"Aunty Faith, I haven't had much time to be with you, and I do want to hear the story of our Family background and you are the only one who can tell me......please tell me some things about our Family while they were still in England

. . . With love from Oscar" (simulated note)

Transcripts of letters written by
Charles Thomas Hewett’s eldest daughter

Faith Emily Moore Hewett

in answer to a request from
Oscar Hewett

(Note: All spelling and punctuation, or lack of it, has been left as Faith has written it, as I feel that this gives a greater insight into her character.)

.

July 4th 1897
Alfred St, Parkside
South Australia
My dear Nephew Oscar
. . . . I trust you reached your home in safety, I regret very much your short visit I should have so much liked you to have stayed awile However I must pen conversation. In the first place then your Grandfather My Pater was born about the yr 1794 at South Pool south Devon about 20 miles from Exeter and the same from Plymouth the Hewetts are all Somersetshire People (Father told me so himself) but Grandmothers family the torrs are all Devonions or as the Romans called them the Dam unconquered onons (I mean my Grandmother not yours) she had 8 sons and no daughters James 1 John 2 Edward 3 Charles Tommas (Father) 4 Gervase 5 Samual 6 Henery 7 - and Francis 8 Grandfather Must have had many brothers for I remember them saying uncle Henery was the Jn there is a saying in the west of England that the 7 son of the 7 son is gifted with Miraculous powers to save and cure so Henery was always called the Dr but he died before we left England leaving a widdow and one daughter a baby Francis died of Small Pox before I was born Samuel went to London and settled then he had one son and one daughter Uncle John I knew and went to hear his funeral Surmon Preached by the Rev Hugh Watts of Kingsbridge he died of dropsey and gout he Married a Miss Duscombe of Coomb Royal of very good family they had 3 children Charles Tommas named after Father Emma and Harriet afterward Mrs Veal of Plymouth Charles Married a Miss Veal Sister to Harriet's husband he was a custome house Officer at Plymouth they had 11 children but we got letters to tell us of the deaths of them all. Edward my favoureit Uncle Married a Miss Adams he was a jolly fellow Many a ride I got with him in his top boots and riding breeches he did not resemble Father one bit he was very dark and rosie he had 11 children Most of them older than any of us he Married early in life he was older than Father him and all of his went to New York U.S. after we came to S.A. Gervase Married a woman a fine looking woman she was they had three children Francis Susan and William; they farmed an Estate called Torr cross I have often been there twas a lovely place to go to good gardens and too good liveing rather luscious I should say roast goose every sunday or wild duck junket with Brandy abundent strong ale and Home made Wines cider of the very best and every other thing to Match Oh it was jolly when me and Oness and your Father) all three were there on a visit together) when we wanted to go home and uncle was not ready to take we started off to walk said nothing to any body) it was 14 miles to Bow Bridge where we lived they followed with a trap when they found we had gone but we took another road they never overtook us it poured with rain all day 3 pretty frights we looked ought to have had a good thrashing instead of which I remember we were washed and dressed again then driven off to a children's party at Poinsford that was our last visit to Torr cross we sailed for Australia in the August of that Year 1839 and Uncle Gervase went with his family to Canada about the year 1845 he was called after Admiral Gervase pronounced jarvis a famous R.N.O, in the time of Geo III if any way related I dont Know, after this correspondence with them and us I think eased Uncle Edward & his sons constantly wrote and my latest from England was from his Son Charles Tommas Hewitt who returned to England about the year 1860 of whome more Anon. Uncle James the Eldest of the Family maried very late in life he had by her one only Son she died when he was an infant Uncle then Married his first wife's sister Rose I dont Know her other name but I belive not being legal caused great anoyance to the family she had no children the last letters Father got from his brother I took from the Post for him it was in 1861 when I was there but he lived long after and may be alive now for when I got a letter from C.T.Hewett in about 1884 he was then 98 and could walk 5 or 6 miles rather than ride had just given up being churchwarden of the Parish after holding that position 56 yr in person he resembled your Father more than any of his nephews I have seen also his own Father who died at the age of 62 I remember once and only once going to see him - my grandfather He was very fond of his garden and he carried me to see a summer house he had made covered with a scarlet creeper I belive now it was what we called french beans but am not sure.
