Frances (Fanny) Barbara GLASCOTT [23797]

  General Notes:

Frances Barbra Glascott
Gender: Female
Birth Date: 15 Sep 1820
Baptism Date: 18 Sep 1820
Baptism Place: Saint Mary,Swansea,Glamorgan,Wales
Father: William Glascott
Mother: Frances
FHL Film Number: 104493, 104494, 104495, 104496, 104497


RGD Deaths Launceston, 19 Jan 1848 no. 911.
Sarah Williamson and her sister Frances (Miss Fanny) Glascott were born in Swansea, Wales. Daughters of a military officer, the young women arrived in Tasmania in 1839. After her sister Sarah's death in 1848 Frances accompanied her brother-in-law William Williamson to Victoria, where she died two years later.
Ref: https://australiana.org.au/resources/magazine_issues/95_August_2002_Vol_24_No_3.pdf

My Dr Sir,
This will be handed to you by Miss Fanny¹ who could as well recommend to your kind patronage the individual who solicits my recommendation to you as I can by complying with his request. The person I have referred to is Mr. Strange a portrait painter, he is badly off and from the specimens I have seen of his abilities in his profession only requires to be known to be
patronized. . . . . .
William Williamson.

1. Miss Fanny 'who could as well recommend' Frederick Strange, was letter writer William Williamson's sister-in-law Frances Glascott. When William Williamson married Sarah Glascott in 1843, one of the witnesses was John Nicolson (Plate 4).
Ref: https://australiana.org.au/resources/magazine_issues/95_August_2002_Vol_24_No_3.pdf

Frances Barbara Glascott
Death Registration Year: 1850
Death Registration Place: Victoria, Australia
Reference Number: 2243

Franels Barbara Glascott
Birth Year: abt 1820
Age: 30
Death Place: Melbourne, Victoria
Registration Year: 1850
Registration Place: Victoria
Registration Number: 33643

  Other Records

1. Harriet Bridges: Letter to Miss Frances (Fanny) Glasscott in Tasmania about Fanny Torlesse [145], Mar 1845, Colchester post mark.
Liveing Archive 246a-f
This letter needs careful analysis as to its placement, see also Harriett Bridges [1634]

Copy of letter to my Great Aunt Frances MT¹
Please return 2
F H Torlesse²
23 Bultancy [?] Road
St Leonards on Sea.

