WESSEX

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3807, 11 September 1936, Page 8

WESSEX

THE BIRTHPLACE OF EMPIRE. THE A’BECKETTS, PYKES, LONSDALES AND OTHERS. The south-western counties of England, though to be sure Cornwall repudiates being anything but a duchy, form the old Kingdom of Wessex, in which Alfred the Great sowed the seed of the British Empire, the Empire on which the sun never sets. Cornwall, the home of the Celts, uncisturoea oy the Romans, tnough Known by tne Phoenicians, the Gauls ana tne Iberians since 1000 8.C., anu described by DioUorus Siculus in 44 ii.C. as quite civilised, eventually, u.jugu stm resisung, became part oi neooex, Unuei riirreu. Cornwall, Wltn ns scoiy or aosvpii or Arnnatliea ane tile niiaiic jcsus, ana its numerous sanies with somewhat outlanuish names—l'iraii, Neot, iNeclan, Mor weiuia, Juliet, Rvai ana Groyan- —its pasties containing amongst a myriau or other things pork, rabbit, beet’; kidney, potatoes, parsley, onions and bacon. ■ uevon, lealy Devon, snuggling between exmoor, on tne north, anu Dartmoor, on tlie south, the home or tne sea Kings, Drake, Grenville, Frobisher, Raleigh, Hawkins, Davis, the Gilberts; no end of-them. Somerset, the most English of the counties, as the inhabitants well know— Zummerset was zeeming vair Of water, wood and land; Zummerzet where volk du speak Zo volk can understand. The Durotriges gave their name to Dorset as the Damnonii did to Devon, though some people prefer to credit it to Debon, the hero who came with Brutus from Troy. Wiltshire, with its antedeluvian relics, Silbury Hill and, Stonehenge, where the Druids performed their sacred rites, and Hampshire, with its hogs and hams., complete the list. Dorset gives us butter and cheese Devonshire gives us cream, Zunnnerzet’s zuyder’s sure to please And set your hearts a-dream; Cornwall from her inmost soul Brings tin for the use of man, And the four of ’em breed the prettiest girls, So, damme, beat that if you can.

The a’Becketts, though born in London, came from an old Wiltshire family. William, son of William, also a lawyer, came to Sydney in 1837, where he edited the “Literary News.” In 1841 he was appointed solicitor-general, and three years after he was made judge. In 1846 he was transferred to Port Phillip, where at Separation he became Chief Justice. Forced by ill-health, he resigned in 1857, and returned to England, where he died in 1869, leaving a pleasant memory of a cultured, literary gentleman. His son, William Arthur Callendar, a’Beckett, figured largely in Victorian politics in the sixties and seventies. His brother Thomas Turner a’Beckett, joined him in 1850, and was registrar of the diocese for over 30 years. A Legislative Councillor for 20 years, he held office several times. His son, Thomas was the well-known judge, sometimes acting as Chief Justice. Gilbert Abbott a’Beckett, of “Punch” and the “Comic Histories,” was another brother. Altogether a notable family. The Pykes, of Ballan (Victoria), says the “Melbourne Age” came from Wiltshire, although originally of Somerset. Thomas H. Pyke, the father, known as Gentleman Pyke, ran a fine pack of hounds, the dingo being the chase, though a drag was sometimes resorted to. There w’ere many other packs - the Goulburn boys, in the North-East; the Mount

Rouse Kennel; Sladen, at Geelong; Compton F/errers and Cunningham at Mount Mercer. Pyke bought Upper Werribee, or Morockdong, in 1842, and other stations later. His brother, Dr William and George Pyke, were associated with him. Returning to England in 1854, he did not come back until 1860, when he found his wealth dissipated, and he died in 1861, a poor man. Statistics and verse seem somewhat incompatible, yet Henry Hayter, another Wiltshire man, was able to combine both, though it is said his facts were better than his couplets. A more romantic figure from the same county was Major St. John George Frederick Berkelley, who was Melbourne’s police magistrate from 1840-1849, amongsj, whose progenitors were Lord Craven, Viscount Bolingbroke, Lady Diana Spencer, and the Duke of Marlborough. According to .Garryowen and other writers, the Major hardly justified his aristocratic lineage as an impartial dispenser of justice. He shook the dust of Melbourne off his shoes in 1849, taking his four sons—Frederick Molyneux, Berkeley Craven, Aubrey Beauclerk Lennox and Henry Augustus Bolingbroke—and his two daughters to the old country.

