Mourambine, also spelled Moorumbine, is a small town located six miles east of Pingelly in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The word Mourambine is aboriginal in origin, but its meaning has been lost. 

Photo of the Mourambine Church and graveyard, lonely and out of the way. A magnificent abandoned stone church is seen in the  background. Note the window style. Photo by Kevin Coate (Nov. 1995).

There is a set of graves found in the Mourambine cemetery that lists a family who pioneered the Mourambine area as farmers. Those pioneers were Shaddicks. 

William Shaddick 1818-1902

On the gravestone of his grave is William's age and date of death. He was born about 1818. But his age is going to give us trouble finding him in England, as I will shortly relate. The name "William" is so common among Shaddocks and Shaddicks in Devon at this time that knowing the date of birth of William Shaddick is critical to figuring out where he came from and who his family was. 

William Shaddick: a Devon Shattocke

"The late Mr. Shaddick was born in Devonshire, England, on March 12, 1850, and was a son of William Shaddick who arrived in the State in the late 50's, being joined a year or so later by his wife and family of three, of whom John was one. It is interesting to recall that on Tuesday the burial service was conducted in the church erected at Mourambine by Mr. Shaddick's father and others... "

From the Mirror, Perth, WA, Saturday 10 Aug. 1935

John Shaddick (1850-1902) William Shaddick's first born. Often colonists would go to a photography studio to have their picture taken, so they could send a picture to their relatives "back home," in Devon in this case.

The obituary calls John Shaddick a "real gentleman" who "never spoke ill of anyone" and was "always there to help lame dogs." Dogs would have been important to John because of his sheep.  John and his wife Elizabeth Ann had a hard life: "Their life had to weather its difficulties, and on no fewer than three occasions they have lost all or practically all in fires." The obituary reveals how deep into the wilderness the patriarch William had taken the family: "In those days produce had to be carted per two-horse dray the 100 odd miles of rough road to the city, generally to Padbury's store at Guildford, and the return trip would be made with the stores."

Bideford Magistrates Court Mon. 8th Dec. 1856

On Tuesday last week, the county magistrates committed James Goodenough and William Shaddick to take their trial at Assizes, for stealing a quantity of cheese, bacon, fresh pork, lard butter etc., the property of Miss Caroline Fry, of East Putford, on the 29th Nov. This was a case of burglary. 

Ann Susanna Wyborn and John Sewell

William stole food. His sentence of 15 years was often applied to crimes we now consider to be less serious. His model life in Australia suggests he either reformed or his life of crime in England was the act of a desperate man. I have written about the social, religious and economic conditions that drove a mass exodus out of Devon of Shaddocks and Shaddicks in the Diaspora page of this site. The harsh sentences people received for relatively minor crimes is a well know part of the social history of England at the time. The colony in Western Australia began as a free colony, but the first settlers needed cheap labour to help build the colony's infrastructure. England was happy to export its criminals.

William's Life in England

"FRITHELSTOCK, a village and parish 2 miles W. of Great Torrington, comprises 705 souls and 2380 acres of land, including the hamlets of Frithelstock Stone, and Milford. There was a small Priory of Austin Canons here, founded by Sir Roger Beauchamp, in the reign of Henry III. ... The estate now belongs to Lord Clinton, but the Rev. P. Thomas is lord of the manor, and Mrs. Stevens, and a few smaller owners, have estates in the parish. The Church (St. Mary and St. Gregory,) is an ancient structure, and the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Mrs. P. Johns, and incumbency of the Rev. G.W.T. Carwithen, M.A. Part of the Priory church, with lancet shaped windows, still remains." [From White's Devonshire Directory (1850)]

"Accompanied by Mr Stevens I went in quest of the Priory of Frithelstock, in the way to which we descended to the bridge at the SW end of Torrington, which passing over, we again rose up a steep hill, introducing us to a common precipitous towards the river but having a delightful prospect on the north of Beam a seat of Dennis Rolle Esq., a most lovely and sequestered spot, protected on every side by the richest woods of the finest amphitheatrical form, the roots of which were washed by the river which as if enamoured of the spot winds round it in many a meander and seems reluctant to retire from it. On the summit of an hill three miles from Cross, having again past the Towridge by another bridge, we came to the ruins of the priory, which tho' not grand nor extensive have a good deal of the picturesque in them and possess a peculiarity in the rounding of the western windows of the chapel, rarely if at all to be met with. The remains consist chiefly of the side and end walls of what is now one room, the area of which in length is 30 paces and in width about 9. There are two very antient walnut trees overhanging the southern walls and with the ivy contributing greatly to enhance its beauty."

