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For further details of the Drysdale
and Hannan families email Sharon and Chris Simmons
mailto:csscsim@ntlworld.com
John Waugh Drysdale was born on 7th May 1816 in Durham,
England to Rev. John Drysdale and Elizabeth Waugh.
He arrived as a prisoner on the convict
transport
John Barry on 17th January 1836 after being tried and convicted of embezzlement at
Durham Assizes on 29th July 1835. Under a sentence of transportation for life,
he was sent to the Ganymede Hulk on 10 August 1835 where his crime is listed as
horse stealing. He was embarked on the John Barry on 27th August. In the ship indent John Waugh
Drysdale is described as 5' 11" with a
dark sallow complexion, dark brown hair and brown eyes. He
had a dimple in his chin and a scar on the back of the
little finger of the left hand.
In March 1836
two months after arrival in the colony, John Drysdale accompanied
Surveyor-General Sir Thomas
Mitchell as a medical attendant and barometer carrier on
Mitchell's third inland exploration. On this
expedition the pattern
of the vast inland river system of south eastern Australia
was established and huge areas of pastoral country discovered and named Australia Felix by Mitchell.
During the expedition there were several men on the sick
list however under Dr. Drysdale's care, they speedily
recovered. In May, an accident occurred involving the young
daughter of Mitchell's guide Turandurey. Four year old
Ballandella fell under one of the wheels of the cart in
which she was travelling and broke her thigh. John Drysdale
immediately set the fracture but as the femur had been
broken near the socket, it was very difficult to bandage the
limb so as to keep the bone immobile. The child bore the
pain with admirable patience and her mother showed every
concern, soothing her daughter with soft and musical terms
of endearment. This treatment and the mother's care were
successful and Ballandella eventually recovered from the
mishap. In October Dr. Drysdale attempted unsuccessfully to save
the life of James Taylor who drowned while trying to
find a safe river crossing. Drysdale, who had seen
many such cases, having come from
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, worked for three hours on Taylor. 'The
animal heat was preserved by chafing the body and during the
whole time the lungs were alternately inflated and
compressed without success.'
On reaching Sydney many in
the exploration party were rewarded according to the
standing and condition of each. Some received absolute
pardons, conditional pardons, tickets of leave and financial
rewards. Unfortunately John Drysdale, who was considered to be a
most trustworthy man, was excluded from these rewards as he
had not been long enough in the colony to be entitled by the
regulations to any indulgence; all that could be done was to
obtain for him a very laborious place in the general
hospital by holding which he avoided the hulk .
No doubt Drysdale read with interest
the Court reports when William Stephenson, surgeon, was indicted for having
stolen a number of specimens of natural history. Stephenson was naturalist on
Sir Thomas Mitchell's expedition and when he retained a number of specimens
obtained on the journey, a quarrel broke out between himself and Sir Thomas.
William
Stephenson was
later found not guilty and the case was discharged .
John
Drysdale married Louisa Hannan on 20 August 1844 at
Maitland, New South Wales. Louisa was the daughter of
John Hannan and Mary Jane Amberton. John Hannan arrived
in 1826 on the
Orpheus'. He was a soldier in N.S.W.
Veterans Corps and a Waterloo Veteran who had received a 40
acre land grant in West Maitland. His grant extended from
Campbell's Hill to Hannan Street and Sempil Street to the
Hunter river. This land was known as 'veteran's flat'.
John Drysdale
and Louisa Hannan had eight children - Frederick,
Elizabeth, Caroline, Emily, George, John, Lucy and
Emma. The twins, Emily and George were born in West
Maitland in October 1847
By January 1849 Dr.
Drysdale and his family were residing in
Wollombi.
In 1849 discussion was
generated regarding the correct treatment for snakebite. Dr.
Drysdale, in a letter to the Maitland Mercury related
his successful treatment of a patient who had been bitten on
the front of his left foot by a black snake inflicting eight
legible punctures. Treatment was administered
within an hour of the patient being bitten, however by then a
ligature had been applied and removed by the victim
who found it too painful.
Although the patient continued to feel
giddy, sleepy and sick with constriction around the chest
for some time, with Dr. Drysdale's treatment he recovered.
Among other treatments a bandage was applied from
the toes to the middle of the tibia which he thought to be of
'eminent service' in the treatment of snake bite
Thomas Maher of Wollombi
had reason to be grateful to Dr. Drysdale for the treatment
he rendered to Maher's wife after she had been bitten by a
copper coloured snake in January of 1849. Maher publicly
thanked Dr. Drysdale in a letter to the Maitland Mercury:
'SIR - In returning you my
most sincere thanks for the services rendered by you to my
Wife, while labouring under the bite of a copper coloured
snake, I now beg leave to publicly assert that, had it not
been for your experience and unremitting attention to her
while in that state, her family would have been left to
deplore her loss; but, thank God, she has by your care
perfectly recovered. Therefore, dear sir, me, with my
family, as in gratitude bound, will ever pray for your
welfare. - And believe me to be, dear sir, your humble and
obedient servant.'
THOMAS MAHER, Wollombi Jan
24, 1849
In April 1849 Dr. Drysdale
moved from Wollombi to Morpeth. His consulting rooms were at
his residence near Mr. Eckford's butcher shop
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