1844-1912
Father
Absalom Kemp
Mother
Isabella Kent
Siblings
Emily Sarah, Helena, Selina, Louisa Edith, Frederick Alfred, Twins (died in childbirth)
Married
Children
Matilda, Mary Rebecca, Frederick William, Isabella, John, Joseph, Eliza, Thomas, Samuel, Mary Eliza (Died at birth), Helen Maud, James Fred
Rebecca’s Life
Rebecca was the daughter of Absalom Kemp and Isabella Kent.
Young Absalom was a shepherd in his youth.
In the 1852 English Census Absalom was recorded as a Stove Maker and Isabella as a shoe binder.
The Kemps immigrated to Australia in 1854, landing in Melbourne on the ‘Bombay’. Tragically, only three of their six children accompanied them as they had died in England. This was not the end of their sorrows as Isabella died at Avoca, Victoria, in 1855 in childbirth delivering twins.
Family lore has Joseph and Rebecca marrying in Dunnolly, Victoria in the early 1860s (there is no record of this) and settled near Kingower where they raised their family.
Absalom was born in Plymouth and was the fourth child and second son. His father, also Absalom, having fought in American Revolutionary War in the New York garrison was discharged at the Plymouth Docks after 32 years of service at the age of 53.
Isabella Kent was the daughter of Samuel Kent and Edith who were agricultural labourers in Gloucestershire.
Authored by Leah Burnheim