William Toogood left his entire estate, and the tangle of leases and mortgages that went with it, to his wife, Frances King Toogood.[1] At her husband’s death Frances had four children, William Webber age 11, Samuel Joseph age 7, Amy Thirza age 4 and Alfred Haworth just 1 year old. In May 1854 she gave birth to Frances Elizabeth Annerley Toogood.[2]
With a steady income from William’s properties and able to call on advice from Alfred, and presumably also from Robert Haworth, Frances was financially secure and in a position to successfully manage her affairs. For example, she was quick to extricate herself from the lease of the Masonic Hall Hotel, despite the profits being ‘enormous’.[3] And manage her own affairs she did even after she married the Reverend Charles Campbell Kemp in 1859.[4]
Kemp was a graduate of Queen’s College Cambridge who had arrived in the colony around 1841 where he was ordained a deacon and dispatched to Pitt Town.[5] His first wife, Lucy Harriett died in 1858 leaving him with three young sons, Charles Vernon (born 1844), Arthur George Macarthur (born 1846) and Beilby Porteous Pell (born 1853).[6] At the time of his marriage to Frances Toogood, Kemp was the incumbent at St. Stephen’s, Newtown having previously spent some years at St James in the city.
Before their marriage Frances and Kemp signed an agreement which ensured that all her inheritance was held in trust ‘to the use and for the benefit of Frances King Toogood for the term of her natural life for her sole and separate use free from the control of Charles Campbell Kemp or any future husband.’[7]
With the exception of Alfred Haworth Toogood who died in 1864, William Toogood’s children, grew up with Kemp’s boys in an environment that probably provided them with more intellectual stimulation than they had enjoyed previously.[8] Their mother, Frances Kemp, died in 1870 aged only 49. [9] Charles Campbell Kemp died in 1874.[10]
William Webber Toogood and Charles Vernon Kemp were of a similar age. Both were admitted as solicitors, and they briefly practised together as Kemp and Toogood. Both also died young, Charles aged only 25 in 1871 and William aged 31 in 1875.[11] Arthur George Macarthur Kemp married Catherine Georgiana, daughter of William’s brother Alfred Toogood, in 1875.[12]Samuel Joseph Toogood did not marry before his death in 1898.[13]
Meanwhile William’s daughters moved up in polite society. For the children of many emancipists the association with the convict past of their parents was wearing off by the middle of the nineteenth century. Many ex-convicts had, like William Toogood, prospered and could provide a comfortable life for themselves and their children. One such was John Booth Jones who had made his money from a hostelry business, made significant investments in land and lived at his ‘country house’ Didliston, on the Parramatta Road in Camperdown.[14] Amy Thirza and Frances Elizabeth Annerley Toogood married brothers Sydney Booth and Henry Edward Jones, sons of John Booth Jones.[15] When Amy and Frances married, both William Toogood and John Booth Jones were dignified with the title of ‘esquire’, a clear indication that this colonial born generation were rising in society and rewriting the past.[16]
These marriages ensured financial security and social status. John Booth Jones junior, the elder brother of Sydney Booth and Henry Edward, was a solicitor with his own practice who was subsequently made Examiner of Titles, a handy man to have on your side given the many land transactions involving the Jones/Toogood clan.[17] Even better, the legal practise remined in the family under Charles Smith Jones, a younger brother, and then his two sons William Roberts and Frank Booth Jones also went into practise together.[18] W.R. and F.B. Jones were the solicitors who handled most of the land transactions for the Toogoods. Sydney Toogood Jones, eldest son of Amy Thirza, clerked for his uncles John Booth and Charles Smith Jones and was himself admitted as a solicitor.[19] Of those who had known William Toogood, Amy Thirza was the last. She died 1931.[20]
William Webber lived at Erskineville House until his death. The first major subdivision of William’s land in Erskineville, the six acres adjoining Erskineville House, went up for auction on 4 September 1880.[21] The stretch of what is now called Rochford Street, between Munni Street and Erskineville Road, ran through the centre of the estate and was originally called Toogood Street. Toogood Lane, off Union Street, is the only remaining reference to the Toogood family in Erskineville. The land around Erskineville House was divided into 17 lots in 1884 all of which were purchased by the Lord Bishop of Sydney as a site for a new church.[22]
There is still much to unravel in the tangled web of connections and relationships that involved the Toogoods. None of William’s children followed in his footsteps as either publican or restaurateur. Perhaps these were not considered socially acceptable occupations, but they had stood William in good stead. His various hotels and their attendant restaurants helped to set a standard for civilised and reputable drinking and eating. In addition, they provided the basis for the comfortable and respectable lives his descendants enjoyed.
[1] Will dated 6 December 1853. Museums of History New South Wales -State Archives Collection: Supreme Court of New South Wales, Probate Division, NRS-13660-(1-[14/3260]-Series 1_2786, William Toogood, Date of death 7 December 1853, Granted 31 December 1853.
