Descendants of Maria Matilda Gordon
1. Maria
Matilda Gordon was born on 4 June 1817 on the military
transport vessel Matilda during its voyage from Cork, Ireland
to Australia with her father's 48th Regiment of Foot. She was
baptised on 4 May 1823 at Newcastle,
NSW 18 and died
4 June 1882 1,
buried in Campbell's Hill Cemetery, Maitland, NSW, Australia.
From at least May 1837 to June 1842 she had a defacto relationship
with Frank Adams, a Captain in the
28th Gloucestershire Regiment of Foot, who was born in 1809 in Ansty,
Warwickshire, England and died on 19 Sept 1869 1, a son
of Henry Cadwallader Adams and Emma Curtis. Subsequently Maria had
a defacto relationship with an unknown from which there was one
issue. She married on 17 Mar 1849 in the Church of England at
Maitland widower James Fullford who was
born ca. 1815 in Deptford, England and died on 5 Jan 1880 17 at Maitland, buried Campbell's Hill Cemetery.
Frank Adams
From a five year defacto relationship with Frank Adams Maria had two sons,
who whilst christened with the Gordon surname, used Adams as their
surname. About three years after the birth of the second son Maria
had another child also born out of wedlock who was to be her only
daughter. This daughter's 1873 church marriage register record gave
her then age as 27 years indicating a birth during the second half
of 1845 or first half of 1846. A 1845-46 time-frame for her birth
is confirmed by the 76 years of age given in her 1922 newspaper
death notice and inscribed on her Rookwood Cemetery headstone.
Taken together these 49 years apart records indicate Maria's
daughter was born in the second half of 1845 or first quarter of
1846. Therefore it follows it was not possible for her father to
have been Frank Adams as he left Australia for India over three
years earlier in June 1842 and never returned. There appears to be
no church baptism record for this daughter so her father's name
is unknown.
Major-General Frank Adams
Frank Adams was the second son of Henry Cadwallader Adams and Emma
Curtis (a daughter of Sir William Curtis) of Ansty, a village in
the Folshil district of Warwickshire, England located about 7
kilometres NE of Coventry. They had five boys and four girls 15. As
Captain Frank Adams he arrived in Sydney on 23 August 1836 on HMS Rattlesnake
with his regiment the 28th Regiment of Foot after having first
made landfall in Australia at Hobart Town on 30 May to offload convicts 3.
In November that year he was stationed at Bathurst and in December
at Emu Plains. From January 1837 he was at the Brigade Office
in Sydney and, for the three months from 1 June to 31 Aug. 1837
during which Maria's first child Frank Jr. would have been
conceived, he was Aide-de-Camp to the Governor of the colony
Sir Richard Bourke. In that capacity he would have spent much
of his time at Government House at Parramatta a little over a
kilometer from where the Gordon family resided.
After rejoining his 28th regiment Frank Adams was stationed at
Parramatta where he and Maria became embroiled in a scandal that
erupted publicly after Frank was challenged to fight a duel. Duels
were a breach of the peace and illegal in the colony. Frank Adams
rebuffed the challenger (Mr. Catterell) who then affixed to a
fence outside the main gates to Government House a placard highly
defamatory of him and an extraordinary legal senario ensued. Instead
of the normal course of a reputation injured person seeking a
remedy by way of instigating a civil action for defamation seeking
damages, upon the complaint by Frank Adams to the Supreme Court that
an attempt had been made to incite him to fight an illegal duel,
the then Attorney General of the Colony, who acted as Frank's personal
legal representative when the matter came before the Court, by virtue
of it finding a prima facie case established that Frank Adams had
been challenged to fight an illegal duel was then obliged to act
in his official capacity as senior crown law officer of the colony
to instigate a criminal prosecution against the duel challenger
Mr. Catterell for having incited a person (who in the Attorney
General's private capacity was his client) to commit a breach
of the peace! Given the prominance of the persons named as being
in some way involved in the matter, such as the Governor of the
colony Sir Richard Bourke and the Deputy Governor and Commander
of the 28th Regt. Lieut. Colonel Cudbert French, and the salacious
nature of the allegations contained in the affidavits, not surprisingly
the case was well reported by
all Sydney newspapers. Possessed of such elements it no doubt
would have been the subject of widespread gossip and interest as
to the identity and unmarried status of Maria Gordon, she being the
daughter of Ann Gordon who until twelve months previous had been
the Matron of the Parramatta Female Factory from where the masters
and mistresses of the colony obtained their convict female
domestic servants.
