Shades of white: were the Irish historical victims of racism?

An Irishman Looks at a Poster Advertising Voyages to New York and Resolves to Emigrate. Coloured Lithograph after E. Nicol, ca. 1840/1860

Public domain via Jstor, Open Artstor Collection (i)

During the Nineteenth Century and specifically following the Great Famine, 'dark', 'hairy', 'odious', 'simian', 'ugly' and worse, became common terms used to describe the Irish in America (1). Certainly, during the same period and well into the Twentieth Century, the Irish were often portrayed in English political cartoons as not only ugly subhumans but also hopeless and stupid. In his review of Liz Curtis' Nothing But the Same Old Story: The Roots of anti-Irish racsim, John Darby referred to a notorious cartoon by JAK published in the Evening Standard in 1981, which presented a mock movie poster entitled 'Showing Now: the Ultimate in Psychopathic Horror The Irish XXX'. Although purporting to be a commentary on the latest troubles of that time, it was interpreted as a continuation of a tradition of representing the Irish as inherently violent (2). This raises the intriguing question then: have the Irish historically been the victims of racism? 

Irish Emigrants in America: A Woman with Two Children, and a Man Sitting Outside an Inn Smoking a Pipe. Coloured Etching after William Heath, date unknown.

Public domain via Jstor, Open Artstor Collection (ii)

Bryan Fanning has argued that racism as a concept has 'always drawn on the dominant paradigms of knowledge and truth'. He proposed that while in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century racism largely relied on assumptions of racial superiority, increasingly there has been a shift in rationale towards arguments based around the necessity of exclusion to preserve cultural purity (3). If nothing else then, this suggests that racism is a malleable concept. In contrast, Amy Martin has perhaps provided a more nuanced view of traditional racism and its philosophical foundations suggesting that there were in fact two strains: one was indeed 'epidermal' in nature and the other was reliant on a 'more fluid understanding of racial hierarchy'. Indeed, this might explain Charles Kingsley's reference in a letter to his wife about witnessing 'human chimpanzees' on a visit to Ireland! This is perhaps an indication that British racism in the Victorian period was based less around a bias for 'whiteness' and relied more heavily on a complex, hierarchy of perceived physical and cultural traits (4). But does that mean that the idea that the Irish have been victims of active racial discrimination has merit?

Children Play a Game with Potatoes and a Rag Hanging from the Beam. Process Print after Erskine Nicol, date unknown.

Public domain via Jstor, Open Artstor Collection (iii)

To some extent negative perceptions of the Irish were driven by the displacement triggered by the famine. The Great Famine of the 1840s triggered a Malthusian response from the British that sought to avoid the effort and cost involved in any relief by blaming the victims with accusations of 'indolence and backwardness' (5). Dale T. Knobel, who wrote Paddy and the Republic: Ethnicity and Nationality in Antebellum America in 1985, later noted that of the forty immigrant ships arriving in New York Harbour daily by 1851, most were carrying Irish immigrants; therefore established Americans were very conscious of both their numbers and their 'haggard' presentation on arrival (6). At the time, American nativists were prone to attributing their condition on arrival to their nature rather than their experiences. Such nativists were defined by Knobel as settled Americans with anxieties concerning a national identity during a period of great economic and demographic change who tended to a convenient scapegoat for their varied problems in migrant populations. Among the subjects for derision were their religion, their impact on the labour market, even their politics. Many Irish were accused of undermining the labour market for working for low wages. They were also collectively known to support the then current pro-slavery platform of the Democratic Party. At the same time, the American nativists were concerned to some extent with all migrant groups including the Chinese. As a result, fraternal organisations tended to limit their membership to American born - although it would be interesting to know what percentage of their current membership were themselves descendants of earlier Irish migrants! (7)

A Well-Dressed Black Couple in New York City Are Being Offered a Coat by a Poor Irish Immigrant Outside a Laundry. Coloured Lithograph, artist and date unknown.

