Descendants of Isaac Shannon

Notes

13. Leah Shannon

Leah was the sister of Israel/Lawrence/Lewis Shannon and Samuel Shannon. Both of who owned stores in Cooma and are buried at Wren's nest
Edmund Hillary's first wife is descended from Leah and Abraham. So is Nancy Keesing.

Abraham Moses

Abraham Moses had two older brothers who came to Australia as convicts.
Went back to London in 1859
There is a scroll of Abe's descendants in Mandelbaum House
Contact Helen Bersten on Thursdays
385 Abercrombie St

They have transcripts of the Bevis Marks Synagogue. This Synagogue was for Portuguese and Spanish Jews who fled to England to escape the Inquisition.

A bushranger shot his driver and took his stock c 1837

http://www.cooma.nsw.gov.au/monaropioneers/mosesa.htm
ABRAHAM MOSES in 1838 established himself at Reed's Flat, erecting an hotel opposite one later carried on by John Cullen in a building now occupied by David Power. He remained at The Flats for two years and then sold out to Solomon Solomon, later of Eden.

Transcribed by Pattrick Mould in 2003, from the book "Back to Coma' Celebrations" page 84

Hand written Notes by Alfred Price of Wahroonga NSW held by the Australian Jewish Historical Society (Note from: Australian genesis : Jewish convicts and settlers, 1788-1860 / John S. Levi, G. F. J. Bergman. Edition New ed. Carlton South, Vic. : Melbourne University Press, 2002. ISBN 0522847773 )

Apart from George Mocatta and Saul Samuel, J.B. Montefiore, Michael Phillips and Michael Hyam, the only other Jewish names to appear as owners or leaseholders of extensive tracts of land in early NSW were Isaac Levy and Abraham Moses. (note: the first part of the story of his colonial career is told in a petition for land at Monaro 25/2/1839)

Abraham Moses was the first Jew to receive a license to pasture stock beyond the established boundaries of the settlement in the foothills of the Australian Alps, to the south in 1837.

The pious Abraham Moses who arrived in Sydney on the “Palamban” on 10th January 1833, not only brought to NSW his family but also brought Norman (Nahum) Simon, his own private shocket (ritual slaughterer of kosher meat) and Hebrew teacher for his children. Yet Simon appears to have neglected his duties very soon because on 17 July 1835, The Australasian” reported that he had acquired an auctioneers’ license and opened a store - “Berrima House” at Berrima, NSW.

Moses began his colonial career in Sydney as the owner of the “Joiner’s Arms” in King St, Sydney and after two years profitable trading he opened “commodious stores” at Monaro Plains, 200 miles south-west of Sydney. From 1837 to 1841 Abraham Moses supplied goods to the scattered settlements of the southern tablelands and the Australian Alps, he carried the mail from the lower plains to the Snowy River, a distance of 100 miles, and conscious of the opportunities presented by the vast fertile territory, built a store at Dr. Reid’s Flat, which soon became known as Jews’ Flat. The great depression of the early 1840’s sent Moses back to Sydney where he began to build up a prosperous business as an importer and exporter and as a major landholder.
In London, in 1873 Abraham Moses died leaving an estate of ₤650,000 (pounds).

To Jews’ Flat came the settlers Solomon Solomon and Samuel Shannon and their families. (Note About 1946 when members of the Marsden family were seeking shares in a will(that of the late Mr. Marks) the name Julia Shannon was mentioned as having inserted an advertisement in a very early Australian newspaper).
Both men were free migrants of the mid 1830’s (JR sic) Solomon took over the store and public house of Abraham Moses at Jews’ Flat and carried on his business there until 1854.
The firm “Solomon Pty. Ltd” still exists and is Cooma’s “senior store”.

The Solomons founded stores in Eden and Bombala NSW where Moses Joseph of Sydney owned a large property.

(Notes The Solomons had a store at Eden which sold general ships’ items and chandlery and stores to the early whalers at his waling station site.
It was here in Eden , Frances, that your grandfather Alfred worked for Mr. Solomon when he came out from England in the “fifties’ of last century. He used to travel on horseback and by coach to inland Bombala, to court your mother’s mother Fanny..
When I was in Eden some nine years ago an elderly resident took me to the hill on which Solomon’s Store once stood and which had long since been destroyed y time.
Your grandmother, Fanny, used to stay at Maharatta Station, Bombala, first owned by Moses Joseph of Sydney, a one time convict and whose descendants are cousins of ours and yours to-day (on your mother Lillians’s side)

The present day city of Goulburn, NSW, the gateway to the south west of NSW, also bears the mark of our pioneer forbears.
Goulburn, 130 miles south of Sydney began as a NSW garrison town at the gateway to the fertile Southern Tablelands and became the crossroads for the inland development of Southern NSW.
“As solid as a Goulburn Jew” became a colonial byword. Until the goldrush, Goulburn possessed the third largest Jewish settlement on the eastern side of Australia.

Elias Moses and his brother in law Samuel Benjamin owned the Argyle Store at 44 George St. Sydney and sold “Grindery of every description, pistols and fowling pieces, gunpowder and shot, haberdashery, drapery, hosiery and saddlery, sole and kipp leather, wine, spirits, tea, sugar, tobacco, groceries, general assortment of clothing, crockery, ironmongery, Wilkinsons sheep shears, wool packs, bags and bagging, paints, oils and turpentine with an extensive assortment of every description of good on the most reasonable terms.
The two men had begun and Australian partnership in 1833 in Sydney, and soon branched out to Windsor NSW.
Elias Moses married Julia, the daughter of Abraham Moses in April 1840 and her fathers’ tales of the great new fertile regions of the south induced the two men to sell their George Street store and move to Goulburn in 1842.(S.B. Glass “The Jews of Goulburn”)

(Notes) Elias Moses (1804-1874) and Samuel Benjamin Moses arrived together from England on the “Ann” on 13th November 1833 (Elias id your great grandfather, Frances on your mother Lillian’s side).
Samuel Benjamin married Rachel, sister of Elias Moses. Their first joint venture was at Sydney House 44 lower George St and 321 George St “opposite to the Burial ground”. In 1836 they established the London store in George St. Windsor NSW. Their move to Goulburn in 1837 brought he settlement its pioneer store. The store of Benjamin and Moses existed in Queanbeyan from 1837 to 1853.
Julia is your great grandmother on your mother Lillian’s side)

At almost the same time they established an outpost even further to the south, at Queanbeyan NSW. Benjamin and Moses prospered despite the severe economic depression which had seized the whole country, and had temporarily ruined the wool industry. Outside Goulburn they built one of the largest “boiling down” factories in the colony to reduce the almost valueless carcasses of the districts’ vast herds of sheep and cattle to tallow/
The London “Voice of Jacob” a Jewish newspaper printed for circulation in the Colony in an edition dated 6th June 1845, reported Jewish High Holyday services had been held in Goulburn at the home of Elias Moses in 1844 and that seventeen people had attended. An acre of land was set aside as a cemetery for Jews, and today the graves are all that remains of the first inland Jewish community in Australia.

Bushrangers
The scattered bush stores of the Jews made their owners frequent and obvious targets fro highway robbery. In January 1845 Samuel Benjamin of Goulburn was held up by bushrangers as he was travelling by coach to his branch store at Queanbeyan. The raid was interrupted by the arrival of the local keeper of the gaol, who chased the outlaws and captured one of them.
Abraham Moses was held up by a bushranger while out on business in the lonely Australian Alps. On being ordered to dismount, Moses asked the outlaw to hold his horse, and as soon as one foot was out of the stirrup he kicked the bushranger under the chin. The bushranger went sprawling and Moses galloped away. His son-in-law Elias Moses of Goulburn was not so lucky. He was robbed of his possessions and left tied to a tree, but at least his life was spared.
Queensland
In 1848 there were eight Jews amid the population of 2,257 in the Moreton Bay District.
Benjamin and Moses offered property for sale in Brisbane. Robert Graham, the Presbyterian partner of Jacob Levi Montefiore, opened a store in Brisbane. Sydney’s Jewish community was also indirectly involved in the development of the colony with early obvious speculative purchases of land by Samuel Benjamin, Elias Moses and Moses Joseph (Note these three are all related to us, those of the Benjamins and Joseph’s descendants are our cousins of to-day)

The Children of Elias and Julia Moses
(as Recorded in the bible of Alfred Price)
Rachel Moses born Saturday morning 17 April 1841 Goulburn NSW
Deborah Moses born Sunday morning 2nd April 1843 London
Elizabeth Julia Moses born Friday morning January 3rd 1845 Goulburn NSW
Fanny Moses born 7 o’clock Sunday a.m. August 8th 1852 Sydney
Joseph Moses born Friday a.m. November 24th 1854 Sydney NSW
Samuel Benjamin Moses born Sunday a.m. December 23rd 1855 Sydney NSW
Catherine Jacoba Moses born Wednesday morning March 1856 Melbourne Victoria
Sophia Moses born Sunday am 17th July 1859 Sydney NSW
Amelai Moses born Friday am 22nd march 1861 Sydney
Sonita Alexandria Moses born 18th June 1861 Sydney NSW
(An impossibility of date which cannot be explained)

Moses Joseph
Lillian, Dora and Naturally all the Marsden family of brothers and sisters are first cousins of Fodelle, Miriam, Gerald and Morty, direct descendants of Moses Joseph.
Frances George and Alfred and Kate are cousins also.
Moses Joseph and his first cousin the free woman Rosetta Nathan, twenty two years were married in Sydney in 1832. She came out from London to join him in 1831.
This was the first Jewish wedding and Jewish marriage in Australia the celebrant ‘clergyman’ being recorded as P.J. Cohen by authority of the Chief Rabbi of London.
Moses Joseph, a jeweller, was sentenced to transportation for life for stealing jewellery. He was sentenced at ‘Warwick Assizes’ on 25th March 182? He had a ruddy, dark complexion, black hair, brown eyes and was 5’3” tall. Twenty three year old on arrival at Sydney on 4th February 1827, he was able to read and write.
Moses Josephs’ brother Israel helped officiate at New Zealand’s first Jewish wedding.

Australian Jewish Historical Society Vol VI 1969 pt 6 p365-369

Queanbeyan District and People Errol Lea-Scarlett, Queanbeyan Municipal Council, Queanbeyan, 1968.
This history- of the Queanbeyan District, a project initiated by the Rotary- Club of Queanbeyan and written by Mr. Lea-Scarlett, a councillor of the Society of Australian genealogists, whose family belongs to the early Settlers of the district, gives a very comprehensive account of this part of the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales.
Discovered by the surgeon, settler and explorer, Charles Throsby, as late as 1820, the district was finally thrown open to authorized permanent occupation in October, 1829, and named County of Murray. In 1836 the population had already risen to 1728 and by then nearly all the good land had been taken up legally. It was in this year that the Post Office opened in Queanbeyan.
P365
Mr. Lea-Scarlett describes very amply and aptly the development of the town and district from the earliest beginnings to the present day.
Among the earliest settlers in the district were Jewish businessmen and innkeepers and, although the author seems to have ignored the existence of this Journal, he gives us valuable information about some of these pioneers.
One, of the first to realise the importance of the Southern Tablelands was Abraham Moses, who on 18.1.1831 arrived from England with his family in the Palambam, and soon acquired land at Goulburn, Queanbeyan and Reid's Flat. In February, 1838, he announced that he would run weekly mail from Reid's Creek, Moneroo
(Monaro), where he kept a store, to Queanbeyan Post Office. According to the author, "Moses soon found that he could not compete with another mail run by John Gray, the first business man in Queanbeyan", but, when Gray went bankrupt during the 1840 depression, Moses decided "to revive the subscription mail from Queanbeyan to the Snowy River". The mail carried letters, once a week, for the settlers along the way, who paid an annual subscrip­tion. Although he had in 1840 opened a new inn, the "Squatters' Arms" at Reid's flat this mail service was soon abandoned, too, and in 1841. Moses decided to dispose of his interests in the district and to concentrate on his Bridge Street, Sydney, stores.
Another old resident of Queanbeyan was Abraham Meyer, who in November, 1845, had married Julia, daughter of Abraham Hart in the York Street Synagogue. Meyer's life ended in tragedy. He sold out in 1854 and took a trip to England. Returning in the Dunbar, he, his wife and six children became the victims of a shocking marine disaster, when the Dunbar was wrecked on 20.8.1857 at Sydney Heads. Meyer had as a young man joined the firm of Benjamin & Moses in Goulburn, man­aged their "Argyle Steam Boiling Works" at Goulburn and had then become manager of the Queanbeyan stores of this renowned firm, until he established himself in business.
Samuel Benjamin and Elias Moses arrived on 13.11.1833 in Ann. They became partners in the firm Benjamin & Moses and in 1835 opened stores in George Street. Later attracted by reports from itinerant traders, they went to Goulburn. Here they acquired land from Abraham Moses on which they erected their substantial "Argyle Stores" whilst still preserving their Sydney interests.
That these two partners had, according to Mr. S. B. (doss, "cemented their relationship further by the marriage of Elias Moses o his partner's youngest sister, Rachel"8 was one of the few errors Mr. S. B. Glass committed. Elias Moses (lid not many Rachel Benjamin, but rich Abraham Moses' daughter, .Julia, on 15.4.1840. Rachel Benjamin was married on 4.2.1835 to Samuel Moses (later of Hobart ) "

Benjamin and Moses had stores in Queanbeyan until 7 853.
The route from Goulburn to Queanbeyan was not always secure and the journey was sometimes a dangerous enterprise. This is demonstrated by an account of an attach on Samuel Benjamin by bushrangers in January,
1845, reported in the Sydney Morning Herald. 12
Benjamin was with another gentleman on his way to Queanbeyan in a carriage with 2 servants, and Haas stopped near Murchinson's farm, by 3 armed and mounted bushrangers. They had only time to ease them of their cash, when Smart, the lock-up-house keeper, came on horseback and, seeing how matters stood, ordered them to ground their arms, they at the same time being ordered to do the same; one of thenm getting round a tree, induced him to get on his horse which caused the whole three to do the same. He pursued them for some distance in the scrub, when they, perceiving that, he was alone, turned round and fired two pistol shots at him; they however got away from him. He subsequently found one man under suspicious circumstances whom he brought in, and the two other men were brought in the next morning."
The author also tells us the story of Abraham Levy, another early resident of Queanbeyan, who took over in 1853 from Benjamin and Moses. His store was second only to Mr. Wright's enterprise. Levy challenged Mr. Wright's commercial leadership and followed him to Cooma and the Snowy River at the end of the fifties. He was a member of the Queanbeyan schoolboard and in 1870 had some trouble with the local schoolteacher who had been coaching his son in Latin.
"Levy had never been particularly popular in the town and was now looking back on twenty-one years which had failed to make him prosperous. The closure of his store was imminent. His son had been acquiring a classical education over and above the normal schooling for fee of sixpence a week paid to Mr. McPhail who gave evening classes at home. The teacher one day complained to the schoolchildren of the niggardly weekly tips that he was getting for his Latin lessons to young Levy. The upshot was a stormy entry into the schoolroom by the enraged father who called McPhail "a drunken sot" in front of his pupils. Effective instruction could scarcely continue after such a scene, but McPhail lasted for another nine months until the Council of Education, yielding to the pleas of the School Board, sent him to teach at Jembaicumbene.''

