George Leafe (1825 - 1904) |
The map on the left is taken from the Parish Map of Menangle, Cumberland around 1882. The river on the left hand side is the Nepean River. Devine's Run of 400 acres can been seen bordering the river, with "Leaf's Creek" running from the top left to the South East. |
An early photograph of a "Leafe's General Store" on Penshurst Street Willoughby.
The store also acted as a postal & money order office and a savings
bank. This particular shop was built in 1885. The
name "Ernest Leafe" refers to George's son. The signage on the side
of the store "LEAFE'S STORES" would indicate that the family owned more than
the one shop. |
George was born in Boston, Lincolnshire about 1825 and grew up in Horncastle, Lincolnshire.
George was the first of the North Sydney
Leafe's to come to Australia, the son of a Shoemaker John Leafe & Elizabeth
Peacock, both natives of Horncastle, Lincolnshire.
His grandfather William Leafe was also born in
Lincolnshire about 1776. George also had a brother, John Leafe who
was born in 1823 and became a Master Baker. George married Charlotte Selina Austin in Jun 1847 at Lincoln, Lincolnshire and they had two daughters, Fanny & Harriet. At the time of their marraige, George's occupation was given as a "Roper" or "Rope Maker". Not long after the birth of their two girls, the decision was made to move to Australia. The family migrated to Australia and arrived in NSW on 25 Nov 1852 onboard the "John Gray". The assisted immigrant index lists the family name as "Leaf". They initially settled in the Sydney area where they had another three children, John George, Caroline and Charlotte Selina between 1856 and 1859 all born in the Sydney Area. The family appeared to have then moved to the Cambelltown area where George worked as a farmer at "Devine's Run" Appin, which was a 400 acre plot bordering the Nepean River and probably on one of the Government Farms. A parish map of the area dated 1882, shows a "Leaf's Creek" on the property. Georges wife, Charlotte died at the property on 30 October 1864 aged 39 years. She had been suffering with chronic hepatitis for two months prior to her death. Charlotte was buried at Campbelltown on 1 November 1864. |
After Charlotte's death, George then married Coleen Jane Studley in Sydney in 1866
and had a further three children. Ernest and Annie born at Campbeltown and Thomas
who was born at Wollongong. |
During the 1870's George also owned an orchard on Penshurst St [eastern side], near
its junction with Mowbray Road. The orchard bordered onto the old
Willoughby Public School. When the new school was built in
1876, the foundation stone was laid by Alfred [later Sir Alfred] Stephen.
Other foundation stones, by arrangement with the builder, were laid by Alex Gilchrist,
Thomas Todd Forsyth and George Leafe for ten shillings each which went
on drinks for the contractor and his men. In 1882 George Leafe was
a storekeeper on Penshurst Street, North Willoughby. |
Some members of the Leafe family lived on Penshurst Street for many years, with three
of George's great grandchildren being killed in two seperate road accidents
on the street. Kathleen & Alice Williams died in the same accident
in 1929 with their sister Joan being killed on the same street in 1935.
They were the children of Alice Caroline "Girly".Leafe and Charles
Henry Williams. |
The following has been extracted from historical notes on Willoughby by the Willoughby
City Council in January 1998. "The first regular service from the Willoughby area to Milson's Point was George Leafe's spring cart which took six passengers along the very primitive roads in the 1870s at a cost of 1/6d. The suburb and municipality are named after Sir James Gordon Willoughby, to commemorate his service during the Peninsula War. The area began as a remote, inaccessible rural district, inhabited by only a few optomistic settlers who believed in the future of transport. In 1854 one of these pioneers, William Lithgow, subdivided six hundred acres and auctioned the lots under the name of The Township of North Sydney, a name which remained until 1890. William Thomas Muston established a horse-bus service along Willoughby Road in the 1880's. Then in 1890 the north shore railway line opened from Hornsby to St Leonards, and was extended to Milsons Point in 1893, opening up the north shore for subdivision and residential development. In 1897, an electric tram service commenced from Milsons Point via Crows Nest to Frenchs Road, was extended to Victoria Avenue in 1898, and again extended in 1908 to Chatswood Railway Station. Since 1958 when all north shore tram services ceased, the routes have been taken over by government buses" |
George died in Willougby in 1904 and was buried at the Gore Hill Cemetary on 20 August
1904 with his death notice appearing in the Sydney Morning Herald on the
same day. |