I Know he had a very old ancient-looking house and a rope walk on the Farm Father often told us his Father drempt how to make bell ropes in a peculiar way not to hurt the hands of the ringers he made for all the Churches in England and left the trade to his eldest Son James who followed the trade all these where baptised in South Pool church but I dont Know if Grandmother was married there I was never told I think has her people lived at Widecombe and her Father rented a farm from Govenor Holdsworth it is most likely she married in the Parish church there but I was never at the place Grandmothers maiden name was Mary Ann Torr she had 2 sisters twins I have been at the houses of both Fathers Aunts Mrs Bentley of Teign Mouth Devon her husband must of been well off by appearances a large wholesale and retail Ironmongers Shop in the principal St the other twin was a Mrs Prettyjohn or has they called them selves Prigon I remember them telling Father that as he intended to transport himself out of the country and forsake his native land King & Church they would never leave him a peney which they other wise intended to do. Now they must have been rich they had no children never had any they made a great fuss over me but Father was a real torment to his Aunt ask in how long on Saturday Night the church of England vicor sat up with her playing cards and other questions of the same sort their Farm was their own land and called Lamacroft it stood out over the high land in the English channel some whereabout the Startpoint lighthouse I think I Know there was a pathway up the rocks to it from the beach which was dangerous at high tide the inland road was some distance round they had a very handsome house and Garden laid out Italian fashion with the box trees cut into shapes and forms grotesque enough the wall fruit was splendid and it was a long way to any other place I have come to the conclusion from these signs that these people of the 17 century were wealthy yeomen of the old school ranking close up to Baronet and called the Squires no tinkling piano but plenty of the substantial when I asked about these people of C.T. Hewett the present) my answer by letter was that they were all dead and forgotten not forgotten by me I thought) Grandmothers two brothers Edward and Richard I think Richard was her favourite she spoke most of him he was married and had a family but I dont Know where he lived or if he was dead I never saw any of them the other the Eldest he never married while his parents they lived to a great age over a 100 and Grandmother used to tell us he (her Father) had no grey hair in his head or unsound tooth that he could shoot his rabits as they ran, up to the last (I often think how I should have liked the Photos of all these If ever I envied the great ones of the earth) it never was their titles or luxury but their picture galleries and librarys) any way when these people died they left the estate to him as heir I suppose it was entail he may have had money too for he went to Somersetshire and Married a Grace Hewett the family being the same has Grandmother married into the Estate was called Bearscomb in Devon then Master Edward pulled down the old house that was good enough for his ansestors and built a grand new mansion on the old sight then they say he spent as fast as the Old folks saved Kept his pack of hounds and Company to Match Sir William of Mamhead and the Hon Newton Filtons sporting new men of England not the old aristrocy this all was done before we left England and now my informant is again C T Hewett of Kingsbridge I asked him what had become of the Torrs of Bearscomb and of Brimble Torr he answered that when Edward Torr died his wife who was a Grace Hewett sold the Estates and went back to her Freinds in Somersetshire this I dont think could be legally done. All Grandmothers people have by this time died out I mean Grandmother Hewett and I think we have all lost by being in this colony) Father was never conversant enough with his children on Family affairs the second family appear to be fools I cant make anything of them except all thats low narrow minded and dispiseable and could not go one inch out of my way for either of them they belong at the present time to the lowest of the people and there they are among their peers and there I leave them Now James Hewitt farmed and rope made on the place his father had John Hewitt had a farm and butchers shop in Kingsbridge Edward had the same in South Pool My Father at 17 went out as clerk for a Fishing company to a place called Lan si loo up the straits of Be li all in North America the Shareholders in the concern lived many of them in Portsmouth thats the way he got the appointment the first year he went out the Manager died and he succeeded to the head post there and remained there 9 years or 3 times 3 He used to say it is a very cold place only 3 months summer frozen all the rest of the year in fact its the land of the Midnight Sun finding his health not so good from the long winters came home and apprenticed himself to a leading butcher in the town it suited him to do this it was a seaport town and from his being in the Fishing nearly all the Captains and traders to those regions Knew him then when he started he had nearly all their custome and used to get consignments of line dried Kapeling pickled Sammon and other Kinds of fish to retail among the towns people about this time he married my Mother who was a teacher in the Sunday School wherehe was the superintendent St Peters English Church Rector Mr Glub; but he was Married at St Savoirs the Town church of Dartmouth and there your Father Uncle Onesimus and myself where registered at baptism the law then was church and state birth Marriage and burial being only alowed to the State church the law was only altered about the time Uncle Medad was born he was christened by the Rev Hugh Watts of Kingsbridge Devon independant Minister the Same man baptised Heber the twins Charles and Huldah in the Parish Church of Ashprington after we went there to live and had left Dartmouth) Parson Jacob Leigh pronounced in Devon Lay I dont Know which is right I must now go back to Mothers family her Maiden name was Hannah Jane Moore born in London Tooley St about the Year 1809 registered and baptised at St Swithens a city church (Know for the famous London stone) she was the youngest serviveing child two or three others died in infancy she had an elder sister who Married a Solomon Pentecost this sister servived her but long since died also all her children and husband I dont think one of thems alive or have decendents
