Mary Augusta Walker (1856-1952), daughter of G. W. Walker, was a governess and teacher of drawing, French and Italian. She studied art in Melbourne and at the Slade and Herkomer Schools in London and in Paris. She was sometimes called "Doo", "Doodey" or "Old Bird" and once or twice Polly by her brothers and sisters.
Second wife of George Meredith and mother to :• Henry (1821-1836) • John (1822-1909) • Maria (1822-1882) • Edwin (1827-1907) • Clara (1828-1904) • Fanny (1831-1910) • Rosina (1833-1858)
Mary Ann Halls married John Edward Cox (1791-1837), auctioneer and coach proprietor, at St James's, Bristol, before sailing for Van Diemen's Land. They arrived in Hobart Town in the Mariner in November 1821, bringing a letter of recommendation from the Colonial Office and capital of £1660. John received a grant of 1200 acres (486 ha) near Campbell Town, and called it Rendlesham.
After some financial setbacks they established the first coaching service between Hobart and Launceston in 1832. Cox was the proprietor of Macquarie Hotel in Hobart, the York and the Albany at Oatlands, and the Cornwall at Launceston. When Cox died in 1837 his widow successfully took over the running of the business and within ten years was operating seven daily and four nightly coaches a week from each centre. In 1849 she sold her seven coaches, 150 horses and 24 sets of four-horse harness to Samuel Page. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cox-john-edward-1932
Mark Stump was a student at the University of Tasmania 1920-1924. He married a fellow student, Elizabeth Hales
Marjorie Alfreda Willis Bligh a Tasmanian icon, well-known for her advice on household management, craft, cooking, gardening, and even relationships. Through 96 years, she made a lasting impact on generations of Tasmanians
Marie Caroline Bjelke-Petersen
Marie Caroline Bjelke-Petersen (1874-1969), novelist, was born on 23 December 1874 at Jagtvejen near Copenhagen, only daughter of Georg Peter Bjelke-Petersen, gardener and later master builder, and his wife Caroline Vilhelmine, née Hansen. Marie attended schools in Denmark, Germany and London. When very young she was taken on long walks by her father, who had spartan ideals and instructed his children in subjects ranging from the Bible to Greek mythology and gymnastics. The family migrated to Tasmania in the Doric, arriving in Hobart on 13 October 1891, and settled at New Town. Next year Marie's brother Hans established the Bjelke-Petersen Physical Culture School in Hobart; Marie joined as instructor in charge of the women's section and also taught the subject in schools. In 1906 she registered with the Australasian Massage Association and next year with the Teachers and Schools Registration Board, Tasmania. Illness forced her to abandon this career and she then began to write seriously. She was naturalized in 1915. More information : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bjelke-petersen-marie-caroline-5248
Married Joseph Henry Kay (1815-1875) in 1845 they had one child - Rosina Maria (1860- ) who married Clarence Kay Meredith-Kaye (1858-1916) in New Zealand)
Pianist, professor of music, organist, composer, collector-transcriber-arranger of Indiegnous song
Born Dublin, 1808 (daughter of Ann and Andrew ELLARD). Arrived Hobart Town, VDL (TAS), 15 February 1835 (per Sarah). Arrived Sydney, NSW, 25 July 1842 (per Eden, from Hobart Town, 21 July) Died Darlinghurst, NSW, 25 December 1886, aged 78.
FROM: Graeme Skinner (University of Sydney), "Maria Logan and family", Australharmony (an online resource toward the history of music and musicians in colonial and early Federation Australia): https://sydney.edu.au/paradisec/australharmony/logan-Maria.php;
Maria Hammond (1827-1912), ward of James Grant of Tullochgorum, Fingal, Tasmania married John Meredith (1822-1909), son of George and Mary Ann (Evans) Meredith in 1851.
They had ten children: Mary Rose (Polly 1852-1884), Henry Montague (1854-1902), George Llewellyn (Llewellyn 1855-1937), Clara Sabina ("Kiddie"1857-1924), James Ernest (1859-1910), Fanny Maria (1862- ), Jessie Rosina (1863-1944), John Percival (Jack or Johnnie 1865-1916), Edwin Mervyn (Mervyn 1867-1929) and Elsie Dry (1869-1918). Several of John and Maria's sons settled in N.S.W. or Queensland but Llewellyn returned to Cambria. The eldest daughter, Mary Rose, married in 1878 George Albert Mace of, Rostrevor, Spring Bay, but they both died in December 1884 and their children, Mary Rose (Molly 1879-1918), Fanny Rosina (1880-1950), and Trevor Ellis (1881- ) were brought up by their grandparents and aunts at Cambria, and the baby, Violet Ethel (1883- ), was adopted by Henry and Minna Meredith
Tasmanian poet, Helen Power was born in Campbell Town, daughter of Thomas Power, who was council clerk of Campbell Town. Helen started writing at an early age and enjoyed reading and translating French poetry. She held adult literary classes, or "literary talks" on contemporary modern writers from 1912-1943 and later joined a poetry reading group in Hobart. She published verses and prose sketches in the Bulletin, Australasian, etc. and had a book Poems privately printed in 1922. In 1956 Clive Sansom read two of her earlier poems at a recital of recent Australian verse and in November 1957 he asked for and was granted permission to collect her poems and have them published. For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/power-marguerite-helen-8091
Margaret Sturge Watts (1892-1978) née Thorp, welfare worker, was born on 12 June 1892 at Everton, Liverpool, England, fourth of five children of James Herbert Thorp, medical practitioner, and his wife Anne Sturge, née Eliott. The family traced its Quaker membership back to the seventeenth century. Margaret attended South Liverpool Corporation School, the Mount School, York, and Woodbrooke College, Birmingham; known as Peg, she was a tall girl with light-brown hair and dark-blue eyes. In 1911, aged 19, she accompanied her parents when they were sent on a two-year mission by the Society of Friends in England to advise Tasmanian Quakers about the consequences of the Australian Defence Act of 1909. They decided to remain; her father practised as a locum in Queensland and her two brothers also settled in Australia.
Like her co-religionists, Margaret Thorp was a pacifist. During World War I she helped Cecilia John and Adela Pankhurst establish (1916) a branch of the Women's Peace Army in Queensland, becoming its honorary secretary; she was also busy with the Children's Peace Army. Unusually articulate, she held open-air meetings from Rockhampton to Mount Morgan. She showed 'much courage in the fight against conscription': at one rally she was knocked down, kicked and thrown out, before returning by another door. Increasingly she was drawn to the 'Revolutionary Pacifists'. Under surveillance by military intelligence from 1917, she was seen as 'a full-blown Red Ragger and revolutionary'.
To 'gain more knowledge about factory conditions', in 1916 Margaret Thorp had worked for three months in Johnson & Sons' boot factory, Brisbane, and conscientiously tried to live on 12s. 6d. a week, 'but often on a Friday would call myself a fraud and have a good meal in town'. In November 1918 she was appointed an inspector of factories and shops. She went to Britain in March 1920. Fluent in French and German, she was accepted by the Friends' War Victims Relief Committee. She served (1920-21) with Quaker teams under the British Red Cross Society in Berlin and in 1921 reported on the famine in the Volga provinces of Russia where an Englishman, Arthur Watts (who she'd met previously at the first Australian Freedom League conference in Adelaide in 1913), was in charge of the Quaker relief until he contracted typhus. Returning to Australia in October, she lectured in every State for Lady Forster's Fund for Stricken Europe.
Appointed welfare superintendent at Anthony Hordern & Sons Ltd's department store in mid-1923, Margaret Thorp organized physical culture, music and dramatic societies. While an executive-member of the Young Women's Christian Association for two years, she was a founder (with Eleanor Hinder) and president (1923-28) of the City Girls' Amateur Sports Association. She represented the C.G.A.S.A. on the National Council of Women of New South Wales and was convener (1923-26) of the council's standing committee on trades and professions for women.
Having raised the money to bring Watts to Sydney, Margaret nursed him back to health. She married him with Quaker forms on 1 October 1925 at Killara: 'He seemed to have been entrusted into my care and I admired his singleness of mind and utter sincerity'. In 1931 Arthur returned permanently to the Soviet Union. She did not share her husband's fascination with things Russian, especially 'changing revolutionary conditions', and remained in Sydney; they were childless and divorced in 1936. In 1930 she had been appointed welfare officer for the New South Wales Society for Crippled Children and, in 1931, executive secretary of its central council of the women's auxiliaries. She visited Britain and the United States of America in 1935 to see the latest methods of treatment and rehabilitation.
