Doctor BENSON or Quack?

[majm]

May I ask if the B J BENSON and the Robert BENSON mentioned in the Australasian Chronicle 11 July 1843 were related in any way, and if that B J BENSON would be Barker Joseph himself !  It is a list of unclaimed letters for the month of June 1843, the letters were being held at Pages River.   Poor Hannah, moving so frequently...

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/31740490

Was that Barker Joseph up around Moreton Bay in May 1848 ... unclaimed letter The Moreton Bay Courier 13 May 1848 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/3713736 or was there a different B J Benson Esq. moving frequently throughout the then NSW Colony. I think the chap proposing various resolutions at a public meeting on 9 September 1848 was most likely Barker Joseph BENSON,  ... Dr Benson,   BJ Benson Esq., MD etc
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/12908877 SMH 14 Sept 1848.

I am fairly certain that the reporter for Bell’s Life writing about Barker Joseph BENSON as a sawbones was perhaps being rather hysterical in his words .... http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/5434153 1 Dec 1849. He chose to refer to John Harrison of Church Hill as a gallipot scraper and also to use parentheses to write “ (otherwise Doctor)” when giving the occupation for Harrison.  I think the earlier article in same newspaper was just as supercritical in its reporting http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/59769535 22 Sept 1849.

I am not sure if I have previously mentioned that apart from the digitised newspapers online via TROVE, that there is an earlier project of the NLA also including newspapers, and it is part of the Ferguson collection at this link.  There’s no option available for keyword searches, but there’s many additional newspapers covering the 1840s when Barker Joseph Benson was first in NSW.  http://www.nla.gov.au/ferg

Cheers,  JM  (I am intrigued by Barker, in case none of his descendants has noticed !  )

[Barkrelsatthepoint]

This site is so good, JM your last post came as a warning it was there.

I appreciate both the fact that you're not a rellie but that you could be interested in Barker - it seems as if he wants something out that's not out - that is if mystery is allowed to be part of the thinking? He is by far the least conformist child of Thomas and Sarah Benson - perhaps the move from Whitby where he was born was unsettling when he was so young or perhaps it just created a sense of adventure?

I personally find it difficult also to believe that the baby was born in Carcoar however that does not preclude the fact that at the time Barker and Hannah could have been living there.  I agree with all that you have said re the difficulty of the roads (if they could be called that then) the risk to safety through bushranger types etc and also it definitely would seem strange to birth a baby in Carcoar and then bring him all the way down to Sydney to be baptised at the time of the year (being Lent as you say). 

That said Simone on the NSW site (pg 4) seems confident the birth was in Carcoar as in:

"I don't remember if was this thread on Barker or another but in regards to the 'Carcoar' issue I could never work out either why they went there as soon as the arrived, however Barker & Hannah's eldest son Thomas Barker Chapman Benson was born in Carcoar in 1844 so it was definitely them. I have meet with the direct descendants of Thomas and his Grandson Lester still remembered him from his childhood."

Simone could I ask if this is fact (Carcoar) or just a passing comment?

I just had the thought that getting all the information on people like Barker - JM - is like painting a picture of the times around a certain personage of them and  making both the times and person come very much alive.

Cheers barkrels

[majm]

Hi Simone,

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,513531.50.html (Yorkshire North Riding)
......At reply # 7 blynch2 has Thomas Barker Chapman BENSON as b 1844 at Carcoar........

I think Carcoar comes from Blynch2 .... see my quick summary for Simone on this current Australian thread at reply # 66 where I hope I found it mentioned on the Yorkshire thread !

So complicated, sorry....

I think that because as a young lass I was the named beneficiary in a forebear's will and thus received several trunk loads of well researched "genealogy" notes as well as family papers, documents, etc and all are to do with NSW, particularly in the 19thC and the development of democracy and responsible government and widening the franchise to include Women, that I have a great love for NSW history since settlement.  And Barker was around Glebe in his last years, which is where the forebear who willed me all these genie things was raised.... At least that's my excuse !    (My family's private papers are, as per express directions in that benefit, to be lodged at The Mitchell Library no earlier than 2020, and they are properly conserved, and The Mitchell is aware of them etc).

