No Looking Back: Edward Thomas Newton, Early Settler of Port Phillip (1813-1882)

Figure 1 from Alberton Cemetery Compiled by Janice Newton, Mt Pleasant

2018

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PREFACE

This small history of Edward Thomas Newton owes much to the local and family historians who have gone before me, most notably Rev. George Cox, Wally Stewart, Margaret Ross, John Howe and Greg Newton. I have gained extra contextual information from the State Library, Public Records Office, Australian Dictionary of Biography and Wikipedia websites, and from general histories which are listed in the bibliography. Endnotes are included where possible.

1

INTRODUCTION

Australia was a land of opportunity for colonists. Many greatly increased their life opportunities and experienced some promising periods. Others made their fortunes. Edward Thomas Newton can be counted among the former. The story of his life is fluid, our interpretations changing as more and more sources come to light. In those first few years in Launceston, , Mordialloc, then Alberton in South , he appeared to seek and win respect from his contemporary colonists. He earned the affection of: his friend and employer, John Batman; the pious, hard-working Assistant Protector of Aborigines, William Thomas (initially); the Reverend Waterfield, who officiated at his marriage; English architect, artist and writer, George Haydon; the Martin family; and the Alberton community.

Newton was literate, intelligent, thorough, kind, hospitable, loyal, charitable, and, like most migrants, not afraid to take on new challenges. He gained social esteem in his time, particularly as a mature adult, for his dogged pursuit of justice and development, but was not always successful in his many ventures. This did not, however, prevent him from trying different ones and from expounding his vision for the future of . Cognisant of his place as a pioneer in exciting times in a new colony, he thought deeply about the potential directions of the colony of Port Phillip and of Gippsland in particular, and wrote a history of his home in his adopted land.1

Aside from this interest in his role in the recent past, there was no looking back. Edward Thomas Newton did not visit England nor dwell on the distant past. When he died there was no-one available who could register information on his parents or his birthplace. Wally Stewart commented:

In spite of being a well -known citizen of early Melbourne and a pioneer of Alberton’s early years, we know surprisingly little about E T Newton. Perhaps he was a typical Victorian parent and unconfiding to his children. Certainly when he died his family did not and probably could not name his birthplace, and could supply no details of his early life for his obituary.

E T Newton thought of himself as ‘Edward Thomas’, or ‘E T’ Newton, and this name was important enough to his descendants to be passed on for another four generations.2 I will often refer to him as ET.

1 According to an entry in the Sale Historical Society ET Newton wrote a history of Gippsland in 1857. M. Ross to J Howe 1999. 2 His sister Sarah also saw that his name was passed on: Edward Newton KAY (1833-1884) son of Thomas Softly & Sarah (Newton) Kay; Edward Newton KAY (1877-1878) son of Thomas Softly & Sarah Ann (Sellwood) KAY; Edward Newton BUTTERWORTH (1910-1993) son of Edward & Rose Avonia (Kay) BUTTERWORTH. John Howe, genealogical research. 2

Figure 2 Edward Thomas Newton, Shire Councillor Alberton (President 1863-6)

3

ENGLAND

‘Newton’, meaning ‘new enclosure or settlement’, is a relatively common surname, appearing in English records as early as the 11th century. During the Middle Ages it became dispersed as people moved further afield for work, taking on the surname of their home.

Edward Thomas Newton was born on 26th November, 1813, to Thomas Edward and Sarah Newton in London and baptised a month later on December 26th at St George of the East, Middlesex. His older sister Sarah, born 3rd December 1811, was also baptised at St George in 1812. Their parents, Thomas Edward and Sarah Newton had been married at All Hallows, Barking, London in 1809.3

The family lived at Ratcliff Highway, Tower Hamlets, Middlesex, a hamlet on the north banks of the Thames. It was known as a sailor town, with a history of shipbuilding in the 14th and 17th centuries, becoming a notorious slum area with lodging houses, music halls, bars and brothels.4

In spite of the unsavoury environment, E T learned to read and write, possibly a beneficiary of the beginnings of free education in 19th century England.5 His baptismal Church, with its attached workhouse, would have made him aware that the poor had to work for charity and had uncertain outcomes.

ET’s sister Sarah married Thomas Softley Kay on Christmas Day, 1832,6 the year when eighteen year old E T made the decision to emigrate, a step he would find that must ‘involve deliberate calculation, not to be taken as a whim’,7 as before him lay a field of possibilities and pitfalls. VAN DIEMEN’S LAND

ET is believed to have arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1832, as a young man of 19.8 Lieut. Governor Arthur favoured wealthy settlers who could employ numbers of convicts. E T fitted neither this criterion, nor the criteria for the Assisted Passage Scheme.9 Hence, he

3 Boyd’s Index of Marriages, ex John Howe. 4 In 1794 half the hamlet was destroyed by fire when a barge full of saltpetre ignited and in the year of Sarah Newton’s birth, the hamlet of 7000 was traumatised by the murders of seven people. 5 Sunday School education also embraced a quarter of the population by 1831. Anglican National Schools adjacent to parish churches began in 1811, and a Ragged School was set up in the area in 1818. 6 Sarah Newton married Thomas Softley Kay on 25 Dec 1832 at St Leonard’s Shoreditch, Tower Hamlets district, East London. John Howe, Genealogical Research. https://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi- bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=marycotter&id=I95349275. 7 Haydon Five Years p 145. 8 A Mr Newton arrived in Hobart on the Rigalia 4 September 1832. Name Index, Tasmanian Archives online. A letter to Governor Arthur on behalf a Mr Newton, friend of Lord, Mitton, asking to be given a position in VDL was a Thomas Newton. He was given a position as Chief Constable of Police in Launceston by Arthur. PROV Original Correspondence of Sec of State 1833 Feb 25, CO 714, 255-6, piece 149. 9 This ran from 1831-7, bringing in over 300 assisted migrants in 1832. 4

may have been a free settler, or an indentured servant for the Van Diemen’s Land Company, who had to work to pay back his fare. By 1838 he was claiming he had a long experience in the colonies.10

ET Newton made his way from Hobart to Launceston, which, by 1827, had a population of 2000 and had become an export centre for the northern pastoral industry. Launceston had a number of small hotels and breweries that during the 1830s began to be superseded by more substantial buildings. While in Launceston E T met both John Batman and Fawkner, so may have been party to discussions about the good land available across the Strait.

On March 5 1835, when 22 years of age ET was listed as one of the respectable settlers, including Captains and Reverends, to be allocated an Assigned Servant, a convict working towards his pardon.11 Six months later, in October of 1835 he set up a wharf side trading business with Peter Sinclair, as Custom House Agents and General Dealers.

