Who Was Circular Head’s First White Child?

Over the century and a half since Circular Head was first settled, the question of who had the 'honour' to be the first white child born in the district has often been a matter of contention. Owing to the absence of records in the period 1827-1841, it has been easy for conflicting claims to be put forward with very little supporting evidence one way or the other.

The [Circular Head] 'Chronicle' of November 1927 carried heated correspondence between John Cartledge of Smithton and Peter Stearne of Stanley, following an interview with Peter Stearne in the 'Chronicle' of 9th November 1927, entitled "Circular Head's first white male child. An octogenarian's reminiscences."

In this article, Stearne stated that he was born in Stanley in 1844, he was the first white male child in the district. The article continued "In the same house, Circular Head's first white child, afterwards Mrs. W Ollington (sic), Peter's sister was born."

John Cartledge replied in the 'Chronicle' of 23 November 1927: "Kindly permit me to give you a very much earlier date. My mother was born there (Stanley) on the 15th January 1829, and an uncle in March 1830. My grandparents, Yorkshire farming people, came out in 1828 by agreement under the seal of the Circular Head company."(sic)

Cartledge goes on to say "I should not have troubled you with the correction, but as there is considerable interest in the early days of the settlement it is advisable to have the date as correct as possible."

From the sources available to us in the 1980s, it seems that by the1920s there were at least five main contenders for the conflicting title of 'first white child', 'first white male child', 'first white child registered in Circular Head', and most confusing of all - 'first native born white children in Stanley'. These contenders are Peter Stearne, his sister Sara Stearne (later Mrs W. Ollington), his niece Jane Ollington (later Mrs. W Poke), John Cartledge's mother Eliza Spence and Eliza's brother.

Others who do not seem to be considered at all are the seven children born to Edward and Elizabeth Curr at 'Highfield' in the Circular Head Settlement of the Van Diemen's Land Coy., between 1830 and 1841.

John Cartledge's claim that his mother Eliza Spence was born in Circular Head in 1829, gained further credence from a report published in the 'Chronicle' 16th January, 1929. Under the heading "Personal", the report celebrated the 100th anniversary of her birth.

"One hundred years ago yesterday, Eliza Spence, the mother of John Cartledge, grandmother of Bert Cartledge of Temma, Edgar Cartledge of Smithton and Trooper Cartledge of Stanley, was born at Circular Head on the 15th January 1829. Her parents, Yorkshire farming people came out under agreement with the Van Diemen's Land Co., and resided at Circular Head for several years. Afterwards they went to the Hampshire Hills with a party engaged by the VDL Co., to commence clearing land with a view to agricultural operations. A few months later Francis Spence (her father) was speared so seriously by the blacks that he had to be sent to Launceston for treatment. He took up some land near that town and never returned to the Coast. He died at the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. John Cartledge senr., at the advanced age of ninety-nine (99) years and nine (9) months."

Eliza Spence and John Cartledge senr. were married in Launceston in 1846, and remained in Launceston for the whole of their married life. Most of the claims for the position of 'first white child' etc., are based on interviews with Peter Stearne, who obviously enjoyed talking to journalists.

He was interviewed by the 'Chronicle' reporter in the article already quoted, and among his reminiscences he mentions the house in which he was born "at the rear of St. Paul's Church, and only recently demolished. In the same house, Circular Head's first white child, afterwards the late Mrs W Ollington, Peter's sister was born."

The 'Chronicle's' journalist commented that "Mr. Stearne has a vivid memory, his hearing is very acute, and he is as clear about up-to-date subjects as about ancient history." It seems strange then that Mr. Stearne should consistently confuse his sister, (some 16 years older than himself) with his sister's child, who was born a few days earlier than Peter!

Mrs. Ollington, nee Sarah Stearne, also enjoyed talking with reporters. An article appeared in the 'Weekly Courier' of 13th May, 1909, together with a photographic study of five generations of Mrs. Ollington's family: Mrs. Ollington sen., (now 81), her daughter Mrs. W Poke sen., her granddaughter Mrs. Malley, great-grand-daughter Mrs J Reid jun., and great-great-grand-daughter Mrs. Reid's infant.

