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ARTHUR REGINALD JERREMS
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Greetings
With this edition, Ray has taken us back to visit the Jerrems family the late 1800s.
Stay tuned for Ray’s future edition of the notorious Squizzy Taylor, an Australian 1920’s gangster from Melbourne. I wonder how Squizzy fits into the family tree.
Enjoy.
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Introduction
Above is a photo of the goal area used in Australian Rules Football, this is explained later in this article. This is a collection of information about Arthur Reginald Jerrems and his family. Briefly, Arthur was the youngest brother of my great grandfather, Charles Jerrems. This is the first article I have written about Arthur and his family, although I collected most of the information some years ago. Readers with amazing memories may remember the very touching and memorable article by Arthur’s great grandson Jesse Jerrems (Queensland’s Long Board champion) about his late brother Liam formed the centrepiece of the third Jerrems Journal in August 2005. The third brother in the trio is reader Rick, who lives with his family in Hobart. In fact Arthur’s eleven great grandchildren form, statistically speaking, the most numerous of that generation for all Jerrems families. Arthur’s parents, birth, childhood Arthur was born in Gainsborough, England, in 1852, the youngest of the children of Thomas Clarke Jerrems (a son of Big Bill) and Elizabeth Jerrems (nee Jepson). He migrated to Australia in 1859 with his mother and siblings, his father having migrated in 1851. The family settled in Richmond, Melbourne, where Arthur grew up and spent all his life. Arthur’s father (Thomas) was a merchant at one stage, and a real estate agent at another stage. His siblings included a book binder (my great grandfather Charles), printers (William and Edwin) and a shopkeeper (Thomas Jnr). Arthur himself was trained as an upholsterer. He was also a keen rower and football player. Arthur the upholsterer It is probably self-evident to readers what upholsterers do. They upholster lounges, lounge chairs, easy chairs, chaise longues etc. In Arthur’s early days they would also have upholstered coach seats, railway seats and car seats. Arthur would have been apprenticed to an upholsterer when he was about fourteen years of age, which was the age when his father died. Upholstery would have provided regular work for Arthur. |
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Arthur the rower
This is a photo of a four man sculls boat. Arthur was a keen rower on the Yarra River (opposite the City) with the Richmond Rowing Club, later called the Richmond City Rowing Club. Still in operation, the club was formed as early as 1863 and is the fourth oldest continuously operating rowing club in the world. Rather quaintly, a month after it was formed a rule was passed that Club boats were not to be used on Sundays.
Arthur’s descendants have cups/trophies that he won for rowing. I have located newspaper records showing that he competed at a senior level from 1873 to 1887 in all forms (single sculls, pairs, coxed fours and eights) but he seems to have concentrated on fours, where he was stroke.
Editor’s Note – Difference between the stroke and the coxswain: The “stroke” is the rower closest to the stern of the boat and usually the most competitive rower in the crew. Everyone else follows the stroke’s timing – placing their blades in and out of the water at the same time as stroke. The stroke can communicate with the coxswain (when in a stern coxed boat) to give feedback on how the boat feels.
During a race, it is the stroke’s responsibility to establish the crew’s rate (number of strokes per minute) and rhythm. (In coxed boats, the coxswain will assist the stroke in establishing the rate). Because of the great responsibilities, the rower in the stroke seat will usually be one of the most technically sound members of the boat, capable of setting a good rhythm.
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Weights of scullers
This is a modern photo of the Richmond Rowing Club, after recent renovations. I wonder whether Arthur would recognise it?
Returning to the subject in hand, how many genealogical publications have you encountered that tell you what your ancestors weighed? Not many, I’ll bet.
But the Jerrems Journal is different!
The weights of scullers were recorded for some events and make interesting reading. Unlike his late grandfather Big Bill, who weighed in at a robust 18 stone, in his athletic days Arthur was half that weight. In 1873 at the age of 21 Arthur was a streamlined 9 stone 2 pounds, a handy weight for a cox, who needed to be light because the crew had to carry him along.
Two years later Arthur was a slightly heavier 9 stone 5 pounds. However in 1880 (after two years of marriage and exposure to Henrietta’s cooking) he was a more solid 10 stone 1 pound, and in 1882 he had put on a further two pounds. In February 1887, at the age of 35, he had obviously been eating lots of Henrietta’s Christmas pudding because he weighed in at 11 stone!
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Arthur the footballer
Here is a photo of modern Australian Rules players jumping for the ball.
Arthur played Australian Rules Football for some years, getting a specific mention in the Australian Rules records as follows:
“ALTHOUGH the original Richmond club ceased to exist after a few years, there were many clubs playing in the Richmond paddock and Yarra Park preparing for the day when Richmond would have a team of its own. In 1871 a Richmond team was playing with Arthur Jerrems as captain.”
The “Richmond paddock” was the local term for Punt Road Oval, which is located next to the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The Melbourne “Argus” Newspaper records refer to Arthur (who according to rowing records weighed slightly over nine stone wringing wet) frequently in the period 1871 to 1875, the most descriptive item being:
“A football match was played on Saturday afternoon between the Richmond and East Melbourne clubs. Richmond won the match, Jonkison securing the only goal got during the day, by a well-judged kick. The game was well contested. The play of Hyde, Tilley, G. Bruce, and Jerrems (Richmond), and Whitelaw, Dalton, Barnett, and E, Harrison (East Melbourne), was much admired.
