I hope this factual account about finding James Kidd’s grave
inspires others to locate their ancestors amongst the historic graves of
Camperdown Cemetery. In writing the story about James Kidd’s life, I realised
that I needed to delve deeper into his past, find out who his parents were,
where he came from and how he came to be transported to Australia. In this
quest I have uncovered a proud Australian.
James Kidd was my husband’s third great grandfather. He was a
Scottish convict who was given a new start and the opportunity to reform his
ways, and he went on to become an outstanding citizen in a new land. He was convicted
for fourteen years, on 14 April 1830, at the Perthshire Assizes for his
involvement in forging two one pound notes. Kidd was transported to Australia
aboard the Burrell on 22 July 1830,
arriving on 18 December, 1830. James Kidd provided information on his
transportation papers that he was a gardener from Fifeshire, and upon his arrival
he was immediately placed with the Botanic Gardens of Sydney.
Australian Convict
Transportation Registers – other Fleets and Ships 1791-1868:
Name:
|
James Kidd
|
Vessel:
|
Burrell
|
Convicted Date:
|
14 Apr 1830
|
Voyage Date:
|
22 Jul 1830
|
Colony:
|
New South Wales
|
Place of Conviction:
|
Perth, Perthshire, Scotland
|
NSW Australia Convict
Indents, 1788-1842:
Name:
|
James Kidd
|
Age:
|
31
|
Date of Conviction:
|
11 Sep 1830
|
Place of Conviction:
|
Forth
|
Estimated birth year:
|
abt 1799
|
Vessel:
|
Burrell
|
Port of Arrival:
|
Sydney
|
Date of Arrival:
|
18 Dec 1830
|
The
illustration on the next page provides information regarding Kidd’s occupation
and a description of his features and shows that he was placed at the Botanic
Gardens upon his arrival in New South Wales:
NSW Australia Convict Indents 1788-1842
James Kidd’s first wife Mary Ross, and their three surviving
children, John, James (baptised George) and Mary Ann (baptised Margaret) followed
him to Australia aboard the Drummore.
Also listed aboard the boat was Mary’s sister, Jane Ross, listed on board with
several other women as milliners. Twelve days after their arrival, Mary Kidd tragically
died on 28 Nov 1832. These facts are found in several handwritten pages in
James Kidd’s application for acceptance for his daughter Mary Anne into the
Orphan’s School in George Street, Sydney Town. James’ application explained his
dire predicament, with not only a daughter to look after, but two sons to bring
up without their mother. It must have been a most shocking and sad time for
James. These historic papers were a vital link to James’ past, giving details
about his family, along with a statement providing evidence of Mary Anne’s Baptism
in Dundee, and revealing his homeland in Fifeshire, Scotland. Most importantly
for me was that his wife’s maiden name of Ross was recorded. This name has been
vital in my tracing James back to his family parish at St Andrews and St
Leonards in Fifeshire, Scotland, where I found his sons John, Alexander (who died
in Scotland) and George (called James) Baptism’s naming Mary Ross and James Kydd/Kyd
as their parents, which correctly corresponds to their age listed on the
Application for Admissions for his sister Mary Anne to Orphans School. I
finally found Mary Anne’s baptism in Dundee, after much searching, and it was
revealed that she was in fact baptised Margaret as the dates from the Orphans
School parallel each other. My discovery of Mary Kidd’s migration aboard the
Drummore was exciting. I was trawling through Trove digitised newspapers and
came across this newspaper article, and my heart suddenly quickened:
Arrival of the
Drummore, Mrs Mary Kidd and her three children and her sister Miss Jane Ross,
The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 November 1833.
Australian Death Index 1787-1985:
Name:
|
Mary Kidd
|
Death Date:
|
1833
|
Death Place:
|
New South Wales
|
Registration Year:
|
1833
|
Registration Place:
|
Sydney, New South Wales
|
Volume Number:
|
V18331040 102
|
James Kidd and Mary Ross were married at Saint Cuthbert’s
Church in Edinburgh. This magnificent church is in the heart of Edinburgh next
to the Botanic Gardens with Edinburgh Castle towering above. It is a most
beautiful place and I feel that Mary must have been a native of Edinburgh and
that this was in all probability her family’s parish church. After James’
conviction, Mary’s journey with her children to Australia was from Leith, which
is the port of Edinburgh. I feel that Mary may have returned to her family in
Edinburgh after James’ transportation. A woman alone, with three young children
needed protection and emotional care, after such a trauma. It was indeed
comforting to know that Mary was close to her sister Jane, who then accompanied
her on the voyage on the Drummore to
Australia. I don’t know what happened to Jane Ross after her arrival, as yet. I
have searched for a marriage record without success.
