~ Wheelwright & Coachbuilder, school tutor on voyage to Australia, (quartz crusher) inventor and Alluvial gold prospector ~ Inspector of stock and farmer -
Also appears he claimed to be a Surgeon / a Surveyor / a Civil Hydro Engineer, although persons with the same name may be the issue.
James Stormont is a mystery before coming to Australia; his parentage is uncertain and his origins equally so. Some researchers confusingly, use Captain James Stormont, as James, a man who never arrived in Australia, and thereby 'Familysearch and Rootstech' ancestry programs, connect the family to illustrious characters in UK history, going back 14 generations to the 15th. century. This causes a confusing array of cousins of fame, which is all based on the different James.
Our evidence based research shows Jas (James) Lancelot Stormont came to New South Wales via Cork, Ireland claiming to have origins in Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland. He appears to have been a person with interests and activities far beyond the trade of "wheelwright" which he practiced in his first years of service (1844-45) on the coastal plains of Port Phillip and Corio Bay, together with his immigration sponsor Mr. William Roadnight and again in 1847-48 with a local coach making company of the Geelong district.
The name 'Lancelott' may have been his mother's maiden name, or that of his fathers heritage.
Men and women separated from elders and their authoritative influence, were in a frontier society, where traditional class barriers were difficult to maintain, so that the young in majority, on the thresholds of their new world could live "in the moment". Many may have had good reason for concealing their past and some adopted a chameleon like persona in a search of renewal and prosperity, for the ambitious may have found "achieving a position of authority depended more on commercial success than social origins". (Ch.6 - Irish women in colonial Australia).
James establishes himself as an assessor in a quartz mining court case (Mt. Edgerton 1855) and defends his own quartz crushing invention in a patent case Stevens vs. King in 1860. He follows the gold trail and Stock and Station business through the Whipstick diggings in 1860s to the East Gippslands in 1870s and from the 1880s, moves to the rural gold areas of the Delegate River, Hayden’s bog and Bendoc. Although James was always near a gold field and invested in the Illinois Gold Mining Company, he appears to do so whilst otherwise employed, such as his returning to Stock and Station matters, firstly in Moama, NSW and then in the East Gippsland. James Lancelot Stormont seems to be regarded as an expert in mining techniques and is referred to as a civil and mining engineer during the court case and continues to assume the professional status of Engineer and Surveyor. Finally as a Victorian Government employee he becomes an Inspector of Stock and Commissioner for the purpose of gathering border taxes, and all the while expanding his property holdings and cattle herds.
British colonial jurisdictions in Australia began in Sydney Cove with penal settlements in Hobart-town, Van Dieman's Land (VDL). When prosperity began, it came initially from wool and more abundantly on the grass plains of Tasmania than elsewhere. Both free settlers and the emancipated convicts held to a theoretical hope for "a new society, free from political patronage and the prejudice of a privileged church". Opportunities abounded for innovation and the relatively few wealthy investors were quick to speculate in trade and business ventures and political reformations were alluring. Much of early land holdings in Victoria were taken up by VDL squatters given grants and rights of first settlement to grow wool and wheat, run livestock and exploit the lands to mine for minerals.
By 1850 South Australia's exports of copper had surpassed the earlier dominance of wheat and wool exports. James L Stormont took up opportunities laid out before him and practiced his wheelwright trade in Geelong with demand increasing for coach-building companies.
I wonder, if any comparison can be made to the plight of refugees today. James' endeavours were those of Irish people, disenfranchised by the British, moving from a relative poverty, in Belfast to a new life on a distant southern shore, His enterprise and endurance shows a man alive with enthusiasm and hope, willingly grasping at every opportunity that presented itself, with little regard for the formalities of qualification and sanction by church or state, he changed his career paths repeatedly, to meet changing circumstance, on a free wheeling pioneering frontier.
James prefering the name Jas, first arrived in 1844, signalling he was a married man with children. He arrived again in 1857 with the second of three partners and again signalling he was a married man with children. There was no divorce in the colony until 1861. In 1880 he takes a third young bride, although no divorce of others seems apparent.
