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As far as I know, my only tenuous connection with GOSPORT is that one pair of my great-great-great-great grandparents,
Thomas BRITTAIN (BRITTON) (born about 1777) married Margaret (‘Peggy’) NOBLE (born about 1782) at the Holy Trinity Church, Gosport, on 26 January 1801, as ‘members of this
parish’.
Thomas’ parents’ names are as yet unknown, though he apparently living in Bristol; his
wife was a daughter of a prosperous Bristol glassmaker Benjamin NOBLE and his wife Ann. I suspect the marriage was conducted contrary to the bride’s father’s wishes. Thomas (also known as
John) was a man who worked as a ‘moulder’ in foundries with iron and steel, and according to family tradition was also a bare knuckles prize fighter known as ‘Jem’ or
‘Jack’ BRITTON, who fought many professional matches around England and was defeated by at least one future champion of England, Bristol-born James ‘Jem’ Belcher
(1781–1822). Belcher’s first professional match was in Bristol, where on 15 May 1798 [in one record as 16 March 1798] he defeated Jack Britton in 33 minutes (see Boxiana).
One of the offspring of that 1801 wedding at Holy Trinity Church Gosport of my great-great-great-great grandparents Thomas
BRITTAIN (BRITTON) and Margaret NOBLE was a daughter, Elizabeth BRITTAIN (BRITTON) (1813 Bristol–1899 Dubbo, NSW, Australia), known in the family as ‘plain Betty Britton’. In 1832 she
married James SAMUELS senior (1809 Bristol–1887 Dubbo, NSW), who ran a comb manufacturing (probably for the textile industry), fertiliser and general store in Bristol.
In 1852 James and Elizabeth SAMUELS and their six children (three others had already died in childhood) emigrated to
Australia via the “Try”, arriving at Port Philip (Melbourne) on 12 January 1853. After a brief time there they shipped to Sydney, where Samuels settled his family and then tried his hand at
gold mining, but in 1855 moved his family to the fledging settlement of Dubbo (now a city) where he opened a store. He later took up farming land in the area, successfully breeding sheep and cattle and
growing wheat. He also established a hotel in 1867, the Overlanders Camp Hotel (from 1880, the Race Course & Tea Gardens Hotel).
In retirement James and Elizabeth lived in Dubbo and had the satisfaction of seeing their sons also prosper on the land and
with another Dubbo hotel, the Telegraph. They also saw their eldest son, James SAMUELS junior (1835 Bristol–1927 Dubbo) elected to the first municipal council of Dubbo when it was proclaimed a town
in 1872 and become its first mayor (for three consecutive annual terms, 1872–1875). James Samuels junior was a successful farmer and stockbreeder, especially of Southdown sheep, shorthorn and dairy
cattle, a self-educated man, an authority on artesian water, and a co-founder of the Dubbo Hospital (built on land he had donated); he was also one of my great-great grandfathers. There would now be
hundreds of descendants in Australia just of that one Bristol-born daughter (and her Samuels husband) of the couple who married in Holy Trinity, Gosport on 26 January 1801.
Thanks again for your most informative website, much more helpful than so many devoted to particular
towns. I will have fun exploring it further. I will also look out for booklets about Gosport in the local genealogical libraries here in Melbourne. Tony Rainer, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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