uaker life in tasmania the first hundred years
by
michael bennett
design and picture research by gillian ward based on an exhibition curated by gillian ward and zoË mckay
university of tasmania library 2007
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cknowledgements
In mounting the original exhibition and preparing this book, we have incurred a range of debts. We would like to thank the Religious Society of Friends for the loan of items and allowing them to be photographed and reproduced. We especially thank Pamela Wendell-Smith, Keeper of the Friends’ Meeting House Collection, and Kathy Rundle, the Friends’ School archivist, for information, assistance, and encouragement. We are grateful to Jim May and Mary McDermott for the loan of Alfred May’s paintings and books and Louisa May’s doll in its J.B. Mather box; family members associated with the archives deposited in the University of Tasmania Library Special and Rare Materials Collections, especially B.B. (Jim) Walker, for their interest and support; Sandra Holmes for the loan of the Australian Womens Weekly; and Jackie Kennedy for advice regarding Victorian costume and dolls. We are grateful to Zoë McKay for her work on the original exhibition and further research and editing assistance; Linda Luther, University Librarian, and Di Worth, Associate Librarian, for their encouragement of the project; and Emilia Ward, Juanita Wertepny and Heather Excell for Special Collections and Publications support and assistance. Finally we thank Di Worth, Peter Jones, Friends’ School, and Lyndsay Farrall, Religious Society of Friends, for reading the text, suggesting some improvements, and saving us from some errors. Michael Bennett, School of History and Classics, wrote the main text. Gillian Ward researched and selected the pictures and designed the book. Caroline Evans, School of History and Classics, prepared the Quaker biographies. Graeme Rayner, University Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections, wrote the section on the history of the Quaker Collection. Profits from sales of the book will be used to provide a prize or scholarship for a history student to undertake research using the Quaker collection. Quaker life in Tasmania online: http://www.utas.edu.au/library/exhibitions/quaker/
Quaker Life in Tasmania: the First Hundred Years. by Michael Bennett © University of Tasmania Library, Hobart, Tasmania 2007 ISBN 1 86295 367 8 Printed in Tasmania by Foot and Playsted Pty. Ltd. Launceston, Tasmania. Design and photography: Gillian Ward
vvv Cover Photographs: Sarah Benson Walker (1812-1893) and the first Friends’ Meeting House, 143 Murray Street, Hobart (1837-1880). University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections. Frontispiece: Alfred May painting ‘Blue Wren’ (Private Collection).
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foreword
This book has developed from an exhibition on Quaker history that was held in the Morris Miller Library of the University of Tasmania in April 2006. The basis of the exhibition was the Quaker collection which has been held in the Library since 1971. At that time Dan Sprod, University Librarian, negotiated with the Society of Friends for the transfer of their historical library to the care of the University. The exhibition was an opportunity to engage again with the Society of Friends, who kindly lent many items for the occasion. It was also an opportunity to explore some of the delights of the Morris Miller Library collection which may otherwise languish on the shelves unopened. Professor Michael Bennett, School of History and Classics, officially opened the exhibition, and his speech brought to life the Quaker story: their concerns about the convicts that they cared for in England, what happened to these convicts during their passage to Australia, and how they managed once they arrived in Van Diemen’s Land. This book is a compilation of photographs of items in the exhibition and Michael Bennett’s research to reveal the history of Quaker life in Tasmania. It is a fascinating story of the development of a practical religion which resulted in the foundation of many institutions which are well known to us to this day. Quakerism in Tasmania celebrated its centenary in Tasmania in 1932. This is the story of the first one hundred years. The strength of the present community suggests there will be a significant history to be written for the second hundred years in 2032. Linda Luther University Librarian
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Quaker life in tasmania
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ontents
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a world turned upside down
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practical religion
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the conscience of the colony
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Friends and families
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quiet accomplishments
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questions of survival
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bearing witness
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quaker collection - a history
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Ww a
or l d t u rned up side down In 1642, as Abel Tasman sighted the southern coast of Tasmania, and as the first shots were fired in the English Civil War, the eighteen-year-old George Fox had a spiritual awakening. Ashamed of himself after revelry with friends at a fair, he had a dream in which God said to him: ‘Thou seest how young people go together into vanity, and old people into the earth; thou must forsake all, young and old, keep out of all, and be as a stranger unto all’.1 He left home, and wandered from place to place seeking guidance and solace. His relatives counselled him to marry. There was pressure for him to enlist in the army. The Church of England left him cold: he referred to its ministers as ‘priests’ and its buildings as ‘steeple houses’. He was exasperated by one ‘priest’ who simply counselled him to smoke tobacco and sing psalms. The Civil War was turning the world upside down. The structures of authority were breaking down, and in 1649 Charles I was executed and a Republic established. There was a religious free-for-all, and the Civil War and Commonwealth period (1649-1660) saw the
George Fox Portrait by Sir Peter Lely
Quaker life in tasmania
emergence of a range of sects and a fair few cranks.
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Left: The great mister y of the great whore unfolded, and antichrists kingdom revealed unto destruction in answer to many false doctrines and principles... against the despised people of the Lord called Quakers... by George Fox. London : Printed for T. Simmons, 1659. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections. Background: George Fox painted by S. Chinn, engraved by S. Allen. Frontispiece from H. S. Newman, The Autobiography of George Fox from his Journal. London, S. W. Par tridge and Co. 1886. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
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George Fox gathered around him other free spirits and seekers after the truth. He interrupted sermons and rebuked members of the ruling class. In 1650 he was arrested in Derby on the charge of uttering blasphemous opinions. He and his friends bade the bench ‘to tremble at the word of Lord’. On this account Justice Gervase Bennet dubbed them Quakers.2 For a time the Quakers were regarded as a subversive force. Fear of religious anarchy was a factor in the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The Friends in the Truth, as they called themselves, were in fact moving towards a pacifist position. As Fox informed Charles II in 1661, ‘all bloody principles and practices we … do utterly deny, with all outward wars and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever; and this is our testimony to the world’.3 The refusal to bear arms, along with the refusal to swear oaths and to do ‘hat honour’, that is to raise their hats to social superiors, inevitably created problems with the authorities.4 The Conventicle Act of 1664, which sought to inhibit worship outside the Anglican Church, led to more systematic harassment. Many Quakers left England for the New World. Their missionary William Penn Frontispiece, The Life of William Penn, by S.M.Janney, Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1852. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Quaker life in tasmania
zeal was naturally combined with the desire to establish communities in which they could practice their religion without fear of persecution. A group of Quakers led by William Penn (1644-1718), a well-educated and well-heeled convert to the movement, acquired land in the western part of New Jersey and in 1681 obtained a charter to create their own colony of Pennsylvania. 8
Over the decades the Religious Society of Friends - to give the Quakers their correct name - began to cohere as a movement. George Fox’s marriage to Margaret Fell in 1669 brought him emotional and financial security. Women figured prominently in the movement, and were allowed to preach. Margaret Fell had organisational skills, and for a time her house at Swarthmoor in Westmorland was the headquarters of Quakerism. The system of Monthly and General Meetings evolved, and the focus shifted to London and a number of regional centres. Some second generation Quakers, like William Penn, were well-connected in elite circles. The Toleration Act of 1689 brought an end to the worst period of persecution. By the time of Fox’s death in 1691, though still facing discrimination and harassment, the Quakers were winning grudging respect for their honesty and sincerity.
