John Coates Family History

The information and photos on this page are from many sources. We have done a lot of research ourselves, especially searching through old newpapers and BDM records and visiting places of interest in England and Australia. The assistance of other family-history-minded members of the extended family has been invaluable, including (but not limited to) Margaret Thomson, Audrey Walker, Carole Wilkinson, Rob Bowler and the late Jim Bolton. Please contact me if you have additions, corrections or questions.
I would particularly like to hear from you if you are related to our branch of the Coates family.

Coates

William Augustus Coates

My great-great-great-great-grandfather, William Augustus Coates, was born on 21 June 1748 in Westminster, London, and baptised on 6 July 1748 in Westminster. His parents were Thomas Coates and Elizabeth (probably Elizabeth née Knight) of Saville Row, London. Thomas may have been a tailor.
William Augustus Coates married Mary Denbigh on 2 January 1768 at St James Dukes Place, London. They had 6 children, 3 of whom became surgeons:

William Henry Coates (1771-1849) was admitted as an Apothecary, Free by Servitude, on 6 August 1802. He was an army-surgeon who was attached to a hussar regiment (a cavalry regiment of the British Army), served with distinction throughout the Peninsular war, and, when peace came, settled down in practice at Salisbury.

William Henry Coates was born 4 July 1771 in Westminster, London; baptised 31 July 1771 at St James Dukes Place, London; died 3 April 1853 at The Close, Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire. He married Esther Davy (baptised 16 March 1782 in Brightwell and Foxhall, Suffolk, England; died 20 January 1849 at The Close, Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire). They were married on 4 April 1799 at St Mary Coslany, Norwich, Norfolk. William Henry and Esther had 3 children:
- Eliza Sarah Coates (1801-1874); married in 1821 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, Charles Bassett Roe (1789-1872); they had 10 children:
  - Nessy Jane Roe (1823-1904)
  - Charles William Roe (1826-1911)
  - Harcourt James Roe (1827-1926)
  - Eliza Margaret Roe (1829-1895)
  - Constance Roe (1833-1912)
  - Beauchamp Roe (1834-?)
  - Caroline Kate Madeline Roe (1836-1934)
  - Eugene Mervyn Roe (1838-1908)
  - Herbert Frank Roe (1838-1918), Ernest Bassett Roe (1840-1857).
- William Martin Coates (1811-1885); surgeon, married in 1837 in Britford, Wiltshire, Caroline Ann Amelia Kelsey (1816-1897). Transcription of WM Coates' 1885 obituary.
  William Martin and Caroline had 17 children:
  - Nessy Amelia Caroline Coates (1838-1854)
  - Frederick William Coates (1840-1917 BC Canada)
  - Eva Eliza Emma Coates (1841-1928)
  - Frances Charlotte Coates (1842-1887)
  - Edward Martin Charles Coates (1843-1880 NSW Australia)
  - Mervyn Henry Coates (1844-1933 NSW Australia)
  - Alfred Coates (1846-1894)
  - Ernest Coates (1847-1921)
  - Mary Annie Coates (1848-1931)
  - Edith Harriet Coates (1850-1931)
  - Walter Coates (1851-1851)
  - Harcourt Coates (1853-1907); surgeon
  - Florence Susette Coates (1865-1893)
  - Gilbert Herbert Coates (1856-1887); surgeon
  - Constance Helen Coates (1857-1929)
  - Ethel Coates (1858-1858)
  - Francis Walter Ellis Coates (1861-after 1944 New York, USA); surgeon.
- Mervyn George Walter Coates (1816-1869); surgeon, married in 1848 in Southampton, Hampshire, Frances Elizabeth Blanchard; they had 4 children:
  - Esther Elizabeth Coates (1848-1877)
  - Amy Coates (1848-1926)
  - Mary Caroline Coates (1854-1918)
  - Katherine Coates (1855-1941).
Mary Coates
Born 23 February 1773 in Westminster, London; baptised 19 March 1773 at St James Dukes Place, London.
Ann Coates
Born 3 July 1775 in Westminster, London; baptised 1 August 1775 at St James Dukes Place, London.
Jane Coates
Born 13 October 1776 in Westminster, London; baptised 20 November 1776 at St James Dukes Place, London.
Henry Coates, surgeon; my great-great-great-grandfather, see below
Born 25 November 1779 in Westminster, London; baptised 10 May 1780 at St James Dukes Place, London.
Charles Coates, surgeon of Bond Street, London
Born 16 June 1782 in Westminster, London; baptised 26 July 1782 at St James Dukes Place, London.
He married Rosanna Bogle Middleton (1785-?) on 22 April 1816 at St Mary Abbott, Kensington (he was 'of the parish of St George, Hannover Square').
They had two children:
- Helen Rosanna Coates (1820-?) who married William Ward in 1844 in London. They migrated to America in 1860 with their 3 surviving children:
  - George Charles Ward
  - Elizabeth Helen Ward
  - Frederick William Ward.
- Frederick John Robertson Coates (1822-1877) who married Olivia Pittard in 1847 in Lambeth, Surrey. They migrated to Australia on the David Maciver in 1853 with their two children:
  - Frederick Coates (1849-1937)
  - Clara Olivia Coates (1850-1933).

