Captain Edward Goldsmith puts household goods at auction 1855

CAPTAIN EDWARD GOLDSMITH
19 DAVEY St HOBART TASMANIA 1855 and 1863
The INDIAN QUEEN Blackball Line 1856-59



Large mirror and clock at Runnymede, New Town with reflection of house guide Bob
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2012 ARR

1855: Captain Goldsmith's Auction
Auctioneer Wm. Gore Elliston considered himself "favoured" with the opportunity to sell the contents of Captain Edward Goldsmith's residence at 19 Davey Street, Hobart, Tasmania at auction, scheduled for the 8th and 9th August, 1855. Captain Goldsmith himself would have attended. He remained in the colony until permanent departure in February 1856 on board the Indian Queen as a passenger, accompanied by his wife Elizabeth and son Edward jnr.

In addition to the sale of valuable household furniture and furnishings were food processing equipment from Captain Goldsmith's licensed wholesale store, and ship gear and timber from his shipyard and patent slip on the Queen's Domain. If sold, the many hundreds of items of furniture, dinner ware, engravings and antiquities on offer would have been purchased for the families of public officials in the colonial administration as much as by the wealthy merchant class, and those families eventually, as they do, would have donated superior pieces to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Galley (TMAG) and other local public collections. Purely by coincidence, the present address of the TMAG just happens to be 19 Davey Street, the same address as Captain Goldsmith's residence in the 1850s until the street numbers were changed (sometime early 20th century?). The view from Captain Goldsmith's house at 19 Davey St. overlooked St. David's Cemetery (now St David's Park, the street number is now No. 47 Davey St ), while the view from the TMAG now listed as 19 Davey St. three blocks further north, faces Constitution Dock and the wharves.



Auctioneer W. Gore Elliston
Title: Wm. Gore Elliston
In: In: Members of the Parliaments of Tasmania No. 13
Publisher: Hobart : J. W. Beattie, [19--]
ADRI: AUTAS001136190386
Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts



Source: Classified Advertising. (1855, August 9). The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 - 1859), p. 1.
https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2488334

TRANSCRIPT
WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY
8th and 9th August
Household Furniture and other Effects, including Plate, Linen, Glass, Wines, Quantity of Ship Gear, Timber &c &c.

MR ELLISTON
is favoured with instructions from Captain Goldsmith (prior to his departure for England) to submit to public competition, at his house, No. 19, Davey-streeet, the whole of his Valuable Household Furniture, comprising Plate, Linen,Glass, Wines , &c &c., on WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY, the 8th and 9th days of August, the sale commencing each day at 11 o'clock, and following the order as allotted in the Catalogue.
HORSEHAIR and other CHAIRS, rosewood and Spanish mahogany; card and loo tables; handsome chimney-glass, 4 feet by 3 feet; ladies' inlaid work-table, forming a chess-table with backgammon board and men complete; telescope dining-table for 12 persons; Spanish mahogany chairs; sideboard 7 feet long; horsehair sofa; handsome engravings; valuable book-case; dinner service, 175 pieces; rich cut decanters, glasses, &c; white and gold breakfast and tea services; dessert ditto; model of a frigate with case and stand.
PLATE
Solid silver cruet-stand with 7 bottles; table, dessert, teaspoons and forks; soup ladle; quantity of albata plate, including fish knife. forks, spoons, candlesticks , &c &c
BEDROOMS
Four-post mahogany and iron canopy and other bedsteads; handsome marble top washstand, with dressing table, glass, and cheval ditto to match; blue, white and gold toilette sets; wash stands; dressing tables , &c; book-case and chest of drawers; horsehair and cane chairs; chest of drawers, &c &c.
YARD and STORES, which will be sold on THURSDAY, the 9th.
Superior port and sherries, gin, Salmon's bottling apparatus, wine and beer corks, Norfolk Island dripstone, filter, 250 gallon water casks, quantity deals, metal bars, ship gear, spunyarn, rope, mast-hoops blocks, soap, pickles, potatoes, arrowroot, and an immense variety of sundries too numerous for the limits of an advertisement.
Catalogues are now in preparation, and may be obtained at the Auctioneer's on Friday. The Furniture will be on view on Tuesday, the 7th, from 11 to 4, and on the morning of sale.
Terms - Cash under £100; above that sum by an approved acceptance at 3 months, endorsed if required.
The auction over, and with the household contents sold,Captain Edward Goldsmith took rooms at Broadland House, on the corner of Elizabeth and Collins Streets, Hobart, per this advertisement in The Courier of 19th December 1855:
NOTICE
CAPTAIN GOLDSMITH, being about to leave the colony, particularly requests that all Claims against him be forthwith sent in for liquidation.
Broadland House, 17th Dec. 1855
Broadland House was still respectable enough to be considered by the Police as a lodging house not to be entered under their powers of the Legislative Council's Act passed for the "well ordering and regulation of Common Lodging-Houses", if the The Colonial Times, 3rd September 1855 is to be believed, although by the 1860s, the clientele was somewhat downmarket (Mercury 15 December 1862).



