Lane, William and Catherine

Born:

Bathurst settlers, "true Christian friends in the wilderness" [Handt Diary, 10 September 1832]

Career Highlights

William Lane, a former Wesleyan minister from Devonshire, and his wife Catherine (nee Tom), arrived in NSW in 1823 as free settlers on the Jupiter. In 1824 Lane was overseeing the interests of the Hassall family at O'Connell Plains, during a time of violent conflict between Aborigines and settlers. Lane was the leader of a posse that killed three Aboriginal women near Rainville, in revenge for the wounding of a stockman in an attack on Mrs Hassall's station. Five of the stockmen involved were trialed in Sydney. The Lane's had their own property on the Fish River, south of Bathurst, at `Tarranah Farm'. Their children, whom Handt described as "clean and healthy, and ... well behaved" included Mary and John Tom Lane, twelve and ten years of age, and the infants James Barrett, born at Bathurst in 1830, and Nicholas Oliver, six months old when the missionaries visit `Tarranah farm'.

The Lane family were later pioneers of `Blackman's Swamp' (Orange) where they built `Clifton Grove House'. They are one of the most prominent families in the history of the Orange District, and `Clifton Grove House' remains in the hands of William and Catharine's descendants.