The Rev. Frederick M. Wilkinson MA, his wife, his sister and a young couple as servants arrived in Sydney on the Grenada on 23 January 1825. Wilkinson was an uncle of Captain Samuel Wright, 3rd Regt. Who was then completing his appointment as the second commandant of the Sarah Island convict station in Tasmania. Wright returned to New South Wales shortly after the Wilkinsons arrived.
Wilkinson was the elder son of Henry Wilkinson, gentleman, of Allfarthing Manor, Wandsworth, Surrey. Henry was born in Martindale, Westmoreland on 15 March 1764 and was educated at Bampton Grammar School. His family, who were farmers, had lived in the Martindale district for many generations and. He then moved to London in 1781 where he taught at the Allfarthing School in Wandsworth and later became the proprietor. He later bought the last remaining part of the original Allfarthing Manor nearby (later known as Elm Grove).
Allfarthing Manor was one of the two manors that made up what is now Wandsworth. The manors consisted of the open fields and the common; the chief building or manor house, being occupied by the lord, who was the head of the little community dwelling on the estate. It was among the lands settled upon Charles I, when Prince of Wales, and was afterwards procured by Thomas Porter, whose descendants possessed it for several generations. Mr Robert Davis enlarged the building and renamed it Earlsfield. The manor house, was for some years in the early part of the nineteenth century, used as a large school. A Mr.Wilkinson was the head of this school and this was probably Frederick’s father. (Cecil T Davis – from Wandsworth Borough News Handbooks No.3)
The manor house (below, rear view) stood at the top of Allfarthing Lane, opposite where the Public Library is now situated; it was pulled down about 1890.
Wilkinson was the elder son of Henry Wilkinson, gentleman, of Allfarthing Manor, Wandsworth, Surrey. Henry was born in Martindale, Westmoreland on 15 March 1764 and was educated at Bampton Grammar School. His family, who were farmers, had lived in the Martindale district for many generations and. He then moved to London in 1781 where he taught at the Allfarthing School in Wandsworth and later became the proprietor. He later bought the last remaining part of the original Allfarthing Manor nearby (later known as Elm Grove).
Allfarthing Manor was one of the two manors that made up what is now Wandsworth. The manors consisted of the open fields and the common; the chief building or manor house, being occupied by the lord, who was the head of the little community dwelling on the estate. It was among the lands settled upon Charles I, when Prince of Wales, and was afterwards procured by Thomas Porter, whose descendants possessed it for several generations. Mr Robert Davis enlarged the building and renamed it Earlsfield. The manor house, was for some years in the early part of the nineteenth century, used as a large school. A Mr.Wilkinson was the head of this school and this was probably Frederick’s father. (Cecil T Davis – from Wandsworth Borough News Handbooks No.3)
The manor house (below, rear view) stood at the top of Allfarthing Lane, opposite where the Public Library is now situated; it was pulled down about 1890.
Frederick Wilkinson
Wandsworth was typical of places around London in attracting privately-run schools. The Quaker schools are the earliest recorded. Richard Scoryer moved his Quaker boarding school from London to Allfarthing Manor House in 1696, offering to teach writing and arithmetic. It remained in existence until at least the 1790s. There were two Quaker schools for boys and several for girls in 1725. There was a French school for girls in 1725. Monsieur Pampillon's boarding school in the Upper Richmond Road attracted a remarkable clientele in the 1750s, including at least seven future peers. The Earl of Egremont, himself a pupil, recorded that Charles James Fox attended there for a year. In 1793 there were nine boarding schools or academies, including Mr Roberts's 'academy... for the education of noblemen's sons' west of Wandsworth Common and James Chapman's 'good established academy for young gentlemen' on the western corner of Garratt Lane and the High Street. The latter was intended for the sons of wealthy merchants, and contained 'all the boys of the neighbourhood who were not intended for the learned professions'. There were 367 children at boarding schools in Wandsworth in 1792.
Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, the archaeologist and expert on India was a student there before he went to Harrow in 1813. He was a year younger than Frederick and they were probably related.
Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, the archaeologist and expert on India was a student there before he went to Harrow in 1813. He was a year younger than Frederick and they were probably related.
