Z is for Zeal

 

Moxon Society logo

Zeal or enthusiasm is something the members of the Moxon Society have in bucketsful.

In the late 1980s, James "Jimmy" Roland Moxon, together with Richard "Dick" Moxon, a descendant of the publisher and mentor of poets, Edward Moxon met each other and since both had written extensively about their ancestors, they decided to put together a book entitled "The Moxons of Yorkshire".  

To facilitate its production and marketing, Jimmy Moxon wrote and distributed a newsletter which became the first issue of the Moxon Magazine. It was sent to as many people with t anhe Moxon surname that could be found in directories and electoral rolls.  Contacts in North America and Australia helped.

This generated a great deal of interest amongst Moxons and Moxhams and it was decided to form The Moxon Society in 1990.

Members took on various roles:

• contributing to and publishing the Magazine which before too long turned into a glossy biannual publication
• writing a family tree software program (John Moxon Hill) and later transferring the different trees to Gedcom files (John Earnshaw and others)
• finding wills and transcribing them (Graham Jagger and others)
• commencing a Y-dna project for the Moxon surname (Ed Moxon) and much later an AncestryDNA autosomal project (Graham Jagger)
• constantly revising the Moxon history including refuting some stories in the Moxons of Yorkshire publication
• building Ancestry trees for all known families and attempting to link them together using original source records and DNA evidence (Chris Moxon, Philip Lord and Graham Jagger) and organising tree guardians from amongst the members
• developing and maintaining the Moxon Society website (John Earnshaw, Margaret Tucker Moxon and more recently Trevor Jordan) and developing a members only resource website called Moxon research (Trevor Jordan with input by Chris Moxon, Philip Lord and Graham Jagger)
• publishing more books written by members
• organising annual gatherings of Moxons in different geographic locations in the UK (many members)
• developing and maintaining membership records, marketing the Society through social media
• monitoring and using newspaper articles about Moxons and Moxhams
• co-ordinating membership in Australia (two different Margaret Moxons in Queensland and New South Wales
• writing the Moxons Down Under Newsletter (Margaret Moxon in Queensland and then John Moxon in New South Wales)
• a myriad other tasks keeping the Society running and members interested.

This is zeal or enthusiasm for hard work, driven by volunteers with an interest in connecting Moxons and telling our family stories.

Three cheers for The Moxon Society.

Y is for Yorkie Jim

 

Keelmen heaving coal by night

When a potential member with the surname Moxon from Wagga Wagga rang us to enquire about the Moxon Society in 2014 and said his ancestors settled in Sofala, a goldmining area near Bathurst, NSW, I immediately assumed that he was related to a large Moxon family descended from early settlers Robert and Sarah Moxon from Stewkley, Cambridgeshire.  That couplde settled in Bathurst in 1849, and members Matt McGrath and David Michael are just two of their descendants.

That tree used to be called MX11, but it has now been incorporated into MX01.

But I quickly discovered that this new member's tree bore no links to our "Bathurst" Moxons.

His grandparents were Henry James Moxon (1867-1939) and Emily Burton (1872-1931).  Henry was born in Sofala, the third of nine children born in New South Wales to James Moxon (1829-1903) and Sophia J. Stafford (?-1902).  They had married in Sofala in 1861.

Our new member's grandfather moved to Tamworth after the gold rushes and became a butcher, whilst other members of the family moved to Crookwell where Sophia Stafford had lived.

James was known to his descendants as "Yorkie Jim", another reason to doubt the link to the Stewkley Moxons.  It seems that this was a contemporary nickname since there are newspaper articles mentioning this.

James Moxon was baptised in 1829 in Hatfield, Yorkshire, the son of James Moxon and Elizabeth Lockwood.  He was a member of a family of keelmen who spent generations on the Yorkshire rivers and canals beteen Sheffield, Stainforth, Thorne and Hull.  Many later settled in Hull or Sculcoates.

The following is paraphrased from this website http://www.stainforthonline.co.uk/2001/canal_keel_families.htm#Moxon.

Here is an extract from that site:

Families associated with the Stainforth Waterside 1800-1930

It seems many visitors to this site are interested in their family origins, especially those whose ancestors were keel folk and canal folk.

This is a list of names and details I have come across while searching for information about the canal and the people who lived there at the turn of the 19th century.  This list had come from various sources, including Fred Schofield's book, "Humber Keels and Keelmen."

Moxon

I don't have much information about the Moxon family, other than they lived and worked on Stainforth's waterside.

Christine Hemsworth: The Moxon's are associated with Stainforth from way back and are mariners.  Some lived in Thorne but there are plenty of them on the census returns right back to 1851 and probably before, there are some in the cemetry there.  They, along with the other oldies, the Hinchcliffe and the Shirtliffes, were sail makers and all intermarried at some point.  You find children such as Alsop Moxon and Hasting Hinchcliffe keeping the two names together.  In Thorne cemetery you can walk around the graves and you can pick out the ones with anchors on them.

And interesting, our new members Moxon family can be linked to the family of a John Moxon whose sons moved from Thorne to Hull by the 1860s and established a Humber Keel business.

The common ancestor of the Wagga Wagga Moxons and the George Moxon in Hull are John Moxon (c1772-1853) who married Mary Shilloto (1776-1850) from Thorne in Yorkshire.

John Moxon is described as a waterman in the 1841 census.  In 1851 he was described as a retired mariner, living with his son Matthew, also a waterman.

There is an item in the Moxon Magazine Issue 13, April 1994 which explores more recent history of this family.

And as an aside, there appears to be no link between this family and the Moxons of Hull from whom Septimus Moxon (see S is for Septimus) is descended.

The painting above is by J. M. W. Turner - ArtDaily.org, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18736905

 

 

X is for an X-mark signature

Elizabeth Moakson's mark

 This was more common amongst women than men in the 19th century.

We often come across marriage certificates in parish records in England and Australia where the wife's signature was an X, indicating that she could not write her name.  This event was probably the only time a woman had to sign, every other document being the responsibility of the husband.  A will would have been the only other document I can think of, and many women without independent assets and/or education died intestate.

Sometimes the marriage certificate was filled out completely by the vicar or curate - this was the case for the 1836 marriage of Isaac Moxon and Sarah Middleton at St John's, Kirkby Wharfe in Yorkshire.  In this case, the witness - a male signed with an X.  Maybe Isaac and Sarah were too proud to write their own names or mark.

On the other hand, when Isaac's elder son Joshua Middleton Moxon married 30 years later, both he and Louisa Mary Wilkinson could sign their names.  Schooling was more widespread for boys by the late 1840s, even amongst poor families.  Joshua aged 10 and his brother John aged 7 were both shown as scholars in the 1851 census.  Joshua probably needed schooling to avoid working in the mines and to become a stone carving apprentice.

Louisa was also shown as a scholar, living with her Thorpe aunts in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. 

The image above is a snip from Elizabeth Moakson's marriage record (1804) to Thomas Robinson in Yorkshire. It shows that whilst both fathers and the bridegroom could sign their names, Elizabeth (Isaac's sister) could not.

Using an X or another symbol as a  substitute for a name is still legal in many jurisdictions today, including Australia.

W is for Warrnambool

 

Warrnambool in 1880s

Who were the Moxons from Warrnambool?

In the list of World War 1 Australian servicemen named Moxon, two brothers are listed as being born in Warrnambool, Victoria in 1892 and 1894.  They were Albert John and George William Moxon, the sons of George Clifton Moxon and Honora (Annie) Shanley.

George Clifton Moxon must have lived at Killarney (near Warrnambool) - probably farming - until early in the 20th century because five boys and three younger girls were born to them in Killarney between 1888 and 1906.

However, from 1903 George and Annie are listed as living in Melbourne's east.

The eldest was Walter Thomas Moxon who married Alice O'Neill, had a large family, including sons to carry on the name, and also lived in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

George William was listed as a farmer in 1916 when he enlisted for World War 1 in Warrnambool, but after the war, he moved to Melbourne, as did his older brother in arms Albert John Moxon.

It seems that the farming life did not suit this family.