Public domain via Jstor, Open Artstor Collection (iv)

Regardless, the Irish were probably historically treated worst of all in their own land under Norman, English and later British rule. The Norman invasion of Ireland was initiated because of an indigenous civil war in the 12th Century and only eventually sanctioned by Henry II on account of political rather than truly colonial motives. The Statutes of Kilkenny that were enacted in 1366, were the foundation of a more 'defensive colonial policy' adopted by the government of Edward III. While they provided practical measures to ensure peace and trade, they were also a vehicle of segregation. The settler population were forbidden to form alliances with the natives through marriage or fostering, speak the Irish language or adopt Irish customs. The native Irish were themselves forbidden to speak Gaelic around the settlers and excluded from ecclesiastical positions. Regardless of whether they were intentioned as defensive or derogatory, they were J. C. Beckett's admission 'aimed at setting a permanent barrier between the two races in Ireland.' Ultimately though - despite their cruelty - the statutes were based on cultural differences and political interests rather than any obvious notions of racism. After all, this form of hierarchical, feudal society was the 'norm' in Europe; the native populations of England were themselves ruled by the Normans. Even so, widespread assimilation occurred in both England and Ireland and the Lordship of Ireland was increasingly left to its own devices until the middle Tudor period (8).

Resistance against colonialism also ironically provided a basis for the development of a view that the Irish were inherently troublesome (9). The worst excesses of the plantation system were to some extent an opportunistic response by the English to the Flight of the Earls in 1607. The corrupt system of confiscation that developed was likely fueled again by a defensive colonial policy which feared a coalition of the 'old English' (ie. the descendants of Norman invaders) and the natives. The confiscations inevitably led to the uprising in 1641. The English response was itself brutal and was largely justified by exaggerated claims of massacres of Protestants. Once English authority has been fully reasserted, the Irish Parliament of 1697 instituted laws that were designed to be specifically degrading to Catholics, which incorporated virtually the entirety of the native population. Catholics were excluded from Parliament, military service, civil service, municipal corporations and the legal profession. Alterations to laws relating to land ownership and inheritance were designed to make it virtually impossible for Catholics to accumulate land. Many of the 'old English' were also Catholic though, and were also impacted, probably more by the restrictions on educating their children abroad and change to rules of inheritance which encouraged conversions. These discriminatory laws were not repealed until 1829. These new laws were clearly an official strategy to deprive the native Irish population of any political power (10). The conflicts in Ireland from 1641 have traditionally been framed within the wider contests between Protestants and Catholics or Loyalists and Parliamentarians rather than one that on the ground may have been for the participants, more essentially between colonisers and natives. 

From 1641 then, the Irish character was characterised as inherently treacherous and violent. The thousands of Irish that were sold into Carribean slavery under Cromwell after the defeat of the rebellion in 1649 were by his own admission meant to serve as examples to the rest of the native population and not treated so because of their 'race'. (11). Later conflicts appeared to consolidate the treacherous and violent characterisation of the Irish which helped justify their heavy handed responses. Two attempted revolutions in 1798 and 1803 led to the institution of martial law. (12) The British reaction to the Easter uprising in 1916 for instance involved imposing martial law across Ireland although most resistance was centred around Dublin. The arbitrary British reprisals against the Irish during the War for Independence included such atrocities as the sacking of Balbriggan and the burning of Cork. (13) This pattern of brutality demonstrated a dogged colonial mindset rather than a racist agenda. General Nevil Macready who accepted Irish Command in 1920 and was apparently more sensitive towards the Irish situation than most of his counterparts, reportedly hated the Irish 'with a depth deeper than the sea and more violent than that which I feel against the Boche.' (14)  However, the Victorian and Edwardians tended to emphasise their Anglo-Saxon heritage at the expense of their Celtic, Roman and Scandanavian roots. (15) The 'Boche' of the day were likely despised because they represented a rival empire with which the Commonwealth had recently been at war, not from sense of racial superiority. It had been widely recognised by the British, that among the wider population of Ireland in 1916 there had been sympathy with the allied cause and most were content to wait to the end of hostilities before terminating the legislative union. The impatience and poor judgment of a small number of separatists (republicans, socialists and Sinn Fein) was not claimed to be proof of some kind of inherent racial propensity for treachery. (16) 

Author Unknown, advertisement for the position of a Nanny, Boston Transcript, 1868.

