The Ratbag Encyclopedia

Family history, Western Australian history, or just history

Category: Dyson

The antecedents, life and times, and descendants of James Dyson (1810-1888)

Jane Develing no more.

It should be fairly common knowledge by now that Mrs Jane Dyson, before she was Mrs Edwards, was Miss Jane Develing, or Develin, Devlin or Devling… a sixteen year old orphan girl sent to the Colony of Western Australia on the first of the bride ships in 1849.

Before that, she was an inmate of the Poorhouse of St Pancras parish in London’s north. She was sent there when she was six or seven years old. Naturally, she was the ringleader of a schoolroom revolt in the poorhouse by the age of eleven. Age thirteen or fourteen, she was giving evidence at a judicial inquest into the severe discipline at St Pancras. It was called for after the suicide of a fellow inmate — who decided that being dead was preferable to another stay in the workhouse. If Charles Dickens had not already written and published “Oliver Twist” by this date, Oliver Twist would have been a girl.

After newspaper-pages of bad publicity, and questions put to management even by the Home Secretary in the mother of all parliaments — if this feisty young lady had been disliked by the guardians of the parish before — she would have been utterly loathed by them now. It was not that Jane liked them much better, but she had nowhere else to go.

The depths of their hatred might be measured by the fact that they were prepared to spend cold hard coin to make the problem go away. Not by improving conditions or governance in the Poorhouse — don’t be silly! They paid for Jane and five other girls from St Pancras to leave the country forever.

St Pancras Hospital, London, re-using some of the old workhouse buildings. 2015. Author’s photo.

But that’s another story, and one that has been told before…

Untold, has been how a six or seven year old girl ended up in the St Pancras Poorhouse to begin with. Being orphaned has been a widely considered possibility. But even so, why has it not been possible to trace her family?

We know her precise date of birth: 1 September 1833.

We know that by the night of 6 June 1841, Jane Develin, aged 7, was incarcerated in the St Pancras Workhouse system.

1841 England Census
Class: HO107; Piece 681; Book: 9; Civil Parish: St Pancras; County: Middlesex; Enumeration District: St Pancras Workhouse; Folio: 33; Page: 10; Line: 19; GSU roll: 438797.

“That architectural style is early Maniac”

The thing about workhouses, or poorhouses (the terms are used interchangeably), was that even at their most exploitative they cost money to run. Various districts got together to form poor law unions to split the costs by sharing a house between them. As they were paying the bills, the various parishes got a bit particular about who they provided shelter to. They would not willingly home paupers from outside their union districts.

St Pancras Poorhouse was something of an exception to the rule. It was not part of a Union, and as the second largest poorhouse in London, it’s destitute were supposed to come solely from the parish of St Pancras itself.

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of St Pancras, in Camden and Middlesex | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/922
Date accessed: 27th December 2024

If Jane was an orphan, there should have been a trace of the death and burial of a relative in this parish, around about the time Jane was admitted. (There are no workhouse records surviving for the time she was admitted, they only exist after she blew the whistle on conditions inside, post 1848.)

There’s not a trace of any Develins or Develings to be found in death or burial records for the district during this time— the closest match, indeed the only match is for a burial record for a Mary Thivelin, buried in the parish burial grounds of St Pancras, by coincidence, right next to the poorhouse compound.

She was buried there on 8 February 1841. Her age at death was recorded as 35.

The chapel in 2015. Not the original building, nor was there ever likely to be a grave marker.

By this date, statutory records of births, deaths and marriages were supposed to have been kept in England. It should come as a suprise to no-one that the name Thivelin does not appear in the records for this district at this time. There is a death record for someone named Shovelin, but she was aged 25 or 26. That had to be another transcription error, didn’t it?

Yes and no. Mary Shovelin, (if she is aged 35), is still the most likely candidate to be Jane’s mother. She died in childbirth, as likely did the child as well. We know this because her husband was present at her death. This would make Thomas Shovelin Jane’s father.

Years ago, I asked a not-that-elderly relative what his father’s name was. He was puzzled by that question, but after a few moments of thought, replied “Pop?” (Well done Dad.) When you were six, would you necessarily have known your mother or father’s given names? Jane was 29 when she was asked that question, and the best answer she could come up with was “James Develing” as the name of her father. “James” was the name of the man she was about to marry that day. However, knowing what your daddy did when you were six is another matter entirely — when required to list his trade or profession on her marriage certificate, she put down “carpenter”. Thomas Shovelin also happens to describe himself as a carpenter on the death certificate of Jane’s potential mother.

By Survey of London, volume 35, The Theatre Royal Drury Lane and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (1970)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101044

Here is a brief sketch of the family Jane seems to have come from.

Thomas Shovelin was born in Dublin, Ireland, about the year 1798. He was a carpenter, and there is good probability he came to England to work in the theatre district of London. Nothing is known about his wife Mary, not where she was born or where they were married, other than that she was ten years his junior, and neither of them were Roman Catholic.

A son, George Shovelin, was born in London before 12 February 1826. He was baptised at St Clement Danes, London, on that date. His parents were living at 140 Dury Lane in the city at the time. — The first clue as to possible theatrical connections for the family.

Another child, William Fawcett Shovelin, born about 1829, was born at sea. Which sea, under what circumstances, nothing yet is known. (Let’s for the sake of an argument, say it was on a boat.) There is still no record of birth for a Jane Shovelin on 1 September 1833.

George joined the British Army as soon as he turned sixteen. He enlisted in the 39th Regiment of Foot as a Private. Six year old Jane would never see him again and his mother was dead the following year. George may have served overseas, but more research is needed to determine that. What is certain, he was no longer with the regiment when it was stationed in Australia.

George was invalided out of the army by January 1853. He is on the books of the Royal Chelsea Hospital for a time. Then — and here is the second clue the family may have had something to do with the stage — he was working as a Theatrical Property Man at the time of his death, which occured at 21 Bolsover Street, Marylebone on 17 July 1858. He died of an epileptic fit. He was 31 years old. He never married.

St Pancras chapel, 2015 version.

After his wife Mary died in childbirth and he’d abandoned his daughter Jane to the St Pancras poorhouse, Thomas Shovelin disappears from the English records for most of the following next decade.

When he reappears he has married a woman thirty years his junior named Mary Ann Whitbread Green. She comes from rural Essex. There is no trace of a marriage. Their son, Thomas Charles Shovelin, was born in Notting Hill late in 1851. Then, a Daniel Shovelin was born at St Luke’s, Westminster during 1854. These boys grew up to be Hackney cab drivers, or grooms for Hackney cab drivers (The auto-mechanics of their day).

A daughter, Mary Ann Shovelin, was born in 1860 but died in 1862.

Jane’s only surviving full brother William Fawcett Shovelin married a woman named Mary Ann (because of course he did.) It is his name that is recorded in the England censuses as Shoveling. He abandoned his Mary Ann to the Workhouse in Westminster, and took up with a Julia, however he was dead before his first wife expired in the workhouse by 1872.

On 7 January 1868, seventy year old Thomas Shovelin was so reduced in circumstances that he too had to be admitted to the St Pancras Poorhouse. And that was the end of him the following year.

Tracing the Shovelin family though the genealogical records has been challenging and is far from complete. Either records are missing, or the family name has been written down in hard to search for variations including Shovelin, Shoveling, Shovling, Shevlin, Shivelin, Thivelin, etc. It no longer seems to me such a jump to get from Shovelin to Develing.

