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Dan Desbois (1836-1898) - A Life of Spiritual, Educational & Military Service

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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

Title:	Dan Desbois (1836-1898) - A Life of Spiritual, Educational & Military Service
Author:	Geoffrey Robert Morgan 1945-
Published	Bardon: Geoffrey R Morgan
ISBN:	978-0-646-58642-7
Target Audience:	Family & Local Historians
Subjects:	Desbois, Dan, 1836-1898
	Teachers – Queensland – Biography
	Missionaries – New Zealand – Biography
	Clergymen – Queensland - Biography
	Soldiers – Queensland - Biography
Dewey Number:	371.10092

Published with the assistance of Love of Books
(www.loveofbooks.com.au)

Cover Design: Jai Johannessen

Photographs

Photo 7: Thomas Hanlon’s Ferry Hotel, Albert River, Yatala, on the road south to Nerang (c1872)

Photo 10: St Mark’s Church, Warwick, with the Church of England Non- vested School on the left in the original church building (c1872)

Maps

Preface

The following story of the life of my g-grandfather, Dan Desbois (b. 1836), with his wife Mary (b. 1844) and their eight children, is written 114 years after Dan’s death in 1898. Regardless of this gap in time, and the paucity of information about Dan and his immediate family held by his descendants, the intention is to provide as comprehensive a record as possible, based primarily on original records.

Such an approach has the advantage of firmly embedding Dan’s story into the historical record. However, by the very nature of the official records that remain, this story is principally one of his professional lives, first as a clergyman and later as a school teacher. Aspects of his community involvement, particularly as a Volunteer in the Queensland Defence Force, are also considered. Nonetheless, many of these records do provide insights into issues related to his personal life and to that of his family.

It is hoped that the reader will find this account of Dan’s life interesting and informative, irrespective of whether the reader is a family member or one interested in history more generally.

Abbreviations

^* Daniel Evans was known as Dan throughout his life. However, to save confusion with his father he is referred to as Daniel in this story.

Acknowledgements

Writing a book such as this requires the assistance of many. Some are solely email contacts who unexpectedly volunteered information and a preparedness to retrieve records from such places as Archives New Zealand in Wellington and the SPCK Archives, Cambridge University Library, England. Their offers of help are greatly valued.

John Oxley Library and the Anglican Records and Archives Centre in Brisbane, Queensland; also to the staff of the Canterbury Cathedral Archives in Canterbury, England. Accessing the many relevant documents would have been impossible without their assistance. In addition, my appreciation to the Queensland Health officials who enabled access to Dan’s medical records under Queensland’s Right to Information legislation; my thanks also to members of the Beenleigh Historical Village and Museum for their assistance.

To Dan Desbois’ descendants who contributed towards his story I also extend my appreciation, particularly for their provision of photos and newspaper clippings – to Clive Desbois (photos of Dan and Louis Desbois); Marie Desbois (photos and information regarding St George’s Church, Beenleigh); Don Hayne (photo of Daniel Evans Desbois, and information about family heirlooms); and Roger Wilson (photos of Dan and Mary, and family letters). Other photos of members of the Desbois family in this book are in the author’s possession – photos handed down from Dan and Mary’s daughter Ruth.

Essential to finalising this book was the proof-reading performed by my wife, Lena, and Richard Christiansen. Tom Mulhall’s comments on the initial draft were very helpful.

My appreciation is also extended to the staff of Love of Books, particularly to Julie and Ocean, for their support and assistance in overseeing this book’s publication.

Dan Desbois: An Introduction

Dan Desbois was ‘a short stout thickset man with [a] florid complexion blue eyes & reddish hair & beard turning grey’.¹ This brief physical description of Dan was recorded when he was admitted to the Goodna Asylum for the mentally ill, south-west of Brisbane, Queensland, on 9 December 1896. He was sixty years of age and suffering from dementia. Such a deterioration in mental acuity is tragic for any person of any age to experience, but particularly so for one at such a relatively young age and for whom knowledge, logical thinking and clear expressive language were the cornerstones of his roles in life. His admission to the asylum marked the end of a life-time of care for his family, and of his spiritual and educational services to the New Zealand and Queensland communities in which he lived. Dan’s life ended early in the morning of Wednesday 24 August 1898, twenty months after entering the asylum. He died from pneumonia and bronchitis, subsequent to a rapid deterioration in his health during the preceding few weeks.²