Each of the three partners lived a long life, while for James each relationship cycle seems to end in distress as his fortunes and mis-fortunes come and go, time and again. Victorian newspapers and records provide documents to each chapter in a unique Australian story and what has been written links him back to his origin in Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland and to the place of his birth Hardwar, India (Haridwar is an ancient city and important Hindu pilgrimage site in North India's Uttarakhand state, where the River Ganges exits the Himalayan foothills. In 1820 a stampede occured at the Kumbh Mela festival in Hardwar and 430 people died; the British response was widely acclaimed at the time for they improved the baths while creating a canal system which later drained the waters and jeopardised the festival location. (Engraving 1850s J. Turner - (public domain))
The place of Origin for both James and his said wife Jemima was recorded as Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Both were committed to working 12 months with William Roadknight, the depositor/sponsor of their voyage and to whom they owed twelve months employment under the Assisted immigrant scheme.
James and Jemima could both read and write and present themselves as of the ‘Protestant’ faith which technically means those of the Reformed church - in Ireland it applies to all who were not a Catholic and those who protested Rome (as Martin Luther did).
James and Jemima thereby declared the 'Protestant" faith which was common of Accepting the English ruling party in Northern Ireland. It follows that they were given a primary education (probably over about seven years) and that they were given English names and probably patrilineal rights which served to define women and children in a dependent relationship within a patrilineal framework (Cambridge English Corpus ).
It is also probable that relatives were dispersed into England, possibly working in Manchester, Lancashire in fabric trades. Others may have dispersed into New Zealand, Canada and America and young men may have enlisted in the military, served in Ireland, France, India and America.
James certainly maintains some integrity with the English authorities; this is apparent from the time of his sponsored voyage, through the leading roles he assumes on the ship and on the adjudicator roles on the goldfields and furthermore, in his subsequent career with the prevailing Government. With young wives he usually gave English names to his children, namely Elizabeth Anne, George Frederick and Herbert (but not with Fulke Greville Le Poer). The name Robert seems Scottish and Bessie maybe Irish or English too.
In or before 1850, James and Jemima became caregivers (adoption) of an orphan boy "Sinclair" who came from Manchester, England. Sinclair may have been a relative and may have arrived with Elizabeth Boyd. James follows the wheelwright - coachmaker work during the first five years.
1840s ~ Wheelwright (Belfast), school tutor (onboard ship), work on William Roadknight's civil projects. The Geelong and Districts database shows James Stormont, coach builder active there in 1848 ~ Coach builder.
1850s ~ Jemima was charged with self harm and gaoled then committed to asylum undera dangerous lunatic provisions. Jas is unable to contribute to her support and must manage the care of three children.
https://bih.federation.edu.au/index.php/James_Lancelot_Stormont
James L Stormont first appears on the "Dale Park" ships register and arrived in Hudson's Bay, Port Phillip, N.S.W. on 21st. July 1844 and as one whose sponsors required them in Geelong, sailed on to a small port at the head of Corio Bay.
Fig 2:- 1850 - Signature of James L Stormont on the petition to the Superintendent. Note similarity to Fig. 4-6:
1851 - James became a mining speculator, panning for gold.
1852 - gold prospector. (in 1860, James testifies, to being)... on the Black Hill (Ballarat) by March 1852 (hill in Ballarat East, approximately 1.7 kilometres northeast of Ballarat Town Hall, and adjacent to the Yarrowee River. Here he designed and built the first quartz crushing machine on Black hill, and employed a team of labourers, working it with him for six weeks.
He remains in Ballarat then in Bendigo and Whipstick diggings. Under an article in the LAW REPORTs of The Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer for Thursday 13 December 1855 - reports: On 19 October 1855, at Mount Egerton Hotel hearing of John Lemetre and Henry Dalles v. Henry Caughey & Co. - Held before arbitrators Messrs. Jas Lanct. Stormont & William M. Harrison; umpire: W.M.French etc.
1856: LAW REPORTs for the Supreme Court “Stevens vs King”, James was referred to as a civil engineer (CE) in the case regarding copyright to the stamping machine.
