REMINISCENCES OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA. LECTURE BY THE HON. J. P.
FAWKNER.
(From the Melbourne Age.) 'Twas sixty years ago, or in the year of
grace 1802, the first attempt was made to settle at Port Phillip. The project
was sanctioned by the British Ministry of the day, and was commenced and
carried on under their auspices, but at the public cost of somewhere about
£150,000, and all this money ex pended on a miserable failure. The second
attempt was made by six individuals not Government officers, carried out at
their own cost, they not drawing one shilling from the public treasury. I was
one of that six, and the success of our efforts can be seen by every colonist
present this day. The first attempt to settle at Port Phillip originated in the
Secretary of State's office, in London, sometime in the first half of the year
of grace 1802.
The projector was a Mr. Capper, chief clerk to Lord Hobart, the
then Secretary of State. It was in this wise Lord Hobart was in want of
something to excite him to action, and Mr. Capper proposed that the Lord Hobart
should "found" a colony, the chief city of which should continue his
title to future times as the metropolis of a Crown colony, founded under his
auspices, and at the expense of the State. Lord Hobart coincided with the
proposition, and at once set to work to carry out the idea thus suggested.
A Governor was wanted Capt. David Collins, R.N., who had held office in
Sydney as Judge Advocate, and had lately returned from Sydney, New South Wales,
was applied to, and he accepted office as Lieut. Governor of the incipient
Crown colony, and Port Phillip, Bass' Straits, having been lately reported to
the department as an eligible site whereon to form a now State, Port Phillip
was fixed upon by Lord Hobart, and assented to by Brevet Lieut.-Colonel D.
Collins.
The Governor in embryo was deputed to fix the number of officers, civil
and military, that he would consent to carry out the undertaking with, and also
the number of marines required to maintain order and ensure safety to the free
population, and duly enforce order upon the prison population. The labourers
were to be taken from the prison population of England. and no provision of
animal labour other than manual was made. Governor Collins selected one
commissary, Leonard Fosbrooke, Esq.; one surveyor, Geo. Prideaux Harris, Esq.;
one mineralogist, W. H. Humphries, Esq.; one chaplain, Rev. Robert Knopwood
(formerly chaplain of a ship of war); three surgeons, Messrs Robert J. Anson
(chief), Matthew Bowden and John Hopley (subs).
The military officers were— First Lieut. Sladen Brevet Captain, and
Messrs. Anderson, Johnson, and Edward Lord, of subalterns, with some forty odd
marines. On Edward Lord subsequently devolved the Governorship, on the death of
Lieut.-Governor D. Collins, in 1809. Several of the marines were married men
with families. One sergeant was married at Portsmouth just before we left, and
brought his wife with him. She made herself very notorious for immorality, both
on ship board and subsequently at Hobart Town; but as she has children now
living I will withhold the name.
The rest of the lower civil officers were Messrs. Robert Collins,
superintendent (he had been in the mercantile navy); Thomas Clark, agricultural
superintend tent; James Paterson, town overseer; John Ingle, overseer; and
Richard Parish, as assistant overseer.
There were also twelve male settlers, free men, with eight female
settlers (six wives and one widow, and a sister of one of the married
settlers), making eight females, with eight boys and seven girls, and at the
prisons there were between 350 and 360, of which number there were 15 men whose
wives came on board, having with them four boys and two girls, who volunteered
to go with their husbands and fathers into banishment to the new colony.
We had also one missionary (Mr. Croke) to visit the aborigines. He had a
wife and one son (Mr. Croke, late of Melbourne, undertaker, now at Sydney),
making a total of nearly 480 souls. To take these people to the new country,
Lord Hobart provided one of H.B.M. ships of war, the Calcutta, of 1200 tons
burthen, and carrying 50 guns; she had been an East India ship, and purchased
for the Royal Navy. The Ocean, store ship, of 600 tons, commanded by Capt.
Matthews, was hired to carry stores and passengers.
The Calcutta was commended by Captain Woodruffe, with a sloop of war's
crew of sailors and marines. This, you will bear in mind, was in the time of
the short peace of Amiens, made in October, 1801; and the war broke out again
14th May, 1803. The authorities provided provisions for all the people, free
settlers, officers, marines, and prisoners, for three years, after which time,
it was computed that we could, in part, support our selves. The stores failed,
and we suffered great privations. Stores of all kinds (at that time thought
necessary for founding a new settlement) were provided under the direction we
of Lieutenant-Colonel Collins, who it was supposed would know what was
required, he having been some years at the then newly-formed settlement at
Sydney, but known better as Botany Bay.
The Calcutta was at the Nore, and shortly before Christmas, 1802, she
took in part of her prisoner passengers at that place, and then passed round to
Portsmouth to fill up her complement of men, and received on board such
officers and passengers as were to benefit by her large and superior
accommodations. She lost a midshipman on this passage. He fell from the mizen
top to the deck, and was taken to Hadar hospital, where he died in a few days.
Our friends being well acquainted with the office of Lord Hobart, applied to
know when it would be necessary to embark on board the Calcutta, and were told
early in January, 1803, "You must proceed to Portsmouth immediately".
My mother, in reply, said, a letter she had just received stated
the Calcutta in passing from the Nore, had turned down the wrong street and
found herself in Plymouth. The clerks in the secretary's office enjoyed a
hearty laugh at the idea of a ship turning down a wrong street. Being present
with my mother at the time, I recollect this very well, being then turned of
ten years old.
I came to the colony with my father, mother, and sister, and we came on
board the Calcutta, from London, on the 10th day of February, 1803, although
hurried on board from the office. We left Spithead on the 23rd April, and St.
Helen's on the 25th April. We finally left England on the 25th April 1803, a
period of ten weeks and up wards was thus wasted on shipboard. We were told
that no feather beds would be allowed on board, and thus were sadly distressed
and needlessly inconvenienced on the passage and afterwards for there was no
such order on shipboard to prevent bringing them.
By the middle of April all the stores were on board. The prisoners,
their wives and families, the settlers, also were all on board, only waiting
for the Ocean storeship. I may here remark that the Ocean was a very dull
sailing craft . But at length all arrangements were completed, and to sea we
put on the 25th April, 1803. We had scarcely got into blue water, before gross
immorality in high places broke out, the which conduct had very injurious after
effect in Van Diemen's Land. The Governor had a wife and family in England. He
left them behind again, as he did when he first went to Sydney, and the ship
was not out of sight of land before he took for his paramour, one of the
prisoner's wives, a Mrs. P—r, and we found some years after his Sydney wife
sent to him a son and daughter.
Thus the polygamist Governor had three wives, eventually a fourth, and
three families. His example was followed by others, and even the parson was
compromised. But these things will be given more at large in my written
reminiscences of the founding of Hobart Town.
We steered for Teneriffe and refreshed there, and also at Rio Janeiro,
and then finding, that the Calcutta, with topsails lying on the caps, could
outsail the Ocean with all her sails set, it was resolved to part company, and
Capt. Mathews, of the Ocean, was directed, if he lost sight of the Calcutta, to
make the best of his way, as direct as possible, to Port Phillip. The Calcutta
then pushed on for the Cape, and we anchored in due time in Simon's or False
Bay. We were much amused by the Dutchmen taking our penny pieces for twopence
each.
Very cheap goods we found here, and were quite surprised to find sheep
with tails weighing twelve pounds and upwards, which tails were almost one lump
of solid fat. The meat here generally was very lean (at both ports). News of
the war arrived whilst we were in port, and the Dutch Port Admiral demanded of
Captain Woodruffe to surrender himself, crew, and his ship. He (Captain
Woodrufle) sent a true Jack Tar's answer. It was simply—" Come and take
me."
Our fifty guns were chiefly in the hold, as we left England during the
peace of Amiens, but all hands were piped up, and the two master's mates,
Messrs. Gammon and Buick, were sent down amongst the prisoners, to invite such
of them as knew anything of fighting, to join the sailors and marines, and all
those who had been either sailors or soldiers, volunteered. By the
time that the ship had got into fighting order, the Dutch Admiral had changed
his mind, and sent word, that as the ship was loaded with prisoners, he would
not capture them to burden his country. We then pushed on for Port Phillip,
Bass's Straits.