Remnants of the burial ground at St Pancras, 2015. Author’s photograph

Selected Sources

Westminster, London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1919
Name George Shovelin
Age 0
Birth Date Abt 1826
Baptism Date 12 Feb. 1826
Baptism Place St Clement Danes, London, Westminster, England
Parish as it Appears St Clement Danes
Father Thomas Shovelin, Carpenter, Drury Lane.
Mother Ann Shovelin
City of Westminster Archives Centre; London, England; Westminster Church of England Parish Registers; Reference: STC/PR/1/17

UK, Royal Hospital Chelsea Admission Books, Registers and Papers, 1702-1980
Name Geo Shovelin
Military Regiment 39th Regiment of Foot
Military Pension Date 11 Jan. 1853
Residence Place 2 North London
3 yrs to 21/1/56
The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; WO 23: Royal Hospital Chelsea: Admission Books, Registers and Papers; Reference: WO 23/39

England Census 1861: 4 London Street, St Pancras
Thomas Shovelin 58 Head, Journeyman Carpenter, b. Dublin, Ireland
Mary A Shovelin 39 Wife, b. Essex, Farnham
Thomas Shovelin 9 Son, b. Middlesex, London
Daniel Shovelin 7 Son, b. Middlesex, London
Mary A Shovelin 11mo Daughter, b. Middlesex, London
Class: Rg 9; Piece: 102; Folio: 2; Page: 3; GSU roll: 542574

England Census 1861: 31 North Street, Lambeth, Surey, England
William Fawcet Shovling 34 Head, House painter, b. at Sea.
Mary Ann Shovling 31 Wife, b. St George Grosvenor Street
George Oscar Shovling 8 Son, b. St Pancras
Maryann Shovling 4 Daughter, b. St George Grosvenor Street
Class: Rg 9; Piece: 351; Folio: 34; Page: 28; GSU roll: 542620

England Census 1871: 33 Maiden Lane, The Strand, London, England
William Shoveling 40 Head, House Decorator, b. at Sea
Julia Shoveling 28 Wife, b. Dorset.
Mary Anne Shoveling 14 Daughter, b. London.
The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1871 England Census; Class: RG10; Piece: 362; Folio: 22; Page: 38; GSU roll: 824611

London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764-1921
Name Thos Shovelin
Admission Age 70
Record Type Admission
Birth Date abt 1798
Admission Date 7 May 1868
Admission Place St Pancras, Camden, City of London, England
London Metropolitan Archives; London, England, UK; London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764-1921; Reference Number: STPBG/166

More about Thomas and Mary Shovelin

27 December 2024
Thompson’s Swamp

I’ve been wading through the history of the Swamp lately. That is — the actual swamp that had Dyson’s name on it — not the metaphorical entity that represents the Dyson family’s life in early colonial Australia. This is the one that is currently known as Lake Jualbup.

Dyson’s Swamp was always Jualbup. Jualbup has sometimes been Dyson’s Swamp. Jualbup was, is, and always will be Whadjuk Noongar boodjar.

Truth be told, everyone’s favourite former Vandemonian convict in Western Australia was not in direct possession of the swamp that bore his name for very long. He wasn’t even the first settler to claim ownership of it — colonial style.

According to Geoffrey Dean in One controversy after another: A chronological history of Lake Jualbup (2011), an agreement to transfer ownership of the swamp from the merchant and chemist George Shenton to James Dyson was first drawn up in the year 1858. The deal was not finalised for another thirteen years — not until the year 1871.

Wilkinson, G. F. 1877. “Eligible Land for Sale.” The Western Australian Times, March 27:3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2977289

AU WA S235- cons3868 336
State Records Office WA 1897

As late as 1965, there were still some visible traces of the Swamp as it existed from Dyson’s time. Observe the lone post in the water on the left hand side of the photograph below — this would have been part of the three-rail fence that marked the boundaries between Locations 119 and 118 — the formal designation of Dyson’s Swamp on the title deeds.

144742PD: Shenton Park Lake, 1965
Photograph by Grace Roper
State Library of Western Australia

Dyson’s name was only attached to the title deed for six short years. The Shenton family reclaimed it after 1877. However, until the suburb of Shenton Park swallowed up the bush surrounding the water in the early 20th century, those who actually lived by Jualbup (both Whadjuk and European) carried on their lives as much as before.

The independent timber cutters and cow herders leasing their paddocks and huts from whoever demanded rent from them that month, included identities such as—

JAMES MCKENZIE, who described himself as a gatherer of gum and bark, was charged with being drunk on the premises of Mr. Caesar, of the Emerald Isle hotel. The constable who arrested him said he looked like ‘a wild man,’ who had never in his life been introduced to soap and water, much less a razor or a comb. The prisoner himself did no deny the charge, but submitted that there were extenuating circumstances, which the Court might take into consideration. He said he lived in the gay neighborhood of Dyson’s Swamp, and, not being used to indulge in alcoholic beverages, a few glasses of beer had overpowered him. …
“FREMANTLE POLICE COURT.” The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954) 2 February 1885: 3. Web. 7 Oct 2024 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2994801.

He had a neighbour out by the Swamp by the name of

James Thompson (no relation).

WA Police Gazette 11 June 1879 p98

James Thompson (no relation) had a hut and a paddock somewhere near the swamp during the years 1879 and 1880. He may have been in the district long before (or after) that, but because he did not report a brown pony or a bundle of firewood to the police as stolen in any other year, he remains effectively anonymous.

(The sons of Kain proved to be innocent of this particular misdeed. Apropos to nothing, they were the sons of a pensioner guardsman who came to Western Australia with the first convict ship, the Scindian in June 1850.)

Thompson (no relation), might be the same James Thompson (also no relation) who also worked for Dyson back in 1852, before the latter could even have dreamed of owning a swamp of his own.

James Thompson, Convict number 1184, arrived in Fremantle on 30 January 1852 per the Marion, the sixth convict transport to be sent to Western Australia. He had already served four years of a ten year sentence for burglarising a house in Coventry, England, so he was granted a ticket-of-leave the day after his arrival.

Dyson employed him from 30 August 1852 for seven months until the beginning of November that same year. It is only guesswork that Thompson (no relation) was one of Dyson’s pitsawyers, or if he had been employed back then anywhere close to his master’s future swamp.

At the time, Dyson had a contract to supply timber for the new colonial hospital down the other end of Murray Street (then Howick Street). Dyson was then living on the corner of King and Murray streets on the other side of town. His marriage had just disintegrated and his first wife had herself committed to the local lunatic asylum.

Against this backdrop, when Thompson finished his time with Dyson in November, he next worked for a baker named Joseph Freeman. His new employer was also a ticket-of-leave convict, but one permitted to run his own business. The address of that business just happened to be nearly next door to the Dyson family home on King Street in Perth.

By 1855 both Thompson (no relation) and Freeman had their conditional pardons, so they were both free to leave Western Australia … almost.

£5 REWARD.
WHEREAS some anonymous writer has, within the last few days, sent letters to the several Storekeepers of Perth, setting forth that I, Joseph Freeman, Baker, of Dalton’s Terrace, Perth, was about surreptitiously to leave the colony for Melbourne, which slander has had a tendency to do me some degree of harm; I hereby offer the above reward of five pounds to any person who shall render such authentic information as will unmask the cowardly informant with a view to his prosecution; and I here also give notice, that all persons indebted to me, do forthwith settle their accounts; and to request that all persons to whom I may be indebted may furnish to me their accounts on or before the 20th of July next, that they may be examined and liquidated.
JOSEPH FREEMAN,
BAKER, PERTH.
“Advertising” Inquirer (Perth, WA : 1840 – 1855) 12 July 1854: 1. Web. 1 Oct 2024 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65742300.

