RICHARD BROOKS


Richard Brooks	Mrs Richard Brooks (Augusta Sydney Weston)

*William Brooks*	Mrs William Brooks (Elizabeth Jane Brooks)

The following photos were supplied by Michael Povey <mpovey-at-tpg.com.au> 4.09.11

RICHARD BROOKS is, it is almost safe to say, the earliest pioneer of whose settlement any authentic record exists. He was a son of Captain Richard Brooks, of Bermondsay, Surrey, and was born in 1812. Captain Brooks, who had a naval career, sailed his own schooner to New South Wales, and settled in 1814 at Denham Court , near Liverpool, and, according to a memorial window in St. Mary's Church, Denham Court, died in 1833, at the age of 69. Richard Brooks, his son, came to Manaro with cattle in 1827, and reached what was afterwards Cootralantra Lake, where, consequent upon the blacks proving hostile, he lost his cattle, which he later found on Gejizrick Flat, where the rich pastures that then existed caused him to determine to settle. He erected a homestead of timber and slabs with a thatched room in the bush at the foot of Gejizrick Hill. The blacks, however, proving still unfriendly, caused him a few years later to erect in the open another house, which still remains as part of Mr. Woodhouse's Gegedzerick Station. In order to placate the blacks, who were continuously spearing his cattle, Mr. Brooks elevated one of their chiefs, . 'Blueskin," to royalty by presenting him with a brass plate inscribed, "King of Monaro." In return for this, "Blueskin" stopped any further molestation by his tribe of Mr. Brooks' cattle. Each Christmas the owner of Gejizrick gave the blacks a bullock. This they roasted whole and then had a great feast near the homestead.

Richard Brooks married Augusta Weston, and their eldest son, W. H. Brooks, who died a few years ago, was born at Gejizrick in 1838. Richard Brooks died at Illawarra in, 1885, at the age of 43, and was buried in the cemetery there. He left a family of seven children-four sons and three daughters; and many of his descendants are still on Manaro, living in the neighbourhood of the old home. His widow married again, and, as Mrs. Torkington, is borne in kindly recollection by old residents. The widow and family of W. H. Brooks, his eldest- son, reside at Killarney, Berridale; the wife and family of H. H. Brooks live at Adaminaby.

In February, 1845, Mr. Brooks had been visited by Bishop Broughton (Bishop of Australia) who, during his stay, had arranged for the erection at Gejizrick of a small wooden chapel which, known as the Gegedzerick Church, and built largely by members. of the Brooks family, is one of the oldest of the sacred buildings on Manaro. Richard Brooks controlled a vast tract of country, said at one time to extend from Micalago to the Snowy River. As settlement increased his area decreased, but he actually held what in after years was known as Gegedzerick, Glenbrook, Kiah Lake and Middlingbank. He also was the lessee from the Crown of the Jindabyne run, his total holdings being 60,000 acres. The adjoining holdings to Gejizrick were Arable, Woolway and Murranumbla, belonging to Mr. Abram Brierly, with whose manager, Alexander Hamilton, Mr. Brooks had trouble over boundaries. Mr. Thomas Valentine Blomfield, of Collamatong Run, who married Christiana, daughter of Captain Brooks, was his brother-inlaw.

On his Jindabyne holding Mr. Brooks ran cattle, but on Gejizrick he grazed cattle, sheep and horses. The horses were sent to India, the stock to Sydney, and of those not otherwise disposed of, some were boiled down on the station for tallow.

Transcribed from 'Back to Cooma', Felix Mitchell 1926, pp73 by Pattrick Mould 2002

Hi Pattrick,
Richard Brooks died in 1855 NOT 1885, his wife Augusta Brooks nee Weston remarried in 1863. (The Westons were pioneers of Dapto, Illawarra arriving on Larkins in 1817). As you already have his birthdate as 1812, if he died at 43 years of age he died circa 1855.
Website data [2nd paragraph]:
"Richard Brooks married Augusta Weston, and their eldest son, W. H. Brooks, who died a few years ago, was born at Gejizrick in 1838. Richard Brooks died at Illawarra in, 1885, at the age of 43, and was buried in the cemetery there."
From: "Syl.Aldred" <saja-at-emailme-com-au>

I haven't changed the text above as that is how it is written in 'Back to Cooma'
Pattrick

- Syl.Aldred (Dec. 2004)

From: Allan Hughes <lilfish-at-bigpond-net-au
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2005 4:30 PM

Subject: Richard Brooks

Dear Pattrick

I agree with Syl Aldred's letter to you. The information contained in David Smiths genealogy is almost all entirely wrong (altered since this letter was written). Whatever else we can be sure of Richard Brooks of Monaro was not the son of Christina Eliza Passmore who did not arrive in the colony until 8th March 1814 on the "Spring". The Australian Dictionary of Biography 1788-1850 @page156 has capatin brooks born in Topsham Devon England the son of an impoverished clergyman. This article contains useful sources especially V.W.E Goodwin "Denham Court", Descent 2 (1964). I have enclosed a copy of Captain Brook's will in which he acknowleges only one son Henry Brooks whose decendants are well documented.

yours faithfully

Allan Hughes

578
The Will
Richard Brooks Esquire

In the name of God Amen.

