THE WILLIAMS FAMILY OF AUSTRALIA

by Annie & Wal Lotocki

Henry Johnson & Mary Kenny

Henry John Johnson, the son of Henry Johnson, was the first Light House Keeper of the Hornby Light at Watson’s Bay, Sydney NSW arriving to live at the Light House cottage in 1859, after the birth of his third child Emily in 1858.  He was born either on Guernsey or Jersey in the Channel Islands in 1827/1828.  He was 56 years when he died on the 22^nd May, 1884 at the Hornby Lighthouse, Inner South Head, Woollahra, NSW; and the lightkeeper.  He was buried at Watsons Bay by H Kinsela on the 24^th May, 1884.  He had been in the colony 32 years arriving, circa 1852.  He died of a heart attack bringing up supplies on the cliffs at Watson’s Bay. 

FIFTY FOUR YEARS IN LIGHT HOUSE

The Hornby Light Photo by W Lotocki 2001

The Late Mrs H Johnson

Mary Kenny

Photo provided by Lillah Carter nee Williams

“The remains of Mrs. Mary Johnson. relict of the late Mr Henry Johnson. the original keeper of the Hornby Lighthouse were interned in the Congregational Portion of the old South Head Cemetery yesterday Afternoon. Born in County Kilkenny. Ireland,78 years ago. Mrs. Johnson arrived in NSW in 1847 at the age of I2 And took up her residence shortly after her marriage 54 years ago, in the Hornby Lighthouse. At that time the chief official means of communication between the Lighthouse and Sydney Was by whaleboat (There were no steamers) and Mrs Johnson being doubtless influenced by the dictum that "no one who has sufficient ingenuity to get himself into gaol will go to sea because going to sea is being in gaol, with the chance of being drowned.," declined to avail herself of that means of transit to her new home, and rode a bullock dray by the way of the old South Head Road. At the termination of this road on the beach at Watson's Bay an obelisk, recently renovated by the Vaucluse Council, still stands, setting forth, with a fine disregard of conventional capitals that:

This Road made,

By subscription

was completed

In ten weeks from

the xxx March 1811

by 21 soldiers of

His Majesty 73

Regiment

The deceased lady was a constant attendant at the local Congregational Church, the first of that denomination built in Australia, and known as “the  church with the chimney". In her days there was no question of a declining birthrate or race suicide and she has left one son, five daughters, 28 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren. The service at the gravesite was conducted by Rev. E. W. Waymouth. Who Also officiated at A short service at the house. Amongst those who attended were: A. Lambert. Mr. and Mrs. A. Argent. Capt. and Mrs T. J. Lynch , Mr. And Mrs James  Hanson, Mr and Mrs F J Smith (daughters) Mr. C Goodall (son in law), Mr and Mrs H Williams, Mr and Mrs H Monk, Mr and Mrs A Argent, Mr and Mrs Treherne, Mr and Mrs Stanley Livingston, Mr and Mrs J Wilcox, Misses Ada, Hilda, Nora and Lillah Goodall, Messrs Harry and Leslie Goodall, Messrs Cecil and Hubert and Miss Gladys Argent, Misses Edith and May Smith and Mr Douglas Smith (grand children) together with Messrs G H Olding, Robert Bell, B and S Simpson, Primmer H Bell, W Silva (Macquarie Lighthouse), H Patterson, Samuel Emmerton, W Edwards, G and R Newton, P Jobson, M Kelly, B White, Al(?) Molyneaux and H A Jones. Messrs Wood Commill and Company carried out the funeral arrangements.”

Mary was a Roman Catholic Irish Orphan, daughter of Patrick and Mary Kenny (both deceased), her father a school teacher, and she came to Australia on the “Lismoyne” on the 29^th November, 1849 aged 12.  Mary’s name is on the monument at Hyde Park Barracks that honours over 400 orphaned girls sent to Australia during the Irish Potato Famine.

Extract from "The Romance of Australian Lighthouses"

by Valmai Phillips

"Pressure from the public and seafarers stirred the maritime authorities into action. Within a year the Hornby Light, tucked away on the inner cliff of South head, was completed as an additional safeguard............

The first to take charge of the new light was a young man, HENRY JOHNSON, brother of the "Dunbar" survivor.  To this remote and lonely place he brought his Irish bride, Mary Anne to set up housekeeping. A daughter Kate and a son Alfred, were born to them. They started a tradition that provided generations of lightkeepers, who moved out to stations up and down the coast of New South Wales. Alfred became Captain Alf and took a post at Eden Light on the South Coast, then up to Smoky Cape in the North, on to Seal Rocks, and finally South again, making the full circle back to the Hornby Light where he had been born.

In the difficult early years Mary Anne received her supplies either by whaleboat or bullock dray and on a rare trip to Sydney Town she had the same choice of transport. She preferred the bullock dray, rather than risk the uncertainties of the whaler. Her daughter Kate married Captain Lambert, who became Master of the light-vessel "Rose", which was moored off Camp Cove for many years as a pilot station and channel marker near the Sow and Pigs Rocks, the start of the reef that divides the eastern and western channels of Sydney Harbour. Henry Johnson lived long enough to see the new Macquarie Light come into operation"

The association with the Williams Family of Australia and the Johnson family began when their granddaughter Annie Goodall married Harold Joseph John Williams, the son of Frederick Albert Decimus Williams and Matilda Rogers.  Annie was the daughter of Emily Johnson and Charles Goodall.

Copyright

All Rights Reserved
 Annie and Wal Lotocki
 2003