John Holmes

  Noted events in his life were:

• note. ⁶⁹² Ross Miller notes:
The Saga


The Stores-Connolly-Gelling-Miller story begins as so many Antipodean family histories do - on one hand: in the under-privileged city back streets or little country villages of the United Kingdom and Ireland, where the unfortunates who stole to stay alive but were caught, were transported to North America, and later Australia, on terms that today we would say are totally out of proportion to the 'crime'. On the other hand, many took up the Government's offer of assisted passage to begin a new life away from the cramped and generally unhealthy 'old country'.

Two almost empty continents became England's dumping ground for its lower classes as the governments of the day sought to rid themselves of the burden of caring for people disadvantaged by the class system and those later cast aside after the first flush of the Industrial Revolution.
The Transportation Act <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_Act_1717> was introduced into the House of Commons in 1717, legitimising transportation as a direct sentence. Non-capital convicts (felons <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felon> usually destined for branding on the thumb, and petty larceny <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petty_larceny> convicts who usually received public whipping) were directly sentenced to transportation to the American colonies for seven years. A sentence of 14 years was imposed on prisoners guilty of capital offences pardoned by the king. Returning from the colonies before the stated period was a capital offence.
Transportation was financially costly and the former system of sponsorship by merchants (who received indentured servants for the tobacco fields, Caribbean sugar fields, etc) needed to be improved. A proposal to pay merchants to transport convicts was eventually accepted and the Treasury contracted London merchant Jonathon Forward in 1718, £3 (later £5) for each prisoner transported overseas. The Treasury also paid for the transportation of prisoners from the Home Counties <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Counties>.
The Transportation Act (known as The Felons Act) gave the legal system breathing room in the fields of petty <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petty_larceny> and grand larceny <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_larceny>. Previously the judges were very limited in their choice and the death penalty was applied for quite minor charges. Because merchants preferred young and able-bodied men for whom there was a demand in the colonies, most women and children had simply been left in jail.
From the early 1600s until the American Revolution <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution> of 1776, it is thought America received at least 50,000 transported British. The American Revolution brought transportation to an end, British gaols <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jail> became overcrowded, and dilapidated ships moored in various ports were pressed into service as floating gaols <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_ship>. As a result, the British Government looked elsewhere.
In 1787, the 'First Fleet <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Fleet>' departed from England to establish the first British settlement in Australia as a penal colony. The fleet arrived at Port Jackson <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Jackson> (Sydney) on 26 January, 1788. Having a First Fleet ancestor is a perverse point of pride to Australians - it makes your family a 'founding father' of the country, or 'Australian royalty'. In 1803, Van Diemen's Land <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmania> (Tasmania) was settled as a penal colony, followed by the Moreton Bay Settlement <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland> in Queensland in 1824.
The other Australian colonies <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_and_territories_of_Australia> were 'free settlements' of non-convicts looking for a better life. Until the massive influx of immigrants during the Australian gold rushes <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_gold_rushes> of the 1850s, the settler population had been dominated by English and Irish convicts and their descendants. Transportation from Britain and Ireland officially ended in 1868, although it had become less common several years earlier.
Eleanor arrives
The Miller/Stores saga includes England, the Isle of Man and four distinct areas of south-east Australia: a 130 x 100 km rectangle including Wagga Wagga, Tumbarumba, Tumut and Albury/Wodonga; the Newcastle/Wallsend mining district, the southern Bendigo goldfields, and the coaltown, Wallsend.

