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Note: N1 Henry Hickmott was born in Pembury on or around 30 July 1825. His father was Samuel Hickmott and his mother, who died not long after Henry’s birth, was Harriet Hartridge. Samuel and Harriet had at least two other children: Edward (born around 1818) and James (1820). After Harriet’s death, Samuel married an Eliza Tester who died around 1830 whereupon Samuel and his young family returned to Lamberhurst. In 1834, Henry and his brothers were lodged in the Lamberhurst parish Poor House. They were removed in June 1835 after Samuel was granted a sum of 3 pounds ten shillings and a bedstead.
The 1841 census shows a Henry Hickmott, aged 15 years, at the house of Elizabeth Taylor (aged 70) in Pembury in Kent. Also present was a Jane Hickmott aged 45 years (Thomas’ wife?). On the corner of the same block was a Rebecca Hickmott aged 75 years.
Henry worked as a brickmaker in London and married his first wife, Sophia Goldsmith, in the parish Church of Hackney, Middlesex on 18 June 1848. Henry and Sophia both lived at Lea Bridge Terrace at the time. The marriage was witnessed by a James and Mary Ann Goldsmith who, like Sophia, signed the certificate with a ‘mark’. While good at his job, Henry was restless and keen for a new start in life and would have been attracted by advertisements appearing in the London newspapers at the time encouraging artisans of all kinds - including brickmakers and bricklayers - to take up offers of free passage to the newly established colonies in Australia.
Perhaps because he had had news from friends or relatives who were already there, Henry chose to emigrate to the newest of these colonies in South Australia. So, at the age of 23 years, he and Sophia (21) and their daughters Emma (1) and Eliza (infant) boarded the 580-ton barque the EMILY (list 313/49/15) at the port of London on 6pm on 3 May 1849 and, after picking up more passengers at Plymouth, arrived in Port Adelaide on 8 August 1849. The Emily’s arrival was reported in the 11 August edition of the ‘South Australian Register’ which also listed the ship’s passengers including ‘Henry Hickmott, wife and child’.
Henry and his family spent little time in Adelaide which then consisted of mainly tents and other forms of temporary housing. It seems they headed first to Onkaparinga (a list of petioners published in the 7 March 1850 edition of the ‘South Australian Register’ expressing support for the newspaper’s proprietor and editor, John Stephens, included a ‘Henry Hickmott, Onkaparinga brickmaker’) and then to Greenhill (where we think their third daughter Rebecca was born although that has not been confirmed). At the time of the birth of their last child and only son, Henry Edward, on 17 May 1852 Henry and Sophia were at Mount Barker, a town located some 20 miles inland from Adelaide and on the ouskirts of which, at a place called Littlehampton, were a number of recently established brickworks.
The township of Mount Barker had been proclaimed in 1836 and surveyed three years later. At the time of the family’s arrival, it contained a local court and police barracks, post-office, and two inns of which the Crown Hotel was thought the better. Their initial impressions of the place were likely to have been quite favourable since the early settlers had sought, with some success, to adapt the local landscape to that of rural England. According to one account, the district at the time was thus ‘a grassy park landscape with formal hedgerows of gorse and hawthorn complete with the English class structure of the yeoman on small farms working for “gentlemen farmers” who lived in country mansions on large estates. The gardens abounded in British fruits and vegetables and the avenues were lined with the loveliest forest trees and garden flowers’ (Schmidt, p. 55). Most of the dwellings were then made of ‘wattle and daub’ - which, when whitewashed, added to the impression of an English rural village - although there were also a number of slab huts as well as prefabricated cottages which had been brought out from the old country. The rich black soil was perfect for growing potatoes which were cultivated in the area especially by the large numbers of German and Irish settlers who had come to the district to work as labourers.
