My fourth dead person is Richard Groves - my fourth great-grandfather.
Richard
Groves, son of George Groves and Mary Ann Chammen*, was born in Dorset
about 1830 (I am yet to track down his baptismal record).
George
and Mary Ann had married after banns in the parish church in Blandford
Forum in Dorset on 18 April 1826. They had at least four children -
Richard (my ancestor), Edmund John, Jane, and Rebecca, before Mary Ann
died. George remarried a woman called Elizabeth (I am not confident of
her maiden surname) and they had at least two daughters, Mary Ann and
Charlotte.
In 1849, George, his wife Elizabeth, and
their combined family of Richard, Edmund John, Jane, Rebecca, Mary Ann,
and Charlotte emigrated to New South Wales, arriving on the aptly named
sailing ship Emigrant on 8 June 1849.
They
settled in the Hunter Valley, working variously as Labourers, Miners,
and Timber Getters. Richard married Mary Ann Brown in the Presbyterian
Church in Hinton, a
village near Morpeth, on 30 March 1855, and they had eight children
together (Mary, George E, Samuel, William T, Allen, Arthur, Mary J, and
Emma).
Tragically, just six weeks prior to their
twentieth wedding anniversary, Richard Groves was killed in an accident
when he tripped and a trolly passed over his body, causing fatal internal injuries. The newspaper article below, which one of many I've found on Trove, gives an account of the inquest into Richard's death.
*
spelling in the records varies, and includes the variants Chanam and
Chamin, but Mary Ann signed her own name clearly Chammen on her marriage
certificate.
