Sometimes really sad historical stories have your head shaking is disbelief. This one about George Cuffe begins 150 years ago. I told a version of this story live on West Bremer Radio.

In July 1874 a single mother by the name of Margaret Smith was in the Ipswich courthouse (pictured above) in Queensland. Her step-father had stripped the roof off her house and tried to throw her out.

His name was Thomas Beausang who was a well-known drunkard. He did it because he didn’t want Margaret’s brother living in the house with her. Beausang was fined five shillings for assault, but that was scant recompense for the trauma he had caused to Margaret and her nine-month-old son.

Young Margaret Smith was back in court eight weeks later. This time it was charging the father of her illegitimate baby with desertion.

The father’s name was George Cuffe from Brassall. He admitted that he was the father of the child and that he had been paying maintenance up until seven weeks earlier. Then he stopped giving.

George agreed in court to pay what he owed, and Margaret agreed to give up her son with one month’s notice. George was going to raise the baby himself. But that never happened because six months later, the child died.

The story of the George Cuffe goes way further than that.

You see, just seven days after the birth of his illegitimate son, George Cuffe married another woman called Matilda. They were married at the home of Matilda’s brother-in-law who would be on the inaugural Brassall shire council.

George and Matilda’s life together promised to be a good one. George was granted thirty acres of land and a homestead at Brassall, Ipswich. They would even have nine children together.

But sadness was never far away. Their first child born in 1874 died at just one day old. The same day this legitimate daughter died, George stopped payments for his illegitimate son. Seven weeks later, George full of grief, was facing court over the matter.

And his family was generally up to something.

One daughter Mary married old Bill Larsen from Brassall. He was a widower and so Mary brought up the man’s three children. One time Bill was in court himself after causing a disturbance in the street. He was yelling to his neighbour to come outside, calling him things like, “You dirty dog, you dirty pig, you dirty mongrel, you dirty swine.” This was after a daughter told him that the neighbour was peeking in through her window.

Another one of George Cuffe’s sons-in-law Wilfred was fined for failing to lodge a tax return, and George’s son William was fined for drunkenness.

But the sad part was in 1890 when George took his own son James to court to face the Ipswich magistrate. James was just fourteen-years-old, he was continually out late at night and keeping bad company. George, in complete desperation, took his some to court, hoping that he’d be sent to the reformatory school at Lytton in Brisbane. George was willing to pay the five shillings ten pence a week for his son’s maintenance, and so the magistrate agreed, and ordered the boy be sent to the reformatory for twelve months.

George Cuffe and his family are laid to rest in Ipswich cemetery, from where some great stories emanate. His headstone is broken and laying on the ground.

There’s George’s story, with a roof being stripped off, an illegitimate son dying, followed quickly by a legitimate daughter dying, and then sending your own son to reformatory school. There’s so much incredible history out there.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION TOLD ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
Old Ipswich Courthouse – Wikipedia Public Domain taken by Soozle 2009.
George Cuffe’s headstone, Ipswich cemetery – Find a Grave by Ann – here lies 2018.