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The Rosanna Settlers, by Hilda McDonnell

Officials and Scottish settlers
Chapter 5

Contents: introduction | chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Journal | Sources

The six officials who sailed with Captain Herd were from totally different backgrounds. The surgeon Arthur Hay, like Thomas Shepherd and most of the settlers, was from Scotland. Chief clerk Luther Lechmere was from a well connected London family. Thomas Surfleet Kendall, the young interpreter, was born in London but as the son of missionary parents had grown up among the Maori in New Zealand.

Richard Bell, master in the merchant service and a surveyor of harbours and coasts has not been further identified. But Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy lists a Richard Bell, Lieutenant, commissioned 1 August 1794.

Luther Lechmere (1797-1882), clerk and secretary on the New Zealand Company voyage, had relatives in Hampstead known to the missionary families at Paihia. Luther Lechmere had been working in London in the East India Office. Born at Bermondsey by the river Thames he was the eldest son of Thomas Luther Lechmere (1797-1747), a coal merchant and customs official at the Custom House, London, and his wife Emelia Lavie. His parents were married at Putney, in 1796. His grandfather, also Thomas Luther Lechmere (1739-1788), was a coal merchant and shipwright of Bermondsey apprenticed in 1755 to a lighterman at Rotherhithe who married Sarah, daughter of Meredith Bishop, warden to the Shipwright’s Company, and Mary, daughter of Captain Blackerby.
Another ancestor, Nicholas, Baron Lechmere, elevated to the peerage in 1721, became chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, married lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Charles, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, and died without issue in 1727. Richard Lechmere, a great-uncle of Luther’s, baptised in 1737 at Newbourne, Suffolk was a purser in the Royal Navy and died in the East Indies in 1762.

On his mother’s side Luther Lechmere also had seagoing connections. His mother Emelia was the daughter of Germain Lavie and Ann Gregg. Emelia’s brother Sir Thomas Lavie, was a British naval hero. He was held prisoner in France during the Napoleonic wars. He was knighted in 1806 for his conduct on the Blanche in naval action against the French. Sonsof Sir Thomas: Augustus (born 1805) and George (born 1813), also entered the navy (Augustus in 1822). George Lavie served as commander in the South American Station. He was on the Alligator in 1828 (Captain G.R. Lambert).

A Germain Lavie, probably Emelia’s father, was one of the local magistrates at Hampstead in 1819 when a riot broke out there and he wrote a letter to the Home Office about it. Some 200 thugs arrived at the Hampstead fair and the local magistrates had to call in the help of special constables to quell the ensuing trouble. Germain Lavie renewed a plea that the fair should be suppressed.
The eldest son of Germain Lavie of St Johns Hampstead, also Germain Lavie (born 1800), was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. A student in 1823 of Lincoln’s Inn he was admitted a solicitor in 1827.

A Mr Lavie acted as solicitor for the Admiralty in two court cases (the second one in1814) against Admiral Thomas Cochrane (1775-1860). This was Germain Lavie, most likely Emelia’s father. Exiled, Cochrane took command of the Chilean navy, whose blockade of Callao, Peru was recorded by Augustus Earle. He relinquished his post in January 1823. Cochrane assumed command of the Brazilian navy and then of the Greek navy. A memorial stone to him was placed in Westminter Abbey.

On the Gregg side, Luther Lechmere’s grandfather Sir FrancesGregg was painted by Gainsborough. The picture was afterwards in the Tate Gallery, London. A son of Sir Frances Gregg was a great friend of the Earl of Carlisle and M.P. for Morpeth.

Luther Lechmere was the eldest surviving child of nine. He and the next four in the family were born at Bermondsey; the three youngest at Clapham. A large oil painting of Luther’s mother Emelia with her young children painted about 1805 remained in the family until the early 1960s. Luther’s brother Henry Addington Lechmere, born in 1802, drowned in a boating accident in July 1826 while his brother Luther was away in New Zealand. Another brother Charles (born 1800), eventually became Deputy Keeper of State Papers. Luther Lechmere was to die without issue at Brighton, England.

Arthur Hay (born 1802?), surgeon on the Rosanna, became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1825. After the Rosanna voyage he settled in Scotland: the Medical Directory 1859 lists an Arthur Hay at Drum, Auchindoir, Aberdeenshire. In 1867 he was Parochial Medical Officer, still at Drum, Auchindoir, Lumsden. The Census of 1861 shows Arthur Hay was born in Aberdeen.

The Old Parish Register Index for Aberdeenshire reveals that Arthur, son of Arthur Hay and Elizabeth Milne, was baptised on 4 June 1802 at St Nicholas Church, Aberdeen. Younger children of Arthur and Elizabeth were also baptised in the same Aberdeen church of St Nicholas: Elizabeth (December 1804), Andrew (July 1807) and Helen (August 1809). Arthur Hay senior and Elizabeth Milne were married on 29 April 1800 at Banchory Devenick, Kincardine.

