Paternal uncle and benefactor of Thomas J. Nevin's wife, Elizabeth Rachel Day was the much respected master mariner and merchant Captain Edward Goldsmith (1804-1869), who first arrived in Van Diemen's land in 1830 and departed never to return in 1856. He retired to his estate at Gad's Hill, Higham, Kent, UK, where novelist Charles Dickens became a neighbour in 1857 when he purchased a house at No. 6 Gadshill Place.
Captain Goldsmith did not become a colonist, nor did he profit directly from convict transportation. His many and varied services and contributions - some at his own expense - during those years to the mercantile, horticultural and shipping development of the colony were inestimable. He built a patent slip on the Queen's Domain and a vehicular steam ferry, the Kangaroo, n 1854, sat on civic committees, established a marine insurance company, and set up a permanent residence for his family at lower Davey Street, Hobart, although he was away at sea for most of every year. The playwright and journalist David Burn who met him in Sydney in 1845, noted in his diary that Captain Goldsmith's turnaround was eight months (SLNSW Call No: B190) : from England via the Americas or the Cape of Good Hope to the Australian colonies for a single a round trip took just eight months, and during all those voyages not one major incident was ever reported (apart from his very first command on the James to W.A. in 1830 - see this article.)
Captain Goldsmith did not become a colonist, nor did he profit directly from convict transportation. His many and varied services and contributions - some at his own expense - during those years to the mercantile, horticultural and shipping development of the colony were inestimable. He built a patent slip on the Queen's Domain and a vehicular steam ferry, the Kangaroo, n 1854, sat on civic committees, established a marine insurance company, and set up a permanent residence for his family at lower Davey Street, Hobart, although he was away at sea for most of every year. The playwright and journalist David Burn who met him in Sydney in 1845, noted in his diary that Captain Goldsmith's turnaround was eight months (SLNSW Call No: B190) : from England via the Americas or the Cape of Good Hope to the Australian colonies for a single a round trip took just eight months, and during all those voyages not one major incident was ever reported (apart from his very first command on the James to W.A. in 1830 - see this article.)
Title:[St. David's Cemetery]
Publisher:[ca. 1870]
Description:1 stereoscopic pair of photographs : sepia toned ; 9 x 18 cm. (mount)
Format: Photograph
ADRI: AUTAS001125299511
Source: W.L. Crowther Library
This stereograph shows the tombstone of Stuart Jackson Dandridge who died of "low fever" aged 31 yrs, on 16 June, 1861. He was a member of the Second Rifles, Southern Tasmanian Volunteers. Unattributed, and probably taken by Thomas J. Nevin in the late1860s (he advertised tombstones as one of his services e.g. TMAG Collection Ref; Q1994.56.20.1 ), it also shows master mariner Captain Edward Goldsmith's three-storey building directly facing St David's Burial Ground (now St David's Park) in lower Davey Street, Hobart. The building itself was not simply a residence for Captain Goldsmith, his wife Elizabeth and sons Richard Sydney Goldsmith and Edward Goldsmith jnr, it also functioned as offices for lawyers, shipping and insurance agents, marine merchants, and auctioneers. The address of the building was "19 Davey Street", listed as Captain Goldsmith's at the time of auction of his household goods in mid 1855 in preparation for his family's permanent departure from Tasmania on the Indian Queen in February 1856. In March 1854, the weather board cottage located between Stewart's Brewery and Captain Goldsmith's residence opposite the Burial Ground, was sold to Mr. Lee.
The Hobart Courier 30 March 1854
TRANSCRIPT
Commercial and Markets
Hobart Town, March 27
Mr. T. Y. Lowes sold, on Friday, a weather board cottage residence with premises, 85½ links frontage and 200 depth, between Mr. Stewart's brewery and Capt Goldsmith's residence, in Davey-street, opposite the Burial Ground, for £1350; the purchaser being Mr. Lee, of Victoria.
