Serious Money: Captain Goldsmith and shipowner Robert Brooks

CAPTAIN EDWARD GOLDSMITH merchant mariner
ROBERT BROOKS ship owner and wool merchant
ROBERT TOWNS and THOMAS CHAPMAN shipping agents



On left: Robert Towns, merchant and entrepreneur, 1873 / Creator Freeman Brothers.
Call Number P1 / 1797. Digital Order No. a4364097.
Mitchell Library State Library NSW

On right: Honourable T D Chapman
Description:1 photographic print [undated, unattributed]
ADRI: NS407-1-19
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania

British ship owner, wool merchant, director of the Union Bank of Australia (UBA), investor in the London Wool Docks, and eventual owner of the Woodcote estate near Epsom (UK), the remarkable Robert Brooks (1790-1882) voyaged to Australia just once, on board the Elizabeth, departing Portsmouth (UK) on 9th March 1823, dropping anchor at Hobart, Van Diemen's Land, on 12th July 1823, 125 days out. From this very profitable adventure in partnership with Ranulph Dacre, buying and selling timber, wool, sea elephant oil, and colonial produce on the inward and outward voyages, he established early a reliable network of agents with men such as Anthony Fenn Kemp in Hobart and Robert Campbell Jr in Sydney. Ranulph Dacre was the owner of several ships, including the Wave which Captain Edward Goldsmith commanded to Van Diemen's Land during the 1830s to the early 1840s, and with Alexander Fotheringham, the whaler Porteous. Fotheringham also established the first patent slip at Darling Harbour. The success of this and other early ventures was short-lived, however, when Dacre faced bankruptcy, leading Brooks to seek out Sydney businessman Robert Towns (1794-1873) as his chief agent for two enterprises: expansion into the Australian wool trade, and promotion of assisted migration to Australia. The latter contributed to the rapid development of trade to the colonies in the 1830s but also led to a glut and slump in trade which did not recover until the mid 1840s.



Dacre's account 1st June 1828, signed by Robert Brooks



"Errors Excepted ": detail of Dacre's account (above)
Signature of Robert Brooks, London, 1st June 1828



[Above]: Letter from Robert Brooks to Ranulph Dacre, 28th September 1841. Very large sums of money are discussed here, with mention of the accounts of several women - Miss Davies, Mrs Staples, Mrs Weaver, Miss Reynolds, and Mrs Battenshaw,

Source of items above: Robert Towns & Co - Records, 1828-1896
National Library of Australia 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'
Photos copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2016

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, (Goldsmith, master) the Victor, the Kinnear, the Angelina (Goldsmith, master) , the North Briton, the Eagle, the William Wilson, and most important of all, the Rattler, built and bought specifically for Captain Edward Goldsmith (Broeze, p. 150, Table 8.6).



Brooks' shipping purchases
Captain Goldsmith commanded the Parrock Hall, the Angelina and the Rattler
Broeze, p. 150, Table 8.6

From 1845, Hobart became Brooks' third major loading port, in no small measure because of initiatives taken on the spot by his agent Thomas Chapman (1815–1884). As his 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).
Captain Edward Goldsmith and the Rattler were a fixture in the Hobart trade, having completed six consecutive seasons from 1846/7 to 1851/2. Thomas Chapman's agency ensured a rapid turnaround. but the ship and its master gradually lost time against the 'seasonal clock', arriving at London Docks on 17 May, 8 June, 23 June, 1 July, 16 July and 17 July in consecutive seasons. Although put on berth at Hobart in 1852 awaiting cargo, Brooks had few choices but to accept a charter of migrants to Sydney. The Rattler was sold along with the Bangalore on its return to London in 1853 (Broeze, p. 223) under the command of Captain Wardell [Waddell?]

VOYAGES on the RATTLER, Captain Edward Goldsmith, Master:
1846: arrived Hobart from London, 14th November 1846, departed 21st January 1847.
1847: arrived Hobart from London, 11th November 1847, departed 29th January 1848.
1848: arrived Hobart from London, 4th December 1848, departed 25th February 1849.
1849: arrived Hobart from London, 27th November 1849, departed 26th February 1850.
1850: arrived Hobart from London, 13th December 1850, departed 19th March 1851.

Captain Alexander Stewart Wardell/Waddell, a neighbour of Captain Edward Goldsmith in Davey Street Hobart, Tasmania, took command of the Rattler on Captain Goldsmith's return to London in July 1851, departing Plymouth on 14th September 1851, arriving at Hobart on 13th January, 1852. Within a month the Rattler under Commander Wardell/Waddell was preparing departure for London, per this advertisement of 31st January, 1852:



Source: Hobarton Guardian, or, True Friend of Tasmania (Hobart, Tas. : 1847 - 1854) Sat 31 Jan 1852 Page 2 Advertising



Reviewed as "this book is a case study of principal-agent theory" (International Bibliography of Business History, 2013)
Frank Broeze's biography: Mr Brooks and the Australian trade : imperial business in the nineteenth century /
Frank Broeze. Carlton, Vic. : Melbourne University Press, 1993. xi, 375 p., [12] p. of plates : ill., map, ports. ; 24 cm.

Captain Goldsmith, with wife Elizabeth (Day) Goldsmith and their two sons Richard Sydney and Edward jnr Goldsmith were to spend extended periods during the next two years in the colony at their residence, 19 Davey Street Hobart, while Captain Goldsmith embarked on the construction of the SS Kangaroo, a vehicular twin ferry designed for travel between Hobart Town and the eastern shore of the River Derwent. He also built a number of smaller vessels including a 25 ton schooner, and commenced the first phases of a patent slip at his shipyard on the Queen's Domain before mitigating circumstances arrested its progress, caused in principal part by extensive delays in obtaining adequate finance and materials from the colonial government. The death of first-born son Richard Sydney Goldsmith, 24 years old in 1854, from typhoid fever while working at the Union Bank in Hobart was no doubt the tipping point. Captain Edward Goldsmith, wife Elizabeth and younger son Edward Goldsmith jnr departed Tasmania on the Indian Queen as passengers bound for Liverpool in February 1856, never to return to Tasmania. They settled back at Gad's Hill House, in the village of Higham, Kent (UK), where they found their new neighbour was none other than Charles Dickens. Captain Goldsmith's nieces, Elizabeth Rachel Day and Mary Sophia Day, daughters of his brother-in-law, former first mate and navigator Captain James Day, remained in Hobart. By 1871 Elizabeth Rachel was married to photographer Thomas J. Nevin, and by 1878, her younger sister Mary Sophia was married to mariner Captain Hector Axup.

Original Documents
These original documents are held in two Australian collections: the National Library of Australia and the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW. One idiosyncratic aspect of Robert Brooks' character commented on by all who conducted business with him was the meticulous care he took with double entry bookkeeping at his counting house, where he only ever employed a handful of clerks (Broeze, p.294). Click to view examples in these photographs taken from the Australian collections of Brooks' accounts and correspondence with agents and ships' masters.

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY of AUSTRALIA



Records of Robert Brooks and Co.
National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection NLA MS 2381
Photo copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2016

Robert Brooks and Co & Robert Towns and Co. (1822-1890).
Records of Robert Brooks and Co.,
MS 2381 comprises 11 volumes of records documenting the business affairs of merchants and wool importers, Robert Brooks and Co. in 1841-1876. The collection includes two letterbooks, two journals and two ledgers, among other records (2 boxes, 2 fol. boxes, 1 elephant folio). Further business correspondence, 1862-1890, is available on microfilm. MS 2381-Records of Robert Brooks and Co., 1822-1890 [manuscript].

The ship Angelina, Captain Goldsmith master, 1845




Notices: Captain Goldsmith, master of the Angelina January 1846 off Towns Wharf
Source:The Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List (NSW : 1844 - 1860)
Sat 24 Jan 1846 Page 21 SHIPS IN HARBOUR.





The ships Parrock Hall (1844) and Rattler (1846), Captain Goldsmith, master



Captain Edward Goldsmith's accounts









The ship Janet Izat or Izatt, Captain Goldsmith master



Accounts for Robert Towns, agent at Sydney



The ship Parrock Hall at Sydney 1844, Captain Goldsmith master
Consignors and consignees









Captain Edward Goldsmith's accounts





Edward Bisdee of Van Diemen's Land, submitted a bill to Brooks to pay a Mr Muddle twenty pounds, nineteen shillings and three pence.



The ship Rattler, Captain Edward Goldsmith, master







Brooks' cleanly kept and organized ledger



Above: the index to the ledger below.



