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contain errors of fact.
Elizabeth, Richard Honeycombe's wife, is said to have been related to a notable Test cricketer,
Jack Ryder, who was born in Collingwood, Melbourne in
1889. Of Scottish origins and the son of a carpenter, Henry Ryder, Jack Ryder played cricket
for Victoria before taking part as batsman and bowler in several Tests between 1920 and 1929,
the last of which he captained. He was a player and administrator at the Collingwood Club for
71 years. A teetotaller, he was 'tall, long-armed, with the face of a grave goblin'.
Such a countenance had Elizabeth Honeycombe, nee Ryder. But there isn't a connection, as far
as I know.
Legends can also become confused. One legend said that Richard's parents, in returning to
England, were involved in a shipwreck and drowned at sea. Not true. Another legend said that
it was not Richard's parents who died in this way, but those of his wife, Elizabeth - Ryders, not
Honeycombes, who drowned.
This legend tells how Richard's abuse of his wife (and other sources say he was a heavy drinker
and wife-beater) made her father so concerned that he, and perhaps his wife, voyaged to
Australia to see Elizabeth and sort the matter out. Presumably her letters home indicated she
was unhappy, even miserable. Perhaps they were streaked with her tears. Legend says that
Richard refused to admit Mr Ryder to his house. Did the father ever actually see his daughter
after travelling across the world? We do not know - nor how, if at all, the problem was
resolved. But Elizabeth remained with her husband, and her father returned unhappily home,
drowning in a shipwreck on the way.
If any of this happened, it must have occurred while Elizabeth's father was fit enough to travel
and not too old - ie, while she and Richard were living in Geelong (1853-72). Elizabeth was 50
in 1872 and her father must have been 20 years older at least. But the difficulty of checking
passenger lists for a George Ryder from Edinburgh would be great - not to mention the
searching of lists of those who drowned at sea. So we will probably never know whether this
dramatic and romantic legend has any truth in it at all.
Nothing has also been gleaned - so far - about the whereabouts of Richard and his family
between 1872, when they were in Geelong, and 1877, when they are recorded as living in
North Carlton, Melbourne, at Rose Cottage, 108 Nicholson St - a major thoroughfare running
north from Parliament House.
Richard's father, William, had died on his farm at Wharparilla the year before. He was buried in
Echuca on 6 June 1876, and one hopes that Richard, who would be 47 three months later, was
able to be there. However, his father left him and his younger brother John but £5 each, and the
smallness of the amount seems to indicate a distance, both geographical and familial, between
the father and his two surviving sons. His grandsons - and John had not yet married - would
nonetheless ensure that the family name not only survived and spread, but also prospered over
the next one hundred years and more.
Richard's four sons would all marry and have children in due course. But in 1876, in November,
one of his daughters died.
168
This was Emma, aged 21, the first Honeycombe to have been born in Australia. She is said to
have been a housemaid in a Dr Nicholson's home and, when his wife died, to have looked after
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