The Baldock Family · Alfred & Frances Baldock

The Bounty Immigrants

William Baldock & Louisa Coleman

1797–1869

Alfred Baldock’s parents — a Sussex brewer and his wife who crossed the world as government-assisted immigrants in 1838, kept a short-lived Sydney hotel, and ended their days in Balmain, where William worked as a gardener.

Born: 21 January 1797 · Wadhurst, Sussex
Died: 8 February 1869 · Balmain, Sydney
Married: Louisa Coleman (1804–1879)
Trade: Brewer, Frant, Sussex; Sydney hotelkeeper, then gardener
Lived: 72 years

William Baldock was born on 21 January 1797 at Wadhurst, Sussex, son of Thomas Baldock, a blacksmith, and his wife Mary.¹ On 14 May 1827 he married Louisa Coleman at Brighton, and the couple settled at Frant, near Tunbridge Wells, where William worked as a brewer.²

Their first two children, Louisa and Eliza, were baptised at Frant’s Wesleyan chapel in 1827 and 1828.³ Louisa Coleman herself was born at Chichester, the daughter of James Coleman, a bricklayer, and his wife Anne; before her marriage she had worked in service as a housemaid.⁴

In 1838 the family emigrated to Sydney as government-assisted “bounty” immigrants, sailing aboard the William Metcalfe with six children — William, George, Louisa, Eliza, Frances and Mary.⁵ A Sydney newspaper listed “William Baldcock, brewer, wife and six children” among the passengers, and noted that the ship’s company marked Queen Victoria’s coronation while still at sea.⁶ William’s own immigration certificate gives his trade as “Brewer, also Agriculturist” — perhaps the safer claim to make for a scheme that favoured farm labour.⁴

Alfred — the Bathurst coachbuilder whose marriage opens this chapter — was not among these six children. His birth was registered in 1840 and he was baptised at St James’, Sydney, so he was born in the colony rather than in Sussex.⁷

William was licensee of the Commercial Hotel, at the corner of King and Sussex streets, by September 1842. That month he was fined for selling half a pint of porter on a Sunday, to help a sick neighbour; he pleaded guilty, and the newspaper thought the law too strict for a colony no longer run as a gaol. His licence was renewed the following June, but within two months he was insolvent, and the hotel’s furniture, fixtures and licence — not, it seems, the building itself — were sold at auction.⁸ By 1854 another publican held the Commercial Hotel, and the family were living nearby, on Union Street.⁸

By the early 1860s he had found steadier work as a gardener, at Adolphus Lane, Balmain, and was living nearby on Vincent Street.⁸

Their daughter Eliza, by then a widow, remarried in 1869 at St Stephen’s Church, Camperdown — the register naming her parents as William and Louisa.⁹

William died at Balmain on 8 February 1869, aged seventy-two; Louisa died at Newtown a decade later, on 21 July 1879, aged seventy-five.¹⁰ His funeral left his residence on Vincent Lane, Balmain, two days later, for the Newtown cemetery — Camperdown Cemetery, as it is usually known today — arranged by his son and namesake, William Baldock jr.¹⁰ Both were buried there. Their children remembered them together, years later, in a notice of their own: “In fond and loving remembrance of our dear mother, Louisa Baldock, late of Balmain, who departed this life July 21st, 1879. Also, in loving remembrance of our dear father, William Baldock, sen., of Balmain. Dead but not forgotten.”¹¹

The Generation

The Children

Nine children in all, born across twenty years either side of the family’s emigration — six in Sussex, three at Sydney. Two died as children, one lived to ninety; two sisters, oddly, both married men named Wakely.

Louisa Baldock & William Joseph Lewis 1827–1904

William and Louisa’s eldest child — she married a Balmain mariner turned publican, raised nine children of her own, and saw two daughters married in a single double wedding.