I use these terms because all cases and packages on board that were
intended for the new colony, bore these marks or words at full length. On the
9th or 10th October, 1803, we entered Port Phillip, and found the Ocean,
storeship, at anchor. The Lieutenant- Governor, a marine officer, being of the
nature of a square peg to a round hole, instead of causing a survey of the
whole bay, in order to find the most eligible site for a town, sent a gang of
men ashore to clear a place to erect tents for the whole population, on a
narrow neck of sandy land, some four or five miles within the heads, on the
Nepean Point side, where the sea was constantly breaking on the west beach
about one and a quarter mile across, from the bay, the roar of the surf was a
constant annoyance.
No fresh water, except what was obtained by sinking casks with holes in
the bottom of them in the sand, just above high water mark, and thus the water
was soon filtered through the sand, half salt or brackish. Six casks were sunk
for the supply of the whole of the people—one of the officers only —padlocked,
the other five for the commonalty. The people were landed as fast as room could
be made for them, by the erection of tents, and on the 19th October, 1803, I
first landed on the shores of Port Phillip.
I became 11 years of age the next day, October the 20th, 1803. The folly
of Great Britain in entrusting a marine officer to form a settlement in a wild
and distant country, was eminently shown were. The Governor would not send
round the bay to search for a more eligible site. He would not look for water
or useful timber (and boards and other sawn timbers were in great request. Our
sawn timber we had to go fourteen miles for, namely, to Arthur's Seat);
although the bad water was fast sending into Isva the hospital, our largest and
ablest men. The officers of the Calcutta found water at Arthur's Seat, and took
the vessel opposite the spring and watered, and then pushed off to Sydney.
Many prisoners ran away from the settlement. Some (Irishmen)
professing to be bound over land to China ; others (runaways) started for
Sydney. Only one, that I can remember, came back. He settled at Launceston,
reared a large family, and became a good citizen.
He reported having found the Yarra River, but the Governor would
not send to examine it, for he had made up his mind to leave this country: and
having communicated with the Sydney Government, through the Calcutta, the
sloop, Lady Nelson, was sent round to in form him, that he might go to Van
Diemen's Land, a small party, under Lieut. Bowen, then having been sent there
in the August of that year (1803).
A strange fatality accompanied most of these military Governors. He,
too, had a paramour. He was living in adultery with the daughter of one of the
free settlers, whose wife was a prisoner at Port Jackson, whence he brought
her. She afterwards married, and lived near Hobart Town many years. Before this
news arrived, Governor Collins had sent over to Port Dalrymple a boat's crew,
under charge of Superintendent Collins, with Uriah Allender (well known at
Kangaroo Point, River Derwent, as a boatman) as the coxswain of the cutter—an
open six-oared boat.
They also took Mr. Clarke, the agriculturalist, with them to examine the
land. The report made by them on their return was, "a most difficult
river, and very poor land." The banks of the Tamar were not very tempting
as farm land, nor are they at this day. And the tide made the river seem
dangerous, causing whirlpools to rise fifteen to seventeen feet. The Governor
then engaged Captain Matthews, at a certain sum per month, to take the people
and the various stores to the River Derwent, V.D. Land, and the first trip left
Port Philip about the middle of January, 1804. This man made the two trips to
occupy five months, 15th January to 16th June, 1804.
Only fancy two trips to Hobart Town, which now occupies a period of
three days only to each trip. The Governor and half of the prisoners, some
marines, and most of the settlers were in the first trip; amongst others our
family went, and we suffered dreadfully on this trip from the want of cooked
food. We were told that it was forty-eight to fifty hours passage, and
accordingly we baked bread for three days; our stores of biscuit were
exhausted, and flour was issued to all classes; there were no settlers nor
bakers from whom to purchase supplies, and after our bread was done, there
being far more persons on board than the cook had means of supplying food to,
and we, in common with others suffered very severely, for we were on board till
16th February, when we (at Sullivan's cove) landed to form Hobart Town.
No idea can be formed of the hard ships suffered by the common settlers,
in order to get eatable bread, they were compelled to make thin cakes, which
they plastered up against the hot sides of the coppers (if they could get near
enough to them), and when they fell off partially cooked on the one side, they
were plastered up again on the other (applause and laughter). Here, let me
oberve, the Home Government found men, stores, clothing, tools, and goods, and
cash to a large amount, for we had three years provision for all persons; three
years clothing for prisoners and marines, and three years pay for those
receiving pay; in all, reckoning the Calcutta's expenses, some £150,000, and
yet Governor D. Collins could not form a colony at Port Phillip; but, on the
contrary, pronounced the place totally unfit to form a settlement upon.
One reason may have had some weight with him. He was promised 500
guineas extra (guineas were then the correct coin), if he was forced to leave
the first place he settled at and form a new settlement. Myself and some five
humble individuals, without the aid of one penny from the Government, formed a
settlement here. The city of Melbourne I founded : now in 27 years from my
landing in 1835, contains upwards of 100,000 souls.
The colony contains and maintains upwards of half a million of people, a
free colony formed by free men, and without cost to the parent state, or to the
sister colonies. After a lapse of 31 years, namely, from February, 1804, to
March, 1835, I formed an association to try and settle at Port Phillip. I had
for some time been engaged collecting information about this country. My own
recollections of 1804 were strong.
I had read Captain Stuart's journey, through the country, and down the
Murray and the Murrumbidgee, and had traced the line of country given in his
map to Lake Alexandriana. I collected information from the sealers and from the
mimosa bark gatherers at Western Port; from the whalers and stockman at the
Messrs. Henty's, then engaged at Portland Bay; and, also, I and others were
stimulated to pass away from V. D. Land, by the tyranny of Governor Arthur—a
despot whose iron will was the law of the land.
He employed some thousands of the inhabitants of V. D. Land to form a
cordon across the island to drive the whole of the black aborigines to a
Peninsula, and thus catch them. The Governor compelled ticket-of-leave men to
go, and morally forced all who expected favours from him. I then foretold in my
journal— Launceston Advertiser—that it would prove a failure; and it did; the
blacks passed through the line wherever they chose. But the cold weather, the
snow on the mountains, and loosing their way occasionally cost the lives of
many of the line men, and some £30,000 or upwards in money was spent, and for
all this outlay one black man was caught —a dear bargain ! (Laughter.)
The Governor and his Council—then nominated by himself, removed, and
others appointed at his pleasure—passed in 1833 or '34 an Impounding Law, which
forbid any but his friends and the friends of his councillors to graze stock on
the waste lands, and the Government toadies, who were the holders of
the bulk of the land then around the two principal ports—Hobart Town and
Launceston, the Derwent and the Tamar rivers. There were large portions of land
unsold around all the then towns and villages throughout the country, and many
industrious families of limited capital kept their two or three, or ten or a
dozen cows on those lands and supplied milk and butter to the public.
The Governors select Council, their relatives and friends, held all the
lands in the best portions of the habitable country for a considerable
distance, and they found that the poorer people could supply butter, milk,
&c., &c., cheaper than they considered they ought to sell consequently
they got an Impounding Law passed in 1833 or 1834. In fact the Messrs. Willis,
the Archers, Ash burners, Swanstons, &c., passed this law. The consequence
they wished followed. The poundkeepers hunted up all cattle of the poorer classes.
(There were no less than seventy poundkeepers—I have all their names: seven of
them are here now, I believe.)
The favoured men's brands were known, and were, no doubt, sent to those
harpies (all these poundkeepers were not alike malicious), and none of their
cattle were meddled with. The others were all impounded, and good milch cows,
worth (before this vile Act was passed) from £8 to £10 or £12, fell to from
10s. to 18s. or 20s. each; and before I left Tasmania to proceed to Port
Phillip, namely, in 1835, I had to pay for milch cows of ordinary quality, £15
each. I should not enter into this explanation, which belongs to my written
account of Tasmania, but that the Act was so very ruinous to hundreds of
industrious people, and acted so strongly upon my mind that I think it quite
applicable to the point of how and why we left Tasmania to form a new
settlement on the shores of New Holland.
