NaNoWriMo Day 14

I've had a good run at writing today and well pleased with the result. I'm now down to the 6th generation since beginning this project with two more to go before I close off. In between writing sessions the past few days I've been experimenting with romantic poetry - as in the style of 'The Romantics' which I find myself drawn to at the moment. Maybe this is what's needed to take the mind to another place - to rest from the weight of research and come back to it refreshed - and so to write again.

Excerpt from Day 14

Apart from Hugh Holmyard receiving his ticket of leave 7 August 1847, there is little information on either after their marriage in 1949 until 1855 of the first fourteen years of their marriage and, if any children had been born alive during this period the records have not survived. An article in the Cornwall Chronicle, Launceston, Tas Saturday 8 September 1855, places Bridget at Longford where she was a witness at an inquest into the death of a child, her involvement possibly as a midwife to the mother.

Inquest-  An inquest was held on the 4th instant, at the ' Berriedale Inn,' Longford, before Chas. Arthur, Esq , Coroner, and the following jurors, Messrs. H. B. Nickolls, foreman, William Saltmarsh, John Hyrons, J, C. Houghton, Chas. Edwards, Alex. Richards, and Abraham Wren, touching the death of a male child, not named, belonging to a man and woman named Wood, residing near the Traveller's Rest. From the evidence of Dr. Donlevy and Bridget Holmyard, it appeared that the child died of convulsions the day after its birth.

Verdict — Died from natural cause.

While it is generally believed Hugh and Bridget only had one child, Hugh Arnold, born in 1865, records show a daughter, Sarah Jane, was born in Hobart in 1863 and died in Launceston in 1864. The surname on her death certificate has been misspelled as Hollemyard, so it is also possible other records may have been lost to another misspelling.

An item in the Launceston Examiner, Saturday 31 July 1869, places Hugh at Deloraine in 1869, when he was before the court as the victim of an assault by a Mrs Hays. The case was heard before Henry Douglas, Esq, Warden and R H Munce Esq J. P. who found the charge proven and fined the defendant five pounds plus costs for her trouble. This article poses more questions than it answers wondering what circumstances led to his being assaulted, but it shows the Holmyards moving further to the Westward from the beginning of their married life at Evandale.