Notes for Robert HEPPINGSTONE

Descendants of
Captain Robert Brown
1809 – 1894

Notes for Robert HEPPINGSTONE

Robert may have been born in the village of Eyam, Derbyshire,England ... there are several Heppingstones about his time, many with names echoed among his children; however, we haven't found him (yet!)

An ex-soldier of Rifle Brigade, he emigrated as a servant to Capt. Molloy (with whom he had served in 95th Rifle Brigade primarily in Scotland and Ireland) & accompanied him to Augusta. Owned a town lot there. Staunch Freemason & Orangeman. He was drowned when washed off rocks at Cape Leeuwin.

For more on the family's immigration, see: Perth DPS: Passenger Ships arriving in Western Australia

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Many thanks to Rod Lyall for the following material:
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Heppingstone/McKinley: what do we know? (Version 5 - 10.11.08)

1. Muster rolls/pay lists in TNA, WO12 allow us to establish the following itinerary for
Robert Heppingstone:
1.6.1815 -- Recruited into 95th Foot at Stockport/Newcastle-under-Lyme
The June-August returns in WO12/9590 state both that Heppingstone was recruited by Captain Morow at Newcastle-under-Lyme and that he enlisted at Stockport on 1 June. These apparently contradictory statements can be reconciled if he initially made contact with a recruiting party in Stockport and then moved south to Newcastle, completing the formalities and joining a larger party of recruits there. This is also consistent with the fact that although he was paid from 1 June, the party did not leave Newcastle-under-Lyme, marching to Shorncliffe under Colonel Robertson's command, on 15 June. It doesn't follow, of course, that Stockport was Heppingstone's home town, but it gives us an area to investigate: the fact that he is found in south-east Lancashire certainly doesn't contradict a Derbyshire origin. Eyam, where there is a large Heppingstone contingent, is 25 miles from Stockport.

15.6.-5.7.1815 ---- Marches Newcastle to Shorncliffe
25.9.-31.10.1815 -- With provisional company, 95th Foot
30-31.10.1815 ---- Marches Shorncliffe to Ramsgate
1.11.1815 ---- 'To companies on service'
The pay lists make it absolutely clear that Heppingstone was NOT at Waterloo: not only is he evidently in England throughout the summer ands autumn of 1815 (and marching southwards on the day of the battle), but the notes in the lists consistently indicate 'Waterloo Man' against those who were veterans of the battle. Heppingstone is never so marked.

23.11.1815 -- Joins 8th Company, 3rd Battn, 95th Foot 'from England'
1815-1818 -- Dublin - Waterford - Cork - Birr - Roscrea
05.-07.1816 ---- Regimental hospital
5.2.1819 ---- Joins 6th Company, 1st Battn at Haslar Barracks, Gosport
17.03-06.04.1819 -- On furlough
Heppingstone's battalion commander in 1815-19, when he was in the 8th Company, 3rd Battalion, was William Cox (WO12/10168). He transferred to the 6th Company, 1st Battalion on returning from furlough in April 1819, when his new commander was James Percival (WO12/10056). John Molloy was promoted to Captain on 5 August 1824, and Heppingstone tranferred to his company, the 8th, in July 1825, when the 6th was one of four posted to Nova Scotia (WO12/10059). Hasluck seems not to have used the Muster rolls, and she doesn't look at company level - but at least Molloy and Heppingstone were in the same battalion, though not the same company, between 1819 and 1829.