At the time of the interview, Mrs. Ollington had lived for 67 years in the Circular Head district, and was much loved and honoured by all who knew her. The reporter rather gushingly remarked that "The dear old lady looked the picture of health, with well rounded cheeks, still girlish in their natural colouring, with kindly eyes bright at all times, and really flashing occasionally even nowadays ... with the intellect still unimpaired as is evidenced by a wondrous memory ... "

Mrs. Ollington told the 'Courier' she was born in Thetford, Norfolk on 12th June 1828. "In 1841, the 3-masted 'Emu", 360 tons burden, landed her with her parents on the foreshore of the Nut, Tasmania (sic). They were 'only' some five and a half months, some one hundred and seventy days making the trip!"

Mr. Stearne sen., was a builder under contract to the Van Diemen's Land Co. Also on board the 'Emu' were the VDL Co. agent, Mr. Gibson (who took over from Edward Curr), Gibson's wife, Parson Greigg, three or four VDL Co. clerks, several artisans and farm hands, " ... and some thirty females, young and old, 18 of whom were unmarried."

''The desolateness of the new home caused an air of despondency to pervade the ship, and in the midst of the crowd of wailing women and little children stood Sarah Stearne, gazing ,with wideopened eyes and mouth at the big rock before her, at the white stone barracks, and at the few shanties which were to take the place of the civilisation they had left behind." She was thirteen years old.

A year later Sarah Stearne married Thomas Ollington; the ceremony being performed by Parson Greigg. Thomas Ollington was evidently a resident of Stanley before the 'Emu' arrived, as Sarah Ollington mentions that her husband's father enjoyed "hunting possum and wallaby on the beach, which at that time was a thicket of honeysuckle."

In January 1844, Sarah Ollington gave birth to her first child Jane (later Mrs. W. Poke) in the house behind St Paul's Church. In the same house a few days later, Sarah's mother (Sarah Stearne nee Thorp) also gave birth to a child - Sarah's younger brother Peter.

The 'Weekly Courier' notes "In the same room with her on a recent Sunday afternoon, was her brother, Mr. Peter Stearne, a much respected Smithton resident ... Mr. Stearne is also historical, for he is believed to be the first white male born in the Circular Head District, perhaps the first one on the North West Coast, but his niece, Mrs. Poke sen., secured the real honour and glory, for she, as a white-born colonial, first breathed the air of Stanley a few days earlier."

There is considerable confusion over this claim that Mrs. William Poke, or "Granny Poke" as she came to be known, was the "first native-born white child". This was another of Mr. Stearne's expressions, as remembered by his daughter, Mrs. W. McInnes, when speaking to a reporter from the 'Advocate'. Mrs. McInnes of Devonport, talked about her father in an article published by the 'Advocate' on January 9th 1971.

In interpreting "native born" as meaning "born of Tasmanian- born parents", Mrs. McInnes suggested Stearne and his sister "two years his senior", (identified by Mrs. McInnes as none other than Mrs. Ollington) "were born at a time when it would have been quite possible for them to be

grand-children of married couples who arrived at Circular Head in 'Tranmere' in 1826." Alternatively, Mrs. McInnes hypothesised that Peter and Sarah's parents - Peter Garner Stearne sen., and his wife Sarah, nee Thorp, "could have been born elsewhere in Tasmania, and moved to Circular Head." However, such conjectures are disproved by Sarah Ollington's own statement to the 'Courier' that she was born in Norfolk and came to Tasmania with her parents in 1841.

Another claim put forward for Jane Ollington ("Grannie Poke") and Peter Stearne, is that they were the "first white children registered in Circular Head." Alas, this too, does not stand up to close scrutiny! The official register of births begun in Stanley in 1841, shows the first boy child registered at Stanley to be the son of John and Ann Goss, who was born at sea on the barque 'Emma', on November 30 1841. The first girl child registered was Margaret, daughter of John and Euphemia Scott, born September 6, 1841. John Scott was VDL Co. overseer at Hampshire Hills.

To Margaret Scott must go the 'honour', then, of being the "first white child registered in Circular Head." Peter Stearne's birth on January 13, 1844, was the sixth to be registered for that year. A lot of the confusion seems to hinge on the definition of 'Circular Head'. It may well be that Stearne considered birth at sea or in the Hampshire Hills towards what is now Burnie as being outside the Circular Head District. Writing in the 'Chronicle' on November 30, 1927, in reply to John Cartledge's letter, he said "I never heard the name Stanley used until I was a big lump of a lad.

About the Nut, and part of the isthmus it was called Circular Head because the shape of it was like a half circle. The back country, like the country back of Table Cape or Emu Bay, had no name resembling Circular Head, or Table Cape or Emu Bay. When I said I was the first male child born at Circular Head, I meant of course on that piece of Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land which in those days was called Circular Head."

