Mr Arden breathes again

You might remember that back in early October, Judge Willis had George Arden, the editor of the Port Phillip Gazette, ‘bound over’ with recognizances of £400 and two lots of sureties of £200 pounds as a form of editorial good behaviour bond to ensure that he stopped printing attacks on Judge Willis in his newspaper.

The three newspaper editors spoke to Governor Gipps about the matter when he was in Melbourne, and on 8 November, now that the ‘excitement’ had subsided and in a spirit of post-Gubnatorial bonhomie, Willis announced that he would annul the recognizances:

My object, which was peace, is accomplished… I will only say, that [the recognizances] they have ever appeared to me inconsistent with the respect due to the office of the Resident Judge, and contrary to that due and equal administration of justice, which the Resident Judge is bound to see observed. I am quite willing, however that they should be buried in oblivion; I merely refer to them that my conduct may in every respect be understood.  I wish to act on all occasions with that candour, which I hope to meet with from others, and which should ever pervade all intercourse in civilized society..[ PPH 9/11/41]

George Arden himself wrote in his own newspaper in an editorial headed ‘The Last Defence of Judge Willis’:

…the feud existing between the Press and the Resident Judge is apparently closed. Mr Justice Willis has placed himself on his last defence and, although his remarks were utterly uncalled for, and certainly unrequired, we have no wish that he should not enjoy the full benefit of his explanation… We do not place that extreme value on enjoying the ultimate position of an argument- which is evidently clung to in the most tenacious manner by Mr Willis- and care not, therefore, if he have, as he desires to have, the last word… We have all, however, our imperfections- none more so than the gentleman who has in this instance been brought into so protracted a struggle with the power of a Judge and the talent of a Willis… [PPG 10/11/41]

So, all’s well that ends well.  For now.

The Commissioners for the Melbourne Market

The elections over, the new Commissioners for the Melbourne Market met to discuss future prospects for the market.  At the time there was only one general market (later known as the Western Market), taking up the city block bounded by Market, Collins and William Streets and Flinders Lane. It would remain there for ninety years. There was an informal arrangement that cattleyards close to Flagstaff Hill could be used as a temporary cattle market and La Trobe agreed that a site for a permanent cattle market should be selected on the Sydney Road, in a line with Elizabeth Street.  Land was set aside on the present site of St Paul’s Cathedral for a Hay and Corn Market, but this later shifted to a site  known as ‘Haymarket’ on the corner of Exhibition (then Stephen Street) and Little Collins Street on 1 August 1846. This expanded to a larger market known as the Eastern Market on the block bounded by Exhibition (Stephen), Little Collins and Bourke Street.

In the short term, it was decided to fence in the Market Reserve at the Market/Collins/William/Flinders Lane site  (i.e. the Western Market) and to divide it into two or more compartments and allow stands to be erected. Rules for the market were promulgated. The market would open by the ringing of a bell at 7.00 a.m. from 1 September- 28 (or 29th in leap year) February, and an hour later at 8.00 a.m. from 1 March- 31 August.  The market would close at sunset, but articles for sale on the Wednesday and Saturday market days could be admitted at any hours of the night before.  The north-east portion of the market would be set aside for the sale of apparel, hardware, crockery and groceries; the south-east portion would house butchers and dairy foods, eggs and fish.  Potatoes would be sold at the north west corner, and in the south west corner would be fruit, vegetables and garden produce.

The second municipal body in Port Phillip

As a proud Heidelbergian, I wish I could brag that the Heidelberg Road Trust was the oldest municipal body in the Port Phillip District.  Unfortunately it’s not true.  But it does run a close second, with the election of the Trustees on 16 November taking place just fourteen days after the election of the Market Commissioners on 2 November.  As Max Lay writes in the e-melbourne encyclopedia:

The road to Heidelberg was Melbourne’s first major road. It originally began at the top of Bourke Street, tracked across to Smith Street, followed the top of the Collingwood escarpment and then (as Plenty Road and later Great Heidelberg Road) followed the current routes of Queen’s Parade, Heidelberg Road, Upper Heidelberg Road and Lower Plenty Road. The route was well established by 1839, surveyed through to Eltham by Townsend in 1840 and opened in 1841.