Broadland House, cnr Elizabeth and Collins St, Hobart Tas
A. Winter blind stamp impress, no date, ca. 1868
Source: University of Tasmania ePrints

TMAG colonial furniture
The Tasmanian Museum and art Gallery has an inventory of furniture which may have originated from the auction at Captain Edward Goldsmith's house at 19 Davey St. in 1855. In addition to the pieces shipped from London for personal use, he would have sourced locally-made sofas, chairs, chiffoniers, loo-tables, bedsteads, bookcases etc from the workshop of J. W. Woolley or the King's Yard at Old Wharf, worked by convict labour. Antiques dealer J. B. Hawkins' article titled The creation and furnishings of Government House, Hobart by Lt Governors Sorell, Arthur and Franklin between 1817-1843 (Part II) published in the periodical Australiana (May 2009) lists many examples of fine furniture both imported and locally-made by convict cabinet makers for Government House, some of which are now held at the TMAG. The article is available online - click here.



The Hamilton Inn sofa c. 1825
Maker unknown (Tasmania)
Wood (Australian red cedar, eucalypt, pearwood, mahogany); metal (steel and brass fittings); textile (woven horsehair, horsehair stuffing, cotton webbing, unprocessed wool stuffing, cotton)
TMAG Collection
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2016 ARR



Canterbury, to hold books and sheet music, ca. 1820
TMAG Collection
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2016 ARR



Chiffonier ca. 1850 Huon pine, imported steel and brass fittings
TMAG Collection
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2016 ARR



James Shaw
Tasmanian myrtle, Huon Pine, non-native pine, brass and steel fittings
Exhibited at Government House 1850.
TMAG Collection
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2016 ARR

Narryna Heritage Museum
This house, now open to the public as a museum, was built for Captain Andrew Haig in 1837-40 on land he purchased in 1824 while trading out of Calcutta en route to China with the British East India Company. On the 29th October, 1839, the Colonial Times (Hobart) announced the formation of a ship-building company with Edward Goldsmith, Andrew Haig and others :
SHIP BUILDING. - A Ship Building Company, composed of Messrs. Bilton, Goldsmith, Haig, Meaburn, and Williamson, are just about to commence, on the ground lately purchased from Mr. Mortimer, where an extensive and well sheltered building yard, and patent slip, are to be erected; an enterprise very much required, and deserving of encouragement. The parties are all gentlemen of practical knowledge, a qualification very much calculated to give general satisfaction, and to ensure success, for the attainment of which they have our best wishes.
The ship building company was disbanded in 1841, as the Courier reported in this notice:
NOTICE.- The Copartnership hitherto carried on by the undersigned, under the style or firm of "The Derwent Ship Building Company", has been dissolved as on this date.
George Bilton
   for John James Meaburn
Andrew Haig
E. Goldsmith
Wm. Williamson
Witness- Robert Pitcairn
Hobart Town, March 3. [1841]
Source: Classified Advertising. (1841, March 5). The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 - 1859), p. 3. Retrieved April 21, 2014, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2956876



