William Splatt

John farmed at Powderham where in 1805 he married his first wife Fanny Stokes (born 1780) at nearby Kenton Church.

Following his wife's early death he moved to Northwood Farm in the parish of Chudleigh, where he remarried to Elizabeth Laskey (1784-1850), widow of Mr Yeo, by whom he had 10 children.

He was joined the following year by his elder half-sister, Fanny Splatt (1806–1895), her husband Thomas Dolling (1810–1898), and their three children, who farmed at Merri Creek, Pentridge (later known as Coburg), Victoria.

[2] His mother and four of her children perished in the shipwreck of the Orion paddle steamer on a voyage from Liverpool to Glasgow on 18 June 1850 on their way to join William in Australia after he encouraged them to do so.

[1] A mural monument erected by William Francis Splatt to his mother and siblings lost in the accident survives in Chudleigh Church.