For Whom the Bell Tolls...

It has been wonderful to have our expert cemetery tour guide Mary Cooper back with us, if even for a short time. Mary developed our “For Whom the Bell Tolls…” cemetery tour and over the past few years has continued her research into the stories behind the graves in our amazing Norfolk Island cemetery. Over an hour and a half, the stories of each person build to provide a vivid overall picture of the islands settlements. We receive a lot of feedback about this tour that tells us it really ‘works’ – in content and delivery thanks to Mary’s passion, enthusiasm and hard work. It is easy to wander through the cemetery and ‘get a feel’ for it yourself, however a whole new appreciation can be gained with knowledge learnt about the graves through the tour. Two of the graves that we often visit are for men who died in the same accident.

Right down behind the back fence to the beach there are two large tombstones lying side by side. One is for Captain John Best and the other for John McLean who both perished along with a young soldier, when their boat was upturned while returning from a day of hunting rabbits at Phillip Island. However a letter to the “Australasian Chronicle” of Tuesday 17 March 1840 tells us that their drowning deaths were not the only ones that occurred that week and that an unusual rising of the sea was to blame:

To the Editor of the Australasian Chronicle

Sir – The Angel of Death has swept off four victims in an instant during this week. A prisoner, by name Atkinson, formerly clerk to Rev. Mr. Sharpe, and lately a constable at Government House, was drowned while fishing, - some men who saw him sink swam immediately to his relief, but in vain. His remains were found the next day, a mere skeleton – two arms and a leg gone, the bowels and flesh eaten away by sharks. This day, a boat returning from Phillip Island was upset and literally dashed to atoms, by a succession of tremendous rowlers, that came on suddenly and rather unexpected. The Hon. Captain Best, though a good swimmer and not four minutes in the water, was taken out lifeless. Surgeon Gaurie, 80^th Regiment, instantly applied every measure to resuscitate animation; but the Captain must have been suffocated by a frock buttoned round his neck, which enveloped his head when upset by an awful wave. There was no water in his chest or lungs. Mr McLean clung to an oar, and was carried towards the blow hole, where no human being could get to his assistance. He remained on the oar at least half an hour before he sunk to rise no more. His body was found uninjured on Tuesday morning. Corporal McLoughlin, a worthy young soldier of the 50^th, was lost on the upsetting of the boat; he was washed ashore the next morning. All were interred with due and melancholy honours.

At the same time our respected Commandant was ill of a bad fever, and not in a fit state to have this sad news communicated to him for more than a fortnight. Captain Few fulfilled the duties of Commandant during this time, and gave full satisfaction, till the arrival of Captain Maconochie.

The sea rose and subsided in about half an hour, when the destroying angel came on the wings of the wind on his errand of death. This sad an awful catastrophe has made a deep and I trust salutary impression on the minds of all, both free and bond. You may hear many exclaim, “May the Almighty prepare us for death – may he never cut us off unprepared, by such a sudden death”

An Eye-Witness

Norfolk Island, Feb 15, 1840.

The Cemetery Tour runs every Tuesday and Friday 11.30am to 1.00pm. Cost is $20 or, if you have a Museum Pass $15.00. It is not to be missed and booking can be made at any of the museum venues, the Tourist Bureau or Baunti Escapes.

Thomas Saulsby Wright

Twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11.30am, the museum runs a tour of the Norfolk Island Cemetery called “For Whom the Bells Tolls...” This is the only dedicated cemetery tour on offer on the island and over the course of an hour and a half we are able to really explore the amazing stories of the people who have lived and died on this island.

The grizzly stories of punishment, riot and execution in the Second Settlement are aplenty and are marked by the graves of men who died at very young ages. However there is one headstone from that period that stands out because of the old age of the person and it reveals a very unusual story. Thomas Saulsby Wright, a convict, died on the 7^th February 1843 at 105 years old. When we learn that he was convicted of forgery we might question his age, but it is correct and he was 105 when he passed away!

Wright, alias ‘Tommy the Banker’ (he had worked for years as a banker), was originally sentenced to death for forgery in 1799 then aged in his sixties, but this was commuted to a life sentence and he was transported to Sydney where he was eventually pardoned. However aged 102 he was again caught with forged bank notes – and was transported to Norfolk Island with a sentence of 14 years imprisonment!

The Australian newspaper of 9^th November 1839 tells the story of his trial and is recorded by Frank Clune in his book “The Norfolk Island Story”. The report includes that the court heard that Tommy the Banker pleaded not guilty, even though “A search warrant was issued, and the constable found several notes on Wright’s person, and in his house one hundred and ninety-one 10 pound notes, two hundred and fifty 5 pound notes, three hundred and seventy-six 2 pound notes, eighty-seven 1 pound notes and one hundred and ninety-five 20 pound notes, amounting in all to 8,000 pounds”. Plates were also found for a ‘Parramatta Banking’ company, a ‘Parramatta Trading company’ and another company “termed a ‘Defiance Company’, which he presumed had been jocularly so-called, because it was intended to set the law at defiance by fraudulent dealing”. Wright’s notes were from the Austilin Bank (perhaps he meant A-stealing!). The Attorney-General admitted that the plates were so well executed that any one would be likely to be deceived by their close resemblance to the notes of the Bank of Australia.

