I am now trying to link several old articles together, and correct some possible errors in them, and add more details to them.
The articles in question were published in the MLSSA Newsletter between June 2006 and July 2012.
The articles were:
“William Loose Beare” - MLSSA Newsletter May 2012
“Captain George Main” - MLSSA Newsletter July 2012
Most of those, if not all of them, can be linked together in one way or another. There may be other articles too, but these ones are more than enough to start with.
“Old Jetties Associated with Lighthouses” Part 1 discussed topics such as the lighthouse at Cape Borda and Harvey’s Return, including the small cemetery there.
It also mentions that a Whalley lived with a man called Harvey at what is now known as Kingscote. Harvey’s Return is said to have been named after Harvey, a sealer on Kangaroo Island, around 1834. Whalley is one of the many names sometimes used in reference to ‘Governor Wallen’, discussed in Governor Wallen in the same newsletter as “Old Jetties Associated with Lighthouses” Part 2.
“In 1834, Whalley kept watch for Harvey’s boat whilst Harvey went out to sea on a sealing expedition. Whalley walked to Cape Borda where Harvey tried to land his boat. The cliffs at Cape Borda are 400 feet high and landing there was impossible. The two men searched the coastline for a spot where Harvey could land his boat. They found a cove 2 ½ miles east of Cape Borda where Harvey managed to land. Although the cove had already bee known as Murrell’s Bay, after a seal hunter named James Murrell, it now became known as “Harvey’s Return”.”
There are a few more details about Harvey’s Return in the article.
Captain Thomas Swiggs mentioned that “Captain Swiggs owned a number of ships during his life, including the ketch Vivid …” I now believe that it was actually his youngest son Walter who actually owned the vessel. The error was rectified in “Captain Swiggs (& some of the ships associated with him and his family)” Part 4 and The Ketch Vivid.
Captain Swiggs (& some of the ships associated with him and his family) Parts 1 & 4 both briefly mention Swiggs’ eldest daughter, Marian Elizabeth Swiggs. She was born on Ascension Island on 29th February 1848. It was the following year that Swiggs and his family migrated from England to South Australia, after Swiggs had left the Royal Navy.
Marian married Charles E. Lawton. Louisa Laker Hamilton (Born 9th September 1855) later married William Thomas Swiggs (born 21st April 1854) at the residence of Charles E. Lawton on 5th September 1876. (Louisa was the daughter of Charlotte Johnson Laker (1818-17/7/1905) via her marriage to William Holmes Hamilton (Snr, born 1820) in 1876.) They had six children together. Louisa died on 11th August 1916. William died four months later on 25th December 1916.
I’m not sure just where all this is going, and I may well have confused myself quite a bit. I mainly just wanted to get this all set down. Please bear with me whilst I press on with it all.
I mainly hope that I have been able to either add some details to each topic, or possibly have corrected any previous errors.
In “Captain George Main” in the MLSSA Newsletter for July 2012 (No.393) I wrote: -
Captain George Main was the headkeeper for the Cape Borda lighthouse on Kangaroo Island (pictured below) in the 1870s.
“…..For about 70 years, stores were landed every three months at nearby Harvey’s Return, a small rocky cove (pictured below) about 4kms east of the lighthouse.
This practice was abandoned in 1928 when the road from Kingscote to Cape Borda was completed. The lighthouse itself was manned until 1989 when it became automatic.
At Harvey’s Return, there is a small cemetery where many lighthouse keepers and their families were buried, including Captain Woodward, the first lighthouse keeper.
The small cemetery has 16 headstones. It is a solemn reminder of the hardship endured by the early lighthouse keepers and their families.
Captain George Main was the headkeeper for the Cape Borda lighthouse in the 1870s. He was married to Margaret Osmond Taylor. They had several children, some of whom were born either at the lighthouse or on a lightship.
….. One of their other children was a girl named Annie Freer Main. She was apparently born on a lightship in 1858. On 2nd November 1881, she married William Holmes Hamilton (born on 5th November 1853*).”
(It was at this point that I had confused myself by getting the two William Holmes Hamiltons mixed up, if you can see what I mean: -
“….Annie and William Holmes Hamilton had eight children, one being stillborn (see http://hamiltonfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2007/11/descendants-of-james-hamilton.html), including a son, also called William Holmes Hamilton, and a daughter called Louisa Laker Hamilton. William was born on 5th November 1853, and Louisa was born on 9th September 1855.”
“Annie died on 5th June 1901 at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island and her body was buried there. William Hamilton, her husband, died in 1931.
Their daughter Louisa had married William Thomas Swiggs, the eldest son of Captain Thomas Swiggs (see my article “Captain Swiggs (& some of the ships associated with him and his family)” in our July Newsletter).
They were married in the “residence of Charles E Lawton in Adelaide SA” on 5th September 1876. They had six children together.
(Charles Edward Lawton was married to William’s sister Marian (nee Marian Elizabeth Swiggs), so Louisa became Marian’s sister-in-law. Louisa’s brother William married Annie Freer Main, thus making Louisa her sister-in-law.)
William Thomas Swiggs was born on 21st April 1854. He served as a councillor for the Birkenhead Council in 1882. He was also Captain of the steamer Florrie at Port Pirie. He died on 19th August 1916, eight days after the death of his wife Louisa (Laker Hamilton).”
I found these details about the death of Captain George Main, plus Annie Freer Main, William Holmes Hamilton (Jnr), Marian Hamilton, Louisa Laker Hamilton and William Thomas Swiggs at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/29414785 : -
“DEATH OF MR. GEORGE MAIN.
