Alured Tasker Faunce (1807-1856)
arrived in Sydney on 9 Oct 1832 on the
Lord William Bentinck
with the 4th Regiment of Foot escorting 185 male prisoners
most of whom were discharged at Hobart before the vessel
came on to Sydney
1.
Alured is an Old English form of Alfred but the origin of the
Faunce surname, although possibly Saxon, is uncertain. His
ancestry under the Faunce name traces back to the 16th
century in Kent in England with the earlier history as such or
with a variant spelling being unknown and not likely to ever be
ascertained.
31.
He was the eldest son of Alured Dodsworth Faunce C.B.
(1775-1850) and Anna Maria Godard and
main beneficiary
of his father's
will. His father was the
Lieutenant Colonel in command of the regiment from
1822 to Feb 1832 and from 1841 a Major-General
2.
Alured's commission as a Lieutenant in the regiment was
purchased in Dec 1824 when he was seventeen years of
age and at the time of arrival in Sydney he held that rank
and was the Adjutant. His younger brother Thomas,
whose Lieutenant's commission in the regiment was
purchased early in 1832, arrived in Sydney a week after
him on 16 Oct 1832 on the
Dunvegan Castle.
During the September quarter of 1834 Alured purchased
a Captain's commission
3
and on 27 Jan. 1835 in St. Luke's Church of England at
Liverpool married 18 year-old Elizabeth Mackenzie
4,
a daughter of Lieutenant Colonel John Kenneth Mackenzie
who in command of the 4th regiment arrived in Sydney on
27 August 1832 on the
Clyde with his wife, four sons
and five daughters. Mackenzie was promoted to that rank
without purchase on 24 Feb 1832 and took over command
of the regiment in England from Alured's father. He retired
on 11 July 1834 and settled on a property at Braidwood in
the Monaro Valley about 100 kilometres from the present-day
federal capital city of Canberra.
Between 1836 and 1855 Alured and Elizabeth had
eleven children
26.
Before the marriage Alured also had an illegitimate
daughter Jessie Gordon whose mother
Caroline Gordon (1813-1853) arrived
in the colony with her parents in 1817
5.
Caroline was the eldest daughter of Ann Gordon,
who from 1827 to 1836 was the matron in charge of the
Parramatta Female Factory where unassigned convict
women were held after arrival in Sydney and women
convicted of crimes in the colony, and Robert Gordon
who was a private in the 48th regiment until he bought
himself out of the army in 1824 at the time the regiment
departed for India. Jessie was baptised on 10 Nov 1833
in the same St. Luke's church at Liverpool where 15 months
later Alured married Elizabeth Mackenzie and where
their first child Charlotte was baptised on 5 Jul 1836.
Jessie has no descendants. She had only one child Oscar
Henry who at eight years of age in 1867 drowned in the
Hunter River at Maitland.
Brisbane Water
Alured Faunce retired from the army in 1836 at 29
years of age and sold his commission in April
1837
6.
Shortly after his retirement the Governor of the colony
Sir Richard Bourke appointed him, effective from 1 Oct 1836
at an annual salary of £250, as the Police Magistrate
at Brisbane Water (first settled in 1823) replacing that
district's first Police Magistrate Jonathan Warner, who
was initially appointed as Visiting Police Magistrate
for the Brisbane Water district by notice in the Govt.
Gazette dated 22 Jan 1833, and resigned in August
1836 only nine months after his appointment as the
full-time Police Magistrate there was gazetted
29.
In 1836 the district had a total white population of 621 of
whom 459 were non-convict including 246 males aged
over 12 years
9.
Before the arrival of the first Police Magistrate it had
been administered by a Justice of the Peace who was a
local landowner acting as an unpaid magistrate with police
constables acting under his instructions
7,
8.
