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Edwin Jones family

Over the years there have been a number of Jones families in Coromandel Valley. This article relates to the arrival in South Australia of Joseph and Harriet Jones in 1836 and one of their sons, Edwin (1857 to 1892).

On the 13th of January 1836, Joseph Jones applied for a free passage to South Australia and he described himself as a labourer of Acton, aged 20 years and single. He was engaged by the South Australian Company and arrived at Nepean Bay, Kangaroo Island, from London aboard the schooner John Pirie on 16th August that same year, together with his wife Harriet (daughter of Robert Wallace).

We have not been able to determine whether Joseph and Harriet married prior to leaving England, or whether theirs was a shipboard romance.

As was the custom in those days they initially made a home within the Adelaide square mile and it was there, in Wright Street, that their first child William was born on the 6th May 1837. They lived at various locations over the years, including Clarendon, and in 1857 the last of their nine children, Edwin Elliott, was born.

In 1881 Edwin married Annie Wait, daughter of William Wait of Coromandel Valley.

Edwin was a day labourer moving from place to place wherever he was able to find employment. He and Annie lived in Coromandel Valley from 1881 to 1883 and their first two children, Arch and Hurtle were born there. They lived at Angels Gulley from 1884 to 1886, where Walter (Tim) and Ivy were born, then Glen Osmond from 1886 to 1889, Fred and Perce were born there. Twins Stan and Harriet (Sis) were born at Lily Street, Goodwood in 1892.

Disaster struck the family on 18th October 1892 when aged 35 years, Edwin died suddenly of Meningitis. Exactly two months later, on 18th December, baby Sis died. Annie and her children returned to Coromandel Valley to live. 

Annie worked hard, taking in washing and doing housework to keep her family of seven together until one by one, they left home to go their own ways. Descendants of Edwin Elliott Jones and Annie Wait have made significant contributions to the development of Coromandel Valley and have many an interesting story to tell.                                                                                                                                                                
Extracts from a family history by Murray Jones.