Duke of York

THE FIRST VESSEL.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE REGISTER.

Sir— The following is the correct list of the passengers by the Duke of York, the first vessel arriving in the colony : — Passengers in the cabin. — Mr. Samuel Stephens, killed; Mr. T. H. Beare, Mrs. Beare (died at Kangaroo Island), and four children — one son and three daughters ; Miss Beare, now Mrs. S. Stephens; and Mr. Schreyvogel. Steerage passengers. — Thos. Mitchell, butcher, Grove House ; Chas. Powell, gardener, lost sight of; — Neil, rough carpenter, dead; W. West, labourer, in the colony. 

I am, Sir, &c., T. H. BEARE.  [Thomas Hudson Beare]

Bungaree, January 1, 1858.

The Duke of York sailed from London on 24 February 1836, and although not the first of the expedition ships to depart England for South Australia, it was the first to arrive at Kangaroo Island on 27 July 1836. 

The ship had been fitted out as a whaler for the trip to South Australia, so passenger accommodation was limited and squeezed into a space between the two decks.  This cramped accommodation was shared by the Captain, his 23 crew and 13 passengers  for 5 months [1].  Passenger space was so limited that four passengers who were classed as labourers were forced to share the crew’s quarters.  

The passengers included the Colonial Manager for the South Australian Company, Samuel Stephens, and his deputy, Thomas Hudson Beare.  Travelling with Thomas Beare was his wife, Lucy, their four children and Thomas’ elder sister, Charlotte Hudson Beare.

Charlotte was born in Winchester, Hampshire and baptised on 21 March 1788.  Four years older than her brother, Charlotte was a spinster who, according to various reports had shared a substantial legacy with Thomas [2] and agreed to accompany him and his family to the new colony.  Given her unmarried status and 19th century expectations, there is little doubt that the family envisaged that Charlotte’s role was to be a companion to her sister-in-law, Lucy and a carer for the four Beare children.  If Charlotte had received a legacy, it is possible that she saw emigration as a chance to break the social customs of the time and establish an independent life for herself in the new colony.

It appears that Charlotte had a close relationship with her brother’s children – William, 10, Lucy Ann, 9, Arabella, 5 and Elizabeth, 2 – and bore much of their care on board, particularly after their mother, Lucy, suffered a complicated labour and lost the baby during the voyage [3].  This tragedy appears to be the start of the severe mental distress exhibited by Lucy for the rest of the voyage and after their arrival at Kangaroo Island.

In addition to the company and entertainment provided by the children, Charlotte attracted the interest of Samuel Stephens, which made her brother extremely uncomfortable.  As the voyage progressed and the attention developed into overt wooing [4], Thomas Beare objected to the overtures and was highly suspicious of Stephens’ motives.  At the heart of this disquiet was the age difference between the two lovers – Samuel was 27 and Charlotte had just celebrated her 48th birthday.  The continuing courtship caused friction between the Colonial Manager and his Deputy, and gave Captain Robert Morgan severe misgivings.  

This courtship was obviously very agreeable to Charlotte and, ignoring her brother’s objections, continued to enjoy the dalliance with Stephens.  The relationship continued after the Duke of York arrived at Kangaroo Island and when a severely ill Lucy was finally brought ashore to be cared for by Thomas, Charlotte took the four children and lived in Stephens’ tent, with Stephens’ reportedly guarding them at night and sleeping outside.  These arrangements caused huge gossip amongst other colonists, and Stephens and Thomas Beare were constantly bickering and sniping at each other.  

By September 1836 Charlotte was acting as an intermediary between the two men, and the situation wasn’t improved when Charlotte & Samuel were married on board the ship John Pirie in Nepean Bay, Kangaroo Island on 24 September 1836 [5].  Acting as celebrant for the service was the Master of the John Pirie, Captain George Martin.  Rumour and gossip about Charlotte’s courtship and living arrangements had painted her in a very ‘discreditable manner’ [6], but this marriage elevated her social position above that of her brother and sister-in-law and freed her from the social restrictions she faced as a middle aged spinster.

By April 1837 a substantial brick and stone house had been built on Kangaroo Island for the Colonial Manager and his new wife but it is unknown if Charlotte and Samuel ever lived there.  Charlotte had purchased two acres at North Adelaide in the first land sales in 1837 and the couple left Kangaroo Island when Samuel was replaced as Colonial Manager by David McLaren at the end of March.  In May 1837 they were living in Adelaide when they hosted the first Methodist Service in the Colony at their home.