Records of Robert Brooks and Co. NLA MS 2381
Photos copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2016

THE MITCHELL LIBRARY STATE LIBRARY of NSW



Robert Towns & Co - Records, 1828-1896
SLNSW 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'

Below: 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:



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 useof 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
Below:

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



Manifest of cargo per the ship Parrock Hall to Sydney





Plan of cabins for the A1 vessel Dawstone, register 495 tons
"Apply to Devitt & Moore"



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'
Photos copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2016

The ship "Parrock Hall" to Sydney
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.

"A very fine day" was how journalist and playwright David Burn described Tuesday, November 5th 1844, in his diary (SLNSW Call No. B 190 / 2). He was watching the signals on Flagstaff Hill, Millers Point, for news of Captain Goldsmith's arrival in Sydney Harbour. The Marryat flag for the Parrock Hall, No. 9376, signalled the barque as it sailed on towards Fotheringham's Wharf "in the Cove" where it would remain until being cleared out for London on January 15th, 1845.

Read the rest of this post here about Captain Goldsmith and David Burn.

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



Source: The Sydney Morning Herald  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.



Title Robert Towns, merchant and entrepreneur, 1873 / photographer Freeman, late Oswald Allen
Creator Freeman Brothers
Call Number P1 / 1797
Digital Order No. a4364097
Mitchell Library State Library NSW

Loading the "Parrock Hall" for London



Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) Mon 9 Dec 1844 Page 1 Advertising

FOR LONDON
THE very fast-sailing A.1. 12 years' Ship
PARROCK HALL, 435 tons register, Goldsmith,
Commander. This vessel is now taking in
cargo, and being a chartered ship, will sail
early in January.
For freight or passage, having superior ac-
commodation for cabin and steerage passen-
gers, apply on board, or to
ROBERT TOWNS,
OR,
GILCHRIST AND ALEXANDER.
Sydney, November 27. 7295

January 15th, 1845:



TRANSCRIPT
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 January 11th, 1845



Source; The Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List (NSW : 1844 - 1860)  Sat 11 Jan 1845 Page 10 VESSELS LAID ON FOR ENGLAND.

Parrock Hall, barque, 425 tons, Goldsmith ;
401 casks tallow, 1082 bales wool, 2 tons
dyewood, 7 tons copper ore, 4 tons man-
ganese, 10 tons horns and bones, 2 casks
neats'-foot oil, and 200 salted hides, on board.
Full ship.



Exports: January 11th, 1845, the Parrock Hall and January 13th, the Louisa.

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.



Robert Brooks: profits from Parrock Hall voyage and payment to Captain Goldsmith
Records of Robert Brooks and Co. NLA MS 2381
Photos copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2016

The Competition: Montefiore Bros.



"The Messrs Montefiore have for a long time been endeavouring to become large importers of Wool into this country, and have adopted a system of advancing on Wool while growing on the Sheep's back, this extraordinary way of doing business has led to their present embarrassment".
Robert Brooks, 1841
From: Settlers and the Agrarian Question: Capitalism in Colonial Australia
Philip McMichael, Cambridge University Press, 23 Dec. 2004 - History - 324 pages



Sydney Cove 1850s
SLNSW Ref: a12871h



Towns Wharf, 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



Towns Wharf, 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

For a comprehensive history of the Barangaroo south archeological excavations 2012, view this report. Casey & Lowe report to Lend Lease.



Google map 2017 showing Towns Place, Sydney Harbour

Old Maps: Towns Wharf



Detail showing Robert Towns wharf and offices
(18--]). [Wharves at Millers Point, Walsh Bay, Sydney]
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-230009231



Detail of map of Sydney showing Towns Wharf etc 1865
S.T. Leigh & Co., printer. (1865). New plan of Sydney, N.S.W
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-416707354

A contract: Robert Towns and his Chinese servant
These articles of agreement were signed between Robert Towns and Kaw Hoe, immigrant from Amoy in the Empire of China in 1852. Kaw Hoe was contracted to Towns for five years in the capacity of Shepherd Farm and General Servant and Labourer







The Mitchell Library State Library of NSW
Robert Towns & Co - Records, 1828-1896Call Number MLMSS 307
Photos copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2016

The "Rattler" to Hobart and for London
Before taking command of the Rattler in July 1846, Captain Edward Goldsmith was in command of the barque Angelina on the return voyage to London from the round trip to Sydney NSW when he had a narrow escape. The Angelina, 434 tons, laden with produce and 36 passengers, had cleared the Heads at Sydney on February 22nd 1846, but two weeks later, on 7th March as the barque entered the Southern Ocean nearing Cape Horn, the Angelina was struck by an iceberg, sustaining damage to the foredeck and losing the bowsprit. Delayed a week at Rio de Janeiro for repairs, Captain Goldsmith sailed the Angelina safely back past Portsmouth on the 4th July 1846. Barely twenty days back on shore in London, he was ready – and so was his wife Elizabeth Goldsmith – to set sail again. He took command of the Rattler, new off the stocks, on 24th July 1846, his sights set once more for Van Diemen’s Land.

Elizabeth Goldsmith (nee Day, 1802-1875) sailed on the Rattler‘s maiden voyage with her husband Captain Edward Goldsmith in command, departing London on 24th July 1846, arriving at Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) on 11th November 1846. General cargo included a consignment of equipment and uniforms for the 65th Regiment for government Ordnance Stores, fine clothing and furnishings for sale by local merchants, two pianos, alcohol and foodstuffs, stationery, personal effects etc etc (see consignees lists below). The Goldsmiths stayed two months during a glorious summer in Hobart, departing on the Rattler, 21st January 1847, with nineteen passengers and a cargo of whale products and wool destined for London.

GOODS LANDED at HOBART Nov. 1846



Goods landed, consignees' names, signed Edwd Goldsmith
Archives Office Tasmania
Item Number: CUS36/1/442 Images 48,49,50



Detail of Signature of Captain Edward Goldsmith,
Arrival at Hobart, November 1846
Goods landed, consignees' names, signed Edwd Goldsmith
Archives Office Tasmania
Item Number: CUS36/1/442 Images 48,49,50

LOADING at HOBART for LONDON



The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 - 1859) Sat 19 Dec 1846 Page 1 Classified Advertising

"... her wool engaged..."



The Great Wool Floor at the London Docks 1840s
Source: The Victorian Web



Per the Rattler for London, Goldsmith master
The growth and produce of Van Diemens Land
T. Chapman, exporter 18 Jan 1847



Honourable T D Chapman
Description:1 photographic print [undated, unattributed]
ADRI: NS407-1-19
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania
ADB Biography
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/chapman-thomas-daniel-3195

RELATED POSTS main weblog



EXTERNAL LINKS
POSTSCRIPT:
In memory of Frank Broeze (18 August 1945 – 4 April 2001), professor of history at the University of Western Australia. His special area of interest was maritime history.

Weekly Returns, the police forms 1880s: no more ships' names please

FAKE CONVICTISM
POLICE IDENTIFICATION RECORDS



"The amazing result of the forgetting process was that by the late 1920s and 1930s, the general population did not know that anyone, or hardly anyone, was descended from convicts - even though most of them were themselves." p. 167, Tasmania's Convicts, Alison Alexander (2010)
The proposition in the statement (quoted above) from Tasmania's Convicts: How Felons Built a Free Society by Alison Alexander (2010) - viz. that by the 1920s most of the general population of Tasmania was descended from convicts transported before cessation in 1853 - is an anxiety-ridden throw-away line which underscores the lingering markers of present-day social status in a population with less racial and immigrant diversity than any other Australian state.

Exclusive by trying to be inclusive, it is a statement to be taken neither conclusively nor literally. For one thing, it does not apply to the descendants of photographer Thomas J. Nevin, who arrived at Hobart with his parents and siblings in July 1852 as free settlers with no record of convictions. Descendants and in-laws of this same family number many hundreds across the world, including the authors of this weblog and its living and deceased contributors. Thomas J. Nevin's relationship to the cohort of those Tasmanian prisoners (or "convicts" as they are conventionally designated in penal heritage tourism discourse) incarcerated during his years as a professional photographer, was one of association, not inheritance. And he did not shoot Aborigines, that other present-day Tasmanian anxiety; he shot only prisoners - with a camera. By foregrounding his perspective and circumstances, his photographs of prisoners, government officials, landscapes, and private clientele are best served and serve best the long view of history if they are once and for all disentangled from the claustrophobic loop of Chinese whispers which pose as "interpretation" by the convictism-obsessed current cohort of self-promoting hacks.



