George Padley Debenham, age 19 departed 20^th November 1858 and after voyage of 140 days arrived Williamtown, Melbourne on 1^st February 1859. There was a total of 70 adults on board.

George eventually found his way to Forbes about 1866.

The following story is from familysearch.org contributed 2014 by sherylnreti7.

George grew up on the family farm at Ixworth Thorpe, the eldest of 8 children born to John Martin & Sarah (Nee Padley) Debenham. We don’t know much about his early life other than he was educated at home by a private tutor before attending one of the best Public Schools in the area. At school he was mixing with the best of society. However, he disappointed his parents by attending illegal cockfights and gambling heavily on the outcomes. His parents had to come to his rescue on several occasions when he got in to difficulties as a result. His parents, who were pillars of local rural society became exasperated by his behaviour & asked him to leave home. Passage was hastily arranged on the Clipper ship “Result”, probably under the command of John Gow, of Green’s Blackwall Line. “Result” was a Boston built softwood ship of 1565 tons, launched in 1853. Passage was £35-£40 for second class with steward’s attendance, third class was £23. 5s. and steerage in open berths cost £19. 5s. The standard journey from England to Melbourne, took about 10-12 weeks. George left Blackwall, London, England in 1857 & disembarked at Williamstown, (Melbourne), Victoria in 1858. With the Victorian gold rushes of the 1850s Williamstown’s port functions meant that it experienced a tremendous increase in through-traffic as immigrants & interstate travelers disembarked en route to the gold fields. In 1856 Williamstown was declared a separate municipality. By that time it had been transformed into a substantial settlement. The streets had been sealed, kerbed & widened. There were excellent hotels, shops, residences, banks & churches of stone and timber. Many of the town’s historic buildings date from this time. His early movements are uncertain but George’s son Thomas told his children that George travelled from Melbourne in the company of Frank Gardiner. (Frank Gardiner (1830 – 1903) was a famous Australian bushranger. He was tall (5 foot – 8), with black hair, dark eyes & was very polite, a gentleman to the core & Australia’s “Most Wanted” bushranger and first world famous celebrity. Gardiner went by many aliases, including “Darkie” Clark, “The Highwayman”, “The King of the Road”, the “Father of Bushranging”, the “Prince of Tobymen”, & Francis Christie. He was leader of a gang that did one of Australia’s biggest ever robberies. He is the only person ever exiled from Australia). In 1859, gold had been discovered in many parts of New South Wales. Gardiner went to “the new rush” at Kiandra, then to Lambing Flat during the riots against Chinese diggers. Frank Gardiner did not dig for gold himself, he stole cattle & sold them to local butcher, William Fogg, for high prices. Gardiner earned the title of “Gunman Gardiner” when he exchanged gunfire with two policemen at Fogg’s Hutt near Bigga, Australia. Gardiner was wounded in the head by Sergeant John Middleton, and Gardiner fired back shooting Middleton in the mouth, and then wounding Trooper William Hosie. Gardiner was captured during the gunfight & later escaped from Trooper Hosie while Sgt. Middleton was rounding up horses. It is known that George worked as a butcher at Carcoar for some time, as did Frank Gardiner, who operated a butcher shop that included cattle duffing (altering the brand mark on a cow’s hide). Did they work together I wonder? Carcoar certainly became an important location in Frank Gardiner’s gang’s territory. It is known that George was acquainted with Mad Dan Morgan, a particularly brutal bushranger and also Ben Hall ( More of him later). In 1860, George made his way on horseback to the Booligal district of New South Wales. The site where Booligal township developed was originally a crossing-place on the Lachlan River. In December 1860 it was reported that a store & two public-houses were being erected in the new township. By April 1877 in was reported that Booligal consisted of 19 buildings, including a court-house, two hotels, two stores, a blacksmith’s shop and two butchers’ shops, as well as a school-house and a parsonage. The school-house and parsonage were new buildings, still incomplete. At that stage the population of Booligal was just over 100 persons. He took on employment on the ‘Hunthawang Station’ near Hillston, (50 miles NE) working as a drover and book keeper. From here he drove cattle to the Melbourne markets. He later moved up the Lachlan River valley to ‘Cowal Station’ where he was employed as stock keeper.Just south of Hunthawang, near Booligal, was Torriganny Creek, with its cattle station owned by Mr Adolphus Bowler. From 1856 he had employed Mr Henry Styles and his wife as stockman and cook. Henry and George were both drovers and it is believed that they became good friends. When Henry Styles tragically drowned in the Lachlan River at Booligal in 1866, Helen was left in desperate circumstances with five young children, the youngest, Frances was a newborn baby. We can only surmise that Helen found the young and handsome George rather dashing and handsome after Henry, who was considerably older. George must have thought a lot about Helen as well, as soon after Henry’s death, he assumed responsibility for her and (so far as we know) her children. Henry died intestate with a string of creditors making affidavits claiming a total of £438.10.5 and leaving Helen destitute. Henry’s house land and property were assessed at less than £200. The total assets were awarded to William Jones, storekeeper of Corner of Rankin Street and Caledonia Road. There were all kinds of rumours circulating as to the circumstances of Henry’s death. All were unsubstantiated. 