Within a few months of taking up the appointment
Faunce became a person of considerable notoriety in the
colony of New South Wales. Such arose from erroneous
decisions he made as Police Magistrate, when instead of
comprehending there was insufficient evidence of furtive
behavior to found a felony charge re a dead cow named
"Blindberry" and, accordingly dismissing allegations made
as being a long standing civil dispute over its ownership
and thus a matter outside his jurisdiction and in law
correctly a matter for resolution by way of an application
by the aggrieved party to the Court of Requests, he instead
committed for trial in the Supreme Court of NSW three
persons on charges of cattle stealing. One was Willoughby
Bean who had been the largest landowner in the district
and the person who as a Justice of the Peace and Magistrate
had administered the Brisbane Water district for most of
the decade before the appointment of the first Police
Magistrate. He later took an MA in England and became a
Church of England clergyman in Victoria. Another was
Henry Donnison J.P. who at that time was the only
other magistrate within 50 miles. Faunce held the three
for varying periods as prisoners in the local lockup secured
in leg-irons before sending them to Sydney to stand trial.
The ensuing
collection of criminal and civil court cases in 1837 and
1838, instigated by or involving the three persons committed
by Faunce, are collectively known as the "The Brisbane Water
cases" and were reported in great detail by the Sydney
newspapers of the day. Following determination of the felony
charges by not guilty verdicts all three successfully sued Alured
Faunce for illegal acts in their committal process and for their
subsequent without proper reason incarceration in leg-irons etc.
They were awarded damages respectively of £300,
£350 and £250 and total costs of £450.
In all the cases Faunce was represented without cost by
Crown law officers who included the Attorney-General. One
of the cases was
Bean v Faunce and another
Donnison
v Faunce. A subsequent plea by Faunce to the Governor Sir
Richard Bourke followed by two more in 1838 and 1840 to
the Secretary of State for Colonies in England, for relief
from the combined damages and costs amounting to £1350
awarded against him for acts done whilst in the employ of
the government, fell upon deaf ears with unbeknown to
Faunce in the case of his 1840 plea then NSW Governor
Sir George Gipps strongly recommending to England
that no reimbursement be granted
10, 11. Thus
Alured Faunce had to personally meet the full amounts
awarded. He also had to meet his and the plaintiff's costs in
another legal action taken against him by one of the three that
was settled out of court with him publicly apologising and
acknowledging on 21 April 1838 in a newspaper
advertisment he
had erred - for the case see
Moore v Faunce.
In newspaper reporting and editorial comment on the
cases Faunce was referred to as incompetent and an
imbecile etc. and a call was made for him to be required
to personally meet the damages awarded against him and
for his removal by the Governor from Brisbane Water to a
distant district. On 26 Oct 1837 the
Sydney Gazette
referred to him as a "holiday military captain" and said
he must be either "the victim of extraordinary mental
imbecility" or possessed of a "depraved state of feeling".
Continuing its campaign on 11 Nov 1837 the same newspaper
branded him "a man who has rendered himself so notorious
for magisterial delinquency and mental incapacity". In
March the next year Alured Faunce sued the publisher of
the
Sydney Gazette on two counts for defamatory
libels and sought £3000 damages. In summing up
to the Jury the Supreme Court Judge said the question for
it to determine was - did the newspaper articles complained
of fairly, freely, and candidly criticise the conduct of Alured
Faunce? After a mere three quarters of an hour retirement
the Jury found for the newspaper publisher on the first
count, and on the second for the plaintiff, awarding him
the smallest possible sum in damages of ONE FARTHING! -
see the online case report
Faunce
v Cavenagh, and for publications on the Brisbane
Water cases see footnote
12.
Queanbeyan Years
In response
to the newspaper campaign, and before Faunce instigated
his ill-advised libel action against the newspaper publisher,
he was replaced effective from late 1837 by Governor Bourke
as the police magistrate at Brisbane Water by Alfred Holden
the brother of George Kenyon Holden who from 1833 to
October 1937 was the Governor's private secretary, and
transferred to a newly created position as Police Magistrate
at Queanbeyan
13.
He thus became the first Police Magistrate at Queanbeyan.
By sending him to such a remote outpost Governor
Bourke was seemingly giving him a chance to make a second
start.
Faunce remained in the position of Police Magistrate
at Queanbeyan until 1842 when the position was abolished
due to budgetary constraints imposed by the non-elected
Legislative Council
14.