Levy's store passed in 1870 into the possession of Mr. .J. J. Wright. Today it is the site of the Queanbeyan Woolworth store.
It is interesting to note that Levy, far from the capital city, tried to give his son an above average education and although he was isolated as a Jew, in 1854 he sent a dona­tion to the treasurer of the Goulburn Jewish Community of a fund for the indigent Jews in the Holy Land.13
There were Jews also in the smaller townships of the Queanbeyan district. One of these was Solomon Marks, of Bungendore, who on 3.8.1836 had married Hannah Cohen in the Bridge Street Synagogue, 14 and he had also sent a donation to the Palestine Fund.13
Solomon Moses, who had a store in Queanbeyan until 1851, moved to Bungendore to open his "Victoria, Stores."
His life, as told to us by the author, was not an easy one and also ended in tragedy. Moses was serving a population which numbered only sixty-three in the village and not more than a few hundred in the immediate dis­trict and it was not surprising that for the next ten years his career was marked by failures and frustrations. Less than a year after the opening, the Victoria Stores were in the process of selling out when the great flood of July, 1852, inundated the premises and forced Moses to take shelter at an inn. It was then another eleven months before he could finally close down, but then opened a new store, the "Beehive", which remained unsteadily in business while three competitors, Including Mr. J. J. Wright's branch, closed one after another.
Apart from one struggling store and the few hotels, the only business in Bungendore able to survive during the 1850's was the smithy. Competition, however, could not be sustained, as Solomon Moses discovered, when he branched out as an innkeeper lit 1859, opening his spacious stone ``Beehive Hotel" next to his store at the corner of Gibraltar andMolongolo Streets. Despite the splendour of the open­ing, whith gentleman`s and ladies' races, free ball and supper, and fireworks display, his venture disturbed a delicate economic balance. The hotel had only a short trial, for Moses was drowned in Deep Creek in 1860, but it could not have prospered, for his affairs showed that he had fallen into bankruptcy in spite of the fact that most of the traffic to the Kiandra diggings had to pass the door”. I have quoted this passage from the book in full
to show the pioneer spirit of these early Jewish settlers who kept on staying in the country in spite of great difficulties and failures.
In Bungonia, another small township in the district, the firm of Isaac Levey, brother of Barnett and Solomon Levy, had acquired parcels of land, but Isaac Levey never
lived there.

Although Jews had been early pioneers in this dis­trict, they experienced the same fate as those of other country towns like Maitland and Goulburn; the call of the capital city had been too strong, and at the end of the century hardly any Jews were left in the district.

The book is excellently illustrated and documented, although an index is sadly missing. It can be well recom­mended to any one interested in the history of this district.
-GFJB

Caroline Joseph

Her Death?
14555/1934 MOSES CAROLINE MYER MARY A RANDWICK

26. Jacob Moses

Died in infancy

Birth
V183435 136/1834 MOSES JACOB ABRAHAM LEAH

14. Samuel Shannon

http://www.cooma.nsw.gov.au/monaropioneers/greville.htm

Greville's 1872 Post Office Directory
Cooma

Page 127
Distance 257 miles South of Sydney
Mail closes at General Post Office Monday, Wednesday, Friday 4 p.m.
Mail arrives at Post Town Wednesday, Friday. Sunday 3.45 a.m.
Mail leaves for Sydney Saturday, Monday, Thursday 5 p.m.
Mail arrives at Sydney Monday, Wednesday, Saturday 7.15 a.m.
Route - Rail Goulburn, coach Cooma

SHANNON Amelia innkeeper Sharpe St. Cooma

http://www.cooma.nsw.gov.au/monaropioneers/judicial.htm
From "BACK To COOMA" Felix Mitchell 1926
On 29th March. 1854. a sale of Town and Suburban Lands took place. Under the supervision of the Bench. lots aggregating 19 ac. 3 roods 22 perches, bringing forty nine pounds, fourteen shillings and fivepence, and further sales took place from time to time.

On the same day registration was effected of a spirit merchant's license, in the name of Samuel Shannon, in respect of a house built of slabs and covered with bark, used as a store, and situate near the reserve for the Roman Catholic Church in Bombala Street. On 3rd April, 1854, a slaughtering license was granted to John Leather barrow to slaughter cattle at Hogarth's Stockyard.

1855.

On 25th February, Joseph Ward obtained a publican's booth license for races to be held at Tea Tree Flat on 20th, 21st and 22nd March, the license being operative from 6 a.m. till 10 on each day.

On 19th March the registration of A. Montague's and Samuel Shannon's spirit license was renewed.
1st October. -Samuel Shannon secured a Spirit Merchant's License for a house built of slates and thatched used as a general store, and situated in Lambie Street. (Earlier in the year he had obtained a license for premises in Bombala Street.)

1856.

28th January 1856. - Spirit Merchant Licenses were granted to Alexander Montague and Samuel Shannon, to the latter for two premises.

24th September. -Samuel Shannon still carried on his store in Lambie Street, and obtained a renewal of his Spirit 'Merchant's license.

1857.

15th January. -Joseph Ward obtained a license to slaughter cattle in his stockyard at Cooma.

Renewals of Spirit Merchant's licenses were allowed to Alexander Montague, Samuel Shannon (for Bombala Street only), and John James Wright for premises in Vale Street. A new license was granted to Abraham Levy for a store built of slabs and thatched, and situated in Lambie Street.

1st December. -A Special Licensing Meeting granted a General Publican's License to Samuel Shannon for premises to be known as "The Victoria Hotel" (situate where the Prince of Wales Hotel now is). John Cullen, of Reid's Flat obtained a license for the house formerly licensed and known as "The Squatters' Arms."

1858.

20th April a Publicans licenses granted to: - Joseph Ward - 'The Graziers' Inn," Cooma; James Hain, -Tbe Lord Raglan Hotel, Samuel Shannon. "The Victoria Hotel': John Cullen, "The Squatters' Arms Inn." Bunyan: Angus McDonald, "The Nimmitabel Inn.'- Nimmitabel

1859
18th April. -Publicans' licenses were granted to James Hain, The Lord Raglan Hotel; SamuelShannon, The Victoria Hotel; Joseph Ward, The Australian Hotel (name changed); Angus McDonald Donald, The Nimmitabel Inn, Nimmitabel; John McDonald, The Robert Burns Hotel, Nimmitabel (First license); John Cullen, The Squatters' Arms, Bunyan.

http://www.cooma.nsw.gov.au/monaropioneers/earlycooma.htm
"BACK T0 COOMA" Felix Mitchell pp22-24

By March, 1854, Samuel Shannon had opened a store, built of slabs and covered with bark, on land now owned by John Mack, near the then reserve for the Roman Catholic Church situated in Bombala Street, and Joseph Ward, who carried on Kirwin's Inn after the licensee was shot, was occupying premises in Sharp Street, known as the Graziers' Inn.

In Lambie Street, at its southern end, Dr. Winsor Merryweather was at this time practising his profession in a house to-day occupied by Mrs. Greville, and Samuel Shannon had opened a second store, built of slabs and thatched roof, in the same street, on a spot known as Mudhouse Flat, to be followed in January, 1857, by Abraham Levy with a similar store, situated on the old Coolringdon track opposite Tumut Street, at the bend of the creek which some two or three hundred yards lower down crosses Lambie Street.

With the discovery of gold at Kiandra in 1859, and the rush in 1860, settlement increased more rapidly, and the number of buildings in the village quickly multiplied.

From Lambie Street the Post Office had been removed to a site in the Market Reserve. There it was conducted by Ann (afterwards Mrs. Carroll), the daughter of Charles Walters. It was at the end of 1856 that steps were first taken in connection with this removal. From the Reserve the next move was to Shannon's Buildings at the corner of Bombala and Sharp Streets, from there to premises where today is the bar of the Prince of Wales Hotel.
1869
Away up on the Sydney Road, about where the late Mr. Shannon's houses are erected, Joseph Ward, after leaving the Australian Hotel, became licensee of The Plough Inn, more often known "The Dead Finish."

Perkins papers 1858 June 22 Manaro Mercury?
The Lord Bishop of Sydney proceeded to Mr. Shannon's Hotel

From: "Christine Winn" <cwinn-at-dfr.com.au> To: <richards-at-planet.net.au> Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 12:01 PM Subject: Samuel Shannon - more info

My name is Christine Winn and I purchased the "Wren's Nest" an old house in Cooma and from records I have, Samuel Shannon owned this property at one time and is in actual fact buried on the property. The burial plot is a now a small piece of crown land between "Wren's Nest" and the adjoining property, and access is best from the adjoining property belongong to Robin Simms (who also used to own "Wren's Nest". The following is the information I have and I thought it might be of interest to you. I find it all fascinating and I am going to do a history album of "Wren's Nest" which I hope will stay with the Deeds. Cheers!

Christine cwinn-at-dfr.com.au

1857 - 22nd July "Wren's Nest" Church Road, Cooma Purchased by Samuel Shannon - Storekeeper

For £300/-/- with all "houses, outhouses, buildings, ways, waters, water courses". Before coming to Cooma, Samuel Shannon had a store at Bunyan and by March 1854 carried on a general store, built of slabs and covered with bark, in Bombala Street Cooma. In 1856 he opened a store in Lambie Street and in 1857 built the Victoria Hotel where the Monaro Hotel now stands. Shannon died on 16 May 1868 and is buried in a double grave in the grounds of "Wren's Nest". There is apparently no evidence of his wife or a relative being buried beside him, but unnamed twins who were stillborn were buried there later. The burial plot is still there and the headstone of Samuel Shannon has been partly restored. There seems no explanation for Samuel Shannon being buried at "Wren's Nest" especially since there was a dedicated Jewish portion at the Christ Church cemetery not far away. Interestingly enough, the burial plot was not included in future title transfers and the holding then became slightly less than seven acres.

The "Wren's Nest" was left to Samuel Shannon's widow Amelia Shannon as Administratrix of the estate and was conveyed to John Shannon on 16th November 1872 as his share of his father's estate.

The house was presumably tenanted for a while until the estate was settled as "The Sydney Morning Herald" contained an account of the "Wren's Nest" being struck by lightning the previous Saturday on 10th December 1872. It said that all the members of the family of Mr. Sam Robinson, except Mrs.Robinson had been struck by lightning which came into the house in several places. The second son was apparently struck so severely that he remained unconscious for more than half an hour, and for a time was considered dead by his parents.

"The Express" article 16 May 1987 - Cooma NSW

Will 8930 16/5/1868 A

Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal Vol 7 No 2 July 1991 p269-272
SAMUEL SHANNON: Cooma Businessman(1802-1868)
by John Stanhope
INTRODUCTION
My wife Loreen Stanhope is the granddaughter of Rebecca Maude Boon, the grand-daughter of Samuel Shannon. In the course of family research, I found the name Shannon and expected him to be Irish. The discovery that his marriage was Jewish was a surprise. Perhaps intervening generations had suppressed either their Jewish or convict background, or both. This discovery led us to an appreciation of the contribution of early Jewish Australians to our heritage.

SAMUEL SHANNON
Samuel Shannon was born in Bishopgate Street in London in 1802.'(1) His death certificate(2) states that he was the son of a Jacob Shannon, who was a confectioner at Cannal Place, Kent Road(3)
Samuel Shannon was arrested in 1821. On 13 August 1821 at Kent Assizes in Maidstone he was convicted of 'having and forging bank notes' and was sentenced to transportation to the colonies for fourteen years.(4) He was imprisoned on the hulk Retribution in the Thames estuary at Sheerness for three months. When transferred to the Richmond his character was described as 'good'. (5) He travelled on the Ricbmond which left Sheerness on 27 November 1821 with 160 male convicts, one of whom died on the voyage. They reached Hobart on 30 April 1822.(6)
On arrival at the Derwent, Hobart, Shannon was described as a merchant's clerk by vocation, aged 21, 5 feet 3 l/2 inches in height, with fair complexion, dark brown eyes and hair. He was not the first Jew from Sheerness to be transported to Hobart for 'Judah and Joseph Solomon... arrived in Hobart Town 1819, with life sentences...They came from the Thames estuary town of Sheerness and were part of the little Jewish community there(7).
He was assigned to work for James Cox (1790-1866) who had moved from Sydney to Van Diemen's Land in 1814 to acquire and develop properties in the Tamar and Huon valleys. In the 1828 census Samuel was listed as aged 28, working on the Cox farm at Evandale as a laborer for James' brother, George Cox (1795-1868),(8)who later returned to Sydney and acquired property at Mulgoa. Shannon was also incorrectly described in the census as having arrived on the Mariner in 1821 and as being of the 'Protestant Religion'. Shannon's term expired in 1835. His certificate of freedom, issued in New South Wales on 28 August 1835, states that he was 5 feet 4 inches in height. had dark complexion, dark brown hair and eyes, and scarred hands and that his occupation was as a carpenter.
When and how Shannon arrived in New South Wales is unknown, but it may
have been between expiration of his term and issuance of the certificate. He and another Cooma Jew are referred to as 'free migrants of the mid 183Os'.(9) We may speculate that having served his sentence in Van Diemen's Land, he was free to arrive in Sydney in August 1835, perhaps as an unlisted steerage passenger. Apparently his convict background was not noted, or noteworthy, in the Sydney Jewish community which seems to have 'preferred to completely conceal its convict elements'.(10) Mitchell Felix, a Cooma historian, suggests that he 'seems to have arrived probably also as a steerage passenger in the late thirties'.(11)I believe that this date is not correct.
On 10 February 1841 Shannon was married to Emelia Abrahams according to Jewish rites by Jacob Isaacs.(12) Economic depression in 184 1 persuaded many Jews to leave Sydney and 'spread out'(13) Shannon went south to the 'Manaroo' (Monaro) district where other Jewish entrepreneurs were in business.
From 1837 to 1841, from his base in Sydney. Abraham Moses delivered supplies to the southern tablelands and alps. These activities included the setting up of a store near Michelago, about 320 kilometres south of Sydney, and another at Reid's Flat, at Bunyan, 7km north of Cooma, soon to be known as Jews' Flat, because of the presence of the Moses, Solomon and Shannon families, all interrelated. Shannon is reputed to have been a brother to Abraham Moses's wife, Leah (nee Shannon).Abraham Moses added a public house, The Spatters' Arms, which still stands, to his store but in 1841 he sold his holdings near Cooma to Solomon Solomon who was married to Emelia Shannon's sister, Rachel, in 1840. Shannon opened a store at Jews' Flat some time in 1841-1842.
Shannon received a pasturage licence, gazetted on 1 November 1842.(14) He was already the father of a daughter, Rebecca, born at Jews' Flat (Bunyan). Rebecca's birth was not registered, as there was no civil registration at that time. She was neither christened in a Christian Church nor registered with the Sydney synagogue. The place of her birth is ascertained from her first marriage certificate(15) and her children's birth certificates, for example Rebecca Maude Boon.(16) Her age in early 1860 was 18, early in 1891 was 49 (Emelia Shannon 17) so that she was probably born late 1841 to early 1842.