In March, 1835, I made up my mind to venture across the Straits and
commence the world again, and by subdividing an orchard of nine acres that I
had in the town of Launceston, and selling it, I provided, together with other
monies, a few thousands of pounds to enable me to proceed. During March and
April, I searched out and found five persons in Launceston willing to venture
across with me as their guide.
Their names and occupations were us follows.—Ist, John Lancey (dead ),
pilot, had commanded one of the colonial vessels. 2nd, Robert Hay Marr (left
the colony), carpenter and builder. 3rd, Samuel Jackson, architect and builder
(he is a squatter of large means, and is with his brother). 4th, William
Jackson, also a carpenter (now in England, as I am informed on a visit). their
stock is somewhere near Portland, I am told; and 5th, George Evans, plasterer,
now residing at Melbourne.
As soon as these men had agreed to join me, I desired my broker, Mr.
John Charles Underwood, of Launceston, to purchase for me a vessel, not to
exceed a fixed sum wherewith to transport over the Straits, our goods, persons,
and stock, and all things required by us to form a new colony. The broker did
contract for a schooner of fifty-five tons, with a Mr. John Anderson Brown, of
Launceston. The vessel was then at Sydney, employed carrying coals from
Newcastle to Sydney, and Mr. J. A. Brown directed the vessel to be sent
immediately to Launceston. But his Sydney agent had, before the order arrived,
entered into a contract to deliver a certain quantity of coal at Sydney, and
thus the vessel was delayed of delivery until July 18th, 1835.
Thus our voyage was delayed, and in the latter end of April it was
rumored that Messrs. Joseph Tice Gellibrand, ex Attorney-General of Van
Diemen's Land, and thirteen others, had agreed to seize upon a a large portion
of land in the neighbourhood of Port Phillip, and on the bay side, on the plan
that had before this been adopted in New Zealand, by Messrs. Wentworth and
others, namely, to buy the land nominally from the sable aborigines, and to get
them to sign a deed of grant—in a language they were entirely ignorant of—and
for a paltry consideration, such as is set forth in a deed of grant.
A deed of grant was prepared by Mr. J. T. Gellibrand—one deed—but after
the return of Mr. Batman, a second was produced, taking in the whole of
Indented Head. I obtained copies of both these deeds, but unfortunately one of
the copies is lost. The names of these fourteen partners should by right be
handed down to posterity, and, I therefore give them with their additions in
the course of my remarks. Upon my party finding that Mr J. Batman had chartered
the Rebecca, of fifteen tons, to carry him from Launceston to Port Phillip,
they agreed that I should ask him to let me, at least, if not three of our
party, pass over with him to explore the land.
I went out, forty-five miles, to Ben Lomond, Mr. B.'s residence, on this
errand, but he peremptorily refused to let any go with him except the men in
his own employ, giving me to understand that he and his party were countenanced
or patronised by the Lieutenant-Governor, George Arthur, Esq., then, and openly
stating that he would take care to secure all the best land, and that the
refuse of his company's purchase would not be worth anyone's acceptance.
Immediately on receiving this answer I applied to the captain of the Sally Anne
schooner, then about to convey stores to Portland Bay—the whaling and stock
station of the Messrs. Henty Brothers.
The captain of the Sally Anne agreed to take me and four of our party
over for a certain sum, and leave us within the harbor, and sold me one of the
whaleboats, with oars, sails, &c., to enable us to carry our provisions and
water with us whilst exploring the bay to fix upon the site of the new
township. To this the Messrs. Henty objected, as the deviation from the course
of the voyage would be fatal to their insurance should any accident happen to
the vessel or the cargo embarked, but offered on our paying certain monies as
insurance, &c., for loss of time, to permit the transit. But the
adventurers, when consulted upon by me, preferred the cheap passage they would
get from, and agreed to wait for the schooner Enterprise, which I had bought. I
fancied the name was symptomatic of our undertaking.
We (the six) could have been put across by Captain Cain, whose vessel
lay in the Tamar, but the expense the five would not agree to make, and we had
to wait. May 12th, I think, the Rebecca, under the command of Captain Harwood,
took on board Mr. J. Batman and his five or six sable Sydney aborigines, and
prepared to pass over the Straits. Mr. J. Batman had with him, besides the
Sydney blacks, three Europeans, Gumm, Todd, and Thompson.
But a foul wind rising when they got to sea, they put into Port
Sorell, and I saw a letter from Captain Harwood which he wrote to his wife,
then living with my family, dated Port Sorell, May 26th or 28th, and this is
very important because, even if it was the 26th, there were only ten days
between the time of leaving Port Sorell and the day the deeds offered to have
been signed, and the one passage across was to be made; and then time was lost
at Indented Head, and also loading at several places on the west side of Port
Phillip Bay, and one day spent with some of the native women, who were met with
by Batman and his party at or near the Exor Weribee, where some beads and
looking-glasses were given to those sable beauties, and a day passed in their
company.
On the 5th June, the Rebecca was lying off the point of Williamstown
that now is, and Mr. Batman, together with his Sydney blacks and the men Gumm,
Todd, and Thompson, started by land to take a view of the country; the Sydney
men saw the smoke of the aborigines' fires, somewhere about the Morri Creek,
near what is now called Northcote; they then at once pushed on towards the
smoke, and found the (so called) Saltwater River in their way.
The Sydney blacks swam across it with the food and clothes of the whites,
and also assisted to take the Europeans over. They made for the fires and found
a few of the aborigines of Port Phillip, opened a communication with them, gave
them some presents, and prevailed upon them to take pen in hand, and make
sundry marks upon one of the deeds prepared by Joseph Tice Gellibrand, Esq.,
ex-Attorney. General of Van Diemen's Land; and the next day Mr. J. B. and his
men returned to the Rebecca.
Grog was produced, a good quantity imbibed, and Mr. John Batman was
proclaimed King John the First, of Port Phillip, the largest landed proprietor
in the world. This I can vouch for, as a correct version, for I had it from
more than one of the actors therein, and I also obtained a copy of the deed.
This copy, I believe, was abstracted or stolen from me. But as I copied it
myself I can state the boundaries, and some of the names of the sable vendors.
It set out that the land bought was bounded by the Yarra Yarra, from its mouth
to three miles above the falls (not stated where, but supposed to be where
Dight's mill now stands), then by a line north-west fifty miles, thence west
fifty miles, thence by line drawn direct from that point to Geelong, some
eighty miles, and thence by the waters of the Port Phillip Bay to the mouth of
the Yarra Yarra ; and the deed set out that the trees along these lines were
marked by the black vendors, according to the custom of their tribe, the whole
distance.
The length of this line was six miles at least from the mouth of the
Yarra Yarra to the point three miles above the fall, then fifty miles
north-west, then fifty miles due west, then eighty miles more to Geelong, to
the Barwon one hundred and eighty-six miles, and for Mr. J. B. to return to his
vessel off Williamstown, another thirty-four miles at least. Thus, if J. B. had
really done as the deed of grant stated, he and his party and the sable vendors
must have travelled two hundred and twenty miles between the time they left the
Rebecca, on the 5th of June, and the evening of the 6th of June, when the whole
party returned to the Rebecca and boasted of their great achievement,—the
buying from the poor simple aborigines of nearly 1,000,000 acres of land for a
few paltry knives, slops, scissors, looking-glasses, &c., &c., &c.
Messrs. Batman and party did not go into Geelong harbor, nor make any bargain
with the black aborigines there; yet, some days after his return to Launceston
he produced a second deed, claiming thereby to have bought the whole of the
Indented Head.
But, foolishly, he put most of the names of those blacks he had met with
at the Morri Creek, and who never travel to the Geelong district but by special
agreement, the tribes being separate tribes, and frequently at war. And as a
plain proof that they had not seen the land, but only the description from the
maps, their deed of which I obtained a true copy (for I copied it myself) never
mentions the Barwon River, or the wide lake-like waters it forms, but describes
the marking of the trees by the natives (according to the custom of their
tribes) along this line, said to be forth from the bay of Geelong to the head
of Port Phillip, about ten miles. The copy of the deed is here, and the map
drawn and divided into shares by a Mr. Ferguson, the surveyor of the company.
