Dadswell Family History

Generation 7
Barbara Dadswell (1808-1852) and Thomas Hyder

On this page:
Ancestors of Barbara Dadswell
Barbara Dadswell's story
Key family dates
Further information

Ancestors of Barbara Dadswell

Robert Doudeswell 1560 > Robert Doudeswell 1606 > Edward Dodswell 1659 > Edward Dodswell 1679 > Edward Dadswell 1715 > William Dadswell 1773 > Barbara Dadswell 1808

Barbara Dadswell's story

Barbara Dadswell, the fourth child of William and Barbara (Colban) Dadswell, was baptised at Buxted, Sussex on 24 July 1808. The next two children in the family were Anne and Edward.

All three migrated to Australia. On 27 September 1839, Anne - aged 30 and described on shipping records as a "finishing governess" and Edward - aged 28 and listed as a farmhand - arrived at Sydney Cove aboard the 477-ton barque Amelia Thompson, a sailing ship that was being used extensively to ferry migrants from England to Australia and New Zealand.

Family stories suggest that Barbara, then aged about 31, was also aboard the same ship, although her name was not included in the passenger list of 208 emigrants. It is possible she was employed by a family travelling in cabin class, as servants aboard this ship were not named in the passenger list.

On this voyage, the ship had left England on 11 June, making the voyage in 108 days or about 3½ months.

Four years later, on 20 September 1843, a convict nearing the end of his 14 year sentence, Joseph Shirt, was given permission to marry 'Barbara Dodswell' (Dadswell). The permission notes Barbara arrived as a free woman on the Amelia Thompson. At the time of this permission, Joseph Shirt was 28, Barbara Dadswell was 35.

Joseph Shirt had been sentenced with two others on 13 August 1835 to 14 years, in Kingston, Canada and subsequently arrived in Australia aboard the Norfolk convict transport. He was given a conditional pardon in 1844 but it appears the planned marriage did not proceed.

Barbara probably remained close to Sydney during her Australian life. According to her sister's marriage certificate, Barbara was living at the farming community of Narrellan, NSW, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Sydney town in 1846. She was about 39 when she married on 22 February 1848 at Marsfield, near Ryde, also a rural centre at that time, about 15 kilometres (10 miles) from Sydney town.

Her husband was Thomas Hyder, who also arrived in NSW in 1839, sailing aboard the barque Cornwall which reached Sydney with 374 government-sponsored emigrants on 1 September 1839. Shipping records described him as a shepherd who could "read and write very little". His father Nathaniel Hyder (husband of Charlotte (Cooper) Hyder, of Fairfield, Kent), was also described as a shepherd.

Four year later (1852), Barbara and Thomas were living in Phillip Street in Parramatta, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Sydney. At this time Barbara was only 43 but she died on 6 May 1852 and was buried in St John's Churchyard at Parramatta.

There appears to have been no children from the marriage but when Thomas himself died at Braidwood, NSW in 1898 at the age of 81 he was described as a labourer, with a 21-year-old son, Ezra Thomas Hyder, born at Braidwood to Thomas and Mary Ann (family name not known) in 1877.

Key family dates

Further information

Barbara Dadswell's siblings Anne and Edward also migrated to Australia
William Dadswell (generation 6, father of Barbara Dadswell)