The definitive book about the ill-fated journey of the Netherby is being prepared for publication by Helen Vivian later this year by the University of Melbourne. For this book, I have prepared a chapter about the Townsend family in the years before and the years after boarding the Netherby in London. I hope will be fully adopted including newly found pictures of the family members. 

Let me know if any of you are interested to proof read and fact-checking my contribution by sending an email to thomas@helmer.com.

Watch this space for further updates.

Dear all,

Having had the pleasure of being contacted by descendants in New Zealand of Adelina Jessy MAIDMAN, second wife of Captain William TOWNSEND, I have picked up an earlier thread on her and noted some new insights.

Adelina Jessy MAIDMAN was the eldest daughter of Richard Robert MAIDMAN (1794-1867) and Latia (without surname) (?-?). The proof is in the marriage certificate of Captain William TOWNSEND and Adelina Jessy MAIDMAN. See the transcript below, which was part one of a pack of documents sent to Captain William Townsend to obtain his approval for Adelina Jessy MAIDMAN to marry.

Confusion must have occurred by the fact that the Richard Robert MAIDMAN is first mentioned as father and further down in the same document 'substitute of the father of the bride.

Would appreciate it if anyone on this blog has more or better insigight in this matter is willing to share that.

Registrar's Office, The Isle of Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, Residence Padang

No1. Extract

On the 18th of January of the year 1864 in Padang at the Registrar's office a marriage was solemnised between William Townsend born in Padang, 53 years old living in Padang and Adeline Jessy Maidman born in Padang, 27 years old living in Padang.

I declare that the above extract signed by me, public servant at the Registrar's office in Padang is a conformatry (sic) of the Registrar's office in Padang. 19 Nov 1877.

Sighted for legalisation the above signature of Cyril Hendrick Boelhammer civil servant of the Registrar's office in Padang. The president of the court of Justice in Padang.

Extract from the Registrar office at Padang 1864
Today the 18th January 1864 appeared before me, Willem van Ommen, civil servant of the Registrar office at Padang, William Townsend born in Padang, 53 years old, dwelling in Padang eldest son of Edward James Townsend and Corneila Johanna Dederingh both deceased, formerly married to Clementina Cecilia Sophia Chew, deceased, and Adelina Jessy Maidman born in Padang, twenty seven years old without profession, living in Padang, eldest daughter of Richard Robert Maidman, profession retired civil servant, and Latia (sic), without profession, both living in Padang, not married before. These persons asked me to solemnise their marriage. Included are some documents which are attached to this document.
1st - a certificate of the birth of the bride
2nd - a document death certificate of the groom's former wife Clementina Cecilia Sophia Chew
3rd - an authenticated certificate to notify the consent of the mother of the bride
4th - Evidence of the announcement of the wedding without resistance has occurred.
- Afterwards the groom has declared another oath that he was not able to produce a birth certificate.
- Has appeared before me Richard Robert Maidman 60 years old retired civil servant living in Padang who acted as substitute of father of the bride, who gave permission for the wedding. 

William Townsend and Adelina Jessy Maidman declare that they take each other as partners and that they fulfil all the lasts and plights (sic) according to the law and are now in name of law man and wife.
Done in presence of Joseph Adam Koopman 54 years old retired civil servant and Adolf Hugo van Diemont, 39 years of age, merchant, brother in law of the bride both living in Padang.

This certificate is then ...

Signature W Townsend, AJ Maidman, RR Maidman.

 Dear all,

With pain in my heart, I would like to let you know that Mona AINSLIE (1927-2021) passed in her retirement village in Marshall, Victoria, Australia, on 19th August 2021.

She was the only child of George Alexander Campbell Ainslie (1869-1952) and Isabella Clementina Raff (1888-1979). As far as we know she was also the last descendant of Robert Raff (1845-1920) and Isabella Rachel (Bella) TOWNSEND (1852-1931).

 

She married late in life with Douglas Bruce (Bruce) Thomson (1926-2016) and had no descendants. 