Both made their way (eventually) to South Australia, which was about as far as it was safe for them to travel as the colony of Victoria had enacted some hideous laws about expirees attempting to enter that jurisdiction.

According to the laws of Victoria, any person once convicted of a transportable offence, and found residing in Victoria within three years of the full expiration of his sentence, is liable to penal servitude on the roads, either in or out of irons, for the space of three years. If, after undergoing this sentence, he remains in Victoria three months longer, he is liable to a repetition of the former sentence; and so on, as long as he lives. All property found upon him is confiscated. Any constable who “suspects” that a person resident in Victoria was sentenced to transportation, and had not, three years previously, completed his term, may apprehend him without warrant, and the burden of exculpatory proof is made to rest upon the person apprehended.
“SWAN RIVER CONYICTS.” Adelaide Observer (SA : 1843 – 1904) 26 April 1856: 6. Web. 1 Oct 2024 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161258488.

This debate in South Australia about how to treat former prisoners was ignited by the arrival of James Thompson (no relation) and others into their polity. He had been arrested for wandering the streets of Adelaide very early in the morning with no good excuse.

ADELAIDE: TUESDAY, APRIL 22.
[Before Mr. C. Mann, Stipendiary Magistrate.]
“CONDITIONAL-PARDON” MAN.— James Thompson was charged with wandering about the streets at 1 o’clock in the morning, and not giving a satisfactory account of himself. Sergeant Badman deposed that he stopped the man and his companion in Light-square, and on his refusing to give a proper account of himself, he brought him to the Station-house, as he had watched him ever since his arrival from Swan River, about seven weeks ago, and observed him under suspicious circumstances several times. On searching defendant a conditional pardon was found upon him. There were no fewer than 20 or 30 of them about the streets, and doing nothing (as far as could be ascertained) for a subsistence. The prisoner’s wife said they brought a good deal of money with them, and she had taken in washing, and her husband was going to work that very morning. She then pleaded for him, and hoped His Worship would look over the matter, as it was the first time. His Worship said he had a duty to perform. He must commit the prisoner for a week; for though it was the first time that he had been brought before the Court, the police had watched his motions for the last few weeks, and the course now pursued was necessary for the protection of the public.
“ADELAIDE: TUESDAY, APRIL, 22.” South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 – 1900) 23 April 1856: 2. Web. 1 Oct 2024 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49747827.

Only twenty five years before, the good burghers of Western Australia were complaining about exactly the same thing concerning riff-raff from Van Dieman’s Land and NSW.

It entirely possible that this James Thompson (no relation), who is definitely the same convict formerly employed by James Dyson, is not the same individual who returned to Western Australia at some date afterwards and worked by his former master’s swamp.

Let’s now take it as read from now on that any time I invoke the name Thompson (or any of it’s variant abominations), the suffix “(no relation)” can safely be appended to it.

There were thirteen transporteés sent to Western Australia named James Thompson and four were James Thomsons. After a time, none of them are readily distinguishable from the other James Thompsons who were born free and stayed that way even if maybe some of them shouldn’t have been.

Jualbup/Dyson’s Swamp. Always has been, always will be.

In conclusion, I have no idea who James Thompson with the paddock near Dyson’s Swamp during the 1880’s was. I don’t know his backstory, or family, or whether any of his descendents still live in Western Australia. I only know he’s not related to me.

Lake Jualbup, 2023

2 November 2024
Missing an Allpike link?

Stephen Hallpike (1786-1844) was a convict from Lancashire sent to the Australian colonies. It was in Liverpool that he was finally busted for the most Lancastrian crime it was possible to commit — stealing 100 yards (91.44 metres) of cotton cloth.

This was not his first (or even his second) offence, but this time it was going to stick. He was sentenced by the Liverpool Sessions Court in October 1817 to be transported over the seas for seven years. By February 1818 he was on a hulk in Portsmouth. He was transferred to another at Woolwich in May, prior to embarkation on the Lord Sidmouth at the end of August.

The Lord Sidmouth set sail on 20 September 1818 for New South Wales. This vessel with 158 convicts on board arrived in Sydney on 11 March 1819.

However

St Peter’s Church, Liverpool looking West along Church Street towards Lord Street in 1800. Drawn by W. H. Watts, Engraved by W. Green. Reproduced in the book “Bygone Liverpool”. Scanned by Internet Archive. (Yes, this church has been demolished for over 100 years.)

It was what Hallpike was up to in the weeks immediately before his arrest, conviction and transportation that are most cognisant to this story. Stephen Hallpike was allegedly a married man. The qualification “allegedly” has to be made, as no formal record of Hallpike’s first marriage has so far been located, and to muddy the waters still further, his second wife will have the same first name as her predecessor (but we get ahead of ourselves).

You do the sums

A baby boy was born in Liverpool on 8 March 1818. Six months elapsed before he was baptised in the church of St Peter on 6 December 1818. Stephen Hall-pike is described as being the son of Stephen Hall-pike, a whitesmith, and Ellen (his presumed wife).

Liverpool Record Office 283-PET-2-5. Found on findmypast.co.uk

Strangely enough, we can only know this child’s actual date of birth because 46 years later he would apply for in job in the Colonial Convict Service of an entirely different Australian colony to the one his father had been sent to. By then, he had also dropped the “Aitch” in his name from Hallpike to Allpike.

Whitesmith or Blacksmith?

While Stephen Hallpike (the elder) had proven to be profoundly ineffectual both as a thief and a father, he possessed other skills that were highly prized in the land he was exiled to. As a blacksmith, he was assigned to the New South Wales civil engineer’s department headed by Major George Druitt. After this Major resigned his commission in July 1822, Hallpike was retained by Druitt as a blacksmith on his estate until at least December 1824.

It is worth noting that in the NSW Colonial Secretary’s Index to correspondence mentioning him as a convict, his name is spelt “Allpike”. It is also worth noting that the reason why he was mentioned in dispatches was that he was discovered working at his own business when he should have still been employed by Druitt.

Nevertheless, the day came when he really had earned his freedom after serving out his sentence.

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 – 1842) 2 December 1824: 1. <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2183459>.

Since this was published in 1824, its a bit strange that another mention in the Colonial Secretary’s office (Reel 6064; 4/1788 p.10) states he was still not free by servitude until 5 April 1825.

When ever it was he did become a free man, 1826 is the only year I’ve seen quoted as his arrival in Singapore. This was the same year the free port was confirmed as a British possession, although it was not yet designated a formal colony of the British Crown.

Buildings in Singapore from the seafront of Padang, ca. 1837, showing the Palladian references recommended by Governor Fullerton. View of Protestant Church (right) (Voyage autour du monde, 1837: plate 47). National Museum of Singapore, available through the National Archives of Singapore, Accession No. 128537, https://www.nas.gov.sg/ archivesonline/photographs/record-details/ad5c305f-1161-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad.

He set up trade as a blacksmith, boat and coach builder, then he opened what was possibly the first hotel in Singapore’s history…

ADVERTISEMENT
S. Hallpike returns his thanks to the Public for the encouragement he has hitherto met with, and begs to state that he has opened a Board and Lodging House in High Street, where Families visiting the Settlement will meet with every attention for their comfort.
N.B. S.H. continues to execute Ships Blacksmith Work in general, and paints and repairs Carriages of all descriptions on moderate terms.
Carriages lent on hire.
Singapore, 11 May 1831

Singapore Chronicle and Commercial Register, 26 May 1831, Page 1
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/singchronicle18310526-1.2.3.2

But he was not doing all this alone.