The area around Littlehampton, which was the centre of the local brickmaking and other industries, was was seen by some colonists to be much less attractive although it was probably more familiar to Henry and Sophia and the other artisans and their families who had emigrated from the towns and cities of Europe. As one visitor described in 1851, the place was neither very populous nor attractive:
‘It contains about 250 inhabitants - perhaps rather less than more - occupying sixty tenements. The appearance of the township itself, embedded in the valley, is not favourable as contrasted with the scenery with which it is surrounded. The black soil of the flat (although admirably adapted for potatoes), some rubbishing fencing, and the piles of brushwood around the mill, together with the confudion of the blacksmiths and carpenters’ yards give it a factory-like effect, which the volumes of smoke heighten into dinginess. Matters seemed to us rather backward considering the early survey made of the district’.
It is likely that Henry worked for either Hombin’s brickyards, which was located near the Great Eastern Hotel in Littlehampton, or Mc Donald’s brickyards which was on the north-east corner of the present showgrounds. These were both established around 1847 and supplied the bricks for the brick houses which began to replace the older wattle and daub establishments. These included Harrowfield House which remains there today and, as Bob Schmidt described, attracted a great deal of interest among the local populace: ‘people came from all parts of the district to inspect it as it was the first brick house in the district, and was roofed with a new roofing material; galvanized iron’. In 1856 a further brickworks was established by James Coppins who emigrated from Kent in the same year. By using superior clay, Coppins came soon to dominate the brickmaking industry and supplied high quality bricks to all parts of the colony.
Since no government schools were established in the area until the 1870s, it is possible that their older children went to either the Saint James School at Blakiston, which was established in 1847 and to which many children from Mount barker made the daily trek across the hill to attend, the Mount Barker Springs School or one of the other privately run schools that operated around the district.
Sometime after Henry Edward’s birth, Sophia Goldsmith died and Henry married Harriett Waters in Adelaide on 24 July 1853. Their first child, James John was born in Meadows on 24 December the following year. The ‘South Australian Register’, noted on 8 September 1855 that a Messrs Hickmott and Sutton had suggested to a meeting of the Echunga District Council that the line of a proposed road to Meadows be deviated (a suggestion that was taken on notice).
According to his obituary (see below) around this time Henry joined a party of men who travelled overland from South Australia to the Bendigo goldfields. Having done well, he returned to South Australia and brought his family back to Victoria (probably by sea). They initially stayed in Melbourne and then moved to Clunes as part of the gold rush there. It is possible that they went via Pleasant Creek (now Stawell) since this was where the couple’s son Samuel was born in 1857 (among the unclaimed letters in the Victorian Government Gazette for that year was one for a Henry Hickmott of Sandy Creek. The 7 August 1857 South Australian Gazette also lists an unclaimed letter for Henry).
As well as goldmining, Henry also plied his trade as a brickmaker. This was clear from the 11 November 1859 edition of the ‘Creswick and Clunes Advertiser’ which contained the following advertisement: ‘Bricks for Sale In Any Quantities. Superior sandstock bricks, three pounds per thousand. Contracts taken on most reasonable terms and executed at the shortest notice. HENRY HICKMOTT London Brickmaker Clunes’.
The following years saw Henry mentioned in the same paper on a fairly regular occurrence.
13 September 1861. Henry took a William Clark and a John Campbell to court to recover, in the first case, 5p 3s 6d for goods sold and, in the second, for illegal detention of property valued at 10p 5s. 1 November 1861. An application from Henry to refresh his licence was struck out as the applicant failed to appear. 25 April 1862. Henry was taken to the Clunes Police Court over failure to pay 3p 6s 8d for goods sold and delivered to him (he was ordered to pay for the goods and 2s 6d in costs). 16 May 1862.
Henry declared insolvent (he was also said to be a miner from Clunes which may indicate that it may have been the other Henry Hickmott - see note below). 24 October 1862. Argus, Law Report 13 May 1862: ‘NEW INSOLVENTS. Henry Hickmott, of Clunes, miner. Causes of insolvency - Losses in mining speculations, and pressure of oreditors. Liabilities, £78 12s. ; assets, £25 ; deficiency, £53 12s, Mr. Jacomb, official assignee’.
