History Notes - Cross and Crowley's

History Notes

This week has seen the arrival of the June, 2025, History Magazine.  Lots of people cast these volumes aside but I mostly flick through them with the hope of finding something relevant to our area.  This month I found a reference to George Wood concerning a sum of money to Thomas Cross’s two daughters in 1845.

Perhaps I should add a bit of information about Thomas Cross.  He was born in Hertfordshire, England.  His death sentence for stealing sheep was commuted to transportation for life.  He arrived in Australia in 1811.  Three years later he married Martha Bryant – he was 37 and she was almost 16 years old.  They had eleven children.

Sadly, Martha died in August 1839, aged 41 years leaving a large family aged from 25 years down to 2 years. The older girls cared for the younger children until sadly they were orphaned when Thomas Cross died in March 1843.  It is very likely that Martha’s stepparents stepped in to care for the younger children – thus the donation to Thomas Cross’s two daughters in 1845 – 10 pounds 11 shillings would have been quite a donation in those days.  The receipt was signed by Daniel Eaton (Martha’s stepfather).

The Cross family are spread across this area, especially Walcha and of course the numerous Crowley descendants are related through Martha’s sister who was Mrs John Crowley, mother of William of Cobbadah Station.

To change the subject – we paused the markets through winter and with this cold, windy weather and the improvements to the paths between the buildings, it was a good decision.  Hopefully when spring has sprung, we will start the markets again.