The Life and Residences of the Hon. Stephen Simpson, M.D., J.P., M.L.C
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PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS THE LIFE AND RESIDENCES OF THE HON. STEPHEN SIMPSON, M.D., J.P., M.L.C. of Warwickshire, Woogaroo and Wolston First Commissioner of Crown Lands (1842) for the "Moreton Bay District of New South Wales." [By SIR RAPHAEL CILENTO, F.R.Hist.S.Q.] (Delivered at a meeting of the Society on 23 September 1965.) My first duty and pleasure is to express my thanks to the Council, the Honorary Officers and the Members of the Society, for their loyal and effective assistance during the year, especially that part of it when I was overseas on my study tour. I must enlarge this inclusive tribute of appreciation to helpers too numerous to mention, by some particular expres sions of thanks. I must specifically refer to Arthur Laurie who, as Senior Vice-President, acted so ably in my place; to Norman S. Pixley and Colin Austin, indefatigable as always; to Clem Lack, whose efforts continue to make the Journal of the Society a publication of outstanding value and interest; and 1 must also mention the high hopes we have regarding Miss Mamie O'Keeffe, who has not only taken over the work so ably done for many years previously by Colin Austin as Honorary Librarian but, since she is also Oxley Librarian, has revived the former co-operative association between our Society and the Oxley Memorial Library. Finally, you have, I am sure, all noticed the change in what I may call the public image of Newstead House which followed the assumption of office by Mrs. Louise Harris, when our former Honorary Secretary of long standing, Mr. K. T. Cameron, retired because of ill health. By some subtle alchemy known only to women, she has already restored to our somewhat sombre meeting place the homelike warmth of atmosphere that it had, years ago, before it became institu tionalised. May it continue to grow in charm and personality. Old buildings, Hke old cities, do indeed have an indivi duality and grace capable of capture and cultivation. There is an old Eastern proverb which reads: 10 Past Ignored Future Ignoble which I have translated and paraphrased: "The man, the city, or the nation that ignores its past, has no glorious future." All progressive countries recognise this and seek not only to record their past history, but also to preserve their ancient monuments or special and characteristic features. Queens land recently followed suit. THE NATIONAL TRUST The National Trust of Queensland, established by statute on 9 December 1963, has now the honourable task of preserv ing, restoring and protecting buUdings, areas, sites and chat tels of historical significance or unique worth, a function complementary to that of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland. It was, I think, appropriate and inevitable, therefore, that the first of the organisations listed as a foundation member in the Government Gazette (which nominated the initial spon sors and members of The National Trust) should have been this Society—founded in 1913; honoured by the grant of the use of the prefix "Royal" a few years ago; recognised by both State and Federal Governments; and, in that fiftieth year of our existence (1963) selected as the obvious partner for the Trust in its activities, so far as written history is concerned. RESTORATION OF WOLSTON HOUSE The first project aUocated to The National Trust of Queensland was the arrest of the dUapidation of historic, half-ruined Wolston House, Wacol, which was begun by Dr. Stephen Simpson in 1852 and continuously occupied until 1960, when it passed into the hands of the Government. Part of the obligation of the President at the Annual Meet ing is to make an address, and I thought it might be oppor tune to take Stephen Simpson and his residences, including Wolston House, as my subject. Therefore, as the late Adlai Stephenson once wittily said: "It is my duty to speak to you now and it is your duty to Usten to me now, and I trust that we may aU complete our tasks of speaking and Ustening at the same time!" There are many helpful references to Dr. Simpson in such books as WilUam Coote's History of the Colony of Queens land, Vol. I (1882); H. Stuart Russell's Genesis of Queens land (1888); Nehemiah Bartley's Opals and Agates (1892); J. J. Knight's In the Early Days (1895); and Constance C. Petrie's Tom Petrie's Reminiscences (1904), Dr. E. Sand ford Jackson summarised some of them in the Medical Journal of Australia (24 June 1922, pp. 687-690); and our 11 ovvn Honorary Life Member, E. V. Stevens, attempted to bring matters up to date in a paper read before this Society and published in our Journal in 1953 (New Series—Royal Visit Number: Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 794 et seq.). It was based on these and other items, including an obituary notice of Dr. Simpson published in the Brisbane Courier of 22 May 1869. There are also many incidental references in other memoirs and books of travel (e.g. John Dunmore Lang's Cooksland). I have had the advantage of studying all these and also, through the courtesy of the Deputy Mitchell Librarian, Sydney (Mrs. Hancock), and her able staff officers, many original documents there. 