Perhaps it was this insistence on Circular Head being only "the Nut and part of the isthmus", that permitted him to 'stretch' the facts a little in order to make his claims for himself and "Grannie Poke". However, as early as 1827, the settlement between Cape Grim and Hampshire Hills was referred to as "the Circular Head settlement of the Van Diemen's Land Coy.", and 'Highfield', home of Edward Curr up on the Green Hills, was considered part of the Circular Head settlement. During Edward Curr's tenure as Chief Agent of the VDL Co., his wife Elizabeth bore seven children at 'Highfield'; the first, Augusta Mary being born on September 24, 1830.

It is believed that the Curr children born in Circular Head would have been registered in Hobart Town, as would the Spence children born in Stanley in 1829 and 1830, as the register of births, deaths and marriages was not kept in Stanley until 1841.

The absence of both the Spence and Curr' families from the Circular Head District by the 1840s, and the lack of records, may well account for Stearne's assumption that the generation of children born around Circular Head in the '40s were the "first native-born" generation. The Spence family moved to Hampshire Hills some time around 1835, and thence to Launceston.

Ignorance about the Curr' family is not so easily understood. On board the same ship that brought the Stearne family was Mr. Gibson, who was to take over the position of Chief Agent for the VDL Co. from Edward Curr'. Curr' then took his family - wife Elizabeth and 13 children, seven of whom had been born at 'Highfield' to Hobart Town.

Despite Stearne's claims to fame having been disproved, it seems that he and his sister Mrs. Ollington eventually made more of an impact on the district than either the Curr's or the Spences. Of Peter Stearne's family, nine were still alive in 1927 and had married around the district. Mrs. Ollington's children were noted in her obituary in the 'Chronicle' April 12, 1915: "The deceased lady leaves a family of five sons and six daughters. The sons are Henry and William of Forest,

James, Thomas and Albert of Scotchtown. The daughters are Mrs. W.J.Poke and Mrs P O'Halloran of Smithton, Mrs. Quilliam of Montagu, Mrs. T.Ling of Smithton, Mrs. R.Blake of Forest and Mrs.S.A.Smith of Smithton.”

As noted in the 'Weekly Courier', when Sarah Stearne married Thomas Ollington in 1842, there was only one Ollington family in Stanley. "Now, all living in the Circular Head District are no less than 146 lineal descendants of that marriage, and here's the mother of the lot of them, alive, hale and hearty and full of smiles, and surrounded by her children, grand-children, great-grand-children and even a couple of great-great-grand children are waiting on Robbins Island for the touch of their great-great-grand-mother's hands."

Peter Stearne and "Grannie Poke" may not indeed have been the first white children born or registered in Circular Head. Chronologically, they cannot be considered for such a claim to fame. However, they have left behind them a legacy that is still growing in the Circular Head District. While it is certainly important "to have the data as correct as possible" in the interests of historical accuracy, all of the Stearne family's descendants can feel justifiable pride that they still live in the district their forebears helped to settle.

Chronology

15/01/1829 Eliza Spence born Circular Head District.

- /03/1830 Male Spence child born Circular Head District.

24/09/1830 Augusta Mary Curr born 'Highfield', Circular Head.

27/09/1831 Arthur Curr born 'Highfield', Circular Head.

10/07/1835 Marmaduke Curr born 'Highfield', Circular Head.

15/10/1836 Julius Curr born 'Highfield', Circular Head.

09/09/1837 Montagu Curr' born 'Highfield', Circular Head.

12/05/1841 Florence Mary Curr' born 'Highfield', Circular Head.

30/11/1841 Male Goss child born at sea on board barque 'Emma'.

06/09/1844 Margaret Scott born Hampshire Hills

-/01/1844 Jane Ollington ("Grannie Poke") born Stanley.

13/01/1844 Peter Stearne born Stanley.

Sources

09/11/1927 Circular Head 'Chronicle'.

23/11/1927 Circular Head 'Chronicle'.

16/01/ 1927 Circular Head 'Chronicle '.

13/05/1909 'Weekly Courier',

09/01/1971 'The Advocate'.

09/01/1971 The register of births at Stanley from 1841, as quoted in 'The Advocate’

Elizabeth Curr's diary, as quoted in 'Historic Stanley' by Meg Close.

© 1984, 1994. S Cartledge.

This article by Sue Cartledge first appeared in the Circular Head Local History Journal; December

1984, ISSN 0814-8708, published by the Circular Head Local History Project.

Eliza Spence married John Cartledge in 1846.