Pelham Ambrose Saunders 1829-1914 m Ballarat 22 April 1857 Jane Robson. This was period that Jane's father was engaged supervising Port Phillip Co mining work at Black Hill, Ballarat. Pelham (P.A.) Saunders was born 16 July 1829 Bombay, India, to parents married at Bombay having separately come from England (see further below). Leaving Bombay with them at an early age, he was brought up probably in England and France, his father dying 1837. By 1851 he was a Russia merchant lodged at Liverpool. Aged 22, he left Liverpool 20 Feb 1852 barque Collector second class cabin arriving Melbourne 16 June 1852. The departure date was same as that of the Port Phillip Co party under mining engineer Evan Hopkins sent to establish operations in Victoria which arrived from Singapore Fatel Oheb 5 June 1852. It is likely that P.A. Saunders at that time had link with the gold companies recently floated in London, or their personnel. Henry T. Prinsep of a family long associated with the Saunders family (see below) had in London been a co-director in other businesses with J.D. Powles and his brother William Prinsep was by 1854 in London a director of the British Australian Gold Mining Co. The whereabouts of P. A. Saunders from arrival in Australia 1852 until his marriage 1857 are now uncertain. The Port Phillip Co was generally reducing its workforce in that period. Huge numbers of people were privately following the Gold Rush locations and P. A. Saunders probably became one of them especially since March 1853 a Melbourne newspaper ad sought him as missing friend, late 1854 he was listed for unclaimed mail at Melbourne and February 1856 a newspaper ad asked that he attend an address in Melbourne to hear news from home. At time of marriage 1857, P. A. Saunders was a gold miner residing Ballarat but soon went to Clunes where for many years he worked for Port Phillip and Colonial Gold Mining Co as miner and stampman to about 1860, then clerk, accountant and office manager.
1860 newspaper notice named P.A. Saunders as Secretary to a Working Committee of New North Clunes Co. This was an enterprise in difficulty which the Port Phillip Co was assisting under an agreement of partnership. By 1863 he was secretary of this company. In 1862 P. A. Saunders was secretary to a committee for the building of a parsonage at Clunes and 1863 was gazetted a trustee of the land reserved for Church of England purposes there. By 1877 he was a trustee and spokesperson for the Wesleyan property at Clunes.
By 1888, the Port Phillip company fortunes were in decline and within a few years the mine closed. On 28 November 1888, Mr P.A. Saunders was farewelled at a dinner "about to leave the town for the metropolis" having been "so long connected with the Port Phillip Company in the office of the general manager, of which mine he has held a position of trust and responsibility" and in his speech, Mr Saunders referred to his 31 years connection with the mine: Clunes Guardian & Gazette 30 November 1888. From late 1888 for several years, P.A. Saunders was for Public Works Department government auditor to the borough of Horsham and shire of Wimmera, Victoria.