Thomas, Lucy and the children were still living on Kangaroo Island on 3 September 1837 when their last child, Mary Ann, was born.  Sadly Lucy died on the same day and Charlotte again stepped in to help Thomas with his family. Obviously the tension between brother & sister caused by her relationship with Samuel had eased.  Thomas grew more & more discontent with the SA Company and in July 1838 he resigned his position and moved his family to Adelaide.

After Samuel died as a result of a fall from his horse in January 1840, Charlotte lived a quiet life in North Adelaide.  The SA author Catherine Helen Spence was a great friend of the Beare family and described Charlotte as a kind, retiring woman devoted to her nephews & nieces and with a large circle of friends [7].  In a rare public appearance she attended the celebrations for the opening of the New Port in October 1840. [8]

Charlotte died, aged 93, on 16 December 1875 at her residence in North Adelaide.  Charlotte left half of her estate to two children of her eldest niece, Lucy Ann, with the other left to her brother’s second wife, Lucy (nee Bull).  An obituary noted that …she preserved her faculties to the last, and her intimate knowledge of early colonists and early colonial events made her conversation interesting to all who knew her. [9] 

Charlotte Hudson Stephens was buried at the West Terrace Cemetery in a vault that already held her niece, Elizabeth, the 2 year old who had travelled with Charlotte and arrived at Kangaroo Island on the Duke of York on 27 July 1836.

Anthea Taylor

Footnotes:

The DUKE OF YORK sailed from London with Captain Robert Clarke Morgan as her Master. One source says she left England on 24 Feb with and another saying 5 Apr 1836. She was whaling and trading barque of 189 ton, was under charter to The South Australian Company. The ship arrived on 27 Jul 1836 and came thence into Nepean Bay (Kangaroo Island) a smart looking vessel, and brought with her the first colonists for South Australia - 42 passengers (38 adults, 4 children). Some passengers, including some adults whose passage was charged to the Emigration Fund, were on board as well. The First Report of the Commissioners of Colonisation of South Australia gave the ship's complement as thirty-eight. A list compiled from the Company's records gave the names of twenty passengers and twenty-six seamen, in addition to the Captain.

Several of the passengers listed had significant appointments in the service of the South Australian Company. Samuel Stephens was the first Colonial Manager, and on behalf of his employers, he established the settlement of Kingscote as a site for their projected whaling venture. From its location in relation to the mouth of the River Murray, and the Gulfs of St Vincent and Spencer, he considered it as a possible shipping port for the future. Another of the passengers, Thomas H. Beare, was Superintendent of Buildings and Labourers, while D.H. Schreyvogel was engaged as a clerk. Chas. Powell and W. West were gardeners; Henry Mitchell was a butcher; and John Neale was an assistant carpenter

The Adelaide OBSERVER Newspaper reported: "The LADY MARY PELHAM seems to have started from England a little before the DUKE OF YORK, but they fell in company near the termination of the voyage, and after signalling the Lady Mary coquettishly headed away from the Duke with the parting signal ‘Do you want a tow ?’, but the tables were turned by the Duke, reaching Nepean Bay first. The DUKE OF YORK sighted Kangaroo Island on July 26, and to the delight of all on board, saw no vessels there - so she had the honour of being the veritable pioneer passenger ship. Captain Morgan was besought by his people to allow someone to have the credit of being the first to set foot on the virgin soil, but with the characteristic romance of a sailor he decided that the infant girl of Mrs Beare should be the favoured individual, and a boat's crew was sent ashore. The boat's crew entered thoroughly into the spirit of the thing, and bent their broad backs to the oars, making the boat fly through the water for the shore, with the child held in the strong arms of a stalwart sailor. He waded through the shallow water and put the little one's tiny feet upon the sand, amidst three hearty British cheers from the boat's crew, and a responsive volley of hurrahs from the distant vessel. That historic infant is still alive and in the colony I believe - married and settled in the land of her adoption.

