The nineteen radicals

Only small numbers of convicts arrived from Scotland to the penal colony as Scotland's legal system had less capital offences and punishments in comparison to elsewhere. A number of convicts arrived in Sydney in 1821 as a result of discontent in Scotland and one of these went on to have a connection to the Hawkesbury.

Following the French Revolution, unemployment, cost of living and unjust working conditions in Scotland led to workers seeking reform. In 1820 a group of activists planned a rebellion during an industrial uprising at Bonnymuir however it was short-lived.

A number of men were captured, with 22 convicted and 19 of these charged with treason and sentenced to death. William Crawford was freed while John Baird and Andrew Hardie, were executed in September 1820, just a week after another rebel, James Wilson was hanged and beheaded. The nineteen had their sentences commuted to transportation and they became known as the Scottish Radicals. They were:

	Name	Abode	Occupation	Sentence
1	John Anderson	Camelon	Weaver	Life
2	John Barr	Condorrat	Weaver	14 years
3	William Clackson	Glasgow	Shoemaker	14 years
4	James Clelland	Glasgow	Blacksmith	Life
5	Andrew Dawson	Camelon	Nailer	Life
6	Robert Gray	Glasgow	Weaver	Life
7	Alexander Hart	Glasgow	Cabinet-maker	14 years
8	Alexander Johnston	Glasgow	Weaver	14 years
9	Alexander Latimer	Glasgow	Weaver	14 years
10	Thomas McCulloch	Glasgow	Stocking-Weaver	14 years
11	Thomas McFarlane	Condorrat	Weaver	Life
12	John McMillan	Camelon	Nailer	Life
13	Benjamin Moir	Glasgow	Labourer	14 years
14	Allan Murchie	Glasgow	Blacksmith	Life
15	Thomas Pike or Pink	Glasgow	Muslin Slinger	14 years
16	William Smith	Glasgow	Weaver	14 years
17	David Thompson	Glasgow	Weaver	14 years
18	Andrew White	Glasgow	Bookbinder	14 years
19	James Wright	Glasgow	Tailor	14 years

The Scottish Radicals

One of the radicals sentenced at Stirling was weaver, John Anderson, the son of John Anderson and Janet Stean, born in the 1790s at Camelon near Falkirk in Stirling. His crime was pasting up political posters. He pleaded guilty and his sentence was Life.

The activists were taken to Edinburgh and were kept on a prison hulk until they departed on the ‘Speke’ arriving in Sydney in May 1821.

Ebenezer Chucrh and graveyard. Photo: M. Nichols

The indent describes John as short of stature, he stood 5’ 3½” high with brown hair and hazel eyes. Shortly after John's arrival he was employed by Simeon Lord (1771-1840), emancipated convict and entrepreneur. He was employed by Lord until 1823 when he found employment as a teacher at Ebenezer Church, on the Hawkesbury River. Whilst growing up, John had been given a reasonable education at the local parish school, he could read and wrote a refined copperplate. 

Classes were conducted for local children shortly after the sandstone church, constructed by the Coromandel settlers in 1809, opened. Lessons were conducted in one half of the church. A separate residence was built adjacent to the church, for the schoolmaster. 

Another of the radicals, Thomas McCulloch wrote a letter to his wife in 1821 encouraging her to apply as a free settler. He wrote, “This is a fine country, and will grow anything that will grow in any other country, and in general have three crops a year.” 

In the mid-1830s William IV granted absolute pardon to the rebels, John's pardon was published in the Sydney Gazette 3 November 1836.

Sydney Gazette 3 November 1836

In 1834 John’s sister, Mrs Christiana Stephenson arrived from Scotland and joined him at the Hawkesbury. With his sister acting as housekeeper, several students were able to board at the school. Apparently, the “chapel was partitioned and at one end had an upper floor where Mrs Stephenson and the girls were quartered.” . It was recorded that Anderson was a “burning and shining light of scholarship on the Hawkesbury for many years” and some of his pupils went on to fill important positions.

