EMILY MANWARING

Born: 2nd September 1849

Died: 5th December 1943

Emily was the eleventh child and fifth daughter of William and Sarah Manwaring and was born at Cranbrook, Kent on 2nd September 1849.

She lived with her parents and ten brothers and sisters in the Cranbrook district where her father was working as an agricultural labourer. In 1851 when she one year old the family was residing at Golford Green just ouside Cranbrook township.

When she was old enough Emily attended school at Cranbrook where she started to learn to read and write but before she could complete her education her father and mother made the decision to emigrate to Australia.

In early March of 1857 when she was just seven years old she travelled with her family from Cranbrook to Southampton where she boarded the ship "Anna Maria" to make the long three month journey to Australia.

This would have been a very exiting and possibly at times frightening trip for a young girl of Emilys age. She would have filled in the long hours playing with her four neices Mary Jane, Ellen, Emily and Fanny, children of her older brothers George and Thomas. Her neice Emily was about the same age and they would have been great company for each other on this long trip.

The Manwaring family came to Australia as Government Immigrants and under Government rules were given shelter and food until employment could be found for them but it was not long after arriving that they travelled by Bullock Dray to Bungendore situated in the Molonglo District of New South Wales.

When the famly arrived at Bungendore Emily's parents bought two blocks of land in Bungendore township where the family resided and her father and brothers worked leasehold property in the surrounding area.

Emily continued her education attending Bungendore Provisional School and also improved her reading by looking over her brothers shoulder while he was reading the bible. She grew to adulthood living at Bungendore, helping her mother around the home with the many household chores and becoming prominent in helping with community and school activities.

Around the year 1874 when Emily was twenty five years old the family decided to leave Bungendore and move to the Kyron District of New South Wales situated between Cootamundra and Jugiong where the prospects of selecting their own land was quite good. The family travelled the long arduous journey by Bullock Dray walking a lot of the way as room on the Dray was limited.

When the family arrived in the Kyron District Emily's father selected a portion of land of 181 acres and built a temporary shelter to house his family. Over the next decade her father selected more land and built a permanent home made of Pise and a dirt floor. Many trees and a horthorn hedge was planted around the home and Emily tended the garden and planted yelow Banksia roses and English shrubs of the kind that they had in Kent. Emily was a keen gardener throughout her life and tended the plants with great care and passion.

She was a very adept horsewoman in her younger days and was a keen gold fossicker. Gold was found a few miles away from RoseHill in a paddock called the Red Jacket so Emily applied for so many leases around RoseHill so that they could not mine near her home. After heavy rain Strinybark Creek that ran through the property would rise and flow and Emily would always be seen down at the creek bank panning for gold. Some of the gold that she found in the creek, she had made into a ring which she gave to her father William and when he died she had it made into a brooch that she wore for many years on special occasions.

Emily was a very direct, small, upright lady of meticulous habits and and was nearly always dressed in long black skirts with white pin-tucked blouses with high collars with a brooch. She was a very good tailoress and was postmistress for the Kyron area for many years.

Emily lived in her parents home for many years but after her father died and the home became too small to house the large family her nepews, Francis (Frank) and Edwin Albert (Dick), Edwin's eldest sons built her a slab and weatherboard bungalow, built in the corner of the garden of Rosehill. The home was built in the 1920,s and had small rooms and low ceilings as Emily was of very small stature and it suited her ideally. It was lined with newspaper and brown paper with flour being was used to make paste to stick the paper to the slabs to keep the cold out. A portion of the house was allocated as a Post Office when Emily became postmistress. She held this position for many years, receiving mail for nearby properties, the mail being brought from Cootamundra twice a week by horse drawn sulky.

Emily's bungalow was a real dream home to all children who had the opportunity to visit this old worldly cottage. Not everyone was welcome because Aunt Emily was very particular about the welfare and contents of her home and garden. Aunt Emily had the home decorated of her own liking with many decorations to remind her of her past home in Kent, England.

When Emily's father William died he ensured that his daughter was cared for by his estate by leaving her an inheritance of ten shiilings a week for the rest of her life. Emily was cared for in her latter years by her nephew Charles, and his wife Annie, who had inherited RoseHill from his grandfather.

Emily was bed ridden for 15 months in her home before deteriorating to an extent that she was put into Cootamundra Hospital for special care. Emily died peacefully on the 5th December 1943 at Cootamundra Hospital at the age of 94 years.

A Service was held in Christchurch Cootamundra by Rector Reverend A.W. Harris and she is buried in the Anglican Cemetary, Cootamundra.