Friday, July 31, 2020

Sarah Crouch at Thomas J. Nevin's studio ca. 1872

Photographers Alfred BOCK, Thomas J. NEVIN, and H. H. BAILY
Portraits of Thomas and Sarah CROUCH 1860s-1870s
SHOOBRIDGE estate and grave sites,West Hobart, Tasmania



Sennotypes of Thomas and Sarah Crouch by Alfred Bock
Alfred K. Bock (1835 -1920) inherited his father Thomas Bock's daguerreotype establishment at 22 Campbell Street Hobart Town in April 1855 and announced his own photographic business. By July 1855 he had moved to Elliston's premises at 78 Liverpool Street, formerly occupied by the photographers Duryea and McDonald where he built a "Crystal Palace" studio and purchased photographic equipment from Ross of London. Financial difficulties ensued, and Bock moved several times.

In 1857 Alfred Bock was at 18 Macquarie Street. But on 6th February, 1858, he was insolvent. Later that year, Bock re-established himself at 140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart Town - a business he called The City Photographic Establishment - and stayed there until 1865 when he was again declared insolvent (Kerr, ed. 1992: 77-78). In late May 1865, Alfred Bock's wife gave birth to a daughter (Mercury, 23 May 1865). This event too may have precipitated Bock's decision to sell up and leave Tasmania.

Financially bruised by a dispute with photographer Henry Frith about the origins and rights to the sennotype process, the stock-in-trade of Bock's studio at the City Photographic Establishment was advertised at auction on August 2nd, 1865. Thomas J. Nevin bought the lease of the studio, the shop, the stock of negatives, camera equipment, backdrops and furniture, including the glass house/gallery installed at the end of the cart path adjacent to the studio, listed as 138½ Elizabeth St. on valuation rolls.

These two fine portraits of Thomas J. Crouch and his wife Sarah Crouch were produced by Alfred Bock at the City Photographic Establishment in the early 1860s using the method of assemblage called the sennotype process, which consisted of two albumen prints sandwiched under glass, the top one waxed for transparency and usually hand-coloured, resulting in blacker shadows and greater tonal range.



Left: Under-Sheriff Thomas. J. Crouch (1805-1890)
Right: Sarah Crouch (1806-1876) nee Rothwell
Sennotypes by Alfred Bock ca 1860
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection

Sarah and Thomas CROUCH
Biographical Notes by Peter Bolger
Australian Dictionary of Biography
Link: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/crouch-george-stanton-3346
Thomas James Crouch (1805-1890), under-sheriff, was born on 22 October 1805 in London, the eldest son of James Crouch of Hertfordshire and his wife Sarah, née Marston, of Shropshire. His parents had moved to London before their marriage in 1804 at St George's, Hanover Square, and his father was, among other business projects, proprietor of public baths in Cannon Street. Thomas's education at various small city schools was interrupted by ill health and convalescence at Worthing and Barmouth, and he later became clerk to a barrister at Lincoln's Inn. He was friendly with Dudley Fereday, who was appointed sheriff of Van Diemen's Land. Crouch agreed to become his clerk and arrived at Hobart Town in the Phoenix in January 1825. He was a successful clerk in various commissariat offices, specializing in legal matters until he was appointed under-sheriff in 1836; he held the post until he retired on a pension in 1868.

On 20 February 1832 at St David's Cathedral Crouch married Sarah Rothwell, from Limehouse, London, whom he had met when she passed through Hobart as governess to the family of Rev. Joseph Orton. The Crouch family had been Anglican but in 1826 Thomas had become attached to the Wesleyan Methodists and was an active Sunday school teacher. Sarah was also a Wesleyan but their cottage became the lodgings of the missionaries James Backhouse and George Washington Walker, and she adopted Quaker manners and attended their meetings. Crouch helped to initiate the schools of the Hobart Wesleyan circuit and was a trustee of the Melville Street Church for fifty-eight years. With James Bonwick and G. W. Walker he organized the first local temperance society in 1833 and in 1843 signed the pledge. He was a prominent founder of the Tasmanian Temperance Alliance and chaired its 34th annual meeting on the evening of his death on 28 May 1890. He was also a founder of the Hobart Town Benevolent Society in 1860, a committee member for thirty years and its secretary for seventeen years. For many his greatest claim to fame was his part in the recognition and capture of Martin Cash in Hobart in 1843.

Crouch's wife [Sarah Crouch], after seven years of paralysis, died on 16 January 1876 in her seventieth year. She remained loyal to the Society of Friends and was buried in their ground at Providence Valley. Sarah had shared in her husband's religious and temperance activities, organized a female petition for a Maine Liquor Law in the colony and another to forestall Sunday licensing, and served on the committees of the Maternal and Dorcas Society and of various societies such as the Van Diemen's Land Asylum for the Protection of Destitute and Unfortunate Females, which Walker had promoted in 1848. She was one of the Ladies Visiting Committee which each week inspected female paupers at New Town, Cascades and the Brickfields, and was reputed to have kept her own dispensary where she gave medicines to the needy. Perhaps her greatest contribution to the welfare of Hobart poor was her Servants' Home in High Street, which only closed in her final illness.

Crouch and his wife had at least eight children, most of whom died in childhood. One daughter, Mary, was married to Robert S. Caseley, Wesleyan minister in South Australia in 1863, and another, Ann, to Robert Shoobridge in 1871. The eldest son, Thomas James, became an architect, designing among other work the General Post Office in Melbourne; there he died on 4 December 1889.
Source: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/crouch-george-stanton-3346



Alfred Bock's trade advertisement in Walch's Tasmanian Almanac, 1864

The City Photographic Establishment and the house next door were premises consisting of two house-and-shop properties owned by Abraham Biggs snr at 138-140 Elizabeth St. Hobart, They were still "unfinished" in 1853 according to the Hobart Valuation Rolls. By 1854 Biggs was listed as the proprietor with his son, builder Abraham Edwin Biggs. By 1857 they had let the premises at 140 Elizabeth St. to photographer Alfred Bock which he operated as a studio with his (step) brother William Bock until 1865. On Alfred Bock's departure to Victoria, commercial photographer and government contractor Thomas J. Nevin continued the business with the firm's name, The City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart Town. He operated the studio in partnership with Robert Smith under the business name of Nevin & Smith briefly between 1866-68, vacating the shop, residence, glass house and studio a decade later, in 1876, to take up his appointment in full-time civil service with residency at the Hobart Town Hall.

Senior members of the Crouch and Nevin families were close associates within Hobart's Wesleyan Methodist circles. Thomas' father John Nevin snr leased an acre of land from the Wesleyan Trustees of Ancanthe at Kangaroo Valley (Lenah Valley) from the early 1850s and remained there to his death in 1887. His daughter Rebecca Jane Nevin died there in 1865 and his wife Mary Ann Nevin nee Dickson died there in 1875. His eldest son Thomas James Nevin married Elizabeth Rachel Day at the Wesleyan Chapel there in 1871, and his only surviving daughter Mary Ann Nevin married John Carr there in 1877. John Nevin snr also taught class at the Wesleyan Chapel, Kangaroo Valley in 1875. His second marriage in 1879 after the death of his wife in 1875 was to Martha Genge, daughter of Wesleyan lay preacher William Genge of the Methodist Church and meeting rooms, Melville Street, Hobart. William Genge's death occasioned a poem written as a lament by John Nevin in 1881.

Portrait of Sarah Crouch by Thomas J. Nevin
When Sarah Crouch presented at Thomas Nevin's studio sometime around 1872, she was experiencing the early effects of paralysis which would claim her life in 1876. His capture of her facial expression might have unintentionally betrayed the pain she was enduring, and not just from her illness. The tight whalebone corset she was wearing which had completely flattened the natural line of her bosom and pushed her breasts into her armpits, must have caused further discomfort.

This is an unusual photograph in that Thomas J. Nevin positioned the sitter closer to his camera than he otherwise seemed to prefer in sittings with women clients. His use of the newer lenses here, which allowed shorter focal range and a larger image of the face and hands without sacrificing clarity, became his trademark when he commenced the photographing of prisoners with Supreme Court convictions on contract for the Colonial Government at about the same time Sarah Crouch, whose husband Thomas J. Crouch was Under-Sheriff, posed at his studio in 1872. This photograph, the first to be printed off the glass negative and like many which Nevin produced of prisoners for inclusion on their rap sheets, was printed initially with the whole upper body visible. The next print, if requested, would have been the same image framed in an oval mount, showing the face but not the hands.



Above: Sarah Crouch, cdv by Thomas J. Nevin, taken ca. 1872
Item: Carte-de-visite on buff mount, sepia albumen print
Subject: Sarah Crouch (1806-1876)
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923) ca. 1872
Location: City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart
Verso studio stamp: T. Nevin, late A. Bock, City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart. Further copies can be obtained at any time.