Hobart Courier 8 August 1855
Auction of household goods at Capt Goldsmith's house, 19 Davey St
Referred to as Captain Goldsmith's house or residence in newspapers of the period, the building pre-dated the Congregational Church, erected in 1857, and the Royal Tennis Court, erected in 1875. Photographs taken of Davey Street in the 1870s show all of these buildings in a row, facing St David's Park, and many are still standing today, but by 1854, only six or so landmarks existed:
- the Waterloo Inn - favoured by sea captains visiting the town - on the corner of Murray and Davey Streets, now the offices of the legal firm, Butler, McIntyre & Butler;
- a weather board cottage sold to Mr Lee of Victoria in 1854, which sat between Captain Goldsmith's house and Stewart's Brewery;
- photographer Douglas Kilburn's house, now known as Kilburn House
- and the Odd Fellows' Hall, also photographed by Thomas Nevin in July 1871 which was labelled the "Tasmanian Hall" on early maps, located at the corner of Davey and Harrington Streets. The present building was founded by Monsieur Camille Del Sarte as a concert and music hall, designed by Mr. F. Thomas, and opened officially in May 1860.
The Waterloo Inn on the corner Davey and Murray Sts - "a favourite with the sea captains visiting the town" - now the offices of the legal firm, Butler, McIntyre & Butler. Courtesy ePrints UTAS.
Captain Goldsmith's Neighbours 1853-54
The premier city residential address for proximity to the harbour was undoubtedly lower Davey Street Hobart in the 1850s. Two neighbours figured prominently in Captain Goldsmith's life in these years. Firstly. the photographer Douglas T. Kilburn, brother of William Edward Kilburn, photographer to Queen Victoria, who photographed Capt Goldsmith in Sydney in 1849, and most likely moved to Hobart as a consequence of this encounter. His photographs of the houses in Davey Street were exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1855. Secondly, marine merchant F. A. Downing, who bought ships and shipwrecks, and ended up in court with Captain Goldsmith over the failure to return a Siebe Gorman & Co. diving apparatus he had borrowed from Capt Goldsmith to salvage wreckage from the Catherine Sharer (more about this in a later post).
Captain Edward Goldsmith (1804-1869) ca. 1849
Daguerreotype by Douglas T. Kilburn, Sydney
Copyright © Private Collection KLW NFC Imprint 2014
THE COURIER
THURSDAY AFTERNOON, NOVEMBER 9.
TASMANIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PARIS EXPOSITION.
D. T. Kilburn, Esq., of Davey-street, exhibits five calotype views of different localities in Hobart Town. (1.) A view of Macquarie-street, from above Mr. Crisp's residence, looking down towards the Domain, and including within range St. Joseph's (R. C.) Church, the Cathedral of St. David's. &c. (2.) The New Market Place, Hobart Town. (3.) St. David's Cathedral. (4.) View of Macquarie-street, including the Bank of Australasia, Macquarie Hotel, &o. &c. (5.) View of the houses in Davey-street, opposite St. David's Cemetery.
Source: THE COURIER. (1854, November 9). The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 - 1859), p. 2. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2242479
Above: Reproduction of an earlier photographer's portrait of Douglas T. Kilburn, who died in 1871, aged 58 yrs, more than a decade before John Watt Beattie arrived in Tasmania and reproduced these Members of Parliament portraits ca. 1895.
Title: Douglas Thomas Kilburn
In:Members of the Parliaments of Tasmania No. 95
Publisher: Hobart : J. W. Beattie, [19--]
Description:1 photograph : sepia toning ; 14 x 10 cm
Format: Photograph
ADRI: AUTAS001136191202
Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2014
Thanks to Astrolabe Books Salamanca Place Hobart
From the Hobart Town Gazette 1853: Captain Edward Goldsmith, landlord of a house at Davey Street, valued at £120, rates at £6 per annum. Douglas T. Kilburn's house next door was listed as "empty" in 1853 because the Kilburns were resident at Claremont House, 254 Elizabeth St, constructed on John Mezger's original land grant in 1838.
BIRTH.Source: Family Notices. (1853, January 27). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 4. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4789299
On the 19th inst., at her residence, Claremont House, Elizabeth-street, Hobart Town, the lady of Douglas T. Kilburn, Esq., (late of Victoria,) of a son.
