Robert William KELLS

Kells Land at South Tomerong

Robert William Kells was the first child of Robert KELLS and Ellen BARTON. He was born at Longreach on the Shoalhaven River and moved to Tomerong with his parent/s in the early 1870s when he was in his teens and about the same time as his father passed away aged 41. His father had Conditionally Purchased 160 acres of land at Tomerong (Portions 103 and 156) and Robert and family would fulfil the conditions and inherit the land. Robert William Kells became a member of the Tomerong temperance society, 'The Flowers of the Forest Lodge' and attended their meetings in the village. He married Ann BRYCE II in 1885. Ann was born at Erowal in 1856 and was the daughter of Alexander BRYCE II and Isabella WATT. She died 11 months after the marriage, aged 29, whilst giving birth. Thirty year old Robert married Mary Ashby, 24, at the Union Church in Tomerong in 1889, reportedly the first marriage in the church building (the current building was opened in 1887). Mary was born at Araluen and their marriage witnesses were Thomas GANDERTON Jnr and Matilda Jane MILLER who worked at the Tomerong Store. Robert and Mary had three children but Mary died, probably in childbirth, just over three years into the marriage in 1893. She was just 27. Robert remarried in 1900 to Emma Wickens. The marriage record shows she was a 33 year old spinster from Meroo, near Bomaderry, and had been born in England. They would also have three children but sadly Amy, their stepsister, died when her flannelette underdress caught fire. Robert William Kells became a trustee of the Presbyterian Burial Ground at Tomerong (this cemetery was never used), a probable shareholder in the Tomerong Creamery, a trustee of Pelican Point Park, and a member of the executive committee of the Railway Extension League. He died in 1923 aged 64. His wife Emma died in 1947. Both are buried in Nowra Cemetery. When the new route of the Princes Highway was opened in 1995, this portion of the Highway was renamed Kells Road.

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Images

• Kells Story TP5912.
• Long Point Land TP5912.
• Marriage Kells Ashby TP5332.
• Marriage Kells Wickens TP5332.
• Tomerong Land TP5912.
• Kells House TP3429.
• Stock Brand TP6036.
• Headstone R474.
• Origin Map TP6266.

Links

1. Tomerong Local History Web Page- tomeronghistory.com
2. Tomerong Past Facebook Album- Tomerong Past Facebook This site may provide more information relative to this family. Check the 'Families' and 'Monuments' albums and those institutions that the family contributed to e.g. 'School', 'Sawmills', 'Clyde Shire' etcetera.
3. The Kells & Barton Families of Tomerong TP5912- Kells & Barton Families
4. Robert William Kells- Wikitree. Robert William Kells Wikitree