William Archibald Jeffries & Mary Long

1860–1940

The only son of the blind saddler, and the child to whom he left his watch and chain. William kept shop in Bathurst, married into a family the whole colony had once argued about in print, came twice before a country bench over drink in his early fifties, and settled at last at Manly as a land agent.

Snapshot of five people and a motor car outside a weatherboard house: a boy in shorts, a woman holding a baby, a second woman, a white-haired elderly woman, and, at the wheel, a bald elderly man in a dark suit and tie. — William Archibald Jeffries at the wheel, outside a Manly house, with (from left) his grandson Frank Farrugia, baby granddaughter Dawn, their mother Muriel, and his wife, Mary Long

Born: Mitre Street, Bathurst · 20 November 1860
Died: 3 June 1940 · Manly, New South Wales
Married: Mary Long (1869–1944) — married at Bathurst, 8 January 1906
Trade: Shopman, clerk, and land agent
Lived: about 79 years

William Archibald Jeffries was born on 20 November 1860, at his mother’s house in Mitre Street, Bathurst — the birth announced in the local paper the next day — and registered there as the son of Archibald Joseph Jeffries and Mary Jane.¹ He was the fourth of the eight children and the only son to grow up; his brother John, born two years later, died before their father did. When Archibald made his will in 1902, blind and having it read aloud to him, the daughters were left furniture, silver cups and an oil painting, and to “William Archibald” he left his watch and chain — the one masculine keepsake in a household of women.² William worked as a shopman in Bathurst, by family account at the Western Stores, and on 8 January 1906, at the age of forty-five, he married Mary Long at her mother’s house in the town.³

Mary Long was the second daughter of Denis Long, a Roman Catholic farmer at Teapot Swamp near Bathurst, and of Mary McKie, a Presbyterian from Wigtown in Galloway who had come out to service and married unhappily.⁴ Denis drank and was violent; his wife left him, was drawn back, left again, and after he was bound over to keep the peace she took the two girls and went for good, leaving him the youngest child, a boy also called Denis.⁴ When the father died in October 1878 the boy could not be found: he had been handed to a country priest, Father O’Donnell, who moved him from Rockley to the Bogan and, at one point, had him held in a lockup — and it took a writ of habeas corpus before Sir William Manning in May 1879, and an order that the child be delivered to the police magistrate at Bathurst, to return him to his mother.⁴ Mary herself, one of the two daughters raised by that mother, grew up in the Bathurst Congregational Church, where she taught in the Sunday school for years; the choir gave her a canteen of cutlery when she left it to be married.³

Twice in these years William came before a country police court over drink. In November 1910 the Bathurst bench granted a prohibition order against him for twelve months — an order forbidding publicans to serve him.⁵ The couple then moved west to Eugowra, near Parkes, where the 1913 electoral roll lists him as a clerk; in June 1914 the Eugowra police court fined him £1 for being found on the licensed premises of the Club House Hotel on a Sunday.⁶⁷ Nothing else of the kind is in the record. They were back in Bathurst by January 1915, when Mary’s mother — “Mrs. Mary Long, an old resident of Bathurst” — died at the Jeffries’ house.⁸

By 1930 William and Mary had settled at Manly, in a house on the corner of Suwarrow Street and Balgowlah Road, and there the electoral rolls hold the family through the decade: William an “agent,” Mary at home, and their eldest daughter, Mary Eileen Adelaide — “Eileen” — a clerk still living with them.⁹¹⁰ The younger two had married: Muriel to Jack Farrugia in 1929, and the son, Wilbur Bathurst, to Mavis Kathleen Silk at St Matthew’s, Manly, in 1938.¹¹¹⁴ In 1933 William had put his name down for the “Back to Bathurst” carnival, one of a small Manly party of the saddler’s children coming home — his sisters Blanche Howard and Ada Jeffries among them.¹² He died at Manly on 3 June 1940, aged seventy-nine, and was buried in Manly cemetery; Mary followed on 12 July 1944 and was buried at Frenchs Forest.¹³

Sepia cabinet-card photograph of two young men in suits and caps posed against a painted woodland backdrop, each holding a long sporting gun, with a whippet-like dog standing between them; the man at right rests one hand on his hip. — William Archibald Jeffries (right), with sporting guns, a dog and an unidentified companion, at a studio in the 1880s or 1890s — the saddler’s son, whose father was reckoned one of the best rifle shots in the colony.