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Above: The Christian-Quaker and his divine testimony vindicated by Scripture, reason and authorities, against the injurious attempts that have been lately made by several adversaries with manifest design to render him odiously inconsistent with Christianity and civil society : in II parts, the first more general, by William Penn ; the second more particular, by George Whitehead. [S.l.] : [s.n.], 1674. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections. Right: Swarthmoor (formerly Swarthmore) Hall Frontispiece: Margaret Fox of Swarthmore Hall, by Helen Crosfield, London, Headley Brothers, 1913. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
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ractical religion
The early Quakers or Friends came from relatively modest backgrounds. Though few were formally well educated, they valued literacy. They documented their spiritual life in journals and letters to friends and kept copious records of their meetings. In an age of religious and sectarian controversy, they defended their beliefs and practices in print. Robert Barclay’s Apology for the True Christian Divinity (1678) became a classic exposition of the doctrine of the Inward Light, the in-dwelling spirit of God in each person’s soul. Robert Mather, who was not then a Quaker, brought a copy in London before embarking for Tasmania in 1821. Largely excluded from public office and the learned professions, the Quakers pursued careers in manufacturing and business. Their practical education, willingness to work, and habits of thrift assured the success of their businesses. Honesty cut margins but increased custom. William Tout of Lancaster hated setting prices unreasonably high and then haggling: ‘plain dealing obliged worthy customers and made business 5 go forward with few words’. Their reputation for honesty and the
strength of their networks help to explain the prominence of Friends in banking. Barclays and Lloyds are two banks that originated as Quaker businesses in the eighteenth century. The Friends were not entirely comfortable with their worldly success. They dressed plainly and continued to eschew luxury and fashion. Most lines of business raised ethical concerns, and they were taken seriously. The Darbys of Coalbrookdale, who pioneered a revolution in ironfounding, wound down their involvement in the armaments industry. Still, the Quakers were not inflexible. Quaker brewers consoled themselves that beer was at least more wholesome than gin. Though at first they regarded chocolate as a luxury, and were always troubled
Quaker life in tasmania
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Left: Barclay’s Apology (left) An apology for the true Christian divinity, as the same is held forth, and preached, by the people called, in scorn, Quakers; being a full explanation and vindication of their principles and doctrines, by many arguments, deduced from Scripture and right reason, and the testimonies of famous authors, both ancient and modern : with a full answer to the strongest objections usually made against them, presented to the King / written and published in Latine, for the information of strangers, by Robert Barclay, and now put into our own language for the benefit of his countrey-men. by Robert Barclay, [S.l.] : [s.n.], 1678. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections. Far Left: Elizabeth Fry, detail of portrait from Memoir of the life of Elizabeth Fry. (see p.13)
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by the use of sugar produced by slaves, Quakers rapidly came to dominate the chocolate industry. Fry’s of Bristol led the way, both in promoting chocolate and mechanising production, with Cadbury’s of Birmingham and Rowntree’s of York becoming their major challengers. The Quakers set up their own schools, where children benefited from a curriculum that emphasised mathematics and science more than the classics. Benjamin Franklin, the prodigy from Pennsylvania, became the archetype of homespun Quaker polymath on both sides of the Atlantic. In Britain Dr John Fothergill enjoyed a formidable reputation as a physician, scientist and philanthropist. A notable botanist, he was responsible for the introduction of Sydney Parkinson, the son of a Quaker brewer in Edinburgh, to Joseph Banks. Parkinson was a gifted artist with a passion for plants, and was recruited for the Endeavour voyage of 1769. Before his untimely death on the voyage home, he produced a thousand drawings of the flora and fauna, people and places of the Pacific. He was the first Quaker to set foot in Australia. Sydney Parkinson by James Newton, 1773
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The Friends focused on doing good in the world rather than on seeking to convert others to their faith. Nonetheless there was a missionary tradition, but with the emphasis on witness and example: ‘Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come’, Fox had written, ‘that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people and to them: that you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one’.7 In the late eighteenth century the Quakers were prominent in humanitarian movements like the campaign against the slave-trade. They were troubled by the savage penal code that brought so many people to the gallows. They lobbied for the reform of prisons. Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845), the mother of ten children, fought to improve the lot of the women imprisoned at Newgate prison in London, and to provide them with religious instruction and the skills to support themselves. Opposed to the death penalty, she saw transportation as providing a second chance. She visited the women on the transport ships, inspected their berths, and presented each female transportee with ‘one Bible … one pair of spectacles, one comb, knife and fork, and a ball of string’.8
Quaker life in tasmania
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Memoir of the life of Elizabeth Fry : with extracts from her journal and letters edited by two of her daughters. London : C. Gilpin, 1847. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
In the early nineteenth century the Australian colonies were a focus of concern. Dr John Walker regarded penal labour as akin to ‘the man trade’ or slavery. He had written about Botany Bay in a geography textbook, and was incensed to find in the second edition that someone had inserted, without his permission, the observation ‘as lives must be wasted in the formation of the new settlement’, the lives of the convicts could be most ‘easily spared’.9 There were also distressing reports about the ill-treatment of Aborigines, especially in the new colony of Van Diemen’s Land. James Backhouse (1794-1869) was aged twenty-one when, while at work in a nursery in Norwich, he ‘was first impressed that it was the will of the Lord’ that he ‘should go on a gospel errand in to Australia.’10 Elizabeth Fry encouraged and helped to prepare him for the mission. He set out in 1830, taking as his companion George Washington Walker (1800-1859).
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Quaker life in tasmania
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Left: Elizabeth Gurney (Fry): Memoir of the life of Elizabeth Fry. vol.1, frontispiece, ‘from a portrait taken at the age of eighteen’. Far Left: Memoir of the life of Elizabeth Fry, vol.2, p. 191 (see p.13). Right: Elizabeth Fry Urn. This urn was presented by Elizabeth Fry to Mary Sanderson – it is presumed on the occasion of her marriage to Sylvanus Fox on the 18th of July 1821. Society of Friends’ Meeting House Collection, Hobart, Tasmania. Above: Mary Sanderson is (by tradition) the young Quaker figure accompanying Elizabeth Fry in the picture ‘Elizabeth Fry entering Newgate Prison’ by Mrs. E. M. Ward.
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t he
on s c ie nce of the colony Backhouse and Walker arrived in Hobart on the 8th of February 1832. Their aim was ‘to discharge a duty of Christian love’. Over the next six years they travelled extensively around Van Diemen’s Land, made two visits to New South Wales, and visited the new colonies of Victoria and South Australia. Throughout this time they worked tirelessly to improve conditions for convicts, protect the Aborigines, and promote morality. Backhouse’s A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies provides valuable evidence of life in Van Diemen’s Land in the early nineteenth century. He recorded conversations with people who had been part of the first settlement in 1804. A young woman who had been a child at the time recalled being left in the care of Aborigines, while an ex-marine who had stayed on in the colony to earn a good living hunting kangaroos and emus, recalled confronting a giant forester kangaroo, nine feet high, on the site of the barracks in Hobart and often falling in with bands of Aborigines, ‘in whom there was then no harm’. He told Backhouse that the Aborigines hurt no one until two white men, charged with murder, 11
escaped from Port Dalrymple and ‘got among them’.