"One place where people's ex-convict status was sometimes noted was various government and municipal records - though never in so many words. Instead, the ship the ex-convict had been transported on was written beside the name, or initial, such as 'F.S.' (free by servitude) or 'F.C.' (free to colony) - in code, so only those in the know understood. In the 1890s the Brighton police still noted the names of people's convict ships, in which they might have arrived half a century earlier" .(p.165, Alison Alexander, 2010, Tasmania's Convicts)
The term "convicts" is conventionally used by commentators whose focus is on transportation to the colony of Van Diemen's Land prior to cessation in 1853; however, the term is applied to subjects of the 300 plus extant carte-de-visite and negative prints of the 1870s in public collections of "convicts". Those photographs are not artefacts of the transportation era. They are police mugshots of prisoners taken in the 1870s by commercial photographer Thomas J. Nevin on contract for the Colonial government and for the Hobart City Corporation's municipal and territorial police forces who requested and used them in the course of daily surveillance and prosecution.

Hundreds of these extant carte-de-visite prisoner identification photographs bear an inscription verso with the prisoner's name and the ship on which he was transported, details which were not written on these versos at the time of photographic capture by the photographer Thomas Nevin nor transcribed there by the Attorney-General's law clerk Frederick Stops in the 1870s when the photographs and duplicates were exclusively the property of the police and prison authorities. They were transcribed - and in many instances reprinted - by convictarian and government photographer John Watt Beattie in the 1890s-1920s despite the fact that the Police and Municipal Authorities had expressed a real reluctance by 1880 to carrying this information forward in police records (see letters between the Mayor, the Inspector of Police and the Supt of Police below).Beattie with his assistant Edward Searle catalogued these photographs for sale at Beattie's "Port Arthur Museum" located in Hobart, and included them in interstate travelling exhibitions associated with the fake convict ship Success. On Beattie's death in 1930, most but not all of these mugshots of prisoners were donated to the Launceston City Council and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, but a few were acquired in Sydney by David Scott Mitchell and donated to the State Library of NSW in 1907. Estrays from these sources and from a defunct government department were donated in the 1960s to the National Library of Australia by Dr N. Gunson (NLA Dan Sprod MS 8429). Further dissemination took place in 1983 when fifty or more of these 1870s mugshots were removed from Beattie's bequest at the QVMAG, Launceston, and taken down to the Tasman Peninsula for display at the Port Arthur prison theme park, south of Hobart, and were not returned to the QVMAG. They were deposited instead at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart with another fake attribution - this time creating the identity of the photographer of these extant mugshots as none other than the much reviled prison commandant and non-photographer, A. H. Boyd, based on nothing more substantial than wishful thinking- a whimsical rumour which sought to inflate the heritage importance of Port Arthur at the expense of the curatorial expertise of the QVMAG exhibitors in 1977 who showcased T. J. Nevin's work as the photographer.

So whoever wrote the inscriptions on the back of the 1870s prisoner mugshots in the early 1900s not only ensured that the fakery conjured in the inscription "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" was seeded in the Edwardian tourist's imagination during the first decade of the 20th century, they also ensured that name of the ship on which the re-offender had arrived before 1853 was indelibly recorded and remembered. The 1910s inscriber's sources were the weekly Tasmanian Police Gazettes records of Returns detailing arraignments, convictions, discharges etc; the Port Arthur conduct indents; and the Hobart Gaol registers of arrivals and departures. The ship's name, in other words, was a key marker of a person's identity, past and future, recaptured again and again despite the efforts of the police administration in the 1880s to omit it from Returns of Prisoners forms.

The Returns 1866: Imperial Funds



This notice published on the 4th January 1867 in the police gazette was issued by the Convict Department when transported prisoners and the gaols housing them were still funded by the Imperial Government of Great Britain. After 1871, prisons were funded by the colonial government.

TRANSCRIPT
The Inspector of Police directs the attention of the several Officers concerned to the following Notice from the Convict Department: -
CONVICT DEPARTMENT
Comptroller-General's Office, 27th December, 1866.
The several Watch-house Keepers, Gaolers, and others are requested to furnish Returns to this Office, as early as possible after the 31st instant, of the number and condition of Inmates in the Establishment under their charge and borne on Imperial Funds on that date.
W. NAIRN, Comptroller-General
The Returns 1874: the form and the gazette record



Return of all Persons convicted for Trial in the Municipality of ...
TAHO Ref: Item Number: AF104/1/1
Description: Police Correspondence
Start Date: 01 Jan 1874
End Date: 31 Dec 1951
Taken at the Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office 2014
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2014

TRANSCRIPT
"This Return to be furnished by First Mail each Week
Return of all Persons convicted for Trial in the Municipality of ... during the Week ending the ... day of ... 188...
The Inspector of Police, Hobart Town ... Superintendent of Police
N. B. This Form not to to include convictions under 31 Vict. No. 12, which must be given separately."



Detail from (above) of the form. The columns required to be filled include Name, Ship, Civil Condition, Offence, Sentence or Committal, Native Place, Trade, Age, Height, Hair, Prior ...

All these details were then transcribed and printed in the Tasmanian police gazettes, published weekly from the 1860s and titled Tasmania Information for Police, J. Barnard, Government Printer. The same layout requiring details of the prisoner's ship of arrival, height, hair colour, marks etc was still in use into the 1880s. By 1888, this information was largely complimentary rather than central for two reasons: one photograph and sometimes two were always pasted onto the criminal record sheet of the prisoner, where details of age, hair colour etc were listed. Secondly, the name of the prisoner's ship, if transported up to the year of cessation, 1853, was of little significance, as the population of those men transported before 1853 had dwindled.

More by convention than necessity, however, the name of the ship bringing men who arrived in Tasmania from elsewhere who were without a recorded transported history and who were charged with offences from 1860s onwards was also usually recorded. A typical example is the arrival and incarceration of New Yorker Alfred Malden or Maldon, the spelling of his name depending on whether the Police Office recorded his name in the Returns (Malden) or the Prison Clerk recorded his name in the Conduct Records (Maldon). Malden arrived in the colony of Tasmania per the Tamer [sic - Tamar],an intercolonial vessel, in January 1871. The transcriber of the verso of the two identical cdv prints of Alfred Malden or Maldon held at the National Libary of Australia used both sources decades later, in the 1920s, hence the two spellings of Malden's surname on these versos. Within months of arriving in Tasmania, Malden was convicted on 1st June 1871 of shooting with intent, and prior to discharge in February 1874 when he was released on condition he was never to return to Tasmania, he was photographed once and once only by government contractor Thomas J. Nevin.



THE RETURN FORM
As recorded by the police gazette, 25 February 1874:
Malden, Alfred, per ship Tamar, tried at the Supreme Court Launceston on 1st June 1871, for the offence of shooting with intent &, sentenced to 10 years, native place New York, age 39, height 5 ft 10 inches, hair light brown, free to colony, two moles on left cheek (centre).
Source:Tasmania Reports of Crime, Information for Police 1865-1885 (James Barnard, Government Printer)



For Convictaria Exhibitions in 1915: the SHIP's NAME was inscribed on the versos of the original 1870s cdv's. Versos of below: Two images, cdv in oval mount and duplicate of prisoner Alfred Malden/Maldon. Photographed by T. J. Nevin, Hobart, February 1874.
Photo taken at the National Library of Australia, 6 Feb 2015
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2015 ARR



For Convictaria Exhibitions in 1915: the SHIP's NAME was inscribed on the versos of the original 1870s cdv's.Two images, cdv in oval mount and its duplicate of prisoner Alfred Malden/Maldon
Photographed by T. J. Nevin, Hobart, February 1874
Photo taken at the National Library of Australia, 6 Feb 2015
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2015 ARR

From glass negative to print
Given the scratches, crossed out inscriptions and general damage, the glass negative from which this print was made would have been used extensively to reprint the prisoner's photograph for prison records as each offence and charge was recorded. The print, unmounted such as this one of prisoner Peter Killeen, would have been pasted to the prisoner's rap sheet, and more would have been reprinted from the original glass plate several times over the prisoner's long criminal career. Examples of both types of prisoner mugshots - mounted and unmounted - attached to prisoners' rap sheets are held at the Archives Office of Tasmania in the Hobart Gaol Photo Books.



Original rap sheet print from the negative taken by T. J. Nevin 1875
Mounted on one of three panels of 40 mugshots by J. W. Beattie ca. 1915
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176

Read more in this post:Thomas Nevin’s glass plates of prisoners 1870s

Decades later, when the same prints were rescued from the photographer's room above the laundry at the Hobart Gaol, and then removed from the prisoners' rap sheets, reproduced, exhibited and sold in the name of tourism (by John Watt Beattie et al in the early 1900s), the fictionalisation of the past became the dominant modality wherever dark tourism was likely to attract visitors, be it the Port Arthur prison site where the movie of Marcus Clarke's novel For the Term of His Natural Life (1874) was in production by 1927 featuring silent screen stars George Fisher and Eva Novak , or in travelling exhibitions associated with the fake convict ship Success at Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney in 1916. This is one example of three panels of photographs of 1870s prisoners primed for exhibition by Beattie in 1915, subsequently acquired by the QVMAG through Beattie's bequest.



