The Ridgers of Oz
Updated 12th
January 2003 (underlined)
Last issue 6th
January 2003
There has been some new developments on the ‘family
tree’ front and it all started at the beginning of December 2002. It looks like
we are re-establishing the links between the Hampshire Ridgers and relatives in
Australia and how we got there.
This is a description of how it came about
and the current situation.
In August of 2002 Christine Watson posted the following message on a board at ancestory.com :~
William Ridgers, Great Great Grandfather
born Hampshire 1830 migrated to Tasmania Australia in 1855 with his sister
Elizabeth, her husband William Rapley & their children. My Grandmother
corresponded with cousins Ridgers in Bognor Regis England thro'out her life. A
story passed down is that William's father, also named William was a soldier at
the Battle of Waterloo. Can anyone shed more light on the Ridgers family in
England, especially William and Waterloo.
Regards
Christine
I saw this on 4 December as a result of an idle
search on google.com for “William Ridgers”. I replied pointing out that I had
both William and Elizabeth on the family tree but that there was a
disconnection in the given name of William’s father. The next message exchange
indicated that William’s age was given as 25 (in 1855) and Elizabeth was
30. This was another ‘disconnection’ as
our Elizabeth was born in 1831 making her 24 in 1855.
However the two names and the links to Hampshire plus
the modern links to Bognor Regis suggested there was still a good chance of
finding a link. I pointed Christine to the Web Page and ‘the book’.
It may be handy to have look at the family tree at
this point:~
Colin found George’s (G2) death
certificate and he and his second wife Mary (M3)
both died at 5 Brewery Lane, Bognor Regis. At the suggestion of Peter Ridgers
in Chichester Colin had written to Maude Hey in Australia without success. This
is documented in ‘the book’ and when Christine saw this and sent an email:~
Ian
I have just read Colin and Heather's book on your web
site. I quote . . . . . .
"During correspondence with a PETER RIDGERS of
Chichester he mentioned that
his mother still corresponded with a relative in
Australia, by the name of
MAUDE HAY. Despite several letters to her I did not
receive a reply". . . .
. . .
Maude Hay is my dear departed grandmother. Guess she
didn't reply as she
had passed away. I still have some of her letters,
newspaper cuttings &
photos of Fred & Lil Ridgers of Bogner Regis -
these being the Ridgers
"cousins" my grandmother & Great Aunt
Win were in contact with. I also
corresponded with one of this family as a child. His
name was Roger Gilbert.
Happy times
Christine
At his point we still had not resolved the two
disconnections (Elizabeth’s age and William/Elizabeth’s father’s name. But we
did have the connection to Maude Hey
but Maude was not specifically on the family tree. Maude did give us
strong circumstancial evidence of a link to George & Mary through the
connections with Bognor Regis .
Then Christine sent this:~
Ian
Thanks for putting the photos of the graves on the
web.
Don't know any connections as yet but surely must be
somewhere along the line.
William Ridgers came to Tasmania on board the ship Wanderer arriving in
Hobart 13th Feb 1855. He was aged 25 years, Church of
England religion,
could read, native place was Hampshire, trade a
shepherd. He came with his
sister Elizabeth age 30, farm servant, & her
husband William Rapley, farm
labourer of Berkshire. Both C of E and could read.
The Rapley children who
travelled with their parents were Thomas age 10,
William 5, George 2, & Ann
was born on the voyage out. They all came as assisted
immigrants Cost 71
pounds 10 shillings for the Rapley family & 22
pounds for William. Walter
Synnott applied to bring them out and he would have
paid for their passage
out. He would have been (haven't chased after Synott as
yet) a landholder
in Tasmania. Labour was short at the time so the
landholders paid the
passages out for the migrants. The migrants then
worked for the landholder
for a time in payment for the passage.
Regards for now
Christine
This mail offered a solution to Elizabeth’s age. As stated the children that travelled with
Elizabeth were:~ Thomas (10), William (5), George (2) and Ann (0) born on the
voyage. Now firstly it seems a little
strange that the it’s the second child that was named William like his father
(William Rapley) rather than the first or none at all. And secondly with gaps
of 3 and 2 years between 2nd, 3rd and 4th why
is there a gap of 5 years between 1st and 2nd? It’s not
as if family planning could have played a role in this! The current
speculation is that the Thomas that travelled with Elizabeth and her husband
was not their son at all but the son of John’s (J1) second wife Mary (M1) who
was in fact Thomas White, not related to Elizabeth or her husband apart from
being a sort of half-step-brother to Elizabeth. He would actually have been 10
or 11 in 1855! [Recent document sent
by Christine relating to Immigration details for Rapley family and William
Ridgers says of Thomas Rapley (White):~
Entered on the Bounty ticket presented as 10 yrs but stated by father to be 12
Thomas White was born 1844 making him 11 in 1855. Would a man like
William Rapley not know the age of his oldest son? The fact that his confusion is recorded indicates that everything
was suspicious at the point of entry.
Then Christine sent me a photograph of William taken around 1890, and I compared that with William James Pelly (W3), my Grand father and posted in on this web site. you can see the comparison for yourself. Click here
I have, today 06/01/03), picked up a copy of the Entry of Marriage for Elizabeth’s marriage to
William Rapley dated 15th March 1852. Unfortunately both parties
ages are given as ‘full age’. Elizabeth’s
father’s name is given as John Ridgers (Ridges) which is the last disconnection
we needed to resolve. QED!
I will attempt to keep this page up to date, things
change by the hour at the moment!
IanR
Click here to go to the ridgers.org.uk home
page