Joseph Blackburn CAWTHERAY was born 8th March 1840 at Wortley near Leeds, Yorkshire, England.  He is Mr R.’s great great grandfather. On the 13th January 1870, as Joseph Cawtheray PRINCE,  he married seventeen year old Eliza Jane MUTTON at Seymour, Victoria, Australia.

Joseph and Eliza Jane Prince and family, 1885

This photo was taken to celebrate the arrival of the first son, in 1885, after seven daughters. They went on to have another six children, fourteen in total and they all survived to marry and have children of their own. Mr R’s grand-mother Helena is the eldest girl. Joseph was a painter and decorator and knew how to make linoleum.

Joseph left a wife and child back in England. However, this marriage seems to one merely to legitimize his firstborn as they were not living together in the year after the marriage – at the time of the British census.  After his death, Probate of Joseph’s estate was granted to this English child, Eleanor, now the wife of Alfred Fox, living in England.

At some stage during his marriage, Eliza Jane found out about this first marriage but kept it to herself until after his death.  They are both buried in the Avenel cemetery and the headstone bears Eliza’s pride to have been the first white child to born in Avenel, her elder brother being born in nearby Seymour.