Backhouse and Walker visited the Aborigines on Flinders Island and showed an interest in their welfare.12 They did not share the disdain voiced by most colonists. When they came together socially, Walker observed, the Aborigines ‘are like so many brothers and sisters’.13 He denied their intellectual inferiority. ‘They exceeded the Europeans in skill, in those things to which their attention had been directed in childhood’, he wrote, ‘just as much as Europeans exceeded them in points to which the attention of the former had been turned in the culture of civilization’.14 He believed they were the just possessors of the land. ‘This priority of claim’, Lady Franklin noted after reading James Backhouse University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Quaker life in tasmania
Backhouse’s letter on this matter to Governor Bourke, ‘must be admitted by anyone who wants equity and common justice’.15 16
The Quakers spent most time observing the convict system, and ministering to as many convicts as were willing to join them in their meetings. Sir George Arthur, Lieutenant-Governor, facilitated their travel, giving them permission to interview convicts in road-gangs and to visit the notorious prison-camp at Macquarie Harbour. They likewise visited New South Wales and the penal establishment at Moreton Bay and Norfolk Island. Though critical of the abuses and casualties of the system, and ever ready to plead the cause of the unfortunate and repentant, Backhouse and Walker remained broadly supportive of policies that were designed, in theory if not in practice, at rehabilitation and reformation. Walker saw the convict system in all its incarnations. In 1845 he had great hopes for the convicts who arrived in Hobart on the Sir George Seymour. The products of the new Pentonville system of discipline and reform, they bore themselves well and looked set for rehabilitation. Unfortunately, as he related in a letter, it all turned sour. Assigned to the backbreaking labour of the road gangs rather than agricultural work, and disappointed in their expectation of early employment on the land, the
Above left: George Washington Walker Above: Original essays on Convict Discipline by Captain Alexander Maconochie, 1837, with some letters etc. in further illustration of the same subject by J. Backhouse and G.W. Walker, 1837. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
‘Pentonville men’ fell back into misconduct and vice. Walker assured his correspondent that the failures should not be attributed to the system, but to mismanagement and conditions in the colony. He spoke feelingly of ‘the blighting influence of the “hope deferred which maketh the heart sick” and the constant influence and weight of the temptations to evil by which men under 16
such circumstances are but too surely surrounded.’
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lieutenant-governor sir george arthur Governor Arthur became Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen’s Land in 1824. He and his family always made Backhouse and Walker very welcome at Government House and they held him in high regard. (portrait from the original in the Mitchell Library, Sydney) Right: Letter from Governor Arthur to James Backhouse and George Washington Walker, 1832, from James Backhouse’s Letterbook. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections. Transcription of letter on facing page by Michael Bennett, School of History and Classics.
Quaker life in tasmania
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e e nt H o u s Governm Evening Saturday ary 1832 25 Febru 8 o’clock
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Dear Sir
r Sir I am Dea with tr uth re fr iend Your since ur Geo. Arth Mr. Back
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h o u se
Above: Map of the extensive travels of Backhouse and Walker in Van Diemen’s land between 1832 and 1837. (above) They visited every settlement, gaol and convict gang on the island on foot, on horseback and by boat. Below: ‘Entrances to Port Davey, VDL’, etching from a sketch by James Backhouse from his book A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies. (see following page).
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Left: James Backhouse, A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies, London, Hamilton, Adams and Co., 1843. Copy ‘Presented to the Tasmanian Society by the Author [James Backhouse], 1844’. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Below: Detail of trifold plate from A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies depicting a chain gang ‘originally drawn from the Hulk Chain Gang, Hobart Town.’ inaccurately entitled by the engraver as ‘Convicts going to work, nr Sidney, [sic] N.S.Wales’ as explained by James Backhouse in his introduction to the book.
james backhouse (1794-1869)
James Backhouse came from a family of successful Quaker businessmen in Durham. After leaving school, he was apprenticed to a chemist where he acquired some medical knowledge. He contracted tuberculosis and, as part of his convalescence, began working in a nursery where he developed an interest in Australian plants. That, combined with an interest in prison reform, encouraged him to undertake missionary work in Australia. Soon after his wife died in 1827, he left his children with relatives, a York nursery business in the hands of his brother, and set off for the southern hemisphere with George Washington Walker. Backhouse travelled to all the Australian colonies and South Africa, making recommendations about social conditions, setting up Quaker Meetings, and collecting plants which he sent to Kew Gardens. He returned to England in 1841, to spend the rest of his life writing about his travels and looking after the nursery business with his son, James.
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george washington walker (1800-1859) George Washington Walker was the twentyfirst child of John, a Unitarian saddle maker who worked in Paris. After the death of his mother, Elizabeth, young George was sent to Newcastle so that his grandmother could raise him. He was apprenticed to a Quaker linen draper, whom he admired so much that he adopted the faith. In 1831, when Walker left for Australia and South Africa, he planned to return to England but in 1834 decided to settle in Hobart after meeting Sarah Benson Mather, who later married him. Walker ran a successful drapery business where he opened a savings bank to encourage people to save. His social concerns included Above: The life and labours of George Washington Walker of Hobart Town, Tasmania by James Backhouse, London : A. W. Bennett; York, T. Brady, 1862. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Quaker life in tasmania
Below: Convict Settlement, Sarah Island, Macquarie Harbour, from a watercolour drawing in the possession of James Backhouse Walker, made by a prisoner at the Settlement and given to George Washington Walker on his visit there in the year1832.
temperance, education, penal reform, destitute women, and the treatment of the Aborigines.
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sarah benson walker (1812-1893) the daughter of Methodists, Robert and Ann Mather, joined the Quakers in 1834. That same
Left: Pencil sketch of Sarah Benson Walker by her daughter Mary University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
year she agreed to marry George Washington Walker, despite having once referred to him and James Backhouse as those ‘pesky Quakers’. After their marriage in 1840, the couple had ten children. At times, according to her husband, the large household made her ‘a perfect slave’ because of the shortage of servants. Even so, she managed to serve on Jane Franklin’s visiting committee to the Cascades Female Factory, and regularly participate in Monthly Meetings.
vvv Left: Bakery bill for the Walker family, 1883. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections. Below: Part of the Quaker grey teaset belonging to George Washington Walker and his wife Sarah. Society of Friends’ Meeting House Collection.
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quaker costume The following pages show clothes belonging to Sarah Benson Walker which were preserved by the Robey sisters (see p. 53). They are now held in the Society of Friends’ Meeting House Collection, Hobart, Tasmania.
