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Child Okeford’s Samuel Arnold



What are the links between Child Okeford, this Australian lady and the gentleman in the picture?

Lisa Davidson is an Australian descendant of this distinguished gentleman who was born in Child Okeford in 1811. In 1835, Samuel Arnold married Ann Savery in Hamoon and a year later the young married couple left England with their baby daughter, Sarah. The Arnolds were seeking a better life in the new Australian colony of New South Wales. They became what were known as ‘Bounty Immigrants’ which was a very early assisted passage emigration scheme to Australia. The scheme, incredibly progressive for the times, was set up by the Macarthur family who were among Australia’s earliest gentry.

The ‘Bounty Immigrant’ families were mainly from North Dorset and Samuel Arnold was appointed as their leader. The journey by sailing vessel, the Brothers to the other side of the world was particularly hazardous. During a storm in the Bay of Biscay a prized stallion was thrown overboard and drowned. There was also a second Child Okeford family on board and they were sawyer, Henry Norris, his wife Caroline and their three children, Mary Ann (9), Daniel (6) & George (3). A second Norris family from Child Okeford followed in a later vessel, the Royal George.

Samuel Arnold was a wheelwright by trade and he and his family prospered in New South Wales. They had settled in Camden, a town a few miles outside of Sydney. He became a successful business man and a respected member of the local community.

The photograph was taken in the Plough and Harrow Inn, Camden which Samuel Arnold founded. Today, it is a fashionable Australian heritage pub owned by a former chief executive of the Australian national airline.

Apart from being an astute businessman, Samuel also had ‘green figures’. As he grew older he spent more and more time on his gardening passion. After a long and eventful life and at the ripe old age of 84, Child Okeford born Samuel Arnold passed away in January 1896. The Camden News wrote a glowing eulogy:

‘(Samuel Arnold) was one of the very earliest settlers in the Camden district, and from the commencement of his career in the New World he possessed and carried out one straight line of conduct and integrity, and was at all times a strict supporter – through doubt and difficulties, in the then trying times – of firmness and right.’ (23 January 1896)

So if you are ever passing through Camden, New South Wales why not drop into the Plough and Harrow Hotel. If you tell them you are from Samuel Arnold’s home Dorset village of Child Okeford you might even get a free drink!


Plough & Harrow Hotel, Camden, New South Wales

(Source: Camden – Alan Atkinson)

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