The print of Peter Killeen is third from right, bottom row.
Original prints of negatives by T. J. Nevin 1870s
Reprints by J. W. Beattie ca. 1915
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176

The glass plates themselves seem to have been disappeared altogether. They might have been shipped to Sydney, NSW, in March 1915 for the exhibition held at the Royal Hotel, Sydney to be displayed - reprinted and even offered for sale - as Port Arthur relics, alongside relics and documents associated with the fake convict hulk, Success. One newspaper report of the exhibition (CONVICT RELICS. 1915, March 13. Preston Leader) clearly stated that the exhibitors - and this would have included John Watt Beattie as the Tasmanian contributor - collated original parchment records with duplicates, and also photographed original documents when duplicates were not available. Amongst the one ton of Port Arthur relics were dozens of original 1870s mugshots taken by Nevin and still attached to the prisoner's rap sheet; many more were removed for re-photographing in various formats as Beattie prepared for this exhibition. The association of Marcus Clarke with these photographic records for the exhibitors was de rigeur by 1915; the notes for his serial fiction about a Port Arthur escapee, His Natural Life, were displayed along with reprinted editions of his 1874 novel, For the Term of His Natural Life.

The advent of digitisation ensured a further intense surge of interest as these Tasmanian prisoner mugshots went online at museums and libraries.On the ground at Port Arthur by the 1990s, a new "interpretative" identity arose between museum and tourist as momentum increased in the quest for World Heritage status. To succeed, PAHSMA's ambitions - when it came to making use of Nevin's photographs of incarcerated prisoners from the 1870s - depended primarily on the public's acquiescence to the bias in the heritage site's "stories" about their commandant A.H. Boyd. The photographs as they exist for others beyond the push of aggressive protectionist policy, on the other hand, can be appreciated simply as artefacts, as snapshots in effect of the prisoner's reality as both prisoner and photographer experienced it. A documentary original photograph is not the same thing at all as a contemporary "interpretation" of it, and visitors viewing the photographs in commercially exploitative contexts may well express a preference for the naked artefact instead of the prison theme park's confections that subjugate their experiences when they visit a venue such as Port Arthur or view the compromised collection at the National Library of Australia, especially when viewing a photograph of their ancestor.



Verso of cdv from T. J. Nevin's original negative, 1875, of Peter Killeen
INSCRIPTION: "Peter Killeen, per M.A. Watson (Taken at Port Arthur 1874)"
QVMAG Ref: 1985_P_0174



On left from the QVMAG (Tasmania):
Peter Killeen, recto number "180"
INSCRIPTION Verso : "Peter Killeen, per M.A. Watson (Taken at Port Arthur 1874)"
QVMAG Ref: 1985_P_0174

On right from the NLA (Canberra):
Peter Killern [sic], per M.A. Watson, taken at Port Arthur, 1874
Title from inscription on reverse.
Inscription: title and “221”–In ink on reverse.
Part of collection: Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874.
Gunson Collection file 203/​7/​54. http:/​/​nla.gov.au/​nla.pic-vn4270051.

1880: ship's name on inquest returns
The Tasmanian Police Department informed their staff that the only way of identifying elderly paupers on death and at inquests was through the name of the ship on which they arrived in Tasmania. Paupers in public institutions were still identified by their ship's names, and for the purposes of the Coroner at Inquests, the ship's name of the deceased was still vital to correct identification. However, by the 1900s, the majority of prisoners held at the central prison, the Hobart Gaol, were listed as "native-born", meaning they were born locally in Tasmania, so the SHIP category on the RETURNS form had become meaningless.



INQUEST RETURNS
To render these Returns more complete, it is desirable, if the deceased has been a prisoner, to insert in the first column the name of the ship in which such person arrived in the Colony.
Tasmania Reports of Crime
For Police Information Only
Friday, March 26, 1880
Source:Tasmania Reports of Crime, Information for Police 1865-1885 (James Barnard, Government Printer)

Paupers were still a concern for the Coroner. In this return the ship's name is still a key.



Complaints and Correspondence
By 1880, officials at the Police Department were complaining about the extra work involved in listing the name of the prisoner's ship on which he/she arrived in Tasmania, the height of the prisoner, and his or her associations etc on the Returns of Persons on Trial under the Petty Offences Act 21 Vic 12. Their reluctance to record this aspect of a prisoner's past for cases tried at the Police Court was attributed to the time consumed while trying to resurrect the information from old records when the offenders were not known to the younger generation on staff. When the issue arose in correspondence (see below) between the Mayor and the Police Department in February and March 1880, photographer Thomas J. Nevin was both Hall Keeper and Office Keeper for the Mayor's Court and the Municipal Police Office, each housed under the one roof at the Hobart Town Hall with cells in the basement. He too would have felt overworked in his position of supervising inebriated constables on night watch, of making sure the chimneys were swept, of preparing the Hall for exhibitions and concerts, of maintaining the grounds and watering the trees out front, and for keeping police photographic records taken by him at the MPO current with those taken at the Hobart Gaol, mostly with his brother Constable John Nevin.

CIRCULAR REFORMS
These letters were exchanged between the Mayor, William Henry Burgess; the Superintendent of Police, Frederick Pedder; and the Inspector of Police at H. M. Gaol, John Swan the younger. They were photographed for this weblog at the Tasmanian Heritage and Archives Office in 2014.



TAHO Item Number: AF104/1/1
Description: Police Correspondence
Start Date: 01 Jan 1874
End Date: 31 Dec 1951
Taken at the Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office 2014
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2014

TRANSCRIPT
CIRCULAR
29th Feb 1880
Re: Police Weekly Returns
Circular
The Inspector of Police presents his compliments to His Worship the Mayor of Hobart Town and will feel obliged by his causing him to be regularly furnished with a weekly report of persons convicted or committed for trial in the Municipality of Hobart Town,. also by supplying the same information for the months of January and February
Office of
Inspector of Police
29.2.80
Rec. 3/3/80 HW [Henry Wilkinson]



TRANSCRIPT
Copy
Town Clerk's Office
29th March 1880
Sir
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your circular of the 27th ultimo, in which you apply for a Weekly Report to be regularly furnished of persons convicted or committed for Trial within this Municipality.
In reply I beg to state that having given the subject mature consideration, I find that the compilation of these Returns would so considerably increase the work of the Police Department, that I regret to say, I see no prospect of its being carried out, in the face of the difficulties presenting themselves.
A large proportion of cases are heard and determined at the Police Office, in which the parties thereto are unknown to the Police, and it appears to me that the inquiries to -
[addressed to] John Swan Esq
Inspector of Police
[cont... next image]



[... cont from previous image]

TRANSCRIPT
to be made of many of them, for the required information for filling in the Printed Forms would be inappropriate and unsuitable, to the altered condition of present circumstances.
I would remind you that, a Weekly Return is already furnished to you of all persons convicted under the Petty Offences Act 21 V 12, which consist of simple Larceny, Embezzlement, Receiving Stolen Property etc, Obtaining Property by false pretences.
After consideration I think you will see that the amount of work involved by these Returns is such, that they cannot be furnished by the Department, although I am most happy to supply at all times everything within my power
I have the honor to be
Sir
Your obedient servant
M.H. Burgess
/signed/
Mayor



TRANSCRIPT
Office of Supt Police
Hobart Town
March 13th 1880
The Right Worshipful The Mayor
Sir
To furnish the particulars required to complete the Return asked for by the Inspector of Police would considerably increase the work of this department and cannot be done, again there are a large number of cases heard and disposed of at the Police Court in which the parties thereto are unknown to the Police and it would appear to be out of place to enquire their Ship, to take their height, and make enquiry as to their associations etc. A weekly Return is already furnished to the Inspector of Police of all persons convicted under the Petty Offences Act 21 Vic No 12, which consist [?] of
Simple Larceny
Embezzlement
Receiving Stolen Property etc
Pawning Property etc
Obtaining property by false pretences etc
I most respectfully submit that the Return now asked for by The Inspector [cont ...next image] cannot possibly be furnished by this Department.
I am Sir
Your Obt Servt
Fr Pedder
Supt Police



[... cont from previous image]

TRANSCRIPT
cannot possibly be furnished by this Department.
I am Sir
Your Obt Servt
Fr Pedder
Supt Police



[on right]

TRANSCRIPT
Transmitted to the Sup: of Police with blank printed Forms - he will be pleased to attend to it now and in future -
To be returned (By Order)
Henry Wikinson
Town Clerk
3/3/80
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania
Item Number: AF104/1/1
Description: Police Correspondence
Start Date: 01 Jan 1874
End Date: 31 Dec 1951
Taken at the Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office 2014
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2014

Photo insensitive
So in a sense, as this correspondence between the Mayor, the Inspector of Police, and the Superintendent of Police would suggest, the reluctance to include the name of the prisoner's ship etc on the Returns was due to several factors apart from lack of time to investigate original records. The ignorance of a younger generation of staff with no background knowledge of the cohort of transported re-offenders was one reason, another was their questioning the social value of that information. Alison Alexander has termed this process as simply "forgetting".