On 17th November, the Port Phillip Gazette reported:

HEIDELBERG ROAD In pursuance of an advertisement from the Police Magistrate, convening a meeting of the proprietors along the line of the Plenty Road, for the purpose of electing trustees for the same, a meeting was held at the Exchange Rooms yesterday at two p.m. W Verner, Esq. JP presiding magistrate.  The following gentlemen were duly elected trustees in conformity with the Act of Council:- T. Wills Esq, W. Verner Esq, G Porter Esq. We believe this to be the first and only instance of the Act of Council having been brought into operation, with reference to the construction of  parish roads.

‘The Tasmanians’ or ‘Van Diemen’s Land Blacks’

Over the last few weeks, news had been percolating into Melbourne about an “outrage” at the Coal Mining Company’s station at Cape Paterson where two of the “Van Diemen’s Land aborigines”  named Bob and Jack, brought over by the Chief Inspector George Augustus Robinson, had burnt settlers’ huts and turned out the women (PPH 15/10/41).  This was one of the first newspaper references to the small group of Tasmanian indigenous people that Kate Auty and Lynette Russell have called ‘The Tasmanians’ in their recent book Hunt Them, Hang Them, instead of the term ‘Van Diemen’s Land Blacks’ which was more current at the time. ‘Bob’ and ‘Jack’ were Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheener, of whom I have written previously.

On 11 November, the Port Phillip Patriot reported:

THE BLACKS. Mr Powlett, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, returned to town on Friday evening last, after having been unsuccessful in the attempt to capture Mr Robinson’s Van Diemen’s Land blacks, who have recently been committing serious depredations in the neighbourhood of Western Port.  On one occasion Mr Powlett and his party had the ruffians actually in view, but the intervention of a low swampy scrub between the pursuers and pursued, enabled the blacks to make their escape.  Mr Powlett has again resumed the search, and there is every reason to believe many days will not elapse ere the marauders will be captured or destroyed [PPP 11/11/41]

The Port Phillip Herald gave a fuller description:

THE VAN DIEMENS LAND BLACKS. Mr Powlett, the Commissioner,  returned to town on Friday evening, unsuccessful in his endeavours to take the blacks.  It appears, however, that they have had a narrow escape from capture: after tracking for two days, Mr Powlett, at the head of a strong detachment of police and natives,  got sight of the parties late in the evening of a wet day,  at the edge of a low swampy scrub; every possible exertion was made to come up with them, but ineffectually, owing to the nature of the ground, in which the horses sank to their knees, and the thick scrub into which they escaped; in the pursuit, it seems they must have separated for their whistling was heard by the police while searching the scrub, making signals to one and other; their escape was greatly owing to the late hour of the evening at which they were seen. Finding themselves so hard pushed, the natives have seized a whale boat of Mr Anderson, and put to sea: information has, however been received by Mr. Powlett since his arrival in town, that they have returned to the main land, and he started for the scene of action yesterday; the police and natives had been left in the vicinity of the place where the outrages have been committed.  It now appears certain that this party, which consists of two  men and three women have committed two murders, wounded one  man dangerously and three  slightly; their capture, however, Mr Powlett expects will be effected in the course of the ensuing week, as the police are determined to run them down. [PPH 9/11/41]

The Port Phillip Gazette was particularly critical that the aborigines had been ‘imported’ from Van Diemen’s Land by George Augustus Robinson:

THE NATIVES. The outrages which have of late been committed in the neighbourhood of Western Port by a party of aborigines, are incontestably traced to have been perpetuated by a gang of imported blacks. As if it were not sufficient for our settlers to be harassed by some of the turbulent tribes of their own shores, they have now to guard themselves against the experienced and semi-educated savages of a neighbouring colony, who were expelled from their native haunts in consequence of their atrocities. If this is to be the sole benefit of a Protector General being appointed, to travel with his predatory tribes wheresoever he may list, the sooner the Government grant promotion to that officer the better for this province.  A Protector “Field Marshal” might perhaps cause the whole of this band to decamp northward [PPG 10/11/41]

This isn’t the end of this story either- we’ll be following this one through

But here IS the end of a good story (narratively speaking)

I generally endeavour to write about things that DID happen in Port Phillip, but I just can’t resist this event that didn’t happen. During the 1840s ‘the boy Jones’ was so notorious throughout the Empire  that it wasn’t even necessary for a newspaper article to name him- just ‘the boy Jones’ was enough.

