John Stafford (1857-1932) married Mary Anne Blackman (1868-1950)

1857 – Birth of John Allen Stafford

John Allen Stafford was born 19 April 1857 in Sofala, NSW.

1884 – Marriage to Mary Ann Blackman

On 2 August 1884, John married Mary Ann Blackman.

Family of Mary Ann Blackman

Mary’s father was Thomas Henry Blackman (1843-1920) and her mother was Ann McMahon.

Thomas Henry Blackman’s profile is published in the Indigenous Australian Dictionary of Biography. The first part is replicated below:

Thomas Henry Blackman (c. 1843–1920), rural labourer, farmer, and bushrangers’ associate, also known as Captain Blackman, was born in the early 1840s at Cooyal, near Mudgee, New South Wales, only child of Thomas Harley Blackman, farmer, and Mary Ann, a Gamilaroi (Gamilaraay/Kamilaroi) woman. Thomas Henry’s grandfather, James Blackman, was an early Cooyal landholder. From early childhood Thomas Henry lived with his uncle and aunt, Henry James and Elizabeth Blackman, owners of the Cooyal Inn and station of the same name. His mother may have died or disappeared when he was young.

Living with his aunt and her second husband John Garbutt, a convicted thief, exposed Blackman to a network of horse, cattle, and sheep rustlers who operated in the area during the l850s and early 1860s. His close connection with members of this group is documented in reports of their interactions with the law in Mudgee and Cooyal. Elizabeth Blackman had initially employed cattle thief Fred Ward (later known as ‘Captain Thunderbolt’)...

Mary Ann was of Gamilaroi heritage. This made their children and descendants both Gamilraoi and Darug.

1932 – Death of John Allen Stafford

On 6 May 1932, John Allen Stafford died in Binnaway, NSW.