The information that I uncovered from the Orphans School
document led me to search for Mary Ross and James Kidd’s life in Scotland,
before he was convicted. It was incredibly exciting to find James’ marriage to
Mary Ross while searching another website, Family search. Listed are the online
records from the family search website of the Kidd’s marriage at Saint
Cuthberts, Edinburgh and the children’s Baptisms from St Andrews, Fifeshire and
from Dundee. Mary, I think, being married in her parish church.
Marriage Record for
James Kidd and Mary Ross:
Name:
|
|
Spouse's Name:
|
Mary Ross
|
Event Date:
|
12 Dec 1821
|
Event Place:
|
Saint
Cuthberts,Edinburgh,Midlothian,Scotland
|
Spouse's Father's Name:
|
Indexing Project (Batch)
Number: M11989-5 , System Origin: Scotland-ODM , GS Film number: 1066763, 0103068
Records of the Baptism’s
of their children:
Name:
|
John Kydd
|
Gender:
|
Male
|
Christening Date:
|
14 Jan 1824
|
Christening Place:
|
ST ANDREWS AND ST
LEONARDS,FIFE,SCOTLAND
|
Birth Date:
|
04 Jan 1824
|
Father's Name:
|
|
Mother's Name:
|
Name:
|
|
Gender:
|
Male
|
Christening Date:
|
12 Aug 1825
|
Christening Place:
|
ST ANDREWS AND ST
LEONARDS,FIFE,SCOTLAND
|
Birth Date:
|
02 Aug 1825
|
Father's Name:
|
James Kydd
|
Mother's Name:
|
Name:
|
|
Gender:
|
Male
|
Christening Date:
|
01 Jun 1827
|
Christening Place:
|
ST ANDREWS AND ST
LEONARDS,FIFE,SCOTLAND
|
Birth Date:
|
16 May 1827
|
Father's Name:
|
James Kydd
|
Mother's Name:
|
Name:
|
Margaret Kidd
|
Gender:
|
Female
|
Christening Date:
|
21 Jun 1829
|
Christening Place:
|
DUNDEE,ANGUS,SCOTLAND
|
Birth Date:
|
02 Jun 1829
|
Father's Name:
|
|
Mother's Name:
|
St Cuthbert’s Church, Edinburgh, Scotland August 2013
Font, Church of St Andrews and St Leonards, St Andrews, Fifeshire, Scotland August 2013
Church of St Andrews and St Leonards, St Andrews, Fifeshire, Scotland, August 2013
James Kidd’s convict application to marry Mary Ann Must, his
second wife, was granted on 16 January 1836, and was supported by the Reverend J McGarvie, who married the couple at St Andrews Presbyterian Church, Bathurst Street, Sydney. Mary Ann Must, according to this record, arrived free aboard
the Britomart. A further
investigation revealed the ship arriving in Sydney, via Hobart on 15 March 1822. Mary Ann Must was migrating, possibly as a servant girl
looking after the young children of a migrating family, on the voyage from
Portsmouth.
Arrival of the Britomart, Sydney Gazette, 15 March 1822 page 2
NSW Australia,
Register of Convicts’ Application to Marry 1826-1851
Convict marriages were difficult to achieve, and
applications to marry were strictly sanctioned by the Governor of New South Wales
and often took an inordinate amount of time to arrange the papers and gain
approval. James Kidd had been made Caretaker to the Botanic Gardens on 20 July
1833, and James and Mary Ann Kidd became the first family to make their home in
the Caretaker’s Stone Cottage on the premises of the Botanic Gardens. The next
document is the Kidd’s marriage and it is interesting that Mary Ann’s brother
Thomas Must was the witness to the marriage. This document was kindly provided
by Jenny Purdie who is a direct ancestor of Thomas Must. More on Thomas later.
The previous illustration was kindly provided by the Botanic
Gardens and was an illustration from a report from about the 1870’s by Charles
Moore, Superintendant of the Botanical Gardens shown in circled red is the
possible Caretaker’s lodge.
James became Overseer to the Botanic Gardens in 1833, and
John Kidd, presumably his son from his first marriage, became Tidemaster/Coastwaiter
to Sydney Harbour. They are consecutively and separately listed in many of the
NSW Colonial Secretary’s Returns of the Colony, a compendium of statistics and
appointments, James’ salary and housing accommodation are also included in some
of the returns.
