A very diverse Dynasty!

 I've always enjoyed reading about the connections between families of those who call Rookwood "home"- adding the various pieces one by one is like putting a jigsaw together. 

Today's blog is about man who ran away to sea and found his way to our shores to pursue his dreams. His family becomes entwined with another and leads to some very interesting people.

WILLIAM JOHN CORDNER, ELLEN MUNTON, JOHN BALFOUR CLEMENT MILES, WILLIAM JOHN MILES AND HIS DAUGHTER BEATRICE.

William Cordner was born in December 1826 in County Tyrone, Ireland, the second son of Samuel Cordner, organist of the Dungannon Parish Church, and his wife Margaret. William was an accomplished singer with an ability to play the organ at a very early age and became a chorister in Armagh Cathedral. For the next eight years he took lessons to enhance his organ playing skills. When his father refused to allow him to travel, he did what any young man would do and ran away to sea. After several years he became very ill in India and returned to Ireland to convalesce. Resuming his musical career, he supported himself by taking on pupils and becoming a concert artist.

In 1854 Cordner emigrated to NSW and upon arrival in Sydney was appointed organist at St Patrick's Church. In 1857 he became the organist at St Mary's Cathedral. At the time of his joining St Mary's, its choir was in a state of flux. Cordner smoothed the waters and the choir, often supplemented by a large orchestra, quickly resumed its position as the leading choir of the time.

St Mary's Cathedral Sydney - Wikipedia with thanks 

In July 1859 William took a prominent part in the organisation of the Musical Festival that marked the opening of the Great Hall of Sydney University. He was a guest recitalist at the opening of the organ in St Andrew's Cathedral Sydney in 1867 and in the following year took part in the function associated with the laying of the foundation stone of the Sydney Town Hall. 

Cordner was the conductor of several choral societies and although he composed many works, he refused to have any published as he did not believe they were good enough.

In 1858 William married Ellen Munton Bielinski, her father having Polish roots. Ellen was born in Brentford, England and came to Australia in 1854 with her widowed mother, Elizabeth, at the age of 13. She received lessons under Cordner and developed a fine, contralto voice. Ellen Cordner became Sydney's chief resident contralto singer in the 1860's and 1870's; the Cordner home became a centre for visiting musicians. Among Ellen's friends was Mrs. Stewart and her daughter, Nellie, who became known as "Our Nell" the famous light opera singer who Ellen often baby-sat.

This blissful period was doomed to end and after a period of illness William died in Woolloomooloo in 1870. 

Ellen Cordner did not remain a widow for long and married John Balfour Clement Miles the following year and gave birth to their son William soon after. John was born in Tahiti and the son of John Clement Miles, who died in 1848 of typhoid fever at the age of 28. His mother was expecting at the time. The family came to Australia and John became a well-known accountant. He invested in property and had a "castle" built in Ashfield called "Ambleside" as his residence. Nearby the Holwood estate was where he had a number of "Gentlemen's villas" built, most still in situ.

"Ambleside" - ashfieldhistory.org.au - with thanks

John and Ellen's son William entered his father's business and became a fellow in the Australasian Corporation of Public Accountants and from 1912 practiced as an independent consulting accountant. He was a director of many companies including the Sydney Meat Preserving Co. Ltd and held a 70% holding in the Peapes & Co. Ltd merchandise store.

decorative hoarding on the site of Peapes store - author's own

After Miles retired in 1935, he devoted himself to secularist and chauvinist propaganda. In July he began a monthly magazine, the Independent Sydney Secularist. From July 1936 Miles funded and edited the Publicist, a pro-monarchical, pro-fascist, pro-Aboriginal, anti-British, anti-communist and anti-Semitic monthly. He published Stephensen's The Foundations of Culture in Australia (1936) and Xavier Herbert's Capricornia (1938). 

William suffered from a heart condition from an early age and late in life one foot became gangrenous but he still hobbled to his Publicist bookshop daily. He eventually became confined to bed and apparently ran a sweep on when he would die!

Miles died at his home at Gordon in  January 1942,  survived by his two sons and three of his four daughters, including Beatrice. He was cremated after a rationalist service. 

Beatrice known as Bea (or Bee) became an eccentric and bohemian rebel. An educated person, as a young woman she suffered a bout of encephalitis, which profoundly affected her personality but not her intelligence. Her father had her committed to a mental hospital in Glebe in 1923 as he could no longer deal with her wild lifestyle. A public appeal meant she was able to leave the hospital after two years. After that the streets became her home and taxi drivers her nemesis. There are many stories of her exploits with Sydney taxi drivers, most where she would not leave the cab until they had taken her to some place many miles away. She was often found at the State Library devouring books and for a small donation would recite chunks of text from the works of Shakespeare from the steps of the Library. 

Bea in 1940 - Wikipedia with thanks

William John Cordner, although a Protestant, worked closely with Catholic choirs, died in 1870 and was buried in the old Anglican area of Rookwood. His impressive memorial states "For many years organist to St Mary's Cathedral & Conductor, Principal Choral Society of Sydney ... Erected by a few of his friends."

William Cordner's monument - author's own

John Balfour Clement Miles died at "Ambleside" Ashfield in August 1907 and was buried in the Independent section of the cemetery. His wife Ellen died in 1932 at her residence in Albyn Street Strathfield and was buried with her second husband. 

Miles' Monument - findagrave - with thanks

findagrave - with thanks

William Miles was cremated, and his ashes scattered near to his parents' grave and Bea, his daughter, whose spirit, it was believed, could never be contained within a coffin, was also cremated and her ashes scattered near to her family.

findagrave - with thanks

findagrave - with thanks

So many connections and a dynasty from a Chorister to a Contralto singer and on to leading Accountants then to a colourful bohemian. Rookwood contains so much "life".

Many thanks to information gleaned from the Dictionary of Biography and other references.

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