Edmund (Edward) Jones was a recurrent intruder into Buckingham Palace between 1838 and 1841.  His first incursion was in 1838 when, at the age of about 14, he entered the place disguised as a chimney sweep. After a chase he was captured with Queen Victoria’s underwear stuffed down his trousers. He was acquitted by a jury but on 30 November 1840, nine days after the birth of Queen Victoria’s first child, he was back, entering and leaving the palace undetected.  The next day he broke in again and was arrested after being discovered under a sofa.  He was sentenced to three months in prison. He was released on 2 March 1841 and within a fortnight was back in the royal apartments yet again.  This time he was sentenced to 3 months hard labour.

Which brings up to the middle of 1841.  And adding about three months for a journey from England to Port Phillip…could he have arrived HERE? Well, the Port Phillip Patriot thought so when it announced the arrival of the Boy Jones as an immigrant by the Diamond on 4 November:

the Government having availed themselves of this plan to rid themselves effectually of the presence of a youth whom no precaution they could take sufficed to exclude from the presence of royalty, and from whom danger to the person of our most gracious Sovereign was with some reason apprehended. Jones was offered a handsome salary to exhibit temporarily on the boards of some theatre some time before his departure from London, but his father very wisely objected to the engagement unless the agreement were more permanent.  We have not heard how Master Jones is to dispose of his services in the colony, but as we have no Queen here, nor anyone who may not be approached without difficulty, we apprehend his peculiar talent for undertakings of this nature will avail him very little [PPP 11/11/41]

Alas [?] it wasn’t true, the the Port Phillip Patriot itself admitted a few weeks later when later editions of the London papers arrived (PPP 29/11/41 p.2)  Although Jones did end up in Victoria eventually, dying in Bairnsdale in 1893 when he fell from a bridge, drunk. However, the prospect of young Jones coming out on the Diamond was rumoured in England as well.  As the Sydney Herald reported on 18 November 1841, the Times published the following article:

The boy Edward Jones, who, it will be remembered, has on three different occasions effected a mysterious entrance into Buckingham Palace (and, according to his own account, a fourth, but on which occasion he escaped without detection), was on the 14th of last month liberated from Tothill-street gaol; his period of imprisonment having expired.  While in prison he was quiet and orderly, and even exemplary in his conduct, so much so, that the governor had not in any one instance cause of complaint.

Since the liberation of this youth, who has gained so much notoriety, he has been frequently seen on Constitution-hill, and in the immediate neighbourhood of Buckingham Palace, which being communicated to the authorities, orders were given to the police to watch his movements, which was accordingly done; but there was nothing in his manner or behaviour different from those who daily frequent the parks in hopes of gaining a sight of royalty.  Still it appears he was deemed a dangerous character, and meditated another entrance into the palace.  Without, therefore, going into details and rumours of suspicion, we may state that Edward Jones the uninvited visitor Queen Victoria, has been taken quietly in hand by the proper authorities, and placed on board the Diamond emigration ship, bound to Australia, or some other of the English colonies, being apprenticed as a seaman for five years. His father thinks it is only for three years, that he is going to Port William, and will in a twelvemonth return, when he will receive wages, and be allowed to remain at home with his friends for a short time.  He (the boy’s father) also thinks that his son left London for Gravesend on Friday last, but it is stated by others that, although the Diamond sailed from Gravesend on Friday, Jones, accompanied by an officer of the Thames Police, only left London by railway on Monday last, and that orders were given to those in whose charge he was, not to lose sight of him until he was place on board the Diamond in the harbour of Cork. On the day Jones left the prison, one of the agents or manager of a minor theatre (his father says) called and offered him £4 per week to appear on the stage for a fortnight and, at the end of that time a “benefit”, but the boy declined exhibiting himself for so short a period. Jones complains of the mode in which he was treated in Tothill-street prison, and attributes it entirely to the orders of the Government.

