**COMPLETED**** THANKS!!!!!Burial Lookup Melbourne Matilda GALE 1853

[HilaryDS]

Hello Claire and listers.
I've just joined this chat site so I'm still feeling my way.

Claire, I am a descendant of William Crook Gale, from his second marriage after Matilda died. I knew he had been married before Ann Duckworth Croom but that was about it.  She lost her first husband and a child after arrival in Australia as well.  They married in Nov 1857 and lived near the goldfields of  Maldon and Castlemaine, Victoria.

I would love to know about Matilda and her family and I'm happy to give you more on my side if you'd like it.

Many thanks, Hilary.

[bookendart]

Hi Hilary,

Welcome to RootsChat  Matilda was a school mistress in Cavesham Oxfordshire. She was the sixth of eleven children born to John Turner and Mary Watson. John was a baker in Emmer Green, Caversham.

Matilda and William married in Crickdale, Wiltshire in 1852 where William's parents were living. William's father Thomas was a school master. Thomas had another son Edward who married Matilda's younger sister Caroline. Edward was a tailor and later was also postmaster for Caversham.

It looks like William's Aunt Sarah (sister of Thomas) married Thomas Harding New, a farmer, and they lived for at least a brief time in Caversham as that is where they baptized their first child Francis Thomas in sep 1849. William was living with Thomas and Sarah in Headington Oxon on the 1851 census. Thomas at 47 was retired and William was working as a farm laborer. I would imagine the Turners might have met the Gale brothers through Sarah.

Matilda and William sailed for Australia aboard the Lady Macdonald soon after the wedding. She became pregnant on the trip and was probably sick from the time son Robert was born until she died a few months later. I've always wondered if William Crook Gale struck gold...do you know?

if you'd like some information about William's family in Wiltshire let me know.

Best
Claire 

[HilaryDS]

Claire, Many thanks for your reply,
I'm overwhelmed by the information you have given me.  I am really interested in getting a better picture of my ancestors lives and times and am currently looking at what happened to William Crook Gale when he arrived in Australia.  I am fortunate that my grandmother left a family tree as she understood it and recollections of her parents lives as well as diaries of her life. 

I do know that William Crook Gale spent time on the Goldfields and that when he and his second wife Ann Duckworth Croom married on the 12 November 1857 in Tarrengower, Maldon she had had four children to her first husband William Alison Duckworth, who died 28 April 1856. 1 daughter died in Castlemaine 7 October 1853 at about 2yrs and 1 son died from drowning in 1861 at about 7yrs. The youngest was born in 1856 in the Loddon, near to Tarrangower Maldon.

I am not sure that William found his fortune on the goldfields but my Grandmother said that Ann was always VERY grateful to him for marrying her and taking on her family.  I also know there was a great deal of pride in that they had the only tent on the goldfields which could boast a carpet on the floor!!!  They went on to have 9 children and only one died early at 15 months.

I understand that William went on to work as a prison warder at the Castlemaine Gaol, and died on 14 October 1900 at Prahran a suburb of Melbourne.  The Castlemaine Gaol is now a tourist venue with restaurant and overnight cell accommodation etc. I am trying to get hold of documentation regarding the gaol and Williams employment there.

Interestingly future generations of the Gale family went on to be teachers and although it missed me both my daughters are looking at teaching for their careers.

I would love to know more about Williams family in Wiltshire and the kind of lives they led.  There is no doubt there was great hardship for them when they came to Australia, however the life here now is good, if somewhat tortured by our recent NON election, but I know you have been through similar times in England recently.

I thank you again for all the information you have shared with me and look forward to future correspondence

Yours very sincerely, Hilary, Melbourne, Australia.