Stephen's third son Richard, was born on 14th January 1843. The information from his descentants in Australia shows that he was born in Dorrha, Tipperary. He must have gone to Bywell in the early 1860's, probably at the same time as his brother Charles.
The families movements over this period are quite complicated but can be followed on a map, and show how the family stuck together through the hardships that they faced
His marriage to Mary Ann Bell is recorded in Dec 1866 Hexham 10b 382. Richard & Mary had only one surviving child, Charles, while in England they appear to have had 5 male and 2 female children who died.
Priestpopple, Hexham
He is in the 1871 census living at North Hexham with his wife "Mary Ann" (she aged 25 and born in Hexham, Northumberland). They had no children then. Their address is 40 Priestpopple St
1874 He had a son Charles born in Hexham Registration district. Births Jun 1874 Charles Grant Hexham 10b 284. Charles birth was more precisely at Ridley Mill, a village near Bywell
In the 1881 census below he is living at "The Forge", Tow Law, County Durham, and is working as a coke or cinder drawer. "The Forge" appears to have been a long street in Tow Law, which I think was part of what is now "Dan's Castle Street" (following the census enumerators route on the map, the enumerator goes from Dans Castle to The Forge to Blackfields)
A contemporary report reads From the rich and almost pure ore of the Ryder ironstone Mr. Attwood commenced to manufacture iron of a splendid quality, smelted with coke, manufactured at the Company's own coke ovens at Black Prince, or that made at the Blackfields ovens. So Richard Grant may have been employed in those coke ovens. The iron manufactured at Tow Law, in the latter part of the decade of 1840 and the beginning of 1850 - the early years of the iron trade in this country - obtained a fame almost world-wide for the superiority of the goods, which commanded generally the best prices in the market.
Coke Drawer, Hand performs any combination of following duties involved in emptying coke oven: Scrapes coke from coke oven, using iron rod (scraper). Forks coke onto conveyor that dumps coke in railroad cars. Picks foreign matter, such as slate and slag, from coke on conveyor. May fork coke into wheelbarrow and push wheelbarrow to railroad cars. May apply brakes or place car-stop to hold railroad cars under coke-pushing machine. May place firebrick doors in oven doorframe, using overhead hoist, to close oven. May seal doors of ovens, using firebricks and loam.
Contemporary photo of Cinder Drawers in Durham
A few months after the census the family emigrated to Australia. Richard (39 years, laborour) his wife Mary (33 years) and their son Charles (6 years) departed from Plymouth 26 May 1881 onboard the "Arthurstone" and arrived in Brisbane 1 September 1881.
1885 Mary Hannah Grant born to Richard Grant and Mary Ann Bell 1885/C2197. Mary Hannah died the same year 1885/C1510
Toowoomba Hospital
Mary died 13 Feb 1886 in the Toowoomba Hospital of heart disease. On Mary's death certificate she was 22 years of age when she married Richard, at the time of her death she had been in the colony 4 years and Charles was 11 years old, she had been mother of 2 deceased males and 3 females (When Richard died in 1894 it says that he had been father to 5 males and 2 females. Richard's total covers his second marriage as well as his first). On Mary's death certificate her fathers occupation was a Hatter
Richard remarried to Kate Elizabeth Talbot on 26 Apr 1887 (1887/C420) at St. Johns Church, Dalby, Queensland. Richard was 43 and Kate was 20. Kate had been born in Barrow, Suffolk. They had three children as follows;
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| Rear L - R Ivy Grant, Mary Ryan, Ray Connell (Grandson of Catherine
Ryan) Centre L - R Kate Elizabeth Grant, Catherine Ryan, Front - Gladys Grant. |
L - R Gladys Jones (nee Grant) Anne Ryan (nee Grant) Mary Lee (nee Ryan) taken on 1 December 1969. |
Richard Grant died 18 Feb 1894 in the Toowoomba Hospital aged 51 years. His occupation was a lengthsman (he served on the Queensland railway maintenance division at a pay of 6 shillings per day) and his Queensland death certificate gives the informant was his son Charles, who at that time was living at Warra, Western Railway. A "lengthsman" was responsible for the regular inspection (walking the length) and minor maintenance (i..e repacking sleepers, oiling fishplate bolts, replacing damaged rails etc) of a length of railway track. It is apparent from the map that his length covered the portion between Toowoomba and Warra. There is a contempory description of the railway from the Queensland Railway Tourist Guide. Richard Grant was buried side by side with his wife Mary Grant (plot no F9815).
Toowoomba Railway Station 1867
After Richard Grant’s death in 1894, his widow Kate Elizabeth Grant had a further two children by Richard’s son (by his first marriage to Mary Bell) Charles. Charles & Kate never married, as indeed they were prohibited from doing by the "Table of Kindred and Affinity" of the church. At the time of the first childs birth, Kate was 31 and Charles was 24. .
1944. Kate Elizabeth dies 50 years after her husband Richard and is buried in the same grave as her son James. Kate Elizabeth Grant d. 24.01.1944 aged 78 years
The only lead I have on James 1887 is from someone on Genes - "my" James Grant married my mother's aunt Nancy Dawson in Randwick in 1925. I believe they had 2 children. He was an assistant commissioner of railways in Brisbane. I don't know anything of his parents, his birth or his death. Sandra And another for the same James "I have no parents for my James Grant b1887 Brisbane but I have a marriage to my 4th cousin once removed Nancy May DAWSON born 11/2/1900 Woollahra, Australia (no State?). No marriage date or children.Sorry I can't help.Bob."
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