In a letter to Dan’s alma mater – St Augustine’s College in Canterbury, England – in which he informed the warden of Dan’s death, his younger brother Edwin noted,

[Dan] had given himself much to the study of Mathematics as a recreation, and had been employed to set papers for the examination of candidates for School Teacherships, he also wrote for some of the QSland papers, and one of the articles on the Sugar Industry of Qsland, appeared in The Times [London].³

At his death Dan’s remaining possessions were few. However, not unexpectedly for a man who had spent his life first as a member of the cloth and later as a school teacher, his most valuable possession, in monetary terms at least, was his library. This was a collection of eighty-nine books, which included volumes on mathematics, religion, philosophy, history and science (see Appendix 5). The books were valued at between fifty and one hundred pounds by his son-in-law, Charles William House Morgan.⁴

Besides a few personal effects, Dan left behind a grey horse named Bob, ‘handed at 22’,⁵ and, most importantly, his family of four sons – Daniel, Gerald, Godfrey and Louis – and two daughters – Alice and Ruth (see Appendices 3 and 6). Another son, Hugh, had predeceased Dan in 1893, as had a daughter, Janet, in 1870. Sadly, she had survived for only a few months in the year before the family migrated to Queensland from New Zealand. Dan’s wife, Mary (nee Pritchett), died eighteen years earlier. In her final years Mary suffered severe epileptic fits that would have placed severe strain on all in the family, but particularly Dan. Her death left him with seven children, ranging in ages from one to fifteen years, to rear single-handedly. At that time he was Head Teacher at the Warwick East State School.

Eight days prior to his admission into the Goodna Asylum he had been ‘forced’ to relinquish his position^* as Head Teacher at the Eton State School, west of Mackay. This followed an investigation by the local District Inspector of Schools into formal complaints made against him by the parents of children attending the school.

[However, the Civil Service Board granted Dan] leave of absence on full salary for three months from the 1st December, 1896, on the understanding that [he] retire from the service at the end of such leave, viz 28th February, 1897. [He was] required to send in [his] resignation to take effect from the date in question.⁶

Dan’s life coincided with most of Queen Victoria’s reign over the United Kingdom and the British Empire (1837-1901). His life story begins in England and encompasses two of Britain’s colonies – New Zealand and Queensland. For this account of Dan’s life, his journey through five time-periods is considered:

During these periods he faced the many hardships of colonial life, personal losses with the deaths of his wife and two children, bankruptcy, dismissal from the Defence Force of the Colony in 1886, and his ‘forced’ resignation from the Department of Public Instruction. However, in the face of these adversities Dan showed resilience and fortitude in keeping his family together, and at times demonstrated thinking that likely would have been in conflict with the prevailing beliefs of the time, particularly through the stances he took in the press on a wide range of issues. Such may have resulted in his being described as ‘very eccentric’ by Mr Murray,^* the East Moreton Police Magistrate at the time of his death.⁷ But did Dan suffer from ‘delusions of persecution’ as also asserted by Mr Murray?

^* Dan’s file with the Department of Public Instruction contains the annotation: To retire from the Service at end of leave 28 Feb. 1897 (Ex. min. 10.47.96) – Lunacy. (QSA Item ID9563, Register – Teachers)

¹ QSA Series ID 9051, Case Books, p. 26. Photo 1: Dan Desbois (c1870). Original held by Roger Wilson.

² QSA Item ID1353247, Insanity file. CF Pascoe, Two Hundred Years of the SPG: An historical account of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1701-1900, London, Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), 1901, p. 930.

³ Edwin Desbois, Letter to St Augustine’s College, 4 June 1899, Canterbury Cathedral Archives, CCA-U88/A2/6C/256, File of Letters (1859-1899).

⁴ Constable M Griffin, Eton Police Station, Letter to Sub-Inspector Savage, Mackay, 12 May 1897, QSA Item ID1353247, Insanity file.

⁶ Undersecretary of the Department of Public Instruction, Memo to Dan Desbois, 11 December 1896, QSA Item ID1353247, Insanity file.