Victoria Cottage,
Sydney Botanic Gardens
NSW Colonial Secretary’s Returns of the Colony:
Name:
|
James Kidd
|
Location:
|
Sydney
|
Publication Year:
|
1848
|
Note that his son John Kidd is included in this return.
Death Notice of John Kidd, Tide master, from The Sydney Morning Herald 17 June 1886.
James Kidd and his second wife Mary Ann Must had eight children from their marriage, Anna, Thomas, Peter and Henrietta Kidd who all died as infants, and Anne, Amelia, Frances and Martha Kidd who all survived to adulthood. Anne married Robert Stearne Tighe, but they do not appear to have had any children. Amelia and Martha did not marry, Amelia died at the age of 78, see her death index below, and her sister Anne Tighe appears to have lived to the ripe age of 90. I just love the death notice for Anne which demonstrates how proud and fond the family were of their father and his achievements. It also supports other stories regarding the children being the first family to be born in the Botanic Gardens in Sydney. There was much information supplied by this death notice, including Anne’s birth date.
James Kidd and his second wife Mary Ann Must had eight children from their marriage, Anna, Thomas, Peter and Henrietta Kidd who all died as infants, and Anne, Amelia, Frances and Martha Kidd who all survived to adulthood. Anne married Robert Stearne Tighe, but they do not appear to have had any children. Amelia and Martha did not marry, Amelia died at the age of 78, see her death index below, and her sister Anne Tighe appears to have lived to the ripe age of 90. I just love the death notice for Anne which demonstrates how proud and fond the family were of their father and his achievements. It also supports other stories regarding the children being the first family to be born in the Botanic Gardens in Sydney. There was much information supplied by this death notice, including Anne’s birth date.
Australian Death
Index 1787-1985:
Name:
|
Amelia Kidd
|
Death Date:
|
1920
|
Death Place:
|
New South Wales
|
Father's Name:
|
James
|
Mother's name:
|
Mary A
|
Registration Year:
|
1920
|
Registration Place:
|
Marrickville, New South Wales
|
Registration Number:
|
11287
|
Death notice of Anne Tighe nee Kidd The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 November 1921
Frances Kidd, my husband’s direct ancestor, married Colonel William
Thomas Farrell and they had a large family who lived at Swan Isle in Randwick. William and Frances Farrell’s eldest son
Charles Mitchell Farrell married Charlotte Fanny Sarah Stewart and they had
three daughters, Doris, Ruby and Sylvia. A son Gordon died as an infant. Sylvia,
being the grandmother of my husband Geoff. Swan
Isle is now listed on the Historic Houses Trust, and overlooks Centennial
Park in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. William Farrell had a large family cemetery
monument built at Randwick cemetery, which also lists Martha Kidd, sister to
Frances Farrell nee Kidd amongst those buried in the grave. Charles Mitchell Farrell
is also buried there, however his wife Charlotte is not. The grave has a
magnificent granite monument which was presumably hit by lightning some years
ago causing the column to split and fall. A second cousin of Geoff’s, Eileen
Coldham, who is related through Doris Farrell, a sister to Ruby and Sylvia
photographed the monument grave ten years earlier, before it was damaged. A
further chapter, Charles Farrell of
Mullingar, Westmeath, Ireland and his
descendants, will feature more about Swan
Isle, and include more photographs of the Farrell grave monument at Randwick
cemetery.
Marriage announcement
of the marriage of James and Mary Anne Kidd’s eldest daughter Frances, The
Sydney Morning Herald 16 August 1858.
This photograph is disappointing and I need to photograph it again. At the bottom of the grave you can just work out the name Martha Kidd. I must say I was pretty well on my own researching the Kidd Family and when I found Martha Kidd buried in this grave at Randwick and I was exceedingly happy to think that I had made the correct links between the families and found two siblings. It was about two years before I was to make a connection with Eileen.
I now decided to turn my research to Mary Ann Must, James Kidd’s second wife, and searched English baptism records for Mary Ann Meist/Must and came up with a London Baptism for a Mary Ann Must.
