| [Index] |
| Mary Ann (Marianne) Caroline WRIXON (1819 - 1888) |
| Children | Self + Spouses | Parents | Grandparents | Greatgrandparents |
|
Maria Elizabeth LARGE (1837 - 1899) William LARGE (1839 - 1856) John Seward LARGE (1842 - 1923) Marion LARGE (1842 - 1919) Godfrey Bace LARGE (1843 - 1862) Richard William LARGE (1844 - 1882) Henrietta Sophia Jane LARGE (1846 - 1915) Cecilia LARGE (1848 - 1932) Thomas George LARGE (1850 - 1927) Maria Leonard LARGE (1852 - 1914) Matilda Wrixon LARGE (1854 - 1933) Alice LARGE (1858 - 1924) |
Mary Ann (Marianne) Caroline WRIXON (1819 - 1888) + William James LARGE (1806 - 1881) |
Arthur J Beecher WRIXON | ||
| Elizabeth BENSON or BENTLEY | ||||
|
|
| b. bef 1819 |
| m. William James LARGE (1806 - 1881) at Ireland |
| d. 03 May 1888 at Cootamundra, New South Wales, Australia aged 69 |
| Parents: |
| Arthur J Beecher WRIXON |
| Elizabeth BENSON or BENTLEY |
| Events in Mary Ann (Marianne) Caroline WRIXON (1819 - 1888)'s life | |||||
| Date | Age | Event | Place | Notes | Src |
| Married William James LARGE | Ireland | ||||
| bef 1819 | Mary Ann (Marianne) Caroline WRIXON was born | ||||
| abt 1837 | 18 | Birth of daughter Maria Elizabeth LARGE | Ireland | ||
| 1839 | 20 | Birth of son William LARGE | Ireland | ||
| 13 Mar 1842 | 23 | Birth of son John Seward LARGE | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | V1842575 54/1842 | |
| 15 Jun 1842 | 23 | Birth of daughter Marion LARGE | Belfast, Ireland | Cemetery | |
| 1843 | 24 | Birth of son Godfrey Bace LARGE | Tumut, New South Wales, Australia | V1843751 54/1843 | |
| 1844 | 25 | Birth of son Richard William LARGE | Tumut, New South Wales, Australia | V18441983 30A/1844 | |
| 21 Dec 1846 | 27 | Birth of daughter Henrietta Sophia Jane LARGE | Tumut, New South Wales, Australia | V18462999 32A/1846 | |
| 02 Oct 1848 | 29 | Birth of daughter Cecilia LARGE | Tumut, New South Wales, Australia | V18481970 33A/1848 | |
| 1850 | 31 | Birth of son Thomas George LARGE | Tumut, New South Wales, Australia | V18501789 35/1850 | |
| 18 Jun 1852 | 33 | Birth of daughter Maria Leonard LARGE | Tumut, New South Wales, Australia | V18522095 38A/1852 | |
| 1854 | 35 | Birth of daughter Matilda Wrixon LARGE | Tumut, New South Wales, Australia | ||
| 10 Apr 1856 | 37 | Death of son William LARGE (aged 17) | Tumut, New South Wales, Australia | cemetery | |
| 21 Mar 1858 | 39 | Birth of daughter Alice LARGE | Tumut, New South Wales, Australia | V185881 159/1858 | |
| 14 Nov 1862 | 43 | Death of son Godfrey Bace LARGE (aged 19) | |||
| 21 Oct 1881 | 62 | Death of husband William James LARGE (aged 75) | Tumut, New South Wales, Australia | 10924/1881 | 2 |
| 16 Jul 1882 | 63 | Death of son Richard William LARGE (aged 38) | Tumut, New South Wales, Australia | 12241/1882 | |
| 03 May 1888 | 69 | Mary Ann (Marianne) Caroline WRIXON died | Cootamundra, New South Wales, Australia | 9664/1888 | 2 |
| Personal Notes: |
|
William's wife was Mary Ann Caroline,(shown on her death certificate as the daughter of Arthur Beecher WRIXON reputedly a Captain in the Fifth Dragoon Guards, and Elizabeth (either nee BENSON or BENTLEY) from Belfast. First baronet Sir William Wrixon, MP for Mallow, took his mother's maiden name of Becher in 1831 and hyphenated it to Wrixon-Becher. An ancestor, Fane Becher, was granted lands in County Cork in 1588. The family motto is Bis Vivit Qui Bene - He
lives twice who lives well! Though Mary Ann and children aren't shown on the list of Branken moor passengers, maybe they had a complimentary passage. In any case she must have come soon afterwards and brought the children - Maria Elizabeth 1838, William 1839 and Marion 1840. The voyage would have been an anxious one for six months pregnant Mary Ann whose next child, John Seward Large was born on 13 Mar 1842 in Melbourne. According to his certificate he was baptised at 'a dwelling house in Russell Street in connection with the Methodist Society Melbourne Circuit.' In 1850 the Thomas Arbuthnot arrived in Sydney