Bob and Ellen

Although our forbears are documented back to the 1600's our story starts with William Pell and Mary Storer. William Pell was Born in 1803 married Mary Storer in 1824 William was 21 years old while Mary was only 17 years. The issue from this marriage was 9 children the 4th child a daughter was born in1832 named Hannah she married William Darby born 1830 on November 13th 1851 at the parish church Systen. William was 21 years and a laborer while Hannah 20 years a house maid. They resided at Little Ponton. His father George and William Pell witnessed there marriage certificate. Hannah Pell made her mark with an x as she could not write. The for bearer name now changes to Darby

One year after their Marriage (1852) They migrated to Australia,arriving in Adelaide by boat (name unknown). They transferred to a small Brig called Anne and docked in Melbourne September 1852. Their first child named John Thomas was born 3 months later in the Melbourne Suburb of Pentridge (now known as Coburg).They then settled in Carlsruhe and were one of the early pioneers in that district.They called their home Ponton after their home in England.It was a large blue stone house with beautiful glass doors and iron lacework all around the verandah.William did contracting and road makeing and at length took up farming. In the 1865 bush fires they were very lucky to save their home but lost their barn,sheds and harness .The fire also burned out 178 acres of their land.They had a large family of 12 children. John Thomas (2) born 1873.(John Thomas born 1852 was drowned in a well at Ponton when he was only 6 years old)Hannah died from heart disease on 10th December 1877 aged 45 years

After farming for 33 years William Darby settled in a brick villa in kyneton at the corner of Ebdon and Simpson street. He Married again to Mary Anne white. There were no children to the second marriage.William died on the 24th of May 1915 aged 85 years . He is buried with his first wife Hannah in the Kyneton cemetery

Our grandfather John Thomas Darby married Alice Boswell (born 1884 in Metcalfe) on Sept 3rd 1903 in the free Christian Church Melbourne when Alice was 21 years of age. The issue from this marriage was 6 children, the 5th child my father George was born September 2nd 1915.

Darby Name Meaning

 English: habitational name from the city of Derby, the county seat of Derbyshire, but also from the much smaller place called West Derby in Lancashire. Both are named from Old Norse dour ‘deer’ + byre ‘farm’, ‘settlement’. The usual spelling of the surname represents the pronunciation of both the place name and the surname. Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Diorama (or Mac Diorama) ‘descendant (or ‘son’) of Diarmuid’, a personal name meaning ‘freeman’. See also Dermott, McDermott. Insofar as Gaelic Ó Duibhdhiormaigh was sometimes reinterpreted as Ó Diorama, Darby could also be an Anglicization of this name too. The English surname is also established in Ireland, having been taken to County Lexi in the 16th century.