From Jan 1838 to the end of May 1839 Frank Adams was stationed at
Maitland and, after a month in Sydney, for the next eight months
from July 1839 to Feb 1840 at Illawarra 4.
It is said he obtained a grant of land at West Maitland at Horseshoe
Bend upon which he built a hotel in 1840 named the ‘White Horse
Hotel’ 16.
Frank Adams left for England on 24 March 1840 on the Trusty on
leave from the regiment 5. After
two years absence from the colony he arrived back in Sydney on 7 March
1842 on the barque Maitla having left the Downs on 26 Oct
1841 6.
The reunion with Maria, and then 4 year old son Frank Jr., must
have occurred very soon after the ship was released from quarantine
as the next child Arthur was born just nine months and 4 days later.
However Capt. Frank Adams was not around for that happy event as
after only three months back in Australia he departed with his
regiment for India destined never to return. He left Sydney on
the 19 June on the Kelso in company with two other
regimental transport ships the John Brewer and
the Arab 7.
It was probably fortunate for Maria they did not marry as she and
Frank Jr. would have accompanied him to India and likely perished
there soon after arrival. After the arrival of the regiment in Bombay
the losses from disease of officers, other ranks, and their women
and children, were massive and included the commanding officer Lt.
Colonel French.
After two years in India Frank Adams married on 16 Sep 1844 at
Poona (now Pune 75 miles SE of Bombay) a widow Ellen Straith and
they had a family of five children 15. After the tour of
duty in India the 28th regiment returned to England in 1848. From
1857 to 1865 his regiment was again in India and in 1866 relocated
to Ireland. He was in command of the regiment in the Crimean
War where it took part in the eleven month siege of the town
of Sebastopol. The 28th was present when the allied bombardment
of Sebastopol commenced on 17 Oct 1854 and it participated in
the 8000 strong British force which repulsed the 60,000 strong
Russian attack on the 5th Nov 1854 resulting in the Russians
retreating later that same day leaving behind 15,000 dead and
wounded. Following the declaration of peace in March 1856 the
28th regiment left for Malta on 24th May. By 1857 Colonel Adams
had been honoured by the monarch with a CB (Companion of the
Order of the Bath) and by the French government with the Legion
of Honour. He achieved the rank of Major-General but it is not
known when he left the 28th to take up the higher command. He
died aged 60 on 19 Sept 1869 whilst on a voyage home to England 15.
In
a 25 Jan 1888 letter to Maria's sister Letitia Garmonsway in
New Zealand Maria's niece Ada Gordon wrote of her ex-soldier
grandfather Robert Gordon thgus - ‘I remember your father
then showing me pictures of the Crimean War and the state of
excitement he got into over at a battle on paper, he treasured
up all these old illustrations for his grandchildren's
benefit’. No doubt Robert Gordon intended them to be
primarily for the benefit of his two Adams grandsons.
James Fullford
With Frank Adams married and in England with his regiment Maria
Matilda in 1849 married widower James Fullford. James was a
former convict sentenced to 14 years transportation at Surrey
Court on 27 May 1833. He left Portsmouth on 4 July 1833 on
the Aurora (1st) and arrived in Sydney on 3 Nov 1833. The
Indents for the vessel gave his age as 18 years indicating a 1815
birth year. This birth year is also indicated by the 25 years of
age given in the 1840 Governor's permission for his first
marriage 8, 9.
However 1816 is indicated by the 63 years given in the Maitland,
NSW registration record of his 5 Jan 1880 death. The Indents have
his native place (birth place) as Deptford. It would have been
the Deptford in London, located on the river Thames about 6.5
kilometers from London Bridge. Henry VIII established a Royal
Dock there at the beginning of his reign. When James Fullford
was born Upper Deptford was in the ecclesiastical parish of St.