The boarding house part of his little empire was apparently managed by his wife. Quite when there was a Mrs Hallpike again on the scene and if this was the same Ellen who gave birth to his child back in Liverpool are all mysteries.

Whether their thirteen year old son was also in Singapore too is another unanswered question, however the younger Stephen also followed the trade of a blacksmith later on, so his apprenticeship may have begun at his father’s forge.

It is not until December 1832 that the first hard evidence emerges that there really was a Mrs Hallpike in Singapore … and that was only because she was leaving him, this time.

NOTICE.
MRS. HALLPIKE being about to leave the Settlement, the Undersigned requests that all claims against her and himself may be sent in before the expiration of the current month, after which they will not be attended to.
S. HALLPIKE.
Singapore 3rd Decr. 1832.

Singapore Chronicle and Commercial Register, 20 December 1832, Page 1
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/singchronicle18321220-1.2.10.1

Where she went next, remains as obscure as why she departed. The only certainty is that well before 15 July 1834 she was known to be dead, for that is when Mr Stephen Hallpike married Miss Ellen Richardson, also of Singapore, in the original St Andrew’s Church in Singapore (to the left in the picture below).

Ouch.

Once his father started breeding again, that son from his first marriage needed only have seen this birth notice in the newspaper for August 1837 to know he had no future in Singapore — If he had not worked that out already, many years before.

BIRTH.
On Monday the 14th. Instant, MRS. HALLPIKE of a Son and HEIR.
Singapore Chronicle and Commercial Register, 19 August 1837, Page 2
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/singchronicle18370819-1.2.9

The new Hallpike family wound up their business affairs in Singapore, then travelled back to England sometime after September 1838. but Hallpike, senior, at least, returned to Singapore sometime before July 1842.

There he died on 22 June 1844.

Sacred to the memory of Mr Stephen Hallpike, one of the earliest European inhabitants of this settlement who, during his long life of active usefulness, acquired the high respect of all who knew him and died deeply regretted on the 21st June 1844. Aged 56 years.

If it wasn’t a respectful family that paid for his headstone in the Fort Canning burial ground, he definitely had some greatly appreciative friends… or he was really was that greatly respected by the community he returned to.

Not bad for a former convict whose speciality proved to be driving away his family.

Coincidence time

I’ve visited the Fort Canning burial ground in Singapore. I most definitely would have seen Hallpike’s headstone then, but that it would later be significant to the Dyson story, ie: my story, would have completely passed me by. Instead, here are some generic images from 2006.

The Fort part of Fort Canning

The walls where the surviving grave decorations are displayed. Hallpike’s stone will be among these somewhere.

Coda.

Stephen Allpike, son of Stephen Hallpike, was certainly knocking about the Australasian colonies by the end of the 1830’s. He spent some time in Van Diemen’s Land, not as a convict though. His business there is unknown.

There he could have met a young lady. She was also not a convict, but she may have felt like she had being treated worse than one. Her name was Hannah Dyer. She had been sent from Western Australia by her employer, the brother of that colony’s Colonial Secretary, to give birth to his child away from the public eye. It was not even the first time he had impregnated his maid servant, but his wife had already adopted the resultant daughter for her self.

This time the baby had not survived, but Hannah did. She was permitted to return home during the year 1839. If she did meet Stephen Hallpike in Van Diemen’s Land it had to be before that date.

Libraries Tasmania POL459-1-2 page 5

When Stephen Allpike made his first visit to the Swan River settlement in Western Australia is not entirely certain. However, on 4 May 1841 he boarded a barque called the Napoleon at Launceston in Van Diemen’s Land, bound for Port Philip Bay in was would one day be the future colony of Victoria.

There is no evidence he reached his intended destination. Nor is there any record that he did not. He is not alone in that regard. At least one other passenger known to have been on board this vessel for the entirety of her two month voyage between Van Diemen’s Land and Fremantle in the Colony of Western Australia is likewise completely absent from any contemporary paperwork as well.

If he was on the colonial barque Napoleon, one of his fellow travellers was a fellow Lancastrian and recently freed Van Diemen’s Land Convict by the name of James Dyson. and they had two whole months to get to know one another.

Once in Western Australia, Allpike married Hannah Dyer in the year 1844.

During 1864 he applied for a job in the Convict Establishment of Western Australia.

© Society of Genealogists. Found on findmypast.co.uk

1 November 2024
Flame out

The discovery of gold changed everything in Western Australia.

30 August 2024
Shadowy Spouses
In the last six months, something odd happened. Many (not all) of the shadow wives and husbands of the Dyson children — AND a parent of a parent too — inadvertently stumbled out of the historical shade.

I have written up some of this (but it is nowhere near ready to go), the rest is being assimilated into the book… so before we all die of old age — here is a brief taster of some of the latest discoveries in the works.

Emily Bates

Andrew Drewy Dyson’s girlfriend and mother of his child.

ss Gulf of Martaban

All that was known about her previously:
- Attended a theatre performance in Perth where Drewy Dyson made a scene.
- Gave birth to his son Andrew Samuel Dyson a few months later in 1894 on the family property near Dog Swamp.
What we have now:
- Emily Bates was born in 1875 to a desperately poor family in south London. The family name might have been Betts rather than Bates. She sailed to Western Australia on an immigration ship named Gulf of Martaban in 1891.
- Apparently employed by the Dysons as a domestic servant — getting pregnant by her boss resulted in some horrific internal injuries after the birth of the child, and that child was then taken away by her employers as their own. She fled to the recently established Salvation Army Women’s refuge in Perth, and that organisation smuggled her out of the colony for a new start in South Australia.
- She continued working as a domestic servant in Adelaide, but was continually in and out of hospital for the rest of her life until she died there in 1926. She was 52 years old.
John William Stevenson

Second husband of Hannah Smith, nee Dyson

Approximate location where the All Nations Hotel in Kalgoorlie stood. Photo May 2024.

What we knew before:
- The couple hooked up (but never actually married) in northern Tasmania. He was a hotel publican. Hannah gave birth to a child at Launceston in 1893.
- They return as a family to Perth, Western Australia. He was next involved in a public scandal involving fraud against the government railways by the Perth Ice Company. He was a clerk for that company.
- After the charges against him are dropped, the family moves to Kalgoorlie (as you do) but Hannah Stevenson died there in 1902, aged only 45, and John Stevenson himself drops dead only a few year later in 1908. They leave a 14 year old orphan girl living in a Kalgoorlie brothel, as the hotel the family lived out of was known to be…
What we have now:
- John William Stevenson immigrated to New Zealand from Scotland as a young man and set up in Wellington as a merchant, then as a sharebroker.
- At age 36 (but looking ten years or so older) he abandoned respectable career, wife and child for a life of adventure in the Australian colonies.
- It took his lawfully married first wife seventeen years to finally pin him down and serve the divorce papers. The case was heard in absentia by the court in New Zealand, so by the time the divorce was finalised in 1902, his second wife Hannah had already been dead two months.
- The story of his 14 year old daughter has a surprisingly optimistic ending…
Henry Seafield Grant

One more drunken wastrel.

“A NEIGHBOURLY NOISE.” Truth (Perth, WA : 1903 – 1931) 8 January 1921: 7. Web. 10 Aug 2024 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210047354.

