The Kilborns

Grave of the Kilborn Plot

Roderick Hurd Kilborn and Sarah Foord Kilborn are buried in the Presbyterian section at Carlyle Cemetery.

Roderick Kilborn 

Roderick Kilborn was born in Newboro, Ontario in Canada. He was the descendant of one of the first settlers of Wethersfield in Connecticut.

Roderick was from a family of military men who fought in the American War of Independence and the American and British war of 1812. Roderick was commissioned as a Lieutenant and served with the British Canadian Regiment (Tay River and Ontario). He was educated in New York and was known to be knowledgeable and articulate. 

Once news of the gold rush in Victoria reached Canada, he and his friends sailed for Australia aboard the ‘William Fotheringham’ in 1852. He made his way to Forest Creek (Castlemaine), Maryborough and Ararat. He took up ownership of a small light topsail schooner and hauled goods back and forth from the Yarra and Hobsons Bay. He later undertook driving the mail coaches between Melbourne and Beechworth for Green and Connolly and later for Cobb and Co. In 1860 he joined the Postal Department, stationed at Kyneton, and was a member of the Castlemaine Mounted Riflemen. 

In 1862 he arrived at Wahgunyah and was appointed the first Post Master. There, he won the heart of Miss Sarah Foord (the first white female child born at Wahgunyah in 1844) and they married. 

Despite travelling around the state with the postal service, Roderick had a working vineyard at Wahgunyah called ‘Goojung’ which had an appointed manager tending to it in his absence. When Roderick retired from the postal service, Sarah and he enjoyed their life at Goojung. He sat on the local Shire Council and was a keen breeder of race horses. He was a neighbour and patron of local indigenous artisit Tommy McRae.

His wife Sarah passed away in 1899 and was interred at the Private John Foord family cemetery, which had at that time been closed for further burials. The family received permission from the state cemetery authority to bury Sarah at the site. 

Roderick Kilborn passed away in 1916 aged 89. After his death Sarah was re-interred with her husband at Carlyle.