The 'Flintham' Name
John and Mary Blackwell's descendants showed quite an attachment to the Flintham name, either in honour of their mother or perhaps because the name represented an important link to the family's past in England. As Mary Flintham's family hailed from Nottinghamshire it may also be relevant to note the existence of a village of the same name in that county.
John junior, Charlotte and Prudence all passed 'Flintham' on to a son as a middle name, while Alice gave it to a daughter.1
Prudence even gave the name 'Flintham' (sometimes 'Flintham Villa') to her house in Lefroy Street, North Hobart while one of Charlotte's daughters used it for her home in the Huon.
The Blackwell Legacy
While John Blackwell's part in the early industrial development of Tasmania is fascinating arguably the greatest contribution he and Mary made to their new country was through the family they founded. Four of their daughters, Charlotte (Jones), Patience (Evans), Prudence (Andrews), and Sarah Ann (Murrell), had families some or most of whose descendants continue, so far as I know, to live in Tasmania today. This is certainly the case for Charlotte, from whom I am descended.
Son John junior passed his adult life in Geelong so descendants who continue to bear the Blackwell name are to be sought in that direction.2 Another daughter, Alice (Arnold), left Tasmania for Adelaide with her husband and children, extending the family's presence to a third Australian State in just the first generation.
Tannery Trivia
John Blackwell's most singular contribution to the Van Diemen's Land economy was the establishment of his tannery on the New Town Rivulet so it is interesting to explore what became of the business. It remained relevant to the Blackwell family as a source of income (John continued to own the freehold on the land) and as neighbour as the family continued to live next door.
The first lessee of the tannery in 1832 got off to an enthusiastic start:
J SLEE begs to inform the TRADE and consumers of LEATHER, that he has taken the tan-yard and premises at New Town, formerly in the occupation of Mr. John Blackwell, where he has commenced the business of TANNER, FELL-MONGER, & GLUE-MAKER. J. S. having served his apprenticeship in one of the largest tanneries in London, feels convinced, from his knowledge of the trade in all its different branches, that he will be able to produce leather, far superior to any hitherto offered for sale in the Colony.
Sole leather of every description, curried kangaroo skins, wax, kips, harness hides, basils for shoemakers and saddlers, strained white sheep, white and brown aprons, wool mats, and every other article in the trade. Gentlemen in the interior, consumers of leather, may be supplied with what they require, in exchange for raw hides and sheep skins.
J. S. will deliver all goods purchased at his tannery, free of expense, to any resident in Hobart Town, or on the Jetty, if for a purchaser up the Country. …. He can also with confidence recommend his glue to cabinet makers, &c. as a far superior article to any imported from England, (the sea voyage depriving it of its glutinous nature), and at a much lower price.
and so on, and so forth.3
Josiah Slee was recently arrived from England with wife and five children and obviously full of high hopes for his new business venture. However he had dropped out of the picture by early 1837 and Blackwell was again seeking a lessee for his tannery:4
To be Let,
For Seven or Fourteen Years,
THE Tannery at New town, so well known for its many conveniences and the excellence of the articles manufactured there for so many years. A mill stone and splitting machine will also be let, together with 15 acres of good land, adjoining the tannery.
This tannery could with very trifling expense be converted into a brewery, than which from the constant supply of pure water a more convenient cannot well be erected in the island.
Apply to the proprietor on the premises, or at the Courier office.
JOHN BLACKWELL. New town, Feb. 21
The advertisement caught the eye of one John Regan, already established as a tanner and leather dealer of some substance on premises at 27 Liverpool Street Hobart. Regan operated on the New Town site for a few years but the tension between the Rivulet as a source of water for human consumption, brewed or otherwise, and the Rivulet as recipient of industrial waste was increasingly hard to manage.