One of the oldest servants of the Marine Board, Mr. George Main, who was the head keeper of the Jervis lighthouse, died on Sunday. Mr. Main had a paralytic stroke two or three weeks ago, and since that time had been gradually failing in health until the end came. He was appointed to his first Marine Board position on September 26, 1855, when he was made coxswain of the harbor boat Fort Adelaide. On February 26, 1856, he was appointed master of a steam dredger, and on April 2 of the same year foreman afloat. Two years afterwards he was gazetted head keeper of the lightship, and on April 17,1562, headkeeper of Troubridge. His next station was the MacDonnell lighthouse, where he remained from January 1, 1866, to March 31, 1871. From MacDonnell lighthouse Mr. Main was transferred to Cape Borda, and until the end of February, 1883, he remained there, proceeding to Troubridge on March 1 of that year. The Germein lightship was the next station, and after a term of over four years there the Port Adelaide light was under his care for a similar term, his final appointment being that of head keeper at Cape Jervis, received on August 12, 1892, and held up to the time of his death.”
The Cape Borda lighthouse keeper (up to February 1883), Captain George Main had a daughter called Annie Freer Main. She was born on a lightship. She married William Holmes Hamilton (Jnr) on 2nd November 1881. They had eight children, though one was still born.
Their first child was a daughter called Marian Hamilton. She married Charles Edward Lawton. Another daughter of theirs, Louisa Laker Hamilton (born 9th September 1855) married William Thomas Swiggs (born 21st April 1854) on 5th September 1876. So now, everything has come back to the Swiggs family. William and Louisa had six children together.”
Please bear with me on all of this because I know that I have confused myself many times over it all. Here is an example in this part of an email message that I sent out in 2007: -
Speaking of ‘bear’, I discussed William Beare in “William Loose Beare” in the MLSSA newsletter for May 2012 (No.391). William “was one of South Australia’s first settlers, having arrived in SA on the ship Duke of York on 26th July 1836 ….. he was only ten years old.”
(Photo taken by Philip Hall)
The grave for him and his family (wife & daughter at least) is located at St Jude’s cemetery at Brighton, SA.
The article goes on to discuss the Duke of York and much more. It includes, for example, details of the death and burial of William’s father Thomas Hudson Beare’s wife Lucy Ann (nee Loose), and details of one of Thomas and Lucy’s daughters being “the first official settler to set foot on dry land in SA”. I am now told that the actual daughter involved is being, or has been, disputed.
“William Loose Beare” also stated that “Thomas (Hudson) Beare himself died on 7th December 1862* and his 2nd wife Lucy died 25 years later on 15th September 1887. They were both interred at the North Road cemetery.”
According to https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/139554949/thomas-hudson-beare, the “Thomas Hudson Beare in the Myponga Cemetery & the one in Main North Road are the same man; only his headstone was transferred to Main North Road. Thomas is buried under the rear of the building at the Myponga Uniting Church …” There is a memorial plaque at the Myponga Cemtery.
* (Details given at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/139554949/thomas-hudson-beare are:
“Thomas Hudson Beare
Birth 30 Dec 1792
Winchester, City of Winchester, Hampshire, England
Death 7 Nov 1861 (NOT 7th December 1862) (aged 68)
Aldinga, Onkaparinga City, South Australia, Australia
Burial Myponga Uniting Church Cemetery
Myponga, District Council of Yankalilla, South Australia, Australia
Memorial ID 139554949”
“North Road Cemetery - November 25, 2021 ·
HEADSTONE TALES: THOMAS HUDSON BEARE
On first inspection, this headstone for Thomas Hudson Beare and his wife Lucy situated in Path 4 South appears unremarkable. Inspecting the burial register, however, indicates that Thomas Hudson Beare is not actually buried in this grave.
The story behind this man and his family is an interesting one. Thomas Hudson Beare arrived at Kangaroo Island with the First Fleet aboard the ‘Duke of Yorke’ on 27 July 1836. This was the first ship to arrive at Kangaroo Island. He was accompanied by his wife Lucy (nee Loose), and four children.
The first person ashore in South Australia is said to be two-year-old Elizabeth Beare*, daughter of Thomas, who was taken ashore by two sailors where she collected some shells and took them back to her mother aboard the ship. Later that day, the passengers disembarked and rowed to shore.
* (See note further below.)
A month after their arrival, Lucy gave birth to a daughter, who became South Australia’s first white birth. The infant died a few days later. In 1837, Lucy gave birth to another daughter, but she sadly passed away two weeks after the birth, making her the first white woman to die in South Australia. Lucy was buried in the Kingscote Pioneer Cemetery.
Thomas Beare and his children moved to the mainland in 1838, where in 1840 he married another Lucy (nee Bull). Lucy was the sister of John Wrathall Bull, the inventor of the Ridley Stripper (buried Path 20 South).
Thomas Beare had 10 children with his first wife Lucy, only 5 of which survived infancy. He and his second wife Lucy had 9 children of which 5 survived.
Thomas died at his residence in Myponga on 7th November 1861, and was buried in the Myponga Uniting Church Cemetery. His headstone was removed from that site when the church building was extended, and placed on his second wife Lucy’s gravesite at the North Road Cemetery. Lucy died on 15 September 1887 aged 68. Several Beare descendants are also buried in the cemetery.
Beare Avenue and Beare Avenue Reserve in Netley, where Thomas’ farm once stood, are named after him.”
The top image below from The Advertiser's "Weekend Extra", 14th July 2016 shows "the landing site ( of the Duke of York) depicted in a painting by Colonel William Light, showing Thomas Hudson Beare's tent in Nepean Bay": -
(Source: The Advertiser's "Weekend Extra", 14th July 2016)
I hope that I have achieved at least some of my aims above. Perhaps only time will tell.
Further reading:
"The Continuing Search for the Vivid" by Steve Reynolds, MLSSA Journal No.23, December 2013.
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