I Richard Brooks of Denham Court in the Colony of New South Wales Esquire being of sound and disposing mind memory and understanding do make this my last Will and Testament in the manner following (that is to say)
First and principally I recommend my Soul to the mercy of the Supreme Being and I will and desire that my said Trustees and Executors hereinafter named do as confirmed sell and dispose of a sufficient number of my horned Cattle to pay and satisfy all my just debts funeral and testamentary expenses whatsoever.
I give and bequeath all and singular the household furniture Books linen wearing apparel plate china Glass wines liquors and the other Goods and effects of a like sort or kind and the Carriage and Carriage Horses which I shall be possessed of at the time of my decease and the sum of one thousand eight hundred pounds due to me for the land at the Surry Hills near Sydney sometime since sold and disposed of by me unto my dear Wife her executors administrators and assigns absolutely to and for her own use and benefit and disposal.
And as to and concerning all and singular other property whether real or personal or of whatever other nature or kind soever the same may be which I shall be seised or possessed of or over which I shall have a disposing power at the time of my decease I give devise and bequeath the same respectively and every part there of unto my said dear wife Christiana Brooks and my respected friends William Charles Wentworth Richard Jones George Cox and Patrick Hill Esquires to have and to hold unto the said Christiana Brooks William Charles Wentworth Richard Jones George Cox and Patrick Hill and the survivors and survivor of them and the heirs executors and administrators of such survivor according to the nature of the said Estates and property Upon the several trusts and to and for the several ends intents and purposes hereinafter declared of and concerning the same that is to say
Upon trust that they my said Trustees and the survivors and survivor of them shall permit and suffer my said dear Wife Christiana Brooks to take receive enjoy and apply all the interest profits proceeds and produce thereof to and for her own sole and separate use and benefit so long as she shall live and continue sole and unmarried and from and after the decease or marriage of my said dear Wife (whichever shall first happen)
Then as to and concerning my Estate at the Five Islands called Exmouth Farm and consisting of one thousand nine hundred acres of land or thereabouts to the use of my son Henry Brooks his heirs and assigns for ever
And as to and concerning my Estate called Anley Farm at Williams River to the use of my Daughter Mary Wilson her heirs and assigns for ever
And as to and concerning my Estate called Hardwick to the use of my Daughters Charlotte Brooks and Maria Brooks their heirs and assigns for ever as tenants in common and not as joint tenants
And as to and concerning my Estate containing seven acres at the Kangaroo Ground to the use of my said Daughter Charlotte Brooks her heirs and assigns for ever
And as to and concerning my Estate called Scarrs Farm to the use of my said Daughter Maria Brooks her heirs and assigns for ever
And as to and concerning my estate at Lake George consisting of nine thousand acres to the uses hereinafter mentioned (that is to say) Two thousand acres thereof to the use of my Daughter Honoria Riley the wife of William Edward Riley Esquire of Raby and her heirs for ever. One thousand two hundred and fifty other acres thereof to the use of my said Daughter Charlotte Brooks and her heirs for ever. Two thousand other acres thereof to the use of my daughter Jane Cox and her heirs for ever. One thousand two hundred and fifty other acres thereof to the use of my said Daughter Maria Brooks and her heirs for ever. One thousand other acres thereof to the use of my Daughter Christiana Blomfield and her heirs for ever. Five hundred other acres thereof to the use of my Grandson Richard Brooks and his heirs for ever. Five hundred other acres thereof to the use of my Grandson Henry Brooks and his heirs for ever and Five hundred other acres thereof to the use of said Daughter Mary Wilson and her heirs for ever.
And as to and concerning two acres of land lately granted to me by Government on the Surry Hills near Sydney to the use of my said Daughter Maria Brooks her heirs and assigns for ever.
And as to and concerning my Capital mansion house or messuage at Denham Court and the lands thereunto belonging with the three back farms and Saint Stevens Farm after the death or marriage of my said dear Wife as aforesaid In trust to and for the uses hereinafter mentioned (that is to say) to the use of my said Daughter Christiana Blomfield and her assigns for and during the term of her natural life without impeachment of waste and from and immediately after the decease of my said Daughter to the use of her second Son Richard Blomfield and the heirs male of the Body of such second Son and for default of issue male of such second son to the use of the third fourth fifth sixth and all and every other the son and sons of my said Daughter Christiana Blomfield lawfully to be begottten severally successively and in remainder one after another as they shall be in seniority of age and priority of Birth and the Heirs Male of the Body and Bodies of all and every such Son and Sons the leader of such Sons and the heirs male of his and their body and bodies being always preferred and to take before the younger of such Sons and the heirs male of his and their body and bodies and in default of such issue to the use of my own right heirs for ever
And as to and concerning my Estate at Cockle Bay whereon is erected a slaughter house and other buildings for the slaughtering and curing of meat I will and direct that after the death or marriage of my dear Wife as aforesaid the same shall be sold for the utmost price that can be obtained for it and out of the proceeds of the said sale that the sum of Five hundred pounds shall be paid over to my Son Henry Brooks to enable him to build a House and that the residue of the proceeds thereof shall be divided in equal proportions among my six Daughters or their legal representatives.
And my further will and direction is that upon the marriage of my two Daughters Charlotte and Maria with the consent of their Mother each of my said Daughters shall receive as and by way of marriage portion Fifty head of Cows and a Flock of Ewe Sheep not exceeding Three hundred
And further that their mother my said dear Wife shall have the power of directing my said Trustees to assign to each of them my said two Daughters out of my personal Estate Two hundred pounds in Capital Stock of the Bank of Australia.
And as to all the rest residue and remainder of my Estate whether real or personal (after the death or marriage of my said dear Wife as aforesaid) I give devise and bequeath the same between and among my said seven Children share and share alike as Tenants in common and not as joint tenants and their several and respective heirs executors or administrators according to the respective nature and quality of my said Estate.
And I do hereby appoint my said Trustees Executors and Executrix of this my last Will and Testament hereby revoking all other Wills Codicils or other testamentary papers by me at any time heretofore made and executed.
In Witness whereof I have to each sheet of this my will contained in two sheets of paper so subscribed my name and to this last sheet my seal also this Twenty sixth day of August in the year of our lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty three.
Signed sealed published and declared by the said Richard Brooks the Testator as and for his last Will and Testament in the presence of us who at his request and in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto set our names as witnesses.
Submitted by Allan Hughes <lilfish-at-bigpond-net-au