Living at Drum, Auchindoir in 1861, according to the Census, were Arthur Hay, 58, head of the household, medical practitioner; his wife Catherine, 55; stepsons Harry Smith, 33, ploughman; Peter Smith, 24, agricultural labourer, Samuel Smith, 22, student of divinity; stepdaughter Mary Smith, 21, employed in house services; and Arthur Hay’s own children: Catherine, 15, and Arthur,12, both at school. All the children were born at Auchindoir; Arthur’s wife Catherine at Kennetmont, Aberdeenshire. Also in the household was Mary Castles, 20, domestic servant.

Thomas Surfleet Kendall (born 1807), the interpreter on the Rosanna, was the eldest son of the New Zealand missionaries Thomas Kendall and his wife Jane Quickfall. Thomas Junior was born in London, though his parents were from Lincolnshire. In 1813 the Kendall family sailed on the convict transport Earl Spencer to New South Wales and in November 1814 left for New Zealand, leaving the daughters behind in Sydney. The next years were spent in the Bay of Islands.
In 1822, the year his father was away with Captain Herd in the Hokianga, young Thomas Surfleet kept brief jottings in a diary. He was still in New Zealand in November 1823 but soon after his father sent him to England to train as a carpenter. Early in 1825 the Kendall family left New Zealand to live in Valparaiso, where his father ministered to the Anglican community. (A severe earthquake had occurred there in 1823). The Kendalls returned in 1827 to New South Wales. Young Thomas rejoined his family, married and settled there. (A carte-de-visite portrait of Thomas Surfleet Kendall was in an album at Kendalldale, New South Wales and was reproduced in Kissin’ cousins, by Marjorie Kendall 1989). His brother Basil’s son was the renowned Australian poet Henry Kendall (1839-1882), whose face was to appear on Australian postage stamps.

The assistant clerk on the Rosanna venture, James Sharp, has not been identified. Curiously, the business partner of Thomas Shepherd’s friend Alexander McLeay was London wine merchant William Sharp. McLeay named his eldest son William Sharp McLeay.

The Rosanna settlers were recruited by Thomas Shepherd from town and country places in Scotland though some, as we have seen, according to G.L. Pearce who wrote The Scots in New Zealand (1976), were from Cumberland. This county of Cumberland is just south of the Scottish border. Character references deposited with the New South Wales authorities by Captain Herd show at least five of the settlers came from Fife:

Captain Herd presents respectful compliments to Alexander McLeay Esquire, Colonial Secretary, and agreeably to his promise encloses a list of Mechanics Ec, employed by the New Zealand Company, with their Salaries. Those marked in red Ink, embarked in the concern at low Salaries in the hopes of future promotion, if the Undertaking succeded…
Captain H[erd] also encloses a few of their characters, from Scotland, the remainder were left with the directors.
Rosanna, Sydney Cove
11 February, 1827
(AONSW)

Between June and July 1825 Thomas Shepherd must have travelled round parishes in Fife close to his place of birth: Auchtermuchty, Kettle, St Andrews, Cameron and Carnbee, selecting men for the New Zealand Company venture. Several character references which also eneded up at the Archives Office of New South Wales must have been written as a result of the selection process:

Manse of Cameron, June 18, 1825
This is to certify that William Oliphant during his residence in this parish has behaved in a most appropriate and becoming manner, and to my knowledge has no stain whatever attached to his moral character.
Signed
Thos. Adamson
Minister

***

Carnbee-23d June 1825

That the bearer George Tod, who has resided in this parish of Carnbee & County of Fife, for many years – is a very expert and faithful workman as a Labourer, & can perform every kind of work of that kind to the satisfaction of his Employers is attested by
David Wilson Factor for
Sir Ralph Ambruther Bart
Robert Scott Farmer Overseer
Andw Mackie Farmer
in Balgownie

***

This is to certify that the bearer Andrew Thomson has served me in the years 182[3?] & 1824 during which periods he has served me Honestly and industriously and has [?] knowledge of his [trade] as a blacksmith
June 1825
Atsted John Campbell

***

This is to certify that Benjamin Nisbet has served em as a Journey man joiner for two years and a half faithfully and honestly he was always steady in minding his business he is a good tradesman
Peter White Ballgow[nie] July 8 –1825

The age of some of those on board the Rosanna (those who finally settled in Australia) can be calculated from the New South Wales Census of November 1828. Thus, when the Rosanna was sixty days out from London, Thomas Shepherd would have been 45, his wife Jane, 23, their little son Thomas William just one year old; Of the two older Shepherd children John would have been 12, his sister Elizabeth, 10; Young Thomas Surfleet Kendall was 18. John Durie, 20, George Tod, 27, and John Tod, 19; Shepherd’s brother-in-law Robert Bell was 27, his wife, 24; Samuel Sydenham was 29, his wife Louisa, 23.
From their ages in the 1828 Census three children: David Shepherd, James Bell and Charles Sydenham, must have been born on the Rosanna voyage. By November 1828 these boys were two years of age.

The first mate on the Rosanna, William Greer, had already sailed with Captain Herd on the Providence voyage. Of Captain Barnett, master of the storeship Lambton, nothing has so far been discovered. The names of the crew of the Rosanna and the Lambton are unknown.

Chapter 6.......

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