Jonathon Gosper

  General Notes:

Kieth Shrimpton where it is noted:
CHILDREN OF JOSEPH GOSPER AND ANN MARSDEN

JONATHON 1841-1906

The seventh child and last born, son of Joseph and Ann, Jonathon was born at Upper Colo on 1st November 1841. He was said to have spent a number of years working in Queensland in his youth, but he was destined to return to Upper Colo, and to spend the rest of his life there. His grandson Cliff Paul tells of stories he heard about him in the following words: -

Before he was married he was a prospector in several gold mining areas, whether they were in Queensland or not I don't know. During his prospecting period he was a half owner of a mining claim, I have seen the receipt where he sold his share to his partners. From what I have been told he was very fond and gentle where children were concerned, he always found time to play games and tell them stories of his wanderings.

One story he told them was that one night when he pitched his camp and boiled his billy, a stranger rode up he was a heavily bearded fellow riding a very grand looking horse. The stranger said to Jonathon, "Do you know who I am?" Jonathon answered "Yes I do". They both shared Jonathon's meal and yarned the night away. As this was in "Thunderbolt's" known area, one can only guess who the stranger was.

The Bushranger Frederick Ward, commonly known as Thunderbolt, was Hawkesbury born and bred and Jonathon would probably have known him at least by sight, so it's quite probable that he is the person referred to.

Jonathon eventually took over Myrtledale from his father; all his brothers had married and moved away from the district, and no doubt Joseph needed a young strong back to carry on the farm. At Kurrajong on the 21st July 1874, he married fifteen year old Mary Elizabeth Simmons, the daughter of Elizabeth Simmons nee McClatchie.

Jonathon was a man of many facets. His obituary which appeared in the Windsor and Richmond Gazette described him as of retiring disposition he was a man whom the pomps and vanities of the world never troubled. He possessed one of

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the best of natures - though he was strong willed and relentless in any stand he took up - and there was no more honest creature on earth than the late Jonathon Gosper. He was apparently fond of music and laughter, his grandson Alex Conolly still has the old Squeezebox that he played at local dances; and it has been said that when he died much of the joy went out of Myrtledale. He was active in local affairs he was the local Justice of the Peace, and President of the Upper Colo and Wheeny Creek Progress Association, the local body that was the predecessor of the Colo Shire Council.

Jonathon is probably best remembered for his involvement in the building of the church at Upper Colo, and his subsequent rejection of that building. In the very early 1900's he was a member of the committee charged with the task of raising money to build a church at Upper Colo. Apparently a dispute arouse between the other committee members and Jonathon. The exact nature of the dispute has been lost with time; some say that Jonathon wanted the church to have a belfry and the others did not want one, others say that Jonathon wanted the building to be for all denominations, and the others wanted it to be for Church of England services only. Whatever the cause the result was that Jonathon returned to the contributors, all the money he had collected from them, and swore that neither he, nor his descendants, would ever enter that church, and they never have to this day. Something must be said for a man who can make a resolution and nearly a hundred years later his descendants still adhere to his word, without exception.

The small private cemetery on the Myrtledale property was established subsequent to Jonathon's altercation with the Upper Colo church, although two of his children who died in infancy at an earlier time are also buried on the property, but not in this cemetery. The Myrtledale Private Cemetery is now the final resting place of Jonathon and hiswife Mary, and five of his children.

Jonathon died at his home at Upper Colo on 26th October 1906, his wife Mary Elizabeth lived on until 2nd July 1926.

  Noted events in his life were:

• connection.

Jonathon married Mary Ann Elizabeth McClutchey, daughter of Richard (convict) Simmons and Elizabeth McClutchey, on 21 Jul 1874 in Kurrajong, NSW Australia. (Mary Ann Elizabeth McClutchey was born on 16 Apr 1858 in Sydney, NSW Australia, died on 2 Jul 1926 in Upper Colo, NSW Australia and was buried on 4 Jul 1926 in "Myrtledale", Upper Colo, NSW Australia.)