My maternal grandmothers maiden name was Thersby she was born in the Parish of Hazelby Yorkshire I think in the North riding her Mothers maiden name was Scelton or Skelton her brother John Skelton died a batchlor and left Grandmother a good deal of money I belive he was a Quaker theres no doubt from conversations I have heard they were a wealthy family but after Grand Mother came to London with some Yorkshire relatives the Barrs Smiths and Pearsons and their married Samuel Moore it appears to me all family communications ceased these are things I cant understand myself but it appears that Yorkshire was then as far from London or Devon as Australia is now of this I am sure she never went there I have heard her say her Mothers name was Hannah she had two sisters Hannah and Alie her name was Ann Thursby but but she often talked of a family called the Haye’s of Hayses Hall they must have been intamate there I should think they were a Old Country family) any way if I had ever been able to visit England when I grew up I would have learnt a little more of my ancestors if it could be traced out and I have a firm conviction in my mind that we have lost a good deal for want of that Knowledge
I must go back now to Grand Father More Samuel Moore was born in the Town of Ugbrough Devon 1752 or there about I never Knew him he died the day I was born) at Dartmouth (in London his health was so bad from Asthma Sir Ashley Cooper ordered him back to Devon or the South of France he chose is own County Air and lived 8 or 9 years he Must have been well off during that time he built or rather had built 2 houses and lived retired all the time with his wife and two daughters I Know the Pearsons came from London to visit them one was a Capt Navy the other a leu in the Army and wanted to Marry Aunt Betsey as we used to call her I Knew Grandfathers 2 Sisters Mrs Whycomb a widdow and Mrs John Norman also one of his brothers Peter Moore he lived in Brixham and Had a great Rope Walk he was twice Married and had no children we went to see him before we left England I heard him tell Mother he had made his will to leave his property between her and her sister that her going to Australia would make no difference and if he lived longer than her it would go to her children. the Result of this I never Knew nor did I ever hear of his death; there Must have been a nephyou somewhere Mother often spoke of a cousin Roger Moore who was a Minister of the Church and went to Africa when Mother was about 10 yr old first visiting them in London It does seem strange how people living in one age in the little spot England could get so out of touch with each other it might be so with those who had no learning but these were people more soundly educated than the generality of this generation and at a greater cost; there are some other names connected by Marriages namely Ford Coombs Gibbs Haneford Glyn Shilebeer etc etc
And now I must go back to our own life before leaving England Father was in his own house a very reticent man never making confidents of his own family he expected a blind obedience no matter how disagreeable and sometimes unjust it was you must never question or enquire; what he really intended was only guess work I dont doubt now but he was very earnest to gain a certain end he had set it up before him without recconing what might happen or circumstances check his path that he succeeded very well in England there is no doubt the Peasantry there where poor and Abject they would do a lot for little and they greatly feared any one who seemed to have a little power in the Parish he employed many hands I Know now more than he need have done but the life and food was so different there to here that I must go if you wish it into another letter for this part I am affraid will be to long for you to read I could not put it in shorter compass I will Pick up the story of our life home and here from about my earliest recollection destinctly 1833 up to your leaveing Myponga in I suppose about 1874 or near it so now my dear Oscar good night this may be useful should you ever Visit England
Note: The following words which close this first letter are written at right angle to the regular order of writrng in letters... and are written over what was the top of page 16.
the name and dates are correct or nearly so with love from your Affectionate Aunt Faith
Note: The following words are written at right angle to the regular order of writing in letters on the top part of what was page 1 - over the address and down to and written over the first two lines of opening conversation.
the real surname of Hewitt is Huit they went from France to Ireland in 1502 the name signifies 8 the spelling was altered in the reign of Eleisibeth and to this day there is one curious thing among them all brothers spell some of them Hewett others Hewitt My Grandfather spelt Hewett

