.

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Rowles is probably a miswritten Bowles.

There is a daughter, Adelaid(e) Georgina (married to a Commander Ernest Gray Lamberton Cochrane RN) listed as the child of Samuel and Kate Bond, who appears to have died in 1870.  The problem I have with this right now is, she was supposedly born about 1836, but Blackall and Bond didn't marry until 1858.

Samuel appears in the newspaper notice of Adelaid(e)'s marriage to Cochrane.

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According to his Will, there was a surviving child, son Robert, of Colamber Manor.

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I reverse the "miswritten".  I think the ADoB entry has it incorrect, as the marriage in 1833 was to Georgiana Rowles.  (Documented.)

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ADoB also has the "predeceased by two children" incorrect because (as already stated) his son was his sole executor in 1871 — — —

UNLESS the son, Robert, was also by the first wife, as I believe the daughter was.  It is possible Samuel and Kate bond had two children neither of whom lived.  I have noted before now how deceased children are seldom noted in biographies, especially if female, especially if died young.

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I always make a point of mentioning the children, living and deceased.  My paternal great great grandmother had nine children, three of whom died under two years of age, two within three days of each other at seven and ten years (scarlet fever), and only one of the nine made it beyond 45 years of age.  She was only survived by three of her children.  These made Mary who she was, becoming a well-known local midwife in her later years.

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Oh, I wasn't querying the mention of the children.  (I, too, always mention them all.  If I'm unsure I have them all, I say "known".)

I was questioning the statement that he had only two children and that both predeceased him*, when he had a son that outlived him - as I have discovered, stated, and created a profile for.

Yes, Adelaide predeceased him, but Robert did not.  So that statement is incorrect.  This is what leads me to believe he and Catherine Bond may have had two children who did die young.  (She wasn't exactly young when they married.)  It is also what leads me to believe it is why Bond is listed as the mother of Adelaide when it really isn't probable, even if it is physically and chronologically possible.  (As I have already stated, IF Bond was the mother of Robert and Adelaide, then she and Samuel must have carried on a 20-plus year affair prior to his wife dying and their marriage.  Possible, yes.  Probable, no.)

* ADoB only says that he had two who predeceased, but makes no mention of the living.  Other sites make the claim that he had only two in total and that both died before he did. 

It didn't take a huge amount of time, or research, to discover he had a listed successor in the person of his son for the land etc.  If *I* can do it, why could the professionals not?

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Thanks for the star Kenneth, but I think we all deserve it. I love the collaboration of this site.