Alexander Albin (Albion)

Alexander was the father of Alexander “Sandy” Albion, my great-grandfather, and thus, my great-great-grandfather. He was born in Ireland, the son of a farmer, and worked as a carpenter/builder or in associated fields for most of his life. Dad had done some family history research in the 1990s but there were gaps, including Sandy’s birth and where the family and its name had originated. I think I have been able to piece more of it together in this story of Sandy’s father. Numbers in parentheses refer to sources which are listed at the foot of this document, mostly with links to pages in Trove where interested readers can find more detail.

I have not found a birth record for Alexander Albin but, based on the ages declared on the records of his arrival in Sydney on 15 Jan 1856 (32) and marriage at Drayton on 28 Aug 1859 (35), my best estimate is 1824.

Alexander married Rachel Whitley on 20 September 1849 in Kilmore parish church (1). He was a carpenter from Portadown and she came from nearby Drumnahunshin. Their first son, Lawson, was born on 25 March 1853 and baptised at St Marks church in Portadown on 10 April 1853 (2). He died sometime in 1853. Their second son, Hugh, was born sometime in 1855 and accompanied them to Sydney where his age was recorded as one when Alexander, Rachel, and Hugh arrived in Sydney aboard the Cressy on 15 January 1856 (3).

As Rachel told it shortly before her death in 1908 (33):

My husband ran away with me when I was only small. I was a disgrace to the family, so I had to get away somewhere out of the road of my people. They are the heads of Ireland, and are a very ancient family. My husband and I decided upon coming out to New South Wales, and something over 50 years ago we were landed here by the ship Cressy.

A third son, Alexander (later known as Sandy), was born on 16 February 1857. Mum and Dad requested a search in 1990 and NSW records reported finding a record of George but not of Alexander. I recently stumbled across an online forum that mentioned Alexander Abbin born to Alexander and Rachel in 1857. I then found it in the NSW records where the name must have been misread (4). Some sources give the location of Alexander’s birth as Kingston, possibly because the family had an association with that part of Newtown in Sydney where Alexander is listed among other names in an 1860 newspaper notice about purchasers in arrears (5).

Things must have begun to fall apart around that time. On 12 October 1858 Alexander was mentioned in the Sydney Morning Herald for “using obscene language in a public place” with a penalty of £5 or two months imprisonment (6). In February 1859 Alexander placed a notice in the Sydney Morning Herald (7) advising that Rachel had left and that he would “not be answerable for any debts she [might] contract.” Rachel must have been pregnant at the time because George was born later in 1859.

Alexander appears to have been still active around Newtown in mid-1859. His name appears with numerous others in advertisements supporting the election of E S Hill to parliament (8). He must have moved quickly thereafter, because on 28 August 1859 he married Eliza Jane Kelly (née Hill) at Drayton (Toowoomba) (9). They were both recorded on the documents as widowed and their place of residence as Jondaryan. Alexander was recorded on the certificate as Alexander Albion which appears to be his first official use of that name variant.

Clearly Alexander was not widowed because George, his fourth son with Rachel, was born at Toongabbie (near Parramatta) on 3 September 1859 (10). It was not until 26 April 1865 that he placed a notice in the Sydney Morning Herald (14):

I HEREBY GIVE NOTICE, that if my Wife, RACHEL ALBIN, does not return within one month from date, it is my intention to get married again, as I have not heard of her this six years. A. ALBIN. April 22,1865.

Although there is no mention of the boys, Hugh and Sandy, being with either Alexander or Rachel it appears they must have travelled to Queensland with Alexander. Sandy is mentioned as being in Toowoomba in 1867 (21) and both were with Alexander when he moved to Cunnamulla around 1877 (29).

In September 1860 Eliza gave birth to their first son, John (11). A second son was born in 1861 but must have died at birth or soon after as no first name is recorded (12). A third son, Robert, was born in 1864 and died in 1866 (13). Their daughter, Anne Jane, was born in 1867 (15).

Some time after their marriage, Alexander and Eliza must have moved to the Toowoomba area. In 1861 the Toowoomba Chronicle reported that he was one of several people fined for keeping an unregistered dog (16) and in 1862 he was one of 100 people who bought land in the Mort Estate, paying £20 5s for a half-acre (~2000 sq m) lot, number 94 (17). He was also active in local politics, moving a motion at a public meeting in 1862 in support of Mr Groom as representative to the Queensland Parliament (18).

By 1866 he was well established in the local area. The Chronicle reported at length on his success in defending a court case against a tenant in a house he owned (19) and a couple of months later the Darling Downs Gazette advertised that he was selling 6 housing blocks near the intersection of Perth and Phillip Streets (20).