From late 1888, Pelham Saunders, accountant, and later retired, resided with Jane at locations in Albert Park and South Melbourne, by 1914 at 20 Madden St, Albert Park where Jane d 15 July 1914 and Pelham 7 August 1914, age 85, in Victoria 63 years; both bur Melbourne Gen Cem. On 15 August 1914, Clunes Guardian & Gazette reported the death of Mr P.A. Saunders whom it said came with others to Clunes from the old country to work at the Port Phillip Company's mine, and his duties were that of an accountant in the office of the manager R.H. Bland; he was of a very charitable disposition and of affable manners, and much respected by the hundreds of men who were then working in the mine; many friends in Clunes well remembered him. Family and ancestry of Pelham Ambrose Saunders 1829-1914
Pelham Ambrose Saunders 1829-1914 who m Ballarat, Australia 1857 Jane Robson was b 1829 Bombay, India, child of John Saunders 1800-36 pic East India Co merchant at Bombay from 1821 where m 1823 Ann Jones 1795-1867 pic. Ann had gone to Bombay presumably because about 1822 her step-sister/cousin Mildred Onslow nee Jones 1792-1865 had done so. John Saunders was in partnership Prinsep and Co with George Alexander Prinsep, dissolved 1826 notice Bombay Gazette. George Alexander Prinsep 1791-1839 at Bombay by about 1822 was son of John Prinsep 1746-1831 see below. By 1830 John Saunders was insolvent and gaoled for debt. Ann and probably John with children returned c1832 to England and probably at times France. In 1837 John and Ann took ship Royal Saxon for Manila, Philippines. John died 24 Sept at Singapore, java fever, age 36. Ann went on to Manila where child born. By 1851 Ann was at Sunderland, co Durham. Other children: Richard Thomas Saunders 1824-52 b Bombay, ironworks clerk, d Sunderland; John Prinsep Saunders 1825-44 b Bombay, army, d Madras; Anne Catherine Saunders 1827-1906 pic b Bombay later returned there where m 1850 Benjamin Robert Whittaker 1827-99 Bombay regiment, by 1881 Jersey, Channel Is; William Saunders b 1831 Bombay; Mary Louisa Saunders 1833-1920 b East Wickham, Kent m 1859 Francis Fane Yeatman 1821-94 customs officer, res Sunderland; Isabella Mary Saunders 1836-1916 pic b Manila 10 Dec 1836 m Wigan 1868 Charles Prattman Douglas 1837-1910, engineer, of Consett later Darlington, co Durham.
John Saunders 1801-37 was second son of Thomas Saunders 1765-1848 and Esther c1775-1855; pic.
Thomas was child of Thomas Saunders 1736-1821 pic merchant of London, by 1768 res Highgate, Middlesex, later Yateley, Hampshire, m 1762 Sarah (Sally) Pickersgill 1741-98 whose father Joshua Pickersgill 1711-81 b Leeds was a silk merchant of London. Thomas Saunders 1736-1821 in decades around 1790 was business partner with brother-in-law Joshua Pickersgill c1740-1804.
Thomas Saunders 1765-1848 joined 1787 the firm of his maternal aunt Jane's husband Anthony Francis (Antoine Francois) Haldimand 1741-1817, of Swiss descent, merchant and banker of London, Turin, Yverdon etc specialising in silk. A 1793 advertisement in Calcutta Gazette announced a business partnership of John Prinsep with Thomas Saunders junior, of London, which must refer to Thomas Saunders 1765-1848. John Prinsep 1746-1831 pic originally from Buckinghamshire, had returned with family to England 1788 after 17 years in Bengal India at Calcutta and to its north east conducting businesses in chintz textiles, indigo production and copper mining. Prinsep and Saunders included business as East India merchants, silk merchants and c1800 in providing international ships to India and Australia. Prinsep became an MP, a London alderman and from 1817 bailiff of Southwark. The eldest child from his 1783 marriage, Sophia Charlotte Prinsep 1783-1861, m 1809 George Haldimand 1765-1851 cousin and close associate of Thomas Saunders 1765-1848. By 1816, Thomas Saunders 1765-1848 seems associated with Garras mines Cornwall (in which his father held an interest referred to in his will) since a son was born nearby. From 1817 Thomas Saunders was British vice-consul at St Valery sur Somme, near Abbeville, France. John Prinsep's will made 1826 London was particular that the children to which it referred were those of his marriage: it had as a witness Thomas Saunders 1795-1873, son of Thomas Saunders 1765-1848.
