The Poole Family · William & Frances Poole

Henry T Poole

1894–1908

Dead at thirteen at Taree — further evidence the family had settled in the Manning River district by then, where his youngest brother Thomas Charles was already growing up.

Born: 19 December 1894 · Glen Innes registration district
Died: 28 March 1908 · Taree
Lived: 13 years

Henry T. Poole was born on 19 December 1894, his birth, like Boyd’s before him, registered in the Glen Innes district though the family was based at Dalmorton. He died on 28 March 1908 at Taree, aged thirteen — the second of William and Frances Poole’s children, after Boyd, not to reach adulthood.²¹ The circumstances of his death have not yet been researched, and no newspaper notice has yet been found.

His death at Taree is a useful marker in its own right: it places the family in the Manning River district by 1908, consistent with the birth of his youngest brother Thomas Charles Poole at nearby Coolongolook about 1897, and confirms William and Frances had left the Clarence well before their final move to Sydney.

The Record

Sources & References

Shared with The Poole Family.

1
Arrival — the ship “Black Bird”

NSW gaol description sheets (Darlinghurst and Bathurst, 6 Nov 1893) both record “Ship: Black Bird” and the year of arrival as “not known.” Research into the vessel identifies her as an 1863-built, Melbourne-registered intercolonial steamer on the Newcastle–Melbourne and NSW–Queensland coastal trade — never a transoceanic emigrant ship — so she was most likely only the final coastal leg of Poole’s journey, not the ship that carried him from Ireland.
2
Dalmorton, early 1870s

Glen Innes Examiner, 3 November 1893, “The Dalmorton Perjury Case”: “During the past 23 years Mr. W. F. Poole has been a resident of Dalmorton… For a number of years he kept a store at Dalmorton and also had the post-office.”
3
Frances Helen Cadden’s birth and parentage

NSW BDM birth index, Frances Cadden, reg. 3211/1857, registered Glebe; NSW Presbyterian Baptisms register, Frances Cadden, born 7 June 1857, baptised 9 August 1857, parents William Cadden (grocer) and Christina, of Glebe.
4
William and Christina Cadden

William Thomas Cadden obituary, “A Pioneer Miner,” 1898; Christina Cadden (née Mitchell) death certificate, NSW BDM reg. 1208/1907 — Glasgow-born; the certificate names her father as ‘Robert Mitchell, engineer’, but he was in fact John Mitchell, blacksmith and ‘practical engineer’ — Robert was her brother (see the William & Christina Cadden chapter, ref. 2).
5
Marriage, 1873

NSW BDM marriage index: William Poole and Frances Cadden, reg. 2611/1873, Grafton.
6
The children

Birth notice, Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser, 1 June 1875: “POOLE — On May 19, at her residence, Dalmorton, Little River, the wife of WILLIAM F. POOLE, of a daughter” — not yet definitively matched to a name, but consistent with Elizabeth Christina Mary Poole (1875–1958), the eldest known child. Eleven children in total are recorded by family record: Elizabeth Christina Mary (1875–1958), Frances Helen (1876–1952), Mary Alice Maud (1879–1929), Grace M. (1881–1964), William Francis (b. 1882), Joel John (b. 1886), Daisy J. (1888–1976), Boyd (1890–1891, died in infancy of bronchitis), Frederick Thornley (1892–1952), Henry T. (1894–1908, d. Taree) and Thomas Charles (c.1897–1971), the youngest, born after the family had left Dalmorton for the Manning River district. Thomas Charles is confirmed as a child of this marriage not by a birth record — none has been found — but by his own 1971 death notice, which names his siblings “Frederick (deceased) and Daisy (Mrs Batchelor, Port Macquarie)” by name (see reference 17).
7
Storekeeping, stock and insolvency

NSW Government Gazette, 15 October 1878: deed of assignment, William F. Poole, storekeeper of Dalmorton, insolvent. NSW brand register (Horses and Cattle), William F. Poole, Dalmorton, Clarence River, application 38990. NSW Police Gazette, list of stock stolen, week ending 19 December 1888: five head taken from William Poole, Dalmorton, since February that year.
8
Warden’s Clerk and Mining Registrar

NSW Civil Service list: “Poole, W. F. … Warden’s Clerk, Mining Registrar, &c., Dalmorton, Mines.” Clarence and Richmond Examiner, 31 May 1890 (“Telegraphic”): “Mr. W. F. Poole is gazetted Warden’s bailiff at Dalmorton.” NSW Government Gazette, Ordinary Licenses list: William F. Poole, Dalmorton, licence no. 2870.
9
The 1892 telegraph-office controversy

Clarence and Richmond Examiner, 28 June 1892 (“Dalmorton Post Office,” reprinting a General Post Office letter of 20 June 1892) and 9 July 1892 (“Dalmorton” — Progress Committee election results and the public meeting resolution).
10
The Royal Commission

Clarence and Richmond Examiner, 21 March 1893 (notice convening the inquiry, 29 March 1893) and 4 April 1893 (“Chatsworth Island” column, “Inquiry at Dalmorton”: twenty-six witnesses, three charges, twenty-seven hours of hearings, charges brought by “Mr. Ford”).
11
The Mount Marvel mine and the bank account