In response to an urgent plea for help from the Friends in England, Watts resigned and sailed for Europe in February 1946. In Berlin she chaired the co-ordinated British relief teams charged with maintaining public health and child welfare. Compassionate and practical, she worked among the destitute and the displaced: 'Life was tiring and depressing—I often cried myself to sleep feeling utterly inadequate'. In 1947 she returned to Australia seeking supplies and money. Next year, at the request of (Sir) Richard Boyer, she toured the country for the United Nations Appeal for Children.
With first-hand knowledge of what many immigrants had suffered, in October 1949 Margaret Watts was appointed State executive secretary of the New Settlers' League of Australia (Good Neighbour Council of New South Wales from 1956). She and her staff helped immigrants to find work, provided interpreters, organized experts to advise and protect them when buying property, and arranged friendly visitors to lonely people in homes and hospitals. A justice of the peace (1955), she was appointed M.B.E. in 1957.
Following her retirement in 1962, the Quaker 'Meeting for Worship' at Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, remained the centre of her existence. Watts chaired (1966) the Quaker Service Council. Strongly critical of the futility of the Vietnam War, she tried to help Vietnamese orphans by arranging for their adoption in Australia. To the end of her life, she entertained—immigrants, Friends, Asian students—at her flat in Greenknowe Avenue, Potts Point, which was filled with seventeenth-century carved, wooden furniture. She enjoyed music and sketching. In 1975 the Council on the Ageing named her senior woman citizen of the year. Margaret Watts died on 5 May 1978 at St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst, and was cremated. Her sister-in-law later confessed: Margaret 'had such abounding energy & dedication to & for whatever she was doing that very few people could stand the strain!'
Margaret Elizabeth daughter of William Gunn (1800-1868) and Frances Hannah (Arndell) of Sorell and Glen Dhu, Launceston). Married in Henry Allison in 1852, auctioneer and alderman of Launceston and son of Capt. Francis Allison of Streanshalh. After Henry's death (c 1862) Margaret took her four children (William Race (Willie) (1854-1931), Isabel (Issie), Frank (1858-1936) and Amy to live with her parents at Glen Dhu.
Margaret Beale ( née Grubb) taught adolescent women on subjects such as “English, French, Latin, drawing, and needlework.” Beale also accepted a few select male students. She conducted her lessons at the Friends meeting house in Hobart
Marc-Joseph Marion Dufresne (1724-1772), mariner, was baptized on 22 May 1724 at St Malo, Brittany, France, youngest of eight children of Julien Marion Dufresne (1681-1739), a wealthy shipowner and merchant, and his wife Marie Seraphique, née Le Fer de la Lande.
For more information see : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/marion-dufresne-marc-joseph-13076
Malcolm Spencer Gregory, BA. BE. PhD. D.Eng. F .I.C.E., M.l.E. (Aust), was appointed lecturer in Civil Engineering at the University of Tasmania in 1956, he became Senior Lecturer in 1959 and Reader in 1966.
Interested in libraries, Crisp served (1956-77) as chairman of the Tasmanian Library Board, overseeing extensive development of the State’s library administration. He represented Tasmania (1958-82) on, and was chairman (1973-82) of, the Australian Advisory Council for Bibliographical Services. A founding member (1960-71) of the council of the National Library of Australia, he was chairman in 1971. He was president (1964-66) of the Library Association of Australia. In 1963 he visited North America on a Carnegie Corporation of New York travel grant to study specific aspects of law and library administration. The LAA presented him in 1977 with the Redmond Barry award for outstanding service. In 1980-83 he was on the interim council of the (National) Museum of Australia, Canberra. For mor information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/crisp-sir-malcolm-peter-12369
Political economist, born on 29 November 1872 in Hobart, son of William Robert Giblin, barrister, and his wife Emmely Jean, née Perkins. Educated at The Hutchins School, Hobart, and University College, London, he entered King's College, Cambridge, in 1893, graduating senior optime (mathematics and science) in 1896 (M.A., 1928). Late in 1919 Giblin was appointed Tasmanian government statistician.
for more information see : https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/giblin-lyndhurst-falkiner-6303
L. Violet Hodgkin, daughter of Thomas (1831-1913) and Lucy Ann (nee Fox) Hodgkin (1841–1934) and wife of John Holdsworth. Lucy Violet Hodgkin came from a long line of Quaker ancestors. She was born in 1869 in Northumberland, the eldest of the six children of Thomas and Lucy Fox Hodgkin. Her father was a prominent Friend, co-founder of the Quaker bank of Hodgkin, Barnett, Pease and Spence, later amalgamated with Lloyds Bank, and an eminent historian. Lucy Violet was her father’s favourite and shared his love of literature. As she said later, 'He and I lived our real life in the book world.' By the age of ten she was reading his proofs and seemed much older than her brothers and sisters. Her sister Lily wrote, 'In one way Violet was like an only child, it was "Violet and the children" always.'
For more information see : https://stumblingstepping.blogspot.com/2013/04/quaker-alphabet-blog-week-16-h-for-lucy.html
Lucy Charlotte Benson (1860-1943), musician, was born in Hobart. She studied singing and piano, and, aged ten, was the organist in three churches each Sunday. She sang in many concerts, and was considered to be 'one of the best teachers of voice production' in the colonies.
Lucy Benson managed, directed and conducted light operas, produced most of Gilbert and Sullivan, and was possibly the first Australian female conductor of opera. In 1905 her choir won the Commonwealth championship at the famous Ballarat competitions, returning to a civic welcome in Hobart. Benson's musical career flourished alongside her duties as a wife and mother to six children. Her close involvement in Tasmanian musical activities, both religious and secular, spanned fifty years. She was still organist at St Mark's, Bellerive at 83, just before her death. For more information see: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/benson-lucy-charlotte-5215 & https://archivesandheritageblog.libraries.tas.gov.au/the-lady-conductor-and-the-score-of-the-toreador/
Married John Bell ( - 1842) they had four children
Louisa Ann was born on 20th July 1812 at Edgbaston near Birmingham daughter of Louisa Ann Twamley, nee Meredith and Thomas Twamley .
Louisa Ann distinguished herself as an authoress, publishing her first book at the age of twenty one. In 1839 she married her cousin Charles, and shortly afterwards the couple sailed for Tasmania. Here Louisa Meredith continued her literary career and wrote and illustrated many books based on her life in Tasmania, until her death in 1895. She had four children:
Louis Lempriere Dobson (1871-1934) studied jurisprudence at Oxford University , under H. Duff, and graduated B.A. He was admitted a barrister of the Middle Temple, London, in 1894 and admitted as lawyer in Hobart in 1895. He was in practice with the firm of Dobson, Mitchell and Allport.
Professor of Modern Languages at UTAS from 1943-1956. His academic career commenced at University College, London where he specialised under the direction of Profesor John George Robertson in the German Theatre of the Renaissance. He emigrated to Sydney in 1926.
Leonard Rodway (1853-1936), botanist and dentist, was born on 5 October 1853 at Torquay, Devon, England, thirteenth child of Henry Barron Rodway, dentist and inventor of the Rodway life buoy, and his wife Elizabeth, née Allin. Educated at Birmingham and in the Thames Marine Officers' Training Ship, Worcester, he spent three years in the mercantile marine before turning, after illness, to a family tradition in dentistry. Training at Middlesex Hospital, London, he gained the licentiateship in dental surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1878 and migrated to Queensland. In Brisbane on 19 May 1879, with Presbyterian forms, he married Louisa Susan Phillips, a dentist's daughter. They settled in Hobart Town next year.