Read their story

Eliza Baldock 1828–1915

William and Louisa’s second daughter — twice married, mother to a public servant and to a bride who outlived her by a quarter-century, and finally traced to her own grave at Rookwood in 1915.

Read their story

Frances Baldock & Charles Wakely 1830–1894

The “Frances (8)” of the 1838 passenger list — she settled in the Hunter Valley and, oddly, also married a man named Wakely.

Read their story

William Baldock jr 1833–1876

William and Louisa’s eldest son — he arranged his father’s funeral, then spent two decades as a Kent Street publican himself, with a wife and eight children.

Read their story

Mary Baldock & William Stephen Wisdom c. 1835–1925

The “Mary (3)” of the 1838 passenger list — she outlived every one of her siblings by decades; one son became a well-known Glen Innes identity, and a grandson never came home from France.

Read their story

George Baldock 1837–1854

Not yet a year old when the family emigrated — the first of them to be buried at Camperdown Cemetery.

Read their story

Your line

Alfred Baldock 1840–1916

The coachbuilder whose marriage to Frances Bawn — and their twelve children — is the subject of the rest of this chapter.

Continue the main story

Frederick Henry Baldock 1846–1847

A son who lived barely a year — and, for a long time, the “Frederick H. Baldock” this chapter couldn’t place.

Read their story

Emily Louisa Baldock born 1847

The youngest child — baptised the same year her brother Frederick Henry died — no marriage has ever been found for her, but forty years later she had a daughter, Florence, in Victoria, who lived only two months.

Read their story

1838

Bounty Immigrants to Sydney

For Context

The Bounty Immigration Scheme

Under the bounty system, it was colonists in New South Wales — not the government directly — who selected and paid upfront for the passage of labourers and their families from Britain. Once an immigrant ship arrived, an Immigration Board officer examined each new arrival, and only then did the government reimburse the colonist who had sponsored them, in the form of a “bounty.”

The scheme ran from 1835 to 1841 and paid out varying amounts over that time — in its early years, around £30 for a married couple, £5 for each of their children over twelve months old, £15 for a single woman aged 15 to 30, and £10 for a single man. It was aimed squarely at farm labourers and tradesmen like William, whose family qualified as bounty immigrants when they sailed aboard the William Metcalfe in 1838.

Immigration board list of bounty immigrants aboard the William Metcalfe, arrived Sydney 31 August 1838, with the entry for William Baldock, 35, Sussex, agriculturist, his wife and five children. — The Baldock family’s entry on the William Metcalfe’s bounty immigrant list, Sydney, 31 August 1838

Sydney Herald "Ship News" column, 3 September 1838, reporting the arrival of the William Metcalfe from England with emigrants in the most healthy condition. — The Sydney Herald’s shipping column reports the William Metcalfe’s arrival, 3 September 1838

For Context

The Ship: William Metcalfe

The William Metcalfe was a 447-ton barque that made several bounty-immigrant voyages to New South Wales in the late 1830s, carrying assisted emigrants — like William, Louisa and their six children — recruited under the colonial bounty scheme that paid ships’ agents for each labouring family they brought out.

The watercolour shown above, painted eight years after the Baldocks’ own voyage, is by Frederick Garling (1806–1873), generally regarded as colonial Sydney’s first significant marine artist. A Customs landing waiter and surveyor by trade, Garling worked the wharves of Sydney Harbour for decades and is said to have painted almost every ship that entered it — a visual shipping register in watercolour. Courtesy of the Australian National Maritime Museum.

View the painting at the Australian National Maritime Museum

NSW immigration board "Married Immigrant" certificate for William Baldock, giving his native place as Wadhurst, Sussex, son of Thomas Baldock, a smith, and Mary his wife, calling given as "Brewer, also Agriculturist". — William Baldock’s own “Married Immigrant” certificate, 1838 — his trade given as “Brewer, also Agriculturist”

1842

Work Life

William’s working life in the colony — first as licensee of a Sydney hotel, then, after its sudden collapse within the year, as a Balmain gardener for the rest of his days.

