John Thompson
John George Thompson was born during July of 1813, in Yorkshire, England. He was baptised on the 1st of August 1813.
John was the son of William Thompson (a solicitor of York, England.). His older brother, William Hepworth Thompson D.D. (born on the 27th of March 1810) went on to become a Professor and the Master of Trinity College, in Cambridge.
Young John departed Hull on the Tranby on Wednesday, 9th September 1829 aged 17 years, bound for the Swan River Colony. The ship sailed via Cape Town.
John (or his parents) had paid his own way and he could claim a grant of 20.5 acres land in the new Colony.
John was the son of William Thompson (a solicitor of York, England.). His older brother, William Hepworth Thompson D.D. (born on the 27th of March 1810) went on to become a Professor and the Master of Trinity College, in Cambridge.
Young John departed Hull on the Tranby on Wednesday, 9th September 1829 aged 17 years, bound for the Swan River Colony. The ship sailed via Cape Town.
John (or his parents) had paid his own way and he could claim a grant of 20.5 acres land in the new Colony.
After arrival at Fremantle
The Tranby arrived in Gage's Road on the 3rd of February 1830, and anchored in Cockburn Sound.
Having left the ship, John would have spent a time living on the sandy Fremantle beach as the other Tranby folk were forced to endure.
John then made his way upriver to the Peninsula with the rest of the Tranby party where he was allocated two Swan Location Lots: K and L on the Peninsula. See [Here] for a fuller explanation of the Peninsula Grants.
Having left the ship, John would have spent a time living on the sandy Fremantle beach as the other Tranby folk were forced to endure.
John then made his way upriver to the Peninsula with the rest of the Tranby party where he was allocated two Swan Location Lots: K and L on the Peninsula. See [Here] for a fuller explanation of the Peninsula Grants.
John worked on the Peninsula Farm, and is listed in the 1832 Census, as being aged 19 years, single, and working as a Labourer. It is unknown what work he did on either the 18.2-acre Lot 'K', or the 2-acre Lot 'L'. As a young lad it would have been very difficult to find labour to assist him to improve the blocks. To be entitled to keep them, he had to improve them. e.g. clear and fence etc. It is presumed he was labouring for the Clarksons or the Hardeys most of the time.
John sold his Peninsula Lot 'K' to his neighbours, the Clarkson brothers, before July 1835, along with the smaller northern 2-acre Lot 'L' in the same year. The historic Plan of the Peninsula dated 24 July 1835, drawn by George Johnson, states that both locations then belonged to the brothers M & J. S. Clarkson "by right of purchase". |
John (still single) may have moved over the hills, to York, at this time (before 1838). See [Here] for more information on York and the Avon Valley. In 1938, he appears to be in debt to fellow Tranby passenger, Michael Clarkson with a mortgage held over some livestock. |
1850's
The 41-year-old John Thompson married the 35-year-old, Mary Ann Dodds, at the Wesleyan Chapel, at York, on the 14th of September 1854.
Mary Ann Dodds had been born during 1819, in Kent, England. She was the daughter of James & Jane Dodds, (who had married in Kent, England, in May of 1813). Mary had arrived at the Swan River Colony twenty-four years earlier, as a young 10-year-old girl, on the 14th of May 1830, via the Rockingham, from London. |
Mary Ann's parents, Jane and James Dodds, had established the historic Cleikum Inn during the 1830s on a site, on the southern side of the road, between Perth and Guildford, just west of the Swan River (now Bassendean). Mary was one of five Dodds children.
After marriage, John and Mary's children were as follows:
- 1.0 Anne Jane Thompson was born on 1st of August 1856, in York, WA. (Birth reg 2890/1855).
Anne did not marry.
Would have returned to West Guildford with her parents in the 1870s.
In 1921, Anne is listed as living at 121 Churchill Avenue, Subiaco, with her sister Mary Thompson [2.0].
Anne Jane Thompson died aged 78 years, on the 13th of December 1934, in the St John of God Hospital, Perth.
- 2.0 Mary Alice Thompson, born on the 23rd of September 1857, in York. (Birth reg 3915/1857).
