Monday, February 25, 2019

A stroll through Franklin and Castle Forbes Bay in 1875.


Strolling through Franklin and Castle Forbes:

Its 1875. 
John and Mary Smith and Joseph and Mary Lovell are well into their 70’s and were still living in the area they had settled in 30 years previously. They had both produced large families and subsequently had lived to see their many grandchildren as well. Both men worked in the timber industry as did their sons and grandsons.

On his approach to Franklin in July of that year, the Mercury’s Special Correspondent writes:
Fruit gardens and orchards become less frequent as you go further south. The forest is more universal; the foliage is greener and more luxuriant; the trunks of the trees are more thickly clad with moss; the fern in all its beautiful varieties is met with in larger profusion; and at shorter intervals, creeks deep, clear and rapid, or shallow and turbid, according to the formation of the country, are more numerous. They were bold men who, from whatever cause, became the pioneers of progress and civilization in this particular part of the Huon district.

                                                                                                     wikimedia.org Huon

He describes a cleared fringe along the river bank, an average width of two to three miles, beyond which are trackless forests and tangled undergrowth which forms an impassable barrier.  Franklin has a population of five to six hundred, three churches, a Mechanics Institute, several stores which would not disgrace Hobart, three public houses and a number of substantial private dwellings, some quite well-to-do, he reports. Fruit is grown here, chiefly raspberries and blackcurrants.
Two miles south of Franklin as he passes through Castle Forbes Bay, he describes the surrounds. He describes 60 inhabitants, consisting mostly of children, some of whom were certainly John and Mary Smith’s grandchildren. The youngest of John and Mary’s eight children, Isaac, would have been 33 when he strolled through the district in 1875. The most remarkable feature of Castle Forbes Bay he describes is the four-mile tramway belonging to Messrs. Smith, running from the river into the forest. A subsequent Tour Through Tasmania in 1877 again describes the tramway as a work of art: it is taken over steep ranges on the zig-zag principle, and is about the quaintest, roughest, crookedest piece of civil engineering in the Australian colonies.
This tramway is again described in 1880 as a “wonderful tramroad seen through the timber, climbing the hill in some places apparently so steep that the mystery is how locomotion on such a road is possible”.

When John and Joseph began timbering, conditions were difficult. Mr Johnson Dean wrote about the early 1850’s in his book  “On Sea and Land”.  The rising ground behind Franklin was partly cleared, but the dry trees, hundreds of feet high, and bare of leaves and bark, some standing, some lying in all directions, suggested to the newcomer the scene of a great battle. And such indeed it was, for the early pioneers had to fight for every acre of land, against trees from one to twenty yards in circumference at the butt and filled in between with scrub 20ft high and so thick that the sun was only just visible through the foliage. The swamp gums and stringy bark when carefully selected could be split into shingles, or into pailings, 7 inches wide by 6 feet long, and half an inch thick. These often had to be carried on men’s shoulders long distances out of the bush to a ‘slab’ road whence they could be carried to the riverside.

                                                                               caravanword.com.au Huon Valley

Many of the settlers were then living in two roomed slab, or bark huts.

Early settlers grew potatoes, sufficient wheat to make grist for the mill, and the only other crops reported were barley and peas to feed the pigs. The principal work was splitting shingles, laths, posts, and rails. There were no horses to do the carrying, the prepared timber being carried by the splitters on their backs to the water’s edge and some astonishingly heavy loads were conveyed in this manner. Very few settlers employed labour, as the price of produce was so low, that there was little, if anything, left after the necessary groceries and clothing were paid for. Later, prison labour was availed of by settlers. These men were described as third class pass holders. They were paid 3s, 6d. per week. Most were boarded in the homes of their masters, the only distinction made, being the provision of a separate table at meal time. For a few years the gold rush in Victoria from 1851, caused a great boom in the timber trade of the Huon, with the banks of the river almost lined with sawpits. When this slowed a good many of the timber workers became permanent settlers, and most of them ultimately took up orcharding. In 1869 plenty of timber dealers, sawyers and splitters attended a meeting at the Alabama Hotel, Shipwrights Point to discuss the Governor-in-Council’s recent announcement that licensing fees for timber cutting were being hiked from 1s per week, to 2s.6d. for each person employed. Mr M Darcy of Castle Forbes Bay explained to the chairman that the splitters worked 4 miles back from the water’s edge, and were obliged to carry timber on their backs for a distance of ½ mile out of the bush; then have it carted 1 ½ miles on road made by the settlers themselves, next  have it sledged ½ mile, when it was finally trammed 1 ½ miles to the beach. It was resolved at the meeting that the levy was both unjust and oppressive and would thereby cripple the remnant of the timber trade now left.


