175th Anniversary - Richmond Bridge, Tasmania
[Address given to Coal River Historical Society]
Firstly I would like to express my thanks for your very nice
invitation for my wife and I to be present here today as your guests,
and to participate in the celebrations, and to be able to say a few
words which perhaps not surprisingly will touch on William Wilson,
his achievements and origins.
This is a very great honour for me and a very nice tribute to my
gggrandfather William who so long ago toiled here with many others
to create the beautiful structure, Richmond Bridge, which continues
to grace this fair town today. It must be I think one of the most
photographed and painted landscapes in Australia, as is the bridge
in England on which it is based, at Stourhead in Wiltshire.
I should acknowledge that there is one amongst the descendants of
William who is more correctly the person to be enjoy this privilege
here today as he is truly the patriarch of our Wilsons, certainly on
Tasmanian turf, and that is William Wilson a ggrandson of William,
in his 80s and born and bred here in Tasmania. William lives at
Blackmans Bay. So I pay appropriate tribute to him.
Now if I may turn to my stonemason gggrandfather, William Hartley
Wilson. William and his wife Margaret Williamson arrived in Van
Diemen’s Land on November 27th 1820, having been married in
Monikie Kirk, Angus, (William aged 38 and Margaret just 23) near
the little village of Monikie just a few kilometers north east of
Dundee in June of that year, and they sailed two weeks later for
VDL on board the Skelton, the Captain James Dixon.
We are fortunate to have a good description of the voyage since
Dixon wrote a little book about it and conditions in the colonies
during 1820/21, and this was published in Edinburgh in 1822.
W&M were to have just 3 children, William Sorell Wilson (WSW)
named after the Governor and born in Sorell in 1821, Frederick
Langloh Wilson (FLW) born here in Richmond in 1823 no doubt
whilst William was engaged on the Bridge, and my g-grandfather J
Williamson Bowman Wilson (JWBW), born down the road at
Cambridge in 1830. Later on WSW and JBW left Tasmania late in the
1850s and went to Victoria where after some time on the goldfields
they settled to life on farms in the Mornington Peninsula area.
FLW and and later his wife, Jane Stevens, stayed on with the family
in Tasmania subsequent to the Sorell farm where W&M had their
initial landgrant, then farming at Prossers Plains (Buckland). Finally
this family lived at Mt Nassau near Granton where they both farmed
and operated a limestone kilning business. William died in 1856,
and Margaret in 1875 and both are buried at Hestercombe cemetery
near Austins Ferry.
In 1995 a group of Wilson clan from Tassie and Victoria
commemorated the 175th anniversary of their arrival with a service
at Hestercombe where we placed a bronze plate of commemoration
on the grave.
Now you will be pleased to hear I don’t intend to present year by
year description of their lives and activities either in Tasmania or in
Scotland, rather I would like to comment on the two aspects of
Williams life that have probably caused the greatest fascination to
our group of researchers in Tasmania and on the Mainland.
These two areas concern firstly the question of just why they came
to Australia (and I hasten to add here that they were not convicts,
although that sort of heritage seems to bestow a certain standing
today).
No, they were free immigrants (1st direct sailing of free settlers
from Scotland), and they travelled cabin class on the Skelton at a
cost of 70 guineas each on their one way honeymoon cruise to the
Antipodes. However as it seemed they enjoyed a quite comfortable
situation in Scotland we do wonder why they took all the risks
entailed in venturing this way. Why would anyone want to do that.
Inherent in the answer we think we have to this question is the sort
of difficulty which must confront many family history researchers at
some stage, when they uncover information that turns out to be
sensitive to living family members even 4 or 5 generations
descended. Not that our discoveries are really all that dramatic.
The second issue focuses to the question of just who was the first
Colonial Architect of Tasmania or Van Diemens Land - was it the
man to whom that credit has traditionally been given, David Lambe,
or was it indeed William Hartley Wilson.
Now before you all start throwing your chairs at me for uttering
such unspeakable heresy, let me give you the highly abbreviated
answer to that proposition based on the collective research of our
group over the past 10 years or so.
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The short answer is that David Lambe was indeed the first Colonial
Architect who was an architect, whilst William Wilson was the first
Colonial Architect who wasn’t an architect.
Another way of viewing it is that William was indeed the first
Colonial Architect of ‘Van Diemens Land’ within the Colony of New
South Wales and David Lambe was therefore only the second
Colonial Architect of ‘Van Diemens Land’, in that context.
However, David Lambe was in fact the first Colonial Architect of the
Colony of Van Diemens Land, which as you all know came into being
as an independent Sovereign Colony in 1825 a year or so after
David’s appointment.