Henry taken to court by his neighbour, J. Snell for illegally detaining five geese worth 3pounds. According to the paper, ‘From this case, it appeared that some disagreement had taken place between the plaintif [Snell and his wife] and a separation had been the consequence. The geese had been soldby Mrs Snell to Hickmott without the complainant’s knowledge, who it was stated, harboured her under his roof. The geese were missing some time back but complainant did not make application before Friday last. Plaintif’s wife’s sister swore that the geese were sold to Hickmott one month before her sister separated. Did not know anything respecting plaintif’s refusing to part with the birds or that he had given instructions that they should not be sold by his wife. Case dismissed with 10s costs’. 3 July 1863. Henry appeared before the Clunes Police Court for overdue rates (1 pound 10s). Ordered to pay rates plus costs. 17 July 1863. J. Weickhardt (Borough councillor and, presumably, local businessman) sued Henry for payment of goods worth 13p 4s 8d. Henry ordered to pay 3pound plus 2s 6d costs immediately and 7p 4s 4d in two months time. 18 November 1864. Henry sued John Edmondson in the Clunes Policy Court for ‘12s 6d damage done by pigs trespassing’. Edmondson ordered to pay 4s 6d plus costs.
The land records at Ballarat show that an H. Hickmott bought land at Clunes at an auction on 8 June 1864 at a cost of 14 pounds, seventeen shillings.
While at Clunes, Henry and Harriet had a number of other children: William (1859), Walter (1862), Henry (1862-1862), Elizabeth Jane (1863-1875), Mary Ann (1865-1866), Louisa (1868-1869), Alfred (1869-1877), Richard (1870) and Joseph (1872-1928).
The Maryborough Rate books show that Henry Hickmott, a brickmaker, lived for a short time in a wooden house on Dundas Road in Maryborough at the end of 1871 (the house was owned by a D. Taylor and attracted rates of 11 shillings and threepence. Note that this coincides with the time Henry’s father, Samuel, was in the Maryborough hospital.
In 1872, the family moved to the Charlton district where Henry had selected land. Henry also owned two blocks of land in Orr Street Charlton where the family lived and from where he conducted his brick-making business. In 1873 and 1875 respectively, Henry’s sons James John and Samuel (both described as ‘brickmakers of East Charlton) obtained leases for a 206 and a 137-acre allotment in West Charlton (a few miles out of Charlton along the Wooronook Road). It seems that the leases had earlier been taken out by Henry. Both blocks were transferred to a John Bourke in 1882 after both boys moved north to Lalbert.
In 1877, Henry’s wife Harriett and her 19 year old son, Samuel, were killed in the family home at Charlton after they were struck by lightning (details are given in the notes for Harriett Hickmott). In the same year Henry had a licence application (no. 4840) approved for a 73-acre block of land at West Charlton.
On 5 February 1879 Henry married a widow, Margaret Ann Kaye, at Mr Burton’s at Wooroonooke in West Charlton. The wedding certificate showed that Henry had 15 children (eight living and seven dead) and Margaret had two children (both living). Henry was then aged 53 years and was said to be a farmer in West Charlton. Henry and Margaret had one son, Robert, who was born on 28 July 1879 in West Charlton.
On 9 October 1880 Henry was brought before the Charlton County Court for not having paid a Mr Armstrong for goods worth 13/18/6. According to the paper ‘Mr Skinner for plaintif applied for a nonsuit as a material witness could not be produced. Granted with 6/6/- costs’.
According to the New South Wales Police Gazette a warrant for Henry’s arrest was issued by the Junee Bench on 21 May 1884. He was charged with unlawfully deserting his wife, Margaret Ann Hickmott, at Junee on 7 March 1883, and leaving her without support. The Gazette entry continued that ‘he is about 55 years of age, 5 feet 7 or 8 inches high [sic], dark complexion, dark hair and beard mixed with grey. A brickmaker. May have gone to Daylesford, Victoria, or Roma Queensland’.
It appears his place of exile was Roma. The published list of Queensland Timber Licences, 1860-1901 shows that Henry was awarded a licence for brickmaking in the Roma district (where his son William lived) on 5 July 1884. His attempt to making a living in Queensland came to nothing however, the local Government gazette showed that he was declared insolvent on 21 November the following year.
Henry returned to Victoria and, in 1886, tended for land at Barrakee near Charlton. Victoria’s 1899 referendum shows a Henry Hickmott, described as a ‘gentleman’, living at Barrakee (where, his obituary tells us he lived first with his oldest daughter Emma Mitchell and later with his youngest son Joseph Hickmott). The 1902 East Charlton Tribune recorded Henry as being at Buckrabanyule where he treated horses against bot fly. The 1909 electoral roll has Henry, said to be a pensioner, registered at Barrakee.
In 1913 he went with his youngest son, Joseph and his family, to live at Pine Grove near Rochester in northern Victoria (the 1914 electoral roll shows Henry, a farmer, living at Pine Grove East together with Joseph and Helen Hickmott). Henry died there of senility exhaustion on 16 May 1914 and was buried the next day at the Pine Grove East Cemetery Pannoo/Bamawm. He was 88 years old. His death certificate, which was informed by Joseph, describes Henry as an old age pensioner whose parents were ‘not known’.
The following obituary appeared in the Rochester Express (20 May 1914):
‘We have been furnished with the following particulars of Mr Henry Hickmott who died last Saturday aged 89 years. He was born in Kent, England in May 1826 and arrived in South Australia in 1848, taking up his residence for three years at Mount Barker where he followed up brick making. From there he came to Clunes, Victoria and visited Ballarat and Bendigo in the gold rush. With his wife and family he went to Charlton where he selected land in 1872. He remained in the Charlton district till 14 months ago when he came to reside at Pine Grove East with his son and daughter until he passed away peacefully on Saturday last. The funeral took place on Sunday May 17 leaving his son’s residence at 2pm. A number of friends followed the remains to the last resting place, the Pine Grove Cemetery. The coffin-bearerswere E. M. [undeciferable], M. Dullard, G. Windridge, B. S. Whinfield and A. and O. Chappell.’
His obituary in the 5 August 1914 edition of the East Charlton Tribune was more detailed, as follows:
‘The death of Mr Henry Hickmott, which took place on May 16th, at the residence of his son, Mr Joseph Hickmott, Pine Grove East, near Rochester, was briefly referred to in our columns at the time, and since then we have obtained some interesting particulars regarding the deceased gentleman’s career. He was born in Kent, England and was 89 years of age. On May 5th 1852, he arrived at Mount Barker, Australia, with his wife and three children, where he followed his trade of brick-maker until the Bendigo gold-rush, when he was one of a party that travelled from South Australia. Having done well in Bendigo, Mr Hickmott went back to SA for his wife and family and brought them to Melbourne until the Clunes diggings broke out, when he went to reside there, and continued the brick-making trade for a few years. He then worked at his trade at St Arnaud, after which he selected land in the Charlton district in 1872. He followed up farming and brick-making until the death of his wife and son, Samuel, on the 14th November 1878. They were both struck by lightning and killed instantly during a severe thunderstorm, at their residence at Charlton, at the rear of where Mr E. W. Foreman’s mill now stands. Deceased then left Charlton for a number of years, but he came back and resided for a time with his daughter, Mrs R. Mitchell, at Barrakee, and his son Mr Joseph Hickmott at Charlton, with whom he went to Rochester a little over twelve months ago, residing with him up to the time of his death. The late Mrs Robert Osborne and the late Mrs R. Smith were his daughters who pre-deceased him a few months, and the late Mrs R. Mitchell, was another daughter, who died just six weeks after him. Mr Hickmott’s funeral was largely attended, the remains being interred in the Pine Grove cemetery. The coffin-bearers were Messrs E. N. Tomachichel, M. Dullard, G. Windridge, O. Chappell and E. B. Sinclair. In the “Weekly Times” some months ago, there appeared an interesting photo, showing a group of five generations of the family’.
Note: A Henry Hickmott was recorded as being admitted into the Dunolly Hospital on 21 June 1876 and was discharged on 24 September the same year. The hospital records show that he was married, was 43 years old (which puts his birth at 1833), lived at a place called Newbridge, and worked as a miner. They also show that he had been born in England and emigrated to Australia on the WINDSOR, arriving in 1852 as a widower. The records show that a Jane Hickmott (Elizabeth Jane?) was in the same hospital over the period 1 February to 2 May 1874.
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