The writing was finally on the wall with the passing of the New Town Water Act in 1841.This attempt to clean up the Rivulet had attracted criticism from no less a commentator than the Chief Justice and Regan himself petitioned against the Act to the Legislative Council through Captain Michael Fenton.5 To no avail: the following year Regan was fined 40 shillings for 'allowing filth to run into the New Town Rivulet' - incidentally on the same day copping a 20 shilling fine for dodging jury duty.6
It was all too much and by October 1843 Regan was no longer tanning at New Town and preferred to concentrate those activities on his Hobart site.7
A new lessee set up next door to the Blackwell household
on the bank of "the New Town Rivulet," with a never-failing stream of the purest water, together with five Acres of Ground, a STORE seventy feet long, DWELLING-HOUSE with four apartments, and a three-stall stable, with other buildings.8
Isaac Godfrey Reeves, trading as J G Reeves, both manufactured and imported hats for sale in his Lord's Place, Elizabeth Street establishment. Taking on the roomy New Town site allowed him to increase the manufacturing side of his business at the same time as he moved his Hobart premises around the corner to Liverpool Street.
In Reeves' case hat making included wool scouring. He was even to export bales of Tasmanian wool scoured according to the 'Spanish method' to England.9 Not surprisingly it would not be long before Reeves attracted the ire of the brewer Jacomb, the same who had recently prosecuted Calder, the miller. However, despite having arranged for a constable to take a water sample comprising a 'whitish opaque fluid …. which on being examined was supposed to be strongly impregnated with Barilla, or some strong alkali' Jacomb was again the loser.10
Reeves' successful defence was based on the steps he had taken to avoid noxious matter emptying into the Rivulet and his employees' evidence as to the complete harmlessness of their methods. Reeves in his evidence implied that Jacomb had driven his predecessor, Regan, to ruin and added for good measure that 'his immediate neighbour, who lived close by and below the works, used the water from the creek for all domestic purposes'. It seems highly probable that the neighbour in question was none other than John Blackwell.
After the proceedings Reeves received the support of an anonymous humorous letter to the editor of the Colonial Times. Not only was the hatmaker redressing the colony's balance of payments by replacing imported goods with locally made items – using local raw materials and local labour – but he was said to be operating on land which had been 'expressly granted in former years for a tannery'.11 A slight re-writing of history but perhaps an impression that Blackwell had conveyed to Reeves. It is not hard to picture them commiserating over how hard it was to make an honest living in the tanning game.
For hat making and leather making can also go hand in hand. We can be sure Reeves was tanning on the New Town site in 1846 as it was to his New Town tan-pits that 100 sheepskins stolen in the Bothwell district had found their way, tracked there by a Bothwell vigilante.12 For the record Reeves was the innocent purchaser of same and not in on the crime.
The Colonial Times carried advertisements for a business rejoicing in the name of the 'New Town Tannery Leather Warehouse', in Elizabeth Street throughout 1849.13 But around this time references start to appear to Reeves' Tannery in Anglesea Street South Hobart and the New Town Tannery was once more on the market in March 1850.14
To be Disposed of,
THE LEASE of the NEW TOWN TANNERY, situated on the New Town Rivulet, commanding an abundant and never-failing supply of the purest water. There is a quantity of bark, a mill, and all the other requisite implements, which may be had on most advantageous terms ; so that the purchaser could commence operations immediately.
Apply to J. M. Loughnan, Old Wharf.15
Presumably Reeves, like Regan before him, had found his site on the Hobart Rivulet more conveniently located.
While the establishment pioneered by John Blackwell changed hands at fairly regular intervals it seems that tanning, more or less actively, continued on the site at least for the rest of Blackwell's life.
In the mid 1850s Denis Murphy, presumably the new lessee, was advertising the stud services of Sultan, his successful thoroughbred racehorse who was 'to stand at the New Town Tannery'.16 The choice of location was not as random as it might first appear - the tannery was in fact just up the road from Hobart's first race course. Sultan looked set to more than earn his keep as equine gigolo: Murphy's price was £4 per mare serviced, an enormous sum.