Writings recommenced - this first page again being numbered 1.

We lived after leaving Dartmouth in a village called Cornworthy between Dartmouth and the Farm of which Father had taken a long lease from Capt Bastard of the R.N. a very old county Family traceing desent from William the Conqueror the county Seat was Sharpham on the Dart a beautiful place such as Mrs Hemans calls the Stately homes of England I remember every part of it; I cant tell why but we where often there and got lots of nice things to eat and look at I Know Father was thought a lot of they were a Tory family and Father Voted against the reform bill it may have been to please them but all the Hewetts and Torrs I Know where Tories to the back bone Church and State the divine right of Kings etc etc tho perhaps he woke afterwards to a more liberal Spirit call 22 Parish Clergy men were among his Country customers and all the yeomaney and County Noblemen If you will read Westward ho by C Kingsley you will find a very excellent description of the Gentlemen of Devon in the reign of Elisibeth Tudor and to tell the truth there was but little change in my time in Capt John Hawkins port Admiral of Plymouth you have Old Admiral Pearson a great freind of Fathers who used to visit us and we made a great fuss over him tho I think he quoted Scripture more correctly than his Phototype; (so while the Combe Farm was geting readdy for us a house was rented from a Miss Wakeum a very pretty house I remember tho I only went there on a visit being left with Grandmother and Aunt Betsey at school in Dartmouth Aunt was then unmarried Your Father was then the baby, The Rev. J Barker was the rector of that Parish the village was small and supported by the Graziers and landed Gentry there was a ciders Shop or sort of Pub I remember and Shoemaker called Petherton who came afterwards to Adelaide and made Shoes for us here has he did at home there was also a great freind of ours called Huxham of the Court or Manor house they had two children a girl Mary who went to school with me and a Son Tom who was to have been sent out to us to Sheep farm here but his Fathers dieing he did not come I remember the place so well that some time ago I made a stech of it and it looks so natural to me When I painted it I am sure its correct; At this time Aunt Betsey Married I was her Bridesmaid and I must have been far more stupid than children are now for I could not sign my name she was Married in the Town church Dartmouth I was there and Father gave her away Grandmother went to live with Aunt until we got on the Farm then Grandmother was going to sell some of her property and join Father her son in law I was to live with Mrs Mortimer for there was no School of any kind in Cornworthy for high low rich or poor not even a Sunday school and no place of worship except the Parish church the old order reigned the new era had not begun I think still I like the old one best) you will say it is wrong but the Tory spirits strong so strong that I prefer Queen Elizebeth to Victoria
I can remember the Parsons Footman comeing for me one afternoon to visit them the Barkers he carried me over the snow I think the company were amused at my questions and answers for I came home loaded with sweetmeat and books and toys the Ear1 of Carnarvon was there and I never forgot to address him as my Lord of Carnarvon I saw his nephew out here but he was not half as fine a man has his uncle who I think got Killed in the hunting feild for this Parson Barker Kept a Pack of foxhounds, and there was broad lands attached to the established church living At this time Father carried on the butchers bussiness in both towns Dartmouth and Totness both Boroughs sending members to Parliament I Know he had a vote for both and then there was no ballot he was also a voteter for the county of Devon when Lord Semourn Duke of Somerset held sway I dont Know what property he had but I think it must have been considerable from the company he Kept and the way we lived we had no shop at home the slaughter houses and all that were some distance away at this time and we constantly attended the State Church and Father was church warden and one of the overseers of the Poorhouses a vestry man also in fact a leader in local matters the lands about Cornworthy were rich in our Orchard there stood the remains of an Old Abby once the seat of learning and the Monks I have often climbed up the crumbling stairs to get to a cracked sort of arch and tower on the top which was overgrown with plants and flowers wild ones and I did not then Know its history but have since read it was dureing the Protector Cromwells rule that and many others were destroyed I think much information was lost about religion at this time Cousin Harry Hewitt Uncle Edwards eldest son lived with us to help Father he was grown up at the time I should think 21 yrs
