More on the Singleton Family

HANNAH SINGLETON'S FOSTER CHILD
Several years ago I had two enquires concerning MARY DOWLING who arrived aboard the "Pitt" on 14th February, 1792 as the foster child of HANNAH SINGLETON. Born about 1788,I understand from descendants that she married JOHN LAMB on 10th June 1811 at St Matthews, Windsor. The 1822 Muster lists her as MARY KING with THOMAS KING,-Government Servant - T.L.- Arrived 1810 "Indian" -at John McArthur's at Parramatta.The 1828 Census lists THOMAS and MARY KING and family.

THOMAS KING and MARY DOLAN married at Sydney on 27th September 1849. To my knowledge nothing is known of her within the Singleton family.

WILLIAM SINGLETON - Son of WILLIAM and HANNAH.
William, the youngest son of WILLIAM and HANNAH SINGLETON was born at Mulgrave Place on 11th April 1805. In earlier family records he has been stated as unmarried. This may well be as no marriage date has been found, but he is known to have had two sons and one daughter born in our district. Their mother was MATILDA THOMAS and she was over 20 years younger than WILLIAM SINGLETON.

They lived at Cockfighter Creek, WILLIAM SINGLETON having portion 21, parish of Warkworth, being 100 acres. I understand he donated part of his land to the Church of England and worked on the building of the church. His elder son, JOSEPH was born on 13th December 1846 and baptised at Warkworth on 21st December 1847. Younger son, BENJAMIN was born on 19th September 1848 and was baptised at Warkworth on 4th March 1849. Daughter Maria was born on 2nd March 1851 and baptised at Wollombi on 14th December 1851.

The family moved on to the Mudgee district in the 1850's, no doubt seeking gold. WILLIAM and MATILDA apparently parted and MATILDA had two more sons, HENRY born 1864 at Windeyer and WILLIAM born about 1872 at Queen's Pinch, near Mudgee. MARIA SINGLETON married at Mudgee in 1869 CHARLES NICHOLAS LAMBERT and had 3 sons and 6 daughters. JOSEPH SINGLETON married ELIZA DINSDALE on 16th March 1876 at the Presbyterian Manse, Mudgee. They had 4 sons and 3 daughters. JOSEPH SINGLETON died in 1912, his death being registered at Mudgee.

In 1871 a BENJAMIN SINGLETON married SARAH DONNELLY at Tambaroora (now a ghost town, on the Mudgee side of Hill End). Is this WILLIAM and MATILDA'S son, BENJAMIN who married ELIZA AGNES SMYRK/SMYTHE at St Paul's Presbyterian Manse, Mudgee on 28th January 1878, as a widower?

WILLIAM SINGLETON died on 31st August 1883 at Rocky Crossing, Manilla River, aged 78 years. His father's name was given as WILLIAM SINGLETON and his place of birth as Hawkesbury River. Family members are now confident that this is "their" WILLIAM. In some publications his death has been incorrectly stated as 30th April 1888 at Maitland. This is the death date of WILLIAM, son of BENJAMIN and MARY SINGLETON of Singleton.

MATILDA THOMAS SINGLETON is said to have died on 13th October 1906, aged 75 years and buried at Upper Meroo near Mudgee. BENJAMIN and ELIZA AGNES SINGLETON had a large family of 13 children who married into the LAUNT, DAVIS, KINSELL, BIRD, THOMAS, KELLY, PYNE and COTTON families. BENJAMIN SINGLETON died at Gunnedah on 29th June 1934,aged 87 years and was buried in the Church of England cemetery.

Some of his descendants are of the opinion that he was the son of JOHN SINGLETON and JANE ANN ROTTON and that he was born at Workman's Flat, Scone. This is not correct. JOHN and JANE SINGLETON had 3 daughters only and all were born in our district.
MARY JANE born 6th June, 1845, married 1871 DAVID LINDSAY
MARIAH born 27th Sept, 1847, married 1865 HENRY DE BOOS
HANNAH born 27th Feb, 1850, married 1869 MAX WILLIAM GREENFIELD
JOHN SINGLETON was also a son of BENJAMIN and MARY.

Several enquiries have been received concerning WILLIAM SINGLETON and his sons, JOSEPH and BENJAMIN and in sharing my local research with the family research of Del Swain, Helen Toomey and Kay Radford, this as stated is the combined result. With thanks to these ladies and to Lyn McBain for checking all names, dates and places on Computer CD-ROM.

ELIZABETH and EVE SINGLETON
ELIZABETH was the youngest child of WILLIAM and HANNAH SINGLETON and was born at Mulgrave Place about 1806. Little is known of ELIZABETH and being only about 7 years old at the death of her mother in August 1813, I understand she later lived with BENJAMIN and MARY SINGLETON. She had a daughter, EVE born on 29th May 1822 at Windsor.

ELIZABETH was a witness, together with MARY SINGLETON at the wedding of JOSEPH SINGLETON and AGNES NEIL on 10th February 1829 at Glendon. Her death date has not been found. Could she have died during the 1830's when very few deaths and burials were recorded in our area of Singleton and St Patrick's Plains.

I have seen one publication stating ELIZABETH married GEORGE YEOMANS. This has been confused with BENJAMIN and MARY SINGLETON'S eldest daughter, ELIZABETH who married GEORGE YEOMANS in 1827. EVE SINGLETON married JAMES MATTHEWS on 14th January 1838 at Maitland. Their abodes being given as INVERMEIN (SCONE). They had 3 or 4 daughters and one son, JAMES who married ANN BEST BURTENSHAW at Scone in 1870.

There have been several enquiries for ELIZABETH and EVE SINGLETON. I might mention that a niece of ANNE BEST BURTENSHAW - (MATTHEWS) - OLIVE BURTENSHAW, born 1887, married CHARLES FRANCIS RUBIE, a son of CHARLES HENRY RUBIE and CHRISTINA ANNIE WALL, nee McPHEE. CHARLES HENRY RUBIE'S sister ISABELLA CHARLOTTE married WILLIAM CLAYWORTH and they were my husband's paternal grandparents.
JUST CONFIRMED

BENJAMIN SINGLETON did first marry SARAH DONNELLY on 2nd August 1871 at Windeyer. He was a gold miner of Upper Meroo.( CDROM showed marriage registered at Tambaroora ).

Submitted by Dot Clayworth

Gazette Vol 15 No 1 March 1998

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