Charles FOGDEN & Sophia SLATER

Charles FOGDEN was born at Donnington on 26th May 1810, the third of 14 children to George & Mary FOGDEN (nee TINEGATE).  He was brought up by an uncle (presumably another Charles FOGDEN, George’s only brother) and trained to be a master carpenter.  At some point he moved to London as, at the time of his marriage, he was described as a bachelor of St Mary Aldermary, London.

On the 21st July 1834 he married Sophia SLATER (one of the daughters of Thomas SLATER & Rachel LUDBY) at Petworth, Sussex.  The marriage caused the bride to be ostracised by her family, who considered themselves members of the Gentry, and who had brought up Sophia to live the life of a lady.  The Slaters’ connections with the Gentry were more genealogical than real and at the time of Sophia’s birth in 1816 they ran the Star Inn in Petworth.  In fact according to Piggott’s Directory of Sussex an Edward SLATER (her brother or uncle?) was running the Star Inn in 1839.

Their first child, Sophia, was born and baptised in London in 1835 but they obviously returned to Donnington after the birth of Mary Emma as she was baptised there.  In 1838 Charles, Sophia and their two baby girls secured selection by Mr H WATSON (South Australia’s colonisation commissioners’ agent at Chichester) as suitable assisted immigrants for the new province of South Australia.  They left England on the 12th September on board the 500 ton barque Prince George.   About a thousand miles from Australia Mary Emma was tragically burned to death.  She was buried at sea on the 8th December.  The Prince George reached Holdfast Bay, Glenelg, at 11pm on 26th December 1838 and the passengers were taken to the Receiving Depot, Emmigrant Square, in the West Parklands.  There they remained until they found employment.

The Fogdens appear to have been socially ill-at-ease in the new colony (which at the time of their arrival was just two years old).  Sophia insisted on being treated as a lady while Charles, whenever the occasion allowed, liked to dress in a white suit or a top hat.  He was a socially ambitious man intent on taking advantage of the new colony to raise his station in life.  But his 17 years in South Australia were marked by continuous hardship and failing health, ending in a premature death in 1856.

Soon after arriving Charles took his family to live at The Tiers, the name given to the step-like and densely wooded slopes of the ranges south-east of Adelaide, from where the infant colony got much of its timber.  These forests provided good employment for a carpenter but they were notorious for their rough tent life and as a hiding ground for thieves and escaped convicts.  In 1844 he tried to break free from this harsh environment.  He migrated down to the Adelaide Plains and set himself up as a Gentleman Builder, taking contracts and employing labour.

The family were living at Payneham Village when his second living daughter, Anne, was born in March 1845.  Early in 1846 they moved into Adelaide itself and took up a general licence for the Gawler Arms Hotel in Morphett Street but relinquished it three months later.  When the next child, Ellen, was born in July 1847 the family lived on South Terrace and Charles was a carpenter again.  All these undertakings turned out to be financial failures and they were forced to return to the Adelaide Hills.  This time Charles put his hand to farming (near Nairne) and, in 1850, he is listed as owning 99 acres.  But again he failed and by 1853 had moved to Langhorne’s Creek on the south-eastern slopes, back in his old occupation as a carpenter.

In August 1853 history repeated itself when the eldest daughter, Sophia, was ostracised by her parents for marrying Samuel JOHNS, a handsome, hard-drinking ‘coloured’ man.

In February 1854 Charles had his ’15 minutes of fame’ when he uncovered the bushranger Joshua LAZARUS who was sheltering in the hills.  For his action he was commended by the government and given a £10 reward.  But his health and financial situation were sinking fast.  Not long after arriving in South Australia he developed a severe heart condition which had become progressively worse.  He now petitioned the government for permission to cut wood and quarry stone on public land but was refused.  So in 1855 he declared himself bankrupt and unable to meet his debts.  Eight months later, on New Year’s Day 1856, he died (presumably of a stroke or heart attack).  He was 45 years of age.

For some time the family struggled on at Langhorne’s Creek.  The two eldest sons, Richard and Charles (who were 15 and 14 at the time of their father’s death), worked to keep the family from starving.  In about 1860 they moved to a cottage at Hughes’ Wellington Sheep Station where the two boys and the eldest unmarried daughter obtained work.

In 1862 the Fogdens hit the headlines in a much publicised forgery case when Samuel JOHNS (Sophia’s son-in-law) was gaoled for forgery mainly on the evidence of his mother-in-law and her family.  But the local residents petitioned for the case to be re-opened and in the enquiry that followed the Crown Solicitor concluded that Mrs Fogden had committed the forgery and planted it on Johns.  Although Samuel Johns was released from prison the Crown decided not to prosecute Mrs Fogden.

The Fogdens were a remarkably clannish family.  In the mid-1860s the whole family moved up to the Blythe Plains which had been recently opened up for agriculture.  Richard, Charles and young William took up farming there while the remaining brother, Thomas, took over the Black Eagle Hotel, Sevenhills.  In 1866 Frances FOGDEN married Robert ELLIOT of Blythe Plains after which Mrs Fogden moved in with her daughter and son-in-law.

In 1876 Sophia’s husband, Samuel Johns, was drowned in the Murray river in rather mysterious circumstances.  Sophia (the mother) then sent her sons in a wagon to collect Sophia, newly widowed, and bring her back home to Clare.  Only Anne had broken away from the family when she married Duncan McINNES in 1863 at the age of 18.   Duncan was an employee at Hughes’ Station but they migrated to Gippsland to take up cheap land.

Then Sophia and her family (minus Anne) made another of their mass moves.  Tempted by easy terms and a run of outstanding seasons they took up farming land in the marginal areas beyond Orroroo.  But the move ruined them and finally forced the family to scatter.  The first victim was Thomas who had gone further north to take over the Royal Victoria Hotel, Beltana.  In 1880 he became bankrupt and in an effort to preserve his savings he committed fraud and was sent to gaol.  Then Richard decided to go back to the lower Mount Lofty Ranges and bought a farm near Belvidere.  The Elliot’s (Frances and her family) stayed until Sophia died at the age of 75 but then went to Western Australia.  Only Charles and William remained to do battle with the inhospitable environment.

Sophia Fogden died on 3rd December 1891, a lady to the end.  After her death a sister arrived from England in a fruitless search for the outcast daughter.  All the evidence points to the Fogdens being refined and gentle people.  Several of the sons, like their father, suffered from premature vascular complaints.

This is the family of Charles & Sophia FOGDEN: