Chapter 13: David Williams and Mary Ann Ward

Biography of Joseph Ward (1812-1888) extracted from the biography of David Williams and Mary Ann Ward published in Carol Baxter’s Nash: First Fleeters and Founding Families (2004).

Part 2: Mary Ann Ward’s background

Mary Ann Ward was the daughter of Joseph Ward and his wife Catherine Hartigan,[1] another family with strong marital ties to the Williams family [a]. Mary Ann’s parents were both colonial-born. Her mother Catherine Hartigan (born c1817/8)[b] was also a second-generation Australian, the daughter of convict Dudley Hartigan (Minerva 1800) and currency-lass Mary Acres (born 1792 in NSW). As Mary Acres was the daughter of convicts Thomas Acres (Charlotte 1788) and Ann Guy (Mary Ann 1791), descendants of this branch of the Nash family can boast three First Fleet ancestors.[2]

The Ward family

The family background of Mary Ann’s father Joseph Ward has not been established with certainty. He was born on 29 June 1812[3] in Parramatta to emancipated convict Joseph Ward (Coromandel 1802)[4] and either Isabella Barnes (convict per Alexander 1806) or Ann Uren (convict per Sydney Cove 1807)[c].

Joseph Ward senior was an enterprising man who despite his inauspicious arrival became financially successful. Some twenty years after arriving in NSW he travelled back to England and the dramas that unfolded both during his period away from NSW and on his return journey are described by Dr Carol Liston in Campbelltown: The Bicentennial History:[5]

In February 1823 Joseph Ward [snr] went to England, leaving at his farm in Minto his wife Ann, "addicted to intoxicating habits", a 12-year-old son [Joseph jnr] and two daughters 14 and 10. Ward entrusted his business affairs to Mary Ann, his 14-year-old daughter, "a fine, active, modest looking and proper well-instructed girl". When he returned eighteen months later he found that Mary Ann had been seduced by William Kearns. She had "yielded to the soft persuasions" of the young man, but two months before Mary Ann gave birth to a baby girl, Kearns married another woman.

In itself the story of Mary Ann Ward and William Kearns was neither unusual nor scandalous. It became both when her father decided to prosecute Kearns for the loss of his daughter's services as his business manager, and to demand £1000 in damages. Yet the case took a strange twist which had little to do with the relationship between Mary Ann and William, and everything to do with the moral conduct of her father, Joseph Ward. Ward had returned to New South Wales in July 1824 with his English wife and daughter and had publicly disowned his colonial wife, Ann Euren, commonly known as Ann Ward of Minto. Evidence was given that during their voyage out, Ward had sold his English-born daughter to an American ship's captain who had become infatuated with her at one of their ports of call. At her mother's hysterical pleading, Captain Lamb of the Prince Regent had called on the Portuguese authorities to retrieve the girl after a night aboard the American vessel. The Chief witness to this affair was John Carter, Master of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, who had travelled by the same ship. Chief Justice Forbes commented that the "inhuman and unnatural behaviour" of Joseph Ward was "unparalleled in this Colony". He found in favour of Ward but awarded damages of only £17-10-0 and costs against Kearns.

Joseph Ward senior and his English wife remained in NSW for four years before sailing on board the Orelia for England in March 1828.[6] Nothing further is known about them.

After his father’s departure Joseph junior possibly assumed the responsibility for managing his father's estate as he was recorded as holding 745 acres of land in the Campbelltown and LakeBathurst districts late in 1828.[7] By mid-1831 he had settled on the "Mineira Plains"[8] at the ‘Wambrook’ cattle station[d] west of the current town of Cooma.[9] One of Joseph's servants, William Glanville (nicknamed Ward's Bill), told a Manaro Mercury correspondent some decades later that upon first visiting ‘Wambrook’ in July 1832 there was "scarcely a cattle track" and that "we would never have found our way only for our guide David McEwen … who had been here before"[10].