WILKINSON, SIR JOHN GARDNER (1797-1875), English traveller and Egyptologist, was born on the 5th of October 1797, the son of the Rev. John Wilkinson, a well-known student of antiquarian subjects and Mary Ann Gardiner. Baptised at Chelsea January 1798. Having inherited a sufficient income from his parents, who died when he was young, he was sent by his guardian Dr Yates to Harrow in 1813, and to Exeter College, Oxford, in 1816. He took no degree, and, suffering from ill-health, went to Italy, where he met Sir William Cell, and resolved to study Egyptology. Between 1821 and 1833 he travelled widely in the Nile Valley and began to publish the results. He returned to England in 1833 for the sake of his health, was elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1834, published The Topography of Thebes and General Survey of Egypt (1835) and Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (3 vols. 1837), and on the 26th of August 1839 was knighted by the Melbourne ministry. In 1842 he returned to Egypt and contributed to the Journal of the Geographical Society an article entitled " Survey of the Valley of the Natron Lakes." This appeared in 1843, in which year he also published an enlarged edition of his Topography, entitled Moslem Egypt and Thebes, a work afterwards reissued in Murray's series. During 1844 he travelled in Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, an account of his observations being published in 1848 (Dalmatia and Montenegro, 2 vols.). A third visit to Egypt in 1848-1849 resulted in a further article in the Journal, " On the Country between Wady Halfah and Jebel Berkel " (1851); in 1855 he again visited Thebes. Subsequently he investigated Cornish antiquities, and studied zoology. He died at Llandovery on the 2gth of October 1875. To his old school, Harrow, he had already in 1864 presented his collections with an elaborate catalogue.
On 13 Jan. 1791 Henry Wilkinson married Elizabeth (Eliza) Alice Stevenson at Allhallows Church, London Wall.[3] She was the daughter of Thomas Stevenson and Mary Draper who lived in that parish. Frederick was the third son and fourth child of Henry and Eliza; all the children were born in Wandsworth.
The eldest Henry Richard (born 1 Nov 1790) became a master mariner as a captain in the fleet of the East India Company. His ships included the Larkins, Waterloo, and then the Jane. He was the first of the Wilkinson's to visit Australia when he commanded The Larkins that transported convicts, troops and supplies to Sydney in 1817 from Portsmouth. When his father died in 1837 his will left most of the estate to Henry Richard ‘as he is much reduced in his circumstances and required more paternal assistance than my other sons’. It seems he bought the Jane in 1836 for a fateful voyage via Mauritius (Isle De France), Batavia & India, rather than being chartered for the East India Company. This must have led to his ‘reduced circumstances’. Henry Richard had married Deborah Jane Bushby in Blacktown, Madras India in September 1822. She was born in Marylebone London and died there in 1872. (She was the daughter of William Bushby - who is referred to as "Kempleton's Birkie" in one of Robert Burns poems, and as "having made a fine nabob fortune".) Their first child, Maria was born at sea and the second William Hattam was educated at King’s college in London, and married Elizabeth Sibyl Milligan in February 1852. Seven months later William emigrated to Australia and settled in Sydney. (see below) Elizabeth had been born in Western Australia where her father was a colonial surgeon and founder of the Perth Hospital.
The second son, Thomas Hattam (born 1793) matriculated at Exeter College Oxford and was then ordained by the Church of England at St. Marylebone London.He had various curacies around England finishing in the family centre of Martingdale. He retired to Tynefield Penrith. His wife, formerly Emma Parker was a novelist using the nom de plume Emma de Lisle. The second son of this marriage also named Thomas Hattam, also became a minister of the Church of England and came to Australia with his uncle.(see later)
Mary Caroline, the only daughter was born about 1795 and accompanied her brother Frederick to Australia.[4]
The youngest son, Joseph Stevenson, was born 17 March 1800. Joseph had a partnership with John Hamilton as wine merchants in Soho. He had married Mary Cantwell in St James Westminster in April 1824 and the couple had one daughter and three sons. In the Census of 1841 he and his wife, Mary, lived in New Ground Terrace in St Peter Port on Guernsey with their children Harriet,15, Richard,14, Henry 12, and Frederick 4. Later they lived in Gosport, Hampshire where Harriet’s husband was rector. By the 1881 Census Joseph a widower and was back in Guernsey living as a lodger in St Peter. One son, Richard Hattam Wilkinson graduated from Oxford in 1850 and followed many of his family into the Church.
