Grandfather: Abraham

It is likely Abraham John Freeman was born in England in 1843 although his marriage certificate suggests he was born much later. His mother is known to be Elizabeth North and his father James Freeman and there is a likely birth record match for Abraham in Linton, England and census record in Ickleton Parish in 1851 (see census record).

He immigrated to Australia probably onboard the Darling Downs in 1874 where there is a listing for an Abraham Freeman on the ship records.

He married "Sarah" Jane Beckingham in 1889 in Armidale. He was a labourer at the time and records indicate she was pregnant at the time of the wedding. The child, James Freeman is believed to have been stillborn or died shortly after birth.

Abraham and Sarah had eight children, of which four died. James was stillborn in 1889 in Armidale, James R was stillborn in 1896 in Moree, Bessie died in Queensland in 1898 aged about one and Joseph died an infant in 1901 in Queensland.

Of the surviving children, Bertha knew of her two aunts, Lucy ‘Pip’ and Sarah ‘Girlie’ Ann. Bertha’s mother Ethel was born in 1891, Lucy was born a year later in 1892 and a brother, John, was born in 1895, all in Armidale before the family started a long journey to move to Warwick, Queensland in 1895 or 1896.

The trip took between one and two years and Abraham got jobs along the way to earned enough money to continue the next leg. It was on this protracted trip that James R Freeman was stillborn in Moree.

The pair made it to Queensland and set up home in the Warwick district. Abraham again got work as a labourer. Bessie Freeman was born in 1897, however she died the next year. Sarah Ann was born a year later. Two years after that, Joseph Freeman was born but died the same year.

Sometime between 1903 and 1913, the Freeman family moved to a home on Stanthorpe Road, Warwick. Bertha says that Ethel was frequently kept home from school to do chores such as wood cutting, with her father and consequently had trouble throughout her life with reading and writing.

In 1912, Abraham was convicted of feeding the offal of a diseased dead horse to pigs and fined 10 pounds plus two pounds court costs (see newspaper article).

Bertha says her mother told her stories of how her grandfather Abraham used to get drunk on a Saturday night and Ethel and her mother would have to wait for him to arrive home in the horse and sulky so that they could unbridle the horse, but they tried not to wake him because he was a violent drunk.

In 1934, at what the Toowoomba Chronicle reports as 90 years of age, Abraham was moved to the Home of Rest in Toowoomba due to senility. Three years later, on the 14th of May 1937, he was admitted to the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, which was established to provide for poor people who were unable to care for themselves (view Abraham's Dunwich entry). Bertha and Betty both recall their mother, Sarah, telling them that he caught a cold on the boat to the island, his condition worsened to pneumonia and he died on the journey. However, records show Abraham’s cause of death as senility and that he died in Dunwich on the second of June.

Abraham is buried under grave is number D253 at Dunwich on Stradbroke Island. Queensland Public Curator Southern Districts Wills and Intestacies does not show any record of Abraham John Freeman leaving an estate.