Susan Brooks

Story

Susan Brooks of Brentford, Isleworth, Middlesex was born on 14/2/1839 to Andrew Brooks a Gardener and later a Policeman; and Susan/Susannah Haylock likely born near Bury, Suffolk. Susan’s mother Susan (nee Haylock) Brooks died in 1846 and her father Andrew died in 1848 – both at Thames Ditton, Surrey. Susan and Andrew Brooks had seven children – two of whom died as infants.

At the time when she was orphaned Susan Brooks was just nine years and she and a younger sister Ann/Annie Elizabeth Brooks went to live with a sister of their father’s – Maria Brooks and her husband Joseph Sansom of London Road, Twickenham, Middlesex – Joseph was a Marine Store Dealer. Unfortunately for Susan and Ann as orphans – Maria Brooks died at 1855 at Brentford, Isleworth, Middlesex .

Susan worked as a General domestic servant in her teenage years and she could read and write. By 1861 Susan took the opportunity to migrate to Melbourne, Australia as a partly assisted passenger on the “Oithona”. On arriving in Melbourne from Southampton, Susan went to a cousin’s home in East Street, Ballaarat (Ballarat). The cousin in question was Mary Ann Woodley who had married William James Morgan in c1854 in Ballarat (The famous Yallop family in Australia descends from this Morgan couple who had eleven children).

To complicate family matters a younger sister of Mary Ann Woodley’s – Caroline Woodley had married Susan’s brother Richard Haylock Brooks in 1859 in England. Richard Haylock Brooks at an early adult age was an entrepreneur – he was a Tailor in Surrey, Hounslow, Hampton and London; in the Furniture trade and also ran a Restaurant. Richard Haylock and Caroline Brooks lived in Paddington, Marylebone, Middlesex and decided to migrate to Australia with their young family in 1870 on the “Lady Jocelyn”. In Melbourne, Victoria and to some extent later in Sydney, New South Wales – Richard Haylock Brooks built up his empire of skills and assets – with Furniture stores, Tailoring businesses and he owned wholesale properties and many houses which were useful as residences for nine children and families!

Back to the “Oithona” from Gilbert Provost and Lloyds Shipping Register

~ OITHONA Ð 1861

Master: Captain W. Holmes

Rigging: Ship; sheathed in felt and yellow metal in 1861; fastened with copper bolts

Tonnage: 710 tons using old measurements and 851 tons using new measurements

Construction: 1853 in Sunderland; repairs to damages in 1861

Owners: Teighe & Co.

Port of registry: London

Port of survey: Southampton

Voyage: sailed for Australia ~

In 1865 Susan Brooks married John Broomfield in the Yuille Street, Baptist Church at Ballarat West. John Broomfield was a Baker from St Andrews Parish, Edinburgh, Scotland – a son of Richard Broomfield also a Baker and Catharine Stevenson. The Yuille Street, Baptist Church has disappeared but the Ballarat Historical Society advised that it is shown in William Bardwell’s photograph of 1872 and displayed in a huge panorama in the Gold Museum in Ballarat . John and Susan Broomfield had seven children and of course Susan also became a Baker. Initially their Bakeries were in the regions of Bakery Hill and Golden Point at Ballarat but by 1880 they had moved to Rae Street, Fitzroy and by 1882 to a Dwelling and Bakery in Wellington Street, Collingwood.

Re. John Broomfield he is likely to have been in the Ballarat district by 1855; as a Crown Land Grant in Bunninyong (near Ballarat) at that time to a John Broomfield probably indicates John’s time of arrival in Ballarat district.

On the “Lady Jocelyn” from Gilbert Provost and the Lloyds Shipping Register

~ LADY JOCELYN – 1869-1881

Code letters: KVPS Official Number: 11923

Master: Captain G. Jenkins

Rigging: iron Ship; 2 decks & Spar Deck; 6 cemented bulkheads

Tonnage: 2,138 tons gross and 1,512 tons net

Dimensions: 254 feet long, 39 foot beam and holds 24.9 feet deep

Construction: 1852, C.J. Mare & Co. in London

Owners: Park Bros.

Port of registry: London

Port of survey: London

Voyage: sailed for Australia~

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