An issue has been raised as to whether Richard Brooks of Gegedzerick was the son of Capt Richard Brooks of Denham Court. He was the son. The romantic version (told in my youth) was that the child was born as the result of a liaison during Capt Brooks’s shipwreck in 1812, and that he eventually turned up in England with the boy. The truth appears to be that the child was the result of a liaison with a girl of convict origins when Brooks was in Australia. The child was born, I think, soon after he left Australia. When he returned to Australia with Christina and the other children in 1814 he found that the mother had died (possibly at the time of birth) and that his son was a two-year old orphan. The boy was taken into the family and given the name of “Brooks”.

The grandsons mentioned in Capt Brooks’s will are the sons of his son, Henry. Richard Brooks is not mentioned probably because it was not customary in those days to include illegitimate or adopted children in a will. But there is no doubt that Richard Brooks was accepted into the family. When he located Gegedzerick in 1827 (at the age of 15) it is likely that he was accompanied by his older half-brother Henry. The cattle were brought from Turalla at Lake George, up the Numeralla valley. Lhotsky in 1832 listed Richard Brooks as the owner of the vast “Jijedery” station although he was even then only 20 years of age. Lhotsky also accepted that he had then been in possession for 5 years (ie since 1827). But in 1839 Lambie listed the owners of “Jegeydrick” as Henry and Richard Brooks, with Richard being the resident superintendent. Over time Henry faded out, probably pre-occupied with the large amount of land his father left him elsewhere, but his children and grandchildren inter-married with those of Richard Brooks and it seems that possession of Gegedzerick was eventually balanced out in favour of the family of Richard Brooks. As Richard was resident from the start and remained the only brother permanently resident and eventually the sole owner, only his role in Gegedzerick is remembered – but it is more than likely to have been initially a joint venture of the two half-brothers, presumably with the assistance and encouragement of their father.