I think it is right here to mention that I intend to write out the
whole of my reminiscences, and print them, if the friends I consult on the
occasion think it right to do so; therefore I shall not give anything like a
complete consecutive account of what took place, or my whole tale would be
forestalled. I may premise that the shareholders were fourteen in number, and
that three shares were reserved by these honest wise-like men to be presented
to the British Ministers, to induce them, by a share of the spoil, to legalise
the so-called sale of land, from the so called chiefs to the Messrs. of the
company, through their travelling agent, Mr. John Bat man, himself Sydney born.
Land had been bought off the New Zealand aborigines by Messrs. Wentworth
and others, and this company inaugurated under, if not by, Lieutenant-Colonel
Arthur, Lieutenant- Governor of Van Diemen's Land: and it is thought the plan
originated with Governor Arthur, and that one share, which stood in the name of
Henry Arthur, Esq., was really the property of the Lieutenant-Governor. The
company formed a strange medley,— Government officers under Colonel Arthur, one
or two members of his select Council, his postmaster, the sheriff,
deputy-sheriff, chief constable of Launceston, overseer of convicts of
Launceston, one of Lieutenant-Governor Arthur's police magistrates, and home
traders or shop-keepers.
Their names were:-Chas. Swanstan, Esq., member of Governor
Arthur's Council; — Bannister, Esq., sheriff of Van Dieemen's Land; James
Simpson, Esq., (deceased), Police Magistrate, Van Diemen's Land, Jos. Tice
Gelliband, Esq. (deceased), ex-Attorney-General of Van Diemen's Land; Henry
Arthur, Esq., collector of customs Launceston, nephew of the Governor; J. and
W. Robertson, one share, drapers, Hobart Town; John Hilder Wedge, Esq.,
surveyor under Governor Arthur's rule; John Thomas Chillcott, post master,
Hobart Town; Anthony Cottrell, chief constable, Launceston; W. G. Sams, under
sheriff, Launceston; Michael Connolly, shop-keeper, Launceston; Major George
Mercer, of the Indian Army; John Sinclair, overseer of convicts Launceston; and
John Batman, settler, protégé of Lieutenant-Governor Arthur.
Of these fourteen, nine were receiving pay under the rule of
Lieutenant-Governor Arthur, and the tenth was one of his protégés, who furnished
him with reports of all matters coming under their cognisance in the
neighbourhood where they resided or wherever they visited—a kind of spy.
Painting From Trove Creator
- Strutt, William, 1825-1915
|
 |
| Sullivans Cove Port Phillip 1803 |
Three daughters of Lt William Hobbs, married other
first settlers. Judith married Dr William Hopley, Ann married
George Prideaux Harris, Charity married William
Collins. His son William married the daughter of Joseph
Hone, the Attorney General of Tasmania.
July 1, 1804
The Reverend Robert Knopwood's first duty of the day is the marriage of
overseer John Ingle to Miss Rebecca Hobbs.
Soon after their departure from England, Rebecca Hobbs had
become pregnant and her child with John Ingle was born in Port Phillip while
waiting for their turn for passage to the Derwent. They did not arrive at
Hobart Town until last Monday.
Rebecca's (American) mother, the widow of a naval lieutenant and the
mother-in-law of Dr Hopley, one of the settlement's medical officers, would
have insisted on the proper formalities to legalise this new situation, and so
a wedding was hurriedly arranged for the very first opportunity which offered
itself.
The witnesses were Dr Hopley and magistrate G.P. Harris, the
latter soon to fall in love himself with the youngest daughter of Mrs. Hobbs,
Anne Jane (they married some time later).
Virtually nothing is known of Ingle's earlier social contacts, but we
may assume that a fair few of his daily friends (at that time he was in charge
of prisoners) such as Richard Clarke and others, would also have attended.
Ingle would soon become a major player on the commercial scene of Hobart Town,
and only 10 years later was able to erect his Ingle Hall, a large brick house
on the corner of Macquarie and Argyle Streets, still in existence today
opposite the Town Hall. And thus the first foundations were laid for the
development of a Hobart society.
(JOHN INGLE 1781?-1872 sailed with Governor Collins in 1803, and a short
time after the arrival of the expedition at Hobart Town he became a settler and
trader. In 1818 he returned to England with the reputation of being a rich but
vulgar man, which did not stop him from marrying again and having many more
children. Still wealthy, he died in 1872.
In Hobart he is mainly remembered in the form of Ingle Hall, a
fine early colonial residence which he erected in 1814 on the corner of Macquarie
and Argyle streets.)
He sailed in 1818, onboard his boat, Spring and he held a mortgage over
Thomas Davey's lands.
William Collins
This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, (MUP), 1966
William Collins (1760?-1819), naval officer, explorer and shipowner, the
son of a seaman, was admitted to the Royal Hospital School, Greenwich, England,
on 25 July 1768. In June 1771 he was bound for seven years to Thomas Hall, commander
of the Diligent, a 70-ton coasting vessel from Dover. His
apprenticeship completed, he entered the navy, served in the Monmouth and
was made boatswain in the Arethusa on 4 April 1778. Later he
was master of the Nereide, and served from December 1800 in the
West Indies, but was paid off with other members of the crew in September 1802.
He was interested in whale-fishery prospects, and with a recommendation
from Charles Dundas, he joined David Collins on the expedition to establish a
settlement at Port Phillip. He sailed as a settler in the Ocean,
which accompanied H.M.S. Calcutta. After arriving in October 1803,
he helped Lieutenant Tuckey to survey Port Phillip Bay, and offered to take
dispatches, including an adverse report on the locality, by an open six-oared
cutter to Governor Philip Gidley King at Sydney. Nine days out and within sixty
miles (97 km) of their destination they were overtaken by the Ocean and
conveyed to Sydney. William Collins then returned to Port Phillip in the Lady
Nelson, and went to survey Port Dalrymple. In January he reported that it
was suitable for settlement, but by then Lieutenant-Governor Collins had
decided to move to the Derwent.
The day after they arrived there William Collins with Deputy-Surveyor
George Harris sought a site more suitable than that at Risdon for a township;
they recommended the cove on which Hobart now stands, and the
lieutenant-governor approved. He wanted to retain the energetic, efficient and
highly appreciated services of William, so he appointed him harbour-master from
2 April 1804 at 15s. a day.
William Collins then made a further examination of the River Derwent,
reported on the Huon River, set up a look-out on Betsy Island, supervised the
construction of a wharf on Hunter's Island and submitted a scheme for making
Hobart Town the centre of a South Sea sperm whale fishery. In August he
resigned as harbour-master, and with Edward Lord began to build the first
water-mill on the Hobart rivulet and commenced commercial pursuits. By March
1806 he had set up at Ralph's Bay the first bay-whaling station on the Derwent.
It was not the success expected and on 11 May 1807 he returned to official
duties as Naval Officer and inspector of public works. In this capacity he was
one of those to receive the deposed Governor William Bligh when he arrived in
the Derwent in 1809, but joined the lieutenant-governor in opposing Bligh's
attempt to rally the settlement against Colonel William Paterson's
administration at Sydney. However, he apparently had no love for his official
duties, and by the end of the year had been replaced.
On 8 October 1808 he had married Charity, sister of James Hobbs, R.N.,
and during the next ten years engaged in shipping, the seal fisheries, export
of timber, import of spirits and other commercial affairs in conjunction with
James Kelly and Palmer & Co. He was amongst those who thanked
Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Davey for declaring martial law to suppress the
bushrangers, and amongst those against whose evil ways Macquarie warned
Lieutenant-Governor William Sorell. In 1817 he was a member of the Lieutenant-Governor's
Court. His debts increased as time went on, and when he died of cholera in July
1819 while sailing the Duke of Wellington to Calcutta, he left
his wife and three children destitute in Hobart.
Samuel Wiggins' daughter was Sarah Elizabeth Wiggins and she married a
convict, Joseph Little. He died in 1853, however she had children to
Edmund Vimpany before he died. She married Edmund in 1854.
The Mercury (Hobart, Tas.: 1860-1954) Thursday 12 October 1899 OBITUARY:
Another old Tasmanian in the person of Sarah Vimpany passed peacefully away at
her residence, Brisbane-street, on October 10, at the ripe age of 90 years.