Provenance: Sydney Rare Books Auction 29 June 2019 online.
Vendor notes:
A portrait of Sarah Crouch (Carte de visite reverse T. Nevin late A. Bock). Sarah Rothwell married Thomas Crouch in Hobart 1832, taking on the manners of a Quaker. Was very involved in the protection of women, children and the destitute. Sarah created the Servant’s Home in High Street*, which ceased on her death in 1876.
*High Street North Hobart was renamed Tasma Street in 1921 to avoid duplication with High Street, Sandy Bay. It was named for the novelist Jessie Catherine Couvreur, nee Huybers (1848-97), whose pseudonym was "Tasma".

Sarah Crouch was a committee member of the Maternal and Dorcas Society when she sought subscriptions and donations for the establishment and on-going support of a home for servant girls . She published this notice at the beginning of her campaign in September to November 1856.



Extract, read full transcript below:

TRANSCRIPT
SERVANTS' HOME
SEVERAL Ladies having been long impressed with the desolate state of females occupying the sphere of domestic servants on leaving their situations while seeking others, the following ideas have been suggested: -
"That a society of ladies be formed, the design of which shall be to protect ALL lone female servants, and afford such advice as experience dictates and by judicious care and oversight prevent exposure to many evils which strangers in the colony are subject to; and also to provide a "Home" to ALL female servants willing to avail themselves of its privileges at a rate within the reach of their limited means. The "Home" will be conducted as much as possible in accordance with similar Institutions in London.

Such a home will preclude the necessity of the well-intentioned taking up their abode with persons whose object is gain to themselves, though it should be the destruction of their supporters.

With this view the ladies have taken a house in High-street, near the New Town Road (a respectable neighbourhood) at a very moderate rent, in which there is a sitting-room, with table requisites for the use of the inmates, and all necessary utensil for cooking, washing, &c - the dormitories furnished with beds, bedding, and everything necessary to the comfort of those desirous of placing themselves under the guardianship of the ladies.

The ladies feel the time has arrived when such an institute is required, and will be valued in town and country, both by servants and employers. By this provision, when it is known in England and elsewhere, the ladies believe encouragement will be given to the virtuous to emigrate, and the comfort and convenience of the community generally increased, while much vice and its consequent pauperism will be prevented.

The Ladies have great confidence in appealing to the Public for aid in this philanthropic undertaking, feeling assured they will not appeal in vain. There is no doubt the want of such a Home has been lamentably felt by many a friendless girl,who may at this time be pining in poverty and woe; who would have been, under other circumstances, an useful member of society, and an ornament in the station she was designed to fill.

Particulars may be obtained at the "home" or of the undersigned, by whom Subscriptions and Donations will be gratefully received.

S. CROUCH, Secretary. Argyle-street
Servants; "House", High-street. 14th of 10th Month, 1856."
Source: Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 - 1857), Wednesday 5 November 1856, page 1

Portrait of Sarah Crouch by H. H. Baily
One way of looking at this photograph is to see it as a piece of cardboard on which is printed an image. Perhaps it has commercial value only because of age, condition, and provenance. Another way is to step into the scene and participate as the photographer might while talking to his sitter. Still another way is to trace the journey of each element in the picture from any known context in which it has appeared up to the present, in which case the familiar object in this portrait of Sarah Crouch by H. H. Baily is the carpet with a pattern of large dark lozenges rimmed in white. It was formerly used by Alfred Bock as one of his studio carpets, then by Thomas Nevin for one of several set-ups for taking portraits in the same studio in 1868, and finally the same carpet was used in this portrait of Sarah Crouch by Henry Hall Baily, that is, if he photographed her before her death in 1876. On the other hand, is this just a piece of cardboard which was reprinted by Henry Hall Baily from an original capture taken by Alfred Bock before 1865; then reprinted by Thomas Nevin, operating as Nevin & Smith between 1865-1868; or, later, reprinted by Thomas Nevin again from 1868-1875 when both Bock's stock and Nevin's negatives were reprinted by Samuel Clifford to 1878; and lastly, reprinted by Henry Hall Baily ca. 1880? Reprints were mostly at the request of the client and family. All three photographers - Alfred Bock, Samuel Clifford, and Henry Hall Baily - were close friends and colleagues of Thomas J. Nevin from the early 1860s to his retirement in 1888.  To complicate matters of copying further, from the early 1860s the source of their studio carpets, tables, drapes and backsheets was the family warehouse of Charles A. Woolley, the most senior photographer of their Hobart cohort. His studio furnishings and photographic paraphernalia were passed around among members of that cohort when times were hard, which was more often than not.



Photograph of Sarah Crouch,
University of Tasmania Library Special and Rare Materials Collection
Link: https://eprints.utas.edu.au/7214/
Photograph of Sarah Crouch, wife of Thomas James Crouch, under sheriff of Van Diemen's Land. The photographer was Henry Hall Baily who had studios in Elizabeth and Liverpool Streets, Hobart from 1865-1918.


Verso: Photograph of Sarah Crouch
University of Tasmania Library Special and Rare Materials Collection
Link: https://eprints.utas.edu.au/7214/



Woolley's Carpets and Upholstery Warehouse, Macquarie St.
Series: Photographs and Glass Plate Negatives collected by E R Pretyman (NS1013)
Archives Tasmania Ref: NS1013_1_1895

Providence Valley Burial Ground
In 1836 the Society of Friends (Quakers) established a cemetery on ground purchased from William Shoobridge's Providence Valley Farm. Sarah Crouch was buried there in 1876, so too was her husband Thomas Crouch in 1890. About 60 people, including members of the Propsting, Mather, Benson, Bell, Rowntree and Walker families used the cemetery until its closure in 1912. The former burial ground is now called the Friends' Park, Hill Street. The headstones of Sarah Crouch and others were retained and displayed around the park's perimeter.



Gravestone of Sarah Rothwell Crouch at Providence Farm
Source of photograph: Gravesites of Tasmania



Friends' Park
Source: G. Ritchie, photos and text
Link: https://ontheconvicttrail.blogspot.com/2014/04/friends-park-west-hobart.html
Friends Park is a small park in West Hobart that started life as a burial ground for the Society of Friends (Quakers). The land had originally been granted to William Shoobridge in the early 1820's and he had set up a farming enterprise. Although Shoobridge was a practicing Methodist, he found himself supporting the work of a number of Quaker missionaries who had visited Van Diemen's Land in the early 1830's. As a show of his support, he agreed to give the Society of Friends a half acre portion of his farm land in order for the Society to establish a burial grounds for themselves. As it turned out, following the establishment of the burial ground, Shoobridge himself became the first person to be buried there after he passed away in 1836.

The burial ground continued to provide for the Quakers into the 1900's. Even after the Cornelian Bay cemetery was opened in 1872 and many of Hobart's numerous suburban burial grounds were closed, the Society of Friends burial ground was able to continue operating because it fell outside the Hobart municipal boundary. Following the rezoning of the region into the new Greater Hobart municipality, the burial ground was finally closed in 1908.

It just remained as an unused burial ground until 1937 when the Hobart City Council negotiated with the Friends Society for the transfer of the land to the council so that it could be converted to a community recreation space for the growing West Hobart community.

Under the terms of the transfer agreement, the park was to be renamed Friends Park and the headstones were to be repositioned and re-erected around the walls of the new park. This was subsequently completed and the newly named Friends Park has continued to provide the local community with a beautiful recreational space. One with a very interesting past.
Source: https://ontheconvicttrail.blogspot.com/2014/04/friends-park-west-hobart.html

The Nevin family and the Shoobridge family
Shortly before Thomas J. Nevin's death in 1923 at his home, 270 Elizabeth St. Hobart, his eldest daughter May Nevin made arrangements with her close friend Winifred Schoobridge, daughter of Annie Crouch and Richard Shoobridge, grand daughter of William Shoobridge of Providence Valley, to move with her brothers George, William, and Albert into the property at No's 23-29 Newdegate St., or Queen Street as it was then called until 1925, formerly Providence Valley, where they would remain until the death of May Nevin in 1955. Her other two siblings - Minnie Drew nee Nevin and Tom "Sonny" Nevin - were both married and living elsewhere by 1907. Each of the four remaining adult siblings set up a business on the Newdegate St. property: May did dressmaking; George sold vegetables from the garden; William ran a furniture removal business, and Albert trained a stable of pacers. In 1925 Queen Street was renamed Newdegate Street after Governor Sir Francis Newdegate (1917-1920) to avoid duplication with Queen Street, Sandy Bay.



The house at 23 Newdegate St. North Hobart, formerly Queen St. and Providence Valley (on the Shoobridge estate) .Children of Albert Nevin, grandchildren of Thomas J. Nevin and Elizabeth Rachel Nevin nee Day out front, 1930s.
Signage of W. J. Nevin, carrier, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin at left.
Copyright © KLW NFC 2006-2009 Private Collection ARR.



