A Letter Home...

On 17 December 1877, Col. M. M. Shaw (retired) wrote a letter from his home at Dean's Point (now on the site of the Devonport Golf Course) to relatives back in the United Kingdom. His letter is full of all the preoccupations and prejudices of his time of course, but it is a lovely example of what (monied) migrants valued in a colony in that period. It may in fact give some insight into what motivated them to participate in colonisation of other lands.

Col. M. M. Shaw

Colonel Michael Maxwell Shaw hailed from Ayrshire, Scotland, the son of a Captain Thomas Shaw and Margaret Limond. He served as an Officer in India and emigrated to Tasmania as part of Colonel Crawford's scheme sometime after 1865, purchasing his house at Dean's Point in 1868. He afterwards sold it in 1880 and relocated to Castra. He was a deeply religious man, a temperance advocate and a contributor to the local press in terms of both comment and poetry! He had married Mary Knowles of Nottinghamshire in 1833 and they had several children, including Thomas Shaw who became an Engineer and prominent farmer on Castra Road owning the property Molenda. The Colonel died on 01 September 1880 having lived to the grand old age of 87.

It is not known exactly to whom the letter was addressed or how it managed to return to Tasmania and find its way into the government archives. Interestingly the Colonel's paternal grandmother had been born Ann Lanphier and this is one of the names mentioned in the letter. The Lanphier family appear to have been Irish with some connection also to Ayr. If anyone can provide more information concerning the intended recipients and the nature of their relationship to the author, that would be appreciated.

The letter is held at the Archives Office in Hobart and I spent a few hours transcribing it earlier this year. It comprises of a single piece of paper folder in half to provide four pages and the front and the back are doubly used, turned at a right angle so the second layer of text is written across the first! There were some passages that escaped even my ability to understand Nineteenth Century cursive. Still, I hope that it will be of some interest and use to other researchers and historians...

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Item:                     NS163/1/1

Description:        Letter addressed from Deans Point, Latrobe, Tasmania (content of letter concerns the situation of purchasing land in Tasmania at that time and advantage of the island).

Box/Vol.              NS 159/1

Date Range:       17 Dec 1877

Status:                  Open

Location:             Hobart A 242 1

 

Dean’s Point, Latrobe, Dec 17^th 1877.

 

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My very dear Cousin,

You make enquires about land as an investment. Eighteen hundred and twenty three said acres are the size of the sheep farms on the other side of the strait but we have not generally speaking such farms on our island.

These are more farms of the three to four hundred acres and cleared (with such farms are never entirely connected [?] ) generally costs six or seven pounds per acre.

A Mr. Elliot from India has lately bought a nice farm 640 acres (partly cleared) for £1800. He was fortunate. It was a state of a deceased persons’ property.

My own idea is that the plan to proceed upon is to have a small farm, and to employ capital in… /(2)… the purchase and sale of stock. You buy it at a low figure (for money is in demand) and you sell it all at a high one.

With a farm you kill your own beef and mutton. You have your own milk and butter. You have enough of wheat and oats for farming and cattle, and your horses and cows pasture beside you; and your fuel grows at hand.

It is astonishing how comfortable a small farm can make one.

There is a great opening for pious families out here. They become great centres of usefulness. An emigrant should be peculiar sort of person and he should be accomplished in certain things.

My darling Tom… /(3)… was brought up a practical engineer. I think this the very best trade for an emigrant to be possessed of. I would say that to be a wheelwright is next best. I think it is desirable to go to a coachmaker for a short time. These accomplishments are helpful. One can get farming done for them.

I make these testaments in reference to lads (?) coming hitherward.

The estimate of Tasmania is a No. A. I (?). It is not Maderia nor the South of France, nor is it Italy. It is a small an(d?) gentle England. If I were a large landed proprietor in England, I would sell all I possessed and go to Tasmania.

I have heard it said that it aggravates exhaustion (?) if there be any such currency (?). This may be the case; but I… / (4)… but I don’t know. For present I consider it to be unpleasant (?) to hear their children pick up the colonial mode of speech. I am told they get free from it as they get older and become checked for it.

Tom took first prize for the three fattest cattle; and first prize for the finest pig; and second prize for the best North Devon bull. So you see that we are good farmers as well as good millers (?). Tom is succeeding well with his Mill; and he has erected a Saw Mill which he is at present improving. He gets timber brought to him from a distant place. This will go on for years, and then, he will attack the trees upon his own ground. The demand for wood is very great; and it will continue. Houses are nearly all made of wood in these colonies. … / (5)… (this next page is written across p.4).

I am happy to hear that your dear brother is well enough to begin practice (?) again. May the effort be productive of received health. I am afraid that my information (illegible section includes may words ‘everyday’ ‘involvement’ ‘meagre’?) of course the idea of buying land, and territory in England is not to be thought of.

Your Mother and Anna make a fine photograph – both looking so young! I wish I could photograph (this section is also illegible and might include the word ‘image’ or ‘visage’) to let me have a photograph of herself, which I like very much. … / … (this next page is written across p. 1).

We are wishing to sell Deans Point and to go to Tom. I wish to be with my grandchildren. I think I shall be more useful there than here. A united family will be strong. Tom conducts divine service on the Lord’s day; and I will assist him.

Remember us lovingly to all – not forgetting dear cousin Lanphiner and Herbert. Your loving cousin.



P.S. Tell dear Ephie that I send Annie’s photograph expecting to get one of hers in exchange for it.



M. M. S.

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I first intended to develop an essay around this artifact (and I still might do so) but I instead decided to simply publish a transcription of it, releasing it from the confines of the local archives for all to enjoy. Over the next few weeks I will be posting older essays from the Write Side of History original site on Wordpress culminating with my 'Halloween in Australia' essay on the 31st of October—which will mark the first anniversary of this enterprise! From November, I will begin publishing a new series original essays based on issues in Australian history on a monthly basis. 

- Dr. Colin Woollcott Mallett, 6 October 2022.