Public domain via wikimedia commons (v)

The Australian colonial experience for the Irish raises the same caveats to the proposition. Just as in the United States, there were a plethora of Nineteenth Century job advertisements evident in Australian colonial newspapers specifying that the Irish need not apply! (17) And while there is some evidence that the Celtic ritual practice of Halloween was suppressed in the Australian colonies, it has been noted that both the St. Patrick's and St. Valentine's feast day celebrations were better accepted on account of their Christian rather than pagan origins. (18) Certainly, there was discrimination, but it often appears to have emanated from a sectarian rather than a racial basis. Until the middle of the Twentieth Century at least, Australia was regarded as homogenous Anglo-Saxon society. The adoption of the term 'Anglo-Celtic' has only become evident in response to recent lobbying by descendants of Irish and Scottish migrants who desired recognition for their ancestors' contribution to the nation's cultural development.  But there is little or no evidence that this Celtic amnesia was motivated by anything other than an official desire to cultivate a more homogenous society. It may be significant to note however that the shift from Australia identifying as an 'Anglo' to an 'Anglo-Celtic' society though followed the upsurge of non-British emigration after 1945. (19)

A Potato Shaking Hands with Edward Jenner, Claiming Him as a Fellow Vaccinator. Watercolour by John Leech, date unknown. Note the name of the potato: 'Paddy Fluke'.

Public Domain via Jstor, Open Artstor Collection (vi)

Ironically in recent decades, Ireland itself has demonstrated increasing opposition to migrants, particularly asylum seekers. Bryan Fanning has argued that while this populism has great 'political currency' it is nevertheless 'grounded in racism and xenophobia'. Like the objections the American nativists expressed to Irish immigration in the Nineteenth Century, this resistance Fanning explains 'provides exceedingly simple explanations for complex societal problems' (20). 

Therefore, while the Irish were arguably vilified and discriminated against during the Nineteenth and into the Twentieth Centuries it should not be considered to have been a form of racism. In a colonial context, their 'whiteness' likely allowed for a swifter assimilation into European colonial societies than non-white immigrants. There were also major structural differences, both legislative and cultural, that would have mitigated their experiences; for instance, however equal their treatment with their black counterparts in the Caribbean, they were not assigned to become a kind of hereditary property in perpetuity. Furthermore, their typically pro-slavery stance during the Nineteenth Century was actually evidence of the privilege of suffrage, a liberty not universally enjoyed at the time by the Afro-American population. The subjugation of Ireland by the Normans, English and later British, occurred over several centuries. The conflicts that ensued have probably been correctly framed by historians as sectarian or native resistance movements rather than having been explained by racism. Subsequent to the Great Famine at least, it's clear that the Irish experienced prolonged periods of active discrimination in the New World by nativists but perhaps never as extreme as that inflicted by foreign invaders in their own occupied country. Ironically, there are some 'nativist' Irish voices today that could be accused of expressing anti-migrant sentiments that might be more accurately explained by racism.

-  Colin Mallett, 17 March 2026. 

Endnotes

(1) Dale T. Knobel, 'Celtic Exodus: The Famine Irish, Ethnic Stereotypes, and the Cultivation of         American Racial Nationalism', Radharc, 2001, 2:3-25, p. 5, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25122316, accessed 17 March 2025.

(2) John Darby, 'The Problem of English Racism', Fortnight, 1984, 211:19-19, p. 19, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25547631, accessed 17 March 2025. 

(3) Bryan Fanning, 'The Political Currency of Irish Racism: 1997-2002', Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, 2002, 364(91):319-27, p. 320, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30095578, accessed 17 March 2025. 

(4) Amy E. Martin, 'Victorian Ireland: Race and the Category of the Human', Victorian Review, 2014, 1(40): 52-7, p. 52, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24497037, accessed 17 March 2025. 

(5) Martin, "Victorian Ireland', p. 53. 

(6) Knobel, 'Celtic Exodus', pp. 3-4.

(7) Kevin Kenny, 'Race, Labor, and Nativism: A Response to Dale T. Knobel', Radharc, 2001, 2:27-33, pp. 27-30, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25122317 accessed on 17 March 2025. 

(8) J. C. Beckett, A Short History of Ireland, Cressant Library, Sydney, 1986, pp. 16, 27, 31-6.

(9) Martin, "Victorian Ireland', p. 53.     

(10) Beckett, Short History, pp. 62, 64-5, 71-5, 92-3, 127.

(11) It must be acknowledged as John Donoghue argues that Atlantic slavery based on race was in fact an historical abberation. See: John Donaghue, 'The Curse of Cromwell: revisting the Irish slavery debate', History Ireland, 2017, 4(25):24-8, pp. 24-5, http://www.jstor.org/stable/90014565, accessed on 19 March 2025. This view is reinforced by the trade in a million European slaves among the Ottoman Barbary states from the Seventeenth Century the early Nineteenth Century. Refer to: Giles Milton, White Gold, Hodder and Stoughton, 2005, passim.

