A History of North West Bay and Margate, Tasmania 1792-2000
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CHAPTER 3 – HUNTERS & SETTLERS
Marines at North West Bay 1803-1818
Before European settlement at North West Bay, the area was exploited by hunting parties from Hobart Town. The uncontrolled killing soon made waterfowl scarce.
The area was allocated to retired Marines in 1814, most of whom, however, did not stay long. This phase was followed by the North West Bay Sawing Station.
Hobart Town Hunting Ground 1804-1810
Being an area abounding in swan and other bird life, North West Bay was home to a band of Aborigines, apparently war-like. According to James Kelly, before 1819 North West Bay (and the banks of the Huon) were occupied by ‘natives’ until driven off onto Bruni Island.
In the first 5 years of settlement, North West Bay was a favoured location for settlement hunting parties, a fact born out by the letters of surveyor GP Harris, and the diary of Rev Robert Knopwood. Although not documented, the intrusion by Europeans into traditional hunting ground of the indigenous people, inevitably lead to a fatal clash of cultures.
Botanist Robert Brown was perhaps the first post-settlement European to venture down the North West Bay River – even if accidentally. Attempting to find a route from the face of Mt Wellington to the Huon River, Brown had traced down a stream, only to arrive at North West Bay. In May 1804, he and Humphrey finally found a route to the Huon River, tried to find its source, and returned exhausted through the bush to North West Bay.
One of the first group of settlers to visit North West Bay was a survey party led by GP Harris in November 1804 aboard the whaler Alexander. He was accompanied by Rev Knopwood and several assigned servants in the boat crew – Henry Hakin the pilot (Aitken?), the Government coxswain, plus Joseph Powell, ? Garret, William Richardson, ? Davis, William Atkinson, George Scholer, William Russell, Henry Miller and (Thomas) Salmon. Knopwood described the expedition in some detail. The ship headed down Storm Passage and came to anchor at ‘North Cove’.
The soil, according to Knopwood was:
… very bad all stones and the trees not good. At sunset we returned and the three whaleboats, they took 79 swans.
While at anchor they saw 2 natives on Bruni Island. Surveyor Harris’s description is less detailed:
NW Port- The first place … I had the opportunity of examining the country in Storm Passage was on the south side of the first harbour (Port de Noir Ouest on the French Charts). The shore is generally rocky. The soils is a whitish sand, mixed with stones. The ground covered with ferns and the trees, small and stunted in their growth. At the bottom of the Cove on the left hand (see Chart) (sic) is a small run of fresh water. The upper part of the harbour, as I was informed by the boat crew that went after swans, is very Shoal with a small river running into it. …
The next morning they followed the coast down and came to a ‘fine cove’ which ‘abounded with oysters.’ They also found a large conger eel which Robert Knopwood shot, and which weighed 20 pounds, after which they gave the name ‘Conger Cove’, and marked a tree with Knopwood’s name.
In 1806 and 1807, Robert Knopwood records that North West Bay continued as a hunting ground for water birds by the new settlers. He sent two of his men down on a hunting expedition but they returned empty handed. In November 1807, he went on board the ship HM Porpoise, and then accompanied three of its officers in the ship’s launch and went down the river. Later that day they entered ‘NW Port’:
… where we went after some black swan and killed three in Lt Lord’s boat which we borrowed to pull after the swans, it being light.
The party left the bay and proceeded down the Channel, staying overnight on Bruni Island, and then on to the Huon River.
Marines – First Settlers at North West Bay 1817-1820
The first settlers at North West Bay were marines from the First Fleet Regiment and the NSW Corps, the so-called Rum Corps. This is borne out by a list of 11 men who obtained grants in the Kingborough district in 1820, the majority of whom were Marines. These grants are further substantiated by a map dated 1814, and signed by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. The Marine settlers were given land grants along the bays of what became Kingborough, starting with Thomas Lucas and John Foley (or Folly) at Brown’s River, then another at Blackman’s Bay, followed by others at North West Bay, including James Clysold (or Clissold).
