Maria Williams
(1827 - 1892)
and her husband Thomas Gait
Graziers
of Monaro District NSW
Named after her
First Fleet grandmother, Maria Williams was born in 1827 at West
Bargo NSW to John Williams and Sarah Nash.
Thomas Gait was
the son of convict William Gait (Fame 1817) from
Somersetshire, England, and Irishwoman Bridget Moran/Curley (free
passenger per Marquis Wellington 1815). William Gait
and his family had settled in the Illawarra district by 1823
where Thomas apparently remained until he reached adulthood.
By 1850 he had moved to the Monaro district and was working at
"Moonbar" cattle run near "Groses Plain",
probably with his Larkin in-laws.
Thomas and
Maria Gait remained in the Monaro district after their marriage.
By 1860 they had settled at Glenbog near Nimmitabel where Thomas
commenced a programme of land acquisition. Over the
following few decades he laid claim to more than a dozen
properties in the Glenbog area as well as land in the Camden
district.
Maria died in
1892 at Bega, presumably at the property Thomas had purchased a
few years earlier. Thomas died in 1896 at Glenbog.
This is a brief summary of the chapter relating to Maria Williams and Thomas Gait published in Nash: First Fleeters and Founding Families - A Three Generational Biographical History.
Copyright 2004 - Carol Baxter
The
family of Thomas Gait and Maria Williams*
1. William Gait
(1852 - 1868) unmarried.
2. [Male]
(c1854-c1854) died in infancy.
3. [Male]
(c1854-c1854) died in infancy.
4. Mary Gait
(1856 – 1941) md James Carroll in 1884.
5. John Gait
(1858 - 1865) unmarried.
6. Eliza/Elizabeth (T.) Gait (1861
– 1951) md Henry Miller in 1883.
7. Sarah Gait (1864 - 1865) died in
infancy.
8. Thomas Gait
(1866 - 1932) md his first-cousin-once-removed Janet Elizabeth
Hayden in 1901. [see Ann Williams and Martin
Hyland]
* Many of these dates come from
registrations of births, deaths and marriages. In some
cases the event itself will have occurred late in the previous
year.
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