Ancestry of Esther, wife of Thomas Saunders 1765-1848, remains intriguingly uncertain. She was in the midst of social circles where ancestry and family origin were strongly overt yet never for her, itself a hint of exotic origin. She was at St Valery sur Somme by 1817 until death 1855, said age 84, will in England. Later accounts, circuitously reliant, often give her family name as Barton. There is record of a marriage 1812 St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, Thomas Saunders bachelor and Esther Barton spinster both of parish, and the groom signature is strikingly similar to that of witness Thomas Saunders to marriages of Maria Saunders 1825, Esther Saunders 1828, Elizabeth Saunders 1837. Perhaps it was belated or renewed marriage. About the time of Esther's birth, there were Barton in Bengal but there is no known evidence of association with them. There was an Irish-French Barton family much later with association to Bengal, its published history does not place Esther. She possibly came to England from Bengal associated with John Prinsep above, perhaps his daughter; children of John Prinsep recorded at Calcutta Bengal include Henrietta Prinsep baptised 1778, mother unrecorded (presumably Indian). Calcutta Gazette notice 1793 has Harriett Prinsep nominee in private fund for children subscribed by Lambert and Ross for John Prinsep, maturing. References above show the later long and intricate association of Prinsep and Saunders families. Was Barton adapted from a Bengali name?
An unlikely account is that of Saunders descendant Anthony Glyn in his work about his maternal grandmother and Saunders descendant Elinor Glyn: A Biography (1955) according to which the wife (whom he does not name) of Thomas Saunders was of French aristocratic family and hid in Abbeville all through the Terror, presumably meaning 1793-4. Perhaps this originates from confusion with the French family Blot with whom the Saunders family became related by marriage.
Eldest son of Thomas Saunders 1765-1848 and Esther was Thomas Saunders 1795-1873 East India merchant London c1823-8, m Dublin 1828 Lucy Ann Willcocks 1803-77 of Anglo-Irish ancestry, to Bombay 1828 where child Lucy Saunders 1829-50 born, at St Valery sur Somme in France c1831-2, settled 1833 Guelph, Ontario, Canada, farmer, soldier, clerk of the peace pic with wife Lucy, daughters Louisa Saunders m Shanly 1836-1910 and Frances Saunders 1831-1912. Other children included Thomas Willcocks Saunders 1833-1919 pic; Maria Saunders 1834-72 m Webster pic; Henrietta Saunders 1838-1918 pic; Elinor Saunders m1 Sutherland m2 Kennedy 1841-1937 pic (mother of Lucy Duff Gordon 1863-1935 pic fashion designer and Evelyn Glyn 1864-1943 pic writer); Julia Octavia Saunders 1845-1937 pic. A descendant Guy Le Fanu Saunders 1908-2002 made extensive family research and picture collection much of which is on-line by search at Wellington County Archives Canada, also collections of earlier family members. A descendant Darryl Saunders also has much assisted site author: see his geni.com/Thomas-Saunders-of-Highgate.
Third son of Thomas and Esther was Ambrose Edward Saunders 1816-84 pic, b Cornwall, lt-col Army Bombay where m 1845 Eliza Clemons 1822-70 m2 1872 Lucy Ann Burton Conyngham who d 1874, by 1881 Ambrose of Jersey, Channel Is, son Macan William Saunders 1851-1932 and grandson Macan Saunders 1884-1956 army officers.
Daughters of Thomas and Esther included Esther Saunders pic 1797-1863 b Upton, Essex, m Paris 1828 John Seaton, b 1791, navy, 1841 res Yorkshire, 1851 Kent, 1861 Jersey, Channel Is; Maria Saunders 1801-82 b Upton, Essex m Paris 1825 Henry Berners; Elizabeth Saunders b 1802 m Paris 1837 Augustin Pierre Blot a Paris banker; Anne Saunders c1809-43 m Dover 1830 Richard Jones 1792-1875 brother of Anne nee Jones 1795-1867 (> Richard Jones 1833-1913 pic of East Wickham, Kent, barrister; Matilda Jones 1834-84 pic; Henry Jones 1838-1921 army officer India, ornithologist, bird artist later of Brit Mus; Louisa Jones 1841-1919 pic.)
Thomas Saunders 1765-1848 had brothers Joshua Saunders 1768-1853 insurance underwriter London, James Saunders 1769-1838 ordained Oxfordshire, John Saunders 1775-1805 merchant London and William Saunders 1781-1849 merchant London. Two later family members were famed in botany and entomology, another in sociology. Sidney Smith William Saunders 1836-96 who settled New South Wales 1854 and has many Australian descendants was grandson of William Saunders 1781-1849, grandson, Alfred Chapman Rolleston Saunders 1846-1910, settled Guelph, Ontario.
