Noseless Bryan Ringrose Australia Who Emigrated from Newark Nottinghamshire Probably Around 1853

EMAIL TO WOADY YALOAK HISTORICAL SOCIETY.( wyhs@netconnect.com.au). A big thank you to janilye!

A couple of years ago Margaret Roberts, your research officer, replied to my email about Bryan Ringrose. His obituary was found by my family tree circles mate, janilye, who said that it proved that Bryan Ringrose of Smythesdale and Bryan Ringrose of Red Hill, near Dromana, were not one and the same.

However the 1865 reference to Mrs Ringrose of Red Hill, which initially seemed to disprove the connection, and rate records which correlate nicely with the time of Bryan's arrival in N.S.W., are discussed under the obituary, which shows the Ballarat/Wicania connection. Janilye has since added further detail.
Regards, XXX XXXX, Rosebud.
POSTSCRIPT. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT MRS RINGROSE, WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN BRYAN'S MOTHER RATHER THAN HIS WIFE, DIED CIRCA 1870 BECAUSE FROM ABOUT THIS TIME, BRYAN WAS ASSESSED ONLY AS THE OWNER, NOT THE OCCUPANT, OF THE RED HILL PROPERTY.

Death of Mr. Bryan Ringrose
Another old colonist in the person of
Mr. Bryan Ringrose passed away at
the Tibo0burra Hospital at 9 a.m on the
30th. inst. aged 7? years. Mr. Ringrose
arrived in Victoria in the stirring times
of the early 50's and was identified with
the mining interest at Ballarat, but sub-
sequently came to the western part of
this state and has resided in the Wilcan
nia and Milparinka districts for the last
25 years. Mr. Ringrose was a Justice of
the Peace and took a keen interest in
all that concerned the welfare of his
adopted country. In Politics he was
liberal to the point of prudence, but an
uncompromising opponent of class legis-
lation and the socialist spirit that per
vades the political atmosphere of the
day, but neverless his sympathies
were strongly in favor of [?ac?]ting the
condition of the toiler. He was a man of
sound judgement, of [??] demeanour,
courageous, of social habits, a staunch
friend and typical of the middle class
Englishman to which he belonged. So
far as is known, Mr. Ringrose was never married. (P.2, Western Grazier, 30-12-1903.)

by itellya on 2015-01-24 21:41:30
NOSELESS BRYAN RINGROSE, CROWN ALLOTMENT 18B,KANGERONG,(MELWAY 90 K1).

This comment was prompted by a search of my Red Hill dictionary history to see if there was a DITTERICH entry. There wasn't and there wasn't anything about the family under SHAND. Then I spotted the RINGROSE entry and thought I should explain why I called Bryan "noseless".

The Kangerong parish map can be accessed online by googling KANGERONG, COUNTY OF BOURKE. Crown allotment 18B, consisting of 59 acres 3 roods 15 acres, was granted to B.Ringrose but the date of issue is not given on the map. The block was south of Four Winds(18A,granted to Henry Dunn, at the corner of White Hill and McIlroys Rds) of almost the same size and to the east a much later grant (possibly closer or soldier settlement)of 22 acres obtained by S.P.Calder, who was possibly the architect who designed the 1928 Shire hall in Dromana and son of the first C.R.B. Chairman, William Calder, who was President of the Red Hill Show committee until his death; a show report stated that William's "Four Winds" could be seen from the showgrounds.

Crown allotment 18B had a 2243 link (451.219824 metre) frontage to the east side of the road from Moat's corner between a point opposite the Tumbywood Rd corner and 1879 links (377.994672 metres)south of McIlroys Rd and a point opposite the present Sheehans Rd corner. My practically illegible paper map shows that about half of the property later became two adjoining closer or soldier settlement blocks, one fronting White Hill Rd and neither adjoining Four Winds.

(Reference to Sam Loxton deleted.)
BACK TO NOSELESS BRYAN RINGROSE. (EXTRACT FROM RED HILL DICTIONARY HISTORY JOURNAL.)
RINGROSE 1865. The illegible writing in the 1865 assessments led to me transcribing this name as Ringrove. The pioneer had 60 acres. The name of Mrs Ringrose appeared in George McLear's account book in 1865.

The Ringrose family evidently settled on its 60 acre grant (whose location is described in the entry for Arthur E.HILL)in 1865 but the rate collector didn't know much about them and failed to provide an initial for the surname which I guessed was Ringrove. The assessment of 1868 records the occupant of the 60 acres (i.e. 18B Kangerong) as Brian Ringrose.