AN OLD SALT. Reported in the Adelaide OBSERVER Newspaper (published on 31 July 1886)

I was put on the track of old Robert Russell, once second mate of the Duke of York, and found him in a humble cottage with the "auld wife," as hearty and intelligent as himself, although she complains of feeling her age now, for she has reached the alloted span of threescore years and ten. Robert Russell is a good type of the man-of-warsman of fifty years ago, a healthy-looking fairly hearty old man still, though showing his 82 years of toil and privation, but keen and intelligent, ready for a forecastle yarn, and like

AN OLD SAILOR'S YARN

Evidently glad of a good listener, ‘old Bob’ as his friends call him, sat opposite me in his little cottage and spun the following yarn, forecastle fashion, straight ahead, thus:-

I left the old country for Australia in '36. I can't exactly remember the day and date, never logged it down, but it was about six months before I got to Australia in 1836 that I shipped aboard the DUKE OF YORK, 197 tons, a barque rigged, Captain Morgan commanding, and a nice man he was. She was a Falmouth packet, none of your bluff-bowed, slow-sailing craft, but a good seaboat and fast. Mr. Richardson was first mate and I was second. We had very bad weather down the Channel and put into Torbay, I remember. There we pretty nigh lost her, and we stopped six weeks for repairs; but after that we had about four months and a half passage with fairish weather, too much of it round the Cape - we had to run before the wind for some considerable time, I tell you, in fact we steered by the wind and not by the course we wanted to go. I remember there was a regular ‘sugarloaf sea’ came after us, and we thought she would be fairly pooped. It rose her stern up and just put her bows under like as if she would never rise again, but she rose, sir, she rose, but the sea she took in over her stern washed her bulwarks clean away, and made a mess of the roundhouse. She was built with bulwarks man-o'-war fashion. The LADY MARY PELHAM had started from Liverpool before us, but we spoke her on May 3, and her mate jeering-like offered to give us a tow, but we were in before her. We arrived at Nepean Bay, Kangaroo Island, on July 27th 1836, in very nice weather, and anchored pretty close inshore; I remember the date well.

I must tell you that there was a Mr. and Mrs. Beare onboard and they had a young baby girl [Elizabeth, born 16 Oct 1834 London] - it was not born aboard, but it was very young. When we sighted the land the passengers they each wanted to be the first to set foot on the shore so as to talk of it afterwards, which was natural; but the captain spoke to me in the foretop, and told me to get out the boat and a crew, and that the baby should be the first to set foot ashore. Of course we sailors liked the idea, and I got out the boat according to orders with the baby; and Israel Mazey, him that is here now a neighbour of mine these many years, was midship oar. We pulled a good bit of a way, and the captain he directed us from the ship to a place to land. I told the men to hang on their oars, and I took the baby girl - a nice little thing it was - ashore, and put her feet down on the sand. Of course, having to carry her ashore, I was the first to land, but she was the first white female to set foot on that strand anyhow. That baby is married now, I believe. [Not so. In 09 Jan 1846 Elizabeth Beare accidentally died in a fire at Netley when she was only 11.] 

The day after we arrived at Nepean Bay - the 26th July the LADY MARY PELHAM came in, and next day the JOHN PIRIE; and in a few days the CYGNET. We stayed six weeks at Nepean Bay - it was a very good anchorage. Oh, as to natives; we saw one man and four or five women. The captain and a boat's crew got lost in the scrub some days, but worked their way back to the sea beach - pretty well done up and frightened - and were coming along it to a point which hid the ship. They were kneeling down at prayer - the captain was a religions man - when a white man came up - a runaway convict, I suspect - and seeing them down on their knees he drops down and prays too. There were fourteen or fifteen white men, I believe, on the island at the time we were there, runaway convicts mostly. most aged persons possessing a good memory, for events of long ago. The two old people live together in homely happiness, and have so far managed to keep the wolf from the door, but now feel the burden of their years and are not so active as they were or so well able to maintain themselves. Theirs is a case that the Old Colonists' Association might take account of, for both are pioneers. Mrs Russell came out in 1839 - and both in their humble sphere have done their part towards the common weal and sought no assistance from the State.

After we left Nepean Bay we started for Hobart Town on a whaling cruise; we did not go to Holdfast Bay. We went to Hobart Town to sail for the South Sea Islands whaling. We got about 40 barrels of oil, but every place we went to was out of season. In making back to New Holland we struck a reef near Keppel Island, a reef that was not marked on the charts, although we had three. We were 10 miles from the island. The mate had been afraid to shift the helm and put her about when he saw the fix she was getting into,and he tried to wear her, but before she got round her starboard bow struck on the reef, and there was nothing for it but the boats. We saved three boats - two boats were carried away when the masts went overboard. We pulled for Keppel Island; having taken the charts and provisions with us. We went to the vessel several times, as she did not break up then, and at last we tried to reach Sydney. We put into Moreton Bay, and there we lost two hands - one a Rotuma lad, and the other a white man. They went to get waters and were killed by the natives, who speared one and waddled the other to death.