Rodway was registered under the first Tasmanian Dental Act 1884, and practised in Hobart until 1923, acting as honorary dental surgeon at the Hobart General Hospital in 1890-1922. He is, however, chiefly remembered for his interest in botany, another family tradition. He devoted his spare time, energy and financial resources to preparing an exhaustive catalogue of Tasmania's native and naturalized plants: he made many field trips, described many new species and built up a comprehensive collection of specimens. Between 1892 and 1928 he presented scientific papers, principally to the Royal Society of Tasmania to which he was elected in 1884, and published The Tasmanian Flora (Hobart, 1903), a standard reference for forty years, Some Wild Flowers of Tasmania (Hobart, 1910) and Tasmanian Bryophyta (Hobart, 1914-16). For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rodway-leonard-8252
Sir Leonard George Holden Huxley (1902-1988), physicist and vice-chancellor, was born on 29 May 1902 at Dulwich, London, eldest son of George Hambrough (or Hamborough) Huxley, and his wife Lilian Sarah, née Smith, both schoolteachers. George’s grandfather was the uncle of Thomas Huxley. Although he carried with him throughout his life many attributes of his English heritage, Leonard considered himself very much an Australian; he spent more than three-quarters of his life in this country, including his formative years. His parents migrated to Australia in 1905. Following a brief sojourn in Western Australia, the family moved to Tasmania, where they were to remain. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/huxley-sir-leonard-george-holden-516
Lawrence John Hayns (1894 -1970) was born in the U.K. and served in the army during the Great war. He married Mary Magaret Crane in 1921 in Leicester. A book of his notes on wool, cotton and principles of weaving and knitting suggests that he might have been apprenticed there to a textile or hosiery business. In the 1920 's he migrated to Tasmania as an
orchardist. He also worked as a stockman to a George Town Butcher, as a ploughman, at Kellsall and Kemp's Factory, Invermay, and finally was a lighthouse keeper. In 1951 he was head keeper of Swan Island light house. His son Maxwell Ernest (1924-1948), attended Launceston Grammer School, joined the RAAF in world War II and was killed in a car accident in 1948.
Laura Ann Race Allison daughter of Francis (Frank) and Mary Ann Allison (nee Williams) of Sandy Bay married Hugh Synnot Hull, 10 January 1880 by Rev James Scott of St John's Presbyterian Church Hobart, at the Allison home in Sandy Bay
Lachlan Macquarie (1762-1824), governor, was born, according to a note in his own hand in a family Bible, on 31 January 1762 on the island of Ulva in the parish of Kilninian in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. His father, Lachlan Macquarie, was a cousin of the sixteenth and last chieftain of the clan Macquarie. According to local tradition Macquarie senior was a carpenter or miller; certainly he was a tenant of the Duke of Argyll, leasing the small farm of Oskamull in Mull which he was too poor to stock himself and therefore shared with two other tenants. His own part of the farm he shared with his son-in-law, Farquhar Maclaine, a tradesman. It is not known when he died, but in August 1785 Macquarie paid a mariner a pound to buy a headstone for his grave. For more information see : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/macquarie-lachlan-2419
Kenneth McKenzie (Ken) Dallas, historian, was born on 11 September 1902 at Detention River, west of Wynyard, Tasmania, son of Robert Dallas, a Tasmanian-born farmer, and his wife Margaret Jane, née Robinson, formerly a schoolteacher from Victoria. For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dallas-kenneth-mckenzie-ken-12394
Keith Sydney Isles (1902-1977), economist and university vice-chancellor, was born on 4 August 1902 at Bothwell, Tasmania, second son of Sydney Henry Isles, a labourer who became a farmer, and his wife Margaret Ellen, née Knight. Educated at Hobart High School and the University of Tasmania (B.Com., 1925). In August 1957 he succeeded Professor Torleiv Hytten as vice-chancellor of the University of Tasmania. A period of growth saw the introduction of faculties of medicine and agriculture, but was eventually dominated by the turmoil of the Sydney Sparkes Orr case. For more information see : https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/isles-keith-sydney-10595 and https://125timeline.utas.edu.au/timeline/1960/university-forefather/
Karl Rawdon von Stieglitz (1893-1967), pastoralist and antiquarian, was born on 19 August 1893 at Andora, a holding near Evandale, Tasmania, second son of four children of John Charles von Stieglitz, pastoralist and politician, and his second wife Lilian Brooke Vere, née Stead. The family was originally from Pomerania, Saxony, but had moved to County Armagh in Ireland, then to Van Diemen's Land in 1829. F. L. von Stieglitz was John's uncle. Karl was educated at home by tutors, because bouts of rheumatic fever prevented regular school attendance, and later in England. For more information see : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/von-stieglitz-karl-rawdon-13229
Juliet Beale is a librarian at UTAS: more information Australian Dictionary of Biography - http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/beale-octavius-charles-5165
Joyce Eileen Eyre (1909–1950), teacher and academic, was born on 4 April 1909 at Sandy Bay, Hobart, eldest child of English-born parents Matthew Henry Eyre, carpenter, and his wife Annie Elizabeth, née Metcalfe. Joyce was educated at primary schools in Hobart and at Launceston, the State High School, Launceston, and the University of Tasmania (B.A., 1932; M.A., 1940). After teaching at the State High School, Hobart, in 1929-32 she worked as a lecturer and school principal with the Seventh Day Adventist Church in New South Wales and New Zealand. Following extensive overseas travel in 1938, she returned to Hobart, completed her master's degree in Tasmanian history, on Sir John Franklin's dispute with John Montagu, and lectured in English and history at Hobart Teachers' College from 1940 to 1945.
For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/eyre-joyce-eileen-12909
Mr Josiah Powell (1844-1906) well-known barrister and solicitor of Launceston died suddenly of a heart attack on the 27 August 1906.. He arrived in Tasmania with his family in 1854 from Bristol, U.K. and settled at Hadspen. He was educated at Church Grammer school and was later articled to the solicitor Mr R Byron Miller with whom he entered a partnership. He practiced for some time in Hobart but returned to Launceston and had a branch office in Beaconsfield. He married Margaret Annie Hepburn, eldest daughter of Robert Hepburn, Esq., of Bellbrook, Great Swanport on 26th October 1871. They had no children. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/151617016?searchTerm=josiah%20powell
More information see : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gellibrand-joseph-tice-2088
Surgeon, born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. Appointed as surgeon to the Van Diemen's Land Co.'s 1830. During his appointment as surgeon, and later surgeon-superintendent, he became interested in the natural history of the island, formed a close acquaintance with R. C. Gunn and collected specimens for W. J. Hooker. In December 1843 he was appointed superintendent and medical officer of the Aboriginals, a position which he occupied until 1855. Through his interest in natural history he became secretary of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land in 1848-60, its members and activities increasing under his guidance. Milligan's thirty years in Tasmania were marked by immense industry. His official duties were carried out with conscientiousness and good sense. J. D. Hooker called him 'one of the most indefatigable and able of Tasmanian botanists' and gave his name to the native lily genus Milligania and a number of species of other plants. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1850. As a geologist he carried out surveys in all parts of the colony, discovering coal, copper and gold as well as numerous fossils. But perhaps his most notable work was his study of Aboriginal languages. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/milligan-joseph-2456
Joseph Aloysius (Joe) Lyons (1879-1939), schoolteacher, premier and prime minister, was born on 15 September 1879 at Stanley, Tasmania, son of Irish-born parents Michael Henry Lyons and his wife Ellen, née Carroll. Lyons won three successive elections convincingly, a performance then unmatched by any other prime minister. His victories in 1931 and 1934 were certainly assisted by bitter divisions within the A.L.P., but he overcame formidable difficulties, including his own declining health and disillusionment within the electorate and the U.A.P., to defeat a rejuvenated Labor Party under John Curtin in 1937. For more information see : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lyons-joseph-aloysius-joe-7278
Joseph Lycett (b.1774-1828), convict and artist, was born in Staffordshire, England. By profession a portrait and miniature painter, he was convicted of forgery at Salop Assizes on 10 August 1811 and sentenced to transportation for fourteen years. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lycett-joseph-2382
Hobart timber merchant, Joseph Risby (1826–1889) founded Risby Brothers Timber Merchants in 1844 and the company passed through the family until it closed in the early 1990s. It was one of Tasmania’s longest running family-owned businesses.
