Person Page

     Her married name was Holmes. Her married name was Hackett. Esther Brewin was born in 1819 at Leicester, Leicestershire, England. She married Henry Hackett, son of John Hackett and Mary Blakesley, on 23 November 1838 at Wigston, Wigston Magna, Leicestershire, England.

     Gwenda Brewster was born at Portland, Victoria, Australia. She died in 1937 at Portland, Victoria, Australia.

     Victor Francis Brewster was born on 27 July 1907 at Benalla, Victoria, Australia. He married Ethel Mary Dent, daughter of John Hodgetts Dent and Mary Elizabeth Teresa Patterson, on 12 September 1934 at Portland, Victoria, Australia. Victor Francis Brewster died on 28 November 1953 at Victoria, Australia, at age 46.

     Victor Francis Brewster was born at Portland, Victoria, Australia. He died in 1935 at Portland, Victoria, Australia.

     Margaret O Brien died at Garrykennedy, Ireland. She was born at Garrykennedy, Ireland.

     Her married name was Simons. Harriet Lizzie Briers was born in 1880 at Wigston, Leicestershire, England. She married Herbert Simons, son of Samuel Simons and Ann Goode, on 22 August 1901. Harriet Lizzie Briers died on 13 January 1963 at Leicester, Leicestershire, England.

     Robert Briers was born in 1856 at Wigston, Leicestershire, England. He married Emma Hackett, daughter of Joseph Hackett and Millicent Pawley, on 2 June 1879 at Wigston, Leicestershire, England. Robert Briers died on 18 February 1936 at Leicester, Leicestershire, England.

     Robert Briers was born in 1806 at Fleckney, Leicestershire, England. He married Harriet Jane Thornton, daughter of Joseph Thornton and Mary Thorpe, on 8 November 1883 at Wigston, Leicestershire, England.

     Robert Briers was born in 1775 at Fleckney, Leicestershire, England. He married Mercy Cramp, daughter of William Cramp and (?) Hannah, on 4 November 1798.

     Robert Briers was born in 1737 at Saddington, Leicestershire, England. He married Ann Barker, daughter of John Barker and Susannah (?), on 6 July 1761. Robert Briers died in 1770.

     Thomas Briers married Mary (?) at Unknown. Thomas Briers was born in 1713 at Leicestershire, England. He died in 1761.

     Convict Charles Briggs was born on 31 August 1797 at Austerfield, Yorkshire, England. He was baptized on 30 September 1797. He arrived 1831 in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land, Australia from England on the convict transport ship 'Gilmore'. He was convict in 1831 at Yorkshire Lent Assizes, Yorkshire, England, (an unknown value.) He married Meek Susannah in 1848 at Brighton, Van Diemen's Land, Australia. Convict Charles Briggs died in 1854 at Picton, Van Diemen's Land, Australia.

     Convict Christopher Briggs was also known as Perhaps Kester Briggs. He was baptized on 25 December 1801. He was born on 25 December 1801 at Austerfield, Yorkshire, England. He was Farmer in 1820. He married Sarah Clarke on 18 March 1824 at Hatfield, Woodhouse, Yorkshire, England. Convict Christopher Briggs was convict on 17 January 1831 at Doncaster Quarter Sessions, Doncaster, Yorkshire, England,tried at Doncaster for stealing wheat, and sentenced to 7 years transportation.

Christopher Briggs Trial Record indicates that:
Robert Atkinson was a farmer at Kilham in Yorkshire who, on New Year's day 1831, took a cart laden with corn to Doncaster Market,
to sell. Taking one of the bags into the corn exchange as a sample, he left his cart unattended. When he returned to it at about half past twelve, two of the sacks were missing. Christopher Briggs had been seen with them, and was caught and arrested. He was also charged with two similar offences, on the 9th of November and 11th of December.

