The following is some information I received in 2012 about Samuel Trew from John Schubert.
Trew, Samuel
– Warracknabeal, was born in Essex, England, in 1828, and learned his trade of brickmaker there. He came to Victoria in 1852, and has followed the same vocation ever since in Geelong, Shelford, Camperdown, Portland, Coleraine, Sandford, Harrow, Horsham, Murtoa and at Warracknabeal for the past four years. For a time he was somewhat unfortunate there, through the rain coming on while the kilns were burning, but has now provided against that contingency and is in a fair way of doing well. He has about 14 acres of good brick-clay land and is the only brickmaker in the district.[1]
[1] Alexander Sutherland, Victoria and its Metropolis Past and Present (Melbourne: McCarron, Bird and Co., 1888), Vol. 2, p. 744.
Samuel Trew, was a brickmaker at Sawpit Swamp from 1878.[1] The Trews obviously knew the Bowns at Sawpit Swamp,[2] before Samuel Trew sold his kiln to Peter Pianta, a charcoal burner, and commenced a new brickmaking venture at Warracknabeal in 1884. Samuel is also remembered as one of the founding members of the Warracknabeal Corps of the Salvation Army.
[1] Samuel Trew originally took over the brick-making business of Joseph Davidson and Co. at Sawpit Swamp, and he was in partnership with Alfred Alexander at the Sawpit Swamp brickworks 1880 – 1882. The Trews lived at the brickworks, on the eastern bank of the swamp.
[2] Evidence of this is found in George Trew’s testimony given at the inquest into Samuel Bown’s death, at Murtoa on 19 November, 1883.
Hi Gary, wonderful information about later in his life. I actually have that book with his details in it. You may be aware that he came out to Australia in 1852 on the HM Steamship Vulcan with the 40th / 20th Somerset foot regiment. He was a red coat and quite possible was at Eureka. His regiment came out to restore law and order in the unruly town of Melbourne and to escort the gold from Bendigo to Melbourne. After the eureka uprising the regiment were off to the Maori wars or India. Cannot quite remember which, but I do have it written down. Well, he wasn’t leaving to fight more battles so absconded with either his brother or cousin who was also in the regiment. Samuel changed his name to, William Taylor, and married Charlotte Morse under his assumed name and his three boys were born with that surname. His brother/cousin got caught in Bendigo. It is written up in the Police Gazette of the day. Not until he felt safe, as in quite a few years had passed and also Charlotte died in childbirth, did he revert back to his birth name and change the boys surnames to Trew. The rest of the story you have captured in relation to the brickworks. A very colourful history.