The Port Phillip Patriot backtracked from its claim on 20 December 1841, when it cited the Waterford Mail which had recently arrived via the Agostina:

The boy Jones of Palace-visiting notoriety would not be taken on board the Diamond at Cork for Port Phillip.  The master, Captain Taylor refused a handsome sum as an apprentice fee, which the Bow-street officer who accompanied him here offered. [PPP 20/12/41]

[There’s a book about The Boy Jones- Jan Bondeson. Queen Victoria’s Stalker: The Strange Story of the Boy Jones. Amberley, 2010.  There’s also a How Stuff Works podcast here and here (24/8/16) that seems to be based on the information in the book if you can stand the flippant presentation and the advertisements]

And the weather?

Fresh and strong breezes generally, fine agreeable weather. Top temperature for the week 78 (25.5C) and lowest 43 (6.1C)

Election time!

The excitement just keeps coming: last week the visit of Governor Gipps and now, this week, the first election in Port Phillip. An election – not for the Legislative Council (that wouldn’t happen until 1843) or for the Melbourne Town Corporation (which wouldn’t happen until late 1842)-  but instead for the Melbourne Market Commissioners.

A reserve for a market had been set aside on the original grid survey, close to the wharf and bounded by  Market, Collins and William streets and Flinders Lane. Liardet’s picture of the market space, show below and painted from memory some forty years later, is striking in its depiction of the stumps of felled trees in the large square space that was used for the market.

The Landing Place and Market Reserve in 1839 by W.F.E. Liardet (1878) State Library of Victoria

In October 1839 the NSW Legislative Council passed an act (3 Vic No. 19) permitting the establishment of markets in towns other than Sydney and Parramatta, where there had been markets for some time. By 1840, with its population and trade steadily increasing, the good people of Melbourne wanted a market too. In August 1841  after the stipulated request from householders, the NSW government authorized the election of market commissioners  by public election.

Under the act, the number of commissioners was fixed to the size of the population. If the population was more than 4000 (which Melbourne was), then at least 3 wards would be created with two commissioners each. As a result Melbourne was divided nearly into four wards with the dividing lines being Bourke and Elizabeth Streets, a division which was maintained through most of the 19th century. The franchise was low – an annual rental of £20 or freeholders to the value of £200 – for males only, of course. Bernard Barrett in The Civic Frontier (p 23) estimates that of a total population of about 9000, about 3000 qualified under the property franchise. [You’ll note that Barrett’s number of 9000 was much higher than the numbers reported in the 1841 census. In fact, it’s hard to pin down exactly what the population of Melbourne was. The Geelong Advertiser of 17 July reported a total of 11,728 for the Port Phillip District and 4479 in Melbourne. I’m sure that this election would only have covered Melbourne. Quite frankly, I don’t know.]

In the week or so leading up to the vote, advertisements were placed in the newspapers, requesting a particular candidate to stand. By 2 November, the candidates were:

North West Ward: Messrs F McCrae and Stephen

South West Ward: Messrs Arden, Kerr, Fawkner and Nodin

North East Messrs Simpson, Barry, Dobson and Cavenagh

South West Messrs Porter, Pears and Locks.

The newspaper editors and proprietors are well represented here (Arden, Kerr, Fawkner all in the SouthWest ward, and Cavenagh).  Under the Act, the arrangements for voting were:

Section 18: That every person being qualified and registered as aforesaid and intending to vote at such election shall deliver to the presiding officer a ticket with the names of the persons written thereon for whom he intends to vote, the number of such persons not being greater than the number of persons to be elected, otherwise the said vote to be null and void, and the said ticket so signed by the person presenting it after being read aloud by the presiding officer shall be forthwith deposited in a box, and shall not be withdrawn therefrom until the same shall be delivered to the scrutineers.

