Peter Finch (1845-1891) and his well-travelled son Henry

Peter Finch (1845-1891) and Eliza Esther Turner (1841-1895).
My 2nd great-grand uncle and aunt.

Born in 1845 to parents Henry Finch and Jane Bashford, Peter could well have been the twin of his brother George as they were both baptised on 15 June that year at St Mary’s Church in Reigate, Surrey. And he ended up being one of the most adventurous of the 19th century Finches.

He grew up in the Reigate area with his siblings, mother and agricultural labourer father Henry. By the 1861 Census he was already working as a labourer. Peter married Eliza Esther Turner on 17 November 1867 at St Mary’s Church in Peckham, Surrey, and while he was described as a bricklayer from the town, she was living in Reigate at the time of the marriage. I’ve yet to find a baptism record I’m happy with but she was the daughter of paper maker Henry Turner and his wife Mary from Buckinghamshire.

The couple then emigrated to Australia, sailing to Brisbane in Queensland from Plymouth in Devon on 2 July 1869 aboard the Royal Dane. It was a rigged wooden clipper built in 1854 by Toby & Littlefield, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and later sold to Mackay & Baines in London for the Black Ball Line. Renamed in honour of Alexandra, the Princess of Wales, she became one of the most popular ships on the run from the UK to Queensland, and on Peter’s voyage it was captained by Lewis Davies, arriving on 25 September 1869.

What motivated the Finches to go remains unknown. Was it an escape from poverty at home, an urge to travel or the belief they could make it big in a relatively new colony? A notation in the record collection ‘Queensland Customs House Shipping 1852-1885: Passengers and Crew Transcription’ shows that they took advantage of one of the subsidy schemes designed to encourage Brits to make the move: “Passenger from London; the ship sailed from London via Plymouth; Steerage Free Assisted”.

The family moved south from Brisbane because records showed them having children and living in New South Wales. In 1875, a Sands Directory listed Peter in Buckland Street, Waterloo. In 1886 and subsequent years, directories featured him as a bricklayer of Burfitt Street, Leichhardt – a Sydney suburb. Baptism records showed they had also lived in Balmain, also a suburb of Sydney.

Peter died on 4 October 1891 at 40 Burfitt Street, Leichhardt, after suffering for a year from stomach cancer. He was buried a few miles away at Rookwood Cemetery. His property, with four rooms, a kitchen and washhouse, was valued at £250. His other effects, including a watch, chain, ring, three beds and a dining table, were valued at £20. All went to his wife. At the time of his death he was still working as a bricklayer and no doubt was kept busy in the ever-growing suburbs of Sydney. Eliza died on 10 October 1895 in Leichhardt.

Eliza and Peter had at least seven children in New South Wales but three died as babies.

• Alice Finch (1870-1941) was baptised on 27 November 1870 in the village of Hartley, about 80 miles west of Sydney. She married James Freeman in the Sydney suburb of Leichhardt in 1897 and the couple had children but James died young at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital on 12 July 1897 (The Sydney Mail 17 July 1907). Alice had a long widowhood and died in the Sydney suburb of Five Dock on 2 August 1941.
• Minnie Finch (1873-1937) was born in the former gold mining town of Hill End, about 170 miles north west of Sydney, in 1873. She married builder Frederick Henry Emmerick in Leichhardt in 1897 and raised a family. She was recorded living in Railway Parade, Kogarah, a Sydney suburb, in 1909 when the New South Wales Police Gazette of 29 September reported that her gold bangle had gone missing or been stolen. In 1926 the couple were listed arriving in Seattle, Washington, USA, perhaps to visit her brother Henry. Electoral rolls showed that the couple continued to live in Railway Parade, Kogarah. Minnie died on 1 April 1937. Frederick died on 22 November 1960. Both were buried at Sutherland, in the Sydney suburbs.
• Henry Phillip Finch (1874-1945) was born on 28 November 1874 in Waterloo, New South Wales but settled in Seattle, Washington, USA. He left Sydney on 3 December 1900 for Honolulu in Hawaii, arriving on 19 December. After a few months there he sailed for Victoria, British Colombia, and then travelled to Seattle. His World War One draft registration card completed on 12 September 1918 showed him working as a shipwright at Skinner and Eddy in the city but census returns also listed him as a carpenter. In December 1924 he submitted his application to become a naturalised citizen of the USA. On his application he was described as a carpenter, 5ft 10ins tall with brown hair and blue eyes and married to Bergliot Solsberg, a Norwegian woman born in November 1887 and who arrived in the US in 1903. They had married in King, Washington, on 7 November 1905. An earlier naturalisation petition he lodged in Butte, Montana, was ‘denied with prejudice’ on 25 November 1917. What happened to the 1924 petition is a mystery but a further one was lodged in 1927. Henry’s US naturalisation was finally granted by the circuit court of Seattle in 1928. The 1920 and 1930 US censuses recorded Henry living with his wife, now known as Belle, and a daughter in Sunningdale Precinct, King County, Washington. On 22 May 1930 Henry arrived at the ports of Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, on the ship Aorangi, which had sailed from Sydney, Australia, clearly having paid a visit to his homeland. Indeed, in 1935 Bergliot went to Australia on the Aorangi to visit one of the children, now Mrs Rose Hunt of 10 William Street, Double Bay, Sydney. The 1940 census listed Henry and his wife living at 450 S 160th Street in Seattle. She was working as a housekeeper in a clubhouse and he continued to work as a carpenter. Henry died on 9 June 1945. Bergliot later moved to California, continued to travel to Norway and Australia to visit family, and died on 11 February 1977. Both were buried at Washington Memorial Park in Seattle.
• Amelia Finch (1876-1877), who was born in 1876 Waterloo, New South Wales, and died there on 18 October 1877. She was buried at Rookwood.
• Rose Finch (1879-1966) was born in Balmain, another Sydney district, in 1879. She married builder and carpenter William Freeman in Leichhardt in 1902 and had several children. Electoral rolls showed them in Abbotsford, a western district of Sydney. William died there on 29 May 1951 aged 76. Rose died in the Sydney suburb of Burwood in 1966
• William Peter Finch (1882-1882) was born the Sydney suburb of Balmain in 1882 and died in Leichhardt the same year.
• Ethel Eliza Finch (1884-1884) was born and died in Leichhardt in 1884.
• An Albert George Finch is mentioned on his father’s death certificate and looks to have been born in about 1880. However, I’ve found no records for him other than a report on a missing person dated 1916.

Balmain, Waterloo and Leichhardt are nowadays in the heart of modern Sydney but Hartley and Hill End lie on the other side of the Blue Mountains. Leichhardt is five kilometres west of the central business district and is named after the Prussian explorer Ludwig Leichhardt, who vanished without trace in 1848 during his attempt to cross the continent from the Darling Downs to the Swan River Colony on the Western Australian coast. 

Sources:
Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, census returns, travel and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Surrey Family History Centre (Woking).
New South Wales BDM service 
Royal Dane information.
Queensland State Archives (shipping dates).