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Lionel Holdsworth
Lionel Holdsworth (1826-1901) arrived in 1868 on the last convict ship, the Hougoumont, a white-collar criminal, having been transported for insurance fraud (apparently): he scuttled his own ship, the Severn, having been a Liverpool shipowner. He was joined in 1879 by his wife Margaretta, who as a free immigrant was able to receive a grant of 50 acres of land, but died in 1886. Holdsworth was able to employ a ticket of leave man from 1876 in his business as a clerk and accountant. Braeside, at 50 Stirling St (now 10-12 and townhouses) was built for Holdsworth, who also built the houses at 12, 14, and 16 Ord Street (all extant) as rented investment properties. Holdsworth Street is named after him: it joins Stirling Street at the point where Braeside used to stand. (Seddon 2000: 62, 78, 85)
Margaretta and Lionel's 1886/1901 gravestone was brought from the Skinner Street cemetery and may be seen on the Heritage Trail in Fremantle Cemetery, at (my number) #46. Lionel Holdsworth's remains would have been interred in the older cemetery for the special reason that he could lie with his wife, as that cemetery had closed in 1898 except for cases like this.
Erickson:
HOLDSWORTH, Lionel, b. 1826, d. 1901, (expiree). Arr. 10.1.1868 per Hougoumont, m. (U.K.) Margaretta OLIVER b. 1824 d. 15.5.1886 (Frem). She arr. 16.9.1879 per Helena Mena. Applied for 50 acres Cockburn Sound district 1880 as an immigrant grant. Formerly a merchant, convicted of scuttling his ship Severn. Mercantile clerk & accountant. He employed a T/L man 1876, Fremantle. Left for S.A. 19.6.1890. Left again 6.4.1899 & returned 31.1.1900.
Potter:
As they were childless, the beneficiaries of his Will were his nephew, Edward Hamilton Oliver who lived in Burma, and his Sister-in-Law, Mary Jane Green by then a spinster, who had reverted to her maiden name of Mary Jane Oliver and had resided in Fremantle from 1886 after her sister died.
Erickson:
GREEN, Alfred John, b. 31.5.1853. d. 7.7.1923, son of Alfred & Ann Elizabeth McDermott wid. (nee Turner), m. 12.5.1880 (York Wesl.) Mary Jane OLlVER b. 8.2.1859, dtr. of Matthew & Eleanor Jane (nee Head). Chd. Percy Alfred Matthew b. 1881 (York Wesl.), Ivy, Alma, Lesley Florence Eleanor b. 1886 (York Wesl.) d. 1961, John, Rock, Frederick b. & d. 1898, Kathleen b. & d. 1901, dtr. b. & d. 1906. Northam 1880 farmer, dairy farmer. Conducted "Bushman's Home" 1880s. To Koorda 1911.
References and Links
Davidson, Ron 2007, Fremantle Impressions, FACP: 203.
Hitchcock, J.K. 1921, 'Early days of Fremantle: convicts who made good', Fremantle Times, Friday 28 January 1921: 2.
Potter Sandra 2009, Pathways to Respectability and Upward Socal Mobility: Twelve White-Collar Convicts in the Swan River Colony, MA thesis, UWA.
Reece, Bob 2016, 'Lionel Holdsworth: Fremantle's convict aristocrat', FHS Newsletter, two parts: July, October.
Seddon, George, 2000, Looking at an Old Suburb: A Walking Guide to Four Blocks of Fremantle, UWAP.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 4 January, 2015 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/holdsworth.html (it was last updated on 12 December, 2023), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.