JAMES BRACKENRIG
Thomas Lawrence's farm passed to James Brackenrig on October 22, 1833. James Brackenrig had been born in N.S.W. in 1797, his father, also named Jamesd Brackenrig, a shoemaker at Windsor having come to the Colony on the Neptune in 1790.
James Brackenrig was a carpenter, so it would appear his interest in the land at Lugarno was in its timber. He had been living in Phillip Street, Sydney, but he may have brought his wife Mary and their five children to live in the bush at Lugarno.
GEORGE TYRELL
George Tyrell, also a carpenter, bought the land on 26th March, 1836. At this time he was aged 47, and already had a 50 acre grant in Peakhurst (at the corner of the present Forest and Boundary Roads), granted in 1834.
He held the land at Lugarno until his death. [Statutory Declaration of Esther Mooney, 9th January, 1863]
THOMAS SPENCER WEST AND SPENCER WEST
Thomas Spencer West was the son of Thomas and Martha West, and was born on the 3rd February 1796 in Hooe, Middlesex.
Thomas West was sent to N.S.W. as a convict, leaving his family in England. Thomas Spencer West was raised by his mother who married Henry Oliver, a fisherman of Teddington. At the age of 19 he became apprenticed to his stepfather as a fisherman.
He married Lucy Jennings of Teddington on the 10th July, 1819. They set sail on the 28th September, 1820 in the Duchess of York, after paying £20 for the cabin. The ship sailed directly to Hobart, arriving there on the 25th February, 1821, and spent four weeks in port before sailing on to Sydney, arriving on the 5th April, 1821.
Thomas Spencer West went to see his father, whom he had last seen when he was four years old. Thomas West had established a new family in N.S.W., and owned the Barcom Glen estate near Rushcutters Bay, where he operated a water mill. A rift between father and son developed, and they had nothing further to do with each other.
Thomas Spencer West became a warehouse keeper for the firm of Jones, Riley and Walker, then later opened his own shop in Kent Street, Sydney. In 1832 he became the publican of the Barque Woodlark in Kent Street, which was later known as the Woodlark Inn and the Ship Inn.
On the 30th December, 1843 he purchased lot 19 of the Kingsgrove Estate. The 20 acres and 35 perches cost him £300. He built a brick cottage named Pembroke Cottage (which is now No.9 Bennett Street, Kingsgrove to provide a home for his daughter Margaret and her husband Charles Mason.
In 1845 Thomas Spencer West and Lucy moved in with the Masons at Kingsgrove, and remained there after the Masons moved to a property called Barambah in Queensland in 1849.
Spencer West, son of Thomas Spencer West and Lucy had been born on the 15th June, 1825, and was now (in 1845) left in Sydney.
He had learned the trade of cabinet making, signed a Total Abstinence petition, and married Susan Dubois at the Pitt Street Presbyterian Church on the 7th December, 1846, by the popular evangelical Ulsterman Dr. Fullerton.
Two children were born in Sydney in 1847 and 1849, then Spencer West joined his father and Lucy at Kingsgrove (after the departure of his sisters family), and four more children were born there.
Following the death of Thomas Spencer West and Lucy in 1856, Spencer West inherited the Kingsgrove farm and the Ship Inn (which was leased out). He went to the Californian and Turon goldfields, and later used to wear a velvet waistcoat with buttons made from nuggets of gold, and a gold knotted broach, which were made from gold which he had discovered himself.
He became friendly with his grandfather, Thomas West, who gave him part of his property - Lot 4 of the Barcom Glen estate. Spencer West built some cottages here, in West Street, Paddington. After his wife Susan died in March 1860 at Pembroke Cottage, he sold the Kingsgrove property in November 1860, and moved into one of the Paddington cottages.
Spencer West married again. On the 8th April, 1861 at St. Paul's Church of England, Canterbury he married Susan Parker. She moved in with Spencer and his five children from his first marriage, and soon produced a son of her own.
On the 12th of January, 1863 Spencer West bought the 120 acre farm at Soily Bottom, Lugarno, with a partner John Parrot, and the family took up residence here until it was sold on 7th February, 1870.
We do not know why Spencer West chose the Lugarno property, however it seems that Spencer West preferred life on a farm, he may have found timber suitable for cabinet making on the 120 acres, and he may have needed more room for his growing family than was available at Paddington. Two more boys were born at Lugarno: Edwin on 12th March, 1864, and Azer William on the 26th September, 1866.
A story handed down in the family explains the selling of the farm as being caused by Susan's loneliness, especially when Spencer was away attending to his business in the City. The nearest neighbours would have been a few miles away, there would have been no passing traffic, and little social life in the district.
It is said of Susan " As darkness fell she would see shadowy forms moving silently about in the surrounding bush and would hurry to lower the shutters - they were the old wooden shutters hinged at the top and propped open by a stick. A few knot holes or gaps in the warped frame served as peep holes. At times when the menace seemed greater and almost overpowering Susan would screw up her courage and fire a gun into the darkness. At least, she thought, they know I am armed. Nothing ever happened, but the dread of what might happen remained..." [Thomas West of Barcom Glen, p.131]
Another son, Charles Henry James West, was born while the family were living at Lugarno, in 1869, but this time Susan stayed at her parents house in Petersham for the birth. The Lugarno property was sold the following year, and the family moved back to Paddington. Later Spencer had a farm at Guildford, then one at Appin. Susan bore him another seven children, and he died in 1902 of a stroke.
CHRISTOPHER JACOB SCHWEIZER and JOSEPH SHEPHERD
Christopher Jacob Schweizer bought the property on February 7, 1870. Greville's Directory for 1870 shows Jacob Hannor residing at Soily Bottom, presumably an employee of Schweizer. Schweizer is listed in Greville's Directory for 1875 as a farmer of Soily Bottom. (His name is mis-spelt as Swinfer).
He sold the property to Joseph Shepherd on the 26th April, 1874, and married Shepherds daughter, Elizabeth in 1875. [Marriage certificate 1875 no. 1382]
Joseph Shepherd had a property at Riverwood. He was known as 'Snaky Joe' for his ability to handle snakes without being bitten. He also had the ability to stop pain by laying his hands on the affected part of the body.
Shepherd divided the property in two, selling the majority of the land to Robert Levingston on February 15, 1878, and the remaining 32 acres to Unni William Carpenter in 1881.