Ellen Storrs (Eleanor Stores and variations), born 12/11/1769 at Tatham, Lancashire, was a 32-year-old (middle-aged for those times) when she was convicted on 13 January, 1801, (together with Edward born about 1781 and the eldest, Mary - born about 1748) for stealing milk and sentenced to seven years' transportation. There is a possible marriage (but nothing we can nail down) to Melling gardner Luke Redshaw 4/2/1786, but it can't have lasted long as there is a later marriage to Luke.
The siblings were some of the ultra poor of the time (reasons for unknown) and It appears that on at least two occasions Eleanor was subject to the poor law and notices of removal. Being known to the authorities, this 'three-man crime spree' must have been desperate to be stealing as they could easily be blamed for anything missing. The allocation of money to the poor from the local rate was restricted in 1662 to individuals who were 'settled' in the parish: there were various qualifications that an individual needed to fulfil in order to be settled, such as being born in a parish or having been apprenticed to, or legally assigned to work for, another member of the parish. To determine settlement, individuals requesting money (or 'relief') from the overseers of the poor were examined. Successful candidates would be issued with a certificate and receive relief; if not, they would receive a removal order and be forced to return to the last parish where they were settled, and to request relief from there.
Order of removal 23 August 1780
Mary Storrs, singlewoman and poor person of the township of Tatham with Grosby, to be removed to the township of Hornby with Roberindale.
Order of removal19 June 1784
Ellen Storrs is ordered to be removed from the township of Hornby with Roberindale in the parish of Melling as she is a poor person earlier residing in the township of Tatham with Grosby, and having gained no legal settlement, is likely to become a charge on Hornby. She was ordered to be placed back in Tatham.
Lancaster Quarter Sessions
The King
v
Mary Storrs, Ellen Storrs and Edward Storrs of Melling parish, Lancashire
Michaelmas Sessions 1800
On the prosecution of Richard Bains Drawing indictment for stealing milk - three shillings & sixpence Paid counsel for persuing and settling same - ten shillings & sixpence Attending time - three shillings & fourpence Paid Clerk of the Peace signing indictment - two shillings Paid swearing witnesses - two shillings & sixpence Paid grand jury and bailiff - five shillings Attending court and also attending grand jury with indictments - six shillings Paid expenses of two witnesses - ten shillings
On the prosection of Thomas Parker The like charges as above, save as to Counsel's fee and attendance and sixpence less to grand jury - nine shillings and twopence
On the prosecution of James Hodgson Similar to above
On the prosecution of Michael Cooper Similar to above
Total cost = £8 16. 10
Quarter session 1801
Whereas Ellen Storrs, late of the parish of Melling in the said county, singlewoman, hath at this session been convicted of felony, this court doth therefore order and adjudge that the said Ellen Storrs shall be sent and transported to some part beyond the shore for the space of seven years next, pursuant to the statute in such case made and provided.
Whereas Mary Storrs, late of the parish of Melling in the said county, singlewoman, hath at this session been convicted of felony, this court doth therefore order and adjudge that the said Mary Storrs shall be sent and transported to some part beyond the shore for the space of seven years next, pursuant to the statute in such cade made and provided.
Whereas Edward Storrs, late of the parish of Melling in the said county, labourer, hath at this session been convicted of felony, this court doth therefore order and adjudge that the said Edward Storrs shall be sent and transported to some part beyond the shore for the space of seven years next, pursuant to the statute in such cade made and provided.
Midsummer session 27 May 1801 To clothing Elizabeth Thompson, Mary Peach and Ellen Storrs, as per order: £2 13/- To conveying the above female convicts from Lancaster Castle to Spithead where they were put on board the Nile transport ship: £47 5/-
This Court doth order the Treasurer of the County stock forthwith to pay unto Messrs Baldwin and Dowbeggin the sum of twenty-three pounds seven shillings and ten pence, the costs they have been put unto in the prosecution of Mary Storrs, Ellen Storrs and Edward Storrs at this session for felony for doing which this shall be the said receivers' warrant.
Ellen was held at Lancaster Castle until it was time to be transported to Spithead to sail to Australia. She probably spent time on one of the hulks in port until her ship arrived. The fleet, comprising the ships Nile, Canada and Minerva, weighed anchor at Spithead on 21 June. Eleanor arrived at Sydney Cove on 14 December, 1801, on the Nile - a voyage of 176 days via Rio de Janiero - along with 92 other female convicts and 40 passengers (see Lancaster Sessions story). In the NSW Roll of 1801 it states the Ellen's son Edward (20) also travlled on the Nile.