On 19 December 1842, Shannon took over the licence of The Squatters' Arms (18). His remaining children were also born at Jews' Flat - Abraham, 1843, John Ernest, 1845, Isaac Albert, 1848, John Frederick, 1850 and Eli Augustus, 1854. Shannon's respectability in this period was exemplified by his support of Dr Dunmore Lang's . petition against further convict transportation. He presented his position on this issue in a personal paper dated 31 August 1850 (19)
Shannon's adoption of inn-keeping was common among colonial Jews. Most Jewish convicts were very poor and adopted new trades. As John Levi and George Bergman noted in their seminal work, Australian Genesis: &wish Settlers and Convicts, 'The Jews of both New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land spread out from the first areas of settlement as hawkers and licensed hotel keepers'. (20) This view was endorsed by historian Hilary Rubinstein who wrote: "Australia a large, number of tavern or hotel keepers and licensed liquor sellers were Jews'.(21) In 1854 Shannon relinquished <he Bunyan Inn to Alexander Davidson and moved. into Cooma town to develop a career building houses and shops(22) His sub-sequent career is well documented.(23) In March 1854 Samuel opened a slab-and-bark store in Cooma called me Big Drum, now the Big Mack, on the corner of Sharp and Bombala Streets.. He was granted a spirit merchant's licence for this store on 29 March 1854, renewed on 19 March 1855, 25 January 1856 and 15 January 1857. About 1857 the post office was located in this store for a short time. In 1855 he built a slab-and-thatch store at Lambie Street, Mudhouse Flat, and obtained a spirit merchants chant's licence for this store on 1 October 1855, renewed on 28 January 1856, and 24 September 1956. In January 1956 he disposed of this property to Abraham Levy who 'respectfully begs to acquaint the public of Cooma... that he has taken those premises lately occupied by Mr. Shannon as a store situated in Lambie Street'. In 1857 Shannon opened the Victoria Hotel (now the Prince of Wales) and received a general publican's licence on 1 December 1857. The spirit merchant's licence for the Big Drum was not renewed. The publican's licence was confirmed on 20 April 1858.(24)
On 21 May 1860, Samuel's daughter, Rebecca, was married aged 18, with her father's consent.(25) The groom was Robert Barr, a carpenter, from Lanarkshire, Scotland. The celebrant was Rev. Thomas Druitt, Anglican rector of Cooma, 1856-90. The venue was 'Williams' Station at the junction of the Big Badga and Numeralla Rivers', (26) Mary Ann Williams being one of the witnesses. Why was the marriage performed 20km out of Cooma? One surmises this was a compromise between Jewish and Anglican factors. Robert Barr was an Anglican and his grave is in the old Christ Church Anglican cemetery. Yet the ceremony could have been performed in the Anglican Church rather than on private property. Samuel and Emelia Shannon were later to be buried with Jewish rites. Possibly Cooma lacked a, Jewish marriage celebrant. Shannon turned over the Victoria Hotel to Robert and Rebecca.
During 1860, Shannon built two cottages, a bakery and a new store for Solomon and Harry Solomon. The following year hex rented for a brief period The Big Drum to a third Solomon brother, Charles.
In 1861 Shannon and three other businessmen .decided to establish a national (that is a non-denomination) school. Two previous attempts at establishing private schools had apparently failed. As one of the businessmen was a Roman Catholic and Shannon was a Jew, it seems likely that the group had hoped to forestall the forestall the development of a sectarian school. Two of the four had sons attending a Mr. Taylor's school adjacent to the Victoria Hotel. The national school was built in 1863.
Shannon owned other buildings. In July 1865 he leased the New London Store in Sharp Street to Sampson Hain, whose own building had been burnt down. On 28 .December of that year his son-in-law, Robert Barr, innkeeper, died suddenly of bowel obstruction and was buried by Rev. Druitt, leaving Rebecca and three young children. (27) Four months later, on 23 April 1866,' Rebecca remarried. Her address was given was the Victoria Hotel, her occupation as innkeeper. She was married to Daniel Boon, a jockey, in the Church of Scotland, by Rev: William Baker, Presbyterian incumbent,1865-1872 (28)
By the mid 1860s Shannon must have been in declining health, for when he died on 16 May 1868 at his Sharp Street residence, the cause of death was certified as natural decay for four years.29 He was described as an 'innkeeper'. The body was buried the next day on private land near the Christ Church Anglican cemetery(30) Emelia stated that he had been 38 years in New South Wales, that is since 1830, which suggests that she may have been unaware of his convict past.
The witnesses were the undertaker, Edmund Harrison and Charles Solomon, a long time friend, Monaro identity and fellow Jew. Although the name and religion of minister was left blank, we may assume Solomon performed a Jewish ceremony, since when Emelia Shannon died in 1891 'C. Solomon J.P. according to the rites of the Jewish Church' officiated - the same Charles Solomon.
Although described as being on the west side of Church Rd surrounded by a railing (in 1982), the grave could not be found by my wife and myself on two searches. Apparently there was an inscription misread as 'SHANNON Samuel, died 10 May 186-'
No descendents are known to remain in Cooma. Shannon's daughter, Rebecca, moved to Wagga Wagga soon after Shannon's death. Abraham Shannon also moved to Wagga Wagga in 1876-1877 and then settled in Queanbeyan. Isaac Shannon, after a notable business and civic career, retired to Guildford, as did bachelor Jonah Shannon. John Shannon also did not marry. Eli Shannon alone married in the Jewish community to Emily Cohen in 1892; if any of Samuel Shannon's descendents are of Jewish faith today, they would be through Eli.
Samuel Shannon was one of the Jewish businessmen, some of convict origin, who were scattered through New South Wales in the early middle of last century.In particular he was one of a group who pioneered the Monaro district.

NOTES
1. Certificate of freedom 35/914 on reel 995, Archives Office of NSW.
2 . NSW DC, 1868,577.
3. Tasmanian Papers 8 Richmond on reel CY1241, Mitchell Library.
4 . Principal Superintendent of Convicts: Bound Indents, 1822-23, p.96 and Public Records
Office (London) H027/21, on reel PRO 2765, Archives Office of NSW.
5. Surgeon Superintendent's Report, on reel PRO 3208, Archives Office of NSW
6. Noted in Tasmanian Papers 8 Richmond, op. cit. See also Muster of the vessel Richmond,
Derwent, on reel 2427, Archives Office of NSW and Bateson, C. The Convict Ships
1788-1868 Artarmon: A.H. & A.W.. Reed, 2nd Edn., 1974.
7 . Levi, J.S. and Bergman, G.F.J. Australian Genesis: Jewish Convicts and Settlers 1788-1850 Adelaide: Rigby, 1974, p.262.
8 . Sainty, M.R. and Johnson, K.A. Census of NSW November 1828 Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1980.
9 . Levi and Bergman, op. cit., 237.
10 . Forbes, M.Z. 'A historical note Jews at Tarban Creek Asylum, 1848-1854 Journal AJHS,
Vol X, 1990, p.795.
11 . Book review of Mitchell, Felix F. 'Back to Cooma celebrations Sydney: The Direct Publishing
Co., 1926, in Journal AJHS, Vo16, 1970, p.540.
12 . NSW, MC, 41 in vol. 135
13 . Rubinstein, H. Chosen: The Jews in Australia Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1987.
14 . Sydney Morning Herald, 1 November 1842, p.3.
15. NSW, MC, 1860, 1541
16. NSW, MC, 1871, 18539
17. NSW, DC, 1891, 5217.
18, NSW Publican's Licence 360,1842/43.
19. Mitchell Library Collection
20. Levi and Bergman, op. cit., p.237.
21. Rubinstein, op. cit., p.237.
22. NSW Land Grant Archives, vol. 160, numbers 409, 411
23. See Mitchell, Felix F. 'Back to Cooma' Celebrations, op. cit., and Neal, Lauri Cooma
County Sydney: The Cooma-Monaro Historical Society, 1976.
24. NSW Publican's Licence 409, 1857/58.
25. NSW MC, 1860,1541
26. Anglican Parish Registrar, Cooma, 1860.
27. NSW DC, 1865,3471
28. NSW MC, 1866,1817.
29. NSW DC, 1868, 3738
30. Ray, P. and Thoin, G. Monumental Inscriptions Monaro Canberra: The Heraldry and
Genealogy Society, 1982.

Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal Vol 7 No 4 1991 p710-711

JOHN STANHOPE
The Editor,
Australian Jewish Historical Society.
Dear Madam,
The publication of my paper on Samuel Shannon' yielded several responses which have cast further light on this early Jewish Australian.
Dr Edward Duyker kindly drew my attention to the papers of John Arthur Perkins M.L.A. Perkins states that Abraham Moses had interests in the Monaro before 1837, because his name is on a list of persons whose pasture licences were
confirmed in January 1837.2 He opened The Squatters' Arms Inn in 1838 and transferred the licence to Solomon Solomon on 25 April 1840.3 He sold the property to Solomon in 1841.
Solomon transferred the licence to Shannon on 19 December 1842, but appears to have retained ownership until he sold The Squatters' Arms to Alexander Davidson in 1854. Perkins refers to the inn variously as Shannon's* and Solomon's 5
until Davidson took over.6 Shannon's standing in the Monaro community was evidenced by his being a signatory to nominations of election candidates to the Legislative Council 1851-59.' He had an interest in gold discoveries. l%e Goulburn Herald tells that "Good news - five ounces of gold brought in from Numeralla - a beautiful sample - bought by Mr. Shannon" in 1858F The connection with Numeralla gold may explain why his daughter Rebecca was married there in 1860.
In 1859 he rebuilt the Bombala Street store, the Illawarra Mercury reporting on 22 September 1859 that "another building worth mentioning is Mr. Shannon's new store. It is about forty feet by twenty feet, and consists of a ground store and a large room above it of the same size. This is the only building with a storey in Cooma, and a dwelling house is about to be joined to it.
Meanwhile the Kiandra Goldfields were declining and Shannon was one of a committee who bought the Kiandra newspaper plant and used it to found the Monaro Mercury on 23 February 186l.*O Shannon's reputation was so respected as to be exploited, for on 30 June 1862, Michael Cully was charged with obtaining clothing and cash (one pound) from John Dougill of Colinton (40 km north of Cooma) "by pretending that Mr. Shannon of Cooma owed him five hundred pounds".ll
Shannon's grave is now known to be located on land owned by Mr. Robert Simms, who wrote: "The grave site is probably 1 1/2 kms from Christ Church cemetery so I imagine that is why you were unable to find it". This land was bought by Shannon from the Wren family in 1854 and sold by his estate in 1872. Simms bought the property in 19%. In 1979 he subdivided, retaining a block of land which included the grave, and building a new house which he named "Shannon Lea" after the grave which is near the new house.12
A photograph of the gravestone has been lodged at the Australian Jewish Historical Society office. I Simms' daughter, Vivian Skinner, told me that as a school girl she could not persuade friends to stay the night because there was a grave in the backyard - they referred to "Shannon Lea" as "the haunted house"
1
2
NOTES
Yours sincerely,
John M. Stanhope
Stanhope, J.M., "Samuel Shannon: Cooma businessman (1802-1868>", AJHSJoumal, Vol.XI, 1991,
p.269.
Perkins, J.A., Monaro District Items, 9 volumes of typescript on reels A3622-A3624, Mitchell Library. vo1.1, 131.
Perkins, op.cit., I, 181.
Perkins, op.cit., I, 209, 220, 233.
Perkins, op.cit., I, 1-99, 255, 265; II, 317.
Perkins, op.cit., I, 195.
Perkins, opxit., II, 387, 437, 484, 537, 564.
Perkins, op.cit., II, 548.
Perkins, op.cit., III, 577.
Perkins, op.cit., III, 673.
Perkins, op.cit., III, 740.
Simms, R., personal communication, 17th September 1991.
Skinner, V., personal communication, 6th September, 1991.

Samuel probably worked as an agent for his brother in law Abraham Moses in Cooma.
Was listed as a member of the community of the Sydney Synagogue in 1843, paying 2 guineas per year.

Hilary L ans W.D. Rubenstein The Jews in Australia:a thematic history Vol 1, 1788 to 1945 Heinemann, Port Melbourne, 1991 p88-89
...In 1854 Soloman moved to Cooma, where he opened a store which proved to be the forerunner of a firm that remains in business today. His brother took over the store in Jew's Flat, where the Solomon family had been joined by Samuel Shannon, another free migrant of the 1830's. Shannon, too, opened a store, and he later followed the Solomons to Cooma where he opened another.

Aged 70 in 1868, Aged 43 at marriage

Cooma Express Friday 8 December 1893 p2
Mr. Lewis Shannon...The remains were interred in a private piece of land near the Wren's nest and alongside his brother

Title Monumental inscriptions, Monaro : counties of Beresford, Wallace and Wellesley / edited by P. Ray and G. Thom. , Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra, 1982. p219
Headstone is situated on the south-eastern outskirts of Cooma, on private property, on the western side of Church road. The stone is surrounded by an iron railing.
...
Sacred to the memory of Samuel Shannon who departed this life 10 May 186 (?1868)

Certificate of freedom
SHANNON Samuel 35/0914 25 Aug 1835 Richmond 1822 4/4329 995

Death
3738/1868 SHANNON SAMUEL JACOB DIED COOMA COOMA
Marriage
V184141 135/1841 SHANNON SAMUEL ABRAHAMS EMELIA EA

http://www.cooma.nsw.gov.au/monaropioneers/solomonc.htm
CHARLES SOLOMON
Reed's Flat 1841

CHARLES SOLOMON is very closely associated with the earliest of Manaro history. In 1841 he came to Bunyan, then known as Reed's Flats, where his brother, Solomon Solomon, had acquired the hotel business previously carried on by David Moses. In addition to the hotel, Solomon Solomon conducted, in conjunction with his brother, Harry Solomon, a store business, and in each of these young Charles Solomon assisted. When race meetings were held at the Flats, he rode many a horse to victory. Later he started cattle dealing, being his own drover, and it is recorded that on Xmas Eve, 1849, he at Galantiba Station found a family of five who had been without tea, flour or sugar for five weeks. With these he shared his supply. When he made his first trip to Gippsland there was no track, the only guide being an occasional blazed tree. When he first came to Cooma he states the blacks were very numerous, but not dangerous, but that after 1850 they began to get troublesome. In his early days Mr. Solomon recalled that the only money of utility were notes of 5/- and 10/- each, issued by Ben Boyd.

In 1861, Mr. Solomon took up his residence in Cooma, and with William Coulter, who had been his droving partner, started business in a stone building at the corner of Sharp and Bombala Streets, owned by Samuel Shannon and known as the "Big Drum." This business was carried on for twelve months only. Mr. Solomon went to Kiandra during the rush. In conjunction with Mr. Moses, he had a store at Jindabyne, which was run by a storekeeper named Davis. The store was run in conjunction with an hotel which belonged to Jindabyne East, and was situated where the Jindabyne Hotel is to-day. In 1870 Jacob Alexander was running the store for him. In addition to the store at Jindabyne, the subject of this sketch for a number of years owned a store at Buckley's Crossing. This was conducted by John and Isaac Davis. Mr. Solomon had built to his order in 1862 the Cooma Hotel, at the corner of Massie and Vale Streets. After carrying this on for three years, he went across the road to premises built by Amos Crisp, for William Ross. There he carried on at first in partnership with David Moses as Moses and Solomon, and following that as C. Solomon, until his death, the business of a general merchant.

Charles Solomon was one of Manaro's most public-spirited and esteemed citizens. He was the first Mayor of the town, a trustee of the Park, as also of the Hospital, on the Committee of which he sat for 45 years. He was a President and Life Member of the School of Arts, to which institution he gave the block of land in Bombala Street upon which the hall was built, subsequently adding to this by a gift of an additional parcel of land. He was President of the Manaro jockey Club, a member of the Local Land Board, and for forty years was a member of the Cooma School Board, as well as being a foundation member of the Masonic Lodge. He took a keen interest in all sports, especially cricket, and for many years was a patron of the local club. He died in Cooma on 15th November, 1915, at the age of 84, leaving a widow and a number of children. Two sons, Lewis Samuel, who carries on the business founded by his father, and Harry Hyam, a solicitor who has acted as Clerk to the Monaro Shire since its inception in 1906, still remain in Cooma. The other members of the family, including his widow, have left the district.

Transcribed by Pattrick Mould in 2003, from the book "Back to Coma' Celebrations" page 86

Emelia Abrahams

Will 2804 Series 4 Cooma 19/5/1891A

Shannon Amelia, late of Cooma, widow deceased, probate notice. Manaro Mercury 24.11.1891.
http://www.webone.com.au/~sgrieves/manaro_mercury.htm#Scanes

Her death
5217/1891 SHANNON AMELIA UNKNOWN UNKNOWN COOMA

Sarah is buried in private land

http://www.blaxland.com/ozships/
Arrival of the Lady Raffles
from Plymouth 13th May 1839
to Sydney 12th Sep 1839

John M Stanhope
13/24 Edensor Street, EPPING 2121
Phone 02 98682503 stanhopej-at-bigpond.com
Emelia was born in August 1816 in Hackney, London, a daughter (not the eldest) of Louis/Lewis (AONSW Shipping arrivals reel 2134 4 4784 p193 "Louis" in Emelia's entry, Lewis: in Rachel's entry) Abrahams and his wife Rebecca, who were Jewish. Probable references to her family were found
1. "L & A Abrahams, oil and Italian merchants 18 Camomile Street Bishopgate (Kent's Londdon directories 1818,1819; Robsonss's London directories 1819,1820.
2. Death and burial of a male infant aged 11 days to Esterh A of Well Street, Hackney 5 September 1828 (Great Synagogue of London, Australian Jewish Historical Society reel 0094663)
3 marriage of Michael A son of Lewis A, 21 March 1838 (New Synagogue of London, Australian Jewish Historical Society reel 0094668), Described as "Michael Abrahams, oil and Italian warehouse, [51 and/or 56] Mansell Street, Goodman's Field (Pigot & Co directory of London& Middlesex 1823-24; Pigot & Co directory of London& Middlesex 1825-26; ; Post Office London directory 1846)
Emigration
Emelia and her sister Rachel were recruited as "house servant" and "general servant" respectively by John Marshall, the well known the immigration agent, for employment in Sydney. They departed Plymouth of 13 May 1839 by the ship "Lady Raffles", arriving Sydney 12 September 1839. the ship manifest tells us that she could read and write, was Jewish by faith, and in good health.

