Penman, was not a family name that we were aware of, as being related to our Phillips line, when we started this research. It was indicated through DNA analysis matching and confirmed through locational genealogical research. An interesting story in itself.
During our Phillips research we had identified that Annie Phillips, Rhonnie’s patriarchal great grandmother, had had an illegitimate child in 1884 and which she had named Henry Phillips. Henry was Annie’s first child and became Rhonnie’s grandfather. This discovery raised the obvious questions, ‘who was the father?’, which accelerated our intention to establish DNA profiles.
In 2016, we asked Rhonnie’s father Ian Phillips to provide a DNA sample for analysis, through ‘Family Tree DNA’. The sample was submitted and the results duly received. A short time later an email arrived from an American source, advising that there appeared to have been a match between Ian’s DNA and her fathers DNA; his family name being Penman. They were aware that their family origins were from Scotland, but not aware of any Australian connection.
An Australian locality search, by us, for the name Penman identified that a Penman family had indeed lived in the same district and at the same time in the 1880’s, as Annie Phillips. This farming family lived at Egan’s Town (as it was named at the time, after being called Deep Creek, for a number of years), and was 20km South of Yandoit, 6km from Daylesford and 10km from Hepburn Springs (or Spring Creek).
This Penman family, in 1883, when Henry was conceived, included a son William Penman, who was single and aged 29 years. William Penman was the only male Penman, under 60, in the district and therefore, also as a single man, the most likely contender to be Henry’s father. However, before we can accept this, it is necessary to genealogically link the Australian family to the American family. The circumstantial evidence from our local search seems strong, the DNA has a 50% chance of being correct and our genealogical research, detailed below, and checked with our American friends, confirmed that William Penman was the father of Henry Phillips. Following is the Penman story as it unfolded.
SCOTTISH FOREBEARS
William’s father was David Penman, born in 1823 at Mundchayle, Midlothian, Scotland and he married Margaret Dick b1827, from Lochgelly, Fifeshire. By 1861 the couple had six children, when they decided to emigrate to Australia. They left Liverpool on the ‘Marco Polo’ that year and disembarked at Melbourne, Australia in 1862.
To go back a bit further into this ancestral family: David’s father was John Penman, born 1785, and he married Christian Miller in 1815 at Lasswade, Midlothian, Scotland. This couple had five children, that we can identify, and they were Christian b1816, William b1818, John b1820, David b 1823, Samuel b1825 and Mungo born 1829. All of the men of age worked in the coal mines.
Importantly for our family line; William b1818 married Jane Meeks, b1821, from Fife, Scotland and they had five children, who were: Margaret b1842, Janet b1845, Thomas b1847, William b1850 and Samuel b1854.
Again; Thomas married Susan Sneddon in 1867 at Liberton, Scotland and amongst their children was George Meeks Penman born 1884 at Lasswade, Midlothian. The American family advise us that George Meeks Penman migrated to the USA in 1924 with his family, which included a son Peter b1908.
Peter Penman, in turn, married in America and had a son George b1931 and George married and had a son David b1954. David, who sadly died in 2016, is the father of Alyssa our American contact. David provided the DNA sample which was matched with that of Ian Phillips, Rhonnie’s father.
Time to recap: A family of Scottish coalminers from the Midlothian district, headed by husband and wife, John and Christian Penman had four sons. All the sons married in Scotland, one of them, David emigrated to Australia in 1862 and became a successful farmer at Glendonald in the Greswick district. A grandson of David’s brother William, named George Meeks Penman, emigrated to the USA in 1924.
The above shows the geneological links between the Australian and American families. Now for the more detailed history of our Australian Penman family.
SCOTLAND TO VICTORIA
David and Margaret (Dick) Penman had eleven children, six of whom were born in Scotland and travelled with their parents to Australia. Of the eleven only two were sons and they were William b1854 and John b1856. John died in 1875 when he was 19 years old, leaving William as the only son. The daughters were Helen b1849, Christina b1850, Isabella b1857, Elizabeth b1860, Isabella Dick b1862, Flora McKenzie b1864, Margaret Dick b1867, Mary Finlay b1870 and Annie Ross b1872. First daughter Isabella we believe died on the journey to the colony, or shortly after arrival. Daughter Annie Ross died aged 2 years at Spring Hill.
