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
Select here to find out more about Cyrus Matthew Doyle
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.
Select here to find the names of some of
the convicts assigned to George Blaxland
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.
Select here to find the names of some of
the convicts assigned to James Brindley Bettington
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.
William Ogilvie
Merton
William Ogilvie 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 land.
After making his selection, he 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 described
William Ogilvie's Merton in his book
'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'
'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
River enters Hunter's River
opposite to the bottom of Mr. Ogilvie's grant, the plains
on 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)
Cunningham describes an incident in 1826 in which
the intrepid Mary Ogilvie confronts the natives -
