Knight Gregson
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George Charles Knight Gregson

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George Charles Knight Gregson Empty George Charles Knight Gregson

Post  pjolley Sat Aug 06, 2016 7:46 pm

George Charles Knight Gregson was born at Lowlynn on 8 April 1850 and was educated at Durham Cathedral.  George was one of 17 children and was the 5th son.  Other brothers were educated for the Army, Navy, Church and Law but George Charles decided not to remain in Northumberland. Prior to migrating to Australia in 1876, he was in regular contact with the Hughes of Middleton Hall, near Wooler, Northumberland and in particular one of the daughters, Charlotte Louise Hughes.  Two of the Hughes sons, Charles and Frank also migrated to Australia and George spent some initial time in Australia working with them.  There appears to be some understanding that their sister, Charlotte Louise Hughes would follow George out to Australia to spend their future life together.  Charlotte Louise (referred to as Louise) migrated to Australia in 1877 and married George in Sydney in 1880.  The Hughes were friends with the Selbys and may have been the conduit to the Knight Gregsons.

After his marriage George Charles worked for the Oriental Bank in Murrumbarrah, NSW where Louise and George had their first 2 children.  After the collapse of the Oriental Bank in the early 1880s, George became the accountant on the nearby Cunningham Plains, a large station located between Murrumbarrah and Binalong.  Here their remaining 2 children were born.  Their children were:
- George Selby Knight- born 24 Aug 1881
- Caroline Mary - born 8 May 1883
- Ethel Margaret - born 28 June 1886
- Henry Knight - born 31 July 1889

Due to the letters Louise wrote back to her family in Northumberland, there is a wonderful record of their life throughout this time. Through her letters, Louise appears as a strong, feisty and capable woman who was very close to her Hughes family.  Her first son, George Selby was sent to Sydney and found a position working for Dalgetys and the two girls were educated at home.  Henry initially worked in Sydney but later came home to help his father. Further information on these four siblings will become available in another section of this website shortly.

In 1908 Cunningham Plains was sold and broken up into smaller lots.  George Charles and Louise managed to buy one of the blocks which became known as 'Camden Springs'.  Camden came from the name of a friend Mr W.Camden Roberts of Currawong who helped George Charles financially secure the property.  George Charles and his youngest son, Henry worked hard to establish Camden Springs as a viable farm and it remains in the family today (Nov 2017).

George Charles tried to keep in touch with his family but contact was sporadic.  He did see his brother Arthur who moved to Sydney later in life. There is news via letters that his sister Mary suffers from ill-health, perhaps depression.  When his mother (Eliza Mary Donaldson Selby) dies, George inherits the court sword of Lord Delaval.  George enjoyed shooting and fishing on the rare occasion he had time to spare.  As was typical at the time, his views were very conservative and in the words of his son, he followed a rigid code of conduct throughout his life.  He was always very careful with matters of finance.
Louise misses her family and Northumberland and makes one visit back to Northumberland in 1903.  She suffered from asthma in later life and dies in 1921. George Charles was a bad sailor and never made the trip back to England.  The younger daughter, Ethel never married - despite having several suitors - and remained at home looking after her father, George Charles until his death on 28 August 1928.


Last edited by pjolley on Sat Nov 25, 2017 1:49 am; edited 3 times in total (Reason for editing : Updating)
pjolley
pjolley

Posts : 8
Join date : 2012-05-28
Location : Melbourne, Australia

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