[2] Birth announced SMH 29 May 1854, p. 8.
[3] SMH, 13 December 1853, p. 8.
[4] SMH, 9 March 1859, p. 1.
[5] SMH, 8 June 1841, p. 2.
[6] George Campbell Kemp and Lucy Harriett George were married in London. For death of Lucy see SMH, 23 March 1848, p. 1 For births see SMH, 23 August 1844, p. 3; 19 August 1846, p. 3; 16 May 1853, p.2. Beilby Porteous presumably named after the Church of England reformer of that name, which perhaps gives some clue to Kemp’s own interests and persuasions. Beilby served as Clerk of Petty Sessions in Cowra, Armidale, Deniliquin and Braidwood, see obituary SMH, 24 August 1933, p. 13.
[7] NSW Land’s Registry Service, HLRV, Book 60 no. 447, settlement on marriage, dated 7 March 1859. The marriage took place on 8 March 1859, officiated by Rev. Robert Allwood who was also named as the trustee in the agreement.
[8] Death of Alfred Haworth Toogood, SMH, 1 March 1864, p. 1.
[9] SMH, 14 May 1870, p. 1.
[10] Empire, 22 June 1874, p. 1.
[11] Charles Vernon Kemp admitted as solicitor, SMH, 29 June 1868, p. 2; death Evening News, 24 April 1871, p. 2. William Webber Toogood, application to be admitted Empire, 30 March 1867, p. 1; death SMH, 12 March 1875, p. 1.
[12] Evening News, 6 April 1875, p. 2. The marriage was solemnised at St Stephen’s, Newtown. This was not a happy marriage, see Nepean Times, 16 March 1889, p. 4.
[13] Death Of Samuel Joseph Toogood, SMH, 17 November 1898, p. 1.
[14] For business see SMH, 24 March 1834, p. 4; 19 March 1845, p. 3. John Booth Jones arrived in Sydney in 1823 on board the Princess Royal. He married Elizabeth Hughes in 1825. Certificate of Freedom 1841. In 1842 he and his family went to England, (SMH, 4 February 1842, p. 3) returning in 1845, perhaps long enough for his convict background to be forgotten. He had considerable land holdings before 1842 and was living at Camperdown by 1859 (see marriage of daughter Emma, SMH, 1 February 1859, p. 1.
[15] Marriage Amy Thirza Toogood and Sydney Booth Jones, fourth son of John Booth Jones, SMH, 30 May 1873, p. 1; marriage Frances Elizabeth Annerley Toogood to Henry Edward, youngest son of John Booth Jones, SMH, 29 September 1874, p. 1. Frances Elizabeth and Henry Edward lived for many years in Bowral, in a house they named Annerley, and were active in the community there, see SMH, 12 November 1928, p. 10.
[16] How these couples met is not recorded but it is possible that the Jones brothers knew William Webber Toogood or Charles Vernon Kemp or both. It is also likely that they worshiped at St. Stephen’s. Their sister Emma had been married by Kemp at St. Stephens in 1859, SMH, 1 February 1859, p. 1. It may also be possible that William Toogood and John Booth Jones were known to one another and that a family connection went back to the 1840s.
[17] John Booth Jones admitted as solicitor SMH, 23 December 1861, p. 5; appointed Examiner of Titles, SMH, 9 July 1874, p. 4. When he died in 1908 he was declared bankrupt and the finalisation of his estate then took decades. For death see SMH, 10 November 1908, p. 6. He married Lucy Gunther, daughter of the Archdeacon of Mudgee and their daughter Kathleen married Eric David Lloyd-Jones the grandson of the department store founder David Jones. It was these connections albeit tangential which entwined William Toogood’s descendants in respectable society and confirmed their social standing.
[18] Charles Smith Jones also handled Robert Haworth’s will, NSW Government Gazette, 4 January 1876, p. 59. He died in 1906, Australian Town and Country Journal, 18 July 1906, p. 18. He lived at Midanga in Camperdown, the property next to the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children where the Trio apartments now stand. This was close to his father’s estate Didliston.
[19] Daily Telegraph, 22 May 1907, p. 2.
[20] The Sun, 14 July 1931, p. 9. Frances Elizabeth Annerley, who was born after William died, outlived her sister, she died in 1933, Southern Mail, 1 December 1933, p. 3.
[21] The details of how the trust was administered after Frances’s death has not been investigated. For sales of Toogood Estate see SMH, 28 August 1880, p. 11; SMH, 2 July 1881, p. 14: 27 September 1884, p. 20.
[22] Balmain Observer and Western Suburbs Advocate, 4 October 1884, p. 3; Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 11 October 1884, p. 2; Evening News, 20 April 1885, p. 5.