The first Sharrock family member that we can safely say is ours is George SHARRAG, probably born in Bozeat Northamptonshire around 1720. Although we have found the surname in Bozeat from 1712, we cannot prove conclusively that he belonged to our family. George Sharrag married Elizabeth and their son George was baptised 26/10/1755 in Bozeat. There is evidence of another child Eleanor who died as an infant in 1759, also at Bozeat. The younger George married Ann Barlow possibly in 1778 at Finedon NTH. We know of four children to this couple including James, baptised 12/3/1780 at Bozeat, my 4xgr.grandfather. George and Ann died within days of each other in 1788. Their eldest child would have been eight years old at the time, their youngest about 2 years of age. We do not know who might have looked after the children after their parents' death, however it appears that most of the family moved to Holcot NTH where James married Mary Ann Smith around 1804. This is really where our story begins.

James and Mary Ann had five children, all sons, John, James, William, Joseph and Michael. All but one made the long journey to Australia and settled in the Western Districts of Victoria. On the 29/3/1848 Joseph Sharrock, his wife Mary Annar (Faulkner) and their four children sailed from Plymouth England on board the ship "Mahomed Shah" and arrived in Port Phillip Bay Victoria on the 5/7/1848. Whilst at sea Mary and Joseph became the proud parents of a daughter whom they named Elizabeth Ann Hazeldine Sharrock. Ten years later almost to the day, John, James, Michael and their respective families, 14 in all, sailed from Liverpool on the 18/3/1858 on the ship "Rising Sun". They all arrived safely in Melbourne on the 11/6/1858. James Snr and Mary Ann remained in England and died in 1852 and 1855 respectively. William remained in England. At the time of the 1881 census for Northamptonshire, there was only one remaining Sharrock family in the county. This was William's son, William and his family.

Back to our pioneering families. John, James, Joseph and Michael all eventually settled in or around the small farming township of Boram Boram or Penshurst as it later came to be called, where some took up land. From humble beginnings the branches of this family tree have spread far and wide across Australia.

From an interview with James, son of Joseph, in the "Hamilton Spectator" 4/1/1921, we learn many interesting family happenings such as when the family landed in Melbourne in 1848. "Melbourne at that time was a very small town. There was no bridge over the Yarra, and anyone who wished to cross the river had to do so on an old punt. There were about twenty or thirty blacks on the spot where Flinders-street railway station now stands, and Elizabeth-street was over the boot tops in mud."

After living in Melbourne for a short time the family moved to Geelong where Joseph was a carpenter and it is thought that he built the first mail stable there. Later the family moved again, this time to Colac. They also spent some time on the Ballarat gold fields taking about 800 pounds worth of gold before moving on to Castlemaine. James Sharrock said of these sometimes dangerous times, "We had crossed the river, and started to make a fire, my brother was watering the bullocks on the ford, and my father was sitting on the pole of the dray with a double barrel gun near him, when, all at once, he called to me, "Jim, have a look at the road. I think I can see horsemen coming." I got on the pole, and I saw three horsemen coming down the hill. They rode up and pulled in their horses within about twelve yards of the dray. They did not look like gold diggers or squatters. One of them asked my father to give them a drink, but my father said "We haven't got any tea boiled yet," and the spokesperson said, "Have you got anything stronger than tea?" My father then said, "Jim, go to the box and bring that bottle of gin." I brought out the bottle and a pint pannikin, which I took to the first speaker, and gave him a good drink, and when he lifted his hand to take it I saw the butts of two revolvers sticking out of his belt. I served the other two men the same, and I noticed that they were armed also. My father then said "Can I do anything more for you?" but the leader answered "No," and thanked father for the drink. He then said "Captain Melville is not over fond of standing in front of a double barrel gun and a revolver," and with that they nodded and rode away across the ford the way they had come." The family eventually took up land at Mt Rouse (Penshurst).

The families who arrived here in the 40's and 50's came as assisted migrants with very high hopes for a better life and precious little else. What they must have endured in the first few decades can only be guessed at. However, with lots of hard work, a little luck and the support of each other, the Sharrock family became well known and well respected throughout the district. Some other family names connected to the Sharrock's are Dyson, Pettingill, Porter and Saunders.

There are currently several Sharrock descendants researching the history of this fascinating family, including Penny Mercer, Bruce Sharrock, Ricky Rowbottom and Jeff McNeil. All have contributed to this article.