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.