Marshall was criticised by Dr. Dunmore Lang as "another villain Mr. Marshall of female emigration notoriety in the town of Sydney' and chief beneficiary in the infamous bounty system 'conducted wholly for private gain with utter disregard of moral welfare' (Hoban M Fifty one pieces of wedding cake. The Polding Press, Melbourne 1984). However in the preponderantly male Jewish community of NSW, Jewish brides were eagerly sought and both sisters soon married, Rachel in 1840 to Solomon Solomon (JR note - in the Bridge St Synagogue, above the shop of Abraham Moses, operated from 1837 to 1844 when the York St Synagogue opened) and Emelia on 10 February 1841 to Samuel Shannon.

Life in Monaro
She spent the remainder of her life in the Bunyan/Nimmitable/Cooma district. Her seven known children are listed under "Samuel Shannon". On Samuels death, she was the administrator of his estate. She sold properties in 1871, 1872 and 1879. In September 1872 she distributed properties to her sons John, Isaac, Jonah, and Eli, all of whom were living with her in Bombala Street, and all described as "dealers, in 1877 (1878 Post office Directory quoted in Perkins Papers)
She managed the Victoria Hotel in Cooma from Samuel's death in may 1868 and possibly earlier (if his health had been poor through 1867). In 1869, the hotel was known as "Shannon's Victoria hotel". A series of lessees and managers later operated till May 1882, when she sold out to George Rolfe, who undertook extensive rebuilding. In October 1874 the name was changed to "Prince of Wales Hotel"...
She died on 19 may 1891 of "senile decay...during 9 days" at her Bombala Street residence. She was buried next day at 8 am according to Jewish rites celebrated by Charles Solomon JP. brother of Solomon Solomon. The grave was in a "private cemetery Cooma""near the old burial ground occupying a half acre adjacent to Christ Church cemetery, consecrated by Rabbi Levy on 29 March 170. Administration of her estate worth £80 was granted to her son Eli on 12 May 1892
her character was described as "kind and generous"

31. Jonah Frederick Shannon

Will 620119 P Guildford
SMH Friday 22 July 1966 p24
at hospital. late of Marion St Guildford (formerly of Cooma). brother of Laura (Mrs. H McKenzie) and uncle of Lorna (Mrs. H Vaness) and Hugh McKenzie.

SMH Mon 26 June 1922 p6 and 5
Sands 1881 Bombala St Cooma

V18501964 155/1850 SHANNON JONAS F SAMUEL AMELIA

33. Eli Augustus Shannon

Goulburn Evening Post Monday 6 January 1941 p2
As a result of an accident, the death took place in Queanbeyan District Hospital on December 26 of Eli Augustus Shannon, aged 86. Death was due to pneumonia, following on a fractured neck. Deceased was unmarried, and was born in Cooma, but had lived for many years in the Queanbeyan district.

Manaro Mercury Saturday 2 December 1882 p2
Manaro Election
Mr. R.L. Tooth's General Committee
...E.A. Shannon...
J.A. Fergus...
John Shannon...
With power to add to their numbers
I.A. Shannon

Eli was a son of Samuel. He married but the 1892 marriage seems not to have produced children - I have been unable to locate his wife Emily Cohen’s death or divorce.
John M Stanhope
13/24 Edensor Street, EPPING 2121
Phone 02 98682503 stanhopej-at-bigpond.com
17 December 2003

Marriage ?
5641/1892 SHANNON ELI A COHEN EMILY S NEWTOWN

Photograph of tombstone

Emily L Cohen

Her death?
20832/1940 SHANNON EMILY LOUISA WILLIAM LOUISA MANLY
5093/1898 SHANNON EMILY CHARLES ANNE CASINO

her birth?
565/1877 COHEN PHOEBE E L ELIAS PHOEBE SYDNEY

16. Esther Shannon

Sydney Burial ground 1819-1901/ by Keith A . Johnson and Malcolm R. Sainty , Library of Australian History Sydney 2001 ISBN 0908120982 p 404 Record 2756
Esther Shannon died 14th September 1848 aged (42 years)

Esther Cooper was at Laurences Wedding in 1839

Buried in the Devonshire St cemetery. No remains left when the cemetrey was exhumed and moved to Botany to make way for Central railway station.
V184830 136/1848 COOPER ESTHER AGE 42

Mrs.Cooper? Emmigated as Mrs. Cooper. Esther Cooper a witness at Laurence's wedding

John M Stanhope
13/24 Edensor Street, EPPING 2121
Phone 02 98682503 stanhopej-at-bigpond.com
17 December 2003

STL0030c.doc JOHN M STANHOPE 6 March 2004

ALFRED COOPER

This man was identified by searching the NSW Pioneer Index for a child for Esther Shannon/Cooper. The child found was George Alfred Cooper, whose father was named as Alfred Cooper.

He was born in Oxford, England, and convicted of picking pockets at Oxford on 15 October 1827. He was sentenced to transportation for life. He travelled on the "Phoenix" I (2), leaving Spithead on 7 March 1828, and reaching Sydney Cove on 13 July 1828 . The convicts were mustered on board (and presumably landed) on 18 July 1828.

Cooper was described as aged 19 (therefore born 1809-1809), able to read and write, Protestant, single, a mason's labourer by occupation, 5'8½" tall, having a pocked complexion, with red-sandy hair and dark brown eyes. He had two previous convictions. He had tattoos - an anchor and the letters WC on his right arm, and an anchor and the letters AC on his left arm. He was assigned to Mr. Webber (James Philip Webber, who had extensive interests in the Hunter district).

He was granted a ticket of leave in 1836 . This allowed him to work independently within the Hunter district.

On 3 October 1837 he applied for permission to marry Sarah Perkins, giving his age as 28. Sarah was serving a seven-year sentence and had been transported on "Pyramus" (2). She was aged 29. The marriage was to be performed by Rev GK Rusden at Maitland . Permission was refused on 12 October 1837 because Sarah had stated on arrival that she was married (and had one child).

On 6 June 1840, aged 31, he applied for permission to marry Johannah Kelly who was aged 39, a widow, transported for seven years on the "Margaret" (1). They were residing at Paterson, and he was employed as a smith . Nothing seems to have resulted form the application, as it is listed neither among those granted or refused, and no marriage is indexed.

On 10 April 1847, he was granted a conditional pardon , which would have allowed him to leave the hunter district, but not return to Britain.

On 30 July 1848, the birth of George Alfred Cooper to Alfred and Esther Cooper occurred. I have found no documentation of a Cooper/Shannon marriage. On 14 September 1848, Esther died, and was indexed twice in the Pioneer Index, under the names Esther Cooper and Esther Shannon. She was buried in the Jewish section of the Devonshire Cemetery under the name Esther Shannon.

On 17 December 1848, George Alfred Cooper was baptized at St James' church, Sydney. His father was residing at Surry Hills, and working as a hairdresser.

STL0030c.doc JOHN M STANHOPE 6 March 2004

Bateson pp.348,286.
Bound indents fiche 669.
TL 36/1487.
Convict applications to marry.
Refusals fiche 198.
Convict applications to marry fiche 786.
CP 47/246.

18. Israel Laurence Lewis Shannon

http://www.cooma.nsw.gov.au/monaropioneers/greville.htm

Greville's 1872 Post Office Directory
Cooma

Page 127
Distance 257 miles South of Sydney
Mail closes at General Post Office Monday, Wednesday, Friday 4 p.m.
Mail arrives at Post Town Wednesday, Friday. Sunday 3.45 a.m.
Mail leaves for Sydney Saturday, Monday, Thursday 5 p.m.
Mail arrives at Sydney Monday, Wednesday, Saturday 7.15 a.m.
Route - Rail Goulburn, coach Cooma

SHANNON L. bootmaker Commissioner St. Cooma

Will 6989 Series 4 4/12/1893 P Cooma

Sands 1881 Bootmaker Commissioner St Cooma

Originally assigned to James Hutton, then a Road gang
16 May 1836 received 50 lashes for disobedience of orders.
Francis Lowes Directory Mitchell Library FM4 2376
1844 Clothes Broker Clarence St
1855 200 Kent St

If he was assigned to Sarah Tucker, then she should be indexed in one of the musters. Check convict assignements 1834-1839

Cooma Express Friday 8 December 1893 p2
The funeral of Mr. Lewis Shannon, sen. who died on Monday last took place on Tuesday, when a goodly number of relatives and friends followed the remains to the grave. The remains were interred in a private piece of land near the Wren's nest and alongside his brother.
The deceased was highly respected and was 83 years of age at the time of his death and had been a resident of Cooma for very many years, and leaves behind him a wife, three sons, several daughters, and grandchildren, and other relatives to mourn their loss. Mr. C. Solomon read the burial service at the grave.

Wren's nest is in Church Street Cooma, 1200 metres from the corner of Church and Bombala Streets (which is immediately before the bridge). The junction is 850 metres from the corner of Bombala St. and the main drag. I couldn't see the graves from the road, and there was no one at home when I called.

Title Monumental inscriptions, Monaro : counties of Beresford, Wallace and Wellesley / edited by P. Ray and G. Thom. , Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra, 1982. p219
Headstone is situated on the south-eastern outskirts of Cooma, on private property, on the western side of Church road. The stone is surrounded by an iron railing.
...
Shannon Samuel died 10 May 186 (?1868)
JR note - No mention of his brother. Only one headstone at Wren's nest
Mr. Sims who now owns the plot thinks there are twin boys also buried in there

So who is his brother? Lawrence was known as Lewis or Louis by the locals in Cooma, but as Laurence or Lawrence to his family. He obviously started using the name "Lewis" back in Sydney, where many of his children have this name on their baptism certificate.

Death certificate 5081/1893 SHANNON LAURENCE LAWRENCE FANNY COOMA
Date and Place of death: 4 December 1893
Name and occupation: Laurence Shannon
Sex and Age: Male 86 years
Cause of death:
Medical attendant:
Last saw deceased:
Name and Occupation of father: Laurence Shannon
Name and maiden name of mother: Fanny
Informant: John Jacob Shannon Son
When and where buried: Private cemetery Cooma, by John Roddan
Name and religion of minister:
Witnesses:
Where Born and how long in the Australasian Colonies:
Place of marriage: Sydney
Age: 32
To whom Sarah Tucker
Children of marriage: -
Fanny 51
Julie 49
Esther 47
Lewis 42
David 40
John J 37
5 males and 3 females deceased

(JR note - still two children unnacounted for. we only have 12)

Lawrence/Lewis/Louis is buried next to his brother. Lawrence's father is Lawrence. Samuels father is given in the index as Jacob.

Deaths of children
855/1918 RODDAN JULIA LAWRENCE SARAH REDFERN
1760/1897 PARKINSON FANNY LAURENCE SARAH MACLEAN
Mary Anne Williams 11 Nov 1887 Bega
3169/1932 CRONIN ESTHER ISRAEL L SARAH NORTH SYDNEY
Lewis /Shannon/ 10 Nov 1924 Cooma 19977/1924
15904/1914 SHANNON DAVID LAWRENCE SARAH COOMA
V1854503 41A/1854 SHANNON HENRY INFANT

NSW Death Certificate 1920/014926
Date and Place of death: 6th September 1920 District Hospital Cooma
Name and occupation: John Jacob Shannon
Sex and Age: Male 64 years
Cause of death: Heart disease (Mitrial)
Medical attendant: W.S.Harrison
Last saw deceased: 6th September 1920
Name and Occupation of father: Lawrence Shannon, Dealer
Name and maiden name of mother: Sarah Tucker
Informant: W.J. Flannagan Matron District Hospital Cooma
When and where buried: 7th September 1920 RC Cemetery Mittagang Cooma
Name and religion of minister: James Joseph Norris RC
Witnesses: N. Bookallil L. Day
Where Born and how long in the Australasian Colonies: Cooma NSW
Place of marriage: Queanbeyan NSw
Age: unknown
To whom: Esther Hinds
Children of marriage: Esther 30 living Five daughters deceased

6721/1859 SHANNON SAMUEL LAURENCE SARAH COOMA
6816/1861 SHANNON ISRAEL S LAURENCE SARAH COOMA

"Assigned to James Hutton of George Street...
Kent Street shop was between King and Market...
On 6th November, 1847 "an ecclesiastical board" of the Sydney Synagogue consisting of Moses Rintel, Jacon Isaacs and Moses Moses was formed 'to report on the case of Mr. & Mrs. Shannon, but no decsion was made and the report was sent to the Chief Rabbi'. Israel Shannon, a convict transported about 1833-34 married a Christian woman to whom he had been assigned, and wished to have his wife converted to Judaism and his five children legitimised in Jewish Law. Since Laurence meets all these criteria, and no other convict named Shannon was transported about that time, I believe Israel and Laurence are the same person."
(JR- Note Esther Cronin nee Shannon is registered at her death with father Israel L and mother Sarah 3169/1932 CRONIN ESTHER ISRAEL L SARAH NORTH SYDNEY)
"The report to the board was received by the synagogue committee on 21st November 1847. Abraham Moses moved the reception of the report and the referral of the case to Rev. Rd. N.M Adler, the chief Rabbi in London. The letter was finally sent on 28th January, 1848. Dr. Adler's reply was apparently unfavourable, for Israel Shannon wrote to the committee asking for a local decision. However the committee resolved that it did not have 'the power to form or appoint a beth Din without the sanction of the chief rabbi, Dr. Adler. The late baptism of child 5 suggests that the family decided not to be Jewish in 1853.

The most likely year of his move from Sydney to Cooma is 1858, based on the places and years of his children's births and marriages. In 1869 he owned freehold property in Cooma/ Laurence Shannon died in Cooma in 1893. His parents were named as "Lawrence" and "Fanny" on the death certificate. His relationship to Samuel Shannon is unproven (JR note Cooma Express Friday 8 December 1893 p2 Mr. Lewis Shannon, sen. who died on Monday last took place on Tuesday...The remains were interred in a private piece of land near the Wren's nest and alongside his brother.) but he coincidences of religeon, birthplace, Cooma residence, his daughter Mary Anne being a Witness to Samuel's daughter Rebecca's 1860 marriage and the naming of Laurence's son Samuel are suggestive. Almost certainly he was Samuels's brother. Samuel's father was Jacob. his mother was not named.
Sarah died in Cooma in 1896
John M Stanhope 25/6/1997 24 Edson St Epping
9868 25303

Old Bailey Session Papers 1831 Fifth Session Fourth Day p567

1123 LAWRENCE SHANNON was indicted for stealing, on 13th of April, 3 razors, value 3s.; 1 shaving box, value 4d.; 1 shaving brush, value 2d.; 1 pair of trousers, value 2s.; 1 chain, value 2s.; 1 seal, value 6d.; 1 comb, value 4d.; 1 book, value 6d.; and 1 halfpenny, the property of Elijah Farmer.
Elijah Farmer. I am a plumber and glazier - I lodge in Baker’s row, Mile-end road; I have been there four or five years. The prisoner came there about eight days before this happened - I believe he is a slipper-maker; I went out between five and six o’clock in the morning, on the 13th of April - I left the prisoner there; he slept in the same room - my box was near the bed; it was locked - when I came home the hinges were nearly off, and I missed the articles stated out of it; the prisoner was gone - I did not see him again until the 26th, when he was in custody in Worship street; I have not found any of my property - he has given no notice of leaving; I expected him to come home in the evening.
MARY COBB. I am mistress of the house - prosecutor has been with me for years. The prisoner came there on the 1st of April, to lodge by the week - on the 13th he left without notice; about half past seven o’clock after the prosecutor was gone, I heard him come down and shut the door - he never returned; he took away his night cap and his property - the prosecutor complained of losing his property ; I went the same evening to where the prisoner had told me I might have his address, No. 38 Great Garden street - as I went up the steps I saw him at the window; I went into the passage - the room door was locked; I saw a young woman, who made a sort of stammer - I said I wanted to see the prisoner, and it was no use denying it, for I had seen him; she then went into the back room, and said ‘You had better come forward, she has seen you;” he then came forward, and I accused him of it - he denied it; I said, “The young man is at the corner of the street, and you had better go with me to him;” he went with me part of the way, and then ran away - my brother , who was with me, ran after him, but did not like to follow him further; we afterwards heard he was at No. 21, Baker’s row - we sent for him; he was denied, but the officer got him.
Prisoner. You said you would give charge of me.
Witness. Yes, I did, and I would if I could have got an officer.
Prisoner’s defence. I did not run - the prosecutor’s room door was wide open, and there was free access for any of the lodgers ; I had not time to return to my lodgings - she came the same afternoon; I never did such a thing - I was at my father’s house, and my sister told me she had come; she did not say she had seen me.
GUILTY. Aged 20 - Transported for Seven Years

http://www.blaxland.com/ozships/
Arrival of the ship Surrey
from Plymouth 7th Apr 1834
to NSW 17th Aug 1834
Vessel details
Name Surrey
Type ship
Master Charles Kemp
Weight 401
Passenger / crew list
Surname First Title Notes Type Source
Sheaffe Mrs. smh
Sheaffe Miss smh
7 women smh
10 children smh
260 male convicts convict smh
Shaeffe Lt crew smh
Knowles Ensign 50th Regt crew smh
30 rank and file 50th Regt mil/mrch smh

