Salisbury St Johns Anglican cemetery. Taplin graves with the impressive grave behind of the Winzor family of Deal Court. William Taplin married Harriet Winzor in 1860.
Image by denisbin
Some Taplin history.
Great great great grand father.
Charles James Blatch Taplin arrived in SA on 27 July 1849 on the Elizabeth which sailed from London. He was born in 1810 in Andover or elsewhere in Hampshire and his family came from the Guernsey Islands. He arrived with his wife Eliza( 1813- 1891). She was Eliza Lansley (Rixson) married on 27 Nov 1834 at St Bride’s Church, Fleet St, London. Eliza was a spinster at time of marriage.
He opened his first private school at Brighton in 1850. In the mid-1850s he seems to have taken up a town block and built a residence in Salisbury. By 1856 he had a private school for boys in Salisbury. By 1857 he had 80 boys enrolled. This was St Johns Church of England School. His wife Eliza ran a school for girls from 1858 after continued this after he died in 1866. He was the first registered school teacher at Salisbury from 1855-1866 until he died in 1866. Charles James Blatch was Treasurer of the Anglican Church when the foundation stone of St John’s was laid in 1858 with architect Daniel Garlick being present. The church did not open for services until 1865 a year before he died. He was active in town affairs as well as the Anglican Church. Charles died 14 March 1866. Eliza taught from 1863-1867 at her girl’s school in Salisbury. Eliza died 23 May at her home in Woodville 1891, aged 78 and she was born in 1813 and was three years younger than Charles Taplin. Charles and Eliza are both buried in St John’s Anglican cemetery in Salisbury. When Charles Taplin died his son Charles Goodenough Taplin advertised both schools for sale but it is not clear if he got a buyer. Charles Goodenough Taplin in May 1866 applied to have the two schools registered to himself and this was approved by the central education board on 12 May 1866. C G Taplin appears to have been the Executor of Charles James Blatch Taplin’s will.
Charles and Eliza Taplin only appear to have had two sons: William Taplin born in 1835 and Charles Goodenough Taplin born in 1841. Therefore this is a little surprising that his younger son became the executor of his will. But William was the non-academic son who became a farmer and Charles Goodenough went on to train and become an Anglican minister by 1867. Charles G Taplin became the secretary of the Salisbury Institute in 1867. He was preaching at Auburn by 1866 in the Anglican Church. Charles Goodenough Taplin of Salisbury married Louisa Lambert on 18 sept 1867 in Auburn. A baby son born to the Taplins at Macclesfield in November 1868. He was the Reverend C G Taplin at Echunga in 1870 and he attended social functions at Government House as an Anglican minister. Another son born 24 January at Echunga in 1871 to the Taplins. In 1872 he is rector at Wallaroo and he stayed in the Cornish triangle for many years. On 7th April 1876 a daughter born at Wallaroo. Baby Mabel their only daughter died at Wallaroo in December 1877 at 20 months of age. On the 27th October of 1880 another daughter was born at Wallaroo but baby Gertrude also died early on Christmas Day 1882. She would have been 14 months old. By June 1885 Reverend Taplin is rector at St Margaret’s Church Woodville. Then on the 4th January 1886 another son born. A few months later the Charles Taplin family is moved to Port Lincoln and in June 1886 he is the Anglican minister at St Thomas Anglican Church Port Lincoln. Just over a year later Reverend Charles Taplin took on overdose of opium which he was taking to help him sleep and to calm his nerves. He
committed suicide on Saturday 24th July 1887 at Port Lincoln. He was 46 years old. Presumably his wife and four young sons returned to Adelaide and they would have been 19 years, 16 years, and just 19 months old.
Great great grandfather.