Paul and Lower Deptford in St. Nicholas. His parents names are
unknown. The NSW BDM Indexes indicate they were not known by
the informant in 1880 when his death was registered. The 1841
census is available on CD-ROM and on microfilm but has not been
indexed for Deptford. The index for the 1851 census lists none
of the Fullford or Fulford variant in Deptford or the
neighbouring areas, indicating that by then his parents had
moved elsewhere or were deceased 10.
The Aurora Indents listed the occupation of James as ‘errand
boy’, his religion as protestant and, that he was
5ft. 2 inches in height, of ruddy complexion with brown hair
and grey eyes, could read and write, and had been convicted
for the offence of stealing a ring (value not given). Explaining
the heavy sentence of 14 years transportation was that having
a former conviction, for which the sentence had been 2 months,
he would have been classed as a recidivist. The old Surrey
Court of Quarter Sessions where the trial took place was in
Sessions House in the Newington district of South London, near
the Elephant and Castle pub, about 4.5 kilometres from Deptford
and about 2.5 kilometers from the Houses of Parliament.
Upon arrival in Sydney in 1833 James stated he had a ‘uncle,
W. N. Price, in Van Diemen's Land, 14 years ago’. This
suggests his mother's maiden name may have been Price. Presumably
the ‘14 years ago’ was intended to mean the uncle
had arrived in Tasmania as a convict about 1819-1820. If so
there are several candidates. Five named William Price are
listed in the ‘Alphabetical List of convicts on transports
1788-1823’ as arriving in Australia in 1820-1821, of whom
two were listed in the Indents with London as their native
place. Perhaps the most likely of the two is a lamplighter
aged 16 years when sentenced on 26 May 1919 at Middlesex Gaol
Delivery (the Old Bailey) to seven years transportation, thus
born ca. 1802 so he could have been a younger brother of James
Fullford's mother. He arrived in Sydney on 30 Sep 1820 on
the Guildford (4th) and left 10 days later for Hobart
Town in Tasmania 11.
Another possible candidate for the uncle was London born William Price
who was given a life sentence on the 8 Apr 1812 at Middlesex Gaol
Delivery. Aged 21 years, he arrived on 11 Jun 1813 on
the Fortune (2nd). He was pardoned on 4 Jun 1819 - 14
years before James arrived in Nov 1833. However at the time of
the pardon if he was in Tasmania was not
recorded 12,
13.
James Fullford's ticket of leave was
issued on 12 Dec 1839 1. With the Governor's consent
he married nineteen year old Grace Sophia Hartely (sic) on 28
July 1840 in the Church of England at East Maitland. Their
signatures in the church marriage register were spelt as Fullford
and Hartely. This first person record establishes James
spelt his name as Fullford. Whether Grace's surname was spelt as
she signed is questionable. There was a William Hartley (sic)
noted in West Maitland in 1846 who could have been her father
or a brother. He was mentioned in a court case involving the
malicious killing of one of his suckling pigs reported in the
Maitland Mercury newspaper of 12 Feb 1846. Grace's Hartley
surname is contradicted in the 22 July 1873 record of the
marriage of her daughter Amelia where it was given as Worth
(or North).
James and Grace had four children:- James
(1841-1922), who was Mayor of West Maitland for 2 years from
1880 to 1881, and for a period a member of the NSW Legislative
Assembly. George (ca. 1842-1896), William Ralph (1847-1882),
Amelia (1846-1924) - Mrs. Henry Robert Guest of Narrabri, NSW.
After the
death of wife Grace on 22 Oct 1848, who is buried in St. Peter's
(Old Glebe) Cemetery at East Maitland, James married Maria
Gordon on 17 Mar 1849 in the same parish church in which he had
previously married with the same minister officiating. Witnesses
were Maria's brother Henry Gordon and her niece Jessie. The
couple had five children. Their baptisms have the surname
recorded in the church parish baptism books as Fulford,
although likewise to their father the children spelt their name
as Fullford. Occupations followed by James Fullford, as derived
from the church baptism records of several of his children, were
a carpenter in Jan. 1842, a baker in May 1844, and again in Feb.
