John Eddy
A number of children named John Eddy or John Edy were born and christened in St Just in Penwith, in Cornwall, at around the same time. It has not been possible to identify which of these is the John Eddy featured here nor, therefore, has it been possible to identify John's parents. This confusion is evidence of the number of families of this surname living in this village at this time.
According to the International Genealogical Index (http://www.familysearch.org/) John Eddy married Elizabeth Clemens on 26 May 1822 in Saint Just In Penwith, Cornwall, England. Note that according to these records the name is spelled variously as "Eddy" and "Edy".
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St. Just is a handsome town of great Cornish character. Sturdy granite houses surround the busy Market Square, discreetly overlooked by the elegant tower of the parish church. The church is named after a 6th century Christian missionary, Justus.
The preacher John Wesley was well known in St Just and his "Methodist" religion was popular in the area. So it is not surprising that the Eddy family was strongly Wesleyan Methodist.
There are two towns called St Just in Cornwall, with St Just in Penwith being the better known and often referred to as just "St Just". Tin (and, to a lesser extent, copper) mining were major industries in the St Just area, and it seems likely that the Eddy family were involved in the mining industry.
see : The Eddy Family in Cornwall
In the census taken on the night of Sunday 6 June 1841, it is recorded that the residents of a house in Trewellard Cross were :
John Eddy, age 40, occupation : "Miner Tin & Copper", born in Cornwall
Elizabeth Eddy, age 40, born in Cornwall
John Eddy, age 15, occupation : "Miner Tin & Copper", born in Cornwall
James Eddy, age 11, occupation : "Miner Tin & Copper", born in Cornwall
William Eddy, age 9, born in Cornwall
Richard Eddy, age 4, born in Cornwall
Mary Clemmens, age 70, occupation stated as "independent", born in Cornwall
Sophia Curtis, age 15, occupation "work at a copper mine", born in Cornwall
Johannah Curtis, age 4, occupation "work at a copper mine" (deleted), born in Cornwall
source : http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kayhin/144194.html but webpage no longer functional.
John Eddy aged 45 and his wife Elizabeth aged 44 years, accompanied and their two youngest sons, then aged 15 and 11 years respectively, travelled to South Australia on a ship called Marion, arriving in South Australia on 13 February 1849. The two older sons and their wives had travelled one month earlier on the ship William Money.
It is noted elsewhere that John's wo younger unmarried teenage sons (17 year old William and 12 year old Richard) died on separate occasions of infectious disease within approximately a year of the family's arrival in South Australia. It must have been quite tragic for the family which had emigrated with such high hopes.
John Eddy's wife and and two older sons moved from South Australia to Victoria in approximately 1852 following the discovery of gold in that colony. Gold was found in the Victorian town of Maldon in 1853 or 1854 and the gold rush spread to that town. In later years John's wife, Elizabeth, and son, James, were residing in Maldon and died there in 1890 and 1893 respectively. The obituary for Elizabeth states she had resided in Maldon for 35 years, placing her arrival in the mid-1850s. It is possible that John Eddy also resided in Maldon for a period but there is no record of him after the deaths of the two sons in South Australia.
The book Maldon and the Tarrangower Diggings (1953) by A.J. Williams, facsimile edition 2003 produced by Maldon Museum and Archives Association, recalls a local newspaper item, written in 1898, about the finding of two gold nuggets in Long Gully, Maldon, "just opposite to where the pumping station is now" (i.e. in 1898). A.J.Williams then writes that "A 100 ounce nugget was found in the same locality during the Fifties by Mr Eddy." The writer does not clarify which "Mr Eddy". Although there were other Eddy families in the Maldon area, it is thought that most or possibly all arrived in later years. It is possible, even probable, that the "Mr Eddy" who found the gold was John Eddy or one of his two surviving sons. Although his son James was living in the town in later years, it is not apparent that he was wealthy; in contrast James' brother John Clements Eddy lived in later years in the South Yarra and Toorak areas of Melbourne so it may have been John Clements Eddy who found the nugget. It is also possible that it was John Eddy Senior; the family was probably aggrieved by the deaths of the two teenage sons in South Australia and, by later accounts, Mrs Elizabeth Eddy was very religious; one could understand if John Eddy walked away and made a new life for himself, the more so if he had a 100 ounce nugget to help him make a new start. This is conjecture and many possible explanations of John Eddy's fate must remain in consideration.
No record has been located of the death of this John Eddy. Any other information in regard to John Eddy would be appreciated.
FOOTNOTE
Clements (Clem) Eddy, one of John's descendants, believes that John may have been the son of William Eddy and Mary Grenfell (who married 15 September 1791), and recorded as christened in St Just on 31 Octber 1802 and died on 5 April 1857 and was buried in the St Just Wesleyan churchyard (see http://ccgi.eddyfamily.plus.com/phpGedView/individual.php?pid=I6859&ged=EDDY%20website%20-%202005_10_24.ged). Clem believes that, following the death of two younger sons after the family's arrival in Ausralia, John may have returned to England and this may explain why no subsequent records have been located in Australia.
Adrian Eddy reports that the John Eddy who was son of William Eddy and Mary Grenfell died unmarried but had two siblings who died in Australia : Esther Eddy (born 1802, died Creswick, Victoria on 4 November 1878) and Richard Grenfell Eddy (born1811 and died 30 September 1873 at Long Gully, Sandhurst, Bendigo, Victoria).
Adrian Eddy, who has done extensive research on the Eddy genealogy (http://ccgi.eddyfamily.plus.com/phpGedView/individual.php?pid=I39840&ged=EDDY%20website%20-%202005_10_24.ged) identified four possible parentages for John Eddy. Adrian identified four possible baptismal entries in St Just:
(A) Jacob EDDY & Elizabeth -, 03 Jul 1796
(B) William EDDY & Ann -, 02 Apr 1797
(C) James EDDY & Jane -, 17 Mar 1799
(D) William EDDY & Mary -, 31 Oct 1802
Adrian writes
Of these, I'm almost sure that (D) never married and stayed in the UK, so can be eliminated. As Jacob is not a name passed down to subsequent generations, (A) is unlikely. Although I cannot yet discount (B), Colin Thomas (a fellow EDDY researcher) has (C) as the parents, so I shall go with them for now and hopefully prove it is correct at a later date. Colin's reasoning for this choice was from the naming pattern of John and Elizabeth's children. He says that if John's parents were William Eddy & Ann (Reseigh) & his wife's parents were William Clemens & Mary (Grose) then their (John & Elizabeth) son's names would show WILLIAM before JAMES. But as JAMES appears BEFORE WILLIAM it's more likely that John's father was JAMES!
Thus Adrian Eddy proposes that the John Eddy who later married Elizabeth Clemens, had been christened on 17 March 1799 and was the son of James Eddy (christened 5 January 1772 in St Just) and Jane Thomas (christened 2 November 1772 in St Just).
FINAL COMMENT:
Perhaps we will never be certain either of John Eddy's parentage or of the circumstances of his death.