Many publications about Tasmania's convict heritage which include photographs of prisoners never fail to treat the photograph as a transparent visual record of a man transported from Britain to the Port Arthur prison in Van Diemen's Land, despite the fact that prior to the cessation of transportation in 1853 no transported convict was ever photographed on arrival, and that the men in these 1870s photographs were recidivists, habitual offenders and common criminals by the time they were photographed at the Hobart Gaol by T. J. Nevin. Such publications trot out the usual stereotypical markers of convictism: the name of the prisoner, always designated "convict", the date he was transported to Australia, the gaol always as Port Arthur, and the name of the ship on which he arrived, rather than the local crime for which he received a sentence at the Hobart Supreme Court and a mugshot on incarceration and discharge by T. J. Nevin between 1872 and 1880. Alison Alexander's inclusion of a few photographs of "convicts" in the publication Tasmania's Convicts: How Felons Built a Free Society (2010) turns her profiteering of the stereotype back onto the photographer and prisoner: under the photograph of Thomas Harrison - captioned as "An unidentified convict at Port Arthur in the 1870s " - she deflects responsibility for her use of the stereotype on the photographer and prisoner as creators of " the stereotype of the 'criminal look'. " In similar manner, Robert Hughes' massive publication The Fatal Shore (1987)included the same prisoner on a page featuring eight "products of the system". For more discussion on this photograph of Thomas Harrison, see this article posted here.

As for the other two photographs on this page in Alexander's Tasmania's Convicts: How Felons Built a Free Society (2010), the caption describing prisoner John Funt  - "still a convict at Port Arthur in the 1870s" - is misleading: John Funt was transported on the Hydrabad in 1850, served seven years, and was freed in 1862 until he was sentenced to 10 years in 1867 for robbery. T. J. Nevin took the one and only extant photograph of John Funt on the prisoner's discharge from the Hobart Gaol in 1875. The caption beneath the full length cabinet photograph of William Thompson, the third image on this page in Alexander (2010) - " ... dressed in his Port Arthur outfit in the 1870s" - is also misleading. Convictaria collector John Watt Beattie took this studio photograph in 1900 of Thompson who was a tourist guide at Port Arthur decades later than the misleading mention of the date "1870s". Ultimately, the authors' omission of the identity of the photographers and their working contexts in each instance is both ahistoric and indifferent to facts, whether for Thomas J. Nevin at the Hobart Gaol and Town Hall MPO supplying the police and prison authorities with 1870s mugshots of prisoners Thomas Harrison and John Funt, or for collector and commercial photographer John Watt Beattie at his convictaria museum and studio in Hobart staging this 1900s postcard of William Thompson for the tourist trade.



"Your Obt Servt Fr Pedder Supt Police"
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2014

RELATED POSTS main weblog

Captain Goldsmith, James Lucas and Peter Fraser: 500 acre leases 1853

LEASE of CROWN LAND Parish of Pedder Tasmania 1853
JAMES LUCAS River Derwent pilot
PETER GORDON FRASER Colonial Treasurer
CAPTAIN EDWARD GOLDSMITH Master Mariner



Public Domain
File: Knut Bull - The wreck of 'George the Third' - Google Art Project.jpg
Created: 1 January 1850

In order to avoid being blown offshore and thus delaying arriving in Hobart Town, the master decided to enter the torturous D'Entrecasteaux Channel between Bruny Island and the Tasmanian mainland. At about 9.15 pm that evening George III hit a rock and over a period of several hours broke up in the heavy swell. The convicts were kept below to allow the women and children to be safely evacuated by the ship's boats. The guards fired their guns in order to quell rising panic; this gunfire is believed to have killed between one and three of the convicts. Many others drowned below decks, including many of the sick in their beds. In all, 133 lives were lost in the disaster, of whom 128 were convicts.

An inquiry refused to ascribe blame for the disaster. The disaster did, however, result in renewed efforts to accurately prepare nautical charts of the Tasmanian coast so that mariners were warned of its many hazards to shipping, and the tightening up of regulations concerning provisions for the transport of convicts.
Source: Wikipedia, wreck of the ship George III 1835

Lots 195, 196 & 197 in the Parish of Pedder



Parish of Pedder, lot 195,500 acres, Peter Fraser.
Baker's Rivulet, lot 196, 500 acres, James Lucas.
Reef Point, lot 197, 500 acres, Edward Goldsmith.
Source; Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 - 1857) Sat 23 Jul 1853 Page 3 SURVEYOR-GENERAL'S OFFICE.

TRANSCRIPT
Surveyor-General's Office, 13th July, 1853.The description of the following Lots of Crown Land which have been leased for grazing purposes for one year from the 1st of January last, under the Regulations established by the Government Notices No. 66, of the 3rd July, 1848, and No. 114, of the 1st November 1851, are published for general information :
County of Buckingham, Huon River, Lot 182, 500 acres, leased to James S. M'Kay. Parish of Pedder, lot 195, 500 acres, Peter Fraser. Baker's Rivulet, lot 196, 500 acres, James Lucas. Reef Point, lot 197, 500 acres, Edward Goldsmith. Port Cygnet, lot 198, 500 acres, John Thorp, junior. Parish of Bedford, lot 199, 500 acres, Patrick Kenny. County of Cornwall, Parish of Brentwood, lot I0, 2000 acres, K. and W. K. Murray. County of Devon, Vicinity of Reedy Marsh, lot 273, 500 acres, John Thomas. Vicinity Port Frederick, lot 386, 1160 acres, W. Johnson ; lot 386a, 2740 acres, W. Johnson, junior.. River Forth, lot 387, 1600 acres [etc] ,...



Detail of map showing D'Entrecasteaux Channel and Storm Bay, entrance to the River Derwent
Source: Hall, S., A New General Atlas, with the Divisions and Boundaries, 1835. - See more at: http://www.geographicus.com/P/AntiqueMap/TasmaniaVanDiemensLand-hall-1835#sthash.K4aE7kDb.dpuf

Captain Edward GOLDSMITH (1804-1869)
The exact location of Reef Point in the Parish of Pedder, county of Buckingham, in the south east of Tasmania around the city of Hobart, the D'Entrecasteaux Channel and Bruny Island areas, is not clear from original documentation. Three 500 acre lots - Lot 195, Lot 196 and Lot 197 - were leased to Colonial Treasurer Peter Gordon Fraser; Derwent River pilot James Lucas; and master mariner Captain Edward Goldsmith respectively. Being sequentially numbered, these lots might have been adjacent.

The three lots may have been located around the Surveyor's Bay area to the west of the Channel across to Tinderbox Bay on the east where Mt Louis overlooks the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, and by association, near Point Louis, both mountain and point presumably named after the French cartographer-surveyor Louis de Freycinet who first entered the Channel sailing in Le Naturaliste together with Baudin in Le Géographe on 13 January 1802. They surveyed around the Channel for more than a month before sailing north. Port Louis was where James Lucas was posted as a Derwent river pilot from 1829 to June 1853 when his land grant of 500 acres was gazetted. His job as a pilot was to board vessels, assume control, and log details of the ship's arrival, including the ship's date of sailing from the port of departure, the ship's weight, owner and place where built, the ship's master and crew, the cargo, the number and names of passengers, number of cannon, the ship's draught and weather conditions as they entered the narrow passage en route to the port of Hobart.

When Captain Edward Goldsmith leased 500 acres of Crown Land for "grazing purposes" in 1853 at Reef Point in the Parish of Pedder, the lease would have served at least three purposes whereby he profited from his extended stay in Tasmania while ashore during 1853-1854: the felling of blue gum timber (eucalyptus globulus) for ship building; marine salvage of wrecks along the D'Entrecasteaux channel reefs; and grazing of pure merinos and other breeds imported mainly from NSW.

