The Kidd Family A Family History

Chapter Two

The Robens Lineage

Anchorage in Bathurst

1852 – 1942 Bathurst, New South Wales 14 min read

While other branches scattered across the continent, this line drove its roots deep into the soil, the civic institutions, and the community life of Bathurst — and held.

c. 1900 Photograph to come
A child of the line beside her blind great-grandfather, the saddler Archibald Joseph Jeffries
1871
The founding marriage, in Bathurst
12
Children carried the line onward
89
Years — Mary Rebecca Jane’s long life
100
Lilian, the family’s centenarian

The marriage of Mary Rebecca Jane Jeffries and Thomas Robens in 1871 established one of the most resilient and deeply rooted branches of the family tree in the Central West of New South Wales.1 While other branches of the Jeffries family scattered across the Australian continent or pressed south-west to the South Australian frontier, this line stayed firmly anchored in the soil, the civic institutions, and the community life of Bathurst.

Two Pioneer Lines

The Union of Two Pioneer Lines

On 20 December 1852, Mary Rebecca Jane was born in the historic river settlement of Pitt Town, New South Wales.1 As a tiny infant she travelled over the rugged passes of the Blue Mountains with her parents, Archibald Joseph Jeffries and Mary Jane Mills, as they sought their fortune in the booming frontier town of Bathurst. Growing up amid the frantic energy of the western gold fields, she watched her father build his successful George Street saddlery and establish himself as a prominent civic leader.

In 1871 Mary Rebecca Jane married Thomas Robens (1848–1928) in Bathurst.1 Thomas was an industrious young man whose family was becoming deeply woven into the growing infrastructure of the region. The marriage united the artisan craftsmanship of the Jeffries line with the expanding commercial and agricultural workforce of regional New South Wales.

A Household in Bathurst

Life in Bathurst & Family Transitions

Thomas and Mary Rebecca Jane established their household in Bathurst, where Thomas pursued his livelihood and supported a vast, bustling family of twelve children. Together they lived through the sweeping transformations of the late Victorian era as Bathurst grew from a dusty gold-rush hub into a sophisticated regional capital.

Mary Rebecca Jane was known all her life for a profound family loyalty and a quiet, stubborn resilience. In early 1903, when her elderly father Archibald entered the final stages of a battle with an “inward growth,” she stepped forward. Leaving her own household behind, she showed what local newspapers called a “praiseworthy devotion and attention,” personally nursing her blind father through his last, excruciating months at his 169 Keppel Street home until his passing on 19 May 1903.

A praiseworthy devotion and attention.
The Bathurst press, of Mary Rebecca Jane nursing her blind father, 1903

Following her husband Thomas’s death in 1928, Mary Rebecca Jane entered a new season of family care and companionship. Commonwealth Electoral Rolls from 1930 and 1937 record her daughter Ida established on Railway Street, Castle Hill, keeping a home where her widowed mother eventually came to reside full-time. Mary Rebecca Jane lived out her twilight years within this dedicated circle of care, passing away at the advanced age of eighty-nine on 11 April 1942 in Baulkham Hills.1

The Generation

The Twelve Children

The legacy of the Robens line was carried forward by an extraordinarily robust generation who grew up across New South Wales — saddlers and soldiers, spinsters and wanderers, a stock agent, a fugitive, and one daughter whose life became a thousand-mile walk. Some never left Bathurst; others crossed the continent.

Together they are the bridge between the pioneers and the living family. Select any name to read their story.

The Record

Sources & References

  1. 1

    Sibling civil registration. New South Wales master registration sets tracking the vital indices of the complete twelve-child generation of Thomas and Mary Rebecca Jane Robens.

  2. 2

    Regional electoral timelines. New South Wales Commonwealth Electoral Rolls (1927 Mudgee; 1930 Castle Hill; 1932 Lithgow; 1936–1943 Bathurst), tracking the family’s geographical movements.

  3. 3

    Police Gazette desertion warrants. New South Wales Police Gazette (Sydney), 2 February 1927, p. 3, Maintenance Orders — the warrants for the arrest of William Gage and, earlier, Norman Robens.

  4. 4

    Adelaide Salvation Army notice. Press clipping, “Woman Walker and Child Missing,” South Australian summary, c. 1932 — verifying Ivy and nine-year-old Patricia tramping from Bathurst to Adelaide.

  5. 5

    Marrickville cottage fire. Press clipping, “Cottage Gutted,” Sydney, c. mid-1920s — the destruction of William Cairns Gage’s Sydenham Road cottage.

  6. 6

    Depression tramping notice. Press dispatch, “Long Tramp: By Mother and Daughter,” Brisbane, c. 30 June 1931 — Ivy and Patsy tramping 4,000 miles from Melbourne to Cooktown.

  7. 7

    Bathurst Quarter Sessions. News clipping, “Bound Over,” Bathurst regional press, c. 1944 — the arson trial and Patricia’s marriage into the Hill family.

  8. 8

    Hume Highway fatal smash. Newspaper clipping, “Woman Killed in Triple Smash,” Sydney press, 18 February 1955 — Ivy Mary Gage’s death at Spring Flats.