Henry Coates

Henry Coates, was born on 25 November 1779 in Westminster, London, and baptised on 10 May 1780 at St James Dukes Place, London. He married Elizabeth Lamb (born 25 October 1777) on 9 August 1802 at St Pancras Old Church, London. On his marriage record, Henry is described as being "of the Parish of Sturminster Newton, Dorset".
Elizabeth Lamb was the eldest daughter of Peniston Lamb, Lord Melbourne (1745-1828) and Lady Elizabeth Milbanke (1751-1818). She died on 28 November 1844 at Milford St, Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Henry Coates died on 6 April 1848 at Queen Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, leaving his estate to his then unmarried daughter Sarah Ann Louisa Coates.

Henry's appointment as a Consultant Surgeon at the Salisbury Infirmary began in 1804 and lasted until his retirement in 1847. A record of his career is summarised on the Honour Board 1766-1974, now at the new Salisbury District Hospital, which replaced the Salisbury Infirmary. Florence Nightingale is said to have started her nursing career at Salisbury Infirmary during Henry Coates’ time as a Consultant Surgeon. Henry's brother William Henry Coates was also a surgeon in Salisbury, as were two of William's sons.

Henry Coates and Elizabeth Lambe had 4 children:

Ann Eliza Coates
Baptised 31 October 1804 at Salisbury St Edmunds, Wiltshire.

Henry William Coates, surgeon, my great-great-grandfather, see below
Born 11 November 1805 in Salisbury, Wiltshire; baptised 6 December 1805 at Salisbury St Edmunds, Wiltshire.

John Charles Knight Coates
Born 23 May 1811 in Salisbury, Wiltshire; baptised 9 August 1812 at Salisbury St Thomas, Wiltshire. He is recorded in the London Medical Gazette on 7 April 1836 as having gained his Apothecary's certificate. He married Selina Webb on 11 June 1836 in Eynsham, Oxfordshire and she died three months later on 24 September 1836. John Charles Knight Coates died in August 1839 at St Martin, Isle of Jersey, Channel Islands.

Sarah Ann Louisa Coates (Ann Sarah Louisa Coates)
Baptised 13 June 1812 at Salisbury, Wiltshire. She was the sole heir to her father's estate. In 1849 she married a surgeon, Andrew Bogle Middleton (1819-1879), and they lived in The Close, Salisbury, where he was in General Practice. There were no children of this marriage. Sarah died on 29 April 1872 in Salisbury; there is a plaque dedicated to her and her husband in Salisbury Cathedral.

Henry William Coates

Henry William Coates was born on 11 November 1805 in Salisbury, Wiltshire and baptised on 6 December 1805 at Salisbury St Edmunds, Wiltshire. He married Marianne Calmady Richardson (1809-1896) on 21 August 1834 in St Mary Abbots, Kensington, London. She was the daughter of Warwick Calmady Richardson and Marianne Walker. The Calmady family of Langdon Court, Devon, were landed gentry who can be traced back for hundreds of years.

