Person:Sarah Carter (17)

BIOGRAPHY: Sarah Anne was the third child of Robert and Phoebe Carter and arrived in W.A. on the 'Hamela Mitchell' with her mother, brothers and sister in 1859. Her name appears twice on the 1851 census; first with her mother at Shouldham Thorpe and then with her grandfather Charles Oxbury at Oxborough, presumably when Charles was a baby. According to her obituary "Late Mrs. Sarah Anne Forward", she was born in Norfolk and arrived in WA with her parents when she was 10. "She lived practically the whole of her life in the Northam district." The baptism record of her first son, born when she was 18, has her occupation as a maidservant. http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:1153695&id=I00131 After Robert's death, Sarah married Henry Forward who farmed at Seabrook and Grass Valley and who was the fifth son of William and Caroline Forward. Henry had had sixteen (perhaps more) children by his first wife, Ellen Martin.

Sarah's first child: The baptism entry has William FORWARD as the christian name and CARTER as the surname. Sarah CARTER is named as the parent. There is no father named. Sarah's occupation is Maidservant. William Forward at the time was 18, Sarah 17. William was brought up by Sarah's parents, Robert & Phoebe. He was a CARTER and married as a CARTER. When Anne gathered the information his descendants all said William Forward was their father. What can I say? They never married, although I feel that is what Sarah wanted, but the FORWARD family opposed it. So they convinced her to marry Willam ASHTON. We have no way of knowing how long that situation lasted, but I feel it never worked from the start. While officially married to ASHTON she had two children Charles and Emily, who were obviously fathered by WILSON. She married WILSON after Emily was baptised and then Charles was baptised in 1873.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Jeni Martin (Leo van de Pas). Leo's Genealogics Website (WA Pioneers)
   http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I58730&tree=WAP.