with 194 Irish famine orphan girls and more than half of these went to employment in Goulbum, Yass, Boorowa, Gundagai and Tumut. Two went to Dr Large, two to Mr Bingham and Mr De Salis at Darbalara employed three of the girls. A story in Tumut's Centenary Celebrations book says that one of the girls assigned to Mrs Large was very pretty but the Commissioner made a switch so that 'pretty Polly' was sent to his house. The deception was only discovered when Mrs Large spoke to her girl several times - without response. Piqued by this she asked "Are you deaf Polly?" and the girl replied "No, rna'am, but me name ain't Polly". Actually the girl's name was Ann and the facts are somewhat different - but it makes a good story! Mary Ann was a busy lady too. In all she had 12 children in 20 years but still managed to find the time and energy to run a private school as well. Richmond House School, as it was known, was conducted in premises adjoining the White Horse Inn at the corner of Fitzroy and Richmond Streets, Tumut. In 1867 it was certified as a Church of England school. The gracious old building had a varied career, being used as a picture theatre, later as a doctor's private residence and was only demolished about 1970. The main structure was deemed to be one of the oldest buildings in Tumut. The Transport Dept. built a motor registry on the site but the Tumut Historical Society was kind enough to provide a pre-demolition photograph. The first advertisement found for the school was in the Adelong Mining Journal in 1859 ... the Tumut Boarding & Day School Terms: Boarders 40 Pounds p.a; Daily Pupils 8 Pounds p.a. French, Music and Singing extra In its early stages the school had pupils of both sexes; in 1860 Samuel Gordon, a 10 year old boy, was a student there. At this time Adelong was in its heyday and more important than Tumut so Dr Large had practices in both towns. In 1865 Mary Ann moved her Tumut school to larger premises where her husband also had room for his surgery and life seemed to be going along quite satisfactorily. In Sep 1867 she advertised vacancies for a few more boarders and ... 'to their mental development and general improvement she will earnestly devote herself and hopes her long-tried experience as a teacher ... will guarantee to her, from the majority of parents in the district, a well-merited patronage.' Something unusual must have happened in Tumut in 1868 to cause an exodus of the town's professional people. J.B Elworthy had already taken his newspaper to Gundagai and in August 1868 the Larges, the CofE minister Rev Byng and the Catholic priest Father Foley all left. Each had a public farewell and was given a purse of sovereigns - 30 for Mrs Large, 50 for Rev Byng and 100 for the priest! Helped by her daughters, Mary Ann opened a Ladies College for boarders and day pupils in Wagga. A History of Wagga Wagga gives the address of her 'Seminary for Young Ladies' firstly in Kincaid Street and later in Gurwood Street but her own ads say Fitzmaurice Street. Mary Ann was a remarkable woman. Her teaching skills were allied to obvious administrative abililty in running successful schools in Tumut, Wagga and Cootamundra. Whether she could have afforded to employ school staff in the early days at Tumut is doubtful, though she did have Ann Quinlivan and Mary Sullivan, the two Irish girls as housemaids. (Remember pretty Polly?) Her daughters Cecelia, Maria and Matilda were old enough to lend a hand when the Wagga Seminary opened in October 1868 and when extensions were made in 1872. Boarders and day pupils were catered for, terms payable quarterly in advance. Music was included for those boarders who paid 50 pounds per annum but daily pupils paid two guineas for an English education with an extra two guineas for two music lessons per week. Lessons in French, drawing and dancing were additional. Parents could arrange for their children to dine with the boarders at the College at five shillings weekly each and Miss Large (which one was not