Clarence and Richmond Examiner, 7 October 1893, “Grafton Police Court”: evidence of E. C. Platt, Commercial Bank accountant, on an account opened by Poole in August 1891 with a deposit of £120 in gold; evidence naming Bushell, Shea, M’Kenzie and L. Bonnar as the other parties interested in the Mount Marvel mine.
12
Dismissal

NSW Government Gazette No. 327, 16 May 1893: dismissal of W. F. Poole as Warden’s Clerk, Mining Registrar and Bailiff at Dalmorton, effective 19 April 1893. Clarence and Richmond Examiner, 29 April 1893 (“Dalmorton”), reporting the dismissal locally.
13
Trial and sentence

Glen Innes Examiner, 20 October 1893, “The Charge against W. T. Poole”; NSW Circuit Court criminal register, entry 272, Grafton Circuit Court, 17 October 1893, before Mr Justice Windeyer: guilty on the second count of perjury, three years’ penal servitude.
14
The clemency campaign begins

Clarence and Richmond Examiner, 4 November 1893 (“Editorial Brevities”: a petition for remission in course of signature); Glen Innes Examiner, 3 November 1893, “The Dalmorton Perjury Case” (reprinted in the Clarence and Richmond Examiner, 7 November 1893).
15
The campaign continues

Clarence and Richmond Examiner, 5 January 1895 (“Editorial Brevities”).
16
Release

Bathurst Gaol entrance/discharge register, entry 523: William F. Poole, disposed of “by special remission,” 29 January 1896. NSW Police Gazette, 5 February 1896, “Return of Prisoners Discharged to Freedom.”
17
Thomas Charles Poole — identification

Three independent records place Thomas Charles Poole in this family. (1) NSW marriage register, Berwood district, 2 December 1922, St Peter’s Church: Thomas Charles Poole, bachelor, bricklayer, born Coolongolook, NSW, aged 24, married Adeline Maude Odgers; his father is recorded as “Frederick Poole (dec’d)” and his mother as “Frances Cadden” — not marked deceased, consistent with William Frederick Poole’s death c.1900 and Frances Helen Cadden’s death in 1928. A witness at the wedding was “F. Poole,” very likely a brother. (2) NSW marriage register, 6 August 1938, St James’, Croydon: Thomas Charles Poole, widower, bricklayer, born Coolongolook, NSW, aged 41, married Beryl Edna Amos; parents again recorded as “Frederick Poole (dec’d)” and “Frances Cadden (dec’d),” both now deceased. (3) Decisively, his death notice, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 June 1971 — “POOLE, Thomas Charles.—June 5, 1971, at his residence, 11 Ridge Street, Cabramatta, dearly beloved husband of Beryl, loved father of Colin (deceased)… fond brother of Frederick (deceased) and Daisy (Mrs Batchelor, Port Macquarie). Aged 73 years” — names two of William and Frances Poole’s other children by first name, putting the identification beyond reasonable doubt even without a birth record. His two marriage records disagree by about a year on his exact birth date (implying 1896–97 and 1897–98 respectively), so his birth is given here as “c.1897.”
18
William Frederick Poole’s death

NSW BDM death index: Poole, William F., reg. 4670/1900, Balmain North — died 5 June 1900 at Paul Street, Balmain, aged 51 (indexed as "William Frederick Pool"). Identification reached by elimination among some two dozen same-named candidates found in the NSW indexes for this period, none of whose own recorded details (spouse, parents, place, decade) fit William and Frances Poole; no death or funeral notice has been found in Trove, and no matching burial appears in the Balmain Cemetery register, so the identification is not yet confirmed against a full death certificate.
19
Frances Helen Cadden’s death

NSW BDM death index: Poole, Frances, reg. 6299/1928, Ashfield (father William T., mother Christina). Sydney Morning Herald, 29 May 1928, funeral notice: residence 1 Beatrice-street, Ashfield, burial Presbyterian Cemetery, Rookwood. Headstone, Rookwood Cemetery, Section 6E, Row 23: “our mother. In her 72nd year.”
20
The Cadden family at Dalmorton

NSW Department of Lands, “Map of the Village of Dalmorton and Suburban Lands” (2nd edition, surveyed 1920): two allotments at the corner of Shannon Street and the highway marked “William Cadden.” Clarence and Richmond Examiner, 9 July 1892, “Dalmorton”: F. Cadden and W. Cadden among the defeated candidates in that year’s Progress Committee election.
21
Henry T. Poole, 1894–1908

NSW BDM birth index: Poole, Henry T., reg. district Glen Innes, 1895 (birth 19 December 1894), father William F., mother Frances, reg. no. 3385. NSW BDM death index: Poole, Henry T., reg. district Taree, 1908 (death 28 March 1908), mother Frances, reg. no. 7428.
22
Manager of the Union mine — sued by his own brother-in-law

Glen Innes Examiner and General Advertiser, 21 December 1886, “Glen Innes Police Court”: “WAGES.—David Knox sued W. F. Poole for £28 10s. 10d. The defendant is manager of the Union mine at Dalmorton, and Knox had been working at the reef. After hearing both sides, the P.M. gave plaintiff a verdict for £8 3s. 3d. with costs.” David Knox married Mary Jane Keller Cadden, Frances Helen Cadden’s elder sister (see “William & Christina Cadden”).