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Alexander Anderson James Arndell
Thomas Arndell James Brindley Bettington John
Henshall Bettington George Blaxland
George Bowman Charles Cameron Peter
Cunningham Cyrus Mathew Doyle John Hoskings
Rev. John Mcgarvie
William Ogilvie James Robertson
James
Robertson
James Robertson was born in
1781 in Scotland. He arrived in Australia with his wife and children on the
Providence in 1822. John Lauio Platt and his family were also on board.
James Robertson was employed as
Superintendent of Government Clocks and lived in Sydney for some time. He
was granted 1000 acres by Governor Brisbane in 1824 and another 1000 acres
was reserved for purchase. He took up this land at Jerry's Plains. The land
to the north of the Hunter River came to be known as 'Plashett and the land
on the south as 'Strowan'.
His third daughter Sarah Janet married
B.C. Rodd on 18 May 1839 at Plashett.
John Hoskings
Granted 2560 acres of land before 1828
Cyrus Mathew Doyle
Lucan Park
Lucan
Park was a grant of 360 acres to Cyrus Matthew Doyle in 1825. Another 500
acres was reserved for purchase. Doyle resided on the Hawkesbury river
before moving to Maitland and later became a squatter on the Namoi River.
His sister Louisa was married to John K. McDougall who took over Overton
in 1833
In 1838 640 acres of land granted to Rev.
John McGarvie by Governor Darling on 18th July 1828 was re-advertised in
favour of Doyle
When his
youngest daughter Elizabeth Maria married Alfred
William Phillips of Bona Vista, Paterson on 4th April 1850, Doyle was
residing at Midlorn, Maitland
James Arndell
Woodlands
100 acres granted to James Arndell, second
son of Thomas Arndell, Assistant Surgeon of the First Fleet. James Arndell
was born in 1802 and until 1829 lived at Lake Macquarie where his sister
Sarah lived with her husband Rev. L.E. Threlkeld. He moved to Woodlands
in 1829 and took up another grant of 960 acres on the Goulburn river near
the junction of the Hunter which Governor Darling had promised in October
1828. He married Miss Pike of Pickering on 25 July
1833 at Woodlands
Thomas Arndell
Eldest son of Thomas Arndell who arrived
on the First Fleet was granted 300 acres. As can be seen on the map it was
in two portions and situated at the junction of Greig's Creek and the Hunter
River. He later purchased areas between Dalswinton and Wollun Hills
Rev. John McGarvie
Rev. John McGarvie was born in 1795
in Scotland. He was selected by Rev. John Dunmore Lang as minister for the
Ebenezer church at Portland Head on the Hawkesbury River and arrived in the
Greenock in 1826.
He received a grant of 640 acres by Governor Darling
on the 18th July 1828. This land was re-advertised in favour of Cyrus
Mathew Doyle in 1838. Rev. McGarvie died in 1853 and was buried at the Gore
Hill cemetery.
George Blaxland
'Wollun'
MELANCHOLY AND FATAL ACCIDENT - An inquest was held at
Wollon House, six miles from Merton on the 13th August
before J.B. West, Esq., coroner for the district on view
of the body of George Blaxland Esq., J.P. It appeared
from the evidence that the deceased gentleman had left
the residence of John Bettington Esq., J.P., at
Martindale, about sun set on Friday evening, last, for
the purpose of proceeding to his residence at Wollon, a
distance of about eight miles. On Saturday morning about
eleven o'clock, one of the servants at Wollon went with
a water cart down to the crossing place of the river,
near Wollon House, when he saw his master's carriage
upset, and the horse lying there; he then went across
the river, and found Mr. Blaxland a little distance from
the carriage, quite dead; the carriage had turned off
the main road, and gone down a steep bank, and had
turned over more than once from where it first upset,
and the deceased had evidently fallen out of the
carriage on his head as the neck was dislocated. The
jury returned a verdict of 'Died by injuries received by
the accidental upsetting of his carriage, in descending
the bank of the river near his own residence, on the
evening of Friday the 10th instant.' On Tuesday the 14th
instant, the deceased's remains were removed from Wollon, followed by his near relations, the magistrates
of the district and a numerous train of gentlemen and
the body was interred in the burial ground of the Merton
Church. The deceased gentleman was a native of the
colony, and a very upright, impartial magistrate; he was
47 years of age, and has left a widow and three
children to lament his loss'.
25
George
Blaxland had been trustee of the Merton church and
burial ground where he was later to be interred. He had
worked to establish the building, attending meetings and
calling for tenders etc in the 1840's. He was on a
committee for improving roads and inspected, with other
gentlemen of the district, the new line of road from
Chain of Ponds to Muswellbrook which was finished a few
months before his death in 1849. In 1843 he was on the
first district council for Merton and Muswellbrook along
with William Ogilvie, Francis Forbes, David Scott, David
Forbes, John Robertson and John Pike.