Sinclair and Newton began importing and selling on a large scale - huge quantities of alcohol, cloth, clothing, ironmongery, cutlery, practical and luxury goods. For example, on 3 March 1836 they advertised Sherry in barrels and quarter casks, pontac wine in quarter casks, claret in 1 dozen casks, cognac brandy, Caledonian distillery whisky, cape wine, fine old port wine in bottles and casks, Dunbar’s bottled ale and porter, Taylor’s brown stout, Geneva in cases, pale sherry in bottles, as well as cloth, shirts, coats, trousers, hats, hosiery, blankets, rugs, weights and scales, pepper mills and gluepots, trowels, meat hooks and stands, locks, spring bolts, wash stand basins, spittoons and assorted brush ware. 12 Sinclair and Newton were willing to trade colonial goods at the wharf side store in exchange for the imported goods, and advertised regularly to buy in cut or uncut wattlebark, crucial for tanning in the burgeoning leather industry. They also advertised the schooner Ellen available for freight or charter.13

In March 1836 Sinclair and Newton signed a group letter of support to the former Collector of Customs, Henry Arthur and were appointed provisional assignees for the estate and effects of John Armstrong’s insolvency,14 but by July 1836 their own business was faltering. It was declared insolvent by Justice Montagu in November 1836, although the partnership had petitioned the Supreme Court for relief.15 On January 20th 1837 the Insolvency sale for Sinclair and Newton was held at Campbell Town, 68 kilometres to the south east of Launceston.

10 Launceston Advertiser 5 March 1835. 11 Launceston Advertiser 5 March 1835, p 4. 12 Launceston Advertiser 3 March 1836, p 1. On the 5 March 1836 the first export from Port Phillip was a load of wattle (mimosa) bark. Syme, Shipping p 57. E T, like his father, Thomas, imported and sold slops, ready-made working garments or industrial aprons. 13 Launceston Advertiser, Cornwall Chronicle, eg. January to March 1836. 14 The Cornwall Chronicle 5 March 1836, p 4, 19 March 1836, p 3. 15 Launceston Advertiser 17 November 1836, p 2-3, Cornwall Chronicle 10 December 1836, p 3, 15 April 1837, p 2, 26 August 1837, p 4. 5

TO BE SOLD BY PUBLIC AUCTION

BY MR J. C. UNDERWOOD

(By order of the Assignees, under the insolvency of Messrs. SINCLAIR and NEWTON)

On the Premises at Campbell Town, on Friday the 20th inst, at 12 o’clock, without reserve, the following useful merchandise.

SLOPS –consisting of cotton cord JACKETS and Silk and gingham umbrellas TROWSERS Wearing apparel Assorted waistcoats and bevereens (course twilled cotton) Snuffs and Manilla sugars

Moleskin shooting coats Cinnamon, black pepper, allspice, cloves, sago, pearl barley, ginger and split peas Blue and drub cloth trousers Curry powder Flushing, pea, and monkey jackets Sydney cheese Trowsers Irish butter, candles, soap, starch and blue Scotch caps and Guernsey frocks Wine corks Duck frocks Mess pork and bottled vinegar Trowsers and bandanna silk handkerchiefs Basket salt, white, green, black and lead coloured paints, raw Fancy cotton ditto and boiled linseed oil, Pale carriage varnish, canister gunpowder, shot assorted, bronze, pedestal and parlour White cotton and striped shirts lamps, shades and wicks

Yatch ditto Cutlery, consisting of –

Red and blue flannel ditto Bone and ivory-handle table and dessert knives and forks, in great variety, steel guards and carvers, pocket and pruning CLOTHS – consisting of black, blue, olive brown, green, knives, pen knives of every description, pallet and butchers steel, and Oxford mist. knives, scissors assorted, razors, steel and brass snuffers

Broad cloths Hosiery, drapery, stationery, perfumery, ironmongery, hardware and earthenware Saxony drab, fancy check, double milled and other kerseymeres (fine twilled woollen cloth) Tea trays, rope assorted, and horse medicines

Calicoes and blankets Port, sherry, and claret wine in bottle

Gentlemen’s superfine best beaver hats Constantia in bottle and draft

Merton down ditto Sherry in draft Patent, felt and Brazilian ditto

Also

The LIBRARY of BOOKS, consisting of works on various subjects.

TERMS: Under £20, cash; £20 an upwards, three months on Approved Bills.16

16 Launceston Advertiser 19 January 1837, p 2. 6

Creditors were initially led to believe assets closely matched debts. The insolvency sale listed a large quantity of goods and possibly a private library of books. No doubt creditors were disappointed when they were, between 1837-9, still waiting for only 5/- in the pound.17

ET obviously continued to trade while his insolvency was being sorted.18 During 1836-7 he was involved with sending goods to Port Phillip, and from at least November 1837 was present for a time in Melbourne (see following). In May 1836, for example he arranged a shipment of tea and preserves from Launceston to Port Phillip.19 A Mr. Newton also travelled on The Siren (Syrene) 25 February 1837 from Launceston to Port Phillip. 20

In May 1838 ET arranged for the passage from Launceston of 60 sheep on the cutter Domain and the following week, on the same ship, for a cargo of oats, flour, barley, pollard, rugs, soap, brandy, rum, oranges and haberdashery.21 One keg rum, 200 bags flour, 24 bags of oats, 20 bags bran, 9 trusses of hay, 200 broad palings, 1 weighing machine, 5 chests of tea and sugar also left Launceston on the Aquila for Port Phillip on behalf of ET Newton.22

A ‘Mr Newton’, on 6 August 1838, sent to Port Phillip on the Perseverance, what appeared to be household effects: 5 chests, two bags apparel, and 6 chairs.23 Three days later, on August 9 1838, Captain Tobin took ‘ET Newton’ and seven others on his cutter Aquila to Port Phillip from Launceston.24 This may or may not have marked his permanent removal to Port Phillip. Later in life ET commented that a newspaper dated February 1838, reminded him of when he had first arrived in Port Phillip.25 MELBOURNE, PORT PHILLIP

It is almost certain, then, that E T Newton was not with John Batman when the latter first sailed to Port Phillip in 1835 with three male servants and 7 to 8 Sydney Aborigines, marking the site for Melbourne and attempting to make a treaty with the Aboriginal leaders. At this time, Edward Thomas was based in Launceston, starting a business and being allocated a servant.