05.-07.1819 ---- Regimental hospital (presumably at Gosport)
19-27.9.1819 ---- Sails Gosport - Leith
28-30.9.1819 ---- Marches Leith - Glasgow
16-24.11.1820 ---- Marches to Port Patrick
11.1820 -- To Belfast
11.1820-03.1821 -- Armagh
03.-09.1821 ---- Strabane
02.05.1821 ---- Robert junior, mother Agnes McKinlay, baptised Strabane
12.1821-04.02.1822 -- Wexford
02.-03.1822 ---- Rathkeale
25.3.1822 ---- Receives additional pay after 7 years' service
03.-12.1822 ---- Glenduff
[22.6.1822 ---- Earliest birth date for Charlotte]
12.1822-11.1823 -- ???
[22.6.1823 ---- Probable birth date for Charlotte]
11.1823 ---- To Dublin
31.03.1824 ---- marriage to Mary Ann McKillar, St Paul's, Dublin
09.1824 ---- To Belfast
03.-05.1825 ---- Carrickfergus
07.1825 ---- Much of Rifle Brigade posted to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
-------- Heppingstone transfers to Molloy's 8th Company and stays at
Cavan
1826 -- Drogheda - Naas - Dublin - Drogheda
1827 ---- Drogheda - Dublin - Stonehouse (Plymouth)
10-11.1827 ---- On command in Bristol
-30.7.1828 ---- Stonehouse
30/31.7.1828 ---- To Gosport
15-28.1.1829 ---- On pass
13.3.1829 ---- To Portsmouth
25.3.1829 ---- Receives additional pay after 14 years' service
[c. 4.1829 ---- Ann born]
07.-09.1829 ---- Purchase of discharge
5-10.8.1829 ---- Absent
11-23.8.1829 ---- Absent
12-13.8/1829 ---- Battalion moves to Dover
25.8.1829 ---- Leaves again
5.9.1829 ---- Discharged

2. Charlotte Heppingstone's gravestone states that she died on 11 July 1879, aged 58 years
and 19 days, giving a birth date of 22 June 1821. On the other hand, the 1880
Washington census return says that she was 56 when she died which would make the year
1823.
1821 seems to be ruled out by the fact that Robert junior was baptised in May of that
year; in fact, this makes the timing very tight for Charlotte being born in 1822 as well. 22
June 1823 therefore looks like the best possible date.

3. The census also says that she was born in England, and that her mother was born in
Scotland.

4. The list of passengers arriving on the Warrior in March 1830 includes:
-- Robert Heppingstone ---- 32 ---- [i.e. b. c. 1798]
-- Ann Heppingstone née McKinley -- 26 ---- [i.e. b. c. 1804]
-- Robert Heppingstone ---- -- 9 ---- [b. c. 1821]
-- Charlotte Heppingstone ---- 7 ---- [b. c. 1823]
-- Ann Heppingstone ---- -- 11 months -- [b. 1829]
This list is, according to Hasluck, 'made from Applications for Land by persons stating
that they arrived on [the] ship, and from allusions in diaries'. Its reliability is, therefore,
suspect.

6. Regarding Ann Bryan's death, her tombstone in Busselton apparently says that she
died on 15 April 1878, aged 83, (indexed at
OzBurials.com and image at
Captain Brown home page) which would suggest a DoB before 15 April
1795. Her death certificate apparently gives her age as 77, which would mean she was
born c. 1801. The stone is a reconstruction, and therefore less likely to be accurate than the
death certificate. The Warrior list is most likely to be an approximation.

7. The ages of the two eldest Heppingstone children suggest that they were born before the
1824 marriage of Robert and Ann (this may explain some websites giving the date of the
marriage as 'c. 1820'!). Were they children of a previous marriage? The gap between
Charlotte and Ann might suggest this?
This hypothesis now appears to be confirmed by the clear evidence (a) that Robert
junior's mother was Agnes McKinlay (a neat conflation of two family traditions!) and (b)
that Robert senior married Mary Ann McKillar in 1824.

Questions:
· -- What is the evidence for the claim that the maiden name of the woman who arrived in WA with Robert Heppingstone was McKinlay?
· -- Are there surviving baptismal records for the remaining Heppingstone children? (Charlotte was presumably born in Ireland, the evidence of the Washington census nothwithstanding, and Ann was presumably born in Portsmouth, or possibly Gosport)
· -- Why did Robert senior get three weeks' furlough in March-April 1819, six weeks after being transferred from the 3rd Battalion to the 1st?
· -- What were Hasluck's WA sources for her version of the Heppingstone family in 1830?

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