Subsequently through until at least 1848 his name appeared
on a list forwarded each January by the Governor of the colony
to the Secretary of State for Colonies in England of persons
who had lost positions as police magistrates through no fault
of their own and were considered suitable for re-employment
should the occasion arise
15.
However he failed to secure government employment again
during his lifetime. During the 1840s the use of paid police
magistrates became a political issue, with the large landowner
dominated Legislative Council taking the view that Justices
of the Peace acting as unpaid magistrates could cope with
a resulting saving to the public purse. The number of rural
police magistrates was progressively reduced from twenty-seven
to a mere seven. It was not until NSW gained responsible
government in 1856 that police magistrate numbers began to
increase and the position of Police Magistrate at Queanbeyan
was re-established with the appointment in 1857 of Charles E.
Newcombe
16, 17.
By then Alured Faunce was dead.
His five years as the Police Magistrate at Queanbeyan
were not without controversy which would not have endeared
him to the Governor Sir George Gipps as evidenced by
Gipps recommending he be given no reimbursement of the
damages and costs he incurred resulting from the Brisbane Water
cases. Several proposals he put to the Governor for public works
such as road building were turned down on grounds of being
extravagances etc. In early 1840 complaints to the Governor about
the administration of justice in the area, such as that half the
prisoners committed there between 14 June and the end of
December 1839 had escaped, were seized upon by the Faunce's
old adversary the Sydney press who demanded corrective action
be taken by the Governor
18.
Such resulted in the appointment on 15 Apr 1840 of two
Commissioners, Charles Windeyer and Samuel North, to investigate
and report. They commenced closed hearings in Queanbeyan on
18 May 1840 and continued daily until 3 June when no further
witnesses remained to be heard. On 11 June they reported that
of nine specific and three general accusations against Captain
Faunce only one had been founded in truth - that he had not
personally superintended floggings he had ordered. So he was
virtually exonerated on all charges, so much so that when it
published the full report one newspaper editor commented -
"On the whole we can congratulate Capt. Faunce on the result
of the inquiry". In the same edition, as well as in the
other principal newspaper of colony, there appeared a copy
of an address to him that had accompanied an inscribed piece
of silver plate with which he had been presented. The address
stated it had been signed by most of the residents of the
Queanbeyan district and expressed the signers high opinion of
Faunce's "public character"
19, 20.
In 1843,
when district councils first came into existence in the colony
twelve names including Faunce's were submitted to Governor
Gipps to select from to form a seven member Queanbeyan
Council. However Gipps ignored Faunce for membership, despite
one of those on the list whom Gipps sounded out as to his
willingness to preside as the Council Warden, in declining
the position for himself recommending Faunce as suitable for
the position due to the distinguishing qualities he had displayed
on the bench of "courtesy and evenness of temper"
21.
Two years later in 1845 the Governor, who was to leave the
colony in July 1846 and die in England 7 months later, must
have relented as the appointment was gazetted on 20 May
1845 of Faunce and another as Councillors for the District
of Queanbeyan to fill vacancies and both were reappointed
in the Govt. Gazette of 7 July 1849 to hold that office until
1 May 1852. In the Gazette of 21 Sep 1849 he was appointed
the district's Commissioner for Crown Lands and in the gazette
of 5 Dec 1851 was one of three at Queanbeyan appointed
as Commissioners of the Supreme Court for the taking of
affidavits and bail, and examination of witnesses.
Shortly
after his transfer to Queanbeyan Faunce purchased for
£202 10 shillings at a crown auction held on 14 Feb 1838
Lot 87 of 810 acres (5/- per acre) adjoining the southern
side of the town reserve along whose boundary is today located
Dodsworth Street that he named
‘Dodsworth’.