Metropolitan Drainage Board Map. No. 58 ca. 1908
The property 23-29 Newdegate St. formerly Queen St. where Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin's adult children settled from c 1923 to the late 1950s.
Queen St. North Hobart was renamed Newdegate St. after Governor of Tasmania Francis Newegate (1917-1920).
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania Ref: 628270



No. 23 Newdegate St. North Hobart Tasmania
The units on either side of the house and cottage were built with the sale of part of the property in the 1960s.
Google maps 2019

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Thursday, July 23, 2020

James McEvoy's fine fabrics ex Captain Goldsmith's "Parrock Hall" Sydney 1845

ROYAL VICTORIA THEATRE, Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW
JAMES McEVOY, merchant tailor, Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW
CAPTAIN EDWARD GOLDSMITH, master, Parrock Hall at Sydney, 1844

The Garment District, Sydney 1840s-1880s
Drapers, tailors and outfitters were well established along Pitt Street, Sydney between King and Market Streets from the 1840s to the 1880s in a city block that included the popular Royal Victoria Theatre at No's. 243-247  Pitt Street. Their stock-in-trade was primarily fine fabrics imported from England on board merchant barques such as those commanded by Captain Edward Goldsmith. He brought well-heeled passengers and their luxury goods to the Australian colonies on the Wave, the Parrock Hall, the Angelina, the Janet Izzat, and his favorite, the Rattler from the 1830s to 1852, arriving in early summer and departing two months later for London, fully laden with a cargo of wool, bone, and oil. One beneficiary of goods arriving on board the Parrock Hall in 1844 was merchant tailor James McEvoy.



[227 to 267 Pitt Street, Sydney]
CALL NUMBER SPF/579
DATE undated [ca. 1875]
Includes the premises of bookseller, Thomas R. Yeo; Importers & warehousemen, Alcock Brothers; Mutual Fire Office (no.235); Victoria Theatre
State Library NSW Link: http://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110316985

The building on extreme left, advertising Emily Way's business, "E. Way, Draper", on the wall facing north in this unattributed photograph taken ca. 1875 was situated at No. 263 Pitt Street, according to Percy Dove's plan of Sydney (below) published in 1880. But was it next door to Albert House? In 1840, the location of Albert House was advertised by Hume and Co. Tailors and Clothiers at No. 86 Pitt Street when bespoke tailor James McEvoy became their "successor". Yet when James McEvoy advertised his business in 1841, the address he gave of Albert House was "nearly opposite the theatre", so whatever he meant by "opposite" is not clear from the 1848 drawings by Joseph Fowles or the later 1880 map by Percy Dove (see both below).

To confuse matters further, James McEvoy advertised his address in 1845 as Albert House, No. 261 Pitt Street. If, by 1845, the building called Albert House (named after Queen Victoria's consort Prince Albert, no doubt) was located at No. 261 Pitt Street, it is just visible at extreme left of the photograph (above) either as the building carrying the "E. Way, Draper" sign at No. 263, or a smaller building next to it, near but not opposite the Victoria Theatre with two street frontages at No's 243-247 Pitt St. and quite clearly on the same side of the street. Percy Dove's plan of the city, Map 9 which names business premises between Pitt and George Streets, and King and Market Streets ca. 1880 shows a dozen drapers, tailors and outfitters operating from premises around the Royal Victoria Theatre at 243-247 Pitt Street.



By H Percy Dove Contributed By City of Sydney Archives [CRS150/9]
(Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 9 – Blocks 24, 25, 26 (detail))
Detail of map of Sydney showing buildings running between George and Pitt Streets, between King and Market Streets 1880
Link: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/media/64501



Full size, Map 9


By Joseph Fowles
From the collections of the State Library of New South Wales [Dixson Reading Room Q84/56 c.9]
Above:
(Detail of Plate 30a, 'Sydney in 1848 : illustrated by copper-plate engravings of its principal streets, public buildings, churches, chapels, etc.' from drawings by Joseph Fowles)
Detail of Pitt Street showing Victoria Theatre 1848
Below: Buildings on the opposite side - William the Fourth, Kings Arms on corner
Link: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/media/58416



Pitt Street, Sydney 1848. Buildings facing the Victoria Theatre.
Link: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/media/58416

Merchant tailor James McEvoy
The Pitt Street Uniting or Congregational Church is possibly the only structure remaining to the present day from the time James McEvoy first set up business nearby in Pitt Street at Albert House in 1841. The church building was designed by John Bibb and built from 1841 to 1846. The location of Albert House, according to the lavish advertisement (below) of James McEvoy's was "nearly opposite the theatre" though what he meant by "opposite" is not clear.



Pitt Street Uniting Church, Sydney, NSW
Google map 2016

1841: James McEvoy, successor to Hume and Co.
Flaunting the wealth of his social connections to the nobility and gentry was of utmost importance to James McEvoy. He spared no expense in 1841 when publishing a cartoon of a young man modelling  early Victorian formal attire to precede his credentials. He claimed former employment as foreman to the top Savile Row, London bespoke tailors, Stultz and Co., and having recently arrived in Sydney, it appears that he succeeded to the business of Hume and Co. during a tailor's strike amidst claims of duplicity against Messrs Hume by certain "puffers" which appears to have provoked their decision to decamp to regional Maitland and Windsor, NSW. In this statement from Messrs Hume and Co, the address they advertised for Albert House was No. 86 Pitt Street!

TRANSCRIPT
WHERE TO GET A GOOD DRESSING - ALBERT HOUSE
MESSRS HUME AND CO, take the present opportunity of returning their sincere thanks to those who have so extensively patronised them since their commencement in business, and in so doing beg to solicit a continuance of their patronage assuring them that then orders will ever be punctually attended to, and not only will they furnish the best materials, but also that they will be well and elegantly made up, and that in the first style of fashion, and in stating this, Messrs Hume and Co do not fear the charge of duplicity being brought against them, as they are all tradesmen whose experience enables them not only to select genuine articles, but to superintend their being made up, and are not therefore compelled to transfer the confidence placed in them to assistants of inferior ability, as is the case with certain puffers of misfit and slop clothing that are now being sold, and who, by the way, since the tailors' strike have taken to writing verses on clothes made to sell and not fit to wear. And whilst the present advertisers feel grateful for the patronage they have received, their patrons are assured that they will not "touch the lyre" but keep to their actual tailoring, which his gained for them a sunshine of approving smiles, and has thrown in the shade the hazy forebodings of failure that must ever haunt the man who has embarked on a business which he knows nothing of, so many of whom disgrace the trade at the present moment.
Messrs Hume and Co beg to inform the Hawkesbury district, that in consequence of numerous applications, they have opened a Branch establishment in George-street, Windsor, where they can get every thing in the Tailoring Trade on the same economical principles as in Sydney, and for the information of those unacquainted with our low charges, we subjoin a list of prices of our summer goods: -
Superfine Cashmere Frock Coats, any colour, £3 10s .
White Quilling Jeans and Drill Jackets, from 16s to £1.1s
Valencia and Light Waistcoats, from 16s. to 18s
Drill or Jean Trousers, from 16s to £1.1s
Prices for other clothing as formerly advertised
MESSRS HUME & CO,
Tailors and Clothiers, 86, Pitt-street, Sydney, and at George-street, Windsor 2853
Source:Sydney Herald (NSW : 1831 - 1842), Thursday 12 November 1840, page 1




Source: Sydney Free Press (NSW : 1841 - 1842), Saturday 11 December 1841, page 4

TRANSCRIPT
FASHIONABLE TAILORING AND DRAPERY
ALBERT HOUSE, PITT-STREET,
Nearly opposite the Theatre.
JAMES M'EVOY,
(Late Foreman to STULTZ. and CO., London , and now Successor to HUME and CO.,)
BEGS to apprise his numerous friends and the public generally, that he is opening an Establishment at the above address in the Tailoring and Drapery Business. Having laid in a very varied and extensive Stock, selected from the best manufacturing districts in England, which comprises every description of Cloth, Kerseys, Vestings, Drills, &e., &c., of fine fabrics and new patterns, the whole of which he has purchased for READY MONEY, he is determined to do business at prices so very advantageous to the public as have hitherto been unknown in the colony ! In the Tailoring Department, which will be carried on under his own particular inspection, and from his having engaged some first rate workmen from London, gentlemen favouring J. M'E. with their commands may rest assured of being suited with the most fashionable style of cut, the neatest workmanship and with the utmost DESPATCH. J. M'E. is convinced that a single trial of his establishment will be sufficient to assure the purchaser of the excellence of the goods, and the extraordinary low prices which are there to be met with. J. M'E. declines publishing a long scale of prices, but will rest his claim for patronage and support on the sound understanding and good taste of a discerning public. Family Mourning executed in. time for funerals. December 9.
Source:Sydney Free Press (NSW : 1841 - 1842), Saturday 11 December 1841, page 4

1844: arrival of goods on the "Parrock Hall"
No doubt bespoke tailor James McEvoy counted amongst his clientele the many famous performers and patrons of the Royal Victoria Theatre at 243 Pitt Street such as Madame Marie Carandini. She first performed at the Victoria in April 1845, singing excerpts from opera in a season of variety concerts. She had arrived at Sydney from Hobart, VDL (Tasmania) on board the Water Lilly with one of her daughters on 6th November 1844, the day after the arrival of Captain Edward Goldsmith on the Parrock Hall.