Her memories were razor-sharp and was able to contribute to the TOWNSEND research until the last few weeks of her life. We will dearly miss her.

A longer bio is listed below.

PS. Should you wish to see a picture of her, send me your email address to thomas@helmer.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mona AINSLIE (1927-2021)

Mona was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, on the 22nd October 1927 as the only child of Isabella Clementine RAFF and George Alexander Campbell AINSLIE.

Her mother, Isabella Clementine RAFF was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, on 31st March 1888 of Robert RAFF (1845-1920), a pearler, son of the Moray Field Sugar Factory and plantation owner, and Isabella Rachel TOWNSEND (1852-1931), a Netherby shipwreck survivor who widowed young from her first marriage to Donald Grant MACLEAN, on the 4th of April 1874, in Brisbane, and had lost her son Donald Fitzroy “Fitzy” MACLEAN, born on the 26th of February 1875, who was dropped to the floor soon after his birth by the nurse.

Her father, George Alexander Campbell AINSLIE was born in Bellary, India on12th august 1869. Soon after his mother died. As his father was in the army at that time and would not be able to look after the child, he arranged for the child to be sent back to England to be taken care off by his sister. George was christened twice, once in India and again once he arrived in England. He became a master mariner and married his first wife, Edith Bliss MCCARTHY, in England and moved to Australia where they lived in Hamilton, a suburb of Brisbane, and went to the Anglican church in the area. His best friend, Douglas PRICE, a Methodist reverend, was instrumental in getting George to come to Australia.

Isabella Clementine RAFF married to George Alexander Campbell AINSLIE in New Farm, Brisbane on 19th June 1915, after his messy and much publicised divorce.

Her parents lived in rented quarters and rented rooms to boarders most of the time. As her father was a avid gardener, every time they settled in a new house, the garden would become so beautiful that the owners would sell the property forced the family to look for another house. The family was very religious and attended to the Anglican services. 

Mona’s father, George Alexander Campbell AINSLIE died on 7th May 1952. She was very fond of him as he spend so much time with her, whilst her mother went out a lot.

Her mother did not like her RAFF brothers very much, in particular (her younger brother) Charlie as she was expected to be his ‘slave'. As fast as she could, she left the parental home and hardly maintained contact with the RAFF or the AINSLIE family. The only RAFF Mona remembered ever meeting was Harry RAFF (1856-1949, eight son of George RAFF) as her parents helped him with gardening when he was an old man. Harry was a surveyor in Brisbane after he created his wealth from mining gold. Apparently he was a good shot and readily shot at anybody in the dark nearing his tent at the time. He even lived with het parents at one stage until his death. 

Once Mona was old enough to go to school, she did not want to go, as she had no shoes and no decent dresses until her uncle bought them for her.

At one point in time Mona was close getting engaged with someone she met in the church circles, but as her mother did not approve, she let the opportunity pass, which she regretted so many years later.

Mona worked as secretary in a physiatric practice for many years, of which she has fond memories. She continued living at home and handed her full pay to her mother until her mother, Isabella Clementine RAFF, passed on 13th December 1979. 

It was only after the her mother passing that Mona bought a place of her own in a forested area of Tambourine, Queensland.

 

For many years Mona maintained an intense correspondence with Douglas Bruce (Bruce) THOMSON, born 19th July 1926 in Newtown, Geelong, Victoria, which she adored. Regrettably she did not keep the letters. Not sure how they came in contact with each other, but it was most likely through the Anglican church. After many years they decided to take a holiday to New Zealand where they finally met face to face.

They married in Mount Tamborine, Queensland, Australia on 16th June 1986. He was a very popular music teacher and played the organ in the churches where ever they lived. Soon after their marriage, Bruce insisted they should settle in Geelong forcing her to sell up in Queensland, a move she regretted very much later in live. They lived at another address at first before they settled in 105 Maudstreet, Geelong.

Her husband, Douglas Bruce (Bruce) THOMSON died of a heart failure in an hospital in Geelong, Victoria, Australia on June 30 2016.