When he was in his early sixties, John married Lucy Watson at Ebenezer in 1854. Lucy was the daughter of shipwright James Watson and was apparently a much younger woman.

Anderson had a reasonable knowledge of music and acted as Ebenezer’s precentor, the person who led the congregation in its singing at the church.  After devoting himself to teaching at Ebenezer for over thirty years at Ebenezer, Anderson retired in July 1855. A well-liked member of the community, he was held in high regard and he was given a presentation and a purse of twenty-eight sovereigns as part of his retirement.

Family Notices from The Sydney Morning Herald 7 August 1858

John Anderson died at Ebenezer aged 65 years on 16 July 1858 and his death notice proudly states his participation in the Bonnymuir political uprising. John is buried in the churchyard where his wife erected a fitting headstone to his memory. More recently a monument was constructed at Bonnymuir in Scotland in memory of those who fought for their democratic right.

Anderson grave at Ebenezer. Photo: Jonathan Auld 2016

Sources:

Margaret & Alastair Macfarlane, The Scottish radicals : tried and transported to Australia for treason in 1820, p. 21 (Stevenage, Hertfordshire : Spa Books, 1981)

Family Notices (1868, March 31). Empire, p. 1. 

Family Notices (1868, March 30). The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 1. 

A. J. Gray, 'Anderson, John (1790–1858)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University 

NSW BDM - ANDERSON  JOHN 5763/1858 Parents listed as JOHN & JANET. Registered at WINDSOR  

The Sundial at Wilberforce

On the northernmost wall of Wilberforce’s St. John’s Anglican Church is a vertical sundial with the initials J.W. and the date 1859. Who was J.W. and what was the significance of the year?

The vertical sundial carved by John Wenban. Photo: M. Nichols

A sundial tells the time of day from the position of the sun, and the one at Wilberforce was carved by John Wenban, the local schoolmaster, to commemorate the consecration of St. John’s Church by the Bishop of Sydney, Mr Barker. 

Wheelwright John Wenban was from Hawkhurst, Kent, and accompanied by wife Mary and six children migrated to Australia in 1838. The couple had seven children but eight months prior to departure, their infant son Walter died. The family travelled on-board the immigrant ship the “Maitland” which recorded over thirty deaths throughout the voyage, mainly from typhus and scarlet fever. Heavily pregnant throughout the journey, Mary delivered her eighth child, Emily, five weeks after landing. Two more daughters were born in Wilberforce.

On arrival John was employed by Mr McDonald at Pitt Town and then later moved his family to Wilberforce.  In 1842, he was appointed as the Schoolmaster of the Parochial School at Wilberforce, replacing William Gow, the first schoolmaster and Parish Clerk. Classes were conducted at the Wilberforce Schoolhouse, built in 1819 at the request of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, and operated as a school during the week and a church on Sundays. As well as occupying the position of schoolmaster, John was appointed Parish Clerk. He also was a musician, providing music to accompany hymns for church services.  The organ was not purchased until the 1870s. 

In 1846 a committee was established to plan a new church in Wilberforce. The public were asked to make donations towards the cost of the building. John Wenban donated £3/3/- to the building fund. Money was raised and plans were drawn by architect Edmund Blacket, however it was 1856 before the foundation stone was laid. The exact date the church was completed is not known but it was consecrated in 1859. 

One evening in late November 1859, as the Wenban family was returning home in a spring-cart, an accident transpired. While turning a corner near the Wenban home, one of the wheels hit a pot-hole and John was thrown out. The horse bolted and the cart overturned with two of the children also severely injured. Twenty minutes after the accident, John succumbed to his severely fractured skull. The Sydney Morning Herald  5 Dec 1859 reported the accident,

