The Hallett family name was known to us through Esther Jane Phillips, nee Hallett, who was Rhonnies grandmother. This family name is derived from the Norman name Aylett or Allard, meaning noble or hardy. Similar to some of our other families the distribution in 1891 of the family name is 36% in Somerset, Devon and Dorset; in the south-western peninsula of England.
DORSET TO DEVON TO SOMERSET, FINALLY TO AUSTRALIA
Our Hallett story has been taken by others back to 1517 with William Hallett of Dorset married to Agnes Fisher. We then go through about five generations in Dorset with little information on our ancestors, but then getting to John Charles Hallett b1718 who married Ann Legg b1717; they had eleven children and they were, Ann b1734, Benjamin b1735, Elizabeth b1736, Mary b1737, John b1740, Richard b1740, Geney b1742, Joseph b1743, William b1743, Benjamin b1747 and Elizabeth b1751.
Youngest son Benjamin Hallett b1747 then married Martha Green b1754. This couple had six children and they were Patty M b1773, Benjamin b1777, Elizabeth b1781, Martha b1784, Thomas b1786, and Joseph b 1789. These children were born in Netherbury, Dorset, except for Patty, who was born in Havant, in adjoining county Hampshire. Benjamin died in 1801 in Dorset. His youngest son Joseph Hallett b1789 married Jane Davy b1781 and they moved to Combe in Somerset, where they had several children, with the youngest son being again called Joseph James Hallett. He was born in 1825 and married Harriet Sparks b1822 in Plymouth, Devon, England in about 1850.
Joseph James, was a stone mason and journeyman. He and Harriet had two children, John b1851 and Mary b1853, before they immigrated to Australia in 1854, from Plymouth aboard the ‘Violet‘. They paid their own way and disembarked at Portland, Victoria in December of that year. Over the next 13 years this couple had six more children. It seems likely that son John died on the trip to Australia or soon after arrival, as there is no further record of him. The remaining children were Mary Maria b1853, Christopher b1855, Jane Ann b1857, Lucy b1859, Samuel R b1862, Bertha b1864 and Louisa b1867. Other than Mary all the children were born at Belfast, Victoria, Australia. Belfast, on the southern coast, just East of Portland and became, what is now, Port Fairy, in about 1868.
Joseph and Harriet’s son Samuel R Hallett b 1862 of (Belfast) Port Fairy, Victoria travelled and worked in various places in Victoria until, around 1890, he met and married Maria Jane Baulch b1865 of Macarthur, Victoria. Macarthur is 45kms north of Port Fairy.
Samuel and Maria Jane Hallett had seven children, all born at Broadwater, Victoria, 10km south of Macarthur, and they were Alexander H b1892, Esther Jane b1893, Victor James b1895, Sydney H b1896, Ada Betha b1897, Olive May b1900 and Cecil George b1904. We are not sure of Samuel’s occupation in Macarthur, most likely farm labouring, but at some point in the early 1900’s the couple moved to Terang, with many of the children still living at home. This move seems to have been related to Samuel and Maria being posted to Terang as active Salvationists. We have no information on when they joined the Salvation Army but was clearly when they were living in Macarthur.
Shortly after the family had moved to Terang, daughter Esther met Henry (Hy) Phillips, whom she married, at Terang, in 1914, just before he signed up for army service in Europe in WW1. Her story will continue through the Phillips family.
SALVATIONISTS
Continuing Samuel and Maria’s story. Their involvement in the Salvation Army clearly influenced where they lived. In 1917 they moved, first to Williamstown and then again, the same year, to “Noorang”, 7 Rodd Street, Dandenong. Samuel became a cab proprietor in Dandenong, when he was 55 years old, and where they continued to live until he was taken ill and placed in the care of the Salvation Army Private Hospital. He died in 1932 and is buried in the Dandenong Cemetery, Salvation Army section. Samuel was almost 70 years old. Maria continued to live in Dandenong, probably part of the time with her daughter Esther and son in-law Henry. At some point Maria moved into the Bethany aged care facility at Camberwell. She died 2nd May 1944, aged 79 years and is also buried at Dandenong Cemetery.
Of Samuel and Maria’s other children we have little information at this time. We do know that Victor James was a Brigadier in the Salvation Army and that Ada Bertha married in 1921 and died in 1941; no children from the marriage.