Charles Batten
| Town/City | Elizabeth Downs, SA |
|---|---|
| First name | Charles |
| Last name | Batten |
| Country of Origin | Cornwall |
| Date of Birth | 6Aug1838 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1876 |
| Submitted by | Joan Batten |
Story
Charles Batten
Charles Batten, youngest son of Thomas and Elizabeth Batten of Kea, Cornwell, was born on August 6th 1838. On February 8th, 1862, he married Susan Jane Uren at the Truro Registry Office, in Cornwell. Susan was the eldest child of Francis Hocking Uren and Alice Goldsworthy, and was born at Kenwyn in Cornwell on February 27th 1837. Charles Batten was a miner, and he and Susan lived at Kea for several years. By 1869 they had moved to Gwennap, eight kilometres to the southwest, where Charles worked as a tin miner, but after about three years they moved again, to Illogan, a similar distance to the west. These moves were a result of Charles\’ attempts to find work. There was a decline in tin mining in Cornwell from the early 1870\’s, followed falling world copper prices later in the decade. It was during this period that Charles\’s brother George moved to Lancashire, another brother John gave up mining for farming, and Charles decided to emigrate to Australia.
Charles and Susan had a family of nine, including two sets of twins, but three of their boys died in infancy. In 1876, at the age of 38, Charles Batten, with his wife and their six surviving children, sailed for South Australia aboard the Forfarshire. The ship left London on June2nd 1876, and arrived at Port Adelaide twelve weeks later, on September 1st. The Battens sailed on a free passage as Charles was a miner, and the three daughters were all recorded as servants.
At the time of their arrival the copper mines of Wallaroo and Moonta were at their peak production, and there would have been work available for Cornish miners, but it is unknown where Charles first settled.
By September 1881 the family had settled at Stirling North, near Port Augusta, and in 1885 Charles was employed there as a Railway Station man.
Susan Jane Batten died at Port Augusta on October 13th, 1891, and was buried at the Port Augusta Cemetery the following day. Only six months later Charles remarried, to Johanna Glanville, (formerly Reynolds, nee Hodge). They were married at the Port Augusta Registry Office on April 23rd 1892. At the time Charles was a labourer, of Port Augusta, while Johanna was twice widowed, and had at least three small children. Charles was fifty-four years of age, and Johanna was only thirty-five. Charles was reputedly a ‘drinker\’ and it seems that he soon deserted his new family. Johanna remarried again in December 1894, as Johanna Glanville, widow. If Charles had died she would have been the widow Johanna Batten, and if they had divorced she would have been recorded as such when she married. Perhaps Charles agreed to leave the district, as I have not been able to find another record of him in South Australia.
Charles Batten\’s movements for the next twenty years are as yet unknown to me, but he died at Minindie, in New South Wales, on December 31st, 1912. He is recorded as a labourer and old age pensioner, and his cause of death is given as senile decay. His death certificate states that he was buried on the same day in the Menindie Church of England Cemetery, but there is no record there of his burial.