The other document that is important to identifying William in England is his marriage certificate, which also states his father's name as William. 

A Difficult Childhood

William's father William is described as a labourer on the marriage document, so he probably had short term employment in Frithelstock. 

In the 1841 census we find his parents living in Buckland Brewer, a short three miles north of Frithelstock. William's occupation is now described as "husbandman," which is significant because it means he tended livestock. His son William would become known in Australia as an expert in sheep husbandry. 

He had one brother John (b. 1823) and two sisters, Mary (b. 1820) and Elizabeth (b. 1829). This makes him a middle child (born 1825), and increases the likelihood that we have his date of birth correct. Later in life an article about a Shaddick nuptial in Australia mentions family in England. Would this be a reference to his brother and sisters? Also the prime why  immigrants take on the expense of photography was to send pictures back home to relatives. The portraits of William and his son John shown above, dressed in their finery and projecting an image of respectability might have been taken for this reason.

However, William is missing from the 1841 census in Buckland Brewer.  His sisters were in their twenties and still at home. William was probably working away from home. 

John Shaddick (1849-1935) and Elizabeth Ann Walton (1855–1940). John was the son of William Shaddick (1818-1902)

We assume William grew up in Frithelstock, but his father is described as a labourer, so he may have moved from village to village in the area around Great Torrington and west to Bideford. What we do know is that he married Mary Hearn (1827-1854)  in April, 1848, when he was 30 years old. She was from Littleham, a small village three miles south of Bideford. Her father was William Hearn, and mother Sarah Heywood. The marriage took place in Littleham, where Mary's father worked as a blacksmith. William's father's name is recorded as William and his profession labourer.

Three years late, in the 1851 census, we find William and Faith two miles west of Littleham in the village of Alwington. His son John Shaddick had been born in 1849 in Alwington, so he must have been living there, working as a labourer, when he married Mary. John Shaddick was probably named after his uncle John, William's brother. It is telling that his uncle had two sons: William (b. 1866) and John (b. 1868). The names are passed on like genes. William named is first son John and second William. John names his first son William and his second son John. Does this speak to how close they were as brothers?

William and Mary named their first female child "Sarah Hearn Shaddick" after Mary's mother, "Sarah Hearn (nee Heywood)."

We get a pretty good idea of where William lived in Devon from the places where his children were born. John, his oldest, was born in Alwington in 1849. Sarah Hearn Shaddick was born four miles south in 1853 in Buckland Brewer. Ann Shaddick was born in 1854, in Monkleigh, Devon. Monkleigh is less than two miles north of Frithelstock. The picture that emerges is of a man who had to move his family around to find work. 

William had many tragedies and difficulties in life. The death of his young wife in 1854 must surely one of them. It is probable that Sarah Hearn died in childbirth because her death is recorded in the spring and her daughter's baptism is recorded in July.  It must have been difficult for a single father who was an itinerant worker with no relatives locally to help him and who had to toil in the field from dawn to dusk. There was a local woman that he must have known because a year later he married Faith Squire (1825-1898) in Monkleigh. They would remain together for the rest of their lives and are buried together in Mourambine cemetery, half a world away from Monkleigh. 

The marriage bans do not state their marital status when they were married. We know that Faith had a son Frederick Beer Squire (1852-1895), so she should have been a widow when she married William. She should have been wed to William as a widow carrying her deceased husband's last name. If this is the case, we do not know her maiden name. 

It is also possible she had Frederick out of wedlock. That would explain why Frederick had a surname for a middle name: "Beer." I could find no "Faith Beer" or a marriage between a "Faith" born in Frithelstock and a man named squire. It was common practice in the case of unwed mothers to give their children the first and last name of the father, "Frederick Beer" in this case. If Squire is indeed her maiden name, then she was born in Frithelstock in 1824...the same place where William was born. Her parents were named William Squire (b. 1791)and Fanny (b. 1791). In an 1841 census, when Faith was 15, you would expect to find her among three female siblings: Mary born 1826, Jane born 1839, Clara born 1843. Faith is not there. However, Faith would be the first born in 1824. Her father was an agricultural labourer, and it would not be uncommon that his daughter would have to leave home and work as a servant. Finally, what gives the unwed mother theory support is the fact she moves to Frithelstock when her husband goes to prison. That is the place where she would be eligible for parish welfare because she was born there.

