FIRST PART BY: FREDERICK WATSON.
(Written on the 25th May 1976 - Many of the family members mentioned in this first part as still living have since passed on.)

All families have to start somewhere! I think some Australians are satisfied to know they are alive and take for granted the fact that their particular family came into existence and they are not concerned as to how or when.

In the hope that you are amongst those who are more interested than such people and you would like to know more I am placing some data in your hands because you are a member of the Watson Clan, which originated in Ballarat at the time of the greatest period in Victoria's history - "the gold rushes'. The Clan includes all who have descended from the marriage of Thomas Watson; born at Harston, Cambridgeshire, on 10 November 1838, and Emma Eliza Jane Phillips, born at Geelong on 25 May 1844 - being one of the early white children born at one of the ports of N.S.W., as the village was then in that state; Victoria was only separated in 1851; and those who have married any of the descendants.

Birth Certificate of Thomas Watson - born Harston, Cambridgeshire, England- 10th November 1838.

Thomas, my grandfather was the son of John Samuel Watson, born 10 November 1808, who died in 1850; his father, Kidman Watson was born on 29th January 1783, and died on 4th June 1826, so neither reached the age of Thomas, who lived until December 1918, so had a good record, for few people attained a great age in those days. The mother of Thomas, Lydia (Johnson), born on 10 May 1811, lived until April 1889, despite her strenuous life, for after the early death of her husband she had to care for the family of ten children and control the large farm (by English standard); which needed 16 farm labourers as well as household staff, as shown by the copy of the census return of 1851.

Watson Family Home- Harston, Cambridgeshire- England- (Watercolour)



Shepherd from House at Harston, Cambridgeshire

Jean and I were fortunate enough to see the large two story house of 16 rooms, when we visited Harston in 1967. Although no longer in the family, the farm is still producing well, for we saw two large bins of wheat from the recent harvest. A fine water-colour painting of the place as my grandfather would have known it was in the possession of one of my elderly relatives; she has since died; and we were given a finely painted copy of this.

Thomas had three older brothers, who were fond of hunting, and this, together with his adventurous disposition, may have been the indirect cause of his departure from home, for news of the goldrushes was known to everyone, so when his brothers kept saying "Tom, you look after the place, we're going to the hunt" he became tired of that and with the aid of the groom set off for a ship and reached Melbourne in the fifties whilst still a teenager, one of the pioneers, and one who never went back. Some of us have met some of the English relations, but there are not many bearing the name of Watson; there are several in the U.S.A., but Australia has the largest total, and there are approximately 275 in the Watson Clan.

It is hard for us today to appreciate fully the situation when anyone contemplated leaving an established home and membership of a large family to make the long voyage by sailing ship to a distant country which was then almost unknown apart from its rich gold-bearing areas, but my grandfather decided to go. Aunt Hilda remembers his telling her that his mother begged him to stay, and he said he would have loved to do so, but having stated his intention he did not like to give in, and away he went to become a pioneer in the new land. When he reached the ship wearing a top hat, one of the men said to him "Throw that hat overboard, you won't want it out amongst the blacks", so off it went and overboard it flew. Remember, he was still a teenager , and when he reached the small town that was Melbourne in the fifties he had to find work to keep himself before he could make his way to the diggings, so he was one of those who helped in making the Spencer Street Bridge across the Yarra River, then known as the Yarra Yarra.

Lydia Johnson Watson born 10/5/1811, Harston, Cambridgeshire, England.