Mary did not marry.
Mary Thompson died on the 19th of August 1934, three months before her older sister Anne Thompson [1.0], aged 76 years,
- 3.0 William James Burnell Thompson was born on the 14th of April 1861, in York. (Birth reg 6098/1861)
In 1912, William is listed as living in Grosvenor Road, North Perth, with the occupation of 'gentleman'.
Later in 1937, William is listed as living at 119 Murray Street, Perth.
William James Thompson died on his birthday - the 14th of April 1942, in Perth, aged 81 years. (William did not marry either).
John Thompson was listed in the York Census of 1859, as a Baker & Storekeeper. He would have had two children at this stage. John employed 10 Ticket of Leave men on occasions: During 1867 to 1873, (presumably at York) and during 1882 to 1883 (presumably at West Guildford).
Mary Ann's parents, Jane and James Dodds, had established the Cleikum Inn in the 1830s on a site on the southern side of the road between Perth and Guildford just west of the Swan River. It seems it did quite well and was well respected. The Cleikum Inn was named after an inn featured in Sir Walter Scott's novel St Ronan's Well. James Dodds was also granted 20 acres adjoining the house site (Swan Location R) where he planted a garden, fruit trees and ran stock. James had also been granted land near York, which he worked. In May 1844, James sold his assets at Cobham farm, near York, and his property in Guildford to his oldest son and heir, Thomas Dodds (born during 1816). James's wife, Jane Dodds had died earlier the same year at West Guildford. James Dodds died at Cobram, in March 1857. The son and natural heir, Thomas Dodds was to die aged 55 years, on the 29th of August 1871, at Cobram near York.
1870's
The 40-acre West Guildford landholding was then transferred to their daughter, Mary Thompson (nee Dodds) and, on her return to the West Guildford area in the 1870s with her husband John Thompson, they built a home. The family later subdivided the land around it under the name of the 'Nurstead Estate'. A name which recognised her mother's ancestral home in England.
1880's
John Thompson died aged 73 years, on the 12th of May 1886, at home in West Guildford.
His Death Notice in The Daily News of the 15th of May 1886 was as follows: |
THOMPSON.— May 12th, at Nurstead Lodge, West Guildford, in his 73rd year, John, second son of the late Wm. Thompson, Esq., solicitor, of York, and brother of the Rev. Dr. W. H. Thompson, D.D., Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, England. |
From 1897, Mary Thomson (nee Dodds) commenced selling the divided land. This was presumably in response to the rising value of land in Perth in the wake of the gold rush. Nurstead Avenue was named after Jane Dodds' home in England, Nursted Court. By 1897, James Dodd's original Swan Location R had been subdivided into six plots by the intrusion of the Perth to Guildford railway line, Swan Road, and Perth Street (now known as Guildford Road). This portion of Bassendean was one of the first areas to be subdivided as town lots of approximately 2 acres each. The land was subsequently subdivided as smaller residential lots in the early 1900s. See a 1902 State Library of WA Real Estate map for the section of Location R known as the Nurstead Estate land for sale [Here].
A road the estate is named Thompson Road. Jane Thompson is also reputed to have planted the magnificent Morton Bay Fig tree in Thompson Road (7 Thompson Road).
A road the estate is named Thompson Road. Jane Thompson is also reputed to have planted the magnificent Morton Bay Fig tree in Thompson Road (7 Thompson Road).
1900's
Mary Ann Thompson (nee Dodds) died in early October of 1906, aged 87 years, in West Guildford, where she was living.
Mary's Death Notice from the Western Australian, on the 8th of October 1906, is as follows: |
THOMPSON.-The Friends of the late Mrs. Thompson, relict of the late Mr. John Thompson, are respectfully invited to follow her remains to the place of interment, the Anglican Cemetery, Guildford. The Funeral is appointed to leave her late residence, Nurstead Court, West Guildford, at 3.30 p.m. TODAY (Monday). |
When all three Thompson children (Anne, Mary, and William) died during the 1930's, without children, this Thompson tree comes to an end.
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