Family Tragedies - William and Eliza Horkings
It is always sad when a family suffers unfortunate circumstances, particularly the devastating loss of children. Of course, it was not unusual for children to succumb to various diseases in those days, but death by misadventure seems the cruellest and most heartbreaking of losses, and this family suffered more than most.
William and Eliza Horkings
William and Eliza moved to Australia from Ely, England shortly before Christmas in 1852. William gained employment as a stockman on the Liverpool Plains and then later at Toogimbie Station, near the lower Murrumbidgee River in the area of Hay. This is where they began their family of 14 children.
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| William and Eliza in 1909 |
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| Marriage Certificate - Ely England 1851 |
The children
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| Toogimbie Station located along the Murrumbidgee River In July of 1858, the Sydney Morning Herald reported the drowning death of an 18-month-old girl in the Murrumbidgee River. At Toogimbie Station, on the 21st of June, two young boys had been tasked with taking care of their sister, as their mother was very ill, but as children are apt to do they became distracted and altogether forgot to watch the toddler. Soon after, an Aboriginal man was sent to search for her and found marks on the river bank where she had fallen in. Her tiny body was never found. The little girl in question was Bessie Horkings, William and Eliza's first daughter.
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To further compound this tragedy, exactly one year later (almost to the day) William and Eliza's 5-year-old son, Henry, drowned at exactly the same spot on the river.
He was said to have gone down to the river to bail out a bark canoe and subsequently went missing. On finding his son was missing William went to the same part of the river and found 'marks on the slippery banks which left no reasonable doubts on his mind that his poor child had slid into the water' and drowned.
This child was likely one of the boys tasked with looking after little Bessie. Given the date, the parents were probably grieving the anniversary and one can only wonder what might have been on the little boy's mind.
Years later, on 23rd July 1876, William and Eliza lost their 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter Jane to scarlet fever, followed only 5 days later by her 7-year-old brother Thomas. They are both buried at Box Hill cemetery, where the undertaker at the time appears to be their eldest brother, Edward.
In 1886, their son Joseph succumbed to TB at the age of 28, leaving behind his very pregnant wife, Laura, bearing his unborn baby son, Joseph William Horkings.
William and Eliza's daughter-in-law and grandson
The widowed Laura wed again, to Edward White in 1890, though she was not destined for a happy life.
Laura appears to have developed abdominal cancer for which she had an operation in 1897. She had ongoing pain for her remaining years, whether from the surgery or ongoing ravages of the disease, who could know.
August 1900 saw her admitted to the Kew Asylum by her friends (possibly for a second time), following a month-long attack of melancholia, depression and suicidal tendencies.
She was discharged to her husband on 11 April 1901. During her short time at home, she had made several attempts at suicide including jumping in a waterhole and trying to strangle herself. She was readmitted to Kew Asylum a few weeks later. They also postulated "malignant disease of the stomach" as the cause of the pain of which she continually complained.
In 1903 she was allowed to go on leave from the Asylum and returned home. It appears she made one final but successful attempt to end it. She died of phenyl poisoning on the 26 Dec 1903. Phenyl is a disinfectant she presumably drank, ending her life after 3 days of what was probably a torturous experience.
She was survived by her 18-year-old son, Joseph, but not for long. He drowned on a fishing excursion in December 1904.
Joseph (1) is buried with his siblings Jane and Thomas, and parents William and Eliza, in Box Hill Cemetery.
Joseph William (2) is buried with his mother, Laura, and stepfather, Edward, at Box Hill Cemetery.
Other details
William and Eliza’s Children lost - Henry (2nd child - drowning), Bessie (4th child - drowing), Joseph (5th child - TB), Thomas (11th child - scarlet fever), Jane (13th child - scarlet fever).
The family seemed to be a magnet for drowning tragedies. William and Eliza's gt-grandson, William Henry Horkings, also drowned in the Yarra aged 8, and my Dad’s cousin, Graham Rudder, also a Horkings descendant, drowned swept from rocks on the Illawarra coast while fishing.
It seems that Toogimbie was also the centre of many tragedies including:
- an Italian POW (Mario Menichelli) drowned in the Murrumbidgee and was found just downstream from the property.
- an 18-year-old man (Henry/Harry Anderson) drowned in a water tank on the property only a year after his sister (Eliza Mary Anderson) burned to death when her nightgown caught fire.
There were issues with shearers 'slumming', ie. shearing poorly in order to be discharged from their contracts, and there was a fire that burnt the homestead to the ground.
Links to articles on Trove
Drowning of Bessie Horkings (age 2 1/2)
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28631692
Drowning of Henry Horkings (age 5)
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13027535
Drowning of Joseph William Horkings (age 18)
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10356080
Drowning of William Henry Horkings (age 8)
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45169690
Drowned in a water tank at Toogimbie
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/196078844
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/141099455
Nightgown on Fire
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/157197159
POW Drowning
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/137364934
Bathing accident - A close call at Toogimbie 1926
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/141252236
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