Left: Sarah Benson Walker University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections. Above: Sarah’s bonnet. Society of Friends’ Meeting House collection. Right: Mary Augusta Walker (aged 93) wearing her mother’s Quaker dress. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections. Facing page: Right and top: Sarah’s dress and detail of smocked front and handsewn lining. Society of Friends’ Meeting House collection. Far Right: Letter from Sarah to her niece Esther Robey thanking her for her present of some new shoes. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Quaker life in tasmania
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Above: Sarah Benson Walker’s cape. Above Right: Detail of buttons and fastenings. Society of Friends’ Meeting House collection. Right: Sarah Benson Walker. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Quaker life in tasmania
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shawls ‘George Washington Walker alluded many times to love of dress, though once he himself received a rebuke from England. He had asked Friends there to send him out some shawls for resale, but they refused saying they “saw no propriety in promoting their use.” George Washington Walker wrote in protest and justification “the general gaiety of dress, especially female attire that prevails in these colonies is not known or not sufficiently taken into account. Even the Wesleyans, who are generally simple in their costume in England, find it a prevalent cause of evil among their members here – the love of dress. I knew it was difficult to obtain any but cloth shawls, without the appendage of flaming borders. I therefore undertook to procure a few from England – not exclusively for our own members … They have the recommendation of simplicity, general utility and adaptation to climate … This modest attire presents a defence against insult.” Whether he received his shawls, we do not know.’ From: A Brief History of Friends in Tasmania some notes and anecdotes by Nancie Hewitt, Tasmanian Committee of Quaker Service Council, 1967.
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Above: Sarah Benson Walker. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections. Background image : Sarah Benson Walker’s shawl. Society of Friends’ Meeting House collection.
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r iends and fa milies In their travels around Van Diemen’s Land, Backhouse and Walker took lodgings where they could, whether in the modest houses of settlers or in the huts of herdsmen. They met quite a few people with Quaker connections and sympathies, and it was not long before there was the prospect of a viable group. The first Meeting in Australia was held in Hobart on 20 September 1833. The small community gained solidity with the accession of Robert Mather and Francis Cotton, two free settlers, and Henry Propsting, a former convict, along with their wives and families. In 1836 Backhouse purchased a weatherboard house in Murray Street to serve as the first Quaker Meeting House. After further travels through Australia and to South Africa, Backhouse decided to return to England in 1838. Walker resolved to remain. He had formed an understanding with Sarah Benson Mather, Robert Mather’s daughter. In 1840 he married her in the simple Quaker service in which the man and woman accepted each other as equals before God. His marriage to her was seen as ‘a providential opening for promoting the stability and encouragement of the little band [in Tasmania], who profess the simple and spiritual views of Christian 17
doctrine as held by the Friends’.
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Above: The first Quaker Meeting House in Hobart, a cottage at 39 Murray St which was bought by James Backhouse in 1837 with a loan from the Meeting for Sufferings, London. The cost was £400 including alterations. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections. Left: Door latch and handle of the first Meeting House. So that Friends could enter for silent worship at any time, the lock was removed and this latch substituted. Society of Friends’ Meeting House Collection, Hobart. Far left: Hobart Monthly Meeting - first minute book 1833. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections
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Robert Mather, who had arrived in Hobart in 1821, had a land grant in Lauderdale, but returned to town in 1835. Originally a Wesleyan, he formally joined the Friends in 1834. Francis Cotton, who had come out in 1828 and acquired land at Kelvedon near Swansea, had belonged to the Quakers in England, but had been disowned for marrying out. Francis was readmitted in Tasmania, and his wife followed him in joining the Friends.18 His house at Kelvedon was the second centre of Tasmanian Quakerism. Dr George Story (1800-85), District Assistant Surgeon at Swansea, was the most notable Quaker in the Kelvedon orbit. Marriages linked the Friends into an extended family. G. W. Walker was the son-in-law of Robert Mather, and brother-in-law of Joseph Benson Mather, who married Anna Maria, daughter of Francis Cotton. Their daughter, Esther Ann Mather, married Charles Henry Robey, forging a link with another prominent Quaker family. To outsiders, the Quakers set themselves apart by their quaint manner of speaking, saying ‘thou’, ‘thee’ and ‘thy’ rather than the plural form, using numbers rather than pagan names to designate the days of the week and the months of the year, and by their old-fashioned and home-spun style of dress. The requirement to marry within the group proved problematic in a small community. The Monthly Meetings in the 1840s and 1850s saw almost as many ‘disownments’, mainly for marrying out, as new recruits. Francis Cotton felt the discipline imposed on his son harsh: ‘it seems hard to be turned out for moral delinquency when he has at the mature age of 34-5 Robert A. Mather (centre left) and Ann Mather (centre right) and their children. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Quaker life in tasmania
taken a pious young woman to wife, his own Society 19
being unable to furnish him one’.
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Thin on the ground, the Friends cultivated networks in Australia and throughout the English-speaking world. There was a surprising amount of travel between Britain and the Australian colonies, and between the colonies themselves. In the wake of Backhouse and Walker, there were other British Quakers who travelled ‘under concern’ to the Australian colonies, notably Daniel Wheeler in 1834 and Robert Lindsey and Frederick Mackie in 1852-5. William May (1816-1903), a visitor from South Australia, met and married Mary, one of Francis Cotton’s daughters in 1856, and the couple settled in Tasmania in 1874. Lindsey and Mackie, who spent time in all the Australasian colonies, including New Zealand, made three visits to Van Diemen’s Land in 1852-3, 1853-4 and 1855. They both left accounts of their time on the island. They were welcomed into a small community, still largely limited to the original group of families. They stayed in Hobart with G. W. Walker and his family, and met his Mather in-laws. They made the long trek to see
Francis Cotton. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
the Cottons in December 1852: the coach to Oatlands, next a spring cart for eleven miles; then, as the track was too rough for riding, a four mile hike with their luggage through a forest; bush hospitality from Joseph Storey, Dr Storey’s cousin; and finally a forty-mile ride ‘over high hills and through deep valleys’ to reach Kelvedon ‘by tea time, heated and fatigued’. They repeated the Marriage certificate of Joseph Benson Mather and Anna Maria Cotton. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
journey, this time approaching from Launceston and Campbelltown, in October 1854.
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The colony itself still bore a heavy convict imprint. The Walkers and Mathers had convict servants. Walker told the depressing tale of a woman in their household who had attempted to murder a young man. Change was in the air: the last convicts arrived in 1853 and the colony achieved a degree of self-government in 1855. Nonetheless there were convicts with their
31
‘forbidding countenances’, party-coloured dress, and leg irons, to be seen everywhere. Lindsay and Mackie visited the Penitentiary in Hobart, the Female Factory in Cascades, and Port Arthur. On the Tasman Peninsula, with its 1600 convicts, Mackie reported being carried on the tramway pushed by four convicts: ‘It was a novel and somewhat uncomfortable feeling to have men for the propelling power; but we were more reconciled to it when we found it was allowable to give them a trifle for their labour’.21 Over the course of three visits Mackie was able to follow some convict lives. During a walk before breakfast to take a view of Ferntree valley, he met two convicts with a constable. One of the Frederick and Rachel Mackie (née May). University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
convicts, whom he recognised as a man he had last seen in solitary confinement, was smiling broadly. Mackie wrote: ‘The bright sunny morning gladdened his heart, and it cheered me to see it. I now saw the chain gang coming slowly along the road to their daily work. I was glad to get into the bush and let it pass, the terrible clanking of their chains long continued’. He then struggled to express his feelings towards the whole system: ‘Many a sad and groaning heart must be here, but asked what else I would do with them, I could not tell. But I would encourage those who are brought in contact with them to persevere to bring softer humanizing influences to bear upon their better feelings, that with firmness kindness be united. The heart of the very worst is accessible, the witness for God is there …’
22
Like Walker after Backhouse, Mackie stayed on and married in Australia after Lindsey returned to Britain. He had found his wife, Rachel Ann May, not in Tasmania but in South Australia. Frederick and Rachel Mackie, though, briefly ran a school in Hobart between 1856 and 1861.
vvv Quaker life in tasmania
32
Notes written by Joseph Francis Mather about his schooling, including his account of attending the school run by Frederick and Rachel Mackie. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
33
Q
q u ie t
accomplishments From the 1830s the Quakers made contributions to Tasmanian life out of all proportion to their modest numbers. George Washington Walker remained a moral force. He continued to take an active interest in the welfare of convicts, and was especially concerned about the role played by alcohol in crime and recidivism. Backhouse and Walker had helped to establish the first temperance society in Hobart, and Walker continued this work. He was no mere wowser. There were undeniable problems with alcohol abuse. In his narrative, Mackie expressed concern at the sight of women lying dead drunk in the streets of Hobart. The seven-year-old Esther Ann Mather wisely took the pledge in 1857.
