Benjamin /DUCKER ALFRED ROBERTS, or John Edwin COOK

1852 - 1916  (64 years)

• Name	Benjamin /DUCKER ALFRED ROBERTS
  Suffix	or John Edwin COOK
  Birth	1852	Manea, Cambridgeshire, England
  Gender	Male
  0ccupation	Railway worker, Carrier, Orchardist
  Cause of death	Lepatic carcinoma and Exhaustion
  _UID	869E0131B37E4EC89498A7C19EE40094473E
  Death	10 Jul 1916	Albany, West Australia
  Burial	11 Jul 1916	Albany Cemetery, West Australia
  Person ID	I12763	Boxers
  Last Modified	16 May 2026

  
  

  Father	Gregory Fuller DUCKER,   b. 29 Sep 1821, Shereford, Norfolk, England d. 1904, Waterloo, Sydney, NSW, Australia (Age 82 years)
  Mother	Maria GREEN,   b. 4 Dec 1825, Manea, Cambridgeshire, England d. 1901, Waterloo, Sydney, NSW, Australia (Age 75 years)
  Marriage	16 Sep 1846	Manea, Cambridgeshire, England
  Family ID	F4549	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Susan Ann PASSLOW,   b. 3 Jan 1855, On board 'Ascendant' on way to Australia d. 17 Aug 1943, Croydon, Victoria, Australia (Age 88 years)
  Marriage	1874	Gundagai, NSW, Australia
  Children	1. Alfred Benjamin DUCKER,   b. 1875, Gundagai, NSW, Australia d. 1927, Parramatta, NSW, Australia (Age 52 years)   2. Gregory Fuller DUCKER,   b. 1877, Gundagai, NSW, Australia d. 1929, Annandale, NSW, Australia (Age 52 years)   3. Jonathan DUCKER,   b. 1877, Gundagai, NSW, Australia d. 1944, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (Age 67 years)   4. Jane Maria DUCKER,   b. 1879, Gundagai, NSW, Australia d. 1879, Gundagai, NSW, Australia (Age 0 years)   5. Rose Adelaide DUCKER,   b. 1881, Waterloo, Sydney, NSW, Australia d. 1882, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia (Age 1 year)   6. Ethel Rose A DUCKER,   b. 1883, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia d. 1883, Cootamundra, NSW, Australia (Age 0 years)   7. Therese M DUCKER,   b. 1884, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia d. Yes, date unknown   8. Annie Victoria Beatrice DUCKER,   b. 1887, Junee, NSW, Australia d. 1984, Annandale, NSW, Australia (Age 97 years)   9. Elsie Ada DUCKER,   b. 1889, Gundagai, NSW, Australia d. 1917, Ashfield, NSW, Australia (Age 28 years)
  Family ID	F4555	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	30 Jan 2021

  
  

  Family 2	Isabella MEADLEY,   b. 14 Feb 1869, Marulan, NSW, Australia d. 31 Aug 1918, Albany, West Australia (Age 49 years)
  _MARRIED	N
  Children	1. Benjamin MEADLEY,   b. 1 Jan 1889, Benevolent Asylum, Sydney, NSW, Australia d. 30 Aug 1916, France (Age 27 years)   2. Mark Alfred ROBERTS,   b. 7 Mar 1891, Red Hill, Victoria, Australia d. 22 Jul 1937, Katanning, West Australia (Age 46 years)   3. Ruby Beatrice ROBERTS,   b. 27 Feb 1893, Notting Hill, Victoria, Australia d. 2 May 1965, Albany, West Australia (Age 72 years)   4. Alfred Amos ROBERTS,   b. 24 Mar 1897, Albany, West Australia d. 28 Jan 1938, Lemnos Hospital, Perth, West Australia (Age 40 years)   5. Thirza May ROBERTS,   b. 20 Jun 1899, Albany, West Australia d. 16 Jun 1948, Albany, West Australia (Age 48 years)   6. Jack Francis Cyrus ROBERTS,   b. 11 May 1902, Albany, West Australia d. 23 Jun 1906, Albany, West Australia (Age 4 years)   7. Rose Isabel ROBERTS,   b. 11 Nov 1904, Albany, West Australia d. 15 Nov 1904, Albany, West Australia (Age 0 years)   8. Dorothy Ethel Eileen ROBERTS,   b. 1 Aug 1907, Albany, West Australia d. 9 Aug 1908, Albany, West Australia (Age 1 year)   9. Revely Rupert Francis ROBERTS,   b. 25 Jun 1909, Albany, West Australia d. 20 Sep 1962, Rocky Gully, West Australia (Age 53 years)   10. Elsie Edna Violet ROBERTS,   b. 4 May 1912, Albany, West Australia d. 26 Aug 1989, Geraldton, Western Australia (Age 77 years)
  Family ID	F46	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	5 Jan 2021

  
  

• Notes

  See NSW Police Gazettes for Benjamin having deserted his wife and 6 children and run off to Victoria with Isabella Meadley and their baby Benjamin. He changed his name to Alfred Roberts. Benjamin was described as a railway porter. The gazettes say the he was suspected of going to Victoria with Isabella, so perhaps that wasn't far enough to run. They moved to Albany after the birth of another two children. Alfred Roberts was a Worthy Master of the Loyal Orange Lodge in Albany. Apart from a house on Stirling Terrace that he rented, he had land with an orchard on it on the Albany Highway near where stands now a service station. His old cottage can be seen next to this. In the town he was a carrier. The Albany Advertiser has several reports of his doings. On his death certificate, his father is given as Gregory Roberts. It was Gregory Ducker. It states on all the children's birth certificates that their father was born in Cambridgeshire. This is correct. Note the names of his children and his sisters' children. There are similarities. His sister Mary Ann had died in 1886 just before Benjamin/Alfred left NSW for good. Amos was a name from the Saxby side. So was Thirza May. Both Isabella and Benjamin's families had worked for the railways. In NSW, this entitled the workers and their families to travel free, or at a reduced cost on the trains. Note that both his sisters pre-deceased him . Due to DNA matching, it now appears that John Edwin Cook (1867-1959) was Rev's father. I can't find any decendants from Rev's younger sister so she may have had John Cook as her father too.