Brandy for the clerk

From time to time I look over various online resources for my family tree to see if anything interesting has been added. Recently I went back to the Genealogical Index of Names, an eclectic database of personal names from material in the Genealogical Society of Victoria library and elsewhere.

Among the 103 items for the name Crespigny I noticed:

CRESPIGNY, P C (CASTLEMAINE). Castlemaine, Victoria Court records 09 JUN 1853 PETER ROBINSON CASE; Offence: STOLEN BOTTLE BRANDY; Status: victim

The more detailed record has:

CRESPIGNY, P C (CASTLEMAINE)
Event Court records
Date 09 JUN 1853
Place: Castlemaine, Victoria
Source: Victorian ‘Argus’ court reports 1851-1856 [Includes victims, witnesses,
jurors and accused]
Author/compiler: Button, Marion.
Comment: PETER ROBINSON CASE; Offence: STOLEN BOTTLE BRANDY; Status: victim

P.C. (Philip Champion) Crespigny was my great grandfather. I hadn’t noticed this incident before.

There was a report of the theft in the digitised newspapers that can be retrieved through Trove, but the text-recognition software had done a poor job of transcribing the faint image of the newspaper. The extracted text was quite garbled; no wonder I hadn’t seen it when I’d searched on Trove before for ‘Crespigny’.

The incident gives me a little bit more information about Philip Crespigny’s life on the goldfields. To be living in a tent probably means that his wife and children were not with him at that time and had stayed behind in Melbourne.

NORTHERN COURT OF GENERAL QUARTER SESSIONS. (1853, June 9). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4793362

 

Peter Robinson, accused of stealing the brandy, was tent-keeper to Mr Crespigny, resident Gold Commissioner. He was found not guilty.

Philip Champion Crespigny was appointed Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Gold Fields on 18 November 1852 (Gazetted 14 October 1853). When gold was discovered in great quantity in the colony, the governments of New South Wales and then Victoria followed British law at and asserted the right of the Crown to all gold that was found, requiring anyone who sought to mine it must hold a licence. Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners were appointed to administer each new field, to adjudicate disputes and, most important, to collect payments for the licences.

License no. 144. Issued to George Bencraft, 05 February 1853. Issued by Commissioner P. C. Crespigny. State Library of Victoria Collection (H41033/19)

Mt. Alexander gold diggings, 1853 watercolour by William Bentley in the collection of the National Library of Australia retrieved from from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135588436 [Mt Alexander diggings were at Castlemaine]

Related posts

• T is for Talbot in 1869

The Bank of Victoria in Collins Street

I had a few minutes spare in Melbourne before the train home so I went to the library of the Genealogical Society of Victoria. The GSV is in the Emirates building on Collins Street midway between Elizabeth and Swanston street.

As a quick genealogical task to make use of the library’s resources, I thought I would look up an old street directory to see where my great great grandfather, Philip de Crespigny (the bank manager), worked. I had always looked out the tram window when travelling along Collins Street and wondered which of the marvellous buildings had been the headquarters of the Bank of Victoria in the early twentieth century.

Collins Street from Elizabeth Street, Melbourne 1916 Taken By: Kerr Brothers; Original image from The State Library of Victoria. This Image restored by Foto Supplies, Albury, NSW, Australia and retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/oakleystudios/6662752687/in/set-72157628707506273/

“Southside of Collins Street between Elizabeth and Queen Streets, only the Former Mercantile Bank (345 Collins Street) remains mostly intact.” retrieved from http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=229272&page=6

Philip de Crespigny (1850-1927) was the son of Philip Robert Champion Crespigny (1817-1889) who I refer to as Philip the gold warden, and Charlotte Frances née Dana (1820-1904). Philip worked for the Bank of Victoria for most of his life.

Philip’s obituary in the Argus mentions he became general manager of the Bank in 1916.

MR. P. C. DE CRESPIGNY. (1927, March 12). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 34. Retrieved October 30, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3843151

The quickest source of information was a Sands and McDougall directory for 1919.

In 1919 the headquarters of the Bank of Victoria was at 257 Collins Street.  With the aid of a Google maps I worked out it was less than a minute walk; in fact it was the building I was in. I could have looked at my GSV membership card!

257 Collins Street July 2014 from Google Street view

The building was redeveloped by the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney in the early 1970s. It was refurbished in 2000. The building my great great grandfather worked in does not survive.

Photo from Annual Report 1973 which included a major feature on 257 Collins Street, Melbourne to celebrate its completion during 1973. Retrieved from http://www.cbcbank.com.au/images/branches/vic/VIC%20Melb%20Office.htm

This is a picture of the building in 1918. The building was designed by Joseph Reed in 1862. An article in The Age of 21 May 1985 by John D Keating states that the building’s facade was inspired by the Palazzo Pesaro in Venice. The interior of the building was renovated in the 1930s.

7th war loan poster on the Bank of Victoria, Collins Street, Melbourne, 1918. Retrieved from National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn6388721

I wonder if my great great grandfather went to the Hopetoun Tea Rooms across the street in the Block Arcade and liked the cakes as much as I do.

Hopetoun Tea Rooms in June 2013. I cannot find a picture from the early twentieth century. They have been in the Block Arcade off Collins Street since the 1890s.

