General News
1 January, 2025
Pioneering vicar on the grange
SUMMER READING By KEN ARNOLD TUCKED away on farmland near Glenalbyn is a cairn few know exists. It was dedicated more than 70 years ago to celebrate the centenary of William Hall settling at Glenalbyn Grange. His descendants built a freestone...
SUMMER READING
By KEN ARNOLD
TUCKED away on farmland near Glenalbyn is a cairn few know exists.
It was dedicated more than 70 years ago to celebrate the centenary of William Hall settling at Glenalbyn Grange. His descendants built a freestone memorial cairn with a granite plaque in 1953.
Found by travelling to Kingower turning into Kingower-Kurting road, turning into Gillespie’s road which will take you to a T intersection with Hall’s road at the gates of the Glenalbyn vineyard, the cairn is about 40 metres to your left on private property.
Unfortunately lettering on the plaque has become badly weathered and hard to read. It basically states “erected 1953, William Hall, Elizabeth Hall, churches at Kingower, Moliagul, Wedderburn, Burkes Flat, Rheola and Bealiba”.
William Hall was born in 1811 at Lazonby, Cumbria, England, the son of Thomas Hall, 1773-1850, yeoman farmer, and his wife Mary, nee Hesket, 1775-1845.
Hall was educated at St. Bee’s Grammar School and Clare College, Cambridge University where he gained a Bachelor of Arts in 1835 followed by a Masters in 1838. In the meantime Hall was ordained a deacon by the Bishop of Ely, on November 27, 1836 and then a priest, in 1840, by the Bishop of Chester.
Hall was the curate of St Mary’s, Manchester from 1840 to 1843 and St George’s, Stalybridge for the next three years.
Hall was also mathematical master at Manchester, a senior fellow and dean, a member of the University Senate and one of the examining fellows in mathematics at the University of Cambridge prior to marrying Elizabeth Clare Lambert, daughter of John Beevor Lambert, merchant, and his wife Mary Ann, nee Wallis, in 1848, at North Ferriby, Yorkshire.
William and Elizabeth emigrated from London to Australia on the Royal George, arriving in Melbourne on June 1, 1848.
Hall assisted with the services at St James’ and St Peter’s, Melbourne Church of England before being posted to Ballan the following year so he could visit 12 stations but Hall resigned after a quarrel with Bishop Charles Perry.
Owing to a difference of opinion on the working of his circuit he quit his licence in 1853 he having obtained the Glenalbyn run and moved to Brenanah, near Glenalbyn Grange where he built a timber Church of England chapel and schoolhouse
Churches and gold
William Hall was also involved in the churches at Kingower, Wedderburn, St Arnaud, Jericho now Wehla, Moliagul, Berlin now Rheola, Cochrane’s Creek now Bealiba, Burke’s Flat and on several other rushes where gold had been found.
A memorial was presented to Chief Secretary requesting that miners be allowed to rush the pre-emptive right of the Rev. William Hall on October 17, 1860.
The following January the Inglewood Advertiser reported that 229 ounces, 40 ounces and 212 ounces of gold had been crushed from the tailing on Hall’s paddock.
It would appear that Hall refused to allow mining on his pre-emptive right however the area was rushed in early 1864, Samuel Morzier and Gabriel Lablauche having registered a claim on which they sunk a shaft through rough sandstone and pipe clay to a depth of 46 feet deep, finding wash dirt on a layer of decomposed granite along with two nuggets of three and four ounces. It was not long before between 600 and 700 miners had marked out claims.
Hall undertook duties in the Northcote area of Melbourne during 1866 so that his daughters could gain a better education however he eventually returned to Glenalbyn.
The Age reported on February 14, 1868, that a fire broke out in the stackyard belonging to the Rev. W. Hall, of Glenalbyn, near Inglewood, on Tuesday last about noon, by which three stacks of wheat, barley, and oats, valued at about £700 or £800, have been totally destroyed, besides the stable which stood about 60 feet from the yard. “Threshing had only been commenced the previous day, and about 300 bushels had been thrashed and bagged, the chaff from which lay all about the yard. It was from this chaff that smoke was first seen to arise, and in an instant one sheet of flame enveloped the stacks rendering hopeless any attempt to extinguish the conflagration.
“The thrashed corn which had been left out, as the weather was so fine, was consumed at the same time. The stacks were still smouldering on Wednesday at noon. The origin of the fire is not known, but it is thought a match might have been accidentally dropped in the chaff on Saturday, the fire being spontaneous owing to the heat of the sun. The stackyard lies to the west of Mr Hall’s dwelling-house, and most fortunately there was an easterly wind blowing at the time, or there is little doubt the whole homestead would have shared the same fate as the stacks. We believe the property destroyed was not insured, and the deepest sympathy is felt for Hall, who is universally respected throughout this district.”
Elizabeth Hall died during 1883 aged 69 while William Hall died at Glenalbyn Grange on 15 May 1887, he being buried two days later at the Kingower cemetery.
The will of William Hall stated that his son Beevor was to get the land at Jarklin whilst daughter Arabella was to get the land at Glenalbyn.
The children of William and Elizabeth Hall were - Mary 1849–1933, married John Thomas Walsh; Elizabeth Clare 1850- 1906, married David Ellis in 1878; Eleanor 1852-53; Beevor Lambert Hall 1854-1922, married Jane Isabella Gillespie; and Arabella Hall 1856-1926, married Peter Gillespie 1880. The latter two are buried at Kingower.
Margaret Hall, 1801-63, a sister to William Hall, married Joseph Thompson, 1793-1852, in Cumberland in 1823 and had seven children including Joseph Thompson, junior, who was on the Sandy Creek, now Tarnagulla, goldfield where he married Hannah Sarah Blake during 1868 and to them were born Margaret in 1869, died aged fourteen days and Margaret in 1872.
The Commons
The Inglewood Goldfield common, some 50,096 acres or seventy eight square miles in area, was declared on 28 January 1861, it being one of the largest commons in Victoria all surrounding the township of Inglewood on all sides. The rectangular-shaped common extended 21km west from the Loddon River and then south for 9km lying within the Korong Division of the Maryborough Mining District. The population consisted of 2000 miners and residents who were entitled to use the common.
The Kingower Goldfield common of 5800 acres, was declared at the same time it abutting the southern boundary of the Inglewood common.
The Reverend William Hall’s Glenalbyn pre-emptive right paddock, which had been rushed by diggers in June 1860, was sandwiched between the two commons however Hall lost a lot of his land to the commons.
Another squatter, John Catto, who had held the Loddon run since 1839, was also affected.
It is thought that Inglewood was named at the suggestion of Elizabeth Hall who came from Inglewood Forest, Cumberland, England.