Birth : SA Biograph Dir; POLKINGHORNE Family Tree.
Marriage, Death : SA Biograph Dir, Family Histories – Willunga District; POLKINGHORNE Family Tree.

Grace arrived with Thomas in SA with two children on the sailing ship Java on Feb 6, 1840.
Due to gross mismanagement by the ship's captain and the emigrants' surgeon, all aboard suffered starvation, and some passengers, particularly children, died on the latter part of the voyage and after debarkation. Food had been wasted during the early part of the voyage, and later all were deprived of nourishment. The death toll was so much greater on the Java than on other emigrant ships that Governor Gawler had the offendin Captain Dutton and Surgeon Martin brought before him to answer charges of neglect of duty. Other Polkinghornes wer also aboard, members of the family of Enoch and Betsy Tonkin, James Coad with his wife Ann and a brother John Coad aged 15 years.
Thomas ws a farmer in Willunga in 1849, the occupier of Pt Sec 700 (4 acres); also Sec 265 (34 acres). [Family Histories – Willunga District]