1 have been assisted also by the Agent-General for Queensland in London (Dr. W. A. T. Summerville) who, at my request, secured for me a copy of Dr. Simpson's death certificate. To all these I tender my grateful thanks. They have made it possible for me to detect many minor errors; to fill in a number of gaps; and, generally, to provide a more complete picture of Dr. Simpson's life and his various residences in Australia. DR. SIMPSON'S EARLY LIFE It was generally agreed that Stephen Simpson was born in Warwickshire in England, probably at Lichfield, and guess work set the date of his birth at or about the year 1800. From his death certificate, however, dated 11 March 1869, we learn that he was 77 years of age, so that the date of his birth was 1791 or 1792. Lichfield in Warwickshire is 27 miles north-north-west of Coventry, and was an important town at the time of Simp son's birth. However, six miles east of Coventry, on the road to Rugby, is a little hamlet called Wolston! The fact that Dr. Simpson called the home he built near Brisbane by that name seems to indicate that this may have been his actual birthplace. It is within St. Margaret's parish of Coventry and, at present, the records are being searched in the hope of finding an entry that will clarify the matter. At the time of his birth the French Revolution was raging, and all Europe was plunged into a holocaust of war in 1793, which was to last in a succession of furious campaigns until finally the power of France was shattered by Wellington and Blucher at Waterloo in 1815. By that time Stephen Simpson would have been 23 and we learn that he was associated with a crack cavalry regiment, the 4th Light Dragoons, probably as a private soldier and, it is said, in Ireland where, at various times, a landing of the French troops was feared. A search of the records of the regiment shows that he was not a surgeon at that time, but it 12 seems that immediately after his discharge from the Army he went to Edinburgh, where he qualified M.D. (the date has not been verified). Somewhere about this time presumably, at the age of 28, he became engaged to a girl of about 16 years of age, but, as a young graduate, he was far too poverty-stricken to be able honourably to offer her marriage and so, set off for Europe to earn a fortune to lay at her feet. It was to be 20 years, how ever, before, as Dr. Sandford Jackson recorded: "the long engagement came to a happy termination by his marrying the lady of his unwearying affections." It was usual in those days for persons of importance travel ling in Europe to carry their own physician with them, and it is said that Simpson was attached in this capacity to two ladies of the Royal Family of Russia, with whom he spent much time in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (perhaps also in France), and also in Italy, where, for a time, he practised in Rome. The medical profession at the time was going through one of its periods of depression in knowledge but prosperity in practice, and was riddled with charlatans of various kinds. (There was no registration of medical practitioners until 1858—Queensland, by the way, followed with its first regis tration in 1862). A considerable amount of interest was being taken on the Continent in homoeopathy, which had been revived from obscure recollections of ancient theories by Paracelsus (1495-1541) but had not gained public recognition. There had been numerous editions of Paracelsus' work, however, and, in Germany, Samuel Christian Friedrich Hahnemann of Meissen had built up (perhaps upon the 1658 edition) his current theory of homoeopathy in 1796. The basic principle was "similia similibus curentur"—"like MAY be cured by like." (Paracelsus had actually said: "similia similibus curantur" which, more emphatically, means "like ARE cured by like.") It was claimed that in treating disease by drugs, it was necessary to find a drug that would produce in healthy persons, the sort of symptoms from which the sick person was suffering and, thereupon, to treat the sufferer with tiny doses of this "proved" medicine, on the theory that "like" would be cured by "like." Up to that time the healing force of Nature—vis medicatrix Naturae—was ignored or stultified by the medical profession, and huge unstandardised doses of all sorts of drugs were used at the caprice of individual physicians—and often served to kill the patient! The tiny doses of standardised drugs used by the homoeopathic practitioners probably had little effect on the 13 patient, but many cures resulted simply from leaving the sick to be healed in the course of Nature.