^* George Poulteney Malcolm Murray – Police Magistrate in Warwick (1877-1882); this period coincided with Dan’s second posting to Warwick from 1878 to 1886. Murray was appointed to the East Moreton District in 1891.

However, the Magisterial Inquiry into Dan’s death was conducted by Police Magistrate William Yaldwyn (Death Certificate, Queensland – Dan Desbois, 1898/3924 4428).

Period 1:

Dan’s Formative Years (1836-1863)

Family Background

Little is known in detail about Dan’s early years. He was born to Susanna (nee Evans, 1816-1893) and Daniel (1809-1885) on 3 July 1836.¹ His baptism took place on the seventh of October of that year in the Parish of St Mary, Islington. At that time the family lived in Bride Street, Islington West.² However, by the date of the 1851 Census for England the family had moved to 9 Gray’s Inn Passage, Holborn, where Dan’s father conducted his watch and clock manufacturing business.

Not only was he the only son to leave England for a life in the colonies, but, most significantly as the eldest child, he turned his back on the family business. This was despite having begun his working life as a watchmaker- finisher by the time he was fourteen years of age,³ in all probability an apprentice to his father. Although Dan was the eldest child, he was not mentioned in his father’s will,^* but then neither were the youngest two of his four brothers, Alfred (1843-1907) and Clement (1847-1911)⁴ (see Appendix 1 – Chart 1). On 16 April 1872 their father had entered into a partnership with Dan’s other two brothers, Albert (1838-1927) and Edwin (1841-1917) to form Daniel Desbois & Sons.

Dan’s third great-grandfather, Lazarus Desbois (1670-1734), was a Huguenot. A book tracing Lazarus’ descendants, written for the family in 1903, suggests that Lazarus, with his mother Lazarin Paulet (Poulett), took refuge in the Convent of St Lazare in Autun, Burgundy, after the death of his father, Emiland (‘Millan’), in 1679.⁵ However, no evidence to support the existence of this convent has been discovered. It is more likely that the convent was Les Ursulines, this being the name of the convent within a street block of the Cathedral of St Lazare in the late seventeenth century.⁶

Nevertheless, Lazarus, who was not enamoured with a monastic life, moved to Paris when he was about sixteen years of age; there he became an apprentice to a master joiner. It was during this period that his involvement with members of the Protestant community began. Subsequently, through neglecting to attend confession and mass in the Catholic Church it became dangerous for him to remain in the city.⁷ Lazarus arrived in London in 1699, after having spent seven years in Amsterdam. During this time he ‘publicly abjurated his belief in the Roman faith …[and] obtained a Recommendatory Certificate signed by one of the Pastors and Elders of the Walloon Church in Amsterdam’.⁸

In keeping with the practical skills exhibited by other Huguenots, many in the Desbois family were master craftsmen. However, Dan’s younger two brothers did not join their father’s clock and watch making business. Instead, Alfred worked as a commercial traveller, and Clement as an organ tuner and musician. Musical ability may have been a trait that ran through the family; Edwin was also a musician – a clarinet player who played with ‘several orchestras’.⁹ However, it was not a skill passed on to Dan; later in life he found the requirement to teach music to his pupils quite challenging.

Dan’s grandfather, another Daniel (1773-1848), was a watchmaker, as was his father before him (Theodorus, b. 1735). Daniel (b. 1773) was an apprentice of Mr John Johnson at 9 Gray’s Inn Passage. On his death in 1797, Mr Johnson bequeathed the business to Daniel, as well as one-hundred pounds and a glowing reference.¹¹ This established the family’s ownership of a watch manufacturing business, trading under the name Desbois & Wheeler until the dissolution of the partnership in 1834.¹² The ‘Wheeler’ in Desbois & Wheeler was Daniel’s future brother-in-law, Joseph Mort Wheeler (1768-1840); Daniel married Joseph’s sister Maria (c1776-1831) on Christmas Day 1801.