Henry William came from a family of surgeons but does not appear to have had much enthusiasm for the profession. He qualified for the licentiate in medicine and surgery of the society of Apothecaries on 6 March 1834 (Guildhall Library, Ms.8241/6, p.407). This was his second attempt: he had been rejected when first reporting for his finals on 7 February 1828. According to the entry for the latter date in the Candidates’ Entry Books (Hall Registers) of the Society’s Court of Examiners (Ms.8241/4, p.365), he was the son of Henry Coates, of Salisbury, Wiltshire, apothecary, a freeman-member of the Society, and was bound apprentice to his father on 3 September 1822 for term of seven years. His date of birth is given as 6 December 1805. Having attended his lectures and clinical demonstrations according to the syllabus then in force, he is on record as having attended ‘for several years occasionally at the Salisbury Infirmary’ as a student. It does not appear that he – on expiration of his term of apprenticeship – took up his freedom of the Society at a London Guild, but decided to qualify as a practitioner under the provisions of the Apothecaries’ Act of 1815.

The Royal College of Surgeons of England recorded that Henry William Coates was made a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries (L.S.A.) on 6 March 1834, and a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (M.R.C.S. Eng.) on 26 April 1833. His address in the College records was always “Salisbury”. They have no record of his emigration to Australia. He did not inform the College of that fact or ask to have his name listed in the British Medical Directory after it commenced in 1847.

At the time of his marriage in 1834, he was apparently living in London. Then he was in Norfolk for a period before departing London on 7 October 1838 as a surgeon on the Resource. He arrived in Port Adelaide, South Australia, with his wife and two surviving children, on 23 January 1839. He practised as a surgeon in early South Australia in various locations, finally settling in the Lyndoch Valley.

Mr Henry Coates, Member of the College of Surgeons of London, and Licentiate of the Apothecaries' Hall, begs leave to inform his friends and the public in general, that he has removed from the Port to Sturt-street, near the Queen's Arms, Adelaide. [South Australian Register, 9 August 1845]

In 1847 he was unfairly charged with medical manslaughter and was acquitted after a trial which was sympathetically and colourfully reported in the local press.

On 16 March 1851, Henry William Coates was found dead beside the road by a group of Germans, near where he lived in the Lyndoch Valley. He was 45 years old and the cause of death was "an act of God" according to the inquest held in the Lord Lyndoch Hotel. He was buried in the Gawler Old Cemetery and his name is now listed on the commemorative plaque in Pioneer Park, Gawler, SA, Australia.

His widow Marianne was newly pregnant and had eight children aged between 14 years and 7 months. Five months later she was flooded out of her home:
THE FLOODS.-In Lyndoch Valley, the flood of rain on the 18th caused considerable damage, not only in washing away a large amount of grain, but also in destroying a quantity of fencing. About 8 o'clock the Valley was one sheet of water, reaching above the second rail of the fences. One family, Mrs. Coates and children, were obliged to seek shelter in the schoolmaster's residence, their own house having two feet of water in it. [Adelaide Observer 30 August 1851]

She returned to Adelaide and lived for a period in a home for the destitute in North Adelaide, where her last child Emily was born in December 1851, and where her second youngest child Ellen Laura died a year later.

By 1856 Marianne Coates had relocated with all or most of her children from Adelaide to the Victorian Goldfields. On 10 January 1856 'in Mr Cayley's tent', Daisy Hill Diggings, she married Henry Hutchinson of Gloucester, England. He was a digger, aged 28, and she stated her age as 39 (she was 47). Her eldest daughter Kathleen married Alfred Cayley on the same day. Marianne and Henry Hutchinson's marriage was probably one of convenience, perhaps financial, as there is no further evidence of him in her life. However, she stayed in contact with her children and was a witness to several of her grandchildren's births.