The house on the other side of Capt Goldsmith was owned by Lt Nunn of the 99th Regiment who married Ann Pedder. Neighbours in 1853 were:
F. A Downing - store
Robert Walker - house and store
J. James and G. Moore - Office and cellar
Robert Pitcairn
Wilson's estate and Wilson's brewery
Lieutenant Nunn and William Bayles
Capt Goldsmith
- Kilburne [sic]
Peter Oldham
John Dunn
William Roberston
Thomas Gardner
Frederick Packer
Miss Dixon
Mrs Walch etc etc
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2014
Thanks to Michael Sprod, Astrolabe Books Salamanca Place Hobart
From the Hobart Town Gazette 1854: Captain Edward Goldsmith, landlord of a house at lower end of Davey Street, valued at £120, rates at £6 per annum. His neighbours were:
Frederick A. Downing
Empty
Peter Nichol
John Ferguson
George Moore
Robert Pitcairn
John Leslie Stewart
William Bayles
Edward Goldsmith
Douglas T. Kilburn
Frances Gill
Captain Goldsmith's residence, Davey St. Hobart
Photo © KLW NFC Imprint 2014
Kilburn House
The site next to Captain Goldsmith's building is now The Trades Hall Building component of the Edward Braddon Commonwealth Law Courts, 39-41 Davey St, Hobart. In 1855, Captain Goldsmith's house was No. 19 Davey St. Douglas Kilburn's house, which is still standing, was No. 22, but is now Kilburn House, 51 Davey St.
Kilburn House, now a three storey building with red roof - next to poplar trees, Davey St. Hobart
Photo © KLW NFC Imprint 2011
According to the Australian Heritage Database, Kilburn house is a large free-standing townhouse in Colonial neo-Renaissance style owned by Douglas Thomas Kilburn in 1858, let to William George Lempriere, and which is "marred by third level addition. Glazing bars to windows are missing."
The Trades Hall site, as the Australian Heritage Databasenotes, was Stewart's Brewery: -
The earliest European occupation of the building was in 1847, with the Trades Hall building being occupied by John Leslie Stewart who owned the building until the1860s as part of the Brewery Complex.
Millionaire W.J.T Clarke owned the building from 1863 - 'he owned it for a dozen years and for the last five of those his tenant was Alexander Ireland who conducted his boy's school, the Collegiate Institution'.
The property was then purchased by Samuel Smith who established the adjoining Hobart tennis court, and club in 1875 (Hobart Real Tennis Club 2008). Travers owned the property until his death in 1888 and leased the building to Dr Turnley. From 1899 to 1924 the building was used as a Girl's Industrial School, and then as a Trades Hall from 1924 until it was acquired by the Commonwealth in 1974.
The Congregational Church and Real Tennis Court
Detail of -
Title: [Hobart Town] / A.C. Cooke, delt
Creator: Cooke, A. C. (Albert Charles), 1836-1902
Publisher: [Melbourne : Wilson and Mackinnon], 1879
Description: 1 print : woodcut ; sheet 33 x 53 cm
Format: Print
ADRI: AUTAS001128189651
Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
Balloon's eye view
Published in the Australasian sketcher with pen and pencil, 10 May 1879 - printed and published at the Argus Office for Wilson and Mackinnon, 1879
The foundation stone of the Congregational Church, highlighted in this detail of Cooke's balloon's eye view of Hobart 1879 and visible in this photo on the right, was not laid until in 1857, and the Real Tennis Court (Royal Tennis) was built next to it in 1875.
Davey St looking west: Image courtesy ePrints, University of Tasmania
Charles Abbott: Congregational Church, Davey St. Kilburn House is partially visible on extreme left. Image courtesy ePrints, University of Tasmania.
The Tasmanian Hall or Odd Fellows Hall
Courtesy University of Tasmania Library Special and Rare Materials Collection. "Photograph of Davey Street, Hobart, looking east, in about 1876. The photograph is taken from the intersection with Harrington Street and Oddfellows Hall is in the foreground. The photographer was Henry Hall Baily who had studios in Elizabeth and Liverpool Streets, Hobart from 1865 until 1918."The slightly different photograph below is unattributed, taken at another time. Thomas Nevin's photograph(s) of the Odd Fellows Hall were praised in the press of July 1871.
The Mercury 25 July 1871
TRANSCRIPT
THE ODD FELLOWS' HALL - A very fine photograph of the Odd Fellows' Hall (corner of Davey and Harrington-streets) has been taken for the Society by Mr. Nevin, of Elizabeth-street. The view is taken from Davey-street, opposite the corner of the Freemasons' Hotel, and thus shows the entrance to the rooms, with the whole front and side of the buildings. A well-known member of the institution, and a less known youth, have come within the range of the camera, and their presence greatly assists in conveying an idea of the dimensions of the hall. The picture is undoubtedly creditable to the artist.A fortnight earlier, on July 12, 1871, Thomas J. Nevin married Elizabeth Rachel Day, niece of Captain Edward Goldsmith, daughter of master mariner Captain James Day, the brother of Captain Goldsmith's wife Elizabeth.