Life was grim for the newlyweds. William Shaddick married Faith Squire in October of 1855. On Dec. 11 1856, just over a year later, he was convicted of burglary. But worse, as he was carted off to jail, Faith was pregnant. In 1857 she gave birth to William Henry Shaddick (1857-1928) in Monkleigh, the last place that we find William and Faith. In the 1861 census we find her back in Frithelstock where she was born and had family, working as a glove maker, impoverished. She kept her child Frederick and her husband's children John and Ann intact. Frederick Beer Squire (1852-1895) was born in 1852, so he was only three years old when his mother married William Shaddick. William accepted him as his own, because Frederick would stay with the family throughout his life and early death at the age of 43 in 1895. 

Lord Raglan, the ship that transported William Shaddick to Australia.

Exile to Australia

William served two years in prison in England before being sent to to the Swan River penal colony in Western Australia aboard the Lord Raglan, sailing from London on March 3, 1858 and arriving in the port city of Fremantle, at the mouth of the Swan River, on June 1, 1858.  What a time of excruciating emotional pain it must have been for William and his new wife Faith to be separated by oceans, about as far away as you could travel. 

Dave Squires sent me a court record showing William had been brought before the judge for drunkenness. When I speculated that he must have been a hard living individual in his early years, calmed and refined into respectiability by his wife in his later years, Dave provided me with these interesting details: "William Shaddick and his family were indeed well respected, you only have to read the newspaper articles and the "History of St Patricks Church Mourambine" to realize what the community thoughy of them. As for his drunkenness - we all have our rough patches, and off days. I think William's deportation was the best thing that could of happened to him, though very doubtful if it seems so at the time, ending up owning a farm and thousands of acres. As you said Faith Squire probably did have a firm hand and kept him in check. Faith had a nephew Rev. Richard Squire b. 1850, Frithelstock, who was a Bible Christian Minister. He had nine children, two of his sons were also Reverends, and two of his daughters were Missionaries in China. Faith was probably a religious person herself and would have frowned upon any law-breaking by her family!"

Sometime in the early 1860s the news must have come for Faith, struggling with the burden of the children, that her husband had been freed and was earning the money the family would need to create a new life in the Australian frontier. 

This is where William Shaddick was housed in Freemantle when he first arrived. Convict establisments and officers quarters ca. 1870

She may have emigrated with the assistance of the authorities who were anxious to remove the poor from the parish welfare rolls. There is a notice that supports this theory of "assisted passage" in the The Inquirer and Commercial News dated Feb. 5, 1862:

NOTICE is hereby given, that the undermentioned Immigrants are expected to arrive in the Ship Strathallan on or about 11th February next, and it is requested that the friends of the parties will make arrangements for their reception landing at Fremantle, so that the public may be put to no expense on their account.

On the list was the Shaddick family: Faith, John, Ann, Frederick, Sarah and William. It was a three month journey, probably below decks on a crowded ship with little of the comforts of modern travel.

Faith's arrival in Australia in 1862 coincided with the grant of 100 acres William got for homesteading. William and Faith would prove to be an industrious and indomitable citizens of the new country, forging a life for their family and earning the respect of their neighbours. His original farm of 100 acres grew to 11 times that size by the time he died in 1902. 

William had to rebuild his farm three times, but the memory of his difficult life in Devon must have stiffened his resolve to the make the best of life in the Australian wilderness.

William had become such a model citizen that he served as church warden, who sets an example to his community, and oversees the church and its finances. By 1911 the measure of their success can be taken in the following newspaper account of the marriage if their descendants. They were worthy of social recognition and the gifts bestowed on the newlyweds by their relatives were of a high quality and value, testimony not only to their strong sense of community, but their wealth as well.

The Shaddick - Walton marriage chronicled by the local press in 1911 (shown at left) is a lovely portrait of the customs of the times. Apparently attendance at the ceremony was restricted to the immediate family of the bride and groom. But that meant 30 people! 