This Saunders family has been traced back to 1400's Amersham, Buckinghamshire; Pitchcott manor Bucks was until 1852 owned within the family. Thomas Saunders 1736-1821 inherited the half part of his father Thomas Saunders 1691-1749 of Rickmansworth and in 1775 became an executor and trustee of the interest (seemingly by then the whole) held by distant cousin Thomas Saunders 1729-1775 of Brill, former Governor of Madras. Many old family papers are at Centre for Bucks Studies.
The name Pelham was from the family of Ann Jones, mother of Pelham Saunders, for generations landed at East Wickham, Kent. Her parents were Richard Stayner Jones 1749-97, col 1st foot guards, d West Indies, m London 1782 Catherine Hester Reed 1764-1836 (who m2 1801 John Pelham Jones 1750-1831, brother of deceased husband); paternal grandparents Thomas Jones 1713-66 originally from Portsmouth, comptroller of laboratory Woolwich, m c1738 Martha Pelham 1713-71; maternal grandparents Edward John Reed 1735-1767 surgeon of Durham city m London 1762 Anne Borrett (who m2 1769 Middleton Onslow 1732-1801). Thomas was child of Evan Jones m London 1708 Anna Reed (who prev m Portsmouth 1697 Richard Holford 1675-1703). Martha was child of Charles Pelham b 1684 who like his father was clerk of the survey royal dockyard Woolwich, m 1710 Mary Smith of family from that region, she d 1742. Charles was child of John Pelham, d 1719 of Deptford, landowner in vicinity and elsewhere, m 1673 Martha Lake.
5. Elizabeth Robson 1834-1901
born Brazil - died Sedgewick, Vic married Clunes 1860 William Lancashire 1833-94.
1. William Joseph Lancashire 1861-2.
2. William Robson Lancashire b 1863.
3. Joseph Hyde Lancashire 1865-1929.
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William Lancashire, whom Elizabeth Robson married, was an engine fitter. By 1859, he ran an iron and brass foundry amongst the various businesses at Clunes Iron Foundry, Main Street. Until April 1860, it was in partnership with Henry Thomas. By advertisement 24 February 1860 Creswick & Clunes Advertiser, Thomas & Lancashire, Engineers, called to the attention of Quartz Crushing Companies their having made improvements in the manufacture of Stamp Heads so that they were harder and more durable than any hitherto manufactured or brought to the Goldfields. According to information provided by Clunes Museum, William Lancashire was next with the Port Phillip Company, probably until 1866, with a house and foundry in the Company Paddock; from 1866 to 1869, a partnership of Cooper and Lancashire had the Victoria Foundry in Purcell Street; in 1869, he took over the Clunes Foundry of Henry Thomas then in Templeton Street; he was a Clunes councillor in 1869 and 1870; he was also musical - a conductor and a singer. Some of William Lancashire's work was in association with Joseph Robson: see above. In August 1870, during a thunderstorm, the boiler used in the Lancashire Foundry works burst, throwing the town into the greatest consternation by a very loud report, and doing an immense amount of damage. A portion of the boiler, weighing 15 cwt, was blown right over Fraser Street, a distance of 400 yards. In 1874, when Joseph Robson wrote his will, Joseph owned the foundry and was selling it, there was a clause in the will that the sale was to go ahead even if Joseph died.
above 6 notes from Stephanie Dew including also reliance on Creswick & Clunes Advertiser 3 June 1859, 15 August 1870.
6. John George Robson 1841-1905
born Brazil, probably at Curapaity, died Boulder, Western Australia, married Clunes 1872 Jane Ann Remfry Hosking. John was an engine fitter. He left Clunes after 1892 when mining had ceased. After being in South Australia, he was by 1897 in Western Australian goldfields. Jane Hosking was sister of Elizabeth who had married Joseph Hudson Johns. (from Stephanie Dew book).
