 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
marriage in 1849.
Seeking to substantiate the legend, I had assumed that this Wiiliam Robert had also emigrated -
but when? And did his wife, Emma, go with him? This assumption was supported by the fact
that a William Honeycombe was recorded in Bendigo as having lived there in 1856. But he was
a miner This wasn't a problem, however, as William Robert, the carpenter in England, could
have been caught up in the Victorian gold-rush and gone goldmining in
Queen - when the barque sailed from Liverpool on 27 January 1850. Wrong! As it turned out,
they made the journey on two ships, transferring from one to another at Adelaide. They had in
fact left England on the Lady McNaghten, which had sailed from Plymouth in Devon on 24
February, terminating her voyage at Adelaide, where she anchored on 15 June. The
Honeycombes, with other passengers, had then transferred to the Sea Queen, leaving Adelaide
on 28 June.
It was the chance discovery and reading of a diary written by a cabin passenger who sailed on
both ships that eventually set the matter straight. Not only that, the diary, by the Rev John
Mereweather, provided a first-hand account of the Honeycombes' voyage halfway around the
world.
The lesson was: never assume; always check and verify.
Another lesson learned was that passenger lists are not always accurate or exact.
For The Argus, noting the arrival of the Sea Queen at Port Phillip, with the Honeycombes on
board, merely listed them as 'Mr and Mrs Honeycombe and four sons'. It did not give their first
names, nor their ages. Nor does the original shipping register - as the Honeycombes did not
travel steerage.
When faced with such a fact for the first time a problem arises at once. Which Mr and Mrs
Honeycombe emigrated from England in 1850? Who were they - how old - and who were their
sons?
This author, staring at the micro-fiim screen in Melbourne's La Trobe Library in January, 1988,
wished he had never found The Argus entry. He thought he had carefully accounted for all the
Honeycombes in Australia, and that a Richard Honeycombe and his family were the first to
emigrate to that continent, in 1853. He is appalled. Not more Honeycombes! In 1850! And
four boysl
The thought of undiscovered dynasties deadens his brain. He conjectures, hopefully, that some
mistake has been made. Perhaps the names have been taken down or copied in error. The
couple may have been Honeychurchs or Honeycutts. And the boys (what no girls?) may not
have been theirs, borrowed perhaps, adopted, to save someone else's offspring from being
taken into official care. Surefy, after 30 years of painstaking, world-wide exploration, a
completely new branch, a tree of Honeycombes, cannot have flourished unsung, unknown, and
taken root in Australia unobserved?
Calm eventually prevails, as does rational speculation, which is aided by a dim discounted
legend and some facts I had unearthed earlier that month.
The legend, passd on by aged aunts, alleged that the Australian Honeycombes were descended
from three brothers.
They are in fact descended from two brothers, Richard and John. But these two did have
another older brother, William Robert, a carpenter, who vanished in Bristol a few years after his
marriage in 1849.
 |