It seems that this pioneer had been much concerned in public affairs at Smythesdale before coming to Red Hill, that is if his given name was Briant! After finding that Mr Ringrose was forever moving and seconding this and that according to a Ballarat newspaper, The Star, I came across an article on page 3 of the 23-5-1863 issue, which stated that Mr Briant Ringrose was the manager of the Great Trend Co. An advertisement on page 4 of the 18-2-1862 issue of The Star shows that Bryan Ringrose was the manager of the Reliance Gold Mining Company whose operations were to be at Scarsdale; however, he was later taken to court for not paying calls on his shares. After the accident mentioned below, Ringrose was taken to Scarsdale.

Mr Ringrose had been one of 18 men proposed by a meeting in 1861 for the municipal election of seven members. Smythesdale had much interest in communal activity and an exhibition was planned. In an article about the planning committee, an interesting item found underground by Mr Bryan Ringrose was mentioned. (The Star 19-9-1861.) Mr Ringrose was a member of the local Turf Club (13-9-1862 page 1s),and on the committee of the cricket club (1-11-1860 page 2). He was a manager or shareholder at several gold mining companies such as the Great Trend, the Reliance, the Mount Bute (The Star 3-11-1862 page 4)and, one would think, finally, the Cape Clear, where Bryan found he no longer had a nose for business. (Sorry Bryan, I deserve punishment for that one!)

It would be fortunate if our Red Hill pioneer had spent his previous time at Ballarat rather than in Tasmania (as Trove demonstrates) but not so fortunate if our Briant/Bryan Ringrose had moved to another mining company by November 1863; if so,he no longer had a nose. (The Star 25-11-1863 page 2.) This explosion took place at
Sprindallah where Bryan Ringrose had applied for a mining lease in 1861 but then withdrawn his application (The Star 5-11-1861, page 3.)

It would seem that Bryan Ringrose decided that a quiet farming life was better suited to a man who had been disfigured and moved to Red Hill within a year of his accident. After the article of 25-11-1863, there was no more mention of Bryan Ringrose of Smythesdale!

There is not yet proof that the Smythedale pioneer was also the Red Hill pioneer. I have not even found a Brian/Bryan Ringrose in genealogy websites apart from one in New Zealand. I have asked the historical society which covers Smythesdale if they have any record of Bryan Ringrose being still in that area in 1865. (See end of RINGROSE entry!)

Today, I traced the Ringrose grant year by year and these are my findings.
All entries relate to 60 acres of land in Kangerong.
2-9-1865. 1-9-1866. 1-9-1867. Ringrose (surname only) was assessed on 60 acres, Kangerong, a house being first mentioned in 1867 but probably there all the time.
5-9-1868. The given name, Brian, is recorded for the first time . The house had one room.
4-9-1869. The given name was altered with a stroke (/) to turn i into y. The house is not mentioned.
3-9-1870. There are no assessment numbers but the person to be rated is recorded as Bryan Ringrose.
2-9-1871. No Ass. No. After Bryan Ringrose's name that of William Hillas (sic) is written in inverted commas, probably indicating that William Hillis was leasing the 60 acres. William Hillis was not assessed on any other land (P.S.IN THE PARISH OF KANGERONG.)
7-9-1872. No Ringrose. No assessment numbers. William Hillis was assessed on the 60 acres under H. One would assume that he had bought the land but with these rate collectors it is dangerous to assume anything.
6-9-1873. No Ass.No. Under H, William J.Hillis is crossed out and Francis Hirst is written above it. The owner's name, Ringrose, is not forgotten as it was in 1872.
5-9-1874, 2-10-1875, 15-9-1876. Under H, Francis Hirst was assessed each time with the owner being, respectively: Ringrose, Bryan Ringrose and Blank! Had it been sold this time?
14-9-1877. No listing under H (Hirst) or R (Ringrove). Look at every assessment in Centre Riding for 60 acres Kangerong or Ringrose in "Owner" column. Job Sherwood was leasing the 60 acres from B.Ringrose.
27-7-1878. Job Sherwood still leasing from B.Ringrose. N.A.V. was 14 pounds. (I hadn't checked it previously but I did notice it had been 10 pounds earlier on.)
24-7-1879. Nothing under S. Nothing under R. Look through all centre riding assessments. Under D, Charles Daniel was recorded as leasing from B.Ringrose.
31-7-1880, 30-7-1881. Nothing under D. Check whole of centre riding again for 60 ac K or Ringrose in owner column. The property had been forgotten (see ASSESSMENTS entry) and at the very end it was noted, without an assessment number, that what looked like John Gawin was leasing from B.Ringrose. The 1881 entry was clearly John Galvin and he was a labourer but the owner column was blank. Had Galvin bought 18B Kangerong?
29-7-1882, 21-7-1883.(A.N. 276 and 275/150, in shire, in riding.) Occupant column blank but Bryan Ringrose was listed as the owner in both years. The 83-4 rates were paid by Mr Ellis on 26-5-1884. I think we can assume that Ellis meant Hillis.
19-7-1884. (Nothing near previous assessment numbers.) Check whole riding for 60 acres K or Ringrose in owner column. (A.N. 110.) William Kemp, orchardist, was leasing from B.Ringrose.
20-7-1885. Not one Kangerong property of 60 acres was listed. No Ringrose in owner column. This looks like it!
17-7-1886. I wrote nothing so the result must have been the same as for 1885.
16-7-1887. Between Rudduck (157) and Segrave (158) but with no assessment number or occupier name, Ringrose was listed as the owner. The rates were paid by Hillas (sic.)
Blank July, 1888. A.N.28. Ringrose in owner column.
Blank July, 1889. No 60 acres Kangerong assessed. Had it been absorbed into a large landholding or had the rate collector forgotten the property again? Hardly any entries in the owner column and no sign of Ringrose.
Blank July 1990. No 60 acres Kangerong or Ringrose. A retrospective examination re William Hillis made sense of a baffling entry in 1891. In 1890, William Hillis was assessed on 273 acres in Wannaeue and Kangerong; to the left of this description, in tiny numerals, 60 was written above 213 (A.N. 98.) One would assume that this meant 60 acres in Wannaeue and 213 acres in Kangerong but as I said before, with these rate collectors don't assume anything.
William Hillis was granted 23A Wannaeue on 12-11-1888 and 23B Wannaeue on 10-12-1885. The first consisted of 59 acres 3 roods and 34 perches and is roughly indicated by Melway 171 H, part J-6. The second consisted of 153 acres o roods and 36 perches and is indicated by 171 pt.J, and K, 5-6. With 40 perches making a rood and 4 roods making an acre, the total of these two allotments is 213 acres and 30 perches. Therefore the 60 acre block was in Kangerong. Segrave's 60 acres were in Flinders and the only other 60 acre block, apart from Bryan Ringrose's 18B Kangerong, was Henry Dunn's "Four Winds" but this had become 233 acres years earlier.Therefore the land on which William Hillis was assessed in 1890 should read: 60 acres, 18B Kangerong and 213 acres, 23 AB Wannaeue.

Blank July, 1991. William Hillas (sic) was assessed on 60 acres Wannaeue and Kangerong. Perhaps William had mortgaged his grants or they may have been sequestered so he only had Bryan Ringrose's grant but because the rate collector wasn't sure whether the 60 or the 213 acre land was in Wannaeue, he kept the Wannaeue and Kangerong tag.

Blank July 1992. William Hillis could have had 60 acres Kangerong (preceded by an ink blot that looked a bit like a one or 160 acres.

If our Bryan Ringrose was disfigured and not often seen in public, it seems that William Hillis was one of his few friends. The following is being placed here rather than in the HILLIS entry so that it can be seen in context regarding the information from the rate books.

Bruce Bennett states on page 22 of THE BUTCHER THE BAKER THE:
William Hillas (sic) owned land on the corner of Wilsons and Main Creek Rd (i.e. 23 AB Wannaeue) and 27 acres on the top of White Hill including Watermill Farm. He was named as a butcher in the 1884 rates and appears to have been Red Hill's first butcher.

While reading an extract from Joseph McIlroy's diary on page 19 of Sheila Skidmore's THE RED HILL, where Joseph mentioned staying the night at Mr Hillis's place while bringing a steer back from Frankston on 9-3-1881, I was thinking of the Wannaeue land and presumed that for some reason he had travelled via Eaton's Cutting. Now it is pretty clear that he had travelled up White Hill Rd from Moat's Corner and stopped near the McIlroys Rd corner. William Hillis may have been leasing S.P.Calder's much later grant. He could not have been on Bryan's 18B because John Galvin seems to have been there from July 1880 to July 1882.

I received the following reply from Margaret Roberts, Research Officer of the Woady Yaloak Historical Society. Dear ---, I have searched through all our records and I have reached the same conclusion as you. The Brian Ringrose who was at Red Hill is most probably the same one who was at Smythesdale/Browns/Scarsdale in the early 1860's. Did you notice there was also a Joseph Ringrose here as well? A brother or father maybe as they were involved in many of the same mining ventures.