Isn’t it interesting how a simple word or turn of phrase, inserted
here or deleted there, can allow such an array of non competing
claims. But I do believe all these claims to be valid.
Well now that we’ve cleared all that up and everyone’s happy, I’ll go
back to the first question about W&M - why did they come to
Australia. However I promise I will come back later to the second
question.
Legend and Reality
When our little Victorian based group of researchers renewed
contact with our Tasmanian branch some 5 or 6 years ago, our
knowledge and understanding of W&M and their life in Tasmania and
to a some extent their life in Scotland, advanced quite substantially.
It appears that contact between our Tasmanian and Victorian family
branches ceased sometime after WW1, a 70 odd year lapse until
resumption.
In that time the Victorians had lost most of the knowledge they
would originally have possessed about W&M’s early life in VDL, we
retained only some oddments about William having been an
architect or a stonemason, and had had some involvement with
Richmond Bridge and other early buildings in Hobart. And that was
about it.
We were also quite sure there were still some of the family living in
Tasmania since we had not at that time accounted for the family of
Frederick Langloh whom we knew to have existed - there was no
sign of their descendants on the mainland.
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From the Tasmanians we learnt of William’s intimate involvement
not only with the Bridge but also with other early HobartTown
buildings such as the original Scots Church in Bathurst St (today
the St Andrews Hall - 1994 commemoration), at least one brewery
said to have been that in Davey St where the Royal Tennis Court is
today and whilst he may well have been involved there it also seems
possible he was involved with another on the Hobart Rivulet behind
Surrey House, and also the original Court House.
It was also new to us that W&M had been farmers here, and quite
successful ones too on the basis of the properties they owned and
the value of their estates at death.
We also learnt of the Tasmanians belief that William came from near
Dundee, Monifieth Parish - to be precise just a few kms from
Dundee, and that his family in Scotland were believed to have been
very well to do farmers who from interpretation of some early
records may well have owned a large and prosperous farm in that
area, indeed a property called Laws Farm where William and several
of his siblings were born was the prime suspect.
However our most recent research shows that the family did not
own this farm and it is more likely they were significant tenants or
perhaps managers of The Laws property on behalf of the wealthy
landowner. Further research will no doubt shed more light on this.
William, they were aware was well known to Governor Sorell, and
had become the Colonial Architect and Superintendent of
Stonemasons prior to receiving a good land grant on Sorell Rivulet
near Mt Orielton where he and his Margaret settled down to farming
life and raising their family. This property is owned today by Mr &
Mrs Stokes, who kindly allowed our reunion group to visit in 1995
and view the site and remnants of the old homestead there.
I might note here that one of William’s descendants here in Tassie,
his great-grandson the late David Hartley Wilson, became a noted
architect and to his credit are a number of structures in Tasmania
and on the mainland, including the original Wrest Point Hotel as I
recall.
We also learned that William was a competent watercolourist and
violinist, attributes which are also suggestive of a fairly cultured
upbringing, and supportive of the notion of coming from a well to do
family.
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Finally it is true to say we were absolutely delighted to find the
Tasmanian families had preserved some of W&M’s personal things in
particular William’s violin, Margaret’s cosmetics box, a small bible
he gave her in Scotland as a wedding gift, and most exciting of all
his embroidered and initialed wedding shirt said to have been made
by Margaret, and Margaret’s white kid wedding gloves, and her pearl
studded wedding bonnet.
These latter three items have been given in perpetuity to Narryna
Museum at Battery Point. The curator, Mrs Ashbolt observed to us
that these garments were of very high quality and style, and were
typical of the garments of people of refinement and means of that
time.
Their legendary tale continues that William was a large man (6ft 4
inches - and this is confirmed by his wedding shirt) and he was a
very popular figure around early Hobart who was known as ‘Bonnie
William from Dundee’. Margaret was quite tiny, but with an iron will,
indeed in the legendary words, after William’s death ‘she ruled the
family with tight rein’.
What none of us knew, neither Victorian nor Tasmanian branch, and
which we have now learnt from research of the past 2 years is that
William’s father in Scotland was also a stonemason, and most
notably to his credit is the 1789 Presbyterian Church in the little
village of Newbigging which is adjacent to Laws Farm just into the
adjoining parish of Monikie in Angus.
Inside the Newbigging church is a stone tablet dating from 1789 on
which is chiselled the names of the founders and builders of the
church, John Wilson father of William, and possibly John’s brother
David included.
