First Known Burial - Ellen Bonfield

The cart lurched and bumped its way along the narrow dirt track, the canny old horse avoiding the deep ruts as best he could. The 28th of April 1856, was a sad day for the sombre little group huddled aboard. Heads bowed against the sudden squall, the driver and his passengers passed the Sir John Franklin Hotel, before turning onto a side track and cutting across a flat, scrubby field.

Pulling the horse to a stop, the driver scrambled down and carefully unloaded a small wooden coffin. He set to work digging in the hard clay soil, while a woman and young girl stood by silently watching.

In 1853, the Bonfield family, Ebenezer, his wife Elizabeth and their two young daughters Ellen and Agnes, left their home in Cambridgeshire, England and boarded the ship 'Aden' bound for the gold-rich colony of Victoria. But now tragedy had struck. Nine year old Ellen Blanche had developed a fever and on April 28th, 1856 her short life ended in the family's home at Emerald Hill.

It was to this barren, lonely place, overlooking the Keilor valley and the vast plains which stetched away to the horizon, that the Bonfield's brought their precious eldest daughter to her final resting place.

Curiously Ellen and her parents all died in the month of April, while father and daughter died on the same day some forty years apart. Ebenezer, Elizabeth, Ellen and Ebenezer's sister Martha are all buried in Graves 10-11D in the old Church of England section of Keilor Cemetery.

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