LIST 22 - 1819 MUSTER - PORT DALRYMPLE

 
 
The second of the Van Diemens Land musters to be presented is the 1819 Muster 
for Port Dalrymple, taken in October of that year. The list contains names 
of 40 members of the First Generation; 18 males and 22 females.
 
The information presented for each entry includes:
 
 family name
 Christian name
 year of birth 
 place of birth
 parents' names 
 parents' civil status at the time of the child's birth
 parents' marital status at the time of the child's birth 
 whether on or off stores 
 date of arrival in Port Dalrymple
  ship of arrival in Port Dalrymple
 acres of land held(males)
 husband's name(females)
 surname as it appears in the original muster.
 
The list is ordered alphabetically on the child's name.
 
As in the original source document the women have been separated from the men 
and the names of their spouses included in order to make sense of the surnames 
under which their entries are found in the Muster because most of them were 
already in relationships with men and following the English custom, women 
took their husband's surname upon marriage. 
 
The 1819 Muster of Port Dalrymple Van Diemens Land as presented here is an 
amalgum of four separate lists sourced from Mrs Irene Schaffer's book "Land 
Musters, Stock Returns and Lists of Van Diemens Land 1803-1822":
 
 a list of free men 
 a list of the wives of free men 
 a list of the children of free men
 a list of landholders
 
Note that the list does not include convicts, the wives of convicts nor 
the children of convicts - the greater part of the population of Port Dalrymple 
at the time, although fortunately for the purposes of this work, time expired 
and emancipated convicts were considered as 'free' so all the First Generation 
people of interest would be included.
 
Port Dalrymple, founded in 1804, was still a relatively small settlement 
in 1819 and as a consequence the list does not contain many entries.
 
There were just two women from the "list of children"; Sally Hodgetts & 
Frances Howe, although they can hardly be called children with ages of 21 
& 20 respectively. 
 
It is interesting to consider why the husbands of three of the wives on the 
list; James Herbert, James Trimby and Joseph Wright are not to be found in the 
Muster.
 
As was the case with the Norfolk Island musters, this muster was primarily a 
commissariat document to allow the authorities to determine who was drawing 
rations from the government store and who was not, thereby assisting with the 
planning and management of the settlement's food stocks.
 
Apart from stating whether the person was on or off stores, the "list of 
children" only provides the age of the child, the "list of wives" only provides 
the name of the spouse, the "list of free men", apart from identifying the 
person as being at Port Dalrymple, which is at least something because this 
is the only muster referring to this particular settlement, provides no 
further information.
 
Information which has been added to each person from the Pioneer Register 
project includes; date of birth, place of birth, parents names and status.
 
Since Port Dalrymple was a secondary settlement in the colony, as an added bonus, 
it was thought useful to include a column called "Whence came to Port Dalrymple", 
to indicate the ship sailed upon.
 
It has not been possible to identify the ship to Port Dalrymple in every case. 
In some cases a date is given before which (<)  or after  which  (>) the person 
was known to have been in Port Dalrymple. The dates chosen are based on 
marriage dates or the birth dates of their children.
 
At least four First Generation members of the New South Wales Corps were 
included in the first contingent to Port Dalrymple on board 'HMS Buffalo' 
in 1804; privates Thomas Hortle & John Roberts and drummers Joseph Feutrill 
& Francis Spencer. As the Corps was withdrawn in 1810 none of these appear 
in the muster.
 
Jane  Byrne is believed to have accompanied her mother Ann Simmonds onboard 
'HMS Buffalo' with the first group of settlers in 1804 and James Hortle most 
likely accompanied his soldier father and brother as well, Ann Gilbert 
probably followed her soldier stepfather. At least eleven came from Norfolk 
Island, on board the 'Lady Nelson' and 'Minstrel' which took off the last 
remaing settlers from that island in 1813. Most of the First Generation 
at Port Dalrymple came from Port Jackson, in contrast to those at Hobart Town 
who mostly came from Norfolk Island, although when exactly is not always 
clear. Interestingly; Sarah Baker(Gould), Mary Boothman(Westlake), Elizabeth 
Lette(Peck) & Joseph Standley came from Hobart Town.
 
Most of the women were married, only two are definitely known to be single 
at the time of the muster (perhaps that is why they were included in the 
childrens' list); Sarah Field and Hannah Gilbert would also appear to be 
unmarried.
 
To make the list a little more informative, at least in the case of the males, 
the "list of landholders" was consulted to determine who amongst the First 
Generation were landholders and how much they held. Nine were landholders 
and another six had livestock which they grazed on leased land, leaving only 
three who apparently had no land. Thomas Reibey was the largest landholder 
by far with 2,630 acres. The reader is directed to the original list which 
tabulates: the number of acres  devoted to each type of land use; wheat, barley, 
peas/beans, potatoes & pasture - the number and variety of livestock; horses, 
cattle, sheep, goats & swine - the number of people supported by each farm. 
There was only one female recorded as a landholder, Jane Simmonds with 50 acres.
 
The 'name as it appears in the muster' is mainly of use for the married females, 
who on this occasion, without exception used their husbands' surnames. Jane 
Byrne and Hannah Gilbert both used their mother's maiden name, John Riley used 
his stepfather's surname of Stevens.
 
For one man and three women their parents remain unknown:
 
 John White
 
 Sarah Field
 Sarah Gould
 Elizabeth Plumley
 
There are 24 men and 8 women in the 1819 Muster whose civil status is as 
yet undetermined. They may have been convicts, they may have been free arrivals 
or they may have been colonial born. It is possible that one or more could 
have been of the First Generation. They are listed below in the hope that 
some might be identified by an informed reader:
 
 John Alder Charlotte Adams 
 Henry Brazile Mary Ann Dickson ux John Murphy 
 Richard Clarke Eleanor Dummigan 
 John Coal Elizabeth Hadden 
 Thomas Davis Rose Jones  
 Charles Edwards Margaret Knight 
 John Field Elizabeth Lawson 
 Patrick Flaherty Sarah Oyens ux William 
  James Gildas 
 Peter Leeson 
 Alexander McKenzie 
 William Monaghan 
 John Moulds 
 Samuel Murphy 
  William Patton 
 Thomas Mr Scott 
 William Smith 
 William Sumerfield 
 William Staples 
 Alexander Suitter 
  John Taylor 
 John Thomas 
 William Whyte 
 Richard Wiggins 

Proceed to Muster Lists

Return to 1788-1800

Return to Children Born in the Colony Home Page or Original FFF Website Home Page or New FFF Website Home Page

This work is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.