The fact that only one goal was scored indicates that the rules were a far cry from the current position for any code except perhaps soccer. Typically most scores per match for Australian Rules are now over one hundred. According to one source the game around this time was defensive and low-scoring, played low to the ground in congested rugby-style scrimmages. The typical match was a 20-per-side affair, played with a ball that was roughly spherical.
Moving forward, the current Richmond Football Club, known as “The Tigers”, was formed in 1885 and has had an illustrious history in the code’s major Australian Rules Football League, having won ten premierships.
But what, I hear you ask, is Australian Rules Football?
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Modern Australian Rules Football
Variously known over the years as Australian Rules Football, Aussie Rules and Australian Football, this style of football is also irreverently described as “Äerial ping pong” by non-believers. Dating back (generally speaking) to the 1860s, it has its heartland in Australia’s Melbourne and is a mixture of Rugby, Soccer, Gridiron and Gaelic Football, with a dash of basketball. Should this therefore be described as “ëclectic” or “confusing”?
Unlike some other codes there is no “öff-side” rule and there are no scrums. If the ball (which is an oval shape) goes out it is thrown in, like soccer, but the player throws it backwards over his head. There are four goal posts, the inner two forming the boundary for five point goals, the outer posts forming the boundary for single point “behinds”. Kicking goals is therefore rewarded much more highly than uncouthly kicking behinds, if you know what I mean.
To confuse the patient reader even more, the ball can only be carried a short distance, following which it has to be bounced, as in basketball.
The large oval grounds are inhabited by a small herd of 18 men per team, and the ball may only be distributed by hand passing or drop kicks.
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Arthur’s first marriage, children
Finally Arthur settled down, ceasing to sow his wild oats. He married Henrietta Harrison (b1855 in Richmond) in 1878 at the fairly mature age (for those days) of 26 and they had 4 children, the first being Arthur Reginald (b1879, d1880), the second also being named Arthur Reginald (b1880, d1957), the third was Elsie May (b&d 1883) and the fourth was Frank William (b1885, d1963).
Arthur’s wife Henrietta
Henrietta’s father (a chemist) was William Harrison, born in 1827 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire. He died in 1908 in the rather unlikely place of Brushgrove, Woodford Island, Clarence River near Ulmarra (near Grafton).
His second wife (Henrietta’s mother) was Catherine Miller b1837 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They married in 1854 in Scots Church, Melbourne, cnr Collins and Russell Sts (this church was later demolished in about 1870 and the current magnificent church was built).
With a Yorkshire father and a Scottish mother Henrietta had interesting role models for strong accents!
Henrietta was born in 1855 in Richmond, and she died in 1890 in Richmond at the young age of 35.
Two of our readers (Ian and Brian Harrison) are great great nephews of Henrietta.
Henrietta’s mother Catherine
Catherine had a total of 16 children, 10 of whom reached adulthood. Such a large family must have put a strain on her because she was admitted to Kew Asylum (four km from Richmond) in 1877 suffering from “Delusional insanity”. However she had 4 more children after this date, between 1878 and 1883, so she must have recovered sufficiently to return home.
Sadly Catherine died shortly after in 1891 (Asylum records) or 1894 (Ian Harrison’s research) in Kew Asylum, so she must have returned to the Asylum at some stage after she had the later children.
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Arthur’s second marriage
Arthur married Emily Wilkins (b1859) in 1895. They did not have any children, Emily outliving Arthur by 4 years.
Arthur’s places of residence
I have the following places of residence in Richmond for Arthur, based on Postal Directories and Electoral Rolls:
The house at 201 Lennox Street
There is now a block of home units at this address.
Arthur’s mother Elizabeth and his unmarried sister Catherine had the same address in the 1903 Census. It therefore seems that Arthur’s mother and his sister lived with Arthur’s family at 201 Lennox Street.
I will talk more about Arthur’s mother and sister in a later article.
Try the two links below. Put your cursor, hold down your “Control” key and left click OR right click and click on “Select hyperlink””, which I find is better.
It is shown on Google at the following site (note that the address shown by Google is incorrect).
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Design of the house
Although the original cottage is tiny by modern standards it was of a simple and efficient design which was very popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In those days it was of a “medium” size (there are many much smaller houses in nearby streets) and it would have had 2 bedrooms, sufficient for Arthur and Emily, and if necessary Arthur’s son.
In more detail, a hallway ran down from the front door, with rooms running off to the left and right. In Arthur’s case the first room on the right was a lounge room because it had a fireplace (the chimney is on the right). On the left would have been a bedroom followed by a dining room, and a bedroom would have been behind the lounge room. The kitchen would have been at the back. The simple corrugated iron roof is of a very simple gable design and there were extensive hardwood forests to the east of Melbourne which made timber cheap.
These factors would have kept building costs down to less than $800 at the time.
As with all such cottages, extensions have been added later at the rear.
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Conclusion
As often happens, I have run out of space and will now have to conclude this article.
In a later article I will tell you more about the Richmond area, which had gone downhill thanks to criminals like the notorious Squizzy Taylor, and I will tell you more about Arthur’s mother Elizabeth, who outlived her husband by 36 years, and also Arthur’s son Frank William who served in the First World War.
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Editor’s Note: The April Jerrems Journal was misnumbered as 144; it should have been 145. |