---

William Sherwood. 
First wife: Jane Nesbit
Second wife: Sarah Heeding

In 1983 an advertisement was placed in the Melbourne Age asking   descendants of Charles and Mary Sherwood to contact me.  The request drew a number of responses one of which was from Keith Sherwood   of Truro, South Australia.  Keith rang wanting to know if I could tell him whether   William Sherwood who I had listed   as a son of Charles and Mary Sherwood might be his grandfather William.  All Keith could tell me about his grandfather was that... 

“He used to drive the mail coach from Meningie to Kingston, along the Coorong coastline, in South Australia.” 

At the time of Keith’s phone call I had few details about our William and was therefore unable to say whether a connection existed. It was some 18 months later after re-reading notes compiled by Minnie Kelly that I felt certain that the two Williams were in fact the same person.  Excited by the prospect of establishing another family connection, I rang Keith and told him a number of things about his grandfather of which he was able to confirm.      Keith was kind enough to send a photo of William and his second wife Sarah.  

Around 1967 May Roberts a granddaughter of William and his first wife Jane, wrote to Ruby Beard of Nhill, Victoria.  In the letter May recalls some of the things she remembers about the family. 

She (Jane) used to have very poor health, in bed quite a lot, had T.B. but had no treatment for it, they were very poor as grandfather was only able to get a job now and then and wages was so low in those days… Grandma was a very religious lady loved by all who knew her.  I forgot to say she worked as a laundress when she came to Australia from England in a sailing boat which took weeks to come.  She must have settled somewhere near Salt Creek, I s’pose I have forgotten some things which mother told us…  
There was a family of nine only three survivors (Alphina, Annie (my mother) and Emily all others were stillborn the cause of grandmother’s weakness.  Husbands were very hard in those days.  We were told grandpa was one of them.  

At the time of their marriage William was a 23-year-old farmer   living at Wistow. Jane was 24 and from Mt. Barker.  Witnesses to the marriage were William’s sister Harriet and her future husband John Jarvis.   A third witness was Katherine Sweet of Mt. Barker.  The marriage was performed by the minister John Stanbin of Mt. Barker. 

William and Jane’s first child Jessie Alphina was born in 1862 in Mt. Barker.   Another child, a male (no name was recorded in the register) was born at Strathalbyn in 1865 and died that same year. Living at Strathalbyn at this time was William’s aunt Susannah Harrip nee Perry.  In 1866 a daughter Annie was born at Wellington.

The following is a continuation of May Robert’s letter.

Grandfather left the South East and took his wife and daughters (3) to live at Meningie.  He had a job offered him as a coach driver from Meningie to Kingston. He used to carry passengers and mail it was the old fashioned type of coach with a hood and steps up the back it was grandma’s worry as some of the horses were very flighty.  Her move from the southeast didn’t improve her health much, as the sea air at Salt Creek wasn’t near as bad as the lake air at Meningie as her health seemed worse.  

By at least 1875 William was working as a mail driver and living at Meningie. Meningie, a local Aboriginal word meaning "mud", was established around 1836 as a staging post and supply centre for local, large rural properties. It lies on Lake Albert, a freshwater lake separated from Lake Alexandrina by the Narrung Narrows.

In 1877 another daughter Mary Martha Willamena was born at Meningie.  She died the following year when she was just 7 months old. She died at Hay Valley near Nairne from whooping cough. The informant on the death certificate was 14-year-old Charles Jarvis, little Mary Martha’s cousin. Charles was William’s sister Harriet’s oldest boy. William and Jane were most likely visiting the Jarvis family when the death occurred.

From 1877 through to 1889, William was living at Meningie and is listed in South Australian Post Office directories as a mail-driver, farmer, grazier and ostler.  An ostler is a person who cares for horses.

Jane succumbed to tuberculosis and died at Goolwa on 12 April   1892.  She was 54 years old.

Now back to grandfather Sherwood.  Sometime after his wife’s death, he moved to Goolwa to be closer to his daughter Emily who lived at Victor Harbour, he bought a small house a mile out of Goolwa also a horse and cart so as he could do carting jobs for different people.

From 1893 up until 1910 William appears in various South Australian Directories as a farmer and carter living in Goolwa.  In 1893 William married Sarah Hedding.  Their first child James was born in 1894.

May Robert’s letter concludes.

As time passed on he married a spinster who lived at Goolwa and took State children till they reached 16 years old.  She didn’t get much money for doing this but it kept her and the children alright.   She was much younger than grandfather they got married and lived in his home.  They had four in the family, 3 sons and one daughter, Charlie, Laurie, George and Mary (all deceased). They were all married except George he died in his teens with some bone disease; his legs and arms were like sticks.

In the end grandfather developed some bladder trouble and was ailing a good while.  His daughter Emily at Victor Harbor was so good to them used to send a parcel of food and plenty of extras every week as they were quite poor and found it hard with a sick man to care for, he died at the age of seventy-six. His wife Sarah lived for many years.  I forgot to mention her name was Sarah Hedding the family was rather good to her I mean the 2 boys the girl lived at home after finishing school and never worked anywhere.  I cannot say when Sarah passed on.

 William Sherwood died 24 September 1921 at Goolwa, South Australia.  He was 84 years old.  

© R J Sherwood. 2001