Edward and Mary (née Trott) Allen were married in Kingsbury Episcopi on 13 October 1806. Their son Edward Allen Jr was christened there on 22 January 1815; and in the same South Somerset village he married Elizabeth Monkton on 7 May 1839. The two witnesses at the wedding were Christopher Allen and Caroline Satherley who were probably relatives of the husband and wife respectively. As Edward and Elizabeth named their eldest son Job, it is interesting to note that there was a Job Satherley and a Job Monkton among the parishioners. There was also a Job Allen (an uncle perhaps of the groom) who married Elizabeth Gentle on 25 August 1813.

According to the 1851 census Edward Allen Jr (35, agricultural labourer), Elizabeth (33, glover) and their two children Job (7) and Mary Jane (1) were then residents of Thorney Street, Kingsbury.

This Allen family travelled to Australia on the three-masted 1037-ton ship James Fernie (Captain Benjamin Daley). Shipping records indicate that Edward was a labourer, that they hailed from Middlesex, and that they were adherents of the Church of England. Job alone could read. After a voyage of 91 days from Plymouth, the vessel, with upwards of 400 immigrants on board, reached Moreton Bay on 24 January 1856. The captain was unable to locate a pilot and was forced to rely on the navigational skills of two or three aborigines who appeared on the scene in safely completing the journey from the Bay to Brisbane.

In addition to Job (bap. 12 November 1843) and Mary Jane (bap. 13 January 1850), Edward and Elizabeth raised two other children: Ellen (b. 2 August 1857; d. 2 October 1943), and Caroline (b. 8 August 1859).

On her headstone is this tribute:

Underneath this silent earth doth lie.
As much female softness as could die.
A virtuous wife and mother tender kind.
In sickness patient and in death resigned.

After the death of his first wife, Edward Allen married the widowed Elizabeth Bickerstaff (or, as below, Biggerstaff)—the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (née Burrowes or Burrough) Francombe (variously spelt). Elizabeth was born about 1822 in Downend (in the parish of Mangotsfield), now a suburb of Bristol, Gloucestershire. Downend, we may note in passing, was also the birthplace of the cricketer WG Grace.

Elizabeth travelled to Australia on the 916-ton Talavera (Captain Scott)—‘the finest ship that has yet embarked emigrants from this port [Southampton]’, according to The Times. The ship set sail on 31 May 1853 and received pratique in Sydney on 5 September 1853. Apart from identifying her parents in Downend and her sister (Caroline Hutchins) then living in Sydney, shipping records give these facts about Elizabeth: age 28, occupation cook, religion Church of England, paid £1 towards the cost of her passage, able to read and write.

Not long after her arrival Elizabeth Francombe met James Biggerstaff who was born in Hertfordshire, England about 1794. According to his death certificate they were married in Sydney in 1854. However, it should be noted that there is no record of this marriage in the New South Wales BDM records. James and Elizabeth became the parents of three children: Albert (b. 28 August 1855), Alice (b. 6 October 1857), and William (b. 16 July 1863; d. 20 December 1864).

James Biggerstaff (a labourer) died in Brisbane on 15 March 1867 at the age of 73. His death certificate indicates that his residence was then in Yeerongpilly, that he had spent 31 years ‘in the colonies’ and that, in addition to the three children mentioned above, he was the father of a deceased child. His remains were interred in the Church of England Cemetery (Paddington) on the day after his death in a service conducted by the Reverend John Bliss of that church. There was no undertaker present at the burial which was witnessed by Robert Clayton (the friend who notified his death) and Samuel Ward.

The wedding of Edward Allen Jr and Elizabeth (née Francombe) Bickerstaff took place on 2 February 1870 in St John’s Church, William Street, North Brisbane, according to the rites of the Church of England. The Reverend John Sutton presided and the witnesses were William and Frances Brown.

Edward Allen Jr, who like his father had been a farmer all his life, died on 10 January 1874 and was laid to rest in the ‘Cooper’s Plains Burial Ground’ on the following day. A lay reader, Thomas Berry, conducted the service at the graveside; and the burial was witnessed by Charles Mullen (a farmer at Oxley Creek and the husband of Sarah Louise Mullen who is buried in God’s Acre) and Nathan Knight.

Edward’s death certificate states that a male child predeceased him. The reference is most probably to a George Allen who was christened in Kingsbury Episcopi on 12 September 1841 and whose parents were named Edward and Elizabeth.

Edward’s second wife, Elizabeth (née Francombe), outlived him by many years and passed away on 25 January 1908 aged 86. She was laid to rest in the South Brisbane Cemetery on the following day in a grave (4 138) that would later receive the remains of her grandson Arthur Bickerstaff (b. 19 November 1889; d. 22 December 1916), the son of Albert and Elizabeth (née Snook) Bickerstaff, ‘late of Moorooka’.