George Clifton Moxon was born in Cawthorne, Yorkshire in 1859, the son of Walter Moxon and Elizabeth Ann Crowther.  He was listed in the 1881 census as a 21-year-old butcher - a trade followed by many Cawthorne Moxons.  He obviously came to Australia prior to 1887 since he married Annie Shalney that year in Victoria.  However, to date, a shipping record has not been found.

It is probable that this Moxon family now extends into five or six generations in Melbourne since Walter Thomas Moxon (1888-1962) had three sons, all of whom married.  Wouldn't it be nice to find them and invite them to join the Moxon Society.

This family is another branch of The Moxon Society's tree MX01, the Moxons of Cawthorne, Yorkshire.

V is for Vernon

 

Shirley meets Pamella and Lindsay

One of John's Moxon second cousins who he didn't know about till very recently, died in 1950 giving birth to twins.  The twins survived and their devastated father was left with five motherless children.  The father, Harrington Vernon had already lost his first wife.  Losing Miriam (nee Moxon) was too much for him to bear.  Sadly he was admitted to the Callan Park Psychiatric Hospital and the children were placed in a faith-based children's home.

The superintendent and his wife took to the babies and it was arranged for them to be adopted.  How this could occur whilst the father was a scheduled mental health patient is questionable.  When he regained his health he did question the adoption but did not have the emotional or financial resources to do anything about it.  Some trouble ensued and he was banned from visiting any of the children.

Meanwhile, his three eldest children - eight-year-old and four-year-old girls and a boy just two - were admitted to the same children's home.  The older girl, Yvonne was very aware that the twins were her siblings, made sure Pamella and Lindsay also knew, but they were never allowed to acknowledge their relationship. The day they were admitted, Yvonne looked at the Superintendent and said "I know who you are, you're the man who took away our new babies."

Her fate was sealed that very moment: the torment, torture and brutality began for her at that instant and never stopped.

Yvonne was clutching the last remaining belongings of their mother in an old Whitman's tin box containing their mother's meagre possessions including a small bottle of Midnight Blue perfume in a purple bottle with a tassle, perming solution, butterfly clips and a cameo pill box.  All of these things were taken one by one by the superintendent who studied them and then threw them into a black waste paper basket with the cold-hearted comments ..."Umm, you won't be needing these things here".

He then turned to Pamella, as she held her knitted dolly "Mrs Magoofie".  He asked to have a look.  He then smelt it, frowned and chucked her into the waste paper basket, again uttering "you won't be needing that horrible, smelly thing here either."

That was their horrific and traumatic introduction to the faith-run children's home.  The torment remains with Pamella today, as it did with her sister, now deceased.

Until Christmas 2015, they had no contact with her mother's Moxon family.  But idly scrolling through Facebook on her new phone, Pamella noticed a Douglas Moxon and messaged him.  Could they be related?  Douglas didn't think so but gave her our phone number as co-ordinators of Moxons Down Under.  Margaret & John will know, he told her.

Margaret listened to Pamella's story and quickly realised that she and her siblings were related to John.  She also realised that Pamella had a living aunt who was born a year or so later than her niece Pamella. 

The aunt, Shirley was really amazed.  She had heard vaguely that her father had been married before and might have had other children but had not met any.  She and Pamella and later, younger brother Lindsay met each other in 2016 and are now very close.

Pamella has also met many other Moxon cousins, mostly at the Easter time reunion held at Stuart Town near Orange.  One of Joshua's sons, Alfred became a builder there and made his mark in the town, then called Ironbark.

U is for Uncle John

Three men named John Moxon

Either during World War 1 or soon afterwards, John Bruce Moxon's grandmother Ellen Mary Moxon (nee Egan) left Wrightville for Sydney with her five daughters so that they could benefit from a secondary school education.  The girls went to Fort Street Girls High School and matriculated, with two obtaining teaching positions and the others also taking up interesting work.

The youngest girl was born in 1913.  When she was 11, her mother Ellen adopted a baby boy and named him John.  That was in 1924 when Ellen was 51 and living in the inner city.

There was no formal adoption process in New South Wales before 1931 and his mother and older siblings never discussed his possible origins with young John. They saw it as their mother's job, if at all. The girls' father Harry Moxon was not around to raise him because he had settled in Lake Cargellico by 1921 and remained there for many years.  The two boys, born in 1900 and 1902 had left home.  John spent much of his childhood living on his eldest sister’s farm near Port Macquarie. His mother died when he was 19 or 20 and may have been ill during his teenage years.

The family story, never discussed with John, was that he was the child of a young girl who worked in a greengrocer's shop and that either she was Greek or the father was Greek.  The next generation, more recently mused that maybe he was the son of one of the older girls who were 18 and 16 at the time of his birth.  This scenario was not unusual in those days. In fact, until the 70s, many young people found out that their oldest sister was really their mother.

John grew up, married, and had two children. He was marketing manager for Sidchrome Australia.  Prior to that he worked with his oldest brother Percy at his spare parts business at Enmore and had served an apprenticeship with the NSW Railways.

He never discussed his parentage.  In fact, when his brother Herbert John (Bert) Moxon was in his early 80s and showing signs of dementia, John knocked on his door and door and Bert said “who are you? Oh, you’re the young boy my mother took in!”.  The rest of the family was aghast.  It certainly was a conversation stopper.

However lacking in curiosity John was, his daughter was the opposite.  She wanted to know her origins.  She asked her father to take a DNA test but he adamantly refused.  She asked me what she could do.  I suggested that she take a test and maybe she could get some answers.  Not as good as having her father test, but better than nothing. 

When the results arrived, her DNA showed she was 25% Greek, so either her paternal grandfather or grandmother was definitely Greek but probably not both of them.  She had been told about a possible father with a Greek name by one of her older cousins and I found (in the electoral roll) that there was a fruitier working in the Haymarket, near where Ellen Moxon’s family lived in the early 20s. He later married and moved to Western Australia.

The next objective was to check whether she was related to her Moxon cousins.  She had been very close to some of them including her oldest cousin who set us on the family history journey in the 80s.  We held our breath waiting for a gedmatch.com match between her and John Bruce Moxon (Bert’s son)  or one of the few Moxon first cousins who had taken a test.  These included the daughter, Wendy of the oldest sister.

There were no matches.

This was sad.  His daughter was their popular cousin.  But it ruled out one of the Moxon girls being his mother.

Nevertheless, John Moxon was a dearly loved member of the Moxon family.  Since retirement, John Bruce Moxon and I have had lunch with him regularly at his local club.  In recent years he had been admitted to a residential care facility in the inner west but was still fairly mobile.  He passed away on 2nd February this year.

The photo above was taken at John’s 80th birthday party in October 2018. The other John Moxon is John’s second cousin from Orange, New South Wales.  It was the first time that the three John Moxons had met.

T is for Thomas Moxham

Sixpenny Handley, Dorset

Many of our Moxon Society members have been introduced to each other when travelling overseas or have become friendly through Facebook, and this contributes to collaboration on research. It is always a delight when members on different sides of the world solve a problem with a newly discovered Moxon, Moxam, Moxim or Moxham. It’s even better when we can connect a new member – in this case Mary Moxham, originally from Sydney but now living in Queensland – to the research.

Member Philip Lord from the UK recently sent me a portrait of a World War 1 soldier.  His name was Frederick Moxham.

I quickly found that he was from South Australia and that his parents were Thomas Moxam/Moxham and Mary Ann Brooks who were listed in our tree The Moxhams of Ebbesbourne Wake, Wiltshire or MX37.  This tree has many living descendants spread around the English-speaking world.

So, Thomas, although born in Dorset, must have emigrated to Australia.  And indeed he did.

The Adelaide Register announced the arrival on 28th November 1859 of the David McIvor, a ship of 968 tons, with 383 government (sponsored) immigrants.  The ship had left Liverpool on 27th August. One of these passengers was Thomas Moxham from Dorset, England.

Here is an excerpt from the South Australian Register, describing the passengers:

"There are on board a large number of remittance emigrants; and as Dr. Duncan will probably have paid his visit of inspection to the vessel before she is moored in the stream, such as have friends may then leave without obstacle: - Industrial - Labourers 72, agricultural labourers 41, female servants 85, cabinetmakers 2, carpenter 1, bricklayer 1, miner 1, clerk 1, tailor 1, joiner 1, masons 4, ropemaker 1, teacher 1, smith 1, shepherd 1, moulder 1, wheelwright 1, coach builder 1, tinsmiths 3, ploughman 1, milliner 1, dairymaid 5..."