17 Cornwall Chronicle 15 April 1837, p 2, 26 August 1837, p 4, 19 May 1838, p 83, The Hobart Town Courier 25 October 1839, p 3. Peter Sinclair applied for an order of discharge, to be relieved of his debts in October 1839. Cornwall Chronicle 26 October 1839, p 2. . 18 See reports regarding insolvency, for example, Cornwall Chronicle 15 April 1837, p 2 19 Cornwall Chronicle 19 May 1836, p 82. There may be other entries where an initial has been misprinted. 20 Launceston Advertiser 14 December 1837, p2. 21 Cornwall Chronicle 5 May 1838, p 74, 12 May 1838, p 78. 22 Commercial Journal and Advertiser 9 May 1838, p 2. 23 Cornwall Chronicle 11 August 1838 p 2. Two previous entries for shipping in August 1838 cite E J Newton. 24Hobart Town Courier 17 August 1838 p 2. 25 Rev George Cox, Notes on Gippsland History, Gippsland Standard 3 December 1926, ex Greg Newton. 7

After John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner confirmed the viability of settlement in Port Phillip a flotilla of small ships began bringing men and sheep from Van Diemen’s Land (VDL). (11 in 1835, 42 in 1836).26 The land situation in VDL was beginning to tighten and one cannot underestimate colonists’ lust for land and new pastures. In 1835-6 a hundred men left Launceston to look at Port Phillip and the Port Phillip Association sent more and more sheep. By the end of 1836 agents of the Van Diemen’s Land Graziers were depasturing more than 10,000 sheep. The Overlanders from Sydney were slower to take up the opportunity but by 1836 they, too, were joining the massive land grab, on the move with their stock from Yass and the Monaro.27

In May 1836 the first official report on the Port Phillip settlement registered Aborigines, 177 whites, 35 of whom were servants. Melbourne was no more than a little shanty town with a dozen wattle and daub huts, Mr Fawkner’s 6 roomed hotel and Batman’s 12 X 20 foot hut. The settlers had already penetrated 70 miles and occupied 100 square miles, bringing 26,500 sheep, 100 cattle and 57 horses.28

Figure 3 Plan of Central Melbourne showing allotments (part), November 1837. H G Turner A History of the Colony of , vol 1, Longman, London, 1904

At some time in the next year, 1837, Edward Thomas began to work for John Batman. John Howe reports that in March 1837 ET was working for Batman on his sheep station at Deep Creek, about 15-20 miles from Maribyrnong, on the Saltwater (Maribyrnong) River. On 1 November 1837 he was able to purchase single block number, lot 14 at auction for £35 at

26 Shaw A History p 59. 27 Shaw A History pp 36-58. 28 Shaw A History p 58. 8

the second Melbourne land sale.29 The area XX1 was bounded on the west by Elizabeth St, on the south by Bourke St, and on the east by S0wanston St, and north by Lonsdale St.30

On 14 November 1837 Edward Thomas gave evidence in a Melbourne Police Court and in the same month was superintending the shearers in a shearing shed owned by Joseph Solomon, a speculating squatter friend of John Batman’s and member of the original Port Phillip Association, at Cut-paw paw parish on the Maribyrnong River at Braybrook. ET was included in the general Port Phillip census of 1838.31

In March 1838, John Batman, ill and concerned about the future of his family, dictated to ET a letter appealing to the authorities to be able to keep some of his wealth and value for improvements made.32 From August 1838, the month he travelled from Launceston to Port Phillip on the Aquila, Edward Thomas, on a salary of £400 a year, wrote virtually all Batman’s correspondence.33

John Batman, son of a convict, had creative vision and charisma but drank heavily, was prone to violent outbursts and, according to Governor Arthur in Van Diemen’s Land, ‘had much slaughter to account for’ 34 His treaty with the Aborigines, prepared on behalf of a group of eight Launceston capitalists, the Port Phillip Association, was disallowed by the British Government, so like others, he was considered to be squatting on Crown Land until he purchased his first land in the first and second Melbourne Land Sales in 1837.

During 1838 ET Newton’s name appeared several times in almost every issue of the local newspapers, The Port Phillip Guardian and The Port Phillip Patriot. Acting for John Batman he advertised goods arriving on the Aquila, shipping to Port Adelaide on the Gem, to Sydney on the barque Elizabeth, lease of the ship Pickwick suitable for wool transport. There were advertisements for the sale of building materials coming from VDL and to be sold at Batman’s Store and the lease of buildings on Collins and Flinders Sts.35

29 NSW Government Gazette 31 December 1839, p 256. 30 McCombie The History. ET sold his land at a low price before the discovery of gold. G Newton. Margaret Ross and Wally Stewart report on a Martin family legend that Edward Martin sold the land where the Melbourne Town Hall stands for a team of bullocks which was more use to them, cited in Volume 3 of the Victorian Cyclopaedia An Epitome of Progress, 1905. While no evidence of this has been found, in the 1960s Myer Emporium paid £100 to descendants of Edward and Eliza Newton for 12 feet of land in Lynch Alley Little Bourke St, so perhaps Edward Martin was wrongly attributed to the legend. 31 John Howe former Website, Shaw A History , p 50. It is thought that the parish name of Cut-paw paw was a version of an Aboriginal name Koort Boork Boork, meaning clump of she oaks. Solomon Australian Dictionary of Biography, suggests that the Joseph Solomon who went to Port Phillip in 1839 to live along the Maribyrnong River may have been the nephew of Joseph Solomon, who speculated in Port Phillip under the guidance of John Batman’s syndicate. 32 Billot p 270. 33 P. L. Brown, 'Batman, John (1801–1839)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/batman-john- 1752/text1947, published first in hardcopy 1966, accessed online 24 May 2018. 34 Shaw A History p 50. 35 For example, Port Phillip Gazette 24 November 1838, p 1, 29 December 1838, p 1. 9

In May 1839 at age 39 John Batman died. His ‘friends’ Lonsdale and Simpson, quickly withdrew from the task of dealing with a shambolic array of businesses with a dearth of documentation, leaving the task to 26 year old ET Newton, Batman’s manager/accountant and P W Welsh, a successful merchant. Throughout 1839, while his own insolvency was still being finalised in Launceston,36 ET attempted a task historians now judge may have been beyond him. ET and Welsh regularly placed notices about claims on Batman’s Estate and the fact that no debts were to be made in Batman’s name. A weatherboard cottage and allotments on Batman’s Hill were put up for sale. On his own or John Batman’s Estate’s behalf he advertised for sale Van Diemen’s Land flour, seed oats and bran, a draught horse, with harness and cart, the schooner Gem for charter or passage to Port Adelaide.37

Lawyers were the main beneficiaries of Batman’s estate following prolonged legal delays. However, acting as one of the executors for John Batman allowed Edward Thomas to acquire two significant items: the first map or a contemporary copy of Batman’s explorations, as well as a copy or original of the Treaty with the Aboriginal leaders.

In May 1839 Edward Thomas advertised regarding two strayed bullocks and offered a reward, so he may have been working some land or acting for someone.38 By July 1839 ET had applied for his own auctioneers’ licence, 39 and in December 1839 sent out a circular announcing his new business and address in Elizabeth St, Melbourne soliciting patronage on the grounds that he had ‘experience in colonial matters derived from long residence in the colonies and practical acquaintance with mercantile life and general business’. 40 During 1840 he advertised for sale the last of the Melbourne city suburban allotments and alluvial ground on the Merri Creek.41

ET is listed as a commission agent in the 1841 and 1842 postal directories (at Darebin Creek) and in the 1842 list of burgesses as having a house in Stephen St (now Exhibition) in Melbourne.42 He advertised to ‘emigrants, Capitalists desirous of possessing land’ suburban allotments five minutes’ walk from Melbourne at £35 an acre.43 He was a member of a