Deceased was one of the oldest Tasmanian natives, having been born in camp
where old St. David’s Church stood. She lived to see the Church built and
pulled down, and the Cathedral erected on the spot where she was born. Her
sister, Mrs. John Walker, sen., of Wattle Hill, was the first female child born
of European parents in Tasmania. Her brother, Thos. Wiggins, was the first
child carried into Port Phillip, having been born on board the ship Calcutta in
the year 1803. Their father was Sergeant Bandmaster Samuel Wiggins, of the 73rd
regiment. Mrs. E. Vimpany leaves a large family—11 children, 53 grandchildren,
and 71 great-grandchildren. She was greatly respected by a large circle of
friends. Her husband died in Jublilee year, aged 75.
Her daughter was Amelia Little and she married Edward James
Pillinger. He was the cousin of Mary Ann
Shone. He was the son of James Pillinger and
Elizabeth Ann Wood Westlake. His nephew was Alfred Pillinger a Politician, in
Oatlands.
Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Wednesday 12 June 1878, page
2 DEATH IN THE BUSH.
An inquest was held yesterday afternoon at the Horse Shoe Inn,
Cambridge, on the body of Edward Pillinger, who was found lying dead on Mr.
Neil Lewis' run, at Milford, on Sunday last. Mr. R. Strachan, Coroner,
presided.
The following jury were sworn: Charles McRorie (foreman), Charles
Atkins, John McDermott, John Garlick, John King, David Dunkley, Robert Bruce
Murdock. They proceeded to view the body in the outhouse of the hotel.
Henry Charles Vimpany deposed: I reside in Hobart Town, and
the deceased, Edward Pillinger, was my brother-in-law. I last saw the deceased
in Hobart Town on Thursday, April 25. Deceased had been staying at my place,
off and on, for about a fortnight. He did not go to bed on the night of the
24th, but slept in an arm chair, by the fire. He was not, to my knowledge, in a
bad state of health, and was not strange in any way. He was about 50 years of
age. He left on the morning of the 25th by O'May's steamer for Kangarooo Point.
He stated his intention of going to Richmond for a fortnight, and then
proceeding to his brother's at Oatlands. I have seen nothing of him since then.
I recognised a hat, flask, spectacle-case, and other articles which were found
on the body as having belonged to the deceased, and which he had on him when he
left Hobart Town. From all I have seen I have no doubt of the body being that
of Edward Pillinger. I have never heard him speak of destroying himself, and I
know of nothing to suppose that he has done so now! He was in bad circumstances
of late, and was addicted to excessive drinking.
To the Coronor: He said that if he could not get light
employment at his brother's he would go on to New Zealand, and promised to
write to me when he got there. That was the reason no enquiries were made
concerning him, though I was expecting a letter in accordance with his promise.
Eliza Garlick deposed that the deceased came to the Horse Shoe Hotel
about 2 o'clock on the 25th April, and remained until 8 o'clock the following
morning. He was sober when he left before break-fast time, but did not state
where he was going. He did not complain of any trouble or illness. Could not
say if he took any spirits away with him.
Henry Alleine Perkins deposed that he was a legally qualified medical
practitioner residing in Hobart Town, and had made a post mortem examination of
the body of the deceased on that morning. It was in an advanced state of
decomposition, the features undistinguishable, and it was impossible from this
reason to state the immediate cause of death, or what disease, if any, he was
suffering from. The evidence described the appearance of the body in detail.
There was no fracture of the skull. Death must have occurred at least a month
since. The appearance was compatible with death, having occurred shortly after
his having been last seen as given in evidence by the witnesses.
George Stanley, living at Milford, deposed to accompanying Mr. Lamb and
Mr. Superintendent Pedder, to the place where the body was lying, on Sunday
last and recognising it as that of Edward Pillinger, from the clothing it had
on. Know him personally, but had not seen him since the early part of March.
David Garlick stated that on Saturday, June 8, he was passing through
Mr. Neil Lewis' run at Mil-ford, when he saw the body of a man lying under a
tree on the ground in the bush, about 100 yards from the road leading to the
Lower Kerry. The body was lying face downwards on the coat, which had been
taken off. The bottle, hat, spectacle case, and other articles produced were on
the ground close to the body. There were no marks of a struggle having taken
place. Reported the matter to the police. This was all the evidence,
and after a few remarks from the coroner upon it, the jury returned a verdict
that the deceased Edward Pillinger was found dead in the bush, but that how he
came by his death there was no evidence to show.
This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, (MUP),
1966
David Collins (1756-1810), deputy judge advocate and
lieutenant-governor, was born on 3 March 1756 in London, the third child of
Arthur Tooker Collins, an officer of marines and later major-general commanding
the Plymouth Division, and his wife Henrietta Caroline, née Fraser, of Park,
King's County, Ireland. His grandfather, Arthur Collins (1684-1760), with Abel
Roper, in 1709 issued the first edition of Collins's Peerage of England.
David probably attended the Exeter Grammar School under John Marshall, and at
14 joined his father's division as an ensign. He was promoted second lieutenant
on 20 February 1771, and next year served in H.M.S. Southhampton when
Queen Matilda of Denmark was rescued. About March 1775 he left for North
America and was at the battle of Bunker's Hill on 17 June when the British
suffered heavy losses, especially of commissioned officers, but occupied the
heights of Charlestown. A week later he was promoted first lieutenant and by
November 1776 was stationed at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Here at the Church of St
Paul on 13 June 1777 he married Mary (Maria Stuart), daughter of Captain
Charles Proctor. By that time Collins had become adjutant in the Chatham
Division. He was promoted captain-lieutenant in August 1779, captain in July
1780, and in February 1781 joined the Courageux in the Channel
Squadron. He hated 'the salt sea ocean' and with relief returned to Chatham in
January 1783; in September he was placed on half-pay.
In 1786 with the prospect of a long peace, Collins was influenced by his
father to accept appointment to the expedition to Botany Bay. On 24 October he
was commissioned deputy judge advocate of the new colony and likewise, by
Admiralty warrant, of the marine detachment. His half-pay ended in December and
in the new year he received 10s. a day for each legal office and was allowed a
year's pay in advance. He sailed without Maria in the Sirius with
the First Fleet, arriving at Botany Bay on 20 January 1788. Next day he went
with Governor Arthur Phillip's party to examine Port Jackson. Six days later
the fleet's transfer to Sydney Cove was completed and the business of
settlement began. On 7 February the government was formally inaugurated,
Collins reading the relevant Act, commissions and letters patent.
Collins was responsible, under the governor, for the colony's entire
legal establishment. He issued all writs, summonses and processes, retained
certain fees, and with one other justice of the peace formed the bench of
magistrates. His small knowledge of the law was of little import, for at first
few cases came before the Civil Court over which he presided, assisted by two
nominees. With him in the Criminal Court, over which he also presided, sat six
naval or military officers, and it met more frequently. Collins was necessarily
involved in the disputes between Phillip and Major Robert Ross, the commanding
officer of the marines, especially when they concerned the Criminal Court.
Collins always sympathized with the governor. He felt that the officers should
not always remain sticklers for their rights, and that if they acted without
authorization, they should throw themselves 'with the strong plea of necessity'
on the Admiralty to secure indemnification. In March 1790 after Ross had been
appointed lieutenant-governor at Norfolk Island, Collins could write to his
father, 'Since Major Ross went from here, tranquillity may be said to have been
our guest. Oh! that the Sirius when she was lost, had proved his—but no more of
that. While here he made me the object of his persecution—if a day will come—a
day of retribution'.
Early in 1789, after Captain Shea's death, Ross had invited Collins to
take the vacancy. Acceptance would certainly have bettered his advancement in
the marines, but he refused, to the great satisfaction of Phillip who in June
1788 had appointed him secretary to the governor, or as Collins preferred, to
the colony, at an additional 5s. a day. With his multiple duties he was deeply
involved in questions of crime and punishment, convict labour, health, rations
and stores. He organized the celebration of each new year and royal birthday,
and on occasions accompanied expeditions to outlying areas proposed for new
settlements and places of secondary punishment.
