William Bollard
William Bollard was my great, great, great grandfather on my father's side.
William (Samuel?) Bollard was born in Liddington, Bedfordshire, England on 30th March, 1807 to John Bollard and Hannah Johnson. William arrived in Australia as a free settler on the ship "Providence", disembarking in Sydney on 7 January 1822 with his mother, brothers and sisters. He was 4 when his father, John was convicted and transported and he was 15 years of age on arrival in Sydney and saw his father again.
The Hume and Hovell Expedition
From September 1824 to February 1825, William joined the Hume and Hovell expedition which explored the route south of Lake George to Port Phillip Bay. The brief was to lead an expedition to find new grazing land in the south of the colony, and also to find an answer to the mystery of where New South Wales's western rivers flowed.
Essentially they found an inland route from Sydney to Melbourne, via Albury. They also found the Murray River six years before Sturt "re-discovered" and renamed it.
The expedition was particularly difficult as the leaders, Hamilton Hume and Royal Navy Captain William Hovell quarrelled excessively. This was apparently a “class problem”.
There were six men on the expedition Jeff Barrois, Henry Angel, James Fitzpatrick, William Bollard, Thomas Smith and Thomas Boyd. All, apart from William Bollard and Thomas Smith were Hume’s men.
The expedition was extremely ill-equipped and the two leaders fought excessively. They remained bitter enemies for the rest of their lives.
On 24 October, three weeks into their expedition, they reached an impenetrable mountain barrier and when they couldn’t agree on the route, they split up. Such was the disagreement that they were prepared to cut their one tent and the leaders had an argument over the frying pan which fell apart in their hands. Hovell later rejoined the party when he realised that he’d made a mistake.
A similar split and rejoin occurred 150 miles later, after they'd abandoned their carts and reached the head of the Murray River. Mr Hume was willing to cross the river but Captain Hovell would not. Eventually Captain Hovell again complied.
Upon reaching Geelong, yet another argument broke out between the expedition leaders with Hovell claiming it was the Western Port, while Hume asserted that it was part of Port Phillip. With the matter still unresolved, the expedition returned home and the leaders were granted 1200 acres each by the governor in recognition of their services.
Amongst other things, they found the Murray River six years before Sturt "re-discovered" and renamed it.
Betrayal and Rescue
Hamilton Hume’s diary describes William Bollard as "a walker with amazing stamina".
At one point on the return journey, the stock that they were taking with them had “reached the end of the road” and Hume decided to turn them loose on some good valley pasture.
Captain Hovell was unhappy about leaving the stock behind and ordered Bollard and Boyd to stay with the stock so that they could be used to haul his cart to the Murrumbidgee later. The rest of the expedition party then continued home carrying two of the men who were now unable to walk.
Hovell's act was one of betrayal and he would have left two party members Bollard and Boyd to die of starvation. Fortunately, when Hume arrived home after four more days of hard travelling and his first action was to send supplies back for Bollard and Boyd.
The two men given up hope of recovering the cattle though and starving. They made the journey back by themselves taking about eight days and arriving at Hamilton Hume’s home on 24 January 1825.
Hume's diaries refer to Bollard upon his arrival as "a walking skeleton".
It’s hardly surprising that William Bollard left Captain Hovell’s employ soon after and the 1825 General Muster lists William Bollard as employed by Henry Cox at Windsor.
Herber Chapel, Cobbitty - October 1931 Where William Bollard and Anne Upton were married in 1829
Marriage
The 1828 Census shows William Bollard as 22 years of age and living at Cobbitty in the Cooke District with his parents John and Hannah.
William Bollard married Anne Upton on the 27th July 1829 in the Heber Chapel at Cobbitty with the Rev. Thomas Hassall officiating. The chapel had only been built in the previous year and was dedicated by the Rev. Samuel Marsden.
Anne was born on the 18th August 1809 at Windsor, NSW and was baptised on the 2nd April 1810 at St. Mathew's Church of England, Windsor. She was the daughter of Thomas and Sarah Upton of South Creek in the Liverpool Plans District.
Shortly after the wedding, William Bollard applied for a grant of land in the Picton area but it was only granted after considerable letter writing between himself and the Colonial Secretary. The area of land he had asked for was reserved for a village and he had to change his selection to an area west of the proposed village on the south side of Redbank creek and about 30 chains west of the road.
At one point, the grant was denied because of possible connections with bushrangers. Finally, on 15th December 1830, he was given No 39/117, which amounted to “40 acres in the County of Camden Parish, unnamed at Red bank in the District of Picton”. The grant was authorised by Governor Ralph Darling.
William and Ann had 9 children and my direct ancestor is Thomas Henry Bollard.
- Lucy Ann Bollard (16.5.1830-8.10.1899)
- Mary Ann Bollard (24.4.1832-17.7.1921)
- Sarah Bollard (1834-1895)
- William Bollard (1837-1874)
- Ann Bollard (1839-1924)
- Thomas Henry Bollard (1842-1919) #
- Sarah Jane Bollard (1843-1932)
- Susannah J Bollard (1844-1847)
- Elizabeth (Eliza) A Bollard (1848-?)
- Sophia Bollard (1850-1932)
- James Edward Bollard (1852-1906)
Later Life
William Bollard was listed as Licensee of hotels in Cabramatta in 1838 and 1840. In 1839, when their daughter Ann was baptised, William occupation was shown as a “Victualer” (seller of spirituous liquor).
William Bollard was manager of the “Berry Jerry” station in 1844 which was owned by John Bray of Campbelltown. The station was 86000 acres and began in 1840. It is situated about 50 miles west of Wagga Wagga, NSW and had a portion of its land covered by swamp. The original homestead is said to be located in this swamp area, but the exact position has never been found and is not where the second and the third homesteads were built.
William Bollard kept “The Picton Hotel” licence No 203 in the years 1847, 1848 and 1849. William later built and kept a hotel “The Farriers Arms” which was later to be called “Milton Villa” at Upper Picton. This licence was renewed on the 12th May 1854.
William Bollard died on the 21st August 1854 at the age of 47 years and was buried in the Upper Picton Anglican Cemetery on the 24th August 1854.
There's a monument to the Hume and Hovell expedition at Albury, NSW which bears his name.