Born 21 Aug 1826 in 'York Plains' Clarence Tasmania. Son of Thomas Risby and Diana (Morrisby) Risby. Brother of Thomas Risby, William Henry Risby, Mary Ann Risby, Eliza Risby, Henry Edmund Risby and Lavinia Rosa Risby. Husband of Isabella Wilson — married 8 Sep 1853 in Hobart. Father of Henry Edward Risby, Thomas William Young Risby, Arthur Edmund Risby, Walter Sydney Risby, Florence Augusta Wilson Risby, Oscar Percival Risby, Charles Wallace Risby, Amy Josephine Risby and Louis John Wilson Risby. Died 30 Oct 1889 at Napoleon St Hobart. He was a Hobart Town alderman 1862-1867, & 1869-1874
Joseph Cotton, son of Francis Cotton. Married Isabella, daughter of Adam Jackson of Williamswood near Ross in 1875
Joseph Benson Mather (1814-1890) was the eldest son of Robert and Ann Mather who settled in Tasmania in 1822. He joined his father in his drapery and hosiery business in 1836 and later established his own business as a merchant tailor and importer in Liverpool Street, Hobart, taking his son, Joseph Francis, into partnership as J.B. Mather & Son in 1874. One of their contracts was to supply police uniforms. J.B. Mather also managed the East Coast Steam Navigation Co. in Hobart 1854-57. J.B.Mather was for many years Clerk to the Hobart Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. He spent most of the year 1840 in Sydney visiting and helping Sydney Friends on a visit of "concern" and on his return also travelled around
Tasmania visiting country Friends. In 1841 he obtained consent from Francis Cotton of Kelvedon, near Swansea, to "corresponding with his daughter with an intention to an union in marriage" and the following year he married Anna Maria Cotton. They had six children: Joseph Francis (1844-1925), Anna Maria (1846-1900), Esther Ann (1849-1957) who married C.H. Robey, Maria Louisa (1851 -1857), Emma Elizabeth (1853-1939) and Frances Josephine (1855-1856) but Joseph's wife and the youngest little daughter died in 1856. Joseph Mather was lonely after her death, as he recorded in his diary, but he cared devotedly for his children, reading to them every night, except when they went to stay with their Cotton grandparents at Kelvedon for country air, and nursing them when they were ill. He nursed little Louisa day and night in 1857 until she died in his arms.
For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mather-joseph-francis-7514
Jorgensen was sentenced to transportation for life. He arrived in Van Diemen's Land in April 1826. He received a ticket-of-leave in June 1827 and, after a short-lived convict-clerkship, was assigned to the Van Diemen's Land Co. and sent to explore parts of the north and north-west of the island
For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/jorgenson-jorgen-2282
John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216), also known as John Lackland, was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. John lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empire and contributing to the subsequent growth in power of the French Capetian dynasty during the 13th century. The baronial revolt at the end of John's reign led to the sealing of Magna Carta, a document sometimes considered an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom. For more information see : https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-king-of-England
John Wilson (1842-1912), ship-wright, served an apprenticeship with Colin Walker, boat builder of Gardners Bay, who built the Huon Belle in 1866. Wilson established his own boat building yard at Martins Point where his first ship "Good Intent" was built in 1877. John Wilson and his sons, Walter and Sydney built many well known sailing ketches and schooners and some steam and oil engine powered vessels, including the ketch One and All for Andrewartha in 1878, Leilateah (McDougall's 1891), Birngana (1893), Lenna (1903 Risby's), Lottah, Stanley and the Alice (1904), Doris and Rooganah (100 ton 3 masted schooner) for Jones & Co. The last ship built by John Wilson was the ketch Lialeeta for T.H. Spaulding launched in 1913.
John Wilson and his wife, Dinah, had 4 sons and 3 daughters and lived at "Brightside", Cygnet. He was known as a wit and composed humorous verse, as did some younger members of the family.
For mor information see: http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/W/Wilson%20shipbuilders.htm
Dr John William Hadden was the son of Jane Baird Hadden (1800-1867) born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, the daughter of Robert and Janet Douglas Baird. She was sentenced to 7 years on 10 Sep 1840 for assault and robbery and transported to Australia in 1841. When free, she paid to have her children shipped to her. John Came from England with his four sister and brother in 1845 and settled in Tasmania. Dr John William Hadden, husband of Mary Elizabeth Hadden, was one of the first graduates of the Medical School at Melbourne University, although he did most of his studies at the University of Edinburgh Dr Hadden returned to Melbourne in the late 1850's
Earnshaw was a co-founder of the Book Collectors Society of Australia, and a lifelong supporter of the society. He was also very active in the Society of Australian Genealogists. for more information see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Earnshaw
Born 1806 in Northampton, Northamptonshire, England, son of William Wilkinson and Ann (Norton) Wilkinson. Wilkinson arrived in Hobart Town on October 13, 1824 and married Sarah Ann Ware on the 14 March 1832, at Hobart Town. He established Wilkinson's Dispensing, Manufacturing and Pharmaceutical Chemists in 1831 at 90 Elizabeth Street, Hobart. This is thought to be the earliest officially recognised pharmacy in Hobart. Wilkinson’s arrival in Hobart Town predated the formation of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1841 and so he was not registered in England. The business was very successful and when John Wilkinson died in 1885 he left two pharmacies and several other properties. His son and grandson were both chemists and the business remained in the Wilkinson family until 1940, when it was sold.
Wilkinson was granted land at O'Briens Bridge, (now Glenorchy) and called his farm Elwick - now the site of the Elwick Racecourse
John West (1809-1873), Congregational minister, author and newspaper editor, was born on 17 January 1809 in England, the son of Rev. William West and his wife Ann, née Ball. He had the advantages of a good home and a literary education. In 1829 he was admitted to the Independent ministry at Thetford, Norfolk, became a home missionary at Great Wakering, Essex, and then had charge of chapels at Southam and Coleshill, Warwickshire. In 1838 he was accepted by the Colonial Missionary Society for service in Van Diemen's Land, sailed from London with his wife Narcissa Sarah, née Lee, and young family in the Emu, and arrived at Hobart Town in December. He soon moved to Launceston, where he served as a missionary among the surrounding settlers. In 1842 he accepted the pastorate of the new St John's Square Chapel at Launceston and made his home at Windmill Hill.
For more information see : https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/west-john-2784
John Watt Beattie (1859-1930), photographer and antiquarian, was born on 15 August 1859 at Aberdeen, Scotland, son of John Beattie, master house-painter and photographer, and his wife Esther Imlay, née Gillivray. After a grammar-school education he migrated with his parents and brother in 1878, and struggled to clear a farm in the Derwent Valley, Tasmania. He soon turned to his life's work. From 1879 he made many photographic expeditions into the bush, becoming a full-time professional in 1882 in partnership with Anson Bros whom he bought out in 1891. Gifted with both physical zeal and craftsman skills, he probably did more than anyone to shape the accepted visual image of Tasmania. An admirer of William Piguenit, Beattie stressed the same wildly romantic aspects of the island's beauty. His work included framed prints, postcards, lantern-slides and albums, and was the basis for a popular and pleasing set of Tasmanian pictorial stamps (in print 1899-1912).
Many of Beattie's photographs of people and places were published in the Cyclopedia of Tasmania, (1st edn. 1900). He also prepared sets of lecture slides on the topography and history of Tasmania and gave many lectures himself. He was interested in the history and made an important collection of items relating to Port Arthur &convict days, which was sold to the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston in 1927. Another collection was secured for the Tasmanian Museum Hobart after Beattie's death through William Walker, the City paying £250. Some of Beattie's lectures and photographic notes were placed with the Royal Society's manuscripts on loan by the Museum. Some other papers of J.W. Beattie were bequeathed by him to the Royal Society for safe-keeping. These consist of copies of historical manuscripts and some original manuscripts, press cuttings and notes.
For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/beattie-john-watt-5171
John Watt Beattie (1859-1930), photographer and antiquarian, was born on 15 August 1859 at Aberdeen, Scotland, son of John Beattie, master house-painter and photographer, and his wife Esther Imlay, née Gillivray. After a grammar-school education he migrated with his parents and brother in 1878, and struggled to clear a farm in the Derwent Valley, Tasmania. He soon turned to his life's work. From 1879 he made many photographic expeditions into the bush, becoming a full-time professional in 1882 in partnership with Anson Bros whom he bought out in 1891. Gifted with both physical zeal and craftsman skills, he probably did more than anyone to shape the accepted visual image of Tasmania. An admirer of William Piguenit, Beattie stressed the same wildly romantic aspects of the island's beauty. His work included framed prints, postcards, lantern-slides and albums, and was the basis for a popular and pleasing set of Tasmanian pictorial stamps (in print 1899-1912).
Many of Beattie's photographs of people and places were published in the Cyclopedia of Tasmania, (1st edn. 1900). He also prepared sets of lecture slides on the topography and history of Tasmania and gave many lectures himself. He was interested in the history and made an important collection of items relating to Port Arthur &convict days, which was sold to the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston in 1927. Another collection was secured for the Tasmanian Museum Hobart after Beattie's death through William Walker, the City paying £250. Some of Beattie's lectures and photographic notes were placed with the Royal Society's manuscripts on loan by the Museum. Some other papers of J.W. Beattie were bequeathed by him to the Royal Society for safe-keeping. These consist of copies of historical manuscripts and some original manuscripts, press cuttings and notes.
