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rented rooms or a simple house there, somewhere around Foster and Fyans Streets, on the
slope leading down to the River Barwon.
William is recorded as having been in Noble Street in 1854, a long new street leading west from
La Trobe Terrace, in an area called Chiiweil. He may have been there in 1853. The land,
owned by a sheep-farming magnate called James Austin, had been divided up and sold as small
building lots in 1849, costing £5 to £10. Over 100 assorted buildings were put up within a year.
William may have occupied one of these houses, or built his own on a vacant lot.
There was a newly built Wesleyan Church in Noble Street, which in 1853 was being enlarged.
Another church, St Paul's, a large Anglican church begun in 1850, was still unfinished. Perhaps
William worked on one or the other. Or on St Peter's in Chiiweil, in Percy St, completed in
1855.
But there was more than enough work for stonemasons like William and Richard, who had
practical experience of the more monumental aspects of their craft. More churches had yet to
be built or rebuilt, as well as banks, municipal buildings, and the solid stone mansions of those
enriched by commerce, wool or gold. The second half of the 1850s was one of the best and
busiest times to be in Geelong. Business and building were booming. A visitor from Sydney
complained that there was 'nothing at all to break the dreadful monotony of buying and selling,
selling and buying from morning to night, every day and all day long.'
Richard's family possibly lodged with his father for a few weeks or months. But neither father
nor son would have been too happy with that. Nonetheless, William, now 56, must have been
pleased to see his second son - now a fit though short young man, sharp-nosed, keen-eyed, his
forehead high, moustache and whiskers no doubt neatly trimmed. And what did Richard see?
Aias, no photos of William Honeycombe have survived.
13- Jane Marries a Mountjov
A letter sent by William to Jane in England in September 1853 announcing Richard's safe arrival
in Geelong would have taken about three months to reach her - though a fast clipper on the
homeward run, via Cape Horn, might take some 70 days. Such a Setter, received at Christmas,
together with one from Richard
himseif, and perhaps a brief scrawl from Henry and Martha, must have encouraged or
confirmed Jane's decision to emigrate herself.
Since she sailed in April 1854, she must have made the decision to join her family in Australia
well before then, as early as January - so that she could arrange a passage to Geelong and let
her family know by letter when she would arrive. She was certainly expected at a specific time,
as a job for her had been fixed up in advance.
Jane Honeycombe was 28 in March 1854. In April she packed her few possessions and left
the house in Middlesex in London, where she had no doubt been employed as a maid, and set
off by train to Southampton. A very little woman, plain, church-going, she was probably
dressed in black, or in some dull dark colour that would not show the dirt.
Did she see her sister, Mary Ann Henderson, before she left? Did she see her own son,
(George) Edward, who wouid be seven years old two days after she sailed for ever from
England? Or had he been expunged from her mind - along with his father?
The ship Jane boarded at Southampton was the Maria Hay. There were some 400 passengers
on board, one of whom, Fred Afdridge, kept a diary of the voyage, and so we know something
of what happened on Jane's journey to Australia.
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