Robert Peacock

M
Type Value
Name Robert Peacock
Born
Gender M
Died 1899
Buried
Type Value
Father
Mother
Type Value
Family Isabella Willis
Children 4 Isabella Peacock b. (1864, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia)
5 Annie Peacock
1 Sarah Peacock b. (1858)
2 Janie Peacock b. (1860)
3 Becky Kay Peacock b. (1862)

Notes

William and Rebecca Peacock’s two sons Robert and William shared their parents’ other-worldly hope, but this did not cut them off from hopes in this world, the realisation of which seemed to be attainable in Australia. For their father, worldly hopes had been satisfied by a life of sufficiency such that he had not thought possible in Yorkshire; but the next generation saw the hope not only of becoming successful farmers, but also of becoming landowners. But the aspirations of the two sons were frustrated. It appears that Robert had stayed on for a few years on the Campbell’s River, after venturing for a time into Queensland but he didn’t stay there long. William leased a farm at Georges Plains from Francis Croaker, of “Shiraz”, Perth, on “The Island”, between the Vale Creek and the Georges Plains Creek, on the property known as “Denton Holme” (the word holme meaning island). Robert was on his father’s farm on the Campbell’s River when his three eldest daughters were born: Sarah [WP21] in 1858; Janie [WP22] in 1860; and Becky [WP23] in 1862. The fourth daughter, Bella [WP24] was born at Ipswich, Queensland, in 1864; but according to the Electoral Roll he was back in the White Rock subdivision in 1869. He appears on the Roll at the Vale Road address in 187733. He leased a farm on “Harrington”, adjoining the Hamers; and he and William Junior are both described on the Roll as leaseholders. The chaffcutter accident occurred in May 1877, so Robert must have still been on the Campbell’s River at that stage; and may have moved immediately afterwards. Alternatively, he may have left his chaffcutter operating in that locality for a few years after moving.

Robert married Isabella Willis, who had come out with her sister from County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. Her sister had eloped, and Isabella’s presence was an attempt to make the elopement respectable.After moving from the Campbell’s River, Robert and Isabella lived on “Harrington” where he farmed and operated the itinerant threshing machine and chaffcutter which he had had on the Campbell’s River. In a report in the Bathurst Times of May 10, 1879, of a working bee to plough and sow crops for a destitute family at Perth whose breadwinner was in hospital, Robert and William Peacock are listed among those who supplied teams. Robert died in 1899, at the age of 61, and Bella lived on at Perth with her unmarried daughter Annie [WP25]. Their eldest daughter Sarah [WP21] married Joe Johnson, a member of a prominent White Rock family, and lived at White Rock for the rest of her life. Jane [WP22] married Phil Callaghan, a farmer and butcher on the Vale Road at Perth. It is said that Phil Callaghan admired Janie Peacock from a distance but was too shy to approach her, so he asked his friend William Kemp (who was the second teacher at the Perth School - from June, 1878, to December, 1883) to arrange an introduction, since Jane’s sister Bella [WP24] was being courted by Ernie Paddison and William Kemp was married to Ernie’s sister, Fanny Paddison. Bella [WP24] married Ernie Paddison, whose family farmed “Bellevue” before Tom and Ted Hamer leased the property. Jane’s parents must have been admirers of William Kemp since they named their youngest, born September, 1878, Christopher Kemp Peacock [WP29]. Becky Peacock [WP23] married Ernest Barrett, of Cow Flat, a neighbour of the Bell family.