From: The Crommelin Biological Stn.
Warrah Sanctuary
Pearl Beach
Via Woy Woy
NSWales

To: Miss M. C. Sadler
"White Lodge"
101 Northcourt Rd.
Abingdon, Berkshire
England

November 20, 1951

Dear Mrs. Sadler - cousin Margaret,

It was very pleasant to hear from you and to know you are interested in the family. I am sorry to say your letter has been delayed because I have been so very busy. I do not seem to have had time to sit down and attend to my private letters. I will explain that I am no longer young, and during my later years my life-long hobby of the preservation of our native flora and fauna has become so engrossing and exacting, I seem to have little time to myself. Sometimes I am so physically weary I have to rest in the afternoon and evening when I would really like to be doing other things. I live alone here. Although the Sydney University owns this station and keeps a caretaker, I still have all my own work to do - washing, cleaning, etc., and there are three cottages; many visitors; and often parties up from the university - students with their professors and teachers doing their practical work in the field.

I have sent you a periodical called 'Woman' which has a short article and a photograph. Please don't mistake it for an advertisement for toothpaste! My sister (one of five) tells me I don't show the teeth quite so much in reality, and she thinks they put them in afterwards!


Minard's Lineage...


Charles Russell Crommelin and Anne Wilkinson, his second wife

Yes, we have the same great grandparents - Charles Russell Crommelin.


James Arden Crommelin, at age 90, in 1891

I had been told that my grand uncle [your grandfather] James Arden who married Mary Anne Rajendra [a Nepalese princess of the Shah family] had six daughters who have all since died, and that he died in 1893 at 92 years of age.


Thomas Lake Crommelin, younger brother of James Arden C.

My grandfather was Thomas Lake Crommelin, the tenth child of Charles Russel (I see you spell it with one "L"!) and the fifth child of his second wife, Anne Wilkinson. Thomas Lake married Harriet Ann Minard, and his children were:

  • Thomas Henry (left sons and daughters)
  • Ann Charlotte Isabella (left sons and daughters)
  • James Charles Wilkinson (left sons and daughters)
  • George Whiting (my father)
  • Charles Ebden (left sons and daughters)
  • Laura Harriet (no children)

    [Thomas Lake married a second time to Anne Byles by whom he had Lizzie Annie and Frederick Lake C.]


    George Whiting Crommelin and Francis Emily Dawson

    My father, George Whiting C. was the fourth child, born on 20 August 1845, died May 5, 1905. He married Francis Emily Dawson in 1880 and I was their first child (29 June 1881). I have five sisters and one brother (who has never married). They are all living.

  • One sister, [Nellie Weston Crommelin], has one daughter [Alison Barker] and also a step-daughter. [Nellie was a nurse who volunteered to serve on the battlefields of Europe during WWI. There she tried to make contact with her cousin, John Crommelin (a grandson by Thomas Lake's second wife, Anne Byles), but he was killed shortly before they could meet.]
  • another sister has two sons (she married twice and one son by each marriage)
  • another sister has one son - married and with one son

    Therefore with all that big family of our particular group there are only five descendents. I am sorry to say that they are not at all interested in family history (or in my other interests either). I have always been very fond of it and was deeply attached to my father who was an invalid for many years, and because of that we endured many privations. [Shortly after purchasing a homestead, he accidentally sampled a trace of arsenic that had been left behind by the previous occupants.]

    Regarding the beautiful painting by Thomas Lawrence, I am so delighted you are interested and will follow the matter up. If you go to one of the big art dealers and show them the picture you will be able to trace it in that way. I could not find it in any list of Lawrence's work in the Sydney Public Library reference books. Did Evelyn also show you the copy of the miniature? It is so exactly like the lady with the hat, no one could mistake the resemblance! I do not think we should have much trouble if we could only have access to the art authorities. I think both pictures (miniature and Mrs. Crommelin) were done by the same artist. I beg you to make duplicate copies of the old letters you have, and I would so gladly pay for the work to be done if you are unable to do these by yourself. And then you could let me have the copies.

    I have no details of Ann Wilkinson at all and would love a copy of her pedigree and the little photograph. The only thing I have is this old miniature which used to lie in my father's drawer without any covering. When I could, I had it framed and have treasured it. I will see if I can get copies for you when I go to Sydney.

    How are you situated in these days of stress? I hope you are comfortable and have no immediate anxieties. As you will gather from the little paper I sent you, my youth was one of poverty and hardship, and very hard work. I did not have any opportunity to study and even to do the work I would have chosen. But my father was a great reader and instilled in me a love of reading good books. This became the greatest recreation and enjoyment for me. When I was left some money in 1935 I determined that having fulfilled my duty to my own family I was then at liberty to spend it - not upon myself - but to do something for our country which I felt should be done. So now I live upon a very small superannuation from the public service and a very small annuity from the university. My wants are few and very simple but unfortunately war and its terrible aftermath has so completely changed values that the pension rates seem to grow smaller in value. Fortunately the investment rate has increased the value of the property handed over to the university, and I do not think the would see me lacking anything needful.

    I have been wonderfully happy here. It is so quiet and although we are only half a mile from the little village, we have quite a lot of wildlife and lovely flowers in the Reserve. I have been working to obtain a National Botanic Garden - a Flora Reserve and Arboretum. Someday I hope my ambition will be realized.

    At present we have a drought and dreadful bush fires are raging. Many miles of beautiful country are now a blackened ruin. Thousands of valuable sheep and cattle have perished - homes have been burnt and some men have lost their lives. I had to go to Sydney to attend a meeting of Trustees last week and it was dreadful to see the destruction along the railway line - and that isn't to be compared with the havoc in other parts of the country. Our pastoral and agricultural industries have suffered a major disaster.

    Do you know our cousins, the Grays? Children of Anne (second child of our grandfather). I will try to make a copy of old family records on the Dutch side. They are written in French and Dutch and I have difficulty with them but they are very interesting! Like all families they record fine, steadfast characters together with the weak and indifferent. One remarkable fact to be gained from the record is that hardship and persecution produced the best stock, but when they grew wealthy they became pleasure-loving and lazy. Then they fell away and died out. I suppose that is a national sequence but it brings home a vital truth.

    At the moment this station is in a state of upheaval as they are making alterations to the small cottage where I am retiring. We have also had three women librarians here doing the indexing of the Library (which I am proud to say is now a branch of the Fisher Library of the Sydney University). The Dewey system is being used which I think is almost universal now. I am in the midst of covering furniture; making new curtains; taking down and cleaning pictures; etc. We are being delayed by shortages of building materials and I do not expect to move until after Christmas.

    From the 'Bengal List of Inscriptions of Historical Interest', Vol.1 Index IV you will find our great-great grandfather Charles Crommelin, Old English Cemetery, Kalkapur Serial No. 688P20180. "To the memory of Charles Crommelin who died on 25 Dec. 1788, aged 81 years." Now who was his father and mother? Now Kasinbazar was placed under the authority of the governor of Pondicherry by letters patent dated Feb. 1701. I do not think there was any English 'governor of Bengal' at that time as Watson & Clive arrived in Bengal Oct. - Dec. 1756. He may have been governor of a fort.

    Mark Anthony Crommelin, son of Peter Stephen Crommelin & Francoise Seignoret, his wife, was naturalized by Act of Parliament in 1706 and went to India or the East Indies. A note in the French Hospital said he was married three times. James Crommelin was naturalized July 5th, 1710.

    I am afraid I have no more room to continue this very rambling letter. Do write again. Note the address NSW.
    Yours sincerely, Minard

    PS - We are really more closely connected through Evelyn's family as both grandparents are the same!