Robert RITCHIE 1770-1849

Nepean River to Woronora

Within Woronora Cemetery, a memorial stone marking the death of Robert Ritchie and his wife Ann can be found in the Presbyterian section.[i] The dark grey stone supported by four short sandstone pillars resembles a tabletop placed over a double grave surrounded by a concrete border. Usually a tabletop tomb or vault has enclosed sides but not in this case. The inscription, now 170 years old and much eroded, reads:

 Sacred/ to the Memory of/ Robert Ritchie/ who departed this life/ at the Nepean River/

19th of November 1849/ aged 89 years.[ii]

Also/ his wife Ann Ritchie/ who died 1 January 1865/ age 68 years.

Woronora Cemetery is a long way from the Nepean River. How did this headstone, recording two deaths that predate the cemetery’s first burial in 1895, find its way to Woronora Cemetery in Sutherland?

Robert Ritchie’s will dated 14 September 1848, details his property holdings on the Nepean River at Castlereagh. His farms were known as Chessers, Grose Farm and Hobby’s Farm plus another unnamed farm of 560 acres bought from Alfred Stephen Esq. In Sydney, he owned property fronting Pitt and Park Streets and also in Castlereagh Street and Exeter Place. The will indicates that he may have owned other unspecified property which he left for the benefit of his wife Ann. Other beneficiaries in the will include some of Ann’s relatives and Ritchie’s son James Ritchie on the condition that he remained in New South Wales.[iii]

 Ann Ritchie nee Kennedy also left a will which included detailed descriptions of her numerous properties on the Nepean and in Sydney. All the beneficiaries were Kennedy family members. Ann states that her late husband Robert Ritchie was buried in the Presbyterian burial ground which formed part of what later became known as Devonshire Street Cemetery in Sydney. Ann directed her executors to distribute £100 to the trustees of this burial ground to invest and use the interest earned on the investment for the upkeep of her husband’s tomb. Ann also directed that her remains be placed in the tomb. Robert Ritchie held a trustee positon for the Pitt Street Presbyterian church in 1842. The tombstone inscription suggests Ritchie was visiting one of his Nepean properties when he died.

 Robert Ritchie or Richey was a native of Killyleagh in County Down, Northern Ireland.[iv] In his early 20s, after being caught for stealing an ox, he was convicted of the crime at Downpatrick Assizes in April 1800 and subsequently sentenced to transportation ‘beyond the seas’ for his lifetime. Incarcerated in Ireland for 19 months, he then endured a seven-month voyage on board the Hercules which sailed into Port Jackson on 26 June 1802.[v] The Hercules deposited 165 Irish convict men and women for government assignment in Sydney Town and outlying areas. However, Governor King was of the opinion that the convicts ‘were in a state of convalescence… too weak and debilitated to be ever of much use.’[vi] Ritchie was 25 years old.

 While still a convict, Ritchie’s movements in the colony can be traced in the musters and the 1828 census. At first he rented land in the Hawkesbury district, farmed the land and kept hogs. On 6 August 1810, the government granted Ritchie his ticket of leave, allowing him to seek employment within the district of Hawkesbury.[vii] He could not leave this district unless authorised to do so by the presiding district magistrate. However by 1815, he had settled in Castlereagh.

 On New Year’s Day 1816, Ritchie married Ann Kennedy, a currency lass and daughter of Donald also known as Daniel Kennedy. Ritchie and a much younger Ann, repeated their vows before the Presbyterian Reverend Henry Fulton in the parsonage at Castlereagh. Four weeks after the wedding, Ritchie received a pardon on condition that he did not leave New South Wales. At this time he is a landholder at Castlereagh[viii] but whether he owned land prior to his marriage or acquired it after he married Ann is not known.

 Ann Ritchie died on 1 January 1865 at her home located at 343 Pitt Street, Sydney. Thirty-six years after her death, preparations to extend Sydney’s railway terminus northward was underway and would incorporate the land dedicated to the Sydney Burial Ground or Devonshire Street Cemetery. Relatives of the deceased were given the opportunity to arrange for the removal and reinterment of their loved ones to other Sydney cemeteries.

 Ann’s niece and one of the executors of Ann’s will, Mrs Ann Elizabeth Sproule, nee Howell was granted an exhumation permit for her aunt and her uncle Robert Ritchie. Mrs Sproule’s husband, John Sproule was the Presbyterian trustee for the Sutherland cemetery and arranged for his wife’s relatives to be reinterred at Woronora.

 John Sproule also arranged for the exhumation and reinterment in Woronora Cemetery of his first wife, Mary Ann Sproule who died on 19 August 1865 and their infant children Emma Jane and William John. No headstone marks the site of their reinterment.[ix]

Sue Hewitt 2019

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