NaNoWriMo Day 11

Hugh Holmyard (1824 - 1906) married Bridget O’Neill (1828 - 1883)

George Hugh, born Somerset, England, in or near Taunton. Emigrated 1865 to mainland of Australia, but appears to have called earlier on Swedish Whaler. Entry into Tasmania is not recorded, but was living at Elizabeth Town in 1896-1897, moving to Deloraine. Where buried. Landscape Gardener. Wife’s name unknown. E J M Holmyard 1972

Once again advances in technology and research tools aid in clarifying the above. George and Hugh were brothers as noted in the paragraph below, however, out of fairness to the original researcher who probably had to rely on anecdotal history passed down through family, it is easy to see how history becomes distorted when family reputations are at stake in a more judgemental social climate. We now know Hugh's entry into Tasmania was well recorded in his convict records.

Hugh Holmyard was born in 1824 in Somerset, England, the second child born to Hugh and Sarah Holmyard. He had an older brother George (1818-1880) and younger sister Jane (1829-1903) Jane later married Henry Howell and they had five children, many descendants of Jane and Henry still live in the Taunton area. Descendants of George live in Canada and the Staffordshire and West Midlands areas of England.

After his mother’s death, Hugh lived at home with his father and stepmother and on at least two occasions sought to supplement the family’s income or provisions through poaching. His first recorded conviction for this offence in was in Somerset 26 October 1840 when he was fifteen years of age, for which he received three months imprisonment and a whipping. His second offence had more dire results. He was originally charged and tried for this offence as Hugh Ullamore, however, it is believed this confusion resulted more from adolescent mumbling through fear rather than any intention to deceive.  It is easy to imagine his apprehension, not knowing what the outcome might be. By the time it was reported in the local newspaper of the time, his real name of Holmyard is given and Ullamore attributed as his alias.

Poaching was the illegal shooting, trapping, or taking of game or fish from private or public property that had been a crime in England since the seventeenth century, when aristocratic landowners sought to preserve their shooting and property rights. Only landowners with land worth over £100 per year could hunt. Those with less land could not hunt on their own land. The Black Act 1723 meant that hunting deer, hare or rabbits was a capital crime, with the assumption of guilty if a person was found to be armed or with blackened face in hunting area. The 'enclosure' movement of the 18th Century deprived people of land, because of this many became labourers.  Wages were low and their diet was worse, and many turned to poaching to survive.