The Oddfellows Hall, formerly Delsarte’s building and the IOOF Lodge
Photo © KLW NFC 2011 ARR
Professional photographer Thomas J. Nevin became a member of the LOYAL UNITED BROTHERS LODGE, A. & I.O.O.F. (Australian and International Order of Odd Fellows) in 1869 and fulfilled several roles within the Society, including official photographer, committee member for the Anniversary Ball held at the Bird and Hand Hotel, and agent for the Secretary. During September 1875, he placed an advertisement in The Mercury soliciting members of the medical profession to render services to Lodge members and their families.
St Mary's Hospital & Dr Edward Bedford
Davey Street Hobart 1870s: on the left where three men are standing, is St. Mary's Hospital; on the right, Captain Goldsmith's two-storey house - bearing the Collegiate School name by the 1870s - facing St. David's Cemetery (Burial Ground). Image courtesy ePrints, University of Tasmania
On the opposite side of (lower) Davey Street, adjoining the Burial Ground, was St Mary's Hospital, erected in 1847.When elder son Richard Sydney Goldsmith fell gravely ill with fever in 1854, he was attended by Dr Edward Samuel Pickard Bedford (1809-1876) at the hospital. Edward Bedford was the medical officer for the City in 1852, on whose committee Captain Goldsmith served when Bedford campaigned for election in February 1855. But on 15 August 1854, at his father's house, Richard Sydney Goldsmith died, aged just 24 yrs old. He was born to Elizabeth Goldsmith only days after her arrival at Fremantle, W.A. in May 1830, on board the ill-fated brig the James alongside her very young husband Captain Edward Goldsmith on his first command. Richard Sydney was baptised on 11 Nov 1830 at St. Philips Sydney, NSW. At the time of his death, he was a cashier of the Union Bank of Van Diemen's Land, located in Macquarie Street, Hobart. He was buried in St David's cemetery opposite the family home.
Richard Goldsmith 1854
Photographer: Henry Frith?
Private Collection; TAHO copy
Richard Sidney [sic] Goldsmith (1830-1854)
Obituary, The Courier Hobart 15 August 1854
RGD 35/04. Deaths, 19 May 1853-19 Jun 1855
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1961-35350-19767-29?cc=2125029&wc=M93C-94V:2003527580
Title: Photograph - Hobart - Macquarie Street - Union Bank
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: PH1-1-32
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania
Series: Album of Photographs of Tasmania, 1870 (PH1)
Notes: 1870
Title: Photograph - Hobart - St Mary's Hospital, later Lands Dept (Beattie photo)
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: PH30-1-5605
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania
Dr Edward Bedford published 'On the epidemics of 1852-3' (1854)
Title: Dr. Edward Bedford 1874
Publisher: [1874]
Description: 1 photograph : silver albumen print ; 8 x 6 cm
Format: Photograph
ADRI: AUTAS001125882340
Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
Notes: Exact measurements 75 x 53 mm
Title inscribed in pencil on verso in unknown hand
TRANSCRIPT
LIST OF DR BEDFORD'S COMMITTEE, with power to add to their number :Biographical Extract sourced from ABD;
Anson, J Lawrence, John Brown, Thomas Lovell, S. Butler, Henry. M.L.C Levy. S, Burgess and Barrett Momsnn, A., M.L.C Bailey, J. G. Maning. A. H. Barnett, Mr. Meikle, Robert Bales, William Mc Kay, A. B. Cook, Henry Milne, George Chandler, Edward Manson, David Dunn, John, M.L.C. Nicholas, Alfred Flegg, C. Orr, Alexander Forster, John Perkins, John Fearnley, James Pitt, William Farrelly, P. Bernard Priest, J. Goldsmith, Edward Pain, Henry Graves J. W. Seabrook, H W. Green, H. J. Stuart, J. W. Hamilton, Mr. Sly, James Hornby, William Turner, James Haywood, C. Walch, J. H. B. Lewis, Richard Watchorn. W. Lewis, Neil Wilson, Henry Lipscombe, Alderman Wilson, Robert Lowes, T.Y. White. J.