36 Peter Sinclair was alone in submitting himself for examination in relation to his application for a discharge of his debts In September 1839. Tasmanian 13 September 1839, p 6. 37 For example, Port Phillip Patriot 2 September 1839, p 16, 10 September 1839, p 7, 16 September 1839 p 7. 38 Port Phillip Gazette 22 May 1839. 39 This evinced wry comment from a local newspaper which suggesting there was already a glut of such occupations. Port Phillip Gazette 20 July 1839 p 3. 40 Port Phillip Patriot 23 December 1839, p 1, Port Phillip Gazette 4 January 1840, p 1. 41 Port Phillip Gazette 18 March 1840, pp 2-3, 27 June 1840, p 4. 42 John Howe former Website. 43 Port Phillip Gazette 4 January 1840, p 6. 10

Supreme Court jury on several occasions in December 1841 to April 184244 and still listed as a voter in the Town of Melbourne for 1843.45

Figure 4 Advertisement Port Phillip Patriot 23 December 1839, p 1

Although ET donated to Church and community, and was publicly acknowledged alongside notable citizens, such as Governor La Trobe and Captain Lonsdale,46 he did not gain membership of the prestigious clubs and institutions that the colonists quickly established.47 His partner executor, P W Welsh was by 1841 listed as a merchant in Little Flinders St and Portland Bay and had gained positions on Committees of Management for the Pastoral and Agricultural Society and the Mechanics Institute.48

ET was obviously very taken up with Batman’s affairs in Melbourne in the hectic months after the latter’s death in 1839, but he had much more going on. He had a number of

44 Port Phillip Patriot 2 December 1841, 24 March 1842, p 2, Port Phillip Gazette 8 December 1841, p 3, 9 April 1842, p 3 Melbourne Times 8 April 1842 p 3. 45 Port Phillip Gazette 13 May 1843, p 4. 46 In December 1839 E T Newton gave £5 to a subscription for Mr Chisholm whose building in Collins St had burned down. Port Phillip Gazette 4 December 1839, p 2. It is possible he is the J T Newton who donated £5 in 1840 for the building fund of the Episcopalian Church. Port Phillip Gazette 22 July 1840, p 2. ET Newton donated three guineas £3.3.0 to the Melbourne Mechanics School of Arts. Port Phillip Patriot 6 December 1841, p 2. 47 Kerr Kerr’s Melbourne Almanac , Port Phillip Directory of 1841 and 1842 documents the inauguration of the Melbourne Club, The Port Phillip Club, a Debaters Club and a Freemans Lodge. ET Newton was listed for 1841 at Darebin Creek , but not 1842. 48 Kerr Kerr’s Melbourne Almanac 1841, p 169. By 1845, however, PW Welsh was before the criminal court for obtaining money under false pretences. PROV VPRS 30, P0029 188. To his credit, Welsh honoured the commitment to pay for the education of Batman’s daughters until 1842, contributing to his own bankruptcy. Brown, Batman, ADB. 11

interactions with the Aboriginal Protectorate, possibly as a result of inheriting Batman’s Aboriginal servants from NSW, and he also began to operate a farm at Mordialloc.

Assistant Protector William Thomas was called to investigate, through ‘the kindness of Mr Newton’, the case of a Sydney Aboriginal youth who had been employed by a series of masters since he was nine years old, the most recent being John Batman, and had never 49 received pay or education or religious instruction. Thomas stipulated a pay of £20 pa.

E T may have travelled to the Aboriginal Protectorate near Narre warren. A month or so after Batman’s death William Thomas noted that he had overseen the first legally ratified agreement between an Aboriginal native and White man. Thomas believed that if both parties followed this agreement results would be beneficial.

Friday 14 June 1839 Independent of Office duties waited on Mr Newton to sign an agreement between him & an Aboriginal Native… This is a good beginning and an opening I trust thro’ God of bringing these people into habits privileges of British Subjects and Civilization.50

ET Newton has therefore been given credit for the first Port Phillip legal work contract between a colonist and NSW Aboriginal workers, Robert Bullett and John Allan, who had previously worked for John Batman. This took place on 14 June 1839 and ET agreed to give board and lodging for one year and £26 annually paid to the Protector to be deposited in the bank in the name of the worker.51

49 Stephens The Journal of William Thomas Vol 1, p 26. 50 Stephens The Journal of William Thomas Vol 1 p 25. 51 Cannon Historical Records p 743. 12

Figure 5 First legal labour contract with Aboriginal Person in Port Phillip, NSW Archives, Cannon, Historical Records, Vol 2B, p743

Assistant Protector Thomas was to have more such friendly interactions.

13

The farm at Moode Yallock

E T had neither the capital nor clout to obtain the huge pastoral leases as others did on the outskirts of Melbourne, Mordialloc and in Gippsland. The earliest permanent settlers were unauthorised trespassers on Crown Land. 52 ET was, however, the first to start a stock run near Mordialloc Creek, an area favoured by the Aborigines for its fish, eels and abundant wildlife.53 While other commentators make it appear that Newton ‘owned’ this station, as much as a squatter could claim ownership, Cannon states that he was overseer for the squatter Joseph Solomon.54 In 1839 there are several references to ET’s station at Mordialloc.55 Thomas referred to Newton’s Creek, but ‘he did not stay long enough for the name to stick’.56

On October 14 1839, Assistant Protector Thomas took shelter under a tarpaulin at ‘Mr Newton’s new Station, Moody Yallock’, 30 miles from Arthur’s Seat. On October 22 Thomas’s bullock dray became bogged in passing Moody Yallock, and he had to borrow two bullocks to help get them out. Soon afterwards, while camping two miles from Newton’s ‘Moody Yallock’, Thomas fell in with 54 Aboriginal people on their way to the Protectorate station at Arthurs Seat.

Again in November 1839 Thomas stopped, after 30 miles’ journey, at ‘Mr Newton’s Station’ on his way from Arthurs Seat to Melbourne. ET was by then using the farm as a trading base. On 11 November 1839 Thomas sent an order for provisions to Mr Newton: flour, sugar, tea, soap, meat, tobacco and salt.57

There are documents from the Aboriginal Protectorate regarding such provision of rations for eight Aborigines earlier in July 1839 when ET sent a quote to Chief Protector Robinson. His quote was for a daily allowance of 1lb meat, 1 ½ lb flour, 2 oz sugar, ¼ oz tea, ¼ oz soap for 1 shilling 3 ¼ d a day. A year’s slop clothing could be supplied for £10.58 This quote was deemed extravagantly high ‘due to scarcity’, by Robinson, so the Governor allowed £140 rather than £265 for the year.59

52 ET Newton is not listed or charted as having land in Mordialloc. MK Heritage Study Report 1984, Billis and Kenyon, Pastoral Pioneers. 53 McGuire Mordialloc p 2, 6. Bunwurrung language material collected by Thomas includes a sentence concerning a trip by the Aborigines, six months prior, to go hunting for eel not far from Mr Newton’s Moody Yallock property. Stephens The Journal of William Thomas Vol 4 1855 p 235. 54 Cannon, Historical Records Vol 2b, p 737. 55 It was not far from that of the Martins, but by 1840 his run had been taken over by Major James Fraser and Daniel Mackinnon when they were granted a licence to run cattle at Brittania Bay. 56 Hibbins, A History, p 23. 57 Stephens The Journal of William Thomas Vol 1 pp 68-9. 58 Cannon Historical Records p 404. 59 Cannon Historical Records p 418. The allowance for Protectors was 10 shillings 6d a day. 14