EUCALYPTUS GLOBULUS for SHIP BUILDING
The felling of the native blue gum - Eucalytus globulus - used in shipbuilding, was said to have fetched more than £800,000 in exports from the exploitation of the D'Entrecasteaux Channel coastline by the time Captain Goldsmith contributed a specimen plank to the Paris Exposition in 1855. The Hobart Courier, September 6, 1855 reported;

Blue Gum of Tasmania,- Eucalyptus globulus,
plank 70 + 11 +3 inches. Captain Goldsmith.
This is perhaps the most valuable and important of the timber trees of Tasmania. Its principal habitat is in the south side of the island ; but it is also met with in the valley of the Apsley and at the Douglas River, on the East Coast, and it re-appears upon Flinder's Island, in Bass's Straits: its stronghold, however, is D'Entrecasteaux's Channel and along the south side of the island, whence it has been exported in various shapes within the last three years to the value of about £800.000.



State Library of Tasmania
Blue gum camp and coupe ca. 1870
ADRI: AUTAS001126185776; AUTAS001126185636
Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts

Within months of the lease of the 500 acres lot in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel area, Captain Goldsmith commenced the construction of a patent slip at his shipyard, another government lease located on the Derwent below the Queen's Domain, at Hobart. He had built the ferry steamer SS Kangaroo there, which was launched in 1854, but he began to encounter difficulties in procuring labour and timber for progressing the patent slip. He sold the lease of the Domain shipyard to the McGregor brothers in 1855 who built a number of blue gum barques and clippers there from the 1850s through to the 1870s.



Title: HARRIET MCGREGOR [picture]
Author/Creator: Allan C. Green 1878-1954
Date(s): [ca. 1900-ca. 1954]
Description: 2 negatives : glass ; each 12.1 x 16.6 cm. (half plate)
Identifier(s): Accession no(s) H91.250/130; H91.250/131
Subjects: Harriet McGregor (Ship) ; Barks (Sailing ships)
Notes: Copy of earlier negative.
Link to digitised item: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/27991

The Harriet McGregor, 332 tons, was built at the Domain shipyard by Alexander McGregor in 1871, and named after his wife, the former Harriet Bayley. It was the most renowned of the blue-gum clippers that made 24 voyages from Hobart to London and back as well as trading on intercolonial and Mauritian routes until sold in 1895 to Danish owners, renamed Water Queen, and destroyed soon after by fire at Rio.

GRAZING SHEEP
Once felling of native timber on his 500 acre lease had commenced, Captain Goldsmith could use the land, as was required by the regulations of the lease, to set sheep to graze. He had imported pure merino rams and ewes from England and NSW for wool growers such as Mr W. A. Bethune in 1847 to improve the local bloodlines.



Captain Goldsmith's importations, The Courier 17 November 1847
Source; LOCAL. (1847, November 17). The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 - 1859), p. 2. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2970481

IMPORTATIONS.-We learnt that Captain Goldsmith has brought out in the Rattler, and landed in prime condition, for W. A. Bethune, Esq., a number of pure Merino rams and ewes, as a change of blood in this colony, and for the improvement of the fleece in fine wools. He has also succeeded in bringing into port in a flourishing and healthy state several varieties of new strawberries for T. Horne, Esq.; new kinds of hops for Mr. Sharland; several cases of flowering shrubs and plants for Mr. Newman, of the Royal Botanical Gardens, another for E. P. Butler, Esq., and one, also, for Mr. F. Lipscombe. At his own expense Captain Goldsmith has imported upwards of one hundred varieties of plants and shrubs of the most approved sorts in the English nurseries; and, in accordance with his considerate attention on former visits to our port, has on this occasion not been unmindful of a desire to introduce to the colony additional objects of attention. Of these are white swans, so attractive in the sheets of water in park scenery; and pheasants and partridges, likely to become prolific in the bush of this colony, which is deemed well adapted to their nature and habits: so that, eventually, the " Old English Gentlemen" may once more enjoy their favourite sports, and the native youth become practically acquainted with the game which abounds in the rich domains of England. Examples of this kind are worthy of imitation by captains of colonial traders.
MARINE SALVAGE
The coastline of Captain Goldsmith's 500 acre lot provided easy access to the myriad reefs in the Channel which posed hazards to shipping. The narrow passage into the Channel on the left of Bruny Island, and the entry into the Derwent on the other side, the right of Bruny Island had caused many a shipwreck. One of the worst shipwrecks in the Channel was the prisoner transport the George III in 1835. Captain Goldsmith imported a diving bell, suit and machinery in January 1855, having made use of equipment for prior salvaging from operators such as Frederick Maning, a neighbour in Davey St.



Source: The True Colonist Van Diemen's Land Political Despatch, and Agricultural and Commercial... (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1834 - 1844) Fri 24 Apr 1835 Page 27

D'ENTRECASTEAUX'S CHANNEL.
We have received from Captain M'Donald, of the Britomart, (but too late for insertion) a very particular account of the dangers existing in the entrance to D'Entrecasteaux Channel, and pointing out the error by which Mariners are led into the fatal mistake of, supposing what Horsburgh says of the two entrances) of the Strait of D'Eutrecasteaux, (meaning that in the Derwent for the N. and at Partridge Island, which he considers the other entry, for the S.) to refer to the passages on each side of the Aetaeon Islands, the South West of which passages is described by several authorities to be so interspersed with rocks, that no stranger can enter it with safety. Some of these dangers are particularly pointed out by the late Captain Wech. Captain M'Donald also states, that in the passage between the Maatsuyker's Islands and the Coast, which according to Flinder's Chart of 1709, and the sailing directions from the Hydrographical office of 1830 presents a clear passage of six miles) he discovered a rock about twenty feet long, nearly level with the surface of the water, lying N. N. E. by compass, about two miles distant from the largest and nearest Island of the Maatsuyker's Group. This rock is known to the whalers, but not laid down in any chart or book of directions.



Title:[Monument to victims of the wreck of the George III at Southport]
Publication Information:[S.l.] : [s.n.], 1928
Physical description: 1 photographic print : b&w ; 80 x 132 mm.
Format: photograph image (online)
Summary: Monument to the "George III", a convict ship of 393 tons which foundered with considerable loss of life in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, April 1835.
Citation: Digitised item from: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office

A memorial plaque is dedicated to George III at the Tasmanian Seafarers' Memorial at Triabunna on the east coast of Tasmania, approximately 80 kilometres (50 mi) north-east of Hobart. The plaque contains the following text:
George III
Convict ship of 308 tons left England
14/12/1834 with 34 crew, 200 convicts
and 29 soldiers of the 50th Regiment.
After 118 days, 16 dead, 60 had scurvy.
Then 10.4.1835 struck submerged rocks
in D'Entrecasteaux Channel, V.D.L.
resulting in the loss of 134 souls.
Source: Ship George III Wikipedia

James LUCAS (1792?-1853)
According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography's entry on James Lucas, he became a pilot stationed at Point Louis in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel from 1829 to 1853. His application for a land grant on Slopen Island was refused because the Land Board (no date given) considered farming might interfere with his important duties as a river pilot, but he later received 100 acres (40 ha) at Point Louis. When his lease at Port Louis was advertised by the Surveyor's Board in July 1853, however, the grant was much larger - 500 acres - and located next to the leases of 500 acres each granted to Captain Edward Goldsmith and Colonial Secretary Peter Gordon Fraser.



Mt Louis (Tasmania) pinpointed
Google maps March 2017

Slopen Island out in the Channel was a source of seaweed which was made into a jelly and exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1855, along with an example of blue gum timber exhibited by Captain Edward Goldsmith. Many names have undergone changes since colonial surveying. Slopen Island is one example. Mt Louis was sometimes written as Mt Lewis, and Pearson's Point as Pierson's Point.
SLOPEN ISLAND.-It is called Slop-
ing Island on the Admiralty maps, and
was called St. Aignon, after one of his
officers by D'Entrecasteaux, on his map.
Since then it has been variously called
Sloping, Slopen, Sterring, and St. Aig-
non.
Source: The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) Sat 16 Sep 1911 Page 10 TASMANIAN NOMENCLATURE.



Slopen Island (Tasmania)
Google maps March 2017

Extract from the Australian Dictionary of Biography
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lucas-james-2379
James Lucas (1792?-1853), pilot, was born at Norfolk Island, the son of Lieutenant James Hunt Lucas of the 102nd Regiment. There is a tradition that at an early age he was enlisted as midshipman in the Porpoise under Matthew Flinders and was in that ship when it was wrecked on the east coast of Australia in August 1803. He served for three years in the Buffalo, two years as second officer and chief officer in the Kangaroo and then four years as chief officer in the Elk.

