W is for William Starr, my fourth great grandfather. William was born 8 December 1807 in Sedlescombe, Sussex, England to Philadelphia Starr and Richard Milham. At the time of William’s birth, his mother was aged only 14 years of age and his parents were not married. As a result, William’s was registered as a ‘baseborn’ child and his father’s name doesn’t appear on his baptism record. However, we know that Richard Milham was his father as parish records exist that detail Richard’s obligations to provide monetary support to Philadelphia for the raising of William.
It’s not known exactly how William was raised, if he was raised believing his grandparents were his parents and his mother his sister or if he always knew that Philadelphia was his mother. However, by the time he was of age William well an truly knew who his biological parents were as there names are provided on the parish record for his marriage. This marriage was to Sophia Gibbs and took place 26 March 1826 in Sedlescombe, Sussex. William and Sophia settled down in Sedlescombe and had four children between 1826 and 1834. Of these four, one child died shortly after birth.
William’s life would have undoubtedly followed a humdrum course in rural England, with William working as an agricultural labourer. But they were soon to have an exciting fresh start when they emigrated to Australia as part of the Assisted Immigrants scheme. This scheme specifically looked for couples and families with skills that would benefit the young colony. William, Sophia and their three children arrived in Sydney on 4 April 1839. William and his family settled close to the harbour at Botany and added four more children to the family. William spent the rest of his life in the suburb of Botany and raise this family. He lived to see his children marry and give him grandchildren, most of whom continued to live in the same area of Sydney.
William died a month short of his 67th birthday on 8 November 1874 in Botany, where he had lived since arriving from England. A funeral notice appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 10 November, inviting friends and relatives to his funeral which was to leave his Botany residence (close to the Captain Cook hotel) for a graveside service at the Necropolis. For those unfamiliar with Sydney history, the Necropolis as it was known is now called the Rookwood Cemetery and is a suburb all on its own. It was literally a suburb just for deceased persons. Rookwood is the largest necropolis in the Southern Hemisphere and is the world’s largest, continuously operating Victorian era cemetery. As of 2014, there have been 915,000 burials and cremations at Rookwood.
William Starr was buried in the Church of England portion of the Necropolis on 10 November 1874. When his wife Sophia died three years later, she was interred in the same grave although she doesn’t have an inscription on the headstone, Presumably there was many to be an inscription, as blank space has been left but for whatever reason an inscription for Sophia was never added to the headstone.