Following the partnership’s dissolution in 1834, Dan’s father conducted the business under his own name until he formally brought his two sons into the firm in 1872. Edwin and Albert continued in partnership after their father’s death in 1885. However, by mutual agreement they dissolved their partnership in Daniel Desbois & Sons on 31 May 1916.¹³ A little over a year later, following Edwin’s death on 9 August 1917, his son Ernest (1869-1951) took over the business; later Ernest’s daughter, Ethel Kate (1902-2002), guided the company until it was voluntarily wound up in 1980.

Given the origins of the Desbois family in England, it is evident that Dan’s decision to change professions and emigrate had precedent in the family’s past. However, this was not sufficient to endear his decision to his father.

Becoming a Missionary

Deciding to turn his back on his life as a watch-maker as well as his father’s business, and later leaving with his new wife for a much harsher life in the colonies, must have caused Dan considerable anguish and soul searching. This would have been exacerbated by the knowledge that he may never see his parents or brothers and sisters again – a situation that did eventuate. It is apparent that Dan’s father was not happy with his ultimate decision: ‘You know I did not wish you to leave me and I certainly shall much miss you but hoping all for the best believe me Dear Dan’.¹⁵ Intriguingly, on entering the Missionary College of St Augustine in Canterbury, Kent, Dan had requested his father ‘state in written form any opinion and character of [him]’.¹⁶ Could this be interpreted as Dan’s way of ascertaining his father’s deeper feelings towards him, seeing that his decision to become a missionary had severely strained their relationship? Alternatively, it is probable that such a letter was a requirement for admission to the college, since graduates would find themselves scattered throughout the British Empire, often with little chance of ever returning to England. Nevertheless, with the tone of the letter lacking effusiveness, Dan may have been disappointed with his father’s response, particularly when compared to the glowing commendation provided by his mentor, the Reverend William Atherstone Hales. His father, in an oddly worded letter, merely stated that his opinion of him was:

A satisfactory one I do consider both [towards] myself and your Dear Mother. It has been what affection and duty could dictate and with respect to your brothers and sisters the same in every way and I am sure they will one and all most truthfully bear witness to their pleasing testimony.¹⁷

Dan’s decision to become a missionary was not one made lightly or quickly. Nonetheless, there appears to have been encouragement within the family for him to look towards God as he made his way in the world. A letter accompanying a bible¹⁸ presented to him on 5 January 1857, when he was not quite 21 years of age, enigmatically states in part:

The bible is like the leaves of the lemon plant; the more you bruise and wring them, the sweeter the fragrance. The best love was left for you by her who looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God.

Accept the good wishes and love of your affectionate Aunt Jane. ^*

In support of Dan’s application for admission to St Augustine’s College (Photo 3), the Reverend Hales, at Dan’s request, wrote to the College Warden, the Reverend Henry Bailey, in 1860. Reverend Hales had personally advocated for Dan when he spoke to the Reverend Bailey earlier that year, when he was the curate at Ickham, near Canterbury, Kent. His letter put into writing what he had previously stated:

Mote Park

Maidstone Aug 11th

My dear Sir

Mr Dan Desbois deserves a testimonial from me.

…Desbois is a young man quite out of the common. I knew him first as a member of my Bible Class – when <illegible> at St Andrew Holborn – before in short he entertained the idea of offering himself for Missionary Work.

I watched this idea, as it grew into a strong desire, and from desire into action. He sought God’s guidance in this important step, I feel sure. I offered him tuition when his way was made clear. For a year nearly he read with me – most satisfactorily. He has considerable abilities – singular perseverance – and great ingeniousness of mind, as a student when I left London.

…I know Desbois’ parents. They speak of him as a most dutiful affectionate son. I believe him to be a good churchman – free I hope from any perniciary extreme

– & well endowed with common sense.

I feel sure, he will not be long at St Augustine’s, without becoming an object of great interest and satisfaction to the authorities there.

He has, I feel sure, a career of great usefulness before him.