Joseph's early years in the Monaro district are described in Back to Cooma Celebrations:[11]

Joseph Ward is a name to conjure with in the early history of the Monaro. About 1832, in partnership with Samuel Bowler, he had a cattle station at Wambrook, and the firm periodically sent a number of stock to Sydney, to be disposed of. In 1836 Ward, who was then residing at Campbelltown, had entered into partnership with James Kirwan (who had recently become his brother-in-law), in a speculation that was called a "bumboat", from the running of which the partners made a considerable amount of money ...

Joseph had settled at Lower Minto near Liverpool by 15 April 1833 when he married Catherine Hartigan at St Peter’s, Campbelltown.[12] Twelve children were born to their marriage as follows: Eliza (1834-1917)[e],[13] Mary Ann (1836-1923),[14] Joseph (1838-1883)[f],[15] Emma (1840-1915)[g],[16] John (1843-1890)[h],[17] James (1844-1929)[i],[18]William Dudley (1847-1909)[j],[19] Peter (1849-1860)[k],[20] Christina (1851-1929)[l],[21] George Frederick (1855-1928)[m],[22] Margaret Catherine (1857-1938)[n],[23] and Paul (1860-1939)[o].[24] Their second child Mary Ann – who was later to marry David Williams - was born on 12 April 1836 at Airds near Campbelltown and was baptised the following month at St Peter's, Campbelltown.[25]

Baptism entries indicate that the Wards were residing at Airds between 1834 and 1838 where Mary Ann's father was initially working as a farmer.[26] Joseph evidently developed an interest in innkeeping in the mid-1830s as he acquired a publican’s licence for The Robin Hood at Minto in 1837.[27] However he retained the licence for only a short period before relocating with his family to the four-square-mile cattle run ‘Island Lake’ near Wambrook where he was visited by Land Commissioner Lambie in September 1839.[28]

F.F. Mitchell in Back to Cooma Celebrations writes of the Ward family’s early years in the Monaro:[29]

In 1839 Ward brought his wife and family to Cooma. He then left Wambrook and pitched his tent on Bridle Creek at the back of a black range on Coolringdon, where he founded a station. Later he turned his attention to hotel keeping, and had an inn or accommodation house at Rock Flat, where his [mother Ann Uren] died and was buried[p].

Mary Ann’s youth was evidently spent in bush pubs and on remote pastoral properties. Although Joseph retained ‘IslandLake’ until the mid-1840's[30] he had returned to innkeeping by 1842. He acquired licences for the HopeInn at ‘Rock Flat’ south of Cooma in 1842 and 1843[31] and was listed as an innkeeper there in baptism entries for the same period.[32] The Ward family had relinquished ‘IslandLake’ and were described as settlers rather than innkeepers at ‘Rock Flat’ early in 1845.[33] When Land Commissioner Lambie visited the run early in 1846 he noted seven residents on the property and a wooden house, the latter evidently the premises of the old inn.[34]

Joseph had evidently acquired the ‘Kybean’ run by 1846 although Land Commissioner Lambie's journal notes that a superintendent was initially managing the 200 head of cattle and 14 horses depasturing there.[35] The Wards had settled there by October 1846[36] although their residence was only of a short duration as they had relocated to ‘Kydra’ south of ‘Kybean’ by June 1847.[37] Lambie noted that the 16 square-mile ‘Kydra’ run had four huts, a stable and a stockyard, 240 cattle, 14 horses and 14 acres of land under cultivation at that time.[38]

Joseph apparently made no attempt to register a claim to ‘Kydra’ in the late 1840's, nor to ‘Greenland’ (south-east of ‘Kydra’) where baptism entries record him as a grazier in April 1850.[39] Shortly afterwards he was found to be in the "unauthorised occupation of Crown Land" and in June of that year Land Commissioner Lambie was granted permission under the Waste Land Sales Amendment Act to eject him from the run.[40]

