Ezra and Mary Barham Westneat (Continued)

Even with the considerable stress and uncertainty of our own contemporary lives, it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to comprehend the trauma and emotional anguish which this young couple must have felt as they walked into Melbourne. The capacity to endure, the tenacity to keep going, the courage to face the next day and hope it would get better  -- this is the legacy that Ezra and Mary have passed on to the rest of us. They were people made of stern stuff. They were survivors -- and survive they did.

    Mary Ellen Barham Westneat

Ezra and Mary established their home in the little town of Prahran, now part of the larger city of Melbourne. They eventually had a total of seven children. Four of these children, all boys, survived to manhood. It is these boys from whence the 4 different clans of Westneats spring today. Three of the children died in infancy. Elizabeth and John, the twins died on board ship in 1849 during the passage to Australia.  In 1862, Mary gave birth to their last child, Frances Charlotte Westneat. Francis died the following year at the age of 10 months and is buried in St. Kilda Cemetery.

St. Kilda Cemetery

(Click to enlarge)

The burial of Frances Charlotte Westneat gives some insight into the course of the lives of Ezra and Mary.  Frances was buried in a "Public" grave with no marker. A public grave implies that the family did not have sufficient funds for funeral costs at the time of the death. Being a gardener by trade may have made for some tough economic times for the family.

Interestingly, 20 years later, at the time of Ezra's death in 1883, the family had a burial plot in St. Kilda which today is marked by four large stone slabs forming a rectangle about a foot high. The area within the rectangle is filled with light gravel. The only marking is the name "WESTNEAT" carved in simple letters. There are six people buried in this site. Ezra in 1883, Mary in 1887, their son Alfred (1929) and his wife Jane (1923) and two grand children, Edward and Fredrick -- both sons on Charles Herbert.

On April 27, 1883, the AGE, one of Melbourne's major newspapers of the time, carried a short announcement which said "The friends of the late Mr. Ezra Westneat are invited to follow his remains to the place of interment, in the St. Kilda Cemetery. The funeral is appointed to move from his late residence, corner of Elizabeth St. and Alfred Place, South Yarra, this day (Friday), 27th inst. at half past 3 o'clock."

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