Family History - Mary Hughes Place

We have been researching our family history for many years and the research continues - trying to solve the brick walls of ancestors who seem impossible to trace. When you make a breakthrough however small - it is exciting to you as the researcher and perhaps answers a little more of that question - WHERE DO I COME FROM?

Mary Hughes Place has been a consuming mystery right from the very start of our research. Even in family bibles she was just recorded as Mary the women bearing all the children but no surname. In other records she was recorded as Mary Place, Mary Hughes, Mary Hunt and Mary Hughes Williams. In reality she was born Mary Hughes Place in 1763 and baptized at St Clement Danes, London on the 29th June 1763 to Thomas Place and Elizabeth.

We quickly unearthed details of her marriage to Charles North Hunt (1765 -1811) an attorney from Holborn on the 5th April 1787 at St Leonards, Shoreditch, London, England. This began an exploration of the Hunt family to try to discover more details about the mysterious Mary Hughes Place. And of course, we had found a further mystery in the Thomas Place and the unknown wife Elizabeth but always assumed that Elizabeth was a HUGHES.

Mary Hughes Place had come to Australia as the wife of George Williams (printer) and the mother of their son Vincent George Williams (1804 - 1863) - our ancestors. Also with them were two sons by her previous marriage to Charles North Hunt - Edward (1792 - 1866) and Frederick Hunt (1799 - 1836). They travelled on the Broxbornebury as free settlers in 1814 so we gained permission to transcribe and publish the journal written by Jeffery Hart Bent of the voyage - this took two years of painstaking work but gave us no further clues.

The Temple Church, London

Over the years I have researched the families of every Thomas Place I could find - and there are many. However, in the last month after years of researching answers emerged. There was a recorded marriage of a Thomas Place to an Elizabeth Hulme form The Temple London in 1759 at St Brides Fleet Street, London England and the time frame fitted - no Elizabeth Hulme recorded being baptized at the Temple Church, London. However, there was an Elizabeth Hughes baptized on the 29th September 1734 at The Temple to John Hughes - stationer of 2 Inner Temple Lane (c1704 - 1776) and his wife Elizabeth - one of 9 children. This fitted with the history of the family particularly in location and professions. I had found our 4 x great grandmother and the Hughes family so long a mystery. Elizabeth Hughes married twice before she married Thomas Place both husbands dying very young - John Roberts (1725 - 1754) and Edward Holme (1721 -1756). Edward and Elizabeth Holme had a son born in the year of his father's death an attorney of the Temple and buried in The Temple Church Inner Vault in 1791. There is spelling confusion on records with the name Holme often spelled Hulme/ Hume./Holmes/Hulm.

Now the research for the origin of the Hughes family continues. John Hughes is possibly the son of Richard Hughes (1674 - 1734) - a stewards man to the Honourable Temple Society and Elizebeth Morris (1680 - 1735) - both are buried in The Temple Churchyard as are John Hughes and his wife Elizabeth and a number of their children. This needs further research.

It also now made sense that Thomas Place was descended from a Stationer's family - something I had long suspected. He frequented the Holborn and Fleet Street area and descended from John Place Stationer (1625 - 1674) and Elizabeth Fledgar (1634 - 1672).

As this tree unravels there are family connections popping up everywhere - there are many interconnections through marriage and professions. Mary Hughes Place' cousin Richard Hughes Esq was a partner to her husband Charles North Hunt - often thought there was a realionship there.

So the journey continues.