My great- great -grandmother Fanny O’Brien (see above entry 1507 in the Catholic Parish Registers Diocese of Killaloe, County Clare, Ireland) was baptised 1 June 1834. Her parents Darby and Letice (Roche) of Knockadereen and sponsors John Scanlan and Biddy O’Brien of (nearby) Garenboy were present. You already know that she arrived in Sydney with her parents and 3 sisters, Maria, Bridget and Letitia, at the age of 5, in March 1839. When she was 16 she married William Hubbard (Hubberd/Hubbert) (overseer of Tenterfield Station) on 6 August, 1850. William Hubbard was the Australian born son of First Fleeter convict and later Sydney Constable and Waterman (William Hubbard Senior) and his second wife (convict) Hannah Whitelock/Whitlock.

The NSW Register of Births records 5 children from this union: First there was William Hubbard (birth registered in Gundagai as William Hubbart) in 1853. The next registered births were Jeremiah F. Hubbard 1862, Letitia A. Hubbard 1865, Emma M. Hubbard, 1867 and there was another daughter Frances Elizabeth Hubbard (married and divorced Peter Ryan and later married Andrew Crawley) but I haven’t found her birth registration. Then on 4 June 1869 my great-grand-father Henry Charles Hubbard was born at Barrigan in the Mudgee district. I need to do more research but it’s possible that Fanny and her then 15 year old eldest son William found work on Barrigan Station at the end of 1868, through necessity after her husband William Hubbard died in Inverell Hospital, NSW on 27 May, 1868. His death certificate states that death was due to a 6 week illness caused by bronchitis. Henry Charles Hubbard’s name later changed to Gardener when his mother married George Gardener in 1869. Henry Charles was given the Hubbard name at birth but he could not have been William Hubbard’s son as he was born on 4 June 1869, just over 12 months after William Hubbard’s death. Was George Gardener from Somerton his father? We can’t be certain about that – more details to follow in a separate post on Henry Charles Gardener. And now, a real surprise – genealogical gold in the form of a newspaper article reporting on the ”97th” birthday celebrations in Darlington Sydney, of Frances (Fanny) Gardiner (Hubbard)! Via the reporter, Frances herself gives us a snapshot summary of her whole life, just one month before her death in August 1927. Most importantly, the article confirms that the O’Briens did make use of family connections on their arrival in Sydney in 1839. For several years, they lived (and most likely worked) at Barham, Darlinghurst, at the home of the Colonial Secretary Sir Edward Deas Thomson, who was married to Anne Maria Bourke (second daughter of ex-Governor of NSW Sir Richard Bourke) to whom Letitia O’Brien was distantly related. Remember that Letitia’s brother Edward Roche married his first cousin Maria Theresa Bourke (a second cousin of Sir Richard Bourke). I am interested to know how these connections to the ex-Governor of NSW and to the Colonial Secretary assisted our ancestors however it seems that Sir Richard Bourke also helped many immigrants (unrelated to him) to find work. After his death, there was widespread acknowledgment of his kindness and empathy for immigrants looking for work in the Colony. He would personally write to potential employers to recommend people for work. Let’s enjoy this amazing newspaper article (see below). Frances/Fanny O’Brien/Hubbard/ Gardiner describes some lively events that she experienced in her lifetime. The digitised newspaper article is in pretty poor shape so I have made a transcript for easier reading – see transcript in bold below the article.

”On Saturday, July 9, over 100 persons gathered in the Darlington Town Hall to celebrate the 97th birthday of Mrs Gardiner. Born in Ireland in 1830, she arrived in Sydney in 1840 with her parents and three sisters. They were met by Sir Edward Thompson (Colonial Secretary), and taken to a house called Barham in Darlinghurst, where they lived for some years. Mrs Gardiner was first married in Sydney to a Mr Hubbard. They left Sydney by a sailing ship, The Tamar, for Grafton, and after a couple of days rest, left for Tenterfield on horseback. Over a week was taken to complete the journey, and being the first time the then Mrs Hubbard had ridden a horse, one can imagine her pluck in completing the journey. Mr Hubbard was overseer on Tenterfield Station, and on arrival at the place, she says she cried all day. There were wild blacks about in those days, and she was very frightened for a time. she related how on one occasion she had to threaten a blackfellow with a loaded gun, who retreated, tomahawk in hand, at sight of the gun. In time the blacks got very quiet, and would often arrive with raspberries, knowing they would receive something in return.