Passage of 111 days. On a previous voyage to the colony, Surrey had had an outbreak of Typhus and lost 51, dead, 36 convicts, the ships Captain and 14 crew members, on a voyage that took 156 days.p176-179.
She was the only convict ship to make 11 voyages to Australia p259
There were no deaths on the Surrey on Laurence's voyage in 1834 p 334
The Convict Ships 1787-1868 by Charles Bateson, Glasgow, Brown Son and Ferguson, 1959, p302

In 1833 the population of the colony was 60,794. Within 18 months of Laurence's arrival the population had grown to 77,096 in 1836
Tracing your family history in Australia: a national guide to sources. 3rd. ed./Nick Vine Hall, Fast Books, Glebe, 2002, ISBN 1864043849 p 99

http://www.records.nsw.gov.au
Ticket of leave
Surname First CFNo Date Vessel Year SRRef Film
SHANNON Lawrence 38/0458 29 May 1838 Surry 1834 4/4342 1000

Certificate of freedom No 38/458 29 May 1838 AONSW Reel 1000
Certificate of freedom 10/7/1838
Prisoner's No 34/1608
Name Lawrence Shannon
Ship Surrey 7th
Master Kemp
Year 1834
Native Place London
Trade or Calling Shoemaker
Offence Stealing clothes
Place of Trial Middlesex GD (Gaol Delivery)
Date of Trial 12th May 1831
Sentence Seven years
year of Birth 1815
Height 5 feet 3 inches
Complexion Sallow
Hair Light Brown
Eyes Brown
General remarks Eyebrows partially meeting. Mole on right cheek another right side of chin. raised scar left side of same. top of both little fingers crooked A/R
Delivered June 2 1838

http://www.records.nsw.gov.au
Index to Convict Bank Warrants, 1837-1870
Surname FirstName Ship Year WarrantNo Condition Reel Item Remarks
Shannon Lawrence Surrey (7) 38/64 Free 595 [X45]
Date 3 July 1838 2 pounds
Convict indent papers for Surry 1834 34/1608
States occupation as Shoemakers boy, Religeon is Jew

So was he born in 1815 (Certificate of freedom) or in 1811 (Trial)

Birth of children
V1839525 23A/1839 SHANNON FANNY LAWRENCE SARAH
V18432260 27A/1843 SHANNON JULIA LAWRENCE SARAH
V18432427 27A/1843 SHANNON MARY A LAURENCE SARAH
V1845688 30A/1845 SHANNON ESTHER LAWRENCE SARAH
6721/1859 SHANNON SAMUEL LAURENCE SARAH COOMA
6816/1861 SHANNON ISRAEL S LAURENCE SARAH COOMA

Death of children
V18421109 114/1842 SHANNON THOMAS INFANT
V18431111 103/1843 SHANNON JOHN INFANT
V1846334 104/1846 SHANNON SARAH INFANT
V184721 136/1847 SHANNON FEMALE INFANT
V1849729 34B/1849 SHANNON ELIZA INFANT
V1849552 117/1849 SHANNON PATRICK INFANT
2949/1859 SHANNON SAMUEL LAWRENCE SARAH COOMA
2726/1861 SHANNON ISRAEL S LAURENCE SARAH COOMA
15904/1914 SHANNON DAVID LAWRENCE SARAH COOMA
(Who is david?)

Sarah Tucker

Death Certificate 5996/1896 SHANNON SARAH UNKNOWN UNKNOWN COOMA
9 June 1896 Commission Street Cooma Sarah Shannon widow female 84 years
Gastric Catarrah and exhaustion after 3 weeks Joseph Ryan medical attendant
Father and mother unknown
Informant John Shannon son of Cooma
Buried 10 june 1896 at Cooma by W A Roddan
Minister P. Byrne Church of Rome
Witnesses James Roddan and John Shannon
Born "unknown" England 61 years in NSW
married in Sydney age 24 to Lawrence Shannon
Children
Fanny 59
Julia 50
Louis 46
Esther 44
David 42
John Jacob living
1 male and 7 females deceased

Cooma Express Friday 12th June 1896 p2
The second death is that of Mrs. Louis Shannon, relict of the late Louis Shannon, and mother of Messrs. Louis David and John Shannon of this town, which took place Tuesday morning last. The deceased was a very old resident of Cooma, having lived here for fully 30 years if not more, and as deceased had arrived at the mature age of 85 years her demise was not altogether unexpected. Mrs.. Shannon was known to almost every man woman and child in the community, and was universally esteemed by all. The deceased leaves behind her three sons and several daughters, all grown up, mostly married, besides a number of grandchildren and other relatives. The cause of death was general breaking up of the system. The funeral took place on Wednesday afternoon last and the remains were interred in the RC Cemetery Mittagang.

This would make her 27 or 28 when she married.

Marriage Certificate V1839 74 23B/1839
St. Andrew's County of Cumberland
Lawrence Shannon of the Parish of St. Andrew's Bachelor
Sarah Tucker of this Parish Spinster
married in this church by Banns this eleventh day of February in the year 1839 By me William Hor. Walsh Officiating Minister
This marriage was solemnized between us Lawrence Shannon
Sarah Tucker X her mark
In the presence of us
Esther Cooper of Sussex Street Sydney
Robert Bell of Sussex Street Sydney

41. Shannon

Death
V184721 136/1847 SHANNON FEMALE INFANT

44. David Shannon

Death Certificate 15904/1914 SHANNON DAVID LAWRENCE SARAH COOMA
Death Certificate 1914/015904
Date 19 November 1914
Place Sharp St Cooma
Occupation Bootmaker
Sex male
Age 61 years
COD Enteritis and Heart failure
Duration 17 days
Medical Attendant W.S. Harrison
Father Lawrence Shannon produce dealer
Mother Sarah Tucker
Informant A.C. Shannon nephew Cooma
Buried 19 November 1914 RC Cemetery Cooma
Undertaker William Thornton
Minister Joseph Rafferty
Religion RC
Witnesses W.H. Goodwin John J O'Brien
Born Sydney NSW
Place of marriage Not married

Cooma Express Friday 20 November 1914 p2
Mr. David Shannon, an old resident of over 40 years standing died on Wednesday, at the age of 66. Deceased, who had been ailing for but a very brief period, leaves two brothers, Messrs. L. and J. Shannon.

Sharp St Cooma in 1914 Bootmaker COd Enteritis and Heartfailure Catholic Cooma
Informant AC Shannon

45. Henry Shannon

V1854500 40/1854
Baptisms Solemnized in the Parish of St. Andrew's in the County of Cumberland in the year 1854
When When Born Child's Parents names Abode Quality or by Whom
26 Feb Henry Louis & Sarah Shannon Kent St Shoemaker G. King

Death?
V1854503 41A/1854 SHANNON HENRY INFANT

47. Samuel Shannon

6721/1859 SHANNON SAMUEL LAURENCE SARAH COOMA

48. Israel Samuel Shannon

6816/1861 SHANNON ISRAEL S LAURENCE SARAH COOMA

Perkins papers died 26/3/1861 Age 3 months 2days

20. Michael Hyam

Will 2815 Series 3 Nowra 3/9/1878 P

Pioneer register pre-Federation for the Bega Valley shire celebrating the Centenary of Federation / compiled by Bega Valley Genealogy Society Inc. Pambula, N.S.W. : Bega Valley Genealogy Society Inc, 2002. p300-301
Michael HYAM (b:1799) was known as Governor Darling’s “perfect Jew”. Michael HYAM was the third Jewish free settler to arrive in Australia. The Chief Rabbi in London had given him permission to act as a mohel, to circumcise Jewish boys as there was no rabbi in the colony. He also performed Jewish marriages and epresented a Synagogue in the Illawarra after the official establishment of a congregation in 1832. Armed with a recommendation from the Under-Secretary of the Colonial office he applied to Governor DARLING for a first-class land grant. The Governor was reluctant to make a Jew a landed proprietor, being possessed of the usual prejudices of the time, but as Michael had ; 1000 capital and two servants, he could not refuse and in 1829 granted him 1280 acres at Jamberoo near Kiama NSW.
Before he went down to Jamberoo, Michael had a disastrous business venture in Sydney, was made bankrupt and gaoled by his creditors, the first Jewish settler to suffer this fate. He was fortunate in his friends, the other Jewish merchants of Sydney, and by following their advice was soon freed and then travelled to his grant which he named Sarah Valley after his mother. He harvested the rich cedar of the area and established a farm, hotel, and store. By 1844 he had 100 acres fenced, cleared and cultivated, had built a barn, dairy, stables, stockyards, huts and piggeries, and had a tanyard in full operation. There was a church, flour mills, sawmill, and brewery within a quarter of a mile of the farm. He took great interest in the affairs of the Illawarra district, then called The Five Islands and recommended clearing the streets of Kiama and erecting a jetty to load his timber and his neighbours’ farm produce for Sydney.
Michael sold Sarah Valley in 1846 and went to live in Kiama, he eventually moved to Shoalhaven and pioneered the rich farmlands of Terara, where his descendants still live. He built a racecourse and raced his thoroughbreds against those of his fellow settlers. Hyam’s Beach, south of Nowra in Jervis Bay is named after him and was once his property. Michael remarried in 1853 to Deborah MOSES. Deborah died in 1865 aged 38 yrs and was buried in the Devonshire Cemetery. Michael left 70 pieces of property between Cambewarra and Ulladulla to his sons, daughters and grandchildren.
Charlotte aka Catherine HYAM nee BROUGHTON - was a widow when she married Michael, she converted to Judaism as Charlotte Rebecca. Her headstone was moved to Rookwood Cemetery when Devonshire Cemetery made way for Central Railway. Contributor No. 103

Death
9568/1878 HYAM MICHAEL DAVID SARAH SHOALHAVEN

Some unattached Hyams from the south coast. How so they fit in?
Marriage
3639/1871 COLEMAN CHARLES EDWARD HYAM MARY ANN ULLADULLA
Children
9906/1872 COLEMAN MARY A CHARLES MARY A GOULBURN
10709/1874 COLEMAN UNNAMED CHARLES EDWARD MARY ANN GOULBURN
11454/1876 COLEMAN UNNAMED CHARLES EDWARD MARY ANN GOULBURN
Death of children
5329/1877 COLEMAN JOHN W CHARLES MARY A GOULBURN

Extra children
V1857695 136/1857 HYAM DANIEL MICHAEL REBECCA
11222/1857 HYAM DANIEL MICHAEL DEBORAH SHOALHAVEN

Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal Vol VIII 1977 Part 4 p167-184
MICHAEL HYAM - GOVERNOR RALPH DARLING'S "PERFECT JEW"by G.F.J. Bergman, D. Ec., L.L.B.

The untimely death of Walter Jacob Levi, the unsuccessful cotton planter, in August 18281, had serious repercussions for Michael Hyam, another early Jewish free immigrant to New South Wales. He was a wealthy London shoe and bootmaker, born in London in 1799, the son of David Hyam, a painter, and his wife Sarah, nee Shannon. Michael Hyam had known Levi in London, before he left for Australia. He had not only the intention to make common cause with Levi in his pastoral pursuits, but had also consigned to him a large shipment of goods, which he brought out on 23 December, 18282 in the "George Canning", a vessel for which the firm Cooper & Levey acted as agents. He was accompanied by two servants, and when he arrived in Sydney, he learnt of, to his consternation and distress, Walter Levi's death. He approached Michael Phillips 3, one of the executors named in W .J. Levi's will, who confirmed that the goods on the "George Canning", worth about £1559, were Hyam's property.4 The goods were then sold in auction by the Jewish emancipist auctioneers Vaiben & Emanuel Solomon.4& 5
Hyam, who must have had good connections in London, secured a strong recommendation for a "First Class Land Grant" from Horace Twiss, Under Secretary at the Colonial Secretary's Office and this recommendation was forwarded to Governor Ralph Darling on 11 July, 1828.6 On 28 January, 1829, Hyam applied for the promised land grant, stating that he had £1000 capital and two servants.4 Governor Darling was not amused. In his dislike of Jews, the very conservative Governor viewed with disdain that a Jewish shoemaker should aspire to become a "man of landed estate", and whilst deferring reluctantly to the application, he wrote to Twiss on the same day as follows:
"I will not allow the present opportunity to pass without assuring you that your wishes, with respect to Michael Hyam, the shoemaker, recommended by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, shall be attended to.
In order to establish his claim to a Grant of the first class, Hyam has associated himself with a Hosier; and thus, by uniting their respective investments of shoes and stockings, he hopes to obtain a Grant as if he had imported capital available for agricultural purposes to the amount of £2000.
Hyam, as might be supposed from what I have stated, is a perfect Jew; But with every desire to render full justice to his ingenuity in qualifying himself to become a man of landed estate, I am apprehensive. I shall not be able, consistently with the rule in such cases and your desire no more, to put him in possession of a Grant commensurate with his wishes.
For my part, I could wish that such people like Hyam and his partner would confine themselves to their proper calling and defer becoming landed Proprietors until they have done making shoes and selling stockings. "7
Although the records do not mention the alleged partner of Hyam, later developments point to the fact that he might have been one of the Solomon brothers who sold his goods.
p169
Hyam was called before the Land Board, and on 18 February, 1829, Messrs. Dumaresq and Busby reported to the Governor that Hyam had submitted a capital schedule of 12653, consisting of bills drawn by several Jewish Sydney merchants such as Spyer & Cohen, E. Solomon, V. & E. Solomon, Joseph Raphael, and of goods, shoes, stockings and sundries, imported on the "George Canning", Hyam stated that the favourable accounts given of the colony had induced him to emigrate for the purpose of obtaining a grant of land on which to carry out improvements with his surplus means, and at the same time to continue his trade as boot & shoemaker. To this effect he had brought out two servants who were to take charge of his affairs in the country. He intended, however, if possible, to live himself in the country.4
Anticipating difficulties, Hyam had soon after his arrival, on 27 January, 1828, advertised in the Sydney Gazette that "any gentleman, wishing for a responsible manager, may meet with a person of the highest respectability and extensive knowledge of both in agriculture and affairs and accounts" should contact him at his address No. 4 George Street, Sydney. He probably did not receive any suitable answer and soon established himself at this address as boot & shoemaker.4

The Land Board considered his application and informed the Governor to order it.4 Darling noted at the back of the report:
"Let him, have authority to select two square miles."
An order was subsequently made out for Hyam to receive 1280 acres about 6 or 7 miles east of Kiama in the Division of Illawarra4 and the grant was' duly recorded in the Register for the County of Northumberland (1823-1837)8 at a locality called Minnamurra,9 today generally known as Jamberoo, a small holiday resort at the South Coast. l 0 Hyam named his property after his mother, Sarah's Valley.