London, England
Baptism, 1838-1812:
Name:
|
Mary Ann Must
|
Baptism Date:
|
29 Apr 1804
|
Parish:
|
St Leonard, Shoreditch
|
County:
|
Middlesex
|
Borough:
|
Hackney
|
Parent(s):
|
Thomas Must,
Mary Must |
Record Type:
|
Baptism
|
Register Type:
|
Parish Register
|
Baptism of Mary Ann Must, St Leonards,
Shoreditch, Parish Register April 1894
Thomas and Mary Must had several other children and it was
from these names that I saw immediately a familial naming pattern amongst the
names of James and Mary Ann Kidd’s children, born in Australia. The Must’s other
children were named Hannah, Amelia and Thomas. The Kidds also had children
named Thomas and Amelia. It was also interesting to find that Thomas Must, Mary
Ann’s brother migrated to Australia, arriving in Sydney on the Guardian on 20 January 1833. My belief
that Thomas Must then reunited with his sister Mary Ann was supported when I
found that he was a witness to the Kidd’s marriage shortly after his arrival. Thomas
Must was an outstanding citizen of Australia and his obituary from the Portland
Guardian reveals his enormous contribution to the shaping of Australia as a
nation. See Thomas’ obituary on the following page.
I recently connected with another family researcher Jenny
Purdie, a direct ancestor of Thomas Must, who gave great insight into the life
of Mary Ann Must before her emigration to Australia.
“Mary Ann’s mother was Mary Cox who died in 1817, when Mary
Ann was 13, and Thomas only 2. I wonder if this had some bearing on Mary
Ann becoming a servant to a migrating family? There were 4 Williamson
children on the Britomart though they disembarked in Hobart. Mary Ann’s
father Thomas married again in 1820 when Mary was 16, old enough to be sent to
work as a servant. I think I may have mentioned that I think young Thomas
was brought up by his grandmother Mary Robards/Roberts as I found her name
listed as his mother in connection with Thomas’ political career with the
Victorian parliament.” Email from Jenny
Purdie, 7 August 2014
Portland Guardian, 4
September 1905.
In 1842 James Kidd received a conditional pardon from his conviction;
this recommendation was supported by Sir James Dowling, Chief Justice of New
South Wales, whose impressive entry indicates that he must have known Kidd
well. See this document on the next page. The Chief Justice’s home overlooked
the Botanic Gardens in Sydney and it was known that during Dowling’s recuperation
from a recurring lung disease, he took solace in the gardens. The information
gleaned from these documents is fascinating reading, it lists James’ age at 42,
with brown hair and brown eyes, it also noted that he stood 5ft 7ins tall, was
of a ruddy complexion with a horizontal scar above his right eye. As a matter
of incredible coincidence one of my lifelong friends is Susan Mary Dowling
Snepp. I knew immediately that this was her name sake, and her GGG Grandfather
who died in 1844, and is buried in the ‘dress circle’ at Waverley Cemetery in a
magnificent monument grave. I can remember sitting down one morning and showing
her the document, which was so exciting for us to find such a connection in our
family history.
As an aside, the monument grave of Thomas and Eliza Stewart
at Waverley Cemetery is only few rows back from the Dowling monument. They were
the parents of Charlotte Fanny Sarah Stewart who married Charles Mitchell
Farrell. Thomas, being the grandson of Robert Stewart, who arrived aboard the Wyndham. Thomas was a successful
business man who ran an omnibus company operating in Surry Hills, Paddington
and parts of the city centre. The Stewart
Family of Yorkshire will shortly be written up as another fascinating
chapter in our family history. During the last two summers Geoff and I have
spent a considerable amount of time restoring the Stewart grave at Waverley
Cemetery, removing tree stumps and asparagus ferns to reveal a beautiful mosaic
floor which we carefully removed and re-laid, the large grave has a vault beneath,
and a small side vent accesses the vault. It was sadly neglected and in peril
of caving in, today one tree stump remains, and hopefully over time the front
of the grave will stabilise.
NSW Australia Convict Registers for Conditional and Absolute Pardons 1788-1877
Two years after Kidd was granted his conditional pardon, he
was formally pardoned in 1844, and this was the year that he was appointed
acting Superintendent of the Gardens by the Trustees of the Australian Museum.
However, political lobbying erupted between the Trustees of Kew Gardens in
London, who appointed Charles Moore, and the Museum Trustees in Sydney,
comprising of Messrs. McLeay, MacArthur and King, who appointed John Bidwell to
the same job in 1847. There was fury when Mr Bidwell’s position was seen to be
overturned in favour of Mr Moore; however fate intervened when Mr Bidwell lost
his life during a surveying trip to Wide Bay in February 1848. James Kidd
reverted to a position as resident Overseer, a position he held for 33 years
and Charles Moore became Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens for the next 50
years. During his career, James Kidd travelled widely and even visited and
crossed the Blue Mountains in a search of seeds and seedlings to plant in the
Botanic Gardens. James Kidd was also awarded a silver medal in 1842 from the NSW
Horticultural Society for the first olive oil produced in the colony. James was
also the first apiarist in the Botanic Gardens, establishing a bee hive in the
gardens, to aid the pollination of his plants. My husband Geoff and I visited
the NSW State Library in July 2013 to view a book called “Records of Australian
Botanists” by J.H. Maiden, in the hope we might glean some extra information
regarding the life of James Kidd.