Baptism entries record that the Wards were residing at Bobundarah (east of Dalgety) in October 1852,[41] settling in Cooma shortly afterwards where Joseph returned to innkeeping. Mitchell in Back to Cooma Celebrations notes that Joseph took over ‘Kirwan’s Inn’ near the junction of Cooma Creek and Cooma Back Creek when his brother-in-law James Kirwan "was in October 1852 shot by his groom … whilst inquiring into the cause of a quarrel between the latter and a doctor, a guest at the inn".[42] The Manaro Mercury added a decade later that "the house belonging to Mr James Kirwan in Cooma … [was] the first Inn ever opened in Cooma".[43]

Mary Ann apparently spent the following five years residing at her father's inns in Cooma. By 1854 Joseph had relocated to ‘The Grazier’ in Sharp Street, Cooma, being issued with licences for the inn between 1854 and 1858.[44] He was also granted licences for the patriotically re-named ‘Australian Arms’hotel[45]in 1859 and 1860.[46] One of the few references to Mary Ann’s mother is found during this period. Catherine was mentioned as a witness at the enquiry into the death of one William Coleman who was “lying dead at the ‘Grazier’s Arms’” having been “taken with an apoplectic fit”.[47]

In addition to running his hotel, the Goulburn Herald reported in November 1859:[48]

Mr Ward has just finished a store and a Butcher’s shop adjoining the Australian Hotel. The butcher’s shop has long been wanted in Cooma, and it will be a great convenience to the public.

Joseph Ward appeared before the Cooma Bench on numerous occasions during these years, charged, for example, with breaches of the Licencing Act (fined 11 shillings, costs 11 shilling),[49] with "shooting on a Sunday" (case dismissed),[50] and with assault, with the Bench noting for the latter that "this case which was of a most trivial nature was dismissed chiefly in consequence of the complainant not being in a sober state".[51] He charged, or was involved in cases in which people were charged with vagrancy,[52] with "using obscene language in front of Ward's Inn at Cooma",[53] with "stealing a saddle from Mr Ward's inn … the property of Richard Brooks Esq. of Gegedzerick",[54] and with stealing fruit (an Aboriginal native) from Mr Ward's garden.[55] He also provided sureties - that is, acted as a bail bondsman - for those on more serious charges.[56] In fact, Joseph Ward appeared more often before the Cooma Bench in the 1850's than any other person in the Monaro district.[57]

In 1857 Joseph applied for the leases of two runs in the Monaro district, with the Crown Lands' office accepting his £57.10 p.a. tender for ‘Burrow’ (south-east of Michelago)[q] and his £59.11 p.a. tender for ‘Thoco’ (south-east of Nimmitabel).[58] The annual rentals for these runs were among the most expensive in the Monaro district, with only one run having a higher rental at that time: Pendergast and Barry's ‘Bald Hills and the Gullies’ at £70.10 p.a.[59] which was later acquired by the Williams family. Joseph presumably employed stockmen to work on his runs as he and his family remained in Cooma. His interest in ‘Thoco’ proved only short-term as he relinquished the run in October 1858.[60] He retained the ‘Burrow’ run for another two years before transferring the lease to his son Joseph Ward jnr and son-in-law David Williams in November 1860.[61] He also sold his ‘Australian Arms’ hotel and nearby premises to David Williams’ brother-in-law Amos Crisp in May 1861.[62]

Nevertheless, the inn-keeping business continued to interest Joseph in the 1860's. Although professing to be "retiring from public life" when he celebrated the sale of the ‘Australian Arms’ in June 1861,[63] he in fact acquired the licence for the ‘Lord Raglan’ hotel in Cooma a month later.[64] He held the licence for 18 months during which period numerous references to both Joseph and the inn are found in the Monaro Mercury including a report on a fire at the inn early in January 1862.[65]

In February 1863 Joseph advertised that the ‘Lord Raglan’ was available for lease[66] having a month previously acquired the licence for a "new house in Bombala Street to be named the Free Selector,[67] evidently in an attempt to attract the new breed of settlers who were making their mark in the district. Joseph was also interested in attracting travellers, as he advertised in February 1863 for a "good General Blacksmith and Horse Shoer … to have use of Blacksmith's Shop with Forge and Tools adjoining the Free Selector's Inn.[68]

