Searching John Dyast alias John Cousins vanished after 1856 Bathurst pls help!!!

[iforani]

Thanks, JM. If that other guy who died in 1860 was him, you think they would know about it & reported it to the police in 1871? This is interesting though. 

[jamais]

Hi all, it's now been twelve years(!) since the last activity on this excellent thread. I've made an account to thank you all for your amazing work, which has given me a huge boost in my own research on John Cousins/Dyast. My family is actually descended from one of John's children with Emma Briant, so he is definitely one of the more mysterious brick walls in our family tree!

I also wanted to share some of the research I've been doing since finding this thread. I have lots of new info, so I'll break it up into a few different posts which are separated by theme. Keen to hear your thoughts!

[jamais]

Topic 1: The Police Gazette

One of the easiest things to find when you start looking into John Cousins/Dyast is the fact that he's mentioned in the various colonial Police Gazettes at different points in 1871. In June 1871, the Queensland Police were 'anxiously request[ing]' information on John because there was 'something to his advantage'. But by November 1871, he was 'reported to have left Sydney in the year 1849 for San Francisco, since when he has not been heard of'.

As discussed earlier in the thread, we know that John was 'heard of' again. Although there is a long gap in the record after 1848, we can place John at Kings Plains at the time of his marriage to Emma Briant in 1855. For all we know, he may well have continued on to San Francisco: the Volunteer did indeed sail for California via Auckland, leaving Sydney on 24 May 1849. (Source: The Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List, Sat 26 May 1849, p. 140) If he was an apprentice sailor, he might have been subject to an indenture or bond arrangement which required him to serve a certain amount of time on the Volunteer before he was free to make his own way.

I was interested to find out more about the appearance of this appeal in the Police Gazettes, and I noticed that the NSW Archives held correspondence pertaining to John and dated 1871 in their "Index to Colonial Secretary Letters Received" series (NRS 905, 1/2154, letter 71/8689). I've attached pictures of the contents of the file - if they're too small to read, feel free to send me a message requesting higher-resolution versions of the pictures.

From this correspondence, we learn that the request circulated in 1871 seeking John Cousins/Dyast wasn't initiated by Emma Briant/McKay to start the clock on the seven years' missing period to declare John Dyast dead so she could marry John McKay. Instead, the request to find John came from an English relative: Edward Cousins. Edward gives his address as 'Prince Alfred', corner of Hope St and York Rd, Wandsworth, which is a southern district of London.

Edward applied to the Agency of the Government of NSW in London in March of 1871 for information regarding John's whereabouts, and the Agency forwarded this request on to NSW police. This request arrived in May and was investigated by NSW police; after receiving no results, they circulated their requests for information in the Police Gazettes. They eventually heard that John left for San Francisco aboard the Volunteer on 24 May, 1849 (interestingly, this date is given by the letter and checks out as correct). Police seem to have closed the file after receiving this information and relaying it back to London.

So... just who is Edward Cousins, and why was he 'anxiously' trying to get in touch with John about something 'to his advantage'?

[jamais]

Topic 2: Edward Cousins and John's mother (part 1)

There is a lot of ground to cover in this post, so I'll try and break it up with some subheadings for ease of reading. The post is split into two parts due to forum character limits.

Who was Edward Cousins?

Before we tackle the question of why Edward Cousins was trying to get in touch with John, I'll give some background information that I've been able to find out about his life.

There were many, many people named Edward Cousins in the London area in the 1870s, so the first challenge is ensuring that the right one is identified for further investigation. To do this, I cross-checked the name with contemporaneous voting enrolment records from Wandsworth. These show that Edward Cousins lived at 82 Hope St, Wandsworth between at least 1869-1875:

https://i.imgur.com/oDBcoYS.png

This gives us access to his census records from 1871, the year that he enquired with the Agency for the Government of NSW about John's whereabouts.

