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Military Pensioners of Richmond

Citation

MacFie, Peter H., 2004, 2022: Military Pensioners of Richmond, https://petermacfiehistorian.net.au/publications/military-pensioners/

Abstract

Originally presented as ’Mill Cottage to Peppercorn Gallery: A History of the Military Settlers of Richmond’ and other variations including ‘Colonial Soldiers’ or ‘Pensioner Soldiers’.

Right from the early days of British soldiers being sent to Van Diemen’s Land to guard the convicts, some of the military personnel sought permission to retire and take up land in the colony when their service ended. Some settled in the Coal River valley on the road to Port Arthur and became the core of today’s Richmond. By 1850 the British Government formalized the practice, and offered retired soldiers the chance to earn their fare (and those of their families) back to Van Diemen’s Land by working as ‘Convict Guards’, with the promise of small land grants and the chance to join the police. This is the story of those who settled at Richmond or nearby. Men of limited means who were in a class of their own. Not convicts or emancipists, and not wealthy or members of the ruling classes, but often skilled tradesmen who became a strength of the community.

Details

A 61 page A4 size pdf document. Permission is granted to print for your own use but not for sale.

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This document is not available for purchase due to the death of the author. His heirs have arranged for all of his smaller completed works to be made available on this website as a service to Tasmanian history.

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Download Military Pensioners of Richmond (5MB PDF)

Contents

Contents……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Illustrations……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6

  1. Mill Cottage – A Creative History……………………………………………………….. 7
  2. An Irish Redcoat & a Dressmaker………………………………………………………. 8
  3. The Morans Settle in Richmond’s “Irish Town”………………………………..14
  4. Mill Cottage – The Dress-Makers Shop c 1854………………………………. 23
  5. Morans on the Move………………………………………………………………………….. 28
  6. Private Edwin Anderson, Cooper, Royal Engineers……………………….. 30
  7. Richmond’s Crafty Anderson Brothers…………………………………………….. 36
  8. Other Military Pensioners and their Cottages………………………………… 42
  9. Peppercorn Gallery – A New Life for Mill Cottage………………………….. 55

Index…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 56

Excerpt

1. Mill Cottage – A Creative History

Until the 1930s, Richmond had a variety of traditional crafts and trades, ranging from coach building wheelwrighting, blacksmithing, shoemaking, saddle and harness making. The inns which once brewed their own beers employed coopers and related trades. Skill and crafts associated with women in the 19th century include dressmaking and embroidery. A short-lived ginger beer making operation was started by a female Richmond resident.

Many of these trades were recalled in 1977 by the late Alf King, (1894-1908), a local identity with a marvellous and reliable memory, who remembered the Richmond of his childhood pre-World War I. Using the names of residents listed in the 1902 Post Office Directory, Alf described to Peter MacFie who lived where in the various houses, shops and pubs of the Richmond of his boyhood.

He recalled that Mill Cottage – the Peppercorn Gallery at 58 Bridge Street – was at that time the home of James ‘Jimmy’ Anderson, village wheelwright and master builder. Subsequent research years later has revealed that Jimmy Anderson was probably related to the original owner. The cottage stayed in the Moran/Anderson families until 1953.

The land on which the cottage stands was first allocated c 1830 to J.K. Buscombe, the early Richmond entrepreneur, publican, developer and miller who lived in the home he built for his family, Prospect House.

Maps of the period show a small building on this site. However, information taken from the 1842 census indicates the cottage was probably erected in 1841-2. Edward Moran later called the house Mill Cottage, to distinguish it from the nearby Millers Cottage (1837) located at the end of Mill Lane and which gave access to the now vanished Tower Windmill. Mill Cottage was probably expanded around 1854, when two dressmaking sisters, Catherine and Bridget Moran, opened a shop there.

Alf King also recalled the bootmakers, undertakers, blacksmiths and other tradesman who lived and worked in Richmond. Most of these were based in Bridge Streets, Richmond’s main thoroughfare.