For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/beattie-john-watt-5171
Father of George Washington Walker. John Walker was born in Newcastle in 1726. He died 22 March 1821 aged 96 years and is buried in the Cemetery of Pere-la-Chaise in France. He entered into business as a saddler and accroutrement maker. He married twice and had 22 children - George Washington was the youngest, born when John was 74 years old. His second wife was Elizabeth Ridley
Walker arrived in Hobart Town on September 1822 aboard the "Heroine". By his own account he was 'penniless and unfriended'. Within a month he was appointed superintendent of the government flour-mill on the Hobart Town Rivulet. Next year he received a grant of 200 acres (81 ha) and in 1824 built a mill at Richmond. Thanks to convict labour he had five prosperous years, increased his capital to £2000 and received a maximum land grant of 2560 acres (1036 ha). Moving to Launceston in 1830, he built a mill at the foot of the Cataract Hill. Back in Hobart he bought the government flour-mill together with its attached residence in Barrack Street and opened a brewery. By adding a steam-engine he greatly increased his milling business and extended his activities to commerce, whaling, shipping and insurance. He became a local director of the Bank of Australasia and of the Bank of Van Diemen's Land. He also helped to form the Derwent Bank and as managing director had to act as its liquidator in 1850. He was also commissioned to wind up the Tasmanian interests of Lieutenant-Governor (Sir) George Arthur. As his assets increased Walker acquired the estates of Belmont and Shawfield on the River Ouse and Clarendon on the Derwent where he opened another flour-mill. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/walker-john-2765
John Waldie, senior, (1791-1872) came to Tasmania from Scotland about 1833 and settled first at Perth, Tasmania then at Oyster Cove. His son, John (1822-1902 ) farmed and worked timber at Oyster Cove. He married Delia Lucy Fergusson, eldest daughter of Joshua Fergusson of Tinderbox in 1846
Second son of John Leake (1780-1865) and Elizabeth Bel l(1786-1852). Born in Yorkshire he emigrated with his family to Van Diemen's land in 1823. He studied medicine in Kiel and Dublinand later received an MD. from Kiel University. His art became a professional sideline and he painted many Tasmanian scenes.
In October 1818, John and Martha, their eight daughters, three sons and two millstones sailed from Sheerness, England on the Surrey, the only “free” settlers on a convict ship to Sydney, Australia. Possibly unhappy with the terms of the lease and the size of the allotment at Liverpool, south west of Sydney, Terry moved his family and business to Van Diemen’s Land. Arriving in Hobart Town on the Prince Leopold on 6 December 1819, the family proceeded to build the mill on 100 acres (40 ha) at Elizabeth Town (soon to be renamed New Norfolk), where the Derwent and Lachlan Rivers met. For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/terry-john-2720
J.S. Dodds, whose parents settled in Tasmania in 1853, was a judge and politician. He became attorney-general, post-master general, and chief-justice (1898). He represented Tasmania in conferences in other colonies and was also interested in education, art & literature. He served on the Council of the University of Tasmania and was Chancellor 1907-1914. He raised subscriptions for troops for the Boer War. He was awarded C.M.G. in 1889, K.C.M.G. in 1901. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dodds-sir-john-stokell-3421
Between 1841 and 1845, Hampton was surgeon-superintendent on a series of convict ships to Van Diemen's Land: the Mexborough, the Constant and the Sir George Seymour. He was appointed Comptroller-General of Convicts in Van Diemen's Land in May 1846. He arrived at the colony on 27 October 1846. During his time in the office, allegations of inhumanity and corruption were frequently published in the press. For more information see : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hampton
John Smith was for many years one of the proprietors and editors of the Liverpool Mercury. He died at his residence, The Crescent, Waterloo, on January the 5th 1861, aged 68 years.
John Rowland Skemp (1900-1967) was the son of Rowland Skemp and Florence (nee Kearney). He graduated BSc in engineering at the University of Tasmania in 1924. He became a relief teacher for the education department and also served for a year as assistant to a surveyor while completing his degree. In 1924 he went to England to visit relatives. On return he helped his father on their farm, trying to control the plague of rabbits and playing cricket in his spare time. In 1939 he took up a post at the Launceston Museum visiting schools as a lecturer in natural history. In his later years he published works on Tasmanian history, reminiscences and natural history. His last publication (published in 1970 after his death) was My Birds. For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/skemp-john-rowland-11705
John Roberts was a Quaker humourist, born about 1623 at Siddington, near Cirencester. His parents were John, a yeoman, and Mary Roberts. Roberts joined the parliamentary forces and remained with them until 1645. He inherited the family property in Siddington, settled there and married in 1646 Lydia. They had six children together, including their youngest son, Daniel Robert (1658-1727).
John Roberts was a devout man. In 1655 he visited the Quaker Richard Farnworth, who led Roberts to embrace Quaker doctrine. As a Quaker Roberts suffered persecution and was imprisoned multiple times. He was imprisoned in Gloucester Castle in 1657 for defending fellow Quakers and he was twice imprisoned for not paying tithes.
Roberts died in February 1684.
For more information see https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Roberts,_John_(1623%3F-1684)_(DNB00)
John Reynolds (1899-1986) was educated at Friends' School, Hobart, and Hobart Technical School, where he studied chemistry. He had a distinguished career as a metallurgist, starting with the E.Z. Co., and played a leading role in the establishment of the Australian aluminium industry with its beginnings at Bell Bay following the discovery of bauxite at Ouse in 1943. In 1939, at the beginning of the War, he was seconded to the Public Service as Commerce Officer, Department of Agriculture, Commerce & Industry Section, Hobart, to advise on the production of industrial charcoal for carbide manufacture. He was involved in making a contract for the sale of wolfram and tungsten to the British Government. He held a number of advisory and official posts in Tasmania during the next two decades, including responsibility for the implementation of the Grain Reserve Act 1950.
John Reynolds main interest, however, lay in journalism and historical research. He won a Commonwealth Literary Fund Award for his biography of Edmund (Toby) Barton. He wrote a life of William Lawrence Baillieu, Launceston -the history of an Australian City (1969); Men & Mines (1974) and articles for the Australian Dictionary of Biography and the Transactions of the Tasmanian Historical Research Association. His last book, Countries of the mind, a biography of Edmund Morris Miller, completed in collaboration with Margaret Giordano, was published in 1987 after his death.
John Orr (1885 -1966) was born at Egremont, Cumberland, England, but his parents emigrated to Tasmania and he was educated at the High School, Launceston. He passed the Senior Public school examinations in 1902, at the age of 17, with credits in English, history, geography, Latin, Greek, French and arithmetic and passes in algebra and geometry, and was awarded a scholarship to the University of Tasmania. He matriculated in 1903 and passed the first examination for the BA. in Classics in Latin, French, Greek and English with credits. In 1904 he passed the second BA. exams, with credits, in Latin, ancient history and Greek. Halfway through his third year course, however, in June 1905, he was awarded a Rhodes scholarship for study at Oxford University (first awarded in 1904 and open to British subjects who had passed the first and second year exams for a bachelor degree and had resided in Tasmania at least 5 years). Under the terms of the award he had to go into residence at Oxford within six months and so could not complete his Tasmanian degree but went immediately to Oxford to enter Balliol College in the Michaelmas term, the beginning of the academic year. He read classics (graduating 1907) and Jurisprudence (graduating 1909) intending to become a lawyer, but after travelling in France and Switzerland for his health he changed to languages (Lic. es Lettres, Paris & B.Litt, Oxford, 1913). He was a lecturer at Manchester University from 1913 to 1915, served with the Intelligence Corps 1916-18 and in 1919 became Professor of French at Manchester University. From 1933 he was Professor of French at Edinburgh University. He married in 1910 Auguste Berthe Brisac (d. 1961) and had one son who was killed on active service with the R.A.F. in world War II. He died at Edinburgh, aged 81, on 10 August 1966.
John Noel Douglas Harrison spent 25 years in Malaya and China, surviving several years in Changi prison camp and a murder attempt by bandits, before settling in Tasmania in 1958.
