The researcher acknowledges the considerable assistance of Claire Phipps in assembling this material on the Phipps family.

Joseph Phipps, the son of Joseph and Sarah Phipps, was born in 1814 at Larkhill Camp, Wiltshire. He was working as an agricultural labourer when he married Sarah Brown, the daughter of William and Sarah (née Jud) Brown at Washpool, Avening, Gloucestershire, on 21 August 1833. They became the parents of three sons and one daughter, of whom only two sons survived infancy.

The Phipps family, Joseph (aged 43), Sarah (44), Albert Joseph (16), and John Thomas (12) emigrated to Australia on the 996-ton Hastings (Captain Alexander Newlands). The ship left Birkenhead on 24 February 1857 with 388 government immigrants on board and arrived in Brisbane on 30 May 1857. The appreciation of the travellers for the care shown them by the captain and his crew and the ship’s doctor (Dr Robert Tunmer) was expressed in newspaper advertisements soon after their arrival. Joseph Phipps was one of the signatories. Members of the Catchpole family, several of whom are buried in God’s Acre, were also on this voyage.

After their arrival in Australia the Phipps family settled at Eight Mile Plains and became part of the local farming community.

Sarah Phipps passed away at Eight Mile Plains aged 66 on 12 April 1876. Those present in an official capacity at her interment in the Cooper's Plains Cemetery two days later were: James Emerson, Samuel Gillespie and RA Kingsford.

Joseph Phipps, having outlived his wife by many years, died at his residence, ‘Springfield’, at Eight Mile Plains aged 88 on 7 September 1900. When he was buried beside his wife two days later, the following gentlemen exercised official roles: John Hislop (undertaker who certified the burial), the Reverend John Kingsford of the Particular Baptist Church (presiding clergyman), and James Ford and P Cannon (witnesses).

Albert Joseph Phipps, the elder of the two sons of Joseph and Sarah, moved from the family farm to Fortitude Valley to pursue a business career. For a time he worked with Holmes, White & Co., general merchants, before establishing a partnership, Phipps, Turnbull & Co. He is listed in the Queensland Post Office Directory as a drayman (1878-79) and as a storeman (1885-86). In both cases his address is given as Raymond Terrace, South Brisbane (near the present Mater Mothers Hospital).

Albert married Catherine Worth Telford, on 10 September 1863. Catherine, the daughter of William (a tailor) and Margaret Hamilton (née Howit or Howat) Telford, was born at sea in the Bay of Biscay on 14 July 1842 en route from Scotland to Sydney. She was baptised in St Andrew’s, Scots Church, on 20 January 1845.

Albert and Catherine raised a large family: Margaret Howitt (b. 2 June 1864; m. John William Lowe 6 June 1900; d. 3 July 1948), Sarah Brown (b. 4 July 1866; d. 7 May 1937), Joseph (b. 16 February 1869; d. 1 January 1942), William Telford (b. 25 July 1871), John Thomas (b. 27 April 1874; m. Jane Morrison 18 February 1896; d. 4 December 1953, Albert Joseph (b. 30 September 1877; d. 24 June 1940), James Telford (b. 8 December 1880; d. 21 June 1944), Catherine Worth Telford (b. 2 February 1883) and Ellen Rankin Telford (b. 16 May 1885; d. 31 July 1890).

Albert Joseph and Catherine Phipps, who for many years lived in Raymond Terrace, South Brisbane, died within two weeks of each other on 18 September and 30 September 1922 respectively and were laid to rest in the family plot in the South Brisbane Cemetery (3A 66).

Catherine’s mother, Margaret Hamilton Telford, the daughter of James and Margaret (née Hamilton) Howitt (or Howat), was born in Glasgow on 24 April 1812. She was living in Raymond Terrace, South Brisbane, at the time of her death aged 65 on 14 March 1877. Her burial in the South Brisbane Cemetery (11A 287) took place on the following day.

John Thomas Phipps married Sarah Mawby, the daughter of Lawrence and Ann (née McCullough) Mawby, at his brother’s home in Fortitude Valley on 6 January 1866 according to the rites of the Particular Baptist Church. The presiding minister was the Reverend John Kingsford and the witnesses were John Helmore and his sister-in-law Catherine Phipps.

After being childless for more than a decade, John Thomas and Sarah became the parents of three sons and two daughters: Albert Herbert (b. 10 June 1877; d. 8 January 1898), Lily Sarah Ann (b. 13 July 1879; m. Thomas Ricket Jenkins 24 September 1899; d. 29 August 1949), John Edward (b. 19 March 1882), Ernest Joseph Lawrence (b. 19 August 1884; d. 20 June 1963), and Ruby Matilda (b. 27 July 1886; m. Patrick Daniel Sammon 3 March 1908; d. 20 May 1926). To support the family John Thomas farmed properties at Eight Mile Plains and at Brown’s Plains.

Sarah passed away aged 45 at her mother’s residence in Church Street, Toowong, on 27 October 1892. She was laid to rest in the Toowong Cemetery (9 8 10) on the following day in a service conducted by the Reverend Robert Stewart of the Wesleyan Church and witnessed by Thomas H Brown and John Melville.

After Sarah’s death John Thomas Phipps married his housekeeper, Elizabeth Teasdale, the daughter of George and Maria (née Moffatt) Teasdale, on 19 March 1898. He died on 13 February 1917 at the age of 72 years and 10 months at his residence in Juliette Street, Thompson Estate, Greenslopes. Those present in an official capacity at his burial in the same plot (9 8 9/10) as his first wife were: AA Hislop (undertaker), the Reverend Thomas Richard Thurlow of the Methodist Church and Frank Lloyd and Daniel Brown (witnesses).

Elizabeth Phipps, John Thomas’s second wife, passed away on 3 February 1934. Her body was brought by train from Gympie to the Landsborough Station two days later for burial in the Mooloolah Cemetery.

Albert Herbert Phipps, the eldest of the children of John Thomas and Sarah (née Mawby) Phipps died at the age of ‘20 years 6 months 28 days’ on 8 January 1898. He was buried in the Cooper’s Plains Cemetery with his grandparents, Joseph and Sarah (née Brown) Phipps. At his committal a lay preacher, A Gall, conducted the service in the presence of Henry Dietz (undertaker) and Edwin Suckley and George Austin (witnesses). The latter witness is also buried in God’s Acre.

Also of special interest to us is Albert Herbert’s brother, Ernest Joseph Lawrence Phipps, who married Helena Thompson, the daughter of Aaron and Rachel (née Wiley) Thompson, on 25 July 1908. Helena’s grandparents, William Hampshire and Maria (née Rogerson) Thompson are buried in God’s Acre.