Frederick W Wilkinson was born in Wandsworth in 1796 and matriculated Magdalene Hall, Oxford on 23 May 1817. When 24 he married Frances Latham Plaistowe at St. James in Westminster on 23 December 1820 just before he was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England by the Bishop of Exeter William Carey. In the same year, 1821, he moved to the diocese of Durham in Northumberland. The Bishop of Gloucester, Henry Ryder, inducted him into the priesthood at Morpeth 18 August 1822. At that time Morpeth had a population of over 4000 people and Frederick was responsible to the incumbent rector Frederick Ekins. Ekins’ father was instituted to the rich living of Morpeth, Northumberland (worth £700 a year), in 1775 on thepresentation of his patron the Earl of Carlisle. Seven years later he became the Dean of Carlisle.
When Frederick matriculated Magdalen Hall was situated next door to Magdalen College but was a separate and autonomous institution. Just before Frederick took his BA, Magdalen Hall in 1823 moved to a new site in Oxford, in Catte Street, and in 1874 was refounded as Hertford College, which name it bears today[5]. Frederick obtained his MA in 1824.
In 1823 the Principal was J.D.Macbride.
The eldest Henry Richard (born 1 Nov 1790) became a master mariner as a captain in the fleet of the East India Company. His ships included the Larkins, Waterloo, and then the Jane. He was the first of the Wilkinson's to visit Australia when he commanded The Larkins that transported convicts, troops and supplies to Sydney in 1817 from Portsmouth. When his father died in 1837 his will left most of the estate to Henry Richard ‘as he is much reduced in his circumstances and required more paternal assistance than my other sons’. It seems he bought the Jane in 1836 for a fateful voyage via Mauritius (Isle De France), Batavia & India, rather than being chartered for the East India Company. This must have led to his ‘reduced circumstances’. Henry Richard had married Deborah Jane Bushby in Blacktown, Madras India in September 1822. She was born in Marylebone London and died there in 1872. (She was the daughter of William Bushby - who is referred to as "Kempleton's Birkie" in one of Robert Burns poems, and as "having made a fine nabob fortune".) Their first child, Maria was born at sea and the second William Hattam was educated at King’s college in London, and married Elizabeth Sibyl Milligan in February 1852. Seven months later William emigrated to Australia and settled in Sydney. (see below) Elizabeth had been born in Western Australia where her father was a colonial surgeon and founder of the Perth Hospital.
The second son, Thomas Hattam (born 1793) matriculated at Exeter College Oxford and was then ordained by the Church of England at St. Marylebone London.He had various curacies around England finishing in the family centre of Martingdale. He retired to Tynefield Penrith. His wife, formerly Emma Parker was a novelist using the nom de plume Emma de Lisle. The second son of this marriage also named Thomas Hattam, also became a minister of the Church of England and came to Australia with his uncle.(see later)
Mary Caroline, the only daughter was born about 1795 and accompanied her brother Frederick to Australia.[4]
The youngest son, Joseph Stevenson, was born 17 March 1800. Joseph had a partnership with John Hamilton as wine merchants in Soho. He had married Mary Cantwell in St James Westminster in April 1824 and the couple had one daughter and three sons. In the Census of 1841 he and his wife, Mary, lived in New Ground Terrace in St Peter Port on Guernsey with their children Harriet,15, Richard,14, Henry 12, and Frederick 4. Later they lived in Gosport, Hampshire where Harriet’s husband was rector. By the 1881 Census Joseph a widower and was back in Guernsey living as a lodger in St Peter. One son, Richard Hattam Wilkinson graduated from Oxford in 1850 and followed many of his family into the Church.
Frederick W Wilkinson was born in Wandsworth in 1796 and matriculated Magdalene Hall, Oxford on 23 May 1817. When 24 he married Frances Latham Plaistowe at St. James in Westminster on 23 December 1820 just before he was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England by the Bishop of Exeter William Carey. In the same year, 1821, he moved to the diocese of Durham in Northumberland. The Bishop of Gloucester, Henry Ryder, inducted him into the priesthood at Morpeth 18 August 1822. At that time Morpeth had a population of over 4000 people and Frederick was responsible to the incumbent rector Frederick Ekins. Ekins’ father was instituted to the rich living of Morpeth, Northumberland (worth £700 a year), in 1775 on thepresentation of his patron the Earl of Carlisle. Seven years later he became the Dean of Carlisle.