Source:The Bee of Australia (Sydney, NSW : 1844) Sat 9 Nov 1844 Page 3 Shipping News.

TRANSCRIPT
5. .— From London 22nd July, via Portsmouth the Parrock Hall, 425 tons, E. Goldsmith, master, with merchandise. Cabin passengers — Mrs Campbell, Mrs. R. Campbell and four sons, Mr Fotheringham, Miss Jephson, Miss House and sister, Miss Wright, Mr. W. S. Hay, Mr. W. Hunt, Mr. Nowland, Dr. Morse, Mr J. Jones and Mr. Turner; steerage— Mr Bartlet, wife, and two daughters, and Mr. Anderson.
Nov. 6.— H M S Vestal , 26 guns, Charles Talbot, commander, from Monte Video 16th August, Cape of Good Hope 19th September, and Hobart Town the 1st instant.
6. — The schooner Water Lilly, 155 tons, Hayle from Hobart Town the 30th ultimo with sundries Passengers, Mrs Carandini and child Messrs.: Richard Dunsmore, James Rawlins, Phillip Smith, Henry Fowler, James White, and Joseph Jostage.



The Carandinis, Marie Carandini (on right) one of Australia's first opera performing families, ca. 1875
Photographer Charles Hewitt (attributed)
State Library of New South Wales
Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/3293959164/

1844: Daniel O'Connell and the rights of mankind
James McEvoy was among the many supporters who signed a petition in November 1844 addressed to the Mayor of Sydney, wishing to express their sympathy with the Irish "Liberator", the first Catholic Member of the British Parliament, Daniel O'Connell who was imprisoned for holding "monster meetings" in all parts of Ireland, hoping to dissolve the Anglo-Irish legislative union. He was arrested for seditious conspiracy, but released on appeal after three months’ imprisonment with payment of a large fine.



TRANSCRIPT
STATE TRIALS !!!
To the Right Worshipful the Mayor of Sydney.
WE, the undersigned, Inhabitants of the City of Sydney, respectfully request that you will be pleased to convene a Public Meeting of the Citizens, at the City Theatre, for the purpose of affording us an opportunity of expressing our sympathy with Daniel O'Connell, Esq., M.P., and the other defendants, who have been sentenced to imprisonment, and the payment of large fines, for advocating the rights of mankind, without distinction of creed, class, or country.
Source: Morning Chronicle (Sydney, NSW : 1843 - 1846) Sat 23 Nov 1844 Page 3 Advertising

1845: sale of goods ex "Parrock Hall"
James McEvoy advertised luxury imported cloth, apparel and crest buttons for the "aristocracy and gentry of Australia" from his premises at Albert House, 261 Pitt Street, Sydney. In this advertisement, of 11th January 1845, he informed patrons he had just "opened, ex Parrock Hall, a splendid description of goods". Whether his acquisition of these goods was by direct order as a consignee of the shipment which arrived at Sydney under the command of Captain Edward Goldsmith on November 5th, 1844, or whether James McEvoy purchased the goods from middlemen such as Captain Goldsmith's agent Robert Towns through wholesalers and auctioneers, is not clear from the Parrock Hall's consignment cockets, manifest or list of imports published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 6th November 1844 (see Addenda below). Whatever the circumstance, James McEvoy seemed most pleased by "the liberal patronage bestowed upon him" in this advertisement of his purchase from the Parrock Hall which included the following: -



James McEvoy, consignment ex Parrock Hall
Source: Morning Chronicle (Sydney, NSW : 1843 - 1846) Sat 11 Jan 1845 Page 1 Advertising

TRANSCRIPT
ALBERT HOUSE,
PITT-STREET.
JAMES M'EVOY, in returning thanks to his friends and patrons for the very liberal patronage bestowed upon him since his commencement in business, hastens to inform them that he has just opened, ex Parrock Hall,, a splendid description of goods, consisting of -
First rate West of England blue and black cloths
Buckskins, black and white check cassimeres
The most splendid description of shawl pattern vestings
Washing satins, and silk velvets
Figured and plain satins, for scarfs or waitscoats
Corded silk ditto, buff cassimeres
An immense assortment of ducks and drills, unequalled in the colony for strength and durability
And a most splendid assortment of cloths and trimmings for ladies' riding habits.
J. M. also begs to inform the aristocracy and gentry of Australia, that he has in his possession a collection of
LIVERY BUTTONS,
With crests belonging to the leading families in New South Wales; and being the only holder of the above in Sydney, he feels proud in asserting that no other house can furnish them. He also respectfully offers his services in procuring from England any crest button which may be attached to a family, at a trifling expense.
January 1 .
Source: Morning Chronicle (Sydney, NSW : 1843 - 1846) Sat 11 Jan 1845 Page 1 Advertising

Six months later, James McEvoy was again thanking his patrons for their support. In this advertisement (below) dated 24 June 1845, he alerted readers to his recent hiring of the first-rate cutter, Mr. Robert Dunn. He added the designation "Merchant Tailor" to his business credentials too, intimating membership of the Merchant Taylors´ Company, one of London's Great Twelve City Livery Companies, founded in 1327 as a religious and social fraternity for tailors and linen armourers.



Source: Morning Chronicle (Sydney, NSW : 1843 - 1846) Wed 9 Jul 1845 Page 1 Advertising

TRANSCRIPT
ALBERT HOUSE,261, PITT-STREET,
ESTABLISHED 1843.
TO THE NOBILITY, GENTRY, AND THE COLONISTS OF NEW SOUTH.WALES GENERALLY.
JAMES M'EVOY, Merchant Tailor, begs to return his sincere thanks for the patronage with which he has been favoured since his commencement in business, and which he hopes, through strict attention to the various departments of his trade, to continue to deserve.
J. M'E, begs also to intimate, that he has concluded an engagement with Mr. Robert Dunn, (late Foreman. for· the last twelve years to Mr Pendray,) as Foreman and Cutter to his Establishment, and from whose well-known reputation as a first-rate "Cutter,"' combined with his own personal attention to all orders, the most pleasing results are anticipated.
J. M'E, in conclusion, respectfully solicits an inspection of his varied and well selected stock of "Real West of England Cloths" which, for variety of shade and beauty of texture, cannot be excelled by any house in the Colony.
His stock of waistcooatings will be found most rich and varied, consisting of velvets, rich shawl vestings, plain and figured satins, corded silk- ditto; a splendid description of goods for trousers, consisting of buckskins, doeskins, black and white check cassimere, milled kerseymeres, for riding trousers. Also, a splendid assortment of cloths and trimmings for ladies' riding habits.
Plain and fine beavers, of various colours, for top. coats.
June 24, 1845.

Source: Morning Chronicle (Sydney, NSW : 1843 - 1846) Wed 9 Jul 1845 Page 1 Advertising

1846: death of infant son
Although no mention is made of his wife in this death notice of their infant son, 7th August 1846, James McEvoy must have resided with his family on the same premises as his tailoring business, Albert House, No. 261 Pitt St. Sydney.



Death of James McEvoy's son
The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) Fri 7 Aug 1846 Page 4 Family Notices

TRANSCRIPT
DIED
On the 6th instant, of convulsion, William Christopher, infant son of Mr. James McEvoy, of Pitt-street, aged 4 months.
1847: a formidable debtor
If his address to the nobility and gentry of NSW in his advertisements worked in his favour, it would seem that James McEvoy enjoyed the patronage of rich and important clients. Some, however, defaulted in payment. This notice indicated that one of his clients, John Ryan Brenan (1798-1868), NSW coroner and magistrate, who was facing insolvency, owed a sufficient amount that James McEvoy personally lodged an affadavit to effect a summons. As police magistrate, Brenan was a highly controversial figure. This excerpt is from the Australian Dictionary of Biography online:
In 1844 the City Council made no provision for paying his magisterial salary and, as no other funds were available, he was thrust out of office. Later this action was found to be beyond the council's power, but by that time Brenan was on the verge of insolvency. His appeals for reinstatement fell on deaf ears, Governor Sir Charles FitzRoy reporting to London that he was 'a very unfit person' for the post ...



Source: The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893) Sat 8 May 1847 Page 2 INSOLVENCY PROCEEDINGS.

TRANSCRIPT
INSOLVENCY PROCEEDINGS.
COMPULSORY SEQUESTRATION.—The estate of John Ryan Brenan, gentleman, of Garry-owen, near Sydney, was on Wednesday placed under sequestration, on the affidavit of James McEvoy, tailor, Pitt-street. A summons was also ordered to issue and show cause, on the 12th instant, why the order for sequestration should not be confirmed.—John Walker to be official assignee.