Three years after arrival, Mr and Mrs Hubbard, accompanied by a child six months old, again went on horseback to Grafton, on their way to Sydney. During the night on board ship prior to sailing they had a narrow escape. The blacks who did not like the Captain of the ship, crept down and set fire to it, but fortunately, it was seen in time and extinguished.

After a short holiday they returned to Tenterfield Station. The then Mrs Hubbard was an expert at making cabbage tree hats. The blacks would bring cabbage tree from as far as Newton Boyd for her. She would then treat it and make the hats. She made one for a Mr Cowper (Lady Donaldson’e brother). Sir Stewart Donaldson was the owner of Tenterfield Station, and one time Premier of New South Wales. She remembers the first circus to come to Tenterfield, at which Mr Cowper presented one of the performers with a 5 pound note for a graceful exhibition of the Highland Fling. Mrs Hubbard was also present at the first race meeting held at Tenterfield, and she made a Union Jack to be flown at the meeting. She was presented with a lady’s whip from the Jockey Club by Mr Canning, the president of the club.

After spending some years on Tenterfield Station they moved to Goonoo Goonoo Station, near Tamworth, then managed by a Mr King. During her time she came in contact with Thunderbolt, but was not afraid of him, and he was always welcome to a meal at her place. She says he was forced to take to the bush. From Goonoo Goonoo her husband was sent to Myall Creek Station, near Inverell, on business, and whilst there became ill and died at Inverell.

Some years later Mrs Hubbard married a Mr Gardiner at Somerton. She recalls a flood at Tamworth when the water of the low-lying parts were under water. Mrs Gardiner is the mother of 10 children, those living being, Mr F. Hubbard (Quirindi), Mrs Crawley (Zetland), Mrs J.Keats (Glen Innes), Mrs Johnstone (Darlington), Mrs Knight (Melbourne), and Mrs Legatt (Newtown). There are 17 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren living. ”

I found another newspaper article (see below) about our Frances O’Brien’s 97th birthday party. It records much the same information as the above article including her meeting with Thunderbolt and her arrival in Sydney in 1840 as a child, with her family, being met by the Colonial Secretary and his wife Lady Thompson (a daughter of ex-Governor Bourke) ‘who drove them by carriage to a home in Darlinghurst.’ The new information pertains to Fanny’s father, Jeremiah O’Brien who the article records ‘was a stonemason by trade, and took his contract of church building from Bishop Broughton of the Church of England.’ It’s possible that Jeremiah worked on the St Andrew’s Cathedral in George St, Sydney but also likely that he worked on other church buildings in regional NSW or further afield in Victoria, where two of his daughters (Maria and Anna) settled after marriage. I am still looking for Jeremiah’s record of death and/or grave so perhaps Jeremiah’s work on Church building projects, is an important clue pointing to his possible departure from Sydney (and his wife) and could explain why there is no acknowledgement of him (dead or alive) at the time of his wife’s death in Sydney in 1889, in her death or funeral notices. Jeremiah’s immigration record states that he was a farm servant. As there was a need for agricultural workers, perhaps Jeremiah found it easier to immigrate under an agricultural classification and then reverted to his true trade as soon as he was able to find work?

Understandably, newspaper reports of Fanny’s 97th birthday highlighted the most exciting events in her life. I found a much earlier (1868) newspaper article which describes a very sad scenario. By the end of 1868, Fanny was widowed with 5 children and expecting our great -grandfather, Henry Charles, when she fronted Armidale Police Court on 1st December with a desperate request to surrender her children to an institution because she could no longer support them. Her request was denied because the Court determined that she was a woman able to work. Furthermore, her 15 year old son was deemed capable of working to support the family because he was accustomed to station work. See 3rd paragraph below.

One year after her Armidale Court appearance and six months after the birth of Henry Charles Hubbard, Fanny married George Gardener from Somerton (about 38 km from Tamworth) on 6 December 1869. See Marriage certificate below. George Gardener was a landowner and farmer in Somerton, selecting his small block in 1859.

It is interesting to note that Fanny does not mention her son Henry Charles (my great-grandfather) when she lists her living descendants at her 97th birthday celebrations. NSW Register of Births records the registration of 4 births to George and Frances Gardener. They were Matilda C. Gardiner in 1871, Florence Gardener in 1874, George O’Brien Gardiner in 1877 and Ellen Maude Gardner in 1879. I found a baptism record for another daughter Laura M. Gardner in 1872 aged 10 months (St Josephs, Gunnedah) but no registration of her birth.