                                                                         tasmaniantimbers.com Huon River

Life was certainly hard for the settlers of this district, and not just carting timber.

One month after the 1875 write up, the Tasmanian Tribune reported the loss of two little Castle Forbes boys to croup, the first a poor little fellow of about six years, a son of Mr. David Smith, John and Mary’s grandson, and the other a fine promising young fellow of about 10 years old, and an only son of Mr. Denis Reilley. Life was tough, there were plenty of losses and hardships for these families. Timber getting was dangerous and catastrophic losses from bush fire was a constant risk too. The Colonial Times in January 1854 reports that the Huon’s rapid progress and flourishing timber trade has made it one of the most noted if not the most valuable settlement in the colony; but the recent calamitous fire has awakened deep sympathy in the heart of colonists. Fundraising events ensued in Hobart to assist those who had lost everything. Again in 1858, another dreadful fire fanned by winds was burning in many miles of bushland. Castle Forbes Bay and Glaziers Bay bore the brunt of more fire in 1859, with loss of homes and crops. The very livelihood of these settlers was their greatest risk, and their greatest loss too with cut timber, sawmills, crops and homes all often lost to the devastating fires that this area was and still is, sadly susceptible to.

The Mercury reported in April 1878 of the sufferings of David Smith at Castle Forbes Bay, stating “misfortunes never come singly”. David lost pailings stacked in the bush and destruction of tramroad in prevalent bushfires which were only just eased by rain. ‘The same gentleman had a valuable horse killed the previous week whilst carting pailings on the tramroad. ‘The wagon drawn by two horses, coming down an incline, by some means, probably a defective brake- overpowered the horse in the shafts…killing it upon the spot, capsizing the wagon and injuring Mr Smith’s son.


John and Mary Smith had at least 8 children (and at least 27 grandchildren) : Sons John, David, Thomas and Isaac; daughters Elizabeth, Mary, Susannah and Martha.

Thomas and Amelia Smith seated front right. The other old gentleman is William Coventry, Amelia's father. Three of William's daughters married three of John Smith's sons. Amelia married Thomas, Margaret married Isaac and Mary Anne married David. 1904
sourced Ancestry.com Cooper Family Tree

Thomas Smith
                                         John Smith jnr, looking remarkably like his father, below

It was in November that year that John Smith’s death was announced in the newspaper. He must have been widely known as Victorian and New Zealand papers were advised to copy.

                                                 Aged 83 “His end was peace”.


                                                            John Smith snr

All sources trove newspaper articles.
Nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8969824  8961714  201736666  29809428  8856640  201488444  8938544  226506491










Wednesday, February 20, 2019

The Lovells and the Smiths. Part II

Although she died when I was 17, my memories of my maternal grandmother are significant.
I knew her well enough to know she had, like many of her generation a definite cognisance of social class. Researching her background, this has puzzled me, where did this perception come from? Why did she place herself seemily above her predominantly convict heritage?

Did the descendants of convicts push their heritage so far away from them that they ignored completely their working and criminal class?


A visual Family Tree of Nanna's heritage, stars are convicts or children of convicts. .........sorry Nanna, I know you'd hate this




It was in the marriage of her great grandparents Samuel Lovell and Elizabeth Smith that I find two classes meeting, and the difficulties faced by the convict class.

We have Elizabeth's father, convict made good, John Smith, rejected from Fernlands by Lady Jane Franklin.

Map from LIST. The large shaded area is Franklin......


 ....close up of Castle Forbes Bay showing John Smith's property


Then we have Samuel Lovell's parents who met with immediate favour by Lady Jane when they applied for Fernlands. Joseph Lovell and Mary Dawson with three children, arrived in Hobart in 1828 aboard the Hind, as free settlers. I must admit to feeling a little disappointed on finding the first non-convict Tasmanian settlers in my Nanna's ancestry! The Lovells rented a farm at Browns River ( Kingston Beach) but when applying for Fernlands property, Lady Jane wrote of Lovell:

a person of the name of Lovell who rents a small farm at Brown's River, & is desirous of taking one of the allotments at the Huon. He had visited the spot which is better than that he now rents & having a family of 8 sons & 1 daughter with a wife and a brother he desires to obtain something he can call his own & is lead... to think of the Huon because they are all so united there, & of the same society, he being like the majority of my tenants there, a Wesleyan. The man's countenance & man were so prepossessing that I did not hesitate to promise him the allotment he wished provided the persons to whom he referred me for his character...spoke favourably of him.