Notice gazetted, NSW Government Gazette 7-11th May 1847: "This is to give notice, that the order nisi made herein, and all proceedings thereunder, have been superceded" 

1848: Carandinis at the Victoria Theatre
James McEvoy was most likely a regular attendee of performances at the Royal Victoria Theatre, given the proximity of his business and residence in Pitt Street. In 1848, the Carandinis were once again performing at the Victoria, this time with the ever ubiquitous Band of the 99th Regiment under the patronage of Mrs Deas Thomson, wife of the colonial secretary of New South Wales:



Source: Australian (Sydney, NSW : 1824 - 1848), Friday 7 April 1848, page 3

TRANSCRIPT
THEATRICALS. - It is again our agreeable province to refer to the claims of Victoria favorites on the occasion of their benefit, and we have the greater pleasure in doing so from the fact that the performances at every benefit which we have drawn attention to have given unmixed satisfaction to crowded houses. On Monday next, those deservedly popular artists, Signor and Madame Carandini, claim the suffrages of their friends, and every effort appears to have been made by them to provide entertainments of no ordinary character. A Grand Romantic Drama, entitled THE JEW of NOTRE DAME, a well-selected pasticcio of Dance and Song, and an effervescent Farce of No Followers, are included in the programme; and when we add that the splendid Band of the 99th Regiment will attend, by permission of their gallant Colonel, and that Mrs. Deas Thomson has given her patronage to the beneficiaries, we may confidently predict the attendance of a full and fashionable audience.



Madame Marie Carandini c1863
By WP Dowling Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria [H10446] (Pictures Collection)
Link: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/media/2548

Public meetings attended by VIPs whose political sympathies James McEvoy shared were also held at the Victoria Theatre, Pitt St. Sydney. The engraving (below), published in 1857, depicted an event held by the Patriotic Fund in aid of widows and orphans of servicemen slain in the war against Russia. A full account was published in the Hobarton Mercury (Tas. : 1854 - 1857), Monday 5 March 1855, page 3. The report opened as follows:

PUBLIC MEETING AT THE ROYAL VICTORIA THEATRE.
Last Tuesday was a day which merits ever to be remembered in Australian history, is displaying the remarkable liberality for which the colonists and natives are distinguished.
That in a colony wherein the inhabitants are so remote from the land of their primogenitors,- a people obviously venturing to this extreme antipodes for the purpose of pushing their worldly fortunes, should come forward in immense numbers, and subscribe money by thousands for the relief of the military and naval forces and their widows and orphans embroiled in hostilities, proves that Australia is as sound, and sterling in heart, as the sturdy tree of which she is so flourishing a branch.
The Governor General presided at the meeting, and certainly no Governor ever arrived in an British-colonial possession with so favorable an opportunity to reap a rich harvest of popularity.
His Excellency was received in the most gratifying manner the people loudly cheering him, both outside and inside of the Theatre, while the crowd of ladies who thronged the dress circle, waved their handkerchiefs in enthusiastic greeting.
All the beauty, rank and fashion of the metropolis were concentered at the Victoria Theatre last Tuesday, and but one feeling was expressed - that of genuine British and Irish nationality, in sympathy for their gallant and heroic country-men.
His Excellency the Governor-General addressed the meeting in a concise and eloquent speech, narra-ting the reasons which had occasioned the assembling of the meeting. He had received a letter from the Secretary of State immediately after his arrival as Governor, urging him to place the matter of the Patriotic Fund before the colonists, and the great object of the present meeting was to aid and rescue from penury the bereaved widows and orphans of the brave soldiers and sailors slain in the terrible war now being carried on by the British Empire and its noble Gallic ally against Russia. His Excellency, in a most feeling manner, depicted the severe privations and sufferings to which wounded British soldiers and the widows and orphans of the fallen had been exposed at the close of the last great -war, and trusted that every person in the community would aid in the present occasion to ameliorate the sad calamities consequent upon the present crisis.... continue reading
Source: Hobarton Mercury (Tas. : 1854 - 1857), Monday 5 March 1855, page 3



Creator Mason, Walter G
Title Public meeting at the Victoria theatre, Sydney, in aid of the Patriotic Fund. [picture]
Call Number PIC Volume 6A #S1267
Created/Published [Sydney : J.R. Clarke, 1857]
National Library of Australia Link: https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2664077

1850s: owner of Moon Moon Curra station
Although James McElroy was still residing in Sydney by 1851, he had purchased a property at the junction of the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee Rivers, NSW in 1848 and soon thereafter was involved in a squatting case as plaintiff against defendants who were running cattle over his station. He took the case to the NSW Supreme Court and lost. One of the jury members was so drunk, he was taken into custody by the Sheriff for 48 hours. The Sydney Morning Herald reported the case as follows:

TRANSCRIPT
Sydney Morning Herald
FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 1851.
" Sworn to no Master, of no Sect am I."
LAW INTELLIGENCE.
SUPREME COURT.-Thursday.
Before His Honor Mr. Justice Therry and a Jury of four.

McEVOY v. TYSON and ANOTHER.
This was an action of trespass on a run called Moon Moon Curra, the property of the plaintiff. The defendants pleaded the general issue, and that the locus in quo was not in the possession of the plaintiff at the time that the supposed trespasses were alleged to have been committed.
The Solicitor-General, Mr. Foster and Mr. Holroyd, conducted the case for the plaintiff; Mr. Darvall and Mr. Meymott appeared for the defendants.
This was what is commonly known as a squatting case. On the part of the plaintiff, it was shown that he purchased the station called Moon Moon Curra, the station at the junction of the Lachlan with the Murrumbidgee, some time in 1848. Shortly after he came into possession, finding the defendants' cattle running over his station, he commenced an action of trespass against them, which was subsequently discontinued under the following arrangements : " Memorandum of agreement made and entered into the 25th day of March, 1850, between James McEvoy, of Sydney, and James Tyson, for himself and brother William, both of the Lachlan. The conditions are, that we give up to the said James McEvoy all claims and title to that portion of Crown land which has been in dispute between the said James McEvoy and myself and brother, bounded by our hut, on the south bank by the Lachlan River, with a line running due south from our hut to the undisputed ground in the plain, the run of the said James McEvoy. We further agree to pay all law expenses incurred, on the consideration of the said James McEvoy stopping further proceedings (Signed) James Tyson, James McEvoy." In the month of August following, plaintiff and one of the defendants, James Tyson, went to Mr. Rowley, the plaintiff's attorney, to pay the plaintiff's costs. Plaintiff joked James Tyson about the payment of costs, when the latter observed that he did not mind about the costs, he had a better run than ever. He took out a plan from his pocket, and pointing to it said he would go so many miles down the Lachlan. When Tyson's attention was called to the conditions of the agreement he remarked, that he relied on this portion of it, " the line running due south," and persisted in such line being the boundary. Mr. Rowley, addressing Tyson, said, " you are giving up nothing, but getting more." Plaintiff interposed, and asked Tyson if he was going to to take a point like that, and if he had not acted honorably. Tyson replied, " it's Shepperd's fault, he did not know the bearings of the compass." It was proved by Shepherd, the plaintiff's superintendent, that after the memorandum of agreement was signed, he went with James Tyson to the disputed part of the run. Shepherd claimed for plaintiff as a boundary a line running south-east from defendant's hut, whilst defendant, James Tyson, said he claimed a line running from the same point due south. The plaintiff's counsel proposed to go into evidence of a conversation which had taken place at the time the agreement was signed. Mr. Darvall objected to its reception, but after a lengthy argument it was admitted by his Honor.
Mr. Darvall, in addressing the Jury for the defendants, stated that it was not his intention to call witnesses, and overload the case with evidence, since there was nothing in the plaintiff's case to rebut. The only witness acquainted with the run which the plaintiff had called was Shepherd, the superintendent, who had only been five times at the station altogether, and had never remained more than a week or ten days at any one time. It was shown that Sams, who had been stockman on the station before plaintiff came into possession, and had remained in the same employment ever since, was in Sydney, and had not been called. This looked suspicious, as Sams might have shown where Tooth's cattle ran when plaintiff came into possession. The learned counsel then commented at some length upon the wording of the agreement, contending that it was strictly to the letter binding upon the plaintiff.
His Honor, in summing up, told the Jury that this squatting action was different from the usual actions of this kind that were brought into Court. Usually, priority of occupation and possession, continued uninterruptedly afterwards, were the tests by which an action of this kind was determined. The occupation, however, in this case arose upon an agreement. The plaintiff claims upon an occupation and a surrender by the defendants of any claims they might have to the station. The defendants on the other hand, rely upon an agreement. The question for the determination of the Jury was, did the plaintiff and defendants agree upon a boundary line and if they did, what was that line. When there are expressions of ambiguity in an agreement, parol evidence maybe admitted to explain them. Here there is a manifest mistake in the agreement by the insertion of the word " due." There was a mistake on the point of the compass, for what Shepherd , described as "due south" was in point of fact "south-east." This, however, was a question for their decision. The damages which the plaintiff has sustained were slight, and if they should find for the plaintiff, the damages would only be for the grass which the defendants' cattle had consumed.
The Jury retired for nearly on hour, and on their return into Court found a verdict for the defendants.
Attorney for the plaintiff, Mr. Rowley ; for the defendants, Messrs. Dunsmure and Longmore.
The only case in the cause list for to-day, in addition to those already published, is Gwynne v. Blackett.
Mr. Thomas Hughes, a juror in waiting, was committed by his Honor the Judge to the custody of the Sheriff, for forty-eight hours, for being drunk and disorderly in Court- at a later period of the day a petition was presented to his Honor for his liberation, on perusing which his Honor declined to make any fresh order.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Friday 14 March 1851, page 2

ADDENDA

Robert Brooks and Captain Edward Goldsmith
Captain Edward Goldsmith made his first voyage for British ship owner and wool merchant Robert Brooks (1790-1882) on the barque Parrock Hall. The long term success of Robert Brooks' shipping and pastoral investments depended heavily on the trust he placed in his agents at colonial ports, and on his delegation of all responsibility to his ships' masters. "Freight payable in the colony" appeared frequently on his cargo manifests. Between 1834 and 1836 he purchased eight vessels, all second-hand. Between 1844 and 1846, his shipping purchases included the Parrock Hall, the Victor, the Kinnear, the Angelina, the North Briton, the Eagle, the William Wilson, and most important of all, the Rattler, built and bought specifically for Captain Edward Goldsmith (Broeze, 1993, p. 150, Table 8.6).