"In general appearance the vessel would seem admirably adapted for passengers; but on boarding, it was evident that there was rather a lack of that rigid discipline so necessary to the well-being of emigrant vessels, and in cleanliness perhaps a little behind many of the previous arrivals.  The people on board, though doubtless eligible persons, from the very fact of their having passed the Commissioners, certainly did not appear to be anything superior, if equal, to the occupants of former vessels, and of their conduct on the voyage it appears that at one period matters wore rather a serious aspect, from the national strifes existing amongst them ..." (29 November 1859)

Young Thomas Moxham was born in 1833 in Sixpenny Handley, Dorset, the youngest son of Henry Moxam and Sarah Elliott.  By 1841 he was the only son left at home with his parents, and in 1851 he was a junior servant working for a farmer of 600 acres employing 20 men in West Woodyates within walking distance of his home.

Aged 26 when he arrived in Adelaide, no doubt he was a useful farm labourer.  By 1863 he had married 16 years old Mary Ann Brooks and they settled in Myponga south of Adelaide and later in the Lobenthal region northwest of Adelaide, followed by Norton Summit, closer to Adelaide.  He died in Catherine Street, K) in 1909.

Three of his sons - William Thomas (b1873), John (b1875) and Frederick (b1883) served overseas in World War 1.  Two survived to produce children and grandchildren in South Australia but John died in Pozieres, France on August 10, 1916.

Ten years earlier than Thomas Moxham's migration to Adelaide, his oldest brother John Moxham had migrated to New South Wales and settled in the Maitland area.  He was the John Moxon/Moxham whose biography was published in the Moxons Down Under Newsletter, November 2016.  He arrived on the Emigrant in 1849 as a free settler.  He had married Marina Derrick in Sixpenny Handley just before they departed for the colony.  All their children were born in New South Wales.

This couple too had many children, and their descendants include our member Mary Moxham of Queensland.  Mary is an enthusiastic member who has already taken on guardianship of MX37 in association with other members.

S is for Septimus Moxon

Victorian gold rush 1860s

 Much is known about Benjamin Moxon originally of Pontefract, Yorkshire who established a pharmaceutical company in Hull in the early 19th century.  He had a large family of 12, including his ninth child - and seventh son - Septimus, born in Hull in 1824.  Unlike the rest of the family, not much was known about Septimus according to member Judith Moxon Ayres who wrote about this successful family in the Moxon Magazine No 31 in 2003.

All they knew was that Septimus had moved to London and was an insurance agent.

More recent research by myself reveals that he married an Emma Goulden, a spinster and then sailed to Victoria in the middle of the goldrushes, moved to the goldfields, and then to Geelong and Melbourne before dying in Sydney where he had business interests.

Could Septimus have been the black sheep of the family?  In the 1851 census, Emma Goulden is shown living with her parents, siblings, and baby son John Alfred Goulden in Sculcoates but on 28th July the same year, she married Septimus Moxon in a civil registration in The Strand, London. I wonder if Septimus was John Alfred's father? It is likely that Septimus' parents, Benjamin and Hannah Moxon would not have approved of a liaison with the unmarried daughter of a mariner, otherwise, they surely would have married in Hull?

The couple quickly produced two daughters, Emma (1852) and Kate (1853), probably in London although there is no record of their births.

Or was he simply adventurous or a restless soul.  We will show later that he wasn't adverse to a public lark, and may have harboured an ambition to be a professional singer. 

In the same year as Kate's birth, the family set sail for Melbourne on the Sea Nymph as unassisted passengers, most likely to make their fortune in gold.

This was a big undertaking for a family with three children under the age of four.  However, the streets of Melbourne were not paved with gold.  In fact, there was a shortage of housing and not many workers to improve the city.  Most able men had rushed off to the diggings.

Both infant girls died the same year in Collingwood, a common occurrence for babies during gold rush Melbourne.  The following year, Septimus was offering firewood for sale at his premises in Flinders Street West, so the family of three was obviously struggling.

Sadly, wife and mother Emma, daughter of Thomas Goulden, a mariner of Sculcoates died on 15th December 1857 at Cox Town, Bet Bet in the Victorian goldfields.  She was only 29.  Now known as the district of Timor near Maryborough, Cox Town had a population of 30,000 in 1857.  Imagine the primitive living conditions for a woman on the goldfields.

Whilst it is possible that Septimus was digging for gold, it is more likely he worked as an accountant or agent of some kind, given his experience.

In 1862 Septimus was advertising his services as an accountant and collector at 70 Queen Street, Melbourne.  However, in 1863 he was working as the Geelong agent for Adelaide Wines and was declared insolvent the following year.

In 1865 he was a director of the Lucky Gold Mining Company (Happy Valley near Ballarat), the fortunes of which were much improved.  In 1866 he was discharged from insolvency and had re-established his business interests in Melbourne.

In 1869, he married Mary Teresa Cremen, a nurse from Adelaide, by special license at St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral. A daughter Mary was born in Richmond, Melbourne in 1880 but she died the same year.

(John Alfred, using his mother's maiden name of Goulden, grew up and married, having two children.  This information is from a descendant of a child taken in and raised by Septimus' second wife Mary Teresa Moxon (nee Cremen).  Mary lived until 1936.)

Septimus had now lost three daughters.  Maybe his work and after-hours time spent with the Melbourne Philharmonic Society sustained him.

During the 1860s and 70s, Septimus was very active as the Melbourne Philharmonic Society's collector (treasurer?) and secretary.  According to an article in the Argus in 1868, Septimus was an accomplished performer as a bass soloist, mostly of sacred music.  He was very active singing at benefit concerts during the 1860s and 70s.

He apparently kept in touch with his family in Hull, placing a notice in the Melbourne Argus about his mother Mrs. Benjamin Moxon of Hull passing away aged 80.

By 1870, Septimus was the Manager of the Australian Ale & Bottling Company of Collins Street, Melbourne, and in 1885 he transferred the license of the Shearer's /family Hotel at Steven and Judge Streets in Sydney to a new licensee, so it is likely he worked in the hotel and brewery industry for some time.

No doubt he kept some very convivial company during business hours because an advertisement appearing in the Williamstown Chronicle, 8 December 1883 headed "Prospectus of the Ancient Goose and Gander Company" suggests that he and his friends had wicked senses of humour.

Septimus' death certificate (NSW 1887/004152) states that he died of typhoid fever on 8th March 1887 and had been ill for ten days.  He had been living in the colony of NSW for about 18 months, residing at Woodstock Terrace, 146 Underwood Rd, Paddington.

The death notice records the date of his marriage to Mary Teresa Cremen (1868) and his deceased child Mary but makes no mention of his earlier marriage or family.

His funeral notice makes no mention of his wife Mary, and he was buried at Waverley Cemetery on 10th March 1887.  It would appear that the couple was separated.  She continued to live at Richmond in Melbourne for many years, working as a nurse, taking in a small child to care for, and dying in 1936 at the age of 91.

Could it be that Septimus, the scion of a very large family in Hull, died a lonely man in the colony of New South Wales after leading a lively and sociable life in Victoria for over 30 years?  A life not without grief, losing his beloved first wife and all his children.

R is for Robert Julius Moxon

 The older brother of the two Moxon siblings who established shipping interests in Brisbane, Robert Julius Moxon or (or R.J.) was less interested in earthly pursuits and studied for the ministry.  He too had arrived from Kent but was born in Bangalore, India the son of a British Army officer.  He migrated to Sydney in 1883 at the age of 22 on the S.S. John Duthie about five years before his brothers.

Robert was ordained as an Anglican deacon in 1886, married in Camden near Sydney in 1888 and was ordained as a priest in 1889. He worked in the parishes of Lower Clarence (Maclean), Tenterfield and Inverell in North western New South Wales before being promoted to Archdeacon in Grafton.  He was also the Church of England Chaplain at Grafton Gaol for many years.