The wedding of Miss Mary Long, second daughter of the late Mr Denis Long, of Bathurst, and Mr William Jeffries, also of Bathurst, was solemnised at the residence of the bride’s mother on Monday morning … Mrs Jeffries has been connected with the Bathurst Congregational Church and Sunday School for many years, rendering particularly valuable service as a Sunday school teacher.

Wedding notice, “Jeffries–Long,” National Advocate (Bathurst), 10 January 1906

Studio photograph of two small girls: a toddler in a white dress seated on a wicker chair, and an older girl of about four standing beside her in a pinafore, holding a parasol. — The two elder Jeffries children — Eileen, standing, and Muriel — at a studio about 1910.

Teapot Swamp

The case the colony argued about

Mary Long carried a notorious story into the marriage. Her parents had married about 1861 — her father Denis Long a Roman Catholic farming at Teapot Swamp near Bathurst, her mother a sober, industrious Presbyterian, Mary McKie of Wigtown in Scotland, who had come out alone and gone into service.⁴ The marriage was a long cruelty: Long drank, wrecked the home, threatened her life more than once and was bound over to keep the peace, and after repeated separations she took the two little girls — one of them the future Mrs Jeffries — and left him for good in 1877, he keeping the youngest child, a boy named Denis after his father.⁴

Long died in October 1878, and the boy vanished. He had been given over to a priest, Father O’Donnell, for a yearly payment; the child was turned out one winter night at Rockley and found at a mill by a Chinese labourer, was later held in the Rockley lockup until the police magistrate Benjamin Lee ordered him freed, and was at last taken away down the Bogan River. It took an application for a writ of habeas corpus, argued before Sir William Manning in May 1879 by Sir George Innes for the mother, and an order that the boy be handed to the police magistrate at Bathurst with O’Donnell to pay the costs, to end it.⁴ The Sydney and country papers carried it for months; forty years on a Bathurst columnist was still retelling it.⁴

A prohibition order

Forbidden the bar

The record catches William before a country bench twice, four years apart. In November 1910, at the Bathurst police court, a prohibition order was granted against him for twelve months — the formal notice to the town’s publicans that they were not to serve him.⁵ Soon after, he and Mary left Bathurst for Eugowra, the small place between Forbes and Parkes; the 1913 Commonwealth roll for the Eugowra polling place enters him plainly as “Jeffries, William Archibald … clerk.”⁶

The second time was at Eugowra: on 7 June 1914 he was found on the licensed premises of the Club House Hotel on a Sunday, and the court fined him £1 with six shillings costs.⁷ That is the last of it in the papers and the registers. By the start of 1915 the couple were back in Bathurst, where Mary’s widowed mother was living with them when she died that January.⁸

Suwarrow Street, Manly

A land agent by the sea

The last chapter of William’s life was at Manly, where by 1930 the family was established on the corner of Suwarrow Street and Balgowlah Road. The electoral rolls of 1930 to 1939 keep the household together: “Jeffries, William Archibald … agent”; “Jeffries, Mary … home duties”; “Jeffries, Mary Eileen Adelaide … clerk,” the eldest daughter, born at Bathurst in 1906 and the one child who never married; and, from 1935, “Jeffries, Wilbur Bathurst … glass worker,” the son.⁹¹⁰ The middle child, Muriel, had already married and gone.¹⁰

The three had been born at Bathurst between 1906 and 1911. Muriel May married John Andrew James — “Jack” — Farrugia at Manly in 1929; a son, Frank, followed in 1930 and a daughter, Dawn, in 1936, and Muriel served in the army in the Second World War.¹⁴ Wilbur — christened for the town he was born in — married Mavis Kathleen Silk at St Matthew’s Church of England, Manly, on 3 December 1938, Jack Farrugia signing the register as a witness; the entry gives Wilbur’s trade as glass cutter and his father as a clerk.¹¹

William Archibald Jeffries died at Manly on 3 June 1940 and was buried in Manly cemetery; Mary lived on until 12 July 1944 and was buried at Frenchs Forest. Their grandson Frank Farrugia died of tetanus in 1956, only twenty-six; Muriel outlived them all, dying at Shellharbour in 1984.¹³¹⁴

Hand-tinted wedding portrait: a seated bride in a drop-waisted gown and lace veil holding a large trailing bouquet, and a tall standing groom in a double-breasted suit and white bow tie. — Muriel May Jeffries and John Andrew James “Jack” Farrugia on their marriage at Manly, 1929.