Several sources mention that Hyam also received a grant of 640 acres at Lochinvar near Maitland in the Hunter Valley, 11 but this appears to be an error. The author received information from the Department of Lands that Hyam was originally promised 1280 acres of land on the Goulburn River, yet transferred the land before the deeds were issued, and that no grant for him at Lochinvar is recorded.12

Hyam first selected a grant in the fertile valley of the Goulburn River, but realising the distance from Sydney, changed his mind and opted for a nearer district. By the state of the roads at this time, he was later to find out, how difficult it 'was to remain in touch with the newly selected locality without avoiding serious trouble. Hyam was, however, not satisfied with the new selection. On 27 June, 1829 he asked the Governor for "the permission to withdraw the selection, because I have been informed that the country in which I received the grant, is not adapted for the growth of wool, an article which I intended turning my whole attention to. "4 The Minnamurra Region- was, indeed, not then suitable for' sheep farming, covered, as it was, with thick forest. Hyam found later that from this forest he would have a solid income. So, it turned out to his profit, when the permission to withdraw the selection was refused by Alexander McLeay, the Colonial Secretary, on 9 July, 1829 as "contrary to the established regulations which state that very special circumstances are required in such a case, which is not the case here. 4” Darling was very annoyed and wrote

p170
to U/S Twiss that, in consequence of the grant to the shoemaker Hyam, an Irish tailor named Flannagan also wanted land.13 The Governor assigned, in 1829, four convict servants to Hyam.14
Hyam did not immediately take up the grant, but despatched his servants and the convicts to it, whilst he remained in Sydney to conduct his shoemaking and retail business in George Street: He was soon plagued with misfortune and in February 1832 rumours were circulating that he was insolvent.15 Such was, indeed, the case. He was imprisoned by' his creditors and on 4 April 1832 the matter came before the Insolvency Court. The Sydney Monitor reported the hearing in such detail that it may be reproduced in full. l s
DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.(By our Reporter)
INSOLVENT COURT.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4. - Before the Chief Justice and Messrs. Bunn and Campbell Assessors.
Michael Hyam appeared to claim his declaration of Insolvency. His debts amounted to £2,742. Assets £949.
Dr. Wardell appeared for the Petitioning Creditor, and Mr. D. Chambers against him. The applicant stated his Insolvency to have arisen from losses in trade; unfortunate speculations; and a robbery which had been done In his house to the amount of 700l. In a long cross-examination by Mr. D. Chambers, he stated, that he made no entries of the shop sales In his books; that he had entered Into a• speculation In the pastry-cook line, by purchasing the good-will of a shop In George street, from Mr. Moses. the trade he entrusted to a Mr. Gearing, who conducted the business for applicant, and he had advanced Gearing money to carry it on, but did not keep account of such monies; finding that Gearing was losing In his business, applicant came to a settlement with him, and on balancing his account found a deficiency of £360. With respect to the robbery, he stated, that on the evening of the 9th of May, he was absent from home dining with some friends; that a Mr. Cohen, who carried on the business of a silversmith in the same house, was at the same party; It had never happened before that they had both been absent from home on the same night; while at dinner, information was brought by an apprentice, that the house was broken Into and robbed; applicant accompanied by several of the party went to his house, and found that he had been robbed of money to the amount of £700. In answer to a question from the Court, applicant swore solemnly that he was robbed, and that the money taken Consisted of £10 £20 and £50 bank-notes to the amount of £710 besides forty pounds In dollars; He had however never kept any account with either of the Banks; It was his hobby-like to keep his cash himself, the X750 cash lost, were the proceeds of the sale of his goods, which goods consisted partly of an Investment of his brother forwarded to him from England, and the remainder common shop sales; Mr. Cutter had not all been entered In his books, only part which he could point out (He then referred to his books and pointed out the receipt of about . £120 for goods sold). Mr. Solomon’s had a mortgage on his property. It was not made previously to the robbery; at that time he had no occasion to get a mortgage; the Item of 551. received from Mr. Timmins, was for his farm; he received it in cedar which he sold to discharge some small debts which were due; believed he sold a portion of the cedar to Mr. Roberts, who took It from the place where It was landed In Government Domain; he had received 254l, from persons who had had shop goods from him since his previous application to the Court for his Insolvency; he had been forced to keep out of the way since his last application for his declaration of Insolvency, to avoid being put into gaol by his creditors; that by such means he had expended a considerable sum of money to support himself, which would otherwise have gone to the creditors; he could not earn any money while keeping out of the way; there was a small book in which some accounts were entered, which book was not before the Court; when applicant concealed himself from his creditors he had left the books with his foreman, named Hearne, who was afterward ordered to deliver them up, and who had accordingly delivered them to Mr. Cohen, who had had them In keeping since that time; could not account for the loss of the small book; had given directions to HearneV
p171

to give up all his books, which was all that he had In his power. to do; was arrested and was confined in gaol; where he now remained for a debt, had not been made aware that any of his creditors would oppose his declaration; the assets 9491. were clear of any lion, and could be recovered for the creditors.
Mr. Chambers - Thought that the very vague manner in which the applicant had accounted for his losses, unsupported by other testimony, would be taken Into consideration by the Court. It was the opinion of the creditor for whom he (Mr. Chambers) appeared, that the applicant was In possession of property equal to pay twenty shillings in the pound, and that if the applicant was declared insolvent the creditors generally would be wronged. The petitioning creditor's claim amounted only to 32l. out of the large sum of 2749l. and It did not appear that any of the other creditors wished him to be declared.
Dr. Wardell explained that Mr. Chambers was mistaken. To his (Dr. W's) knowledge there were several creditors who wished the applicant to be declared. Mr. S. Stephen, who was in Court, appeared for one. Mr. Wentworth had been retained for another. Another creditor was In Court personally, and did not oppose.
(Mr. Montefiore, who was a creditor stated that he should not oppose, provided that the applicant gave up the whole of his effects to the creditors
The Chief Justice in putting the case to the Assessors, stated, that It was not requisite that a plurality of the creditors should agree to the Insolvency being declared. If there were 100 creditors and 99 out of the 100 were averse to It, the hundredth could petition for the insolvency, and it would then be a question for the Court whether the Insolvency was clearly established, and whether the applicant came under the provision of the Act. If a party were really Insolvent, It was of benefit to the creditors that his effects should be with the trustees for equal partition amongst the creditors; otherwise the creditors, one by one, would come in and swallow up the estate to the exclusion of the rest. (The Assessors found that the applicant was Insolvent. -Declared.)
Mr. Chambers - The Insolvent, I suppose, will not be released from gaol until the consent of the creditors has been obtained?
Dr. Wardell - I fancy It Is usual for the Court to release him. How can he account to the trustees or collect his effects If he is kept In gaols It Is for the benefit of the creditors that he should be discharged.
The Court could not discharge the Insolvent from custody. It was a question for the creditors to determine on. If they were satisfied that the Insolvent had given 4P and satisfactorily accounted for his estate, they would of course discharge him; but the Court could not. The Insolvent was remanded to gaol until his creditors should consent to his discharge.
From this report it was clear that he was indebted to a number of reputable Jewish merchants to whom it must have been painful to see one of the few free Jewish immigrants in gaol, the first of this group to be in prison - and it must be assumed that he followed J.B. Montefiores suggestion to give up his effects to the creditors and was discharged from gaol.
This ended Hyam's business venture in Sydney. From 1830 to 1832 one convict servant only had been assigned to- him, probably because he had not taken up his grant at once, and even this servant was withdrawn on 20 July 1832, after his bankruptcy with the remark that he was "an improper person to have assigned persons" 17 After this ill-luck in Sydney, which does not seem to have been entirely unmerited, Hyam decided to move to his grant. Several sources, which incidentally, do not reveal anything about his business disaster in Sydney, state that in 1833 he arrived in Jamberoo with about 30 convicts a This is a great exaggeration, because when in 1833 he applied again for servants, he was assigned a single one only.
When, before his bankruptcy, Hyam had visited Jamberoo, he found that his grant included a forest of most valuable cedar trees. He sent his servant there as overseer and hired other labourers, had the cedar cut and taken down by bullock teams to Kiama from where it was shipped
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to Sydney and sold. He also built a small store. Troubles, however, developed in his absence. On 16 August, 1832, Hyam wrote from 5 Denmark Place, George Street imploring "the Governor's protection as his life and property are both in danger". He complained that, when twelve months previously two sawyers entered into an agreement with his overseer to cut 20,000 feet of cedar on his estate for the sum of x,40, differences started about branding the cedar with the Kiama magistrate. Lt. George Leeman J.P. Hyam had gone to his property, and from there with his overseer and another man, 22 miles from the farm to see the magistrate at Kiama. During his absence the two sawyers broke into his store and stole 4 gallons and 2 bottles of Rum, whilst during the same night another man assaulted his housekeeper. Lt. Sleeman, at the Court at Kiama, bound the assailant over for 6 months, but did not proceed with the robbery case, as the only witness, Hyam's assigned servant, did not appear in Court. Hyam accused the Magistrate of partiality, saying that he was "suffering under the caprice of Individuals" and he claimed that his "property will be inevitably destructed unless protected by some Magisterial interference". Lt. Sleeman, in a statement of 29 August, 1832, made countercharges, saying that Hyam "since his declared bankruptcy has been in the habit of sending spirits, beer and other articles from Sydney to his overseer Timmonds who has sold and bartered them for cedar to the sawyers round Kiama, and many irregularities have in consequence taken place, at Timmond's hut, in order to stop which I issued summons for his appearance together with the necessary witnesses at Court House, Campbelltown, on a charge of retailing spirits under 2 gallons without a license." But in consequence of the absence of Captain Mayrick to Sydney the case was not gone into. The Governor informed Hyam that "the Magistrate would have done well had he ordered punishment for the man who had assaulted the housekeeper, but what the robbery concerns, the case could not be proceeded without the presence of the Witness"; and the Governor concluded: "I am inclined to believe that Mr. Hyam's establishment in Illawarra required to be looked after and I am not disposed to attach blame to the Magistrate for the part he had taken in this business. "20
Hyam must have heeded this warning, for it appears that he left Sydney in 1833, shortly after this incident, and took charge of his grant. His men cleared the land and cut the cedar and sold it to the Sydney merchants. He soon recovered from his misfortune, building a proper store and a public house. Although he never became a "pastoralist" he seems to have been the first Jew on the land, although he was not occupied with agricultural activities for a long time.
In the "History of Illawaxra"19 it is said that at Jamberoo Hyam went to work on a large scale. This local history mentions several incidents of his life on the grant, one of which at least was not correctly reported. "Needless to say", the History wrote, and this was certainly true, "Hyam experienced much of what may be termed the early rough bush life at Jamberoo, and his dealings with the convicts brought him into contact with' men whose past fife had been more or less shady, and it might have become a habit with him to suspect all men." When a convict, named Growner, stole his grey stallion out of the stable and was afterwards arrested at Wollongong, he was sent to the dreaded Penal settlement at Norfolk Island. Another case, the alleged discovery
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of John Tobin, the murderer of Patrick Fox, an overseer at Kiama, is reported at length. Hyam, in 1836, claimed the reward of X100 for the capture of the murderer. The Magistrate was of the opinion that the reward ought to go to the Aborigines, and Hyam was awarded only a sum of X8.10.0 for his expenses. (Col. Sec. in-letters 4/2180.2 No. 33/ 1039).
Michael Hyam did not give up his old trade and employed shoemakers and cobblers and established a tannery at Jamberoo.l 9 In June 1840 he was agent for "The Australian" at Illawarra.21 He soon began to take great interest in the public affairs of the district. In July 1841, at a public meeting in Sydney, he moved a resolution concerning Government labour and recommended clearing the streets of Kiama and the erection of a jetty at this small port from which his timber could be taken to Sydney.22 His commercial interests induced him, probably because by then most of his timber had been cut, to lease his farm in 1839 for 10 years to a neighbour, Dr. Alley. But soon afterwards Dr. Alley's rights were disposed of in public auction by the Sheriff.23 Dr. Alley left the farm and took four of the convict servants, then assigned to Hyam, with him. These were later sent back to the Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney and Hyam applied unsuccessfully to the Wollongong Court for their return. Governor Sir George Gipps decided that the prisoners were withdrawn "because no regular transfer, according to the regulations, had been effected." A report, however, of 31 May 1841, from the Police Office at Wollongong, shows that Dr. Alley objected against the men being returned to Hyam, but that his objections were unfounded. The Superintendent of Convicts decided that "Hyam, having again taken possession of the land, is, entitled to the four convicts being returned to him." Dr. Alley was furious and a very unpleasant correspondence resulted. In a long letter to the Governor of 15 June 1841, Dr. Alley alleged that "he decided to reside elsewhere, after he had leased the farm in consequence of the many temptations to vice, drunkedness and their attendants perversely and seductively held out by. Hyam and his Public House to the servants." "I beg to repeat," he wrote, "that long before Hyam became possessed of my land through a fraudulous and illegal sale, I held my present farm"; and he accused Hyam of corrupting his servants and labourers, and alleged that Hyam has been "morally convicted of receiving the stolen rations of the Government men sold to him by Reid, the Overseer of the Road Gang." He alleged that Hyam "escaped legal conviction by a trick". He advised in a long letter full of allegations, that they should not send back "good men to Hyam in whose public house and upon whose establishment is very temptation of evil," and asked that the convict servants remain with him. Dr. Alley was, however, unable to substantiate these charges and vilifications. All the officials decided against Alley in favour of Hyam.
The matter regarding the convict servants came up again, after Hyam sold his grant to Captain William Wilson forL7000 and bound himself to transfer all assigned persons, formerly assigned to the property. When, in August 1841, Captain Wilson applied for the return of these servants, the Governor informed him that two of the servants had been withdrawn because they were the subject of a dispute between Hyam and Dr. Alley.2 9 The History of Illawarra l9 states that after the sale Hyam booked his passage to England, expecting all the purchase money
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to be paid before leaving Sydney. Heavy storms set in and Captain Wilson lost several boats. He forfeited the deposit on the farm and did not complete the sale, whilst Hyam forfeited his passage money. But the ship which was to sail to England was lost at sea with all hands. Hymn considered then he was a lucky man and remained at Jamberoo. He never returned to England.
Hyam's um, although not an example of neatness, was certainly not the "evil place" as alleged by Dr. Alley. A contemporary account painted a different picture of the Hyams and their inn. Alexander Brodie Spark, a merchant who travelled from Sydney to inspect his property at Kangaroo Valley, stayed at Hyam's public house and noted in his diary (Mitchell MS A 4869/4870) his impressions on the Hyams as follows: 28/10/1837 The Jews made us as comfortable as they could, but the place was small, not very clean and very expensive.
1/11/1837 (on the return journey) Our fare was somewhat improved by the presence of our old acquaintance, Mrs. Hyams.
2/11/1837 Settled our expensive bill and received from Mrs. Hyams a pair of beautiful Regent birds, stuffed.
8/9/1838 (again en route to Kangaroo Valley) We passed the dirty inn of the Hyams where we formerly stopped.
One has to take into consideration that the Hyams lived in an isolated place and obviously just tried to make the best of it.
After his return to Jamberoo, Hyam entered into business transactions with Parson Meares, but they were not of his liking and were soon abandoned. In September 1844, he decided again to sell out and the Sydney auctioneers Mudie & Co. advertised the property. From the advertisement a picture emerges of the improvements Hyam had made on the grant. The advertisement stated that 100 acres were fenced, cleared and partly under cultivation. There was a good substantial dwelling house with 13 rooms, besides outbuildings (all at present occupied by the proprietor as an inn), a large store, a good barn, an excellent dairy, stables, stockyards, huts and piggeries, also a good tanyard, in full operation. There was a church, flour mills, saw mill and brewery within a quarter of a mile of the farm.
Saran Valley farm was finally sold in 1846 to Robert Owen and Hyam went to live at Kiama. He was then negotiating with a storekeeper at Gundagai for the purchase of the store and would have purchased it but for the advice he received from Dr. Menzies of Jamberoo. Hyam was once more lucky because the store, with its contents, goods and inmates were lost in the great Gundagai flood.19
In 1844 Hyam built a racecourse at Kiama and raced his horses at meetings at Kiama, Wollongong and Dapto. During his last years at Jamberoo, he had a score of sawyers and teamsters working in the vicinity of Flash Bob's Flat, collecting cedar. In 1847 Hyam moved to Shoalhaven where he established an inn. Later, he also built a store and a hotel at Green hills, and a hall and a house at Terara, which for many years afterwards was occupied by members of his family. And in the following years, after he had moved to Nowra, he acquired a large real estate in the district.

