Richard Knuckey

Story

Richard Knuckey was born of Cornish mining stock. The Knuckey family had lived in the village of Stithians, Cornwall, for many generations where they worked in the surrounding mines. Richard was christened on 23rd December 1822, the son of Richard Knuckey and Mary nee Dunstan. When Richard was three years old the family moved to nearby Redruth where they remained for twelve years before moving to the parish of Gwennap in 1837. Undoubtedly his father Richard was following work around the various copper mines in the district.

In the 1841 census the family of twelve people were living in Chenhall, Gwennap and Richard senior was working as a copper miner along with six of his children, who were aged between 10 and 18 years, including Richard junior.

On 15th October 1844 Richard Knuckey, aged almost 22 years, married 15 year old Mary Ann Thomas at the Gwennap Parish Church. The couple had 4 children born in Crofthandy Ð Elizabeth (born 1845), Mary Jane (born 1849), Mary Ann (born 1851, died 1853 of tuberculosis) & Caroline (born 1853). In the 1851 census the family is to be found in Crofthandy along with Richard\’s parents and his brother James and his family.

Richard was one of 14 children and with the decline in the Cornish mining industry almost half of the family left Cornwall for either Australia or Chile, South America during the 1850\’s and 1860\’s. On 15th July 1854 Richard Knuckey, his wife Mary Ann & 3 daughters departed Plymouth on the ‘Lord Raglan’ bound for Adelaide. They arrived in South Australia on 24th October 1854. Richard\’s elder brother James Knuckey had left Plymouth just one month earlier bound for the goldfields of Victoria, Australia.

When Richard and family arrived in South Australia the Burra Burra mine, the largest in the state at that time, had been virtually at a standstill for almost two years as most of the miners had left to try their luck on the Victorian goldfields. The Mine management responded to this situation by recruiting more miners from Cornwall. In 1854 over 1,600 Cornish people, mainly miners and their families, were recruited by Emigration Agents in Cornwall and presumably Richard & his family were amongst those recruited. In December 1854 the decision was made to restart the mine.

Richard and his family settled in Kooringa area where Richard continued his work as a miner at the Burra Burra Mine, eventually becoming an engine driver. Four more children were born in Kooringa Ð Richard Francis (born 1855), Eliza Ann (born 1856, died 1860), Sarah Ann (born & died in 1858) and Joseph (born 1859, died 1861). Life in Burra was obviously tough as the only child to survive to adulthood was Richard Francis.

Richard\’s life in Australia was to be short lived for on 12th June 1860 he died after falling from his horse on the way home one evening. Richard was not a confident rider and it appeared that the horse stumbled in a pothole and Richard was knocked unconscious by the fall. He had the misfortune to land with his face in a puddle of water and he drowned.

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