William Thomas Jordan was born in Newbury, Berkshire in 1830 or 31 and baptised on 13 August 1831. His father, William, was a draper born in Dishford (now Dishforth) in Yorkshire who moved around to various towns in South-East England. In the 1841 British census, the family was living in Brighton, while in the 1851 census they were in Reading. Thomas' mother Emma Maria's distinctive name allows us to identify them precisely. By 1861, the family was living in Godalming, Surrey, but William Thomas had already left for Australia. William senior was now an innkeeper employing an ostler and a servant. William senior died in 1874 in Reading.
We don't know for sure which ship William Thomas took to Australia. The closest match to his details is W. Jordan age 26 who arrived on 10 December 1856 at Hobson's Bay, Victoria on the South Carolina, which left Liverpool on 7 August.[1]
William and Jane Davis married in Sydney on 12th March 1859 at the Scots Church.
Prior to his marriage, William Jordan lived in Elizabeth Street, Sydney. He was a tobacconist. Together they had five children: Emily Jane, Ada Mary, Alice Mary, and William Davis and Florence Maude, who were all born in Sydney. They lived at 108 King Street, Sydney, which is where William died on 12th November 1876 and was buried at Rookwood Cemetery.
William Davis died aged 2 years old. Alice Mary only married late in life. Ada, Emily, and Florence went on to have families. Emily married John McDowell, an immigrant from Northern Ireland. Emily had two children: Emily Maud (who died in infancy) and Alice May, but died aged 24. John McDowell remarried. One of his children was Sir Frank Schofield McDowell, a retailer who grew the business his father started. Sir Frank's son Ronald married Joyce Robinson, the daughter of Alice May!
Ada married Alexander Begg, an immigrant from Scotland and had several children. Finally, Florence married Thomas Ambrose. Florence Browne was their grand-daughter. Visit the Ambrose and Browne webpages for the continuation of their story.
Pauline Jordan born in 1854 appears to have been brought up as William senior and Emma Maria's child as recorded on her marriage certificate and in the British census. It turns out that she was in fact their grandchild. She was the daughter of their daughter Emily Ann and Emily Ann's uncle Edwin, Emma Maria's brother! She married James Isaac Duke and emigrated to Australia and then New Zealand. Emily Ann is recorded as living with her cousin Emilia in the 1901 and 1911 census and is believed to have died in 1919. Edwin’s wife Sarah divorced him in 1864 due to “incestuous adultery” and Sarah was granted alimony which was unusual in then. Emily's birth certificate appears at the end of the divorce records for Edwin Parr and Sarah available on Ancestry. Edwin re-married in 1866 to Charlotte White.
There is no record of William Jordan senior's baptism in Dishford, so we can't track his ancestry. Emma Maria Parr was born in 1806 to Thomas and Sarah Maria Parr in Caversham, Oxfordshire, now a northern suburb of Reading on the north bank of the Thames. Thomas' parents were Francis and Elizabeth. Thomas and Sarah Maria had eight children and have 91 descendants listed on Geni. No less than six of them had names starting with an "E"! Emma Maria's sisters Emily and brothers Edwin and Alfred had families that we know of. They all seem to have stayed in England. The Parr Family is not included in the Jordan Family tree.
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Endnotes
[1] This age implies that William was born before 10 December 1830. That is entirely possible, as babies were often baptised months or even years after their birth. A little stranger is that the ship sailed from Liverpool, while William lived in Berkshire or Surrey. Arrival in Victoria is not unexpected; George Davis, also arrived first in Victoria as it is closer to England. We do know that he was not an assisted immigrant to New South Wales or Victoria.
Last updated on 5 May 2025
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