David and Margaret Penman and their six children had travelled to Melbourne on the ‘Marco Polo’ out of Liverpool, departing on the 11th December 1861 and arriving on the 7th March 1862. On arriving in the Colony of Victoria the couple and family seem to have moved quickly to the then mining district surrounding Creswick and Spring Hill. In fact, they were at Glendonald that same year, 1862, when daughter Isabella was born. For the next 20 years they remain in the same area with children being born at Kingston, Creswick and Spring Hill, all within a 20km radius. It seems clear that they had Scottish relatives or friends in that area, especially the McKenzies and McLennans. In addition, Margaret’s brother William Burton Dick, also appears in the same area and they share land applications.
David Penman registered on the Creswick Division Electoral Roll in 1862, immediately on arrival. In 1863 he applies to lease 30 acres of land for growing vines and tobacco, while at the same time being involved in mining activities in the area. In 1864 he owns shares worth £1250 in a newly formed mining company, the Princess Alexander Gold Mining Company, which is reported to have started tunnelling 1600ft into quartz leads that year at Eastern Hill. It is a small venture with only 5 men working. In 1865 Maegaret Penman’s brother, William Burton Dick acquires two 84 acre lots on Smeaton Plains in the Spring Hill parish. Immediately, David and sons John and William apply to subdivide this land to allow smaller allotments. This appeared to have been approved in 1871, when David acquired 60 acres plus a further 77 acres of adjoining land. It seems clear that David was both a farmer/land owner and a venture miner.
In 1869 David seeks election to the colony administration for the South Riding, but we can find no evidence of his success or otherwise. David died in May 1882, aged 59, and his headstone at the Creswick cemetery states that he died at Eastern Hill – we believe this means that he died at the mine site, although there are no records of him being killed whilst mining. Their farm or estate was at Glendonald and that is where Margaret died in 1906 aged 79 years. In her Will & Testament she had a McKenzie as the executor; left £200’s to her daughters and the Glendonald property in Trust to her nine surviving children. She is buried with David at Creswick.
Sons William and John were involved in their fathers exploits, but John had died at 19 years in 1875. William, on the other hand, was believed to be working as a butcher at Eganstown, when he married Emma James, from Swan Hill, in 1885. The couple continued to live at Eganstown until 1895, when they moved to the Spring Hill area, it is possibly that they were then living at the Glendonald farm with mother Margaret and William is shown on the roll as now being a drover. They stayed at this Spring Hill/Glendonald location until 1903, when they moved to leased land at Wattle Flat near Laanecoorie. By this time William and Emma’s children were Elizabeth Gertrude b1886, Margaret Ella b1888, Flora McKenzie b1890, Christopher James b1893, David Christopher b1896, and Ada Ellen b1898.
William was still shown as a drover, but also a farmer, in the electoral roll, when they purchased land at Wattle Flat in 1906 – this could have been as a result of the Glendonald property being sold, following the death of Margaret, and each child receiving their inheritance. William and Emma stayed at Wattle Flat until 1912, when they sold up and moved to Goschen, near Swan Hill, in the Wimmera. This is the district that Emma originally came from before they met. William died at the Prince Alfred Hospital, Prahran, in 1916 after an extended illness. He was buried at Creswick. Son Christopher James, who had a farm in the area, continued the Goschen property. Emma moved to Berwick to live with her other son David, before she died in 1925. She is also buried at Creswick with William and their eldest daughter Elizabeth Gertrude, who died in 1905.
Emma, William and Gertrude 
Margaret and David
ANNIE AND WILLIAM
It is necessary, at this point, to jump back here for a while to again consider the history of our Phillips connection to this Penman family. It is our contention, based on the evidence, that William Penman and Annie Phillips had met in 1883, when he was a butcher in the district, and had a relationship when he was aged 29 and she 20, and which had resulted in her pregnancy and the birth of Henry Phillips in 1884. Shortly after this in 1885, William married Emma James. The DNA samples were matched to a 50% chance, that is from Ian Phillips to his grandfather, and we believe that we have emphatically shown the genealogical connection. Henry now has a ‘dad’ – William Penman.
Below are photos of some of the land originally owned by David Penman and then son William. A derelict farm house stills stands on this land and there are still gold mines close by.
