Now that's what I call leading a "full" life!

 Over the years I have had the privilege of being the recipient of family information from people who follow me. Every one of those pieces of information contain pure "gold" and I have shared some of the stories of those people on this page. I'll advise of how to find them towards the end of today's blog.

A few months back I heard from a woman who was seeking advice as to where her ancestor was buried in Rookwood and advised me that he died at the ripe old age of 107! Well, I had to go down the rabbit hole on that one. The ancestor was found, and this is his story as passed down and reported upon.

RICHARD JAMES SMITH

Richard was born on the 10th of December 1796 in Wiltshire England to John Smith and his wife Mary nee Bird. He was the fourth child of a total of nine and by the date of his birth two of his siblings had already died. The family were farmers like many other relatives, however some entered the Army and Richard joined them. He enlisted in the 50th Regiment which was known as the "The Blind Half-Hundred". It seems that this nickname derived from when the Regiment was stationed in Gibraltar, then Portugal and Egypt in the 1790's. They suffered badly with opthalmia whilst stationed there earning the name the "Blind Half-Hundred" and the name stuck.

Richard was a member of the 12th Regiment when he arrived in Sydney in 1835 on board the "Captain Cook". They were escorting convicts on board and employed to keep order. Richard was at this time getting a little old for army activities and within a year of coming to Sydney joined the fledgling Police Force as a mounted Trooper.

Sketch from an original photograph taken of Richard James Smith - Australian Police/The Thin Blue Line.

For the next 23 years Richard until about 1860, remained with the Force serving firstly around Taree in the Manning River area and later in the Braidwood region.

Richard had many tales about his days in the Force from encounters with bushrangers and other salubrious characters. One reminiscence was that on one occasion he was an escort that brought down five prisoners from Goulburn bushrangers who were to be hanged at Church Hill. One of the condemned men asked for and was granted leave to examine and select which of the five ropes that had been provided he should be hanged with!! He was one of the earliest Police officers sent to the goldfields and in 1851 was stationed at Major's Creek remaining there until he retired when he was around 64 years old. It seems his retirement was not due to his age but was likely that he wanted to open a hotel! If he had stayed one more year in the Police Force, he could have claimed a pension, but he was apparently intending to claim one from his military service that would be more beneficial. 

Richard married later in life – well for many of us it would be considered to be late – at the age of 52 - in 1849. His wife Hannah Marie Bowman was born in Sussex England and arrived in the colony with her parents and two other sisters in 1837 as bounty immigrants sponsored by Richard. At the time of her marriage in the Hunter region to Richard she was 20. Soon after the couple lived in the Braidwood region and together, they had 12 children with most surviving infancy.

Richard set up as a hotelkeeper in the Braidwood area for 16 years from 1860 remaining in that position after Hannah’s untimely death in 1870 at the age of 41. He then took up employment in the Queanbeyan district working as a hands-on farm worker displaying the ability of performing tasks in his 80’s and 90’s to that of a man half his age. In the 1890’s Richard moved to Sydney and lived in various suburbs and up to a few years before his death was taking care of his son’s horses and wagons.

Richard, a relatively small man at 5’8” led an active life but was blessed with excellent general health and apparently, he retained all his teeth! He smoked a pipe and enjoyed a drink up to a few years before his death when one day he decided to just give them up “cold turkey”.

Richard James Smith died on 30th of May 1903 “Iona” Fernhill, in the suburb of Canterbury, the residence of his sons and some family members at the astonishing age of 107.

He was buried in the original Catholic Cemetery area close to the railway line and was reinterred in the family grave nearby sometime in 1981/1982 when the land was used to build Railway Street.

Family plot where Richard James Smith was reinterred - photo author's own collection 

Family headstone above where Richard James Smith was reinterred - photo author's own collection.

There is so much more information that has come to light about his sons and their trades and talents but unfortunately there is little room to expand in this forum.

What an impressive life that Richard lived! A farmer, soldier, publican, tending the plough and attending to horses at an age when most would be infirm. Although a late starter in the family stakes, he left a lasting legacy of many children, grandchildren and so forth. An ancestor to be truly proud of.

I wish to thank Nicole Pike for bringing Richard to my attention and I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity discovering his life and times as well as being and given permission to share his life in my blog. I know she is endeavouring to have a suitable notation placed on the headstone at the family plot regarding Richard.

For today’s publication I have referenced ancestry.com, Australian Police – The Thin Blue Line, trove entries from the Australian Town and Country Journal from the 10th June 1903 and the Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal dated the 6^th of June 1903 as well as various grave site searches.

If you have any insights about Richard and his life or that of his family, please feel free to share them below or add them at the Group Facebook page under

Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries.

Other discoveries I have made from family members contacting me with fascinating stories about their ancestors I have published on this page. Please click on the tags below for Elizabeth Bushelle and Henry Baylis and be amazed!

Until next week