I am researching the descendants of John Kyle on behalf of my wife Rosemary, who is his great great great grand-daughter. There is still much to learn, and in our search for more information my wife and I visited Ballarat and Sebastapol in October 1995 where we received the courteous assistance of Mrs Betty Jones, Secretary of the Sebastapol Historical Society, and where we had the very great pleasure of meeting Mrs Donalda Wills and her daughter-in-law Mrs. Norma Wills. These notes do not deal with all the descendants of John Kyle but concentrate on those who spent at least part of their lives in Sebastapol or the surrounding district so that the information may be of some interest to their descendants and to members of the Historical Society. If they lead to additional information being sent to me in return, so much the better as any reader knowledgable in local history will find many gaps. Additional information, or corrections, are therefore invited so that an updated edition of the notes can then be prepared and forwarded to any correspondent; the interest of genealogists and descendants of the family would be particularly welcome. For those who are interested in delving further back into this Scottish family I can provide information back to the 16th century,

The Kyle family which lived at Sebastapol for some years, and some of whose descendants still live there, came from Jedburgh in Roxburghshire, Scotland. A party of 12 migrated together, arriving in Melbourne in July 1853 on the ship Bloomer. They were:-

It appears, however, that they may have been preceded by Thomas Kyle's second eldest daughter Janet who came out here with her husband James Young and three children, namely Ann, Adam and Thomas. It is believed that they had previously been to America and had returned to Scotland before emigrating to Victoria some time after the birth of Thomas in1852 and before their first Australian child in 1855. The Youngs had seven children in Victoria:-

• Janet at Ballarat in 1855; married John Coupar 1875.
• James Young at Magpie in 1857; married Sara Louisa Victoria Kirby.
• John Young at Durham Lead in 1858; married Louisa Jan Pearce.
• Margaret Young at Buninyong in 1860.
• Alexander Young at Durham Lead in 1861.
• David Mark Young at Durham Lead in 1863.
• Andrew Young at Durham Lead in 1865; married Mary Jane Peart.

The first James Young was drowned in one of the Band of Hope and Albion Consols' mines when it flooded in September 1869. Descendants of Ann, the eldest, and Andrew the youngest still reside in the district. Ann married Donald McLachlan who became the first police magistrate for Bendigo and Castlemaine. Ann lived to the age of 98 and and her grand-daughter, Mrs. Donalda Ann Wills (nee Wattis) was, at the time of writing, living with her son and daughter-in-law in Sebastapol at the age of 93. Her husband Ernest Martin Wills was Town Clerk for the Borough of Sebastapol for 40 years from 1934 to 1974. Mr. Alan Andrew Young living in Ballarat is the son of Andrew.

The second James Young was a butcher and moved to Geelong where he gave his services to the municipality of Newtown and Chilwell. He was a Councillor and Justice of the Peace for 25 years. In 1925-6 he was President of the Borough of Sebastapol.

Some of the family group who came out on the Bloomer also settled in Sebastapol. William Kyle, a widower, married Jane Barrie in Melbourne in 1855 and came to the goldfields where they had a family of four:-

• Margaret Kyle at Magpie in 1858. She died in 1864.
• Janet Ferguson Kyle at Ballarat in 1861
• Margaret Kyle at Ballarat in 1865
• Elizabeth Miller Kyle at Sebastapol in 1868.

William conducted a drapery business at Sebastapol House in Victoria St and the garden at the rear of the premises must have been quite and landmark. It has been described by local historian W. Williams as having an excellent orchard in the centre of which was a large sized dam which was well stocked with fish. The Ballarat photographers Solomon and Bardwell took two photographs of Sebastapol House and its garden for the 1866 Melbourne Exhibition; the originals of these photos are in the LaTrobe Library, Melbourne. Nothing further is known to the author about William Kyle's family other than that Janet married John Leask in Melbourne in 1886 and had one son, John George Leask in 1888. Her husband died in 1888 and she remarried Henry McHenry in 1898.

William, Adam, Alexander and Mark Kyle invested in the Defiance mine and a prospectus for that mine issued about 1862/3 lists all four as working shareholders. (See "The Golden Chain" by Evan and Arthur Jenkins, page 21. A copy of that prospectus is in the hands of the Sebastapol Historical Society) They apparently struck it lucky and in due course sold their interests and moved away from the town. While in Sebastapol Mark and William took an active interest in community affairs; the minutes of the Mechanics Institute of 15th June 1863 record the appointment of Messrs William and Mark Kyle to a committee which had the objective of establishing a new school in Sebastapol.

On 9th July 1863 Alexander Kyle married Mary Coupar at the Sebastapol Presbyterian Church (Mary was the sister of the John Coupar who married Janet Young, above) and they had their first two children, Ann and Janet, in the district in 1865 and 1867. By 1869 Alexander and Mary had taken up a dairy farm at Comadai, near Bacchus Marsh, where they had nine more children.

In 1865 Mark Kyle married Mary Brownell and they too had their first two children in Sebastapol, Thomas Henderson Kyle in 1866 and John in 1868. By 1871 Mark had also taken up farming at Bacchus Marsh, near Anthony's Cutting, where they had a daughter.

The last of the Kyle brothers known to have married was Adam. He married Isabella Hardie in 1875 and raised his family in Melbourne. On his proceeds of the mining venture he invested in real estate in South Melbourne.

Nothing is known about George Kyle who was one of the migrant family on the Bloomer except for an entry in the 1863 Buninyong rate book which lists George Kyle at Winter's Hill.

There was one more member of the family group who came out to Victoria on the Bloomer. Martha Kyle, the youngest, married Alexander McLeod in the Ballarat Presbyterian Church manse on 23rd December 1859. Their family of six were all born in the district:-

• Janet Henderson McLeod at Magpie in 1861; died 1936 unmarried.
• Margaret Munro McLeod at Ballarat in 1862; married Joseph Pearce Lester in 1888.
• Mary Coupar McLeod at Sebastapol in 1864; married John Andrew Arnot in 1898.
• Martha McLeod at Sebastapol in1865; married David Jenkins in 1888.
• Agnes McLeod at Sebastapol in 1867; died 1867.
• George McLeod at Sebastapol in 1869; married Alice Letitia Cleary in 1896.

ADDENDUM

To the information concerning the marriages of the children of James and Janet Young can be added:

• Margaret Young married a Mounsey
• David married Alice Anderson
• Adam married Annie Murray in 1875
• Thomas married Catherine Jenkins in 1876.

John Young was in a wood, coal and produce business with his brother-in-law, John Coupar, at 555 Chapel St, South Yarra in the 1890's.

5th February 1996.