As you have surmised I have found no records of either of them after the accident. The two doctors who attended the victims, Drs Foster and Saengar were two of the best doctors in the area. Dr Foster was at Piggoreet and would have been the closest doctor to the accident whereas Dr Saengar was at Scarsdale and would have been the next closest. Poor Dr Saengar was murdered in September 1865 by a deranged man in Scarsdale. Please note that Smythesdale has an S in the middle. I noticed that in your article on him in the Red Hill article you omitted it. Good history though, congratulations.

Thanks Margaret for all your trouble. Sorry about the missing S which I have now remedied.
by itellya on 2015-01-24 22:21:57
iF YOU THINK THAT IT'S FAR-FETCHED TO PRESUME THAT BRYAN RINGROSE MOVED FROM NEAR BALLARAT TO (OUR) RED HILL, HERE'S ANOTHER BLOKE THAT DID PRACTICALLY THAT. ONE OF HIS SONS, THE CRACK RIFLEMAN I THINK, WHO TOURED THE LAND AS A SORT OF BUFFALO BILL TO SHOW THAT A CERTAIN RIFLE OR AMMUNITION WAS SUPERIOR, MARRIED A Red Hill HUNTLEY GIRL.(Bill Huntley.)

DAVID MAIRS OF THE PARISHES OF BLACKWOOD AND BITTERN, VIC., AUST.
by itellya on 2012-08-26 10:51:08. page views: 1112, comments: 5

by janilye on 2015-01-28 14:35:20
Bryan Ringrose with the mining interests at Ballarat died at the Tibooburra Hospital in NSW on the 30th. December 1903.
I'm attempting to correct the impossible copy now.
by janilye on 2015-01-28 15:06:03
So no! not your Red Hill Ringrose
Here's your proof
by itellya on 2015-01-28 16:59:55
Fantastic find janilye. I'll have to pass it on to the historical society lady who replied to my email about Bryan. It seems likely that Bryan had moved away by 1885 (see assessments on 18B Kangerong.) This would fit in well with him settling in N.S.W.in about 1888. As the farm was obviously unoccupied and the current owner could not be determined, there might have been an assessment under O (for owner) in 1885/6 and 1886/7. This was standard procedure when a farm was unoccupied and the rate collector was unsure of its ownership. The Mrs Ringrose in George McLear's account book of 1865 (P.91 of Colin McLear's A DREAMTIME OF DROMANA)could have been Bryan's mother. It stands to reason that Bryan did not marry but my assumption that he would have shunned public appearances was way off the mark,given his continued political activity post 1888.

Given his arrival in his new abode in N.S.W. soon after ownership of 18B Kangerong became unclear and the possibility that Mrs Ringrose of 1865 was Bryan's mother, it cannot be concluded that Bryan Ringrose of the Ballarat area and N.S.W. was not also the Red Hill pioneer. Perhaps Bryan's mother died circa 1884-5 and he, having probably been caring for her for some years,was free to experience adventure again.
by janilye on 2015-01-28 17:02:58
For those researching Bryan RINGROSE Esq., J.P (miner) he emigrated from Newark, Nottinghamshire, probably around 1853 for he did mention in a speech, he had been in Ballarat since 1853. He was on the Bench in Balranald and Broken Hill from abt. 1890.
I believe he had a relationship with Joseph RINGROSE for they both bought shares in the same mines. Joseph, also a miner, lived in Scarsdale, Lal Lal, Elaine and Geelong

NSW.BDM 3374/1904 RINGROSE BRYAN 73 YRS TIBBOBURRA TIBOOBURRA
STATE RECORDS NSW. Intestate Estate Case Papers
RINGROSE Bryan - 0001
DATEOFORDER. 1904
LOCALITY.Tibooburra
REMARKS Miner Died Tibooburra Hospital Native of England
LOCATION OF FILE[10/27662]
His Auriferous Leases in Milparinka began 29 June 1896 until 26 August 1899
by janilye on 2015-01-28 17:31:34
I mean't to add that in 1913 Bryan Ringrose Esq., J. P. (miner) appeared in this list in Adelaide.UNCLAIMED MONEY which is how I knew he was from Newark, Nott. and also unsure of his relationship with Joseph if any.
by janilye on 2015-01-28 17:45:35
And in this speech HERE he says he had been a miner since 1853.
I've tagged quite a few years in the life of Bryan in Trove and
I am not able to find any mention of Red Hill in the miner's life