Left: Detail of Esther Ann Mather’s birth certificate. Below: Temperance pledge by Esther, aged 7, 26 May 1857. Society of Friends’ Meeting House Collection. Right: Esther Mather. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Quaker life in tasmania
34
Mather and Walker operated drapery businesses in Liverpool Street, close to Mather’s Lane. Even in this innocuous line of work the Quaker conscience could be troubled. Walker was embarrassed by the rage for fashion among the ladies of the colony. ‘I would never encourage a child of mine to follow the linen drapery, as it is pursued here’, he wrote in 1858, ‘It is bad enough in England, but here a person must keep up every variety of fashion, every thing that panders to the vitiated taste for finery and display’.23 Joseph Benson Mather (1814-1890) suffered financial loss on account of his refusal to accept contracts for military uniforms.
Right: Advertisement for J.B. Mather and Son, in Walch’s Almanac, 1876.
Left: Joseph Benson Mather. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
35
To encourage temperance and thrift, G. W. Walker opened a savings facility in his store. From 1845 it traded as the Hobart Savings Bank. It proved successful: he told Mackie in 1852 that he had been obliged to limit deposits, and probably refused as much as £25,000, because of the difficulty of investing the money.24 Over time the bank developed into the Savings Bank of Tasmania. Walker was a pillar of the community, lending his support to a range of worthy ventures. He was a leading light in the establishment, on non-sectarian principles, of Hobart Town High School in 1850. Lady Denison, the Governor’s wife, who enlisted his assistance in the revival of a scheme to found a refuge for prostitutes, paid him a fine tribute: ‘Men of all denominations unite in speaking well of [him]. He is never mentioned but with respect by those who, I fear, are too indifferent on the subject of religion to belong to any party at all; and whatever good is to be done, he is sure to have a hand in it’.25 Towards the end of his life he and his family lived at Narryna in Battery Point, now a heritage museum, where his grandfather clock and other possessions can be seen.
Quaker life in tasmania
36
Above: The first Savings Bank of Tasmania founded by George Washington Walker attached to his draper’s shop at 65 (old numbering) Liverpool Street, Hobart. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Left and Right: Hobart Savings Bank Book of J.B. Cotton 1858-83 University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
37
As in Britain, a number of Quakers made contributions to science. Dr Story was a man in the tradition of Dr Fothergill. A dedicated physician, he developed a strong interest in the natural sciences, especially geology and botany. A member of
dr george story (1800 -1885) George Story (left), a London Methodist, studied medicine in Edinburgh, and practiced in London before emigrating to Australia with his friends, Francis
the Royal Society of Tasmania, he was for a
and Anna Maria Cotton. Story became
time in charge of their gardens, the future
district assistant surgeon at Swansea
Royal Botanical Gardens, on the Domain.
where his varied practice included
James Backhouse Walker, George’s eldest
taking care of settlers injured by
son, was a polymath whose interests
Aborigines, attending to convicts,
ranged from natural science to history.
and carrying out rudimentary public
William Lewis May, the son of William
health work. Despite his distance from
May and Mary Cotton, was a distinguished
Europe, he tried to learn and apply its
amateur conchologist, and built up an
medical discoveries. He was also a keen
impressive collection of sea-shells. According
botanist and geologist. Other employment
to his obituary: ‘It was a wonderful sight to see him in his shell-room at his microscope, his workworn hands executing the most exquisite drawings of minute shells’.
26
included storekeeper at Waterloo Point and secretary of the Royal Society of Tasmania. In that position, he oversaw the progress of the Botanical Gardens. Like others, he became a Quaker after
vvv
meeting Backhouse and Walker. Story remained friends with the Cottons – he lived with them at Kelvedon most of his life and is buried there beside them.
Above: May family home, Forest Hill at Sandford. Right: Alfred May. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections. Far Right: Alfred May painting ‘Dusky Robin’ (Private Collection)
Quaker life in tasmania
38
39
the may family William May (1816 – 1903) a Quaker and London chemist with artistic talent, emigrated to South Australia with his family in 1839. On his journey back to England to find a wife, a storm destroyed the ship’s mast forcing the crew to dock at Launceston for lengthy repairs. May used the time to visit Kelvedon where he met Mary Cotton, whom he later married. He always believed he was ‘placed’ where he was meant to be. Initially the couple returned to South Australia but in 1874 moved to Tasmania where May’s orchard at Sandford had a reputation for high quality fruit. He served on the Friends’ School committee and edited Australian Friend. The eldest son, William Lewis (1861-1925), studied shells, acquiring a large collection from England and Tasmania. He also painted Tasmanian wildflowers. Another brother, Alfred (1862-1948), made beautiful paintings of birds.
vvv Top left: William May reading. Left: May family and friends at ‘Maydena’ Sandford. Far Back: Lewis (W.L.) May, Mrs. L. May, Back row left to right: W. Clemes, Alfred May, William May, unidentified woman, E. Howie (leaning against post), Front row: F. Fryer, unidentified woman, ‘W.F.R.’, unidentifed woman, J.W.Dixon. Facing page: Right: Mr and Mrs Lewis (W.L.) May Centre Right: Alf May and Lewis May, standing, with Charles Sowden and J.W. Dixon
Background right: Plate XL11, from W. L. May, An Illustrated index of Tasmanian shells, Hobart Government Printer, 1923. All from University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections. Top Right: Painted card by Alfred May (Private collection).
Quaker life in tasmania
40
41
francis cotton (1800-1883)
anna maria cotton (1801-1883)
Francis Cotton, a Quaker and a builder by trade,
Anna Maria Tilney was born in Kelvedon, Essex. At
emigrated to Tasmania with his wife, Anna Maria, and
eighteen, she married Francis Cotton. Since she was
friend, George Story in 1828. Cotton and his family
a lapsed Quaker, her husband was disowned by the
took up a property in eastern Tasmania where, despite
Society of Friends. After meeting Backhouse and Walker,
isolation, raids by Aborigines, fear of bushrangers, and
the couple and their growing family rejoined the Friends.
destruction by fire, they prospered as sheep farmers.
They named their home Kelvedon after Anna Maria’s
After being readmitted to the Society of Friends, the
birth-place. The constant round of childbearing and
Cotton household at Kelvedon near Swansea became
the rigours of pioneer life took their toll on her health
a major centre for Tasmanian Quakerism, and Cotton
and good humour. She was a strict disciplinarian. Ten
travelled ‘in the ministry’ around Tasmania and to the
children survived their parents.
other colonies.