The Record

Sources & References

1
Birth, Mitre Street, Bathurst, 1860

NSW BDM birth index — William A. Jeffries, 1860, registration district Bathurst, reg. no. 5036; father Archibald J., mother Mary J. Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, 21 November 1860 — “On the 20th November, at her residence Mitre-street, Mrs. Archibald Jeffries of a son.” He was the fourth of the eight children and the only son to reach adulthood; his brother John H. K. (born 1862) died before their father. The full sibling set is set out at the Jeffries entry, reference 7. His Manly cemetery record gives the birth year as 1861.
2
The watch and chain — Archibald Joseph Jeffries’ will, 1902

Will of Archibald Joseph Jeffries, dated 2 December 1902 (NSW Supreme Court probate no. 49723, granted 1910) — “watch and chain to William Archibald,” the only bequest to the testator’s son among a set of household legacies to his daughters. Set out in full at the Jeffries entry, reference 19. That William kept shop at the Western Stores in Bathurst is from the family record.
3
Marriage, 1906

NSW BDM marriage index — William A. Jeffries and Mary Long, 1906, registration district Bathurst, reg. no. 811. National Advocate (Bathurst), 10 January 1906, “Wedding — Jeffries–Long”: the wedding “at the residence of the bride’s mother on Monday morning” (8 January 1906), the Rev. H. Wheen (Methodist) officiating, the bride given away by her brother-in-law Mr J. Bain, best man Mr Callaghan; and the presentation to the bride, a Bathurst Congregational Sunday-school teacher “for many years,” of a canteen of cutlery and a sweets dish at choir practice, with remarks by the choirmaster Mr A. Atkins and by Mr R. B. Pocock of Camden College.
4
The Long habeas corpus case, 1878–1879

Protestant Standard (Sydney), 8 February 1879, “A Priestly Enormity at Bathurst”; Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong), 23 May 1879, “A Writ of Habeas Corpus”; and Bathurst Times, 12 March 1920, “After 40 Years,” No. 134 (a retrospective). Mary McKie, a native of Wigton, Galloway, married Denis Long, a Roman Catholic, at Carcoar (one account gives 1861, another 1866); they lived at Teapot Swamp near Bathurst and had three children, two girls and a boy, Denis, born December 1871. Long drank and was violent, was bound over to keep the peace, and the couple finally separated in 1877, the mother taking the girls. After Long’s death (7 October 1878) the boy was found to have been placed with the Rev. Father O’Donnell for payment; he was turned out one winter night at Rockley, held for a time in the Rockley lockup (the police magistrate Benjamin Lee ordering his release), and removed down the Bogan River. On the mother’s application, argued before Sir William Manning in chambers in May 1879 — Sir George Innes for Mary Long, Mr Simpson for O’Donnell — the court ordered the boy delivered to the police magistrate at Bathurst by 21 May 1879 and handed to his mother, with O’Donnell to pay all costs and her expenses. Mary Long, the second daughter, married William Archibald Jeffries in 1906.
5
Prohibition order, 1910

National Advocate (Bathurst), 12 November 1910 — “At the Bathurst police court yesterday, a prohibition order for 12 months was granted against William Archibald Jeffries.”
6
Eugowra electoral roll, 1913

Commonwealth Electoral Roll, Subdivision of Ashburnham, Eugowra polling place, 1913, no. 175 — “Jeffries, William Archibald, Eugowra, clerk.”
7
Eugowra Police Court, 1914

