160. James Dear Austin
In 1869 he married Helen Lillian Grogan of Barbados and he managed or owned an estate called Exchange in the parish of St Thomas in that island. He was living in Surinam when he was married. His nine children were contemporaries of those of J.G.A. to whom he was known as ‘Cousin James’. James Dear died in Barbados.
360. Allan Gordon Austin
He lived in Demerara, but retired to Barbados where he died. He did not marry.
361. Helen Lillian Austin
She and her sister Ethel emigrated to the USA. She lived in Los Angeles, but retired to New York, where she died, a spinster.
362. May Ethel Austin
She became a hospital nurse, remaining a spinster.
She married Ernest Crumpton from Barbados, but they had no children. Like her sisters Helen and Ethel, she emigrated to the USA.
161. Melicent Ann Austin
Melicent Ann married Archdeacon Thomas Farrar B.D. (1830-1893) in 1857. A contemporary spoke of Melicent Ann as: ‘a person who endeared herself to all those who came in contact with her. She was unassuming, was of a somewhat retiring disposition, but exercised a great deal of charm on those who enjoyed her society’. Her son Cecil spoke for the whole family when he was quoted as saying: ‘I do think that she was a very wonderful woman. One of her main characteristics was that she thought no ill and said no ill of anyone, which is a thing we could all emulate’.
Melicent and Thomas had fourteen children.
Ven.Archdeacon Thomas Farrar B.D.
Thomas was born in Holbeck, Leeds, Yorkshire. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and, after completing training for the priesthood, went to British Guiana in 1854, arriving there on Christmas Eve. The following January, he was ordained a deacon and appointed Curate in the Berbice River District and then at St. Margaret’s, Skeldon. In Berbice he met his future fiancée and wife, Melicent Ann Austin. In a letter written by Thomas to his brother John telling him of his engagement is preserved and, because of its historical significance in the linking of the Farrar and Austin families, this letter is reproduced below:
Berbice New Year’s Day 1857
My Dear John,
I think we shall not ruin ourselves in postage - one letter a year - I am almost ashamed of myself. I don’t know what you are (age?). Well another year has commenced and may we all enjoy it in the truest sense, and end it nearer and better prepared for the Eternal New Year to which we are hastening and which will come as certainly as this has - whether we are prepared for it or not, but I am not going to write you a sermon.
I got your letter and read it. I was glad to hear that Ellen & the little ones are well. I fully intend paying you a visit some of these fine days. I can’t at present. Perhaps I may bring Mrs. Tom with me. What would you say to that? I suppose ‘Who’d have thought of it!’ Well now, open you ears & eyes & mouth read carefully. I am really engaged and intend really to be married this year. ‘And who’s the lady?’. This has been a secret for the last year -’ known only to three (self swore to solemn secrecy)’, but I have let it out now. She is a cousin of the Bishop, aged 17 next May, and named Melicent Ann Austin. What other questions have you to ask? I suppose ‘When is the wedding to come off?’. Well about next Holbeck Feast. You will readily see why it is not sooner - ‘Now you have the truth - the whole truth and nothing but the truth’ - ‘Still waters oft’n run deep’ they say? I wish I could come and have a chat with Ellen. I might get some of her experience to guide me in the new - & to me - unknown road of Matrimony. Well, of course, I am going to prove an ideal husband - a good nurse I am already, & I am trying to be already in the shape of a lover. What the Epitaph in the Holbeck graveyard says if a very dutiful wife:-
She was …words are wanting to say what.
What a wife ought to be - she was that - For ‘she’ read ‘he’ - for ‘was’ read ‘is’ - for ‘wife’ read anything you please - ‘lover’ - ‘husband’.
I could write you a very long letter, & I could make my ‘lady love’ appear to be so beautiful that you would almost be persuaded she was an angel in disguise - but I won’t. She is not an angel - but she is very pretty & as good as she is beautiful. One of my friends to whom I showed her portrait was in such ecstasies that he there and then offered me the loan of £100 for me to marry her at once, as he thought it was lack of means that was delaying the wedding. I have written to tell them at home - I suppose they will be rather surprised. But they could not suppose I was always going to remain a bachelor. At least I never intended doing so. But enough on this subject at present.