Marianne exchanged a life of some privilege in England to a rough, difficult life in the Australian bush. Her first marriage was in a grand church in Kensington, London, and her second in a tent on the diggings. It appears that she may have embraced her new surroundings, as evidenced by what she describes as her first and last attempt at versifying, written in 1847:

The Bushmans life

Who would not lead a Bushmans life
A life so happy and free
with plenty of fun & naught of strife
But mirth and heart felt glee

Then Hurrra Hurra
Hurra for the Bush Hurra

At Morn no ominous clock doth tell
The hour for us to rise;
The Sun is our Glorious matin bell
With him we know time flies

Chorus

There is plenty of sport for the Bushman who
Loves on his stead to roam
And follow with dogs the swift Emu
Or Kangerroo to his doom

Chorus

No traveller need want a place of rest
When a Bushmans hut is near
For tho plain the fare & rough the nest
The welcome is true and sincere

Chorus

Then give to me the Bushmans life
A life so happy and free
My horse, my dog, my gun, my knife
Are all in all to me

Chorus

my first and last attempt at versifying 1847 M Coates
Lyndoch Valley S.A.

Marianne died on 10 Jun 1896 at Outtrim, VIC, Australia and she was buried in the Korrumburra Cemetery, without a headstone.

Marianne and Henry William Coates had 10 children:

Alfred John Coates
Born 13 May 1835 in London; baptised 27 May 1835 All Saints, Bishops-Fonthill, Wiltshire; died 20 August 1835 in England.
Henry William Coates
Born 4 April 1836; baptised 5 September 1838 St Luke's, Chelsea, London. He came to Adelaide with his parents and sister in 1839. No record has been found for him on the Victorian Goldfields with the rest of his family, but in the NSW Police Gazette of 11 August 1880, there is a notice under Missing Friends: Information is requested respecting Henry William Coates, about 44 years of age, last known address, care of Messrs Pettit and Cameron, New Babinda, Eubalong, but is reported to have been seen at Cobar about February last. Information to Inspector General of Police. E.B.-- 397. It is not known whether this notice was successful in locating him, but there is a death of a Henry W Coates in 1891 at Burke, New South Wales, age 58, parents unknown.
Kathleen Eliza Coates
Born 13 October 1837; baptised 5 September 1838 St Luke's, Chelsea, London. She came to Adelaide with her parents and brother in 1839. She married Alfred Henry Cayley (1826-1871) on 10 January 1856 'in Mr Cayley's tent', Daisy Hill Diggings, VIC, Australia. She died on 20 August 1928 at Maryborough, Victoria. Kathleen and Alfred had 7children:
- Kathleen Louisa Cayley (1856-1947)
- Frederick John Cayley 1858-1949
- Sarah Ann Cayley 1860-1899
- Ellen Marianne Cayley (1862-1948)
- Alfred Henry Cayley (1864-1936)
- Elizabeth Emily Cayley (1867-1965)
- Warwick James Cayley (1871-1889).
John Lamb Coates, my great-grandfather, see below
Born 6 June 1840 in Hindmarsh, SA, Australia; baptised 26 November 1840 Adelaide, SA. He died on 1 February 1929 at Cootamundra, NSW, Australia.
Isabel Louisa Coates
Born 6 June 1840 in Hindmarsh, SA, Australia. She married James Valentine (1833-1906) on 19 December 1859 at Majorca, VIC, Australia. She died in 1912 in Hay, NSW, Australia.Isabel and James had 11 children:
- Alice Ann Valentine (1860-1860)
- Eliza Valentine (1861-1950)
- Cathleen Louisa Valentine (1863-1955
- Alice Selina Valentine (1867-1952)
- John William (Jack) Valentine (1870-1956)
- Ellen Margaret Valentine (1872-1976)
- Emily Sarah Valentine (1875-18761)
- James Frederick C Valentine (1877-1953)
- Ethel May Valentine (1880-?)
- Rose Valentine (1883-1965)
- Lewis (Lew) Valentine 91885-1970).
Frederick Charles Coates
Born 13 December 1843 in Port Adelaide, SA, Australia. He was a miner and did not marry. He died in November 1905 in East Melbourne.
Warwick Calmady Coates
Born 22 April 1847 in Lindock Valley, SA, Australia. He married Barbara Murray (1849-1928) on 3 March 1870 at Talbot, VIC, Australia. He died at age 31 years on 11 July 1878 in Hay, NSW.
Warwick's wife Barbara Murray had been born on 10 July 1849 in Melbourne, VIC, Australia to Scottish emigrants William Montague Murray and Elizabeth McEwan; Barbara had a twin, Christina, who died at about 4 months of age. Two years after Warwick's death, his widow Barbara married his older brother, John Lamb Coates.
Barbara and Warwick had 4 children:
- William Warwick Coates ('William Warwick Coates - a short narrative' is a short story about William looking back over his life.)
  Born 8 August 1870 at Rocky Flat near Talbot, VIC. He married Mary McKinnon (1875-1929) on 13 November 1895 in Hay, NSW.
  He died on 4 June 1958 at Murwillumbah, NSW. They had 2 children:
  - Veronica Blanche Coates (1896-1985) who married Allen Patrick O'Meara; they had 2 children
  - Edna McKinnon Coates (1907-1934) who married Frederick George Boase Stratford on 18 September 1929 in Lismore, NSW; they had 2 children.
- John Daniel Coates
  Born 6 March 1872 at Rocky Flat near Talbot, VIC. He married (1) on 25 October 1897 in Sydney, NSW, Kate Mary Teresa Keating (1870-1925). Later on the same day they sailed for America on the Mariposa; they settled in Chicago IL where he worked as a streetcar motorman for many years. in later life John Daniel Coates married (2) a widow Mary E Ford née Sullivan (c1877-1952). He died 1 December 1971 in Chicago, IL, aged 99 years and 9 months.
  John and Kate had three children who all died in their early 20s, during flu epidemics:
  - Stanley Joseph Coates, born 15 July 1899 in Chicago, IL, died 16 March 1922 in Chicago, IL
  - Emmett Coates born 23 August 1901 in Chicago, IL, died 18 November 1924 in Chicago, IL
  - Marion Ursula Coates born 22 October 1905 in Chicago, IL, died 5 August 1926 in Chicago, IL.
- Frederick Montague Coates
  Born 8 February 1875 at Rocky Flat near Talbot, VIC. He married Jane Anne Wrathall (1874-1952) on 30 April 1902 in Hay, NSW; they settled in Albury. He died on 13 January 1962 in Albury, NSW. Fred and Jane had one child:
  - Lorna Wrathall Coates (1904-1949) who married Kenneth James Bowler (1902-1939); they had 2 sons.
- Henry Calmady (Cal) Coates
  Born 23 December 1877 in Hay, NSW and died 20 August 1879 at the Marked Tree Point near Hay, NSW. He accidentally drowned in a billabong.
The Coates and their cousins the Valentines lived at Marked Tree Point, near Hay, NSW. It was a small settlement on a beautiful bend in the Murrumbidgee River, where the explorer Sturt marked a tree in 1829. Close by is an extensive black box forest, the timber from which was favoured by the paddle-steamers which plied the river system at that time as the main means of transporting wool and other produce. John became a wood cutter and carter, supplying wood for the riverboats. His stepson and nephew, William Warwick Coates, told his grand-daughter Audrey that he remembered helping his stepfather John by carrying bundles of wood across the plank onto the boats.