https://i.imgur.com/thos6jA.png

And this gives us a lot to work with! We learn that Edward was a 'beer retailer' who was 50 years old in 1871 (it seems like the 'Prince Alfred' was the name of a pub he ran). Better yet, we learn that he was born in Yateley, Hampshire which is a great way to find out more about his family history. Following this lead, we learn that he was born to parents Edward and Sarah, being baptised in Yateley on May 16 1819:

https://i.imgur.com/Gbyd6i9.png

We also learn that he married his wife, Mary (nee Mitchell), on July 11 1846 in the parish of St George the Martyr, Southwark:

https://i.imgur.com/0MGGQ1v.png

Edward died in February of 1901 at the age of 80. By that time, he had moved on to Croydon, South London. Here's the announcement from the Croydon Chronicle and East Surrey Advertiser dated February 23 1901:

https://i.imgur.com/Xw1dnhP.png

Jane Cousins of Yateley, Hampshire

Importantly, Edward's marriage was witnessed by one Jane Cousins... now where have we seen that name before? To join some dots, we need to take a look at the Cousins family of Yateley, Hampshire. According to the tree on FamilySearch (which I have not verified beyond cross-checking that all the information about Edward and Jane was right), Edward and Jane were siblings in quite a large family. Here's a link to the FamilySearch page for Edward Cousins senior (father of Edward and Jane): https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/96Z3-G7W.

I've struggled to find much documentation of Jane's life, but below I'll outline what I have so far. Jane was baptised in Yateley on March 12 1809:

https://i.imgur.com/1N6LW2P.png

The next time that I'm confident in having found her on the record is when she signs Edward's marriage registration as a witness in 1846. I'm also pretty confident that this entry from the 1851 Census is her as the age and general locations match what we know of her life. If so, she was working as a servant at 116 Dacre Park, Lee (London).

https://i.imgur.com/BOJMoxC.png

One of the best sources we have about Jane's life is her entry from the Probate Calendar:

https://i.imgur.com/dU5kjj2.png

This shows that she died on November 23 1868 in the home of her brother Edward, and that he was one of the executors of her will. What's really striking is the value of Jane's estate. The Probate Calendar lists the values of effects in £100 increments, so we can assume that Jane’s estate was worth somewhere between £700-800. This is a pretty substantial sum of money: around $140-150k AUD today. Even taking into account that this represents a lifetime of work, it’s an astonishing amount for Jane to have saved if she was only ever a domestic servant, who would be lucky to receive an annual wage of £20.

John's childhood in Sevenoaks, Kent

So how does this all tie back to John Cousins/Dyast? We know that John Cousins was baptised on February 2 1834 in the church of St Peter and St Paul, Seal, Kent. The baptism record gives his mother as Jane Cousins and does not list his father. Although no images of the register are accessible online to my knowledge, a transcript downloadable at the following link indicates that it contains no other comments: https://sealpeterandpaul.com/family-history/.

As mentioned earlier in this thread by another poster, by the time of the 1841 Census, John was living with William and Susannah Cooper in the hamlet of Godden Green. Both Seal (place of baptism) and Godden Green are part of Sevenoaks, Kent, which is consistently listed as John's place of birth in all the Australian documentation.

https://i.imgur.com/ZdhcgqL.jpeg

There was some speculation earlier in the thread that William and Susannah Cooper were John's maternal grandparents, but this doesn't seem to be true. I'm digging deeper now to see if they had any familial connection to John, but I think it's more likely that he was boarded out to live with them or that there was some kind of informal adoption arrangement while Jane Cousins kept working in the area. Such an arrangement would definitely be necessary if Jane was a servant.

I'll split the post here - to be continued.

[jamais]

Topic 2: Edward Cousins and John's mother (part 2)

This is a continuation of the above post establishing a familial link betweent Edward Cousins, the man who was trying to locate John in 1871, and John himself.

My theory on John's origins

Now I can't be 100% sure of this, but my working theory is that John's mother and Edward's sister are one and the same Jane Cousins. My main reason for this is that it seems like the most logical way to account for Edward being the person who initiated the search for John.

I'm pretty sure that John was an illegitimate child. The lack of a father's name on the baptism record, the fact that he lived with people he doesn't seem to have any family ties with as a child, and (assuming we have the correct Jane) the fact that she was listed as 'Spinster' (i.e., never married) in her probate records, suggests that John's father was not in the picture. This introduces the intriguing possibility that his use of the alias 'Dyast' is based on knowledge of his father's identity, an idea I'll return to in later posts.

