Hannah Major Chellew was one of Rhonnies matrilineal great great grandmothers and the only Australian born one. Hannah Major Chellew had been born in 1852 at Adelaide, South Australia and had travelled to Victoria with her parents, William Martin and Prudence Chellew. Hannah married John Day at Beaufort, Victoria in 1872. Our Chellew history starts in Cornwell, England, with Hannah’s grandfather Sampson Chellew, at the village of Towednack, which is on the Western end of the Cornwell peninsula and about 33km from Land’s End.
William Martin Chellew b1825 had married Prudence Major b1826, in Penzance, Cornwell, England in 1848. Penzance is on the Southern Coast, 13 km South of St Ives and Towednack. Soon after the marriage, they sailed from Plymouth to the new colonies, on the Australian continent. William had been a tin-miner in Cornwell. His mother Jane Martin b1802 and his father Sampson Chellew b1797. Sampson had died in 1840, also a miner. Jane and Sampson had four children and they were Thomas b1811, John b1814, Elizabeth b1816 and Ann b1819.
A little family history for Prudence is worth considering at this point. Her father was Ephraim Major and her mother Elizabeth Martin, which made her a cousin of now husband William, as his mother was also a Martin. Prudence was born at St Ives, Cornwell, where her parents lived. St Ives was the largest town in the district and about 4km from Towednack.
William and Prudence seem to have set sail from Plymouth a year after their marriage in 1849. At this time, we do not know the ship they sailed in, but they appear to have landed in South Australia, probably at Port Adelaide. We know this because daughter Elizabeth Jane was born in Adelaide in 1850. In fact, they stayed around the Adelaide area until after mid-1853, as daughter Hannah Major was born in March of that year, also in Adelaide. By 1854, however, they had made their way to the Victorian central gold fields, which had opened in 1851. We also know this because in 1854 the couple had a son, William Martin Jnr., born at Castlemaine, Victoria.
Around this time, 1853, William Martin’s brother John had married Elizabeth Martin, a cousin, at St Ives, England and they too made their way to South Australia, landing in 1854 at Port Adelaide and from there they too travelled to the central gold fields of Victoria, presumably with or soon after joining brother William. Some interesting background on this is available, by Rev. Darryl Chellew, at a website ‘geestories’.
Continuing with William and Prudence. Castlemaine was central and close to the gold strike areas, so they most probably were tempted to try their luck. However, they seem to have moved around Victoria before settling in the Beaufort region. As both William and brother John had been miners, it seems reasonable to assume that they were involved in gold mining.
Prudence and William had seven children who were Elizabeth Jane b1850, Hannah Major b1853, William Martin Jnr b1854, Ellen Martin b1856 but died in 1857, Ellen Martin b1860, Prudence Louise b1863 and James b1865. The last three surviving children had been born at Raglan, Avoca and finally, after settling, in Beaufort. So, what were the family doing in Beaufort?
There is very little information accessible about their time in Beaufort from 1863 to the end of the century. Electoral rolls commenced in 1903 and from these we get a view of their 20th Century life. By 1903 William Martin Snr., then aged 78, was a jeweller and watchmaker in Havelock Street, Beaufort. We are not sure when he started this business but most probably around the late 1860’s or early 70’s, certainly when he was a lot younger. This suggests that he had accumulated some wealth through gold mining, although there is no evidence of this. William Martin’s wife Prudence died in 1885, but by this time the Chellew business enterprise had spread to Avoca and Donald, nearby towns, with William’s son William Martin Jnr. running the jewellery and watchmaking business in Avoca and with other partners in the adjoining township of Donald.
In 1906, widower William Snr., at 81, was married again and this time to Johannah Chapman, from another local business family in Beaufort. William and Johannah, it seems, continued to own the business until around 1912, when he died at 87. William Martin Chellew is buried at Beaufort.
Our family ancestry continues through William and Prudence’s daughter Hannah Major Chellew, but first some interesting history from sibling William Martin jnr.
In 1903, the electoral roll and other government documents show William Chellew Jnr., at 49 years, as a successful businessman and an important public official. To complete the picture, we need to step back a bit; William Jnr. had married Clara Annie Needham, from Daylesford, in 1888, when he was 34 years old, and they had lived at Avoca from shortly after that time. William had already been operating a jewelry business from that town, in partnership with his father, and probably was living there, as well.
William Martin and Clara Annie operated the jewelry and watchmaking business in Avoca from 1889 to 1819, during which time William became a local JP and then, in 1896, the Local Magistrate for Midlands District. Further, in 1911 he was made Chief Magistrate for Victoria and Electoral Returning Officer for the Avoca Electoral Region.
They left the shop in Avoca around 1918, this probably related to the regional depression following the war, and moved to Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, where they opened another jewellery business at Malvern. Interestingly the Avoca jewelry business after 1918 was owned by the Chapman family. We have no information on the Beaufort or Donald businesses.
William and Clara had several children including Henry Arthur Chellew, who continued the business at Malvern after William’s death in 1945.
Our family ancestral story will continue through Hannah Major Chellew who married John Day in 1872, when she was aged 19 years. Her story will be as Hannah Day.