However just as William was a mason who became a farmer in
Tasmania, it is considered quite possible by our researcher that his
father, John Wilson of The Laws as he dubbed him, was also both
mason and farmer as well.
Much of our research in Scotland has been conducted by
professional researchers or local historians, the most recent in
respect to William’s family there being conducted voluntarily for us
by Rev. W Douglas Chisholm retired former minister for many years
of Newbigging/Monikie Parish.
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Rev. Chisholm initiated extensive research on our behalf after we
made contact through the parish’s Internet web site. In fact they
were so interested in the story of William which I conveyed to them
that they published it on their website.
Rev. Chisholm is an experienced social historian who has published
several books and articles on social history of the Angus area and its
church parishes, his specialty being Monikie/Newbigging parish.
One of his works, The Monikie Story, which refers to John Wilson
and the Newbigging church, was recently republished partly at the
initiative of our active group of Australian Wilson descendants.
Rev Chisholm’s book also gives extensive coverage to the series of
schisms which took place in the Church of Scotland during the 18th
and 19th centuries, and which led to the establishment of several
breakaway church groups - nonconformists or secessionists as they
were called.
Indeed it turns out that the Newbigging church was one of these, in
fact the first in Monikie Parish, and, John Wilson and his colleagues
of the stone tablet were the leaders of that particular secessionist
congregation, leading to the building of their church in 1789,
followed by a school in 1820.
From Rev Chisholm’s book it is obvious that there was quite a lot of
angst associated with these divisions in the ranks of the National
Church of Scotland and secession continued through the 19th
century until a progression of negotiated reunions led to virtually
complete reconcilliation in 1929. Apparently one of the major
reasons for the secession movement related to selection of the
minister for a parish, the secessionists wanting to have this power
rather than the traditional system of patronage by royalty, nobiliy
or wealthy absentee landowners.
Well, all of this brings me back to the question of why W&M left
Scotland. The other slab of legendary information we acquired on
remeeting with our Tasmanian cousins was that W had left Scotland
under a cloud, that a major ‘falling out’ had occurred with his
family, to do with his having perhaps married ‘below station’
Margaret it was said having been either a lowly governess and/or
being from a non-conformist church congregation.
The legend continues (by inference) that William, such was his
profound love for Margaret, went against his family resisting all
their pressues to give her up, and finally at the expense of his own
family relationship.
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William it was said, had finally been disinherited by his father
(usually the domain of a well to do family), and the level of
bitterness was such that he had married Margaret, packed up and
left Scotland forever. Our Tasmanians tell us that William had a
frequent saying in his vocabulary that he ‘had shaken the dust of
Dundee from his boots forever’.
Indeed the story goes further, that an attempt to make contact with
William’s Tasmanian family here occurred late in the 19th century
with an advertisement placed in a Hobart newspaper by a firm of
solicitors from Carnoustie (near Monifieth) asking for contact to be
made. The family refused to respond such was the ongoing depth of
residual feeling.
What we have now found out however is that W&M were actually
married in the National Church of Scotland in Monikie, and not in
the secessionist church in Newbigging to which his father and
family belonged, nor in the secessionist church in the adjoining
parish of Barrie where Margaret had lived, and these can only be
seen as actions which fit with a major split in the family.
So we surmise that reason number one for the legendary family
breakdown could well have been religious in nature except that in
the reality W&M are in the ‘conformist’ roles rather than the reverse
per the legend.
But the plot thickens further with a second likely reason for the
breakdown and their eventual departure, which has turned out to be
somewhat sensitive.
Our Scottish researcher discovered in the course of his work that in
1818 William had had another affair of the heart with a young lass
named Mary Archer (aged 19), a servant in his Newbigging
household, each of them subsequently admitting to this ‘liason’ in
Church (Monikie Kirk) enquiry that took place after it became
apparent Mary was pregnant.
Formal church censure and imposition of a fine was quite a common
occurrence as the records show, indeed Rev. Chisholm points out in
his book that such ‘liasons’ (this is my choice of word) were by far
the most common offence recorded.
In due course Mary gave birth to William’s son in Newbigging around
August 1819, and he was named John Wilson fairly obviously after
the child’s grandfather.
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It goes without saying that William and Mary never married nor was
Mary to marry another, living out her life in Newbigging with her
son and later with his family. In the records she is described as
‘retired schoolteacher’, and later her son was also schoolteacher at
Newbigging.
We have surmised that this may be the governess (a teacher working
with the children in a private home) connection of the Tassie
legend.
In this construction, the legend merges in with the facts as now
understood but again possibly reversed whereby William broke with
his family not because he married a governess, but perhaps because
he didn’t marry a governess. Of course it remains possible that
Margaret was in fact a governess, and at this time this is neither
proven nor disproven.
