Richard Haydon CHERITON 1836-1900, b. Whitestone, Devonshire, England
&
Mary McLENNAN 1834-1923, b. Ross & Cromartyshire, Scotland

Richard Haydon CHERITON b. Whitestone, Devonshire, England, son of Richard CHERITON & Agnes HAYDON, arrived Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in March 1854 on the "Golden Era" from England. He survived a shipwreck on the Irish coast on his first attempt to emigrate in January 1854, but was successful at his second attempt on the "Golden Era." He went to South Australia for a couple of years travelling to the Victorian goldfields later in the 1850s. He went back to South Australia in 1859 and purchased land, married and had his first child.

Mary McLENNAN b. 1834, Ross & Cromartyshire, Scotland, daughter of Duncan McLENNAN & Christina McRAE, who as a family appears to have settled at Bowtell's Creek, near Sandford, s-W Victoria before 1870. Her parents Duncan & Christina are both buried in the Sandford cemetery.

Richard Haydon CHERITON & Mary McLENNAN were married in Adelaide, SA in 1860 and a daughter Isabella was born near Lake Alexandrina in 1861. Richard's brother John CHERITON 1828-1917 was farming in this area at this time.

By 1862 Richard & Mary CHERITON had moved to Merino, S-W Victoria where a son Donald was born. From 1865 to 1872 another five children were born in the nearby Sandford and casterton area. Richard was successfully farming at this time and was involved in the establishment of the "Merino and Sandford Agricultural Society" in 1866, and continued farming at Carapook until he put his farm on the market in 1873 with the intention of moving north the new country.

In 1874 the CHERITON family had moved north to Deniliquin on the Edwards River in New South Wales where their son Andrew was born in 1874. In 1878 he was a delegate to the conference of the Free Selectors' Association, held at the Imperial Hotel, Sydney during which the following biography was published...

Conference of Free Selectors' Delegates.
AT the close of the second conference of the delegates from the Free Selectors' Associations, held at the Imperial Hotel, Sydney, we decided on giving the portraits of the members in a group. In order to enable us to give an outline of their experience in Australia it was necessary that the autobiography of each should be furnished. However, we were prevented from doing this through the difficulty in obtaining the information required from the whole of the delegates, and the last of these biographies only reached us on Wednesday morning.
5.--RICHARD HAYDON CHERITON.
This delegate represented, the free selectors of the Deniliquin district, and was one of the delegates at the first Conference. He was born at Whitestone, near Exeter, England, on the 3rd of April, 1836. He left the mother country on the 10th January, 1854, in the ship Teleuir, bound for Melbourne. Two days after the vessel was wrecked on the Irish coast, and the cargo and 420 lives were lost. Nothing daunted by this awful disaster, Mr. Cheriton embarked on the ship Golden Era on the 17th March, 1854, and arrived in Melbourne on the 6th of June. Left for Adelaide during the same month, and remained in the colony of South Australia until the month of February, 1857, when he went to the diggings of Victoria, where he remained until August 1859. Then he returned to South Australia, purchased some land, and got married and followed agricultural pursuits, at which he remained until March 1862, when he returned to Victoria. There he became a landowner and again commenced farming, at which he remained until September 1873, when he crossed the Murray and selected land near Deniliquin. He is now farming and is also a grazier. Mr. Cheriton has a family of ten children. There is not much grain cultivation in the police district of Deniliquin. The harvest for the year ended 31st March 1878, yielded according to the statistical register--11,208 bushels of wheat, 6 bushels maize, 260 bushels of barley, 535 bushels of oats, with 17 tons of potatoes.

Ref : "The Australian Town and Country Journal" (NSW) Saturday, 26th October 1878.

Richard Haydon CHERITON died at Hay, NSW in 1900 and his wife Mary died at Sydney, NSW in 1923.

Richard Haydon CHERITON & Mary McLENNAN had the following family...

1. Isabella Agnes Jane CHERITON b. 1861, Lake Alexandrina, SA, d. 1941, Sydney, NSW.

2. Donald John CHERITON b. 1862, Merino, S-W Victoria, d. 1933, Adaminaby, NSW, m. 1888, NSW to Mary McGRATH ~1865-1938.

3. Mary Christina Ann CHERITON b. 1865, Sandford, S-W Victoria, d. 1932, Sydney, NSW, m. 1896, Hillston, NSW to Robert Smith VAGG 1865-1932, b. Dwyer's Creek, Merino-Sandford, S-W Victoria.

4. Susannah Ellen CHERITON b. 1868, Casterton, S-W Victoria, d. 1945, Sydney, NSW.

5. Richard CHERITON b. 1869, Casterton, S-W Victoria, d. 1938, Perth, WA, m. 1904, Perth, WA to Beatrice Jessie PRIEST 1872-1949, lived at Meckering, Western Australia.

6. Anna CHERITON b. 1871, Sandford, S-W Victoria, d. 1963, Sydney, NSW, m. 1907, Narrandera, NSW to Alexander STRANG 1874-1919, died Sydney, NSW, served with the AIF in WW1.

7. Duncan McLennan CHERITON b. 1872, Sandford, S-W Victoria, d. 1960, Sydney, NSW, m. 1908, WA to May BOUTON 1878-1953.

8. Andrew Alexander CHERITON b. 1874, Deniliquin, NSW, d. 1951, Mount Magnet, WA.

9. Henry Haydon CHERITON b. 1875, Deniliquin, NSW, d. 1913, Sydney, NSW.

10. Albert William CHERITON b. 1877, Deniliquin, NSW, d. 1948, Parkes, NSW.

11. Hermann Matthew CHERITON b. 1881, Deniliquin, NSW, d. 1954, Sydney, NSW., m. 1912, NSW to Alice Mary KEEGAN 1884-1944.