What we knew before:
- Only that Mrs Mary Jane Robinson, nee Dyson, also went by the name Mrs Grant, and went to her grave as Mary Jane Grant-Robinson
What we have now:
- Henry Seafield Grant was a young and up-and-coming theatrical impresario who threw off his showgirl wife in Victoria for a life of thespianism and heavy drinking in the boom-time gold-rush colony of Western Australia.
- Several years later in Perth (1903), his luck ran out after he got blind drunk one evening. He went indoors and searched for something in the wardrobe. Instead he found the barrel of a revolver pointed at his nose. He had wandered into the wrong house. Not only was the residence not his own, he had managed to be caught red-handed burglarising the family residence of a serving police constable.
- He never crawled out of the bottle again.
- He rented a house in East Perth where Mrs Jacky Robinson nee Dyson lived as his “housekeeper”. She always denied she was married to Harry Grant, who is described as the “Manager of a Club”.
- Jacky’s family detested her housing arrangements. A nephew by her younger sister Mabel, trashed his auntie’s house and wanted to beat the crap out of Grant at 1 a.m. in the morning.
- But for the prurient press coverage of this family dispute after it ended up in court (1921), we might never have learned of the existence of Harry Grant, or that Mary Jane was fostering a seven year old child in his house.
- Robert Jordan was the son of a soldier who was killed in France in 1916. The boy’s mother had recently (1920) married another man. What happened to this child in the aftermath of Mary Jane’s own death two years later in 1923 is not immediately obvious.
- A year after Jacky died, Grant remarried. He died in 1939.
Mary Thivelin

Might be the mother of Mrs Jane Dyson: neé Edwards, Devling, Develing, Devlin, Develin, &c., &c.

A name and an abode in the Parish of Saint Pancras burial records for February 1841.

What we knew before:

Bugger all.

What we (might) know now:

The future second Mrs Dyson was committed to the St Pancras poorhouse near King’s Cross in London around about the year 1840 or 1841 when she was about six or seven years old. This year range comes from the testimony she gave at an inquest into the death of a former inmate of the workhouse held during 1846. Her name is recorded as “Jane Develing” in contemporary newspaper and poorhouse records.

While Jane has long been described as an orphan, that does not necessarily discount one or both parents still being alive when she was admitted to the poorhouse. However, there is no trace of any convincing matches in the 1841 census for those who possibly could have been her parents, either in the poorhouse with her, or outside it in the immediate vicinity.

Jane herself, is listed in the England census of June 1841. Her name is recorded as “Jane Devlin.” Her age is given to be 7 years old. She is within St Pancras Poorhouse.

This poorhouse had some very specific conditions of entry compared to elsewhere in the country. Because it was not part of a Poor Law Union, those eligible to be admitted were restricted solely to residents of the parish district. In the case of a child, that would include her parents, either the living or suddenly deceased.

Therefore, the parish burial ground for St Pancras should retain the records of someone who died in the age range to be one of Janes’s parents, and expired sometime between the years 1839-1841 (just to be on the safe side).

The burial record of Mary Thivelin, aged 35. Address: Undecipherable Squiggle St in the Parish of St Pancras is the nearest credible match. She was interred in the ground on 8 February 1841, four months before her possible child is recorded as being in the poorhouse located immediately next door to where she was buried. Her marital state is not recorded.

To muddy the waters still further, the official register of deaths transcribes her name as “Mary Shovelin” What it actually says on paper is anyone’s guess.

There is far too much research required before this identity can be fully confirmed or ruled out as Jane’s mother, or her actual family name. It raises some interesting lines of inquiry, including origins in Ireland, or Huguenot ancestors from northern France or Belgium known to have settled in the south of England.

What we still don’t know:

Indeed.
29 August 2024
The One that Got Away

There was one frustrating absence from all the convict documents digitised and available through the Libraries Tasmania site that directly pertain to the convict James Dyson. The link to the General Correspondence File of the Colonial Secretary’s Office (CSO1) tells you what it is, but not what it contains.

Much as I would dearly love to visit Tasmania again and wallow amongst the microfilm, that’s not going to be possible any time soon. Then, thanks to a lead not affiliated with any of the “official” sources of knowledge, I learnt that a certain religious sect have in their possession the entire lot on microfilm and offer it free on their web site.

These images are catalogued on familysearch, but give no searchable clue what these scans contain. The Tasmanian Archive’s site gives you slightly more than a clue but refuses to connect to the scans the Mormons have published. Or even let you know this source exists at all!

5 November 2024 Update:

Beware of the Leopard

The scanned CSO documents are on the Library Tasmania web portal. Its possible they may always have been, but were so difficult to find they may as well not have been.

Here is the permalink to CSO-1-1 on the James Dyson, Convict page.

https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Archives/CSO1

Its necessary to scroll a loooooong way down before you reach

https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Archives/CSO1-1-719

The Convict Ship Moffatt arrived in Hobart Town on 9 May 1834 carrying convict James Dyson. I’ve managed to piece together a pretty detailed narrative of the voyage by piecing together contemporary newspaper articles, The Surgeon-Superintendent’s report (translated from the Latin), the way the voyage was supposed to proceed (according to Thomas Braidwood Wilson’s book and Lieutenant Governor Arthur’s evidence to a parliamentary committee), and what actually happened (according to the diary of a private passenger onboard ship.)

The hitherto un-transcribed dossier of letters from the Colonial Secretary’s Office have proved to all be about the arrival of the Moffatt at Hobart and I’m relieved to find that I seemed to have got most of the facts straight — working it out the hard way. You, the potential reader of Dyson’s Swamp will have to endure many fewer “possibly’s” or “probably’s” when I review this chapter.

What makes me happiest is that it confirms to me that Thomas Braidwood Wilson (R.N) Esquire, Surgeon Superintendent in charge of the welfare of every Convict on board the Moffatt was as full of shit as I always suspected him to be.

I am also delighted to discover Captain William Moriarty plays an additional role in James Dyson’s history – it turns out he was the first new face he ever saw in Van Diemen’s Land.

Sir
I have the honor to acquaint you that agreeably to your request I have inspected the Transport Ship Moffatt arrived in this Port on the 9^th Instant and have mustered the Convicts on board of her.
The appearance of the vessel was creditable and cleanly, and that of the men healthy. I individually interrogated them as to the treatment they met with during the passage, and they expressed themselves perfectly satisfied thencewith, in regard to their provisions and in every other respect.
Four Hundred Prisoners were embarked on board this Vessel five of whom have died during the passage, one drowned, and one absconded since his embarkation *
I do myself the honor of forwarding herewith the papers called for by your instructions A. the Surgeons Superintendent with the
exception of No. 4 which as Dr Wilson had [not?] closed his Accounts was not yet ready and Which he has promised to forward on Monday the 12^th Inst

I have the honor to be
Sir
Your very Obedient Servant
Wm Morriarty
Port Officer

Jno Burnett Esq
Colonial Secretary
CSO1/1/719 Page 15674 no 39, 40

* Then there was this glorious annotation to the report by the Colonial Secretary obviously on the behalf of an incensed Colonel Arthur:

Prepare a letter to Dr Wilson R N The Surgeon Supt requesting him to state the particulars of this man’s escape & where & when it took place
CSO1/1/719 Page 15674 no 40

Wilson’s reply from onboard Moffatt proves once and for all that a medical man’s handwriting is always borderline unreadable (at least it was not in Latin this time). My interpretation of this scrawl is underneath the image (I’m not quite that much of a bastard). —

N.B. the original scans on a certain web site are of a much higher resolution.

