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Feast Family in late 1800's

In Perth and in court

By Gary Buck, November 2016

A quick recap

  • Perth had been founded in June 1829
  • Sarah Ann Puckrin had been born in Perth in 1833
  • Henry Feast had been sent there in 1853.  


What was Perth and WA like at this time??

  • The WA government had requested convict labour and it had only commenced in 1850.
  • In 1850, the popluation of the state of WA was under 6000, Fremantle and Perth were both about 2000 and the rest of WA had less than another 2000.


In 1857 Sarah and Henry had a son, James Puckrin Feast.  He died the same year.  The following year that had a daughter, Mary Ann.


On 4 May 1859 they were married in St Georges Cathedral.  The history of this cathedral is here, it seems it was a cathedral from 1858 but not the one that is currently standing. Their marriage was one of the earliest held in the cathedral.


Sarah and Henry had three sons and eight daughters over an eighteen year period.  Ruth Amelia Feast (1869 - 1948), my Great Grandmother was the ninth child.


Their only son who saw his second birthday was named Henry.  It seems that this Henry (1860-1936) had his father and grandfather's relationship with the law.  All were Henrys.  The eldest had been transported to Sydney in 1836 where he was pardoned and lived until his death in 1881.


The next Henry in the line (1832-1914) had been transported to Perth in 1853.


There are numerous newspaper reports of the two Perth based Henry's visiting the bench.  When the younger Henry was only 13 years old he appeared in court.  It seems his father got into a fight and young Henry threw a brick and hit his father's assailant in the head.  Henry senior was charged but got off

Two years later, in 1875, the two Henry's were before the bench again.  This time the senior Henry was charged with "furiously riding through William St".  Young Henry was also in trouble as he was following / chasing.


Dad was fined 30 shillings, the boy was let off.  The document says that Henry senior was mulct 30 shillings - a new word for me....look it up.


In 1889 the there was more horseplay between the two of them.  This time the charghe was dropped when they convinced the magistrate that they had charged the father but it was the son.


Henry was again in court in 1894 - on a public drunkenness charge.


As noted earlier, Sarah and Henry had eleven childern, well despite 3 dying as children and one daughte rnot marrying, the remaining seven had a total of 52 children.


Some were Feasts, but other surnames were Taylor, Gray, Turton, Barry, Gardner, Herold, Carney and Ayers.


As far as I can tell all none left Western Australia, other than for military service.


I will now follow Ruth Amelia Feast, my Great Grandmother further.  She had a daughter Violet out of wedlock in 1893 and then in 1896 she married John Reginald Carney (1871-1905) in Perth.


Ruth then had the following childern 

  • 1897 Albert Edward
  • 1899 Edward Victor (Mick)
  • 1901 John Alfred
  • 1902 Emily Amelia
  • 1905 Stillborn


The year 1905 then took a dramatic turn for Ruth, her husband was shot dead.  The newspapers reports below note...


The coroner, in addressing the jury, said that there was nothing in the evidence to show otherwise than that the deceased had met his death by a most unfortunate accident.

 The jury returned a verdict that the deceased had come by his death owing to the accidental discharge of a defective rifle on Sunday, August 27, and that no blame was attachable to Frederick Ayers.

 







At this time Ruth Carney had four childrren under 8 years of age.  The following year, Fred Ayers married Ruth.


They subsequently had two daughters, my grandmother Ruby Mary (1907-1982) and Christina Ruth (1909-1983).


I was told that Albert Carney was either on of the biggest cattle owners or biggest cattle thieves of his time.  In fact the paert played by Bryan Brown in the movie "Australia" was loosely based on Albert.  


Albert had more trouble in 1924 with his vehicle being involved in a fatal accident.  Articles are below


Ruby Mary Ayers married Frank Leslie Buck in 1928 and their story is here.