I am just returned from a visit in the Dutch Colony - a Slave state. It was there I met with my future father-in-law. I was taken there because wind & tide, etc. would not allow me to land some 200 miles nearer. They were not very surprised to see me than I was to find myself so far out of my course. I had been paying a visit to Melicent & was literally taken from her to her Papa & Mama. I was in a war-steamer & could not be landed. When I found that there was a KEY in the business, I really did not fret very much - but was very glad, as it would in all probability - and as it really has - hastened my marriage some six months. The young lady would be rather surprised when she heard of my doings after we parted - She would be glad enough. What girl wouldn’t be to know that Papa & Mama had approved of her choice? I was very sorry that I could not myself carry the news. But she is 180 miles from here & so I had to content myself with writing.
Now you see I have spent the whole of this letter in talking of myself & my future ‘better half’ - You must write me a long letter - longer than this - about yourself and your own. I intend writing to Melicent Austin perhaps before I close this.
Love to all
& Believe me,
Your very affect. Brother
(Sgd.) Thomas Farrar
Mr. J. Farrar. Will you address me The Reverend Thomas Farrar.
Do you know the ship ‘ Tropic Bird’? She comes here often - Send your letter by her - or any other boat that comes.
Thomas and Melicent Ann Austin were married by Bishop William Piercy Austin at St. Philip’s, Charlestown, Georgetown, in 1857. During Thomas’ thirty-nine years as a priest, he played an increasingly important role in the Diocese of Guiana. In 1865, he was appointed Chaplain to H. M. Penal Settlement, Mazaruni and minister in charge of the Lower Essequibo Indian Missions, a dual position that he held for about eight years. He was Rector of St. Paul’s, Sparendaam (Plaisance), Demerara, from 1873-83, after which he was made one of the first Canons of St. George’s Cathedral, Georgetown. A year later, he was appointed Archdeacon of Berbice and Rector of All Saints’ Church, New Amsterdam, Berbice. In 1890, on the retirement of Archdeacon Francis Webster Austin (1829-1905), Thomas was made Archdeacon of Demerara, and on the death of Bishop William Piercy Austin D.D. in 1892, the charge of the Diocese of Guiana devolved on Thomas. However, he would not allow himself to be nominated to Queen Victoria to fill the vacant episcopate because he felt that the interests of the Church would best be served by the appointment of a younger man from England ‘Who was imbued with home influence’. Notwithstanding his extremely busy life as a priest, Thomas found time to write, including a book entitled The Christian Ministry - A Manual of Church Doctrine, for which, in 1881, The Archbishop of Canterbury awarded him an Honorary Bachelor of Divinity, a Lambeth Degree. He also wrote: Notes on the History of the Church in Guiana and, as a friend wrote after Thomas’ death, ‘Even though he did good work, and work lasting in its effects, as a missionary, it is characteristic of the man that his name is never once mentioned directly in the book’. At the time of his death, Thomas was Vicar-General of the diocese, while continuing the Rectory of All Saints’ Church. He was a man noted for his modest style and was described by a contemporary as: ‘An extremely practical, earnest and zealous servant of the Church and straightforward in everything, honest in convictions and vigorous in his advocacy of right and opposition of error, possessed of wide experience, sound judgement and broad sympathies, he was a real and active power in the diocese’. He and Melicent Ann had fourteen children, all of whom were born in British Guiana, except for Melicent (‘Milly’) and Anne (‘Annie’), who were born in Holbeck, Leeds.
366. James Henry Farrar
James was born at sea off ‘Maida’ on the Corentyne coast, British Guiana, (Maida is not very far from Port Mourant Sugar Estate).
367. Melicent Farrar
Milly was born in Holbeck, Leeds. She led a quiet life and had a large circle of friends. ‘Aunt Milly’, as she was affectionately known to the younger generation, remained single all her life, so it is said, to look after her mother after her father died.
372. Edward Farrar
Edward was born and died at H.M. Penal Settlement, Mazurini, British Guiana, while his father was Chaplain there.
377. Josephine Martha Alice Farrar
Josephine was born at St. Paul’s Rectory, Sparendaam (Plaisance), Demerara. In 1908, she married John Arthur Clarence Tengely at St. George’s Cathedral, Georgetown. John was Harbourmaster for the port of Georgetown. Josephine died in Georgetown.