Governor King was able to report in February that the passengers all arrived in good health, and the convicts were the healthiest and best conditioned that ever arrived, being all fit for immediate labour. In Eleanor's time, the convicts were usually put to work on government projects or working for private 'employers' and living in the community. It was not until around 1805 that the colony began to get really organised with Female Factories and the like.

Convict women were regarded as whores by the soldiers and free men of the new colony. The fact that none of them had been transported for prostitution didn't matter - it was a generic attitude. It would be a rare woman who started and ended the voyage a virgin. In the early boats, the male convicts and the crew made free with the women who were in no position to fight back. In some cases, crew and women paired off early in the voyage.

In the early days of transportation, the attitude towards women was completely unforgiveable by modern standards. There are tales of riots and orgies when a ship with convict women docked. Senior officers, of course, had first pick of the young and pretty … then down the line of privilege. In today's parlance it seems to be a case of "put out and shut up."

suffocatingly holier-than-thou Reverend Samuel Marsden categorised the women convicts into married or prostitutes. If a woman was to have a relationship out of wedlock <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage>, Marsden considered this whoredom. Many couples cohabited <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohabitation> monogamously <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monogamy> without being officially married, yet the women were recorded as prostitutes. It wasn't enough that the women were scarred from being convicted and transported for petty crime often forced on them by circumstance, they could not redeem their status as it differed so much from the higher-class British ideal of a woman, who was virtuous, polite and a woman of the family. If ever the double-standard of the British male establishment was on display, it was in early colonial Australia.

were encouraged into de facto or actual marriage as the authorities considered it made them more settled. It also sheltered the women somewhat from sexual predators, there being a four-to-one ratio of women to men in the early days. As a 32-year-old, Eleanor would not have been at the head of the queue. However, she was in a de facto relationship with John Gost within weeks of arrival. She may also have had one eye on the fact that mothers of babies were essentially excused the harsher duties. Their son Edward was born on 10 December, 1802. Edward was christened on Christmas Day, 1803. Prior to the building on the first Female Factory in 1804, women convicts lived as did the men, in tents or barracks. Her first son Edward disappears ofter the 1801 roll, so I speculate that he died shortly after arrival and the new son was named in his honour.

A question has arisen as to the authenticy of John Gost as Edward's father. John was a settler convict on Norfolk and then volunteered for the NSW Corps and was stationed on Norfolk until his death. So it is assumed he had brief contact with Ellen when the troops were escorting convcits betweek Sydney and Norfolk. As John died before the birth of Edward, Ellen could have simply named him father 'without argument or question'.

Ellen's Certificate of Freedom (No 238/757) is dated 8 February,1811, meaning she has had her sentence extended for three years because of ??? (or it may simply be that she did not have the funds to buy the certificate immdiately her term was up). She remarried in about 1805, her new husband being former convict, carpenter John Holmes. In the 1825 muster she is described as a washerwoman and her son is listed as Edward Holmes. In 1822 , two addresses are listed: in one , on the north side of George St, Sydney, between George St and Pitt St, were four families - the Marshalls with the two 'currency' children and their assigned convicts, the family of John Holmes (including Eleanor Storr his wife and step-son Edward), John Parkes and his wife Margaret Suthers (or Southern), and Thomas Bates and his wife and two children. This is no doubt how Edward Stores and Sarah Parks (Sparks) met and later married in 1827. Ellen died 1n 1826, aged 58.

In the other 1822 list, Eleanor is living in Campbell St, described as 'on leave', with John Holmes, son Edward (who is listed as 'Holmes') and government sevant William Davis who had a 14-year sentence. Eleanor's master had been someone called Santer (?) while John Holmes' master had been Parkes - probably the Parkes menioned in the previous paragraph.

