Send an e-mail to: Amanda TaylorSend an e-mail to: Amanda TaylorA Story of an Early Pioneer Family, Researched and written by present-day members of the Family, themselves.
The following article was written and researched by Grace Douglass & Laurel Legge and published in their book 'Along the Windsor Richmond Road' 1985 (ISBN 0 9589831 0 0 and ISBN 0 9589831 3 5) and is subject to copyright. Written permission is held from the late author Grace Douglass for the writer to publish contents via the Internet. However, although this book is in the public domain, it still remains copyrighted material and may not be copied for any reason without permission. I do not have the right to give permission to others to reprint the book. I was only given permission to put it on line. All copyrights stay with Grace Douglass & Laurel Legge and whoever they appointed, for control of the book. Under no circumstances may it be reprinted for profit.
Extractions of parts of the information for personal use with references to the book as the source is encouraged.
It should be noted that since the book was published over twenty years ago, that a lot of the material in the books have been superseeded by later research, some of which can ben seen at my complete Rootsweb database at Amanda Taylor's Genealogy.
Dear 'Aunt' Elizabeth -- thank-goodness you were born a daughter to Jane Ezzy, and not a son -- for my task would have been doubled!
Ten sons, and apparently not a single daughter, were born to this Lady. Had she been their Father, and not their Mother, there would have been ten more Ezzy Lines to unravel, and many more leaves on the Family Tree.
Elizabeth and her younger sister, Sophia, were born after the Ezzy Family had time to recover from their Exile from England and make something of themselves in their new Land.
By the time Elizabeth was born in Mulgrave Place on 5/10/1805, Jane, her Mother, had been working her Grant for almost eight years, and William had received his the previous year, so possibly, Elizabeth and her younger sister had a better start in life. As I have already explained Elizabeth and Sophia were the only two children of the marriage who we are sure were able to write, and they could write well for children of parents who possibly may have been unable to write themselves.
Elizabeth was not baptised until just before her sixth birthday, when she was baptised at St. Matthew's Windsor with her sister, Sophia, who ws then almost four. At the time of Elizabeth's birth there was no Church in Windsor. The first Church and School House -- the same building was used for both purposes -- was burnt to the ground in an earlier period and although a new Church-cum-School-house was opened in August, two months before Elizabeth was born, it would appear to have been used for Church Services only -- a meeting place for Worship on the Sabbath, and the first recorded baptisms, etc., were not until about the year 1810 when the next Church/Shool House was opened and the Rev. Robert Cartwright appointed the first resident Chaplain of the Hawkesbury. As to why Jane delayed a further year with the baptism of her daughters I cannot say. There would also in these in-between years have been many occasions on which she could have had the girls baptised by a visiting member of the Clergy, as she did with their elder sister, Lucy. There is, however something significant in the date of their baptism; Governor Macquarie had let it be known that he was most particular about the morals of the inhabitants of the young Colony, and he wished all marriages to be properly 'Churched', no further burials of the dead on unconsecrated ground, and the young properly baptised, confirmed and catechised.
The first eighteen years of Elizabeth's life appear to have been uneventful, in so far as there does not appear to be any mention of her by name until September 1823 when her name appears on an Indenture, together with that of her younger sister, Sophia. Elizabeth and Sophia Ezzy were parties to a contract to sell to one William Thurston, two houses situate at Nos. 8 and 9 Cambridge Street, Sydney. It seems unlikely that these two young girls could have owned the properties in their own right by act of purchase, and far more likely that they were given to the girls by their Mother, Jane Ezzy. Cambridge Street, it will be remembered, was the site of the "Swan and Two Necks", owned by Jane and John Boulton.
On 10th January 1825, Elizabeth married Joseph Dargin at St. Matthew's Windsor. Her sister, Sophia, had married his brother James, two months previously. Both Elizabeth and Joseph were able to sign their names quite clearly, but the two witnesses, Elizabeth's brother and sister, Charles and Lucy, made their mark.
Joseph was the second son of Thomas Dargon, seaman from the "Roayl Admiral" (by now the name had more-or-less evolved to Dargin, but was still seen as Dargan and Dargon), and his convict wife Mary Loveridge, also from the "Royal Admiral" whom he had married in the Colony. No doubt Elizabeth and Sophia would have known their husbands from childhood.
Joseph was, perhaps, the original 'Wild Colonial Boy'. So many of these early, original, Australians, were wild, untamed and rebellious. They considered their parents had been brought to the Colony against their will, with little or no chance of returning to their birthplace, and that the Government and the Crown, owed them, the next generation a debt, and to a point this claim was justified, as the early Governors had promised that the 'next' generation would be entitled to free grants of land and other considerations. However, the 'free' settlers began to arrive, and many of them were given very large grants of land, far larger than the smaller plots handed out to the 'native sons' and it bred discontent and a wilder spirit. Some like Elizabeth's youngest brother Charles Ezzy, went far out and squatted on, or took up large areas of land outside the boundaries of the settled Colony, whilst others, like Joseph Dargin stayed at home and 'kicked up their heels' -- what is so different about our youth of today?
Thomas and Mary Dargin were hotel-keepers most of their married life, and after Thomas died, Mary Dargin was still active in this line of business. The "Red Lion" and "White Swan" at Windsor were both run by them, and it was in this environment that their children were raised. Early Inns were not exactly the ideal home in which to raise children. Governor macquarie described them in non-too-glowing terms, and in fact cancelled quite a few of the licences. Bare-knuckle-fighting was a feature of the "Red Lion", and Joseph was jailed in 1821 for wild fighting in this Hotel. He was also sent to Newcastle jail in 1823, prior to his marriage for six months on an Assault Charge.