Maiden’s book gave us some exciting information regarding
James Kidd, including his photograph, and his birth date, which solved a
puzzle, as there had been three James Kidd/Kydd/Kyd’s born in Fifeshire between
the years 1799 to 1801. As genealogist I was compelled to be conservative about
his place and date of birth until I had found further evidence. I now feel
comfortable accepting this Baptism for James Kyd from Pittenweem, Fifeshire, as
the coincidence is too great, regarding his actual birth date, see below.
The fact that there is a discrepancy in his year of birth
can probably be accounted for by either the persons who supplied the
information, most probably being his children, or a transcription error by the
author, J. H. Maiden. Much information was verbally passed to biographers and
those writing obituaries, in the absence of actual records being available in
the early colony of NSW. It is probable that whilst the date was correct, the
year given was either wrong or transposed.
Name:
|
James Kyd
|
Gender:
|
Male
|
Christening Date:
|
10 Aug 1800
|
Christening Place:
|
PITTENWEEM,FIFE,SCOTLAND
|
Birth Date:
|
01 Aug 1800
|
Father's Name:
|
|
Mother's Name:
|
Leaske, the biographer of ‘Early Australian Families in
Australia’ published in 1930, noted in the preface of his tome, that much of
his information about early Australian families was passed on by word of mouth,
as he could not always access original records. Different spellings of surnames
such as Kidd/Kyd/Kydd are commonplace errors due the transcribers’ reliance on
verbal communication, often supplied by people who could neither read nor
write. In the case of James Kidd, I believe he could both read and write and
his signature can be found on the second page of the application for his
daughters admission to Orphan’s School, where it is also verified that Mary Ann
Kidd was Baptised in Dundee, this being the place where Kidd lived and possibly
was working before he was arrested for forgery. Kidd’s trial papers also
included his signature which is compatible. Incredibly James was a twin, and I found
amongst other siblings this Baptism from Family Search for his twin brother,
Charles. I also found several birth records for their other children and noted
that John and Robina Kidd also had a son named George. James Kidd named two of
his sons John, after his father and George, after his brother, his other son
Alexander could presumably have been his grandfather.
Name:
|
|
Gender:
|
Male
|
Christening Date:
|
10 Aug 1800
|
Christening Place:
|
PITTENWEEM,FIFE,SCOTLAND
|
Birth Date:
|
01 Aug 1800
|
Father's Name:
|
John Kyd
|
Mother's Name:
|
My husband Geoff and I visited Scotland in August 2013, when
we visited amongst others, the city of Edinburgh and the towns of Pittenweem,
St Andrews and Dundee. We also went to the Scottish Archives in Edinburgh, now
called The Scotlands People, where we undertook research and met with a Fife researcher
and historian who took us through the original hand written Kidd documents,
including his conviction. It was incredible to find that the forged pound notes
that had been used as exhibits in the court room and attached to the official documents
after the trial, had been subsequently stolen.
The precognition of James Kidd was available at The Scotlands
People, if ordered in advance of your visit, and was listed as “Information from the Edinburgh Archives of
Scotland”.
Geoff and I attended the Archives and met with Andrew
Campbell from the Fife Family Historical Society, who had kindly ordered these
original documents for me. Geoff photographed some of the relevant docs from a
large file of handwritten documents. It was amazing to be able to handle these
old original documents. It would seem that John Stewart failed to appear, and
was outlawed in his absence. It is stated that John Stewart had a relationship
with the sister of James Kidd’s wife, presumably Jane Ross, and they had an out
of wedlock child. It would also seem that James Kidd was “conned” by Stewart
into this deception with the forging of notes, and whilst Stewart shot through,
James Kidd was there to take the blame. More relevant information is available
from Andrew Campbell’s email to me dated 19 July 2013.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The
next four pages are from these original records, which Geoff and I viewed in
Edinburgh in August 2013, during our month holiday in Scotland celebrating Geoff’s 60th
Birthday. As a present to Geoff, our sons Jeremy and Rowan kindly presented him
with two tickets to the Edinburgh Tattoo, which included a Cocktail Reception
in the Castle, affording Geoff the opportunity to achieve one of his life’s
ambitions. I was pretty happy to tag along too! It was a magnificent star lit
night sitting in the Castle grounds, and an unforgettable event for us both.