Figure 6 Letter from E T Newton to G A Robinson, Inward Registered Correspondence to Superintendent of Port Phillip District, PROV, VPRS 1 P0000, Unit 1, File 1839/334

In December 1839, Thomas’ friendship with ET Newton faltered. There was a climate of labour shortage in which Masters decoyed Aboriginal servants from one employer to another, and ‘the Bench refuses to take cognizance of their agreement’. Thomas received a note from Mr Newton regarding the disappearance of ‘Bullett’, his indentured Aboriginal worker, who was now with Ben Loman.60 John Allan also stayed with him only one month. Thomas was offended by the disrespectful tone of ET’s note, wrongly suggesting that Thomas had encouraged Aborigines to abscond.61

60 Bullett was a NSW Aborigine brought by John Batman from Van Diemen’s Land to facilitate in the land purchase treaty. The first legal dispute in Port Phillip concerned his killing of Fawkner’s rabbits, in the belief that this was what his master wanted. Garryowen, The Chronicles, p12. Ben Loman/d was an Aboriginal Tasmanian who was taken to a station at Gellibrand’s Point, Williamstown. Fels, I Succeeded, p 179. 61 Stephens The Journal of William Thomas pp 104-5. The following June three of the Aborigines on Thomas’s Protectorate station left on Mr Martin’s boat for Melbourne. Stephens p 170. 15

The situation at this time in the colony was very fluid partly as a result of an economic depression in the 1840s. Of the 481 people who held pastoral licences in 1841 in Port Phillip, less than half were left in 1845.62 It is likely that at this time Edward Thomas befriended or reacquainted himself with the adventurous, musical, farming and whaling Martin family from Deeping Fens, Lincolnshire. John (28) and Eliza (18), a governess, migrated to Van Diemen’s Land in 1837 and in October 1839 the rest of the family sailed to Port Phillip where John and Eliza joined them.63 Their lives became intertwined with that of ET for the next forty years and beyond.

In 1840-41 the Martins settled in Brighton, taking up land almost as far down as the Moody Yallock Creek, where ET ran Solomon’s station. The Martins were forced to vacate the property after Henry Dendy arrived in February 1841 from England with promises from the Home Country regarding land and a low price of purchase. He took over an eight square mile rectangle of the best land in Moorabbin Parish, cut through by the Squatters’ route to Western Port, ultimately Point Nepean Road.64

By the end of 1840 ET was married to Eliza, the sister of his friends, and living closer to Melbourne, in the vicinity of Fitzroy and Ivanhoe.

Marriage

The Reverend William Waterfield of the Congregationalist Church in Collingwood officiated at the Mona Cottage wedding. His diary recorded ‘The whole of today was spent in attending the wedding of Mr Newton and Miss Martin. We went to Darebin Creek and had a pleasant day.’65

Figure 7 Wedding Signatures of E T Newton and Eliza Martin. John Howe via Mrs Ada Ackerly, Newport

After Edward Thomas Newton and Eliza married on November 3, 1840 they lived with Eliza’s sister Mary Martin, a school teacher, and her husband Edwin Leadbeater in Newtown

62 Mordialloc Kingston City Heritage Study Report 1984 p 18. 63 See Ross Unpublished Manuscript for a detailed account of the Martin’s history. 64 John and Thomas Martin became the first victims of new legislation ‘whose properties, (The Moorabbin Cattle Station), insecurely held under lease, Dendy took over without compensation’. The Martins bought the few acres on which their homestead stood for an inflated £ 444 but left soon after for Gippsland. Bate A History of Brighton p 32, 40. 65 Rev. George Cox Gippsland Standard. 16

(Fitzroy),66 but according to Kerr’s Melbourne Almanac of 1841 ET Newton was listed as residing at Darebin Creek, a tributary to the Yarra River, entering the latter near Ivanhoe and Abbotsford. It was likely that his move to South Gippsland took place between 1841 and 1843, during the time of the birth of his first two children, named after their parents, Edward Thomas and Eliza. GIPPS LAND

Edward and Jacob Martin, E T Newton’s brothers-in-law, took three weeks to sail to old in a whaleboat in around 1840, looking for a base to carry out whaling operations in Bass Strait, while Thomas and John Martin remained at Moorabbin station, Brighton till 1841. A pioneering ‘overlander’ from the Monaro, Angus MacMillan stated, in 1841, that his party were the first whites to view the beautiful country around Port Albert, but local historians from Gippsland claim that three Martin brothers were in residence already at Port Albert and ‘a few other people who had come around the coast from Melbourne (were) settled about five miles up the Albert River.’(Victoria/Alberton).67

Jacob Martin was the first to drive cattle from Brighton to South Gippsland in 1843, the year Gipps Land was proclaimed a squatting district, enabling squatters to occupy large tracts of land by paying an annual licence fee of £10.68

George Henry Haydon, architect, writer, artist and adventurer, made an expedition to Gippsland in 1844 with the Protector of Aborigines GA Robinson and some of Robinson’s Native Police. The police had to cut a path ahead of a bullock dray and cattle. Haydon’s book relating the journey gives some insight into the conditions which Jacob Martin would have faced on his journey to Gipps Land. E T would have suffered similarly if he went by land, though it seems at least equally likely that he came by sea, and this was also an arduous and sometimes treacherous journey.69

With rations limited to tea, flour, boiled beef, tobacco and an occasional bird or animal (such as a koala or lyrebird, killed by Aboriginal police), the party experienced hunger and distress during the hundred mile journey. They used the bullock dray, blankets and poles to construct shelter along the way and were constantly hampered by river and gully crossings, the need to construct temporary bridges and to cut their way through extremely dense

66 Miss E Martin, Fitzroy Library, Family History, ET Newton. 67 E M Webb The Herald 1 July 1937, ex Ross, Unpublished Manuscript p 9, Stewart Unpublished Manuscript. The town Alberton was gazetted in 1842 and Assistant Surveyor George laid out the Victoria township in 1843. 68 Ross, Unpublished Manuscript, p10. ’In 1847, new regulations gave the squatters greater security as they could buy 640 acres of their runs. The squatters’ wool clip was shipped from Port Albert and there was a lucrative live cattle trade across the Bass Strait’ LaTrobe City Heritage Study. 69 Rev Willoughby Bean was travelling from Melbourne to Port Albert on the Colina in 1848 and during a gale offered the shelter of his cabin to Eliza Newton who was travelling with her two babies and five of her neighbour’s children. Ross, Unpublished Manuscript p 5. 17

undergrowth and tea tree knitted together with dwarf vine.70 There were swamps to traverse and constant rain. When near Aboriginal encampments the Native Police were on edge, ready to attack their traditional enemies. Within three weeks the cattle and horses were nearly starving, the bullocks ‘skeletal’. A month after their departure, they heard a ‘cooee’ from early Gippsland settlers, Marly and Broadribb, with news that a packhorse was being sent to them with some supplies.71 The party passed massive trees, grass tree plains and finally arrived at Victoria (Alberton)72 and the well-grassed undulating, lightly timbered country desired by the settlers.

