LIST 24 - 1818 MUSTER - DEUXIEME DIZAINE - HOBART TOWN

 
 
The first of the three musters covering Van Diemens Land is the 1818 Muster 
at Hobart Town which took place in October of that year. There are 216 members 
of the "Deuxieme Dizaine" identified in this muster; 119 males and 97 females, 
185 colonial born and 31 childhood arrivals.
 
The information presented for each entry includes:
 
 family name
 Christian name
 year of birth 
  place of birth
 parents' names 
 parents' civil status at the time of the child's birth
 parents' marital status at the time of the child's birth 
 whether on or off stores 
 date of arrival in Hobart Town
 ship of arrival in Hobart Town
 surname as it appears in the original muster.
 
The list is ordered alphabetically on the father's surname.
 
The list presented here is a combination of three separate lists from Mrs 
Schaffer's book "Land Musters, Stock Returns and Lists of Van Diemens Land 
1803-1822": 
 
 General Muster of Free Men, Hobart Town, 7 September to 2 October 1818
 Free Women on General Muster, Hobart Town 1818
 Free Children Off and On Stores, Hobart Town, October 1818 
 
The "Deuxieme Dizaine" can easily be identified from the "Men" list when 
they are described as 'Born Norfolk Island' or 'Born Port Jackson' or 'Born 
Sydney' or 'Born in Colony'. It is a little more difficult when a man is 
described as 'Came Free' - does this mean came free to New South Wales or 
came free to Hobart Town ? Usually information from other sources, mainly the 
Pioneer Register project, can resolve these issues but not always. It 
would have been so much more helpful if the original muster had listed the ship 
the man came free on !
 
Identifying the "Deuxieme Dizaine" from the "Women" list was much more difficult 
due to the absence of any helpful description. Many but not all entries list 
a maiden name and the name of their spouse but even this by itself is not 
always reliable in identifying any particular woman. It is not at all clear 
for a woman without a maiden name or spouse whether the woman could still 
be married or if the surname is in fact a maiden or a married name. Once 
again the Pioneer Register project was the key to unlocking many of these 
mysteries but of course it does leave the possibility that some unidentified 
women may well have been from the "Deuxieme Dizaine".
 
Another issue with the "Women" list is whether some of the information 
has been supplied by Mrs Schaffer or if it is all as in the original. Take for 
example, the case of Hannan Bonny, she is listed with a maiden name of Ronay 
and a spouse of Bartholomew Reardon, now it is true that a Hannah Ronay was 
the wife of Bartholomew Reardon and the implication is that Bonny is an error 
for Ronay but in the 1822 Muster she is again listed as Bonny and this time with 
the helpful information that she arrived on board the 'Friendship' in 1817.
 
The "Children" list was the greatest challenge of all. The original muster 
simply gave the name of one parent, often without even a Christian name, and 
the total number of children on and off stores. Other sources had to be relied 
upon entirely to tease out the "Deuxieme Dizaine" - the Pioneer Register project 
being indispensable as always. Unfortunately there were 110 cases in which 
the family could not be recognised and how many of these were of the "Deuxieme 
Dizaine" will never be known. In other cases some of the children could 
be identified but no all. In still other cases more children for a particular 
family would be eligible for inclusion than the number specified in the list. 
In this instance, those children with known later life events such as marriages 
or child birth have been selected and failing this, the youngest children 
have been selected. Unfortunately the bottom line remains though, for this 
list, those "Deuxieme Dizaine" included are highly speculative. Where some 
children are listed as 'on' stores and some 'off' generally speaking the 
youngest children have been selected to be listed as 'on' stores but again 
this is only speculative. Children identified by this process are marked with 
an asterix (*) on the list.
 
The muster presented in this list is 'based on' Mrs Schaffer's source document 
in the sense that the original has very little information apart from the 
presence of the individual at Hobart in 1818, where born (for some males only) 
and whether they were on or off the government store. All the other information 
in the list is 'value added' having been derived from other sources and brought 
together to create a more complete whole.
 
This fact makes this list and the two other Van Diemens Land lists less 
informative than their New South Wales counterparts because with the latter 
new information on the individuals in the muster can be found, in particular, 
new individuals who have not otherwise been identified can come to light, 
but not in these three cases.
 
Five of the boys are duplicated in the Muster. James and William Jillett appear 
under their father's surname and then under their mother's surname of Bradshaw.
 
The mothers of Henry Cowan and Thomas Birch are unknown at this time. Both 
parents of John Thompson's wife Maria are a mystery.
 
John and Eliza Collins appear under their stepfathers name of Watts. John, 
Matthew & William Bowden appear under their stepfathers name of Sargeant. 
George Davis appears under his stepfathers name of Hibbins. Ann, Letitia & 
Maria Goodwin appear under their mothers maiden name of Munroe.
 
