The Kidd Family A Family History
The Bawn Family · George Bawn & Ellen McIntosh

The Hallidays of Balmain

Ellen Caroline Bawn

1855–1908

Named, very likely, for the sister she never knew — married a man born at sea, and left ten children behind a whole new branch of this family.

Born
1855 · registered Sydney · baptised St James’s
Died
July 1908 · buried Field of Mars Cemetery, Ryde
Married
George Richardson Neptune Halliday, labourer, born at sea 1853 (m. Paddington, 1879)

Ellen Caroline was born in 1855 (reg. 3899/1855) and baptised at St James’s, Sydney. Her middle name was very likely chosen in memory of her sister Caroline Mary, who had died the year before — a reasonable inference from the timing, not a documented fact.1

In 1879 she married George Halliday at Paddington (indexed once, evidently in error, as “Ellen C. Brown”).2 Her husband’s full name and origin are striking: a probate notice names him George Richardson Neptune Halliday, and a passenger list for the ship Herefordshire, arrived Sydney 10 December 1853, records the family of John Halliday (20, railway labourer, of Manchester) and his wife Mary (14), with children David, Agnes, Margaret, William, and George, an infant “born on the voyage.”3 “Neptune” was, it seems, a fitting name for a boy born at sea.

George and Ellen Caroline had at least ten children over more than two decades, mostly registered in the Balmain and Balmain South district:

The Ten Halliday Children

Maud Beatrice

1879

Reg. 6482/1879, Redfern.

George Richard

1881

Reg. 1524/1881, Sydney — likely named for his mother’s eldest brother, George Richard Bawn.

Alfred J.

1883

Reg. 3301/1883, Sydney.

Lexey M.

1885

Reg. 4007/1885, Balmain.

John T.

1887

Reg. 4416/1887, Balmain.

Minnie A. H.

1889

Reg. 4431/1889, Balmain.

Lily E.

1891

Reg. 5551/1891, Balmain.

Ethel I.

1896

Reg. 1387/1896, Balmain South.

David J.

1898

Reg. 19126/1898, Balmain South.

Violet C.

1901

Reg. 20007/1901, Balmain South.

George died in April 1908; Ellen Caroline followed him in July, the same year — she is recorded as dying suddenly at a nephew’s residence in Newtown, having lived latterly at Rozelle, and formerly at Balmain. Both are buried at Field of Mars Cemetery, Ryde.4

A 1909 In Memoriam notice, placed a year after her death, reads: “In loving memory of our dear aunt, Ellen Halliday... Inserted by her loving niece and nephew, May and George Baldock.” This independently confirms Ellen Caroline as the sister of Frances Elizabeth Bawn — “May” and “George” Baldock almost certainly being Alice Lilla May and George Frederick Baldock, two of Frances Elizabeth’s own twelve children, both told in full in the Baldock chapter that follows.5 A 1908 probate notice for George Halliday’s own estate names his executors as James Bawn — Ellen Caroline’s youngest brother — and William Baldock, a nephew by marriage: proof that the Bawn, Halliday and Baldock branches of this family remained closely connected into the twentieth century.6

The Record

Sources & References

  1. 1

    Birth and baptism

    NSW BDM birth index, reg. 3899/1855; baptism, St James’s, Sydney, full name Ellen Caroline Bawn, father George, mother Ellen.

  2. 2

    Marriage, 1879

    NSW BDM marriage index: Ellen C. [Bawn, indexed as] Brown to Geo Halliday, Paddington, reg. 1850/1879.

  3. 3

    George Halliday’s origin

    Probate notice, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 October 1908: “In the Will of GEORGE RICHARDSON NEPTUNE HALLIDAY, late of [Balmain], labourer, deceased...” Passenger list, ship Herefordshire, arrived Sydney 10 December 1853: Halliday family, John (20), Mary (14, wife), David, Agnes, Margaret, William, George (infant, “Born on the voyage”), railway labourers, Manchester, Lancashire.

  4. 4

    Both deaths, 1908

    Funeral notice, Daily Telegraph, 9 July 1908: “HALLIDAY.—The Friends of the late Mrs. ELLEN HALLIDAY are respectfully invited to attend her Funeral, to leave 49 Hornsey-street, Rozelle, THIS AFTERNOON... for Field of Mars Cemetery.” A genealogy index separately gives George’s death as April 1908 and Ellen’s as July 1908, both Field of Mars Cemetery, Ryde.

  5. 5

    In Memoriam, 1909

    “Halliday,” Evening News, 8 July 1909: “In loving memory of our dear aunt, Ellen Halliday, who died suddenly, at her nephew’s residence, Newtown, July 8th, 1908, late of Balmain. Inserted by her loving niece and nephew, May and George Baldock.”

  6. 6

    Probate, 1908

    Probate notice, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 October 1908 (see ref. 3): executors James Bawn and William Baldock.