Wollun was advertised to
be let by Mrs. Blaxland in 1852. The property was described as having more
than 5000 acres with a frontage of some extent to the river. There was an
excellent dwelling house and other buildings including a woolshed and
everything need for a farming or sheep establishment.
John Henshall Bettington
& James Brindley Bettington
'Martindale'
James
Brindley Bettington arrived in the Ionia in 1827. He opened a
business in Sydney and became a Director of the Bank of New South Wales in
1828. In June 1830 at Castlereagh, he married the Rebecca, the eldest
daughter of Lieutenant William Lawson of Veteran Hall, Prospect.
In
the 1830's together with his brothers William, John Henshall and Joseph
Horton, James began purchasing pastoral estates - Piercefield,
Martindale and Brindley Park. When the partnership was dissolved in 1835
John Henshall Bettington retained 'Martindale', Joseph Horton Bettington
held 'Piercefield'
and James Brindley Bettington retained Brindley Park at Gummun Plains.
Peter Cunningham
Dalswinton
Peter Cunningham was Ship
Surgeon on the female convict ship Grenada which arrived in 1825. He
received a grant of 1200 acres and selected this land on the Hunter River
soon after when he accompanied William Ogilvie to the district. He had been
in his Majesty's Service for almost twenty years and received another grant
free of quit rent as a Naval Officer. This second grant was 1360 acres. He
made improvements at Dalswinton - a dairy was built and the estate was
stocked with fine woolled sheep and cattle and horses. A stone cottage,
shingled, and a garden and fencing and other additions were made. However,
he was on half pay of the British navy and recalled to duty in 1830 and
never returned to Dalswinton.
William White a
brother of Mrs. Ogilvie of Merton occupied and managed Dalswinton until 1835
when Cunningham's nephew John Pagan took over control.
Peter Cunningham's nieces Janet and Jane arrived in 1836 from Scotland with
Peter Cunningham Pagan and they also lived at Dalswinton. Janet married
William Tucker Evans at Dalswinton in 1839. John Pagan
obtained a license for depasturing stock in the Gwydir district in 1838.
This was beyond the boundaries of the colony at this time. He was still at Dalswinton in 1842 as he imported the famous Clydesdale Galloway Lad
in that year however by 1843 he had perished somewhere to the north
west of the colony.
In 1827 Peter
Cunningham published
Two Years in New South Wales; a Series of Letters, Comprising Sketches
of the Actual State of Society in that Colony; of its Peculiar Advantages to
Emigrants.
He never married and died
in 1864 aged 74 at East Greenwich.
William Ogilvie
Merton
Arrived in 1825 on board
the Grenada female convict ship with his wife and four children.
Accompanied by ship surgeon Peter Cunningham he sailed to Newcastle before
travelling further up the valley to select this land. He then brought his
family to Newcastle while he returned to 'Merton' to establish a
dwelling for them. Ogilvie served as Magistrate for the district and many
convicts were assigned to him at Merton over the next twenty years.
Peter Cunningham describes
William Ogilvie's Merton 'Mr. Ogilvie possesses here six thousand acres,
consisting of alluvial flats and lightly timbered forest land backwards,
bounded by a moderately high ridge. A plain of fifty acres of rich land
(without a tree upon it) is situated in the middle of the grant, overlooked
by a beautiful swelling hill, equally clear, of the finest sort of garden
mould, and covered with luxuriant grasses. The Goulburn enter Hunter's River
opposite to the bottom of Mr. Ogilvie's grant, the plains n each side being
hemmed in by woody ridges of moderate elevation, toward which the back land
gradually rises. Contrary to what is generally found in other parts of the
country, the ridges upon the upper part of Hunter's River are almost
uniformly flattened at the top, forming little miniature hills and valleys
covered with fine soil of moderate depth, and bounding in grass, which makes
them the great resort of the kangaroos and cattle in the winter season.'(26)
Captain Alexander Anderson
Alexander Anderson was
Captain of the female convict ship 'Grenada' which arrived in January 1825
with 81 prisoners with 15 of their children and 21 cabin passengers among
whom were William Ogilvie and his family, Rev. Frederick Wilkinson and
surveyor Heneage Finch. Surgeon on the voyage was Peter Cunningham.
Captain Anderson was
thanked by the passengers for his attention on the voyage. He left the
colony on the Grenada in March 1825 but this land was reserved for
him and on his return as Captain of the Phoenix convict ship in 1826,
he requested that this reserve of 1000 acres to be converted to a grant.
This grant was called 'Allandale' and he settled here with his wife and
children.
Lieut-Colonel Charles Cameron
Lieut-Colonel Charles Cameron,
commanding Officer of the 3rd Regiment (Buffs) -
2000 acres of land that had been reserved
for G.G. Mills became the reserve of Lieut. Colonel Charles Cameron.
He left for India with his regiment in 1827 leaving his family in Sydney.
After departure from Australia his reserved land was converted to a
grant however he died of cholera in Madras a few days after arrival 19.
Title deeds to the grant eventually passed to his son Ewen Cameron.
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