Revd & dear Sir

Your very faithful

W.A. Hales

Curate of Boxley¹⁹

Following the Reverend Hales’ departure from St Andrew’s, Holborn, at which he held the position of Lecturer, to become the Chaplain to the King of Hanover in 1857 and later the ‘curate in sole charge of Ickham’,²⁰ Dan continued his bible studies under the guidance of a Mr Watson, a friend of the Reverend Hales. It is clear that Dan was committed to furthering his education and was quite aware of the gaps in his knowledge; these he expressed in a letter to the Reverend Bailey at St Augustine’s College in 1859:

Dyers Buildings

[Holborn, London]

August 8th

Reverend Sir

Some time since you were good enough to answer a letter from me, by enclosing a prospectus of St Augustine’s College and a note stating your willingness to furnish any other information, I have perused this carefully, and deeply thought over the matter. I come to the conclusion that I should be doing what is right by joining the college and becoming a missionary. But still being in a great measure ignorant of the terms I come to you for a solution to the difficulty. I am in excellent health, 23 years of age and have been educated in a sound commercial way by a Mr Darwell (the author of the copybooks and other treatises bearing his name), with but a little knowledge of classics. I have hithertoe [sic] obtained my living by working at a delicate branch of the watch trade; if, then, in about six months, I could present myself with between 30£ [sic] and 50£, a colonial Bishop’s recommendation and a good character from a clergyman, could I manage to pass creditably the requisite examination by exerting myself to the utmost of my power to learn.

I am Reverend Sir

Your Obedient Servant

Dan Desbois²¹

Dan was true to his word, and matriculated with four other students for St Augustine’s on 1 December 1860. Their entry brought the number of new students for the year to sixteen.²² During his two and a half years at the College it is likely that his future wife, Mary Ann Pritchett (1844-1880), gave him encouragement for the path he had embarked upon. When Dan and Mary first met is unknown; however, they most likely had known each other for many years. Mary’s father, Charles Pritchett (1815-1856), a surgeon, and Dan’s father were long-term friends.²³ Further, Mary came from a family with a missionary tradition – both her grandfather, Edward Corrie Pritchett (1772-1820), and great-grandfather, Thomas Pritchett, were missionaries in the Madras Presidency in India, the birthplace of her father (see Appendix 1, Chart 3).

Dan graduated as a missionary on 29 June 1863 (see Photo 4), and was appointed ‘to the [Curacy] of the English Settlers in the Wairarapa District, Diocese of Wellington, New Zealand’.²⁵ Just under six weeks later, on 8 August, Dan and Mary were married in the Parish Church in Erith, Kent.²⁶ Dan was twenty-seven years of age; Mary was eighteen. Both were living in Erith at the time, Dan having by then left Canterbury; nonetheless, their marriage certificate lists his profession as ‘Divinity Student’. Dan’s father was one of the two witnesses; the other was Mary Riddle, Mary’s grandmother – Mary Elizabeth Riddle^* (c1797-1870). Mary’s father and grandfather were no longer living by the day of the wedding – her father, Charles Pritchett died on 23 October 1856, and her grandfather, Andrew Riddle, had died sometime before 1851. However, Mary’s mother, Mary Ann Pritchett (nee Riddle; 1823-1878) was alive and, in 1861 at least, was matron of the Royal Sea-Bathing Infirmary, a hospital primarily for patients suffering from Scrofula^† in Margate, Kent.²⁷

Mary and Dan’s marriage was by ‘licence’, which suggests the ceremony was most likely held within three weeks of their giving notice of their intentions. Could the apparent absence of Mary’s mother as a witness indicate her reservations about the marriage, and her intended emigration to New Zealand? Mary’s mother had already lost one child, Charles (1848-1858); quite understandably, she may not have wanted to ‘lose’ another.

Shortly before their marriage, Dan wrote to the Reverend Bailey seeking his assistance with obtaining some books he thought advantageous to performing his duties as a missionary:

Lesnes [sic] Heath^‡

29 July 1863

Reverend and dear Warden

I have been examined and passed by the SPG who have paid half of my passage money to Wellington; Mr Laurell the Commissary of the Bishop paying the other half. I sail from London Docks on the 10th of August, being unwilling to lose any time. The ship is named ‘Bride’, 1000 [sic] tons, and I have no doubt is a safe and comfortable vessel.

You promised to do what you could for me with a view to my obtaining the SPCK grant of books which I shall be very glad to have. A letter addressed as above will reach me in good time as I can if necessary have them in the cabin.