Narryna Heritage Museum, Hampden Rd Battery Point
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2016 ARR



Cedar bedside steps and commode
Narryna, Hampden Rd Battery Point
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2014 ARR

Runnymede, New Town, Tasmania
The home of another family of mariners, whalers and merchants Captain James Bayley and his brother Charles Bayley, Runnymede was the name of their most famous whaling barque as well as this house, which was still the family home of their descendants well into the 1950s when the National Trust of Tasmania acquired it. Harriet McGregor nee Bayley, sister of James and Charles Bayley, married Alexander McGregor on 24th June 1847. The barque Harriet McGregor named after her was built in 1870 by John McGregor at the Domain slipyard at Hobart which Captain Edward Goldsmith established back in 1854 prior to his sale of the lease in 1855 to Alexander McGregor (1821–1896). The McGregor brothers may well have purchased several additional items listed as "ship gear, timber etc" on offer at Captain Goldsmith's auction in August 1855, having already acquired the government lease of his patent slipyard.



Runnymede, Bay Rd. New Town Tasmania
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2015 ARR



Dining room and set table, Runnymede, New Town Tasmania
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2012 ARR

Elizabeth Farm, NSW
On display in the laundry at Runnymede, New Town, Hobart is a dripstone, possibly from Norfolk Island. Made from a massive chunk of calcarenite, a locally occurring limestone deposit, dripstones were used to filter impurities from creek, rain or pond water which leached slowly through the stone, giving clear water dripping into a vessel beneath. A Norfolk Island dripstone was selected by Governor Sir William Denison for the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 as part of the manufactures of the colony of Van Diemen's Land. It was described as being 'in general use in the colony, and much approved', according to Sydney Living Museums. On 9th August 1855, Captain Edward Goldsmith's dripstone, filter and water casks were on offer from his stores:

YARD and STORES, which will be sold on THURSDAY, the 9th.
Superior port and sherries, gin, Salmon's bottling apparatus, wine and beer corks, Norfolk Island dripstone, filter, 250 gallon water casks, quantity deals, metal bars, ship gear, spunyarn, rope, mast-hoops blocks, soap, pickles, potatoes, arrowroot, and an immense variety of sundries too numerous for the limits of an advertisement.

This example of a Norfolk Island dripstone is held at Elizabeth Farm, Sydney, NSW. It may have been manufactured during the Island's second period of convict settlement (1825-53).



Source: Sydney Living Museums, Elizabeth Farm,
https://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/elizabeth-farm-dripstone

1856: Departure on the "Indian Queen"
On February 21, 1856 Captain Edward Goldsmith boarded one of the Black Ball Line clippers, the Indian Queen, in Hobart as a passenger, accompanied by his wife Elizabeth and son Edward Goldsmith jnr, bound for Liverpool, England, on his final voyage from the colony re-named Tasmania [formerly Van Diemen's Land] just months prior, in July 1855. The Indian Queen collided with an iceberg on April 1st, 1859 (see Illustrated London News and Basil Lubbock's account (below).



Source: National Library of Australia
Title: The Liverpool Black Ball Line of Australian packets being the only regularly established line of clippers sailing between Liverpool and Melbourne, forwarding passengers to Geelong, Sydney, Adelaide and Launceston, at ship's expense.
Published: [Liverpool : s.n., 1854?] Ref: NK Broadside NK4183

Also on board was passenger Captain H. Butler Stoney of the 99th Regiment, author of A residence in Tasmania: with a descriptive tour through the island, from Macquarie Harbour to Circular Head (London, Smith, Elder & co., Sept. 1856). During the three-month voyage he edited the ship's newspaper, completed his book on the colony of Victoria, and made headway with his book on Tasmania. He also directed a performance of Wm Barnes Rhodes' short opera, Bombastes Furioso presented by the 99th Regiment's Amateur Corps Dramatique. When he published his book on Tasmania in 1856, he mentioned Captain Goldsmith's difficulties with the Hobart Legislature in construction costs etc of the patent slip and Twin Steam ferry Kangaroo (pp 26-27). The passage below hints at the very real obstacles Captain Goldsmith experienced with the colonial government, which no doubt formed his decision to finally leave for good:



 Above: Capt Butler Stoney on Captain Goldsmith, pp.26-27
A residence in Tasmania ... etc 1856

TRANSCRIPT
Joining the Cricket Ground, on the bank of the Derwent, is a piece of land leased to Mr. Goldsmith by the Colonial Government, for the erection of a patent Slip, which was brought to the Colony by him in the year 1848, but was not erected until 1856, in consequence of delay in getting a proper lease of the ground. It is now erected, and capable of taking up sailing vessels or steamers of 1,000 tons at high water, and one of 500 to 600 at low water, with every capability of repairing any description of vessel. The Slip is worked by steam power.
In 1848 the Twin Ferry Boat was laid down by Mr. Goldsmith, of 480 tons, capable of taking four loaded drays on her deck, besides her passengers ...
The Twin Ferry Boat was completed about twelve months since, but not delivered to the Government until January last; the reason of this the Government is fully aware of...
The "Indian Queen" 1859:



Caption to illustration: "Striking of the 'Indian Queen' on an iceberg in the South Pacific , on the morning of April 1 - see Supplement page 210". London Illustrated News, August 27, 1859, p. 211

This is Basil Lubbock's account (1921) of the Indian Queen's collision with an iceberg, 31 March 1859:

The “Indian Queen.”
The Indian Queen, 1041 tons, the most notable Black Baller launched in 1853, and advertised as Marco Polo’s sister ship, was a very fast vessel, her first voyage to Australia being made in 6 months 11 days, and in 1855 she came home from Hobart in 78 days. In 1859 she narrowly escaped the fate of Guiding Star. On 13th March, 1859, she sailed from Melbourne for Liverpool under Captain Brewer, with 40 passengers and the usual cargo of wool and gold dust. All went well until she was half way to the Horn, when on the 27th March the weather became thick with a strong N.W. wind and heavy westerly swell.

On the 31st March she was in 58° S., 151° W. by account; the day was wet, foggy and very cold and the ship logged a steady 12 knots with the wind strong at N.W. At 2 a.m. on the following morning those below were aroused by a violent shock, the crash of falling spars and a grinding sound along the port side, and the first of the frightened passengers to arrive on45 the poop found the ship lying broadside to broadside with an immense iceberg. All her spars and sails above the lower masts were hanging over the starboard side, the foremast was broken off close to the deck and was held at an angle by its rigging, the mainyard was in half, the bowsprit was washing about under the bows, and though the mizen topmast was still standing the topsail yard was in two, broken in the slings.

The night was dark and rainy and at first the watch below and passengers thought that all was lost. They found no one at the wheel, the port life-boat gone, and not a soul on the poop, but they were somewhat reassured by the appearance of the carpenter who had been sounding the pumps and pronounced the ship to be making no water. Then the second mate appeared aft and announced that the captain, mate and most of the crew had gone off in the port life-boat. Apparently there had been a disgraceful panic which involved even the captain, who actually left his own son, an apprentice, behind on the ship.

However those who had been so shamefully deserted began to buckle to with a will, headed by the second mate, Mr. Leyvret, and the cool-headed carpenter, a man named Thomas Howard. Passengers, cooks, stewards and those of the crew left on board were promptly divided into watches, the captain’s son was sent to the wheel, and whilst some set about clearing up the raffle of gear and getting things ship-shape as far as possible, others shovelled the ice, which lay in masses on the decks, overboard.

With some difficulty the crossjack was backed and the head of the spanker hauled in. At the same time the boat was perceived tossing in the swell on the port46 beam and apparently endeavouring to regain the ship, and faint cries for help could be heard against the wind. She seemed to be without oars and with sea after sea washing over, she was soon swept past the ship by the back wash off the ice and lost sight of in the fog never to be seen again. The ship, though, with the backed crossjack, began to drift along the side of the berg and presently dropped clear of it into smoother water to leeward.

