First Steps on a New Land 1803/1804
Cover Hobart 1805 Trove
The early sketch by surveyor G.P. Harris is of the area around the present day Grand Chancellor Hotel.
The above image is a part-enlargement of the watercolour by G.P. Harris made shortly after the establishment of the settlement (early March, 1804.) Before us is the outlet of the Hobart Rivulet, flowing from the forest on the right to its outlet into the Cove on the left. Above that is the sandbar which linked Hunter Island (outside the picture, on the left) with the shore.
Clearly visible in the middle of the painting is the steep waterfront (still visible today behind the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and at the top end of Brooker St), near the edge of which the senior officers have erected their marquees, shown here as A-ridged tents with an extra cover over the actual ridge, although behind them are several other tents without this extra protective cover.
In the distance on the right are the tents of the soldiers and/or convicts, visible here because Harris probably took some artistic licence in omitting most of the vegetation obscuring his view in order to give at least some idea of how they all had found their place in the dense bush which surrounded them everywhere.
Original Settlers with links to Jillett/Bradshaw
A few years before Robert Jillett and Elizabeth Bradshaw packed up the children, the cows, chooks and other farming implements, and boarded the Lady Nelson bound for Hobart, there were other family members living in the new settlement.
One was William Paterson, another was Mathew Bowden, the surgeon, and William Collins, the Harbourmaster, and Samuel Wiggins the Band Master.
His daughter Janet Patterson, married Samuel Gunn, and their daughters Jemima Lydia Gunn and Mary Ann Gunn married James Bradshaw and William Bradshaw. Mathew Bowden's son John Bowden married Eliza Jillett.
Another early settler was William Collins. Prior to arrival in Tasmania, William was in Sydney and seemed to have an affair with a convict Mary Daniels. That was nothing uncommon in the early days of settlement, rather par for the course!
The result was a daughter Sophia, known as Sophia Daniels, and married as his second wife, James Triffett.
Samuel Wiggins' granddaughter Amelia married Edward Pillinger, cousin of Mary Ann Shone.
In Hobart Town, the first baptismal record in the Colony, was given to Thomas Wiggins. He was baptised on 6th June 1803, his parents Samuel and Susannah Wiggins, and they were living on the HMS Calcutta. Samuel was an officer.
On 25th December 1803, William James Hobart Thorn was baptised. His parents were Samuel and Ann Thorne, nee Leakweall. They lived at Camp Sullivan Bay Port Phillip. They were followed in 1804, by Catherine Poteski, daughter of John and Catherine nee Sullivan, who were living at Pattison Cove, Risdon Derwent.Then followed George Kearly, son of George and Mary, nee Cook. They were living at Sullivan Cove. Then Rebecca Hobbs, daughter of Rebecca Hobbs, then Richard Symonds, son of William Symonds.
By 1805, Rev Knopwood was still baptising children.
At Sullivan's Cove were two children of Joseph and Elizabeth Patterson, nee Roberts and the daughter of Samuel and Jannet Gunn.
Also baptised was John Bowden, the son of Maria Sargent, nee Stanfield.
By 1808, the families from Sullivan Cove are now in Hobart Town. More children are baptised, from both the Gunn and Patterson Family, this time, Rev Knopwood, has provided the maiden name of Janet Gunn, as nee Patterson.
There seems to be a pattern, were the children born to the Military personnel?
Private Samuel Wiggins, Samuel Thorne Sergeant, Private George Clearly/Kearly Potenski, Hobbs Symonds, Patterson.
All the children were born to Military or convicts at either Port Phillip Bay or Sullivan Cove, after landing in 1804.
They came from Port Phillip Bay
In 1802, Lieutenant John Murray sighted Port Phillip and claimed the district for the Crown. The British government was impressed with their positive reports, but were worried the French might try to establish colonies there. So the British decided to get in first.
In April 1803, the HMS Calcutta and the transport ship Ocean sailed from England to establish a penal settlement at Port Phillip. Once they arrived, Lieutenant David Collins was responsible for over 450 people, including marines, free settlers and almost 300 prisoners.
The ships arrived in October 1803, and a camp was established at Sullivan Bay in Sorrento. However, the site was not all that Collins had hoped it would be. The party had somehow overlooked the mouth of the Yarra River, and so they lacked a source of fresh water. In desperation Collins' party fashioned a filter system from barrels – whose outer chambers they filled with sand, grass and sticks – and buried them near the sea, with the tops level to the ground.