Believe me, Rev Sir

Yours most respectfully

Dan Desbois²⁸

Whether he received the books before his embarkation a fortnight after dispatching the letter is unknown; however, the SPKC approved the grant. The Society’s monthly report for October 1860 states: ‘To the following gentlemen, books,^* to the several amounts specified, for Missionary purposes abroad: … Mr. Daniel [sic] Desbois, Wellington, New Zealand, 41 [£4]’.²⁹ The Bride sailed for New Zealand less than a week after Dan and Mary were married.

Although St Augustine’s College and the SPG were independent, they shared a similar outlook. Each was concerned about the general state of the Church of England as well as the spiritual well-being of its parishioners in the colonies. In the latter’s case, the initial concern was with the American Colonies, but over time this encompassed all of England’s colonial possessions.³⁰

^* Probate was awarded to Daniel’s wife, Susanna, on 18 February 1886. This had no impact on the business partnership between Albert and Edwin, previously entered into with their father. A codicil removed his granddaughter Beatrice Mary Evans (b. 14 Nov 1880) from his will following his daughter Mary’s (b. 1853) death on 4 September 1884. However, the will did provide for his three surviving daughters –Dan’s sisters, Susanna (1845-1927), Emily (1850-1920) and Beatrice (1857-1934).

^* ‘The books are not listed [in the report], but we can readily guess what they might have been from this note under Visitation of emigrants in the SPCK Annual Report for 1860: Further supplies of Bibles, Prayer Books, and Tracts for the use and distribution among emigrants have been forwarded.’ (Peter Meadows, SPCK Archivist, Cambridge University Library, email, 3 March 2010)

† Scrofula is a tuberculous infection characterised by swelling and degeneration of the lymphatic glands of the neck. In the nineteenth century it was thought that contaminated milk was the source of the infection.

¹ Dan Desbois, ‘Baptismal Record’ 1844/190, St Mary, Islington, London, England, Births and Baptisms 1813-1906.

² Census for England, 6 June 1841, Class: HO107, Piece: 665, Folio: 22, Page: 5, GSU roll: 438782.

³ Census for England, 30 March 1851, Class: HO107, Piece: 1513, Folio: 419, Page: 27, GSU roll: 87847.

⁴ Daniel Desbois, Will, Proved 18 February 1886, Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England, London, England.

⁵ Edwin Desbois, History of the Desbois Family, Wokingham, WJ Gotelee, 1903.

⁶ Pascal Yème, owner / manager of Les Ursulines Hotel, Autun, email, 8 April 2012.

⁹ ‘Obituary: The late Mr Edwin Desbois’, The Horological Journal, September 1917, pp. 12-13.

¹⁰ Photo 2: Desbois & Wheeler, Mahogany break arch top bracket clock (circa 1820). Estimated 2010 Value: AUD$12,100. Source: Montpellier Clocks, Gloucestershire, viewed 5 April 2010, <http://www.montpellierclocks.com/desboiswheelergraysinnpassage_4.php>.

¹¹ Edwin Desbois, History of the Desbois Family, p. 3 Johnson, John, Will, Proved 6 August 1800, Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, PROB 11/2242/120.

¹⁴ Photo 3: Gateway view of St Augustine’s College (1848). Source: The Illustrated London News, 8 July, 1848, p. 5; Copyright Expired. Project Canterbury, viewed 5 April 2012, <http://anglicanhistory.org/england/sac/iln_consecration1848.html>.

¹⁵ Daniel Desbois, Letter to his son, Dan, 23 August 1860. Canterbury Cathedral Archives, CCA-U88/A2/6C/256, File of Letters (1859-1899).

¹⁸ Jane McDougall. Letter found in a Bible presented to Dan in 1857.
Note: A copy of the letter was provided by Roger Wilson.

¹⁹ Reverend WA Hales, Letter to St Augustine’s College Warden, 11 August 1860, CCA-U88/A2/6C/256, File of Letters (1859-1899).

²⁰ Crockford’s Clerical Directory, London, Horace Cox, 1868, p. 284, viewed 10 April 2012, <http://books.google.com.au/books?id=w2gFAAAAQAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s>.

²¹ Dan Desbois, Letter to St Augustine’s College Warden, 8 August 1859, CCA- U88/A2/6C/256, File of Letters (1859-1899).