In the same issue of the NSW Govt. Gazette he was also
listed as purchasing at the auction for £253, also
at 5/- per acre, Lot 142 of 1012 acres at Windellama in the
parish of Yarralaw in the County of Argyle located in a
staight line about 68 kilometers NE of Queanberyan and
33 kilometers SW of Goulburn. In respect of both purchases
totalling £455 10 shillings the notice stated the purchase
price had been received. In 1940 the Govt. Gazette listed
the issue on 30 May 1840 of a deed for 1090 acres in the
parish of Cullulla in the County of Argyle adjoining the
southern boundary of the 1012 acres in Yarralaw, categorised
as a without competion retired officers purchase under the
regulations of 16 Feb 1835 for which he would have been
allowed a £150 remission of the purchase money
due to his rank of captain at retirement in 1836 and 12
years army service, and in respect of which there was a
mandatory two-year delay for deed issue. Thus it would
have been purchased about the same time as the
adjoining 1012 acre portion making an
aggregation
of 2102 acres with a 4 kilometre frontage to Windellama
Creek and in the northern portion, that in 2012 remained
unsubdivided, a double frontage to Buburba
Creek
28.
Alured Faunce is considered to have been the second person
to own land in the district
30.
Perhaps the 2102 acre pastoral holding in the County
of Argyle was sold following the loss in 1842 of the position
as the Police Magistrate at Queanbeyan and the "nipping frost"
of the depression in the colony that reached its height in
mid-1843 and reduced the financial standing of so many
with between 1842 and 1844 one in one hundred of the
population having their estate sequested under the
insolvency laws? The land purchases, only two months
before the insertion of the Moore case settlement apology
in the
Sydney Gazette newspaper of 21 April 1838,
indicate the claim in that issue he was about to resign
as Police Magistrate at Queanbeyan and return to
England had no substance. It may have even been a
case of the editor mischievously taking the opportunity
afforded by the apology to continue the paper's
campaign against him directed at bringing about the
scenario it foreshadowed !
Alured and Elizabeth's second child Anna Maria was born
at Queanbeyan on 30 Nov 1838 but died two months
later on 29 Jan 1839. This was before the Riverside
Cemetery was opened and her memorial stone is the
oldest in Queanbeyan. That same year 1839 Alured built
on the ‘Dodsworth’ property a palatial home
by the standards then applying in the area, in which his
widow Elizabeth who outlived six of her eleven children
and died in 1902, remained residing until 1870
27.
The earliest available statistics for the area are for 1842-43.
They show the Queanbeyan district then had a water-powered
flour mill. It was perhaps the water-powered mill Faunce
built on the ‘Dodsworth’ property that was
later converted to steam and over the years had several lessees
until it burnt down in 1881. In the early 1850s, in partnership
with a local shopkeeper, Faunce investigated mineral
deposits on ‘Dodsworth’ in an area that
became known as Primrose Valley that were later mined.
The Dodsworth name is perpetuated today in the name
of the precinct/suburb in Queanbeyan that incorporates
much of Faunce's original 810 acres. In 2003 the land
on which the 1839 built house stood until the 1960s
formed part of the Queanbeyan Golf Club
22.
Death
Alured Faunce died at Queanbeyan at 5 o'clock on 26 April 1856
aged 48 years, whilst playing the game of cricket he is credited
with being instrumental in introducing to the area, and
is buried in Queanbeyan Riverside Cemetery in Queanbeyan
where sons who died aged 14 and 15 are also buried.
A newspaper reported that as a member of the town team
he had been bowling and, while in the act of picking up the
ball and hitting the wicket, suddenly fell dead upon the
green so instantaneously that according to all present he
never moved a hand or foot
23, 24.
After his death a public subscription limited to ten
shillings ($1.00) per person was taken to erect a tablet
in his memory which is assumed to have been the one installed
in Christ Church where he worshipped
22.
In 2003 there was a project named ‘
the 12 Apostles’
directed at erecting twelve bronze sculptures in Queanbeyan
to commemorate six selected men and six women pioneers of
the district. The aim was to tell the story of the Queanbeyan
district before Canberra was chosen as the site of the
Federal Capital. Alured Faunce was one of the chosen twelve
and it was proposed to erect the sculpture commemorating him
on the once Market Reserve, now Elizabeth Park, opposite
to where he chased bushrangers after they had robbed Grey's
store and where he died whilst playing cricket
25.
