Joshua and Isabella were both living at East Wickham,Kent, when they were married in the East Wickham Parish Church on 30th August 1875. Joshua was a labourer at this time.
Their son Frederick was born at Woolwich in 1878,and their second son George Henry was born a year later.
They decided to migrate to Australia.
Captain John R. Smith was in charge of the frigate "Windsor Castle"as she left Plymouth on 23rd April 1880 with 303 immigrants on board. They anchored in Keppel Bay, Rockhampton,on 23rd July,1880, after a passage of 91 days.
Among the passengers were the Stevens family from Kent, U.K... Joshua, aged 25 years , Isabella, aged 24 years, and their two sons,Frederick aged 2 years and George Henry, aged 1 year.
They were "remittance" passengers, which means they had been nominated to migrate, by someone who was already living in the colony of Australia [Who this person was, is not known, as yet.]
Joshua and Isabella settled in Murray Street, Rockhampton- a developing town on the Tropic of Capricorn - and on the banks of the Fitzroy River.
The climate was exceedingly different to that they had known in England, and with the discovery of gold in 1882, at nearby Mt Morgan,it is thought that the Stevens family spent some time there.
On 29th April 1882, their third son, Alfred, was born. Alfred lived only a short time, and died of convulsions on 19th October 1883 aged 1 year and 5 months. He was buried in the South Rockhampton Cemetery on 20th October 1883.
Joshua and Isabella had a daughter, Grace, on 16 January 1885. Their happiness did not last long.
Sadly, Isabella died of heat apoplexy [exhaustion]on 29th January 1886, aged 30 years.
Their baby daughter, aged just 1 year, died the next day, of "fever".
Isabella and Grace were buried together at South Rockhampton Cemetery on 30th January 1886.
Frederick and George Henry attended school in Rockhampton, and on December 27th 1886 Frederick received a leather bound volume of "Robbie Burns' Poems and letters" "as a mark of esteem and appreciation of the progress made in his school studies"-signed S. Lipstine.
This may have been a "parting gift"- as it was about this time that Joshua and his two sons went back to England. It is thought that Isabella's mother(Marian COOMBS),having been widowed came back to Australia to help Joshua raise Frederick and George Henry.At the time of writing this story, some very elderly members of the family say that they remember "Grandmother Coombs"...and that she always had 'bad legs'.
Transcription of death ---Sydney
Marian Coombs [nee Barker] 10.5 1908. [Isabella's mother?] ( born Middlesex) If this is 'our' Grandmother Coombs, her parents were William Barker and Ann(Thomas). At the time of her death ,she had been 18 years in NSW... which would mean that she came out from England about 1890..about the time Joshua and boys were settling in Sydney.
An interesting item on her death transcription is that she had 3 children...2 male and 1 female...all deceased.
In approximately 1892, Elizabeth [Bessie] Wording came to Australia, after the death of her mother, Eliza Wording, (nee Keynton), in December 1891.She stayed with her uncle George Keynton at Botany. She returned to England to visit, then came back to settle here.(dates and ships unknown)
Frederick Stevens and Bessie Wording were married in the Congregational Church, Pitt St, Sydney on 9th Feb. 1907. Frederick was a "gardener"-and it is noted that his "usual residence" at this time was Manly--- and Bessie's "usual residence" was North Botany.
Frederick and Bessie lived first at Amelia Street, Botany, where their first 2 children were born -Winnie and Eric. Eric died of convulsions, aged 2 years.
It may have been about this time that they moved to the Freshwater area-where they lived at 69 Johnson St. Their other 3 children were born in this area, Fred, Gladys and George.
On 29th February 1920, Frederick took his son Fred, fishing to Freshwater Beach. A "rogue wave" up-ended their small boat and while young Fred was saved, Frederick was hit on the head, and drowned.
He was buried in the Church of England Cemetery, Manly on 1st March 1920.
Winnie, Fred, Gladys and George, all married and have children and grand-children and great- grand-children now. Details of this branch of the family are being collated.
After some years in Sydney, Joshua,aged 58, remarried at Botany, his second wife was Ellen Cowan. There were no children from this marriage. Joshua died in Brookvale N S W on December 20th 1931.