It seems that our James Bates did not marry Sarah Fitzpatrick 16th February 1835 at St Johns, Parramatta. Sarah married another James Bates, son of Thomas Bates, transported on the Hillsborugh in 1799. This James Bates died 25th December 1899 at Parramatta, aged 84, born 1815 ? s/b 1821, father Thomas Bates (HILLSBOROUGH 1799, sentenced to life at Middlesex 1798 for theft), mother Mary Catesby (Johnston), Occupation, Bushman (listed on his 1899 death certificate) married Sarah Fitzpatrick and had 9 children. Mary Catesby (Katesby) was sentenced to 7 years transportation in Lancaster, England in 1798 and arrived in Sydney on the Earl Cornwallis in 1801.

Six of us met on Monday 21st of May at the Westpac building main foyer in Kent Street:

Noelene Harris, descendant of Lydia and John Stewart, Glenice Bayliss, descendant of Maria and George Green, Jan Koperberg, descendant of Elizabeth Clayton/Brennan, nee Allman, Eleanor (nee Bates) and her husband, Eric Evans from Invercargill NZ, and myself, all descendants of Nathaniel.  We were taken down to the room where the artefacts are stored by the building manager, Steven Bodnar and spent about one and half hours there.

Click on Image Gallery above left to view other photos !

The room measured about 4 metres by 10 metres, with shelving each side. All of the artefacts have been catalogued, placed in plastic bags and then into167 plastic containers. Each container was marked with glass, ceramic, metal, skeletal (animal bones), fabric, leather etc. We did not find a comb with Ann BatesGeorge Willoughby Green?? Noelene found fragments of leather shoes, her ancestor, John Stewart was a shoemaker on this site…. One container had photos of the most interesting objects, with the catalogue number on the back. From this, we could then locate the items we most wanted to look at. There were many fragments of blue and white china, lots of bottles, animal bones, some buttons and a few corroded coins!   name engraved on it, but there was a fragment of a wooden comb with A K scratched on it. We found a metal plaque with a rower in canoe on it, could it have been

It was Noelene’s birthday that day, so we celebrated it with sparkling wine and a lovely lunch onsite afterwards. 

Descendants of Ann Griffin and Thomas Bates, who married in St Philip’s Church 12th of May 1800, held a reunion at St Philip’s Church, Lang Park, then at the KENS site at 275 Kent Street, Sydney, site of the new Westpac Building on the 12th of May 2007. 

Descendants and members of the NSW Corps of Marines recreated the bridal party. About 50 descendants from NSW, Qld and New Zealand and attended and another is planned for June 2010 to celebrate Thomas' arrival on the Second Fleet ship, The Neptune, almsot 220 years ago. 

                           

 Click Image Gallery and Bates Family Album to view all photos.

 Setting the Scene

  The bride, Ann, is 16 years old and her husband to be Thomas Bates, an emancipist (former convict from the Neptune, 1790), is 27 years old.Ann’s father, Michael Griffin, a Third Fleet soldier in the NSW Corps, is 50 years old. Reverend Richard Johnson, 1753-1827, the first minister in the colony, is officiating.Ann’s brothers Nathaniel, 12, and Thomas, 9, (both Drummers in the NSW Corps) and younger sister, Lydia, 6, are also attending the wedding.

Witnesses were Harry Parsons, a First Fleet Marine, and Phoebe Walton, a 7 year convict who arrived on the Indispensable in 1796.