Quaker life in tasmania
42
Above: ‘Kelvedon, the residence of Francis Cotton’, etching from a sketch by James Backhouse from his book A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies (see page 20). Right: Kelvedon Farm Journal, 1856-1859. Below: Photographs of Kelvedon. All from University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
43
The wedding of Charles Henry Robey and Esther Ann Mather (wearing the wedding dress on facing page) on 23rd of July 1884. Left to Right: Robert Andrew Mather, William May, Ann Maria Mather (bridesmaid, daughter of J. B. Mather), J. Francis Mather (son of J.B.Mather), Charles Henry Robey (groom), Esther Ann Mather (bride, 2nd daughter of J.B.Mather), Emma Elizabeth Mather (bridesmaid, became E. Benson, 3rd daughter of J.B.Mather), Thomas B. Mather (son of Robert A. Mather), Joseph Benson Mather (brother of R.A.Mather), Ann Pollard Mather (wife of R.A. Mather) Mary May (née Cotton), Annie Mather (daughter of John Mather), and Samuel Mather (brother of J.B. and R.A. Mather). University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Quaker life in tasmania
esther robey (1849-1939) Esther Robey, a daughter of Joseph Benson Mather had a reputation for cheerful energy. As a child, according to her obituary, her father ‘had refused to curb the high spirits and gaiety of his daughter in an age when properly brought up youth was to be seen but not heard of, for he said they had been given to her for some definite purpose’. She married Charles Henry Robey in 1884. The couple had two daughters. 44
Esther Robey’s grey wedding dress; detail of buttons and back. Society of Friends’ Meeting House Collection.
45
u e stions of survival The Society of Friends in Tasmania remained perilously small. There was little new blood. Only thirteen members, including the two travellers ‘under concern’, attended the Yearly Meeting in 1853. ‘That there are no fresh enquiries after the truth and no convincements among them’, wrote Mackie, ‘is discouraging’. 27 The colony itself was losing its share of British migrants and an alarming number of its own people to Gold Rush Victoria. The survival of the Quakers depended on the younger generation. Francis and Anna Maria Cotton, Mackie was pleased to report in 1852, had twelve children, but he noted that two of the sons were at the diggings. Two years later, however, he reported that the family was ‘now a good deal broken up into separate households’, but most lived locally, and four at home.28 George Washington Walker had ten children, but was anxious about their education. His eldest son, James Backhouse Walker, was precocious. George taught him at home until he was seven years old and then sent him to the newly established Hobart High School. After two years, he withdrew him, concerned about his lack of progress and wishing him ‘surrounded by better influences.’29 He undertook the considerable expense of sending him to England to Friends’ School at Bootham in York. As he wrote to his old colleague James Backhouse, ‘there are many drawbacks in the rearing of children in these colonies, more particularly in the present, disjointed state of society, consequent on the discovery of the goldfields’. 30
Top: James Backhouse Walker with his sisters, Mary (back), Isabella (‘Isa’) and Sarah. Above: Inscription from the journal of his sea voyage to England, aged 12. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Collections.
Quaker life in tasmania
There were a series of attempts to establish Quaker schools in Hobart. George Walker’s hope was that James would return 46
from Bootham and open a school. It was James’s realisation that he could not accept this destiny that led him to resolve to spare his father further expense and return to Tasmania in 1856. Coincidentally enough Frederick Mackie returned to Hobart with his young wife in this same year. They established a day-school that met with some success until, in 1861, the couple decided to return to South Australia for medical reasons. Among their first pupils was Joseph Francis Mather (1844-1925), who later wrote appreciatively, ‘Our Friends did their duty by the scholars, and a useful education was imparted, including land-surveying for the elder boys; also gardening and drawing from nature to all who would take advantage from such teaching’.31 The problem of educational provision was by no means limited to Tasmania, and the Quakers in Melbourne attempted to establish a school. The Society of Friends in England offered assistance and advice. They saw the need for resources to be concentrated in one institution that could serve as a rallying-point for Australian Quakerism. They sent out a deputation in 1875 that found the state schools negligent in religious instruction and ‘frequented by larrikins’, and recommended Melbourne as the most suitable venue.32 The Victorian Friends sat on their hands, and a threat to the non-sectarian status of Hobart High School in 1885 spurred the Tasmanians to action and gave them their opportunity. The scheme for a Friends’ School in Hobart moved forward with surprising speed. J. F. Mather, now the leading light of the Quakers in Hobart, was already in correspondence with Edwin Ransome, an influential member of the Continental Committee in London. Funds were raised and commitments made, and a principal was selected. Samuel Clemes, a former missionary in Madagascar and currently headmaster of Wigton School, Cumberland, was eager to emigrate to Australia. Clemes immediately became involved in the planning of the school. It would be non-proprietary, co-educational and take boarders. 47
Top right: Edwin Ransome. Above: Samuel Clemes, the first principal of the Friends’ School in Hobart. University of Tasmania Special and Rare Collections.
While the English Friends would guarantee its finances in the first years, it was a risky venture for the Australian Friends. Crucial to its viability was the enrolment of children of non-Quakers. It was an advantage here that many Protestant parents outside the Anglican communion felt able to support it. From the outset, though, the emphasis was on the high quality of the education. It was noted that Clemes was an experienced lecturer on scientific subjects, and that his wife was proficient in French and German. In the luggage that Clemes brought to Hobart late in 1886 was the latest laboratory equipment and a collection of 243 lantern slides.33 On 31 January 1887 the Friends’ School opened its doors to thirty-three pupils. By the end of the year its enrolment had doubled. During 1888 negotiations began for the purchase of the property known as Hobartville in North Hobart, and the school moved from Warwick Street to the new site at the beginning of 1889. There were ructions ahead, and Clemes was to resign in 1900, but the school survived and prospered. The opportunity for a Quaker education in Tasmania came too late for James Backhouse Walker. On his departure for England Robert Above: Classroom and laboratory at Friends’ School during the time Clemes was the headmaster. Facing Page: Bruny Island Friends’ School picnic 1890s. Samuel Clemes and his staff, 1892. All from University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Quaker life in tasmania
Mather, his grandfather, wrote: ‘I should be delighted to see thee return as a scholar, but much more a simple, devoted Friend’.34 During the voyage and his time at Bootham James developed intellectually, but lost his sense of vocation. The experience 48
was emancipating and exhilarating. His journals and letters reveal the thrill of his engagement with the wider world of man and nature. On his return to Hobart he parted company with the Friends. He confided in his diary his distaste for the cold formalism of contemporary Quakerism that was ‘only redeemed from contempt by its practical, if rather fuddishly overstrained philanthropy’. He later wrote, more charitably: ‘At an early age I burst the bonds and have strayed far and wide over the spreading fields of literature and fiction, but yet I hold those simple people in honour as men whose moral fibre was better’.