Section 14 At the hour of three o’clock on the day of election the box shall be delivered to the scrutineers who shall within forty-eight hours afterwards certify in writing to the police magistrate the names of the persons elected.  [PPG 23/10/41]

As was the custom at the time, this was an open election where after a voter filled in the ballot and his selections read aloud. This was seen to be a public check on the process, as the voter could challenge it immediately if the wrong names were announced and any attempts to ‘steal’ the election could be publicly challenged.

And so, as the Port Phillip Patriot ( the paper with connections to William Kerr and John Fawkner) recorded:

THE ELECTION. Tuesday, the 2^nd November, being the day appointed for the election of the Commissioners of the Melbourne Market, at an early hour Thomas Wills Esq. JP, the gentleman appointed by His Excellency to preside at the election, accompanied by Skene Craig Esq, one of the scrutineers, took his seat on the bench at the police office, which Major St John had kindly vacated for the day.  The several candidates who had been put in nomination were also invited to take their seats on the bench.

The number of voters who had registered their qualification was very small as compared with the number whose names should have been on the list, but indeed, it was obvious that up to the last moment (notwithstanding that the press had been laboring to attract public attention to the subject,) the great bulk of the people were not aware whether they were entitled to vote, or even of the Ward in which they were respectively resident.  Generally speaking there was the usual listless apathy displayed which is characteristic of the people in these money-making colonies, but Mr Fawkner and his supporters formed an exception to the rule, the candidate himself being decorated with a blue sash, and his voters distinguished by breast knots of blue ribbon.  Indeed, in Mr Fawkner’s case, the customary festivities of an English election were in some degree observed, open house being kept in the William Tell for all such electors as displayed “the ribbons o’blue” and the walls being placarded in all directions with “Vote for Fawkner and Economy”.  [PPP 4/11/41]

The Port Phillip Gazette (with connections to George Arden) wrote in a similar vein:

As early as possible in the day, Mr Wills JP, appointed by the Governor to act as president on the occasion, took his seat on the Bench, accompanied by Mr Skene Craig, one of the scrutineers; they were joined at a subsequent period of the morning by Mr J. B. Were and Captain Cole.  Among the candidates were also present: Mr W Kerr, Mr J Stephen, Mr J Peers, Mr G Arden and Mr J. P. Fawkner.  As soon as the doors of the Court were thrown open, the electors who had incurred their rights of voting by previous registration, came up in considerable numbers to present their tickets in the prescribed form. Although great good feeling and order was preserved, there was an absence of spirit and a lack of promptness, which resulted probably from the novelty of the power vested in their hands by free citizens. Some little display of blue ribbons, and what we deprecate as being less harmless, some approach to hilarious excess was visible among the electors …The polling was quickest  between the hours of eleven and twelve, flagging after that period, until the close of the proceedings which took place at three o’clock.[PPG 3/11/41]

As was the Port Phillip Gazette’s wont, it had great fun at the Patriot’s expense through a Bob Short anecdote. This article, featuring an ignorant  ‘Bob Short’ (a thinly disguised John Fawkner) and his friends, was an ongoing joke that ran through the Gazette’s pages, playing no doubt on the pre-decimal currency idiom of ‘a few bob short of a pound’ to suggest dim-wittedness.  Is this the start of the traditional Australian sausage sizzle at the election booth?

“HERE’S YER BOB SHORT SAUSAGES!” Such was the shout which startled the electors upon “the first dawn of civic freedom” on Tuesday last. Anxious to obtain a view of the mouthpiece, we elbowed our way through the crowd and observed a man who is professionally known as the “Flying Pieman” covered from heel to truck with blue ribbons, while upon his arm hung a basket, containing about twenty pounds weight of the spicey [sic] article denominated “Bob Short Sausages” and which some of the supporters of that worthy were purchasing and masticating with much apparent gout; while others screwed their faces into divers contortions as morsel after morsel found its way down their throats, and swallowed more in honour of their champion than from any particular relish, or press of appetite.  The articles certainly looked very suspicious; but whether manufactured of the canine or feline race, were admirable representations of that choice Melbourne Commissioner “Bob Short”. [PPG 6/11/41]

Despite this being the first chance for Melbourne householders to flex their electoral muscles, few bothered to vote.  Only 328, or about 10% of eligible householders according to Barrett’s figures, bothered to enrol.