§
SOURCES
1
Sydney Gazette, 9 Oct 1832 - of 443 tons, left Portsmouth
7 May 1832, arrived Sydney 7th Oct. (landed 9th). Pay Lists &
Muster Rolls for period from 1 Apr 1832 to 30 Sep 1832, 4th Regiment,
(AJCP
WO 12 films) reel #3697.
2 1826 British
Army Lists (microfilm)
3
Pay Lists & Muster Rolls for Qtr. ended 30 Sep 1834, 4th Regiment,
(AJCP WO 12 films) reel #3698.
4
NSW BDM Indexes V1835-1209-19 & NSW Registers
of Baptisms, Burials & Marriages - AONSW reel #5004
5
NSW BDM Index, V1833-378-17 & Registers of Births, Burials &
Marriages (AONSW) film reel # 5004. The father of Jessie Gordon was
recorded in the church parish baptism book as Alured Fonce - "Fonce"
being a phonetic rendering of Faunce.
6 Pay
Lists and Muster Roll for Qtr. ended 31 Mar. 1838 - 4th
Regiment, (AJCP WO 12 films reel #3699) - T. M.
Chambers appointed Captain by purchase from Alured
Faunce effective 7 Apr. 1837. See also 4th Reg't. Pay &
Muster Roll for June Qtr. 1837 for Depot at Chatham,
England that recorded - Thomas M. Chambers was promoted to
Captain by purchase vice Faunce Alured 7 Apr 1837 and embarked
for NSW on 13 May 1837.
Note:- various accounts
incorrectly state Alured Faunce was forced to sell his army
commission to pay the costs and damages awarded
against him in the Brisbane Water cases. However the sale of his
commission effective from 7 Apr 1837 and, the departure from
England of its purchaser for the colony six weeks later, could only
have been achieved if Faunce wrote to England to put the sale
in hand almost immediately upon his effective from 1 Oct 1836
appointment as Police Magistrate at Brisbane Water - some
nine months before the first of the damages cases came
before the Supreme Court!
7
Charles Swancott, The Brisbane Water Story, Parts 1 to 4
(1953),
Part 1, p. 28, 30
8
New
South Wales Government Gazette,
issue date 28 Sep 1836 - by notice dated 26 Sep 1836
appointed 1 Oct 1836.
9 Swancott,
Part 1, p. 28 - from a 1836 census of Brisbane Water
10
Swancott,
Part 4, p. 91
11
Historical
Records of Australia, Series 1 : Governors despatches to and from
England, (Comm. Gov't. 1924), Vol. 21, pp. 73-78, 372.
Includes the text of the second Faunce memorial addressed
to the Marquis of Normanby, Principal Secretary of State
for the Colonies. The first appeal for out of pocket costs
was refused by Lord Glenelg, and the second dated 13 Oct
1840 was refused by Lord John Russell in a dispatch to
Governor Sir George Gipps dated 26 May 1841. Russell refused
to vary the decision of his predecessor Glenelg on the ground
the earlier decision was made with "a full knowledge of all
the material facts". In respect of the 2nd application,
in a despatch to Lord Russell dated 16 Nov 1840 Gipps
recommended strongly against any reinbursement. Thus the
matter was ended. All up the 1837 & 1838 cases arising
from his autocratic actions at Brisbane Water would have
cost Alured Faunce at the least £1500 - which
equated to the total salary he received @ £250 P.A.
during the approx. six years he was a NSW Police
Magistrate - comprised of one year at Brisbane
Water followed by five at Queanbeyan.
12
Henry
Donnison, The Brisbane Water cases : being a narrative of the
trials of Mr. Bean, Mr. Donnison and Mr. Moore, and their ..... actions
against Captain Faunce; .... with remarks on the government of Sir
Richard Bourke ... by one of the party, (Sydney, 1838) of 89 pages.
See also: The Brisbane Water case 1837-8, P.E. Tabuteau (ed.),
Gosford District Local History Study Group, Narara, N.S.W.,
c1989 of 325 pages - incorporates the above cited 1838 Donnison
publication.