Index

alcohol, 14, 20, 39

Alexander, L, 21

Allcock, Martha, 26

Anderson children, 18

Anderson family, 53

Anderson, Amelia (Mrs Martin), 40, 41, 47

Anderson, Edward, 52, See Anderson, Edwin

Anderson, Edwin, 18, 30, 31, 33, 34, 43, 46

Anderson, George, 31, 32, 39, 40, 54

Anderson, James. See Anderson, Jimmy

Anderson, Jimmy, 6, 7, 31, 32, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 52, See Anderson, James

Anderson, John, 31, 32, 40

Anderson, Martin, 30, 31, 32, 39, 40, 41

Anderson, Mary (Mrs Edwin), 18, 30, 31, 33, 34, 46, See Moran, Mary Ann

Anderson, MaryAnn, 31

Anderson’s Cottage, 30, 40

Anderson’s Cottage #1, 30, 32, 54

Anstey, Thomas, 52

Arthur, Lt. Gov. George, 9, 10, 11, 12, 20

Ashmore, William, 52

Bailey, Robert, 46

Bailey, Sam, 54

Barrow, ? (Mrs William Warre), 14

Barrow, Lt William Warre, 10, 11, 14

Black Line, 9, 10, 14

Black Wars, 10

Blackburn, Mark, 54

Blowfield, James, 44

Blowfield, Sarah (Mrs James). See Mason, Sarah

Bothwell, 11

Bradshaw, Henry, 21

Brown Mountain, 10, 11, 14, 15, 29

Brown’s River. See Kingston

Brushy Plains. See Buckland

Buckland, 25, 27

Buckley, James, 51

Burn, George, 15, 22

Burns, Herbert, 38

Burrell, Walter, 38

Burridge, John, 47

Buscombe, J. K., 7, 10, 11, 23

bushrangers, 16, 46

Byron, Jane (Mrs ?), 26

Cain, ? (Mrs ?), 18

Campania, 14, 50

Campania Estate, 51

Cane, ? (Mrs ?), 17

Carey, Bridget (Mrs William), 47

Carey, William, 47, 51, 52, 54

Carey’s Cottage, 47, 54

Cassidy family, 18

Cassidy, Bridget (Mrs John). See Moran, Bridget

Cassidy, Hugh, 51

Cassidy, John, 15, 16, 17, 27

Catholics, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 24, 25, 26, 29, 33, 36, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 53

Chessington Boarding House, 27

Clifford, James, 44

Congregationalists, 52

Connell, Margaret. See Moran, Margaret (Mrs Charles)

Connolly’s Marsh, 13

Conroy allotment, 54

Conroy, Bridget (Mrs John), 45

Conroy, Bridget jnr, 53

Conroy, John, 45, 52, 53

Conroy, Mary, 53

Conroy, Patrick, 45

Conroy’s Cottage, 45, 53

constables, 43, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51

convict guards, 8, 43, 46

Cooley, Brassy. See Cooley, Charles

Cooley, Charles, 36, 46

Cornish children, 45

Cornish grant, 54

Cornish, Hannah (Mrs William), 44, 45, 46

Cornish, Mary, 45

Cornish, William, 43, 44, 45, 52, 53

Cornish’s Cottage, 53

Cotham, Father James, 17

Cotham, Lawrence, 52

Cousins, Phil, 37

cricket, 20, 21, 26

Cullen, William, 18

Cunningham, Margaret, 17

Cunningham, Michael, 18

Dale the water carrier, 26

Daniell, Captain ?, 30

Denton, James, 52, See Dunton, James

Devitt, Alf, 39

Devitt, Amelia. See Anderson, Amelia (Mrs Martin)