35
J.B. Walker left the Quakers, but was not lacking in moral fibre. A distinguished barrister, he was a champion of good causes. Ironically enough, he followed his father in his championship of public, nondenominational education. He served as a trustee of Hobart High School, and played a leading role in the establishment of the University of Tasmania. Among his papers is the firm expression of his view 49
in 1889 that the university should be named the University of Hobart, ‘for according to all precedent a university should take the name of the city of its location, not that of the country’.36 Oddly, given the Quaker connection, he overlooked the example of the University of Pennsylvania. He served on the council of the new university, and was its second vice-chancellor from 1898-9. His interests and expertise ranged across the humanities and the sciences. He combined oral history with fieldwork in natural history. A prominent member of the Royal Society, he was one of the leaders and the chroniclers of an expedition to the west coast of the island.37 He knew more about Tasmania — its geology, its flora and fauna, its peoples — than anyone before or since. He undertook extensive research on the Tasmanian aborigines, challenging such myths as their inability to make fire. In a letter to a local newspaper in 1898, he acknowledged the offence he had unintentionally given to people of Aboriginal descent on the Bass Strait Islands by failing to mention ‘the well known fact Above: James Backhouse Walker 1897. Right: James Backhouse Walker’s diary (and pencil) documenting his walk to the west coast of Tasmania, 17 February to 5 March 1887. Facing page: ‘Remarks on the proposed Tasmanian University’ by J B Walker, 26 August 1889 from his letterbook. Top Right: James Backhouse Walker. Right: Walker’s Notes on the Aborigines of Tasmania, Royal Society of Tasmania, 1898 (with handwritten notes on the topic as background). Far right: Newspaper clipping of letter, 6 July 1898, University of Tasmania, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Quaker life in tasmania
that in the Strait Islands at the present day there is a considerable population having Tasmanian aboriginal blood in their veins’.38
vvv
50
51
Above: The first Friends’ School Sports as reported in School Echoes, the Friends’ High School magazine, no. 3, X1, 1890. Right: The Friends’ girls cricket team, ‘view from front classroom’, 1891. Background: ‘Recollections of a lecture by J.B. Walker on Early Hobart’. Handwritten essay by Hilda Margerison, Friends’ School essay book, 1891-1893. All from University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Quaker life in tasmania
52
Above: Doll which belonged to Louisa May (1863-1948) daughter of William May, (and sister of Alfred and Lewis (W.L.) May), in its original J.B. Mather & Son box. (private collection). Right: the Robey sisters, Elinor and Marguerita, with their doll; daughters of Esther and Charles Robey (p. 44) University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
53
Bb
earing witness
The Quakers were increasingly assimilating themselves, in matters of ‘dress and address’, into the broader community. Nonetheless they were able to maintain their distinctive religion and values, partly through the support of the national and international fellowship. The Tasmanian Friends were visited by the venerable Isaac Sharp, who during his sojourn in Hobart in 1881-2 celebrated his birthday by climbing Mt Wellington, and given moral and financial support by the prominent English Quakers, Charles Holdsworth and George Cadbury. The oldest community in Australasia, the Quakers in Tasmania played an important role in the development of Quakerism at a national level. In a process that mirrored the Federation movement, the Friends held a series of conferences in the 1890s, and the first Australian General Meeting was held in 1902. They were not entirely comfortable, however, with the racism and militarism intrinsic to Australian nation-building. The Quakers found themselves especially at odds with the wider community at large in times of war. The newly established Friends’ School took some risks during the Boer War. When the government declared a public holiday to celebrate the Relief of Mafeking, it continued with classes. When someone raised the school flag on receipt of news of the Relief of Ladysmith, two of the teachers pulled it down. As one Quaker wrote: ‘What a risk in excited times like those for a
Above: Isaac Sharp and a lock of his hair when aged 7 months, 1807. (Society of Friends’ Meeting House Collection)
school containing over eighty per cent of non-Friends. What a lesson for those children some thirty years hence when they think over the days when they were not allowed to cheer in class for such a cause!’
Quaker life in tasmania
54
Left: First Australian General Meeting in Hobart, 1905 University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Above: Young Friends’ camp at Lindisfarne 1909 (Society of Friends’ Meeting House Collection).
55
Left: Friends’ High School, Hobartville,1890s University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
The advent of World War I brought further challenges. Margaret Thorp, the daughter of Dr James Thorp, acting Principal of Friends’ School in 1912, played a major role in organising opposition to conscription in Queensland. Ruth Erskine, another Quaker with associations with Tasmania, undertook humanitarian work in Germany after the war, and was awarded the Badge of Honour of the German Red Cross. ‘Who are the real national heroes?’, wrote Margaret Thorp, ‘Surely they are the men and women who do the little things of life in a big way, putting their best energies and interests into their work, and whose friendship has no boundaries’.39 Quakerism in Tasmania celebrated its centenary in 1932. The old families remained in evidence. Barbara Barnett, the granddaughter of Henry Propsting, established the first ‘rest home’ for old people in Hobart in 1922. The community base was broadening through immigration and institutionalisation. Home-grown businesses like Mather’s and the Hobart Savings Bank prospered, and were joined by the English firm of Cadbury’s, which established a factory and garden suburb at Claremont, and began chocolate production in 1922. The Friends’ School, under the headship of Ernest Unwin from 1923, entered a new lease of life, and celebrated its golden jubilee in 1937. It has grown into the largest Quaker school in the world.
vvv
Quaker life in tasmania
56
Far left: F. Erskine, Ruth Erskine and others with supplies for refugees after WW1. Top Left: Ruth Erskine’s writing album containing autographs, sketches and writings by her friends. Left: Ruth Erskine with unknown child. Above: Diploma and 2nd class Badge of Honour awarded to Ruth Erskine in 1924 for her help for the destitute in Germany. (all from Society of Friends’ Meeting House Collection).
57
Above: Ernest Unwin, Headmaster of Friends’ School, 1923 -1944. Right and below: Friends’ students outside the school. University of Tasmania Library, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
Quaker life in tasmania
58
Above: The Cadbury’s factory with its ‘garden city’ housing in the foreground, Bournville, Claremont, Tasmania.(photograph: Leigh Woolley). Right: George Cadbury (1839-1922), prominent English Quaker and enlightened businessman, founder of the original ‘factory in the garden’ at Bournville, near Birmingham in1879. Left: Cadbury’s and Mather’s advertisements from The Australian Women’s Weekly, Tasmanian edition, 25 July 1936.
59
Q
the
q uaker collection - a history
The Quaker collection, now housed as part of the Special and Rare Collections of the University of Tasmania Library, owes its presence at the Library to former University Librarian Dan Sprod. Mr Sprod, as part of his programme to gather historical and research resources at the University Library, negotiated with the Society of Friends in Hobart for the transfer of their historical library to the care of the University. In 1971 the collection of titles previously held by the Society at its Meeting House in Hobart, was transferred to the Morris Miller Library on the Sandy Bay Campus. During the intervening 3 years, a preliminary check-list was compiled by Frances Mary Dunn who undertook the compilation as a special project in relation to her employment as a library cataloguer. The check-list was printed in limited copy numbers in 1975. A special bookplate was devised for application to each title, which indicated that it had been transferred to the Morris Miller Library of the University by the Society of Friends, Hobart Meeting. Also transferred to the University were many archival documents, which were incorporated into the University Archives collection. The University Archivist was also, at that time, seeking to add scholarly historic and research materials to the collection so the addition of the Quaker material was most welcome and timely. In 1972, an exhibition entitled “Publishers of Truth” was held by the Morris Miller Library which illustrated ‘the books of the Quaker faith’. The exhibition was arranged to mark several events but also acted as an expression of gratitude to the Society of Friends for agreeing to transfer their old books and records to the University Library. Since the 1971 transfer, additions to the collection were funded from Library book allocations. The University Librarian and other staff, were involved in this activity through normal processes of book selection enabled by the publishing and second hand book industry. Dan Sprod, who undertook an extensive study trip in 1973, was also, as part of this exercise, able to select and purchase a number of titles for addition to the collection. Other contacts with the Quaker community worldwide were established and in 1980 the Library was offered a significant collection of Quaker titles by L. Hugh Doncaster in Worcester, England. The Doncaster collection comprised “42 linear feet” of books and journals, which he was willing to donate to the University. The negotiations were eventually completed and the titles arrived in October 1981. Again, a special bookplate was devised and affixed to each title acknowledging the generosity of L. Hugh Doncaster. In 1981 a further number of titles were transferred to the Morris Miller Library by the Society of Friends in Hobart and these, too, were distinguished by the addition of the further bookplate acknowledging this transfer. Other donations, from individuals within the Society of Friends, have occurred from time to time. Haverford College, in Pennsylvania, was one institution with which the University Library maintained a regular correspondence during the 1980s, and some exchange of titles with Haverford took place to our mutual benefit.
