AMBROSE WILLIAM FREEMAN 1873-1930
In 1941, as the war in the Pacific edged ever closer to Australia's doorstep, a widow donated a stately family country home, Berida in Bowral, to the Red Cross for the use of convalescing Australian servicemen.
Doctor Jessie Strathorn Aspinall (1880-1953) married Ambrose William Freeman (1873-1930) in 1915 and from 1925, they lived with their four children at Berida, 6 David Street, Bowral. One of their granddaughters was named Berida.
From 1990, Berida with its 43 guest rooms, adjacent to Berida Golf Club, has been known as Berida Manor or Berida Hotel.
The Freeman family was clothed in mourning during the Great War. Six weeks before Jessie and Ambrose were married by Jessie's father, Reverend Arthur Ashworth Aspinall (1846-1929), the first Principal and co-founder of The Scots College in Sydney, one of Ambrose's brothers, Douglas, was killed at Quinns Post, Gallipoli on 3 May 1915, the week after their cousin, Colonel HN MacLaurin, was killed at what is now known as MacLaurin's Hill.
In September 1917, Jessie's youngest brother, a medical doctor, Captain William Robert Aspinall MC, aged 24, was killed at Ypres while attending to a wounded soldier.
Service and duty and sacrifice were never far from the family. Jessie Aspinall had graduated MB ChM from the University of Sydney in 1906. Her appointment as the first female Resident Medical Officer at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital had been initially refused by the RPA Board who were forced to relent when newspaper editorials and correspondents railed against the injustice of their decision.
Ambrose Freeman, second son of William Freeman, one-time President of the NSW Land Court, was educated at Newington College and the University of Sydney. He graduated BA 1896 and BEng (Mining and Metallurgy) 1904. He and an older brother owned tin mines in the Malayan States. On a trip back from Malaya in October 1930, he fell fatally ill and was buried at sea.
Ambrose's richly varied life had portentous episodes and brushes with fame. He had been a 1st grade cricketer for exactly one game - for Sydney University against Sydney CC at Rushcutters Bay Oval in October 1902. He took no wickets in the Sydney first innings, made 0 not out batting last in University's faltering reply and then, entrusted with the ball for a few overs in Sydney's second innings, he had Quist stumped by Edgar Waddy for 37.
We are talking of Karl Hugo Quist (1875-1957), a batsman with three States (NSW, Western Australia and South Australia), father of Adrian Quist (1913-1991), the Australian Davis Cup player, once ranked third in the world. Freeman played no more. His recondite statistics: one first grade game, no runs, one wicket.
Between degrees, Freeman worked on the Western Australian goldfields. He had business dealings with an engineer who became the thirty-first President of the USA, Herbert Hoover.
At Sydney University he was an inveterate organiser amid the insouciance of university life, variously Honorary Secretary of the Rugby Club, St Andrew's College Ball Committee and the Grounds Committee of the Sports Union. He was also a Vice President of the Undergraduates' Association in 1903.
Did he have a famous connection with Bowral before he and Jessie built there in 1925? Or was there just a coincidence in surnames?
Ambrose's father was William and his grandfather was Henry. Earlier genealogical family details seem to peter out there.
Was he related to another William Freeman (1770-1820), an English convict who had been transported to NSW in 1792? William married another convict, Elizabeth Chaffrey (1780-1816). They produced seven sons and Lucy (1804-1827), their only daughter.
Was Ambrose Freeman's grandfather Henry the son of one of the seven sons?
Lucy married William Augustus Cupitt (1797-1866). Either before Lucy died or just after, William took up with and eventually married Rebecca Charlton and they moved to Mittagong. The historians, Bernadette Mahony and Rodney Cavalier, first established that one of Rebecca's and William's children was Mary Cupitt (1827-1871) whose extra marital affair with Emmanuel Neich (Danero) (1807-1893) produced Sophia Jane Cupitt (1846-1926), the grandmother of Don Bradman. See Between Wickets (Summer 2014-15).
Sophia married William Whatman. Their sixth child, Emily, was Don's mother. Neich's first wife. Mary Ann Comer, was the daughter of a convict, James Comer.
In 1925 when the Freemans were moving into Berida in David Street, another family had just moved from 52 Shepherd Street to 20 Glebe St, just a few minutes' walk from each other. This was the cricket season when 17 year old Don Bradman, playing for Bowral against Wingello, scored an astounding 234, batting against his future Australian teammate, Bill O'Reilly.
Were Ambrose and Don related? Ambrose Freeman played one first grade game. Don Bradman was statistically the greatest cricketer the world has known. Don was a great great grandson of William Cupitt, the first husband of the daughter of William Freeman, a convict.
Was Ambrose the great great great grandson of the convict William Freeman?
We may never know.
But he did play one 1st Grade game with Sydney University.
JAMES RODGERS