The couple's first child, William, was born 26/2/1825 and Joseph is recorded as being a farmer at Windsor. The 1828 Census shows the couple with another son, Thomas, born 25/9/1827, and Joseph had a grant of 100 acres at Patricks Plains. Elizabeth may not necessarily have been living at Patricks Plains, she may have been in Windsor with her two young sons. Joseph, however, had 40 of his 100 acres cleared, 20 under cultivation, and had 2 horses and 80 head of cattle. Their third son, James was born 3/2/1830, and Joseph stated he was a storekeeper in Parramatta. It was, of course, possible to own land and employ a manager to work it, so Joseph may have been in either place.
At this point of time the marriage would appear to have ended. What caused the break-up is not known, although there would appear to be some doubt as to just 'who' was the Mother of the second son, Thomas. When he was baptised at St. Matthew's Windsor, he was baptised as the son of Elizabeth and Joseph Dargin, and that is how he appears in the 1828 Census the following year. However, when Thomas died his Death Certificate declared him to be the son of Joseph Ezzy and Martha Wolford and that he had been born at Jerry's Plains near the Comleroi Turnoff. Any person who has dabbled in Genealogy will be the first to agree with me that Death Certificates are most unreliable documents. Admittedly the Certificates relating to Birth and Marriage are only as accurate as the honesty of the two participating parties allow them to be. The Death Certificate, however, relies on information given by an Informant, who does not necessarily share kinship with the deceased, and even those who do share kinship can make some extraordinary statements. A case in point for this are the variations in the names given to the Lady, John Ezzey married. William James' certificate says 'Rebecca Ryan', Henry's says 'Elizabeth Lamb', Richard's says 'Rebecca Lamb' and Joseph's says 'Elizabeth Lamb' -- poor 'Grandmother!'. So, I do not feel we can attach too much importance to the mothering of Thomas being the cause of the marriage break-up. One point in Elizabeth's favour of her not being the guilty party, is that after she left Joseph for Charles Hughes, her husband did not insert advertisements in the Sydney Gazette as was the usual practice of the day, as we have seen with Jane Ezzy and Elizabeth Carlisle.
Charles Hughes was a convict with a Lfe Sentence who came on the "Ann and Amelia" in 1825. In the 1828 Census he is shown as being employed as a collarmaker to William Cox at Richmond. In the 1828 Census there are two other 'Charles Hughes', all with Life sentences, one who came on the "Larkin" in 1817, and the other who came on the "Neptune" in 1818, but the one with whom our "Aunt" dwelt was the collarmaker from Richmond.
The first son that Elizabeth bore to Charles Hughes was born 1833 and was baptised Charles. He was followed by Francis (1835), John (1838), Henry (1841), Edward (1843), Edwin (1845) and George (1847), the last infant being born several months after Elizabeth had buried Charles in St.Peter's Churchyard. Charles, Edwin and George were baptised at St. Peter's Richmond, and Edward, Henry and Francis at St.Matthew's, Windsor. John does not appear to have been baptised, however, he ws buried the following year as John Hughes/Dargin, and the Hawkesbury Records, kept by Mr. R.n. Arndell, have a notation beside the entry 'Father - Charles Hughes, Mother - Elizabeth Ezzy'. Although Elizabeth, at this time, was legally Elizabeth Dargin, and not Elizabeth Ezzy, Mr. Arndell was obviously having the same problem with 'Dargins' as present-day researchers, in that here was 'Sophia Dargin' born Dargin, as opposed to 'Mrs. Sophia Dargin (nee Ezzy)!, and 'Elizabeth Dargin", born Dargin, s opposed to (Mrs. Elizabeth Dargin (nee Ezzy). Not to mention 'Eliza Dargin' who married John Barker, and their daughter who became Mrs. Eliza Ezzy when she married Charles Ezzy jnr. At that point, it becomes a little difficult to separate the 'Dargins' from the 'Ezzys' especially when the second and third generations favoured similar first-names.
When Edward was born in 1843, his Father's occupation was listed as a farmer of Clarendon, so they were apparently living on part of William's original grant. Two years after Elizabeth buried Charles Hughes, she inherited almost five acres of land at Clarendon, under the terms of her brother-in-law's Will (William Thomas Baylis). The Title to this land had passed to William Thomas Baylis, on behalf of his wife Lucy, in 1825, when William Ezzy signed over to him Lucy's share of the original grant of 130 acres. Lucy's portion of this grant was twenty-six acres -- a fifth. Under the terms of the Will Elizabeth received 'about' five acres together with 'cottage, out-offices and appurtenances', and reference was made to the fact that she was already in occupation of same, and possibly had been so, from about the time of Edward's birth. Elizabeth, however, was only given life-tenancy of the parcel of land and on her death it was to pass to her second 'Hughes' son, Francis. A later Indenture dated 1862, on file at the Land Title Office of the Registrar General's Department, shows Francis Hughes selling a further portion of this grant (two roods, more or less) to one of his relations, Mary Ann Dargin of Richmond, ad so it can be seen how the original grant of 130 acres was gradually cut-up into smaller and smaller sections, within the life-time of William Ezzy's own children.
Unfortunately for the children of Elizabeth and Charles, the life of their Mother too, was hort, and she was laid to rest beside Charles Hughes in St.Peter's Churchyard 20/5/1855 at the age of fifty.
After Elizabeth's death her younger children were divided and some were raised as Dargin and some as Hughes, and for this reason no attempt has been made to establish the life-span of her sons.
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