1857 - Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 - 1918), Monday 15 June 1857, page 2 - THE WHIPSTICK., PHILLIPS'S GULLY.
James signatures are compared at the bottom of this page and from the 1850 he signs often as "Jas Lanct. Stormont". He renews himself in the late 1850s and appears to progress a career through a new series of stages and roles:
Fig 5: - 1872 - birth certificate - George Frederick Stormont son of Kathleen Ford Russell and James L Stormont. Noted in column (far RHS) this signature was interpreted as "Jas Laws Stormont".
Fig 6: - 1872 - death certificate - George Frederick Stormont reads - Jas Lance Stormont. - flurry above shows thought about the narrow space and constricts the capital letters L and S.
- Address: Sailors Gully, Borough of Eaglehawk, County of Bendigo.
Fig 2:- Inserted for easier comparison (as above: 1850 - Signature of James Stormont on the petition to the Superintendent)
James arrived under an Assisted Immigrants Scheme, intended to fill requirements of population as assets to trade and industry. They were quickly assigned to work for their sponsors and benefactors ‘busy building a new homeland with fresh hopes of a better life'.
"Assisted immigrants arriving in Sydney and Newcastle 1844-59, Moreton Bay, 1848-59 and Port Phillip 1839-51. 'Assisted immigrant' refers to those people whose passage was subsidised or paid for through one of the assisted immigration schemes to NSW from the United Kingdom and other countries." (NSW State Archives).
Research Evidence
"Pioneers and Gold" renamed "Jas Lanct. Stormont overview" is a document created in google notes and outlines the life of James and his family during settlement together with other participant in Victoria's gold rush. If you have any difficulties reading it, please contact the site owner.
See Fig 2:- Phillip Map of the Goldfields of New South Wales in 1852.
"Most miners in Ballaarat were on the poverty line, their resources exhausted by the purchase of provisions and equipment at exorbitant prices. On top of that, they had the monthly mining license to procure, something the miners in general considered unjust and much too expensive." (Quote: Sharyn Bradfod Lunn, "The Divergence").
James Stormont establishes himself as an assessor in a quartz mining court case (Mt. Edgerton 1855) and defends his quartz crushing invention in a patent case Stevens vs. King in 1860.
He followed the gold trail and may have established a Stock and Station business at the Whipstick diggings in 1860s and the East Gippslands in the 1870s.
From the 1880s he moves to lesser gold areas of the Delegate River, Hayden’s bog and Bendoc. Although James was always near a gold field and invested in the Illinois Gold Mining Company, he appears to do so whilst otherwise employed.
James Lancelot Stormont returns to Stock and Station matters, firstly in Moama, NSW and then in East Gippsland. He seems also to be regarded as an expert in mining techniques and is referred to as a civil and mining engineer during court hearings and continues to assume a professional status in that of Engineer and Surveyor.
Finally as a Victorian Government employee he becomes an Inspector of Stock and Commissioner for the purpose of gathering border taxes, and all the while expanding his property holdings and cattle herds.
It is probable that Robert did not accompany his father to the goldfields and lost contact to both parents. He probably remained in Geelong in foster care or orphanage and later apprenticed a trade in Echuca. James had established a new life and Robert advertised in newspapers to locate his father and siblings before his marriage in the mid-1870s.
Evidence of Signatures of Jas L Stormont suggest the the husband of Jemima is the same man as the husband to Kathleen.
Fig. 7:- 1868 Signature of James Stormont on his marriage to Babara Brown in Hobart, Tasmania.
There is no similarity in Fig 7 signature to the above signatures in Figs. 2 - 6.
Notes:
India, Haridwar's celebration. The Ganges Canal was opened in 1854 after the work began in April 1842,[30] prompted by the famine of 1837–38.[30] The unique feature of the canal is the half-kilometre-long aqueduct over Solani river at Roorkee, which raises the canal 25 metres above the original river. Haridwar as a part of the United Province, 1903
Borders Distillery founder John Fordyce THE first whisky distillery in the Scottish Borders.
Black Hill - Chronology - https://bih.federation.edu.au/index.php/Black_Hill_Chronology#1852