Hamilton

My interest in my family history began about 20 years back after many family gatherings where my Mum and her sisters would talk
about their parents and events from their childhood. Mum, and her three sisters, were born and raised in Willoughby NSW, the daughters of Dorothy Flyght and Allan Hamilton Augustus Hopkins. Their paternal grandmother was Mildred Gertrude Courbarron and it was their memories of her that had me intrigued.

One common memory of Mum and her sisters was that Mildred, their grandmother, was not the nicest of people; a staunch Roman Catholic, a regular churchgoer, overbearing and interfering to the point where she played a major part in the breakdown of her own daughter’s marriage. It was generally held that, until her death from a stroke in 1963, she was and remained a bitter and unpleasant old woman. She liked to get her own way at all times and made sure that her adult children, my grandfather Allan in particular, came running to fuss over her when she found she was not at the centre of attention. Mum’s family lived the closest to her home in Victoria Ave so her Dad was often the one who had to drop whatever he was doing and go to call on her. That and the fact that his other siblings refused to pander to her tantrums. So it was usually poor Pop.
Mum said that there was only one way that Pop could bring her out of one of her ’sulks’; this would involve her taking to her bed and feigning illness - and that was for Pop to hurry to the corner shop and buy her the Sydney Herald ( the ‘herld’ as she pronounced it ) and a small bottle of brandy. He would present them to her, sit and pat her hand for an hour then she would be happy. Of course the brandy made a big difference to her change of attitude; he would then leave her contentedly reading the obituaries, her favourite section.

Mum said she was an old ranter about anything and gossiped about everyone, her husband Patrick Hopkins, a dear and kind man, took refuge from life with her by means of a relatively early death at the age of 57. ‘Nagged to death’ as Mum puts it. Most of the family ignored her gossip and nonsense and took much of what she said with a grain of salt. But there was one thing she sometimes spoke about that was interesting: she would often talk about her father’s mother who was descended from royalty and grew up the daughter of a wealthy landowner back in Ireland. Mum said she referred to this estate in Ireland as ‘Brownhall’ and would refer to people such as the Duke of Wellington as being a relative. Only a few of the family took much notice of her when she was in one of her ‘Brownhall’ moods, with some saying to her ‘Oh be quiet Mildred, that’s just the brandy talking’.

The brandy may have been responsible for her opening up about her family’s origins, but it turned out she was actually telling the truth!. Her paternal grandmother, Mary Hamilton, was the daughter of John Hamilton (b.1802) of Brownhall in County Donegal. The estate had been in the Hamilton family since 1690 and John’s mother, Lady Helen Pakenham, was in fact the sister-in-law of Arthur Wellesley, Ist Duke of Wellington. So Mildred HAD been in fact correct to some point, though he was related to the family through marriage to Helen’s sister Catherine (Kitty).

As all this came to light, in it’s correct and more factual form, the family was surprised and delighted that old Mildred was not as batty as they had all deemed her to be. I have been able to piece together bit by bit the truth behind Mildred’s background and her descendancy from a number of aristocratic families down through the centuries. It makes for fascinating reading; what started out as folklore has grown into over 22 generations of an unbroken line. I wonder what she would say to all that?.

Popularity: 13% [?]

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!