His wife was Hilda Brunskill Moran and between 1889 and 1908 they had seven children.  Sadly he died in 1910 when the youngest was only two years old.

Q is for Queensland

T.F. Moxon's house in Toowong

The Brisbane Moxons were horrified.

William Ernest Moxon and his brother Thomas Frank Moxon had followed their older brother, an Anglican priest to Queensland in 1887 and immediately set about establishing successful businesses in coastal shipping and later the timber industry.  By the time T.F. died in 1936, he was the owner of a large group of companies.  Meanwhile W.E. was headhunted by the Adelaide Steamship Company and worked in Western Australia and then back in Brisbane by 1918.

As the 1920s progressed, they began to hear more about a much younger namesake,  H.J. Moxon who was stirring up trouble on the waterfront from Cairns to Brisbane and further south.  A hothead if ever there was one, a Communist no less.

By this time Bert (Herbert John) Moxon was becoming one of Queensland’s dynamic leaders, working with J B Miles to consolidate and build branches in Brisbane and North Queensland.  He worked to prevent a merger with the Labor Party in 1924   He was sent to Moscow in 1928 to attend meetings of the Third Comintern. 

It was also during this time that Bert Moxon was advised to “get out of Cairns quickly”, only later learning that another person had been killed and found floating in the harbour (and incorrectly identified as Bert Moxon).

He also became a central figure in the lead up to the 1929 Queensland election by having “left” candidates successfully stand against Labor Party candidates.

There was no way that the other Moxon family wanted to be associated with Bert,

In the Brisbane Courier on 24 July 1928, the following public notice appeared:

Mr W.E. Moxon (Queensland Manager for the Adelaide Steamship Co. Ltd, Brisbane) who is well known in shipping and mercantile circles desires it to be known that he is not related to Mr. H.J. Moxon, who represented the Central Executive of the Communist Party of Australia in Soviet Russia recently, and who is now in Brisbane.

These days, descendants of the two different families (MX05 and MX27 trees in The Moxon Society) are friends on Facebook and have met each other socially.  The Sydney descendants of each family also went to Fort Street Boys High School.

P is for Politics

John's father, Herbert John Moxon (always known as Bert) was born in Wrightville near Cobar in 1902 but spent most of his childhood in Sydney living with extended family.  Returning to Cobar he worked in a bakery but even at 16, he stood up for his working rights, taking the master baker to court and winning.  Having left school at 13, he had no qualifications but he was obviously bright since one teacher cried when Bert was told he had to get a job.  He went backwards and forwards to Sydney.

Bert was in Sydney and about to commence many years of political activism. He was there when two “communist parties” amalgamated to form the Communist Party of Australia in Sydney in 1922. Bert had worked in the office at the copper mine in Wrightville recording the number of containers of ore that each team had mined and brought to the surface. 

He told his son that he had begun to realise that the “boss” was falsifying the records and cheating the men out of their pay – so he told the men and promptly lost his job. 

Whether this experience influenced him to side with the far left, I don’t know. Nor do I know how he came to be involved: with communism but involved he became. Stuart Macintyre, in his book The Reds – The communist party of Australia from origins to illegality (1998) describes Bert in 1922 as “a knockabout with a quick tongue” (p73). Macintyre also described how, as a group of dissidents was forcedly moving the assets from one organisation to the other (effectively to form the new party), that, because it was too heavy to carry, “Moxon wanted to burn the (printing) press, but saner heads prevailed”. 

Bert became an organiser and recruiter for the CPA and travelled up and down the east coast of Australia (sometimes working as a cook in a circus), as well as to inland areas, speaking and urging workers to join the party. He wrote many pamphlets and contributed many articles to the party’s newspaper – The Workers Weekly. 

Beris Penrose, a historian from Melbourne, in an undated article Herbert Moxon – a victim of the “Bolshevisation” of the Communist Party of Australia, lists some of Bert’s involvement (achievements??) in the 1920s.  Jim Fletcher in his story Bricks at the dead of night  tells how Bert Moxon and others arrived in Bourke (1000km west of Sydney) to preach communism but were effectively driven out of town. 

Someone by the name of Eldorado even wrote a poem which was published in the local paper on 27 November 1931: 

All's Quiet on the Western Front "All's quiet on the Western front!" 

Reports the head sherang of police; 

Which means we may now thank the Lord Or Sergeant, for preserving peace. 

The Dubbo hops have hopped away, The guards have thrown their waddies down,

 The cry of victory rings out From every shop and pub in town. 

No longer Alcorn's gallant troops The hairy scalps of Bolshie's hunt, 

For Sergeant Sturgiss now reports, "All's quiet on the Western front" 

No more will hen-fruit, over ripe, At Park debates be in the boom; 

No more will bricks at dead of night, Invade the Mayor's reception room. 

No longer at a sporting Club Will Dinny Maher on "good things" punt, 

Since Moxon's colt, Komrada, came A "Gutser" on the Western front. 

An ill wind it must surely be 

That to a town no blessing blows,

 For now united, 'neath one flag, 

Are two contentious medicos. 

And though the Press it seems would have Our peaceful gutter tinged with blood 

The fact remains, the only tinge Discernable, so far, is mud. 

So, barring Davidson's retort That made the Mayor go somewhat sore 

The atmosphere about the town Is even deader than before. 

So here's respects to "Sudden Death" And all the Johns who in the hunt, 

Assisted by the Sergeant, saved A scrimmage on the Western Front. 

As with all political parties, there was constant jockeying for positions of power and many instances of betrayal. By 1929 Bert Moxon was General Secretary, but his position was almost immediately under siege – and from an unlikely source. A chap by the name of Herbert (Harry) Moore Wicks arrived in Australia ostensibly sent by the Soviet Union to keep the CPA in line with Moscow. In fact, he was a police informer (unbeknown to anyone at the time) and he urged adoption of a number of radical and sometimes violent tactics supposedly to “hasten the revolution”, but which now can be seen as efforts to have the CPA engage in activities likely to discredit it in the eyes of the general population. 

Bert Moxon often argued against these tactics – not always because of the violence, John adds, more because of their absurdity (arming a small number of protesters to resist eviction by police of a returned soldier from his house, for example). Bert had sworn allegiance to Moscow, and basically followed the suggestions of Wicks, as he was known. But Wicks wanted Bert Moxon out of the CPA and he accused him of “right deviationism”, and after Wicks left Australia in 1931, others accused Moxon of “left sectarianism”. 

Herbert John Moxon was expelled from the party in early 1932. 

As far as John knows, he had nothing to do with the CPA from that time.  John was not born until several years after his CPA involvement ceased, so he has no first-hand knowledge of what he was like then. But he does know that the political behaviour described above did not fit with the man he knew as his father. 

Bert Moxon was the most gentle person you could ever meet, John says.  Perhaps he saw the error of his ways and changed – who knows? During the second world war - he volunteered for service but was rejected due to “flat feet” - he wrote to the Ministry of Defence with suggestions as to methods of “pre-rotating the landing wheels on aircraft (prior to landing) to reduce tyre wear. His ideas were not taken up. Bert worked in the motor trade for all of his life post-1932 – he was a spare parts salesman – mostly in brake and clutch components. He worked for Dawson’s and for Angus Trading Co. He wrote articles for motor trade journals on brake efficiency and safety.

He advised his son never to join a political party, saying politics would ruin him.  And John never did, although all three of his children have joined current political parties at some stage in their life.

As did Bert.  In his mid-80s, he joined the Carlingford Branch of the Australian Labor Party.  A very small branch in the Bible belt of the northwest suburbs of Sydney.

Bert died in 1987, never admitting to student historians who came knocking that he was that  H.J. Moxon.  He also did not want a death notice in the paper.

O is for Oran Park

Alana, Bruce and John in the restored Formula Vee

 John Bruce Moxon, my partner of 35  years developed a passion for motorsport as a ten-year-old when a neighbour took him to a race at the Sydney Speedway. Certainly his father Bert would never have taken him.

At 17, John obtained his license, and a series of cars - never new - became some of his greatest loves.  He had just begun an apprenticeship in fitting and turning.  This wasn't enough for him - he wanted to build his own racing car, so studied mechanical engineering at Sydney Technical College at the same time.

