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I am descended from Charles Mountjoy who was sent to Western Australia as a convict in 1852 or 1853. He was convicted at Salisbury, England of burglary and given 10 years. He received a ticket of leave as soon as he arrived in the Swan River Colony. In 1864 he married Harriet Bashford, born in Western Australia in 1843. Ironically his son Adam married the niece of the man responsible for supervising the first shipment of convicts to Western Australia. Her name was Eliza Jane Passmore Hooper. Eliza's uncle was Henry Passmore who married Mary Ellis and (as just mentioned) supervised the first shipment of convicts to the colony of Western Australia. Charles Mountjoy's wife Harriet Bashford was the daughter of William and Lucy Bashford who arrived at the Swan River Colony in 1829, the first year of white settlement there. The first years of the colony were very difficult for the white settlers. Not as difficult however as the privations experienced by the indigenous aboriginal population that was displaced by the white settlers. The white settlers took the lands around the Swan River first. The traditional aboriginal people had long had a system set up whereby aboriginal families inherited the rights to certain parts of the riverfront for food and other resources. Once a white settler took the land the original aboriginal owners lost their chief food source. The white settlers also brought many diseases to which the indigenous people had no resistance. The first white settlers found the Swan colony not to be the paradise advertised in England and many of the settlers nearly starved in the early years. Eventually it was decided to import convicts in order to supply more man power to keep the colony going. The importation of convicts to the colony established the white population and it went from strength to strength. The aboriginal inhabitants became a displaced people and the repercussions for them and for the descendants of the original white settlers are still shaping our society here in Western Australia today. I personally am very sorry for the decimation of the indigenous aboriginal way of life and the privations they have endured over the last (nearly) two centuries as a result of white settlement. Charles Mountjoy's descendants are numerous. Many of them still reside in Western Australia. If you find that you are related to him please contact me. I would love to hear from you - BOLAND-L@iinet.net.au |
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KNOWN DESCENDANTS OF CHARLES MOUNTJOY AND HARRIET BASHFORD
KNOWN DESCENDANTS OF ADAM MOUNTJOY AND DOROTHY PARSONS
KNOWN DESCENDANTS OF DAVID HENRY MOUNTJOY AND ELIZA JANE PASSMORE HOOPER
KNOWN DESCENDANTS OF EMILY JANE MOUNTJOY AND FRANCIS HOOPER
KNOWN DESCENDANTS OF LUCY MOUNTJOY AND JOHN BASSETT
Settlers on the Upper Swan
1829 In 1829 William Bashford and his wife Lucy (nee
Braithing) arrived in the Swan River colony (Perth, Western Australia)
on the good ship Caroline. They had a baby son who died on the trip out
and he was buried at Rio de Janiero, a port of call. Once settled at Upper Swan William and Lucy
lost several more babies to infant disease. Finally they had a son who
survived. His name was William Bashford II. They also had a daughter called
Harriet. William Bashford was lost in the bush near Dandaragan in 1865
when working as a shepherd for the Brockman family. Lucy Bashford died
in 1859. Harriet Bashford married a convict called Charles
Mountjoy. He had been convicted of theft at the
New Sarum (Salibury) courts and sent to the Swan River Colony. Harriet
and Charles were happily married and had six children; Sarah, Adam, David,
Emily Jane, Lucy and Charles. Harriet died in her fifties and Charles
lived on as a widower for a long time. He said that he loved the Swan
River Colony and would never go back to England because here you could
get some land, grow vegetables, keep pigs and never go hungry. Charles and Harriet’s son David Mountjoy married
Eliza Jane Passmore Hooper, the niece of Henry Passmore, who brought out
the first shipment of convicts to the Swan River Colony. David and Eliza Mountjoy had 9 children, Richard,
Rosalind, Henry, John, Lucy, Mary, Wilfred, Anne and Donald. Their daughter
Lucy is my paternal grandmother. She married Patrick Brennan from Sligo
Ireland. Click here to return to Surnames List
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