As the Port Phillip Gazette editorialized on 6 November:

…we cannot refrain from remarking on and lamenting the unnatural apathy which has marked the conduct of the residents in carrying out an affair of the first municipal consequence…The qualification for a vote was so low ( £20 rental)  as to render it virtually universal in its operation. Every householder, from the lowest to the highest, had the opportunity of exercising a privilege which, as it was the earliest occasion of its introduction into the colony of New South Wales, should have been claimed with avidity worthy of its character, and in accordance with the enterprise of the people of Port Phillip. [PPG 6/11/41]

The successful candidates were North-west ward: Farquahar McCrae, John Stephen (no election needed as there were only two candidates); South-west ward: George Arden, John P. Fawkner; North-east Ward, James Simpson, William Dobson; and South-east ward: George Porter, John Jones Peers.

The Port Phillip Herald reported that: “The scrutineers have thought it best not to make known the number of votes for each candidate, the tickets and numbers have therefore been sealed up to prevent disclosure” [PPH 5/11/41].  However, the Port Phillip Patriot did give the figures for the south-west ward (where Fawkner, the paper’s proprietor won): Fawkner 62  Arden 47  Kerr 26  Nodin 21.  Twenty four had neglected to vote; and several votes were in dispute.[PPP 4/11/41]

Guy Fawkes Night

Readers of a certain age in Melbourne will remember Guy Fawkes night, building bonfires and setting off crackers.  Although still celebrated in England, it’s largely forgotten in Melbourne now.  It was, however, celebrated in Port Phillip:

GUY FAUX “Pray remember the 5^th of November” &c. In humble imitation of the mother country, the rising generation of the province carried out the usual ceremonies and proceedings which obtain in the vicinity of the [?source?] of its origin, and Mr Guido Faux was effigied throughout all parts of the town, and in the evening was consumed at sundry bonfires amidst various specimens of the pyrotechnic art[PPG 6/11/41]

Pony up!

There was an influx of Timor ponies into Port Phillip in early November, and they were sold at auction on 4th November.

The Port Phillip Patriot reported:

HORSES “The Lombock horses for spirit and powers of endurance resemble those of Timor, but they are in addition much larger and stronger. The present lot have been selected by an experienced judge from the stud of the Rajah of Lombock, and their sale will doubtless attract a numerous concourse of the admirers of “blood, bone and beauty”.

On 8th November, the Patriot reported that the majority of them  sold at prices varying from £13 to £22 each. A second consignment of 112 ponies landed on  The Georgiana,  from Copang, in the Island of Timor. This later group, reported to be in “a very reduced condition” sold for between £8 and £15, while the remaining Lombock horses sold at average price of £14 per head. [PPP 11 November]

A song for November

The Port Phillip Patriot was characterized as the most radical of the three Port Phillip newspapers. I was surprised by this poem published on 4th November which, while extolling the freedom and liberty of Australia, praised the champions of independence Washington and Bolivar as leading stars. Not sure that Her Majesty would be too amused…

It’s to be sung to the tune ‘Scot Wha Hay’. So, here’s the tune- feel free to sing along!

And the weather?

Fresh breezes and strong winds; weather generally cloudy with frequent rain, but in inconsiderable quantities. The top temperature for the week was  a balmy 79 (26) with a low of 44 (6.6)  The coldest day for November was recorded on 7th.

Reference:

Bernard Barrett The Civic Frontier, 1979, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.

Given my track record of writing about events after they’ve closed, I probably won’t write about this until after it’s finished. So, in case you haven’t heard about it and you might wish that you had, I’m going to see ‘1916’ at the Brunswick Mechanics Institute tomorrow tonight