In his early 20s, having joined a number of car clubs, he made many friends and began racing sedan cars at a variety of racing tracks around Sydney and the environs.

As a young married man, he decided to focus on Formula Vees and built his own by 1969.  His wife Pauline took an interest, and elder son Bruce, now in his late fifties has also developed the same passion, fostered as a toddler in the 1960s.  One of the racetracks he frequented many times was Oran Park one of two popular racetracks which were still open at the turn of the twenty-first century.

On Captain Cook Day - a public holiday on 29th April 1970 celebrating 200 years since Cook "discovered" the east coast of Australia - John was practicing at Oran Park in his fairly new Formula Vee.

It didn't go too well.

He smashed into a concrete wall and broke his neck.  He has been a spinal cord-injured quadriplegic ever since.  Fifty-one years ago this month.  The ambulance was called, one racing car mate, bob Muir drove the ambulance to Camden Hospital whilst the lone ambulance driver kept John alive in the back.  Another mate Ken Goodwin accompanied John in the ambulance. Gaye Finlay took the Xrays at the hospital. Despite his parents and wife being told he may not survive the night, we all know that he is alive - well and truly - and aged 82.

The accident didn't turn John off motorsport - far from it.  Someone bought the wreck and it languished in a backyard unloved for over 20 years.  A guy called Paul English - now a good friend - restored it to its former glory and kept the name Moxon.  Paul has kindly permitted John's son Bruce to drive it a few times, including in a race.

John became president of the Formula Vee Association for a while after his accident, went to many a race meeting, finding and yarning to his mates, followed the supercar events right around Australia in 2003 and supported son Bruce as he developed and followed his passion for motorsport photojournalism - a paying hobby.

The photo above shows the Formula V restored vehicle, with son Bruce in the car, his daughter Alana and John, about eight years ago.

As was always expected, the Oran Park Raceway is now a large commuter suburb with streets named after many of the racing fraternity.

One day, my Google alerts for the name Moxon - I receive an email each day - showed a Moxon Street in the suburb of Oran Park.  Just a short street.

And yes, it was named after John Bruce Moxon.  Lasting fame ... 

N is for Nottingham

 I have written elsewhere in this blog about convict brothers John (Lord Sidmouth, 1819) and Robert (Adamant, 1821) and shown the contrast in their behaviour and standing in the colony of New South Wales.

This tree, MX68 is the smallest in the Moxon Society.  John and Robert were shown as being the sons of John Mugson and his wife Phoebe Teel from Kings Lynn and all the children were baptised in Nottingham, including a sister Elizabeth who died as an infant.  Elsewhere John Mugson is recorded as Moxon.  No parents for John Mugson or Moxon can be found at this time.  

However, in the well established tree MX01, the Moxons of Cawthorne there is a Mugson or Moxon family born in Derby.  In 1702 a John  Mugson of Derby married Hannah Houghton in St Mary’s Nottingham.  There is a missing generation which needs to be discovered but I would be very surprised if this were not the same family.  Derby and Nottingham are only 14 miles apart. 

M is for Misdeeds

Did Joshua Moxon come to the colonies in 1867 because he had been working on a statue of Prince Albert, Consort to Queen Victoria and accidentally chiselled his nose off, tried to cover up his mistake by glueing it back on?  

Who knows? A number of his great-grandchildren had heard the story and that it was the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, London. However, this memorial was cast in bronze and the design was not yet finalised prior to Joshua and Louisa embarking for Queensland.

In 2014, John and I visited the vibrant city of Manchester to meet up with Chris Moxon, the Moxon Society's membership secretary and his partner Philip who worked in theatre in the city.

Joshua had been found working there as a young man in 1861.  We were amazed that Manchester also had an Albert Memorial which was completed in 1865.  We realised that this could be the memorial that Joshua was working on.  It's very possible - the timeframe fits.  Again we looked at contemporary newspapers but found nothing.  The story could well be true but we would need to delve into the Lancashire Archives to check.  Sadly, it's a job for next time.......

I won't even pretend that Joshua's imprisonment for three months in 1883 was a misdeed.  This was a case of violence towards a child - his six-year-old son William.  If he'd badly beaten William, it is highly likely that he disciplined his older children and even his wife in a similar way.  Certainly, none of his children was fond of him.  It was at that time that John's grandfather Henry Percy ran away from home and from his apprenticeship.

Henry Percy Moxon later became the Mayor of a copper mining town of 3000 people called Wrightsville, six miles out of Cobar in far northwestern New South Wales.  Nothing survives of the town now.

It was during the great war when Henry (Harry Moxon) probably wished he'd kept his mouth shut.  He had reason to visit the town's community hall and came across the matrons of Wrightville knitting socks and scarves for the troops in Europe.

He made the remark that since the British King and the German Kaiser were cousins, they should have just fought their differences out between them, instead of using the youth of  Wrightville and elsewhere as cannon fodder.  

The ladies were highly insulted and complained bitterly to the Council about Harry's lack of patriotism and sought an apology from the Mayor.  Harry stubbornly refused to do so but in the end, all the Councillors turned against him and he was forced to apologise.  The local papers had a field day.

L is for Louisa Mary Wilkinson

Louisa Mary Moxon nee Wilkinson 

 Joshua Middleton Moxon and his two oldest sons all had trouble with their marriages. Each of their wives left home as their children grew up or even when they were still infants.

Louisa Mary Moxon (nee Wilkinson) was one of them. George Joshua's wife Ellen Matilda (nee Jack) left home, as did Ellen Mary Moxon (nee Egan), the wife of John's grandfather Henry Percy.

Louisa and Joshua had married in 1866 in Chelsea, London, one year before they reached Australia.  Her parents were Joseph Wilkinson, a builder and Louisa Sarah Thorpe.  They had married in Bethnal Green, London in 1843.  Their fathers were both farmers, one in Halifax, Yorkshire and the other in Great Amwell, Hertfordshire.  Louisa Mary was born in 1844 in Hackney and she had two sisters, neither of whom married.  They lived with their parents in north London.

Louisa probably thought she married "down".  Certainly, her Hertfordshire ancestors were better off - skilled builders, farmers and dressmakers and her Cheffins cousins were very well off.

On the other hand, Joshua came from a very poor family.  His parents appeared to be reliant on their relations for shelter and his mother died a pauper laundress in Barnsley, a Yorkshire mining town.

In 1883, she was pregnant once more, after giving birth to twins the year before - both twins died within a week.  This was her tenth pregnancy.  It is thought she went to stay at first with George Joshua in either Auburn or Parramatta and re-established herself as a dressmaker.  Her child-caring responsibilities were much reduced; her only daughter, Edith aged nine would have gone with her and later the new baby Ernest Edward Victor. She left all the boys at Hailey Farm while the youngest boy, Alfred (born 1880) was taken away by the governess. Louisa would have taught Edith to sew.  Edith later suggested she was simply her mother's "drudge".

In 1887, Louisa had her last child, Susan Mary Moxon.  It is unclear whether she was Joshua's child.  Susan was born in Auburn, according to her death certificate, although her birth certificate cannot be found.

Louisa was living in Pymont in 1892 when young Ernest died, at 100 Albion Street,  in 1907 and in Cleveland Street, Surry Hills in 1910.  She outlived Joshua by nearly 30 years.  It is thought that John's father Bert (1902-1987) lived with her when he was young.  The story is that he was left in Sydney when he accompanied his mother whilst she was giving birth in 1906 and that when it was time to return to Cobar, he was five and needed a non-affordable ticket. He stayed in Sydney for ten years living with first his grandmother and then with Susan Mary. This seems far fetched because Bert's father would have been in Sydney from time to time as Mayor of Wrightville near Cobar.

The only photo we have of Louisa is of a very very stern-looking woman in her 80s.  Susan Mary was looking after her in old age.  She died at Little Bay, probably in Prince Henry hospital on 10th July 1923 aged 79.

K is for kindred

John Moxon x2, Zoe, Heather and Margaret

Family  history research is full of delights.  The thrill of adding another generation, the excitement of a new surname to follow and the satisfaction of finding the DNA matches do confirm our paper records.  That yes, we do have the right Tucker or Moxon family.  