(12) Charles Townshend, ' Martial Law: legal and administrative problems of civil emergency in Britain and the Empire, 1800-1940', The Historical Journal, 1982, 1(25):167-95, p. 167, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638811, accessed 21 March 2025. 

(13) M. A. Doherty, 'Kevin Barry and the Anglo-Irish Propaganda War', Irish Historical Studies, 2000 126(32):217-31, p. 228, http://www.jstor.org/stable/300006997, accessed 21 March 2025; Martin Frederick Seedorf, 'The Lloyd George Government and the Strickland Report on the burning of Cork, 1920', Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies', 1972, 2(4):59-66, pp. 59-60, https:doi.org./10.2307/4048122, accessed 21 March 2025. 

(14) Ian Roxborough, '6. The Military: The mutual determination of strategy of Ireland, 1912-1921', in Breaking Down the State: Protestors Engaged, Jan Willem Duyvendak & James M. Jasper (eds), Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2015, pp. 142-4, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt.196315k.9., accessed 21 March 2025.

(15) Joanne Parker, '6. The Victorians, the Dark Ages and the English National Identity', in The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Britain and the Low Countries, pp. 132-3, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004241862_088, accessed 11 August 2025. 

(16) Beckett, Short History, pp. 151-2. Ultimatley, sixteen of the insurgents were tried and shot. 

(17) A phrase search for 'No Irish Need Apply' on the digitisation resource TROVE in the category of Newspapers and Gazettes produces 1, 181 results: https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/advanced/category/newspapers?keyword.phrase=No%20Irish%20Need%20Apply&startPos=0&sortBy=dateAsc The source newspapers cover the period from early settlement to the 1950s: the earliest example is from 1832 and the most recent from 1953. See: "English Wants', Launceston Advertiser (Tasmania), 18 January 1832, p 23, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article84775136, accessed 19 March 2025 & 'Irish insulted', Tribune (Sydney), 25 February 1953, p 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212468776, accessed 19 March 2025.

(18) Colin Mallett, 'Halloween in Australia', The Write Side of History blog, 29 October 2022, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2022/10/halloween-in-australia.html, accessed 19 March 2025.

(19) Miriam Dixson, The Imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and Identity, 1788 to the present, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1999, p. 9.

(20) Fanning, 'Irish Racism', p. 319. 

Figures and Illustrations

(i) Nicol, Erskine, 1825-1904. An Irishman Looks at a Poster Advertising Voyages to New York and Resolves to Emigrate. Coloured Lithograph after E. Nicol, ca. 1840/1860. 1 print : lithograph, with watercolour, [not after 1867]. Wellcome Collection, JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/community.24750461, accessed 19 March 2025.

(ii) Heath, William, 1795-1840. Irish Emigrants in America: A Woman with Two Children, and a Man Sitting Outside an Inn Smoking a Pipe. Coloured Etching after William Heath. 1 print : etching. Wellcome Collection, JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/community.24885469, accessed 19 March 2025.

(iii) Nicol, Erskine, 1825-1904. Children Play a Game with Potatoes and a Rag Hanging from the Beam. Process Print after Erskine Nicol. 1 print : process print, 4 July 1891. Wellcome Collection, JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/community.24884706, accessed 19 March 2025.

(iv) A Well-Dressed Black Couple in New York City Are Being Offered a Coat by a Poor Irish Immigrant Outside a Laundry. Coloured Lithograph. 1 print : lithograph, with watercolour, 1800-1899. Wellcome Collection, JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/community.24885523, accessed 19 March 2025.

(v) Unknown, Author. Advertisement for a nanny that appeared in the Boston Transcript in 1868, stating "Positively no Irish need apply." Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:No_Irish_Need_Apply.jpg#Licensing. Reprinted in "A Journey Through Boston Irish History" by Dennis P. Ryan, Arcadia Publishing, 1999, accessed 19 March 2025. 

(vi) Leech, John, 1817-1864. A Potato Shaking Hands with Edward Jenner, Claiming Him as a Fellow Vaccinator. Watercolour by John Leech. 1 drawing : watercolour, with pen and brown ink, [between 1800 and 1899]. Wellcome Collection, JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/community.24742788, accessed 19 March 2025.

