GeniAus - #AtoZChallenge - M is for the Magick Mystery

During April 2020 the month of this #AtoZChallenge I will be sharing short posts on some of the  2,000+ descendants I have identified of my 3x Great-Grandmother, Elizabeth Phipps. 

Elizabeth Phipps 1785-1869 was a convict who was transported from England to New South Wales in 1814 per Wanstead. 

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You may be wondering why I am concentrating on Elizabeth's descendants rather than those of a married couple. Well the Magick Mystery is that, until we get some DNA matches that help us determine the paternity of Elizabeth's children, we cannot be 100% sure as to the identity of their fathers.

In my database I have details of ten children born to Elizabeth and christened with the surname Westbrook and that is why I record them as Westbrook There is conjecture that there was another child that was transported with Elizabeth but I only have one small piece of evidence from 1814 to support this ( General Muster of New South Wales 1814. Baxter, Carol, Ed. Sydney, ABGR, 1987: Number 1800. 1800 W Elizabeth Phipps Wanstead C (Stores) Off (Children) 1 Servant to Mr Cox). What happened to this child?

Children of Elizabeth Phipps

The two main paternal candidates are convicts James Westbrook, and William Magick. To confuse the issue further Elizabeth in 1818 applied to marry another convict, William Widgett (who had been transported to NSW on the General Hewitt with Magick). This marriage did not proceed.

Elizabeth and James who were partners in crime were cohabiting in London before they were transported to New South Wales. Although they claimed to be married it must have been a common law marriage,  there has been no formal record of this union found.

Elizabeth and James were assigned to William Cox on their arrival in NSW, Magick was first assigned to Mr Purcell but later to Cox. Westbrook and Magick worked together as Brickmakers for Cox on the building of the Road over the Blue Mountains. The trio in the 1820s all resided in the Richmond area.

Elizabeth's children are recorded in the 1825 Muster and 1828 Census with the surname Westbrook.

Elizabeth finally made her choice and married  William Magick in 1834. A cynic may suggest that this choice was influenced by the fact that William was gaining respectability as a man of property in Richmond.

Presumably Elizabeth's younger children went to live with her and Magick in March Street, Richmond. It is interesting to note that the younger children Adelina Benedicta and William John used the Magick surname on their marriage records. James was also known as James Magick on various documents.

The older girls Ann, Sophia, Louisa and Sarah were married using the Westbrook surname.

There are so many questions to be answered. When did Elizabeth begin to cohabit with William Magick? The 1822 Muster records her as living with Westbrook. She was living with Madgewick in the 1825 muster and cited as his housekeeper in the 1828 census. Therefore it is quite likely that her younger children were by William Magick.

And that is the Magick Mystery that has been confounding Elizabeth's descendants for year (over 30 for me).

UPDATE:  I wrote this post two weeks ago. Thanks to Cousin Regina, A Phipps descendant and committed genealogist, who has found a piece of evidence showing that Elizabeth Phipps was pregnant when she was in Newgate Prison. If that child was born alive then it must be the one I mentioned above. You can find new records relating to Elizabeth's time in Newgate by doing a search on Ancestry.

I love to connect with cousins and fellow researchers. Should you find any errors in my post or have additional information please contact me. 

A Question of Paternity

Something that has frustrated me and some of the 2000+ descendants that I have identified of my convict ancestor Elizabeth Phipps  is that we don't know the paternity of the children she bore. The likely fathers are fellow convicts James Westbrook (her partner in crime) and William Magick.

DNA has confirmed my line of descent from Elizabeth. It has also enabled me to connect to around twenty 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins on that line (some previously unknown to me), add more branches to my tree and include more of Elizabeth's descendants in my database. This is rather useful when trying to fathom out those treeless matches on Ancestry and FTDNA. I keep a list of Elizabeth's descendants surnames close by and if a new match has one of those surnames I have a starting point for communication.

Just recently I have lopped a branch off my tree and added another one because of a conversation I am having on Facebook with others who are also curious as to Elizabeth's relationships. One of my 3rd cousins set up, in August, a Facebook page for Elizabeth's descendants who are interested in solving our mystery. As I have been having a break from research I only found the page about a week ago.

This closed group, ELIZABETH PHIPPS - London to Richmond, New South Wales, Australia 1814, only has 28 members about 6 of whom are engaging in discussion and sharing resources, thoughts and ideas. Membership of the group has made me revisit my research with a critical eye.

William Magick had a family in England before being transported to New South Wales. I am hopeful that as more people take DNA tests we may be able to compare results from William's first family descendants and Elizabeth descendants to solve this paternity problem. What do you think of our chances?

