John HAWTHORNE [21888]

   Cause of his death was consumption.

  General Notes:

John was a clerk in the Government Offices in Hobart Tasmania
Liveing Archive IMG 2908

Deaths
Hawthoran, John
Age: 23
Date of burial: 14 Jul 1835
Registered: Hobart
Registration year: 1835
RGD34/1/1 no 3939
This is most likely to be John inspite of the wrong spelling.

  Research Notes:

1823
Hon. Capt. William Langdon RN received a grant of 1,500 acres on the Clyde River, which he called Montacute after his village in Somerset, England (Montacute was for a time managed by Henry Boden Torlesse). He settled permanently in Tasmania in 1834. He later became a member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council. To him also belongs the dubious honour of having introduced the blackbird to Tasmania.
William Langdon http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/langdon-william-2327

  Other Records

1. Letter by John Hawthorne: to Mrs Anna Maria Torlesse nee Robinson, 24 Sep 1833 received May 1834, Hobart Town Vandiemens Land.
Liveing Archive 184a-d LT14
Part 1.

2. Letter by John Hawthorne: to Mrs Anna Maria Torlesse nee Robinson, 24 Sep 1833 received May 1834, Hobart Town Vandiemens Land.
Liveing Archive 184e-g LT14
Part 2.

Hobart Town Vandiemens Land
24 Sept 1833.
My dear Mrs Torlesse.
I have just this moment received by post from Henry your favour of 27th Feby last for which allow me to express to you my sincere thanks. I should have received it much sooner but that the case in which it was sent went direct from Town to Henry's residence, and was transmitted by him to me. Allow me to express my best thanks for the trouble you have taken in my behalf respecting a violin. I will endeavour to entrust some person who may be going home from here with a Commission to purchase one for me, and I know no person in London to whom I could write. Anything in the shape of a violin would be very acceptable to me here, as few good ones are in the Island and one that would cost £10 in England would fetch 40 to 50 here. You mentioned in your letter about the box of birds etc. The facts are these that at the time I was staying with Henry I sent the box to Hobart Town to be shipped in a vessel bound for Great Britain to a Gentleman who acted as Agent for Shipping, requesting him to forward it as soon as possible and which he promised to do.
Page 2.
Judge of my surprise in 12 months afterwards to find the identical Box in the Store into which it had been put! I was very much annoyed about it and immediately examined it, but owing to its having been kept in some very damp place, the birds etc were spoiled. However you may depend upon my sending you by the very first opportunity a still better collection than the one alluded to. Long ere this, you will have heard of Henry's having sold his farm, which is my opinion and under existing circumstances was highly advisable. Col Arthur at the time prevented his going home by holding out to him the hope of making him Police Magistrate, besides, owing to the legislation now in force, those who get maximum grants, free of Quit Rent as Henry's was are obliged to hold them seven years before they can dispose of them, and moreover the Governor can compel half pay offices to remain seven years upon their Grants so circumstanced or else they forfeit the Land with all the improvements etc. These considerations Kept Henry in the Colony, otherwise he would have been in England before now. He expected daily the appointment of Police Magistrate at Hamilton a township on the Clyde within 5 miles of Rathmore where he now resides, and in fact is doing the duty without pay, which will be worth £400 a year to him.
This with his half pay will enable him to live very
Page 3.
comfortably, and will in every respect be better for him than to be continually annoyed with farming and its no (sic) very pleasant concomitants. Henry will of course in his letter explain more fully than I can how he is at present encircumstanced. Allow me to express my most sincere thanks for your kind wishes as regards my health, which I am happy to say has much improved since I last wrote to you. I have been in office now for upwards of 12 months in a department of the Revenue, but the moment Henry gets the appointment at Hamilton I will endeavour to be made his clerk, which, although not so lucrative a situation as my present one, will be infinitely more pleasant, being such as will enable me to enjoy his Society daily, whereas now I am sometimes for months together and do not see him. We are separated by a distance of 44 miles but correspond regularly by every Post. The number of immigrants who have arrived lately is really astonishing. They are all of the very poorest class of personnel in England Scotland and Ireland and there visiting us is only entailing upon us, misery and wretchedness. The scheme of sending out paupers, and pensioners has had a very bad tendency and if persevered with will cause us to be as badly off as England is at this moment. As for the pensioners sent here by the Government they are completely useless. They can do nothing beneficial to the community being all old, worn out men, unfit for any labours or active employment and men whose former habits of life precluded . . . . .
The letter is unsigned the remainder missing but the writing of John Hawthorne on his sketch matches.

3. Letter by John Hawthorne: to Mrs Anna Maria Torlesse nee Robinson, 24 Sep 1833 received May 1834, Hobart Town Vandiemens Land.
Liveing Archive 184g-j LT14
Part 3.

John sketched two scenes from Van Diemens Land (Tasmania) familiar to him, one of Montacute a property near Bothwell, and Ross Bridge in central Tasmania.

His notes to his pictures are:
"A view of Montacute, the present residence of Lieutenant Torlesse RN¹ taken from the road leading to the house, from Spring Hill. You see the side of the house it is verandahed all round near it stands the kitchen and mens sleeping rooms. To the left close to the fence Is the Stone Barn. The house is placed in a ravine and is very unsafe to live in, the aboriginals being very plentiful all year round, in the neighbourhood. Kangaroos abound here.
Sketched from memory by
J H 23 July/30.
All allowances must be made for my ignorance in drawing - I never had a lesson in perspective.

Ross Bridge is 70 miles from Hobart town and is a most delightful place - this is considered a very correct view - you must make allowances considering that it was done by me
J H
Mrs Torlesse.

Footnote
1. His brother-in-law, see [1622] Henry Boden Torlesse.