Susannah Alletta Nicholson 1850-1907

Susannah Alletta Nicholson was born in the NSW country town of Bowning, 7 miles north-west of Yass on May 16th, 1850 to Donald Nicholson and Margaret Brown. She was baptised on June 16th, 1850 in Yass, NSW. Whilst in her pre-teen years Susannah (who was more commonly known as Susan), lived with her family in the Yass district, and at Limestone Creek near Forbes.

Susan resided with her family at South Lead, in Forbes, NSW in October 1865 at 15 years of age. Her parents were to remain residents of the town for at least three years.

Susan became the mother of Frederick Hilton William Nicholson on October 13th, 1870 in Forbes, NSW. This first child of Susannah's, born when she was 20, was illegitimate - the father's name was not stated on the birth certificate. Her mother Margaret was present at the birth.

Susan was a witness at her sister Mary's wedding to a local blacksmith, Henry Olliver, on September 8th, 1872 at Bushman's Lead (the goldmining town that later became the city of Parkes). Her mother died in 1874, at about the time that Susan found out she was pregnant again - and still unmarried.

Susan apparently had some nursing skill for she became the first Matron of the Parkes District Hospital, established in 1873. This was a very small affair, with no more than six male beds and four female beds. Her husband-to-be Michael was the first wardsman.

She married Michael Bourke at her father's house on December 26th, 1874 in Parkes, NSW at 24 years of age. Susan and Michael became the parents of James John Bourke on Boxing Day 1874 in Parkes, NSW. James was apparently born on the same day as his parent's wedding (although it is not known which of these two events happened first on this rather momentous day). James was to be the first of four children born to Michael and Susannah, but did not live much beyond his first birthday.

Susan, as Michael Bourke's wife, resided with him at Forbes Street, in Parkes, NSW in May 1876. They lived in the town for at least 4 years whilst Michael worked, for at least part of the time, as a warder in Parkes Public Hospital. Presmably Susan gave away the matron position at the time of her marriage, or when the size of her family increased.

By 1881 Michael and his family had moved to Stannifer, a tin mining town in the north of NSW 5 miles from Inverell. Michael was a innkeeper in one of the town's few pubs, most likely operating from a rude slab hut. Pubs where "the meeting places where there was always some miner celebrating his luck or drowning his sorrows at the lamp-lit bars and where there were frequent fights to settle a score or prove a point. In the evenings, mellow Irish voices and rich Welsh voices could be heard raised in song, with the music of bagpipes, concertinas, fiddles, flutes mouth organs or tambourines drifting from dimly lit tents and huts - music that drifted on the night air to mingle with the baying and barking of dogs and the grunting & squealing of pigs".

Michael's decision to become an innkeeper was proved unwise when he died of alcoholic poisoning at the age of 36. Susan was about 3 months pregnant with their son Gyle when he died.

Susan was employed as a shopkeeper in the Sydney suburb of Macdonaldtown in May 1888. Presumably she had her four surviving children with her - Donald, the oldest would have only been eleven at the time. She married John Dalgety Thomson on May 7th 1888 at the Wesleyan Parsonage in the Sydney suburb of Newtown at 37 years of age. It is likely that at least some of Susan's children would have chosen to live, at least for a while, with their mother and her new husband. Marie, who was very young when her mother remarried, called herself Marie Thompson on at least one occasion.

She resided at "Thornleigh" in Bay St., in the Sydney suburb of Rockdale in August 1907.

Susan died on August 31st 1907 in the Sydney suburb of Rockdale, at 57 years of age of abdominal cancer. Susannah had been ill for 10 weeks before her death. Cancer was also to claim her youngest daughter, Susie, at the age of forty. Her body was interred in the Presbyterian cemetery on September 2nd 1907 in the Sydney suburb of Sutherland.

Susannah Alletta Nicholson had the following child:

Frederick Hilton William Nicholson was born in Forbes, NSW on October 13th, 1870. This first child of Susannah's, born when she was 20, was illegitimate - the father's name was not stated on the birth certificate. Her mother Margaret was present at the birth. What happened to Frederick after this time is unknown.

Susannah Alletta Nicholson and Michael Bourke had the following children:

James John Bourke was born in Parkes, NSW on Boxing Day 1874. James was apparently born on the same day as his parent's wedding (although it is not known which of these two events happened first on this rather momentous day). James was to be the first of four children born to Michael and Susannah, but did not live much beyond his first birthday. James died on May 18th, 1876 in Parkes, NSW, at 1 years of age. James died of inflammation of the stomach (gastritis). His body was interred at Goobang Creek Cemetary on May 19th 1876 in Parkes, NSW.

Donald Hugh Aloysius Bourke was born in Parkes, NSW on February 10th, 1877.He died on June 2nd, 1941 in Sydney, NSW, at 64 years of age. Several obituaries were written about Donald, the main one appearing in "Smith's Weekly"

Mary Alberta MacCallum Bourke

Susan Georgina Gormon Bourke was born in the tin mining town of Stannifer, NSW on July 5th, 1881. Susie died on June 7th, 1924 in the Sydney suburb of Manly, at 42 years of age of breast cancer

Argyle Michael Bourke was born in the tin mining town of Stannifer, NSW on April 24th, 1884.His date of death is unknown (but some time after 1923).

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