Gunning & District Historical Society

Francis Henry Alchin: Sawyer of Sydney by Garry Smith Sawyers working in a saw-pit The third of three Alchins who never made it to Gunning and District. Francis Henry Alchin (1830-1901) was born in Bromley-by-Bow, Middlesex, England the son of George Alchin (1806-1856) and Elizabeth Church (1807-1867). He was baptised on 20 June 1830 at Saint Dunstan’s Church, Stepney, London. Francis’s father was a sawyer; he appears on the 1841 England, Wales & Scotland Census as a thirty-five-year old, married to Elizabeth (Church) – they had four children, including eleven-year-old Francis. The family lived at Rope Walk Burchfields. Saint Dunstan’s Church, Stepney, London By the time he was twenty-one in 1851, Francis was living as a “lodger” in Robin Hood Lane, Poplar. His occupation was sawyer, like his father. Times were tough for sawyers leading into the late 1840's and early 1850's in England. Changing technologies were adversely affecting...