Dear Caroline, Joseph Broadbent Holmes was born on Godstone, Surrey England 0n 13/7/1817. Baptised at St Nicholas on 14/8/1817. He died at the Wilderness on 17/12/1897. He married Harriet Pawsey Phillips (born 9/11/1813 at Newnham, Gloucs., parents Charles Philips and Phoebe Maxwell) at Westbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire in on 31/11/1841. Within a year they had travelled to Australia, and soon after purchased a property from a Robert Coulson, not far from Allandale, near Maitland in the Hunter Valley. It was, in fact, not far from where I live. I understand that th name "Wilderness" came from the name of a lake in Cumberland. He built a house near Black Creek and developed a vineyard. In 1852 he was the president of the Hunter River Vineyard Association in 1852. His eventual property was 2,000 acres in size of which 100 acres was under grapes. The family had a close association with the local Anglican minister, who kept a detailed diary (often mentioning the Holmes family). One of the eight children, Maxwell Pillips Holmes, married the minister's daughter Mary Anne Glennie. I have three foolscap pages of info on the family, a copy of a picture of the house and the Rev. Glennie's diary is available. In the family tree I have the next generation and some of his grandchildren. I guess we should exchange notes!! John Goswell >Looking for a Holmes researcher who can give me some information re Joseph >Broadbent Holmes of 'The Wilderness' & 'Caerphilly' at Rothbury - my gg.grandfather >was William Boughton & according to family lore, he was brought out to Australia >in 1842 by Joseph Broadbent Holmes, 'a winegrower from Exeter, Devon'.