Edward Abbott & Alfred Luttrell were the only males to be given the honorific 
of 'Mr'. Mary Ann Fisk (Bunker) & Charity Harris (Hobbs) were the only females 
to be graced with 'Mrs'. Charlotte & Henrietta Bowen and Ann Evans had their 
spinster status honoured with a 'Miss'.
 
Unfortunately in 32 cases, the year of birth is unknown. Of these; ten 
were born overseas, ten were born on Norfolk Island, four were born in Hobart 
and in eight cases the place of birth is unknown as well.
 
Of the 31 childhood arrivals, 23 came with Van Diemens Land's 'First Fleet' 
on board 'HMS Calcutta' and 'Ocean' in 1803. 
 
The places of birth of the 185 colonial born are as shown in the Table below.
 
  Table 24.1. - Place of Birth
 
 Place No. 
 ----------------------
 Norfolk Island 88
 Port Jackson 20
 Hobart Town 59
 New Norfolk  4
 Risden Cove 2
 Sulllivan Cove 1
 Port Phillip Bay 1 
 
From the above table it can be seen that 108 (58%) of the "Deuxieme Dizaine" 
located in Hobart in 1818 of necessity had to sail thence from either Norfolk 
Island or Port Jackson. Appendix I at the end of this work lists shipping 
movements between colonies and this has been the source of the information 
of shipping arrivals to Hobart Town. Nearly all the arrivals from Norfolk 
Island came on one of four ships; 'HMS Porpoise' 1807, 'Lady Nelson' 1807, 
'City of Edinburgh' 1808, 'Estramina' 1808.
 
It has not been possible to identify the ship to Hobart Town in every case. 
In some cases a date is given before which (<)  or after which (>) the person 
was known to have been in Hobart Town. The dates chosen are based on other 
muster entries, the most frequent being before or after the 1811 muster but 
there are some people who are known to have arrived after the 1806 muster 
or after the 1814 muster.
 
The distinction of being 'on' or 'off' stores is quite significant. 
Usually only those with some official position were able to draw provisions 
from the government store and interestingly it was often the wealthiest 
individuals in the community who were able to claim this extra benefit. 
Only 22 (10%) of the "Deuxieme Dizaine" were on stores.
 
In Volume 1 to make the list a little more informative, at least in the case 
of the males, the list "Land and Stock Muster, Van Diemens Land, 1819" was 
consulted to determine who amongst them were landholders and how much they 
held and where. However only nineteen the "Deuxieme Dizaine" males were 
landholders so rather then having a separate column for "acres of land 
held and location" they are all listed in the table below. Samuel Birch was 
the largest landholder with 751 aces.
 
 Table 24.2. - Land Holdings
 
 Name Acres Location
 -------------------------------------- 
 John Bingham 50 Pitt Water
 Samuel Birch 751 Hobart Town
 John Burrows 40 Herdmans Cove
  Zacharia Chaffey 36 Hobart Town
 John Chipman 50 Clarence Plains
 Henry Cowen 30 Hobart Town
 James Crahan 30 Hobart Town
 John Faulkner 50 Hobart Town
  Francis Flexmore 45 Hobart Town
 William Garth 50 Hobart Town
 James Jones 80 Herdmans Cove
 Alfred Luttrell 100 Hobart Town
 John McGinnis 60 Clarence Plains
  William Mansfield 30 Hobart Town
 William Nichols 60 Clarence Plains
 Henri Piroelle 60 Herdmans Cove
 William Sherburd 50 Hobart Town
 James Waterson 60 Clarence Plains
  Richard Westlake 60 Clarence Plains 
 
The reader is directed to the original list which tabulates: the number of acres 
devoted to each type of land use; wheat, barley, peas/beans, potatoes & pasture 
- the number and variety of livestock; horses, cattle & sheep - the 
number of people supported by each farm. From this land muster it is also 
learned that Alfred Luttrell was employed as a constable.
 
In Volume 1 because most the women were married and listed under their husband's 
surname, they were separated from the men and a special column added to the 
list for husband's name. However only twelve of the women were married and they 
are listed in the table below. Notice that ten of the wives were childhood 
arrivals being older than the colonial born. Notice that Ann & Annabella 
Cockerill and Elizabeth Holland did not use their husband's surname.
 
 Table 24.3. - Married Women
 
 Name Husband
 --------------------------------------
 Mary Ann Bunker Arnold Fisk 
 Ann Cockerill George Ashton 
 Annabella Cockerill John Dacres 
 Elizabeth Faulkner Richard Lucas 
  Charity Hobbs William Collins 
 Ann Jane Hobbs George P Harris 
 Elizabeth Holland James Triffitt 
 Julia Hopoley Robert McGuire 
 Mary Ann Jillett Charles Horne 
 Catherine Mason John Williamson 
 Maria Nichols John Pearsall 
 Mary Skelthorn John Petechey 

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