Kingston Beach circa 1890, much later than when the Lovells settled there and it was called Browns River. 
                              Image historicalphotographs.com.au

At this stage, Lady Jane seems resigned and accepting  her Wesleyan tenants. As it turned out one of Joseph's character references let him down. A Methodist missionary named Turner said of him :
hardworking, sober & honest, but not as I understand a very faithful member of the (Wesleyan) Society.....I told Mr Turner I thought it possible that (Lovell) was a little given to religious cant. Mr T agreed to this & acknowledged that he had been suspended for 3 months from the Wesleyan Society for litigious conduct. On the whole however he thought it might not be easy to find a family more eligible.




I might have thought Lady Jane could be happy with a Methodist who wasn't quite as dyed in the wool as her other tenants, but she must have been warming to them! Lady Jane didn't record whether she accepted Joseph or not, but he did relocate to the Huon one way or another. Census records show the Lovells at "Huon River" in 1848, and "Franklin" in 1851. They show John Smith at "Fernlands" in 1842, "Huon River" in 1843, and "Castle Forbes Bay" also 1843 and 1851.


A petition signed by locals, including James Smith and Samuel Lovell (John and Joseph's sons) to the Government for the improvement of the Huon Road in 1843.                                Tas Archives

John Smith and Joseph Lovell, united in geneology when their children married each other, both lived into old age. Joseph died in 1878 at age 78 from old age and general decay; his wife Mary died 6 months later, also 78. John Smith reached 83 and also died in 1878 from the same cause as his peer, with his wife Mary also reaching 83 and dying in 1887.
Strangely, the next recorded death on the lovely handwritten Death Registry of Franklin after John Smith less than a month later, is Martin Cupit, age 53. Who knows if the two convicted and transported men's paths ever crossed, its probable, but 17 years later Martin's son marries John's ggrandaughter, my Nanna's parents.

                                                                                                             Libraries tas, Names search


So finally I'm piecing together a picture of my Nanna's family, the Lovells and the Smiths, original settlers, and how they formed the rich Huon Valley heritage I've discovered she had. Only one more couple to go, and that's the O'Briens, John Smith's wife's parents, and this pair turn out to be the most fascinating of all!

Sunday, February 3, 2019

The Lovells and the Smiths. Part I

"Samuel Lovell and Elizabeth Smith, I'm searching for your parents."

With a name like Smith, I had procrastinated on finding her origins, thinking she’d be hard, but thinking the Lovells might be somewhat easier. Ancestry tells me Elizabeth Smith’s father was a John Smith, a convict, but I have to verify this myself, not just trust Ancestry.

Of the 528 entries on the names Index for John Smith Convict, I find 40 in the decade that fits. I find a John Smith, police # 91 on the Lady Castlereagh, and after spending over an hour transcribing his difficult to read, lengthy record, I’m beginning to think something isn’t quite right here. This is what a researcher does, gets the source document and verifies any information. Theres a note on the side “to be hanged” in 1832, with other crimes out of synch with dates I have of John’s marriage. It takes me ages to realise prisoner #90 on the Lady Castlereagh is also John Smith, and this is the one I’m after.



John Smith married Mary Anne Brien (I now have 2 Mary (O') Briens in my ancestry tree) on the 10th March 1823 by R Knopwood at St Davids, Hobart Town. The certificate indicates that John was a convict on the Lady Castlereagh and age 28, while Mary was free and 18. After much searching for these two, I finally found proof that these were indeed my ancestors. The genealogy gods atop Mt Olympus who look down on us mortal researchers, smiled on me as I found Mary Ann Smith’s death record. Mary Ann Smith dies at age 83, a widow, of old age at Franklin in 1887. Her death was registered by Charles Rose, who states he is her grandson in law, at Franklin. What a gift, absolute proof that this Mary Smith was ours!

With the correct John Smith, I then find the genealogist’s pot of gold, someone else who has done all the work, written it up and put it online there for us all to read, including photos.



  
John Smith, looking quite the aged gentleman with his velvet collar.
And his daughter Elizabeth, my gggg grandmother, her dress including a very fine train.

John and Mary began their married life in Launceston but moved back to Glenorchy with three children in 1830 when the fourth child was born. Wesleyan Church Baptisms show that John age 7, Elizabeth age 6, Mary age 4 and Susanna age 5 weeks were all baptised in Hobart, with their abode being O'Brien's Bridge, Mary's father's property. Mary’s father, Thomas O'Brien, owned land in Glenorchy and John was able to obtain some of this land originally grated to his father in law. He worked as a sawyer. John did very well for himself.

Lady Jane Franklin now steps into the picture.



In 1839, John applied for land in what was a new developing settlement called Huon Fernlands. Fernlands was a 1280-acre property purchased by Lady Jane Franklin in 1838. As the governor’s wife, Lady Jane was unusually active in the affairs of the colony. She embarked on some incredibly varied, and perhaps very self indulgent, projects to better the colony, including overland exploration of the south and west, establishing schools, aiding the female convict cause, erecting a Grecian temple to further cultural aspirations and (disastrously) adopting and anglicizing aboriginal girl Mathinna.