After a diversion to Old Beach and a new owner in the late 1850s fans of Sultan's will be glad to learn that he was back with Murphy at the tannery in 1860 although by then his glory days were over: the price of a dalliance had plunged to £2 10s.17
Henry Doyle was next to take up tanning on the site in 1861 though like his predecessors he also maintained a retail establishment in Hobart, in Collins Street.18 The following year a Mercury report of a petition seeking the status of rural municipality for Glenorchy (which for this purpose included New Town) counted 'two tanneries and a glue manufactory' amongst its many attributes.19
Subsequent references are even more sporadic from this point but as late as 1875 a classified advertisement requested candidates for the post of 'BEAMSMAN' to apply 'at [the] Tannery, New Town'20. For the curious a beamsman's role in a tannery was to drape the soaked hides over a beam and scrape them clean of unwanted fat, flesh and hair.
Why did tanning persist so long as a use on the New Town site? One reason might be that the Blackwell family, brought up to the trade, was hardly likely to complain about its noxious nature. Undoubtedly more important though was its status as a pre-existing use. Tasmanian citizens, particularly those in towns, had begun to aspire a more refined standard of living and to expect a measure of protection for their quality of life. There was also a level of consensus that some industries needed to be regulated on public health grounds.
All of this was reflected in legislation from 1865 which stipulated that a licence from the relevant municipal authority (or a court if outside town boundaries) was henceforth required for the establishment of a tannery.21 While these licences were forthcoming in some cases they were by no means a foregone conclusion.22 However a site which had 'always' been a tannery could continue to be so although even there an operator who disposed of waste improperly or who created a nuisance in the legal sense of the term was liable to prosecution.
Just as John Blackwell had been all that time ago in 1823.
FICTION BITES
Great Coram Street, London 1819
'Shall we be a long time at sea then ma’am?'
'I fear so Mary. But the vessel chosen by Mr Raine's brother is a sound one so you should have no worries on that score. And think of the sights to be seen in Sydney Town once we arrive. I believe it is quite a marvellous place.'
'Very good ma'am.' Mary bobbed as she cleared the breakfast things and descended once more to the scullery.
Mr Monten the house servant had already filled her ears with tales of shipwrecks and the like and she was not at all certain she wished to cross the seas in such a fashion. Last month’s move from Sheffield to London had been quite enough of a wrench.
Still, situations such as hers were not easy to come by and from what Mr Raine had boasted to his friends in recent weeks he was sure to make a great deal of money in Australia, and quickly. The family could perhaps then return to England and establish a grander household. Likely then there would be other servants to help with the domestic work.
This might not be all bad Mary reflected as she fed coal into the kitchen stove on a summer's day. Especially as the mistress will be wanting her own children soon enough to keep little John company, I'll be bound.
Hobart Town 30 November 1819
'I say girl. It's a good job to be back on dry land.'
Mary nodded agreement while wrestling with the bag she was carrying and trying not to look down. She was thankful enough to be getting off the ship but the delicate task of negotiating a gangplank had never become easy for her. John Blackwell hung back a bit from the others so they could not be overheard.
'Shall I see you tomorrow then?' he asked in a low voice.
'Depends on the mistress. There will be a lot to do settling them into their lodgings what with the little boy and all. Maybe the day after.'
Just then Mr Monten arrived to take Mary's bag and load it onto the cart with the rest of the Raine family paraphernalia, or at least the bits that would be needed for a stay of a few weeks before setting sail again for Sydney.
Crime and Punishment 1822
'Wherever have you been? If you've been on the grog again I swear…' Mary broke off at the sight of her husband's bloodied head and dazed demeanour. John Blackwell staggered a little on entering their sparse log dwelling and sat down heavily on a bench. In the background the baby began to wail.
'John! What has happened to you?'
Blackwell's voice was still a little shaky as he told of being waylaid by robbers on his way home. 'It was getting dark on the road down by the last bridge but on, there were three of them armed with sticks to our two. I am not so very badly hurt and neither is my man. But my head does hurt a bit'.
'Did they rob you? How much have we lost?' Mary's concern for her husband and his market day takings was aggravated by the thought of having to meet the expense of young John's christening in less than a week. In an advanced state of pregnancy, she was trying not to get too agitated as she tended to her husband's injuries.
'A few pennies, a shilling at the most. They must have been disappointed with their haul.' John Blackwell's sense of humour had not completely deserted him. In an attempt to stave off potential questions about whether the slenderness of his pocket book had anything to do with time spent in the public houses along the road between Hobart and New Town he added 'But it's a damned disgrace. It's time the constables did something to protect decent folk going about their business.'