Day now began to break and all hands set about cutting away the wreck, but the mainyard and the rest of the raffle hanging from the stump of the mainmast was hardly clear before the terrible cry of “Ice to leeward!” arose and a huge berg appeared looming out of the mist. The crossjack was at once braced up, the spanker set and the foresail trimmed in some fashion or other, then in a tense silence the survivors watched the ship slowly forge ahead and, dragging the wreck of masts and spars and torn sails along with her, weather the new danger by a bare 100 yards. And scarcely had she done so when the foremast fell crashing on to the long-boat, the other boats having been already stove in by falling spars. The next business was to get the wreck of the foremast over the side and clear of the ship. Here the carpenter displayed the greatest coolness and skill, being ably backed up by the second mate and the 4 seamen left on board. With the last of the wreck overside, time was found to muster the survivors, when it was discovered that the captain, chief mate and 15 men had been lost in the port life-boat, leaving behind the second mate, carpenter, bosun, 4 A.B.’s, 1 O.S. and 2 boys, besides the cooks, stewards, doctor, purser, and passengers who numbered 30 men, 3 women and 7 children.

47

A course was now steered for Valparaiso, some 3800 miles away. It was not until the 7th April that the ship got finally clear of the scattered ice, but on the 3rd the wind came out of the south and with a lower stunsail and main staysail set on the main, the ship began to make 3 or 4 knots through the water.

One iceberg of huge size and square like a mountainous box was only just cleared before it broke in two, the smaller portion bursting into the sea like an avalanche, and sweeping a huge wave in front of it, did not bring up until it was 2 to 3 miles away from the rest of the berg. The last ice was seen in 54° S., it being reckoned that the accident had happened in 60° S.

As soon as 49° S. was reached, a direct course was shaped for Valparaiso. Sheers were now rigged and a topmast secured to the stump of the foremast, then topsail yards were crossed on the jury foremast and mainmast, which improved the ship’s progress another knot. In this condition the Indian Queen slowly wandered north, weathering out gale after gale. On the 7th May a welcome sail was sighted. This proved to be the New Bedford whaler La Fayette, whose captain boarded them, offered them every assistance and corrected their longitude, which was 3° out. On the following day the French man-of-war Constantine appeared and promised to convoy them in. On the 9th May land was made some 20 miles south of Valparaiso, and on the morning of the 10th, as the crippled Indian Queen approached the Bay, the boats of H.M.S. Ganges, 84 guns, came out to her aid and towed her in to the Roads, where she anchored safely, just 40 days after her collision with the iceberg.

Source: The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Colonial Clippers, by Basil Lubbock, 2nd edition 1921
Link: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52897/52897-h/52897-h.htm#Page_44

1862: Trustee of Reeves & Co.
Ship brokers and liquidators I. G. Reeves & Co. ran an exchange leather and grindery warehouse in Elizabeth St. Hobart among their other business concerns which included marine insurance and salvage. Captain Goldsmith was a director of the Hobart and Launceston Marine Insurance Company with Henry Hopkins, Askin Morrison, Thomas Giblin etc. until his departure from Tasmania in 1856. This notice of 1862 was to inform him through his proxy as one of the creditors in the Trust of I. G. Reeves & Co. that funds would be distributed from the residual credit of the Trust. Acting in Captain Goldsmith's interest was his attorney Mr. Wm. Knight.