In 1821 he was appointed harbourmaster and pilot at the newly formed penal settlement at Macquarie Harbour, and soon earned the reputation of being attentive to his duty, active, vigilant, bold and resolute and a man with whom prisoners could take no liberty. He was stationed at Cape Sorell and for eight years piloted across the shallow and treacherous entrance most vessels making for Macquarie Harbour. He was occasionally sent along the coast to search for escaping convicts and recaptured a number of them.

At Cape Sorell on 21 July 1828 he was married by Rev. William Schofield, Wesleyan chaplain, to Margaret Keefe. His three children were baptized there. Next December, as he boarded the James Lucas, a small craft used to take supplies to the pilot station, the hatches were suddenly closed over him by convicts attempting to escape. He broke through the bulkhead and later captured two of the absconders near Circular Head. He applied for a less hazardous appointment and in November 1829 became a pilot at the Derwent, and was stationed at Point Louis in D'Entrecasteaux Channel. When he applied for land on Slopen Island he was refused by the Land Board on the ground that farming pursuits would be liable to divert a pilot's attention from his important public duties; later, however, he received 100 acres (40 ha) at Point Louis.

In August 1844 he boarded the Angelina [this ship's arrival was reported in the press as the Angelica, see note below], a ship carrying female convicts, was asked to produce his authority, but was not able to show his pilot's licence, which he seldom carried. Thereupon the captain abused him and, when Lucas showed resentment, lashed him to the rigging, and had the ship taken in by an unlicensed pilot.

In June 1853, after thirty-five years in government service, he applied for a pension. Some weeks later, always ready to help those in distress, he went to the assistance of the Dutch barque Emilie, aground at Halfmoon Bay. Lucas was severely injured when the warp line broke. He was taken to St Mary's hospital, where he died on 5 August 1853. Shops in Hobart closed and shipping in the port flew flags at halfmast when his funeral proceeded to St George's cemetery

Select Bibliography
Historical Records of Australia, series 3, vol 4
Hobart Town Courier, 21 Oct 1842
Colonial Times (Hobart), 27 Aug 1844, 13 Aug 1853
CSO 1/134/3237, 1/216/5209 and GO 33/78/1161 (Archives Office of Tasmania).
Citation details
E. R. Pretyman, 'Lucas, James (1792–1853)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lucas-james-2379/text3131, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 17 March 2017.
This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, (MUP), 1967
The Angelina was a female convict transport ship, and Gray was the captain who tied James Lucas to the mast when he boarded it as the pilot as it entered the River Derwent on 24th August 1844. This article reported the outrage (and called the ship the Angelica) :
Disgraceful Assault. — On Saturday afternoon, as the female prison-ship Angelica [sic - Angelina] was coming up the river, she was boarded by Mr. Lucas, our old and well-known pilot. Upon going on board, he was asked for his licence, the authority by which he acted. Mr. Lucas replied, that he had been in Government employment for thirty years, during twenty-three of which he had acted as pilot, and, with the exception of the present instance, he had only once before been asked such a question: besides, his boat bore the pilot-flag, with Mr. Lucas's name as a pilot; and, under these circumstances, Mr. Lucas did not think it necessary to carry his licence about him. To satisfy the captain, however, Mr. Lucas sent his boat ashore for the purpose of bringing back the 'authority.' During the boat's absence, the captain became impatient, and, refusing to wait, made a signal for another pilot, when Mr. Harburgh— who, we believe, has no licence —came on board, to whom the captain gave the command of the ship. In the meantime, words ensued between the gallant captain and the veteran pilot, which led to some violence on the part of the former, accompanied by the most insolent and opprobious abuse. This, Mr. Lucas very naturally and and properly resisted, when a tussle ensued, which resulted in our old friend being lashed to the rigging by the captain and his crew, in which situation he remained for some time, and, on being liberated, went ashore in Mr. Harburgh's boat. There could be no rational excuse for this unmanly, unseaman-like outrage, as the captain must have known Mr. Lucas,, having formerly visited the colony as mate on the ship John, also a prison-ship, we believe; while Mr. Lucas was also known to several or the crew. We shall, no doubt. have the full particulars in due time, as such an offence against the law, as well as against the person of Mr. Lucas, will not be suffered to pass unnoticed, nor, we hope, unpunished. These particulars, when they transpire, we shall report . Colonial Times, Aug 27th.
Source: The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880) Sat 31 Aug 1844 Page 3 POLICE REPORT.



Convict Indent Record for Angelina
Arrived VDL 25 August 1844
Source: Archives Office Tas: CON15-1-3,360,1,F,37

The female prison transport the Angelina, owned by Joseph Somes (1787-1845) was sold on his death to Robert Brooks for the Australian wool trade. Within weeks of the purchase, Robert Brooks had engaged merchant mariner Captain Edward Goldsmith to command the Angelina to Port Jackson (Sydney NSW) with a cargo of luxury goods and emigrants. On 15th July 1845, Captain Goldsmith set sail from London with his eldest son, 15 yr old Richard Sydney Goldsmith (named after Edward's father Richard Goldsmith snr), indentured as an apprentice on the voyage. The Angelina (434 tons) arrived at Port Jackson via the Cape of Good Hope on 12th December 1845. Passengers numbered twenty-three (23), crew members and "various" which included 15 yr old apprentice Richard Goldsmith, numbered nineteen (19).

ANGELINA BARQUE, TONNAGE 433, MASTER GOLDSMITH, SAILED 19 JULY 1845
FROM WHENCE, LONDON VIA CAPE GOOD HOPE TO PORT JACKSON 12 DECEMBER, 1845
GOLDSMITH EDWD MASTER
19 VARIOUS VARIOUS CREW
COLLINS MRS PASSENGER CABIN
COLLINS SON 1 PASSENGER CABIN
COLLINS SON 2 PASSENGER CABIN
COLLINS SON 3 PASSENGER CABIN
COLLINS DAUGHTER 1 PASSENGER CABIN
COLLINS DAUGHTER 2 PASSENGER CABIN
COLLINS MASTER PASSENGER CABIN
BOWERMAN MRS PASSENGER CABIN
BOWERMAN DAUGHTER PASSENGER CABIN
BOWERMAN MISS 1 PASSENGER CABIN
BOWERMAN MISS 2 PASSENGER CABIN
HUGHES MR PASSENGER CABIN
HUNT MR PASSENGER CABIN
BARRATT MR PASSENGER CABIN
HOGAN MRS PASSENGER STEERAGE
HOGAN SON PASSENGER STEERAGE
HOGAN MASTER PASSENGER STEERAGE
KERR MRS PASSENGER STEERAGE
KERR DAUGHTER PASSENGER STEERAGE
HOGAN MISS PASSENGER STEERAGE
KERR ROBT PASSENGER STEERAGE
KERR WM PASSENGER STEERAGE
KERR JANE PASSENGER STEERAGE



Source: Mariners and ships in Australian Waters
http://mariners.records.nsw.gov.au/1845/12/016ang.htm
State Records Authority of New South Wales: Shipping Master's Office;
Passengers Arriving 1826 - 1900;
Part Colonial Secretary series covering 1845 - 1853, reels 1272 [4/5227] -1280 [4/5244].
Transcribed by Gloria Sheehan.

On Captain Goldsmith's return voyage to London with a cargo of produce and 36 passengers, departing Sydney on 22nd February 1846, the Angelina was struck by an iceberg in the Southern Ocean, sustaining damage to the foredeck and losing the bowsprit. With makeshift repairs, Captain Goldsmith sailed the Angelina safely back past Portsmouth on the 4th July 1846. Barely twenty days back on shore in London, he was ready – and on this voyage so was his wife Elizabeth Goldsmith – to set sail again. Captain Goldsmith took command of the barque Rattler, new off the stocks, which Robert Brooks had commissioned specifically for him, on 24th July 1846, his sights set once more for Van Diemen’s Land. Robert Brooks maintained the Angelina as a trader in the Pacific, carrying passengers and produce, e.g. tea, between Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney. He disposed of the Angelina in 1850 (Broeze, Mr Brooks and the Australian Trade, 1993:150).