Harrison was born in 1911. He left England at the age of 22 to take up an appointment as probationary Assistant Commissioner in the Malaya Police Service. In 1933 he was sent to China to study Cantonese for two years, and he was later to teach this language to fellow prisoners in Changi. He was a POW in Changi in 1942 and 1943 before being moved to Sime Road in May 1944 until his release in 1945. While imprisoned he used his talent for drawing, his sketches and paintings depicting many aspects of prison life. He was later to exhibit in the Royal Academy and the Paris Salon.
In 1948, at the beginning of the Malayan Emergency, Harrison was appointed Superintending Officer of Police at Tapah, one of the areas worst affected by Communist terrorism. Two months after his appointment as CPO, Negri Sembilan, in May 1949, he was ambushed at Durian Tipus and lost part of his right hand. For a year from April 1952 he was in charge of retraining all police officers and men, and then served two years as CPO, Perak. His final posting before retirement was to Alor Star, Kedah/Perlis in 1955 as Chief Police Officer. John Harrison died in October 1980.
John Moore-Robinson (1873-1935), a journalist and historian, was secretary to the Tasmanian Tourist Association 1912-1914, and Librarian-Publicity Officer in the Chief Secretary's Department 1920-1925. Obituary at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/30066819 other records held http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/default.aspx?detail=1&type=A&id=NG00134
John Montagu (1797-1853), soldier and public servant, was born on 21 August 1797 probably in India, the second son of Edward Montagu (1755-1799), lieutenant-colonel in the Bengal army and kinsman of the Duke of Manchester, and his wife Barbara, née Fleetwood. He was sent to England and educated at Cheam in Surrey, Parson's Green in Knightsbridge, and by a private tutor. In February 1814 he joined the army as an ensign in the 52nd Regiment, fought at Waterloo, was promoted lieutenant in November 1815 and went on half-pay next February. In April 1819 he joined the 64th Regiment and returned to half-pay as a captain in November 1822. In April 1823 he married Jessy, daughter of Major-General Vaughan Worsley, and niece of (Sir) George Arthur, lieutenant-governor elect of Van Diemen's Land; in August he transferred to the 40th Regiment, companies of which were about to go to New South Wales. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/montagu-john-2471
Son of George and Mary Ann (Evans) Meredith born at Great Swanport, Tasmania on 31 October 1822 and he died at Swansea, Tasmania on 13 February 1909. He was elected to the House of Assembly for the first time on 8 June 1861 for Glamorgan, in November 1862 for Deloraine, in June 1865 for Ringwood and in October 1866 for Glamorgan again. His departure from the House of Assembly was March 1871, after nearly 10 years as a M.H.A. elected as the President of the Glamorgan Agricultural Association at its inception. He promoted the interests of the district of Greater Swanport respecting the erection of wharves for transport of agricultural products to market . http://www.auspostalhistory.com/articles/1720.php
John Meredith (1800- ) son of James and Sarah Meredith was George Meredith's young cousin who accompanied the family to Van Dieman's Land. He received land grants at Swanport and Jericho but returned to England in 1822, leaving his land in his cousin's possession
After medical training he undertook work as ship's surgeon, finally with the Hudson Bay Company in 1815. In 1817 he started practice in Bowden-on-the Tweed, England, married Mary Lowrey (1793-1853) , an old school mate on 20 July 1819 and emigrated to V.D.L. in 1822 aboard the "Minerva". He had an appointment as Assistant Colonial Surgeon but his major interest was his farming property 'Bowsden" at Jericho.
John Martin (8 September 1812 – 29 March 1875) was an Irish nationalist activist. He was born into a landed Presbyterian family, the son of Samuel and Jane (née Harshaw) Martin, in Newry, County Down. He received an Arts degree at Trinity College, Dublin in 1832 and proceeded to study medicine. He published the anti-British journal, "The Irish Felon", and established "The Felon Club". This led to a warrant for his arrest, and he turned himself in on 8 July 1848. Martin was sentenced on 18 August 1848 to 10 years transportation to Van Diemen's Land. For more information see : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Martin_(Young_Irelander) and https://www.libraryireland.com/biography/JohnMartin.php
John Manifold (1811-1877) son of William Manifold and Mary, née Barnes, of Courthouse Farm, Bromborough, Cheshire, England. Arrived in VDL on 8 July 1831. On 2 September 1856 John married Marion Thomson, at Cormiston, Van Diemen's Land. They had four daughters and five sons
For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/manifold-john-2839
Successful pastoralist and agriculturist he acquired the estate of Apslawn on the East coast of Tasmania. For many years he was a Councillor and Warden of the Municipality of Swansea and represented the Glamorgan electorate from 1881 till 1893 in the House of Assembly. He was married to Elizabeth, daughter of James Hume, of Templestowe and had five sons. For more information See : http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/lyne-john-18353
John (Jack) Lyndon Weidenhofer (b. 4 October 1908) married Nancy Heather Brister (b. 5 October 1913) on 28 September 1940 in Hobart.
Jack served in New Guinea during World War 2. He worked for the Mercury newspaper as a photographer and was later appointed to a position in the Education Department in the Visual Aids Branch, where he made films for use in school as teaching resources (see AB713/1/6575).
He died in May 1969 and his wife, Nancy, in September 1982. More : Family records and photographs held at http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/default.aspx?detail=1&type=A&id=NG01975
John Lindley FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidologist. For more information see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lindley and http://cmausteller.blogspot.com/2013/05/dr.html
John Lillie (1806-1866), Presbyterian minister, was the fourth son of David Lillie, a Glasgow merchant. After some education at the University of Glasgow, he was licensed by the presbytery of that city. Soon afterwards he became tutor to the family of the Duke of Argyll at Ardencaple Castle, Dunbartonshire. The congregation of St Andrew's, Hobart Town, had asked the Church of Scotland to suggest a replacement for Archibald Macarthur. After some complication a committee nominated Lillie late in 1836. These moves coincided with colonial legislation to assist equally the Churches of England, Rome, and Scotland. On arrival at Hobart in September 1837, Lillie was recognized at once as Presbyterian leader by Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Franklin and by the church after brief delay. Not only did Lillie remain dominant during his frequent terms as moderator, but as an effective speaker and administrator he kept Tasmanian Presbyterianism united despite church disruption in Scotland (1843) and a querulous colonial society, a conspicuous success when contrasted with the confusion in contemporary New South Wales and in Tasmania in later years.
For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lillie-john-2360
Civil Engineer and Colonial Architect in Van Diemen's Land, serving from 1827 to 1838 and responsible for all government buildings including those for penal and military purposes. Tasmanian Parliament House is one of his most notable projects. In October 1838 Archer accepted an appointment as police magistrate for the district of Horton. He filled this office, living at Stanley, until his death on 4 December 1852.
For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/archer-john-lee-1713
John Leake (1780-1865) was born in Kent, U.K., in 1780, son of Robert and Sarah Leake. The family were merchants connected with the firm of Travis and Leake of Hull and John worked as a shipping and cargo agent, trading in various commodities between Hamburg, Hull, and North Sea and Mediterranean ports. In Hull in 1805 he married Elizabeth the daughter of a Hull merchant, William Bell, and between 1806 and 1819 they had six sons and two daughters, but one daughter died in childhood. After the Napoleonic Wars Leake and his family settled in Hamburg, an important trading centre and home for many British merchants, where he acted as agent for a number of East Yorkshire and German business companies, especially in agricultural produce, linseed oil, whale oil, cotton, etc. In the 1820s and 1830s, however, business began to decline and many of the Anglo-German merchant community emigrated. Leake was encouraged by William Wilberforce and the British consul in Hamburg to emigrate to Van Diemen's Land and he and his family sailed from Leith in 1822 and arrived in Hobart in 1823. The family settled near Campbell Town in the Midlands where many other former merchants of Hamburg and Altona (Holstein) settled, including Lewis Gilles and the Oakden and Milliken families etc. Others, later settled in South Australia, including Osmond Gilles and two of Leake's sons, Robert and Edward. Leake still kept in touch with friends and relatives in Hamburg and Hull. Former business associates acted as Leake's agents for the sale of wool and other business, especially Leake's father-in-law William Bell of Hull and his son, William Bell jr. Leake's father-in-law left property in Hull, in the street called "Land of Green Ginger", in trust for the education of Leake's son John Travis Leake as a surgeon, the residue for Bell's daughter Elizabeth Leake and then for Elizabeth's other children (see L.l/D.277-99). John T. Leake studied medicine in Kiel and Dublin and later received an MD. from Kiel University. William Bell the younger offered to educate a younger son, Arthur, and teach him the merchant business, so he was sent back to Hull and spent some years there and also in Hamburg with his other uncle Edward John Bell. One of Edward Bell's daughters, Clara, came to live with the Leakes in 1857 and in 1869 married the youngest son, Charles. Bell's son Ernst joined Robert Leake at Glencoe for a few years and then settled at Mt. Drummond near Port Lincoln, South Australia. Another son, Edward Geiss settled in Queensland, and after their father's death the youngest sister, Helen, came out to join the Leake family at Campbell Town in 1878.