John Gost (Goss) and Miles Peatman, sentanced in 1790 for a burglary in the dwelling house of Edward Forster and stealing his goods, value £7:17:0; goods of Jane Ingram, value 3/-, and goods of Councellatta Hughes, value 6/6 . Originaly sentanced to death, the sentence was commuted to 14 years and the pair left in January 1791 on the William and Ann with the Third Fleet. Two thousand prisoners were on the 11 ships and one report has it that 18 convicts died in transit. They arrived in Sydney on 28/8/1791.

John is listed as the father of Eleanor's son Edward, however he died two months before the birth of the boy, so some doubts arise. He had a grant of land up the river at Mulgrave Place (now known just as Mulgrave) of about 30 acres on which they grew 19 acres of wheat, 8 acres of maize to be planted and 31 pigs. John Gost joined the NSW Corps (1/102^nd Regiment) on 9/10/1801 and was stationed on Norfolk Island, the site of a brutal prison. Before he left for duty, his liasion with Ellen Storrs resulted in pregnancy. The child, Edward, was born two months after John's death. Private John Gost is buried in the Old Burial Ground, Sydney (now under Sydney Town Hall). John was pardoned on 22 August, 1801, just prior to him taking up the King's Shilling and knocking four years off his sentence.

Edward Stores (1)
An Edward Stores is on one convict file as travelling on the Nile, together with Ellen, but at present, other data on him is scarce.

Edward Stores (2)
The 1825 muster lists Ellen's son Edward as a 20-year-old living with her and stepfather John Holmes in Campbelll St, Sydney. We find him listed as a publican in later life.

John Holmes
Ellen's second husband was convict John Holmes who arrived on the Gorgon in 1791. He was convicted in the York Assizes on 21 July 1787 and finally left for Australia in February 1791. Like so many others, he did his seven years' servitude and was eventualy a free man. 1822 on the north side of Campbell St, Sydney, between George St and Pitt St, were four families - the Marshalls with the two 'currency' children and their assigned convicts, the family of John Holmes (including his wife) Eleanor Storr and step-son Edward), John Parkes and his wife Margaret Suthers (or Southern), and Thomas Bates and his wife and two children. This is, no doubt, how Edward Stores and Sarah Parks (Sparks) met and later married in 1827. a free man, John was a self-employed carpenter, but by 1828 was working for George Cox of Pitt St. He died in 1843 aged 85.
Mary Storrs
It is assumed she is Ellen's sister as she was convicted on the same charges on the same day. She was a single woman and also sentenced to seven years. For whatever reason, she did not sail with Ellen but departed England's shores on the Glatton on 23 September, 1802 and arrived in Sydney on 11 March, 1803 via Madiera and Rio de Janiero. No doubt her term did not begin until she reached Australia, or at least left England, but nonetheless she had spent nine months in Lancaster Castle dungeons or on one of the prison hulks, before the countdown began. Her certificate of freedom (No 237/796) is dated the same as Ellen's, 8/2/1811. She married fellow convict George Gambling and lived with him on their Petersham Hill farm.

George Gambling
Born about 1761, George was convicted at the Hampshire Assizes on 6 July, 1796 of ……….. and sentenced to 14 years' transportation. He sailed on the Barwell arriving in Sydney on 18 May, 1798. He petitioned for a conditional pardon in 1803 ……….
He married Mary Storrs in 1818 in Sydney and was given a grant of 40 acres at Petersham Hill. It appears he was deceased by 1849.

So it appears from the brief information available, in the end this Storrs family of northern Lancashire came out on the right side, with a healthier climate, freedom from abject poverty that forced them to steal, and contributing to a new society that was beginning to gain momentum and a character of its own. Even today there are few Stores families in Australia:

