Some South Australian Families
Father: unknown - but see notes below
Mother: unknown - but see notes below
Family: Jane ???? (or Joan????)
Marriage: unknown - but see notes below
Children (possibly others):
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Notes on John HARRIS - b ~1756 HARRIS, John, blockmaker, bach, St Stephens, Bristol, GLS. 1749, Mar 27. At Llanfair Disgoed or Mounton. Susanna Stevens. B. 12/25. The complementary Merched (Bride) document shows that Susanna Stevens was from Chepstow: STEVENS, Susanna, sp., Chepstow, MON. 1749, March 27. At Llanfair Discoed or Mounton. John Harris. B. 12/25. Llanfair Disgoed and Mounton lie to the west of Chepstow. It is possible that these are the parents of John HARRIS (b~1756) and that he or his father might have started the blockmaking business in Chepstow (perhaps because of Susanna's family link to Chepstow). John HARRIS (m 1749) was a blockmaker in Bristol at marriage and possibly continued to live in Bristol for a few years at least after the marriage. According to trades directories of the time a blockmaking business run by blockmakers with the surname Harris continued in Bristol well into the 19th century. Sharon Goodwin (Parish Register UK Lookup Exchange) has provided the following baptisms from Bristol: St Augustine (adjoins St Stephens, Bristol)
I've been unable yet to find a marriage of a John HARRIS to a "Jane" in the Chepstow area around 1777 but there are two entries on the IGI as follows:
It's likely that these records describe the same marriage. As Tidenham is just over the border from Chepstow it's possible that this is the relevant marriage but, again, more concrete evidence is needed.
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Father: John HARRIS
Mother: Jane ????
Family: possibly Mary HOPKIN
Marriage: possibly 19 February 1808, Chepstow, Monmouthshire (source: Llandaf 1801-1837 [Dynion] - National Library of Wales)
Children (possibly others):
Father: Godfrey HARRIS
Mother: possibly Mary HOPKIN
Family: Mary Ann LUFF
Marriage: 12 July 1838, Tidenham, Gloucestershire, England
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An International Genealogical Index (IGI) entry "submitted by a member of the LDS Church" indicates that a John HARRIS married a Mary Ann SUFF [sic] on 12 July 1838, Tidenham, Gloucester, England. This is a misreading of an "L" as an "S" as the actual marriage certificate (courtesy of John Ward) shows the name LUFF. Free BMD indicates a marriage between a John HARRIS and a Mary Ann LUFF was registered in the September Quarter 1838, District: Chepstow, Vol 26, Page 59. The Chepstow district (near the Wales/England Border) encompassed Tidenham.
Note: Research by Adrienne Richards (nee Besley) has uncovered a Godfrey HARRIS, blockmaker, who lived at Lower Church Street, Chepstow and whose son, George, a baker, born in 1818, lived and worked from 9 Beaufort Square, Chepstow. This is almost certainly the same Godfrey Harris who was father of John and George was a younger brother of John. (See Harris Family).
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Children (not necessarily in correct order of birth - see note below):
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The early deaths of both John HARRIS (44y) and Mary Ann LUFF (40y) are recorded in an entry on the First Families 2001 website submitted by Beryl Cross [NOTE: this website has been removed because of privacy concerns but an archived copy can be accessed, with much difficulty, at the National Library of Australia Pandora site]. Curiously there appears to be no record of these deaths on the SA Register of Deaths. The burial details, above, are from Alberton Cemetery records (see Sources below).