Sir
I have received your letter of this day’s date requesting me to state for His Excellency’s information, the particulars relative to the escape of a prisoner from this ship.
On the 3rd Jan^y about 6 A.M. it was reported to me that a prisoner named J. Davies was missing.
This man was one of a party who assisted in getting water from the hold & consequently was always on deck at daylight.
On the morning of the above mentioned date, the prisoner went into the drop[!] on pretence of being unwell, the next person who had occasion to go there found the prisoners apparel & half of his chains near the privy.
A boat with a non commissioned officer & party of the guard was immediately depart south to search all the Vessels in the sound & another to examine the lee Shore. Information was given to the proper authorities at Plymouth. & I also wrote to the Home office on the Subject & I enclose Mr Cappers answer No fault can be attributed to the guard nor to any other person

I have the honor
to be Sir your
most Obedient Servant
[Mostly Illegible signature]
CSO1/1/719 Page 15674 no 41

So this is it. Probably the last post of 2022. A year I discovered this site still banned on Western Australian government filtered servers for reasons of … pornography. I am guessing this is down to my use of a certain … word. When I discovered this some years ago I removed what I thought was the offending word on a certain page. As I seem to be permanently on a black list with no obvious way of appealing the ban or even finding out on what grounds my domain was banned in the first place, I may as well use what words I feel like without filtering myself.

28 December 2022
Four days with the VDL Establishment

This particular entity was the New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land Establishment, established 1825. After they failed to acquire any land in NSW for their venture into large scale farming in the colonies, it was rebranded as The Cressy Establishment, Cressy Company, or (most obscurely of all) the Van Diemen’s Land Establishment.

Useful description of the VDL Establishment (aka: The Cressy Company).

This Establishment should not be confused with the Van Diemen’s Land Company, ALSO founded at the same time and operated in both NSW and VDL. Most internet searches for the Establishment will return matches for the VDL Company instead, by virtue of the latter still being a going concern today (2022). The Establishment was over by 1855.

Useful description of the VDL Company.

The VDL Company‘s estates were located in the north western corner of VDL, while the Establishment lands were located south of Launceston on the Norfolk Plains, around the towns of Longford and what would later be named Cressy.

Longford was initially named Latour after one of the seven gentlemen investors in the Establishment. Colonel Peter Lautour would later on destroy at least two investment and colonisation schemes in the Swan River Colony, which would directly impact the future of a VDL convict who was yet to be assigned to his VDL properties, before seeking a fresh start in Western Australia.

It’s all very convoluted.

Convict James Dyson was assigned to work for the Van Diemen’s Land Establishment all of four days between 2 and 5 October 1837. The magistrate he was hauled before on that final date was James Cubbinston Sutherland, who farmed on the Isis River south of Cressy. Sutherland was a JP for the adjacent Campbell Town Police District, and that was where Dyson was sent for his next dose of condign chastisement.

Imperfect map with Cressy on it. Sutherland’s land is located centre bottom.

The manager of the VDL Establishment on these dates was James Denton Toosey. What is unascertainable by me is precisely which portion of the estate Dyson had been assigned to, other than that it was probably on the southern range of the Establishment. I have no idea if was to Toosey Dyson was insubordinate to, or some other overseer. I have not been able to find a decent map of the Cressy Establishment’s holdings — if such a beast has even been drawn up.

The relatively short history of the VDL Establishment, or Cressy Company is insanely complicated to investigate, due in large part to its principal investors litigating against each other incessantly. I’ve attempted to follow some of the court cases back in England where Colonel Lautour attempts to argue (unsuccessfully) that just because he was a blithering idiot was no reason he should not get his money back.

Unfortunately, you’ve not read the last of Colonel Peter Lautour.

10 December 2022
Bio: Samuel McKee

Or should that be M’Kie, M’Kee, McKee, McKie, Mackie, Mackay or Mc’Kie? Which variation of spelling you choose to use depends on the year, the season, or the aspect of the moon at midnight.

Samuel McKie (Henceforth to be spelt (McKee) was born about the year 1800 in County Tyrone, Ireland. He married Ann Hall in the Parish of Camus, in the same County on 30 December 1821.

By the year 1830 he was resident in Liverpool, England, prior to immigrating to the Australian Colonies. He did his due diligence — so when he sailed on the barque Brenda with wife, three children and a servant, bound for Van Diemen’s Land as a free settler, he had in his possession a letter of introduction from Downing Street, allowing him authority to apply for land grants in NSW or VDL. This letter was dated 29 January 1831.

There was consternation in officialdom after he arrived in Van Diemen’s Land on 19 December 1831. The land grant rules had been changed, and McKee was no longer eligible for grants under the new rules. McKee did acquire some farm land near the town of Launceston eventually, however whether this was a grant or he had to expend his capital in purchasing the same is unknown.

CSO1-1-618 File Number 14120 (image 2-p80)

Launceston Advertiser, 15 February 1832 page 53

He set up at first as a merchant on his own account in Launceston during March 1832. He was still a man of means by this date, for only a few months later he was able to enter a racehorse “Creeper” into the local Race Meeting. (it did not win).

Later that same year his circumstances were so reduced that he was now employed in the store of a Mr William Walkinshaw as a clerk. In January 1833, McKee and several other employees of Mr Walkinshaw were acquitted of assaulting one William Lushington Goodwin over an outstanding debt. The trial excited much public interest:

The Independent (Launceston, Tas. : 1831 – 1835), 19 Oct 1832 page 3

He applied to purchase some land north of George Town from the government for a commercial venture in March 1835. His application was rejected “Because not in accord with King’s Regulations”

Samuel McKee had many convict servants assigned to him over the years. Unlike so many others, we know the names of more than a few of those assigned to him. As is usually the case, the only reason these names are known is that something went wrong. In the case of McKee, either he hated — or liked them too much.

Oops!

Bridget Monningham (almost certainly not her correct name) was back in the Female House of Correction in Launceston by the date she gave birth to Samuel MacKee’s daughter. Elizabeth McKee was born 3 August 1836.

(Eighteen years on, this event might be related to a brawl on the Launceston docks when one of McKee’s other children received a £5 fine for defending his sister’s honour.)

…Mr. Rocher for the defence urged that there must have been something behind the curtain to justify the assault, and if the account which he had heard were true, Fisher deserved not only what he had received, but a great deal more. He was informed, that a mob of had followed defendant and his sister all the way from the Cornwall, calling after them and frequently jostling them. …
Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 – 1899) 21 October 1854 page 3

…defendant and his sister were returning on the evening the assault was committed from Ali-Ben-Sou-Alle’s concert, and that on the way home, a mob of fellows bustled and insulted Miss M’Kee. After taking his sister home, Mr. M’Kee, sen., and his son went in pursuit of the persons who had offered the unmanly indignities to the young lady, when they met Mr. Fisher and his witness opposite the Victoria Hotel, where an altercation ensued…
The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880) 25 October 1854 page 5

At the other end of the spectrum was an odious creature by the name of Patrick Matheson:

The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880), 8 April 1837 page 2

To the Editor.

SIR, —Having seen in your paper of the 15th instant, a statement of Mr. W. Peel’s, respecting my conduct in the Masterson business, — I beg to offer to you and the public, in justification of my character, the following reply : […]

1st In my service only two hours— Insolence — 10 days solitary confinement.

2nd When three days out of cells — Absconded—two year’s ADDITION— 4th conviction.

3rd. — By Mrs. Mc’Kee — Insolence— reprimanded — in my absence.)

4th— By ditto, ditto, ditto.

5th— By myself- -for being absent without leave — turned into Government, to be made a Messenger. (See Gazette of 10th March last.)

6th— By myself — for being caught in a room in my dwelling-house, concealed under a bed —six months hard labor.