The settlers had hoped that as seawater seeped through the outer barrel chamber, the ‘filter' would remove the salt, purifying the water.
It was an innovative idea, but the ‘purified' water was still salty, and made many people ill. One of Collins's officers describes using the barrels:
We began to make wells for the daily consumption of water, by boring holes in the Casks, and sinking them in the low grounds even with the surface; this plan answered our purpose as well as could be expected but the water was brackish.
Officer from the HMS Calcutta, 1803
Meanwhile, pessimism was spreading through the Sullivan Bay camp. Theft was common and the marines were often drunk and insubordinate. The convicts were rebellious and a number of them – including William Buckley – escaped. According to Collins, some escapees headed 'to a Bay upon the Coast which they have been told is ... the resort of South Sea Whalers,' most likely the present-day Portland.
Collins asked Governor King if he could abandon the site, and was eventually given permission to do so. In January 1804, Collins and some of the convicts left in the Ocean for the settlement on the Derwent River in Van Diemen's Land.
SULLIVAN’S COVE
On the 20th February 1804 Lt. Governor Collins stepped ashore and named Sullivan’s Cove in the name of the King. He soon had the most of the convicts that he had brought from England, (first on the Calcutta to Port Phillip and then on the Ocean to the River Derwent) at work erecting the tents on the bank of the rivulet (there were no female convicts, only the wives and children of some who came with their convicts husbands.) Convict women were later sent to Hobart Town from Sydney on the Sophia in 1805.
These thirty convict women sent from Sydney were of very bad character and Governor Collins was not pleased to see them disembark from the Sophia, and he sent a dispatch off to Governor King in Sydney asking that no more be sent until he could receive better class convicts from England. One of these convict women died in 1806 and buried at St. David’s Cemetery (now St. David’s Park) She was the first First Fleeter to be buried in V.D.L.
The convicts worked from 5am with an hour for breakfast and a half an hour for tea, finishing at 6pm; they were allowed to have Saturday & Sunday afternoons free.
A full list of those who arrived with Lt. Gov. Collins were placed on the Monument at Macquarie Wharf and unveiled on the 20th February 2004 by the First Settlers Association.
Risdon Cove was the first English settlement in Van Diemen’s Land, it was settled in 1803 by Lieutenant John Bowen, who was sent from Sydney with a small party to establish a foothold in the almost unknown island of Van Diemen’s Land. He arrived on the whaler Albion assisted by the Lady Nelson
List of Those who landed Civil and Military
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David Collins, by Anthony Cardon, after John Thomas Barber Beaumont (John Thomas Barber) stipple engraving published 1804. NPG 2097. National Portrait Gallery, London |
Lieutenant-Colonel David COLLINS, Lieut. Governor
Reverend Robert KNOPWOOD, Chaplain
William l'ANSON, Surgeon
Matthew BOWDEN, Assistant Surgeon
William HOPLEY, Assistant Surgeon
Samuel LIGHTFOOT, (former Settler) Hospital Assistant
Leonard FOSBOOK, Deputy Commissioner
George Prideaux HARRIS, Deputy Surveyor
Adularius W.H. HUMPHRIES, Mineralogist
William COLLINS, (former Settler) Harbour Master
Thomas CLARK, Superintendant
William PATTERSON, Superintendant
William NICHOLLS, (former Settler) Superintendant
John Jubal SUTTON, (former Marine) Superintendant
John INGLE, (former settler) Overseer
Francis SHIPMAN, (former Convict) Clark/Storekeeper
Henry HACKING, Pilot
- Julia HOPLEY (child of " )
- William Melmer NICHOLLS (child of " )
- Maria NICHOLLS ( child of " )
- John NICHOLLS (child of " )
- Janet PATTERSON (child of " )
- Frederick PATTERSON (child of " )
- William PATTERSON (child of " )
- 1st Lieutenant William SLADDEN
- 1st Lieutenant James Michael JOHNSON
- 2nd Lieutenant Edward LORD
SERGEANTS
- Robert ALOMES
- James (John) McCAULEY
- Richard SARGENT
- CORPORALS
- John BELLINGHAM
- Thomas COLE
- William DAVIS
- William GANGELL
- John Jubal SUTTON
- John BRIN (BROWN)
- William HUGHES
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- Elizabeth BEAN wife
- Mary KEARLEY wife
- Mary McCAULEY wife
- Maria SARGENT wife
- Susannah SLADDEN wife
- Sarah SPOONER wife
- Ann THORNE wife
- William James Hobart THORNE child
- Susannah WIGGINS wife
- Thomas WIGGINS child
SETTLERS
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WIVES AND CHILDREN OF CONVICTS
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Times were difficult.