We can weave stories around our ancestors, their houses and villages.  We may prove or shatter family stories handed down over generations. We can collect or recognise memorabilia.

But for John and myself, a bonus has been making new friends.

Rediscovering cousins after 40 years of lost contact and making many new friends amongst second or third or first cousins twice removed has been a wonderful experience for John and me.  Meeting face to face, attending organised or spontaneous family reunions and growing those friendships via Facebook, email and The Moxon Society membership has been wonderful, especially for those of us who are retirees.

In recent years, John and I have travelled to Stuart Town where John's grandfather's brother Alfred (Wilson) Moxon settled and met his Orange-based descendants; visited Leura to meet his favourite first cousin, the late Wendy Lou Walker and some of her family; reconnected with his youngest first cousin Denise and her girls; reconnected with his uncle John Peter Moxon for a few years before his recent death at 97; travelled to the Central Coast and Coffs Harbour to meet second cousins descended from George Joshua Moxon and to Lake Macquarie to meet descendants of Arthur Moxon, George Joshua's younger brother.

And we've had two unexpected phone calls from other cousins just exploring their Moxon roots.  The first in 2011 was Shirley, a second cousin, whose father was George Joshua Moxon's oldest son.  We met her later the same year in Coffs Harbour. 

The second phone call resulted from a referral by one of our non-related Moxon friends in our capacity as co-ordinators of Moxons Down Under.  "Margaret will be able to work out what Moxon tree she came from", said Douglas who she found on Facebook.  Her mother, a Moxon had died when she was just four years old after giving birth to twins.

It was Christmas night 2015: I answered the phone and she poured out her story.  I immediately placed her in Joshua Middleton Moxon’s tree and therefore related to us.  Towards the end of a 90 minute conversation, I said Do you know that you have an aunt two years younger than you?  Would you like me to tell her your story and put you in touch?  The two women, both in their 70s met each other within a couple of months when we organised a reunion in Stuart Town in 2016.  Both women are now members of The Moxon Society and have enjoyed a short cruise together.  The niece and her brother have now met many Moxon cousins and they feel warmly welcomed into the family. 

Most of us, young and old stay in touch on Facebook in a private group for members of the Joshua Middleton Moxon family.  

J is for Joshua Middleton Moxon

Pitt Street facade carvings

 The founder of a large dynasty of Moxons - not that he knew it at the time - Joshua Moxon appears to have assumed his mother's maiden name of Middleton as his second name when he reached Sydney.  Was he determined to make a new start, keen to create a new persona for himself now that in 1867 he had a wife and baby son and the possibility of purchasing land if he could find good-paying work with his stone carving skills?   Moving to working-class Balmain, within reach of a variety of new sandstone building projects, he

entered a competition to demonstrate his craftsmanship. He entered a carved cap in Sydney's very first Metropolitan inter-colonial Exhibition, run by the Agricultural Society of NSW.  The Exhibition was opened on 30 August 1870 in Prince Alfred Park.  It seems that this event morphed into what we now know as the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

Joshua's cap won a commendation.

Even when he purchased 130 acres of land at Bankstown and moved his fast-growing family there between 1872-1883, he continued to undertake contracts for stone carving and building.  Some of his significant work can be seen in the following buildings:

• Mortuary Stations at Redfern and Haslem's Creek (Rookwood) where he did the decorative carvings (1868-1870).  The latter station was later moved to Ainslie in the ACT where it is now All Saint's Church.
• Sydney General Post Office where he started off caring some "ornament of appropriate character" for the roof, but later he was tasked with sculpturing the figures representing various industries on the Pitt Street facade of the GPO.  This work was very controversial.  Many Sydney residents conveyed outrage and uproar about using "common" people as models, rather than the more traditional figures from antiquity.
• Woolloomooloo Police Lockup where he successfully tendered for the building contract in 1878.  In 1937, this building was the venue for the first Police Boys' Club in New South Wales.  The building was demolished in 1959.
• Darlinghurst Court House.  Joshua was awarded the contract to build additions in 1884 and they were commissioned for use in 1886.

Joshua also became a considerable property owner and developer and invested in mining leases.  In 1894, he died intestate aged only 54.  His oldest son George was given executor responsibilities but lawyers were still dealing with probate issues 12 years later.  Certainly none of his children became wealthy as a result and neither were any of them as much of a risk taker as Joshua.  There were many parallels with Charles Dicken’s Bleak House in Joshua’s story.

I is for Ireland

Both Moxon and Moxham are English surnames, from Yorkshire and Wiltshire respectively, so it was perhaps unusual to find that one prominent family of Moxhams in Australia had its documented roots in Ireland.

Y DNA tests have shown that the Australian descendants of the Longford Moxhams match a descendant of the Moxhams in Wiltshire.  It is thought that a Moxham was "planted" in Ireland to increase the population of Irish Protestants in the mid-1600s and were given land by the British King.  They cannot have been very popular with the Catholic majority!

In 1835, a  Richard Robert Moxham (1814-1865) from Longford, Ireland immigrated with his wife Frances, nee Mack and established his family at Parramatta.  He became a turnkey at Parramatta Gaol.

Whilst Richard Moxham had only one son and two daughters, that son had many sons.

Later, his much younger brother Henry Charles John Moxham (1832-1898) arrived, however, it is not clear when he immigrated.  He began operating a punt across the river at Wagga Wagga in 1854.  He married Susannah Hannah Ceasar Monkhouse nee Seymour who was a widow with two young daughters.  He acquired land in the district and subsequently engaged in pastoral pursuits, including at one time owning Mimosa station.  He fathered many children with Susannah including several boys. He also lived at Bourke, becoming well known there as well.

Both brothers, sons of William Moxham and Susannah Pope prospered in New South Wales.  However, they had started their adult lives as farm labourers but obviously had plenty of motivation to do well in the colony.  

In 1850, their uncle Henry Moxham (1795-1870, known as Henry Snr) and his wife, his second cousin Mary Ann Moxham (1800-1893) emigrated to Parramatta with his large family on the ship Elizabeth as assisted passengers. He was described as a farm labourer too but may well have had good connections in the colony. However, he may have inherited money from his deceased parents which enabled him to purchase considerable land holdings in the North Parramatta, Northmead and Baulkham Hills areas - the area your author has lived most of her life.  Other Moxhams moved further west to Penrith.

Henry Snr's family established a number of sandstone quarries in the area, evidence of which is still highly visible today.  They owned a still-standing sandstone cottage on the corner of Windsor Road and Churchill Drive at Northmead and another, now demolished house on the corner of Factory Street. It became the Coach Inn but was demolished in the 1970s to make way for a large restaurant.   There are still many sandstone cottages along Windsor Road sourced from the Moxham quarries.  Additionally, these quarries supplied much of the sandstone needed for many Parramatta buildings.

In 2006, a large reunion was organised at Northmead Public School and 130 descendants and family members attended.  It was noted that a Moxham had attended the school every year since it opened.  Certainly these three early Moxhams established considerable dynasties.

Thomas Robert Moxham (1858-1916), a grandson of Henry Moxham Snr was the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing Parramatta for continuous terms between 1901 and his death in 1916.  He was a Liberal Party whip from 1913 to 1916.  He was a pastoralist and property owner and one of the two brothers who established the quarry at Northmead.  His father Robert Henry Moxon was the keeper of the Toll Bar at the time of his birth.  

Prior to entering Parliament, he was an alderman and mayor of Parramatta (1897-1901).

The Moxham name is still very prominent around the Parramatta area.  John Moxham, educated at The Kings's School established a well-known Parramatta real estate business in 1960.  He sold it in 2006 and is now semi-retired.

Your author is currently the guardian of this tree.  Much research was undertaken by Sharon Lowry of Adelaide about 15 years ago and sent to the Moxon Society, but Sharon is no longer actively involved.  Since the Australian branch is so large, I should be actively seeking out members of this family who are interested in family research and encourage them to join.