²² St Augustine’s College – Matriculation Book 1: Summary of Admissions, CCA U88/A2/5/18.

²³ Charles Pritchett, Will, Proved 20 November 1856, Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, PROB 11/2242/120.

²⁴ Photo 4: Extract from Dan’s Graduation Certificate. Photo taken by the author of a copy displayed in St George’s Church, Beenleigh Historical Village and Museum. Note: Custodian of original - Don Hayne.

²⁵ ‘Ecclesiastical Intelligence’, The Standard (London), 28 March 1864, Issue 12365, p. 3; British Library, 19th Century British Library Newspapers: Part II.

²⁷ Census for England, 7 April 1861, Class: RG 9, Piece: 519, Folio: 58, Page: 2, GSU roll: 542654.

²⁸ Dan Desbois, Letter to St Augustine’s College Warden, 29 July 1863, CCA- U88/A2/6C/256, File of Letters (1859-1899).

³⁰ AK. Davidson, ‘Colonial Christianity: The contribution of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to the Anglican Church in New Zealand 1840-1880’, Journal of Religious History [JRH], vol. 16, no. 2, 1990, p. 179.

Period 2:

Dan & Mary in New Zealand (1864-1870)

Arrival in New Zealand

Dan and Mary arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, on 3 January 1864 as cabin passengers on the 500 ton barque, Bride. A few days later the Wellington Independent published a description of the ship’s arrival and voyage:

The barque Bride, Captain Gibson, from London, arrived in port on Sunday evening last after a long passage of 149 days, having sailed from London [Gravesend] on the 13th August. She passed the Lizards on the 28th, and experienced very favourable weather during the passage. When running between the Cape and St Paul’s Island she experienced two severe cyclones, which obliged her to lay-to for several hours; and off Tasmania, a strong south-east gale which lasted for days; she was becalmed eight days near Cape Leuwin [sic] when the steamship Armenien with troops from Rangoon to Auckland, passed her. She was becalmed in the Strait for several days, and was off the Heads on the 1st inst, but did not reach her anchorage until Sunday evening. The Bride brings 14 passengers and a general cargo, and is consigned to Messrs Bethune & Hunter.²

Dan was one of seventeen graduates of St Augustine’s who arrived in New Zealand between 1862 and 1877; however, only four as SPG missionaries. With the support of an SPG grant, he initially lived with the first bishop of Wellington, Charles John Abraham, an SPG missionary who had arrived in New Zealand in 1850.³ Bishop Abraham’s intention was to personally prepare new arrivals for ‘priest’s orders’. Such was the impression presented by the graduates of St Augustine’s that Abraham commented in a letter to the secretary of the SPG, dated 8 March 1864, that he liked ‘these Augustinians well’.⁴ This was just as well, as Dan and those who had answered the call before him had arrived as a consequence of Abraham’s applications for three ‘young men’, written to both the SPG and St Augustine’s a few years prior to their arrival. Bishop Abraham ordained Dan as a deacon on Sunday 21 February 1864 at St Peter’s Church, Wellington, in preparation for the first of his three postings in New Zealand – at Greytown, in the Wairarapa District.⁵ Subsequently, Dan tended to the spiritual needs of both settlers and Maori converts at Otaki and Trentham.

Wairarapa District (1864-1867)

From the date of his ordination to February 1867 Dan was the ‘licensed deacon, minister, pastor in charge of English residents in the Wairarapa Valley’,⁷ an SPG funded posting in the Diocese of Wellington. He was based in Greytown. The congregations there and from nearby Masterton and Featherston⁸ welcomed him to the district ‘for whom [in 1864 in Greytown] a parsonage was being built, away from the mud and isolation of Papawai’,⁹ a nearby Maori settlement established in the 1850s. By 1865 the committee for the Wairarapa Trust was able to report to the General Synod that, although a formal report was not prepared, ‘your committee are able to state that a parsonage has been built on land purchased from the Diocesan Fund, and is occupied by the Rev. D. Desbois’.¹⁰ Prior to the parsonage’s construction, Dan’s qualification for being an elector in the Electoral District of Wairarapa in early 1864 was ‘Leasehold – Greytown, House & Paddock; attested to by Edmund Jupp, whose qualification was “Occupation of schoolhouse & 3 acres of land”’.¹¹

