Licensee
Lionel Rochester, who was also known as Captain Downes Morrison1Martin Brennan, Reminiscences of the Gold Fields, Chapter 2. Captain Morrison’s Adventures, William Brooks & Co. Castlereagh St, Sydney. 1907. Forgotten Books.com. 2016
Location
Sapling Point (below Crown Flat)2Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal (NSW : 1888-1954), Saturday 22 December 1888, p 2.
In the News
Superintendent Martin Brennan,3Clarence River Advocate (NSW : 1898-1949), Friday 13 September 1907, p 8. the well-known and popular member of the New South Wales police force, who retired after lengthy and valuable service published a book in 1907, entitled ‘Australian Reminiscences‘, in the form of 14 stories concerning personages more or less interesting, whom he met on the Braidwood goldfields and elsewhere. The adventures of Captain Morrison and his wife are detailed in chapter two.
- After his marriage in London, Morrison went to California to the goldfields, where he made £900, and then came to Australia. Meanwhile his wife’s family were ruined by a bank crash, and Mrs Morrison had to support herself by becoming a governess. One day there came to the Araluen goldfields six barmaids, engaged from Sydney by the proprietor of one of the hotels Great Eastern Hotel, Newtown. The six barmaids were greeted with a public reception. Chinese lanterns illuminated the street, a large marquee was erected for refreshments, and the ball-room, 150ft long, had temporary bars the entire length, ‘to meet the exigencies of the occasion‘. One of the barmaids, Lucy Somerset, resenting her new surroundings, promptly took employment, at the advice of Mr Brennan, at another hotel at Sapling Point, kept by a friend of his, one Lionel Rochester. On reaching the Rochester Arms Hotel, Lucy was installed in full charge, and in a brief period succeeded in making it the most comfortable hostelry in ‘The Happy Valley’.
- The denouncement came when the girl, asked by Rochester to become his wife, informed him that ‘she was already married’. When she produced her marriage certificate, Rochester, who was none other than Morrison, discovered to his amazement that the woman was his own wife, whom he had left in England 17 years before. Being without friends on her arrival in Sydney she had been forced to accept the first position offered, and under the assumed name of Somerset went to the goldfields as a barmaid for 30 shillings a week.
Lucy produced her marriage certificate, stating ‘This marriage was performed by the Rev. M. Joyce Blundell in May, 1844, at “The Tower’s” Russell Square, St. Pancras, the contracting parties being Lucretia Florence Russell and Captain Downes Morrison.’ ‘There is clearly a mistake.’ ‘There is no mistake’, said Lucy. ‘Lucretia Florence Russell was my name when I married Captain Downes Morrison, and Lucy Somerset is not my proper name.’