At 12am came across an old dray track and some cattle tracks which we followed for several miles when it led us to the Albert River, a narrow stream where we crossed it, but deep and wide as it approaches the bay. A good substantial wooden bridge had been built over it by Mr E T Newton, one of the first settlers on the township of Victoria. 73After crossing this bridge and continuing on a well-formed road for about half a mile, we were delighted to see several smokes arising from a rise on our left, and shortly after were encouraged by the sight of some huts and houses, humble enough, indeed, but quite a treat to people who had seen no marks of civilization for a month. The whole population of the township of Victoria, amounting to about 60 individuals, turned out to welcome our arrival, and many were the kind invitations given to “come in and make ourselves at home.” I availed myself of the kindness of my old friend Mr Newton to “pick up flesh” under his hospitable roof.74

Edward Thomas therefore built the first bridge across the Albert River and had lived in Alberton from at least 1843, possibly earlier, as he was named one of the earliest settlers. In Alberton he settled permanently with Eliza and raised a family of eleven children (one did not survive infanthood and the other, childhood). Here he became a pioneer, a leading citizen who engaged in diverse economic enterprises ‘subject to the booms and busts of colonial days’. Indeed, in 1843 he was involved in Melbourne litigation against his lawyer for not passing on money awarded as the result of an initial court case and the defendant claimed E T was insolvent.75 The following year, in 1844 he suffered a small setback when he was fined for selling, without a licence, alcohol from his store.76

70 Haydon Five Years p 129. 71 Haydon Five Years p 151. 72 Victoria and Alberton were two halves of a site, separated by Victoria Street. 73 The first bridge over the Albert River a wooden bridge in front of the Woodlands Homestead, was erected by ET Newton about May 1844. Adams From These Beginnings p 62. 74 Haydon Five Years p 155. 75 See Newton v Thurlow. Solicitor Thurlow was struck off, and later gaoled for his second insolvency. Thurlow claimed that ET was insolvent and absent from Melbourne. Port Phillip Gazette, 3 October 1840, p 2, 30 August 1843, p 3, 6 September 1843, Melbourne Times 29 August 1843, p 3, 5 September 1843 p 3, Argus 30 July 1847, p 2. 76 In 28 May 1844, at the Court of Petty Session held at Alberton Mr Newton was fined £30 for selling liquor without a licence. Barraclough and Squires, Steps. 18

On the personal front, the Rev, Edward Grifford Pryce baptised ET and Eliza’s first four children on 22 November 1847,77 and, after the death in 1848 of his sister Sarah who had immigrated by 1838, it appears he helped out with her family as well.78 Economic ties continued with the Martin family. With his brother in law, Edward Martin in 1851 he was registered as a brewer and opened a brewery in Alberton in 1856 as well as a vineyard in Port Albert, where he grew grapes for red and white wine.79 In 1856 he also was registered as an agent and auctioneer ‘with interests in Welshpool, Victoria and Alberton.’80 E T acted as an agent for the surveys of both Reeve (1843) and Orr (1861) and in 1847 and 1849, he was once more an assignee for someone else’s insolvency.81

Figure 8 Part Plan of Subdivision of Orr's special survey at Alberton, Gipps Land, surveyed and subdivided by R C Bagot, Melbourne 1861, Vale Collection, SLV

Edward Thomas ‘took a keen interest in all public movements, being extremely prominent in agitation to establish Welshpool as the port for Gippsland and secretary to a committee formed in August 1853 to spend £1000 on the road between Alberton and Welshpool. He was a generous supporter of community developments, donating, for example, £10 towards the Alberton Common School when most donations were £2.82 He was secretary of the patrons of the Common School and of the Trustees for the Alberton Cemetery from 1857. He also took a leading part in the first movement for an Anglican church in Alberton. E T was

77 Howe Former Website. 78 Several of the Newton Kay descendants were married or died in the area of Alberton, Yarram and Sale. John Howe, Genealogy Research. 79Ross Unpublished Manuscript p 11. 80 Ross Unpublished Manuscript p 11. Ross cites the Turnbull Ledgers of the Port Albert Museum. 81 The Argus 1 June 1847, p 3, 23 January 1849, p 2. 82 Ross, Unpublished Manuscript, p 11. 19

a contributor to the Port Phillip Advertiser and ultimately the official Alberton correspondent.83

During the Alberton Legislative Assembly elections in 1856 ET’s nominated candidate, John Orr, lost 35 votes to 55. ET spoke in his own defence after the opposition had charged him with ‘improper influence’ during the canvassing. He claimed they were ‘trumped up charges’ and defenced Orr as an old colonist with ‘liberal opinions on the great political questions on the public mind’. Furthermore, Orr ‘was staunch on roads and bridges’. Later, as a Councillor and Shire President (1863-6), ET served during some unsettled years with considerable bickering, subsequent to the division of the Shire into Ridings in 1866.84

His house at Eabon Eabon (named for a local Aboriginal tribe) was described by Cox as,

a timber house with a high gabled roof and an encircling verandah. This verandah rests on slender timber supports with capitals and between each is an elegantly fitted valence, some of which has gone. Face-brick chimneys, above the ridge line, are a further indication of age whilst a chaste, three-light toplight to the entrance adds to the finesse of detail possessed by the house. A detached kitchen on the west side was demolished and the rear verandah altered some time in this (20th) century. It is the best example of remnant buildings from Victoria’s more distant past…85

Figure 9 Eabon Eabon 2010, Greg Newton

The Martins and Newtons are still remembered locally for an unusual claim to fame.

83 Ross Unpublished Manuscript p 5. In partnership with his brother in law he established a small brewery behind his store, registering it on August 15 1856. Greg Newton. The store was in Broughton St, near the corner of Johnson St. Adams From These Beginnings p 39, 57, 61. Gippsland Guardian 5 October 1855, 30 November 1855, p 1, 21 December 1855, p 1, 9 May 1856, p 5, 20 June 1856, p 2, 3 October 1856, p 2, 3, 7 November 1856, p 3, 14 November 1856, p 1, 3 July 1857, p 2. 84 Adams From These Beginnings, p 66. 85 G Cox cited by Ross, Unpublished Manuscript, p 11 20

The Elephant

ET’s brother in law, Ted Martin was a ‘man of resources’. When he was in , he met a party of sailors who owned a small Indian elephant, purchased by them in Colombo, with the aim of selling it at a profit in Tasmania… . It occurred to Mr. Martin that is would be a most useful animal in clearing and ploughing the land on his selection, it having been used for a similar purpose in Colombo. The bargain was struck and he returned with his purchase to Alberton. Being addicted to practical joking, he landed the beast without observation, and conducting it through the scrub, brought it to the front veranda of the house of his sister (Mrs. Newton) in order to give her a surprise, as he thought, and placing the fore feet of the huge animal upon her veranda, and his head almost against the door, he gave a loud knock, and withdrew to the side of the house to watch the sequel. But, instead of his sister, it was his nephew who opened the door. He (Henry Newton) who is still living at Alberton, was then a small boy, and when he saw the huge beast swinging his truck like a pendulum, and heard him trumpeting loudly, he ran screaming through the house, and fell down in a dead faint at the back veranda steps. Mr. Newton, though now a man of 60 years of age, says he has never forgotten the terror the animal inspired, and that he lives it over again at the bare mention of the incident.’