The Parkes
John Parkes from Halesowen in Worcester, born 1767, was sentenced at the Worcester Assizes to seven years' transportation for the theft of a greatcoat (beaver coat worth 16 shillings). He sailed with 110 other convicts on the Barwell arriving at Port Jackson (Sydney) on 18 May, 1798.
entered a de facto relationship with Margaret Southern who was transported on the Experiment arriving in the colony on June 24, 1804 and they began a family that eventually contained 12 children. Margaret was one of 338 on the Experiment having been convicted at Lancaster on 27 April 1803 of…. and given seven years' transportation. The ship left England on November 1803 and arrived in Sydney on 24 June 1804. She died on 24/3/1859 at Parkestown of influenza and fromburns received when her clothes caught fire (probably while cooking). Her parents were Thomas (1751-1847) and Margaret (Peggy) Orme from Leigh in Lancashire where Margaret was born on 5/11/1785.
John Parkes' family can be traced back through a couple of generations in Halesowen, Worcester to John(15/11/1648-1684) and Elizabeth Lanceser (1684 -) in Rowley Regis, Staffordshire and his mother Elizabeth's family to Stephen Dearn (1680-1750 and Mary Westwood (1670-1750) inHalesowen.
- trained from a young age as a nailor (hand-made iron nails) - initially worked in the Government boatyard near Circular Quay under Thomas Moore who trained him in assessing the quality of timber. Having served his time, during 1816 John was granted 50 acres in the Botany Bay district, but due to disputes over a river crossing, the grants were not awarded until 1831. In the meantime, he lived in Campbell St, central Sydney between George and Pitt Sts, next door to Ellen Stores and her son Edward.
Eventually John crossed Cooks River and set up on his 50 acres at the top of a ridge, surrounded by ironbarks, red mahogany trees and gullies full of ferns, flannel flowers and gymea lilies. The district of Earlwood has been known by four names in the times of European settlement. The earliest name was "Parkes Camp" derived from the Parkes family's name and an inference to the profession of John and his sons - at this time "camp" denoted the headquarters of a group of sawyers.
The Parkes` property was situated in the centre of modern suburb, Earlwood. The western boundary was the top end of Woolcott Street and the southern boundary was along William Street from Woolcott Street to Homer Street. The second Parkes daughter, Sarah, married her Campbell St neighbour Edward Stores in 1827 at St Stephens in Sydney. The land was divided into five are farms for the children after Margaret's death in 1859. John, Joseph and Thomas Parkes , and Edward Stores stayed on the land continuing as the sawyers of Parkes Camp, while the others retained their small farms while living elsewhere. At one stage Edward was a publican in Sydney. They had three children - Edwin, Thomas, and John Robert who was born at Cooks River - so presumably on the Parkes' farm.
By about the 1870s the name of the district had changed from Parkes Camp to Parkestown, as the timber was cut out and the local people changed their occupations to suit the resources. Some people from this vicinity gave their address as Forest Hill, a name not associated with any particular family, but described the landscape as it had once been. The first known use of the name Earlwood, or at least a close version of it, was when Mrs Jane Earl subdivided her land before she sold it in 1884. "The Earlewood Estate" was used as the name of the property when it was surveyed to bring it under Torrens Title later that year.
John died about 1839 at Parkes Camp and Margaret died there on 24 March, 1859. Margaret was born in Manchester in 1783 at the time of long hours in the clothing mills for little return. Like many she resorted to theft, but was apprehended for the theft of a linen shift and a linen apron (value one penny each) on 21 January, 1803. The 19-year-old was chained and loaded together with other female convicts on 4/12/ 1803 and transported to Sydney on the Experiment 1, a journey from England lasting 173 days. She is thought to have been among the first convict women to be housed in the Parramatta Female Factory. She may have been assigned as a servant to John Parkes who was working in the docks area, or he may have chosen her by the then popular custom of a line-up at the factory where the man drops a scarf or handkerchief in front of a woman to indicate his interest. If the woman picked up the token, the marriage was virtually immediate.
One of Edward and Sarah's sons, Thomas, is described as a miner, so it is more than likely he was one of many thousands who went inland after the gold starting in the 1850s and moving around a large part of the Riverina area. He married Catherine Connolly, daughter of convict Daniel Connolly transported from Tipperary in 1838. We assume he was head-over-heels in love with Catherine as she had a one-year-old daughter in tow. Ellen had been born in Tumut to Catherine and Thomas Edward Gelling, an immigrant from the Isle of Man. For whatever reason he forsook the child leaving the 18-year-old mother to the support of her family. Thomas Gelling was one of the first to be paid the government bonus for finding payable gold in the Temora district.
A touch of Geordie
Ellen met and married Durham immigrant miner/engineer Tobias Miller. The Millers (originating from Newcastle upon Tyne), like many other northern English miners left the coal behind to try for gold. The family (John, Ellen and Isabella) emigrated in the mid 1850s but returned to their native north of England aboard the Red Jacket, arriving Liverpoool in January 1856. But obviously the conditions in English mines had changed little as the family (John, Ellen, Iabella, Gavin, John and Tobias, together with cousin Joseph Holt aged 21) re-emigrated to Australia aboard the Forest Rights arriving in Melbourne on 29 June, 1863. They re-established themselves in the Ballarat area and four more children were born in Piggoreet (Springdallah district), a short distance south-west of Ballarat.