The judge asked Wright what he was doing with the notes and the Australian reports: “The prisoner…said that he had been sixty-two years a banker; he had undertaken to establish a bank for a company at Parramatta, but that he got connected with a party of swindlers, who robbed him. He was able to take up all his own notes signed by himself…and in fine that he had as good a right to establish a bank as any other gentleman…’Laughter in Court’, reported the Australian!

However Thomas Saulsby is probably still chucking in his grave as one of his forged bank notes appeared at an Australian auction house in late 2009. The auctioneer was originally very excited – perhaps this was the earliest Australian bank note ever found! However it was a one pound note, issued by the Austilin Bank and signed by Thomas Saulsby himself. After checking out the details of his time on Norfolk Island with Tom Lloyd, the auction house went on to sell the note for $30,000! The only thing he may be unhappy about is that 'Saulsby' was incorrectly spelt on his headstone as 'Saulsbury'.

There are many more amazing stories revealed during the Cemetery tour which runs from 11.30am to 1.00pm every Tuesday and Friday. The cost is $20 or reduced to $15 if a Museum Pass has also been purchased.

Elizabeth White Robertson

During “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, the cemetery tour we conduct every Tuesday and Friday, we usually stop at the grave of Elizabeth Robertson. Elizabeth was the adult daughter of Gilbert Robertson, the Superintendent of Agriculture between 1845 and 1846, and mother Agnes. Together with their four daughters and a son, the family lived in Branka House at Longridge. 

Amidst the grisly tales of mutiny and murder of the convicts and their overseers, Elizabeth’s story provides the opportunity to talk about the lives of the women in the Second Settlement. With nearly an entirely male convict population, the majority of the women here were the wives and daughters of the officers and civilian men. Through a series of letters Elizabeth wrote in a diary form to her sister in Tasmania, we have the chance to peer into their lives. Her diary is a popular seller in our REO Café and Bookshop, titled simply “Elizabeth Robertson’s Diary, Norfolk Island 1845”. It covers a six week period commencing just weeks after her arrival on the island.

Elizabeth was homesick for Hobart and especially missed her married sister Fanny. It seems clear that she knew that her illness, tuberculosis, was serious as she is haunted by premonitions that she may never see Fanny again: “when I look round and miss the dear faces that I have been accustomed to – the thought comes into my head that I may never see them again and I can scarcely refrain from tears..”. She also tells us about the violence of the settlement. The period the family were on the island includes during the terms of the notorious Commandants Major Childs and his successor, John Price. She was here during the infamous Cooking Pot Riot, a number of escape attempts, executions of convicts, convicts attacking other convicts, an accidental self-shooting by an officer – plus much more: “there are two bushrangers out just now they have been out for four days – yesterday there was a gang of men beating their overseers – fired a pistol and then drew another there was a terrible uproar..”.

Intermixed with her descriptions of the news of the convicts and their conduct, we also gain a glimpse of the social comings and goings – the visits of the ladies and the gentlemen. Elizabeth is not shy in describing her contempt for a number of the men – “he is as great a Jackass as ever I met” and her frustrations with visits on a Sunday which she feels should be for quiet and contemplation. We also get a feel for the organisation of social calls - “We wanted father to go with us to the settlement to day for Mr Rowlands says the people are all wondering [why] we have not been returning their calls – but he will not go till he has finished sheep washing”.

In a lovely surprise, last week we received an email from a descendant of Elizabeth’s father Gilbert. She has sent us the transcript of a letter Gilbert wrote to his wife Agnes, in January 1847. By this time Gilbert had resigned his post on Norfolk after coming into conflict with John Price, had left his family behind and travelled ahead to Hobart to seek new employment and make arrangements for them to follow. When he left Norfolk in late 1846 Elizabeth’s illness was much worse. So very sadly, his letter is written without knowing that his daughter died ten days earlier – “May God in his mercy assist and direct you in the very trying circumstances in which you are placed and may he grant that my dear Lizzie may be restored to such a measure of health as will enable her to accompany you with comfort..”. He is hopeful that Elizabeth may have been wrongly diagnosed as he talks of having set up doctor’s appointments for her: “from what I hear of two cases very similar to Lizzie’s I am in hopes that the Doctors may have quite mistaken her complaint”. 

However Elizabeth did not live to see Hobart again and died on January 14 1847. Her grave is close to the front fence in the Norfolk Island Cemetery – looking over a magnificent view of the bay. Around her are the graves of so many others from that period – military, civilians, convicts. It is over 164 years since her death, yet through her diary we can still get to know a little of her and life on this island during that tumultuous time.

Elizabeth Robertson’s Diary is for sale at the REO Café and Bookshop or on-line through the Shop section of our web site at www.norfolkislandmuseum.com.au