Newspaper notice headed "In the Insolvency of William Baldock", advertising the auction of the furniture, fixtures and licence of the Commercial Hotel, corner of King and Sussex streets. — Auction notice for the Commercial Hotel, King and Sussex streets — sold up in William Baldock’s insolvency

Page from a mid-1860s Sydney directory listing "Baldock, William, gardener, Adolphus-lane, Balmain" among other Sydney tradespeople and residents surnamed Baldock and Barker. — A mid-1860s Sydney directory lists William Baldock as a gardener, Adolphus Lane, Balmain

Page from the Sydney Suburban Directory, 1865, Balmain section, listing "Baldock, William, Vincent-street" among Balmain residents. — The Sydney Suburban Directory, 1865, lists William Baldock at Vincent Street, Balmain

Newspaper "In Memoriam" column including a notice for Louisa Baldock, late of Balmain, died 21 July 1879, and William Baldock, sen., of Balmain. — The Baldock children’s In Memoriam notice for their parents, Sydney newspaper, c. 1886

Still Open

Questions Not Yet Resolved

Louisa Coleman’s own parentage is not fully settled. Eliza’s 1828 baptism names her mother as “Louisa, daughter of James and Mary Coleman”³, but Louisa’s own 1838 immigration certificate names her parents as James Coleman, a bricklayer of Chichester, and Anne, his wife⁴. The two cannot both be right about her mother’s name, and which is correct is not yet known. An earlier working guess — that Louisa was the “Louisa Mary Ann Coleman” baptised at Wadhurst in 1804 — is now considered unlikely, since that register gives her mother’s name as Grace, and Wadhurst is a long way from Chichester.

William’s age was recorded as thirty-five when the family emigrated in 1838 — about six years short of what his Wadhurst baptism makes him.⁵ This may be a simple error, or a small understatement (the bounty scheme paid more readily for younger arrivals), but there is no way to be sure which.

One newspaper source used on this page has not been fully identified: the joint “In Memoriam” notice for William and Louisa can only be dated approximately, to around July 1886, from the other notices printed alongside it¹¹. (The insolvency notice itself, previously undated, has since been traced to the New South Wales Government Gazette of 22 August 1843⁸.)

The Record

Sources & References

1
Baptism of William Baldock, 1797

Wadhurst, Sussex, parish baptism register, 21 January 1797: William, son of Thomas and Mary Baldock, blacksmith. Independently indexed (FamilySearch, IGI batch, FHL film 2186717) giving the same birth date, place and parents. The same collection’s marriage index for William Baldock and Louisa Coleman, St Nicholas’, Brighton, 14 May 1827 (FHL film 1468819) cites the identical register reference, “p132 cn391”, as the marriage register image below — confirming that this baptism and that marriage belong to the same man.
2
Marriage, 1827

Parish marriage register, Brighton (Brighthelmstone), Sussex: William Baldock, bachelor, and Louisa Coleman, spinster, both of that parish, married by banns 14 May 1827 by H. M. Wagner, vicar; witnessed by Harriet Baldock and John Pocock. Register no. 391 (p. 132).
3
Baptisms of Louisa and Eliza Baldock, 1827/1828

Frant parish baptism register (Wesleyan chapel, Tunbridge Wells), entry No. 244: “Eliza the Daughter of William Baldock of Tunbridge Wells in the Parish of Frant in the County of Sussex, Brewer, and of Louisa his wife, who was the daughter of James and Mary Coleman, was born on the seventeenth day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty eight, and was solemnly baptized … on the twenty eighth day of December” (also independently indexed, FamilySearch, FHL film 0597069, RG4/1191). A sibling, Louisa, was baptised at the same chapel 29 August 1827, born 17 July 1827, her entry naming her parents as “William Baldock” and “Louisa Baldock.”
4
Married Immigrant certificates, William and Louisa Baldock, 1838

