Edwin Lee (1829-1917)

Six of his eight children are also buried nearby- Mary Jane Dickenson, Edwin, Clara Norton, George Edward, Joseph Whittington, and Lucy Elizabeth Mabel. Maude Stanley was buried in Ballarat in and John Thomas in Geelong. Three direct descendants from successive generations called Edwin Lee are also buried here.

Edwin Lee was born at ‘Bilham Grange’ Clayton, West Yorkshire, England on 19 June 1829 to Jane Dickinson, aged 41, and John Lee, aged 39 and christened at All Saints High Hoyland, Clayton West. Since then many Australian  descendants have visited Bilham Grange to see the inscription scratched on one of the glass window panes- Christened Edwin Lee, April 3rd , 1831, said to have been etched there by his mother with the diamond in her wedding ring and visited by many Australian descendants. He had seven brothers  and two sisters. His father John died in 1858 aged 68 and his mother Jane (nee Dickinson) died in December 1859 aged 71, born in 1788 the year Captain Arthur Phillip and convicts landed at Botany Bay to create Sydney.

Edwin arrived in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria on the sailing ship Thorsoakden on 11 Nov 1852 aged 23 and never returned to England. He married Maria Moore on 14 February  1860 at the Ballarat Wesleyan Parsonage. Their occupations were given as farmers at Windemere near Ballarat, as were Maria Moore’s parents. Their first son John Thomas was born on 4 July 1860 at Barrabool near Geelong where two of the Maria’s sisters were living- Jane married to John McMaster, uncle of John McMaster who married another Moore sister Elizabeth later, and after her death married another Moore sister Ellen ; and Mary Anne Moore married to Cornelius (Con) Hogan.

At least from 1860 they were living at Windermere. Their first daughter Mary Jane Dickenson (1862–1950) was born there on 16 June 1862 (known to us as Aunt Telford as she married Samuel Telford  and both are buried in the Birchip cemetery ). Their second son, the second Edwin (1864–1940) was also born there in 1864 and so was another daughter Clara Norton born on 3 November 1866, also both buried in Birchip. But by 1869, their daughter Maude Stanley was born in Linton, as were their next two sons- George Edward on 28 Jul 1871 and Joseph Whittington (1873–1926) in 1873.. Their youngest daughter Lucy Elizabeth Mabel (1878-1916) was born in 1878 in Corindhap.

Maude married John Blyth, head teacher at Birchip for a number of years, and prior to that been in charge of the Narraport and Thalia schools. He was one of the first members of the committee of the Birchip Mechanics' Institute and took a keen interest in all public affairs They later moved to Ballarat when John Blyth became Head Teacher at Snake Valley until he died in a horse and buggy accident after he had been married to Maude for 21 years leaving her a widow with four children.

But back to Edwin’s journey…

 The Land Act of 1869 allowed men and unmarried women of the age of eighteen or over to select land of up to 320 acres at a purchase price of £1. an acre, payable over a period of twenty years. It is thought that Edwin Lee made a small selection of about 80 acres at Weatherboard Hill near Learmonth. In 1874 he selected 240 acres at Coonooer West (Originally known as Conover near Jeffcott), and the family left the Ballarat district to take up residence on this land. Roy Lee often pointed out to his family the Vale of Avoca where the Edwin Lee family had camped on their way to Coonooer from Windemere, until he wished he hadn’t, as the children had a chorus “Are we up  to the Vale of Avoca yet” which would indicate they were near the end of their regular trips to Clunes to visit their mother’s family- the Robinsons at “Stony Rise”.

Like many other settlers from the Coonooer area, members of the Lee family applied for selections in the Narraport district, and the eldest daughter of Edwin and Maria made the selection on which they later established the family home of "Glenlee". It is recorded that - On the twelfth day of November, 1880, Mary Jane Dickinson Lee, of Conover West, declared that between 10 and 11 a.m. "I placed conspicuous posts or cairns of stones with notices thereon at the corners and dug a trench not less than two feet long, six inches wide and four inches deep in the direction of the continuing sides of the allotment here-under described and for which I hereby make application," the description being - "The forfeited block of Annie Considine-then of John Davis- the block west of Margaret Barber's (later a sister-in-law of Mary Jane) and south of Moran's blocks" This block later became Allotment 6 in the Parish of Narraport, County of Borung." The land was described as "Deep, good quality soil on clay. Vegetation box and oak - no grass."

In a statement made by Edwin Lee, to the Lands Department, in the first 6 years after selection the following improvements had been made : ₤84 spent on 210 chains of post and wire fencing, Cultivation to the value of £128, Water Storage £20, a weatherboard dwelling - 28ft x 25 ft., with an iron roof £100, and burnt brick dwelling 27ft x 11ft £30, Shed 30ft X 24ft £10., Stock yards £5, Grubbing, ringing and clearing £70, In addition £96. had been paid off the purchase price of the land." The Glenlee property was transferred from the name of Mary Jane Dickinson Lee to Edwin Lee on 13th July, 1888, and on the 24th May, 1905 when final payment of the purchase price £320 had been made he was granted the title.

The first dwelling at "Glenlee" was a two room mud brick building and as fortunes improved a substanial wooden home was added. Some of the grandchildren could still visualize the home and have pleasant memories of the hospitality of their grandparents, aunts and uncles. In many homes of present descendants there are articles of furniture, crockery and photos being carefully preserved because they came from the Glenlee home. Roy Lee recounted carrying the clock from “Glenlee” to “Homelea” when they moved across the road to their new house. Thanks to “Bilham to Birchip-Lee family” we still have a plan  of that house. The house was later removed to Sherwood St Birchip to become the home of Clara who had not married and Annie, the wife of Joseph who had died of cancer in 1926, leaving her with two young sons Edwin, aged12, and Bert aged 9.

His wife Maria died on 4 July 1908 in Birchip, at the age of 68. They had been married 48 years.  After Maria's death, Edwin remained at "Glenlee" with his daughter Clara and son Joseph, his wife Annie and their children. Edwin died at "Glenlee" on the 17th January, 1917, aged 87, and was buried in the family grave at the Birchip Cemetery. At the time of his death there were 30 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.

There is still one firsthand account of the impact of his death on his granddaughter Janet Alma, daughter of George and aged 3

 “My first recollection of sadness was when Grandather Lee died. I remember my father telling me as I was holding his hand and skipping gaily over the drain to the east of the house which ran into the dam there. As I only remembered seeing him once it did not make any great impression on me but I remember things being different and sadness in the air”.