Devitt, John, 40

Devitt, Julia (Mrs John), 40

Dickson, Bassett, 51

Dickson, Henry, 37

Dodge, Ralph, 43

Dodge’s Ferry, 43

Douglas, Major ?, 11

Dumas, Captain ?, 14

Dunton, Florence, 25

Dunton, James, 25, 26, 27

Dunton, James Alfred, 25

Dunton, Mary Ann (Mrs James), 25, 26, 27

Eaglehawk Neck, 9

East Bay Neck, 11, 13

Eumarrah, 10

Eureka Rebellion, 46

Evans, Samuel, 47

Fagan children, 51

Fagan, ? (Mrs Michael), 51

Fagan, Michael, 31, 51

Fergusson, Peter, 10

Fielding, Anne (Mrs Robert), 55

Fielding, Robert, 55

Findlay, John, 11, 12

Fitzsimmons, Eliza (Mrs Richard), 53

Fitzsimmons, Richard, 53

foot-racing, 22

Gaby, Thomas, 52

Gard, Walter, 39

Gavin, Roger, 15

George Anderson’s Cottage. See Laurel Cottage

Geraldine Cottage, 48, 54

ginger beer, 7

Glen Ayr, 22, 51

Glover, Thomas, 44

Godfrey, Margaret (Mrs Peter), 55

Godfrey, Peter, 55

Goldie children, 27

Goldie, Francis, 27

Goldie, Mary Ann (Mrs Francis), 27

Gordon, James, 11, 12

Gracey, ?, 15

Grass Tree Hill Road Gang, 20

Green Ponds. See Kempton

Green, Bill, 36, 37, 38, 39

Gregory, Alice (Mrs John snr). See Wroe, Alice

Gregory, John snr, 50

Gregson, Thomas, 51, 52

Griffiths, Henry, 13

Guy, Benjamin, 14

Half Way Hill, 20

Hamilton, 26, 27

Hanna, Eliza, 22

Hannan, Miss ?, 17

Harris, Martin, 55

Hatfield, James, 22

hawkers, 38

Hawkes, Earnest, 40

Hayes, Catherine. See Moran, Catherine (Mrs Edward)

Herbert, Thomas, 52

Horsham, Mary, 13

Horsham, Private ?, 13

Horsham, Robert, 13

Hussey, ? (Mrs William), 51

Hussey, William, 51

inns

Bridge Inn, 11, 16, 33, 40

Commercial Hotel, 38

Glen Derwent, 24

Jolly Farmer, 16, 32

Prince of Wales, 16, 53

Richmond Inn, 52

Union Hotel, 16, 30, 32, 51, 52, 53

Inverquarity, 51

Irish people, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, 24, 32, 46, 51, 53