1846 when his place of residence was recorded as West Maitland,
a publican in Dec. 1847 and Inn Keeper in March 1857. His son
Henry's 1933 obituary gave the names of West Maitland hotels he
had owned as the Belmore, Northumberland and Fullford's Family
Hotel. No doubt Fullford's would have been the last. However the
local newspaper list of publican licenses granted for each
upcoming licensing year that commenced on 1 July, and published
annually in mid April, indicates that over the years there were a
remarkable number of Maitland hotels of which he was licensee.
Just by 1856, when he was aged only 40, they had numbered 7! The
first full twelve months license granted was for the "Prince
Albert" at East Maitland in 1848 and again in 1849. From then
the hotels were all at West Maitland and were - the "Golden
Crown" 1850, "Rose and Crown" 1851, "Commercial Hotel" 1852,
"Sportsman's Arms" 1853, "Birmingham House" 1854, "Sir
William Denison" 1855, and in 1856 same again with its name
changed to "Rose Inn". In 1855 the chief constable unsuccesfully
objected to the license being granted for the "Sir William
Denison" on the grounds that it was a new public house and there
were already more than sufficent (in 1853 thirty were noted
in West Maitland and eleven in East). The 1880 newspaper
funeral notice gave his residential address as High Street near
Long Bridge, and a letter written by Maria in late 1881 to her
half-sister Letitia Garmonsway in New Zealand only six months
before she died, gave the senders address as ‘Ella Cottage’,
Long Bridge. The Long Bridge was the name given to a very
lengthy bridge built in 1834 across a gully known as Campbell's
Hollow located at the foot of Campbell's Hill. Presumably the
locality took its name from the bridge.
Eleven of the twelve children comprising the three families of
James Fullford and of Maria Gordon lived to adulthood. Remarkably
five of the eleven married in 1873. In January that year William
Ralph married in Sydney, and according to an 1888 Ada Gordon
letter step-sisters Clara Adams Gordon and Amelia Fullford,
respectively Maria's third child and the third from James
Fullford's first marriage to Grace Sophia, when they married
in Maitland in July did so in a joint ceremony wearing identical
dresses - confirmed by the marriages having successive
registration numbers in the NSW BDM Indexes. Around April/May
Sidney Albert also married in Maitland followed by Frederick
Gordon on 29 July. In total Maria's eight children produced at
least thirty-nine grandchildren.
Grandchildren of James and Maria who served in World War
included Harry Fullford, who was in the 1st AIF at Gallipoli
and died in Cairo in 1915, and Ralph Lionel Fullford (1892-1968),
who emigrated to Canada before the war and served in France with
the Canadians. Both were sons of Henry
Charles 14.
Maria's Children
Children of Maria
Matilda Gordon and Frank Adams were:
+ 2.
i. Frank Adams
3.
ii. Arthur Adams - born 11 Dec 1842,
Matitland, NSW; died 13 Jul 1908,
Wee
Waa, NSW.
 
Frank Adams Jr. (1838-1900)
& Arthur Adams (1842-1908) 2
Children of Maria
Matilda Gordon and an Unknown were:
+ 4.
Clara Adams Gordon
Children of Maria
Matilda
Gordon and James Fullford were:
+ 5.
i. Sidney Albert Fullford
+ 6.
ii. Frederick Gordon Fullford
+ 7.
iii. Henry Charles Fullford
8.
iv. Robert James Fullford
9.
v. John James Fullford - born 4 Nov 1860;
died
6 Nov 1860.
To provide more detail on these families etc. contact
compiler: 
SOURCES:
1
From a printout of Gordon genealogy
and vitals dated 10 Feb 1997 and an undated paper on Gordon family
history, compiled by Russell Gordon of Sydney. Source references,
such as name of the ship Frank Sr. died on etc. were in the main not cited.
2
Images of Frank Adams Jr., & Arthur Adams from a photocopy
courtesy of Russell Gordon of Sydney.
3
Sydney Gazette, 25 Aug 1836 -
arrivals - HMS Rattlesnake from Mauritius & Hobart Town -
passengers
included Captain Adams.