Here's a quick summary of my hypothesis so far:

• John’s mother Jane (1809-1868) and his uncle Edward (1819-1901) were born to parents Edward (Sr) and Sarah Cousins in Yateley, Hampshire. They were part of a large family of at least 8 siblings.
• Edward (Jr) and Jane both eventually moved to the Kent area, living in and around South London for the rest of their lives.
• They seem to have stayed close: Jane was the witness at Edward’s wedding in 1846, and we know that she was living with him at the time of her death.
• John was born to Jane Cousins and an unknown father in Sevenoaks in late 1833 (December 20 according to seaman's ticket mentioned in thread). He seems to have been raised at least in part by an older couple, William and Susannah Cooper, before leaving England as a sailor’s apprentice in 1848.
• Jane would live until 1868, never marrying but leaving a substantial estate at her death. It is unclear how she managed to . much money.
• After some delay, perhaps while waiting for the estate to settle and conducting his own enquiries, Edward contacts NSW authorities in an attempt to locate John and advise him that he can claim this share of the estate. This is the 'something to his advantage' mentioned in the Police Gazette notices.
• John is unable to be found and it is assumed he departed Sydney for San Francisco in 1849, even though we know he definitely made it back to Australia after this time.
• Although he lives until a good old age, Edward never hears from John again before he eventually dies.

[shanreagh]

I have no connection with this family but will be coming back later to read this fascinating thread.

[jamais]

Thanks for your interest shanreagh, saw the notification from your comment and it prompted me to come back and write this next update despite the madness of Christmas prep! Hope you enjoy, plenty more to follow after this too

Again, I'll split this post into two due to forum character limits.

Topic 3: John's time in jail (part 1)

After the big gap in the documentary record for John following his voyage to Australia on the Volunteer in 1848, he resurfaces in 1855 when he marries Emma Briant at Carcoar. Their FamilySearch page places this wedding on February 12. By all accounts Emma was born in 1839 and emigrated to Australia with her family in 1848, so she would have been just 15 years old at the time of her marriage... would love to see the original document referenced in this thread for many reasons including this

Emma and John had two children, Mary Anne and Susan. Different people who have contributed to FamilySearch independently give these children the same birthdate (30 July 1856), implying they're twins, but again I don't have documentation to 100% confirm this (the only available birth registration I can find is for 'Female Dyast', registration # 4198/1856).

However, at the same time as he was beginning his family, John was also embarking upon a criminal career which spanned quite a broad part of colonial NSW. The following information is compiled from the NSW Police Gazette dated June 21 1856 and contemporary newspaper reports (Sydney Morning Herald, June 27 & September 22 1856; Goulburn Herald, June 28 1856):

• On October 1 1855, John stole a horse belonging to a Mr Hackney from his field in Walmer, close to Bathurst.
• By March of 1856, he had stolen another two horses from the Bathurst area.
• On April 22 1856, John and another man travelled to Goulburn, where they sold the three horses to a dealer named Lenehan. The agreed sale price was £50, with £20 cash paid upfront and the remainder to be paid out in two months. The sale was witnessed by the landlord of a local inn.
• During their investigations, police were able to locate at least one of the stolen horses, which was by that time in the possession of a carrier named Cook.
• The Superintendent of the Western Road Patrol arrested John on June 16 1856 at his home in Kings Plains, placing a notice in the Police Gazette seeking information about other crimes John may have committed. This drew a response from Goulburn which enabled the successful prosecution of John for these crimes.
• John was held in Bathurst Jail and tried in the Circuit Court of Bathurst. On 17 September, a jury found John guilty, and he was 'sentenced to be kept to hard labour on the roads or other public works for five years'.

Here's a picture of John's entry in the Bathurst Gaol entrance book:

https://i.imgur.com/G0O5Ct9.jpeg

But what became of John in between his conviction and obtaining his Ticket of Leave in December 1858? Well, in the 'Disposed Of' column of John's entry in the Bathurst Gaol entrance book are two telling words: 'To Cockatoo'. It turns out that John served his sentence on the notorious Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour. Leaving Bathurst on 30 September 1856, John would have passed through Darlinghurst Gaol in Sydney for a medical inspection before beginning his sentence on the island.

[jamais]

Topic 3: John's time in jail (part 2)

This is a continuation of the above post tracing the history of John's time in jail on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour.

