William Foster Sergeant 1826

William Foster Sergeant was born in Lincolnshire in 1826. His father, also William Foster Sergeant, emigrated with his wife and 7 children to Adelaide in 1838, where he established a successful farm on the Sturt river at Marion. The gold rush in Victoria may have attracted young William as he married Bridget McGuire at Geelong in 1858 when he was 33. Their first four children were born at The Leigh (Shelford), then three sons were born at Rokewood from 1868-1873. Two children died around that time. William was a farmer at Rokewood when his eldest daughter Catherine married in 1881. In 1889 his remaining daughter married at Shelford. Both daughters lived in Melbourne and his wife died in Prahran in 1894. William was living with his daughter Alice when he died in 1902 and was buried at St Kilda cemetery. His occupation was given as an old age pensioner and labourer.