(Postmark) Colchester

March 1845
My dear Miss Glascott³,
I shall not attempt to tell you the amount of self-reproach my silence towards you and your sister has occasioned me. Again & again I have lost favourable opportunities of doing so, because at the time they occurred, I happened to have engagements upon my hands which entirely prevented my availing myself of them. I tell myself I might have written, as I am now about to do by the common means of communication & it is the neglect of this which causes me real compunction. I know you have heard and I hope more than once from dear Fanny (Torlesse) and that before, long before, this reaches you, you will have received intelligence of the most satisfactory kind respecting her, from her truly kind & affectionate friend Mrs Fergusson, and I believe it is this which has tended to keep my conscience less awake than it ought to have been. I trust, however, you will forgive me and give me credit for no diminution of regard towards those kind and tender friends of my beloved brother who ministered so faithfully to his comforts, and necessities during his long and heavy affliction and who soothed his dying bed by their love for his dear child. Your last letter to Fan. which she forwarded to me, and which I fancy she lost no time in answering, must have been equally grateful to her as to myself, inasmuch as it assured me that the dear girl has still a warm place in your hearts - for I include your sister as well as yourself - tho' I only address one - I know not whether my brother Chas or Mrs. Torlesse have written to you as well as Fanny. I am sure if they have not, it has only been caused by a great press of engagements - for their hands - like mine - are always full - and at this Season of the year especially - when the many wants of our poor people fall heavily upon the time as well as in other ways upon their clergyman, and have but scanty opportunities for correspondence. I daresay that what my letter may contain you may already have heard and perhaps with more detail. But I am sure you will not object to hear the same story twice told - when it relates to your late dear little charge - you are I think in possession of the reasons which determined us after much consideration and not without considerable regret on my part to fix upon Stoke as her home, though I feel as well as my brother - quite a joint interest in all that concerns her - and they are only too kind in consulting me on every detail. We have every reason to believe that our decision is the best which could have been made. The chief reason which determined us against Newton was the want of
companionship - our little girl being nearly 5 years younger than herself - whereas at Stoke - she has all the advantages of a first rate school without it's evils - We have been greatly blessed in our search for a governess - under whose conscientious care dear Fanny and her cousins are deriving daily improvement.
I have not yet seen this lady, as she was out when we last went to Stoke, for a few days. But Mrs. Torlesse is much pleased with her management of the children - and with the improvement they are making - and in the very last note I had she says - "Fanny has really been a very good and diligent child - and has been working hard" This is earticularly encouraging - because from the very long interval which unavoidably occurred since her education had been going on - under your kind care - she had got into desultory habits, and found it most difficult to apply herself to anything which required thought. She is certainly a remarkably sweet & most attractive child, and we cannot be too thankful that she was consigned to such hands during her long voyage to England - wnen she might have been permanently injured by flattery - or evil examples - whereas - all she seems to have heard and seen, was of a kind to strengthen right feelings and principles - and with the exception of Miss . . . . . to whose care she was especially consigned, everyone on board seems to have been kind and helpful to her. Truly we may say that "the Lord took her up" when her dear Father & Mother were so early removed from her - and I do trust that she may be trained and devoted to His Service - and if spared - may prove that the Seed so carefully sown, has not been in vain. Her attachment to her beloved Tasmania often makes us smile - and at first she was so jealously fond of everything relating to it, as really to prevent her finding room in her heart for anything English - Now, tho' I do not think see is a wit less fond of her native land - she is becoming a little more expansive, and I hope will feel less of a stranger among us - not that she is in the least shy or depressed. There is seldom a cloud upon her brow and we have often thought it remarkable that she takes her part and lot with her cousins so cheerfully, and merrily - and not in the least as if she had been a single child - at the same time, tho' they agree very nicely - the rubbing together is very useful, as it teaches many little lessons of mutual forbearance and self denial which could not otherwise be learnt. Her uncle Torlesse is extremely fond of her, and from the first she seems to have attached herself to him more than to anyone of her new friends. I wish my dear Miss Glascott you and your sister could peep in upon your little Fan and see how she is going on. She has a decided taste for music and will sing very sweetly. It comforts me to think that the "one thing needful" is put in it's right place by Miss Burrow the governess - and I feel persuaded that dearest Henry, could he have foreseen the arrangements which have been made, would have been thoroughly satisfied. The only persons not satisfied are my two boys, who think it a "great shame that Fanny should be more at Stoke than at Newton"! I hope Miss Burrow will consent to her pupils having a holiday at Easter when we have begged Mr Torlesse to let Fan come here. She is grown so plump since coming to England, that it mekes us less aware of her growth in height, and she certainly has grown - but her cousins are all tall, so that is another reason for our not being aware of it. I do not think she will forget her early friends, tho' we all know that the impressions of childhood are not deep and lasting. as they become in afterlife, and that the buoyancy and light heartedness of youth naturally fills up the . . . . . made, and at the time deeply felt in the heart, by the heaviest bereavement. It is our earnest wish that she should continue to correspond statedly (sic) with you, and I feel assured that you will do the same toward her - I know she has an interest in your prayers and we never cease to pray that she may indeed
and in truth be a child of God - that all that is so amiable and so lovely in her may be consecrated to His service - Who died for her.
My dear brother, I imagine often talked to you in the warmth of his affectionate heart about all his English relatives, so that I fancy you know all about us, and will be interested in hearing that through God's great mercy we are all well, both at Stoke and Newton . Our little solitary girl Anna Maria pined so for a companion - that we have succeeded in getting one for a few months, the child of dear friends at Ipswich, just her own age - and the effect is most salutary in every way. Our youngest child, about 20 months old is a source of great interest to us all, and not the least so to his two elder brothers, when they are at home for the holidays. This has been a sharp, long winter for them but they have enjoyed excellent health and seem very happy. It is now the 8th of March, the ground thickly covered with snow and sharp frosts every night, a most unusual thing at this season of the year for snow to continue for weeks on the ground, as it has now done - And now my dear Miss Glascott, I think you will be tired of my long letter - I cannot describe the strange and sad feeling, (yet unmixed with anything like repining) to write to Van Diemen's Land, and not to my dear brother -. Mr Bridges desires his kind regards. Pray give them to your sister and to all who loved, and were kind to dearest Henry.
Believe me your truly affectionate friend,
Harriet Bridges.
P.S.
I must not omit to mention Fanny's dear Aunt Davies tho' her health and distance have prevented them yet meeting - feels the liveliest interest in, and affection for the dear child. I wonder whether you have any means of ascertaining the fate of a young man who was transported to Van Dieman's Land from our parish last Sept. for house breaking. His mother is almost broken-hearted and to pacify her I told her I would make every enquiry I could. The ship in which he sailed was the "SIR ROBERT PEEL" Convict ship - bound, I suppose - to Hobart Town - but this, the governor of the prison to whom Mr. B. wrote did not mention. The poor young man's name is Osborne - It was his first offence, owing, I fear, to having indulged in bad company. He has a good father, but since his death, has been left to do as he pleased. He is banished for ten years. His companion and tutor in crime was a wretched fellow of the name of . . . . . transported for 15 years. If anything could be heard of them which I could tell the poor mother, I should be so glad.

Addressed to
Miss Glascott³
Wm. Williamson Esq⁴.,
Victoria House,
Launceston.
Van Dieman's Land.

1. This may be May (Mary) Torlesse [1765]
2. Taken to be Frances Harriet Torlesse [1681] author of Bygone Days, and presumed that she transcribed it, but questions remain.
3. Frances (Fanny) B Glascott [23797] Frances Glascott was unmarried,her sister Sarah married in 1845.
4. William Williamson [23781] was the husband of Sarah Glascott, they married in 1843