At first there was sufficient food for all, but soon the stock that the settlers had brought with them started to run out. Some of the most trusted convicts were allowed to go into the bush and shoot kangaroos. In 1805, 17,064lbs of kangaroo meat was issued to the inhabitants to substitute their diet until they could produce their own grain and raise stock.
The stock that arrived at Sullivan’s Cove and what was at Risdon Cove amounted to very little, and it was expected to feed over 433 people The Government had 21 cattle, 39 sheep and 15 pigs, while the free settlers had an assortment of domestic animals. Mrs. Power had 6 fowls, while Thomas Hayes had only one lonely duck.
Although the Norfolk Islanders arrival was regarded as a big problem in supplying them with stores and clothing, their arrival allowed the population to grow almost from the moment they arrived. The young people who came with Collins in 1804 only numbered 39, while 219 came from Norfolk Island in 1808. There were marriages between the two groups and a new generation began immediately, allowing the new settlement to progress long before it could have with only the small group from Collin’s party.
It would be at least ten years before the free arrivals began to arrive from England in any number, and the people struggled to survive. Their crops failed and the stock died, and because of all his worries Governor Collins had a heart attack and died in 1810, leaving the Colony in the hands of the military until a Governor could be sent from England.
William Patterson
The records confirm that William Patterson, the Prisons Superintendent was the father of Janet, Frederick and William. That then indicates all three children were born in England, prior to the ship leaving.
William Collins father of Sophia Collins (Daniels)
William Collins, a former master in the Royal Navy, who accompanied Lieutenant Governor Collins from England, was appointed Harbourmaster when the settlement was formed at Hobart. However, he had come to the settlement primarily to engage in a fishing venture, and wished to commence "bay whaling." He drew up and forwarded to David Collins a memorandum in which he enlarged upon the prospects of a whaling industry with Hobart as its base.
The Lieutenant Governor was much impressed and forwarded the proposal to Lord Hobart within two days of its receipt. If the scheme had been adopted in its entirety the industry would have been carried on under the control of one great organisation with its headquarters at Hobart Town.
Briefly William Collins' remarks made the following points:
The black whale abounded in Storm Bay, in Storm Bay Passage, Frederick Henry Bay and the River Derwent (he had seen 50 or 60 whales at a time from the settlement), but the sperm whale did not come there, preferring the open sea. The best time for hunting the sperm whale was from December to April, while the black whale was common in the Derwent and south Tasmanian coastal waters from July to December. Whaling ships would be able to engage in the sperm fishery, make for the Derwent and unload their cargoes of oil with time still left to pursue the black whale.
Hobart's first harbourmaster, founder of the Derwent River Whaling industry and thirty years her senior.
In his original will, dated January 3, 1810, provision was made for his wife Charity Hobbs, his son William Henry and ‘his natural daughter Sophia Collins’ whom he leaves to the care of his wife
Matthew Bowden - Civil Official - Ocean
Matthew Bowden was a surgeon in the Royal Lancashire Regiment. In January 1803 he was commissioned as a civil assistant surgeon to accompany Lieutenant-Governor David Collins and his expedition to Port Phillip Bay.
Matthew Bowden was a surgeon in the Royal Lancashire Regiment. In January 1803 he was commissioned as a civil assistant surgeon to accompany Lieutenant-Governor David Collins and his expedition to Port Phillip Bay.
When David Collins moved the settlement to Van Diemen's Land Bowden was one of the first ashore, landing at Frederick Henry Bay on the 12th February 1804. Bowden played a prominent role at Hobart attending to the sick.
He was granted 100 acres of land at Humphrey's Rivulet in August 1804 where he had a vegetable garden and crops, and began to acquire livestock. After attending Governor David Collins at his death in March 1810, he was appointed first assistant surgeon of the civil medical establishment in Hobart.
In October 1810 Governor Lachlan Macquarie granted him an additional 500 acres of land on the Derwent River. Bowden's sudden death on 23 October 1814 shocked the whole community of Hobart.
A fascinating piece.
ReplyDeleteMy seventh grandaunt was ANN LUCKWELL who was married to SAMUEL THORNE one of the Marines.
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