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.