John Ingle (c1781-1872) was a merchant and shipowner who had sailed with David Collins' expedition, arriving in Van Diemen's Land in 1804. He received a grant of land near Bagdad and acquired further property in Hobart and elsewhere. He was a friend of Edward Lord who was a fellow traveller on the Collins voyage, as was James Hobbs whose sister, Rebecca, Ingle married in 1804. In 1818 John Ingle left Tasmania and sold some of his property to Edward Lord but retained some property and commercial interests. Back in England he married Sophia Currey, whose family were bankers. Ingle was probably the most successful of the early merchants in Van Diemen's Land. Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1815 considered him a 'low, Vulgar Man who has Accumulated a Considerable Property by Carrying on Trade at the Derwent', an opinion shared by many of Ingle's contemporaries. He is remembered in the name Ingle Hall given to a warehouse he was reputed to have built on property he owned. Its exact date is not known but it is believed to be the oldest building still standing in Hobart.
For more information see : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ingle-john-2260
John Henry (Jack) O'Neil (1888-1971) was known as the King of the Tasmanian Trades Union movement. He was secretary of the Hobart Trades Hall Council 1927-1968 (except for a break due to ill health 1958-62) and was a foundation member and Vice-President of the A.C.T.U. He first joined the Caters and Drivers' Union at 18 in 1907 and he was a member of its Wages Board in 1911. He was State Secretary of several unions, namely: Carters and Drivers 1916-1942, Storemen and Packers 1917-1951, Electricity 1917-1953, Gas Employees 1918-1951, Federated Confectioners 1944-1968 and also of the Meat Industries and the Miscellaneous Workers unions and he was secretary to the 8 Hour Day Committee from 1921. He was an Associate Commissioner of the Hydro-Electric Commission 1954-1970 and was a Justice of the Peace.
Jack O'Neil was born in Hobart on 30 August 1888 and attended Thomas Mitchell's St. Mary's Boys School, where he was a member of the 12 boy squad which did exhibitions of military drilling using Enfield muzzle loading carbine rifles (see Mercury 24.7.64). In 1905 he married Florence Mabel Stead and they had 4 children: John James, Daphne Edna (Mrs A. Hughes), Phyllis Jean and Maxwell.
John Henry (1834-1912), politician and merchant, was born on 1 September 1834 at Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland, third of the seven sons of John Henderson Henry, merchant, and his wife Christina, née Henderson. Educated at Lerwick and the Normal School, Edinburgh, John worked for an Edinburgh grocer before migrating to Melbourne with his father and brothers William, George and Charles in May 1854. In 1872 he settled at Don, Tasmania, after buying into the local merchant firm Cummings & Co., renamed, initially, Cummings, Henry & Co., and in 1880 when Edwin Cummings retired the River Don Trading Co. Ltd. About 1890 the company's headquarters were moved to West Devonport; Henry, as managing director, followed in 1893 and branches were subsequently established at Ulverstone, Zeehan, Burnie, Wynyard, Penguin and Sheffield. 1885 Director of the Mt Lyell Prospecting Association. Fro more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/henry-john-6644
John Helder Wedge (1793-1872), surveyor and explorer, was the second son of Charles Wedge of Shudy Camps, Cambridge, England, from whom he learned the rudiments of his profession. Losses during the post-war depression in agriculture induced Wedge and his brother Edward to migrate to Van Diemen's Land, where they arrived in 1824 in the Heroine. Before leaving London he had obtained an appointment in the colony as assistant surveyor. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wedge-john-helder-2778
John Griffin, was a silk weaver of London. He was married to Mary, née Guillemard. Jane was one of his three daughters.
John Grant (d. 1825) was the son of James and Margaret Grant of Nairn, Scotland and brother of James Grant (l786-1870). John arrived in V.D.L. in January 1823 as a merchant in partnership with Alexander B. Spark, who settled in Sydney. John acted as a merchant in Hobart in partnership with Bethune. James Grant sent from London introductions, consignments of harness, ale, printed cotton and other goods, advised his brother about the sale prices of hides, whale oil etc. in Liverpool and consulted him about other business possibilities, such as muskets to sell to the natives in New Zealand and other ideas. James and his wife Caroline (d. 1868) the daughter of John Neve of Tenterden, Kent, followed John and arrived in April 1824. James and his brother received grants of land in the Fingal Valley and James named his "Tullochgorum". However John became ill and took a trip to Sydney for his health and died
there on 11 December 1885, leaving most of his property to James.
John Godlee had an exciting life as a mariner, spending time in north America during the Independence war and getting ship wrecked in French Canada. He came from a long line of Quaker mariners going back to Peter Godlee, 1645- 1719, from Southwald, Suffolk. John retired from the sea at the end of the American/French wars when sailors’ pay was halved, and got a job in Lewes with a respectable Quaker family, the Rickmans. He married Mary Rickman, his boss’s daughter.
Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), rear admiral, Arctic explorer and lieutenant-governor, was born on 16 April 1786 at Spilsby, Lincolnshire, England, ninth of the twelve children of Willingham Franklin and his wife Hannah, née Weekes. Franklin served as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1837 to 1843. He disappeared while on his last expedition, attempting to chart and navigate the Northwest Passage in the North American Arctic.
For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/franklin-sir-john-2066
John Earle was a Tasmanian politician and trades union organizer. He was MHA for Waratah 1906-1909 and for Franklin 1909-1916, Attorney General and Premier 1909 and 1914-1916 and was Senator for Tasmania in the Commonwealth Parliament 1917-1922. John Earle (known as Jack) was born at Bridgewater, the son of C.S. Earle and Ann Theresa (McShane). He was apprenticed to a blacksmith in Hobart in 1882 and enrolled in classes in engineering and science, economics and socialism at the Mechanics Institute and became friendly with the City Librarian, A.J. Taylor. Later he became a trades union organizer and in 1901 chaired a meeting at Zeehan to form the Workers Political League (which became the Labor Party) and was elected its first president, demanding adult suffrage, an 8 hour day and free education. In October 1909 he led the first Tasmanian Labor Party Government but as a minority it lasted only a week. As Premier in 1914, a year of drought, he imported wheat to keep prices down. He married in 1914 Susanna Jane Blackmore, an ardent member of the Labor Party and a vegetarian and theosophist. They had no children. In 1932 John Earle died of cancer at Oyster Cove and was cremated in Melbourne. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/earle-john-6077
Colonel John E. C. Lord (1870 -1949) had a long and distinguished civil and military career, and served nearly 34 years as head of the Police Department. He was the son of Richard David Lord, and was born at Brighton, Tasmania, on May 8, 1870, of a pioneer family. He spent the early years of his life in the Midlands sheep country. He came to Hobart at the age of 15, and, entering the Public Service as a cadet, was posted to the Stores Department in July, 1886, as a clerk to the Commissioner of Police. Promotion to chief clerk and secretary to the commissioner followed. In 1908 Col. Lord was commissioned by the Government to report on the Furneaux Group of islands embracing the condition of the islands and the regulation of the half-caste reserve, with suggestions for future administration. The report became a parliamentary paper widely read and referred to. He was also commander of the Tasmanian 40th Battalion, known as the 'Fighting Fortieth'. Soldiers attached to it were trained at the Claremont military camp near Hobart before sailing for England and eventually the French-Belgian border, which they reached on 24 November 1916. for more information see Mercury Newspaper obituary 29/10/1949 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/26657591
Sir John Demetrius Morris (1902-1956), judge and university chancellor, was born on Christmas Eve 1902 at Hawthorn, Melbourne, third child of James Demetrius Morris, a civil servant from New Zealand, and his Victorian-born wife Margaret Jane, née Smith. Educated at St Patrick's College, East Melbourne, and the University of Melbourne (B.A., 1924; LL.B., 1925; M.A., 1926), he was admitted to the Victorian Bar on 7 November 1927. At St Dominic's Catholic Church, East Camberwell, on 28 May 1930 he married Mary Louisa McDermott, a 29-year-old clerk. They moved to Hobart where he was admitted to the Tasmanian Bar on 24 October. He joined the firm of A. G. Ogilvie which became Ogilvie, McKenna & Morris in 1931. Within a few years the firm's major court work was being handled by Morris: Ogilvie chose to devote more time to his political career in the House of Assembly; McKenna was to do likewise when he was elected to the Senate in 1943. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/morris-sir-john-demetrius-11172
Dr John Coverdale arrived at Hobart Town in July 1837 where he practiced for a time. During 1840 he was appointed district surgeon at Richmond and in 1844 he was transferred from the Medical Department to the Police Department. He was elected warden of Richmond in August 1861 and in 1863 he was appointed to the Board of Medical Examiners. In 1865 became superintendent of the Queen's Asylum for Orphans at New Town and in 1874 transferred to Port Arthur. He stayed here as civil commandant until the settlement was abandoned in 1877. The next year, 1878, he took charge of the Hospital for the Insane at the Cascades, near Hobart. In 1887, he was notified that he had to retire and was given an annuity of £150 for his exceptional service. In 1889 he left the Cascades and made his home at Ivadene, Moonah. At his death in 1896 Coverdale was the oldest medical practitioner in Tasmania, and the second oldest Justice of the Peace. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/coverdale-john-1928
John Cotton (1832-1915) of "Earlham" Rheban, son of Frances and Anna Maria Cotton of "Kelvedon" married 1865 Mary Ann Wills (1827- 1915). Father of Edith Consuelio Blyth; Howard Gurney Cotton and Harold Tennyson Cotton
John Clark (1807-1853) , the youngest son of William Clark (1769-1851), came with his father to Tasmania and was Keeper of the Bonded Store in Launceston, Coast Waiter and Searcher at George Town and Police Magistrate at Hobart, Launceston, George Town and later Bothwell
He returned to take over the management of Cluny in 1838. He married Jane Oswald Sinclair Eddie in 1839 but had no children. He lived at 'Mauriceton', near Kempton.