Forbes Times, 23 June 1914, “Eugowra Police Court” — before Mr Harcourt Holcombe, P.M., on 19 June, “William Archibald Jeffries was fined £1, and 6s costs of court, for being found on the licensed premises of the Club House Hotel, Eugowra, on Sunday, the 7th instant.”
8
Death of Mary Long the elder, 1915

National Advocate (Bathurst), 22 January 1915, “Personal” — “The death occurred yesterday of Mrs. Mary Long, an old resident of Bathurst, at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. W. Jeffreys. The funeral will take place this morning.”
9
Manly electoral rolls, 1930–1939

Commonwealth Electoral Rolls, Division of Warringah, Subdivision of Manly, 1930, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1937 and 1939 — “Jeffries, William Archibald, Suwarrow street, agent”; “Jeffries, Mary, Suwarrow street, home duties”; “Jeffries, Mary Eileen Adelaide, cnr. Suwarrow st. & Balgowlah rd., clerk”; and, from 1935, “Jeffries, Wilbur Bathurst, Balgowlah rd. and Suwarrow st., glass worker.”
10
The children — NSW BDM birth index, Bathurst

Bathurst district registrations, father William A., mother Mary: Mary E. A. 32333/1906, Muriel M. 1460/1908, and Wilbur B. 13304/1911. Mary Eileen Adelaide (“Eileen”) appears unmarried on the Manly rolls with her parents from 1930 to 1939.
11
Marriage of Wilbur Bathurst Jeffries, 1938

NSW marriage register (Church of England), St Matthew’s, Manly, 3 December 1938, no. 927 — Wilbur Bathurst Jeffries, glass cutter, bachelor, aged 27, born Bathurst, son of William Archibald Jeffries (clerk) and Mary Long; married Mavis Kathleen Silk, shop assistant, aged 21, born Rockdale, daughter of James Silk (carpenter) and Anne Robinson.
12
“Back to Bathurst,” 1933

National Advocate (Bathurst), 7 February 1933, “Old Bathurstians from Abroad” — among those who had notified acceptance for the “Back to Bathurst” carnival, “William Archibald Jeffries (Manly).” The same list includes his sisters, “Mrs. Blanche A. Howard (nee Jeffries)” of Manly and “Miss Ada A. Jeffries (Katoomba)”; Blanche’s letter to the carnival secretary recalls being born in George Street, Bathurst.
13
Deaths and burials, 1940 and 1944

NSW BDM death index — William Archibald Jeffries, 1940, death place Manly, registration district Manly, reg. no. 12810; father Archibald Joseph, mother Mary Jane. Buried Manly cemetery; the death date is given as 3 June 1940. NSW BDM death index — Mary Jeffries, 1944, death place Manly, registration district Manly, reg. no. 17982; father Dennis, mother Mary. Born 1869; died 12 July 1944, buried Frenchs Forest cemetery (Davidson).
14
Muriel May Jeffries and the Farrugia family

NSW BDM marriage index — Muriel M. Jeffries and John A. J. Farrugia, 1929, registration district Manly, reg. no. 8342. Compiled family record and cemetery records: Muriel May Farrugia, born 1908, died 2 July 1984, buried Shellharbour cemetery; her wartime service is in NAA series B883 (Army, Second A.I.F.). Two children — Frank James William Farrugia (1930 – 13 September 1956; died of tetanus, aged 26; funeral from St Matthew’s, Manly, buried Frenchs Forest — Manly Anglican burial register, 1956, and NSW BDM death index) and Dawn Marcia Farrugia (1936–2020). Jack Farrugia witnessed the 1938 marriage of Muriel’s brother Wilbur (reference 11).
15
Photographs

Private family collection, identified by JK. A snapshot of about 1937 — William Archibald Jeffries at the wheel of a car outside a Manly house, with his wife Mary Long, their daughter Muriel Farrugia, and Muriel’s children Frank and Dawn (the baby fixes the date). A studio photograph of the two elder Jeffries children, Eileen and Muriel, about 1910. The hand-tinted wedding portrait of Muriel May Jeffries and John Andrew James Farrugia, 1929. And a cabinet card of the 1880s or 1890s — William Archibald Jeffries at right, with sporting guns and a dog, beside an unidentified companion.