None of My brothers and Sisters were born at Cornworthy and I was not there when they moved to Comb Farm the House and grounds was called Bow Bridge it stood by the Harbourn More river a splendid trout Stream ran under a stone bridge of one arch ivy covered and washed the side wall of the house passing down this river emptied it- self into the Dart about 7 miles from the Sea it passed between our garden and the Ham & Orchard feilds & turning several water Mills in its course I was at School in Dartmouth until our twins were born Charles and Huldah after that Grandmother and I went to live on the Farm at Bow Bridge parish Ashprington the village was a Mile away towards Sharpham and there another Fox hunting Parson lived the Rev Jacob Leigh who christened the twins Mother was a strict Christian a church woman who belived what she had been taught and whos life was blameless everyone liked and respected her I never remember hearing any one speak disrespectful of her or two her she was a great stay at home so her freinds came to see her far more than she went to see them I Know 12 cows were brought on the farm by Grandmother also a donkey for us children (that donkey had so good a time he got to be the Master of us all fed on Appels & cakes he use to stickup and would not go a step till we fetched him some) She also furnished the house from her own in Dartmouth well to there about 15 rooms 2 story I could paint it tho since we have been out here I am told the whole is rebuilt in modern style and the great Western railway runs thro our Meadows and feilds, we had 8 large feilds or Paddocks some in green feed for cattle and some for hay the horses wher Kept I think mostly in the stables if I remember right I Know there was always a lantern Job at night to bed the horses and water them then there was always a line full of beasts chained to their Mangers stall fed on turnips choped up with oil cake fatening for the Portsmouth and London market that every Thursday our place was full of Farmers to talk cattle there breeds and fatness beting as to the weight of each great fat beef with brisket only a foot from the ground and all us children locked upstairs for fear that some beast or other when let out to be bled a week before it was slaughtered would rush us after being chained up so long when released they were often vicious Uncle Edward and Father together used to ship a cargo of fat cattle in a schooner belonging to Uncle James called the Mermaid and take them alive to Market up the English channel mostly to Portsmouth sometimes to Smithfeild I suppose it paid them but I dont Know about that we children Knew nothing about it all was made smooth and pleasant for us such a life as this country has never given us and I feel sure that to come here was not an improvement on our Status in any way but I suppose it was all done for the best About this time Capt Bastard died leaving only one daughter his business he had many sons but they all died this daughter Frances became Countess Waldegrave by Marriage And the Bastard family seat Sharpham was let to Lord Paltimore one of those Wm 4 the King I mean) raised to the Peerage in order to pass the reform bill you will read of that in the history of his reign this Family of course was Whig they were enormously rich and kept an enormous retinue of servants a new order of things began at Sharpham they had nothing to do with our Farm all the Landed Property of the Bastard Family was managed by a steward a Mr Netherton and the Paltimores only stayed a short time employing working tradesmen while here the whole community seemed to suffer in the village the Penshoners of the Captain who had so many pounds of meat a week allowed them for life were still supplyed by Father also the Xmas ox for the poor but I was never feasted at Sharpham afterward altho I have been there after the Paltimores left to see the Bastards caretaker.