 Lady Franklin established Fernlands to aid deserving emigrants better themselves.
It seems Lady Jane had a pretty clear view of who might be ‘deserving’. Preferably Anglican, no Catholics, religious, non-drinkers, no ex-convicts, folks of a good character reference who would keep things nice.

Lady Franklin was prepared to accept settlers who were not Anglicans in her new settlement but was worried about the influx of Methodists “a very ambitious people, aiming to make proselytes to their sect as much as to the common cause of evangelical Christianity, and they work on the lower passions of human nature to obtain their objects”. She did find them useful in that their zeal and activity made them “a very useful bulwark against the encroachment of popery, and as such I chiefly value them”. She did want to get the Archdeacon to get his skates on and officially open the new Anglican chapel lest it become “quite a Methodist Chapel

Lady Jane was extremely involved with her tenants and seemed to be very happy to receive them regularly at Government House, to hear their complaints, to meet wives and children and then, fortunately, comment on the meetings in great detail in her journals. She directly oversaw and took a personal interest in religious matters, rental arrears, housing, schools, roads and the personal lives of her tenants as her settlement grew.


John Smith applied for consideration, after which Lady Jane wrote of him: One John Smith, who had originally been a prisoner- he has been in the colony 22 years and bears an excellent character and is a very religious man. I told him however that by admitting him, I made a singular exception in his favour, contrary to the principle on which I founded the establishment which was for the encouragement of free emigrants, that however I did not think many persons who had come to the colony under similar circumstances could bring me such tests of worth as he could, and if they could, they should have the same advantage.



After John discovered he was knocked back, he came back to Lady Jane: John Smith came to me this morning to plead his case, having seen Mr. Waterhouse  who had told him the objections that existed to his settling in the Huon Fernlands. I promised Smith in consequence of his disappointment to do something for him, at any future time if able” 
The well respected Rev John Waterhouse had recently been appointed General Superintendent of Wesleyan Missions in New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, New Zealand and the south seas to assist infant churches at the ends of the earth.  He was based in Hobart, but travelled widely.



So, John Smith was fighting a bit of an uphill battle for himself, having both a convict stain and it seemed a Methodist stain too. A couple of other Methodists from Glenorchy were successful in gaining tenancy at Fernlands. Stephen Stebbins, noted as Smith’s friend, and who supported Smith’s application even after his suitability was challenged. Thomas Webb, another religious non-conformist from Glenorchy had also moved in to Fernlands by December 1839. 

Though excluded from Fernlands John Smith settled in the Huon by buying 100 acres of crown Land at Castle Forbes Bay in January 1841, possibly assisted by Lady Jane who may have come good to her word. Local newspapers advertised Crown Land at Castle Forbes Bay in 1840 and 41,for 12 shillings an acre, and it must have been this release that John Smith bought from. 
Castle Forbes Bay is just south of Franklin, so it must have pretty well bordered Lady Jane’s Fernlands estate.

Once the Smiths had settled in Castle Forbes Bay, others settlers came to the district too. Land was regularly advertised in local papers in the early 1850's. In 1854 an Abstinence Society was formed, so obviously Lady Jane's hopes of a non-drinking community hadn't ensued, in Castle Forbes at least. 
By 1855 it was reported there were so many children in the district a school was required, and the Board of Education granted 100 pounds per annum for a school house. John and Mary's youngest son, Isaac was 12 by then, so it was a bit late in coming for the Smith children. Despite this, it was John Smith snr who proposed; and then seconded by Mr Williams, the establishment of a school at Castle Forbes Bay, embracing Shipwrights Point, and, on being put to the Chairman was carried unanimously.
Farming was becoming well established, but it was in the timber industry that these men toiled. By 1856 and 57 Dr Crowthe and James Scully were advertising plenty of employment for sawyers, splitters and bushmen at Castle Forbes Bay. This was probably what drew men like Martin Cupit and Charles Rose to the area. More on this coming up soon.







 Libraries tas name search
 www.mickjansen.com.au/page40 accessed 20 Sept 2018
 Mackaness, 1977, page 108; AOT, NS 279/2/9, pages 3-4
 A History of the Huon and the Far South , chapter 3 the Tenant Farmers
 AOT, NS 279/2/9, page 23
 Wooley, Richie & Smith, Wayne, A History of the Huon and Far South, page 78
A Brief account of the life and activities of Rev. John Waterhouse : more particularly from the time of his arrival in Van Diemen's Land until his death  TROVE
 Hobart Town Gazette, 23 Oct 1840; AOT, Kent County Survey Diagram 1/149
 Wooley, Richie & Smith, Wayne, A History of the Huon and Far South, page 78