Like Phillip he had a compassionate interest in the Aboriginals, and
deplored each racial clash, tending always to blame the convicts for
disobedience of the governor's orders.
The Second Fleet brought news that the New South Wales Corps was to
relieve the marines, who were to choose between returning to England or joining
the corps. Most of the marines left in the Gorgon in December
1791, Collins watching them go with mixed feelings. Nothing would induce him to
sail in the same ship as Ross, but it is clear from his letters that he was
eager to escape 'from a country that is nothing better than a Place of
Banishment for the Outcasts of Society'. Maria was insisting that he had
already stayed too long in 'that Infernal place', and offering to accompany him
to some other country where they could live contentedly on his half-pay. His
father was urging his return, and reported that, although the Admiralty had
passed him over when his turn came to be put on full pay, his presence in
England would ensure his advancement. His prospects in the colony were not
encouraging. Phillip had twice offered him a company in the New South Wales
Corps, but Collins disliked its officers and the thought of serving under men
younger than himself. Nevertheless he decided to stay, at least until his
father could find him a civil appointment in England.
It was a costly decision. When the marines detachment departed, Collins
ceased to be its judge-advocate and thereby lost £100 a year, yet he could not
reconcile his mind 'to leave Governor Phillip, with whom I have now lived so
long, that I am blended in every concern of his'. Certainly Collins was no
longer attracted by soldiering and, perhaps unconsciously, his taste of civil
authority had whetted his appetite, seasoned by the opiate of being thought,
and thinking himself, indispensable. He was also encouraged to stay by Phillip,
and did not write to London for permission to leave until the eve of Phillip's
departure in December 1792. In his application he pleaded 'some very urgent
private and family affairs', but before it was approved next June he had
yielded to persuasion and stayed on to help Lieutenant-Governor Francis Grose,
although he knew that his father was ill, and that he had agreed to hold a
general court martial, demanded by Ross, on the misdeeds allegedly committed by
Captain Meredith while in the colony. In October 1793 he heard from Maria that
his father had died, his last days troubled by a prosecution which the court
hearing it thought 'groundless and malicious', and in which 'that Devil Ross …
had spoke disrespectfully of your conduct'. She pleaded again for his return,
but next year he reported that Grose had asked him to stay to help his
successor as acting-governor, William Paterson: 'he put it on such a footing
that I could not but comply … he declared that he could not think of going
unless I would stay'.
In October 1795, a month after Governor John Hunter's arrival, Collins
sought a salary increase for the first time, claiming that his duties had
become disproportionate to the reward. Hunter who had 'long been acquainted
with his zeal and very great ability' strongly supported the claim which he
thought 'but a justice due to his meritorious exertions and diligence';
probably because Collins had been given leave of absence two years before, no
reply was sent. When Collins did sail for England in the Britannia in
August 1796, Hunter apparently expected him to return and told the Duke of
Portland that 'the colony, my Lord, will suffer exceedingly in the department
of law during his absence'.
Collins reached London in June 1797, to find Maria 'ill and weakened
beyond anything I could have imagined'. At the Admiralty he was told 'to his
infinite distress' that he could only return to service in the marines as the
youngest captain. Left with his half-pay of 5s. a day, he wrote to his mother,
'is not this charming, are not my employers, just, equitable, delightful
rascals?' Interviews with Portland and Sydney were no more fruitful, although
on 1 January 1798 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel, without pay or command,
in recognition of his services in New South Wales. Since his return people had
flocked to his home for information about friends and relations in the colony.
From his own records he completed in May 1798 the first volume of An
Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, illustrated from
engravings by Edward Dayes, some of them after drawings by Thomas Watling. It
was more complete in detail than earlier works on the colony, and claimed as
its object the dissuasion of his countrymen from regarding New South Wales with
'odium and disgust'.
Earlier he had told his father that 'nature intended and fashioned
me to ascend the pulpit', and now his sombre annals of crime and calamity
seemed to have the homiletic aims of promoting tranquillity and preserving
conventional decorum. The book received deserved praise and sold reasonably
well, and a German edition followed in 1799. After the second volume, which was
largely based on Hunter's reports, was published in 1802, Maria helped to
abridge and edit his work in a single volume in 1804. She also appears to have
written at least one novel of her own.
In 1800 while the colonies were controlled by various departments in
London, Collins wrote to the under-secretary of war, John Sullivan, offering to
act as liaison officer for New South Wales. Nothing came of it, but his
exceptional knowledge of the colony's affairs was recognized and in 1802 he was
chosen to form a new settlement in Bass Strait. Although grieved by another
separation from Maria, he predicted a bright future and hoped that persecution
by his 'evil genius' had ended. On 4 January 1803 he was commissioned
lieutenant governor of the proposed new dependency under the governor of New
South Wales. His salary was £450 and, to equip himself, he mortgaged his
patrimony and ran up a large debt. He sailed in April in H.M.S. Calcutta.
When he arrived at Port Phillip Bay on 9 October, two days after the
storeship Ocean, Collins was dismayed by the lack of timber and
water, but he began unloading his convicts, settlers and stores at Sullivan Bay
(near Sorrento), while Lieutenant Tuckey and George Prideaux Harris explored.
Their reports were not encouraging, so he wrote to Governor Philip Gidley King
suggesting removal of the settlement. King agreed, and Collins decided to move to
the Derwent where Lieutenant John Bowen had already established a settlement at
Risdon.
After reaching the Derwent, Collins landed at Risdon on 16 February, but
he disapproved the place and soon chose and named Sullivan Cove as a better
harbour and site for Hobart Town. By July he had his own house built, over 400
people hutted, his stores temporarily covered, timber cleared and a government
farm started at Cornelian Bay. In this repetition of his experience at Sydney
Cove, Collins's task was not easy. Although his convicts were fewer than those
of Phillip, they were not skilled pioneers; his marines were no less
troublesome, his free settlers either apathetic or aggressively demanding, and
his tools and equipment from England poor in quality, incomplete and often
unusable. Although he had brought enough provisions for a year, they were much
damaged by many loadings and exposure, and had to be supplemented with
kangaroos and other game, and this hunting led to much trouble with absconders
and Aboriginals. Supplies came from Sydney irregularly and often had to be
condemned; many of the cattle and sheep he asked for died in transit.
By carefully husbanding his stores and buying what he could from
occasional whalers and trading ships, he struggled along, often reducing
rations and never far from starvation. In 1805 his dispatches to London became
vehement, and next year he appealed to the commander-in-chief at the Cape of
Good Hope, but no relief came. Later he risked his reputation in trying to
obtain Bengal cattle for the colony, and his contract for their import was
censured by Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Foveaux, Paterson and Governor William
Bligh.
Collins had just cause to complain of neglect. Although he wrote
frequently to London and to Sydney, no dispatch reached him direct from Downing
Street while he was in Van Diemen's Land; even rebukes for excessive demands
came through the governor in Sydney. According to the Colonial Office, he
seemed 'desirous of withdrawing himself upon every occasion from the
superintendence of the government of New South Wales'. He was also thought
'inattentive in the article of expenditure' and warned that he would be held
responsible for all accounts not sanctioned in Sydney. Disheartened by this
censure, he confided in his brother: 'my gratification will be, when I resign
my office, to lay my hand on my heart and say I never misappropriated a
sixpence of the Government money to my own use'.
In April 1808 Collins was given brevet rank of colonel in the army, but
this did nothing to dispel his loneliness. Maria had spoken of joining him, but
could not leave her ailing mother. He had little intellectual company and few
of his officers were reliable.
They quarrelled among themselves, ignored regulations that prohibited
them to trade, and often paid more for kangaroo meat and grain than the prices
fixed by Collins. His deputy judge advocate had no patent for a criminal court,
so those accused of crimes too serious to be tried by the magistrates had to be
escorted to Sydney for trial. He was not consulted when the British government
decided to send most of the settlers on Norfolk Island to Van Diemen's Land. By
October 1808 more than 550 had arrived, doubling the population. Some were able
and energetic, others listless, and nearly all had to be clothed and fed from
scanty resources. Also to compensate for their removal, the settlers had been
promised cleared land, convict servants, buildings and livestock. Collins
placed many of them at New Norfolk, but his inability to fulfil all the
promises created a large discontented group in the colony. On the other hand he
achieved some success in the measures he took to promote and encourage whale
fishing based on the Derwent.
