William and Seenie's Family
William and Seenies children were William Gordon Jones Prior, Hilda Asenath Prior, and Jonathan Wyatt Prior.
William Gordon Jones Prior.
William was born on 26 May 1890, and died in August 1962. William moved to Victoria with his parents and, after the death of his mother and the remarriage of his father, he apparently was brought up by his step-mother. I've found little on his early childhood. He was just over 8 years old when his mother passed away. It is known that part of his education was at the Hahndorf Academy where he was known as "Skeet". There is a class photo of him in the book "A College In The Wattles" taken in 1906. He later attended Zercos Business College in Melbourne.
He moved to New South Wales; it is known that in 1917-18 he was working with a firm of stock and station agents. On 4 March 1924 he married Dorothy Elizabeth Louisa Barrett. daughter of a Jerilderi farmer. For a number of years they lived at Artarmon where William was a partner in a Sydney real estate business, George Baker & Co. Afterwards he spent ten years with the New South Wales Department of Main Roads, mostly in the Sydney office. On his retirement from this department in 1946 he purchased and worked orchard properties with his son William, first at Kenthurst and then at Dural. In 1947 he retired with Dorothy to Koolewong where he resided until his death in August 1962. Dorothy died in June 1996.
They had one son William Gladstone who now lives at Galston in the Dural area, a suburb of north-western Sydney.
Hilda Asenath Prior
Hilda was born 16 Oct 1891, and died in the 1940's.
She would have been under 7 years of age when her mother passed away. It is quite possible that her Aunt Elizabeth had a lot to do with her upbringing as it appeared that she was very close to her aunt. 1 believe she was the main beneficiary of her Aunt's will.
Hilda married Henry (Nip) Sinclair and they lived at Scone in The Upper Hunter Valley in N.S.W
I have recently found out that her husband was closely related to Charlie Muffet who married her half sister Zootha Prior, the youngest daughter of William and Bernice. Whether Hilda married "Nip" in Victoria and they then moved to NSW, or whether she moved to NSW first will probably remain a mystery.
In the photo above Hilda is with Tom and Elizabeth Flood.
To the left: she is with Nip on their wedding day.
Hazel Wyatt Prior 189?
Hazel was born at her parents' property, "Glen Lee" of Gladstone. Hazel's life was short; she died on the seventh day of September in the year of her birth. only eight months old, she died of whooping cough. Hazel is buried in the Laura cemetery.
Jonathan Wyatt Prior
Dad was born 10 Jan 1997 and died 10 Aug. 1972.
He was the youngest of William and Seenie's family and would have been just over 2 and a 1/2 years old when his mother died, and 6 and a 1/2 when his father remarried. It appears that most of his schooling was at Hughes' Gap and Gladstone Primary Schools. According to Beulah Gravestock (nee Boulton) he rode a pony to Hughes' Gap and there was many a day that he played truant.
I have no doubt that he suffered a lot after his mother died and more so after his father remarried because it appears that his stepmother did not want any thing to do with him , and he in many ways felt that his father had deserted him.
I don't doubt for one minute he felt that he owed a lot to his grandparents for bringing him up. He was 15 years old when his grandfather died. He was quite close to his Uncle Tom and Aunt Elizabeth. Whenever he was in Adelaide he always stayed with his aunty and always accompanied her to church of a Sunday morning.
To me he did not appear to keep in touch with his brother and sister although I believe that Mum used to occasionally keep in touch with his sister, mainly at Christmas time. Again, there appeared to be no contact with his father and he rarely referred to him, but in January 1936 he, with mum and some of the younger members of the family, made a trip to Melbourne to see his father, stepmother and family. Also later that year two of his half-sisters Mernita and Zootha came over for a holiday. They are seen in the photo along side.
His father and stepmother came over in 1938 just before Uncle Tom died and stayed until Aunty Flood died in July.
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