At last we saw a smoke, and steered for it; the other boats steered by the chart. It turned out to be a steamer, the first that arrived at Moreton Bay. The steamer, after taking us; waited twenty-four hours for the other boat, but they put m afterwards. We went in search of the men who had been killed by the natives - we did not know they were killed then - and a boat partly manned by convicts searched for them. They found the bodies and captured two of the murderers. These blackfellows they handcuffed and chained to a ringbolt in the boat, but they slipped their hands through the handcuffs and ran away into the scrub, and the soldier officer would not let the men fire at them.

After this I shipped aboard a brig, but did not go to sea in her, and at last I went aboard the LADY WELLINGTON, she that broke her back here. I went a voyage to New Zealand, and at last I came to South Australia again. I was in the survey service with Captain (afterwards Admiral) Pollen, and remember Colonel Light well - he was surveying the Port-road on opposite side to us. No, we never had much trouble with the natives, though there were lots about. Wild dogs seemed more plentiful than game. I was policeman once for six weeks to oblige a friend. The DUKE OF YORK brought out provisions for the South Australian Company, The passengers went ashore on Kangaroo Island. He came out without wages for our passage to the colony. We got wages - went on shares with the ship for what she made. She had to get oil for the colony. We were put down as immigrants from the Captain down to the cabin boy.

Thus ended Russell's yarn. I have given it exactly as he related it, and although his memory was a little off the course at times he made pretty plain sailing taking it altogether. People came out on the smallest of salaries with big families Mr. T. H. Beare on 100 pounds a year as architect, for the South Australian Company, and he had 18 children by two wives. Catherine Helen Spence (1825-1910) wrote: As a shy adolescent, new to the colony, she made friends with three nieces of Catherine Beare and Samuel Stephens, the first colonial manager of the South Australian Company.

She heard of the dangerous illness of her friend Lucy Anne Duval (nee Beare), one of the original passengers in the Duke of York, the first ship which arrived here. "She wrote that Lucy Beare, (born c.1827) the eldest, a handsome girl, was about two years younger than myself. I went to consult Mr. Taylor and Mr. Stirling at their office. I saw only Mr. Stirling. I said, ‘I should like to go and nurse her’, and he said. ‘If you will go, I'll pay your expenses’; and I went and stayed with her for three weeks, till she died in 1861, and left five children, three of them quite young. There were Duvals in England in good circumstances, and I wrote pleading for the three little ones, though everyone said it was quite useless; but an uncle by marriage was touched, and sent 100 pounds a year for the benefit of the three children, and I was constituted the guardian. The youngest died within two years, but the allowance was not decreased, and I was able to get some schooling for an elder boy. This was my first guardianship and I continued the task of finding help for the young Duvals intermittently for the rest of my life’. About two decades later one of these children, Rose, returned to Miss Spence for help, when she was herself a mother of three small children. She had been widowed, and needed someone to care for the children. Catherine Helen Spence also wrote: Arabella, about the age of my sister Mary (born c.1830, afterwards Mrs. W. J. Wren)

ADELAIDE'S OLD COLONISTS' FESTIVAL

to be celebrated at a dinner on Thursday March 27, 1851, being the anniversary of the sale of Adelaide's Town Acres. At a meeting of OLD COLONISTS, held on Tuesday evening, the 11th February 1851, at the City Bridge Hotel, with Mr Thomas Hudson Beare (1798-1861), in the chair.

Specifications: DUKE OF YORK 189 ton old measurement, wooden 3 masted ship, built in 1817 Bideford 81’3” x 23’7” x 6’ 1½” Owner: Angas & Co., registered in London.

Arrived at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island 27 Jul 1836 from England having sailed 5 Apr 1836. Master: Captain Robert Clark Morgan.

Sources: Migrant Ships for South Australia 1836-1866 by Ronald Parsons and other online references.

From Facebook Group Pioneers of SA posted by Neville Rowland 8 Oct 2023