Some questions exist about the David Hitchens burial…
Where is he buried?
Has he and his wife got a plot and gravestone at Goulburn?
Grevilles 1872 Directory lists the following residents at Towrang.… http://www.gundaroo.info/genealogy/other/podirectories1872.txt
SURNAME, CHRISTIAN, OCCUPATION, ADDRESS, POST TOWN
HITCHINS, David – labourer – Towrang – Goulburn
KENNEDY, Robert – farmer – Towrang – Goulburn
KENNEDY, William – contractor – Towrang – Goulburn
Robert Kennedy2 and A(lexander)1 Lowry are shown on David Hitchens death certificate as a ‘witness’ to the burial on 23/7/1876 at Goulburn.
His undertaker recorded on his death certificate was Columbus Fitzpatrick.
His Convict Indent shows his religion as Protestant
According to the Goulburn City Councils website there are four cemetery locations in Goulburn, as he was recorded as a Protestant this probably indicates he would not be in No.4, leaving 1,2,3 as possibles.
1. Church of England Burial Ground – St Saviours – adjacent Goulburn Goal on NE end of town. The Cemetery was in use from 1830 to 1937
2. Mortis Street Cemetery – south of goal off Cemetery Street. – used from late 1830’s to about 1900
Includes RC, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist
3. General Cemetery – Cnr Sydney and Gorman Roads North Goulburn, from about 1903 to now
4. St Patricks Roman Catholic Cemetery (now called Kenmore Cemetery) on Middle Arm Road – used from about 1873
http://www.goulburn.nsw.gov.au/index.php?option=com_jentlacontent&view=enhanced&id=1131960&Itemid=3954
1867 Records = Lowry, Alexander – Labourer – Tirranna (an old property near Wakefield Park Raceway to the south of Goulburn.
This website shows that the two witnesses to David Hitchens burial were later buried at the Old Goulburn General Cemetery…
http://www.australiancemeteries.com/nsw/goulburn/goulburngnold.htm
1. 729 LOWRY Alexander P10 15 September 1894, 57y. Husband of Rachel Lowry.
2. 471 KENNEDY Robert CE60 22 December 1881, 66y. Native of Mount Rath, Queens County, IRE. Husban
This might be the clue that David Hitchen and likely his wife Ann Miller were buried also at the ‘Old Goulburn General Cemetery’
Who was Alexander Lowry and how did he know David Hitchen?
Alexander Lowry (witness to David Hitchens burial) was shown on the Greville Post Office Directory as living at Tirranna (see story below). The history below records that the Davidson family who owned Tirranna moved to Towrang in about 1861. Presumably Alexander worked for the Davidson family and moved with them to Towrang to work there new property. This is likely when David Hitchen became freinds (or worked) with Alexander Lowry.
From 1844 the Davidson family lived for around 17 years in Veterans Flats on the Mulwarree River. Veterans Flats derived its name from the 7 veterans’ allotments of 100 acres, each fronting the Mulwarree, made available to veterans of wars from the early 1800s and/or in the NSW Veterans Companies. The allotments were not so productive and most were sold to Andrew Gibson in 1837 and became part of his Tirranna (Aboriginal for ‘Swiftly running waters’) Property which gave its name to a village, and the locality. That is why some of Duncan’s children were shown as being born at Tirranna and others were shown as being born at Veterans Flats as both names included the same place. (Tirranna, which grew to 12,900 acres by the 1880s, is now around 5000 acres, and is still owned by the Gibson family. The famous Tirranna races were a premier social event held annually from 1855, at a track close to the where Goulburn Airport is now located, and then from 1906 to the mid 1920s on a track on part of Veterans Flats, to the west of the Mulwarree, serviced by a siding from Tirranna platform, on the Goulburn to Bombala line, for ease of access by the public.)
Duncan Davidson moved his family to Towrang (aboriginal for ‘Shield’) in about 1861 and he eventually owned a total of 322 acres in Towrang, one portion of 52 Acres, one of 108 acres, one of 42 acres (all adjoining and called Mannafield) and three separate portions each of 40 Acres.
Occupation: 1872 Postmaster, Mannafield (at Towrang) near Goulburn. He was appointed Postmaster on August 1, 1869 and remained in that position until March 1881. His occupation was also listed as farmer, Mannafield (Towrang), Goulburn as well as being Postmaster.
Davidson’s main property, Mannafield, shared its name with a Railway Station called Mannafield Platform, which butted onto the property. It was at this Station that Thomas Hall (son-in law) began his Railway Career. The rail line went through the middle of Duncan’s property after he sold 12 acres to the Railways in 1866 through which the Great Southern line to Goulburn was built and which opened together with Mannafield platform in May 1869 and this platform was in use until the new Towrang platform opened in 1881, 1km north of the ‘old’ platform .
The name Mannafield may have derived from the food use the local Ngunawal people would make of a whitish sugary deposit formed by insects on various trees, most notably the ‘Manna Gum’ (E. viminalis). In good seasons, up to nine kilograms of this important food could be obtained from a single tree. However as Duncan was living at Mannofield (sometimes spelt Mannafield in Scottish Church records) near Aberdeen, Scotland, at the time his first son Andrew was born, this was the more likely inspiration for the choice of Mannafield as a name for his property at Towrang. The name Mannafield became associated with the locality (including the rail platform and postal district), but after his suicide Towrang became the locality name.
http://www.monaropioneers.com/Davidson-d.htm
