Richard Ord Todd on the Isle of Man and in Australia

A glimpse of life on the Isle of Man in the 1880s.  Private theatricals were evidently all the rage!

You may remember from the photograph in the last post, that Richard Ord Todd as a youth had delicate features – so it seems he was ideally suited to be put into dresses:

Here he's on the left, beside Henry VIII:

In this one, featuring Britannia, Mary Queen of Scots and various assorted others, Richard is on the left next to the headsman and his sister Annie Elizabeth is second from the right in the front row:

And here is Richard with the football team, looking dapper in their hooped jerseys. Richard is top left and next to him is his cousin, Herbert William Quiggin:

Soccer team, 1880s, Isle of Man

Herbert was born in 1866 in Douglas and died in 1900 in Winnipeg, Canada.  He was the son of Richard's aunt Margaret Todd (1835-87) who married her Manx cousin William Thomas Quiggin in 1864.  I understand that William Thomas Quiggin and his brother Edward Todd Quiggin ran the family business, timber merchants & rope manufacturers in Douglas.  Apparently William left the business and then left his wife and three small boys to go to Canada with the family maid; he died in Ottawa.

Richard Ord Todd left the Isle of Man and went out to New South Wales on the Orizaba in 1887.

He married Frances Pym Stevens (1866-1959), eldest daughter of John Harry Stevens and Rosetta Pym on 1 January 1895 in Marrickville, NSW.  They had four children, Charles, Ruth, Stella and Geoffrey.  

His aunt Isabella was evidently living with the family at the end of her life because the notice in the Sydney Morning Herald of her death in 1907 shows that she was with them in their home at 376 Crown Street, Sydney.

Not long after his marriage, Richard's life took another surprising turn.  In his mid-thirties he left banking for the Church and in June 1901 he was admitted to the priesthood of the Church of England.  

He was successively curate of Christ Church, Enmore; Rector of SS Simon & Jude, Surry Hills; Rector of St Stephen's Church, Lidcombe; and assistant chaplain at the Anglican cemetery, Rookwood.

Here he is graduating from Moore Theological College in about 1901 (he is bottom left):

Richard Ord Todd graduating from Moore Theological College, c1901