On 11 July 1878, Warwick Calmady Coates died in Hay, leaving a widow Barbara and their four young sons: William Warwick Coates, John Daniel Coates, Frederick Montague Coates and Henry Calmady Coates.

Accident. - Mr Warwick Coates, son-in-law of Mr Murray, the tailor, of Hay, while chopping wood on Tuesday at his place, near the Marked Tree Point, suffered an extremely severe jar from the axe rebounding from a knot in the log. His right arm and side were paralysed and some bloodvessels burst in his head, rendering him unconscious and powerless - he lay in a comatose state for two days, when consciousness began to return and hopes are now entertained of his recovery. [The Riverine Grazier (Hay), Saturday 6 July 1878]

DEATH. COATES.-On 11th instant, Mr Warwick Coates, aged 31, at the residence of his father-in-law, Mr M. Murray, Hay. [The Riverine Grazier (Hay), Saturday 13 July 1878]

Further tragedy struck a year later, on 20 August 1879, when their youngest child, 19-month-old Henry Calmady Coates (Cal), wandered away and accidentally fell down the steep bank of a lagoon and was drowned. His older brother William Warwick Coates blamed himself and had guilty feelings for the rest of his life. William had gone to the shop to get the milk early that morning and he did not realise that young Cal had tried to follow him and then fell into the lagoon. William was sent to school that day to get him away from the upset, but he was late and was caned for his excuse that his brother had died in the “bloody” dam.

