Gabriel Blewett (1829-1869)
Personal details
Gender:
Male
Notable places:
Relationships
Wife:
Children:
Marriage date:
3 April 1862
Notes:
Grace was still married to William Lenderyou when she married Gabriel Blewett in Melbourne in 1862. The marriage to Gabriel was bigamous (this was known in the Blewett Morgan family and was, for Gabriel's sister Elizabeth at least, a bone of contention). William Lenderyou was living with his parents in Helston, Cornwall, when the 1861 census was taken. Grace had already emigrated to Victoria in October 1858 with her youngest brother William Arthur, without her husband in tow. William Arthur married in Fitzroy on 9 April 1862 (VIC BDM 1878/1862), six days later, and Grace was one of the witnesses. Their marriages appear one after the other in the marriage register.
References:
Wife:
Children:
Marriage date:
20 February 1865
Place:
Notes:
William Lenderyou died in 1864 in Helston, Cornwall. Grace was free to re-marry Gabriel Blewett in 1865. Why did they bother? I can't fathom it.
Family
Father:
Mother:
Baptism
Date:
12 August 1829
References:
England & Wales Census 1841
Date:
6 June 1841
England & Wales Census 1851
Date:
30 March 1851
Emigration
Date:
21 August 1853
Notes:
Gabriel Blewett and his sons John and Gabriel embarked on the Mobile from Liverpool as unassisted immigrants. Departure date: 'Shipping Intelligence', The Argus, 17 November 1853, p.4.
Immigration
Date:
16 November 1853
Notes:
Arrival date: 'Shipping Intelligence', The Argus, 17 November 1853, p.4.
References:
Operative Stonemasons
Date:
23 September 1857
Notes:
Gabriel Blewett and John Morgan joined the Operative Stonemasons, an early trade union in Victoria, on this date and were members through at least 1858 (John’s name was transferred from the Contributions book to the Arrears book on 30 June 1858). Given what happened to Gabriel after he fell from a building scaffold in 1868 it is unlikely that either retained their membership.
Ratepayer mystery
Date:
1858
Notes:
An Edward Blewett was listed as ratepayer and owner of a property in King William Street Fitzroy in 1858. This Edward Blewett and Gabriel Blewett (unclear whether Gabriel senior or his son) were listed as ratepayers on a property in King William Street Fitzroy for which Edward Blewett was still listed as the owner in 1859. This predates Edward Blewett's apparent arrival in Australia in late 1859, and begs the question, did he arrive in Melbourne before his father and brothers (in 1853, at the age of 16 or 17 - feasible?), and perhaps return to England before the 1859 voyage with his mother and sister. I have no evidence (yet) for this possibility. Or for reasons unknown perhaps the Blewetts in Melbourne registered a house in the name of their absent youngest son/brother. In 1860 and 1861 Gabriel Blewett was listed as the ratepayer and owner of the same property. The 1861 record notes the property's number as 63. It is the same property in all four records for 1858-1861, as the neighbouring property in the same records is owned by John Levy.
Could this Edward Blewett be another related Blewett? Perhaps a brother of the elder Gabriel? Longshot.
Could this Edward Blewett be another related Blewett? Perhaps a brother of the elder Gabriel? Longshot.
References:
Juror
Date:
3 January 1860
Place:
Notes:
Gabriel Blewett was a juror at the inquest held in Fitzroy, 3 January 1860, into the death of Michael John Kelly, a ten week old baby who was accidentally suffocated in his parents' bed. By the evidence of the signature it appears to have been the younger Gabriel.
References:
Accident
Date:
30 May 1868
Place:
Notes:
Gabriel was working on a building site on Wellington Parade in East Melbourne and fell 20 feet from scaffolding. Suffering from severe head and spinal injuries he was admitted to Melbourne Hospital that day, and unlike perhaps luckier men who fell from scaffolding and died instantly or within days, Gabriel Blewett took seventeen long months to die in hospital. Crumpled in a heap, he’d probably been hauled off the ground by his colleagues and bundled into a cab, exacerbating the spinal damage, resulting in paraplegia. There was no inquest into his death. (Had he died immediately of his injuries there would have been an inquest.) He was attended by surgeon William Gilbee (patient records).
Death
Date:
22 October 1869
Notable place:
Notes:
Cause of death - fractured spine and exhaustion
Burial
Date:
24 October 1869
Notes:
Gabriel was buried in the same plot, WES*A****185*, as his wife Grace (1868) and children Emma Catherine (1864) and John (1867), in the Melbourne General Cemetery.