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William Noblett of Gorey Ireland & Pitt St, Sydney

William John Noblett came from Gorey, Wexford, Ireland to New South Wales. He was from a Protestant family (Church of Ireland). He established himself as a draper in Pitt Street, Sydney, conducting his enterprise as "Bee Hive" at 272 Pitt Street. In 1848, he married Frances Staines in Scots Church, Sydney. One of the witnesse was Samuel Staines, an older brother of Frances. Their daughter, Frances Susan Marian Noblett, was born in 1849, and a son was born but died in 1850. Then William Noblett himself died 1851. His death was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald: "On Saturday, the 18th instant, at his residence, Surry Hills, aged 28, after a lingering illness, Mr William John Noblett, son of Mr Noblett of Goery [sic.], County Wicklow [sic] Ireland, leaving a much bereaved wife and child to deplore their loss." Three months later his wife and her friend, Mrs Elizabeth Wood, both drowned as a result of a boating accident in Sydney Harbour. The images above are of Gorey, Wexford, Ireland and of a piece of paper kept by his daughter as a memento of her "father's handwriting", a father she hardly knew nor remembered. It is interesting to note that her own writing had a similar style to that of her father's. Marian Noblett became the matriarch of a branch of the Queensland Murrays. Her own husband, James Murray died accidentally aged 45, leaving Marian with 10 children to raise. [Image of handwriting, courtesy of Ray Becker]

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