Robert Palmer Payne

  General Notes:

Robert did not accompany his parents and siblings to Botany Bay. The sto ry is that he had already gone to sea at the time they came out to Austral ia. His age was believed to be 11 when he went to sea.

Further, for some reason, when he was 15 he jumped ship with a mate in Mel bourne and headed for the gold fields. At some point on the journey he w ent to ask a woman hanging washing in a field for a drink of milk. He ca me face to face with his mother. It is believed he did not know his fami ly had come to Australia not having had contact until he went to sea..

Robert then settled in the same area as his family.
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In late January 2006, Mrs. Pat Hase, Research Consultant of the Weston Sup er Mare family history society advised that Robert was born to Mary Ann Pa lmer, Single Woman of Winscome.

It appears that Charles Payne, who later married Mary Ann Palmer, accept ed Robert as his son. Charles was certainly not living with Mary Ann dur ing the 1841 census but boarding with the family he worked for. Perha ps he is his natural father, perhaps not. Either way it does not really m atter.

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