Burbury H. BICKNELL (????--????)
There are several references to this person in the New South Wales civil indexes:
At this stage, I have no idea who Burbury H. Bicknell was or where he came from.
William BURBEARY (????--????)
William Burbeary lived in the parish of Nunnington in Yorkshire. I only know about him through International Genealogical Index (IGI) entries for his marriage to Catherine RYBUS and the subsequent baptisms of children in Nunnington and Stonegrave. It is possible that he was related somehow to the Yorkshire Burbeary family [1].
Speculation on the origins of this William might be better understood in the context of the Yorkshire Burbeary family itself, so have a look at the Yorkshire Burbeary family page for further information on this William.
Elizabeth BURBERRY (1807--1852)
Elizabeth Burberry was born 1807 in Coventry and married Amos Fellows, a weaver. By 1833 Amos was dead and she was being transported to Sydney, NSW. She was transported as Elizabeth Fellowes, and was sent out on the "Fanny" (2) which arrived in Sydney on 2 February 1833. Elizabeth's convict indent gives the following information.
She was a needlewoman, laundrymaid and housemaid, aged 26, and had been tried in Warwickshire quarter sessions on 7 April 1832 charged with stealing linen. She was sentenced to 7 years transportation. Elizabeth was described as taller than average for her time at 5. 5 ½., with a sallow complexion, dark brown hair and dark chestnut eyes. She had lost a tooth on the right side of her upper jaw and had a small mole on the left side of her upper lip. Elizabeth's indent gave aliases of Burberry, Falcons and Puddy. Her marital status was widowed with a boy and a girl. The girl was listed as Ellen, on board aged 3. The son remained in England [1].
Elizabeth remarried in NSW to George Tooze and had four more children. George and Elizabeth Tooze lived as tenant farmers on the Buchanan estate just outside Maitland. Ellen Fellows was married three times and had two children as well as raising a step son. She was a very well respected midwife at Quorrobolong. She raised Henry Puddy (his mother was Margaret O’Conner who died in childbirth.) The curious thing is Elizabeth Burberry used an alias of Puddy and her daughter Ellen later married Henry's father Joseph Puddy. Coincidence or some prior English connection [1]?
The only direct evidence for the name of Elizabeth's first husband comes from the marriage record of Ellen FELLOWS to George HOWARD in 1880 in New South Wales in 1880. At this time Ellen gives her mother's name as Elizabeth BURBERY and her father's name as Amos FELLOWS [1].
It is quite possible that Elizabeth Fellowes nee Burbery was the daughter of John and Elizabeth Burbery of Shustoke, who were members of what I call the Brandon Burbery family. John and Elizabeth had a daughter Elizabeth who was baptised at Shustoke on 7 March 1809 [2]. This date of baptism is the closest match I have to the Elizabeth Fellows nee Burbery who was born in around 1807.
Click here to go to the information page for the Brandon Burbery family
Further circumstantial evidence to support this possibility comes from Martie Fowles, a descendant of an Amos FELLOWS who lived in Dudley, Worcestershire. Martie's ancestor Amos was born on 9 Aug 1829, although no trace of a primary birth or baptism record has been located. He was supposedly apprenticed as a teenager to a tailor by the name of Charles Ingram. A story that has been passed down in Martie's family that Amos' mother was transported with babe in arms to NSW for stealing linen [3]. This Amos married Elizabeth Smart and lived at Pensnett near Dudley in Worcestershire. On his English marriage certificate he stated his father was William Fellows (deceased), a weaver [4].
Dudley in Worcestershire also features in the family of Elizabeth Burbery of Shustoke, who was mentioned above as a possible candidate for Elizabeth Fellows nee Burbery. Elizabeth had an elder brother William (born. 1804) who moved to Dudley some time around 1830, as he and his wife Ann baptised their children in the parish of St Thomas in Dudley between 1830 and 1843 [5], and the family continues to appear in local census returns for Dudley at least up until 1861 [6] [7].
Although there is nothing conclusive about this and it may just be a coincidence, it does prompt the suggestion that there was an association between Amos Fellows and the Shustoke Burbery family, and it is an avenue that need to be further explored.
There is one point of conflict here, however. If Amos Fellows was the son of Elizabeth Fellows nee Burbery who was transported, then Ellen Fellows would have been his sister. And on Elen's marriage certificate she gave the name of her father as Amos Fellows, not William [1]. It may be possible to explain this away by the fact that most of the clues we have on the matter come from the words of people who were separated from family members at very young ages and under the severe circumstances of a criminal trial and transportation. When Amos gave his father's name as William, was it possibly a confusion with an uncle William (in other words, William Burbery, elder brother of his mother Elizabeth) who had been his guardian and virtual father for most of his life? Or even when Ellen gave her father's name as Amos, was it actually her father or the half-forgotten memory of a male relative back in England, such as an elder brother?
There are several avenues for following up the possible Shustoke connection between the Fellows and Burbery families. They include:
James BURBERRY (1793--1860)
A labourer who lived at Newick in Sussex [1]. He was identified by a descendant as being the son of John BURBERRY (1771--1854) and Sarah nee LAWRENCE [2], but I think that this is incorrect. More details on James can be found in the Surrey Burberry pages.
John BURBERRY (b. abt. 1818)
A mystery John BURBERRY pops up in session rolls for the county of Sussex in England as having been transported in 1837. The reference is QR/849, date November 1837. There aren't many details in the summary of this which came from the Access to Archives website, but it refers to a John Burberry of Worth, aged 19, who was transported for 10 years [1].
The surname of BURBERRY and the fact that he lived in Sussex would suggest that John was a member of the Surrey Burberry family. However, the name and age don't seem to fit any known member of the Surrey Burberry family, so at this stage, I have no idea who he was.
Other related links: