More on Hiding in Tasmania

[Ranolki]

Yes I'm sure she IS the Rose Steventon you found, but where did that name come from?  It overlaps with the Simmonds/Zeamond name based on the dates. I can't see she got married.  The Rose Seaman Steventon one I found was interesting but I happen to know Barnt Green Road, Rednal and it's pretty "posh" so unless she was living in as a domestic I don't see that being her.  And who, in an affluent area, would take her on with the references she probably had by then?

[PatLac]

I think she is the Rose/Rosina Steventon of the newspapers' articles but I'm not entirely sure she is the Rose Simmonds registered at Dartford. The reason is that the 1921 Census, age 38 y 2 mo, is very accurate (unless she lied) or she was born around April 1883, christened and registered in January 1884, but her DOB in the christening record is 22 December 1883. I think her real name was Simmonds or similar (1911 and 1921 Census) and Steventon was an alias or maybe a step-father's surname.

For comparison, William's age is 59 y 9 mo. He was christened and registered in September 1862.

[Ranolki]

I did find one born in Maidstone in the right year.  I'll go back, track that one down and report back...

[PatLac]

Regarding Maidstone...

I have found a grave that is likely her sister (if she was Rose Simmonds, daughter of John and Esther nee Wren). Her age isn't quite right as well.

Chatham Maidstone Road Cemetery

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/224961255/caroline-jane-simmonds

Mother maiden name GOWER


Her sister Caroline Jane Simmonds married Edward Bartlett PERRY, had 6 children (one of them Rose) and died in 1914 in Deptford, Kent.

Their mother Esther SIMMONDS (nee WREN) died in 1918 in Holllingbourne which is in the Maidstone district.

[Ranolki]

Ah interesting, I'm off for another look.  You legally have to register a birth within six weeks in the UK so the quarter of registration should be accurate unless someone was born right at the end or right at the beginning when they might overlap.

[Ranolki]

I found Rosetta Ann Simmonds born in the last quarter of 1882 in Maidenhead.  Potentially another candidate? 

I suppose I have only really been interested in Rosina/Rose/Rosetta Zeamond/Steventon/Simmonds as I thought she might lead me to knowing what happened to William I'Anson but I'm beginning to think that she really was a housekeeper and nothing more. It's strange that we have yet another person potentially using pseudonyms though. I wonder if she left his employment after that 1924 court case?  The address she gave in 1930 (High St, Bordesley) is almost in the centre of Birmingham.  It was very poor in the 1930s (now partially redeveloped to be part of the inner city area) and I just don't see William living there at all.

So my quest has to still be...

1. What did Isaiah Oldbury/John Vernon/John Wilson do between arriving in Melbourne and going back to the UK in 1919?
2.  Was that him going back to England for a year directly after he and Christiana split up?  I can understand him going "home" (I think he was very driven by his money and at that point he had realised all his NZ and Australian assets) but if that was the case, why did he go back a year later?  He would have been anonymous in England as John Wilson (as his later return proved, given that his death certificate was issued in that name) and I think William I'Anson had by 1910 run out of money to keep tabs on him, even under his real name.  Isaiah had handed his business over to his oldest son so it wouldn't relate to that, and I would be very surprised if he wanted to show his face in the Black Country.  His photos and portraits had been in the press - he would have probably been still recognisable.
3.  What vessels did they use to travel from NZ (probably Lyttleton) to Tasmania (probably Hobart) in around 1909 and also (separately) from Hobart to Melbourne in early 1910?
4.  Did Christiana own (or later buy) the Coffee Palace premises?  I don't think she did and I may still find info on that in Then Awake Sea Lake.  It's a huge book, especially considering Sea Lake was only founded in the very late 1800s and has only ever had 800 people living there!  I'm working my way through it... 
5.  Why didn't Christiana leave a will?  in 1906 she inherited 12 cottages in Wheatbottom. Had she already sold them? if not I would imagine there should be a paper trail of her sons obtaining probate etc?  She had three sons living at the point she died, her surviving daughter Irene having died two months before her.

[PatLac]

Do you have Irene's file?

INDEX
Oldbury Irene Whitfield
Deceased Estates Index 1880-1958
Item No: B49572 [20/5054] | Place: Killara | Remarks: Occupation: Spinster

https://search.records.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1e5kcq1/INDEX2790103

I suppose Christiana had so many aliases it would be difficult to leave a legally valid will? Isaiah's will was under his real name, which wasn't a problem because he was a man and back in his own country, but what about a woman who had married, divorced, and used at least 5 different names (Whitfield, before and after marriage, I'Anson, Oldbury, Vernon, and Maydwell), so she probably sold of transferred all her assets and property to her sons?

I would very much like to know who bought the Sea Lake Coffee Palace!


I was about to ask you... mother Rebecca??

Name                                  Registration Number  Father's Given Name(s) Mother's Given Name(s) District

MAYDWELL  CHRISTIANA 31181/1951                 NOT KNOWN          REBECCA               YOUNG

[Ranolki]

How very strange!  Christiana's mother was Elizabeth Whitfield née Graham. She was John Whitfield's second wife, much younger than him. His first wife was Hannah. Elizabeth had the right to the income from those cottages until her remarriage or death.  She remarried in 1906 and died in 1910... 

Irene always used Isaiah's surname once she arrived in NZ which I found odd.  As soon as she arrived in Christchurch she went to live with a man named Newton Reed Johnston as his housekeeper.  She lived with him for the rest of her life (he was a widower with several children) and they travelled together. I believe they went to England and also South Africa.  They ended up in NSW from 1939. He left her very well provided for in his will with the estate to go to his sons once she had died.

I'm pretty sure Christiana rented the Coffee Palace to begin with at least.  I have a couple of names for likely owners so I need to follow that trail in the book.  I'm not sure she had the capital to buy anywhere outright - as far as I can see her only income was a £20 per annum annuity from her father's estate plus whatever rental income came in from the cottages (unless she sold them sometime after 1906).

[PatLac]

Yes, who the heck was Rebecca?? I suppose one of her sons was the informant?

Do you have the probate documents of her father? What was Christiana's surname? Was his will written before she married (1889)?