Beginning to look at my Irish family history

Until this week I had put my Irish research pretty much in the too-hard basket. Yesterday I started a four-week course at the Genealogical Society of Victoria on Irish family history. I have had a bit of a tinker in the past but I thought I would try to come to grips with the area with some guidance from experienced researchers.

Relatives I will be looking at:

• Margaret Smyth, my husband’s great great grandmother, born about 1834 in County Cavan. She arrived on the Persian in 1854. 

Her  parents were William Smyth, a farmer, and Mary Cox according to her marriage certificate but Joseph Smyth and Ann according to her death certificate.

Her death certificate states she was born in Bailieborough, a town in the townland of Tanderagee in County Cavan in the province of Ulster and part of the Border Region.

In 1855 Margaret married John Plowright in Victoria. She died in 1897. I have a copy of her marriage and death certificates.

I have done some searching on Roots Ireland for Margaret’s parents and family but without success.

When she arrived in Australia, Margaret went to stay with a cousin called John Hente. At least the surname looks like ‘Hente’ on the Assisted Migrant record; but the writing is hard to read and I have no other information about him.

•  Ellen Murray, my husband’s great great grandmother, born 1837 in Dublin Ireland. She also arrived on the Persian in 1854 with Margaret Smyth. It appears that the two became friends. Also on board was Bridget Murray age 24, also from Dublin, perhaps a sister.

Ellen’s parents were George Murray, a glass blower, and Ellen Dony (writing hard to transcribe, perhaps Dory).

In 1856 Ellen married James Cross in Victoria. She died in 1901. I have a copy of her marriage and death certificates.

I have done some searching on Roots Ireland for Ellen’s family without success. I have not been able to find out what happened to Bridget.

• James Gordon Cavenagh is my third great grandfather. He was born 1766 in Innishannon, County Cork. He died in 1844 in Castle House, Wexford. In fact he lived mostly in Hythe, Kent, England. I have inherited quite a lot of family history information but have never looked at it properly.

• Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore (1811 – 1891) and his wife Mary Cudmore née Nihill (1811 – 1893) were my great great great grandparents.

Daniel and Mary married on 15 January 1835 in County Limerick, not long before embarking for Australia on the John Dennison which left Liverpool on 12 February. Daniel was a Quaker but they married in the Church of Ireland at Drehidtarsna Church, County Limerick, two miles south-west of Adare.

Members of the Nihill family, including Mary’s mother, Dymphna Nihill née Gardiner (1790 – 1866), were also aboard the John Dennison. 

Classified Advertising. (1835, June 12). The Hobart Town Courier (Tas. : 1827 – 1839), p. 3. Retrieved December 21, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4180594

Other members of the family emigrated about six months later including Mary’s father Daniel James Nihill (1761 – 1846) with three of his daughters. They came on the James Pattison arriving in Sydney 7 February 1836 after a 91 day voyage from Cork, Ireland.. They then sailed on the Integrity which sailed from Sydney on 22 March 1836 and took 15 days to reach Hobart.

I have previously written about the re-interment of Daniel Nihill from the Protestant to the Catholic section of West Terrace cemetery.

The Nihill family came from Rockville House, Adare Parish in County Limerick.

Ritchie, Elsie B. (Elsie Barbara) (2000). For the love of the land : the history of the Cudmore family. E. Ritchie, [Ermington, N.S.W.] Page 54

Other members of the family have researched the Cudmores and the Nihills and most of it is included in the book For the love of the land: the history of the Cudmore family compiled by Elsie Ritchie in 2000. I haven’t reviewed and understood the research as it concerns our Irish background.

I need to follow up the following obituaries that have been indexed by the Limerick City Library from the Limerick Chronicle:

• Nihill Daniel Australia 29/05/1847 late of Barnalickey, near Adare

• Nihill James Rockville, Adare. 29/07/1835

I also need to follow up the following information about Rockville House retrieved from a 2009 posting to an ancestry.com message board concerning the Vokes family:

Barnalick House … was built shortly after 1784 when a James Nihill leased all 272 acres of “Baurnalicka” from Mary St. Leger. Nihill was a wealthy man who had leases for over 900 acres in Co. Limerick and Co. Clare. He built the house in the shape of a letter “T”. He called the house “Rockville House”. His eldest son Patrick lived on some family land in Co. Clare with his wife Prudence Dickson and their two daughters, Anne and Jane. Patrick died before his father in 1822 and when James died in 1831 the two daughters became heirs to all the lands including Barnalick. Anne married in 1814 a William Dodd and Jane married in 1829 a Thomas Davenport. Patrick had a younger brother, Daniel, who married in 1810 a Dymphna Gardener. He lived with his father James and no doubt looked after him in his old age. However when James died, Daniel had to move out of Barnalick and he and his family departed to Australia in 1835.
A survey done in 1840 gives an Anthony St. Leger as the owner of Barnalick estate with a Thomas Davenport and a Mrs. Dodd as the leaseholders under a Col. John Dickson as middleman.
Samuel Dickson is the middleman in 1850 in Griffith’s Valuation and it must have been Samuel Dickson who employed Simon Vokes as Land Steward and placed Simon in residence in Barnalick House.

Related posts:

• Australia Day: Climbing our family’s gum tree
• Trove Tuesday : Nihill v. Fox