HISTORY
The Stocktons – pioneers of Tyabb By Peter McCullough GEOFF Stockton, 77, has lived in the area all his life. He has recorded memories of growing up in Tyabb and they will be published in The News in the near future. First, however, it is appropriate to provide a brief history of the Stockton family or at least the Tyabb branch. *** Part 1 Where did they come from? Lancashire, England On 2 September 1840, Thomas Stockton married Harriet Mort at Leigh, Lancashire. Harriet, born in 1818, was the third of six children born to James Mort and Ann (nee Manks) who married at Bolton Le Moors in Lancashire on 2 November 1810. Thomas had been born at Astley, a small village outside Manchester, and was christened there on 16 April 1815. On the birth certificate of his son John Henry, born on 8 September 1854, Thomas’s address was listed as 327 Deansgate, Manchester, and his occupation as “shopkeeper”. The following year, at age 40, Thomas Stockton left Liverpool on Red Jacket, a full-rigged clipper ship of 1649 tons, arriving in Melbourne on 4 December 1855. Red Jacket, named after an American Indian chief who had assisted the British forces in the War of Independence, was noted for its speed: in 1854 she completed the Liverpool to Melbourne journey in 69 days compared with 77 days that its main rival, Lightning, took under the infamous Captain Bully Forbes. Prior to their departure, Harriet Stockton had given birth to six children: Alice, Sarah, Harriet, James, Alfred Manks and John Henry. Two more were born in Australia: Ann and Samuel. Of those born in England, only three – Alice, Alfred Manks and John Henry – lived long enough to make the journey out, and
Australian-born Ann also died in infancy. Moliagul, Victoria Like many English immigrants, the goldfields of Victoria was an irresistible attraction. For reasons that are unclear, the Stockton family settled in Moliagul. They
established a store and, by the 1860s, advertisements were appearing for “Stockton’s Conveyance”, which provided transport to and from the nearby towns of Dunolly and Inglewood. Thomas Stockton’s “conveyance” was in fact a wagon and was primarily used to obtain produce for his store. Clockwise from top: The original Stocktons, Thomas (1815-1890) and Harriet (1818-1904); Red Jacket; poster advertising Red Jacket’s fast run; Stockton’s Store at Moliagul in the 1970s; map of Moliagul township in 1859.
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Western Port News 18 February 2014