Considering that the Alchin family arrived in July of 1838, and the marriage of Margaret and John took place the following December, it seems a short time for the couple to get to know each other. The other issue is the age difference of twenty years is significant.
I notice that Margaret made he mark and that John Haynes signed his name. If Margaret was underage would her parents have to have given consent?
All these considerations make me question whether or not I have the right John Haynes. There were a number of men by that name in the colony at the time. There is one thing that reassures me and that is the Coroner’s inquest into the death of John Haynes in 1877. See below.
John and Margaret were married in Mulgoa to the west of Sydney. They had ten children born over a period of twenty three years. From the location of where the children were born we can trace where the couple lived.
The Alchin family were well established around Jerrawa where the tenth child was born. I assume that the family moved west of Sydney and ended up close to Margaret’s family at Oolong close to Jerrawa and then I believe Margaret and John established themselves at Wallendbeen.
On John’s Certificate of Freedom which he acquired in 1828 it state that he was a farrier. I imagine that he continue in this line of work supporting his family as well as run a small farm. On the birth certificate of Richard Thomas he state he was a farmer. Richard Thomas is my 2x great grandfather.
Richard and his brother Christopher were brought to Bringelly by parents John Haynes and Margaret Alchin in 1849 to be baptised at Mulgoa in the county of Cuberland, Sydney. John was a farmer. Bringelly was a suburb of Sydney in the 19th Century and was first settled in 1812. In 1818 it was Wild Colonial Boy country. Luddenham PO opened in 1857 and was renamed Bringelley in 1863. A public school opened in 1880.
Death of John Haynes
According to the coroners report into his death in 1877 Margaret and John were estranged. Margaret Haynes deposed; I am the wife of the deceased John Haynes; he was seventy-three years of age.
This correlates closely with the age of the John Haynes that I have identified.
The inquest was held on the 5th June 1877. Apparently John Haynes had been living with his daughter, Ambrosine Lemon, for three weeks at her home at Wallendbeen. He had been drinking and decided to go and see his wife. Margaret was thirty miles away at Bethungra. He set off at dusk. When his horse returned soon after the alarm was raised and his daughter and a friend found him lying against a fence in great pain. They got help and took him back to her place on a cart but he died soon after. The post mortem examination concluded that the cause of death was injury to the liver by the broken ribs caused by a fall: probably from his horse.
Margaret died on the 6th February 1885 in Wallendbeen of old age and exhaustion. She was 63! Her father (Ambrose Alchin – not named) was an orchard farmer. Her son-in-law William Navin was the informant. William was the husband of Rose Anne. There are a number of anomalies. I think there were four females still living – Elizabeth, Martha, Rose Ann and Lilly while Mary Anne and Ambrosien had died. Charles predeceased his mother in 1872. The three males were William, James and Edward- Richard Thomas (Edward?).
Richard Thomas Edward Haynes my 2x great grandfather, married Mary Luxon. While I have found very little about Richard, Mary’s story is quite a saga!
The Tagney Hood 