Henry Roles (a soldier) married Sarah Ann Sanger according to the ‘Rites and Ceremonies of the Established Church after Banns’ in the Holy Trinity Church, Monmouth Place, Bath, Somerset, England, on 16 May 1859. At that time both bride (aged 17) and groom (aged 25) were boarders at 32 Avon Street. The Reverend Charles Tertius Hellin (?) presided at the wedding at which the official witnesses were Nathaniel Roche and Eliza White. Henry met his future bride when, with a group of fellow soldiers, he was drinking in her father’s hotel.

At the time of the 1861 census of the Parish of Walcot Trinity, Bath, Eliza (28) and John White (28), together with their three children, shared this same address with Henry and Sarah Ann and another family. John and Henry were both working as mason’s labourers. Next door to them, in 33 Avon Street, was the residence of Henry’s parents, Richard (66) and Elizabeth (61), his siblings—Charles (21), Ann (24) and William (31)—and William’s wife Eliza (28).

Henry and Sarah Ann’s first child, Henry Jr, was born in 1862 and died in 1864. His brother, Augustus William, was born in London on 25 March 1864. Augustus was still an infant and his parents’ only living child when the family, taking advantage of the land order system of immigration, boarded the 1365-ton Golden City (Captain William Brown) of the Black Ball and Eagle Line. Accompanying them were Henry’s brother Charles and Charles’s wife Martha.

The ship left Gravesend on 12 October 1864 with 246 emigrants on board and, having added 195 to that number in Plymouth, set sail for Australia on 18 October. It reached Cape Moreton on 3 January 1865 and, after dropping anchor on the following morning, was admitted to pratique. The passengers were brought up the River by the steamer Diamond two days later. Five infants did not survive the journey from England and an able seaman, William Reynolds, was killed en route when on 4 December he fell from the foretopsail mast.

The family grew in time to include the following children: Augustus William (b. 25 March 1864; d. 21 August 1916), Elizabeth (b. 28 October 1866; d. 1868?), Henry Thomas (b. 14 December 1868; d. 10 May 1944), Annie (b. 24 November 1871; d. 31 October 1920), Lillian Mary (b. 5 April 1874), Richard Charlie (b. 20 June 1876; d. ?), Silvia Juliet (b. 28 January 1878), Hubert Arthur (b. 30 May 1880; d. 7 October 1959). Details concerning the children’s marriages, where known to this researcher, may be found in an endnote.

For about two years prior to his death on the afternoon of 11 November 1881 Henry Roles was ailing and ‘suffering from severe rheumatic pains in the hips’ which restricted his work as a fencer. At his wife’s insistence he set out from their Blunder property in the family’s spring cart, driven by his son Augustus, to visit Dr Prentice in Brisbane. About two miles from home, obviously in distress, Henry asked his son to pull off the road. Shortly afterwards, George Alexander Grenier, who was ‘passing along the Ipswich Road near Oxley’, arrived on the scene and endeavoured to make Henry more comfortable. However, he passed away suddenly; and, by way of giving further support, George accompanied Augustus home to break the sad news to Sarah. A magisterial inquiry into the circumstances of Henry’s death was held on the following day ‘in the Blunder near Oxley’ by Henry Lucock JP. Depositions were taken from the wife and son of the deceased and from Mr Grenier.

Henry Roles, the son of Richard (a quarryman) and Elizabeth (née Fowler) Roles was laid to rest in ‘Grenier’s Cemetery’ on 12 November 1881 in a service at which his brother-in-law, Thomas Sanger, acted as undertaker. The Reverend James Samuel Hassall, the Rector of St Matthew’s Church of England, Sherwood, officiated at the graveside and the witnesses were William Huet and John Dunlop.

For the record, Henry Roles’s father, Richard, was a ‘Waterloo Man’. He enlisted in the Royal Corps of Artillery Drivers in October 1812 and, having taken part in that historic battle in 1815, returned to England and was discharged on 25 March 1816. His service is acknowledged on his headstone in St Michael’s Churchyard, Lower Weston, Bath, Somerset. It records his death at the age of 70 on 3 September 1865 and that of his wife Elizabeth aged 75 on 22 December 1870. Appended to their names are those of their son William (d. 23 April 1914 aged 84) and his first wife Charlotte Marks (d. 18 May 1876 aged 41). William was the superintendent of the cemetery for more than 50 years.

Sarah Ann Roles, the daughter of Augustin (or Augustus) and Mary (née Bennett) Sanger, was born on 15 May 1842 at the Hare and Hounds Inn in Charlcombe (near Bath), Somerset, where for many years her father was the publican. She was christened in the local Anglican parish church on 19 June 1842. At the time of the 1851 census the family household was composed as follows: Augustin (39), Mary (39), Andrew (13), Sarah Ann (8), Thomas (6), Augustin Jr (4), and Sarah Bennett (19, servant, possibly Mary’s sister).

