The reason I have included this article in the web site is that it will be of interest to some family members that belong to our particular branch, and also that it might be interesting reading for other family members.

The reason that I have undertaken the research into the Hovey family is so that we may be recorded in the new book being compiled on Nathaniel Lucas and Olivia Gascoigne and their descendants. The last book printed simply stated no further information was available on our branch of the family. This book is now in print and is called "A NATION WITHIN A NATION".

Descendants of Hovey's .

This is just a brief up date to inform family members where I am at in the family research.

I will do my best to put together the story of the Hovey's here in Australia, please take into consideration that the research is far from complete. I thought I would tell you what I have so far and as I get more information I will keep you up to date if possible. I believe at this point in time that I have traced the Hovey's back to the 1700's, however more research is needed to prove what I believe to be fact. The earliest Hovey's I have been able to trace to this point is a John Hovey born to George Hovey and Mary Harvey on the 3rd April 1748 (this may be the christening date as registration was the responsibility of the churches at that time).

This John Hovey married a Mary Lenham on the 27th Mar 1780. This couple had nine children and it was the 6th child John born on the 14th August 1789 and christened on the 6th September 1789 that I believe to be the John Hovey that married Elizabeth Parsons on the 17th August 1818 at Southwark, Saint George the Martyr, Surrey, England. I have established beyond doubt that this couple were our ancestors. Their children were as follows, and are all listed as being born Milton, by Gravesend, St. Peter and St. Paul's, Kent, England.

The children were-

Sarah Elizabeth, 11th July 1819,
John William 25th May 1821,
Stephen, 23 Sep 1825,
James 16th Nov. 1828 (our ancestor)
William, 14th Mar 1830,
Thomas Henry, 18th Jan 1833,
Samuel, 20th Feb. 1835,
Emma, 4th Nov. 1836, (these dates may also be christening dates).

At the time of James' death, the father John was listed as being a sailor. I have not yet established when James came to Australia but the earliest record I have of him is his marriage to Caroline Lucas on 10th July 1857 in Maldon, Victoria. Now we come to the interesting part of the story, Caroline Lucas was the grand-daughter of Nathaniel Lucas and Olivia Gascoigne. First let me tell you about Nathaniel. He was amongst the first Europeans to arrive in Australia and established one of the first Australian families, which are also, one of the largest families in Australia today.

The temptation exists in his case to say with ease that he arrived with the First Fleet on 26th January 1788 as a convict, but that would not be fair to him. I have several documents and would be happy to copy them for any family members who are interested in reading the story of Nathaniel and Olivia. I know there is a book under-way on this couple and it is the reason that I have undertaken the research into the Hovey family so that we may be recorded in it as well.

The last book printed simply stated no further information was available on our branch of the family. As of November 10th 2001 the new book is in print.

It is believed that Nathaniel Lucas’ parents were John Lucas and Mary Bradford. The middle name Bradford was given to one of William's children, James, who was the only one given a second name. The use of surnames as second names usually occurred in that period where the name was either the mothers maiden name or one of the parents’ mothers names, most often it was the fathers. A marriage of John Lucas to a Mary Bradford did occur in 1748 near Thames, Ditton. A check of the Thames Ditton Parish Registers indicates the possibility of two Lucas families.

This is based on the fact that there were two baptisms of sons named John, sons of Johns, baptized within about a year of each other. This, of course, could be deceiving as baptisms were usually celebrated when the child was between the age of two and three although there are many records where there is only a month or two between birth and Baptisms. The first child may have died after the Baptism and a later birth occurred with the Christian name repeated.

This was common practice and actually did happen in Nathaniel's own family (two Mary's and two Sarah's). There was one other thing, the names of the fathers were differently recorded. One simply said “John Lucas”. The other said “Col. John Lukass”. A record of Nathaniel signing his name Nathaniel Lukass has been found. The fact is that such a person as Col. John Lukass did exist and did reside in Thames Ditton. Col. Lukass was born in Sweden into an aristocratic family. In the 1730’s, he became embroiled in a dispute over an estate and under a death threat, he fled Sweden. A description on Nathaniel has been found too. He had blond, wavy hair and blue eyes. This is not characteristic of many of the British Convicts. Again I have very well documented information if anyone is interested.

Nathaniel arrived in Australia on the "Scarborough", and Olivia was transported on the "Lady Penrhyn" and it seems to me that by all the evidence that both of them were very unfairly treated. I would encourage any family members who are interested to read the stories of this couple as it is very interesting reading. Within days of arriving in Australia, Nathaniel was sent on to Norfolk Island on the "Supply” and was accompanied by fourteen other convicts including six women one of whom was Olivia who he married shortly after he arrived there.

Dr. Jameson solemnized the marriage in 1788 and Rev. Richard Johnson confirmed it on the 5th November 1791. Nathaniel and Olivia lived in Sydney, Norfolk Island, for the next fifteen years and raised a family of eleven children there. They were Ann 1789, Mary and Sarah (twins) 1790, William 1792, Nathaniel 1793, Olivia 1795, John 1796, James 1798, George 1800, Charles 1801, Sarah 1803. Nathaniel Lucas was a very skilled joiner and carpenter and ships frame builder and would have been ideal man for the job of using the Norfolk Pines for the new masts for the ships returning to England.