Irish Town, 16, 31, 32, 39, 51, 52

Jacobs, Philip, 21, 22

Jameieson’s Cottage. See Geraldine Cottage

Jamieson, James, 48, 52, 54

Jamieson’s Cottage, 48, 53

Jerusalem, 11, 23, 29, 53

Jones, Jeffrey, 55

Joseph, George, 38, 39

Kate, 6

Keady, Patrick, 45, 53

Kearney, William, 14, 43

Kelly, Mary (Mrs Robert), 52, See Cornish, Mary

Kelly, Reg, 54

Kelly, Robert, 45, 52

Kelly’s Farm, 46

Kempton, 26, 27

killings, 10, 11

King, Alf, 7, 32, 36, 37, 38, 39, 43

King, George, 38

Kingston, 20, 47

Knight, Edward, 33

Larnder, William, 43

Lauderdale, 47

Laurel Cottage, 39, 54

Leils, Thomas, 47

Lester, Bill, 38

Lisson, Adam, 32, 46, 47, 51, 52

Lisson, Elizabeth (Mrs Adam), 32, 46

Little Jack. See Netherwood, John

Lloyd, G.T., 11

Malcolm’s Huts Road Station, 20

Marchant, ?, 22

Marengo Estate, 37

Margate, 47

Maria Island, 24

Mason children, 43

Mason grant, 54

Mason, Charlotte, 43, 44, 50

Mason, Eliza (Mrs Samuel), 43, 44

Mason, Ellen, 43, 44

Mason, John Walter, 43, 44

Mason, Samuel, 43, 44, 51, 53

Mason, Sarah, 43, 44

Mason’s Cottage, 53

McCullagh, Mary (Mrs Simon), 32

McCullagh, Simon, 32

McCulloch, Anne (Mrs Simon), 16

McCulloch, Mary Ann, 17

McCulloch, Simon, 16, 52, 53

McCullugh, Simon. See McCulloch, Simon

McDougall, Lindsay, 55

McDougall, Sue (Mrs Lindsay), 55

McGowan, Anastasia (Mrs James), 32

McGowan, Honora, 17

McGowan, James, 16, 18, 32, 53

McGowan, Mary, 17

McLoughlin, Thomas, 13

Medlar, William, 46

military

01st Madras Regiment, 45

09th Regiment, 31, 51

11th Regiment, 47

21st Regiment, 16, 21

22nd Regiment, 46

36rd Regiment, 8

46th Regiment, 45

63rd Regiment, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

68th Regiment, 46

73rd regiment, 16

97th Regiment, 43

99th Regiment, 43, 48

Auckland Militia, 14

Royal Artillery, 49

Royal Marine, 51

Sappers and Miners Regiment, 30, 34

military pensioners, 16, 31, 32, 40, 43, 45, 46, 48, 51, 52, 53

Mill Cottage, 6, 7, 8, 23, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 40, 41, 55

Millers Cottage, 7, 28

Montrose Cottage, 54

Moran children, 18

Moran, Annie Ada, 28

Moran, Arthur Ernest, 28

Moran, Bridget, 7, 15, 19, 23, 26, 27, 29, 48

Moran, Bridget (Mrs Thomas), 28

Moran, Catherine, 48

Moran, Catherine (Mrs Edward), 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 23, 28, 31

Moran, Catherine (Mrs William), 28

Moran, Catherine 3, 22

Moran, Catherine jr, 15

Moran, Charles, 8, 17, 19, 21, 22, 24, 28, 29, 52, 53

Moran, Charles Connell jnr, 28

Moran, Edward, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 39, 45, 52, 53, 54

Moran, Edward 2, 22

Moran, Eleanor, 15, 19

Moran, Florence Lillian, 28

Moran, Isabella Margaret, 28

Moran, Kate, 7, 17, 19, 22, 23, 26, 27, See Moran, Catherine jr

Moran, Margaret (Mrs Charles), 28, 29

Moran, Maria. See Moran, Mary Ann

Moran, Mary Ann, 6, 15, 17, 31, See Dunton, Mary Ann (Mrs James)

Moran, Mary Ann 2, 22

Moran, Richard Thomas, 28

Moran, Rose Helena, 28

Moran, Thomas, 12, 28, 29

Moran, Thomas 2, 15, 17, 19

Moran, William, 8, 9, 15, 17, 19, 27, 28, 30

Moran, William 3, 22

Moran’s Cottage, 19, 45

Moran’s Cottage. See Montrose Cottage

Moren, Edward. See Moran, Edward

Morin, Edward. See Moran, Edward

Mounted Police, 10, 11, 15

Mt Rumney, 20

Murphy, Daniel, 16, 33

Murphy, Patrick, 11

Muster Ground, 10

Native Corners, 46, 50, 51, 53

Netherwood, John, 19, 20

New Town Farm, 48

Nicholls, J. H., 52

Nichols, ? (Magistrate), 21

Nickols, Elizabeth, 23

Noonan, Bridget. See Moran, Bridget (Mrs Thomas)

Norfolk Island, 30, 49

Nugent Farm, 25

O’Keefe, David, 18

O’Keefe, Michael, 18

Oatlands, 11, 44, 52

Ogilvy, David, 51

Parramore, Owen, 54

Penrice, 43

pensioner guards, 30

Peppercorn Gallery, 6, 7, 55

petitions, 17, 24, 25, 52

Polding, Bishop John Bede, 16

Poole, Ann (Mrs Joseph), 20

Poole, Anne. See Shelverton, Anne (Mrs George)