As Brooks' biographer Frank Broeze tells it, (pp. 153-4) -
Captain Goldsmith of the Parrock Hall making his first voyage for Brooks, through his connection Thomas Chapman arranged that the Aden loaded home at Hobart. at the excellent rate of 1½ d per 1lb wool and £5 5s per ton for whale oil .... The new link proved so satisfactory that ... Brooks turned incidental deployment into permanent commitment. Building on Captain Goldsmith's reputation and the strength of his connections with Devitt & Moore in London and Thomas Chapman at Hobart, he bought a new ship for Goldsmith, to be employed as a 'regular trader' i.e. on a permanent shuttle service between London and Hobart. The Rattler, of 522 tons, NM, was a large ship for the Hobart trade and at £5750 was Brook's most expensive yet. But he estimated the capabilities of his agents correctly. Devitt & Moore despatched the ship with sufficient rapidity to ensure that her arrival at Hobart was perfectly timed for the coming wool season. She reached Hobart on 11 November 1846 and was immediately advertised as a 'new and remarkable fast barque' to sail in early January. Despite her size, Chapman loaded her in a little over two months.
Until 1851/52 the Rattler maintained an annual shuttle service based on the rhythm of successive wool seasons. In principle, such a schedule, supported by influential brokers at either side, formed the solution to the problem of the British shipowner in finding continuous employment in the Australian trade. The slightest delay in loading or on the passage could fatally disturb the annual rhythm .... In Sydney it occurred only rarely that a ship loaded home in more than two successive years.... But only at Hobart were several independent freight carriers able to achieve sustained shuttle employment. With a shorter sea passage to and from Britain and a more compact hinterland than Sydney the chances of delays were much reduced (Broeze 1993:153-4)

The "Parrock Hall" arrives at Sydney 1844
.On Tuesday, November 5th, 1844, Captain Edward Goldsmith sailed into Sydney Harbour in command of the merchant barque the Parrock Hall, 425 tons, departing Portsmouth on July 22, 1844, bringing mail, cargo and passengers via the Cape of Good Hope. The voyage was exceptionally fast (105 days). According to The Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List of Nov. 9th, "she had a fine passage" and on the way, "she did not speak any thing." The ship may have acquired its name from the old manor of Robert de Parrock, where Parrock Avenue and Parrock Road are now located in Gravesend, Kent, UK. Parrock Hall was built by Peter Moulson, Lord of the Manor of Milton, in 1761, and by 1821 it was owned by Colonel Dalton. In 1991, Parrock Hall, a Grade II listed building, was said to be in a dilapidated state with calls for its preservation.

PASSENGERS per "Parrock Hall" 1844
November 5, 1844:



TRANSCRIPT
November 5. Parrock Hall, barque, 425 tons, Captain Goldsmith, from London, the 15th, and Portsmouth the 22nd July, with a general cargo. Passengers - Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. R. Campbell, and four sons, Mrs. Fotheringham, Miss Jepherson, Miss How, Miss M. How, Miss Wright, Mr. W. L. Hay, Mr. T. L. Hay, Mr. Nowland, Dr. Morse, Mr. W.H. Morse, Mr. W. H. Hunt, Mr. T. Jones, Mr. T. W. Turner, Mrs. Sarah Trump, Miss E. Gray, Mr. H. Lynch, Mrs. E. Jusseauma, Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett, son, and two daughters, and Mr. J. Anderson.
Source: Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List
Link: https://www.nla.gov.au/ferg/issn/14403897.html

IMPORTS per "Parrock Hall" 1844
Imports, November 1844 at Sydney per the Parrock Hall, barque, 424 tons, Captain Goldsmith, from London.



Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) Wed 6 Nov 1844 Page 2 IMPORTS.

TRANSCRIPT
IMPORTS.
November 5. Parrock Hall, barque, 424 tons, Captain Goldsmith, from London : 1 box apparel, A. Gravely; 6 tierces tobacco, Thomas Smith and Co. ; 3 casks lead, Watkin ; 28 kegs 12 tierces tobacco, Smith and Campbell; 30 hogsheads and 50 barrels beer, and 100 casks bottled beer, Lyall, Scott, and Co.; 12 cases, 1 cask, 5 bales, 60 coils line, and 6 coils rope, 20 firkins, 4 casks oil, and 1 box, F. Whit-worth; 1 case, F. Mitchell; 4 cases, J. and S. Willis; 4 bales slops, 33 tierces tobacco, 4 bales slops, 20 trunks shoes, and 8 bales shirts, Lamb and Parbury; 1 case apparel, and 1 box candles, Bishop of Australia ; 2 boxes black lead, Ray and Glaister; 43 hogsheads rum, R. Towns ; 1 case silver plate, Miss Howe ; 1 case silver plate, R. Campbell, junior; 100 hogs-heads beer, 100 casks bottled beer, 1 case, and 4 bales, Flower, Salting, and Co. ; 1 case ap-parel, J. Purser; 2 cases apparel, and 3 bales, Rev. Dr. Ross ; 1 case, W. Walker and Co. ; 1 parcel books, Colonel Shadforth ; 8 trusses and 1 trunk, J. J. Giblett ; 7 packages plate glass, Solomon ; 5 boxes soap, Miss Wright; 3 bales and 8 cases, M. Joseph; 1 case, Quaife ; 1 case books, W. A. Colman; 1 case and 1 trunk, J. G. Raphael, 1 case, Fullerton; 1 case, Mr. Hamilton ; 8 bales, 19 cases, H. G. Smith ; 33 cases and 39 bales, 29 1/2 tierces, and 5 tierces tobacco, Griffiths, Gore, and Co. , 1 case, D. Davis ; 1 case, J. F. Milne , 2 cases, 2 trunks, 1 bale, Swain, Webb, and Co ; 1 case, G Mason ; 45 coils rope, A. Fothering-ham ; 1 case, 10 bales, 5 trunks, T. Smith and Co ; 30 hogsheads beer, 3 cases whips, E. Goldsworth ; 3 bales and 3 cases, R. Ramsay, sen., and Co. ; 1 case preserves, J. Parnell; 8 cases cottons, Dreutler and Wagner ; 38 cases Portugal wine, E. C. Weekes ; 1 box boots, Judge Stephen ; 36 bales linens, 8 cases sta-tionery, 28 casks shoes, I bundle measures, 4 bundles tarpaulins, 9 bundles, 38 table boards, 79 kettles, 52 pots, 50 shovels, 27 pieces iron, 400 ash felloes, 12 spades, 3 coils rope, 1 hand-cart, 100 fathoms cable, 4 gun-carriages, 4 handspikes, 16 bundles iron, 5 baskets oil, 10 cases iron work, Government stores ; 1 case (a carriage), 1 case hardware, 34 casks bottled, and 1 hogshead beer, order. R. Towns, agent.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) Wed 6 Nov 1844 Page 2 IMPORTS.



Towns Wharf, owned and operated by Captain Goldsmith's agent Robert Towns
Now numbered as Pier 8, and the Port Authority building, Towns Place, Sydney Harbour NSW
Next to the Barangaroo development, Millers Point
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2013

ACCOUNTS and MANIFESTS 1844



A balanced ledger.
Debit and credit entries for the Parrock Hall
Records of Robert Brooks and Co.
National Library of Australia MS 2381
Photo copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2016

Manifest of the Parrock Hall 1844, London to Sydney.



"Manifest Parrock Hall London to Sydney Freight Payable in Coly"



Manifest of cargo per the ship Parrock Hall to Sydney 1844
Robert Towns & Co - Records, 1828-1896  Call Number MLMSS 307
184: Papers, including business letters from Robert Lodge and Robert Brooks to Robert Towns and Co; cargo manifestoes, the 'Eagle', 'Robert Matthews', 'Parrock Hill'; passenger list 'Duke of Roxburgh'
THE MITCHELL LIBRARY STATE LIBRARY of NSW
Photos copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2016

Departure of Captain Edward Goldsmith for London 1845
Loading the Parrock Hall at Sydney for London began on November 27th, 1844, with departure scheduled for January 15th, 1845 after minor repairs to the sails.