One of my purposes in writing this post is to let other Phipps descendants (some of whom I know follow this blog) about the Facebook Group where they may discuss this issue with fellow descendants.

Disappointed with this tome

A couple of months ago I went to a talk by William Cox's descendant, Anne-Maree Harriet Cox Whitaker at Hawkesbury Family History Group. I quite enjoyed her talk (see my report) and lined up afterwards to purchase her book William Cox and Cox's  Road; a bicentenary souvenir as I was keen to learn more about the road and the story of its construction.

I believe that my convict ancestors, James Westbrook amd William Magick had earned their freedom in 1818 as a result of the work they did making bricks for the road.

I read the book when I got home and have had it sitting on my desk for six weeks as I ponder what to write about it. It was attractively presented, well laid out, competently written, had some pertinent images and was well sourced. Although there is nothing wrong with the book I felt disappointed after reading it. Why?

* From the title I thought there would be more emphasis on the building of the road and I was hoping to discover new information about the road and its construction.

* About 59 pages are devoted to Cox and his family, I didn't realise that this was a major focus of the work but should have realised as in the title the words  William Cox are in bigger font than And Cox's Road.

* The author recognises in the short four page chapter on "Cox's Road Party" that not all the names of those who worked on the road are recorded. I wonder what research was carried out to identify others. I would like to have seen a bit more information on the other members of the Road Party but this book's focus was definitely just Cox.

* 34 pages of the book are devoted to a reprint of the Journal Cox kept during the road's construction. This together with Governor Macquarie's instructions to Cox (also reprinted in the book) is freely available here through Project Gutenberg. I was annoyed that I had purchased a book told me no more about the building of Cox's Road than what I can find freely available on the internet.

Do go ahead and  purchase this book, it is a good souvenir. My disappointment is personal,  I had great expectations that just weren't realised.

The Road Builder

Anne-Maree signs a copy of her book for me 

Yesterday I attended a talk by Anne-Maree Harriet Cox Whitaker at the monthly meeting of the  Hawkesbury Family History Group

I was rather excited as she was talking on her latest book "William Cox and Cox's Road" and two of my convict ancestors had worked for Cox on the construction of the road. Can you imagine my disappointment when Anne-Maree showed a slide of the thirty convicts that worked on the road and my men weren't on the list?

While the talk continued I grabbed my phone, brought up my family tree and checked my sources. Yes, my men earned their conditional pardons for working on the road. James Westbrook and William Magick were "On list of prisoners recommended for mitigation of sentence by Wm. Cox" as a result of their work making bricks for the road  (State Records NSW Reel 6065; 4/1798 p.107) As Anne-Maree didn't want the flow of her talk interrupted I had to wait until the end of her talk to ask if the thirty were the only convicts who worked on the road. She assured me that there were indeed more.  I wish she would have mentioned this during her talk!

The talk which Anne-Maree read was supported by interesting and relevant historical and contemporary images. The presentation firstly focused on the genealogy and history of the Cox family before moving on to the story of Cox's road. I found it most interesting to discover that Cox's first career was as a watch and clock maker. Because of my ancestor's connection I would have liked to hear more about the road but, as I have purchased the book which includes a transcription of 36 pages of Cox's Journal I am sure that I will be able to discover more of the story of the road's construction right from the horse's mouth.

William Cox Festival

Two of my convicts, James Westbrook and William Madgwick worked on the building of the road over the Blue Mountains by William Cox.

I was interested to read that the Nepean District Historical Society is hosting a mini William Cox Festival at the Arms of Australia Inn on Sunday 26th May.

The William Cox Festival will celebrate the building of a road across the Blue Mountains. Construction
started on July 7, 1814 at Emu Plains and finished on January 14,1815.  The road opened
up inland New South Wales to European settlement. As a result of their work on this road my two convicts received their Conditional Pardons.

Details of this event can be found in the Society newsletter that is published online at http://www.nepeanhistoricalsociety.org.au/imgedit/show_news1.php?id=1

Elizabeth Phipps - an honest woman

On this day, June 4th in 1834, William Magick made an honest woman of my 3rd great-grandmother, Elizabeth Phipps when they were wed at The Scots Church in Sydney.

Elizabeth had lived a colourful life having been transported to Sydney on Wanstead in 1814 after a trial at The Old Bailey. Elizabeth was one of "The wanton witches of the Wanstead". Old William, another convict, arrived in the colony per General Hewitt.

Elizabeth gave birth to 10 children between 1815 and 1830 but their paternity is hard to determine as she resided with both her first husband, James Westbrook, and Magick during this period.