H is for Hailey Farm

Hailey Hall Farm c 1900

Joshua Middleton Moxon and his wife Louisa did not stay in Queensland in 1867 when they arrived on the Samarang with toddler George Joshua.  At the time, the Queensland colony was offering land grants to convince settlers from the British Isles to stay rather than migrate to the south and to the goldfields and building sites.  However, Joshua wasn't tempted.

Louisa was six months pregnant with her second child when they first sighted Queensland but by November the same year, she gave birth to William John (1867-1868) in Balmain, New South Wales.  Two more children, including John Bruce Moxon's grandfather Henry Percy (1869-1950) were born there.

In 1871 the family moved from Balmain to Bankstown, at that stage a farming community without a school or many other facilities.  Joshua bought a farm of about 130 acres and named it Hailey Farm, although it was often recorded in newspapers and official records as Harley Farm.  Bankstown Railway Station and the Centro Shopping Centre are now within the boundaries of Joshua's farm.  Hailey Farm would now be cut through by both the railway line and busy Stacey Street.

In 1876, Joshua advertised his property for the agistment of horses and cattle for 1s 3d per week.  His closest neighbour was Joseph Stacey, also a stonemason and farmer.  However, they weren't the best of friends because Stacey accused Moxon of allowing his goats to wander onto Stacey's orchard that same year.  Court action was taken but neither party was satisfied with the result.

So was it Hailey Farm or Harley Farm?

It became obvious that it was Hailey Farm when we researched Louisa's childhood.  Although born and married in London, Louisa spent much of her childhood in the fresh country air of Hertfordshire.  Her mother had been a Thorpe and her grandmother's name was Cheffins.  Both families were deeply rooted in the Hoddesdon/ Broxbourne area.  She learnt to sew with her Thorpe maiden aunts, one of who was living at Hailey Hall Farm, leased in the 1850s and 60s by her great uncle Peter Cheffins.  Louisa was living there in 1861, aged about 16 and in 1851 she was living with her aunts in her mother's ancestral town of Hoddesdon - still a very pleasant area.  No doubt her childhood memories were precious.  Life in Hackney in London's east end would have been far less healthy.

The family lived at Hailey Farm at Bankstown for about 11 years.  After Louisa left home without the children three of the youngest boys - Herbert, William and Arthur - were sent to the Randwick Institute for Destitute Children and either fostered out by the Benevolent Society or remained there until Joshua considered them old enough to work.  By the 1890s, Louisa had relocated to Surry Hills where she used her dressmaking skills to earn a living, although she did live for a time at South Head at a property owned by Joshua with two of her daughters.

G is for George Joshua Moxon

George Joshua Moxon and family

When George Joshua Moxon arrived in Queensland on 17th August 1867 on the Samarang with his parents Joshua and Louisa Moxon (nee Wilkinson), he would have been just 16 months old.  A dangerous age for a sea voyager!  He probably learnt to walk on the ship.  He had been born in Pimlico, London on 6th April 1866.

George was the oldest of 14 children born to Louisa Mary Moxon, nee Wilkinson and her husband Joshua Middleton Moxon.  Sadly, only eight of the siblings survived till adulthood.  The youngest was Susan Mary Moxon and it is unclear whether she was Joshua's child.  A number of his siblings died in infancy and one in tragic circumstances in childhood, well after George had left home and married and had children of his own.

George may have been named after his father's cousin George Moakson (1799-1864) who was also a stonemason and builder.  His father Joshua (1840-1894) lived with that George's mother Elizabeth Robinson and her husband Thomas Robinson, also a stonemason, in the 1840s and 50s.

Building and stonemasonry were in George's DNA but it is unclear how much time if any he spent working in those fields. He was described as a stonemason both on his probate record in 1940 and when he administered his father's estate in 1895, but he was variously described as a fruitier and a van proprietor.  His father Joshua was a stonemason who probably met his mother through work.  Her father, Joseph Wilkinson was a successful builder in London but hailed from a line of builders and stonemasons in Halifax, Yorkshire.  Joshua too was born and raised in Yorkshire, but in Barnsley. 

George left home well before some of his siblings were born.  His father, although a hard-working stonemason, carver and builder was certainly not a good father.  It is likely that George did not get on well with him since Joshua had a very cruel streak and was gaoled in 1883 for beating George's six-year-old brother William and another brother, 14-year-old Henry Percy (Harry) ran away from his home and apprenticeship.  His pregnant mother Louisa also left home and may have gone to stay with George for some time, since at least one of her youngest children was born in the same suburb the year George married in 1887.

It would not have been an easy childhood for George Joshua, especially when his father bought a 200-acre farm at Bankstown in 1872 but continued to work as a stonemason and carver.  Louisa - often pregnant - and her oldest children would have been expected to care for the animals and vegetable crops on a day to day basis.

George married Ellen Matilda Jack in 1887 at the Baptist church in Parramatta.  He was just 21 and she was five years older.  The following year, whilst living in Victoria Street, Auburn he and Ellen welcomed their first child, George Jack Moxon.

They were to have six more children - Edith Mary Matilda (1890-1940), Herbert Percy (1891-1962), William Henry (1893-1970), Rupert Middleton (1895-1968), Miriam Martha Lily (1896-1940) and Harold (1899-).  Nothing more is known of Harold so he might have died young.  George Joshua eventually had 14 grandchildren although, having died in 1940 he did not know the youngest, Shirley or Dulcie.

George was politically active and like many other Moxons was prominent in a variety of organisations.  In 1912 he was a founding director of the Eastern Suburbs Workmen's Club.   In 1918 he was a board member of the Sydney United Friendly Societies' Dispensary Medical Institute.   In 1929 he was the president of the Merrylands A.L.P and stood for election at Holroyd Council as a Labor candidate.  In 1931, his political opponents included his nephew Herbert John Moxon (John Bruce Moxon's father) and a few choice words were exchanged at political rallies.  Herbert J (Bert) was a member of the Communist Party prior to being expelled in 1932. 

By 1903 George and Ellen were living at Cowper Street, Waverley.  At some stage, Ellen Matilda left George and was living with other family members, including offspring living in Melbourne.  The studio photo above looks like it was taken about 1906 when Miriam was about ten.  The message I read into this is that Ellen had already left.  Ellen died in Melbourne, a widow in 1943 and was buried there.

In 1929, George was described by the Truth (a disreputable Sydney newspaper) as a short, red-faced, grey-haired man of 62 well-known in the Merrylands area. The article described a domestic assault upon George by the sons-in-law of his housekeeper, Lucy Spinks. Some of Mrs Spinks' relations wanted to move into George's house, but he was having none of it.  All three younger men were arrested and charged but only one was fined.

George Joshua died in Merrylands, New South Wales in 1940. Descendants of this branch of the Joshua Middleton Moxon family appear to have remained close or rediscovered each other by the beginning of the 20th century, but there appears to be no such ongoing connection between George Joshua and his siblings after the 1880s.  They and their descendants were soon scattered throughout New South Wales.

A note from the author:  I am now running two days late with my blog challenge because I was vaccinated against Covid-19 on Wednesday but had a very bad reaction.  Nevertheless, I am keenly awaiting my second dose on 1 July since I'd rather have a couple of days in bed than deal with the coronavirus and its possible consequences.  I hope to catch up quickly.

F is for Fort Street High School

In 1849, the Governor of the colony of New South Wales established a model school on the site of an old military fort at Observatory Hill in Sydney, the first of a system of national or non-sectarian schools. It was named Fort Street school. It was designed for all children of school age. By 1911, the school was split into one primary school remaining on-site and separate boys' and girls' high schools. The boys were moved to a new site at Taverner's Hill, on the Parramatta Road at Petersham whilst the girls remained at the newly named Fort Street Girls High at Observatory Hill. This structure remained until 1975 when the two high schools were combined into a co-educational school at Taverner's Hill.

The school has always been a selective academic high school and students were encouraged to matriculate.  Some very famous Australians - prime ministers, governors-general, high court judges and captains of industry have attended Fort Street High.

As well as the not-so-famous.  Like families with the Moxon surname. John's father Herbert John Moxon had five sisters who were brought to the city from distant Cobar at the end of World War. His cousin Denise, a member of the Moxon Society

confirmed that her mother Johanna Margaret Moxon (1913-1986) attended the school and matriculated in 1931.  Denise and John both thought that at least some of her older sisters did too.  Certainly, they became teachers, actors, publishers' assistants as well as being politically active.