Warwick Calmady Coates' widow Barbara Murray married his brother, John Lamb Coates (see below)
Elizabeth Lucy Coates
Born 24 July 1848 in Gawler Town, SA, Australia (recorded as Elizabeth Selina in her mother's family bible). She married John Hopkins (1831-1903) on 4 December 1867 at McCallums Creek, VIC, Australia. She died on 31 August 1936 at Wanganui, New Zealand. Elizabeth and John had 9 children:
- Lydia Hopkins (1868-1948 NZ)
- Charles John Hopkins (1870-1877)
- Elizabeth Louisa Hopkins (1872-1955)
- Lewis Llewllyn Hopkins (1874-1943)
- Frederick John Hopkins (1877-1961)
- Edith Marion Hopkins (1880-1960)
- William Henry Hopkins (1883-?)
- Sarah Mealing Hopkins (1886-1979 NZ)
- Annie May Hopkins (1890-1960 NZ).
Ellen Laura Coates
Born 17 August 1850 in Lindoch Valley, SA, Australia. She died at age 2 years on 15 December 1852 in North Adelaide.
Emily Coates
Born 22 December 1851 in North Adelaide, SA, Australia (9 months after her father's death). She married Johnson Taylor (1843-1915) on 13 October 1870 at Rocky Flat, VIC, Australia. She died on 5 January 1936 at Daglish, WA, Australia. Emily and Johnson had 9 children:
- Edwin Frederick Taylor (1871-1953)
- Charles Johnson Taylor (1873-1957)
- Henry Beaumont Taylor (1877-1969)
- Emily Marianne Taylor (1879-1947)
- Ernest Taylor (1881-1950)
- Warwick Taylor (1883-1969)
- Alfred Taylor (1885-1962)
- George Taylor (1887-1972)
- Elizabeth Rose Taylor (1890-1981).

John Lamb Coates

John Lamb Coates was born on 6 June 1840 in Hindmarsh, SA, Australia to Henry William Coates and Marianne Calmady Coates née Richardson. He was the first of Henry and Marianne's children to be born in Australia, 17 months after his parents had arrived from England with their two surviving children. He was baptised on 26 November 1840 in Adelaide, SA. He married twice. His first marriage was to Elizabeth Raeburn (1855-1877) on 13 January 1875 in Navarre, VIC. She was the daughter of Robert Raeburn and Elizabeth Hart. At the time of their marriage he gave his occupation as farmer, present address Banyena Station, and usual address Gre Gre near St Arnaud. Elizabeth was in poor health for most of the two years of their marriage. She died at age 22 on 30 January 1877 at Banyena, VIC, from "jaundice, haemorrhage, exhaustion". John's second marriage was to his widowed sister-in-law, Barbara Coates née Murray on 14 September 1880 in Hay, NSW, Australia.

John grew up in Hindmarsh, Port Adelaide, Adelaide, Gawler and the Lindoch Valley. After his father died suddenly in 1851 the family moved to North Adelaide where they lived in a benevolent home for the destitute. His youngest sister Emily was born there. John later stated that he had arrived in Victoria in 1854 per the Albion. He would have been 14 years old and presumably travelled with some or all of his family.

John and his brothers were miners on the Victorian Goldfields, in the Talbot area. John also worked as a slaughterman from at least 1865, perhaps when he was out of luck mining gold. On 4 October 1865, he was admitted to the Talbot hospital with a compound fracture of the skull. He discharged himself on 6 November and was then readmitted 12 days later and stayed for 6 weeks.