Source: The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) Thu 7 Aug 1862 Page 1 Advertising

TRANSCRIPT
In the Trust Estate of I. G. Reeves & Co -
Notice to Creditors-The undersigned hereby request those creditors who have executed the trust deed in the above estate to attend a meeting to be holden at Messrs. Cleburne and Colvin's, New Wharf, at three o'clock on the afternoon of TUESDAY, the 12th day of August next, for the purpose of considering what mersures shall be adopted to procure the distribution of the funds now remaining to the credit of the Trust Estate.
Dated this 31st July, 1862.
ISAAC WRIGHT
E. GOLDSMITH, by his attorney W. KNIGHT
CLEBURNE & COLVIN
TONDEUR &, CO
BOYS & HALL
W. A. GUESDON
J. A. DUNN
W. CROSBY & CO.
One of Captain Goldsmith's imports was a diving bell and apparatus on the Earl of Chester from London, arriving on 5th January 1855. Although not stated specifically that the diving apparatus which arrived was from the London company, Siebe Gorman Co., it was new when Captain Goldsmith loaned it to his neighbour in Davey St. Hobart, ship owner, salvage operator and general merchant Frederick. A. Downing. Frederick Downing wanted to use the apparatus to salvage the wreckage of the Catherine Shearer which blew up at Port Esperance on June 6th. He paid the sum of £300 on 28th June 1855 for the wreckage and proceeded to convert the new apparatus and related items, and did not return them. Captain Goldsmith took his complaint to the Supreme Court for the value of the machinery etc. The court deposed in his favour:
SUPREME COURT.-MONDAY
CIVIL SITTINGS.
Before His Honor the Chief Justice, & the usual Juries of Twelve
ASSESSMENT.-GOLDSMITH V. DOWNING.
This was an action brought by Captain Goldsmith, against Mr. F. A. Downing for the conversion of a Diving Apparatus, lent to the defendant to enable him to recover property from the wreck of the Catherine Sharer, at Port Esperance, and which he had appropriated to his own use: the plaintiff claimed £212 10s 9d, as the value of the apparatus, and a sum for its use to the present time,
Captain Goldsmith deposed to the value of the machinery, and to the amount claimed for its use, namely £479 10s 9d : an agreement for hire was, also, proved, for £75 for two months.
The Jury assessed the amount claimed at £392 9s 10d.
Source: SUPREME COURT.—MONDAY. (1855, December 19). The Hobarton Mercury (Tas. : 1854 - 1857), p. 2. https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3337194



Anchor of the Catherine Shearer, Narryna Museum, Battery Point, Tasmania
Photos © KLW NFC 2014 ARR

1863: Auction of premises at Davey St.
Captain Edward Goldsmith and family retired to their residence, Gad's Hill House, in the village of Higham, Kent (UK) on arrival back in England in July 1856. With older brother John Goldsmith, he managed the gardens, orchards, and tenements at Chalk, Kent, bequeathed on the death of their father Richard Goldsmith snr in 1839. He acquired more freehold and leasehold properties around Chalk, Higham and Rochester, moved with his wife Elizabeth (nee Day) into Higham Lodge adjoining the family home Gad's Hill House which he then let to Andrew Chalmers Dods, made acquaintance with his prickly neighbour Charles Dickens at No. 6 Gad's Hill Place over water supply issues and the location of the mail box, both monopolised by Captain Goldsmith in Dicken's opinion, and drew his business interests in Tasmania to a close through the assistance of attorney W. Knight.

In 1863 Captain Goldsmith's former residence at 19 Davey St. Hobart, Tasmania was advertised for auction. The reason given for the sale was default on payment of the mortgage principal and part interest. "Now in parts beyond the seas", Captain Goldsmith's erstwhile co-partners in the mortgage on the house and adjoining brewery dated 1853 were John Leslie Stewart, John Robertson, and Henry Hopkins with whom he also shared the directorship of the Tasmanian Fire and Life Insurance Company. The sale of the Davey Street premises to shipowner Philip Leigh in September 1855 ensured payment of £1400.00 to Captain Goldsmith - see Historic Deed 04/1853 - but as Philip Leigh or subsequent owners had defaulted on payment, the original allotment was put at auction.



