Genealogical Data


The Glentanner

Extracts from the Jamaica Journal Vol 10. nos. 2,3& The Glentanner 610 tons sailed from Jamaica 10 Apr. 1853
Arrived Melb. Vic. 27 Sep 1853.
151 passengers, uncertain how many were Jamaicans, Some may have been British by birth.

Some of the passengers..

The Captain C.S.Chapman.
There were six men with their wives and seven children Six servants- two with their mistresses.
A widow and a spinster
Robert C Thompson (a merchant)
A Roxburgh.
S.Q.Bell (Member of the House of Assembly) St John Parish.
Captain McCulloch (stayed only 12 days then returned to jamaica)

In Jan 1854 John Mais, Ernest Mais, Winchester Mais and H Ryder Waldron arrived in Australia having changed ship at the Cape of Good Hope for the trip to Australia.

Other names mentioned in the article are:-

1860 James Bickford and wife (a methodist Minister who had worked in the eastern Caribbean and Guyana, then British Giana)

Mr Edmondson a coloured person from Jamaica Martin Brennan Mounted Police officer on NSW goldfields.

Tom Britt, a negro from a sugar plantation in the West Indies who settled in Goulburn NSW. He married an Aborigine

Peter Jackson, negro (b) St Crois West Indies in 1861. His parents returned to St Crois but he remained and ferried people about Sydney Harbour in a row boat. He also worked as a deckhand on a coastal vessel and a hotel 'useful' in Sydney. At the age of 20 he was tutored as the'academy' of Larry Foley, the Australian bare-knuckles champion. In 1884 he fought for the Australian heavyweight championship in Melb. but was knocked out in the 3rd round. He won the title in 1886 at Foley's Athletic Hall Sydney, and toured the NSW country side with a troupe. In 1892 he won the British Empire & Australian heavyweight titles against his opponent Frank Slavin, a white Australian. He (d) 1901 of Tuberculosis in Roma Qld. His body was taken to Bris. by rail and he was interred at Toowong Cemetery. Peter Jackson was buried beneath his own stone bust inscribed " This was a man"

Richard Holt..... Negro, Jamaican transported to NSW following the great slave rebellion of 1831. In 1850 he was working as a doctors servant

Bruce..... a slave from island of St Vincent, West Indies, sent from England to Australia on convict ship " Speke" in 1820

James Williams... negro from island of Antigua, West Indies, sentenced to 7 yrs and transported by English Court and sent to NSW 1820. He played an important role in the establishment of an experimental sugar plantation based on convict labour. With his term completed he became a manservant in 1826 to a physician in Sydney. He was caught stealing from his employer and hanged.

Billy Blue....Apart from the convicts in the early New South Wales, there was Billy Blue, a black West Indian who earned a reputation as a 'character'. The 'old commodore', the 'sable veteran', was given land in Sydney by Governor Macquarie ( in the 1818's), but fell foul of the law because he harboured runaway prisoners and engaged in smuggling. He aroused public attention through his jokes and sayings. It was said the he expected a salute from everyone, including Macquarie, and generally got it. 1829 the Sydney Gazette reported.......

"Billy Blue, the Commodore of Port Jackson, has of late grown uncommonaly eloquent; scarcely a morning passes without a loud oritation from his loyal lips, descanting on the glories of "the standard" and demanding a suitable homage from all His Majesty's subjects."

Just before his death in1834, aged 97 yrs. a broadside was published in Sydeny, presumably giving some of his celebrated sayings..unfortunately, it is difficult to appreciate their significance today. The history of Billy Blue and his place in the society of early sydney remained enigmatic, but he was probably the first of the black West Indian "exotics" to be granted an easy toleration. He had children.

REF: email to AUSTRALIA-L@rootsweb.com by Beverley Lee 2 August on 1998

 

 


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