Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and VictoriaWestgarth, William
History
Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and Victoria
Westgarth, William
Victoria -- Description and travel
I was not personally very intimate with any of the Henty family,
otherwise I might have had more to say in this sketch. But I have met
most of the brothers repeatedly, and frequently I met James, the
Melbourne merchant, who was the eldest, and also William, the lawyer and
ex-Premier of Tasmania, a most amiable and gentlemanly man, who latterly
resided at Home, where he died, and who often attended the lectures and
discussions at the Royal Colonial Institute of London. Both of these
brothers were rather grave and quiet, while Edward and Stephen were
energetic and lively even beyond most colonists. Francis, now the only
survivor of the large family, I met only once, about forty-three years
ago, in the Western District. He was then a handsome and rather slim
young man, not of the Henty mould, which was rather of the full John
Bull kind, as "Punch" gives him, minus the obesity. But if I may credit
the Melbourne "Illustrateds" in a recent likeness of the last of the
Victorian founders, he must have consented, in later life, to drop more
into the family mould. They were a family of eight sons and one
daughter. Seven of the sons emigrated with their father. They were all
men of mark, above average in mind and physique--men of a presence, who
would have been prominent in any society; altogether, in numbers, in
appearance, in circumstances, and in events, quite a remarkable family.
As I am not writing for history, so as to study completeness in my
account, but only of personal observations and recollections, I shall
not do more than give a very slight sketch of the emigratory particulars
of this family, and my excuse is that these data are so far personal as
having been told me direct by one or other of the family. The story is
striking, and our descendants may look back with surpassing interest to
the Romulus and Remus of a future Rome which, in the possibilities of
modern progress, may exceed that of the past. The father, Mr. Thomas
Henty, of Sussex, England, took the resolution to emigrate, with his
family, to the "Swan River," as the present Western Australia was then
called. In 1829 he sent his eldest and two younger sons there, with
suitable servants and supplies, intending to follow with the rest. These
pioneers declared against the Swan, and advised their father to go to
Launceston instead, to which place they themselves also went. Arrived
all there in 1831, a new disappointment awaited the family. No grant of
land could be had, as in the case of the Swan, where they had 84,000
acres. This grant system had been abolished only a fortnight before
their arrival. They had now to rent their farms, and the prospects,
therefore, were discouraging. They were unable even to effect an
exchange for their Swan River grant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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