Convict labour was essential to the development of public infrastructure in colonial NSW, and John's sentence to hard labour consigned him to this fate too. At the time, construction of Fitzroy Dock was the main activity on Cockatoo Island. This was a necessary piece of infrastructure, as before its existence it was very difficult to properly service ships in Australian waters. Construction began in 1851, making Fitzroy Dock the first dry dock project to be undertaken in the Southern Hemisphere (although not the first completed - that distinction went to Mort's Dock in nearby Balmain). When eventually completed in 1857, it was the largest dry dock in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the largest in the world. After completion, the convicts manned the workshops and engine house. Fitzroy Dock still exists today, although the caisson (the barrier that keeps water out) is no longer functional so it is inoperative and constantly filled with water.

The slow pace of construction compared to Mort's Dock, which took only one year to build, was an indicator of the difficulties faced by convicts on the island. Some of these difficulties came to light in various inquiries into how the island was managed. Much controversy surrounded the role of the island's superintendent Charles Ormsby, who by all accounts treated the island like his personal fiefdom. Nicknamed 'Stormsby' for his wild temper, he was subject to no less than five inquiries during nearly two decades in his position. Finally toppled by an 1858 inquiry initiated at the behest of Henry Parkes (yes, the Father of Federation!), he was only removed from his position in August 1859, so John's entire stay on the island would have taken place under his tenure. Here's some more information about Ormsby's many and varied scandals which is well worth a read: https://www.harbourtrust.gov.au/discover-and-learn/harbour-history/historical-people-and-landmarks/charles-ormsby/

Bringing the focus back to John, the Darlinghurst Gaol and Cockatoo Island entrance books, which would provide detailed information about John's time in these prisons, are unfortunately both missing for the period 1856-58. But hints survive in other records: his entry (#2064 for 1856) in the Darlinghurst Gaol description book (recording physical details of all prisoners) lists him as 21 years old, 5 feet 5 inches, of 'stout' make and 'fresh' complexion, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. We also learn from this entry that he could read and write.

https://i.imgur.com/hncIevE.jpeg

Additionally, the other reference to John in the NSW archives relates to his time on Cockatoo Island. In the "Index to Colonial Secretary Letters Received" series (NRS 905, 4/3388, letter 58/4055), we see John listed as a prisoner 'claiming indulgence' (i.e., seeking early release or other changes to his sentence) in November 1858. Pictures of this correspondence taken from the NSW Archives are attached to this post. John seems to have kept his head down during his sentence, receiving no punishments during his time on Cockatoo Island. The 'Task Work for which Credit is Claimed' column refers to the 'task work' system introduced on the island in 1851 (read more here: https://cockatooconvicts.wordpress.com/history-of-cockatoo-island/). Prisoners who exceeded their work quotas were eligible for a reduction in sentence length as well as a small daily wage, and John clearly had enough of a reduction accrued to validly request a Ticket of Leave even though he wouldn't normally have been eligible until September 1859. He successfully requested a ticket of leave for Brisbane from the prison board, who granted this request on November 14 1858. John received his ticket of leave (#58/102; picture linked below) on November 30 1858.

https://i.imgur.com/E01rfKN.jpeg

The NSW Police Gazette dated December 23 1858 advertises that John has obtained his Ticket of Leave, and describes him as follows: "age 24, native place Kent, trade laborer, height 5 feet 4.5 inches, complexion sallow, hair dark, eyes brown." This is the last piece of concrete documentation we have about his life.

https://i.imgur.com/wjokszy.jpeg

To conclude, spare a thought for poor Emma Briant's plight in June of 1856: from what we know it appears she was sixteen years old, eight months pregnant with twins, and left to fend for herself on the frontier of the Kings Plains goldfields after the arrest of her husband. We know Emma Briant couldn't write (she signed her marriage record to John McKay with 'her X mark') and she isn't listed in the register of visitors to Cockatoo Island during John Dyast's time there. It therefore seems likely that she would have had little further contact with him after his arrest, and that her daughters would never have met their father. Little wonder that she began a long-lasting relationship with John McKay so soon after, despite her married status!

[jamais]

Oops, just realised that one of my file attachments for the 1871 Police Gazette post was incorrectly labelled and is actually a Cockatoo Island record. Please find the correct Police Gazette attachment on this post instead!