Sarah Ann Roles passed away at her residence in Primrose Street, Sherwood, on 1 November 1911. Among those attending her funeral at ‘Grenier’s Cemetery’ on the following day were: Charles William Lyon (undertaker), the Reverend John Stewart Pollock of the Presbyterian Church, and Bruce Harris and William S Smail (witnesses).

Augustus William Roles (a labourer) died in the Hospital for the Insane, Goodna, on 21 August 1916 aged 52. His funeral service at the Cooper’s Plains Cemetery on the following day was conducted by the Reverend S Martin of the Presbyterian Church. The burial was certified by Thomas Learoyd and officially witnessed by HA Roles and JC Sorensen.

Charles and Martha (née Powell) Roles, whose marriage was registered in the December quarter of 1863, became the parents of: Charles Jr (b. 16 July 1865; d. 30 June 1944), Eliza₁ (b. 2 June 1867; d. 18 February 1868), Elizabeth (b. 13 January 1869; d. ?), Henry (b. 16 March 1871; d. Gympie 15 May 1929), Caroline (b. 8 May 1873), Eliza₂ (b. 10 July 1875; d. 31 May 1906), William (b. 19 March 1877; d. 12 May 1878).

Charles Roles, the son of Richard and Elizabeth (née Fowler) Roles, died in the Mount Garnet Hospital, North Queensland, on 31 May 1900..

The Sanger family. Sarah Ann Roles was not completely cut off from her family in England; for her brother Thomas Sanger (b. Charlcombe, Somerset, 3 October 1844) emigrated to Australia on the 944-ton Netherby (Captain O Owens) which left London for Brisbane with 413 passengers on board on 1 April 1866. Unfortunately, the ship was wrecked, thankfully without loss of life, on the south-west point of King’s Island in Bass’s Strait. The passengers were transhipped to Melbourne and eventually most of them were conveyed to Brisbane on the 615-ton City of Melbourne (Captain D Walker), arriving on 6 August 1866. The City of Melbourne’s passengers were brought up the Brisbane River by the steamer Ipswich.

Thomas Sanger married Sarah Jane Blandford, the daughter of William and Elizabeth (née Midwinter) Blandford on 14 November 1871. Their children were: William Charles (b. 23 August 1872), Ruth May (b. 13 February 1874; d. 7 October 1894), Ethel Elizabeth (b. 22 March 1876), Walter Thomas (b. 20 January 1878), Mabel Isabel (b. 15 December 1879), Rose Annie (b. 15 December 1881), Roy₁ (b. 13 August 1883; d. 12 February 1884). Sadly Sarah Jane died on 16 August 1883, a few days after the birth of the last-mentioned child.

Before that year was out, on 14 December 1883, Thomas married Hannah Hardy, the daughter of John and Mary Ann (née Hirst) Hardy. They became the parents of: Roy₂ (b. 28 August 1885), and Thomas Jr (b. about 1889; d. 28 May 1894). Thomas Sanger Sr died in Laidley on 3 August 1932. Hannah passed away on 23 April 1906.

Thomas’s elder brother, Andrew Farrett William Sanger, also came to Australia. He and his wife Ellen (née Churchill) and their surviving children—Augustine (b. 13 December 1860; d. 5 February 1940), Mary Ann (b. 8 June 1862) and Andrew Jr (b. 14 December 1865; d. 5 August 1952)—left London on 16 May 1866 on board the 1800-ton Black Ball ship Eastern Empire (Captain Ferguson). The vessel reached the Brisbane Roadstead on 14 September 1866 and was granted pratique two days later.

Andrew and Ellen, who were married in Charlcombe on 16 March 1860, became the parents of four other children after their departure from England: Elizabeth Ellen (b. 7 July 1869; m. Charles Dodsley Hampson 24 September 1888; d. 17 November 1961), Frederick Hutchinson (b. 20 October 1871; d. 15 December 1871), George Alfred (b. 17 December 1872) and William (b.?; d. 15 August 1952). One child, Louisa (b. 4 October 1864; d. 6 February 1866) died before the family left England.

Another brother, Augustus Sanger (b. Charlcombe 24 September 1846), remained in England and married Ann Bryant. He was a stonemason; and at the time of the 1881 census was living with his wife and children and his sister-in-law (Mary Bryant) in Richmond Place, Walcot, Somerset. The household was as follows: Augustus (34), Ann (44), Rose Isabel (9), Ada Augusta (7), Beatrice Maud (5), Alice Mary (3), Augustus Jr (1), Mary Bryant (49, laundress).