NSW immigration board, “Married Immigrant” certificate for William Baldock, arrived per William Metcalfe: “A Native of Wadhurst, Sussex — Son of Thomas Baldock, a Smith of the same place, and Mary his wife.” Calling: “Brewer, also Agriculturist.” Age on embarkation thirty-five. Character certified, like his wife’s, by John Fuggle and the Rev. [Robt. A. Seaman], Minister of Brenchley — suggesting the couple were connected to that parish together, not only Louisa through her service there. Louisa’s own companion certificate: “A Native of Chichester — Daughter of James [Coleman], Bricklayer of Chichester, and Anne his wife.” Calling: housemaid. Registry of baptism certified by Wm Brooks, parish clerk. State of health “very good”; religion Protestant; “Read [and Write].” The facing page, for the couple’s children, gives a baptism date of 7 January 1833 for William, and ages on embarkation for George (ten months), Louisa (ten), Eliza (nine), Frances (eight, entered first as “Fanny”) and Mary Ann (three), certified by H. A. Woodgate, Minister of the Parish of Tunbridge Wells.
5
Bounty immigrant list, William Metcalfe, 1838

“List of Immigrants Imported in Private Ships, with the Amount of Bounty”: William Metcalfe, arrived Sydney 31 August 1838, sponsored by Mr J. Marshall — Baldock, William, 35, Sussex, agriculturist, Protestant, read & write, bounty £18; [his wife, entered as] Mary, 30, Chichester, Protestant, read, bounty £18; children William 5, George (infant), Louisa 10, Eliza 9, Frances 8, Mary 3. The children’s names and ages match the Frant baptisms closely enough that the wife is almost certainly Louisa, her name apparently mistranscribed by the clerk; William’s own age here (35) is likewise about six years short of his baptism above.
6
Ship News, 1838

“Ship News,” Sydney Herald, 3 September 1838, p. 2: “The William Metcalfe arrived from England on Friday last, with … emigrants in the most healthy condition, only one death having occurred on the voyage. Mr. Marshall certainly deserves much credit for the discrimination which he appears to have exercised in the selection of emigrants by this opportunity.” (Exact number of emigrants illegible on the surviving clipping.) The William Metcalfe had sailed from Gravesend 2 May and Plymouth 14 May 1838. A second report, “Ship News,” Commercial Journal and Advertiser, 8 September 1838, p. 2, gives the full passenger list, including “William Baldcock, brewer, wife and six children,” and separately notes that “the Captain, passengers, and crew of the William Metcalfe … kept it up with much spirit when at sea” on the day of Queen Victoria’s coronation.
7
Birth registration and baptism of Alfred Baldock, 1840

NSW BDM birth registration 418/1840 (V1840418 24A), district CJ: Baldock, Alfred, father William, mother Louisa — fixing his birth year at 1840. NSW baptism index (FamilySearch, FHL film 993953): Alfred Baldock, baptism age 0, St James’, Sydney; parents William Baldock and Louisa. The baptism index gives no date, but the age at baptism, together with the birth registration, confirms a Sydney, not a Sussex, birth in 1840.
8
The Commercial Hotel, and William’s later Sydney years