Bibliography

Primary Sources:

Launceston Advertiser (Tasmania)

Tribune (Sydney)

Secondary Sources:

Beckett, J. C. A Short History of Ireland, Cressant Library, Sydney, 1986.

Darby, John, 'The Problem of English Racism', Fortnight, 1984, 211:19-19, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25547631.

Dixson, Miriam, The Imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and Identity, 1788 to the present, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1999.

Doherty, M. A., 'Kevin Barry and the Anglo-Irish Propaganda War', Irish Historical Studies, 2000 126(32):217-31, http://www.jstor.org/stable/300006997.

Donaghue, John, 'The Curse of Cromwell: revisting the Irish slavery debate', History Ireland, 2017, 4(25):24-8, http://www.jstor.org/stable/90014565.

Fanning, Bryan, 'The Political Currency of Irish Racism: 1997-2002', Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, 2002, 364(91):319-27, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30095578.

Kenny, Kenny, 'Race, Labor, and Nativism: A Response to Dale T. Knobel', Radharc, 2001, 2:27-33,  http://www.jstor.org/stable/25122317. 

Knobel, Dale T., 'Celtic Exodus: The Famine Irish, Ethnic Stereotypes, and the Cultivation of American Racial Nationalism', Radharc, 2001, 2:3-25, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25122316.

Mallett, Colin, 'Halloween in Australia', The Write Side of History blog, 29 October 2022, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2022/10/halloween-in-australia.html.

Milton, Giles, White Gold, Hodder and Stoughton, 2005.

Parker, Joanne, '6. The Victorians, the Dark Ages and English National Identity', in The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Britain and the Low Countries, Hugh Dunthorne & Michael Wintle (eds), Brill, Netherlands, 2013, pp. 133-50, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004241862_008.

Roxborough, Ian, '6. The Military: The mutual determination of strategy of Ireland, 1912-1921', in Breaking Down the State: Protestors Engaged, Jan Willem Duyvendak & James M. Jasper (eds), Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2015, pp. 133-56, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638811. 

Seedorf, Martin Frederick, 'The Lloyd George Government and the Strickland Report on the burning of Cork, 1920', Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 1972, 2(4):59-66, https:doi.org./10.2307/4048122. 

Townshend, Charles, ' Martial Law: legal and administrative problems of civil emergency in Britain and the Empire, 1800-1940', The Historical Journal, 1982, 1(25):167-95, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638811. 

Online Sources:

Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, accessed 2 April 2025.

*

Many thanx to Kylie for always proofreading my scribbles!

Away to Zion! Early Mormon proselytisation in Australia

During the Nineteenth Century thousands of converts to the Church of Latter-day saints travelled from Europe to America. This represented an enormous transfer of human capital to the new world, facilitated by the lure of an emerging faith and perhaps the tempting promise of a new start. Less is known about those that travelled the pacific route, some even coming from the Australian colonies. While the Church of Jesus Chirst of Latter-day saints first began to establish a presence in the colony of Van Diemen's Land, later Tasmania, during the 1850s, the religion did not establish a strong footing there for another century. So, how and why was Mormon proselytisation so successful during the Nineteenth Century? And what challenges did the Mormon movement face in the Australian colonies, specifically Tasmania?

The Mormon story began with a 'divine restoration ' that occurred at the village Palmyra, Manchester, New York in 1820. A young prophet named Joseph Smith Jnr (1805-1844) had a vision of Jesus who forgave him his sins and instructed him not to join any established church. In 1822, he claimed to experience three visits by an angel named Moroni, who tasked him with finding and translating a trove of ancient records in the form of golden plates. This archive detailed the history of a group of Israelites (the Nephites and Lamanites) who had left Jerusalem around 600 BCE only to become extinct around 400 CE. This history had been written by the last Nephite prophet, Mormon. Smith's translation was published in 1830 as The Book of Mormon. Naturally the ideas of Smith and his followers attracted criticism and persecution, one incident even leading to their prophet's premature demise. Originally based in Illinois, Mormons began to seek their independence, crossing the Great Plains and settling in the Salt Lake Valley.  Under the leadership of their second President, Brigham Young, they attempted to form their own state 'Deseret' (partly across the territory that had already been designated by the US government to be Utah). The 'democratic theocracy' of the Mormons clashed multiple times with US administrations, particularly on the practice of polygamy. Regardless, this new faith endured and the commitment by the Mormon church to proselytise has continued through the Twentieth and into the Twenty First centuries, to the extent that today there are 14 million members of the church, two thirds of which live outside the United States. (1)