Date Tried: 17th January 1831 Doncaster Quarter Sessions
Sentence: To be transported for seven years.
James and Charles Briggs his brothers attempted retribution and ended up in court.
One of the witnesses in the above case was a gentleman called William Lyall. On the ninth of February 1831, just three weeks after their brother had been convicted, Charles and James, along with friend called William Marshall, ran into William Lyall at Hatfield, and beat him up. After hitting him on the head with a stick, they laid into him with their feet, in what we presume was an act of revenge.
Curiously, after their conviction, an appeal for clemency was made on their behalf, the petitioner being.. ....William Lyall, the man they beat up.
Date Tried: Yorkshire Lent Assizes 1831
Sentence: Although found guilty at the Lent Assizes, and sentenced to be hanged, judgement was held up over a point of law. At the summer assizes, they were sentenced to be transported
All three brothers were transported to Van Diemans Land and were all aboard the same ship, the "Gilmore"
After Christopher's conviction it appears that Sarah and Harrison lived for a time with her parents where they are seen in the 1841 census.
Christopher attempted unsuccessfully to have her and the children join him. Sarah remained in England and in 1851 married John Wood at Dunscroft, Yorkshire
In approx 1851 Robinson and William followed their father to the colonies followed in 1854 by their brother Harrison and his family. He arrived in 1832 in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land, Australia from England. He was in 1832 assigned to Mr William Adams Brodribb Jnr, a well-known landowner at Black Marsh, in the Bothwell area, Van Diemen's Land. The property was named 'Glenmore'.
Glenmore' was beside the Jordan River which winds between Jericho and Apsley. It is an area with steep, rocky hills and river pasture. Because Glenmore lay on the old aboriginal track between the highlands and the east coast, settlement in the area caused numerous clashes between settlers and aborigines. In 1830 the property was attacked by natives, and one man, James Brown, was speared. By the time of Christopher's arrival, the area had been settled for more than ten years and most of the aboriginal tribes had gone. The house was quite a large one, with a stone stables and barns erected nearby. Christopher would have slept in the stable or in a slab hut near the house for security.
Christopher was listed in the convict musters of 1832 and 1833 assigned to Mr Brodribb but in 1835 he was assigned to Mr E. Bennett whose wife was probably Brodribb's daughter Lavinia. He was not listed in 1841.
On 25th April, 1833 Christopher petitioned Lieutenant Governor George Arthur for his wife and four children to be "sent out to join him in this colony at the expense of His Majesty's Government (sic)".
Nothing was done about this request and a further application was made on 27th Janaury, 1834. It is unknown whether anything further was done to assist
Christopher's application. Whatever the reason it appears that Sarah did not make the voyage to Hobart Town. Without Government assistance it would seem unlikely that the family could have afforded the passage.
(Refer "Application to bring out family GO33/1/1 p 204)
On 14th May, 1838 Christopher married Frances Glover at Bothwell. Witnesses were Robert and Mary Blake. (The aunt and uncle of Sarah Goddard who married
Christopher's grandson Charles Robinson Briggs).
THE CENSUS
Christopher is shown on the 1842 census and during 1842-1843 he was called for jury duty, which leads to the assumption that he was granted his Ticket of Leave
before 1842. It is unclear when his sons, Robinson and William Clarke Briggs, came to join their father.
In the census taken in 1847 he is shown as a married Ticket of Leave man living in a wooden house at Grassy Hill, an area near to the Bothwell township. He is listed
as the Householder and the Person-in-Charge and the employer of servants. The proprietor of the property is Phillip Russell and it is probable that Christopher leased land from him. Phillip Russell may have been the son-in-law of William Brodribb, and he may have taken over the ownership of Glenmore once Brodribb moved to Victoria.
Living in the house was one married couple (Christopher and Frances) between the ages of 45 and 60. There were five other people living in the house, 4 males and 1 female. There was one male, born in the colony, between the ages of 7 and 14 (could this be a child born to him and Frances?), 2 single males who were free but bonded (did not arrive free) and employed on the farm in private service. All residents were listed as Wesleyan Methodists.
THE FARMER
Christopher left the Bothwell area and lived the life of a farmer. He appears to have done well enough to lease land for nearly 30 years from 1858 to 1884. After
leaving Bothwell he lived on the outskirts of Hobart at Brighton and Bridgewater. He finally moved to Kingston where he stayed until his death.
From 1860 to 1884 he was grazing sheep on land stretching from Brown's River, Kingston to Great Oyster Cove belonging to E.J. Manley and leasing a farm and residence at Blackman's Bay belonging to W. Chamberlain. This bears out the oral history that Christopher Briggs lived at 'Boronia' and ran his sheep on all the hills behind Blackman's Bay and was a nuisance to his market-gardening neighbours. One of these neighbours was James Keeble whose daughter, Henrietta, would marry
Christopher's grandson George William Christopher (Kit) Briggs.
THE LATER YEARS
On 9th January, 1874 his wife, Frances, died aged 66 years. Later that year on 14th October Christopher took his third wife, a schoolmistress and widow, Mary Ann (Marian) Barden (nee le Grande). The le Grande family were supposedly descendants of the French aristocracy who had escaped Paris during the French Revolution.
It would appear that Christopher had still not learned to write, as his mark 'X' is shown as his signature on his marriage certificate.
After Christopher's son William Clarke Briggs died, William's wifeSarah moved to Sydney, and married William Hawkshaw, and had 5 more children. As far as is
known, Christopher's grandson George (known as Kit) remained in the care of his great-grandmother, Mary Ann Cox, and may have remained with her until her
death at Black-Wall-in-the-Forest, a sawmill township near Stanley.
Family oral history says that Christopher Briggs went on a journey to collect his grandson, Kit, and that his third wife Mary Ann (Marian) le Grande, insisted on
employing a tutor for him. Subsequently Kit ran wild and old Christopher enlisted Kit in the navy to keep him out of mischief.
At some stage he became a ward of his Grandfather, old Christopher Briggs. He may have been cared for by Frances, old Christopher's second wife, but it was
definitely third wife, Mary Ann (Marian) le Grande who insisted his Grandfather engage a tutor so young Kit could be educated as a young gentleman. The tutor was a remittance man who liked to imbibe with his friends. So, by mutual consent, when their ponies were out of sight of the house the tutor and Kit went off in separate directions. Kit and his pony were popular with those that, to his step-Grandmothers' aristocratic French ideas, were village urchins. Kit promptly took on the role of ringleader until he was caught. His Grandfathers decision was to enrol Kit in the navy.
Christopher died on 7th January, 1885, his death being registered by Joseph Keen, the "inventor" of Keens Curry, a friend from Brown's River. He is buried at St Clements Cemetery at Kingston. There is no headstone and access to the parish registers is unavailable. at Australia. He married Frances Glover on 14 May 1838 at Bothwell, Van Diemen's Land, Australia. Convict Christopher Briggs married Mary Barden on 14 October 1874 at Blackman's Bay, Tasmania, Australia. Convict Christopher Briggs died on 7 January 1885 at Kingston, Tasmania, Australia, at age 83.