The Aboriginal people also encountered Mr Martin’s elephant, and, at first sight, ‘scampered in speechless terror into the dense scrub, calling out, as they afterwards explained, that they were pursued by a ‘devil with two tails’. The elephant proved useful in grubbing and ploughing and later; ‘it must have been a curious spectacle to have seen an Aboriginal following a plough behind an elephant.86) ‘Mr Martin enjoyed his services for some years, but eventually the poor beast wandered away into the dense scrub and it bones were discovered many years later on the sides of the Strzelecki ranges’.87

In 1925 the Reverend George Cox published in the Gippsland Standard what remained of a long, detailed manuscript prepared by ET around 1862. This document set out the case for better port facilities and road access at Welshpool and a strong economic future for Gippsland. Cox said ‘that sturdy pioneer, the late ET Newton’ ‘never lost an opportunity of championing the claims of Welshpool against the monopoly which controlled Port Albert’. He had ‘a wonderfully clear and prophetic vision on the subject.’88 He sets out the geography of the region and details on each of the towns. The following extracts indicate his critique of squatter monopoly and belief that the future lay in Victoria developing its own forestry industry, minerals and agriculture, thus providing work for people. ET Newton’s own words offer insights into his personality, passion, and political beliefs.

86 Margaret Ross claimed such Aboriginal workers were dressed in mattress ticking cloth, much like an Indian Coolie. M Ross to J Newton 1983, personal correspondence. 87 James Smith The Cyclopaedia of Victoria, 1905, Vol 3. Ex W Stewart. Mrs. Jane Lennon did research into shipping and found that an elephant was shipped in 1854. Ross, Unpublished Manuscript. 88 Rev George Cox, Welshpool: Past and Present, Article 107 25 February 1925, The Gippsland Standard. Ex Greg Newton. 21

Rich agricultural land in the neighbourhood of Sale, in many instances with extensive frontage to navigable rivers, has been from time to time sold by the Crown and in the majority of cases at £1 an acre, but as the lots offered have always been large, and brought into the market at unsuitable opportunities nearly the whole has naturally fallen into the hands of a few capitalists and squatters, the former keeping them idle and unproductive, and the latter using them for industrial purposes.’ …

Under the regulations hitherto in force for selling the Crown lands, and with a system of survey which lays out the land in blocks which the man of humble means cannot purchase, and with a want of adequate road communication, the public lands are sacrificed for a mere tithe of their real value and the public treasury robbed of a revenue which, if expended on reproductive works in the locality where it is obtained, would transform the wilderness into a garden, and speedily develop the resources of the country.…

In Port Albert Turnbull, Orr and Co managed to acquire ‘180 acres embracing the whole of the available harbor accommodation for the sum stated (£180). The ‘apathy of the ruling powers’ and their ‘ignorance of our topography’, resulted in the instructions to reserve the Port Albert land from sale, arriving too late. ‘Up to about 1854 the Port continued a close monopoly, with only one mercantile or trading firm (belonging to the proprietor of the land), and a few other buildings.’…

With a system of sale by auction as at present where the whole of the purchase money must be forthcoming within a month, the major part of such land…will remain alienated for years’ trade will be crippled and the country continue to be a wilderness. …

‘Before Victoria can be permanently prosperous, and have within herself the materials for forming a Colonial marine to repel aggression in time of war, her coasting trade must increase, and this appears to us impossible without the development of her ports.… And though we are not sanguine enough to suppose that any one place in Gippsland will arrive at the same pitch of greatness as Melbourne, still we think we are blest as Gipps Land is with a delicious climate, wide scope of territory, fertile soil, and numerous rivers and lakes, capable in many cases of extensive inland navigation, and with fine timber, gold and other minerals she is evidently destined to act no small part in the future history and progress of the colony.’89

Two years later the frustrations and disappointments faced by Edward Thomas become apparent in a letter written to the Government Printer, John Ferres on November 8th 1864.

I should rejoice in securing something … to do, it being exceedingly difficult, say almost impossible, at the present juncture to obtain a living of any sort in South Gipps Land, and the want of the needful has prevented my leaving home to seek employment at Sale, Rosedale or elsewhere… I send the newspaper, Melbourne Advertiser of the 5th Feb. 1838, and its age forcibly reminds one of the time I have been in the “Model Colony” and how barren of

89 ET Newton manuscript in Rev G Cox Welshpool Past and Present, Articles 107-8, Gippsland Standard, 25 & 27 February 1925. 22

pecuniary advantage my sojourn has been to me. However it will not do to despair. If you meet with a purchaser oblige me by selling for whatever you can get without reference, for the money, little or much, will bring me more material benefit than the possession of the manuscript.’90

Unlike the Hentys in Portland, Edward Thomas Newton and the Martin family failed to ‘accrue and retain large estates of Gippsland from similar beginnings.’ Stewart argues that,

Perhaps this was in part due to the government decision to develop the official township of Port Albert away from the mouth of the Albert River, on the bay where the reaches the sea. This left the Old Port … and the farm lands along the Albert River out of the main stream of progress – and less valuable.’91

In 1881 ET received a letter from his old adventurer, artist and writer friend, DH Haydon, now in a secure administrative job in London, ‘remembering former kindnesses and enjoyable meals made in the bush. He commented on the fishing and the taste of ‘skilly’. Margaret Ross wrote that “Edward must have been unhappy about the present for Haydon replied, “whenever we try to think about our condition we are not content…”92

Edward Thomas Newton died at his home in Alberton on 16 June 1882. The Gippsland Standard published the obituary, from which extracts are quoted below.