Now, Sir, this is the man Peel says I recommended to be made a constable of. How could I, or any man of reason or common sense be guilty of such a thing, after such a catalogue of offences, and he in my service only two months. […]

I shall let the matter rest for the present, and say no more on the subject, although I could fill a quire of paper on this fellow’s offences. — I am , Sir, your obedient servant,

SAMUEL Mc’KEE.
The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880), page 1

Somewhere in the middle was George Hayle, who escaped punishment for drinking after hours, only due to the good word of his master

Otherwise, McKee was not too fussed about which assigned servant he tussled with. One court case in February 1838 saw him charged with assaulting the (unnamed) assigned servant of a fellow settler named Edward Umphelby.

The unluckiest of McKees’s assigned servants has to have been Thomas Roper. He was reported by McKee at various times for disorderly conduct (25 lashes), Disobedience of Orders, Insolence, and being Out of the house. Roper died in Launceston Hospital on 16 July 1838, still assigned to McKee, aged 42. Reported cause of death: “Visitation of God.”

Samuel McKee was declared insolvent for the first time in March 1839. Since 1837 he had been in the employ of Mr Henry Dowling, sometimes editor and publisher of the Launceston Advertiser. By 1839 at least, McKee was editing Dowling’s paper for him — Which was just asking for trouble:—

Has not Samuel M’Kee, who is so free in his remarks about Goodman Hart—who has shewn the consummate bravery to attack the unhappy fellow after his hands are pinioned and he is prostrate— gone on in his business of a cow-keeper and farmer, ever since, as though he never had been insolvent? Has this renowned and creditable Samuel McKee, Editor of the renowned and creditable Advertiser, ever paid his creditors one shilling ?”
The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880) 5 October 1839 page 2.

Some weeks after this, McKee was notified another convict servant was available to be assigned to his service from the Depot at Launceston. He collected convict James Dyson on 11 November 1839, however barely two months later he returned him to the depot on 8 January 1840. He no longer required his service.

McKee had money troubles throughout 1841 and was declared insolvent again.

Van Diemen’s Land Chronicle (Hobart, Tas. : 1841), 13 August, p. 3

By 1842 he was appointed the Government Poundkeeper at Green Ponds (now Kempton, although why you would change such an excellent name as Green Ponds is beyond me). Green Ponds is quite a distance from his property in Launceston, so he must have been desperate for work. In 1843 He was appointed Inspector of Stock in the same district.

The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 – 1859), 30 September, p. 4

He was declared insolvent yet again in April 1845, however his creditors could not be bothered to turn up to court. McKee returned to Launceston where he worked as an accountant or clerk for several businesses.

By the middle of the following decade Samuel McKee was secretary of the lodge of a friendly society in Launceston. His family were grown up and moving to other colonies.

Samuel McKee died at South Yarra in the Colony of Victoria at the age of sixty-eight, on 9 December 1868. His wife Anne died in Melbourne 23 Apr 1887.

9 December 2022
Bio: Lt Pearson Foote (RN)

At Deloraine, northern Tasmania, there is a grand Georgian-style house on the grounds of a property called Calstock. This was not built by Lieutenant Pearson Foote of the Royal Navy (1792-1871), but by a subsequent owner of the estate.

Today, the building that was not his home is a four star hotel.

Update: apparently it is not that any more. It got sold for an obscene amount of money..

Apart from being an inspiration to future Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi, there has to be a lot more to Lt. Foote than is currently understood.

Calstock and Harewood were the names of two properties owned by Lt Foote in the Westbury district of Van Diemen’s Land from the 1820’s to the 1840’s. Pearson (or Pierson) Foote was born in Cornwall, England on 5 April 1798. He was the fifth of eight children born to John Pierson Foote and Mary Thorn at Harewood House by the village of Calstock.

His father dropped dead in June 1809. Pierson was his third son, so was never going to inherit the family estate even if he was old enough to at the time. Instead he joined the Royal Navy and was enrolled as an officer on 1 October 1824. Lt. Pearson Foote, RN, never seems to have been given command of a ship.

Instead, Mr. P. Foote sailed in cabin class on the barque Nancy (H. Pryce, RN, commander) from England on 11 July 1829, reaching Van Diemen’s Land some time in March 1830. Some months after that he was granted land in the Westbury district in the north of the island and by August at least, had been granted the first of the assigned convicts he would use to develop his property.

On 23 November 1830 he married Susan Parker, daughter of a neighbour on the Norfolk Plains. A record of this marriage was kept by the Admiralty against any potential claims for a future Royal Navy widow’s pension.

Foote’s first property was on the Dairy Plains, which he named Harewood. He put Harewood up for sale after he acquired land at Deloraine.

Launceston Advertiser (Tas. : 1829 – 1846), 16 February 1837, p. 1

Being one of the Gentry, and thus eligible to use the epithet “Esquire” after his name, he was part of such worthy mutual admiration societies as the “Cornwall Agricultural Association” (Not the English one) and the local Horticultural Society. As a matter of course, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace and a magistrate for his region.

His Excellency and suite then proceeded to dinner to the house of Lieut. Foote, R.N. at Deloraine, where that gentleman has done so much to improve his estate by clearing and breaking up the soil, building, &c.
The Hobart Town Courier (Tas. : 1827 – 1839) 25 March 1836 page 4

During March 1836 he hosted Lt-Governor Arthur himself at his residence at Deloraine. Afterward he attached his name to some grovelling in case his nose wasn’t brown enough.

SIR,—We, the undersigned residents in the Northern Division of the Island, desire to express to your Excellency the satisfaction we have experienced at the visit you have made to its capital, and while we regret that your public avocations forbid a more prolonged one, we look forward to an early renewal of it, when we hope to have an opportunity afforded us of evincing our feeling towards yourself and Mrs. Arthur, by some public demonstration of respect.
We have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient humble servants,
Tho. Archer, M. L. C. J. D. Toosey, V.D.L. Est.
W. P. Weston J. P. R. Vincent Legge, J. P.
Wm. Archer J. P. M. Franks
G. Yeoland J.P. Wm. Seccombe, J.P.
W. Paton J.P. Henry Jennings
Alfred Wm. Horne J.P. Pearson Foote, J.P.
The Hobart Town Courier (Tas. : 1827 – 1839), 25 March, p. 4

In late October 1838, he was assigned a convict named James Dyson to his service. In late November he sent the wretched man to Captain Moriarty to deal with for idleness and neglect of duty. Moriarty sentenced him to six months hard labour with the Snake Banks road gang before he was returned to Foote’s service about May 1839. Dyson was sent back to the depôt at Launceston by October. Foote may not have wanted him back.

The town of Deloraine, Tasmania, in 2017 before I knew anything about the place.

Over half a century ago Deloraine could boast of some distinguished naval and military men among the first land owners of the district for, in addition to Captain Moriarty at Dunorlan, there was that fine type of an English gentleman, Lieutenant Pearson Foote, R.N., the first owner of Calstock and Harwood, both of which properties he named after the family estates of the Footes in Devonshire, England, opposite Cote Hele, the seat of the Earl of Mount Edgecombe, a branch of which distinguished family our old and respected resident, Mr. J. L. Edgecombe claims to be.
[…][Foote] is spoken of by those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance as a most hospitable, if somewhat eccentric gentleman, who used to have a flag pole near where Calstock house now stands, the arranging and hoisting of flags on which used to occupy a considerable portion of his time.
Western Tiers (Tas. : 1980 – 2004) 20 May 1983: 27. Web. 18 Jul 2022

It’s important to state that Lt Pearson Foote was stark staring raving mad. If he was anyone other than a ‘gentleman’ he would have been locked up.

Deloraine in 2017. I visited the town before I knew there was a connection there I needed to investigate.

