Hungerfords and Bridges: Family Connections

by Alfred Bridge Watts

[Editor: This article was originally published in HAFS Journal Vol 1 No 2 Nov 1991.

Among the pioneer wine growing families around the Cessnock-Polkobin-Allandale-Branxton area, one will find, among others, the names of Drayton, Chick, Goodwin, and of course Hungerford – as one will know from reading Mines, Wines and People: a History of Greater Cessnock¹

As these families grew up in the 1800s, in what was a close-knit community, it was to be expected that marriages would take place between their members and other families in the area. Thus, it came to be that a grandson and a great-grandson of Emanuel Hungerford and Catherine Loane married Bridge family descendants. These Hungerfords were also descendants of Thomas W Winder and Ellen Johnson.

The first marriage was at Lochinvar in 1897 when Emanuel’s grandson, Hussey Hastings Hungerford [E.2.11a], born 1862, married Selina Ann Goodwin. Hussey appears to have been the last child of Robert Richard Hungerford [E.2/W.2=]and Ellen Winder. Robert was the second of Emanuel’s Irish-born sons, while Selina was the daughter of John Goodwin and Elizabeth Bridge, whose parents were William Bridge and Sarah Carpenter of Wollombi.

The second marriage, a generation later, occurred between Emanuel’s great-grandson, William Charles Hungerford [E.1.4a.7b], born 1889, and Alma Louise Drayton. The bridegroom was the son of Arthur Henry Hungerford [E.1.4a] and Elizabeth G Chick, and the grandson of John Becher Hungerford [E.1/W.3=], Emanuel’s first Irish-born son, and Ann(e) Winder. Alma’s father was Charles Drayton, while her mother was Susannah Bridge, a daughter of John Bridge and Jane Ann Chick from nearby Ellalong. It is interesting to note that Charles was born at Windermere in 1857. His photograph appears in Mines, Wines and People, p253.

Elizabeth and Susanna Bridge, as mentioned above, were grand-daughters of Joseph Bridge and Elizabeth Buffey, who arrived at Sydney Cove from Lancashire during 1806 on board the Fortune and Alexander and settled at Parramatta, where Joseph was assigned to the Reverend Samuel Marsden. Their seven sons moved to the Hunter region during the late 1820s and settled along the Wollombi Brook, where they raised 71 children, including Elizabeth and Susanna as above, and had at least 496 grandchildren, including the above Selina and Anna.

 

 

1. WS Parkes, J Commerford and M Lake, Cessnock City Council 1979.