Sophia Goulty (1811-1895) and Emerson Manbey / Tidy (1809-1873).
My 3rd great-grand aunt and uncle.
Sophia Goulty was born in Woodbastwick, Norfolk, on 3 January 1811 and named at at the Particular Baptist Church in Salhouse, Norfolk. Her parents were Charles Goulty and Rebecca Lock.
Sophia grew up in Norfolk but she was living in Queen Charlotte Row, Marylebone, Middlesex, in 1841 according to the Westminster Rate Books collection. However, she married Emerson Manbey in St Peter’s, Leeds, Yorkshire, on 10 August 1842. At this point in his life he was a farmer, the son of a “gentleman”. Perhaps this is why Sophia listed her father Charles as a farmer on the marriage certificate – a bit of an upgrade from his actual occupation of farm labourer!
Emerson’s early years are a bit weird. Census returns suggested he was born in Stratford, Essex, in 1809 but nobody other than an Emerson Tidy has been found who could match – baptised in Stepney on 11 June 1809. His father was William, a gentleman, his mother Sarah. On several occasions in his life he used the name Tidy so they must be the same person but why Emerson would’ve changed his name to Manbey is unclear.
Judging by the records, it seems Emerson wasn’t that great at business. An Emerson Manbey was in the Queen’s Bench Prison in Southwark in1841 for debt, described as a former land agent of Pentonville, Middlesex (London Gazette issue 20017). A later edition of the Gazette that year, 20047, also noted that he was a farmer and that he’d been a resident of Queen Charlotte Row in Middlesex – just as Sophia had been that year (1841). Having recovered from that experience, in 1851 Emerson and Sophia were in St Pancras, Middlesex, with Emerson listed as Tidy Manbey, a landed proprietor.
There’s something of a mystery to them after that. Passenger lists stated that they were on board the Sir Henry Hardinge vessel that left London for Victoria in Australia in 1853, with their son Charles in tow. They arrived in Melbourne in July 1853. Clearly, Sophia’s sister Harriet went to Australia too at some point for several adverts appeared in newspapers asking Sophia or the family to contact her – The Launceston Examiner in Tasmania of 27 December 1855 and The Argus in Melbourne on 11 April 1856 being just two. Whether contact was made and the siblings met up is unknown.
At some point though, Sophia and Emerson returned to England. Was it because they were homesick or Emerson had failed at business there? They were in the Norwich district of Heigham, Norfolk, at the 1871 Census when he was described as ‘out of business’. He died on 14 June 1873 and was buried in Norwich on the 19th. Sophia was recorded in Heigham in the 1881 and 1891 censuses. She died in Lowestoft, Suffolk, on 15 March 1895 and was buried there on the 20th. The Thetford & Watton Times of 30 March 1895 said she died at the home of her brother at St John’s Road, Lowestoft having previously been a resident of Trory Street, Norwich.
Emerson and Sophia had one known child:
- Charles Manbey (c1844-1910) was born in around 1844 but I’ve failed to locate any birth or baptism record that I’m happy with. He travelled to Australia in 1853 with his parents and later returned, perhaps with them, to England for he married Mary Ann Goulty at Thorpe St Andrew in Norfolk on 1 December 1872. The following year he was back in Australia, having arrived in Queensland in September 1873. He was listed in 1885 as a resident of Charters Towers, Queensland, about 80 miles inland from Townsville. Charles and Mary Ann paid a visit to England in 1894, the passenger lists describing him as a tailor. However, an electoral roll from 1905 said he was a miner. He died on 3 January 1910 and was buried in Charters Towers. Some online sources suggest he died on 23 March 1911 in a shipwreck but this was his son Charles, also a miner, who died with his mother Mary Ann when the Yongala sank in a tropical cyclone. The Adelaide Steamship Company vessel had made various stops along the Australian coast before heading for Townsville in Queensland. The Flat Top Island signal station sent a warning of the cyclone to various ships but it appears the Yongala, under the command of Captain William Knight, never got the message. It was reliant on seeing flags because a telegraph system had not been installed. So while other ships did take shelter, the Yongala carried on. It was last seen entering the Whitsunday Passage. It’s thought 122 people lost their lives. The wreck was finally discovered in 1958.
Sources:
Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, census returns and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Norfolk Family History Society.
British Newspaper Archive, titles noted in text.
Trove, the Australian newspaper archive, titles in text.
Information on SS Yongala.