Poole, Joseph, 20

Port Arthur, 9, 20, 24

Price, John, 49

Prospect House, 7

Protestants, 24, 26, 27, 29, 45, 50, 51, 52, 53

Pt Puer, 21

Quin, Mrs Jean, 54

Redding, Ellen (Mrs William). See Mason, Ellen

Redding, Richard, 43, 44

Redding, William, 44

Reid, Thomas, 39

Reynolds, ? (Mrs Roderick), 47

Reynolds, Roderick, 47, 52

Richmond Bridge, 11, 14, 43

Richmond Gaol, 10, 14, 44

Richmond Races, 22

Riley, Thomas, 45

Robertson, Gilbert, 10, 15, 43

Rose, John, 23

Roslyn, 15, 22

Ross, Simon, 52

Rows, Thomas snr. See Wroe, Thomas snr

Sampson, ? (Mrs ?), 54

Schaw, Charles, 21, 51

schools

Campania, 55

Catholic, 18, 40

Dame, 53

private girls, 23

public, 47

Searle daughters, 23

Searle, ? (Mrs ?), 23

Shaw children, 47

Shaw, Arthur, 47, 54

Shaw, Bessie (Mrs Arthur), 47, 54

sheep, 11, 12

Shelverton, Annie May, 26

Shelverton, George, 26

Shelverton, Georgina Lester, 23

Shelverton, Kate (Mrs William), 26, 29, See Moran, Kate

Shelverton, William, 26, 29

ships

Alice, 9

Blenheim, 43, 46

Coringa Packet, 46

Eliza 4, 30, 31, 43, 45, 47, 49

Lady Leigh, 49

Lord Goderich, 21

Maria Soames, 43, 48

Medway 2, 19, 20

Minerva, 15, 16, 17, 18, 32

Wave, 8

Simpson, Mary Ann. See Goldie, Marie Ann (Mrs Francis)

Smith O’Brien, William, 24, 53

Smith, Thomas, 50

soldiers, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 30

Sorell, 11, 12, 20, 26

Sparkes, William, 27

St John’s Cemetery, 12, 15, 34, 48

St John’s Church, 12, 15, 16, 17, 26, 40

St Luke’s Cemetery, 12, 13, 34, 44, 51

St Luke’s Church, 26, 45, 50

steam flour mill, 26

Stoney Creek tribe, 10

Styne family, 18

Tasmanian Aborigines, 10, 11

The Carlton, 13

The Old Place, 54, See Carey’s Cottage

trades

blacksmiths, 7, 36, 37, 38

bootmakers, 7, 9, 19, 20, 28, 29, 30, 32, 40

brewers, 33

bricklayers, 51

builders, 7, 37, 52

butchers, 47

carpenters, 6, 20, 37

charcoal burners, 38

coach-builders, 6, 37

coach-painters, 38

coopers, 7, 30, 33, 34, 36

dressmakers, 6, 7, 9, 23, 26

embroiderers, 7, 23

iron-founders, 46

javelin men, 44

laundresses, 49

millers, 7, 23, 26

millwrights, 10

ostlers, 33

plasterers, 51

shoemakers, 27, 39

stonemasons, 52

tailors, 46, 48

undertakers, 7

wheelwrights, 6, 7, 31, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40

Travers, Catherine. See Moran, Catherine (Mrs William)

