Charles Lee

54

Phil Hands on 22nd March 2017

Charles was 18 years old when he was tried and convicted at the Surrey Southwark Quarter Session in London for larceny in 1826, he was sentenced to 6 months in prison, on 14th July 1829, at age 21, Charles was convicted in the same court, for stealing a harness, this time he was sentenced to transportation for Life. After being held at one of the prison hulks moored at Portsmouth for a month, he and 199 other convicts were put aboard the 'Sarah' on 15th August 1829. Left England on 29th August 1829. Ship:- the 'Sarah' sailed with 200 male convicts on board of which 1 died during the voyage. Arrived on 7th December 1829. Charles was assigned to Cornelius O'Brien, a pioneer of the Illawarra district, who had established Bulli as a pastoral property and in 1822 constructed the new line of road to the area from Appin. O'Brien eventually had land grants at Bulli, Austinmer, Figtree, Koonawarra and Mount Kembla. In the absence of a police magistrate for the district in 1834 "William Nairn Gray, P.M., and Cornelius O'Brien dealt with the cases, one fellow being Mr O'Brien's own servant, duly received 50 lashes." Charles Lee was granted a Conditional Pardon 46 / 312 on 23rd May 1846. Charles, newly free at Yass, took up an offer of work at Tumut and helped construct the first bridge over the Tumut River, the Foord & Anderson bridge built in 1847. He gradually progressed from labourer to farmer, probably by taking up a licence to grow wheat on a portion of the Wyangle station. Charles, now aged 43, married 18 year old Irish servant Mary Eagan on 8th January 1851. Both were able to sign their names. Mary's sister Bridget also married on the same day. They were staunch Catholics and there was no Catholic church in Tumut, so the reason they married on the same day is probably because the ceremonies were a nuptual mass conducted by a visiting priest at a public building such as the court house. Charles and Mary were to have 9 children between 1851-1867. By 1864 Charles was recorded as a Farmer at Wyangala and he was known as "Cockatoo Charlie". In 1866 he sold two allotments in Tumut township, one of which he had bought at a Crown Land sale in 1855, the other granted to him in 1860, apparently neither of which he had built on. With the proceeds he acquired 40 acres of land on Conditional Purchase at "Brungle." It is probable that this was an extension to his existing property – Bombowlee, Killimicat and Wyangala being adjacent localities to the north east of Tumut on the Wee Jasper road and Brungle road, so a property about 15km out of town could be labelled as belonging to any of them. And it is unlikely that he would have been able to build a house and sow / harvest a wheat crop on a virgin block within 7 months – The Tumut and Adelong Times Monday 27th August 1866 reported an incident that occurred on the 23rd: DESTRUCTION BY FIRE – Sometime during the night of Wednesday last, a house at Killimacat, the property of Mr. Charles Lee, of Tumut, was totally destroyed by fire. His two little boys were the only occupants at the time, and they effected an escape through the window. Everything in the house was burnt, and what added to the misfortune was the fact of the produce of their wheat crop, which was at the time stored in the building, being consumed by the destructive element. How the fire originated is difficult to say, the supposition being that a piece of burning wood must have rolled from the fire-place on to the floor, and thus ignited it. The unfortunate people have the sympathies of the inhabitants, as they are considered industrious and struggling to make a home for their young family. In 1868 tragedy struck the family, their son, William, born in 1867 at Tumut died tragically at the age of 12 months, after upsetting his father Charles' boiling shaving water over himself. Tumut, Adelong and Murrumbidgee District Advertiser 15th February 1868: A sad accident, which resulted fatally, befell a young child of Mr Charles Lee on Sunday morning last. Mr Lee was in the act of shaving when his little son, who is about twelve months old, upset a vessel of boiling water, which had been inadvertently left within his reach, and so seriously scalded his neck and shoulder that although he lingered on till about noon on Monday death then terminated his sufferings. An inquest was held by Dr Falder, the District Coroner, on Tuesday afternoon, and a verdict of "Accidental death" was returned. A number of sympathising friends accompanied the funeral to the burial ground. Mary Lee died on 15 October 1869, aged 38, 10 days after giving birth to a stillborn female child. In 1882, at the age of 74, Charles took up another selection of 43 acres at Wyangle, but it is not clear if this was also an adjunct to his existing property or was a new holding. Charles Lee died at Gilmore Creek near Tumut NSW on 20th December 1892 at the age of 84 and is buried in an unmarked grave of the Tumut Pioneer Cemetery. The fact that his daughter gave his occupation as Labourer, rather than Farmer, and his children were all living elsewhere would indicate his Wyangala / Killimicat property was sold sometime before his death.