Sources tracing William through the Commercial Hotel, its collapse, and his later years as a Balmain gardener:
- NSW Publicans’ Licenses Index 1830–1861 (State Archives NSW, NRS 14401 [4/75]; Reel 5058): William Baldock, licence no. 475, Commercial Hotel, King and Sussex Streets, Sydney, 30 June 1843.
- “Hard Case,” Australasian Chronicle, 17 September 1842, p.3: “Mr. Baldock, landlord of the Commercial Hotel, corner of King and Sussex streets, was summoned to appear at the police office … on a charge of having sold half a pint of porter on Sunday evening last” to help a sick neighbour; he “pleaded guilty … and paid the fine [of] forty shillings and five shillings costs,” which the paper thought unduly harsh “now the time has … arrived when such unnecessary restrictions should be removed.”
- “In the Insolvency of William Baldock,” New South Wales Government Gazette, 22 August 1843, p.1092: notice of auction, by order of the provisional trustee A. Campbell, of the household furniture, bar fixtures, beer engines, spirit fountains and kegs, together with the licence, of the Commercial Hotel — held on the premises 24 August 1843; the building itself is not listed among the items sold.
- Family Notices, The People’s Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator, 26 August 1854, p.2: son George Baldock died “at the residence of his parents, Union-street”; the same column records the death, the same month, of “Mr. Robert Gee” at “his residence, Commercial Hotel, King and Sussex-streets” — a different, unrelated publican, confirming the Baldocks’ own connection to the hotel had ended by 1854.
- Roll of Electors for the Electoral District of Sydney, Brisbane Ward: “Baldock William, dwelling house, Union-street” (1848–49); “Baldock William, dwelling house, Clarence-street” (1849–50 and 1850–51).
- A mid-1860s Sydney directory lists “Baldock, William, gardener, Adolphus-lane, Balmain”; the Sydney Suburban Directory, 1865, lists “Baldock, William, Vincent-street,” Balmain, without occupation — both consistent with the family’s known Balmain years and his 1869 death there.
- The same directories also list two other men named William Baldock. One, a hotelkeeper at the Clarence and Richmond Hotel, 353 Kent Street, still held that licence in 1871 — two years after this William’s death — so is not this man; he is instead this William’s own son and namesake, who followed his father into the trade (see William jr, below). The other, a cemetery sexton at Camperdown Road, has not been identified and may be unrelated.
9
Marriage of Eliza (Baldock) Freeman, 1869

NSW Register of Marriages, St Stephen’s Church, Camperdown, 24 April 1869 (entry 67): Joseph Farnell Welspring Wakely, widower, innkeeper, aged 42, and Eliza Freeman, widow, aged 42, of Sydney; her parents given as William Baldock and Louisa (late Coleman), her father’s rank or profession “general business.”
10
Death registrations of William and Louisa Baldock

NSW BDM death registration 1523/1869, Balmain district: William Baldock, parents given as Thomas and Mary — matching the Wadhurst baptism above and confirming it as his own. Burial for both was at Camperdown Cemetery, Newtown. NSW BDM death registration 2922/1879, Newtown district: Louisa Baldock, age at death given as 75 years — consistent with her birth date of 18 April 1804. A family-tree aggregation of these and other records additionally gives Louisa’s fuller name as “Louisa Mary Ann.” “Funeral,” Sydney Morning Herald, 10 February 1869, p.8: “The Friends of Mr. WILLIAM BALDOCK, jun., are respectfully invited to attend the Funeral of his deceased Father, Mr. WILLIAM BALDOCK; to move from his late residence, Vincent-lane, Balmain, THIS AFTERNOON, at 4 o’clock, and proceed to Newtown Cemetery. W. H. WOOD, Undertaker, Balmain.”
11
In Memoriam, Louisa and William Baldock

“In Memoriam — Baldock,” Sydney newspaper (masthead not confirmed), c. July 1886, run alongside other notices dated 8–18 July 1886: “In fond and loving remembrance of our dear mother, Louisa Baldock, late of Balmain, who departed this life July 21st, 1879. Also, in loving remembrance of our dear father, William Baldock, sen., of Balmain. Dead but not forgotten.”
12
The William Metcalfe, painted 1846

Frederick Garling, “The WILLIAM MITCALFE 447 tons, E Phillipson Esq Commander, underway out of Darling Harbour Sydney NSW 1846,” watercolour, object no. 00046949, Australian National Maritime Museum (collections.sea.museum/objects/162250) — the same vessel, under the same captain, William and Louisa emigrated aboard eight years earlier. Image courtesy of the Australian National Maritime Museum, supplied by ANMM Images ([email protected]) under a CC BY 4.0 licence.