The Committee meet every evening at seven o'clock (Saturday and Sunday excepted), at Messrs. Meager and Basstlian's, Argyle-street.
559 Fred. CANE, Secretary.
"... Dr Bedford's duties as surgeon to the Commissariat Department included attendance on the sick in the Colonial Hospital, various penitentiaries, the Orphan Schools, convict road-gangs and the constabulary. From 1841 he served on the Medical Examiners' Board and made the recruitment of doctors a special interest. Realizing that the sick poor of Hobart loathed the Colonial Hospital with its convict discipline and associations, he started St Mary's in Campbell Street as a subscription hospital; in 1847 the foundation stone was laid for the unpretentious, but charming, building in Davey Street, Hobart, which was used as public offices after St Mary's closed. By 1856 Bedford had planned in detail a medical training school at St Mary's with Thomas Arnold as its classical and mathematical lecturer and himself teaching surgery. The scheme was unsuccessful, for the Royal College of Surgeons refused its recognition, and Hobart was left with few scholars when prosperity declined after 1856. Some young men did, however, make their first steps in a medical career with Bedford before going to British universities, but none of them returned to Tasmania.
Bedford was active in social affairs. In 1856 he was elected to the first Legislative Council under responsible government and held his seat until 1859 but revealed no particular talent for politics. He was prominent in the Royal Society and showed a diversity of interest in his three papers: 'Observations upon the condition of young marsupial animals' (1842); 'On the epidemics of 1852-3' (1854) and 'On the origin of nervous force' (1863). He was an early and enthusiastic collector of local art and acquired several water-colours by John Skinner Prout and Thomas Wainewright. He sponsored art exhibitions and lectured to the Mechanics' Institute on 'The Grecian Statues' and 'Expression with reference to the Fine Arts'. He was a founder of the Tasmanian Club in 1861.
His enthusiastic local patriotism evaporated with the depression of the 1860s, when the government closed his private hospital. In 1863 he migrated to Sydney and the congenial company of his brother-in-law, Sir Alfred Stephen. Appointed medical adviser to the New South Wales government, he vigorously promoted legislation to enforce the use of vaccination against the smallpox which during 1869 was in the front of every mind because of the outbreaks in neighbouring colonies. Bedford attended the public meeting on 20 March 1868 which accepted the proposal for a new hospital to commemorate the Duke of Edinburgh's narrow escape from assassination and he seconded the motion to name it the Prince Alfred Hospital. He was on the first working committee to gather subscriptions for this hospital and continued active in its affairs for some years. He took an interest in the Sydney Infirmary and in 1872 was nominated its honorary surgeon. He died in Sydney on 24 February 1876. On 14 January 1836 at Hobart he had married Mary Selby of Wilmington, Kent. He was survived by two daughters and seven sons, five of whom attended the Hutchins School."
Select Bibliography
Votes and Proceedings (House of Assembly, Tasmania), 1861 (34)
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Gazette, 26 Apr 1918, hospital jubilee
Empire (Sydney), 22 Oct 1870, 21 Mar 1871, 7 Feb 1872
Sydney Morning Herald, 26 Feb 1876
St Mary's Hospital, Report, 1856 (Archives Office of Tasmania)
Hutchins School, Admission Register, 1846-92 (Archives Office of Tasmania)
Colonial Secretary's letters (Archives Office of Tasmania).
Early Maps of Hobart Town VDL
1851 Plan PWD 2661786
Map of Hobart 1854
Map of Hobart 1858
All maps courtesy of Archives Office Tasmania
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- Paris Expo 1855: Captain Goldsmith's blue gum plank
- The Governor's Levee 1855: Captain Goldsmith and son
- Captain Edward Goldsmith and the Waterloo 1832
- Cousins Edward Goldsmith and Elizabeth Day baptised at St Mary's Rotherhithe
- Captain Edward Goldsmith and the wreck of the James 1830
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- Captain Edward Goldsmith, the patent slip, and the McGregor family
- Testimonial to Captain Edward Goldsmith 1849
- The Master Mariner in-laws: Captains Goldsmith, Day and Axup
