I have been searching for our James (Jimmy) Richards believed to have lived for a considerable part of his adult life at West Wyalong, and I believe he is also the James Henry Richards who was being discussed on these pages over a period of several years.
Our Jimmy was the son of two Tasmanian convicts - James Richards and Lydia Miles (born Vial). They were married in Launceston in 1848, returned to England and next appeared in 1853 heading to Melbourne from England onboard the Hanover. This was when their first child, Sarah Ann (my Great Grandmother) was born. Her birth is registered in Victoria.
Their second child, James (Jimmy) was born on 25/11/1860 in Inglewood, Victoria. At that time he did not have a middle name. His family were following the gold fields and his birth was registered at Moonambel.
Both parents died in 1868. Sarah was just 15 and was working as a house maid at Snizort, Clunes, Victoria. The owners of Snizort took Jimmy into their care and both children remained at the station. Then Sarah moved to Mooroopna North, Victoria, in 1875 to work as a housekeeper. We don't know if Jimmy, who would then be 15, went with her. Sarah married John Osborne in 1878 and moved to his selection in Drumanure, Victoria. Again, we do not know if Jimmy went with Sarah, but we do know that they kept in touch. We have a photo of Jimmy as a very young man which we believe to have been taken at about that time.
The next we know of him, and it was many years later, was that Jimmy was living in West Wyalong, and had an adult family. My grandfather, Jim Osborne, kept in contact with his cousin (Jimmy's daughter) Lydia Young, until he passed away in 1948 and my father took over and maintained the contact with her until the end of her life in 1963. My father then continued the correspondence with Lydia's daughter, Mona who, I think, was living nearer Sydney. My father died in 1983, and I believe the correspondence had dwindled to just Christmas cards until it had stopped sometime before then.
We have no knowledge of Jimmy's life in the intervening years, but it would make sense that he might return to Tasmania because his parents had many friends and acquaintances there because they had lived there for so many years. Jimmy's father, James Richards, was a convict there for at least seventeen years, and, during that time he spent a considerable amount of time working a for a family named Deveraux. The discussions I have already read on this page suggest that James Henry Richards from West Wyalong was married to an (Elizabeth) Ada Deveraux, had a daughter Lydia (married name Young) and a grandaughter named Mona. I appreciate that this may all be a coincidence, but I think there is enough there to warrant another look.
James Richards (Snr) came to Tasmania 1833 on the Surrey 3, as a result of a gaol clearance at the Surrey Gaol. He was only a very young teenager and I canot find his family named anywhere on his papers.
Lydia Miles arrived in 1841 on the Royal Admiral. Lydia's family name was Vial but she was known to the police as Miles, and that was the name they charged her under. All her records, with the exception of a petition for clemency lodged by her father, are under the name Miles. Her court case is recorded on the Old Bailey website.
Thankyou, and I do hope that this resonates with someone as we would dearly like to find our Jimmy.