Quaker life in tasmania
60
At the same time, other work was undertaken to eliminate duplicate titles from the collection and negotiations were established with Quaker collections and institutions worldwide to offer the unwanted duplicates. Additions to the Quaker collection are still being made and selections are undertaken, from time to time, by the School of History and Classics, the Collection Management Librarian and other interested parties. Statistics of the Quaker collection, as of 2006, are as follows: 2782 normal books, 481 rare books, 56 serials and 21 microforms. Graeme E. Rayner, Librarian, Special and Rare Materials Collections, University of Tasmania Library.
vvv
Some rare books from the University of Tasmania Library Quaker Collection
61
Nn 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
ot e s & r e f erences
The Journal of George Fox, intro. R. M. Jones. London: J. M. Dent, 1949, p. 3. The Journal of George Fox, intro. R. M. Jones. London: J. M. Dent, 1949, pp. 33-4. H. Larry Ingle, First among Friends. George Fox and the Creation of Quakerism. New York: Oxford U. P., 1994, p. 194. A. Lloyd, Quaker Social History, 1669-1738. London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1950, p. 80. J. Walvin, The Quakers. Money and Morals. London: John Murray, 1997, pp. 32-3. D. Sox, ‘Sydney Parkinson (1745-1771). Quaker artist with Cook’s Endeavour voyage’, The Journal of the Friends Historical Society, 59, no. 3 (2004 for 2002), pp. 231-5.
7. W. N. Oats, A Question of Survival. Quakers in Australia in the Nineteenth Century. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1985, pp. 334-5.
8. J. Rose, Elizabeth Fry. A Biography. London: Macmillan, 1980, p. 116. 9. John Walker, Fragments of Letters and other Papers written in different parts of Europe, at Sea, and on the ... Shores of the Mediterranean, at the close of the eighteenth, and beginning of the nineteenth century (London, 1802), pp. 396-7.
10. Oats, A Question of Survival. p. 79 11. James Backhouse, A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. 1843, pp. 201, 212. 12. In general see W. N. Oats, Backhouse and Walker. A Quaker View of the Australian Colonies 1832-1838. Sandy Bay: Blubber Head Press, 1981, ch. 5.
13. W. N. Oats, ‘Quakers in Australia in the Nineteenth Century’. University of Tasmania, Ph.D. Thesis, 2 vols. 1982, I, p. 125, citing G. W. Walker’s Journal, 9 October 1832.
14. Backhouse, A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies, p. 173. 15. Oats, ‘Quakers in Australia in the Nineteenth Century’, p. 131, citing Lady Franklin’s Journal. 16. Letter of George Washington Walker to Dr I. S. Hampton, Surgeon Superintendant, Sir George Seymour, 8 January 1846. University of Tasmania Special and Rare Materials Collections.
17. Oats, Backhouse and Walker, p.63. 18. Minutes of the Hobart Town Monthly Meeting of Friends, 1833-1857. S.1/A.1(1), pages 14, 21 and 39. 19. Nancie Hewitt, Friends in Tasmania 1832 - 1982. Privately published, 1981, p.22. 20. M. Nicholls (ed.), Traveller under Concern. The Quaker Journals of Frederick Mackie on his Tour of the Australasian Colonies 18521855. Hobart: University of Tasmania, 1973, pp. 53-4, 243-7.
21. Nicholls, Traveller under Concern, p. 160. 22. Nicholls, Traveller under Concern, p. 170. 23. J. Backhouse and C. Tylor, The Life and Labours of George Washington Walker of Hobart Town, Tasmania. London: A. W. Bennett, 1862, p. 551.
Quaker life in tasmania
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24. Nicholls, Traveller under Concern, p. 38. 25. R. Davis and S. Petrow (ed.), Varieties of Vice-Regal Life (Van Diemen’s Land Section). Hobart, Tasmanian Historical Research Association, 2004, pp. 86-7.
26. W.N. & M. Oats, Dictionary of Australian Quaker Biography, vol.2, Hobart, Religious Society of Friends, 1989, entry for ‘May, W.L.’ I owe this reference to Caroline Evans.
27. Nicholls, Traveller under Concern, p. 157. 28. Nicholls, Traveller under Concern, p.. 54. 29. Backhouse and Tylor, Life and Labours of George Washington Walker, p. 530. 30. W. N. Oats, The Rose and the Waratah. The Friends’ School Hobart. Formation and Development, 1832-1945. Hobart: The Friends’ School, 1979, p. 39.
31. J. F. M.’s schooling’, R7/111 (2), University of Tasmania, Special and Rare Materials Collections. 32. Oats, The Rose and the Waratah, pp. 47-8. 33. Oats, The Rose and the Waratah, pp. 59. 34. Oats, The Rose and the Waratah, p. 29. 35. Oats, The Rose and the Waratah, pp. 35-6. 36. J. B. Walker, ‘Remarks on the proposed Tasmanian University’ [1889]. W9/C2/3 (367), University of Tasmania, Special and Rare Materials Collections.
37. J. B. Walker, Walk to the West, ed. D. M. Stoddart. Hobart: Royal Society of Tasmania, 1993. 38. Newspaper clipping of letter, 6 July 1898. W9/C4/1 (29), University of Tasmania, Special and Rare Materials Collections. 39. H. N. Summy, ‘Peace angel’ of World War I. Dissent of Margaret Thorp. University of Queensland Press, 2006, p.123. I owe this reference to Peter Jones.
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io g r a ph y sour ces
Australian Dictionary of Biography, General editor: Douglas Pike, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1966- . A Brief History of Friends in Tasmania; some notes and anecdotes by Nancie Hewitt, Tasmanian Committee of Quaker Service Council, 1967. The Companion to Tasmanian History edited by Alison Alexander ; editorial committee: Jill Cassidy ... [et al.]. Hobart : Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania, 2005 Dictionary of Australian Quaker Biography compiled by Marjorie and William Oats for Australia Yearly Meeting of The Religious Society of Friends. Hobart, Tasmania, Religious Society of Friends, 1989-
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Tasmanian wildflowers. Painted card by Alfred May, (Private collection)