When Frederick matriculated Magdalen Hall was situated next door to Magdalen College but was a separate and autonomous institution. Just before Frederick took his BA, Magdalen Hall in 1823 moved to a new site in Oxford, in Catte Street, and in 1874 was refounded as Hertford College, which name it bears today[5]. Frederick obtained his MA in 1824.
In 1823 the Principal was J.D.Macbride.
Macbride, John David (1778-1868), was born on 28 June 1778 at Plympton St Maurice, Devon, the only son of John Macbride (c.1735-1800), naval captain (later MP for Plymouth, 1784–90, and admiral, 1799), and his wife, Ursula, eldest daughter of William Folkes, of Hillington Hall, Norfolk. The physician David Macbride was his uncle. After being educated at Cheam School, Surrey, he matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, on 28 March 1795, graduating BA in 1799. On 9 July 1800 he became a fellow of Exeter, vacating the fellowship on his marriage (19 July 1805) to Mary (1770/71–1862), second daughter of Sir Joseph Radcliffe, bt, and widow of Joseph Starkie, of Redvales. The couple had one child, a daughter.
Macbride was made principal of Magdalen Hall to supervise its projected transfer to the site of the former Hertford College, which it acquired in 1816; this move, made more urgent when the hall's original buildings adjoining Magdalen College were damaged by fire in 1820, was completed in 1822. The hall prospered under him, and especially under his energetic vice-principal from 1832 to 1848, William Jacobson, afterwards bishop of Chester; shortly after Macbride's death it achieved college status as the present Hertford College (1874). In 1863 the jubilee of his headship was marked by the foundation of the Macbride scholarship; he was also commemorated by the annual Macbride university sermon, which he endowed in 1848. (DNB)
Macbride was made principal of Magdalen Hall to supervise its projected transfer to the site of the former Hertford College, which it acquired in 1816; this move, made more urgent when the hall's original buildings adjoining Magdalen College were damaged by fire in 1820, was completed in 1822. The hall prospered under him, and especially under his energetic vice-principal from 1832 to 1848, William Jacobson, afterwards bishop of Chester; shortly after Macbride's death it achieved college status as the present Hertford College (1874). In 1863 the jubilee of his headship was marked by the foundation of the Macbride scholarship; he was also commemorated by the annual Macbride university sermon, which he endowed in 1848. (DNB)
Dr. Macbride’s status was such that a word to the Earl of Bathurst, then Colonial Secretary, was enough to secure Wilkinson a post as assistant colonial chaplain in Van Dieman’s Land at a salary of £250 a year and a £400 allowance [6]. Taking this position would imply that the young clergyman had limited prospects in England and his family could not buy him a post. In January 1824 Wilkinson wrote to Earl Bathurst.
Sir
From a communication with which I was (favour?) by Mr. Bailie ? I was informed that there would be no difficulty in allowing me a moderate sum? Of money to advance my case I should feel much obliged if Lord Bathurst will permit me to receive £60 in aid of my outfit & also if His lordship will allow £50 per accn? for my stipend to be paid to my order in England when it becomes due. I should feel further obliged if His Lordship will permit my appointment to be made out? & also if he will grant me a passage & allowances for my family in a Government transport.
My family consists of myself, my wife & sister, a young man & his wife as servants.
I should esteem a favour if His Lordship will inform me to what place in Van Dieman’s Land I am appointed.
I am your Obt. Servant
F W Wilkinson
Wandsworth Common
26th January 1824
From a communication with which I was (favour?) by Mr. Bailie ? I was informed that there would be no difficulty in allowing me a moderate sum? Of money to advance my case I should feel much obliged if Lord Bathurst will permit me to receive £60 in aid of my outfit & also if His lordship will allow £50 per accn? for my stipend to be paid to my order in England when it becomes due. I should feel further obliged if His Lordship will permit my appointment to be made out? & also if he will grant me a passage & allowances for my family in a Government transport.
My family consists of myself, my wife & sister, a young man & his wife as servants.
I should esteem a favour if His Lordship will inform me to what place in Van Dieman’s Land I am appointed.
I am your Obt. Servant
F W Wilkinson
Wandsworth Common
26th January 1824
Five weeks later he wrote again.
Wandsworth
3 March 1824
Sir
I have enquired at the Navy Office & find that they have not yet received an order to provide myself & family with a passage in the ships which are shortly to sail. If not intruding too much upon your time may I request the favour of an early order to provide me with accommodation. I take the liberty of adding that I should not be so urgent for an early appointment to a ship but that I wish to provide some comfortable accommodation for my wife who is in an indifferent state of health.