4
Australian Joint Copying Project
(AJCP) - War Office (WO 12) Quarterly Pay and Muster Rolls,
reels 3764-3768
5
Sydney Gazette, 24 Mar 1840 -
Frank Adams listed as a passenger on the Trusty due to sail
that
day.
6
Sydney Gazette, 7 Mar 1842 -
Maitla
passengers included Capt. Frank Adams and Ensign Brown from 28th.
7
Sydney Herald, Mon. 20 June -
Kelso
departed
for Bombay yesterday - aboard Capt. Adams etc.
8
Annodated Printed Indents 1833,
AONSW fiche #706 p. 169
9
Applications to Marry 1837-1842,
AONSW fiche #796 p. 167 - date of permission 16 Jul 1840 - James
Fulford
age 25 to Grace Hartley age 19, of East Maitland, a native of the
colony.
10
1851 Census Index (North West
Kent Family History Soc.). The unindexed 1841 census has not been
checked.
11
Alphabetical List of Convicts on
Transports 1820-21, AONSW fiche #629. Bound Indents
1820-1821
AONSW fiche #645 p. 206
12
Index of Conditional Pardons
1791-1825
AONSW fiche #822
13
Bound Indents 1801-1814,
AONSW
fiche #634 p. 462.8
14
Email advice dated 11 Dec 2002 from Eric Skehor of British Columbia,
Canada
15
1996 Letter from Pat Kiem née Adams to Russell Gordon - copy
courtesy
of Russell Gordon of Sydney.
16
From Memoirs of Wal Adams
dated 1958, as transcribed from the original by Pat Kiem and provided
courtesy of long time Gordon/Adams family researcher Russell Gordon.
Compiler's
Note: It seems unlikely the hotel would have been built
as late as 1840 as Frank Adams left Australia on 24 March that year and
was absent for the next 2 years. Also unlikely it was later as after
returning in 1842 he was only in Australia for 3 months. It is likely
it was built during the seventeen month period from Jan 1838 to end of
May 1839 when he was stationed at Maitland rather than later when
stationed south of Sydney. There was no license for a ‘White
Horse’ hotel granted for the licencing year commencing
from 1 July 1841 at West or East Maitland. It was not until 1850 that a
license for a hotel with this sign was granted to a William Winter. The name of
the licensee of this hotel, situated in High Street at West Maitland where
Horseshoe Bend is located, subsequently changed each succeeding year
through to the last checked for 1856. Likely the explanation of why Wal's
father Frank Jr. told him the hotel built by Frank Sr. in 1840 was named
‘White Horse’ is that such was the name of its sign in 1854
when Frank Jr. left Maitland for the North West of NSW that year aged
16 years. Thus all Frank Jr. would have known was that the hotel
built by his father circa 1840 was named the ‘White Horse’
when he left in 1854. At that time his mother and step-father had
the "Birmingham Arms" in nearby West Maitland. It is presumed that
for approx. a decade after its building by Frank Sr. the hotel would
have been a signed other than ‘White Horse’. There was
also from at least 1841 to 1856 a ‘Black Horse Hotel’ at
East Maitland which co-incidently across those years had as its
licensee a Henry Adams! Whether he was related to Frank Adams is not
known.
17
The Maitland Mercury, 6 Jan
1880
- Local News - The Late Mr. James Fullford, - a very old
Maitlander
has gone to his rest. Mr. James Fullford, father of the Mayor of West
Maitland,
died yesterday afternoon, after a long period of paralysed existance,
which
was little better than death-in-life. Previous to his seizure Mr.
Fullford
was an active and respected business man, who concerned himself chiefly
in hotel busineses, and he had secured a comforable livelihood. He
leaves
a family of sons, of whom the Mayor, Mr. James Fullford is the eldest.
Funeral Notice - The Friends of the Late James Fullford are
respectfully
invited to attend his funeral: To move from his late residence, High
Street,
near LONG BRIDGE, This day (Tuesday) at Three O'clock p.m.
18
NSW BDM Indexes V1817 6172 1B,
baptised on 4 May 1823 at C of E, Christ Church, Hexham/Newcastle
together with her brother Henry and sister Sarah.
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