Elizabeth King, the daughter of Thomas and Ann (née Gribble) King, travelled from England to Australia with her parents on the Jessie Munn in 1861-62. (For details of the voyage and of the King family refer to the entry under their name). She married Job Allen, the son of Edward Jr and Elizabeth (née Monkton) Allen, in St John’s Cathedral on 25 July 1864. The witnesses at the wedding of Job and Elizabeth were Thomas King and Sarah Balaam. This Allen couple is of special interest to us in connection with this cemetery; for, as we shall see below, the remains of one of their children and three of their grandchildren lie at rest in the hallowed ground of God’s Acre.

The children of Job and Elizabeth were as follows: Mary Ann Caroline (b. 12 September 1864; m. William Price 26 December 1883; d. 19 June 1907), Sarah Jane (b. 13 November 1866), George Henry (b. 7 September 1869), Edward Thomas (b. 10 August 1873), William John (b. 12 May 1877) and Ellen Elizabeth (b. 22 September 1880; d. 3 August 1897).

According to an Allen family source, ‘Job Allen homesteaded several properties in the Blunder area of Oxley, one of which was on the corner of Blunder Road and Bowhill Road. Here he had a general store and it was also the changing stop for Cobb & Co. coaches. He had another store on the corner of Oxley Road and Bannerman Street, Oxley.’

In a year unknown to this researcher, Job Allen moved to New South Wales and became a poultry farmer. In time, illness forced him leave his residence in Platform Street, Lidcombe, and enter the Rookwood Asylum for the Aged and Infirm (now called the Lidcombe State Hospital and Home). He died there on 16 September 1920 aged 78 and was laid to rest in the Church of England section of Rookwood Cemetery three days later.

following day. The burial, which was certified by George Pedley, was presided over by the Reverend John Stewart Pollock of the Presbyterian Church and witnessed officially by J McCotter and Charles William Lyon (undertaker).

Ellen Elizabeth Allen, the youngest of Elizabeth and Job Allen’s children, was born on 22 September 1880 and died on 3 August 1897 aged 16. The Reverend John Stewart Pollock of the Presbyterian Church conducted her burial service in ‘Grenier’s Cemetery’ on the same day in the presence of William Francis Lyon (undertaker) and John McAuliffe and John Enright (witnesses).
 

George Henry Allen, the eldest of the three sons of Job and Elizabeth (née King) Allen and the grandson of Edward and Elizabeth Allen and Thomas and Ann King, was born on 7 September 1869. He married Janet Harris, the daughter of Alfred and Janet (née McIntyre) Harris, at Redbank Plains on 25 October 1893. Their children were as follows: Alma (b. 19 January 1894), Cosmo Henry (b. 3 October 1895), Beryl (b. 11 September 1897), Alfred Frederick (b. 8 October 1899; d. 13 July 1900), Hazel (b. 22 July 1901), Henry (b. 4 February 1904; d. 5 February 1904), Muriel (b. 3 June 1905), George Eric (b. 24 January 1909), Maisie (b. 16 July 1911). Of these children, only the two who died in infancy, Alfred Frederick and Henry, and Maisie were buried in the family plot that would later receive their father’s remains. 

George Henry Allen was employed at various times as a carpenter and as a ham and bacon curer. ‘Late of Kitson Street, Morningside’, he passed away in the Brisbane Hospital on 14 March 1935 and was laid to rest in the Cooper’s Plains Cemetery on the following afternoon. Present at the burial in an official capacity were the Reverend James Muir of the Presbyterian Church and J Dunstan and W Horsham (witnesses).

Janet Allen died on 23 July 1947; and her remains were interred in the South Brisbane Cemetery on the next day (N 861).

July 1900. His remains, like those of his great-grandparents (Edward and Elizabeth Allen), grandmother (Elizabeth Allen), father (George Henry Allen) and two siblings (Henry and Maisie Allen), were interred in ‘Greniers Cemetery’ on the following day. The Reverend John Stewart Pollock of the Presbyterian Church conducted the burial service in the presence of George Kinghorn and William O’Neill (witnesses) and William Francis Lyon (undertaker).

Henry Allen, the third son of George Henry and Janet (née Harris) Allen, and one of the many children buried in the Cooper’s Plains Cemetery, was born on 4 February 1904 and died on 5 February 1904. His burial on the following day was certified by his father; and his funeral service was conducted by the Reverend John Stewart Pollock in the presence of John Bruce and AF Harris (witnesses).