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Richard died'at Ceres'of phthisis, aged 57, Mary was 42 and bearing their last child. On his
death certificate she macfe her mark - 'X'. She could not write, nor presumably read.
What happened to Mary thereafter remains a mystery. Neither she nor Richard feature in any
local history - although her maiden surname, Woodtey, is commemorated in a small street in
Highton. Perhaps it was her family who ied the Mountjoys to Geelong. Her father, James
Woodley, was a yeoman farmer, like Richard's father; and" also came from Kilkhampton.
Mary died in Ceres of senile decay and bronchitis in September 1911. She was 87, and only
five of her 12 children were still aiive.
Many Mountjovs are descended from Mary, mainly through her son, John, who settled and
farmed near Raywood, north of Bendigo.
A local history, Back to Raywood and district, published in 1973, says of him: 'Approximately
100 years ago, two brothers, Harry and John Mountjoy [Harry was a year younger] were on
their way to settle at Pompapeil. They camped for the night in a smart clearing in the area of
bush known as the Wombat. Liking the look of the place, they decided to settle and buift a mud
and log hut on the selected ground. Later John Mountjoy built a house on the same spot, and
brother Harry built further down.1
The area became known as Neilborough East. The hamlet of Neilborough itself was originally
known as Eiysian Flat, because it presented a scene of great natural beauty when gold was
discovered there in 1856.
John, aged 26, had married Eliza Niffenecker in August 1873, at the Wesleyan church at
Highton. She was 18 and the daughter of a vinegrower, whose acres were alongside those of
Richard Mountjoy at Glencaim. The wedding was probably well attended: John was now the
eldest surviving son, his older married brother, Tom, having died, aged 27, in a mining accident
at Ballarat in October 1869. His death certificate says: 'Fracture of spine and pelvis from being
accidently jammed between cage & cap piece.1
it was probably after the marriage that John and his bride set off with his bachelor brother Harry
to farm near Raywood.
John's wife, Eliza, bore him 77children. /V/survived, and all 17were still alive, aged from 6 to
33, when John died in June 1908 at the age of 62, after a long and painful illness - 'epithelionia
of face and jaw, metastases in cervical glands'. This meant he had skin cancer, which spread.
His funeral must have been very well attended. Indeed, every family gathering, at funerals,
weddings, anniversaries, and at Christmas, must have larger than most, at Raywood and in the
Barrabool Hills.
Apart from Jane, the Mountjoy wives were remarkably fecund. Richard's Mary had 12
children; Caleb's Louisa produced 11; and Thomas's Sophie bore 9. By no means all of these
offspring, however, lived to be adults. Five of Caleb's children died before they reached the age
of 16. In the midst of life the families were often in death.
It has been said, by Jane's great-niece, Lilian (Aunt Lil), that Jane Mountjoy had a baby who
died. Or is this an oblique family memory of the bastard George?
Jane may have had one or more miscarriages. But no doubt she took some solace over the
years from the ever-abounding presence and visits of her many nephews and nieces. The wife of
her younger brother, Richard Honeycombe, also produced nine children. On the other hand, the
fecundity of her sisters-in-law may at times have made her feel envious, and perhaps she
sometimes remembered with regret the son she had born and left behind in England, and
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