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A Respected Caretaker (and the Horrible Death of his Widow)

In my last post I wrote about my 2x great-grandfather John Davenport who sailed out to Australia from England in 1849. He wasn't the only member of his family to make the trip: brother Richard Davenport, 12 years his junior, also make the journey sometime in the mid to late 1850s. While I don't know the exact circumstances of his arrival, I do know that Richard ended up in the town of Learmonth, approximately 22 km northwest of Ballarat, on today's Sunraysia Highway. He resided at 'South Park Cottage' at Saddle Back Hill on the south shore of Lake Learmonth, where today you will find Davenport Road and Davenport Park, no doubt named for him! However another lake features prominently in Richard's story. For many years he was the curator/caretaker of parks for the Ballarat Shire Council, with a particular focus being Burrumbeet Park on the shores of the lake of the same name, which lies a few kilometres to the south on the Western Highway.  

In 1894, a visitor to the park wrote in the Ballarat Star newspaper, where he recalled what was previously a 'dreary waste of sand and stunted ferns' was now 'an excellent place for picnics...each little hillock is tastefully planted in circles with shady pines etc.' He also refers to features such as 'Picnic Point', 'lovers' walk' and a little bay which 'puts one to mind of some spot on the sea coast with its white sand and blue waves'. He adds that 'thanks are due to [the parks'] caretaker, Mr Davenport, who so carefully supervises [the] parks, and whose heart seems to be in his work' (Ballarat Star, 3/2/1894).

In 1868, Richard had married Jane Ellen (known as Ellen) Kean in Ballarat, and that same year Ellen gave birth to a son, Richard Henry. It would be their only child. Ellen died aged 61 in 1899, and two years later, at the age of 65, Richard would marry again, to Catherine, or Kathleen, Leggo, 45, herself a widow only three years' previously. Catherine also had one son, Christopher, who was about 8 years old. Richard was also a founding member of the Learmonth Masonic Lodge, and remained active therein until just short of his death, which occurred at Ballarat Hospital in 1922 at the age of 86. He was given a full masonic burial at the Learmonth Cemetery.

But it was the fate of his second wife Catherine which is the horrible part of this tale. After Richard's death, and aged in her mid-60s, Catherine moved to North Ballarat and boarded in a house. In 1925, her son Christopher was also residing there. Sometime before 4am on Sunday 8 March 1925, Catherine was in bed and struck a match, in order either to see what the time was, and/or to light a candle so she could get up for a glass of milk, when the match head flew off and the bedding caught fire. Hearing screams, another resident of the house Eliza Woolf rushed to her room to find Catherine lying in the corner, her nightdress ablaze, and the bed on fire. The flames were put out but Catherine, 'moaning piteously' was severly burned: she said 'I am done, I am done, I am burning, throw water over me'. Eliza called out to Catherine's son Chris who soon joined her at the harrowing scene. The doctor was called and Catherine was taken straight to hospital, but with severe burns from her neck to her knees, there was little hope of recovery and she died the next morning. An inquest was held where it was determined death came by 'shock, the result of burns accidentally sustained through her clothing having caught fire'.

Epilogue: Richard Davenport's only son, Richard Henry, worked as a clerk at the Melbourne Hospital, and lived in the South Melbourne/Albert Park for many years before ending up in Camberwell. He married Sarah Jane Titheridge and had four children, three surviving to adulthood, their descendants are still about today.

It is also interesting to note that Dad's uncle Arthur Cowan had the middle name of Learmonth - almost certainly a nod to his great-uncle Richard's adopted hometown.



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