Note: URL addresses
change from time to time - the herein corporated links to the
Bean, Donnison, Moore & Cavenagh case reports are as
they were at Sep 2012 in a series titled "Decisions of the Superior
Counts of New South Wales 1788-1899" accessed from the
Macquarie University in Sydney Faculty of Arts home page
at a "Colonial Case Law" tab - see:
http://www.law.mq.edu.au/research/colonial_case_law/nsw/site/scnsw_home/
13
Ibid,
issue date 29 Nov 1837 - appointed by notice dated 28 Nov 1837.
14
Historical
Records of
Australia, Series 1, Vol. 23, p. 276 - Sir George
Gipps to Lord Stanley dated 31 Dec 1843 - re police magistrates
displaced post 1 Jan 1842, including five displaced at end
of 1842. One of those displaced post 1 Jan 1842 was the
police magistrate at Queanbeyan. Six more police magistrates
were to lose their jobs on 1 Jan 1844.
15
Ibid,
Vol. 26 - Governor's despatch dated 9 Jan 1848 (his name
appeared on similar annual lists from Jan 1843)
16
Hilary
Golder, Magistrate Records in New South Wales, 1788-1945, (1992, R.A.H.S.
Technical Information Series #30).
17 Errol Lea-Scarlett, Queanbeyan
District and People, (Queanbeyan
Municipal Council, 1968), p. 101.
18
An
example of complaints against
Faunce, for alleged poor administration of justice in Queanbeyan,
was a letter in The Sydney Herald Supplement of 9 Mar 1840.
It detailed several instances where floggings ordered by the bench
had not been carried out in full by the constables, such as 100
lashes ordered and only 75 given, and claimed in the last few
months two thirds of culprits committed for felony had "been
allowed to escape by drunken and imbecile constables". The
editor of the newspaper demanded "immediate attention" by the
Governor who responded a few weeks later by appointing the
two man Commission of Inquiry.
19
Report
of the Commission of
Inquiry into Administration of Justice at Queanbeyan, 11
June 1840 (AONSW 4/2507) - also
published in The Australian newspaper of
22 Aug 1840. Editorial comment and analysis of the Commission's report
appeared in the next issue of the same newspaper on 25 Aug 1840.
20
Errol Lea-Scarlett, Queanbeyan
District and People, (Queanbeyan
Municipal Council, 1968), p. 30.
21
Ibid p.
102. - on 3 Aug 1843 George Campbell of Queanbeyan wrote to
the Governor acknowledging and declining an offer of the office
of Warden of the district council as follows: -"I take the opportunity
to add that my opinion the courtesy and evenness of temper
which distinquished Captain Faunce as our Police Magistrate
would enable him to preside with much advantage over the District
Council".
22 Rex Cross & Bert Sheedy, Queanbeyan Pioneers -
First Study (Queanbeyan Books & Prints, 1983),
pp. 216-218.
23
Captain Alured Tasker Faunce of Queanbeyan 1837-1856 and
Rev. Canon Alured Dodsworth Faunce of Queanbeyan and Yass
1840-1910, 9 pages, by Dr. Marcus Delaune Faunce
(Canberra & District Historical Society, 1962)
24 The Sydney Herald,
3 May 1856, Deaths - Very
suddenly, at Queanbeyan, on Saturday, the 26th April, in
the forty-eighth year of his age, Alured Tasker Faunce,
formerly Captain of her Majesty's Fourth Regiment, or
King's Own. Eldest son of the Late Major-General Faunce,
CB, of Clifton, near Bristol, England.
25
Email dated 9 Dec 2003 from Connie-Colleen of the Queanbeyan 12
Apostles HAPI Project Committee advising details of a proposed
"Queanbeyan 66 Pioneers" book and associated "12 Apostles"
commemorative sculptures project (Note: as at 2012 this project
had not proceeded further than the erection of the first of the
proposed memorials).
26
The 11 children in birth order were as follows:-
Charlotte (1836-1913) Ryrie; Anna Maria (1838-1839);
Alured Dodsworth (1840-1910); Ellen Eliza (1842-1902) Ryrie;
Maria Elizabeth (1844-1852); Granville (1845-1859);
Thomas Tasker (1847-1930); Kenneth McKenzie (1847-1917);
Arthur Barrell (1851-1934); Edmund Barrell (1854-1889);
Richard Alma (1855-1871).
