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Edmund Wicks

Edmund Wicks[1, 2]

Male Abt 1831 - 1880  (49 years)  

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  • Name Edmund Wicks 
    Birth Abt 1831  Westham, Sussex, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Census 6 Jun 1841  Westham, Sussex, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [3
    England 
    Immigration 25 Apr 1854  Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Vessel: CREST OF THE WAVE - Index to Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists 
    • to Victoria 1852-1923
    Death 29 Nov 1880  Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Cause: Stroke 
    Headstones Submit Headstone Photo Submit Headstone Photo 
    Person ID I2776  The Williams Family Tree
    Last Modified 10 Apr 2013 

    Father Charles Wicks
              b. 20 Mar 1779, Westham, Sussex, England Find all individuals with events at this location
              d. 1853, Westham, Sussex, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 73 years) 
    Mother Phoebe Hook
              b. 1789, Wartling, Sussex, England Find all individuals with events at this location
              d. Abt 1859, Southwark, Surrey, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 70 years) 
    Marriage 31 Jan 1815  Eastbourne, Sussex, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • Marriage by banns: Charles of Westham. Phoebe of this parish. Witnesses Geo HART and Thos HART.
    Family ID F336  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Esther Bishop  
              d. Yes, date unknown 
    Marriage 1855  [4
    Children 
     1. Mary Eliza Wicks
              b. Abt 1857, Essendon, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location
              d. Yes, date unknown
     2. Louisa Ellen Bishop Wicks
              b. 1859, Essendon, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location
              d. Yes, date unknown
     3. Edmund Wicks
              b. 1861, Essendon, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location
              d. 28 Dec 1947 (Age 86 years)
     4. William Henry Wicks
              b. 1863, Essendon, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location
              d. Yes, date unknown
     5. Esther Wicks
              b. 1865, Essendon, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location
              d. 1943, Preston, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 78 years)
    Family ID F15206  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 26 Dec 2009 

    Family 2 Janet Russell
              b. 1830, England Find all individuals with events at this location
              d. 19 May 1917, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 87 years) 
    Marriage 1869  Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    Children 
     1. John Herbert Wicks
              b. 1870, Essendon, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location
              d. 1921, Bayswater, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 51 years)
     2. Janet Wicks
              b. 1871, Essendon, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location
              d. 1946, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 75 years)
     3. Annie Victoria Wicks
              b. 1873, Essendon, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location
              d. Yes, date unknown
     4. Emily Wicks
              b. 1875, Essendon, Victoria, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location
              d. Yes, date unknown
    Family ID F15219  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 26 Dec 2009 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - Abt 1831 - Westham, Sussex, England Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsCensus - England - 6 Jun 1841 - Westham, Sussex, England Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsImmigration - Vessel: CREST OF THE WAVE - Index to Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists - 25 Apr 1854 - Victoria, Australia Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarriage - 1869 - Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - Cause: Stroke - 29 Nov 1880 - Victoria, Australia Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 
    Pin Legend  : Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  • Photos
    Edmund Wicks
    Edmund Wicks

    Census
    1841: England Census for Westham, Sussex
    1841: England Census for Westham, Sussex
    HO107 Piece 1117/2 Folio 18 Page 30  

    Dwelling  
    Location Westham, Sussex, England 
    Source HO107 Piece 1117/2 Folio 18 Page 30 
    Note  
    Surname Forename(s) Age Sex Occupation Birthplace 
    WEEKS Charles 62 Agricultural Labourer Sussex 
    WEEKS Phebe 55  Sussex 
    WEEKS Eliza 12  Sussex 
    WEEKS Edmund 10  Sussex 
    WEEKS Henry  Sussex 

  • Notes 
    • From the 1841 Census (HO107 Piece 1117/2 Folio 18 Page 30) Edmund, 10, was with his parents Charles, 62, Agricultural Labourer, and Phebe, 55, in Westham, Sussex, England. With him were his siblings Eliza, 12, and Henry, 8. All were reportedly born in the county.
      Edmund and Janet Wicks

      Janet Russell was born in England. In Melbourne in 1869, at the age of 30, she married 39 year old widower Edmund Wicks, also English-born. They lived in Moonee Ponds; and the births of their children, John Herbert (Jack) in 1870, Janet in 1871, Annie Victoria in 1873 and Emily in 1875, were recorded at Essendon.

