John MORTIMER

MORTIMER, JOHN (b. Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 1810, d. Brisbane, Queensland, 1888). Grazier.

Mortimer was the son of a farmer-tradesman and grew up in a family with old fashioned Scottish rural values: as a young man he may have contemplated going into the ministry. He and his brothers emigrated to the four corners of the world, John initially settling in Louisiana, USA. While at Opeloussas in 1842, he had a dispute with a minister who barred him from communion unless he declared himself a total abstainer. As usual, he took a stand on principle.

He arrived in Queensland in 1848 and took up a squatting lease at Manumbar on the upper Burnett. He was a backwoodsman among squatters: he seldom left the run and worked it personally, designing and building most of the buildings. Married and childless, in 1865 he took under his wing two orphaned nephews. One was John Mathew (q.v.), who testified to his uncle's strong support and influence. On the property, a strict sabbath was observed, with corporate worship, while his wife ran a Sunday school for both black and white employees and their children. He was a stiff-backed Calvinist of 'intense, steady and sincere piety', with the attendant characteristics of honesty, stubbornness and dourness.

In 1861, when the Native Mounted Police came onto his property and shot some of his Aboriginal workers, he and his brother Alec took out a paid advertisement in the Brisbane Courier to complain about the force. This courageous act helped trigger a parliamentary inquiry into the Native Police, at which he was a leading witness, although to little avail.

He encouraged his nephews in their education and financially assisted John Mathew's studies for the ministry. He was incorporated into the Kabi tribe's kinship system and was sincerely mourned by them when he died. He was a serious and eccentric character especially when older, clinging to sheep when all his neighbours had long since changed to cattle and refusing to cooperate in the culling of kangaroos and brumbies. To everyone, he was 'honest John', whose strong principles came from a deep and consistent loyalty to his Master and the gospel.

R Y Mathew, John Mathew 1849-1929 (ts, NLA); M D Prentis, 'John Mortimer of Manumbar and the 1861 Native Police Inquiry in Queensland', Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 14, (May 1992), 466-480

MALCOLM D PRENTIS