specified) would happily give lessons in music, privately, before and after school. The pupils were rather younger than expected, as shown by an item about a party at the College in the Wagga Daily Advertiser of 24 ApI 1869: "A pleasant little party or rather a big party for little people, or better still, a baby ball, was given last night by Mrs Large at the Ladies College to her numerous pupils, some of whom came out in great force on this occasion and enjoyed themselves thoroughly and some of their elders, but not their betters, were wise enough to follow their example. Dancing was kept up with great spirit until about 12 when the little ones toddled home, immensely delighted with their unusual exertion." I was unusually exerted just reading the 64 word sentence! Considerable excitement occurred during 1870 when a huge flood in Wagga (and all over NSW) caused absolute devastation and ruin for many farmers for miles around. Scores of people were stranded but later rescued. As reported on 04 May 1870 in the Wagga Daily Advertiser, the Squatters' Hotel (a very old building) was next to Mrs Large's Ladies College. A rumour went about that the building had collapsed and if one building had gone, the other could hardly have failed to follow. A Mr Fitzhardinge had the only small cobble (some sort of conveyance?) in the town and dashed off to the scene of the supposed disaster but found the hotel quite safe and "all the little colony at that end of the town in excellent heart, only a little hungry ... " "In the meantime, Mr John Large became alarmed for the safety of his mother and sisters, borrowed a horse from the Australian, took off all his clothes except a Crimean shirt and with another horseman, started to swim down the street to the College. At Forsyth's Comer both horses were whirled around by the current and carried along Kincaid Street. "Large, tearing off his solitary garment, threw himself off the horse and with a desperate effort, reached the window sill of the Bank and after a short rest on that chilly perch, pushed on for the College. The current however, was too much for him. He pulled up exhausted at Mr Johnson's chimney and sat there, like Patience on a monument, until relieved by Mr Fitzhardinge on his return journey." Mary Ann returned to Tumut with her ailing husband; after his death in 1881, she began another school which she ran for six years at Cootamundra. Following a lingering and painful illness, she died from chronic gastric catarrh on 03 May 1888. "The boarders and pupils of the school will mourn the loss of a kindly and affectionate and thoughtful guardian" said the Cootamundra Herald, adding that she would be missed from her accustomed place in the community's social circles. The advent of the Larges had been heartily appreciated. After establishing themselves in one of the neatest cottages in town, the daughters became closely involved with the churches, Sunday schools, social gatherings, entertainments, public and private enjoyments - beside their good work as music teachers. The Gundagai Times commented: "Her loss will be keenly felt by those who had the privilege of her acquaintance. For 40 years her revered name was a household word as a kind friend and a faithful mother". Described as a "powerfully made, big woman", Mary Ann was quite remarkable. She had left a well-to-do family in Ireland, travelled half way around the world to make her home and a most precarious living in a frontier town, bore twelve children and suffered the early death of two of them, provided a first class education for hundreds of country children, sustained and consoled her husband through thick and thin, suffered the pain and embarrassment of bankruptcy, endured a painful physical illness - yet was the mainstay of the family. |
| Source References: |
| 2. Type: Book, Abbr: Devon to Downunder, Title: Devon to Downunder, Auth: Bettie Elworthy, Publ: Bookbound, Date: 1997 |
| - Reference = 68-81 (Name, Notes) |
| - Reference = 114 (Death) |