Cheers,  JM

[Barkrelsatthepoint]

Hmm... I just came across this information from the Peacock website and as it was described to people living it seems reasonable that it wasn't as time consuming across the mountains as it may have seemed:

"It was usual at the time for immigrants to be transported to Bathurst by cart. Elizabeth told her great-grandchildren that she travelled by bullock-drawn cart. The journey could be done by horse-drawn coach in four days, thus necessitating three overnight stops, one at the Weatherboard Hut (which provided very primitive accommodation where Faulconbridge is now), the second at Collett's Inn at Hartley (which still stands), and the third at Sidmouth (at the headwaters of the Fish River). It is likely that the journey by bullock cart would have taken much longer, with overnight camps by the roadside. This journey was described by Elizabeth, then four years old, to descendants now living. " This journey took place in 1841: see

http://ourrelatives.info/index.php/Peacock/the-peacock-family.html

Just another perspective.

Cheers

Seen your last post. Envious of work already done, but it's just as interesting trying to find it out today as well.

[Barkrelsatthepoint]

PS Definitely Simone on pg 4 of 1840's NSW site from your link to it JM

[majm]

Agh, many thanks for that link.... I have not ever found that .... wonderful !

I know of Collett's Inn at Hartley, perhaps I have a photo that OH and I took back in the 1970s or thereabouts.  

And yes, I am thoroughly enjoying re-validating that earlier research from my armchair, (I had re-validated it the 'old fashioned way in past decades), and I find so much more has now been indexed, via so many online indexes.  Then I go to those archives and have a fantastic time with more 'proper' finds.

A hobby for a lifetime ... and there has been several lifetimes work involved, collaberating with notes written in the 1920s long before my own parents had completed their schooling...and reading about forebears from 1793  agh .... RChatters understand of course ...

Cheers,  JM

[majm]

Re Carcoar,

Blynch2 has this from  15 Feb 2011 on the Yorkshire thread  http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,513531.0.html

"Hi Carna!
              Barker Joseph Benson was my great great grandfather. I have lots of information about him. I don't really know where to start! He and Hannah had the following children: Thomas Barker Chapman Benson b. 1844 at Carcoar; William Robson Benson b. 1845, Gosford; Edward Vandervord Benson b. 1847 at Gosford; John Havindon Benson b. 1849 at Gosford; Joseph James Benson b. 1852 at Gosford; Emily Lancaster Benson b 1854 at Gosford; Willis Allatson Benson b. 1860 at Gosford.  Which of his children are you descended from? William Robson Benson was my great grandfather."

And Simone has this from the "Dr Joseph Barker Benson thread on the Australian Board 10 April 2012....
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,513004.0.html

" I don't remember if was this thread on Barker or another but in regards to the 'Carcoar' issue I could never work out either why they went there as soon as the arrived, however Barker & Hannah's eldest son Thomas Barker Chapman Benson was born in Carcoar in 1844 so it was definitely them. I have meet with the direct descendants of Thomas and his Grandson Lester still remembered him from his childhood."

So I guess we are asking Simone, "Before you read these threads, how did you determine that Thomas Barker Chapman BENSON was born at Carcoar in 1844" .... Hope you are not thinking that we are doubting you, just simply that it would be absolutely grand if you have info apart from the NSW BDM registration of his birth and baptism....

Fingers crossed, it would be fantastic to have absolute confirmation !

Cheers,  JM

[SimoneAllaston]

No that's ok.... I met his direct descendant Lester Benson (not sure if he's still around he was quite old)

If you PM me your email I can send you all of the Carcoar details. The family stayed in the area. Lester Benson has given me copies of newspaper articles and other copies of documents from Thomas Benson.

[SimoneAllaston]

Just read my notes from Lester and I correct myself.. the family moved to NW NSW.