TERARA HOUSE (picture omitted)
The Home of Hyam Family, Nowra, N.S. W.
MICHAEL HYAM AND THE JEWISH COMMUNITY: HIS FAMILY.
Michael Hyam had been a conscientious Jew. When he arrived in Australia, he carried with him a license from the Chief Rabbi in London, to circumcise Jewish children in Australia. It may be assumed that Jewish children had been circumcised in Australia before his arrival, probably by the emancipist Simeon Lear, but there had been no official permission for a specially qualified person to perform this important religious duty. A "new era" had started for the small community, when on 19 June 1829 The Australian reported that:
"Yesterday, we hear there was a Jewish Sabbath - the first instance, we believe, of the kind on record in the annals of the Colony. Hitherto the children of Jewish parents could not receive the benefit of baptism here, owing to there being no competent priest; but we understand that Mr. Hyam of George street, has been duly authorized by the High Priest at London, to perform the ancient rite of circumcision, so rigidly adhered to by the lineal descendants of Abraham."
That day was, however, a Thursday and not a "Sabbath", and that fact led the rival paper, The Sydney gazette, on 20 June to mock The Australian saying: -
"Who has ever heard of the Jewish Sabbath being transferred from Saturday to Thursday? This is a fine instance of the "March of intellect", The fact, however, is truly stated. There was a circumcision and Hyam is duly authorized to perform the rite."
The same article, alluding to Abraham Polack's unsuccessful application for a place of worship for the Jews in 1828, and to Governor
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Darling's animosity concerning Jews, concluded in mentioning that "the respectable Jews of the Colony are anxious to form a congregation that they may observe the solemnities of their own Sabbath, but many difficulties are in their way."
On 16 October, 1829, The Australian, and on 17 October, The Sydney Gazette reported the second circumcision done by Hyam, saying that "Mr. Hyam performed the office of the High Priest on the infant boy of Joseph Aaron(s), dealer of George Street, on 13 October 1829."
The Bridge Street Synagogue Birth Register shows that on 27 February, 1837, he circumcised his son, Solomon Herbert. He circumcised many other infants of the community and from the York Street Synagogue Birth Register we learn that, as late as 1854, he was called to circumcise in the country, e.g. at Goulburn and Yass.
Hyam became, of course, a member of the congregation, as soon as it was officially established in 1832. He occasionally performed Jewish marriage rites. On 13 September, 1841, he married Abraham Abrahams to Rachel Haynes at his Sarah Valley farm, "agreeably to the Jewish rites", as The Australian reported.25 He had never lost touch with the Jewish community even after he had moved to Jamberoo and later to Shoalhaven, and remained interested in the affairs of the community. When, in November 1843, the Committee of the York Street Synagogue appointed members in the country to represent the Synagogue, Michael Hyams and Hayam Phillips were selected for the district of Illawarra, called then "The Five Islands." When the York Street Synagogue was built, Hyam donated in 1844 the respectable sum of X10.0.0 to the Building Fund.2 s
On 8 February, 1835 Michael Hyam married Mrs. Catherine Mary Broughton who was probably a widow. The marriage was celebrated by Lewis Joseph and authorised by Abraham Cohen.27 The early Minutes of the George and later Bridge Street congregation are lost, but there is documentary evidence that in 1836 Abraham Polack was President of the Congregation whose first President was Joseph Barrow Montefiore. Montefiore soon lost interest in the congregation which consisted mainly of convicts and emancipists with whom he had little in common but the faith. It is well possible that by 1835 Montefiore had relinquished the Presidency and was replaced by Abraham Cohen. Michael's wife had been converted to Judaism and adopted the name of Charlotte Rebecca. The Minutes of the Bridge Street Synagogue show that the registration of his marriage in the Bridge Street Synagogue Marriage Register encountered some difficulties. When, on 9 August, 1838, Hyam made an application to the Synagogue that his marriage which, according to his declaration, had been performed by J.L. Crabbe, Lewis Joseph and Solomon Marks, be officially registered in the Marriage Register of the Congregation, his request was refused by the Committee. However, on the initiative of Vaiben Solomon and S. Levien, a meeting of the Committee finally voted that the marriage be registered and it was duly entered into the Register.
When his wife died on 12 April, 1849, aged 58, she was buried in the Jewish section of the Devonshire Street Cemetery under the name of Charlotte Rebecca Hyam. In 1901 her tombstone was transferred to Rookwood cemetery.
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DEBORAH HYAM
On 9 March, 1853 Hyam re-married a Jewish girl, Deborah Moss who, according to family tradition, was a daughter of John Moss of Yass. John Moss, according to J.S. Levi's "The Forefathers"; was an emancipist, who had arrived in 1820 with a seven year sentence. In 1826 he married Mary Connolly, an Irish girl at Hobart Town. He then moved to Sydney, where he set up as a pastry cook. In 1829 he obtained a licence for the Kings Head Inn at Penrith and was called back to Sydney by the Jews to bake unleavened bread on Passover, he being, as The Sydney Gazette reported, on 1/4/1830, "the only person in the colony to understand the art". He then returned to England coming back to Australia in 1832, with his family. After having settled for some time in Hobart Town, he returned to New South Wales and settled as a publican with his brother Isaac, at Yass.
Hyam's marriage to Deborah Moss was performed at the York Street Synagogde.29 Deborah died on 21 March, 1865, aged 58, at Shoalhaven and was buried at the Devonshire Street Cemetery, Sydney.
At the end of the forties, Hyam persuaded his nephew, Aaron Alexander Levi, the son of his sister Esther and Alexander Aaron Levi, a London shopkeeper, to migrate to Sydney. A.A. Levi was from May 1851 to March 1852 the beadle of the York Street Synagogue. Then, aged 32, he applied in 1856 for the position of sexton of the old cemetery. In 1859 he was asked to officiate as Reader in the absence of the Reverend M.R. Cohen, and after Cohen's departure became the official Reader of the York Street Synagogue, performing also weddings and conducting funerals. He was also a Hebrew teacher at the Sydney Hebrew School, and from 1867, at the Sydney Hebrew Denominational School. Married to Sarah, nee Moss, he was, when he died, aged only 59, on 3 July 1883, survived by 5 sons, 4 daughters, and his second wife, Sarah nee Deutsch.
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MICHAEL HYAM'S DEATH AND WILL
On relinquishing business, Hyam lived and ended his eventful life in a residence at Berry Street, Nowra, where he died at the age of 79, on 3 September 1878, after a short illness. He was buried on 6 September, 1878 by the Reverend A.B. Davis in the Jewish section of Rookwood cemetery.3 o His death certificate stated that he was the son of David Hyam, a painter in London and his wife Sarah nee Shannon. It is possible that Hyam's success in Australia induced another Shannon family, who became pioneers in the Monaro district, to migrate to Australia.
Michael Hyam had been a kind and generous man. His benevolence was not restricted to Jewish organisations, as an advertisement carried by the Sydney Morning Herald on 26 January, 1855 showed as follows:
"Society For Destitute Children.
The Hon. Secretary has much pleasure of acknowledging the receipt
of 121.2.6, transmitted to him by Mr. Michael Hyams of Shoalhaven." The money had been collected on Hyam's request from the settlers in the district. The list of contributors shows that Michael Hyam contributed one guinea, Henry Moss also one guinea, and Mrs. Deborah Moss, ten shillings.
Michael Hyam's Will shows his large real estate in the Illawarra district. He made ample provision for his five sons David, Moses Aizley, Joseph, Solomon and Isaac, for his three daughters and even for his grandchildren.
Of his daughters, Sarah Zorilda married Hyam's friend, Henry Moss of Nowra, Esther married Louis Aaron, licensee of the Exchange Hotel at Sydney, and Rebecca became the wife of S. Morris Rosenthal of Bathurst and later Manly. Rebecca Hyam was born on 17 November, 1855 at Greenhills. According to the York Street Synagogue's Birth Register, the Reverend Jacob Isaacs travelled to Greenhills to name Rebecca. On 25 August, 18 75 she was married to S. Morris Rosenthal (or Rosenthall), and Englishman from Chistlehurst (Kent) by the Reverend Alexander Aaron Levi, Michael Hyam's nephew.
In his Will, Michael Hyam left £25 to the Reverend A.A. Levi, "to say the usual prayers upon my decease." Another nephew, Joseph. Levi also received £25.31 From Michael Hyam's Will, we learn that he had a large real estate which he left to his sons and daughters. It consisted of: The Commercial Hotel at Greenhills;
A 59 acre farm at Greenhills, known as Lomond's corner; A 100 acre farm at Nowra Flat;
78 acres at Nowra Hill;
4 allotments at Ulladulla Township;
116 acres at Gooddog Mountain, known as Thomas Ryan farm and another adjoining farm of 38 acres;
14 allotments at Nowra Hill, including the homestead, containing 476 acres;
4 allotments at Nowra, granted to him on 16 April, 185 7; 10 acres at Nowra, Kingshorn Str. South;
100 acres farmland at Mayfields, Shoalhaven, known as Ryan's Farm; 47 acres, 3 roods, 32 perches at Nowra;
35 allotments of half acre each, and one 1 acre allotment at Nowra; A 7 acre farm at Nowra;
15 acres at Nowra, South Kingshorn Street;
A farm of 41 acres at Jowis Bay, Shoalhaven;
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A piece of land at Nowra, purchased from Letitia Watts.
He also left a mortgage of x.1025, secured over the Central Hotel of his son-in-law Henry Moss at Greenhills, and two quarter shares in the Garibaldi Gold Mine, Solferino.
His household furniture, linen, 2 buggies and his horses, he left to his youngest son Joseph, whilst his son David received his golden chronometer. A legacy of £50 was left to Elizah Hyam, widow of his brother in Baltimore (U.S.A.)
Hyam's name is preserved in the district by "Hyam's Beach" near Nowra, which for many decades was owned by the family.
His son David, born in 1836, was first a hotelkeeper at Greenhills and Terara, but in 1885 started to raise a herd of pure Jersey cattle and acquired a number of dairying properties in the district. He became a J.P., Mayor of South Shoalhaven and Nowra. In 1901 he was appointed

DAVID HYAM
Member of the Old Pensions Board for the Nowra District.18 He remained a Jew and, when he died at the Lidcombe Old Men's Home on 2 October 1923, he was buried at the Jewish section of the Nowra cemetery which was consecrated in 1928 after the death of Michael's daughter, Sarah Zorilda Moss, by the then Reverend L.A. Falk of the Great Synagogue, Sydney. Michael Hyam's second son, Solomon Herbert, born in 1837, became a produce merchant,. a J.P, of. New South Wales and Victoria, Mayor of Balmain 1876-79, M.L.A. for Balmain 1885-87 and, in 1892, -was appointed a Member of the Legislative Council. He was trustee of the Australian Museum.32 In 1861 he had married Sarah Priestley but his children were not brought up in the Jewish faith. After his death at Katoomba on 7 November 1901, he was buried at the Jewish section of Rookwood cemetery. No Jewish Minister was present at his funeral and prayers were said by his nephew Hyam Moss, son of his
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sister, Sarah Zorilda Moss.30 None of Michael Hyam's sons married Jewish women. David Hyam married Maria Graham, a Presbyterian, but remained a Jew. David and three of his sons were buried at the Jewish section of the Nowra cemetery in which only members of the Hyam family were laid to rest.
After David three other sons were buried at the Nowra cemetery: Solomon Horace, died 1/9/1908, aged 30, Daniel Aizley, died 12/7/ 1913, aged 54, and Moses Aizley, died 8/12/1881, aged 42. Michael Hyam's son Isaac Mark, who died 31/3/1881, aged 37, was buried at Rookwood cemetery.
It appears that Jewish conscience was evident even to the third generation. Members of the family who are still landowners and farmers in the Nowra district, remember that David's son Michael William Hyam, the founder of the Australian Milk Pty. Ltd. and its chairman for many years, never attended church, although he had been brought up as a Presbyterian. Whilst the members of the family who continued to reside in the Illawarra district became completely assimilated, one branch of the family remained in the Jewish fold. These are the descendants of Michael's daughter Rebecca and her husband S. Morris Rosenthal, who later owned the Steyne Hotel at Manly. The couple had four sons and one daughter. The family later changed its name to Rosebery.
Their son Sydney, born 28/4/1887 at Stanmore, served as Captain in the R.A.M.C. in Palestine and was mentioned in despatches by General Sir H.H. Allenby. A Major in the 2nd World War, he served in New Guinea, Dr. Sydney Rosebery, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, contributed valuable scientific work relative to diabetes and dysentry. He died on 3/2/1946. His children were brought up in the Jewish faith. His brother, Arthur K. Rosenthal, a trooper in the Light Horse, died after an illness at Gallipoli in July 1915, at Alexandria (Egypt). He had been a well known footballer and swimmer and had gained a gold, silver and bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society as a life saver. He was also an expert horseman and crack-shot.33
It remains to tell the story of Henry Moss and his wife Sarah. Zorilda, Michael Hyam's daughter.

HENRY MOSS AND HIS WIFE
The centenary book "Back to Shoalhaven Week" wrote about Henry Moss very touchingly:
"Henry Moss came to Shoalhaven in 1851, his age being then 20 years. He gave so freely and unselfishly of himself that, in the year 188.7, the sands of his life had run out, and the tired body could no longer contain the indomitable spirit. So he died in his 57th year, innkeeper by necessity, true patriot by instinct; a man of letters and science, Shoalhaven in general lost a benefactor, when he passed. He was foremost in the fight for the establishment of thee town of Nowra and the building of the bridge where it now stands. It was a long and bitter fight against sheer folly and private interests, and it was not till the mighty surge of flood waters overwhelmed Terara in 1870 that the fight was won. In municipal matters he was ever-prominent and was a member of the first Municipal Council of Shoalhaven. His exploratory work by hill and gully would have justly entitled him to be called "The Pathfinder". As early as 1859, Isaiah Rowland, Government Surveyor, reported that a route
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HENRY MOSS (picture omitted)
for a much needed road at Talwal had been discovered and reported to him by Mr. Henry Moss; this is the road from Goulburn to Jervis Bay that is still strenuously fought for. Again, in 1861, the Secretary for Lands was asked to have a road surveyed, as marked by aldermen Moss and Maguire, from Yellow Waterhole to Ulladulla Road. His activities also extended to advertising Shoalhaven in London and Paris. For an exhibit of timbers, minerals and arrowroot made from burrawong nuts, he received a silver medal from the International Exhibition in London, held in 1862. From the Paris Exhibition of 1867 he received a bronze medal that had been struck with a special die; for his efforts to advertise his country, he received a silver medal and a letter of thanks from the Government of the day in Sydney. He also received two bronze medals from the Garden Palace Exhibition, held in Sydney in 1879. In 1860 he made a geological survey of the district and the Reverend W.B. Clarke, the geological authority of the day, wrote to the Government, commending the valuable work of Henry Moss. Mr. Clarke also made generous references to Mr. Moss in his geological publications."
A monument erected by the people of Shoalhaven in the Jewish portion of the Nowra cemetery, perpetuates the memory of Henry Moss who had been much loved in the Shoalhaven district.
His wife Sarah Zorilda was to survive him by nearly 40 years. She died on 23 October, 1928, aged 89 in Nowra and was also buried at the Jewish portion of the Nowra cemetery.
The Hebrew Standard of October 1928 wrote, quoting from two local papers:
"Mrs. Moss's husband, the late Henry Moss, was the first Mayor of the Municipality of Nowra as well as occupying the position subsequently on various occasions, and was an alderman at the time of his death.
MRS. H. MOSS(Photos by courtesy Mitchell Library, Sydney)
Mrs. Moss was noted for her charitable acts and a helpmate to the early pioneers in cases of sickness, never forgetful to the "Natives of the Soil", in her kindly actions, one of the most highly esteemed women, a veritable "Mother in Israel". She took a keen interest in the study of geology with her husband who was a close friend of the Reverend W.B. Clarke. Mrs. Moss was a good friend of the Aboriginals of the district in obtaining, per medium of her husband, assistance from the Government of the day.
All the eight children of Mrs. Moss are living. The sons are Mr. H.A. Moss, solicitor, Sydney; Mr. I.I. Moss, Chief Clerk Prisons Department, Sydney, and Alderman C.S. Moss, Nowra. The daughters are Misses C.R., M.D. and G.E. Moss of Nowra and Mrs. Wording and Mrs. Hull of Bondi."
The "Back to Shoalhaven Week" book devoted a small chapter also to Mrs. Moss:
"Mrs. Sarah Zorilda Moss was born on 21 December, 1840 at Jamberoo. After leaving" Jamberoo, she resided at Kiama for a short period, and came to what is known as Greenhills (Nowra then being unknown), with her parents in the year 1847. At Jamberoo she attended a private school conducted by Mrs. Morris, mother of the late Alfred Morris, schoolteacher at Bamarang; also attended a private school at Kiama, conducted by Mr. Dell. At Greenhills, with her brothers and sisters, she received private tuition from Mr. Seegar and Miss Lambert. Mrs. Moss has always been a keen student of history and travel. In those early days, Mrs. Moss' kindly help in sickness and distress was a household word. Medical men not always being available, Mrs. Moss was always relied upon for advice and guidance until medical attention could be
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secured. There are few now who are left to remember the practical assistance so given by riding through rough bush tracks - there were few roads then carrying nourishing food for those in need. She was an ardent supporter of early agricultural shows, and a successful exhibitor in the household section. Mrs. Moss claims to have brought the first coral tree to the district, which she secured at Kiama, and cuttings from this tree went to all parts of the district. Mrs. Moss was a great favourite with the aboriginals, to whom, with the assistance of her husband, warm clothing and other comforts were procured from the
Government."
All the testimonials given to Hyam's daughter are of significanthistorical value, because they are practically the only ones known of Jewish pioneer women in the outback.

