SARAH FRANCES HELEN BROWN
 

SARAH FRANCES HELEN BROWN

Sarah Frances Helen Brown was the wife of Richard Rennie (son of Richard Hutchinson Rennie).  She was born on January 6 1869 in Buninyong, Victoria (Buninyong Birth Registration 1141/1869).

Sarah was the sixth child of Richard Brown and Elizabeth Ann Sorton.

See Family Tree of Sarah Brown

It is said that Richard and Sarah knew each other as children.  In fact Sarah's father Richard Brown was the surgeon who treated young Richard Rennie in Buninyong for an injury he sustained whilst sliding down a shingle roof.

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Sarah's father died in 1873 when Sarah was less than four years old.  It is said that after his death, his widow Elizabeth and her children went back to England for a couple of years returning eventually to Ballarat.

Elizabeth Ann Brown later married James Valentine.  Her children kept the name Brown, and referred to James as "Papa Valentine".  They lived at 203 Liger St Ballarat.  The name Valentine was used as a christian name for several of the children of Sarah Rennie.

James and Elizabeth Valentine had a daughter Nellie Valentine.

 


Sarah Rennie (nee Brown) c1905
 


James Valentine and Elizabeth with daughter Nellie

MARRIAGE OF SARAH AND RICHARD RENNIE

Sarah Frances Helen Brown married Richard Rennie on May 25 1891 (Ballarat Marriage Registration 709/1891).  The place of marriage was recorded as her residence, 3 Ligar(sic) St Ballarat, and the marriage was according to the rites of the Ballarat United Town Mission.  Her age was given as 23 years (according to her birth registration this should be 22 years), and she was describes as a 'domestic'.  Richard was described as a bricklayer, also of Ballarat.

The witnesses to the marriage were John Rennie (Richard's brother) and Margaret Jane Brown (Sarah's sister).

Sarah signed her name 'Sarah Francis Helena(sic) Brown'.  (A similar spelling was used on her husband's death registration.  However on her husband's 1933 will and on her own 1937 will, which she signed, it was spelt Sarah Francis(sic) Eleanor(sic) Brown.)

Richard and Sarah had six children.  The first three were born in Ballarat.  Their oldest child Richard Edward Rennie was born at Ripon St (1891).  Valentine Goodchild Rennie was born at Havelock St (1893) and Lucy Sarah Sorton Rennie was born at Ascot St (1896).  These were presumably the residences of Richard and Sarah; Ascot St was recorded in the 1896/7 Ballarat directory as the address of 'Richard Rennie, bricklayer'.
 


3 Liger St Ballarat, residence of Sarah Brown.
(Sarah's mother with second husband James Valentine and their daughter Nellie.)
MOVING TO WESTERN AUSTRALIA

It is said that Richard Rennie came to Western Australia to get work, ahead of the rest of his family.  Sarah and her three children followed soon after.  Lucy at this stage was still a baby (she was born on November 5 1896), and was very ill on the boat and had to be carried on a pillow.

 It was recorded on Sarah's death registration (Fremantle Death Registration 113/1958) that she had been in Western Australia for 62 years, confirming that she came to Western Australia (late) in 1896.  However records of their arrival in W.A. have not been located.

They first lived in a tent near the Subiaco Post Office.  They bought a block of land near the Subiaco Library but were cheated by the vendor who did not own the land.  They eventually moved to a house in 5 Lilley St (corner of Carnac St) Beaconsfield where their next child Eleanor Valentine Rennie was born (1898).  By this time Sarah's husband was already being described as a 'contractor'.

Subsequent residences include corner of Carnac and Manning Streets Fremantle and corner of St Leonards Ave and Railway Pde Leederville.  By around 1926-8 they were living in a house Richard built in Stirling St Fremantle.  He built (and lived in) both 2 and 4 Stirling st, finally residing at 3 Ord St Fremantle.

When Lucy Rennie (nee Cleary) the wife of Sarah's son Richard Edward Rennie was ill, Sarah went to stay with them at Moora.  When Lucy died, Sarah played a big part in the care and upbringing of widower Richard Edward Rennie's children.  For a time the children moved to Fremantle while he  continued to farm at Moora.
 


3 Ord St. fremantle, final home of Richard and Sarah Rennie
DEATH OF SARAH FRANCES HELEN RENNIE

After Sarah's husband died in 1936, she continued to lived in the same Fremantle house with her unmarried daughter Lucy Rennie.

Sarah Frances Helen Rennie died at 3 Ord St on April 1 1958 aged 89 years (Fremantle Death Registration 113/58).  She was buried in the Rennie family grave, with her husband and her three deceased children, at the Fremantle Cemetery.
 
 
 

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Sarah Frances Helen Rennie (nee Brown)