Fermors in Australia

Correspondence with Gwen Griffin, Dorothy Fermor, Ron and Margaret Fermor, Gay Maunder, John Henry Edward Fermor and Ada Lesley has added considerably to the family history of Edward Fermor, Brewer and Freemason of Hastings, Sussex, whose son, Henry, emigrated to Australia in 1855.

Henry and Elizabeth Fermor were the first family of that name to emigrate to this country. They brought with them five small daughters: Amelia, Catherine, Ellen and twins, Henrietta and Elizabeth. Henry’s motivation seems to have been the promise of a more secure livelihood as the manager of a thriving Sydney hotel and the proximity of Elizabeth’s brother in Scone.

A firm of London solicitors, Urbin and Lintott, had set up a company which purchased the Australian Hotel. As Henry was a close relative and an investor, he was offered the opportunity to manage it.

The Fermors arrived at Circular Quay in 1855 and only had to walk a few hundred yards to the Australian Hotel in Lower George Street, their home for the next few years.

John Edward Henry Fermor was born there on 19 April 1856 and baptised in the newly-built St Philip’s church on Church Hill by the Reverend G Walter Richardson on 3 July 1856. He was named after Elizabeth’s father, Lieutenant John Isaac, RN and Henry’s father Edward.

Within a few years the company was dissolved after the London partners had misappropriated all its funds. The hotel in Sydney was put up for auction and the Fermors were forced to begin all over again.

The obvious choice for their next home was Scone. Francis Isaac had been living there since 1840, working first as a shoemaker and later opening his own store. By 1860 he was also a Postmaster, a position he held until his death in 1884.

It was in this house that Frank Amoore Fermor was born on 24 April 1858. He was naturally named after his uncle and his second name was derived from Elizabeth’s mother’s maiden name – Ann Moore. [Or might it have been after Henry’s sister Ellen Ruth Fermor who married William Amoore?). Like John, Frank’s name was not chosen until after his birth was registered and his baptism is recorded at St Luke’s, Scone, on 22 August that year.

His older sister, Ellen, was not baptised until 4 October 1859, although she was born seven years earlier on 5 May 1852. The family were all assembled for the wedding of Amelia, aged 18, to George Aslin, the overseer at Ellerston Station. This was the ideal opportunity to have Ellen baptised too. The ceremonies were performed by Canon Coles Child who was Rector of St Luke’s from 1853-1870.

By this time Henry had found employment at Ellerston Station as a shepherd. His employer was Francis White who had bought it with ‘Belltrees’ in 1853 after leasing it from W G Wentworth.

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Fermor Families in Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia

Carol Dale, who is researching 'various and numerous families in the Hunter Valley', e-mailed me to say that she, too, has taken photos of the Fermor graves at Gundy. In addition to those of Henry and Elizabeth Fermor, she also kindly sent me the Monumental Inscription of Charles and Elizabeth Ann Taylor (née Fermor) and their daughter Emily Elizabeth Swab.

Charles Taylor died 29 October 1940 aged 84 years; Elizabeth Ann Taylor died on 29 October 1928 aged 74 years and Emily Elizabeth Swab died on 21 December 1917 aged 27 years.

Their great grandson, Robert Taylor, would like to clarify that they are buried at Tamworth, 'the general region where Charles and Elizabeth [and] their growing band of children settled' - not Scone or Gundy.