John Blackwell Jnr and the Grocery Heist
'Pass me the bag'.
'I haven't got it. I thought you had it.' Wal's panicked look was enough to convince John it wasn't another of his games. 'Someone must have took it outside the George.'
The horse came to a halt in the middle of the New Town road as its driver let the reins drop. Now both boys were energetically rummaging in the back of the cart.
'My mam will kill me' Wal wailed. 'Perhaps we can go back to old Barrett's. There should yet be time before he closes.'
'Have you still got money? I thought you said we spent it all.' John's head was still a bit fuzzy but he was sensing that he might have missed the chance of a second porter at the George and Dragon at his companion's expense.
Wal shook his head. 'You?'
'Nah. So there's no point trying Barrett's. He already said he wasn't going to give credit no more to your mam. We'll keep going as far as Cain's and I'll think of something.'
As the cart resumed its journey up Elizabeth Street towards New Town John Flintham Blackwell shook off the effect of the alcohol and put his imagination to work. One thing was certain. He would not be admitting to having lost their purchases through carelessness or inattention. He was already in trouble on that score often enough. Maybe they could wangle some more meat from butcher Cain but that still left the missing tea and sugar.
By the time the cart arrived at Cain's John had still not settled on a plan and he had to quickly shut Walter up when he started to blurt that they had lost their victuals somewhere on the road between there and Brisbane Street. He didn't think Cain had paid much attention to Wal though, not many did. Besides, the sight of two customers who were leaving the shop as the boys arrived had given him an idea.
New Town Rivulet 1830
The winter sun struggled to penetrate the clammy fog rolling down the Derwent since daybreak.
He wasn't yet old but the more it went, the more John Blackwell felt the cold in his bones. His cottage was in its sunniest corner but his block faced due south. Curious that. In the old country that was just what you wanted but here everything was upside down.
He poked at the thick pottage heating in the fireplace and was rewarded by a gamy waft of mutton lumped in with a handful of spuds, onions and potherbs from the cottage vegetable plot. A touch more salt and she'd be right.
It must have already gone midday as the strident sounds of sawing and shouted oaths that had punctuated his morning had stopped.
'You could set your watch by them work parties,' Mary always said. And truly it was hard to say who were the greater sticklers for knocking off on time – the convicts building the new Orphan School or the soldiers there to guard them.
Closer but more muted sounds of a knife blade scraping against hide continued without pause. 'He's got a good beamsman there,' thought John approvingly of his new lessee.
As for the smells from the tannery – animal smells of blood and flesh and the acrid notes of smoke, wattle bark and lime - those smells never really left the cottage. But they were in John's blood, they were as much a part of him as his own heartbeat.
1Charlotte and Prudence evened the ledger by each giving the Blackwell name to a son as well.
2There was another large Blackwell family in Southern Tasmania, headed by a Samuel Blackwell, which overlaps in time with John and Mary Blackwell but so far as I know is unrelated.
3Col Times 25 Sep 1832.
4Slee died in 1838. TAHO RGD New Norfolk 34/1/1 no 5605.
5The Council was at this time an appointed body presided over by the Lieutenant Governor. Col Times 14 Sep 1841.
6Courier 12 Aug 1842.
7Col Times 10 Oct 1843.
8Col Times 23 Jan 1844. This advertisement was placed by John Regan so it is not clear whether he had purchased 5 acres from Blackwell or was simply looking for a sub-lessee.
9Col Times 30 Nov 1844.
10Col Times 13 Aug 1844.
11Col Times 13 Aug 1844.
12Courier 14 Oct 1846.
13e.g. Col Times 2 Nov 1849.
14e.g. Courier 9 Mar 1850.
15Courier 9 Mar 1850.
16e.g. Courier 9 Aug 1856.
17Mercury 18 Sep 1860.
18Mercury 19 Jan 1861.
19Mercury 22 Oct 1862.
20Mercury 15 May 1875.
21Police Act 29 Vict No.10.
22Mercury 21 Nov 1871.