Looking south from Dawes Point past ships at Campbell’s wharf to Circular Quay, 1857?
Digital Order Number: a8143022
Stereographs of Sydney scenes, 1850-1870 / by William Hetzer and J. R. Clarke
State Library of NSW

This former female transport and subsequent merchant trader, the Angelina is not to be confused with the French whaler Angelina, built at Le Havre, 445 tons, which visited Hobart on 19th December 1849 with 37 French crew, carrying ballast and stores:



French whaler Angelina, 19 December 1849
Source: Archives Office Tasmania
https://stors.tas.gov.au/CUS36-1-36

And at the National Library of New Zealand, a report on the exploration by the crew of the whaler Angelina 1849:

Title: Rapport / de M. Dutaillis.
Author: Dutaillis, M.
Creation Date: 1849
Format: p. [145]-198 ; 23 cm
Language: French
Notes: Caption title.
"Sur sa mission aux îles Mulgraves."
"L'objet de l'exploration est la recherche d'une partie de l'équipage du baleinier l'Angélina."
Detached from: Revue coloniale, mars et avril, 1849.
Source: NLNZ ALMA
9911711593502836

Peter Gordon FRASER (1808-1888)
Peter Gordon Fraser is remembered more as an artist than as the Colonial Treasurer and Colonial Secretary in 1850s Tasmania. How he profited from his 500 lease of land in the Parish of Pedder, adjacent to the 500 acre lots leased to master mariner Captain Edward Goldsmith and Derwent pilot James Lucas is not known.



Title:[River Derwent from Ancanthe]
Author/Creator:
Fraser, Peter Gordon, 1808-1888.
Publication Information: [ca. 1850]
Physical description: 1 painting : watercolour on paper ; 28 x 36 cm.
Format: picture
image (online)
Notes: Attributed to Peter Gordon Fraser.
Unsigned and undated.
Exact measurements 273 x 357 mm. within mount.
Framed behind glass. Glass loose in frame.
A painting by P.G. Fraser, titled as above was in the Art Treasures Exhibition 1858, lent by Mr. Allport.
Condition on accession: Dirt. Minor discolouring, foxing. Image support pasted to acidic card, which is staining. Appears to have had some conservation.
Citation: Digitised item from: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office

Extract from the Australian Dictionary of Biography
Source: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/fraser-peter-gordon-2067

Peter Gordon Fraser (1808-1888), colonial treasurer, was born on 31 March 1808 in Scotland the fourth of thirteen children of Donald Fraser, minister of Kirkhill, and his wife Jane, née Gordon. He joined the staff of the Colonial Office as a clerk about 1835, was appointed sheriff of Van Diemen's Land in 1838, arrived in the colony in May 1839, and took up duty next January. He was promoted colonial treasurer and collector of internal revenue in January 1843, thereby becoming a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils. Apart from acting as colonial secretary in 1851-52, he remained colonial treasurer until responsible government in 1856. On retirement he was given a pension of £600 for life (18 Vic. no. 17). He had also served from time to time as commissioner of the Caveat Board.

He returned to England on leave in 1847, partly to pay court to a lady he had met in the colony: Mary, second daughter of John Bisdee. They were married at Hutton, Somerset, on 11 October 1848, just before their return to the colony; two sons and a daughter were born at Hobart. Fraser finally returned to England with his family in 1860 to settle in Somerset. Though not in robust health, he survived another twenty-eight years, dying at Weston-super-Mare on 27 April 1888. One son was then a medical practitioner at Totnes, Devon.

Three things stand out about Fraser's life in Van Diemen's Land, two of them providing a rather unusual contrast: his unquestioned integrity and solid respectability on the one hand, and his self-abnegation and reluctance to accept responsibility on the other. The third feature of note was his enthusiasm as an amateur landscape painter. That Fraser could enjoy a relatively uneventful occupancy of the Treasury for some fourteen years and retire from it honourably was unusual for a period in which lapses of conduct by self-seeking officials so often led to dismissal. Lieutenant-Governor Sir William Denison praised his methodical and business-like habits, and noted that he had conducted himself to the satisfaction of all the governors under whom he had served. Yet his popularity was to a large extent a product of his retiring nature. He had not even wanted promotion as treasurer, but felt unable to decline without giving offence to Sir John Franklin; he twice unhesitatingly vacated his seat on the Legislative Council to make way for other officials; and he refused the high office of colonial secretary. He did his job well but unimaginatively, and liked nothing better than to associate with the members of Hobart's lively artistic community. He was a frequent companion of John Skinner Prout and later of the colonial auditor, George Boyes, who had at first despised him for his 'want of energy and resolution'. He was a leading member of the committee which organized Australia's first art exhibition in the Tasmanian Legislative Council chambers in January 1845, and he exhibited his own work at this and later exhibitions. Some of his paintings, of historical interest if not artistic brilliance, are preserved at his wife's Tasmanian family seat, Hutton Park, Melton Mowbray.
Select Bibliography
W. A. Townsley, Struggle for Self-Government in Tasmania, 1842-1856 (Hob, 1951)
G. T. W. B. Boyes diary (Royal Society of Tasmania, Hobart)
correspondence file under Fraser (Archives Office of Tasmania).
Citation details
R. L. Wettenhall, 'Fraser, Peter Gordon (1808–1888)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/fraser-peter-gordon-2067/text2577, published first in hardcopy 1966, accessed online 17 March 2017.
This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, (MUP), 1966
THE 1843 CENSUS
Three adults were counted as residents in the house of proprietor [Mrs?] Davidson at El Boden Place, South Hobart. who were between the ages of 21 and 45, and had arrived free to the colony: - a single male, a married male and a married female, plus a daughter under two years of age. Peter Gordon Fraser did not marry Mary Bisdee until 1848, so he may have been the bachelor living with a couple and their child. There is an extensive history of this particular house - click here, devised by William Davidson's descendants.



Census 1843, Archives Office of Tasmania
Name: Fraser, Peter
Record Type:Census
Under 14:No
Year:1843
Census district Hobart
Page:159
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:475717



Residence of Peter Gordon Fraser 1841-1853
3 & 1 Elboden St, South Hobart
Source: Davidson Family Archives

CHILDREN 1851
Peter Gordon Fraser gave his occupation on the birth registration of his son Donald Alexander Fraser on 15th May 1851 as the Colonial Secretary (signed P. Fraser reg, 21st June). The child was born to Mary Bisdee his wife whom he married in 1848. His home address was still El Boden Place, South Hobart where he had resided for nearly a decade, moving his wife and child into the Davidson house before settling finally into Davey St. Hobart. Whether his 500 acres leased from the Surveyor's Office in 1853 for the purpose of grazing remained in the family over many generations is not (yet) recorded by descendants.



Name: Fraser, Donald Alexander
Record Type: Births
Gender: Male
Father: Fraser, Peter Gordon
Mother: Bisdee, Mary
Date of birth: 15 May 1851
Registered: Hobart
Registration year: 1851
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:955232

Name: Fraser, Graeme Bisdee
Record Type: Births
Gender: Male
Father: Fraser, Peter Gordon
Mother: Bisdee, Mary
Date of birth: 12 May 1853
Registered: Hobart
Registration year: 1853
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:957512

By 1853, with the birth of his second son Graeme Bisdee Fraser, Peter Gordon Fraser was the Colonial Treasurer, and resident of Davey St. Hobart and by the time his daughter Maude was born, his occupation was listed as "Gentleman". He retired from public service in 1856.

Name: Fraser, Maude Millicent Mary
Record Type: Births
Gender: Female
Father: Fraser, Peter Gordon
Mother: Bisdee, Mary
Date of birth: 31 Dec 1858
Registered: Hobart
Registration year: 1859
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:963647

PARLIAMENTARY CAREER
1843 Fraser, Peter Colonial Treasurer
1849-50 Fraser, Peter Colonial Treasurer
1851 Fraser, Peter acting Colonial Secretary
1851-2 Fraser, Peter (replaced by Chapman, Henry S and in turn replaced by Champ, W T N) acting Colonial Secretary
1853 Clerke, Alexander (replaced in June by Colonial treasurer Fraser, Peter) Colonial Treasurer
1854 Fraser, Peter Colonial Treasurer
1855-6 Fraser, Peter Colonial Treasurer

Sources:The Legislative Council of Van Diemen’s Land 1825-1856 by Victor Korobacz, University of Tasmania 1971 (MA Thesis) http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/History/tasparl/mlcs1825to1855.htm

ARTWORKS by PETER GORDON FRASER



Title: St. Mary's Pass V.D.L. P. Fraser.
Author/Creator: Fraser, Peter Gordon, 1808-1888.
Publication Information: 1846.
Physical description: 1 painting : watercolour on paper ; 35 x 50 cm.
Format: picture image (online)
Notes: Signed and dated lower right. Title inscribed in ink lower right.
Framed behind glass. Condition on accession: Stains in sky area upper right along edge. Large stain above trees upper right. Frame in good order. Acidic(?) mount.
Online version of this image available.
Citation: Digitised item from: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office



Title:[Mount Wellington and waterfall] Peter Fraser.
Author/Creator: Fraser, Peter Gordon, 1808-1888
Publication Information: c1846.
Physical description:1 painting : watercolour on paper ; 33 x 23 cm.
Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office

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