He then appears to have become an agricultural labourer before taking up a selection of 320 acres at Banyena in January 1874. As a selector he was required to build a dwelling and make improvements to the land to a specified annual value. It was later suggested that he was a "dummy" selector for William Pilgrim who owned adjoining land, and for whom John worked. Evidence was given by their neighbours, the Tuckers, in a December 1876 application to the Land Court to have the land forfeited and reassigned to John Tucker:

Extract from Benjamin Tucker's statement:

Considering the application for forfeiture of John Coates selection at Banyena I may say that he has been always considered a Dummy for Mr Pilgrim ever since he first pegged it out, as on one or more of his corner posts when or after he pegged it out was written John Coates Dummy for Wm Pilgrim. Mr Pilgrim's team has carted the material to build the house and what is called Mr Pilgrim's carpenter (Mr Bonhem) built the house residing at Mr Pilgrims while building it. The land that is ploughed was done by Mr Pilgrim's plough and team of bullocks and the fencing was carted by Mr Pilgrims team. And I believe for the last 18 months there has not been one hours work done on the selection as improvements. John Coates being a servant of Mr Pilgrim a long time previous to his selecting and I believe has never ceased .... since that time and whatever has been done on the ground I believe has been at the expense of Mr Pilgrim and the said Mr Pilgrims sheep and cattle has grazed the land ever since it has been in the possession of the said John Coates. I believe the improvements would have been put on but another party that was put on another selection previously refused to make a transfer to Mr Pilgrim consequently the putting on of improvements to John Coates selection stopped 18 months ago. And I believe that the said John Coates is now merely holding possession of the selection until Mr Pilgrims son is of age to take it up as was done in the case of Susan Pilgrim daughter of the said Wm Pilgrim by Mr Bonhem who forfeited or gave it up as soon as Susan Pilgrim came of age to select.

Extract from Benjanim's son, John Tucker's statement:

2. Improvements. One weatherboard hut covered with bark, about 250 bull oak posts erected (no wire or rail) and about 30 acres of land partially ploughed 2 seasons ago (not one acre fenced).
3. That John Coates is at present residing on the said Land and working on the farm of Mr Pilgrim.
4. That the said Land has been and is now used for grazing by Mr William Pilgrim.
5. That the said Land was not applied for by the said John Coates in his own proper person but the said John Coates is the agent and servant of Mr William Pilgrim of Banyena aforesaid.

On 7 February 1877, at a hearing of the Local Land Board at St Arnaud, it was recommended that John Coates license be forfeited, he consistently taking no interest whatever in his selection and being anxious to get clear of it. The incoming selector was John Tucker.

Extract from William Pilgrim's unsuccessful protest:

The facts are these truly. John Coates has been living with me for four years or more and got married out of my place. I advised him to take up some land which he did and that I would assist him to carry on provided he repaid me when able through the produce of his land. Now he owes me nearly £100 for which I hold his acceptance and since his wife died lately it appears that he has had some dealings with Tucker and hence the action taken. What I desire Sir is that you allow the land to be put up for auction that I may have a probable chance of getting my money as I feel almost certain I shall not get it from J. Coates. I further declare I had no interest in the land and was only desirous of doing Coates a kindly favour.

It appears that John Lamb Coates moved to Hay at some time in 1877, after Elizabeth's death, and after it was stated he was anxious to get clear of his selection. He may have travelled alone to Hay, or with his sister Isabel Louisa, her husband James Valentine, and their five surviving children. His brother Warwick Calmady Coates, his wife Barbara and their three children may have already been in Hay for a year or two, or the three siblings and their families may all have travelled together. Barbara's father, William Montague Murray, and her brother Donald (aka Daniel) and his family were already living in Hay.

Two years after his younger brother Warwick's death, John Lamb Coates married Warwick's widow, Barbara Coates née Murray, on 14 September 1880 in Hay. They had three children, Alfred Henry Coates, Marianne Coates and John Lamb Coates jnr. who died aged 2 years.

Over the years, John worked as a wood cutter and carter, a fettler (stated occupation on his son's death certificate in 1888) and a slaughterman. In 1895 he was working as a slaughterman in Hay for a butcher, William Horne, when he stated during a court case about alleged cattle stealing (for which he was acquitted) that he had been "slaughtering for 30 years". It is the occupation given on his death certificate. His later years were spent in Albury where John and Barbara owned a house close to that of Barbara's son Frederick Montague Coates and his wife. In their final years they moved to Cootamundra to live with their daughter Marianne and her husband Frank James Bolton.