FOOTNOTES
1. "Walter Jacob Levi and Governor Darling" by G.F.J. Bergman, Austr. Jew. Hist. Soc. Journal & Proc. Vol. VI, Part VIII.
2. Sydney Gazette 24/12/1828.
3. Michael Phillips arrived 29/12/1827 as one of the first free Jewish settlers, (F-I.R.A. Ser. I. vol. 13, p. 132). He belonged to an old established London family and was among the founders of the Sydney Jewish community. He became a merchant in Sydney and in 1831 received a land grant of 2560 acres. Yet he ended up in gaol in Hobart Town, when Samuel Lyons, to whom he owed x.658 followed him to Van Diemen's Land and had him imprisoned in the debtors' prison, because he alleged that he would leave the country. Rescued by his family in London, he at once left Australia with his family.
4. Co.Sec. applications for land 2/7887.
5. Emanuel Solomon, successful emancipist, later went to Adelaide, where he founded a renowned family and became a member of the Legislative Assembly of South Australia.
6. Hist. Recs. of Australia Ser. I. Vol. 15, p. 77.
7. Hist. Recs. of Australia Ser. I. Vol. 14, p. 618.
8. C.S. 7/459.
9. The name Minnamurra has been preserved in a nearby reserve with waterfalls.
10. According to an article: "Story of early land settlement in Illawarra" by Mr. Benjamin Lindsay, late Chairman of the Land Board in the "Illawarra Mercury" of 23/3/1934, the grant included the private town of Jamberoo and was officially granted on 16/3/1840.
11.This grant is mentioned in a biography of his son, Solomon Herbert Hyam in
Vol. I of "Australian Men of Mark" and in the History of Illawarra.
12. Letter from Dept. of Lands of 20/3/1970 Ref. 70/9CD/JH to G.F.J. Berg
man.
13:Gov. Darling Despatches Mitch. 1204/453.
14.Mitch. 1206. p. 344.
15. The Australian 24/2/1832. Sydney Gazette 28/2/1832. 16.Sydney Monitor 7/4/1832.
17.Mitch. A. 1211 p. 610.
18."Back to Shoalhaven", Nowra 1926. "History of Illawarra" which contains a biography of Michael Hyam, restricted to his life at Jamberoo, but with errors.
19. As above. The Hebrew Standard 16/8/1901.
20.32/6184 in Co.Sec. in-letters 4/2153.
21.Th-e Australian 2/6/1840.
22.The Australian 17/4/1841.
23.41/7285 in C.S. in-letters 4/2535.
24.Sydney Morning Herald 20/9/1844.
25.The Australian 23/9/1841. Abraham Abrahams was in 1842 listed in the
midst of electors for the Sydney Municipal Council as a shipping agent.
26. Report of the Committee of the York Street Synagogue 1845.
27. Bridge Str. Synagogue Marriage Register. Minutes of the Sydney Synagogue
9/8/ 1838.
28. York St. Synagogue Burial Register.
29. York Str. Synagogue Marriage Register.
30. Great Synagogue Burial Register.
31.Will No. 2815 in Series III of Wills in Register of Probates, Supreme Court of N.S.W.
32. Biographies of Solomon Herbert Hyam in "Australian Men of Mark", Vol. I.
and in Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol. IV. p. 454.
33.The Hebrew Standard 9/11/1904. p. 10. Information from Arthur Rosebery,
Sydney.

Australian Genesis: Jewish convicts and settlers 1788-1860/ John S Levi and G.F.J Bergman New edition, Carlton South, Melbourne University Press 2002 ISBN 0522847773 p 152
The Continent’s first Jewish circumcision ceremony was performed in June 1829 by the recently arrived free settler Michael Hyam, and the Australian of 19 June ascribed the event in a quaint paragraph which managed to be incorrect in almost every particular:
Yesterday, we hear, there was a Jewish Sabbath-the first instance, we believe, of the kind on record in the annals of the Colony. Hitherto the children of Jewish parents could not receive the benefit of baptism here; owing to there being no competent priest; but we understand that Mr. Hyam, of George St., has been duly authorised by the High Priest at London to perform the ancient rite of circumcision.
On 16 October the Australian again reported that Michael Hyam had been called upon `perform the office of the High Priest', this time at the circumcision of the 8-days son of Joseph and Rachel Aarons. These early naming ceremonies were certainly more hopeful omen than the establishment of a burial society and the previous abortive attempt to create a congregation.
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p154
A number of meetings were held in 1839 to discuss Jewish identity. In July the committee discussed the case of Eliza Hyam, whose mother had not been Jewish but whose father, Michael Hyam, was a stalwart member and the community's Mohel. It was decided on 6 November that 'in consequence of her father being Jewish' she could be admitted `without any restriction'. Samuel Barnett made an application in April 1840 that his wife and children `be received within the pale of our holy religion' and mentioned that his son had been duly circumcised by Michael Hyam and his daughter named within the congregation. He wrote, `mine is no novel case, for several parties who are now the leading members of the congregation have been placed in the same situation as I am in'. On 10 June the committee of the synagogue came to the decision, seconded by John Lazar, that `no converts shall be made among the congregation unless the father or mother shall be born a Jew or Jewess'. Moses Joseph added an amendment, which was passed, that this rule should apply only to ‘unmarried persons having been respectably married any length of time and requiring to have their wife made a Geyurise [convert] should not be excluded, but subject to the approval of the committee.”

Curiously, Walter Levi's few years in Australia brought to New South Wales a young capitalist, Michael Hyam, who was of a very different class. Perhaps his dreams were not as grandiose as those of Phillips, Montefiore and Cohen, but he may have been made of sterner stuff. Certainly he was almost the only one of the early Jewish
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Emigration
(Photograph omitted) Michael Hyam. A maker of boots and shoes, Hyam had the temerity to come free to the colony with a considerable sum of money, and dared to ask for a land grant. Far from impressed, Governor Darling wrote that he was `a perfect Jew'.
who benefited by free settle in Australia. A 28-year-old shoe sailed from London with a consignment of general goods for " and impressive personal recommendations from the Chancellor of the by of Lancaster and from Horace Twiss, the senior civil servant at the Colonial Secretary's Office." Hyam arrived in December 1828 be told the shattering news that Walter Levi had died only a few months before. The young migrant was stranded with merchandise worth fifteen hundred pounds that had been ordered by the dead merchant for a market about which Hyam knew nothing." Fortunately the little Jewish community rallied to his side. Michael Phillips, the executor of Levi's will, quickly and helpfully declared that the consignment belonged to Hyam, and the auctioneers Vaiben and Emanuel Solomon disposed of the goods on his behalf at a most respectable price.
As Hyam overcame the unfamiliar problems of trade in the colony he also turned to the task of `establishing a respectable Boots and Shoe warehouse' and asked for government assistance." At the same time he advertised in the Sydney Gazette of 27 January 1829 to declare that 'any gentleman wishing for a responsible manager may meet with a person of the highest respectability and extensive knowledge of both in [sic] agriculture and affairs and accounts'. It was a fanciful self-description, as the next four years were to show.
Armed with capital provided by the sale of the consigned goods, Hyam applied to Governor Darling for a First Class Land Grant. Darling was not pleased, and in a scathing letter to Under Secretary Twiss characterised Hyam as a `perfect Jew' because he had `the ingenuity', though a shoemaker, `in qualifying himself to become a man of landed estate'. The Governor believed that people of this class `should confine themselves to their proper calling and defer becoming landed proprietors until they have done making shoes and selling stockings'.' 3
Nevertheless, Hyam's request was brought before the Land Board, which recommended his application. Reluctantly Darling relented, and an order was made out for a grant of 1280 acres at Minnamurra near Kiama in the Division of Illawarra, about sixty-five miles south of Sydney. The `ingenious' shoemaker ingenuously refused the
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offer. Hyam notified the Governor that he would prefer another section of land as he `had been informed that the country in which he received that grant is not adapted for the growth of wool which I intended turning my whole attention to'. Fortunately for Hyam his complaint was rejected, because the grant proved to be a valuable source of Australian cedar timber. But, as Governor Darling wrote to England, his direst predictions had come true because 'in consequence of the grant to the shoemaker Hyam, an Irish tailor named Flanagan had applied to become a landholder'. It is obvious that to this English gentleman of the old school the idea that Jews and Catholics could become landholders was anathema.34
Despite his new status as a landowner, Hyam remained in the more familiar urban environment of Sydney. But, like Cohen and the Spyers at the same time, he appeared to be quite out of his depth. On 7 April 1832 the Monitor reported that Michael Hyam was an inmate of the Debtors' Prison. He had been ruined by the speculative purchase of the cake and confectionery shop of John Moses in George Street, by a robbery, and by his total neglect of basic book-keeping procedures. The four convict servants assigned to Hyam to work on his property, which he had named Sarah's Valley in honour of his mother, were withdrawn as a token of the Governor's disapproval at both his bankruptcy and his failure to leave Sydney and to settle in the country. 35
No doubt Governor Darling felt a certain satisfaction in reports of the chaotic state of affairs at Sarah's Valley. Hyam had established a store on his property and illegally stocked it with liquor. He had hired labourers and sawyers to cut the cedar and transport the logs by bullock teams to Kiama where it was shipped to Sydney, but most of these men were rough and unmanageable former convicts and Hyam's English-born overseer was unable to cope with them. Hyam panicked when the magistrate at Kiama failed to deal sternly enough with a group of men who broke into his store and stole a quantity of liquor, assaulted the overseer and his wife, and threatened the life of their employer. Hyam implored `the Governor's protection as his life and property are both in danger', to which Darling replied that 'his establishment in Illawarra required to be looked after by him'. 36
Hyam took the hint. His commercial reputation in Sydney was damaged by his bankruptcy and so, in 1833, he personally took charge of his grant. He felled the remaining cedar, cleared his land, and began to prosper. He built a proper store and public house, which he called The Harp, employed shoemakers and cobblers, established a tannery, and formed the nucleus of the township called Jamberoo.37 Although Hyam could not be counted as a pastoralist he was nevertheless the first free Jew to own, live on and work a rural property in New South Wales.
He found companionship in his isolated bush settlement. In 1835 he travelled to Sydney to marry Catherine Mary Broughton, a convert to Judaism, at the temporary synagogue in George Street .38 Together they managed the inn and, once most of the timber had been removed, leased their land. Alexander Brodie Spark, a Sydney merchant, left some impressions in his diary of Hyam and his inn:
28.10.1837: The Jews made us as comfortable as they could, but the place is small,
not very clean and very expensive. 1.11.1837: Settled our expensive bill and
received from Mrs.Hyams a pair of beautiful Regent Birds stuffed .39
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Hyam sold his land in 1841, a process marked by a fierce battle with a Dr Alley who had originally leased Hyam's farm at Illawarra and then gone bankrupt. Bitterly Alley alleged he had been `a near neighbour to the daily scenes of drunkenness and vice at Hyam's House when one of my own free servants and day labourers have been artfully seduced from their propriety by Hyam'. Hyam booked his passage to England, hoping to have all his purchase money paid over before leaving, but the deal collapsed when the purchaser, Captain William Wilson, lost several of his ships in a storm, and was forced to forfeit Hyam's deposit.40
Captain Wilson's misfortune was Michael Hyam's good luck. He had to cancel his passage to England, and later learned that the ship upon which he was booked had been lost at sea with no survivors. Three years later Hyam's property was advertised for sale in the Sydney Morning Herald of 29 September 1844. It included one hundred fenced acres that were cleared and partly cultivated, a farmhouse of thirteen rooms, a large store, stockyard, piggeries, a good tanyard and many smaller buildings. By the time Hyam sold the farm, in 1846, prosperity had begun to return to the colony and he obtained a good price. He moved to Kiama, built a racecourse, and raced his own horses at Kiama, Wollongong and Dapto. In 1847 he moved to Shoalhaven and established a hotel. He built a store at Greenhills and a hall at Terara. When Michael Hyam died at Nowra on 3 September 18 7 8 at seventy-nine, he was survived by five sons and three daughters. One branch of the family remained Jewish. The descendants of his daughter Rebecca constitute one of the oldest Jewish families in Australia. Other descendants, not Jewish any more, are still, farmers in the Illawarra district.
Like Michael Hyam, many early free Jewish settlers were quite indistinguishable from their emancipist fellow-Jews. Some were closely related to the convicts, for the Old Bailey cast a long shadow and the ghetto was only one or two generations away. For example, Henry Cohen was a free settler of 1828 who prospered and whose jeweller's shop in George Street, next to Michael Hyam's boot shop, was conveniently located near the Sydney wharf. Cohen had established a branch store in Parramatta by March 1833, but on 18 June the Sydney Gazette reported that he had been accused of stealing a watch and had fled to Van Diemen's Land. Quite soon, Cohen was in trouble again. This time it concerned a quantity of stolen meat, and the Colonial Times of 7 October 1834 said he only escaped conviction because of `defective evidence'. Evidently he learned his lesson, for he forsook the life of the town and became a farmer near Hobart Town. His grave may be seen in St John's churchyard, New Town, where he was buried in 1847.
In the mixed society of those days, which included wealthy ex-convicts and bankrupt free settlers, there were many partnerships between the fettered and the free. In 1842 a traveller in New South Wales noted:
If an individual is known to have acquired wealth, as many hundreds have done, who originally belonged to the class of emancipists, his name upon a bill is received with as much confidence by the merchant or banker as that of any other colonist in good circumstances. The wisdom of forgetting or of abstaining from all unnecessary reference to the past circumstances of individuals has forced itself upon the minds of all."'

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53. Esther Hyam

Marriage?
3008/1862 AARONS LEWIS HYAM ESTHER SHOALHAVEN
V1862210 135/1862 AARONS LEWIS HYAM ESTHER EA Hebrew Sydney

Lewis Aarons

Death?
1405/1886 AARONS LOUIS A ABRAM JANE SYDNEY

Deborah Moss

Death
5910/1865 HYAM DEBORAH JOHN MARY SHOALHAVEN
Marriage
V1853113 135/1853 HYAM MICHAEL MOSES DEBORAH EA

Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal Vol VIII 1977 Part 4 p167-184
MICHAEL HYAM - GOVERNOR RALPH DARLING'S "PERFECT JEW"by G.F.J. Bergman, D. Ec., L.L.B.
P177
DEBORAH HYAM
On 9 March, 1853 Hyam re-married a Jewish girl, Deborah Moss who, according to family tradition, was a daughter of John Moss of Yass. John Moss, according to J.S. Levi's "The Forefathers"; was an emancipist, who had arrived in 1820 with a seven year sentence. In 1826 he married Mary Connolly, an Irish girl at Hobart Town. He then moved to Sydney, where he set up as a pastry cook. In 1829 he obtained a licence for the Kings Head Inn at Penrith and was called back to Sydney by the Jews to bake unleavened bread on Passover, he being, as The Sydney Gazette reported, on 1/4/1830, "the only person in the colony to understand the art". He then returned to England coming back to Australia in 1832, with his family. After having settled for some time in Hobart Town, he returned to New South Wales and settled as a publican with his brother Isaac, at Yass.
Hyam's marriage to Deborah Moss was performed at the York Street Synagogde.29 Deborah died on 21 March, 1865, aged 58, at Shoalhaven and was buried at the Devonshire Street Cemetery, Sydney.

57. Joseph Hyam

Death?
14128/1934 HYAM JOSEPH MICHAEL REBECCA NOWRA

58. Aaron Levy

Death
1192/1883 LEVI AARON A ALEXANDER A ESTHER SYDNEY