Memorandum of Agreement between Captain Edward Goldsmith of the Parrock Hall and agents J. Woodall, and W. Samson to supply labour to load wool at Sydney dated 27th November 1844:
Held at the Mitchell Library, SLNSW
Robert Towns & Co - Records, 1828-1896 Call Number MLMSS 307
Photos copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2016

TRANSCRIPT
Memorandum of Agreement between Captain Edward Goldsmith of the Barque Parrock Hall on the one part, and J. Woodall and W. Samson, Stevadores, of Sydney, on the other part, that is to say the said J. Woodall, and W. Samson do hereby agree to stow the said Vessell with Wool, [inserted - and other Merchandise], and to find Press, Screws, Planks, Samson Posts, Toms, Hand-hooks, Lashings and a foreman and find all Labour at 4s per Bale the whole of the Cargo to be taken from the Shore and hoisted on board by the Stevendores with the use of the Ship's boats
No allowance for Broken Stowage of any Kind - Bones - Hoofs and Horns being of that description
The terms of this agreement is to this effect - the whole of the Labour to be performed by the seven Stevadores without any extra change beyond the sum above stated and to the entire satisfaction of the said Captain Goldsmith
We also agree to stow the Dead Weight on board the above Vessel, at Nine Pence per Ton. Ship finding labour ....
Witness our hands this Twenty seven day of November One thousand eight hundred and forty-four
We also agree to Employ what men you have to spare at the rate of 2/5 pr day and to ? at the rate of 2/6 etc etc [ page torn ]
For Woodall and Samson
signed R Towns
Jno Wood etc
PASSENGERS and EXPORTS per "Parrock Hall" for London 1845
Passengers:
January 15. Parrock, Hall, barque, Captain Goldsmith for London. Passengers - Mr. and Miss Mead, Mr. Wade, Dr. Johnson, Mr. and Mrs Gard, Misses Agnes, Elizabeth, and Emma Gard, Master William Gard, Mr. Ashford, Mr. Atkins, Mr. R. Bailey, Master Conolly, Mr. John Whaling, Mr. and Mrs. Donovan and son, Mr. and Mrs. Curtis and five children, Mr. John Hazard, Mr. Henry Granhow, Mrs Luke, Mrs. Chapman, Mr. George West. Mr. Joseph Hoyle, Mr. Charles Swindels, Mr. W. Copeland, Mrs. Copeland, and Mr. W. Taylor.
Exports:



Source: Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List
Link: https://www.nla.gov.au/ferg/issn/14403897.html

TRANSCRIPT
EXPORTS
January 11. - Parrock Hall, barque, Captain Goldsmith, for London: 222 bales wool, 19 casks tallow, Gilchrist and Alexander; 21 bales wool, Brown and Co.; 155 bales wool, 63 casks tallow, 3 casks hog's lard, 1 case apparel, 1 case of specimens of natural history, Thacker, Mason and Co.; 248 bales wool, Donaldson, Dawes, and Co.; 186 bales wool, W. Walker and Co.; 43 casks tallow, C. Appleton and Co.; 137 casks tallow, 2 casks neats foot oil, 240 hides, Robert Towns; 20 casks tallow. Thomas Smith and Co., 9 tons copper ore, 3 tons manganese, 10 cwt. dyewood, Beattie and Taylor; 3 casks ironmongery, B. Boyd and Co.; 1 case jewellery, 4 casks and 8 cases ironmongery, R. Lamb; 10 tons drywood, C. Ambercrombie; 12 tons bones, R. Hill.



NSW Public Record Office
Ref: 45/35940 Photographs of Sydney taken between 1860 and 1880

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Sunday, July 05, 2020

Captain Hector Axup at the farewell to "S.S. Salamis" Sydney 1900

CAPTAIN Hector Charles Horatio AXUP
S.S. SALAMIS to the Boxer Rebellion China 1900
SHIPWRECK of the barque ACACIA 1904

The Australian War Memorial holds a large collection of photographs, some quite shocking, relating to the Boxer rebellion. View more here at Collections.



CHINA, 1900-1901. A GROUP OF AUSTRALIAN NAVAL BRIGADE OFFICERS AND MEN SERVING IN CHINA DURING THE BOXER REBELLION, WITH SOME CHINESE. EXTREME RIGHT, SEATED, IS LIEUTENANT LEIGHTON S. BRACEGIRDLE.

Unit New South Wales Naval Contingent
Place Asia: China
Accession Number P00417.001
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Print silver gelatin
Conflict China, 1900-1901 (Boxer Uprising)
Australian War Memorial
Link: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C42269

The Boxer Uprising 1900
Australia's involvement:
The Boxer Rebellion in China began in 1900, and a number of western nations—including many European powers, the United States, and Japan—soon sent forces as part of the China Field Force to protect their interests. In June, the British government sought permission from the Australian colonies to dispatch ships from the Australian Squadron to China. The colonies also offered to assist further, but as most of their troops were still engaged in South Africa, they had to rely on naval forces for manpower. The force dispatched was a modest one, with Britain accepting 200 men from Victoria, 260 from New South Wales and the South Australian ship HMCS Protector, under the command of Captain William Creswell. Most of these forces were made up of naval brigade reservists, who had been trained in both ship handling and soldiering to fulfil their coastal defence role. Amongst the naval contingent from New South Wales were 200 naval officers and sailors and 50 permanent soldiers headquartered at Victoria Barracks, Sydney who originally enlisted for the Second Boer War. The soldiers were keen to go to China but refused to be enlisted as sailors, while the New South Wales Naval Brigade objected to having soldiers in their ranks. The Army and Navy compromised and titled the contingent the NSW Marine Light Infantry.

The contingents from New South Wales and Victoria sailed for China on 8 August 1900. Arriving in Tientsin, the Australians provided 300 men to an 8,000-strong multinational force tasked with capturing the Chinese forts at Pei Tang, which dominated a key railway. They arrived too late to take part in the battle, but were involved in the attack on the fortress at Pao-ting Fu, where the Chinese government was believed to have found asylum after Peking was captured by western forces. The Victorians joined a force of 7,500 men on a ten-day march to the fort, once again only to find that it had already surrendered. The Victorians then garrisoned Tientsin and the New South Wales contingent undertook garrison duties in Peking. HMCS Protector was mostly used for survey, transport, and courier duties in the Gulf of Chihli, before departing in November.[54] The naval brigades remained during the winter, unhappily performing policing and guard duties, as well as working as railwaymen and fire-fighters. They left China in March 1901, having played only a minor role in a few offensives and punitive expeditions and in the restoration of civil order. Six Australians died from sickness and injury, but none were killed as a result of enemy action .... continue reading
Above: extract from Military history of Australia
Below: extract from Boxer Rebellion
Sources: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Involvement of the Eight Nation Alliance:
The Boxer Rebellion (拳亂), Boxer Uprising, or Yihetuan Movement (義和團運動) was an anti-imperialist, anti-foreign, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, toward the end of the Qing dynasty.

It was initiated by the Militia United in Righteousness (Yìhéquán), known in English as the Boxers because many of their members had practiced Chinese martial arts, also referred to in the Western world at the time as Chinese Boxing. Villagers in North China had been building resentment against Christian missionaries who ignored tax obligations and abused their extraterritorial rights to protect their congregants against lawsuits. The immediate background of the uprising included severe drought and disruption by the growth of foreign spheres of influence after the Sino-Japanese War of 1895. After several months of growing violence and murder in Shandong and the North China Plain against foreign and Christian presence in June 1900, Boxer fighters, convinced they were invulnerable to foreign weapons, converged on Beijing with the slogan Support the Qing government and exterminate the foreigners. Foreigners and Chinese Christians sought refuge in the Legation Quarter.

In response to reports of an invasion by the Eight Nation Alliance of American, Austro-Hungarian, British, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Russian troops to lift the siege, the initially hesitant Empress Dowager Cixi supported the Boxers and on June 21 issued an Imperial Decree declaring war on the foreign powers. Diplomats, foreign civilians, and soldiers as well as Chinese Christians in the Legation Quarter were besieged for 55 days by the Imperial Army of China and the Boxers. Chinese officialdom was split between those supporting the Boxers and those favoring conciliation, led by Prince Qing. The supreme commander of the Chinese forces, the Manchu General Ronglu (Junglu), later claimed he acted to protect the foreigners. Officials in the Mutual Protection of Southeast China ignored the imperial order to fight against foreigners.