Ulmer, Kurt, 6, 55

Ulmer, Shirley (Mrs Kurt), 6, 55

Villeneuve Smith, William, 51

Vine Cottage, 44

voting, 51

Wallace, Laurence, 18

Wharton, Pymbar, 27

Whelan, Frances (Mrs John). See Wroe, Frances Eliza

Whelan, John, 50

White Kangaroo Rivulet, 10, 15, 29

White, ?, 15

Wiggins, Arthur, 54

Williams, W, 21

Willson, Bishop Robert William, 17, 18

Wilson, William, 21

windmill, 7, 10, 23, 28

Woodburn, 15, 16, 51

Woolford, Billy, 54

Woolford, Louise, 54

Woolford, Mercy, 54

Wright, Cyril, 54

Wright, Walter, 39

Wroe grant, 54

Wroe, Alice, 50

Wroe, Charlotte (Mrs Thomas jnr), 50, See Mason, Charlotte

Wroe, Eva, 50

Wroe, Frances (Mrs Thomas snr), 49, 51

Wroe, Frances Eliza, 50

Wroe, Samuel, 49, 51

Wroe, Thomas jnr, 44, 49, 50

Wroe, Thomas snr, 44, 49, 51, 53

Wroe’s Cottage, 53

Young, Randel, 26

 

 

“The Wesleyans of Port Arthur” Published

Book cover titled "The Wesleyans of Port Arthur" by Peter MacFie. The cover is filled with a photograph of church ruins at Port Arthur.With the aid of many friends and his editor, this remarkable story of the Wesleyan Chaplains who were appointed by the Government of the day to provide moral guidance to the convicts, military and civilians who lived at Port Arthur from 1833 to the end of 1843 has been completed.

Read more about this book on The Wesleyans of Port Arthur page, or buy it from the Shop.

A Social History of Richmond

Citation

Macfie, Peter H., 2003, A Social History of Richmond, 1820 – 1855. https://petermacfiehistorian.net.au/publications/social-history

Abstract

The life and times of Richmond from 1820 to 1855 as recorded through the evidence presented at the Richmond court during those years.

Details

60 page document formatted to print on A4 paper.

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Contents

 

Excerpt

The village of Richmond was similar yet so very different to today’s tourist town. Horses were the main method of transport, pulling waggons, carts or more fashionable gigs. Poorer people walked everywhere or caught a coach to Hobart Town. There were eight inns for travellers. Until 1850, convict road gangs, some with men wearing leg irons, worked in the streets and on roads approaching the village. Flocks of sheep were driven through the village to the sale-yards. Assigned servants assembled on the Muster Ground, now the Municipal Park, to have their names checked, observed carefully by constables and the Police Magistrate, based in the Watch House. Here offending assigned servants, convicts under sentence and occasional free settler were charged before magistrates, and held in the holding cells.

At the Court House nearby, charges were heard by magistrates and ‘justice’ handed out, by today’s standards, harsh and without feeling.

From being a pioneering district, after 1850 the town gradually became a town left behind by the spread of settlement to the north and the new colonies of Victoria and New Zealand. First the Victorian gold rush attracted settlers away, then in 1874 the town was by-passed by the Mainline Railway to the north and the Sorell Causeway to the south. Richmond became a quaint village, preserved by default. From the start of the first Jury Act in 1855 to the introduction of Municipal Government in 1864, the Richmond district was under the jurisdiction of affluent locals, rather than government appointed magistrates. Sentences were just as harsh, although flogging became a thing of the past. Richmond became the centre of local government for the Coal River Valley, holding council and court hearings, for cases stretching from Dulcot through Richmond to Campania and Colebrook.

Meanwhile, a new generation of settlers had moved into the village – Jacobs, Kellys, Andersons, Nichols, Ross and other families who stayed. Immigrants, including some German families plus military pensioners used the former barracks for temporary accommodation.

While the streets were home during the 1870s to elderly emancipist – former convicts – who lived in cheap rent or in huts in the bush at hamlets like Dulcot, most families tried to over-look their own convict origins.

The Catholic -Protestant divide continued, with the Bridge Inn being the Catholic pub and the Lennox Arms/Commercial the Protestant/visitors hotel. A deferential relationships between farm-hands and farm owners continued; but behind closed doors, another world existed.

End of Excerpt

Index