Greytown was classed as a ‘Central Station’ by the SPG, a key centre for the spread of the gospel throughout the Wairarapa Valley. Although the SPG’s ‘work in New Zealand was mainly among the colonists, the natives were not neglected by the Society’.¹² Dan’s appointment, however, was for him to:

[Specifically] minister to the English between Masterton and Featherston; [while Reverend] Ronaldsen [was to continue] attending to the spiritual charge of the outlying English settlers and all the Maoris [sic] of the Missionary District.¹³

Although Dan was the first vicar placed in charge at Masterton and that a ‘small building’ had been constructed ‘on the old Church site’ in 1864 for him to use for services,¹⁴

As he was only in deacon’s orders, Mr Ronaldson was still called upon to do much work in the parish. Services at that time were held occasionally, as it was possible for the clergy to arrange.¹⁵

The Small Farms Association established Greytown in 1854 as New Zealand’s first planned inland town. Nonetheless, it was effectively isolated from Wellington until 1858 when a road across the precipitous Rimutaka Range opened for traffic. Consequently Dan’s and Mary’s time in the Wairarapa coincided with its opening up for closer settlement.

There are no records to indicate how Mary settled into her new life as the wife of a parson, being so young and so far from family, friends and the facilities that living in England provided. However, she would have been used to living in rather poor conditions and being apart from her family. Limehouse, where the family lived while her father worked as a surgeon until his death in 1858, was one of the poorest areas of London during the nineteenth century. Additionally, by 1861, two years prior to embarking for New Zealand, Mary and her siblings were scattered – Mary and her sister, Alice (1846-1914), were students at Assembly House, a boarding school for girls in Leytonstone, Essex. Her younger brother, Horace (1850-1928), was a student at the Royal Medical Benevolent College in Epson, Surrey, while Frank (1855-1891), the youngest, was living with his grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Riddle, in Tower Hamlets, London¹⁶ (see Appendix 1, Chart 2).

Nonetheless, settling in would not have been easy for her – at the time of their arrival in New Zealand, Mary, at nineteen years of age, was in the early stages of her pregnancy with Daniel Evans; he was born on 20 August 1864. Gerald was to arrive two years later on 19 June 1866 (Appendix 1, Chart 3). Caring for the boys, together with other household duties and those of the wife of the local parson would have fully occupied her time.

Whatever Mary’s true feelings towards her situation were, Dan was enjoying the experience. Not long after he arrived in Greytown he wrote the first of his many published letters about personal, social, environmental and religious issues of the day. His first letter (Appendix 3, Letter 1) was to his Old College in Canterbury in which he describes the topography and the difficulty this makes for moving around his ‘parish…, not that it [was] one in any ecclesiastical sense’.¹⁷ After a description of the difficulties he and other settlers faced, and despite being nearly washed away by a wall of water when crossing one of the many mountain torrents, he notes:

b.	Birth
BGE	Board of General Education (Qld)
BDHS	Beenleigh and District Historical Society
Capt.	Captain
CCA	Canterbury Cathedral Archives
C of E	Church of England
Cpl	Corporal d.
Death
DI	District Inspector of Schools
Lt	Lieutenant
Maj.	Major
NCO	Non-Commissioned Officer
QDF	Queensland Defence Force
Qld	Queensland
QGG	Queensland Government Gazette
QSA	Queensland State Archives
QVF	Queensland Volunteer Defence Force
QVR	Queensland Volunteer Rifles
Rev.	Reverend
Sgt	Sergeant
SPCK	Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
SPG	Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
SS	State School
WW1	World War One
yr	Years

Dan Desbois
(1836-1898)

A Life of Spiritual, Educational & Military Service

Contents

Photographs

Maps

Preface

Abbreviations

Acknowledgements

Dan Desbois: An Introduction

Period 1:

Dan’s Formative Years (1836-1863)

Family Background

Becoming a Missionary

Period 2:

Dan & Mary in New Zealand (1864-1870)

Arrival in New Zealand

Wairarapa District (1864-1867)

Dan Desbois(1836-1898)