While on Norfolk Island Nathaniel built many of the settlers’ homes and administrative buildings. In his spare time he farmed on a grant at Grenville Valley and was also a Constable too, he also had the water supply contract. He took over other grants, which had been abandoned by other less successful farmers. The land Nathaniel and Olivia owned is now Kingston Apartments and it is down at Kingston near Quality Row. The other land is up towards the middle of the island near the Uniting Church. All evidence (visible from the sea) of the first settlement was destroyed when the island was vacated. It was later resettled and it was during this time that it was known as the “Hell Hole of the Pacific”

On the 14th August 1792 Nathaniel, set fire to two pine trees while clearing land near his home, a sudden gust of wind blew up and one of the trees collapsed onto the house killing the twin daughters and critically injuring Olivia who was nursing William the baby at the time. It is said that Olivia walked with a limp right up until the time of her death. Olivia moved to Sydney, Australia travelling aboard Matthew Flinder’s command, H.M.S. Investigator, in 1805. Initially she lived at Church Hill where Nathaniel managed the Government Windmill. There she had another two children Mary Ann 1805 and Thomas 1807.

It is from the eighth child James that we are descendent. James Lucas married Elizabeth Murray at St. Johns Church, Launceston, Tasmania, in 1819 and they had 16 children, including twins Martha and Caroline, Martha died as an infant and Caroline Lucas is the one that married James Hovey in Maldon, Victoria in 1857. They had 13 children and it was their fourth child John that was our ancestor. John was born 1863 and died in 1921 and his death certificate states that he had stomach cancer. He married Charlotte Parker who was the daughter of Robert Parker and Ann Fenton. They were married on the 10 April 1882 St. Johns Church of England Dunolly, Victoria. It was their first child John that was my grandfather.

At the time of John and Charlotte’s marriage his occupation was recorded as charcoal burner. Over the next few years it is clear that he worked in the timber industry in Victoria and Western Australia. They had 11 children

John, 1883,
Charlotte Ann 1884,
Thomas 1886, Mary 1887,
William 1889,
Isabella 1890,
Caroline 1893,
Lyla Gladys (known as Gladys) 1895,
May 1902,
Hilda Amelia 1903,
and Edith 1905.

Notice the seven year gap between the children, this was when John Snr. was working in Western Australia with John Jnr., Thomas and William. Thomas and William remained in Western Australia for the rest of their lives. John Jnr. Came to live in Queensland after he and Alice Elizabeth Brown returned from England where their first child Eileen Bila was born in 1913. I have not yet found out when they went to England but I think they travelled to England separately sometime in 1912. Alice was living here in Australia and I think they may have met in Western Australia but further research is needed. (April 2002 Still researching this)

She probably came to Australia a few years before they met, I will continue to look into that. Her parents were John Thomas Brown and Emma Jane Cork and she was born Asylum Cottages Chartham, County of Kent, England because that was the place of her fathers employment at the time. It is possible that the Orsova (the ship they returned to Australia on) berthed in Queensland and that is how they got here but I need to check the records on that. They were living in the Beaudesert area where John was listed on the Electoral Roll as a sleeper hewer when Esther Violet was born in 1915.

I have been able to establish they managed or sharecropped a farm called Sara Vale, which was owned by the Franklin Family. While the father was at the war, John and Alice ran the dairy and to this day there is a lady still alive who was the daughter of the owner of Sara Vale. When asked about John and Alice, said, (I remember them they ran the farm while Dadda was at the war). While they were in the area John, Len and George were born. It was in around 1922 that they moved to Cooroy and paid two hundred and seven pounds four shillings and three pence for one hundred and two acres, three roods, thirty perches, in the County of March in the Parish of Tuchekoi portion 467, being land selected as Agricultural Farm.

He was actually a second selector which means that someone had previously settled the land and for some unknown reason failed in the venture. I have a copy of the Deed of Grant of Land and these details have been taken from that so are accurate. John had owned cattle in the Beaudesert area and it is said that he had them put on the train and then on arrival at Cooroy drove them by road (on foot) to the property at West Cooroy. It was at Cooroy that May and Morris were born.

Sadly on the 8th August George died after bumping his leg on the bed. The death certificate stated that the cause of death was Acute Osteo-myelitis of tibia and femur and Toxaemia. He was buried in the Methodist Section of the Cooroy Cemetery Row B Plot 71 he was 6 years 8 months and 11 days old. The grave is unmarked at this time but I would like to put a simple cross on it if the Council will allow it. I hope to gather a lot more information on John and Alice in particular especially with regard to the days spent in the Cooroy area.

I have quite a bit of information on the Hovey family from Victoria but there is still one sister Isabella that is proving hard to find, she did marry in Rylston in N.S.W. but apart from that I have no further information on her. up-date on Isabella. she moved to Newtown in Sydney where her husband William Fuller passed away in 1941 and she moved several times and finally passed away in April 1961 having had no children) I have a copy of the family history with regard to dates and marriages etc., if anyone would like a copy please contact me or better still try to get a copy of the new book

I would encourage all family members to look into getting a blood test done, as through the Lucas family there is a medical problem called Haemochromatosis. Recently there was a large article on this in the Courier Mail on page 6 and the heading said Curse of the Vikings haunts white Aussies. Scientists have discovered that the Vikings spread the most common inherited disease among white Australians, the deadly liver illness Haemochromatosis.

The defect causes the liver of hoard huge amounts of iron. The researchers traced the gene through eight generations of Australians descended from Nathaniel Lucas and Olivia Gascoigne. This in itself proves the ancestry of Nathaniel. A screening test is available, but left untreated it could result in extreme tiredness, low libido, diabetes, depression, and heart and liver disease.

Please ask your Doctor for a simple blood test to check the iron levels in your blood and if they are high it should ring alarm bells and further investigation should be carried out. I have some very good articles on this as a Lucas family member is a medical researcher and has done extensive work on this problem. I look forward to hearing from some of the family so that I can judge the interest in this research both on the Family History and the Disease. Please contact me either by snail mail or email or phone.

June Dark 35 Tytherleigh Road, Palmwoods.4555
Phone 07 54450890
Email jdark@linkt.com.au