Charles and Eliza Taplin’s other son William Taplin born in 1835 is my great great grand father. There is a strong possibility that he fathered an illegitimate daughter around 1856 before his marriage to Harriet Winzor in 1860. The Winzors of Deal Court, a two storey significant house in the Salisbury area in the 1850s, arrived in SA with money and resources so William Taplin’s marriage to Harriet Winzor was a fortuitous step in his life. As early as 1863 his father-in-law John Winzor was advertising that he had money to lend over a seven year term from £1—to £2,000. This was a very large sum when an 80 acre farm could be purchased for less than £100. John Winzor (1807 to 1874) held land at Salisbury for his dairy and 1,160 acres at Grace Plains which he purchased for just under £1,200 in March 1857 which was next to Mallala when it developed.( sections 62,63,71,72,77,78 etc.
William Taplin and Harriet who married in St Johns Anglican Church Salisbury on 7th July 18690 had four children:
•Alice a daughter who only lived from 1863 to 1865. She is buried in her parents’ grave in Salisbury.
•Lillies Eliza Taplin born on the 29th June 1866 at Sheoak Log near Gawler. She is my great grandmother who died at Enfield on the 5th Feb 1956. I remember visiting her before her death with a grand piano and bookshelves of books in her living room. She was very petite. She married Robert Edwin Argent of Peachey Belt in Zoar Bible Christian Church on 23 March 1887.
•Charles James Blatch Taplin a son born 19 October 1868 at Grace Plains. This son of William and Harriet Taplin married at the Wesleyan Church in Redruth Burra Miss Edithe Thirza Rabbich of Scotland on the 27th July 1893. Charles James Blatch Taplin lived in Burra for most of his married life. He died at Westbourne Park on the 9th May 1940.
•John Winzor Taplin 29 December 1872 at Grace Plains. Lived to 10th January 1920, (a son of William) married Laura Skurray of Gawler/Williamstown 4 Sept 1897. He died just 23 years later and was buried next to his parents in St John’s cemetery Salisbury in 1920. J. W Taplin like his father was an excellent rifle shot and competed for many years firstly in Port Adelaide Rifle Club in 1911 and then East Torrens Rifle Club and eventually the Adelaide Rifle Club in 1917. He was born at Winzor Park Grace Plains. He was an engineer and lived in Harcourt Rd Payneham. This son William Arthur Taplin married Gladys Fielder of Torrensville on 11th November 1920 in the Holder Memorial Church Mile End. He died at Eton Park a district of Payneham.
•Harriet Ann Taplin born at Grace Plains in 11 August 1876. She married John Cook at St Columba Anglican Church Hawthorn in 1913 on 26th July. He was 56 years old on marriage. No children.
William Taplin was a farmer. Although he appears to have mainly lived in Salisbury and his wife no doubt would have wanted to be near her parents and siblings he took up land at Grace Plains. Land there was first offered for sale in 1856 but most farmers did not move into that district until 1865 or after. In August 1866 William Taplin of Salisbury advised he would prosecute people carting wood and carting it from sections 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 and 447. Cattle would be impounded. Contact W Taplin at the property or John Winzor in Angas Street Adelaide. The land was also available for lease. The nearest town Mallala was not established until 1872. William took up land near Barraba in the east of the Hundred not far from the Light River. When did William Taplin take up this land and where did he get the money? Was it from an inheritance from his father who died in 1866? William Taplin took up 1,080 acres which would have cost well over £1,000 in the mid 1860s. His sections were numbers 440,441,442,443,445,446,447 and 409 in the Hundred of Grace. In July 1871 Taplin advised section 313 and 314 for available for lease. He bought section 317 in 1874. He built an eight roomed house on the property for the family. Their only daughter to survive childhood was born there in 1876. William and the family returned to live in Salisbury in 1884 and he had a manager run Winzor Park. In 1892 when William was 57 years old he put the farm up for a seven year lease. He advertised this again in 1893 and in 1894. William died in 1904 aged 69 years. William’s son Charles J B Taplin was the executor of his will. Harriet Taplin died in 1909 and was buried next to William in the Salisbury Anglican cemetery.