So John and Denise's grandmother Ellen Mary (nee Egan) had a completely different approach to education than her cousin in law Herbert Percy (Bert) Moxon as you will see below.

In the late 20s, May Fowler (nee Moxon)'s story about A beautiful Moxon in the April 2021 issue of the Moxon Magazine (no 67) noted that her father, Edgar Herbert Moxon (1915-1950) won a scholarship to Fort Street Boys High.  However, his father Bert believed that "a man wasn't worth anything unless he worked with his hands" and Edgar was denied the opportunity to attend the school.  Instead, he was sent out west to work on farms.

In 1940, John Bruce Moxon's sister Bette attended Fort Street Girls HS but her education there was interrupted for 18 months when her parents decided to leave the city for the Blue Mountains.  When they returned to Sydney, Bette was encouraged to return to the school but sadly, she felt overwhelmed and left behind academically, so this very smart now 92 years old joined the workforce instead of matriculating.

In the 1950s, Bette's much younger brother, John Bruce Moxon attended the school at Taverner's Hill from 1951-1954 but left halfway through 4th year because he felt he didn't fit in. With the insight of his later years, he believes he was too immature for his age, unlike others in his class such as former high court judge Michael Kirby. He made no lasting friendships amongst his schoolmates.  He didn't matriculate and obtain a degree until he was in his 40s, having followed the apprenticeship vocational route in his youth.

In the 60s, brothers Douglas and Geoff Moxon attended Fort Street.  Unlike the other Moxons mentioned in this blog, they are no relation to John.  However, they are our good friends on Facebook and in the Moxon Society.  Their ancestry is found in the Moxon Society Tree MX05 whereas John, Bette and Edgar feature in MX27.

And there is still more - in the 1970s, when the school became co-educational, John's son Bruce Robert Moxon attended Fort Street High School.  Unlike John, he has remained good friends with many of his classmates and they hold regular reunions.

We are not aware of any other Moxon families at the school but there may have been some, as well as some students with the Moxham surname.

However, you may not believe this:  a few years ago, as one of the "very old boys" at a school speech day, John was invited to morning tea by the current school principal, a Ms Moxham!

E is for Ernest Edward Victor Moxon

Jones and Pyrmont Bays quarries in 1886

As a stonemason, John Bruce Moxon's great grandfather, Joshua Middleton Moxon spent his life cutting, carving and erecting sandstone for which the Sydney basin is reknown.  In the 1870s and 80s, the source of much of this sandstone was the Ultimo area of inner Sydney. 

These quarries are described in Lost Sydney  The Jones quarry shown on the left was within close walking distance from where the Moxon family lived in 1892.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday March 31, 1892, the following sad story was printed.

"The City Coroner held an inquest yesterday in the Native Youth Hotel, Pyrmont, upon the body of Ernest Edward Victor Moxon, who died partly from concussion of the brain and partly from asphyxia by drowning, the result of having accidently fallen down the face of a quarry, a distance of about 40 ft or 45 ft, into water below.  Deceased resided with his parents at 8 Agnes-terrace, Murray-street, Pyrmont, and was eight years of age.  He attended the Ultimo Public School, and on Monday at a quarter past 6 o’clock in the evening, while passing along the top of the quarry near the school, he was seen by another boy to fall over the precipice. He fell on to a plank near where some children were floating another plank.  The children’s plank struck that upon which deceased was lying, and deceased rolled into the water.  The children then became frightened and ran away, and said nothing of the observance until the following morning.  A watchman on the Darling Harbour railway station recovered the body on Tuesday morning, and haded it to Senior-constable McCrimmon.  The jury returned a verdict of accidental death."

Although Joshua and Louisa lost quite a number of children in infancy, little Ernest Edward Victor Moxon was one who survived.  He was the baby who was born after his mother Louisa Mary Moxon left Hailey Farm under acrimonious circumstances in 1883.  Louisa had two more children born in 1885 and 1887, both given the surname Moxon, so it may be likely that Louisa and Joshua re-united.  We are yet to find out through a DNA test of descendants of one of those children, Susan Mary Moxon born 1887.

D is for DNA

Margaret's DNA test results

Of course it is!  Where would we baby boomer retirees with time to indulge in family history research be without it?

Certainly a lot worse off than my mother Freda Tucker, who had joined two local historical societies in the 1960s after the worst of her child-rearing years were behind her.  This led in turn to an interest in family history, and as soon as the word spread to her mother's large adoptive family in Victoria, she began getting requests from cousins to seek out certain records at the NSW Archives, at that time located in the centre of Sydney.

I retired from full-time work in 2002 and by 2005 began to research my family as well as my husband's Moxon family.  Fortunately, he was just as interested as I was, but still working until 2008 when we started travelling overseas.

I had a lucky start: my mother had recorded what she knew of her Kentish birth mother and her journey to a new life in Sydney prior to Freda's birth in 1912.  My mother also strongly suggested to my father that "if you must wander around the house in the middle of the night because you can't sleep, why don't you record your life memories?"  So he did.

John had an older cousin who had started researching their Moxon family history in the early 80s and wrote to all her known Moxon relations - and some she was introduced to - to find out what they knew.  Bless you, the late Dr Wendy Lou Walker whose mother was a Moxon.  She was thus able to build a large tree of distant cousins, uncles and aunts.

 Unfortunately, when she obtained their great grand-father Joshua Middleton Moxon's death certificate, she pursued the wrong line for his father.  Certainly not Wendy's fault - the witness was his housekeeper who in 1894 had identified the wrong names for both his parents. It was Joshua who had established the Moxon family we knew in Australia.  His shipping record noted the small family of three arrived via Queensland in 1867 from London.  Ultimately, Wendy was able to find that Joshua's parents were Isaac Moxon/Moakson and Sarah Middleton.  Thank you Joshua for adding your mother's maiden name to your plain baptismal name.  It probably sounded more entrepreneurial, which was of course his aim.

A more distant cousin, Edward (Ted) Moxon whom we eventually met post-retirement had also undertaken extensive research, particularly regarding later generations.  His energetic research was very helpful for John's tree.  Ted was a longtime member of The Moxon Society and his sister May Anne Fowler is currently a very enthusiastic member who enjoys contributing stories.

By 2008, building on and checking via online records, John and I were able to start adding family stories, some of which sounded fanciful.  How could we verify some of this information?

One Moxon story was intriguing.  In 1883, the large family of Joshua Middleton Moxon imploded.  He was gaoled for three months; his pregnant wife left home; John's grandfather Harry left home at 14, breaking his apprenticeship to his father; a housekeeper left with three-year-old Alfred Moxon and changed his surname; the family was mourning the death of twins the year before.

Years later, Harry found his young brother Alf at Stuart Town in the central west.  The story was handed down in two distant Moxon branches that a rat had eaten Alf's toes and that was how Harry had identified him.  However, when the large family of Moxons gathered at Stuart Town for a reunion about 2011, Alf's son, Cecil Moxon stated that his father's toes were intact and laughed off the rat story.  It is more likely that Harry recognised Alf's adoptive "mother" in Wellington, near Stuart Town, NSW.  Alf had married in 1909 as Alf Wilson.  Later his marriage certificate was changed to Moxon.

So how did we prove that Alf really was that three-year-old child who had disappeared - some saying to Wellington in New Zealand?

Through DNA of course.  My husband John and various descendants of Alf Wilson/Moxon shared strong autosomal DNA, making them second cousins, or second cousins once or twice removed.

Additionally, members of the Society in England, Australia, America, Canada and New Zealand have been generously sharing their AncestryDNA with two Moxon Society committee members in England, Graham Jagger and Philip Lord.  This allows female members of the Society and those who have female Moxons in their ancestry to contribute their DNA, not just those male Moxon members who match on their Y-DNA.  The autosomal research has been a much more recent development since about 2015 when many English and Australians were enabled to test through AncestryDNA.

As a result, the numerous Moxon and Moxham trees for which the paper trail stalled were able to be reviewed and many trees were combined.