More trouble came when Bligh arrived at Hobart in the Porpoise on
30 March 1809. Collins received him with courtesy and vacated Government House.
Bligh assured Collins that he would not interfere with his administration, but
he did. After learning that Bligh had pledged himself to go direct to England,
Collins decided to recognize Paterson's government in Sydney. Bligh then moved
the Porpoise into midstream and later to Storm Bay passage,
where he levied toll on incoming ships and fired on boats that refused to come
within hail. This virtual blockade lasted until 4 January 1810 when Bligh
sailed to seek news of Governor Lachlan Macquarie's arrival in Sydney.
Bligh was not alone in his unkind criticism of Collins's morals and
administration. Joseph Foveaux, who acted as lieutenant governor at Sydney
before Paterson and coveted Collins's post, had reported to London that at the
Derwent 'a system of the most unexampled profusion, waste and fraud, with
respect to money, and stores, had been carried on, almost without the
affectation of concealment and sense of shame'. Many of Collins's difficulties
were due to neglect in London and Sydney and to his subordinates' incompetence,
but he seems to have shown some lack of energy in his management of affairs.
For all that, Joseph Holt testified that he 'had the good wishes and good word
of everyone in the settlement. His conduct was exemplary and his disposition
most humane'. A generation later John West added that 'to a cultivated
understanding' he 'joined a most cheerful and social disposition'.
Collins died suddenly on 24 March 1810. He was buried with full military
honours on the spot intended for a church, and St David's Cathedral in Hobart
now bears his name.
By Maria, Collins had a daughter who died in infancy. In Sydney he had a
daughter and a son, George (b.1794) by Ann Yeates, and in Hobart two children
by Margaret Eddington in 1808-09. George became a midshipman in the navy and
had served five years by March 1812 when he petitioned the Colonial Office for
a free passage to Hobart to rejoin his family and adjust his father's
affairs.
According to Maria, Collins died insolvent, leaving her with only £36,
the pension of a captain's widow. Again and again she appealed to the Colonial
Office, until a letter was found from Lord Hobart, dated 4 February 1803,
promising to support her application for aid should any accident happen to her
husband while in public service. In 1813 she was granted an allowance of £120 a
year, retrospective to January 1812 in 'Consideration of her husband's services
in superintending the Commencement of the Settlement at Hobart's Town'. She
died at Plymouth on 13 April 1830, but her name and pension appeared yearly on
Tasmanian estimates until 1842.
Dr William Hopley
This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography,
Volume 1, (MUP), 1966
William Hopley (d.1815), surgeon, joined the navy and as surgeon's mate
served in H.M.S. Stag from April 1795 to February 1800, and
then in the Forester and the Insolent until
the peace of Amiens. In 1801 he married Judith Elizabeth, the eldest daughter
of Lieutenant William Hobbs, R.N., who was killed on active service.
Hopley was appointed second assistant surgeon in New South Wales, and
with his wife and daughter sailed in the Calcutta with
Lieutenant-Governor David Collins's expedition to Port Phillip Bay. At his own
expense Hopley also brought out his widowed mother-in-law and her children. In
1804 he moved to Hobart Town, where he leased two acres (0.8 ha) and lived
under canvas for three months encumbered by his large family.
In 1807 he was suspended from duty by Collins, but after reprimand
was reinstated by Governor William Bligh. Hopley continued as second assistant
surgeon until September 1808, when because of ill health he sought to return to
England. He went to Sydney, but the government would not provide passages for
his large family and he could not pay their fares. After eighteen months leave
on half-pay his health had not improved, but he applied for the position of
first assistant surgeon at Port Dalrymple.
When this was refused he returned to duty at Hobart and asked for a land
grant, intending to become a settler because his salary of 7s. 6d. a day was
too small to support his family. He was promised 300 acres (121 ha) but did not
receive it, so he leased Hangan's farm at Government House Point.
After Matthew Bowden died in October 1814, Governor Lachlan
Macquarie promoted Hopley principal surgeon at the Derwent at twice the salary
he had formerly received. He died on 24 August 1815 and was buried in St
David's cemetery, Hobart. He was survived by his wife and by a daughter and two
sons who had to be admitted to the orphan institution. Three of his
sisters-in-law married officers at the Derwent.
William and Elizabeth Cockerill - Fee Settlers - Ocean
William Cockerill migrated for green grass. He and his wife Elizabeth
and their children William, Arabella and Ann. He became a successful farmer.
Not to be confused with The Cockerell Family
Fawkner, John Pascoe (1792–1869)
This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, (MUP), 1966
John Pascoe Fawkner (1792-1869), pioneer, was born on 20 October 1792 at Cripplegate, London, the son of John Fawkner, a metal refiner, and Hannah, née Pascoe. His father was convicted of receiving stolen goods and in 1801 was sentenced to fourteen years transportation. With his mother and younger sister, Elizabeth, John accompanied his father to the new settlement to be formed in Bass Strait. They joined H.M.S. Calcutta at Portsmouth and sailed on 29 April 1803 in company with the Ocean, carrying a number of free settlers and stores.
After Port Phillip was abandoned and the convicts and settlers were moved to Van Diemen's Land, the Fawkners lived in a primitive hut at the new settlement on Sullivan's Cove, suffering great hardship and continuing shortages of food. During one period when scurvy was rife, young Fawkner lost the use of his right leg for some months.
However, by 1806 the family held a 50-acre (20 ha) land grant some seven miles (11 km) from Hobart Town, and John, as the shepherd boy, often lived alone for weeks at a time in a sod hut while his sister kept house for their father in the town. In August of that year Hannah Fawkner sailed for England to claim a legacy and did not return to Hobart until June 1809. Nevertheless the family prospered. The father was recorded as owning several cows and sheep, and within a year had two acres (0.8 ha) under wheat. From 5 acres (2 ha) of land, the Fawkners reaped 150 bushels of wheat in 1808, and their livestock soon increased to 66 sheep and 72 goats. When Governor Lachlan Macquarie visited the island in 1811, John was granted 50 acres (20 ha) adjoining his father's farm.
The year 1814 was a turning point in Fawkner's career. Some time before, he had taken charge of the shop and house of his father in Macquarie Street and become a baker. Among his associates were several convicts and with them he devised a plan to escape, supposedly to South America. Fawkner supplied a whale-boat and tools to build a sea-going vessel, and entrusted a blacksmith with the task of making the nails and ironwork. Eight men, including Fawkner, stole away to Recherche Bay and began felling trees and sawing them into planks. When the lugger was completed and ready for sea, Fawkner was put ashore to make his way secretly to his farm.
The Van Diemen's Land Gazette, 21 May 1814, listed John Fawkner as aiding and abetting the escape of seven prisoners. At the same time the lugger returned to Hobart because of leaks in the wooden water tanks, was sighted near the entrance to the Derwent by the government schooner, and because of her 'singular appearance' was taken in charge. Fawkner and Santos, who was apparently the convicts' leader, were tried before three magistrates in August and each sentenced to 500 lashes and three years labour. Fawkner was later sent to Newcastle by Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Davey as one who had been 'committing some atrocious Robberies and Depredations'. He sailed from Port Dalrymple in the Kangaroo on 26 January 1815, and worked at cedar cutting on the Hunter River.
After he was freed in 1816 Fawkner returned to Hobart and took up the bakery again. He also sold liquor without the benefit of licence and carried firewood and sawn timber. He claimed to have made £1000 within seventeen months of his return to Tasmania. In 1817, however, Fawkner began another period of personal and financial difficulty that culminated in his moving north to Launceston. First, he was fined for selling shortweight loaves of bread and using illegal weights. Next he lost £160 on a contract to supply soldiers with bread by using his own wheat and accepting Commissary Patrick Hogan's store receipts for the cost. Hogan was court-martialled for misapplication of public funds. In July 1819, for robbing His Majesty's store, Fawkner's father and four others received 200 lashes apiece and three years at Newcastle, while the son was bound over for his part in the robbery.
