EIGHTH CHILD OF WILLIAM AND SARAH MANWARING

Jesse was the eighth child and fourth son of William and Sarah Manwaring, born at Cranbrook on 30th March 1842 and baptised at St Dunstans Parish Church on 3rd July 1842.

Jesse grew up in Cranbrook, going to school until he was about 11 years old at which time he, like his father and brothers before him, went to work as an agricultural labourer on properties in the rich farming land in the Cranbrook area.

In March 1857 when he was not quite 15 years old he travelled with his family to Southampton and boarded the Anna Maria for the long three month journey to Australia.

Shortly after their arrival in Australia, Jesse travelled with his family to Bungendore where they settled for just over a decade. This long overland trip would have been made by bullock wagon in very harsh conditions and with the majority of the travellers having to walk most of the way.

When the family arrived in the Bungendore area, Jesse's father William bought two blocks of land in Bungendore township and this is presumably where the family lived in their period in the area.

Jesse together with his father and brothers worked on properties in the area and eventually held leasehold land which they worked for a period until the family moved on to the Cootamundra district of New South Wales where they acquired land of their own.

On the 5th April 1870 Jesse married Ann Fletcher, known as Annie, at the Pitt Street Congregational Church in Sydney. The witnesses to the wedding were Ned Gregory, his sister Ellen's husband and Emily Manwaring, his niece, daughter of his elder brother Thomas William.

At the time of their wedding Jesse's usual residence was listed as Bungendore and his occupation as a farmer and Ann's usual residence as Sydney so it seems as though Jesse may have met Ann while visiting his family in Sydney. His brother Thomas was then working at the Kent Brewery and living in the suburb of Redfern and his sister Ellen had married Ned Gregory and they were living at the Sydney Cricket Ground where Ned was Curator.

It is unclear where and what year Annie was born except that it was the 6th May. I have been told that she was born in the country and was an active and spirited lady, warm hearted while being "no nonsense" and loved to tell stories of her younger days, one of which was that she was held up by bushrangers when she was a young lady.

After their wedding Jesse and Annie returned to Bungendore for a short time as their first child George was born there in 1871. Their next two children were born in Sydney, Alfred in 1873 and Matilda in 1875. It seems that Jesse and Annie returned to Sydney when the Manwaring family moved from Bungendore to the Cootamundra district around the year 1873.

When Jesse and Annie returned to Sydney, they lived at 13 Rose Street in the suburb of Darlington very close to where Jesse's brother Thomas was living at the time. Jesse was working as a blacksmith at this time, a trade he presumably acquired from his work as a farmer at Bungendore.

Sometime after the birth of their daughter Matilda in 1875 Jesse, Annie and their young family left Sydney and moved to the Kyron area near Cootamundra where Jesse's father William and brothers George and Edmund had acquired land by selection and settled a couple of years earlier.

Jesse built a home on a section of his older brother George's property "Cranbrook" about a mile further up the creek on the northern side from where his brother and family were living.

Jesse and Annie's next two children were born there in 1880. They were twin boys, Albert and Arthur, but tragically both died a short time after birth and were buried on the property. It is said that there was a large fire that was very stressful to Annie and this contributed to the death of the twins but what sort of fire and why it caused Annie such anxiety we do not know.

After the death of their twins, Jesse left Kyron and moved his family back to Sydney where they settled at Botany and Jesse worked as a builder, constructing homes in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. A street in the suburb of Maroubra was named after him.

Their last child Violet was born in Sydney in 1881 but she like her twin brothers also tragically died at birth.

Jesse and Annie remained in Sydney living in the Eastern Suburbs. They still kept in contact with the Manwaring family at Kyron with their children and grandchildren enjoying holidays in the country with their Manwaring relations and their country relations enjoying the chance to visit the city and enjoy the vastly different styles of living.

Annie was known to many of the lifesavers at Coogee because they lived in a two storey building where the family lived on the ground floor and they rented the top part to the lifesavers. Annie was like a "house mother" to the young ones, never letting the girlfriends go upstairs, so she saw many couples courting in her parlour downstairs. She was a keen swimmer and swam quite far out, but she always knew there were plenty of lifesavers to rescue her.

Annie was very good at sewing and fancy work and did crochet and tatting, a very old fashion fancy work done with a shuttle and crochet needle, up till the day she died.

Jesse died on 15th February 1918 at the age of 76 years.

Annie lived the last years of her life with her daughter Millie at 3 Clanville Road in Roseville. She was known to the family as Ma Manwaring.

Family Chart