Mary Ann WIGFULL (nee CRAMPTON)

1849 – 1919

The eldest of the Crampton children, Mary Ann was born to William and Mary Ann Crampton (nee Crampton) , 25^th Dec 1848, Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire, England and christened 4^th Jan 1849.

 She was just 8 years old when she arrived in Victoria, aboard the ‘Castillian’ in 1857.

 Accustomed  to the established towns and villages of England, her first days were spent in the canvas ‘city’ of Emerald Hill, where just 3 years before, Cobb & Co Coaches who had commenced their operations with a service from Sandridge(Port Melbourne) to the Melbourne city centre, had to cease their operations becauseof the enveloping mud and slush of Emerald Hill.

The family moved with William, north through the plains to the Black Forest area in the Macedon Ranges where she would have seen the endless stream of gold diggers pushing their barrows to the central Victorian goldfields of Castlemaine, Bendigo, Dunolly, Tarnagulla and other places which rose with the call of ‘gold’ and just as quickly disappeared as the call was stronger from another field.

 It was at this time that the Melbourne to Bendigo railway was being laid, and as William worked on the London to Scotland rail it is reasonable that he used his skills in this area.

 Mary Ann, being the eldest would have suffered the hardship of all eldest daughters of becoming a ‘young Mum’ to George, Alfred and Jane and then the arrival and death of baby Sarah would have compounded her dislike of this foreign country.

 Whilst this area, with its cool climate, would have been bearable and the journey to Beechworth, in 1860, to see other Cramptons from Lincolnshire would have started as an adventure, it would quickly face her with more hardships.

Her mother was again pregnant and another Sarah arrived soon after arrival in Beechworth, the winds from the near by mountains brought freezing conditions during the winter and the summer brought century plus temperatures and sunburn to torment the  English rose complexions. And nowhere were there the refinements of Mother England ; just more diggers, unwashed, uncouth and drunk from celebrating a find or trying to forget the pain of separation from loved ones.

 Despite the building and development of Beechworth, William decided their future was better elsewhere and for a short period returned to the Black Forest area; this time just north of the range at Kyneton, where Elizabeth A. was born in late 1862. Mary Ann , now in her teens, was again faced with the arduous household and proxy motherhood tasks.

 Whilst Victoria was expanding at an incredible rate, William decided to try his fortunes in New South Wales. It was here that Mary Ann was swept off her feet by Joshua Wigfall, 22 years old, overseer of works,and from a respected West Riding Yorkshire, milling family. He must have seemed like Prince Charming to a young maiden, just 15 years old, after the restrictive years she had endured and the coarse, uncouth diggers and labourers that had surrounded her.

 Unfortunately, when one is swept off their feet they can so easily end up on their back. And on 15^th Oct 1864 they were married at All Saints Church, Sutton Forest.

Whilst William and Mary Ann attended the wedding as witnesses, they were not listed as parents and  the only details given for both bride and groom were their names and usual residence as Sutton Forest. It is more than likely that William and Mary Ann(snr) faced with the prospect of the arrival of a 'bastard' or the marriage to an Englishman from a fine Sheffield family, concocted the story that Mary was 18 years old. Her age on Joshua William's birth certificate, just five months later shows her to be 18.

Joshua W. was born 9th March of following year at Towrang, just east of Goulburn. Joshua was listed as Railway Contractor. As the rail passed through Sutton Frest and Towrang it would indicate that Joshua's job as Overseer of Works, at the time of his marriage, would have been on the Railway. Similarly William would have been engaged on the Railway, hence Mary Ann listed as living at Sutton Forest.

In 1866 William and Mary Ann(snr) had a residence at Murrays' Flats, between Goulburn and Towrang.

 Just two years after the birth of Joshua, and only 18 , Mary Ann lost her little sister Sarah at the age of 7.  And the following year she gave birth to Richard Banister Crampton, on 17 Jan 1868 at 'Richlands' via taralga, north of Goulburn. She was 18 years, but listed as 20.

 At this time William and the family were at ‘Richlands’ near Goulburn. However in 1872, when he was granted 7200 acres on the banks of the Lachlan River, east of Condobolin, in the central west of NSW he was registered as ‘Surveyor’ at Hartley, near Lithgow in the Blue Mountains.

 As William showed the tendency to surround himself with his family, it was not surprising to see Mary Ann and Joshua were at ‘Richlands’when Richard was born.. They did not go to ‘Newlands’ and this may have been because of Joshua's desire not to get ‘tied up with the family’. As the future was to show he would not have wanted his wandering eye blinkered.