But this revelation which we local researchers presented in a pretty
matter of fact but honest way in summaries we periodically issued
to interested family members may have caused a little upset with
some of the older members of the family who in effect had from
their earliest childhood, from stories they had heard from their
parents and grandparents, built up I suppose a rather lovely mental
image of W&M in which this type of information had no acceptable
part. It sort of tarnished the imagery a little.
Some folk, and perhaps not without some justification, would have
much preferred that their childhood legendary images should not
have been so disturbed, and I must say I have some sympathy with
this point of view. The facts are the facts, but sometimes perhaps
we need to be a little more circumspect in the way we present them
even when we are 4 or 5 generations along the way.
However, these two circumstances, the religious factor and the Mary
Archer factor, taken with the word of mouth legendary evidence of
our Tassie cousins seems to give us good understanding of what
prompted William and Margaret’s permanent departure from
Scotland, although positive opportunity cannot be ruled out as an
enticement, and this brings me back to the other question.
William - First Colonial Architect of Van Diemens Land
So, returning briefly to the question of William’s position in early
VDL administration and my claim about his role as Colonial
Architect.
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Firstly let me say the family is I think quite convinced that he was
not in fact a trained architect, rather a very skilled mason as was
his father before him, but like his father, one who had the ability to
do considerably more than just source and prepare the masonry.
We have in several arms of the family a note written by his first son
WSW; written sometime it is believed around the time of Margaret’s
death, which declares:“My father, William Hartley Wilson landed in Tasmania in the year
1820 by the ship ‘Skelton Castle’***, Capt. Dixon being the owner.
My father was the first architect in Tasmania and in the
Government employ. He had his grant of land in the parish of Sorell
where I was born on 17th September 1821, being the first male child
born in the township of Sorell by the then Governor being Colonel
Sorell after whom I was named and with whom my father was a great
favorite.
The Governor promised me a grant of land, and a good one, but my
mother would not go to Government House to accept it, as she
wished to go back to her father who was a widower and hence I did
not get my grant.”
From a more official and therefore credible source, derived in fact
by one of our early researchers some 20 or so years ago from the
Mitchell Library in Sydney is the following dispatch from
Lieutenant-Governor Arthur to Earl Bathurst ‘Re Mr David Lambe
Appointment - Appointed Colonial Architect 3rd June, 1824; pay
100pounds per annum, succeeded to Mr William Wilson, who also
received 100pounds per annum.
Remarks - Mr Wilson would not continue upon the Salary, and Mr
Lambe will also resign unless it is increased. 50 pounds per annum
will therefore be added after the present Quarter, subject to Lord
Bathurst’s approbation. It is impossible to proceed with the Works
unless some competent Person designs and directs them; the whole
Work and labour is otherwise thrown away.’
Finally in support of my proposition, I refer again to Captain James
Dixon’s book about the voyage of the Skelton. He lists all the
passengers, and in respect to William describes him as ‘Architect of
Pittwater’ (now Sorell - named so in June 1821 by Gov. Macquarie).
[*** WSW is in error here - Dixon’s ship was ‘Skelton’, his Isis River
property was Skelton Castle]
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Now Dixon’s book was published in 1822 in Edinburgh after he had
returned to Scotland (he arrived back in December 1821) having
stayed in Australian waters until June 1821. So from this we might
conclude either that William had been appointed Colonial Architect
for Van Diemens Land by British Authorities prior to departure from
Scotland, or Dixon was aware he had been so appointed shortly after
arriving in VDL and prior to Dixon’s departing Australian waters.
Dixon by the way, sailed again in Skelton to Australia arriving in
December 1822 returning to Britain in September 1823, and he then
returned to live in VDL building a beautiful mansion home on the
river Isis west of Campbelltown.
His house, Skelton Castle, is no more but there is a painting of it in
the Dixson Gallery in Sydney.
All of this, we believe, seems to be quite clear evidence that William
held not only the role of Superintendent of Stonemasons, but the
more esteemed role of Colonial Architect.
We have not found a direct dispatch advising his appointment as
such; it may exist and may yet be discovered; but for the moment
we rather suspect that whilst he may well have been officially
appointed by Sorell, it is perhaps highly probable he was given
unofficial sanction to perform the role in the absence of anyone else
more qualified to fulfill it.
And there I rest my case, and thank you again for your invitation for
my wife and I to be your guests today and to enjoy these
celebrations. My very great appreciation.
Laurie Wilson, December 1998
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