Interactive Timeline

John Webber is born in Staverton, Devon, England — the earliest documented Webber ancestor. The Webber name derives from the wool-weaving trade, a common Devon occupation.

John Webber marries Elizabeth Evins (or Ewins) on 18 May 1742 in Staverton, Devon. They would have 5 children between 1747 and 1762.

Samuel Cole (farmer/labourer) and Mary Pellow are married at St Mary's Parish Church, Berry Pomeroy on 24 July 1791. They are the great-great-great grandparents of Jim Webber through their daughter Jane.

Jane Cole is born on 3 February 1808 in Berry Pomeroy, Devon — the sixth child of Samuel Cole and Mary Pellow. She would later marry Edward Webber and bring her children to Australia.

Edward Webber marries Jane Cole at Totnes, Devon on 10 February 1831. Their children Nicholas (born 1834) and Elizabeth (born 1836) would later emigrate to Australia.

Nicholas Webber is born on 16 November 1834 in Devon, England. He would emigrate to Australia at age 17 and become a goldfields miner in Castlemaine, Victoria.

Following the death of her second husband Thomas Webber in 1840, Jane Cole marries John Holmes at the Register Office in Newton Abbot on Christmas Day, 25 December 1843. John is 14 years younger than Jane. They have four children in Broadhempston before emigrating to Australia in 1852 on the Persian with Jane's children Nicholas and Elizabeth Webber.

Jane Cole/Webber and her children Nicholas (17) and Elizabeth (15) arrive in Australia on the ship Persian. Poverty in Devon and the promise of gold in Victoria drove their decision to emigrate.

Nicholas Webber works as a miner on the Castlemaine goldfields. His 1857 Miner's Right — an official licence to mine — is later preserved and held by the Castlemaine Historical Society.

Nicholas Webber and Marion Murray are married on 7 March 1857 at the Murray family home in Fitzroy/Collingwood, Melbourne, "in the forms of the Presbyterian Church." Nicholas travelled from Castlemaine for the wedding. They would have 11 children together.

Nicholas Webber is issued his official Miner's Right in 1857, granting him the legal right to mine for gold in Castlemaine. The original document is preserved and held by the Castlemaine Historical Society.

Jane Cole — who married Edward Webber, then Thomas Webber, then John Holmes — dies on 29 July 1884 at Maldon, Victoria, aged 76. She had brought her children Nicholas and Elizabeth to Australia in 1852.

Jane Holmes (née Cole), her husband John Holmes, and her children Nicholas Webber (18), Elizabeth Webber (15), and Sarah Webber (19) sail from Plymouth on 18 September 1852. The 593-passenger voyage takes 100 days. Nicholas celebrates his 18th birthday on the voyage. 39 passengers (about 6%) die at sea.

Nicholas's sister Elizabeth Webber (age 19) marries James William Jolly at the Presbyterian Church, Castlemaine on 7 February 1856. James was born in Cornwall, England in 1827 and was working as a miner at Moonlight Flat. They would have 12 children and run the Court House Hotel in Talbot for over 30 years.

Robert Edward Webber is born on 11 July 1858 in a tent at Moonlight Flat, Castlemaine — the first of Nicholas and Marion's 11 children. The family lived in a canvas tent just north of the Robert Burns Hotel. Mining was dangerous: cave-ins and accidents were common, and water-borne diseases like dysentery were a constant threat.

Nicholas Webber inscribes his copy of "The Natural History of Man" by Dr James C. Pritchard (1851): "N Webber, Moonlight Flat, Castlemaine 1860." The book chronicles research into the races of humankind. That Nicholas owned and read such a work while living in a goldfields tent speaks to his remarkable intellectual curiosity.

Benjamin Arthur Webber is born on 17 December 1872 at Ten Foot Hill, Castlemaine — the 10th of Nicholas and Marion's 11 children. He would later marry Jessie Ann Robertson on 22 June 1899 at "Inverugie", 11 Hall St, Castlemaine — uniting the Webber and Robertson families.

Nicholas Webber becomes licensee of the Brighton Hotel in Castlemaine in 1882 — 15 years after his brother-in-law James Jolly became licensee of the Court House Hotel in Talbot. The Castlemaine Gardens, established in 1860, were close to the hotel and would have been frequented by the family.

Nicholas Webber dies in Castlemaine in July 1889, aged 54. He had arrived in Australia at 17, worked the goldfields, married Marion Murray, raised 11 children (the first three in a tent at Moonlight Flat), and become a hotel licensee. His sister Elizabeth Jolly died in February 1892, aged 55.

Benjamin Arthur Webber marries Jessie Ann Robertson on 22 June 1899 at "Inverugie", 11 Hall St, Castlemaine. This marriage unites the Webber and Robertson family branches — the children of two immigrant families who had each made the journey to Australia from Scotland and Devon.

The Brighton Hotel and Store opens at 359 Barker St, Castlemaine (corner of Wimble St) in 1873, with Harry Excell as licensee. The site had previously been a bakery and grocery run by the Bissett brothers. Nicholas Webber would become licensee in 1882.

Benjamin Arthur (Acker) Webber becomes licensee of the Brighton Hotel in 1904, aged 32, taking over from his mother Marion who had run it for 15 years since Nicholas's death. In 1908 a second storey brick extension is added. The hotel is renamed Webber's Hotel in December 1913 after Marion's death.

Alfred Ernest Webber, aged 20, is found drowned in the Yarra River near the Falls Bridge on 16 April 1888, after being missing for six days. He had been working as a moulder at Langland's Foundry in South Melbourne — the city's oldest foundry. An inquest returned an open verdict. His mother Marion travelled to Melbourne to bring his body home to Castlemaine by train.

Winifred Alice (Winnie) Bradbury, granddaughter of Nicholas and Marion Webber, is appointed leading soprano at Scots Church, Melbourne in December 1910 — beating 13 applicants for a position paying 25 pounds per annum. She sings Handel's Messiah at Christmas 1911, performs Elgar's 'The Kingdom' at the Melbourne Town Hall in 1915 to a hall 'crowded to the doors', and joins the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Society. She dies suddenly of diphtheria on 9 April 1920 at age 32, the day after singing 'I Know That My Redeemer Liveth' at the Easter service.

Robert Mace (Bob) Webber goes missing in Crete on 2 June 1941. He becomes Prisoner of War No. 262 at Oflag VB in Biberach, southern Germany, near the Swiss border. In October 1941 all officers are transferred 350km north to Oflag VIB near Warburg. The family first hears from him on 13 September 1941. He spends four years in German captivity before returning to Melbourne in July 1945 to a family welcome at Spencer Street Station.

William Murray (Bill) Webber, son of William Henry Webber (Nicholas and Marion's son), becomes Secretary of the Victorian Branch of the United Firefighters Union in 1950 at age 35. He holds the position for 25 years until retirement in 1975. The union's centenary history describes him as a 'legendary' secretary who led 'the infamous 30 year war of industrial strife' for firefighters' conditions, wages and safety. He also writes a history of the Victorian Branch in 1992.