Earlier this month, the Head of College was invited to attend a service at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Kelso marking the 200th anniversary of its foundation in 1825.
Among the parishioners of the new church in 1825 was William Lee of Claremont, Kelso, who was one of the first ten people to be granted land in Bathurst in 1818 by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. Over the next few years, Lee bought up a huge holding of land from his neighbours that extended south from the present Great Western Highway, east to Raglan, south almost to Brewongle, and included the junction of the Campbell and Fish Rivers. The western boundary ran up the Macquarie River to the highway at Kelso.
When he died in 1870, William Lee was buried in the cemetery at Holy Trinity. One of the neighbouring parcels of land acquired by William Lee was bought from William Charles Wentworth, the Blue Mountains explorer and notable personality in the colony. On William’s death in 1870, this land was part of the inheritance of William’s second son, John Lee, who built Karralee on it in 1874. In due course, the property was leased to Scots College, Bellevue Hill, and in 1946 became the site of The Scots School. It is now the Scots All Saints College Senior Campus. John Lee’s surviving sons, Roland and Alfred, and a number of their cousins attended All Saints College.
Many of William Lee’s children are buried at Holy Trinity, including George Lee of Leeholme, James Lee of Larras Lea near Molong, Edward Lee who was a leading Sydney Barrister and Crown Prosecutor, and Henry Lee who was tragically killed in 1875 aged only 34 years when a fire destroyed the upper level of his house, Wollaroi (Wollaroy was the spelling in some contemporary reports). John Lee is also buried at Holy Trinity. He died at Karralee on 27 November 1909. He was riding a horse in what is now the Main Quad when the animal was spooked by a stable boy. John Lee was thrown off. He appeared to recover, the newspaper account of his death saying that he was of strong constitution despite his 84 years. However, three weeks after the incident, some undetected and fatal effects of the accident set in.
Another notable connection with Holy Trinity and Scots was that, in days gone by, the Presbyterian and Anglican churches used to send ministers out to the school to conduct confirmation classes. The Anglican representative was the redoubtable Rev. Samuel Marsden, a relative of the colonial era parson of the same name. It is sad to have to report that a notice in The Sydney Morning Herald on 12 April last advises that Rev. Samuel Marsden, formerly of Kelso, died in Hayle in Cornwall on 29 March this year after a long illness, aged 80 years.
The Holy Trinity Cemetery is a notable part of Bathurst’s heritage. As well as the Lee family, many other Bathurst pioneering families are represented there. Many thanks to the volunteer group that maintains the cemetery.
Photo 1: William Lee, his third son George of Leeholme and several other members of the Lee family are interred in a grave in the Pioneer section of the Holy Trinity Cemetery.
Photo 2: John Lee and his wife, Hannah, are both buried in the Holy Trinity Cemetery.
Photo 3: A photo John Lee provided by direct descendant Mrs. Diane Morton. John Lee built Karralee in 1874.
Mr Andrew Maher
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