In the company of Eliza Cobb, Fawkner moved to Launceston to begin afresh as a builder and sawyer. They were married on 5 December 1822. Although he claimed in later years that he had chosen his wife from an immigrant ship, Eliza actually arrived late in 1818, aged 17, as a convict whose crime was stealing a baby. Beside building, Fawkner also followed his old trade of baker. In 1824 he built a two-storied brick house of thirteen rooms at a total cost of £2500 and attempted to open this as an hotel. A licence was refused on the first application as his wife was still a Crown prisoner, but it was granted a few months later. It was not long before the Cornwall Hotel, as he named his premises, enabled Fawkner to improve his financial position and clear the debts incurred, particularly those to Maria Lord. However, renewal of the licence was refused in 1829 because Fawkner was considered 'not a proper person to keep an hotel', although many of the leading settlers and merchants testified to the orderliness of the house. The licence was restored in September 1830.
Fawkner possessed, as James Bonwick stated, 'a native energy that made him rise superior to all assaults, endure all sneers, quail at no difficulty, and that thrust him ever foremost in the strife, happy in the war of words and the clash of tongues'. He had engaged in a strenuous programme of self-education and to his many activities he added that of 'bush lawyer' appearing in the lower courts for a minimum fee of 6s. He also managed a horticultural nursery and conducted a coaching service, independent in both name and nature, between Launceston and Longford. In 1828 he started the Launceston Advertiser, acting as editor for two years, and using the paper as 'the active and avowed friend of the emancipist class in Van Diemen's Land, dealing heavy and repeated blows upon officialdom and the reputed respectable class in the island'. He attacked capital punishment in a colony that valued 'a man's life at less than a sheep', and made forceful remarks on cruelty to assigned servants.
Fawkner was interested in the reports of the southern coast of the mainland made by sealers, whalers, and bark cutters. In April 1835 he sought a vessel to take an expedition to Western Port. Although a 55-ton schooner was acquired and renamed Enterprise, several contracted voyages had to be completed before it changed hands. The day Rebecca, hired by John Batman, anchored off Indented Head, Fawkner was bound over to appear at the next General Sessions for having assaulted William Bransgrove, and was thus prevented from leaving the colony for two months.
Despairing of receiving the Enterprise, Fawkner engaged the Dolphin and stores were loaded by 13 July. Years later, George Evans, one of the party, remembered the Hentys' refusal to allow their chartered ship to deviate from its course for Portland Bay as the reason why the members of Fawkner's party were ordered to quit the Dolphin. Two days later Enterprise tied up at Launceston wharf, and after two more days of hurried loading slipped its moorings for George Town. Early next morning the vessel was boarded by the sheriff's representative to present a restraining order on Fawkner because of debt. Fawkner returned to Launceston to make an adjustment of claims, but was told he must pay in full or remain. As he had some horses he wished to see loaded, Fawkner entered into a bond to return to the town on completing this business, but did not confide in his captain, John Lancey, until the Enterprise was at sea, while still within sight of George Town. After a long argument it was decided that Fawkner should return to port pleading violent sea sickness to deceive the remainder of the expedition.
Having visited Western Port, the expedition agreed to try Port Phillip Bay, and the Enterprise anchored in the southern part of the bay on Sunday, 16 August 1835. A search was made along the southern shore to the north until, four days later, well-grassed land was discovered some distance up the eastern branch of the Freshwater River. 'Here we made up our minds to settle and share the land in the most satisfactory manner to all parties', wrote John Lancey. A camp was made at the place where the Yarra River flowed over a low rock ledge.
Fawkner himself landed at Hobson's Bay in October 1835 and at once began to lay the foundations of a fortune that grew to £20,000 in his first four years on the mainland. In January 1838 he added to his trade of hotel-keeping that of newspaper proprietor. His Melbourne Advertiser was handwritten on four pages of foolscap for nine numbers until a press and type arrived from Tasmania, and it was then printed weekly until suppressed because Fawkner had no licence. In February 1839, with a licence, he began the Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser; this later became a daily, and he ran it in conjunction with a bookselling and stationery business. In 1839 Fawkner also added to his already considerable land holdings a 780-acre (316 ha) property known as Pascoe Vale.
Because of a complex of causes, including land and livestock speculation, a crazy financial structure with bank loans on little security, and a three-year drought, prices plummeted and land revenue fell by three-quarters in 1842. Although not a speculator himself, Fawkner was forced to sell many of his properties in an attempt to weather the worst of the depression. A fortunate and substantial settlement in favour of his wife enabled him to retain a large portion of the Pascoe Vale estate, and by signing over the Patriot to his father he kept control of the newspaper. His financial affairs were further complicated by his part in guaranteeing a bond of W. Rucker to the Union Bank for £10,000. Fawkner was declared insolvent and filed his schedule in March 1845, listing liabilities of £8898 and assets of £3184. He claimed at the time to have been stripped of £12,000 in cash and ten houses, but such was his soundness that within a year he had not only paid his debts in full but had £1000 to his bank credit.
As a man of property and influence, Fawkner took an active and leading part in the political and social struggles of the time. First, as one of seven market commissioners and, when this work was taken over by the municipality, as a councillor, Fawkner held office for many years. He represented Talbot in the first Legislative Council in 1851, and on the introduction of responsible government was returned for the Central Province of Victoria holding the seat until his death. During his eighteen years in the Legislative Council Fawkner spoke regularly and often (one member said he made the same speech for fifteen years) on all matters before the House, but was best known for his 'monomania' on squatters and the disposal of land. Markedly liberal in his views, Fawkner considered that squatters had obtained their rights by a system of robbery and that parliament enacted class legislation aimed at protecting the 700 privileged sheep-farmers in Victoria and grinding 'the bulk of the people to the very dust'. Fawkner was referred to as 'the tribune of the people' and was perhaps the best, and certainly the most out-spoken, advocate of a strong class of yeomen farmers. One of his published pamphlets, printed in 1854, was Squatting Orders … Orders in Council … Locking Up the Lands of the Colony in the Hands of a Small Minority, Giving Them, Without Any Real Reason, the Right to Buy the Whole or Any Part of the Sixty Million Acres of This Fine Colony, at Their Own Price …
After the opening of the goldfields of Victoria in 1851, Fawkner devoted much of his time to the legislative aspects of gold-mining problems. He sat on some ninety-six select committees between 1852 and 1869, the most far-reaching in its effect being the Commission of Inquiry into the goldfields in 1854-55. He was alarmed by the Chinese and American immigrants, and saw both groups as potential sources of disorder. The presence of the Chinese might lead to civil war, he considered; he would have liked to expel them all. In September 1855 he wrote of 'wild Americans—who know no law but the Bowie Knife, the Rifle or Lynch practice'.
With advancing years Fawkner's health declined but he continued to attend every session, wearing always a velvet smoking cap and wrapped in an old-fashioned cloak. He had grown to be regarded as an institution, and became more conservative in his views. In his last parliamentary sessions he opposed manhood suffrage, the secret ballot, and payment for members, yet retained very advanced notions on the rights of married women and deserted wives, and the divorce laws. He disliked sectarian rivalry and was bitterly critical of Roman Catholic leaders such as (Sir) John O'Shanassy, yet at the same time he opposed moves for Anglican supremacy. Asthma made his voice weak and husky, and he admitted at the end that age and infirmity weighed heavily upon him, but while there was work to be done, he wanted to share in it. Though cantankerous and dogmatic, he was a selfless patriot, honest and, in his way, idealistic. His last words to parliament declared his faith: 'I believe the Colony requires new blood, and that, unless we get more working men here, the work of improvement must stand still, if it does not retrograde'.
In his middle years he had been spoken of as 'half-froth, half-venom', and in many ways was not a very pleasant character, but behind his almost violent aggressiveness lay the pursuit of worthy motives, and a freedom from immorality and corruption that was sufficiently rare in that generation to inspire the confidence of his less fortunate fellows. His triumph over heredity and early experiences and his struggles with autocracy, convictism and corruption, demonstrated the strength of his purpose, and his rehabilitation and later career were remarkable. Fawkner died on 4 September 1869 at his home in Smith Street, Collingwood, the grand old man of contemporary Victoria.
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