Barbara Coates died on 26 March 1929 at Cootamundra, NSW, Australia and John Lamb Coates died on 1 February 1929 at Cootamundra, NSW, Australia. They are both buried in Cootamundra Cemetery.

Barbara and John had three children:

Alfred Henry Coates, my grandfather, see below.
Born 23 December 1881 at Marked Tree Point, Hay, NSW, Australia. He died on 27 December 1967 in Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Marianne Coates
Born 29 March 1884 at Hay, NSW, Australia. She married Frank J Bolton (1883-1958) on 7 June 1910 in Albury, NSW, Australia. She died in 1961 in Rockdale, NSW. Marianne and Frank had 3 children:
- James Frederick (Jim) Bolton (1912-1988) who married Joan Valmay Hope Elms, no children
- Horace Clarence Bolton (1916-1921)
- Jean Bolton (1922-1924).
John Lamb Coates
Born 29 March 1886 at Hay, NSW, He died at age 2 years on 24 June 1888 at Marked Tree Point, Hay, NSW, Australia.

Alfred Henry Coates

Alfred Henry Coates was born on 23 December 1881 at Marked Tree Point, near Hay, NSW. He grew up in the Hay district but later settled in the Lismore, NSW, area. He initially had a dairy farm at Woodlawn (near Lismore), but then opened Coates Garage in Lismore where he was at the leading edge of motor mechanics, especially trucks, in the early 20th Century. He was reputed to be very competent and his business expanded.

Alfred Henry Coates fathered a child with May Victoria Alcock (1880-1954). It is assumed that they had a relationship while she was visiting her married sisters, who had moved to Lismore. His daughter Phyllis May Alcock (1907-1998) was born in Sydney and raised by her mother. Phyllis was very musically talented, a trait she appeared to have inherited from her father. AH Coates regularly sent money for her support and musical education, contining this for many years, even after she married. Phyllis knew who her father was but refused to say because she did 'not want to interfere with other people's families'. It was not until after her death that he was identified and her descendants are now happily connected with the Coates family.

Alfred Henry Coates married Helen Smith on 15 November 1911 in Brisbane, QLD, Australia. It is thought that they had first met when she was living at Wolumna, NSW.

Helen had been born on 25 January 1882 in Bathurst, New South Wales, to George Smith and Sarah Jane Wilson. Her early years were in Bathurst, then on a dairy farm at Wolumna near Bega, NSW, before her family moved to Brisbane, QLD, when her father retired.

Alfred and Helen had 3 children:

Graeme John Coates
Born in 1915 in Lismore, NSW. He married Catherine Croker (1914-1976) in 1942 in Roseville, NSW. He died in 1983 in Bowral, NSW. They had 3 children.
Roy Henry Coates
Born in 1917 in Lismore, NSW. He married (1) Jeanie née Johnson (1913-1957); (2) Grace née Ness (1915-?); (3) Fifi Grace née Drage (1915-?). He died in 2013 in Hobart, TAS. He had no children.
Alan Claude Coates
Born in 1919 in Lismore, NSW. He married Lilian Hudson in 1950. He died in 2012 in Brisbane. They had 3 children.

Alfred Henry Coates died on 27 December 1967 in Brisbane, QLD, and Helen died on 13 July 1971, also in Brisbane, QLD.

Helen (née Smith), Roy, Graeme, Alan and Alfred Henry Coates c.1928

Honour Board at Salisbury Hospital
Henry Coates, Surgeon from 1804-1847

Monument in Pioneer Park, Gawler, SA
to those buried in the Old Gawler Cemetery, including Henry William Coates, who died in 1851 at age 45.

Marianne Calmady Coates née Richardson
(1809-1896)

Kathleen Eliza Cayley née Coates
with her husband Alfred Henry Cayley
and their children

Warwick Calmady Coates (1847-1878)
son of Henry William & Marianne Coates

Barbara Coates née Murray (1949-1929)

Barbara Coates née Murray with children John Daniel Coates (left), William Warwick Coates (right), Frederick Montague Coates (sitting), and Henry Calmady Coates on her lap.