Henry (Fawkner) Faulkner (1807 - 1887)

Biography

Henry Faulkner was born in 1807 and baptised on 12 April in Cranfield, Bedfordshire. He was the son of John Fawkner, a labourer, and Elizabeth Burrows. ^[1]

Note: Various sources give conflicting birth dates. Henry spelled his surname, Faulkner, differently to his parents (Fawkner). Henry’s occupation, however, is consistently recorded as sawyer, in the 1851 census, immigration records, ship’s documents, his marriage record, and his youngest daughter’s birth certificate.

Sometime around 1845, in his late thirties, Henry met Ann Elliott Wells in Dorset, a widow with three young boys. By the time of the 1851 census, Ann and Henry were living together with her sons and two more sons of their own.

By 1855 the couple had two more children, both girls. The same year, Henry, Ann, and their seven children - William, Alfred, John, Henry, Edward, Susan, and Elizabeth, all travelling under the name Faulkner - emigrated to Australia on board the Donald McKay from Liverpool. ^[2] Henry is recorded arriving in Tasmania with his family as a 47 year old sawyer from Buckingham (20 miles west of Cranfield). ^[3] In 1842, Henry’s sister Susan and her family had migrated and settled in Tasmania.

In Tasmania Henry and Ann are recorded living at Blackman’s Head on the Huon River. They had another daughter, Mary Ann, in 1856. The following year they married in Hobart. ^[4] Their youngest daughter, Sophia, was born in 1858.

The family moved to Victoria at some point after Sophia’s birth, settling in Lyttleton Street in Castlemaine.

Henry became unwell in later life with “general debility and paralysis”. ^[5] and passed away in 1887, aged 80. ^[6][7][8]

Sources

1. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NP1F-PXW : 15 March 2020), Henry Fawkner, 1807.
2. ↑ "Australia, Victoria, Inward Passenger Lists, 1839-1923", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPH7-YXKY : 15 October 2019), Henry Falkner, 1855.
3. ↑ Libraries Tasmania, Book 23, pp. 214-215. http://stors.tas.gov.au/CB7-12-1-5
4. ↑ "Australia, Tasmania, Civil Registration, 1803-1933," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q279-Q4LZ : 3 October 2018), Henry Faulkner and Ann Wells, 26 Aug 1857; citing Marriage 26 Aug 1857, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, line #40359, Archives Office of Tasmania, Hobart; FHL microfilm 7,368,160.
5. ↑ Another of the old identities, Mr Henry Faulkner, 80 years of age, has joined the great majority, having succumbed on Monday night to general debility aud paralysis. Mount Alexander Mail, 9 March 1887, p.2
6. ↑ DEATH. Faulkner. — At Castlemaine, on the 7th March, Henry Faulkner, aged 80 years. Hobart Town, and Newport, Pagnell, Buckinghamshire papers please copy. Mount Alexander Mail, 9 March 1887, p.2
7. ↑ “The friends of the late Mr Henry Faulkner are respectfully invited to follow his remains to the Castlemaine Cemetery. The funeral will leave his late residence, Lyttleton Street, on this day (Wednesday), at Half past Three o’clock. Thos. Odgers, Undertakers.” Funeral Notice, Mount Alexander Mail, 9 March 1887, p. 3
8. ↑ "Australia Deaths and Burials, 1816-1980", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XTCM-SZX : 28 January 2020), Henry Faulkner, 1887.

• Copy of marriage certificate held in family file.