Nevertheless there must have been some challenges at home. In February 1867 he placed a notice in The Darling Downs Gazette seeking information about the whereabouts of Sandy, then aged 10, who had absconded the previous Sunday (21). They must have reconciled since Sandy worked with Alexander, Hugh, and John in Cunnamulla some years later.

There are other reports of court cases in 1867 about a disputed promissory note (22) and in 1872 about a dispute over land he owned in Gowrie Road that was rented (23). Other notices in the papers relate to land bought, owned, and sold in the Toowoomba area (24, 25).

By 1871 Alexander was living in Roma, likely for reasons of his work as a builder, and engaged in politics as a supporter of parliamentary candidates (26). Eliza was still residing in Toowoomba where she appeared as a witness in a court case disputing arrangements for rental of land Alexander owned on Gowrie Road (27). He still owned land in Toowoomba in 1881 and applied to have it brought under the provisions of new legislation(28). Based on the description in the advertisement, “4 acres 3 roods 30 perches, being Subdivision 1 of Portion 84, Parish of Drayton”, it was almost 5 acres (2.5 ha) near the corner of Bridge and West Streets.

By 1877 Alexander was working as a builder in Cunnamulla and his sons, Hugh, Sandy, and John, were working with him. Club Boutique News, a Cunnamulla Hotel blog, paints a vivid picture of the family’s contributions to the district over several years, well beyond Alexander’s death (29). There is much more on the website which is worth a visit but the following extracts offer a brief overview:

Alexander Albion was a building contractor for some years around the Drayton/Jondaryan district, and eventually the family moved to Cunnamulla. John was then about seventeen.
There Alexander Albion continued as a builder, one of his efforts was to build a wooden hospital in Cunnamulla. …
Alexander Albion later acquired a sawmill at Gum Hole and other property, and his sons helped him with the work. Sandy Albion became a builder, married, but died young leaving a son and a widow, who later remarried. …
Alexander Albion died after 15 days illness in Cunnamulla Hospital at the age of 64 on 4 July 1885. The sawmill was left to his sons, John & Hugh Albion who were to take care of their mother and sister. …
Memories of the Albion’s Warrego Sawmill Cunnamulla live on as the steam engine that ran the mill has been relocated. It is on display at Cunnamulla Bushland Gardens on the entrance to Cunnamulla.

Alexander was the successful tenderer for the Eulo Police Station in 1883 (30) and for Cunnamulla Hospital in 1884 (31). He died in Cunnamulla on 4 July 1885 and was buried in Cunnamulla (32).

Alexander was evidently a person of high energy and initiative who pursued varied opportunities and engaged with his local community wherever he lived. Nothing I have been able to find hints at how his marriage to Rachel failed but he seems to have maintained working relationships with his sons in Queensland to the end. I wonder if my interest and occasional peripheral engagement in politics might be inherited from Alexander.

Sources

#	Event/Source	Source/Link
1	Marriage to Rachel Whitley	https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/view/?record_id=99668cf754-2042939
2	Baptism of Lawson Albin	Image of registry found via ancestry.com
3	Arrival in Sydney	Image of passenger list found via ancestry.com
4	Birth & Baptism of Alexander (Sandy) Abbim	New South Wales Historical Records
5	Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) 12/6/1860	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13042517
6	SMH 12/10/1858	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28631198
7	SMH 8/2/1859	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13013645
8	Empire 9/6/1859	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60400677
9	Marriage to Eliza Kelly	Queensland Historical Records
10	Birth of George	New South Wales Historical Records
11	Birth of John Albion	Find a Grave via FamilySearch.org
12	Birth of Boy Albion	Queensland Historical Records
13	Birth of Robert Albion	Queensland Historical Records
14	SMH 26/4/1865	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13108129
15	Birth of Anne Albion	Queensland Historical Records
16	The Toowoomba Chronicle (TC) 24/10/1861	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/212787066
17	TC 23/1/1862	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/212786900
18	The Courier 7/8/1862	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4607274
19	TC 15/3/1866	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/212787874/23223232
20	The Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser (DDG) 26/4/1866	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/75516089
21	DDG 23/2/1867	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/75518687
22	TC 9/3/1867	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/212783394
23	TC 8/6/1872	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/212788980
24	DDG 10/8/1867	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/75517981
25	DDG 8/12/1869	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/75459566
26	Dalby Herald and Western Queensland Advertiser 15/7/1871	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/215603264
27	TC 8/6/1872	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/212788980
29	Club Boutique News 19/5/2018	https://clubboutiquehotel.com/albions-warrego-sawmill-cunnamulla/
30	Western Star and Roma Advertiser 28/2/1883	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/97519132
31	The Week 6/9/1884	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/184994728
32	Death of Alexander Albion	Queensland Historical Records
33	Darling Downs Gazette 10/3/1908	https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/191521156