It is once more our painful duty to record the death of a very old resident of South Gippsland; and also one of the most useful men who ever occupied our local Council Chamber…. Mr Edward T Newton expired at his residence, Alberton on Friday night in his sixty-eighth year. The immediate cause of his death was serious apoplexy; but the deceased had been suffering of ailments for a fortnight previously…On Tuesday last the (Church of England) funeral was attended by a large number of district residents, who assembled to pay a last tribute of respect …four of his sons being present as chief mourners.. For a long series of years Mr Newton held a seat in the Alberton Shire Council, and for four years successively was elected President, but retired from public life five years since. As a student and intelligent exponent of Shire law we have no hesitation in saying he had very few equals in the district. During his earlier years Mr Newton engaged in commercial pursuits, and was an intimate friend of John Batman, the founder of the colony, and in fact was one of the executors; but latterly the cultivation of grape on his Ebon Ebon vineyard, and transactions of business as an agent for Orr’s survey and other smaller estates in the district, occupied his

90 Rev George Cox, Notes on Gippsland History, Gippsland Standard 3 December 1926, ex Greg Newton. ET Newton goes on to discuss the potential for some gold reefs and the need for government help to cut tracks between Welshpool or Alberton to in order to penetrate the country on both sides of the line. Port Albert people were finding Lake navigation difficult and ‘even the great Mr *** of the Customs House, Port Albert, acknowledged at a dinner party given to the member for South Gippsland and others that Welshpool was the place, but that he had been deceived – by those who ought to have known better…’ 91 Stewart, Unpublished Manuscript. 92 Ross, Unpublished Manuscript, p 12. Ross takes this comment to imply that both men were Freemasons. 23

time and attention…the deceased left a widow, also six sons and three daughters to mourn his departure from them.93

Edward Thomas Newton’s dreams for Port Welshpool and for the potential growth at Victoria and Alberton had not been realised. In another ten years the South Gippsland Railway would be opened, making a port less economically relevant. Alberton failed to grow and prosper as he had anticipated. Always more comfortable as a trader than a farmer, two key documents from the history of Victoria and a lot of money went through his hands. Disappointed as he may have been towards the end of his life, his contribution to civic life earned him the title Esquire which he was sometimes given.

A year after Edward Thomas’ death, in 1883, his bachelor brother-in-law, John Martin, who had chaperoned Eliza Martin/Mrs Newton to Van Diemen’s Land as an 18 year old, was found dead on the Yarram Road. The two lie adjacent at the Alberton cemetery.94

Figure 10 Grave of Edward Thomas Newton, Private Anglican Section, Alberton Cemetery

After the death of ET, possibly under straitened circumstances, his widow Eliza made arrangements to sell those valuable documents he had retrieved from Batman’s estate. When Surveyor General, Robert Russell, wrote to Mrs Eliza Newton, asking about the map recently purchased from a Mr Walduck who was selling on behalf of Eliza Newton. Eliza replied on 30 June 1883, saying:

The plan you speak of came into his (Newton’s) possession before my marriage in 1840. I have heard him say he bought it with some old Books at the sale of Batman’s effects. Mr.

93 Gippsland Standard 22 July 1882. 94 Ross, Unpublished Manuscript p 4. 24

Newton was one of John Batman’s executors, it is one of Mr Wedge’s plans. I think it must be the original one as we had some little time back a piece of paper signed by half-a dozen blacks, ceding the land to Batman.95

Figure 11 Letter from Mrs Newton to Robert Russell, Robert Russell’s Correspondence, 30 June 1883, Australian Autograph Collection, SLV

One of her sons, thinking Batman’s Treaty with the Aborigines was useless, had probably destroyed it.

Eliza lived until 24 July 1903 and was buried at Alberton, aged 86. Her Probate document reveals that she owned 10 acres around the corner of Russell and Hawden streets Alberton, an acre of orchard, some unimproved lots from Orr’s Special survey,96 a 6 roomed weatherboard home and separate kitchen built in the 1870s, an old horse and buggy, a cow and £1334 in a Yarram bank in trust for her remaining nine children of: Edward Thomas (1842-1918) Eliza Newton (1843-1913), William (1844-1936), Alfred (1846-1887), Emma (1848-1911), Henry (1850-1929), Mary (1852-c1862), Frederick (1855-1855), Alice (1857- 1911), Arthur (1859-1916) and Walter (1862-1939).

95 Campbell and Scurfield, An historic chart, citing.Robert Russell Correspondence, Australian Autograph Collection, La Trobe Collection, SLV. 96 Lots 4-13 of Section IX, and Lot 15 Section XVI of Subdivision 2814, Eliza Newton Probate. Ex G Newton. 25

Select Bibliography

NB Image captions contain further references

Primary Sources

Fitzroy Library LHREF Box 23/LH44/4 E T Newton Book 1987 by E L Martin.

Newspapers: Cornwall Chronicle, Launceston Advertiser, Port Phillip Guardian, Port Phillip Patriot, Gippsland Standard, online Trove, NLA.

Public Record Office Victoria, Original Correspondence of Sec. of State, COP 280, 255-6, Piece 43; Correspondence: Index to Governor’s Correspondence CO 714, microform, AJCP 1048, piece 149, Catalogue of letters sent, 1833, Feb 25.

Secondary Sources

Adams, John From These Beginnings: History of the , 1990.

Linda Barraclough and Debra Squires, Steps in Time: a Gippsland Chronology to 1899, Kapana Press, , 1992.

Bate, Weston A History of Brighton 2nd ed. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1983.

Billis, R V and Kenyon, A S Pastoral Pioneers of Port Phillip, 2ns ed. Stockland Press, Melbourne, 1974.

Billot, C P John Batman, Hyland House, Melbourne, 1979.

Boys, R D First Years at Port Phillip 1834-42, Robertson and Mullems, Melbourne, 1935.

Brown, Phillip (ed) The Narratives of George Russell with Russellmania and Selected Papers, Oxford University Press, London, 1935.

Campbell, A and J Scurfield, An historic chart of Batman’s Exploration’ The LaTrobe Journal 36: 103, 1985.

Cannon, Michael (ed) Historical Records of Victoria, Vol 2b Aborigines and Protectors 1838-1839, VGPO, Melbourne 1983.

Fels, Marie Hansen, I Succeeded Once: The Aboriginal Protectorate on the Mornington Peninsula 1839-1840, ANU E Press, Canberra, 2011.

Garryowen, The Chronicles of Early Melbourne 1835-1851, Fergussen and Mitchell, Melbourne, 1888.

Haydon, George Henry and Hainsselin, Henry Five Years Experience in Australia Felix, Hamilton, Adams and Co, London, 1846.

Hibbins, G M A History of the City of Springvale, City of Springvale, Lothian, Port Melbourne, 1984.

Kerr’s Melbourne Almanac , Port Phillip Directory

LaTrobe City Heritage Study, Vol 1, Brunswick, 2010.

McCombie, Thomas The History of the Colony of Victoria, Sands and Kenny, London, 1853.

McGuire, Frank Mordialloc: the Early Days, City of Mordialloc, Mordialloc, 1985.

MK Heritage Study Report 1984

Mordialloc Kingston City Heritage Study Report 1984

26

Nicholson, Ian Hawkins Shipping Arrivals and Departures Tasmania 1834-42, a Roebuck Book, 1985.

Shaw, A G L A History of the Port Phillip District, Miegunyah Press, Carlton, 1996.

Stephens, Marguerita (ed) The Journal of William Thomas Assistant Protector of the Aborigines of Port Phillip & Guardian of the Aborigines of Victoria Vol 1, VACL, Melbourne, 2014,

Syme. Marten A Shipping Arrivals and Departures Victorian Ports, Vol 1 1798-1845.

Unpublished Manuscripts of John Howe, Wally Stewart and Margaret Ross, last two lodged in Fitzroy Library.

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