3 March 1824
Sir
I have enquired at the Navy Office & find that they have not yet received an order to provide myself & family with a passage in the ships which are shortly to sail. If not intruding too much upon your time may I request the favour of an early order to provide me with accommodation. I take the liberty of adding that I should not be so urgent for an early appointment to a ship but that I wish to provide some comfortable accommodation for my wife who is in an indifferent state of health.
Sometime later Wilkinson met Thomas Hobbes Scott, who had just been appointed the colony's first Archdeacon at salary of £2000 a year. Scott had been Secretary to the Commission conducted by his brother-in-law J T Bigge from 1819-1821 that had strongly criticised Rev Samuel Marsden the then senior member of the Church of England in New South Wales. Scott was already well known in Sydney and despite his background as a bankrupt wine merchant Scott was well connected and influential.[7] However he lacked clerical professionalism, he had been ordained shortly before leaving for Sydney, and Governor Brisbane believed that 'a more unfit person' could not possibly have been chosen for the important post. Through influence in London Scott got the position Marsden fully expected to hold. Scott’s appointment was welcomed by the land owning conservatives known in the colony as the exclusives.
Scott convinced Wilkinson to seek a transfer from his appointment in Hobart to Sydney.[8] A week before the Wilkinson sailed for Sydney the Colonial Office despatched advice to Sydney that ‘Mr Wilkinson be allowed the indulgence which he solicits’.[9] At the end of September that the family group travelled to Gravesend to join the Grenada. The ship was well founded but 14 years old displacing 408 tons. The Wilkinson's travelling companions on the Grenada were Commander William Ogilvie RN, his wife and children, Henry Boucher Bowerman, with wife and child and Mr. and Mrs. Henage Finch. Ogilvie had been on the Victory at Trafalgar. Finch was the son of an Admiral and also an MA, he took up a position as one of the first fully qualified surveyors in NSW. The Ogilvie children later recorded their recollections of the journey and that is to found in the Mitchell Library. On the 113 day voyage via Tenerife the cabin passengers and the 81 female convicts, and 15 of their children, were well cared for by an experienced Naval Surgeon, Peter Cunningham. The four families, and those of the Captain, Alexander Anderson, and Peter Cunningham, remained friends in Sydney and most settled in the Hunter Valley.
William Ogilvie was also headed for the Van Dieman’s Land but when the Grenada sailed straight to Sydney he decided to stay there as well. Wilkinson may have arrived in Sydney not knowing whether his indulgence had been granted. The letter of approval may well have travelled on the same ship and as Scott had previously requested five more chaplains for NSW Wilkinson’s arrival, and that of Ogilvie’s, was welcomed by Governor Brisbane.
Scott convinced Wilkinson to seek a transfer from his appointment in Hobart to Sydney.[8] A week before the Wilkinson sailed for Sydney the Colonial Office despatched advice to Sydney that ‘Mr Wilkinson be allowed the indulgence which he solicits’.[9] At the end of September that the family group travelled to Gravesend to join the Grenada. The ship was well founded but 14 years old displacing 408 tons. The Wilkinson's travelling companions on the Grenada were Commander William Ogilvie RN, his wife and children, Henry Boucher Bowerman, with wife and child and Mr. and Mrs. Henage Finch. Ogilvie had been on the Victory at Trafalgar. Finch was the son of an Admiral and also an MA, he took up a position as one of the first fully qualified surveyors in NSW. The Ogilvie children later recorded their recollections of the journey and that is to found in the Mitchell Library. On the 113 day voyage via Tenerife the cabin passengers and the 81 female convicts, and 15 of their children, were well cared for by an experienced Naval Surgeon, Peter Cunningham. The four families, and those of the Captain, Alexander Anderson, and Peter Cunningham, remained friends in Sydney and most settled in the Hunter Valley.
William Ogilvie was also headed for the Van Dieman’s Land but when the Grenada sailed straight to Sydney he decided to stay there as well. Wilkinson may have arrived in Sydney not knowing whether his indulgence had been granted. The letter of approval may well have travelled on the same ship and as Scott had previously requested five more chaplains for NSW Wilkinson’s arrival, and that of Ogilvie’s, was welcomed by Governor Brisbane.