27
opt cit. Rex Cross & Bert Sheedy - gave 1870 as the
year Elizabeth Faunce left ‘Dodsworth’.
On 8 Sep 1872 The Maitland Mercury, reporting on
a accident in Queanbeyan, mentioned ‘Dodsworth’
was the residence of Samuel Taylor. When Taylor died in 1909
his obituary mentioned he settled in the Queanbeyan district
in 1852 and resided at ‘Dodsworth’ "for a while"
before moving to Wanna Wanna. An advert. in the Qu. Age
on 8 Sep 1909 gave A. Trewenack as the then owner.
In respect of Elizabeth's
departure the authors Cross & Sheedy at p. 189 wrote - "On Dodsworth
there was a steam-mill which Mrs Faunce tried to make successful
with the aid of her brother, John Mackenzie, but she was finally
obliged to abandon the attempt and lease it out. Before she left
Dodsworth in 1870 she faced dual trials in the failure of the mill
and the necessity of selling many household treasures including the
prized Collard piano." At page 217 re ‘Dodsworth’ it
was stated "In later years Captain Faunce added a portion of
land bounded by Queanbeyan River and Isabella Street to his
Dodsworth Estate. It was purchased by Judge Callaghan in
1862 on which he built his home. Today (Ed. i.e. 1983) the site
is occupied by both the old cottage and St Benedict's Convent."
On 15 Aug 1871 the Sydney Morning Herald, reporting
the death of the "youngest son of the late Captain Faunce of
Dodsworth" Richard Alma from rheumatic fever, gave his place
of death only as Queanbeyan.
28 The purchase of
‘Dodsworth’ of 810 acres in the County of Murray at
an auction of crown land held on 14 Feb 1838 was gazetted
in the NSW Govt. Gazette of 11 Apr 1838. In the same issue
was also gazetted a purchase at the auction of 1012 acres
in the adjoining County of Argyle. The issue of a deed dated
30 May 1840 was listed on page 1289 in Govt. Gazette of
28 Nov 1840 for 1090 acres in the County of Argyle - being
designated a retired officers purchase under the regulations
of 16 Feb 1835. On 2 Jan 1838 a purchase by Faunce of 25
acres for £40 in the County of Northumberland
(Brisbane Water was located in that county) was gazetted,
and on 6 Feb 1849 were gazetted pre-emptive leases near
Queanbeyan of two parcels each of 640 acres and 960 acres
for which the pre-emptive right would have arisen from
Faunce's earlier 810 acre ‘Dodsworth’
purchase.
29
The Sydney Gazette 27 Aug 1836 - Brisbane Water
(from a corrrespondent.)
From a petition which is going
around the district of Brisbane Water, it appears the present Police
Magistrate, Jonathon Warner Esq. J.P. has resigned the office, and
that a certain induvidual well known to our Sydney Merchants, and
the Supreme Court Baliffs, whose name is retained in the
commission, is using his influence with the inhabitants, who are all
such settlers, to effect if possible the re-appointment of an ex J.P. of
Darling's.
As Brisbane Water, though
not very populous, is the middle station between the Hunter and
Sydney, and a place of continual traffic in timber, shingles, shells, lime,
and various produce - numerous sawyers, shingles splitters, and
boatmen, besides runaways FREE as well as bond, congregating
there - it is to be hoped His Excellency will have authentic information
as to the competency of Mr. Warner's successor.
The district unfortunately
has few respectable residents, and the selection of a Police Magistrate,
if from the quarter itself, must be made notoriously disqualified, both
by their character and conduct ; or from others, whose education and
habits would also incapacitate them for so important an office.