Concern over escapees resulted in the introduction of clearances being required for shipping leaving the Derwent River or Pittwater. The only exception was for settlers of North West Bay who were exempted when ‘conveying their families or servants or produce.’ The exemption was probably due to the residents being former marines, and supposedly trustworthy. Appendix 1, map 5 has the plan of the original grants of 1814 superimposed on a current cadastral map, and on those in intervening years. These combined maps, also attached, have resulted in a clearer understanding of the change of land ownership over the years. The other grants ran in an east-west direction along the flats of the North West Bay River. Beginning with the grants nearest North West Bay, these grants were allocated to:
THE MARINE SETTLERS GRANTS, NORTH WEST BAY 1814
| NAME | ACREAGE | COMMENT | FINAL GRANTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| George Munday | 50 | Pittwater | |
| John Piersall | 35 | Clarence Plains | |
| Thos Williams | 60 | ? | |
| John Downs | 60 | ? | |
| John Whaley | 80 | Bruni Is? | |
| Thos Terrett | Removed | UNK | |
| Wm Perry | Removed to the Coal River | UNK | |
| William Gangell | 60 | Removed | Pittwater |
| William Davis | 180 | Removed | Brighton |
The same map indicates that the new settlers moved to other locations; some may have not taken up their grants at all. The majority moved to the Coal River, Clarence Plains or Pittwater. However, those at Brown’s River, including Lucas and Foley, remained to become permanent residents whose descendants are still in the district.
John (i.e. James) Cressall/Clysold, ‘a marine,’ who advertised for sale his 130 acres farm on 13 February 1819, consisting of ‘fine fertile land, with a dwelling house, situated at North West Bay’. Also advertised were ‘2 mares, one horse and two bales of Bengal blankets,’ the whole ‘the property of the late Capt Jones, of the ship Cochin.’ Capt Jones had arrived on the Cochin from in Feb 1817 in a gale, having lost 5 Lascar seamen overboard. Coming up the Derwent, the ship was blown into Frederick Henry Bay, remaining in distress for three days. While based in Hobart Town, Jones was accosted at sea by another ‘old salt,’ Capt Charles Jeffries of the Kangaroo, who assaulted Capt Jones in Storm Bay, and slapped him in irons. Jones later sailed for India but died before the ship reached Calcutta.
The Marines settling at Kingborough, perhaps due to the variable soil and rainfall, found themselves in difficulties and requested that their grants be transferred elsewhere. One such marine was James Clysold, who sold his land at North West Bay and instead purchased land at Black Brush, in the Brighton district, close to George Kearley and other marines who also had grants there. Clysold was a private in the party of Royal Marines who arrived aboard the Ocean in 1803 under Lt Bowen, part of the trial settlement at Risdon Cove.
One Marine who stayed was Pte John Folley, a First Fleeter and a stonemason and carpenter, who arrived on the Friendship in 1788. Posted to Norfolk Island, in 1793 Folley (or Foley) married former Lady Juliana convict, Catherine Heyland. Removed to Van Diemen’s Land in 1808 on the Porpoise, he was accompanied by his wife, two sons and servants Samuel Columbine and Thomas Kenton (who also later was granted land at Blackman’s Bay in 1820). In May 1819, John Foley, based at Blackman’s Bay, was appointed Constable for North West Bay and Brown’s River.
His son, John Folly junior, who married Scottish emancipist Ann Moore in 1821, also purchased land at Brown’s River in about 1820, where he established a farm and sawmill. In 1829, John Folly junior successfully petitioned for an additional 320 acres. He later had a long-term dispute with Nathaniel Lucas, son of another Marine, over the right-of-way of a road crossing Folley’s land. Another son, James Folly, who was born on Norfolk Island in 1795, married Mary Sherburd at Hobart Town in 1813. She was also the daughter of Norfolk Islanders, William and Esther Sherburd/Shurburd. (William had arrived on the Scarborough, one of the Second Fleet ships.) James was granted land in Kingborough at Blackman’s Bay in 1820, known as Foleys Farm. James was drowned in a whaling accident in the Derwent in 24 September 1822. At the time, his wife was pregnant with a son she also named James. He in turn became a master mariner of the ship Flying Dutchmen, built as a whaling boat at Blackman’s Bay by Robert Snowden and Samuel Welch for George Watson and Richard Cleburne in 1845 and which carried a crew of 24 men. By January 1850, James junior was captain of the Lady Emma.
A daughter of James Folly, Susannah, married Robert Gardener who was also a captain and owner of several ships in Hobart Town.