John Charles Hargrave AO, MBE, MD, DSc(Hon), MBBS, FRACS, DTMH (1931-2020), plastic and reconstructive surgeon, was born in Perth and grew up in Western Australia. After attending Medical School at the University of Adelaide, he went to the Northern Territory in 1956. Hargrave was the medical officer with the 1957 Lake McKay expedition which contacted some of the last remaining groups of the nomadic Pintubi people of the Western Desert who had no previous contact with colonists. He noted their robust good health and advised against any relocation or interference.
Posted initially to Alice Springs as a ‘Native Surveys Medical Officer’, this involved examining all the Aboriginal people on various settlements and missions in Central Australia, looking for specific ailments – particularly Tuberculosis, Trachoma, Hookworm, Leprosy Otitis media, Anaemia, and Hypertension – and relating it to the environmental conditions under which the people lived. He realised he knew nothing about Aboriginal Australia and contacted the celebrated anthropologist Olive Pink, who agreed to meet him.
During his early surveys, he noted that leprosy was a significant health issue. It had been brought into the Territory in the 1880s by gold miners and labourers, spreading disproportionately into Aboriginal communities. Leprosy patients, including children as young as four years of age, were forcibly removed from their families and incarcerated, usually for the rest of their lives – first on Mud Island, then on Channel Island in the Darwin harbour. In 1956, the East Arm Leprosarium on the mainland, staffed by Catholic Sisters from the order of Daughters of the Sacred Heart, replaced the island leprosarium. Hargrave became its medical superintendent. He brought a respectful, collaborative approach to the care of Aboriginal patients, who had grown so afraid of Commonwealth institutional powers that they would often hide their symptoms to avoid separation from their families.
All his life he had an easy, respectful, engaging manner with all he interacted with - regardless of race, status, or language. He dedicated himself to learning common phrases of all the languages of all the people he worked with, both in the NT, and later in Indonesia and Timor. He was a compulsive teacher, mentor, collaborator, and encourager. Hargrave identified persons of promise, ability and goodwill and freely shared his knowledge and skills with no regard to hierarchy. He thus developed a cadre of Aboriginal health workers in the NT who could diagnose, treat, perform physiotherapy, operate, suture (including microsurgery), and dress wounds. He started the first formal training programs for Aboriginal health workers. Nurses were empowered to adopt high level skills and functioned as equals on the team. He learnt to fly, to facilitate his movement around the Territory. During a series of sabbaticals and with a WHO scholarship, Hargrave visited leprosy centres throughout South East Asia, studying and learning techniques and management. On his return to Darwin, with no other surgical training and in the face of administrative opposition, he established a reconstructive surgical program at the leprosarium from scratch. By 1982, leprosy was in marked decline in the Territory and the East Arm Leprosarium was closed. While continuing in Leprosy control, he was appointed as the inaugural NT Director of Aboriginal Health, and later started the incipient Communicable Disease Unit. Simultaneously, he was also appointed as a specialist hand surgeon to the Darwin Hospital and provided electro-neuro and myographic services to the NT.
In the late 1980s, he developed a locally supported, sustainable reconstructive surgical program in Timor and Flores. He again identified and mentored local clinicians of ability and promise, sought out and established working relationships, functional health services, collaborated with locally based organisations, and learnt local languages. His trips to and focus on Indonesia and Timor Leste grew in the 1990s and continued after his retirement from the NT Health Service in 1995. Surprising many, John built a beautiful house overlooking the Derwent, and after more than 40 years in the tropics, moved to Tasmania in the late 1990s, by flying down in his twin-engine plane. He continued trips to the north, introducing and mentoring other surgeons and clinicians. Hargrave died in Hobart in 2020, aged 89.
John Campbell Macdougall (1805?-1848), printer, publisher and editor, was the son of John Macdougall (1781-1845), who after a court action over the insurance of a ship sunk in the North Sea in 1815 had sailed for Van Diemen's Land in 1821 and become a merchant and agent. J. C. Macdougall followed him in 1825, and next year established a store in Hobart Town. In 1827 he bought the Tasmanian from George Howe, and became its editor and publisher-proprietor, adopting a moderate attitude to the government. For more information see : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/macdougall-john-campbell-2396
John Beamont (1789-1872), settler and public servant, was born probably in London where his father had a 'lockup shop' in Wych Street. He became a protégé of Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Davey who was said to have been in debt to Beamont's father. He arrived at Sydney presumably as Davey's secretary in the Minstrel on 25 October 1812, and proceeded to the Derwent; there Governor Lachlan Macquarie ordered that he be granted 300 acres (121 ha) and assigned two convict servants. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/beamont-john-1759
British economist & president of Queens' College, Cambridge, from 1932 until his death, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University 1941–43, university archivist.
More information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Archibald_Venn
John Andrew Feely was Chief librarian at the State Library of Victoria during the years 1960-1965
Sir John Alexander Ferguson (1881-1969), bibliographer and judge, was born on 15 December 1881 at Invercargill, New Zealand, eldest of five children of Rev. John Ferguson, Presbyterian minister, and his wife Isabella, née Adie, both Scottish born. Educated at Invercargill until his father was called in 1894 to St Stephen's, Phillip Street, Sydney, John continued at the William Street Public School, then was privately tutored by James Oliver. At the University of Sydney (B.A., 1902; LL.B., 1905; D.Litt., 1955) Ferguson was a contemporary of H. M. Green, and graduated in arts with first-class honours and the university medal in logic and mental philosophy. For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ferguson-sir-john-alexander-10168
John Eddie, merchant and auctioneer of Launceston.
Son of James and Sarah Meredith was George Meredith's young cousin who accompanied the family to Van Dieman's Land. He received land grants at Swanport and Jericho
but returned to England in 1822,Ieaving his land in hi s cousin's possession. There are a few references to him in George and Mary Meredith's letters of 1822-3.
Fourth daughter of John Meredith and Maria Hammond. Granddaughter to George and Mary Ann Meredith. Married Franklin Stanhope Grant. They had three children - Franklin Leslie Meredith Grant (1898-1964), Jessie Cecilia Grant (1899- ) and James Lionel LeNeve Grant (1902- )