This is the third of my books about my forebears, following on first, the story of the Wills and then the Pockley families.
Compared with other countries, we in Australia - and particularly in New South Wales - are fortunate in our records; indeed we are virtually unique, inasmuch as so many of our very early inhabitants arrived as guests of His Brittanic Majesty, and full details had to be kept of their offences, trials, transportations, arrivals, pardons, marriages, deaths and so on. There is a vast amount of information to be found in the Mitchell Library, but here, as in everything else, there are skilled researchers and not-so-skilled. I belong very much in the latter category, but I was lucky, as books, articles, diaries and other such remnants were available to give me much of what I have recorded.
I determined in the beginning not to attempt to document everything I have set out; my small mind is confused by asterisks or tiny figures sprinkled like pepper throughout the text, referring the reader to footnotes at the bottom of the page, or worse still, to some sort of glossary at the back of the book. In many cases, however, I have quoted sources such as newspaper articles, or letters which exist. For the same reason I have not used "(sic)", wherever some unusual or incorrect spelling appears; I have generally quoted letters, etc, verbatim.
Throughout my research I have often been fascinated by the names of some of the people encountered; though I was intrigued by two ladies in the Swain tree in the Pockley Family book - Experience Folger and Love Leach - I still think the collection in this book caps the others. No one surely can fail to be enchanted by names like Praise-God Barebones, or girls' names like Charlotte Riverain, Grizzle Wallace, Clarissa Noakes, Rebecca Bullingbroke, Margery Punchendon, Radygunde Foxwell, and other mellifluous names.
It was interesting gradually to discover that I was directly descended from Thomas Antill of Chessington, England, whose will was proved in 1639; from Rev Alexander Colden of Berwickshire, Scotland, and from William Morris of Monmouthshire, Wales. In my next book, on the Matty family, I trace descent from Ireland and France. I suppose, after all, that such an admixture of blood from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, plus a dash from the Continent, is probably fairly representative of the background of most Australian families.
The really intriguing finds, however, were in America. My 5-greats grandfather, Lewis Morris, owned 500 acres of Bronxland, in New York, this area originally granted to Joseph Bronck by the Dutch in 1639; subsequently increased to 2000 acres. My 4-greats grandfather, Edward Antill, in 1686 owned 80 acres on Staten Island. He was made a Freeman of the City of New York in 1683, and in 1701 was one of only 41 ...