During searches of early Australian newspapers I found James Kidd’s funeral notice in the Sydney Morning Herald stating that he was buried at Camperdown cemetery and that he died on 15 Feb 1867. I also found a funeral notice for his wife Mary Ann Kidd stating the same cemetery information.
Death notice for James Kidd, The Sydney Morning
Herald 18 February 1867 (the newspaper print has seriously deteriorated)
Funeral Notice for Mary Ann Kidd, The Sydney Morning
Herald 29 August 1874
This began my search to find the grave of James and Mary Ann
Kidd. Geoff and I first visited Camperdown Cemetery in the winter of 2012,
accompanied by our brave and faithful West Highland White Terrier, Roy, during
a wild rainstorm, and although fruitless, it resulted in our falling completely
under the spell of this magnificent, wild and most beautiful green place in the
heart of Sydney. Quite by chance, in February 2013, I found the 1968 microfishe
transcriptions of the headstones of Camperdown Cemetery by the Society of Australian
Genealogists at their Kent Street Library in Sydney, and noted that James
Kidd’s headstone mentioned that he was Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens of
Sydney, and also that the headstone had probably fallen since the time the
transcriptions were taken in the late 1950’s, because when rechecked in 1990 a
note explained that the headstone was not found. Camperdown Cemetery had been
quartered in size in 1948 when Camperdown Memorial Park was created in Newtown.
St Stephens Church and the remaining cemetery area was walled off from the
park, with many relocated headstones being affixed to the inside perimeter
walls. Quite remarkably the Kidd’s grave was reported as having being resumed
from the outer perimeter and reburied within the existing cemetery during this
time. I was helped extensively by Jenna Watson, of the Camperdown Cemetery
Trust, who gave me the names of other graves listed nearby, to gain the
probable whereabouts of the Kidd grave, and from old map co-ordinators, some
deductions, much pacing through almost knee high native grasses, and a fair bit
of luck on a magnificent sunny morning, we examined a fallen headstone on 7
March 2013, which was lifted partially off the ground. It was just enough for
my husband, Geoff, to peer underneath and exclaim that he could see and read clearly
the original inscription. Most excitingly we had found James and Mary Ann Kidd’s
headstone, which has possibly been protected all these years from further deterioration
by its fallen state. As a genealogist my immediate desire was to lift and
restore, however as an archaeologist my concern is to preserve the inscription,
which will last longer in its fallen state.
Camperdown
Cemetery Map circa 1930.
The Botanic Gardens of Sydney celebrates its bicentenary in 2016, and it is exciting that James Kidd’s grave has been found, and will hopefully be photographed in time to coincide with this historic event. It has been a privilege for me to research the life of James Kidd of Fifeshire. I have appreciated Kidd’s contribution to early Sydney and at the same time I have revealed the family man, and his obvious devotion to his large family. I admire James Kidd, a man who was able to turn adversity and tragedy around, to achieve a successful, honest and fulfilling life in the early colony of New South Wales.
Virginia Rundle
April 2013 and
revised in August 2014
Bibliography:
Maiden, J.H. (1908) Records of Australian botanists,
Biography, Australian National Herbarium
Peter Barrett, The Immigrant Bees, 1788-1898, Volume 2
SMH 9 July 1946, Article on Camperdown Cemetery by W.P
Thornton
29 March 1901, The Botanical Gardens, Historical Facts
Trove Digitised Newspapers for the Kidd Family notices and articles
NSW Convict Indents, 1788-1842
NSW Register of Convicts Applications to Marry 1826-1851
Australian Convict Transport Registers, Other Fleets and
Ships, 1791-1868
NSW, Convicts Register of Conditional and Absolute Pardons,
1788-1870
NSW, Australia, Settler and Convict Lists, 1787-1834
NSW, Australia, Returns to the Colony, 1822-1857
NSW, Australia, Applications and Admissions for Orphan
School, 1817-1833
Original photographs by Geoff Rundle August 2013
Family search Website
The Scotlands People, Edinburgh, original Kidd papers of
Precognition
London, England, Baptism Records, 1838-1812
Botanic Gardens, Photos, maps
Society of Australian Genealogists
Camperdown Cemetery Trust
A special thank you to my younger son Rowan Rundle for his
time and patience in helping me add illustrations to this article and for IT help with this website.
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