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!