Josephine Gibson was born in British Guiana, the Christian name Gibson probably deriving from the family name of her maternal great grandmother. She died in Georgetown in 1917 where she is buried. In her memory, a wooden altar table, dated 7.6.1917, was presented to Christ Church, Georgetown. She was remembered as ‘Granny Bosch Reitz’, bonneted and always carrying her little, much-prized embroidered handbag. Josephine married Guillaume Jacques Abraham Bosch Reitz (1825-1880) originally from Breukelen, near Utrecht, but who had settled in Surinam in 1851, where he was one time President of the Court of Justice there and President of the Colonial Assembly. They had nine children.
Josephine Gibson Austin (1842-1917), daughter of Richard Barker Austin and Melicent Inniss, married Guillaume Jacques Abraham Bosch Reitz (1825-1880) in Georgetown in 1858, having first met her future husband at Kleinhoop, the estate of her father in Surinam.
All the children of Guillaume and Josephine were born in Paramaribo, Surinam, but when Guillaume died in 1880, Josephine brought them all, except Philip, back to British Guiana, rejoining the Austin clan where they adopted British Nationality.
Guillaume Jacques Abraham Bosch Reitz
The Bosch Reitz family and before them, the Reitz and Bosch (formerly Busch) families, go back many generations in the history of Dutch and German families, the first reference being Cuntz Reitz, from Giessen, in about 1510. The history of the family has been meticulously documented by N.A. ‘Tony’ Bosch Reitz and has been lodged in the Bureau voor Genealogie in The Hague.
All the children of Guillaume and Josephine were born in Paramaribo, Surinam, but when Guillaume died in 1880, Josephine brought them all, except Philip, back to British Guiana, rejoining the Austin clan where they adopted British Nationality.
385. Charles James Bosch Reitz
Department in Georgetown, before retiring to England where, late in Charles James, known as Uncle Charlie, worked in the Immigration life, he married a widow with two children, Eileen Louisa Arnold. By this time, he had omitted the name Bosch from his surname
164. Samuel Inniss Austin
Samuel’s life was spent in British Guiana. He married (in 1880, in St George’s Cathedral, Georgetown) Alice Elizabeth Veness (1845-1930), known as Elfie, daughter of Archdeacon W. T. Veness of British Guiana, but died comparatively young leaving two young sons. He was the manager of Plantation Belle Plaine (renamed Marionville) in Wakenaam Island, British Guiana, where he died.
Daughter of Archdeacon W.T.Veness.
Known as Elfie.
393. Robert Woolward
Married and had a daughter Florence
Archdeacon Francis Webster Austin
Francis was born or baptised in Clapham, Surrey and went to school in King’s College, London. He went up to Jesus College, Cambridge, received his B.A. in 1855 and M.A. in 1876. He was ordained deacon in 1856, and was Curate of St George’s, Georgetown, Demerara in 1856. He was Garrison Chaplain there during 1857-1861, Rector of St Michael’s, Berbice and St Paul’s, East Coast Demerara 1871-1873, Rector of All Saints’, Berbice, 1873-1884, Archdeacon of Berbice 1883-1884 and of Demerara 1884-1890. He was Vicar-General, Diocese of British Guiana, 1888-1890, and Rector and Dean of St George’s Cathedral, Georgetown, 1884-1890. He was Curate at Coulston, Wiltshire 1891-1892 and Rector of West Ilsley, Berkshire, 1892-1895. He is often mentioned in J.G.A.’s letters of the 1850’s when the latter was in his teens and Francis nine years older. He must have been a curate at one of the churches in Georgetown when J.G.A. watched with interest the progress of the courtship between Francis and their cousin ‘Jo’, daughter of Joseph Gibson Austin, who had married William Edward Pierce.
Young curates were ill paid and J.G.A. writes:
‘Mrs Thorne tells me that Preston does not approve of the match on account of the poorness of both parties, but one must remember that young ladies of fortune are not picked up every day!’
However the couple were married in 1858, after J.G.A. had left for Barbados. He was invited to the wedding but was unable to spare the time to go to Demerara for the occasion.
Jo only survived nine years, leaving a family of three, after which Francis married Jane ‘Jeanie’ Murray from Trinidad. By this time he was Archdeacon and his finances had improved so that he was able to support his second family of seven children in addition to his first. He was living in Abingdon, Berks, in 1904 and died there in 1905.