About this time the new Poor Law bill was passed one of the first acts after the reform bill and Father was the first shoved into the billet there were two overseers to be appointed Mr Coyet of Washburton was the other so he gave Father 20p to do for him so you see Father had all this power in his own hand - this was the beginning of the Whig government in the last year of Wm 4 and the Advent of Victoria, which nearly was and is a triumvorate of the People; how ever it did us no good constant war with the church Fathers thy (tithe) very heavy he as a vestry man with half the parish on his side the very poor and the very rich against him constant war with the clergy overhawling their charges for saccrament wine washing surplus and many other items until he never went to church on Sundays but licenced a room in the village and invited from were ever he could get them decenting men to preach sometimes on the large lawn before our home and sometimes in the licenced room in the village among those who come to preach on week days at our house was the reverent Hugh Watts of Kingsbridge Uncle John Hewitt with his family were said to be converted there and I have met here a short time ago here in Adelaide some of his congregation he was what was called an independent Father joined in communion with them but could not by law sever his connection with the Church and State he still had to pay his church rates and other fees was still a vestry Man and Churchwarden Guardian of the Poor act etc etc of course all these conflicting circumstances stired up discord most of the Middlemen big farmers etc stood by Father but the Parsons all withdrew their countance and even Old Harry Bishop of Exeter tried to use the Exelestical law against him for creating a Siccism in the land and only that Countess Waldegrove would not have it they tried to put him off the Farm because he turned his own house into a place of worship which his covenant did not set forth this was in England as late as 1837 then began the famous stir something like what is now Known as the Capitals and Labour (only that was should the Church of England alone demand and the State give the peoples Money to that church alone even if they never entered the church door then a bill passed thro the house of Lords making it legal for dissenters to Marry christan and bury this took a good deal from the church and people many seeceed then the bible Christians started in the North of Devon the Rev J Way Father of our Leu Governor a very poor but good Man a Mr Chubb of Ashburton who traveled preaching for that sect and selling tea at the same time every second thursday he slept at our house having on Friday to continue his round also the Father of the preacher Rev J Thom now in Adelaide these all helped to make the breach wide between Father and his patrons the church party I never remember any sort of want or lowering of Status thro any of these things I belive Fathers business was as good as ever I should think so we had a dear old char woman called Nannie Wottan I dont remember when she came to us a Washing woman who came after us to Australia her name was Ginne Allen a cook and house maid called big Mary a nurse girl who came to Australia called Elizebeth Rogers the Mother of the man you Knew at Port Pirie as Mr Baldock she was afterwards Mrs Wakefeild a very ignorant woman but hardworker she came to see me and was polite enough tho I belive she was very rude to your Mother this woman was a fair sample of her class at the time I write of she could not then read or write there was nothing in her but work and really thats wanted most in a new country but I think that if there must be slaves we should get them from some other country not our own........

Note: Although I believe the letters are best read in their original state, Mrs Amy Wheaton, (descendant of Charles Thomas Hewett, through his youngest child Ruemah Ann Bertha Josepha Hewett, born 17th January 1846 at McLaren Vale, South Australia) has rewritten most parts of Faith's two letters to Oscar to make the contents more easily understood. Explanations and enlargements on the letters’ contents are also given by her in her presentation. Her work on Charles Thomas Hewett can be viewed in both Hewett books.

Following, is a letter written to Faith Emily Moore Hewett by her cousin, Charles Thomas Hewitt (nephew of our Charles Thomas Hewett).

(Although the writing is in keeping with modern day methods, I have taken the liberty of adding some punctuation.)

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