The readers of the Sydney
Journals, no doubt remember the numerous instances of manslaughter
and deaths, under very suspicious circumstances, which have occurred
almost yearly : in how few of them the perpetrators have been brought
to justice ! Mr. Warner's presence, and his known reputation, as an
active and intelligent magistrate, has had a good effect, but of short
duration. His retirement is therefore a matter of regret to several
especially as an attempt is in progress to hoodwink His Excellency, and
revive an influence which it is known is opposed not only to the interests
of justice, but to the moral condition of civilized man.
If Mr. Warner has resigned,
we regret to hear it, as a more zealous, honest, and efficient
Magistrate was not to be met with in any part of the Colony. The
office of Police Magistrate involves very peculiar and onerous duties.
We hope sufficient inducements will be held out by the Goverment
to Mr. W. to continue in office.
30
Windellama News, Vol. 16, No. 5 June 2012, article by
Tom Bryant of the Windellama Historical Society Inc. titled
"The Discovery of Windellama" - The Alured Faunce 2102
acre purchase at Windellama took place only 20 years after
a white man first set foot in the district in 1818, and he is
believed to have been the second landowner in the district after
Joseph Inch at Jacqua who was listed there in the 1828 census
and 1832 postal directory. It was said on 2 April 1818 an
exploration party, comprising James Meehan, Hamiltion Hume
and several other men, crossed Windellama Creek where
Buburba Creek joins it on the Faunce land and camped the
night near the junction before setting out the next day in a
westerly direction to reach Lake Bathhurst. This was two
years before a white man crossed the site of Goulburn,
as whilst on the return journey to Sydney the party passed
quite close to the Goulburn area, it did nor actually set foot
on the site of the Goulburn of today. (references in the article
were - James Meehan’s Journal 1818 & RAHS Journal
Vol. VII Part V, 1921).
31
Alan Delaune Faunce, A family that went out to the world :
the story of the Faunces of Kent (1993) - an upublished
114 page narrative tracing the Faunces of Cliffe in Kent
through four hundred years and fourteen generations.
The following is a précis of part of the narrative, with
comment by the compiler, re the origin of the Faunce
surname:
The surname may have come
from ‘fens’ or ‘fans’ (Old English)
meaning a marshy place or ‘fons’ or
‘font’ (Norman-French) meaning a spring or
fountain. However nothing in the narrative supports a
claim noted in some writings and on web pages that the
Faunces were Huguenot émigrés. Huguenot's fleeing
religious persecution in France did arrive on the Kent coast
during the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553), who granted
the many who settled in Canterbury the whole of the
western crypt of Canterbury Cathedral for worship, but
there is no record to establish the Faunces who settled
in that time frame at Cliffe in Kent and then in Rochester
were Huguenot's. It seems likely the claim they were
arose from the 1758 joining in marriage of Mary Faunce
(1738-1839) with the Delaune family of ‘Sharstead Court’
near Newnham in Kent who came to England in the
late 16th century and whose origins were Huguenot.
It was through Mary that Sharstead came into the
possession of the Faunce family where it remained until
1949.
Medieval records list a variety of
spellings such as Fawns, Founs, Fance etc. that may have
evolved into Faunce. Suggested in the narrative is a
Faunce may have crossed the channel with the Norman
conquerors but that such can only be speculation as the
ancestors of 20th century Faunces have only been
traced with certainty to the 16th century. Writers
on surname origins say the Faunce name is first found
in Devonshire where they were anciently seated, and
they are believed to have been originally from Saxby
Saphy in Worcestershire about 1000 AD, and in the 12th
century the name was first referenced in Plymouth
where they held estates. Towards the end of the 15th
century Rochester Consistory Court registered the will
of a Simon le Fawnce of Gravesend and, according to
Burke's Landed Gentry, a Faunce first settled in Kent
during the reign of Edward VI (1547-53) and possessed
estates in Rochester, Cliffe and other parishes. The
Australian family founded by Alured traces back in Kent
with certainty to the village of Cliffe on Hoo Peninsular
near the mouth of the Thames, five miles north of
Rochester, where St. Helen’s Church houses the earliest
known tangible record of the family in the form of an
inscribed board referring to charitable bequests in the
will of Thomas Faunce (1525-1609) and his son Bonham
who died in 1652 and brass memorials in the church
marking their graves. §