Further, in the 1830s, the smaller (although still significant) station of Coolamatong was carved out of Gegedzerick for Richard Brooks’s eldest half-sister Christina and her husband Capt T V Bloomfield. The Bloomfields continued to hold Coolamatong even though Christina inherited Denham Court itself. So we may be sure that whatever was in the will, Richard Brooks was not forgotten in the distribution of the family estates and was probably left as well off as, if not better than, the other siblings. He himself must have been very attached to Denham Court and his family – the church he erected at Gegedzerick from 1849 (but not completed until 1860 after his death) was named for St Mary the Virgin after the church erected by John Verge at Denham Court in 1830, and closely follows its somewhat unusual ground plan.

In addition, Richard and Augusta Brooks had estates in the Illawarra, from both Westons and Brookses. After the death of her father in 1826, Augusta’s mother Elizabeth Weston remarried in 1830 – most unsuitably, to a former convict. She fades from the picture thereafter. The young Weston children were largely taken over by their paternal uncle and aunt Capt George Edward Nicholas Weston (who was actually called “Edward”) and Blanche Weston of Horsley. Blanche was a redoubtable woman, a daughter of Colonel George Johnston of the NSW Corps (first officer to land in the First Fleet and deposer of Bligh for which he was cashiered, although the family was later reinstated under Macquarie). Augusta was married from Horsley to Richard Brooks at Parramatta in 1838 and was “given away” by her uncle Capt Weston.

The grant at Illawarra promised to William Weston by Macquarie in 1818 was not actually made until 1842 by Governor Gipps. The grant was then made to Augusta Brooks and her sister Elizabeth Thompson. They named it West Horsley and built the existing house there in 1845 (the house is clearly modeled on Horsley), although the actual estate was divided in two between the two sisters. To this the Brookses added land transferred to Richard from Capt Brooks. The Brookses spent a lot of time there –Richard Brooks died there in 1855.

The two Weston boys John and Charles, appear to have gone to sea at an early age. John Weston is said to have made a number of voyages to India in his youth and his younger brother Charles Weston died of typhoid (I think) in India in 1835, aged only about 15.

Capt and Mrs Weston came to Gegedzerick in about 1840 (if not earlier) no doubt to see where their niece Augusta had settled. Capt Weston established an interest in a run at Jindabyne (called “Willis”), this was taken over by Richard Brooks by 1848. Their daughter Emma Weston married Rev E G Pryce and later settled on Woolway station to the east of Gegedzerick. Capt Weston died in 1856. Thereafter Blanche spent some time at Gegedzerick and Woolway. The Brooks sons had increasing difficulty in managing the huge station and differences were exacerbated when their mother Augusta re-married Edward Torkington (an Englishman who had been brought in to manage Gegedzerick after Richard’s death) in 1863. Blanche became trustee of Gegedzerick and by 1870 (if not earlier) it and Rocky Plain were actually in her name. She had a large influence. She probably assisted her niece in completing the church, the original windows of which were identical with those at Horsley and may even have been made there. She is said to have given the organ to the church (a beautiful instrument – of which the parish is now proposing to dispose, I am trying to oppose this). Both Gegedzerick and Horsley became very well known in the 1870s for the breeding of bloodstock horses – no doubt Blanche had a role in this.

My grandfather and his brothers and sisters, and the Brooks children that I knew as old people, remembered Blanche well as a very old but very kind lady mainly at Woolway but also at Gegedzerick, they called her “Granny Weston” and actually thought she was their great-grandmother – a fact which confused me considerably as a boy, I have only just now got this sorted out.

I am descended from John Weston through his daughter Mary Ann (born 1843) who married my great grandfather Frederick Brown in 1858. Mary Ann’s mother died when she was born, she was brought to Gegedzerick by Augusta Brooks (her aunt) as a child, I think the idea was that she would eventually marry one of the Brooks boys (another sister Charlotte born about 1840 married one of the Pryce cousins). But on a voyage with her father she met Frederick Brown and determined to marry him which she did as soon as she turned 16. They came here to Gegedzerick in 1858 and settled on Gegedzerick Flat where John Weston had first settled when he came here in about 1840 (probably at the same time as Capt Weston and Blanche first came here). I still live here, I am restoring the old house, I think it is about the 3^rd house on this site but there are many traces of the earlier houses. My grandfather was born here and my grandparents lived here from 1916. When I was a child there was a strong “cousinhood” of Brookses, Browns, Clarkes and others – the “old Gegedzerick families”, but that had largely died out by the time I returned here last year with the final passing of the older generation. But I now have the opportunity to sort through what remains here and what information I can glean – it is truly remarkable and much of interest, far more than I can write down here.

Ian Burke
Gegedzerick Flat
Berridale

First Generation

Second Generation

Third Generation

Fourth Generation

Sources