This is an excerpt from Petticoats in the Orchard by Irvine Green published by Doncaster-Templestowe Historical
Society. This book gives valuable insights into the life and times of early Doncaster. See Schramm’s Cottage
for details of how to get books on the history of the district.
A news item appeared in the Melbourne “Argus” in the 1850’s saying that bush fires
could be seen on Clays Hill at Doncaster. The work ‘clay’ had nothing to do with the soil, the hill was
called after John and Agnys Clay who owned land on the south of Doncaster Road where the Shell Computer building now stands.
John Clay and Agnys both grew up in Devon and were married in 1833 in the parish church of Frithelstock,
a small town near to Great Torrington. In this same church Agnys had been christened twenty two years before.
She and John went to live at “Hall Farm” [Hallwood Farm] in Petrockstowe, a small farm the Clay family leased
on Lord Clintons estate.
Seventeen years later the couple decided to emigrate to Australia, the country everyone was talking
about. John began to dream about owning his own farm and Agnys thought of her children growing up in the land of sunshine.
She also thought of the long sea journey. After living all her life in a corner of Devon, without travelling more than
a few miles, Agnys was faced with a voyage to the other side of the world.
The family sailed from Plymouth in March 1851 in the ship “The City of Manchester”.
Four months later they arrived in Adelaide where they intended to settle but Agnys did not like the town, after the neat green
meadows of Devon, running around the street in bare feet. News of the gold discovery at Ballarat reached Adelaide, so
John decided to go to Victoria and try his luck at the goldfields. However, on arriving in Melbourne, Agnys developed
typhoid fever.
The Clays settled in Condell Street, Fitzroy, where John became a storekeeper. The people of
Fitzroy found the spelling Agnys’ name difficult so she changed it to “Agnes”.
Their ninth child, Catherine, was born at Condell Street and the same year Agnes had the sorrow of
losing her five year old daughter Elizabeth. The house was small and crowded so John bought land in Doncaster and built
a large home for his family of eight children. The eldest, William, was twenty and the youngest three. The older
boys helped their father clear the land and plant vegetables while the younger children went to Misses Wilson’s log
school in Wilson Road. Agnes enjoyed her new house, with plenty of room for her large family and being a generous, hospitable
woman, who made friends easily, she was pleased to have a spacious home for entertaining. She became a familiar figure
as she walked along Doncaster Road in her poke bonnet, long black skirt and shawl. Often when a woman’s time has
come she would call for Agnes to act as mid-wife for the occasion.
The Clay family took part in the social like of the district, for Agnes always welcomed her neighbours
and the many friends of her children. The eldest girl, Mary Anne, became engaged to William Mitchell in 1865.
Agnes enthusiastically prepared for the wedding festivities in her home. When Holy Trinity Church was opened, Agnes
helped Eliza Pickering organise a tea meeting and at the opening of the Athenaeum Hall, she offered to provide for a table
of fifty.
During the next years the Clay children gave their mother many opportunities for entertaining as
they grew up and found wives in the district. Joseph married Lucy Crossman, Mary Anne married William Mitchell,
Catherine fell in love with and married Edwin Wilson, the brother of her former school teacher at the log school, Eliza married
Jane Petty’s son Tom, but Richard found his wife Mary Anne Carnegie in Collingwood where they were married in the Congregational
Church. Richard brought Mary Anne to live in a new house on the family orchard. Eliza and Tom Petty were married
in the front room of the Clay home on Clay’s Hill at Doncaster. Eliza’s mother Agnes revelled in preparing
the house for the wedding, cleaning, polishing and decorating and cooking ham and meat for the wedding breakfast. The
ceremony was performed by the Reverend William Pentland, according to the Rites and Usages of the Congregational Church, in
the spring of 1873. The couple went to live in a house Tom had built in Doncaster Road near his parents’ home.
John Clay died in 1871, exactly twenty years after his arrival in Australia. He had been a
quiet retiring man whereas Agnes was an outgoing woman. With John’s death Agnes became a farmer, for she had inherited
the orchard. Then years later Agnes Clay also died. [She died in Wandin at William & Mary Anne Mitchell’s
home in 1881]