Somerset sent us two great stock breeders, or rather, families, the Austins and the Clarkes. The Austins are perhaps better known by their benefactions, the Austin Hospital being an outstanding example, and perhaps by a fine scene for good land, and his exclusive menus. William John Turner Clarke, better known as Big Clarke, has a fine scent for good land, and his exceedingly lengthy list of stations in Victoria proved this faculty. He lived mainly in Tasmania, but his son, Sir William John Clarke, became one of Victoria’s leading public men and benefactors. His charitable donations were frequent and large; he gave regularly to the church and Trinity College; he was a patron of coursing, yachting, the volunteers and music, and was Victoria’s leading Freemason, occupying in succession, grand master of the Irish, the Scotch, and the English constitutions. He was Victoria’s first baronet, being raised to that position in December, 1882. William Drayton Taylor, who arrived in 1836, acted for several Tasmanian stockholders, principally W. J. T. Clarke and Judge Pedder. With a partner, Cornish, he held Warranheep from 1842-46, and in 1865 bought Noorilim, which he subsequently sold to the Winter-Irvings. Somerset winds up with John Ferres, who, coming from Bath in 1848, was first a compositor, then manager of the Port Phillip “Herald,” and introduced to the colony its first steam printing machine. He became Government printer in 1851 after Separation, a post he held well for very many years.

Hants may be fittingly introduced by Melbourne’s first police magistrate, Captain William Longdale. Of a well-known military family, he joined the British army as ensign in 1819, in his seventeenth year. After earning the esteem of all the early settlers, a very mixed and difficult lot, he returned to England, dying there in 1864. There was another Hampshire man in the civil service, Edward Stace Symonds, who came from Gosport to Sydney in December, 1836. First a commissioner for the gold fields, he was appointed gold receiver at Melbourne in 1855, and Under 'Treasurer in 1857, a position he filled with considerable ability for no fewer than thirty years, a record period of occupancy of such an important public office. John Allee had rather an extensive experience as a settler. First in 1829, in Western Australia, one of the first band of pioneers; but soon disillusioned, he went to Tasmania in 1830, where he established a flourishing business as a builder. Coming over to Port Phillip in 1838 with James Webb, he settled down, dying at Brighton in 1877. •Captain Hepburn, who was in part-

ership with John Gardiner, our first verlander and banker, came over ith him and Joseph Hawdon, to give el bourne citizens their first fresh ef for Christmas, 1836. Though of . very old Scottish family, he was ’ rn in Hampshire. A captain in the ercantile marine for 21 years, runng his own ship, the Ceres, in the iw South Wales coastal trade, he came an excellent grazier, settling Smeaton Hill. Dorsetshire sent out Tom Roberts, ho led the impressionist movement augurated in Melbourne in the ' ghties, and made the Australian ; hool, as exemplified by Arthur Streeton, Lou McCubbin and others, a school of light and air. William Highett and his brother John, of Weymouth, who emigrated to Tasmania in 1830, were both graziers, though William, the elder, was better known as manager of the Union Bank and as a somewhat exclusive and crusty bachelor. But the most valuable contribution from Dorset was Charles Sturt, the greatest of Australian explorers, and his brother, Evelyn Pitfield Shirley Sturt. The latter, after a brief period as • commissioner of Crown lands, tried his luck as a storekeeper at Yass, and then as a squatter at Mount Gambier. Going to Melbourne in 1849, he was appointed police magistrate, a position he held until 1878, when he went to England. He left his name in Sturt Street, South Melbourne, and Ballarat. From Devon came a host of pioneers, R. R. Haverfield, a Mallee scrub pioneer, and a leading journalist. Professor Strong, W. A. Zeal, Rickard Cofck‘, “the solicitor, IT. E. Sage, who overlanded to marry one of the beautiful Baxter girls. While Cornwall—space alone justifies such scanty reference to the Duchy—may pride itself on the Dennis brothers, of Tarwarncoort, W. R. Bennetts, of Fitzroy, and the marine Tregurthas and Hobbs.—J.A.D.K., in Melbourne Age.