John Butt Chin, wife Ann Haddock, and their three children, John, Plumleigh and Sarah Ann, left their home in London and emigrated to Australia in about 1837. Two years later their fourth child, Benjamin was born. They have left numerous Australian descendants.
John Butt Chin was the only son of
the Rev. John Butt Chin and Land Plumleigh. The Rev. John Butt
Chin, was the descendant of a long line of Chins who lived in the small Dorset
village of Hinton St Mary for many generations. John broke the mold and moved
to London at the end of the 18 th century where he became a successful
builder. However, his strong faith drew him to giving up his building career
and becoming a preacher in the Baptist church, establishing the first Baptist
church in the newly developing community of Newington, just south of Southwark on the southern side of the Thames. His
wife, with the unusual name of “Land”,
came from a prominent merchant family named Plumleigh who had lived in the
Devon city of Dartmouth for generations, dating back to the 1500’s.
Luckily
for their descendants, John’s daughter Mary Oliver wrote his memoirs, which was
published, giving us an extraordinary insight into their lives and
personalities. A detailed obituary for Land Chin gives us considerable information
about her family background and her marriage to John. They experienced frequent
grief with the loss of six of their eleven children shortly after birth which
must have tested their deep faith.
John Butt Chin Junior married Ann Haddock. Her parents, John Haddock and Mary Paine nee Bywater, also led interesting lives. John Haddock
used his wife’s large inheritance (from the Bywater/Griffith family) to buy into a banking partnership. However,
the bank’s eventual insolvency ruined the family’s financial situation.
This
blog is the story of the lives of each of these fascinating families.
Sarah Ann Butler nee Chin
LINK: John and Ann Chin’s daughter Sarah Ann Chin married Francis George Butler, the grandson of Laurence Butler, a convict transported to Sydney for life for his role as a rebel captain in the 1798 Irish rebellion. Laurence was a successful businessman in Sydney and is now recognised as Australia's first cabinet-maker of note. Francis was the son of Laurence’s eldest son Walter Butler. Francis’s mother Margaret Dunn’s sister Ann Dunn’s daughter Lucy Butler married another of the Chin family- Benjamin Chin, so the Butler, Dunn and Chin families were closely linked. The Dunn sisters were the daughters of convict Thomas Dunn, convicted of petty theft from his employer, a brewer on the Thames in London, transported for a 7 year sentence, who became Chief Constable of Sydney and highly respected in the community. He married Rose Bean, the daughter of free settler James Bean, a carpenter and master builder who was contracted to build the Rum Hospital, 1811-1816 in Macquarie Street, Sydney. Dunn and the Beans arrived in the colony in 1799. Rose Bean was notoriously raped by two escaped Irish convicts who broke into their farm in 1803. She was just 17, and married Thomas Dunn the following year. The convicts were caught and hanged just outside the Bean farm at Toongabbie.
The following blogs are the life stories of Laurence and Walter Butler (Francis Butler and Sarah Ann Chin's life together is outlined in the blog on Walter Butler and the chapter: issue of Walter Butler and Margaret Dunn):
John Butt Chin, wife Ann Haddock, and children
http://chin-haddockfamilyhistoryaus.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/chin-haddock-family-ch2-john-butt-chin.html
Rev. John Butt Chin, and ancestry
http://chin-haddockfamilyhistoryaus.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/chin-haddock-family-ch3-rev-john-butt.html
Plumleigh family of Dartmouth
http://chin-haddockfamilyhistoryaus.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/chin-haddock-family-ch4-plumleigh.html
Captain Richard Plumleigh of the King Charles I's Navy
http://chin-haddockfamilyhistoryaus.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/chin-haddock-family-ch5-captain-richard-plumleigh.html
Haddock Family ancestry- Southwark and Newington, London
http://chin-haddockfamilyhistoryaus.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/chin-haddock-family-ch6-haddock-family.html
John Haddock's Bankruptcy
http://chin-haddockfamilyhistoryaus.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/chin-haddock-family-ch7-john-haddocks-bankruptcy.html
Bywater and Griffith families of Southwark
http://chin-haddockfamilyhistoryaus.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/chin-haddock-family-ch7-bywater.html