"Graveshead Revisited"

The BEST resources guide IMHO for anyone doing family history research !

Well it has been quite a while since I have posted... so today, I decided to google #rankencoach and found this post with a fantastic photo of the coach as it is today in the transport collection at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra....

I really need to get myself down there and check it out....  hopefully being a Hodge descendant, I can sit in it... perhaps??

http://www.thepictures.club/im/BMLluRAgxCI

Thanks to margiemcclelland for posting.

Link to National Museum of Australia page: 

Just found these fabulous photos on Flicker...

Sebastian Hodge Mourning Coach known as the Ranken Coach - photos from “March to Nationhood”.

Just found another article…. the above photo is from the 150 Anniversary Pageant in 1938.  When my mum worked in the city as a young woman, said she would go and see the coach when it was on display during her lunch breaks.  Pretty amazing stuff!

Sebastian Hodge Undertaker, Bathurst - The Mourning Coach

The family mythology was that there was a “horse drawn coach” in the family tree somewhere and that it was one of the first (if not THE first) coaches to be brought to Australia…….

Through family history research, I have found evidence to now provide some facts about this prevous “family story”… .  Sebastian Hodge, my 2nd Great Grandfather (see earlier post “Richmond NSW Family Burial Plot) purchased this coach around 1860 and used it as a mourning coach for his funeral business.  It is known as the Ranken Coach, as it was purchased from Mr George Ranken who imported it from Scotland - ….  extract of article following from http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/hall/horsedrawn_coach

The Ranken family's well-travelled coach

George and Janet Ranken brought this fine coach with them from Scotland to Australia in 1821. As part of the elite squattocracy, they prospered in their new country, and their coach carried them in style across the rough colonial roads between Sydney and their Bathurst plains properties. It was a well-travelled coach – the Rankens took it with them on a journey to Scotland and back between 1838 and 1841, a round trip of nearly 34,000 kilometres –  thankfully mostly by sea.

In solemn service

After George Ranken’s death in 1860, the coach was sold to another successful Bathurst immigrant, Sebastian Hodge. He painted it black, fixed its moveable hoods into their present positions, and transformed it into a mourning vehicle for his business as an undertaker. The coach remained in this solemn service for the next 65 years.

Adding historical flavour

The coach was eventually superseded by a motor vehicle and donated to the Royal Australian Historical Society. The Society occasionally brought it out to add historical flavour to various celebrations, including a pageant to mark the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932 and celebrations for Sydney’s 150th anniversary in 1938. The coach returned to Bathurst briefly to mark the 125th anniversary of that city in 1940, and was displayed at the heritage theme park, Old Sydney Town, near Gosford, until the Australian Government bought it in 1980. Today, approaching 200 years of age, it is one of the oldest surviving horsedrawn vehicles in Australia.

This is pretty cool information and I am really really happy to have at last found the above photo as featured on a postcard from Vaucluse House where the coach had been kept prior to going into Collection no. 1 in the National Museum of Australia.

My maternal 2nd Great Grandfather, Sebastian Hodge was born in Barnstaple, Devon England on March 7, 1829.  His trade was carpentry and he emigrated to Australia as an assisted immigrant on the ship “Rose of Sharon” arriving in Sydney on April 13, 1855.  He eventually settled in Bathurst, NSW continuing his carpentry trade.  Sebastian married Emma Eliza (nee Mills) on Nov 4, 1857 at The Manse at Bathurst.  

Emma was the youngest daughter of John Mills & Mary (nee Manning) and was born in Richmond NSW on 16 April 1837.  

RICHMOND, NSW Family Burial Plot

Graves of my 2nd & 3rd Great Grandparents

At rest my mothers grandfather, Sebastian HODGE (1829-1895) & Emma Eliza née MILLS (1837-1916)

And my mothers 2nd Great Grandparents John MILLS (1795-1859) & Mary née MANNING (1802-1879)

Photo of my daughter Victoria in sepia, St Peters, Richmond, NSW.