Another curiosity from the Alberton Cemetery records is that a Mary Jane HARRIS, age 4y 3m, from Le Fevre Peninsula, was buried on 15 March 1853 in Lease 17, Alberton Cemetery. An IGI entry ("submitted after 1991 by a member of the LDS Church") records the birth of a Mary Jane HARRIS on 19 June 1848 at Kensington, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia - father John HARRIS, mother Mary Ann MILLS. No other details (including source) are provided. It is possible that John HARRIS remarried after the death of Mary Ann LUFF. A John HARRIS, 43y, widower, married Sarah THOMAS (nee OSBORN), 38y, widow at Trinity Church, Adelaide on 8 February 1853. They appear to have had one child, Sarah Osborn Thomas HARRIS b 16 May 1854, Adelaide. Like some of the other Harris children Sarah (the younger) appears to have moved to Victoria after her marriage. She married Richard WILTON at Port Adelaide in 1872 (they had 5 children in Victoria) and she died in Warrnambool, Victoria. (Note that part of the information about "the Sarahs" comes from an entry by Dorothy Perrin on World Connect and an IGI entry by Beverley Laurissen). Beryl Cross has also included information on the First Families site about James BODEY (who married Jane HARRIS's twin sister Annie) and George Paine (who married a sister of James BODEY).
Death of John HarrisThe cause of John Harris's premature death is recorded in the following report of a Coroner's Inquest:DELIRIUM TREMENS. - Another instance of the fatal effects of intemperance has just occurred at Port Adelaide. A person named John Harris, who kept a shop on the North-parade, expired suddenly on Monday night, in consequence of his excesses. Mr. Stevenson, on Tuesday, made an enquiry into the facts, and being satisfied from the testimony of various persons acquainted with them, and having received a certificate from the medical man who attended Mr. Harris that he died of delirium tremens, and there being no marks of violence upon the body, the usual order for Interment was issued. South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA) Wednesday 28 November 1855 p.3
Notes on some of the children of John HARRIS and Mary Ann LUFF: Elizabeth (Bessie) HARRIS married Samuel JACKA (stovemaker - source: BISA), 23y, (father William JACKA) on 12 July 1862 at the residence of E H Butlers, Alberton (PtAd b51 b147). Their children included:
Ida HARRIS married William HAYES (or HAY), 34y (father David HAYES), on 12 October 1876 at St Lukes (Anglican) Church, Adelaide). Note: according to my mother's notes Ida Harris had lived with William ELLIS before marrying William HAYES. The early liaison might have resulted in a child - William Ellis [HARRIS] born (unregistered) in Victoria in 1863. This child, later named William Ellis HAY, was the founder of the South Australian Brush Company (SABCO) - source: Obituary of William Ellis Hay and accompanying notes in Diary of Oliver Percival Luff Payne. Jane HARRIS details below Annie HARRIS (Jane's twin) married James BODEY, 25y (father John BODEY), on 6 October 1869 at the residence of George Paine, Mt Gambier, South Australia. According to a First Families 2001 entry (by Beryl Cross) Annie and James had 11 children - Ida Jane (b 19 August 1870, Naracoorte, SA), James Harris (b 13 November 1872, Naracoorte, SA), Herbert John (b 9 May 1874, Naracoorte, SA), Walter, Oliver Evan, Bessie, Emma Annie, Matthew George Ernest, twins Henry and Florence (died as infants) and Alice Ethel. Godfrey HARRIS, 24y, married Agnes Shaw WILSON, 22y (f John WILSON), 8 May 1870 at Wesleyan Church, Adelaide, SA. Their children included:
Oliver HARRIS, 33y, married Fanny Hellen GIDEON, 22y (father Lewis GIDEON), 26 June 1880 at Norwood and (according to my mother's notes) went to live in Victoria. They had at least one child in South Australia - Louis John HARRIS, b 16 April 1887 at Norwood. Mary Ann HARRIS appears to have been the only child of John Evan Harris and Mary Ann Luff born in Australia. She married William Francis Ewen McARTHUR, 30y (father Robert MacGregor McARTHUR), on 25 June 1874 at the residence of Mrs Ellis, Norwood. They had one child in South Australia, Lillian Maud McARTHUR (b 28 September 1874, Adelaide). According to my mother's notes the family went to live in Victoria.
Note that the birth dates of Elizabeth, Ida, Godfrey and Oliver Harris have been deduced from their SA marriage records. Free BMD indicates the following references:
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Father: John Evan HARRIS
Mother: Mary Ann LUFF
Family: Randolph George Stewart PAYNE
Marriage: 26 June 1871, South Australia
Children:
Some South Australian Families
Updated 29 September 2011