John and Eleanor were living in Newcastle Rd, Wallsend at time of their deaths. It would appear that gold mining in Australia was no kinder to them than coal mining was in England. The Newcastle Rd home was a tiny miner's cottage with slab walls and a dirt floor in the kitchen. The family lived in it up to the 1970s when it was demolished to make way for a roundabout.
The Irish influence Daniel Connolly aged 16, married his, probably teenage, bride in the pretty mid-Ireland town of Roscrea - a peaceful haven of old monuments and buildings, including a 6^th century monastery, that qualify it as a heritage town. However, throughout history it has been a 'border' town between the authority of the Butlers and the O'Carrolls, and seen many a fight and change in administration.
Daniel was caught stealing money and appeared before the Tipperary Assizes as a 25-year-old husband and father of three boys. He was sentenced to seven years' transportation on 23 March 1838. He was transferred to Killmainham prison in Dublin to await travel abroad. Leaving behind his wife Ellen Donaher and three sons, he was shipped out from Dublin on the Clyde on 11 May, 1838 with 215 others prisoners. His records say he was 5' 2.5" tall, had a sallow complexion with many freckles, brown hair and hazel eyes and was a labourer by occupation.

Scurvy began to appear in the less healthy as they approached the Cape of Good Hope. They called at Simon's Town on 21 July and took on an additional 20 convicts, all military men in good health; and fresh provisions, including live sheep. They stayed seven days at the Cape and the health and spirits of the people were greatly improved. They were given a considerable quantity of potatoes and the surgeon was convinced that 'this liberality of the Government contributed greatly to our good health'. No cocoa was issued, but the allowance of oatmeal was sufficient. They departed the Cape on 28th July 1838.

The men were well-behaved and were encouraged to dance and march around to the music of the flute. The decks were seldom wetted and afterwards were always dried by stove and windsails. Chloride of lime was freely used and every means taken to keep the decks clean and dry. By the time the Clyde arrived in Port Jackson on 10 September 1838, the men's clothing was in very bad condition and the surgeon remarked that 'the people were all in tatters'. There had been no deaths on the voyage out.

Daniel (number 38/1860) was assigned to the Yass area (that administrative area would have covered Tumut then). He was granted a Ticket of Leave to remain in the Yass area on 8 October, 1842, and then his Certificate of Freedom was granted on 21 May, 1845. He purchased a half acre of land for £4 in Buccleuch County, Tumut area, presumably Gilmore Creek.

Somewhere along the line Daniel took up with Mary Ann Tracey and had four children, three of them born in Gilmore Creek. Mary died aged 21, so their liaison started when she was at most, 16 or 17 years old. Disaster struck on the birth of their fourth child - Mary Ann died in, or soon after, childbirth and Daniel was sent to Gouldburn goal on 25/7/1854 for three months, but transferred to Tarban Creek (Parramatta Asylum) as a lunatic on 24/8/1854 - at that stage he was described as a shoemaker. He died nine years and six weeks later from mania and diarrhorea at the asylum. He had aliases of Brassey and Donovan.