      On the 1st May 1877 Edmund, described as a ?gardener,? was licensed to occupy a selection of approximately 259 acres in ?North Scoresby.? The licence was unusual in that the area covered was in two separate parcels - about 210 acres in what is now Ferntree Gully, and about 50 acres in present-day The Basin. Edmund had been involved in considerable negotiation with the government department concerned and the departing licensee, who because of his wife?s ill-health was ?obliged to take her to England.? He eventually paid 150 pounds to the former licensee for his ?improvements?, which included a residence. The Wicks family went to live on The Basin land; and the four children were recorded as existing residents in a petition to the ?Minister of Public Instruction? prepared by David Dobson and dated 28th February 1879.

      On 29th April 1880 Edmund, in his application for a lease, reported that the value of ?improvements? on the combined acreage then totalled 635 pounds; and consisted of a five-roomed 25 foot square slab and weatherboard home with galvanised iron roof and two brick chimneys, a stable, cowhouse and piggery. He also reported having sunk 2 dams, put 11 acres under cultivation, planted 339 fruit trees, rung 30 acres of timber, cleared a further 20 acres of scrub, and erected many chains of fencing of various kinds.

      On 18th May 1880 Edmund was granted a lease to the total acreage; but on 29th November 1880, at the age of 50, he died of a stroke. After Edmund?s death, Janet sought to rationalise the estate by applying to the authorities for permission to sell the leasehold interest and improvements on the Ferntree Gully property, and to allow her to purchase a freehold title to the property at The Basin. The reason she gave on her submission was ?to close the administration in the most advantageous way.? Janet, described as ?administrator? of Edmund?s estate, was granted title to the property at The Basin on 3rd June 1881 at the going rate of one pound per acre. The lease on the Ferntree Gully land was taken over by Ephraim Hansen, who received title to it on 10th March 1887. ?Ambleside Park?, the home of the Knox Historical Society, is situated on a remnant of this land."

      Janet Wicks worked the property herself, with the help of her children, by that time aged about 10, 9, 7 and 5 years. The farm, watered by two creeks crossing the property, produced flowers, vegetables, berries and other fruit. Aided by the natural fall of the land, irrigation was possible to the lower sections without pumping or digging dams. The fruit orchard was established on what is now the eastern section of Wicks Reserve; and in later documentation Jack is described as a ?fruit grower.?

      When reminiscing during the 1940s, Janet Wicks? eldest daughter Janet Dobson told her grandchildren how from the time she was about ten years old she stayed at home looking after her two little sisters while her mother and brother drove to the market in Melbourne. She prepared their meals, including boiling the big kettle to make oatmeal porridge for breakfast. The girls were not nervous of being alone, except during thunderstorms. On hearing of this, Mrs. Chandler, their neighbour on the opposite hill, would send one of her big boys to stay on market nights if thunderstorms threatened.

      Ref: History of The Basin Chapter 1 Foundation Created by Rick Coxhill Last revised July 13, 2001

  • Sources 
    1. [S4415] Joanne Morris, (Morris Behan / Dotti Barbagallo Tree: http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/7517586/person/-1079690499).

    2. [S4835] Temp Tag 9, These records are grouped together for some reason! (Reliability: 3).

    3. [S3632] HO107 Piece 1117/2 Folio 18 Page 30, HO107 Piece 1117/2 Folio 18 Page 30 (Reliability: 3).

    4. [S4415] Joanne Morris, (Morris Behan / Dotti Barbagallo Tree: http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/7517586/person/-1079690499) (Reliability: 3).