What is also notable about the marriage is that it united two families that did a lot of intermarrying! 

Faith's son Frederick Beer Squire, married Julia Wilkins Walton (1860–1941) in 1879 at age 27. She was a sister to Elizabeth Ann Walton (1855–1940), wife of William's son John.  Frederick Squire sometimes called himself Frederick Shaddick and was commonly known by that name. He died at his own hand, apparently because of financial worries. Although respected by his neighbours, he is described in the newspaper account of his suicide as having a "peculiar disposition." He left behind seven children, one who was born Frederick Marks Squire (1894-1980) but who seems to have taken on the name Shaddick as he died "Frederick Marks Shaddick" in Perth. 

Sarah Hearn Shaddick (1853-1937), William's daughter, married George Walton (1852-1926), brother to Julia and Elizabeth Ann. Clara Jane Cox (1868-1928), daughter of Ann Shaddick (William's grand daughter) married Stephen Emanuel Walton (1854–1941), yet another son of the Waltons. 

Four children of Henry Thomas Walton (1824–1864) and Mary Ann Parker (1826–1867) had married into the Shaddick family. The Parkers were a distinguished family, numbering judges among their descendants. Sir Stephen Henry Parker (1846-1927) was the Chief Justice of Western Australia. He was elected a member of the legislative council and was a tireless advocate for responsible government for the colony. (J. S. Battye, Western Australia: A History; The Argus, Melbourne, 14 December 1927). See his picture in the gallery below.

Ann Parker. Picture Courtesy Dave Squires.

There is more. John Shaddick's son John Norris (Norrie) Shaddick (1878-1955) married the daughter of Stephen Emanuel Walton and Clara Jane Cox (nee Shaddick), Susanah Wyborne Walton (1892–1961). This shows both how small the community was in Mourambie and what tight family relationships existed among the Shaddicks and Waltons. 

It appears that the Shaddicks of Mourambine kept in touch with their relatives in England. Here is a newspaper account of the diamond wedding of William's son John and his wife Elizabeth Ann Walton. 

The West Australian, 19 January, 1934

DIAMOND WEDDING.

Mr. and Mrs. John Shaddick.

An event of almost historic importance to the district took place at Mourambine, near Pingelly, on January 8, the occasion the diamond anniversary of the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. John Shaddick of Mourambine, who were the second couple to be married in the Mourambine Church. It is believed that no other couple, married in this district, have lived to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of their wedding.

Clara Jane Cox

Mr. Shaddick, who is 85 years of age, was born in Devonshire, England and at the age of 12 years came out to Western Australia in a sailing vessel, which took three months to complete the journey. He settled at Mourambine, where he has resided for the whole of the intervening period, during which he has been engaged in farm ing pursuits. Mrs. Shaddick. who is 77 years of age, was formerly Miss Elizabeth Ann Walton, and was born at Dangin, near York. The celebration of their wedding anniversary was attended by their four sons and four daughters, the sons and daughters-in-law, the thirty grand-childrcn. and Mr. Steven Walton, brother of the bride, who was also present at the initial ceremony sixty years ago. It is interesting to record that all the descendants were also present at the golden wedding celebrations.

The 'wedding breakfast,' a sumptuous banquet, was provided by members of the family, and the tables were waited upon by the eldest grand-daughter from each family. Mr. and Mrs. Shaddick were the recipients of many gifts and congratulations from friends within the State and in England.

Mourambie Shaddicks: Call Home!

Daisy Doris Shaddick was born in 1893 in Mourambine. She married a Scottish immigrant, John Duncan in 1920 in Beverley, Western Australia. She would live to the age of 72 and die in Mourambine.

I am sure there are many other stories that could be told that illustrate the life of this remarkable Shattocke family. I am hoping that a direct male descendant will get in touch with me and have his DNA tested to help confirm his ancestry as a Tawstock Shaddock.

Muriel Betty Chapman circa 1952 on the right. She married William J. Shaddick. His great grandfather was William's brother. The William name has persisted in this family for centuries.

William's Brother John married Susanna Yeo (born in 1830 in Parkham). John died 1896. His wife lived the rest of her life a poor charwoman, eventually living with her sister Jane Elliot. 

Gallery