1. Mary Annie Robson 1872-1959 m 1899 Ernest Tarrant 1871-1954, of Hawthorn, Vic.
2. Lilian Jane Robson 1875-1956 m Eustace Harold Northey 1875-1938, of Kalgoorlie.
3. Blanche Emblyn Robson 1877-1948 later at Boulder, c1921 tailoress, later teacher at Koroit, Vic.
4. Joseph Ernest Robson b 1880.
5. Ethel May Robson 1882-1954 later at Boulder, then by 1920 Kalgoorlie. By 1930, accountant, residing Como in Perth WA.
6. Evelyn Daisy Robson 1884-1957 music teacher, at Boulder, then by 1920 Kalgoorlie. By 1939 resided at Como with Ethel.
7. George Alfred Robson 1886-1954 m Ethel May McLoy d 1960. George and Ethel initially at Boulder, George c1913 fireman. By 1930 at South Guildford in Perth, George a contractor.
8. Winifred Hilda Remfry Robson 1892-1959, by 1913 teacher, residing Boulder, then by 1920 Kalgoorlie, m Rangoon then in India 1926 Raymond Robson Millen 1898-1949 b Boulder, both later res WA, eventually NSW
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Niece and two nephews of Joseph Robson also came to Victoria
Annie Taylor nee Wraith c1836-90, arrived Victoria 1858, was child of Joseph Robson's sister, Hannah, and William Wraith, (coal) trimmer, who 1841 were at Jarrow, co Durham. Annie m William Taylor at Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1856. The family lived Ballarat district until about 1872 then Eaglehawk district. Children: William Taylor 1857, Robert Taylor 1859, Mary Hannah Taylor 1861, John Robson Taylor 1864-1903 d Kalgoorlie WA, Thomas Taylor 1867, James Taylor 1869-1908, Samuel Taylor 1872, Joseph Taylor 1874, Anne Isabella Taylor 1877, Sarah Jane Taylor 1879.
William Wraith c1843-1902, another child of Joseph's sister, Hannah, and William Wraith arrived Victoria 1865. By 1881 he had settled in Eaglehawk district near Bendigo where with Hannah Cuthbertson nee Naylor, whom he married 1885, there were children Mary Hannah 1881 (d as child), Hannah 1883-96, Violet Jane Wraith 1886-1947, Amy Isabella Wraith 1889-91 and William Norman Wraith 1892-4. Jan Glasby informs that William was a miner and had the All Nations and Sebastian hotels at Sebastian near Bendigo in the 1890's.
Thomas Wraith 1853-1919 b Jarrow, co Durham, d Eaglehawk, Vic m Margaret Watson 1852-1925. Children Hannah Wraith 1877-1901 b Harton, co Durham d Vic, William Watson Wraith 1877-1937 b Harton, d Vic m 1906 Ethel May Scattini 1886-1956, Ninnis Arthur James Wraith 1912 b Eaglehawk, Vic m 1936 Eileen Mary Thiesz 1911-69, Arthur Wraith 1886-1953 b Raywood, Vic, Thomas Watson Wraith 1890-1970 b Eaglehawk, Vic m Beatrice Frances Hallinan 1896-1951.
For above in this section, acknowledgment to Stephanie Dew,
also emails 2003 from Jan Glasby,
descendant of Hannah's sister Annie Naylor who
married Thomas Oughton Taylor 1876 at Sebastian
also email 2010 from Geoff Hall for details concerning
Thomas Wraith 1853-1919 and other help.
In 1851, Annie Wraith, age 15, was housekeeper to her widowed grandfather John Robson, age 75, coal miner, father of Joseph Robson. They resided Thornley Colliery, Durham.
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this is www.justd.com/robson
commenced 29 July 2002 latest 26 February 2023
site author Don Just at Melbourne Australia
www.justd.com
justd@bigpond.com
Corrections, comments, additional information and images invited
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