Their third child, Mary Ann, was unofficially adopted by Margaret and Robert Downing of Gadara and spent a lot her life at 'Killarney' with the Downings. She was reared alongside her daughter Mary Ann, whose mother breast-fed both. The question remains as to who looked after the other thre children - the eldest, Joseph, was only six.

Note that Rebecca Gelling, second wife of Robert Downing, is sister of Thomas Edward Gelling who had an illegitimate child (Ellen) with Mary Ann's elder sister, Catherine.
Back to Tobias and Ellen: Ellen disappears from the pages of history until they married in Wagga Wagga in 1885 - the few facts known of the couple's early days is a meeting with some of the Kelly Gang and it seems Ellen's later independent thinking had already developed as she apparently fed them and generally assisted them. The couple spent some time in the bush frequenting with local Aboriginal and later used native cures shown them to start a herbalist business after they migrated to New Zealand.
The couple had moved out of the bush to Wallsend by 1887 when their first child, Ina was born, but only survived a few months. Minnie was born in 1889 and married Ben Iveson, editor of the Wairarapa Times-Age in New Zealand. Norman and Reginald were born in Wallsend while John and Harold were born in Masterton after emigration - Norman and Reginald survived Gallipoli and John survived the Western Front, though all three were eventually severely debilitated and declared unfit for service. Their complaints affected their health for the rest of their lives.
Just getting to New Zealand was quite an adventure. Tobias travelled ahead to find a suitable place for his family, but fortune would have it that he travelled on the SS Wairarapa which became one of New Zealand's worst shipwrecks, sailing full speed into an offshore island in fog - luckily Tobias was a good swimmer and one of the few to survive in the foggy chaos of broken ship, panicked horses and floundering crew and passengers fighting surf on a rocky shore - 120 drowned.
The family settled in the Masterton area, which was a jump-off point for virgin forest being gradually cleared for farmland. While liivng in one of the track clearing camps for the new railway, the family had to flee a raging bush fire in the four-wheel horse cart - the two horses were so distressed by the time they out-ran the fire, they had to be destroyed. Tobias worked as a rail engineer, herbalist, sales assistant, door-to-door suit salesman, and a stores foreman.
It seems Tobias developed a liking for the drink, to the point where he joined the Salvation Army, no doubt at Ellen's insistence. According to his youngest son, Tobias used to fall off the wagon once a year, disappear for a week or so and come home bedraggled and broke. Ellen would clean him up and send him back to work. This may be where Ellen's staunch Methodist belief came from.
His last 'off the wagon' experience came from an increasing belief his wife was treating their boarder better than he. He disappeared and when he re-emerged several days later, he shot the boarder. The border, a shearing mechanic, was wearing a steel-braced corset (no doubt from a shearing injury) and the bullet bounced off a stay, saving his life. The media had a field day during his widely-publicised tiral, labelling him 'The Monster From Masterton' and other elaborate epithets. Tobias was sentanced to seven years hard labour and died in 1928 after a prostate operation.
Ellen carried on and the bright spot in her life was her youngest, Harold Gladstone Miller, who was one of New Zealand's early Rhodes Scholars attending Balliol College, Oxford, in 1920 and became one of New Zealand's best-known academics of his age. Ellen is remembered by her nieces as a suffragette who paraded publicly for the women's vote, a staunch Methodist, an 'old Tartar' who loved boiled sweets. In old age she developed Alzheimers and occassionally behaved and spoke in a manner quite the opposite to her ladylike public demeanour.
Apart from two tours to the Pacific with the RNZAF during World War II for Ellen's grandson, John, life has been 'uneventful' in comparison for the Miller descendants!

John married Eleanor Stores 2nd marriage.⁶⁹² (Eleanor Stores was born on 12 Nov 1769 in Tatham, Lancashire England and died circa 1835 in Australia.)