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Number One Hilisbridge in 1842, and as that house was already occupied (in 1841) by
William, his wife, seven children and John Furneaux (perhaps), it would seem that George had
few if any children or even a wife. He is still with them in Meadow Street in 1843-45, and the
directories for these years verify that he and William were still in business together.
In 1846 William moved across the River Avon to Kingsdown, and to the parish of St Matthew.
Here his address in 1846-47 is given as 6 Dove Street.
15
He then disappears from British records - apart from a mention on his eldest son's marriage
certificate. And most of his family also thereafter disappear.
A genealogist, working from English sources, would have no idea whither in the world the
Honeycombes went
I happen to know, having traced the present-day Honeycombes in Australia back to two of
William's sons, and then having bridged the gap by the chance finding of William and his wife
and four of their children in the list of passengers on the Sea Queen who arrived in Melbourne
1850. But what happened in between?
What happened during William's time in Bristol, where he lived for at least seven years, that
made him resolve in his middle age to leave his native land?
Something in his character, a restless dissatisfaction with where he was and what he was doing,
seems to have motivated his actions. He could have settled down as a stonemason and found
regular work in any English town, or in some village. But he didn't. Every three or four years he
was on the move, and even within these periods he seems to have changed his home address
more than once.
From Cornwall he goes to Devon, then on to London, then back to Devon and on to Bristol.
One wonders whether some misdemeanours were involved, as in the Bigg affair. Did he tend to
overcharge, not pay his rent, concoct his expenses, or otherwise antagonise his employers? Did
he have to move to evade his creditors? Or was nothing ever good enough for him and the grass
ever greener elsewhere? Was his temperament as volatile as that of his sons, Richard and John,
would prove to be, in different ways, in Australia?
Five of William's children married comparatively young, two in their teens. Was the constant
moving from home to home, from village to town, a factor here? Or was there something about
their father's moods and behaviour that made them only too keen to escape from his autocratic
rule?
The first of his children to marry was Mary Ann (called Mary) in 1845. She married in London.
Her father was then in business in Meadow Street in Bristol with George Wilkins, and Mary
gave her father's occupation as 'builder'. What was she doing in London, which the family had
left some 17 years before this?
The marriage took place in a comparatively new church in Bermondsey on 9 November. Built in
1829, near Jamaica Road, with a tapering clock tower and huge columns at the entrance
supporting a heavy Grecian pediment, the church of St James could seat nearly 2,000 people.
Mary Ann was 21, and her husband, William Henderson ('of full age') was a bachelor and a
stonemason. No occupation is given for her, so presumably she had lived with her parents, or
relatives, until the marriage. Presumably she met William Henderson in Bristol. If so, if the liaison
had the blessing of her parents, why did Mary not marry there? The possibility exists that she
ran away with William to London, or followed him there. Her address at the time of their
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