The WILLS Family of Lustleigh

John continued to farm at Smallacombe then moved to Compton Barton in Marldon. This farm overlooked Compton Castle.

John married Sarah 'Sally' RENDELL at Combinteignhead in 1787. The original of this painting of her is in Ontario.

Their eldest daughter Sarah married Cmdr Henry LeVESCONTE of Jersey and they emigrated to Newfoundland.

This letter to his father in Seymour East, Newcastle District, Upper Canada, is from their son Henry Thomas Dundas LeVESCONTE and is dated 1843

In order to save paper the writing is in two directions on the same side of the paper.

Henry was a member of the Franklin Expedition to search for the North West Passage and perished with the rest of the expedition. We have a letter written from H.M.S. Erebus just before it sailed and it is clear that his will was also written at this time. His remains were eventually discovered and are buried in the painted Chapel at Greenwich.

John's son Thomas was born in 1798 at Marldon and he also emigrated to Newfoundland. His grandson John became the Mayor of Belleville and his brother Henry Thomas b 1853 was a bank manager with the Canadian Bank of Commerce and is standing on the right hand side of this group. The picture is the cover for the 1998 bank calendar.

Henry Thomas was the manager of the bank in the Klondike during the gold rush in 1897 and is standing in the back left of this picture.

This Ontario family used this WILLS crest. But in fact it is associated with a WILLS family from another Compton Castle in Castle Cary, Dorset.

This similar crest was used by an unrelated WILLS family in Australia at about the same time.

The most famous grandson of Sally and John WILLS of Compton Barton was William John the explorer in Australia. He was born to Dr William WILLS and his wife Sarah CALLEY at Totnes in 1834.

In 1852 William. John and his younger brother Thomas, born 1837, emigrated to Melbourne at the time of the gold rush. Originally their father was due to travel with them but at their mother's request he sailed on a later ship. Whilst waiting for their father to arrive in 1853 the two sons worked as shepherds. William John then joined the Melbourne Magnetic Observatory. Their father worked as a surgeon and attended the wounded in Ballarat during the Eureka stockade riots.

Wm. John joined the expedition commanded by Robert Burke to find a route from Melbourne across the unexplored centre of Australia to the north coast for a potential route for the telegraph line.

At Menindee the expedition split leaving the main supplies to follow and a smaller party moved on to Coopers Creek. From here four of them made a dash in the height of summer towards the north coast, nearly 2,000 miles, leaving a small party and supplies at the Creek. After some weeks they reached the Gulf of Carpentaria and on the return, running out of supplies one of the party died a day out from Coopers Creek, the other 3 exhausted spent much time burying him arriving at Coopers Creek next evening only to find that the reserve party had left the base that morning.

Burke and Wills died from malnutrition at Coopers Creek and this is the monument in Melbourne erected to them after the first state funeral in Australia.

In 2002 my wife and I and cousin William visited Australia to follow the route of the expedition up to Coopers Creek and Birdsville. A round trip of some 6,000km

A fuller account of our journey is given in my Australian Holiday Section

We started our journey from Melbourne Cemetery where the remains of Robert BURKE and William WILLS are buried. ABC television were there to film our departure.

Near the cemetery is the cairn built to mark the place where the expedition started in 1860. The modern Melbourne skyline can be seen in the distance.

Our first nights stop was at Swan Hill where we watched our departure from Melbourne that morning on the 6pm television news. The expedition took some 10 days to cover this distance.

Near Swan Hill is the Murray River. This is a major source of water for its length of some 2,000 miles and it really only ever flows into the sea when in flood.

Menindee is the place where the main part of the expedition paused with the intention of following but due to various organizational problems they did not move on.

Not far from this area is Depot Glen where the explorer Sturt and his party were marooned for 6 months due to lack of water in the surrounding country.

The country is now barren and trees only survive in dried up river beds.

Our first view of Coopers Creek near Innamincka

Coopers Creek is a year round source of water and very occasionally major floods come down from the mountains of Queensland.

The Dig Tree at Coopers Creek is the place where the forward party made camp. From here in the height of summer BURKE decided to make a dash for the north coast some 2.000 miles away, he took with him WILLS, GRAY and KING.
They reached the coast and GRAY died on the return journey, the survivors got back to the tree to find that the party waiting for them had left that morning. Carved on the tree was a message telling them to dig in a certain place where they found some supplies and where they buried a message stating their return and also all their documents. They then wandered along the Creek receiving some help with food from the aborigines. Unfortunately a search party did not check for the buried documents to learn that they were in the area.

The memorial stone in the centre distance marks the spot where Burke's remains were found.

The Burke and Wills Bridge across the Creek

The axle end marking the spot where William John's remains were found on the banks of Coopers Creek.

The countryside north of Innaminka is very barren, without roads or tracks it must have been very desolate.

Sunset over Coopers Creek at Innamincka.