The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.49 No.1 | June 2022

Member’s article

This is one of these stories. Thomas OXNAM and his wife Mary nee PHILLIPS left Cornwall with their family between 1873 and 1879. Thomas had been baptised in East Newlyn in 1835, the son of James and Mary OXNAM. James was a farmer and in 1851 had 21 acres at Nanhellen near Newlyn. Mary PHILLIPS was born on May 10th 1840 in the parish of Saint Agnes the daughter of William and Mary PHILLIPS nee SPARGO . William stated that he was an innkeeper when he registered the birth. On January 11th 1860 Thomas applied for a licence to marry Mary who was then 20 years of age. The consent of her guardian Hugh PHILLIPS was obtained as her father was dead. On January 17th 1860 Mary Phillips gave birth to a daughter, Mary, at Fiddlers Green, Newlyn. As can be seen on the birth certificate Thomas Oxnam owned to being the father when he registered the birth on January 19th and gave his occupation as a butcher. Thomas and Mary married on March 14th 1860 in East Newlyn. In the 1861 census Thomas and Mary can be found in Church Town, Newlyn, the surname transcribed as OXMAN . By that time they had two daughters, Mary age 1 and Susan age 2 months who were baptised together on May 5th that year. Thomas was a farmer and butcher. During the next 10 years the family increased with the births of James, William Phillips (given his mother’s maiden name), Edward, Caroline and Alfred. The census of 1871 shows Thomas was now farming 20 acres and employed 2 men. He had added the fact that Britons Dying Overseas

not only was he a farmer and butcher but an innkeeper as well and they were living at a leasehold property known as Nanhellan Meadows in the hamlet of Mitchell in the parish of Newlyn. The four eldest children were said to be scholars. Thomas and Mary also employed Jane GLENVILLE age 30 as a housemaid and Bessie GLENVILLE age 12 as a nursemaid. On April 30th 1872 Thomas was sole executor of his father’s will. Mary gave birth to a daughter, Hetta, in 1873 who died in the spring of 1874. In 1875 a son, Sydney, was born. Early in 1877 Thomas was being pursued by his creditors. On Friday February 16th there was an advertisement in the Royal Cornwall Gazette for an auction for the sale of the lease of Nanhellon Meadows where Thomas was farming stating that he would be quitting the premises by Lady Day which is March 25th. It seems that the family were still living at Nanhellon past Lady Day as all their furniture and other chattels were not destined to go under the hammer until April 27th. AUSTRALIA BOUND . Thomas, Mary and their seven children arrived in Maryborough on July 29th 1877 aboard the City of Agra . Mary gave birth to two more children, one in November 1877 and the other in December 1880, both named Hetta, and both dying within six months of their birth, Assistant immigration agents in Maryborough were responsible for providing information and services to immigrants in the area, for example relating to accommodation and rations at immigration depots. Importantly, they helped arrange employment opportunities for immigrants. Assistant

10