ALAN WHALLEY'S WORLD

THE black sheep reputation of Robert Sephton, a member of one of Rainford's most celebrated clay-pipe making families, is finally being washed away - after a lapse of well over a century.

And, thanks to this reckless Victorian, the family name of Sephton is being commemorated at a new Immigration Museum in Australia.

Robert, reputed to have fled from gambling debts in 1861 (much to the embarrassment of his clergyman elder brother and the rest of his respectable family) sought sanctuary Down Under. He was then just 20 years old, but apparently settled down into his new life at the other end of the globe.

Now a descendant, Mrs R. Munro (nee Sephton) from Oakleigh, Victoria, has sent me a newspaper cutting, explaining how local folk had been invited to submit the names of their first immigrant relatives to arrive in Victoria.

And that Sephton name of Lancashire origin is now to be proudly registered alongside those of the rich, the influential and famous, the ordinary and the industrious, who decided to make that particular state their new home.

The 19-million dollar museum's Tribute Garden was recently launched by Premier Jeff Kennett whose own family name features on the special engraved monument.

It is fashioned in polished granite over which water will flow, representing the passage over oceans to reach Victoria's shores. And no doubt also washing away Robert Sephton's black sheep image!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.