LIST 25 - 1818 MUSTER - TROISIEME 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 238 members 
of the "Troisieme Dizaine" identified in this muster; 118 males and 120 females, 
220 colonial born and 18 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 then chronolgically 
by year of birth where there is more than one child recorded for a father.
 
The list presented here is sourced from Mrs Schaffer's book "Land Musters, Stock 
Returns and Lists of Van Diemens Land 1803-1822" - "Free Children Off and On 
Stores, Hobart Town, October 1818".
 
Interpreting the list proved a great challenge. 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 "Troisieme 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 "Troisieme Dizaine" will never be known. In other cases some of the 
children could be identified but not 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 "Troisieme 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 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.
 
The parents of two girls are unknown at this time;
 
 Eleanor Barry 
 Jane Farrell 
 
and the mother of Elizabeth Anglam has not been determined.
 
William Williams appears under his mothers surname of Hoddy. The Kelly children 
appear under the surname of Devereux.
 
The years of birth remain unknown in the cases of;
 
 Samuel Barry
 Eleanor Potaskie
 Ruth Staples
 
as well as six of the children born overseas;
 
 Wiliam Barker
 Eleanor Barry
 Lavania Broadribb
 Edward Broadribb
 Albert Broadribb
 Jane Farrell
 
Eleanor Barry and Lucy Davey had their spinster status honoured with a honorific 
'Miss'.
 
The places of birth of the 220 colonial born are as shown in the Table below.
 
 Table 25.1. - Place of Birth
 
 Place No. 
 ----------------------
 Hobart Town 180 
 New Norfolk 16
 Coal River 6
 Brighton 1
 Clarence Plains 1 
 Sydney 9
 Richmond 2
 Liverpool 1
 Unknown 2 
 
The vast majority (93%) of the "Troisieme Dizaine" in this decade were born in 
Hobart and its environs with only twelve coming from the mainland. The places 
of birth of Samuel Barry and Ruth Staples are unknown at this time.
 
It has not been possible to identify the ship to Hobart Town in every case 
where the child was not born in Hobart. 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 mostly based on the birth dates of siblings.
 
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 43 (18%) of the "Troisieme Dizaine" were on stores.
 
Mary Ann Donovan was the only member of the "Troisieme Dizaine" to be married 
at the time of this muster and appears under her married name of Cole.

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