About the time a certain convict was due to be returned to Foote’s service, a bushranger gang swept through the Deloraine district. People were robbed. A man was murdered. The local constable claimed it never happened and blamed his constituents for getting into a panic, including one — unnamed — gentleman. —

[…] That no particular alarm exists among the settlers, is evident from the circumstances of one of them who lives beyond Deloraine having refused the protection of a party of constables, who were patrolling for the purpose of quieting the fears he might have entertained from the reports before alluded to.
Another gentleman in the neighbourhood whose fears have been much excited, took the best precaution he could to protect his own person by surrounding himself with a party of young and amiable females, by far the most desirable and agreeable body guard he could have selected.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
THOMAS JEFFCOTT,
District Constable.
Westbury. V. D. Land,
April 23, 1829.
The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880), 27 April 1839, p. 2

Jeffcott’s detractors (of whom there were many) were not so coy in their responses…

… We applaud the gentleman’s courage, certainly, and have no hesitation in declaring it to be our opinion, that any MAN cloaking his own person from injury inside a barrier made of females, deserves immortalizing ; and we propose that an address be at once “got up,” declaratory of the gentleman’s heroism, and be entrusted to the District Constable for signatures, which may easily be procured amongst the chain-gangs, shingle-splitters and sawyers in the bush, provided always that the canvasser is authorized to promise tickets-of-leave and other sorts of indulgences.
The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880), 27 April, p. 2

Finally, someone named names…

… I cannot answer with regard to Lieutenant Foote’s being surrounded by a guard of “young and amiable females,” but I rather imagine they existed more in Mr. Jeffcot’s fanciful ideas, or perchance he was commencing to dream when he penned this sentence, However, it is now the ungracious task of Lieutenant Foote, as a magistrate, as a husband, and as a man, to come boldly forward and clear his character of that blemish which has been cut upon it (I am sure most unwittingly) by the foolish correspondent of the Launceston Advertiser. — I remain, dear Mr. Editor, yours,
obediently,
SUBSCRIBER
Westbury, May 1.
The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880) 4 May 1839, p. 3

Lt Foote sold up his properties in VDL during the 1840’s, moved to Victoria, deserted his wife and died in Melbourne in 1871.

5 December 2022
Bio: David Williams

of Patterson’s Plains

Allow me to digress briefly before proceeding to the matter at hand:— David Williams and Henry Nicholls were both masters to whom James Dyson, convict, was briefly assigned to. How briefly? Two months in the case of Williams, Three days in the case of Nickolls. If I ever finish the book I am writing, this part of his life warrants about a page at most. Researching these two to understand their tiny part in his story has taken the best part of two weeks. This is why progress has been so slow and I’ve yet to even begin writing that page.

Van Diemen’s Land settler David Williams was winding up his affairs in that colony when convict James Dyson was assigned to him about 14 July 1837

The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880) 26 August 1837 page 3

Sixteen days after the land on the Patterson’s Plains went up for auction, he returned Dyson to the Depot at Launceston. — “His master no longer requiring his service”. Dyson was next assigned to… But that’s another story.

The biography of David Williams I have put together here is markedly different from some other accounts of his life posted elsewhere. I don’t believe he was ever a convict in NSW or VDL, nor do I believe it was he who died in the year 1841 falling off a cart while drunk near Hobart. If that is a disappointment to any family members, fear not — the truth is far more interesting, and there are far more avenues of research to wander down than I have even touched on.

David Williams was born before 1792 somewhere in the British Isles. He enlisted in the 46^th South Devonshire Regiment of the British Army sometime during the last years of the Napoleonic War. He departed England late in 1814 on the the troop ship Windham bound for New South Wales, then Van Diemen’s Land.

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 – 1842), 12 February 1814, p. 2

Corporal Williams stayed in NSW for a time, but he resigned from the army at Port of Launceston sometime about the beginning of the year 1817. According to his record, he served 7 years. Do the sums — Someone is lying.

He had definitely been farming in the Launceston district for a while by 1822, for he was then selling grain to the government commissariat at Port Dalrymple.

For those family members bewailing I stripped their heritage of Australian Royalty — despair not. On 2 January 1826 at Launceston, he married Jane Jones, his assigned convict serving girl. Jane was then only one year into a seven year sentence for “Stealing Silk Handkerchiefs from a shop” in Northumberland. She did not cease being a convict after marriage, so she was lucky that an accusation of “Stealing sundry articles of Wearing apparel the property of Mr Naylor from his house in Launceston” did not stick.

According to her conduct record (that ends abruptly after 29 April 1826) she was already married to someone named John Hamilton back in England. On her Launceston marriage certificate however, she states she was a spinster. Someone in officialdom slipped up again!

Their first child, a daughter named Hannah, was born at Patterson’s Plains on 9 July 1828.

The following year, grimmer tidings were to hand. They employed a stock-keeper on their estate. One Saturday morning he vanished never to be seen again. No one had any doubt back then that he’d been murdered.

David Williams (junior) was born on 25 March 1830. Later that year his father operated the district Pound for Patterson’s Plains.

By 1832, he also acquired a Publican’s licence for the district. What was it about former British Army Corporals and taverns?

Still, the next year 1833, David Williams was mixing with the high and mighty of the district on civic matters concerning roads and bridges about the North Esk River. Later that year he breached some sort of regulation concerning his Liquor licence and was fined £2.

In 1834 David Williams had two grants near Launceston confirmed. Presumably this meant he was now in possession of the title deeds for his properties on Patterson’s Plains.

The record goes dark for the next three years.

1837: An individual named Thomas Prosser claims David Williams and Joseph Bond Clarke obtained some promissory notes from him by false pretences. This allegation is never tested in court. Then in February that same year, Williams declares he has lost a promissory note to the value of £40 and threatens anyone who would dare cash that note in.

His property goes up for sale in Patterson’s Plains during August. Those of his assigned convict servants he does not return to the Depot are transferred to his neighbours, such as Arthur Hellier of Launceston.

His son Thomas Williams was born on 11 November 1838, but the place of his birth is now Launceston, rather than Patterson’s Plains. One month later, 20 December, the barque Socrates sails from Launceston bound for the newly established colony of South Australia.

2 horses, 4 bullocks, 2 bags oats, 1 big seed, 20 packages furniture, 6 bags flour— D. Williams.
The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880) 22 December 1838 page 2

During the middle of the next year David and Jane Williams departed Launceston for Adelaide on the schooner Lowestoft with one of their children. They may have travelled back and forth between the two settlements for a number of years afterwards, but Adelaide in South Australia was where their new home was to be.

On 15 November 1843 in Adelaide, their 15 year old daughter Hannah married John Berry. Fifty nine years later, Mrs Berry died in Melbourne, Victoria at a ripe old age.

Thomas Williams lived out the rest of his life in South Australia. He died aged 71 at Keswick in Adelaide on 7 October 1909.

David Williams (junior) may have remained in Van Diemen’s Land longer than the rest of the family. It was probably he leaving Tasmania for the Victorian goldfields during the early 1850’s, and it was he who died at Eaglehawk near Bendigo in 1892. A warning to Williams family members — there is possibly a highly disturbing discovery to be made at the end of this trail.

Mrs Jane Williams died at Kooringa, South Australia on 24 July 1858. She was 49 years old and been a widow since 28 April 1847. David Williams the Elder must have been a good few years older than the 55 years of age the authorities there believed him to be at the time. The inquest into his death in Adelaide is disappointingly sparse on details.

On Thursday an inquest Was held on the body of David Williams, who was drowned, by falling into a well, at Bowden, on the previous evening, at 9 o’clock, and a verdict returned,” That the deceased died by falling into a well.”
South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register (Adelaide, SA : 1845 – 1847) 1 May 1847 page 3

Well, duh!

2 December 2022