Richard Sandercock was born at St. Germans, near the north-east coast of Cornwall, on 5 November, 1811, and was baptised at the parish church there on 17 November, when 12 days old. His parents were Samuel Sandercock and Mary Ann Weeks, who were married at Lezant on 3 April, 1809. Mary Ann's home was the village of St. Cleer, on the south side of Bodmin Moor, about 14 kilometres (nine miles) from Lezant. As far as we know, Richard was their first child. A daughter Mary Ann was also born at St. Germans and baptised there on 22 May, 1814. Her baptism entry recorded Samuel as a "husbandman“ or farmer on that occasion. Their third known child, John, was born about 1820 at Lezant; he married a Margaret (surname unknown) from Stoke Climsland, and by 1861 their family comprised one son and four daughters. Two more daughters - Ann, born circa 1829, and Emma, born circa 1833 - complete the known family of Samuel and Mary Ann. The duration of several years between the three births suggests that other children may have been born to Mary Ann, but none has been traced.
Richard‘s father Samuel was baptised in 13 May, 1781, the third known child of Samuel Sandercock (born circa 1740) and his wife Mary, nee Goodman. This couple were married at Egloskerry on 11 September, 1764, but no child of theirs is known before an Elizabeth, who was baptised at Warbstow, Cornwall, on 12 August, 1770. Between Elizabeth and Richard's father Samuel there was another son, William, baptised at Egloskerry on 18 November, 1775 and 1776. Again, this generation of the family may have included other children, but only these three are known. It is interesting to see the same Christian names being perpetuated in the different Sandercock generations, and later continued by Richard and his wife for their own children.
Richard's father died at Landue Bridge, near Lezant, on 27 January, 1868, at the good age of 88 years, nearly 15 years after Richard and his family had emigrated to South Australia. The cause of Samuel's death was stated on his death certificate as influenza, after an illness lasting three weeks. John, Richard's brother, was present at the time of death and made the necessary registration on 30 January, 1868. He also stated at this time that he was residing at Trekenner Head, in the parish of Lezant, when his father died. Samuel left no will and no letters of administration were granted on any estate he may have had.
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| St Mary Magdalene's Church, Launceston |
Research in England has failed to produce a date of death for Mary Ann Sandercock, Samuel's wife. It is known she was already dead by the time of the 1861 Census in Cornwall, so she must have died between 1841 and 1861. She would be buried with Samuel somewhere in the parish of Lezant.
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| Richard Sandercock & His Family's Towns in Cornwall |
Richard Sandercock married Betsy (Elizabeth) Stanbury by banns at St. Mary Magdalene’s Church, Launceston, on 23 August, 1835. It is possible that no relatives of either person were present at the ceremony, as a Christopher Spear and John Frain acted as witnesses. The registration of the marriage gives some clue as to Richard and Elizabeth's situation in 1835. Richard was described as "a bachelor of this (Launceston) parish“, and so he must have been living in the town; perhaps he was also a communicant of the church itself. Elizabeth Stanbury was aged about 21 and "a sojourner in the parish" - a visitor or non-resident in that part of the town. Her exact identity, and that of her mother, is still something of a mystery, but it is definitely known that her father's name was William Stanbury. Elizabeth and her family are mentioned in more detail in the section of this history devoted to her father William.
Richard and Elizabeth had nine children in Cornwall, all of whom were born in the hamlet of St. Thomas Street-by-Launceston. The first child was born on 20 March, 1836, and named Mary Ann after her aunt and grandmother. She was baptised at St. Thomas the Apostle Church on 18 April, 1836, and according to the baptismal register, she was the only Sandercock child to be baptised there. (The register of baptisms for St. Mary Magdalene’s covering the years 1837-1852 has unfortunately been lost, and there can be no way of knowing if the other children were baptised there, or at all.) Another daughter, Louisa, was born on 9 September, 1837, but she died before her fourth birthday, on 30 March, 1841. She was buried on the following day in the church yard of St. Mary Magdalene’s. Her death certificate gives the cause of death as Whooping Cough. In an age when the infant mortality rate was still very high, Louisa was the only child of the Sandercocks who did not live to maturity.
The next three children were sons: Richard junior was born on Christmas Day, 1839, Samuel on 9 March, 1842 and Thomas on 1 April, 1844. Another daughter, Louisa, named after the sister who had died (a common practice in those days), was born on 27 July, 1846, and a son Albert William on 29 July, 1848. The last two children born in Cornwall were Elizabeth, on 1 January, 1851, and Emily, on 22 April, 1853. The youngest child was therefore only three months old when the Sandercocks left Cornwall in July of that year for South Australia.
The Sandercocks seem to have lived in at least three different places in the vicinity of Launceston, during the years 1836 -1853. According to the burial register entry for Louisa Sandercock, her parents were living in Northgate Street, Launceston, in April of 1841. Just a few months later they had moved to the New North Road in the adjoining St. Thomas Street hamlet, because they were recorded there in the 1841 Census, conducted on 7 June. By the 1851 Census, conducted on 31 March, they had moved again, and were living in Westgate Street in the same parish. (The 1841 Census had another family of Sandercocks -Thomas, agricultural labourer, his wife Elizabeth, and three daughters - living in Westgate Street, but it is not known whether they were related to Richard's family.)
We know from Richard Sandercock's will and from Elizabeth's signing of her children's birth registrations with an X - "her mark" - that both were probably illiterate. Though they may have had no education, they saw to it that their children attended school. In the St. Thomas Street parish were located the Launceston Grammar School and the National Schools for both that parish and St. Stephen's-by-Launceston; no doubt the elder children Mary Ann, Richard, Samuel, Thomas and Louisa attended one of these schools for their education. The 1851 Census recorded Mary Ann as “at home", and so she must have finished her schooling before that year; three of her brothers were recorded as “scholars” in the same Census.