The Eight-Nation Alliance, after being initially turned back, brought 20,000 armed troops to China, defeated the Imperial Army, and arrived at Peking on August 14, relieving the siege of the Legations. Uncontrolled plunder of the capital and the surrounding countryside ensued, along with summary execution of those suspected of being Boxers. The Boxer Protocol of 7 September 1901 provided for the execution of government officials who had supported the Boxers, provisions for foreign troops to be stationed in Beijing, and 450 million taels of silver—approximately $10 billion at 2018 silver prices and more than the government's annual tax revenue—to be paid as indemnity over the course of the next 39 years to the eight nations involved...... continue reading
Source: Extract from article Boxer Rebellion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The soldier third from left in this photograph represented Australia:



Troops of the Eight nations alliance of 1900 in China.

Left to right: Britain, United States, Australia (British Empire colony at this time), India (British Empire colony at this time), Germany (German Empire at this time), France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Japan.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Troops_of_the_Eight_nations_alliance_1900.jpg



S.S. Salamis departs Sydney with Victorian and NSW Naval Contingent for China, July 1900.

Units New South Wales Military Forces Transport ships
Places Asia: China
Oceania: Australia, New South Wales, Sydney
Accession Number A05042
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Film polyester negative
Maker Unknown
Place made Australia: New South Wales, Sydney
Date made July 1900
Conflict China, 1900-1901 (Boxer Uprising)
Australian War Memorial

Link: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C757

Captain Axup on the "Acacia"
From his vantage point on board the barque Acacia, Captain Hector Axup experienced first-hand the departure of troops to China on board the Salamis out of Sydney Harbour, August 1900.



Extract from Captain Axup's eye witness account of the departure of the Salamis
Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954), Tuesday 21 August 1900, page 3

FULL TRANSCRIPT
N.S.WALES NAVAL CONTINGENT.
A LETTER FROM CAPTAIN AXUP.
Captain H. C. Axup, so long and popularly known in connection with the pilot service at Tamar Heads, writes from Clarence River (New South Wales), under date August 10:
As you may not have received a detailed account of the movements of the New South Wales naval -contingent for China, perhaps the following sketch from an eye witness may prove interesting:-
"It was my good fortune to witness the church parade last Sunday previous to the embarkation,and a finer body of men it would be difficult to muster, being all picked out of ten times the number of applicants. The Salamis. a noble specimen of naval architecture, at 4 p.m. on Tuesday last steamed majestically down the harbour, passing long lines of big merchant tonnage, the crews of each vessel cheering heartily as she passed to an anchorage below Garden Island, where our little bark was lying, waiting for a favourable wind. We were fortunate in being in such close proximity, as the band on board discoursed martial music at frequent intervals. The sight was most picturesque, surrounded as the Salamis was by a flotilla of steam launches and boats of all descriptions, crammed with the friends and relatives of those on board anxious to see the last of them.
"The utmost enthusiasm prevailed, cheering was incessant throughout the day, and the following day was a repetition until the hour of departure (5.30 p.m.), when she cleared the Heads. We had preceded her by an hour, the wind having suddenly shifted round to westward at 4 p.m., so we immediately got under weigh and cleared the Heads at 4.30, thus having an hour's start. We were destined to see the last of her, and privileged to give her the farewell cheer, which was shouted off Broken Bay, as we were bowling off 10 knots per hour with every stitch of canvas set. It was a magnificent sight to witness a long line of electric lights gradually coming up on our lee quarter, and passing within half a cable, and as it was still early, viz., the second dog-watch (6 to 8), we could not resist the temptation to give them a parting cheer, and wish them 'God speed and a safe return.' Of course she soon passed us, and it was not long before she was out of sight.
"In moralising as I paced the deck, sad thoughts would intrude connected with regard to devastating war, and how few of those noble fellows might be spared to come back to their homes and families. However, it is better to keep such thoughts in the background, for wherever our great Empire wants her sons, I am proud to think there are tens of thousands ready, as Kipling puts it, 'to chuck their jobs and join,'
"Our staunch little bark, the Acacia, of which I am chief mate, completed a splendid run from Sydney to Clarence River in 36 hours, over 300 miles. We load a cargo of iron bark for Lyttelton, New Zealand.
Source: Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954) VTue 21 Aug 1900 Page 3
N.S. WALES NAVAL CONTINGENT.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article35367982

British-born Captain Hector Axup arrived in Tasmania in 1876, married Mary Sophia Day (sister of photographer Thomas Nevin's wife Elizabeth Rachel Day) at the Wesleyan Chapel, Kangaroo Valley, Hobart in 1878, fathered an illustrious family, enjoyed a long career in maritime service, and died in Launceston, Tasmania in 1927. A few months before his death he published a "unique booklet" titled The Reminiscences of an 'Old Salt' of 83 Years by H. C. Axup (Launceston, ca. 1926) with this photo of himself on the front cover:



At his capstan:
Hector Charles James Horatio Axup (1843-1927)
Undated and unattributed, ca. 1880s.
Photo courtesy and copyright © Suzy Baldwin.

Resident of Low Head Pilot Station, Launceston, Tasmania, Captain Hector Axup was long time Chief Officer of the barque/bark Acacia, when in 1882 he was appointed to a similar position on a similar vessel, the barque Natal Queen. According to his eye witness account of the departure of S.S. Salamis from Sydney in 1900, he was again serving on the Acacia as "chief mate" nearly twenty years later. He had sailed the Acacia from Launceston Tasmania to Sydney, NSW, to see the Salamis clear the Heads. He then took the Acacia north 31 miles (50 kms) within sight of the Salamis before bidding her farewell at Broken Bay. His run further north to the Clarence River (Bundjalung country), a barrier estuary in the Northern Rivers district of New South Wales, was achieved in record time (36 hours) and while waiting to load a cargo of iron bark (species of Eucalyptus,) before heading for his final destination, Lyttleton, on the east coast of the south island of New Zealand, he penned his "letter" to the Examiner back in Launceston.



The barque Natal Queen ca.1890
Built at Grangemouth in 1866 ; registered in Hobart 1873 ; wrecked in Adventure Bay 1909
Photographer: Williamson, William, 1861-1926
Archives Office Tasmania ref: AUTAS001126071315



Title ACACIA. [picture] : Hobart. 233 tons. Built at Hobart 1871.
Date [between 1885 and 1946]
Description photograph : gelatin silver ; 11.5 x 15.3 cm.
Cite as: Brodie Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria.

Fate of the "Acacia" 1904
The Acacia (203 tons) was a three mast barque, built at Hobart by John Ross in 1871 of kauri and bluegum. On a voyage from Port Esperance, Tasmania to Port Adelaide, South Australia in June 1904 with Captain A.V. Saunier in command and eight crew, the Acacia disappeared. All nine crew members died. The wreckage was later discovered on the Tasmanian west coast.



Photograph of ship- 'Acacia'
Item Number NS543/1/580
Series  Correspondence, Photographs, Notes, Newspaper Cuttings collected by the O'May Family (NS543)
Archives Office Tasmania

This is the full account from the Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database:
The barque Acacia sailed from Port Esperance for Port Adelaide on 20 June 1904 with a cargo of 113,000 feet of timber, under the command of Captain A.V. Saunier and a crew of eight. The vessel was last seen passing Maatsuyker Island at 9 am the following morning in very poor weather, and failed to arrive at its destination. The small coastal steamer Breone was sent from Hobart on 25 July to investigate the coastline as far north as Port Davey, but nothing of note was found. Rumours that the vessel was seen sheltering at Hunter Island were soon disproved.
Wreckage found near Port Davey early in January 1905 was at first thought to be from Acacia, but soon proved to be from the overdue Brier Holme. This however ultimately did lead to the discovery of the other wreck. On 31 January 1905 Samuel Brown, one of the crew of the fishing boat Ripple, engaged in unofficial beachcombing of salvage from the Brier Holme wreck, came across Acacia’s remains just south of the Mainwaring Inlet. Ripple’s crew entered into partnership with the crew of the fishing boat Gift to recover salvage. It was some six weeks before they informed the official Brier Holme salvage party in the fishing boat Lucy Adelaide of their discovery, and a pigeon message was immediately dispatched to Hobart.
HMS Cadmus was sent from Hobart on 16 March to find the Ripple and from her crew learn the exact whereabouts of the Acacia. A search party on board the warship, however, had little difficulty in locating the wreck, which was spread along about three miles of the beach south of the Mainwaring Inlet. They also found the remains of five skeletons which were returned to Hobart and buried following a large public funeral on 20 March. Although the exact circumstances of the wreck could never be determined, it was presumed that Acacia had been driven inshore by the heavy gales then prevalent. There was no sign of the cargo, which being heavy green wood would have sunk with the hull, although the remains of the latter soon broke up and drifted ashore.
Acacia, ON 57515, was a barque of 225/200 tons, 118.0’ x 24.0’ x 12.0’, built at Hobart by John Ross in 1871, and was registered at Hobart in the names of Robert Rex and Thomas Herbert.  
References: Hobart Mercury 26 July, 6, 22, 26 August 1904, 15, 20, 23, 24 March 1905; Hobart Register 4/1871
Source: Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database
Link: http://www.environment.gov.au/shipwreck/public/wreck/wreck.do?key=6829

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