FATAL ACCIDENT AND MAGISTERIAL INQUIRY
On Sunday evening last, just after sundown, Mr. John Wenban and family, of Wilberforce, were returning home in a spring-cart. In turning a corner, near his own house, one of the wheels of the cart went into a hole; the vehicle gave a sudden jerk, and Mr. Wenban was thrown out with great violence on the ground. The horse immediately became unmanageable, when the eldest daughter of Mr. Wenban jumped out and caught him by the head, but was unable to hold him. The animal then bolted off, and capsized the vehicle with three of the children underneath. Soon afterwards the horse got away from his harness, but not until two of the children were severely hurt. Mr. Wenban's skull was so severely fractured that he expired in about twenty minutes after the fall. A magisterial inquiry into the cause of death took place before Dr. Day, J P. (in the absence of the coroner) on the following day, when the foregoing facts were elicited - Mr. Wenban had filled the office of Church of England teacher at Wilberforce for several years, and was much respected by the inhabitants, very many of whom sorrowfully followed his remains to their final resting place on Wednesday.

An enquiry was held the following day with Dr Day acting as coroner. Aged only 56, John Wenban was buried in the local cemetery, a sad loss for his large family and the community.

John Wenban’s headstone at Wilberforce Cemetery. Photo: M. Nichols

Mary died on 30 August 1883 in her 77th year at her daughter’s home in Richmond. She was supposedly buried at Wilberforce however there is some dispute about this.

Notice in Sydney Morning Herald 1 Sep 1884 

  

Today the sundial can still be seen on the outside wall of St. John's Church, reminding us of John Wenban’s contribution. 

Alfred Stearn, a man of quiet ways

When able seaman Alfred Charles Stearn arrived in Sydney as part of the crew on the sailing ship “David Brown” in 1877, he liked what he saw and chose to remain. 

Alfred was born in London in 1857 and with his limited education elected to go to sea. After arriving in Sydney he found work in an oyster saloon and regularly visited Windsor in his spare time. He was fond of Windsor and eventually moved to the town, where he established the Windsor Oyster Saloon which also sold prawns several days a week. In 1881, he married Mary Jane Mills in Sydney. Mary was born at Rouse Hill, the daughter of James Mills although she was adopted by James and Cecilia Hough as a baby, when her mother died. At the time of his marriage, Alfred’s occupation was recorded as an oyster and fish salesman. The couple had five children, Alfred James, Elysse Marie and William Oswald with Clara and Erich dying as infants. 

Alfred Stearn’s shop, 74 George Street Windsor.
Detail from postcard, personal collection

Eventually he expanded his business to include a general store situated in George Street where he was able to offer a wide selection of goods and services. During the 1880s he held a hawker's license, allowing him to travel around selling goods. Later, Alfred purchased land in Thompson Square opposite the Macquarie Arms Hotel, and constructed a shop with a residence above. It was two-storey with a cast iron verandah, and the parapet was decorated with a lion. Officially opened in August 1907, the building still stands today at number 74.  In the new store, Alfred continued to conduct his grocery business, as well as selling fancy goods and produce. The business also sold tobacco, fireworks, musical instruments, jewellery, optical glasses and insurance.

Stearn was described as, “Good-hearted and generous natured, he was one of the fine old type of Englishmen, but he loved the country of his adoption.” On every patriotic occasion he flew a selection of flags and was an admirer of the Monarchy and Empire plus a respected member of the local Masonic Lodge.

With a love of music, he often sang in concerts and musicals in Windsor and was a committee member of the Windsor School of Arts.

His death on 14 June 1925 was quick. He “came out to the front of his shop at about 10.30 o'clock where he collapsed and fell on the footpath. He died almost immediately.” His lengthy obituary appeared in the Windsor & Richmond Gazette, partially duplicated below. At the time he was aged 68 years old. Alfred was buried in St. Matthews Anglican cemetery, Windsor. In his memory, flags were flown at half-mast in Thompson Square, as well as at the Fire Station and McQuade Park.  Mary Stearn and her children were staunch Catholics. She died in 1940 aged 76 years and is buried in the Windsor Catholic Cemetery. Her husband Alfred was known as “a man of quiet ways and dealings — inoffensive and unassuming” an honest and respected resident of Windsor, the likes of whom not often seen today.

Obituary from Windsor & Richmond Gazette 10 June 1925, p. 3

Today, Stearn’s shop, 74 George Street Windsor houses Windsor Seafoods.