Joseph apparently attempted to retire within the year, however in April 1864 advertised that he had "again, very reluctantly, been called to the bar" and was to preside over the ‘Plough Inn’ in Sharp Street.[69] F.F. Mitchell in Back to Cooma Celebrations claims that the ‘Plough Inn’ on the Sydney Road was more often known as ‘The Dead Finish’,[70] however this appears to have been a name used in later years.[71] Joseph renewed his licence for the ‘Plough’ in February 1867,[72] however he appears to have left both the inn-keeping industry and Cooma itself within the following two years.[73]

During his two decades in Cooma, Joseph Ward had many other interests as well. Mitchell in Back to Cooma Celebrations notes that he "dealt largely in land, purchasing freely at the sales of town allotments",[74] which is confirmed by land sale records.[75] He adds that Joseph’s cattle "were said to be the best in the district, his 3 year-old bullocks being credited with turning the scale at 900 lbs", and that he "kept an excellent breed of horses – the Hector and Defiance strain".[76] In fact Joseph was also involved in horse-racing in the district, acquiring a publican’s booth licence for races held from the mid-1850's onwards,[77] holding the position of Secretary for the Cooma Annual Races in the early 1860's,[78] and entering numerous horses in local races.[79]

Joseph's interests also extended beyond the local district. His awareness of the importance of the political system and the need for appropriate representation is reflected in his involvement in the election of local Member of Parliament, Thomas Garrett. At a meeting of electors held in May 1861 Joseph "moved a vote of thanks to and confidence in Mr Garrett", adding that he had "proposed Mr Garrett at the election" and he was "proud of what he had done".[80]

Meetings organised by Joseph Ward and held at his hotels also reflect his support for numerous causes including national education, as seen in his attempts to establish a "Cooma National School" (Joseph also paid a hefty £10 towards the subscription fund),[81] and the need for a better system of communication with the outside world as reflected in his support for the "Tramway to the Coast".[82] In fact, his obvious belief in the principal of the "combined efforts of many" is evident from his involvement in many other committees including those aiming to fund a digging party at the Numeralla Diggings,[83] to improve the postal communication system,[84] and to establish a Cattle Stealing Prevention Society.[85] Alleviating the seriousness of many of Joseph Ward's objectives, however, was his obvious sense of humour as revealed in newspaper advertisements declaring that he was retiring from "public" life or that he had again been "called to the bar".[86]

When Joseph relinquished his licence for the ‘Plough’ inn in the late 1860's, his position of importance in Cooma society apparently waned. He appears to have settled initially at Bobundarah after leaving Cooma, where he was recorded as a "drover" in 1869.[87] Interestingly enough, his son John was issued with a licence for the ‘Bobundara Hotel’ in 1873,[88] suggesting that Joseph's family retained an interest in inn-keeping in later years.

Electoral rolls suggest a surprising pattern of movement for Joseph in the 1870's and 1880's. They record his residence at ‘Slap Up’ when the electoral roll for 1869/70 was taken[r], ‘Cobbin’ in 1870/1,[s] and Mittagong (no doubt a reference to the ‘Mittagang’ run) in 1873/4[t].[89] In fact Joseph had evidently settled in Mittagang by late 1871 as he was mentioned in some newspaper articles at that time. The Illawarra Mercury included the following report in December 1871:[90]

From the fastness of the Jingera … comes the startling intelligence that a “Wild Man” has been seen at that place. A little girl, a granddaughter of Mr Joseph Ward snr of Mittagang asserts that she had met the man whose back is bent and body covered with a thick coat of hair – in height (to use the girl’s words) about the same as her grandfather.

A month later the Town and Country Journal referred to:[91]

… an excellent specimen of cereals grown at Mittagang a few miles below Cooma … It is a remarkable circumstance that the wheat has been recognised as “Ward’s wheat”, a sort that was in extensive demand at Campbelltown about 30 years ago; this wheat was introduced by Mr Ward’s father and till this season Mr Joseph Ward had not seen any of it for a score of years.