Of the Sandercocks‘ past-times and family life in Cornwall, only one thing, about Richard himself, is known. He was evidently a wrestler, a favourite sport of Cornishmen. (In the eighteenth century the Cornish Methodists condemned the sport as barbaric, but it survives even today!) several items of glassware and pottery won by Richard Sandercock as wrestling prizes in Cornwall, were brought out to South Australia and are now treasured possessions of his grandson Ellis Sandercock. Ellis also has a precious set of six hand-painted dinner plates, brought out in 1853. Each plate is slightly different, but shows the same scene of a man in Chinese attire; around the edge of each plate is a dark blue border and a raised design. The scene on each is executed in a dark blue underglaze, and the absence of any distinguishing factory mark on the backs is typical of English "Blue and white" ware from the late eighteenth century porcelain makers. The plates may also have been won by Richard as prizes for wrestling.
It is not known just where Richard's employment as an agricultural labourer was found, but it seems likely it would have been near their home in St. Thomas Street hamlet. The family's financial status is not known, but with eight children to support, our Sandercocks may have been poor. Richard's responsibility as head of his household must have made him consider the more attractive proposition of emigrating to Australia. His father-in-law William Stanbury was already settled near Adelaide in the young colony of South Australia, on land granted to him in 1846.
We do not know when William Stanbury first suggested to Elizabeth and Richard that they bring their family to live in South Australia. Elizabeth had been raising her steadily growing family since 1836, bearing a child every two or three years. No child was born between 1848 and 1851, but for some reason this was not the best time to emigrate. Perhaps they waited and considered carefully any advice that William Stanbury was able to convey to them from South Australia. (Probably one of Richard's children wrote on behalf of the Sandercocks in Launceston, and William may have asked his neighbour to write his replies to their letters.) In those days the passage of ships between England and the Australian provinces entailed a delay of at least eight or nine months for exchanges of mail, and so communications between Richard and his father-in-law would have been protracted.
In 1853, and despite the fact that the youngest child Emily was only three months old, the Sandercocks were able to emigrate, sailing out on the ship "California". The older children, in or approaching their teenage years, no doubt took the voyage in their stride - especially the boys. Richard junior was 14, Samuel 11 and Thomas 9 years old. Their sister Mary Ann was already a grown up young woman of 17. The younger ones, Louisa and Albert William, celebrated their birthdays a few days after the “California” left the South Downs, on the south coast of England, on 23 July; Louisa turned 7 and her brother 5 years of age. Elizabeth, still a toddler of 2½ was probably quite a handful during the voyage which lasted nearly three months; no doubt her older sisters were pressed into service as nurse-maids on the trip.
For their mother Elizabeth, perhaps still trying to breastfeed the baby Emily, we can only assume that no modern mother would want to change places with her, considering the privations of emigrant ships of that time. Many women gave birth to children during the period of limbo when they and their families had said goodbye to the Old Country but had not yet reached the new. Many infant children did not survive the rigours of birth under such circumstances.
Richard Sandercock, nearly 42 years of age, by his decision to emigrate in 1853, was branching out in a way his own father Samuel might not have been able to do at the same time of his life. (By a co-incidence, A Samuel Sandercock from South Petherwin, near Launceston, had made an application for a free passage to South Australia back in 1839. He was an agricultural labourer aged 26 and a bachelor, but evidently changed his mind later and remained in Cornwall.) It is uncertain whether any sort of agreement had been made between Richard and William Stanbury before the arrival of the Sandercocks in South Australia, but doubtless the latter had promised to help Richard in some way. From a later legal lend transaction we know William intended to set up his daughter and son-in-law on his own land-holding at Kenton Valley, near Adelaide.
The “California” was a vessel of 824 tons. (The tonnage was calculated by referring to every 40 - 50 cubic feet of enclosed space as 1 ton, so the Sandercocks’ ship was of reasonable size.) Before 1850, a vessel of 100 feet length was reckoned to be a very long Ship. The larger ships were rigged with three masts and sails. The “California” may have been fitted with some kind of hospital, as ships were required by law, after 1850, to be so equipped. The Master for this voyage was a Mr. Jaski. According to the Shipping Intelligence notice from the "Adelaide Times", in its issue for Tuesday, 18 October, 1853, the "California" had left the port of Gravesend, near London, on 20 July. The Sandercocks and other passengers from the south-west of England may have boarded her on 23 July, when she called in at one of the ports on the South Downs, on the English Channel.
No passenger list has survived, but the “Adelaide Times“ reported there were 204 passengers. No official information therefore exists as to our Sandercocks‘ emigrant status, but the two Adelaide newspapers (the other was the “Register“) refer to them as steerage and second cabin passengers.
No doubt the older Sandercock children related to their descendants in later years something they remembered of the voyage out, but nothing has come down to our present generation. The baby of 1853, Emily, was always a delicate person in constitution, but whether the strain of the voyage out in any way contributed to this is not known. It was said of many emigrants that they did not quibble about the conditions on board their emigrant ships, because their former way of life in England had, in part, prepared them to endure the hardships they would suffer while at sea. Conditions were better in the 1850's than they had been for earlier waves of emigrants in the late 1830's and 1840's. However, the oppressive smell of lamps below deck at night when the hatches had been battened down, and the cluttered spaces on deck, to name just a few, would have been difficult for the younger children and the sick to endure, when sleep or exercise was desired.
The quite different circumstances which may have led William Stanbury to Australia will be related now. From a great deal of research and some assumptions made, it appears the account of William's life and fortunes may be the most important single feature of our family history. It is very likely that, without William Stanbury, our Sandercock line would not have settled in South Australia, and “Branching Out“ written to record their story.