The BRISCOE Name

The name Briscoe is generally associated with one who came from a place named Briscoe (Briscoe, or Birksceug, is a township 3 miles south of Carlisle in Cumberland). There are assumed to be two sources of the name. One is from the Old Norse "birkiskogr," meaning "birchwood, wood of the birches." This surname originates in Cumberland and Yorkshire in North England. The other origin is from the Old Norse Bretaskógr ‘wood of the Britons’.

According to E.J.M. BRISCOE of Screggan Manor the first English Briscoe (or Brisgau) is said to have come over from Normandy with William the Conqueror in 1066 AD.  For services rendered he was granted lands in Cumberland County.

Briscoes have long been associated with Crofton Hall in Cumberland from the 1300s when Isold Briscoe married Margaret Crofton. See A Briscoe Family Tree for more details. John Brisco of the Briscos of Crofton Hall "passed over" to Ireland about 1580.

Our earliest known ancestor is Henry Harrison Briscoe (snr) from Ireland. At this time there is no identified connection between our family and the Briscoes from Crofton Hall.

HENRY HARRISON BRISCOE Snr

Henry Harrison Briscoe (snr) was born in Leinster Province, Ireland, in about 1805 and married Eliza Thomasina Walshe in 1830. He was a Magistrate and an Inspector of Poor Laws in Ireland and he is mentioned on numerous occasions in the 1849-1850 Ennistymon Union Minute Books.

In 1837, property valuation records show him residing in Clonmore Parish, County Kilkenny, being the proprietor of the estate of Cloncunny.

The children of Henry Harrison Briscoe (snr) and Eliza Thomasina Walshe were:
  • Thomas Anthony Briscoe (b 1831)
  • Edward William Briscoe (b 1833)
  • Caroline Elizabeth Henrietta Briscoe (b 1834)
  • Alfred Philip Briscoe (b 1835)
  • Henry Harrison Briscoe (1837 - 1912)

HENRY HARRISON BRISCOE Jnr

Henry Harrison Briscoe (jnr) was christened on 27 Aug 1837 at Clonmore, County Kilkenny, Ireland. In the 1851 Kent census, a Henry H Briscoe is mentioned as a scholar aged 13 years (born Waterford, Ireland) at a Preparatory Military School in Eltham, Kent, England. Classmates were from British India and one from Australia which might explain his future career and travels.

He served in the 81st Foot (Loyal Lincoln Volunteers), and as a Lieutenant was a recipient of the Indian Mutiny Medal in 1859.

In India, he married Anne Alice Roberts, the daughter of a British Army Officer, Edward Howard Roberts and wife Mary (nee Rodney). Anne was born in Hydrabad, India in 1838 or 1839. He sold his commission in India and worked for a short time either in a bank or with the East India Company. The couple migrated to Australia probably due to Annie's health because she died on 1 January 1866 at Fitzroy, Victoria less than a year after their arrival. Annie is buried in Melbourne cemetery.
Henry apparently spent the next seventeen years in the Outback of NSW. He is recorded in the 1869-70 electoral rolls as residing at Langawirra in the Darling Back Country. He is also mentioned in one of explorer Ernest Giles' books, referring to Mr. H. H. Briscoe, of the Darling-River.

On 1 Feb 1883 Henry married Elizabeth Warren, daughter of Richard Robins Warren and Anne Livingstone, at Registry Office Hoddle Street, Collingwood, Victoria. According to his marriage certificate, he lived at Smith Street, Fitzroy, but his usual residence was Wilcannia, NSW, where he was an overseer.

WARREN Family Connection

Richard Warren was a ship’s officer who supposedly jumped ship in Melbourne in the gold rush days. Richard's father Thomas Warren was, according to family fable, the ship’s master of the cable laying ship across the Atlantic. Anne Livingstone born in 1842 in Scotland and migrated to Australia in 1852 with her family on the ship ‘Marco Polo’. Richard and Anne Warren were married on March 15th, 1858, at Sandhurst near Bendigo, Victoria.

The Australian BRISCOE Family

After his second marriage Henry H. became a caretaker of tanks, or water holes, at various towns througout NSW. He supposedly put in the first well at The Rock near Wagga Wagga NSW. He also managed a property in the Warren district, the property was next to the big merino stud Haddon Rig.

The family lived in Cobar, Wagga Wagga and Walgett before moving to Sydney where in 1908 they resided at "Beaconsfield" in Tower Street, East Hills. The children of Henry Harrison Briscoe and Elizabeth Warren were:
  • Elizabeth Caroline Thomasina Marion Briscoe (1883 - 1974)
  • Emily Alice Isabella Livingstone Briscoe (1885 - ?)
  • Alfred Edward Henry Harrison Briscoe (1886 - 1915)
  • George Albert Ernest Sidney Briscoe(1888 - 1948)
  • Arthur William Boultbee Torrance Briscoe (1892 - 1893)
  • John Robins Warren Low(e) Briscoe (1895 - ?)
  • Livingstone Eugene James Alexander Briscoe (1896 - 1986)
  • Doris Daisy Mary Devereux Briscoe (1898 - 1973)

FAMILY CONNECTIONS