Society for One-Place Studies

Our members are participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge for 2018 with the theme People of My Place. Today's entry is from Janice Cooper.

William Young Sing was one of the original town businessmen in my place, Alpha-Jericho. He was one of several publicans who moved west as the central western Queensland railway line was constructed during the 1880s.

His death certificate indicates that William Young Sing was born in Canton, China in about 1827. It is believed he arrived in Sydney, New South Wales in about 1856 and operated there as the merchant Yung Sing. He married Emma Mann in Sydney on the 10 February 1862¹. By 1867 with two daughters, the couple had moved to Queensland.

My story of William Young Sing’s contribution to the Alpha-Jericho district begins about 28 August 1883 when he purchased a town allotment at the railway terminus at Pine Hill. He paid £48 for an allotment facing the railway line. On 20 November, he gave notice of his intention to apply for a Country Publican’s License [sic], indicating that he intended in keeping a ‘house and appurtenances’ as an inn or public-house.

The family became involved in social activities in Pine Hill with the older daughters dressing beautifully for a fancy dress ball in July 1884². However movement along the railway line continued, and the family moved on to Jericho in mid-1885, possibly about the time the new terminus opened there on 9 June.

William purchased an allotment in Jericho’s main street, which runs parallel to the railway line. The sale was held in Pine Hill on 26 May 1885, so he may not have yet visited his new home town. On 13 October he was granted a publican’s licence for his public house in Jericho, retaining the name ‘The Travellers’ Rest Hotel’, a name he had used for the 15 years he had already held a licence.

The hotel soon became a social centre for the population of railway construction workers and small business owners supporting them, as William Young Sing was granted permission to hold music and dancing on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays in November and December 1885³. The marriage of his eldest daughter Adeline Young Sing took place at her father’s residence on the Thursday 31 December 1885, no doubt an evening of family celebration.

William’s connections with his countrymen were strong and expressed in the local setting. Along with other Jericho residents, he signed a petition in support of Sing Noy’s request to retain the vegetable garden he had established at the next terminus for the line, Barcaldine. Many of those signing the petition would be aware that they may move to Barcaldine when it was established, and that fresh vegetables were important to their families.

Tragically, William Young Sing died on 6 June 1886 in Jericho and was buried in the Jericho Cemetery the same day. Four and a half years later, his body was exhumed under permit and according to cultural custom his bones returned to his ancestral homeland where he could lie in peace⁴.

Emma Young Sing applied for the Travellers’ Rest licence for the remainder of 1886 but soon after changed her business to a general store. The family business continued under the management of daughter Mabel, with associated saddlery and billiards room businesses operated by family members for many years.

Despite such a short time spent in my place, William Young Sing’s personal contribution was significant in several respects: as a founding business man, a family man whose descendants remained in the district and as a representative of the early Chinese diaspora in western Queensland. Details of his broader contributions as a Chinese-Australian lie beyond the scope of this mini biography.

¹ Details of the life of William Young Sing have been researched and published in Conquest an inside story, 2013 by Claire Faulkner, ISBN 978-0646-58875-9. The date of his photograph is unknown; it is included in Conquest, p.33.
² Western Champion, 11 July 1884, p.2.
³ Register depositions, Jericho 1885-1888, Item ID 296283, Series 9365, Queensland State Archives.
⁴ Colonial Secretary’s Correspondence, Letters 90.11717 and 90.12944, Item ID 847371, Queensland State Archives.

Our members are participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge for 2018 with the theme People of My Place. Today's entry is from Andrew Coles.

In November 1886, Christopher Wright, innkeeper of Bearstone in Shropshire, was found guilty of assault and fined 40s plus costs. He had been trying out a colt in a field with another man named Butler but the field was not theirs. They were asked to move on and after a heated argument, blows were exchanged. Although the Chairman of the court stated that the case was not as bad as first believed, it was clear a wrong had been committed. Now whether this had a long-term effect on relationships in Bearstone is unclear, but somehow four years later Wright ended up in Edgmond as landlord of The Lamb Inn and remained there until he died.

Christopher Wright was born in 1853 in the small coal mining community of Talk o’ th’ Hill, sometimes more simply known as Talke, within the parish of Audley in Staffordshire. The village is 5 miles NNE of Newcastle-Under-Lyme and part of the Staffordshire coalfield. His father was a miner (and also a grocer in the 1861 census), as were most of his brothers. Quite why Christopher ended up being the grocer in his early life, rather than going down the pit is unclear, although his father obviously had the shop as a second job and maybe it needed someone to carry this on.

In the summer of 1873 aged 20, Wright married Lavinia Lowe when she was just 17 years old. She was from Wolstanton just 4.5 miles away, and was the daughter of a grocer, so it was through the trade that they probably met. In 1881 they were still living in Audley with two children and he was still listed as a grocer and baker. But at some point in the next few years they must have decided to move into the innkeeping trade as shown by the newspaper reports from the incident in Bearstone already recited. In The Wellington Journal of 26 April 1890 at the Petty and Brewster Sessions, Wright is approved of the licence for the Lamb Inn to be transferred to him from the previous landlord. The inn is a fairly large one attached to a farm in Edgmond which you can clearly see in the aerial photograph. The building (sometimes known as the New Lamb Inn) had been altered and enhanced in 1872 by the owner, a certain Burton Borough Esq., who was one of the principal landowners in the area.

Wright and his wife Lavinia remained in Edgmond for the rest of their lives, bringing up 8 children (although sadly another 7 did not survive). The Lamb was well known throughout their tenancy as a site for auctions of farming equipment and stock, as well as a stop-off for the carrier business. In 1896 Wright’s love of horses, or at least gambling, was shown by his organisation of an equestrian event called the ‘Edgmond Pony and Galloway Races’. After WW1 the Inn was commonly referred to in local papers as the Lamb Hotel and is perhaps evidence of lofty ambitions. Wright was referred to as a farmer and Innkeeper in each census and the farm was clearly an important part of the business.

At some point (probably the late 1920’s judging by the architecture) Wright had a house built right next door to the inn called ‘Beulah’, and it was here that he died on 09 September 1930. Probate was granted the following year for nearly £7000, which is an amount of over £300,000 after adjustment for inflation to today’s money. His wife Lavinia died four years later. After humble upbringings in a mining community his financial legacy was impressive and is testament to the Victorian and Edwardian dream of self-fulfilment.