Three other First Fleet marines who were given grants at North West Bay were John Downs, Thomas Terrett/ and John Whaley/Wailie. Little is known about the first two soldiers, who arrived as Marines with Whaley on the Calcutta. However, not all the North West Bay settlers were Marines; former convict George Munday was allocated 50 acres there, but lived in Hobart, then moved to Pittwater where he died at Cherry Tree Opening in 1867 aged 101.
One of the non-Marines who received a grant at North West Bay was John Pearsall, who was probably selected for his trade as a blacksmith. He was a 24 year old nailer when convicted at the Staffordshire Assizes in 1801, for stealing ‘with others,’ a bull calf, two tame cocks, six tame hens and two cheeses.’ Initially sentenced to death, he was transported instead. Pardoned in 1813, he received the grant at North West Bay the following year. In 1816 Pearsall married Maria, the daughter of William and Frances Nicholls. Nicholls had been Superintendent at Port Phillip and at Hobart. John and Maria had six sons and five daughters. The couple moved to Clarence Plains and became established there. Later, a grandson returned to Kingborough, where the family became well known in political circles.
The second generation of Lucases – John, Richard and Nathaniel – later owned large areas of land around the North West Bay River and the future site of Margate. John Lucas married Sophia Sherburd in 1824, the daughter of former Norfolk Island settlers. John Lucas also owned a large tract of land at Margate south of the river, from the main road to the water front. Here, a collection of buildings is situated where the Margate Creek meets the saline estuary.
John’s brother, Richard Lucas, owned a tract of land inland and adjoining another brother, Nathaniel Lucas. (Richard Lucas married Elizabeth Green, nee Fawkner, the widowed daughter of Calcutta convict, John Fawkner, and his wife Hannah. Fawkner was later to become a co-founder of Melbourne.)
Nathaniel Lucas’ large tract of land ran from North West Bay River in the north, southward crossing Margate Rivulet. (He had married Elizabeth Fisher, the daughter of another Norfolk Island settler, Edward Fisher, whose grant covered lower Sandy Bay where the name is recalled in ‘Fisher Avenue’.)
LATER OWNERS OF THE MARINE SETTLERS GRANTS, NORTH WEST BAY
| NAME | ACREAGE | LATER OWNERS |
|---|---|---|
| James Clyssold | 130 | James Henry Vigar |
| George Munday | 50 | John Lucas |
| John Piersall | 35 | Do |
| Thos Williams | 80 | Do |
| John Downs | 80 | ? |
| John Whaley | 80 | ? |
| Thos Terret | ? | |
| Wm Perry | Nathaniel Lucas | |
| William Gangell | 60 | E Fisher |
| William Davis | 180 | do |
The land adjoining that of the Lucases to the south was now allocated to a new arrival, Charles Meredith, a former private in the 63rd Regiment. He had embarked for NSW from England in December 1829. In June 1832 he was with the regiment in Western Australia; in March that year he was at Flinders’s Island, where he remained until March 1834, as part of the guard of George Arthur Robinson’s Wybelina aboriginal settlement.
While on a visit to Flinders Island in December 1832, Quaker missionaries, Backhouse and Walker, wrote favourably in their journal on the actions of Charles Meredith’s wife, Anne Bradley, and her attention to the welfare of the aboriginal women:
The wife of one of the soldiers named Meredith attends to the washing of the females who now wash their clothes on (the) seventh days, (sic) and the men are shaved on first day mornings.
(This entry is not indexed in the volume, Weep in Silence, but occurs on page 237. The entry also indicates that the Merediths were married, probably before they left England.)
The next month Charles Meredith was granted 100 acres in Kingborough, a mile south of a small farm on the North West Bay Rivulet occupied by ‘Rawlins’ and to the west bordered by a grant to William Holdship.
Charles and his wife Ann Bradley Meredith had a number of children at North West Bay, although 3 died prematurely. Catherine was born in 1840 and baptised in the Methodist Church. However, her birth was not formally registered. Catherine Meredith aged 20, married Thomas J Rollins, also aged 20, at the Kingston Anglican church, on 20th Feb 1860. Witnesses were William and Eliza Rollins and Charles Meredith.
Richard, the second son of Charles and Ann Meredith, married Sarah McDowall at North West Bay on 20th Feb 1854. Charles Meredith died aged 75 in June 1876, and was buried at Kingston.
Peter MacFie, Historian ~ Copyright © 2014 Peter MacFie