Source: The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) Mon 6 Jul 1863 Page 3 Advertising

TRANSCRIPT

PURSUANT TO THE PROVISO for that purpose contained in an Indenture of Release and Mortgage bearing date the twenty-ninth day of March and registered on the first day of April one thousand eight hundred and fifty three made between John Leslie Stewart of Hobart Town in Van Diemen's Land Gentleman of the first part John Robertson then late of Hobart Town aforesaid but then in parts beyond the seas Esquire (since deceased) of the second part Edward Goldsmith then of Hobart Town aforesaid Merchant (but now in parts beyond the seas) of the third part, Henry Hopkins of Hobart Town aforesaid Esquire John Beamont of the same place Esquire and Thomas Giblin of the same place Esquire (then three of the Directors for the time being of the company or co-partnership consisting of more than six persons established at Hobart Town aforesaid then and now carrying on business there under the style or firm of " The Tasmanian Fire and Life Insurance Company") of the fourth part Thomas Macdowell of Hobart Town aforesaid Esquire and Robert William Nutt then of the same place Solicitor (but now of Melbourne in Victoria) Trustees for the purposes therein mentioned of the fifth part
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that default having been made in payment of the principal and part of the interest monies secured by the said Indenture of Mortgage it is the intention of the said Thomas Macdowell and Robert William Nutt (at the request and by the direction of the said Henry Hopkins John Beamont and Thomas Giblin) for and on behalf of the said Company to sell by public auction the land messuage and hereditaments comprised in the said Indenture of Mortgage and that such sale will be effected by
MESSIEURS BRENT AND WESTBROOK
at their mart situate in Murray-street Hobart Town on Tuesday the eighteenth, day of August next at twelve o'clock at noon And the land messuage and hereditaments thus to be sold are described in the said Indenture as follows (that is to say) :
ALL THAT PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND situate and being in Davey-street Hobart Town aforesaid and bounded-On the south-east side or in front by fifty feet and four inches or thereabout along Davey street On the south-west side by land lately belonging to Andrew Crombie and now to Douglas Thomas Kilburn On the north-west side by part of a grant to John Burnett And on the north-east side by a grant to William Pedder of an allotment of land formerly occupied by William Faitlough to Davey-street aforesaid Together with the capital messuage or tenement and outbuildings thereon erected.
Dated this fourth day of July 1863.
JOHN DOBSON,
Of No. 69 Macquarie-street, Hobart Town,
Solicitor to the above-named Company.
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.



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 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. Photo courtesy ePrints UTAS.

Three master mariners - Captain Goldsmith, Captain Bentley and Captain Clinch were residents in Davey Street, Hobart, listed in the Hobart Gazette of 1855, p. 471. Two photographers also resided in Davey St. - William Paul Dowling, an Irish chartist, who moved his portrait studio from Macquarie St Hobart, located opposite the Hutchins School, to Number 24 Davey Street, "nearly opposite the Hampden-road" on the Harrington street side of photographer Douglas Kilburn's house at Number 22 Davey St. A little further down in the direction of Murray St and opposite St David's Cemetery was Stewart's Brewery, separated by a small house from Captain Edward Goldsmith's house at Number 19 Davey St. With the change to the numbering of residences in Davey St since the early 1900s, Kilburn House is presently numbered No. 51 Davey St.



Hobart Town Gazette 27 March 1855
Page 470-471: Davey St residents (far right column)
Click on for large view

The foundation stone of the Congregational Church, highlighted in this detail of Cooke's balloon's eye view of Hobart 1879 and visible in the photo below, was not laid until in 1857, and the Real Tennis Court (Royal Tennis) was built next to it much later, in 1875.



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



This photo was taken of Davey Street Hobart in the 1870s looking west: 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. This family tragedy was possibly the tipping point in the decision to quit the colony.



Title: Map and select directory of Hobart Town, 1858
Creator: Proeschel, F. (Frederick), 1809-1870
Map data: 7 cm. = 20 chains
7 cm. equals 20 chains
Publisher: Melbourne : Hamel & Co., [1858?]
Description: 1 map : b&w ; 48 x 43 cm. on sheet 62 x 78 cm
Format: Map
ADRI: AUTAS001131821639

RELATED POSTS main weblog

First published on
Categories and tags:: , ,