Her eyesight had deteriorated severely making it near impossible to look after herself and live alone.

In May 2017 she moved to the retirement home in Rice Village, 7 Moylan Loop, Marshall,

3216 Victoria, Australia. Soon after she sold her home at Maudstreet well above the reserve.

The Moray Field Sugar Factory clock Mona inherited from her grandmother Isabella Rachel RAFF née TOWNSEND was donated to the Caboolture Historical Society for display in the museum.

Mona was well able to communicate and had a great recall of memories until the she had a massive stroke around 08:00 hrs on 20th August 2021, lost consciousness and died two hours later.

She was a caring person and great company to be with. She will be sadly missed.

 Dear all,

The 155th anniversary of the Netherby shipwreck on Kings Island will be on the 14th July 2021. It was five years ago that many descendants met on Kings Island to reflect about this extra ordinary event when no lives were lost.

An extensive and well-researched book about The Netherby is in preparation by Helen Vivian, Melbourne, which will most likely be published by the University of Melbourne. We will share the details on this blog once Vivian's book is available.

She asked for contributions and photographs of the people who were on board.

Together with other descendants of Captain William Townsend, we pulled a story together about how the family fared after the disaster and found a number of pictures. We have no idea which parts will feature in Vivian's book, however, should you be interested to get a copy of our contribution only, send me a personal email to thomas@helmer.com with details of your link to the descendants.

Best wishes, Thomas Helmer

Cecilia Jemenria TOWNSEND

Dear Bloggers,

Need your help. 

In his draft manuscript Geoff identified a child of Captain William Townsend of who I cannot find any

supporting documents.

Cecilia Jemenria TOWNSEND b: 2 Oct 1854, Padang, Sumatra’s Westkust,
Indonesia. Married Edouard August KLUIJVER on 5th April 1879. 

It is assumed that she stayed with one of her married siblings when her father and the others left for England and Australia. Nothing further has been found of her life or descendants.

Really appreciate it if any of you have any information that confirms Cecilia Jemenria to be a child of Captain William Townsend.

Regards,

Thomas.

Netherby Descendants Reunion, King Island, Tasmania, Australia

Dear all,

The four-day Netherby Descendants Reunion, King Island, Tasmania, Australia, will draw to a close on 18 July 2016.

Some 140 people gathered, many descendants, for the events which took us around the island to see everything there was to see.

The Townsend family was represented by Brian Raymond Townsend and myself.

The next reunion will most likely be in five years time and I can surely recommend it.

Today, during the Bush Dinner and Dance event, a new book "Cradled by Man" by Jennifer Cover (daughter of the writer Joyce Hammond), was launched about the family of the child "Netherby" that was born on the beach whilst the survivors were waiting to be rescued. The book is available through Amazon.

During the event we met up with Helen Vivian, the daughter of Cynthia Vivian, who will publish the  "Wreck of the Netherby" manuscript her mother had been working on for more than 20 years. John Townsend contributed over the years with fact-finding in England.

She is keen to have photographs of as many survivors in the appendix of the book for which I sent the photos I have on file. However,  I am short of a photo of Victor Louis Townsend as a boy and of Elisabeth Salmon Thomas, Captain William's third wife.

Should you have any of these, I would be most pleased to pass them on to Helen for inclusion of the book. She expects that the book, 25 x 20 cm, will have some 150 pages with over 60 photos.
If you want to pre-order a copy of the book, please send an e-mail to Helen on: artmoves@bigpond.com.

Best wishes,
Thomas

150 years since the Netherby wreck in 2016

Dear all,

In 2016 it will be 150 years since the Netherby wreck
occurred. They want to make contact with the descendants of the Netherby
passengers to celebrate the survival of all on board & give thanks to their
stoic determination & bravery. The main event will be held on King Island. 

If you are a descendant, the organising committee would love to hear from you by email:  netherby2016@gmail.com 

or post to: 

Ann Rutte, 

P.O.Box 272, 

Eltham Victoria 3095.

Australia

Best wishes,

Thomas.