1) That Henry faked reports of his own drowning so that he could disappear and not have to pay his creditors in full. There was a lot of stolen money around at the time and some factors lend weight to this story, but there is no proof. 2) That George was responsible for his death as he was often drunk and so that he could carry on the relationship with Helen. It is true that George did over-indulge on many occasions. There was never any recorded accusation of murder. George worked hard to provide for all the children, his own and the Styles. George’s grandson Cliff, remembered his grandfather as good natured and affectionate. One of George’s stepsons regularly took his family to visit George and regarded him most highly. 3) Some said that some of the Styles children were in fact Georges & that Helen was promiscuous like her mother. There were clear physical differences between the Styles and Debenham children. If Helen was promiscuous and George an unprincipled drunkard, then none of those characteristics were passed to their children, who maintained high standards of conduct which would have been the envy of most parents today. By 1867 George and Helen with her children had set up home together. It is thought that they first lived at Bimbi, but only for a short time. By April they had moved to the tiny settlement of Spicer’s Retreat, just 2 miles from Forbes, where their first child Alfred George Martin was born.George bought a bullock team and together with George Pymont, carried goods from Borenore to the Forbes store of J & W Thomas. Next George sold his bullock team & moved about 12 miles out of Forbes to a small farm on the Dog & Duck Creek where their second child, Sarah Ellen was born. They didn’t stay there long, and having disposed of the farm, they moved in to Forbes. They built a cottage of slab timber walls with a shingle roof, on land held on Perpetual Lease, on the south bank of the Lachlan River near the present day Iron Bridge. So far as is known all their other children were born in the cottage. Harry John 1871, Arthur Gilbert 1873, Elizabeth Mary 1876, Cecilia Margaret May 1877, James 1879 and Thomas Charles 1882.George and Helen married on 5 April 1880 in the Forbes Registry Office. Why they waited so long is not known. The first seven children’s birth certificates were stamped “Illegitimate”. George formed a partnership with a Mr Rumble in a General Carrying Service. Their run extended from Forbes to Cowra & the surrounding area, about 60 miles south east along the Lachlan Valley. They carried wheat, wool and sawmill logs. The business lasted for several years and George was still registering as a carrier on the birth notification of Cecelia in 1877. The nurse who attended Helen for the birth of both Elizabeth and Cecelia was given as Mrs Buttriss who later became their mother in law (in both cases). George was often away for long periods with his carrying business, so life could not have been easy for Helen & the children. After they settled at the cottage, George took to breeding racehorses, but there is no evidence that this brought any real financial gain. George had been well educated and at one stage he was employed as book keeper for Mr Charles Cabot at South Forbes Stores on the corner of Flint and Bathurst Streets. (This store was still trading up till1989). Later George worked for Messrs. Wilson, Tindale & Co. George considered himself “well bred” & conducted himself accordingly. He was always well groomed and was most particular about his attire. In fact, he was considered to be quite a “dandy” by the townsfolk. He was an excellent horseman and a good judge of horses, due no doubt to his early life on his father’s farm at Ixworth Thorpe, Suffolk, England & his later work as a drover and teamster.He had bought a nice new sulky (a lightweight cart having 2 wheels and a single seat for the driver and passenger but usually without a body) which was drawn by his favourite horse. This smart outfit was used when he and Helen went to town and was much admired. When George went to town he rode this horse, which often carried him home the worse for wear, after a visit to his favourite hotel. The horse reputedly even opened the gate on arrival. George seems to have provided adequately for his large family but was never exactly a model of responsibility!!

If you have more information, please contribute to the Forum topic on George Padley Debenham