He also had section 407 which he tried to lease in 1875. Contacts were to him at Winzor Park near Barraba or George Lovelock in Salisbury. William Taplin attended a meeting in Mallala in September 1875 urging a railway to Mallala. He moved the motion for it. William Taplin by 1876, once it was founded, was in the Mallala Gun Club. He competed and won a prize in 1876. He was also in the South Australian Rifle Club as a member from March 1877. He competed in their matches and won first prize in 200 yard live bird shoot in April 1877. He was the chair of the Mallala Gun Club match with Adelaide at Bolivar in September 1877. He chaired the dinner. William Taplin applied to get 31 members of the Mallala Gun Cub included as members of the South Australian Rifle Club also in September 1877. William Taplin led a deputation to obtain a policeman at Mallala in 1877. Taplin was vice president of the Mallala Gun Club and came first all three shoots in October 1877. He also played in the Mallala Cricket Club. In 1878 he was also a steward of the Mallala Horse Racing Club for their meetings. They held an annual race meeting. William Taplin was also a judge of vegetables submitted to the Port Gawler Show in 1879 at Two Wells. In 1880 he was President of the Mallala Agricultural Show Society. In the 1880 show he exhibited horses, wheat, turkeys, hens etc. He took the prize for the best wheat. He won similar prizes in the 1881 show including geese and 1882 and 1883 etc. By 1883 William Taplin was a JP and charged locals of Hamley Bridge for illegally selling alcohol. Culprits sentenced to two months jail by Taplin. He presided over other similar cases. He began selling his farm stock and animals in 1884. He was a judge of horses at the Virginia Show in 1884 and also Two Wells Show. He was made vice president of the Salisbury Cricket Club in 1884. By November 1884 he was the magistrate in the Salisbury Court as he was a JP. In 1885 he competed in the Virginia Show pigeon shooting match. He last sat on the bench of Salisbury Courthouse in 1899. He died after a long illness. In 1896 he was the referee for Salisbury Gun Club competitions.
The Taplin children of my great great grandfather.
1. Alice died as a child.
2. Lillies Eliza Taplin married Robert Edwin Argent of Penfield and had my grandmother Effie Leticia Argent and her brothers and sisters.
3. Charles James Blatch Taplin married in 1893 Edithe Rabbich. They had: Colin Quintrell Taplin born 25 June 1895 at Peterborough and died 6 June 1962 at Enfield; Lansley Eddison Rabbich Taplin on 16th January 1898 at Mount Gambier – he died 3 May 1945; Coralie Edyth Joan Taplin 24 November 1904 at Burra; Phyllis Agnus Taplin born 30th November 1906 at Burra; Joyce Taplin born 16 January 1898 in Mount Gambier; Colin Charles born 23 January 1920 in Peterborough; and Nancy Blatch Taplin.
4. John Winzor Taplin married Laura Skurray in 1897. Their children were: James Lance Taplin;
The children of my great great grandfather’s brother Charles Goodenough Taplin born 1841 and Louisa Lambert of Auburn.
1. Alfred Basil St John George Taplin born at Macclesfield 14 November 1868. Died 12 November 1934 at Stirling Hospital. He married twice and had John Blatch Taplin and Dawn Estelle Taplin. Was an engineer fitter with the SAR railways. A noted baritone singer, musician, concert performer, actor etc. For many years stationed at Gladstone which he left in 1930. His son was killed in 1942 on active service in World War Two.
2. Arthur Charles Goodenough Taplin born 24 January 1871 at Echunga. He too was a singer, actor and musician and involved in theatre, concerts etc. Also an engineer at the railway workshops at Islington. Started there in 1885. Moved to Petersburg in 1912, then Cockburn, then Mile End, then Port Pirie and then Cockburn again in 1923. He died in Broken Hill. 11 November 1925 as a bachelor.
3. Mabel Kate Taplin born 7 April 1876 at Wallaroo. Died 17 December 1877.
4. Gertrude Muriel Edith Emily Taplin born 27 October 1880 Wallaroo and died 25 December 1882 at Wallaroo.
5. Harry Walter Fred Lambert Taplin born 3 January 1886 at Woodville and died 24 August 1918 on active service in France during World War One.