 With Mary Ann and the two boys, Joshua departed the shores of New South Wales to Old Blighty where they set up home in Sheffield and proceeded to expand the family with George Henry, Leonard, Fanny Elizabeth and Janet .

 By this time Mary Ann had given birth to six children and  was no longer the sweet maiden that Joshua had wooed in Australia. A mistress entered the scene; a scene that Mary Ann could not endure when Joshua decided to bring her into the matrimonial home. Packing her bags and the children, save Richard who stayed on in England, she returned by clipper to New South Wales.

Joshua (snr) also returned and on 2nd March 1881 he married Lucy Easy at the William St Presbyterian Church, Sydney. This was not to last very tong. Whether Lucy found out about Mary Ann and the children is unknown however when she died, she did so under her own name. In1889 Joshua made a will at Queensborough, via Coolah, naming Victoria Caroline Giles as his beneficiary. Both Joshua and Victoria had two blocks each on the banks of the Black Stump Creek. They were together at 'James Park' Binda, via Crookwell, when he died 7th Nov 1899. His will, probated with estate valued at three pounds($6), is strange when one considers he received seven thousand eight hundred pounds for'Crab Tree Farm' at Sheffield, Yorkshire in 1877. His death certificate shows us that he continued to keep his past to himself.

The informant, William Giles, listed as stepson, only knew of Joshua's marriage to Mary Ann, nothing of Lucy Easy and listed his second marriage toVictoria Caroline Giles, his mother, in 1894 at Queensborough. He also only listed Richard, the son who stayed in England, and did not mention any of the other six children in Australia. No marriage is recorded between Joshua and Victoria Giles and she died under her own name in 1916

 One can only image the emotions that occurred when the family was reunited. The joy , the accusations, the jealousies, and these would have been magnified with the arrival of Joseph Stanisforth Wigfull, born 1880 and recorded to Mary Ann and Joshua, at Forbes NSW. Forbes was the major town closest to 'Newlands'

 Whatever occurred we do know that Joshua W found a bride, Adeline Atkinson, of Cootamundra, and married her there in 1893. Early in the 20th century Joshua W and Joseph Stanisforth were in Queensland and therefore Mary Ann must have spent some time in the Wallendbeen area, where Joshua and Adeline farmed.

Little is known of the Wigfulls in Queensland at this stage however we do know the following from telephone directories:-

Joshua W Wigfull was at Thorn St, Ipswich from 1926 till 1939

Joseph S Wigfull was at Atkinson St Breakfast Creek ( later known as Hamilton) 1926 - 1940

Mrs A & Mrs J Wigfull were at 619 Leickhardt St, Valley 1926 -1939

Mrs Adeline Wigfull at Apollo Rd Bulimba 1935 - 1940

J N Wigfull listed at Grosvenor Rd Moningside 1935 -1939 and listed as Joshua L in 1940

All these members of the Wigfulls were no longer listed in the 1941 directory at the above addresses

 Unable to settle,or perhaps a man entered her life, Mary Ann once again moved and headed south to Echuca and onto Bendigo, with her daughter, Janet where she went into service as did Janet

Mary Ann often expressed her dislike of her role reversal. No longer were there maids as in Sheffield and ‘Newlands’; now she and the girls were the maids.

In 1895 Mary Ann was admitted to hospital , suffering from severe menstrual bleeding.

In 1896 Fanny Elizabeth, under the name of Fanny Wignell gave birth to Thomas Leslie Ford at Women's Hospital in Carlton, Melbourne.

On the 2nd January of 1897, little Thomas died at 395 Punt Rd, Richmond, of diarrhoea, at the age of 6 months, under the name of Leslie Ford Wigfall and his mother was registered as Fanny Wignall.

 Janet married Henry Niere in 1897 and had two children, Henry and William,

Without a father or the father of her dead child, Fanny was attracted to Enoch Hooworth, 55 years old with a family in New South Wales and soon after the death of Thomas she was in Bendigo where her mother and sister were in service.

In 1897 and just 18 years old, Fanny found herself with child and before the turn of the century a daughter, Sylvia Pearl , to join Frank Herbert.

Whether it was a father fixation or not, Fanny had a true love for the handsome Enoch and he for her.

In 1904, at the age of 62, Enoch told Fanny ,as he was dying with Bright's Disease," take all the money and return to your family, as you won't get any kindness from my family when I die."

After his death, Fanny and the children joined Mary Ann in West Australia, where she had gone to be with her son, George Henry Wigfull Seymour.

Here on 25th September 1901 , at the age of 52, declaring herself to be 46, she married William Iles 42, a gardener, at Roelands.

 Her journeys ended when she died at Burekup, in the State's South West, on 17th August 1919; she was buried, two days later at nearby Bunbury.