C. C. A. Christensen, The Hill Cumorah, Before 1912.

Public domain via Wikimedia Commons (i)

Between 1840 and 1890, approximately 90, 000 Mormon converts were transported from Europe to the American territories. (2) In the 1840s the former President of the British Mission, Thomas Ward, proposed the formation of a joint stock company; it's purpose was to provide a commercial service to trade goods between Britain and the United States and at the same time provide free - or at least subsidised - passage for European Mormons to migrate. This proposal survived many iterations but eventually failed, causing many British Mormons to lose their savings but their desperation and disappointment reflected the difficulty many converts experienced in arranging passage in pursuit not only of salvation but also of a better life. (3)  But many converts did find a way to migrate. A hostile editorial commentary on Mormonism copied from the Globe and published in the Louisville Commercial in 1880 argued that 'the vast majority of converts come from the ranks of dissent', adding that 1500 of the 'poor ignorant creatures'.... departed from Liverpool that year alone and as many from Glasgow'. The accusation was made that '...before embarkation, converts have fancy pictures sketched for them of a happy land where...all is fraternity...', although it's noted that '...Poverty of a very stern order exists in Utah as elsewhere...'. The point is also made that a migrant would have as a good of a chance as making a success as a farmer in Australia, New Zealand or Canada. (4) The allure experienced by these converts must have been strong enough to resolve the cost but also the very real risks of continental migration. Even so, the only known voyage carrying Mormon pioneers to be shipwrecked was the Julia Ann that departed from Sydney under the command of Captain Benjamin F. Pond in September 1855. (5)

Recruitment to the church was also drawn from the recent European diaspora of the time. The life story of Samuel Rose Parkinson preserved by his journal reflects the often-complex migratory journey of many converts to Mormonism. Born in 1831, a native of Lancashire, Samuel first migrated to the Australian colony of New South Wales in 1839 but returned in 1846. He and his parents migrated to St. Louis, Missouri in 1848 (soon after assisting his sister and her own family in a classic pattern of chain migration). It was there he joined the church after marrying a convert in 1852 and finally travelling with his own family and sister to Utah in 1854. (6) Recruitment was often a source of controversy, particularly when converts were young and even married women. Martha Maria Humphreys (nee Bucknell) a married woman living in the Hunter Valley, was converted in 1852 by young minister of church named John McCarthy. A letter she wrote to her parents in December 1853 is still extant in archives of the Mitchell Library; Marjorie Newton explains that the letter reveals the 'millennialism' evident among converts, a sense of urgency to remove to 'Zion' before the day of final judgment. The letter also betrays and awareness and support for the doctrine of polygamy. It is also clear that at least at the time of composing the letter, her husband was engaged elsewhere and was unaware of her plans - although it is not known if he and the older sons planned to join the rest of the family at a later date. Martha departed aboard the ill-fated Julia Ann with two daughters and younger son on 7 September 1855. She and her daughter Mary were drowned although the other two children survived. There was a subsequent scandal involving Martha's brother William Wentworth Bucknell another convert who along with his wife and family were intending to emigrate on the Jenny Ford in September 1856. However, an attachment to a servant he intended to bring with them led to a dispute, the ultimate result of which was Bucknell's excommunication. Bucknell's wife and two sons subsequently emigrated as converts and he duly complained to the Governor that they had been seduced away! (7)

Joseph Keppler. In Memorium Brigham Young, 1877.

Public domain via Wikimedia Commons (ii)

There were other serious challenges to the establishment of the Mormon church in the Australian colonies. The primary one was of course, remained the issue of polygamy.  In 1873 on the occasion of a Mormon minister coming to conduct sermons in Sydney, the Melbourne's Advocate reported that: '...we scarcely think that many fair Australians will be found willing to exchange even the chance of a whole husband, all to herself here, for a mere fraction of a husband at Salt Lake.' (8) The practice of polygamy combined with the habit of recruiting converts was to long remain a fixation for the local media: the following year the Tasmanian Tribune noted that regarding a tour by Elder Geddes he defended plural marriage on 'material and Scriptural grounds' although it is noted, perhaps with some relief, that '...no rumour has yet floated abroad as to his having made converts...' (9) As a reult of pressure and persecution from the US government, the church effectively ceased the practice of polygamy following a general conference in 1890. (10) Despite segments of the media afterwards continuing to focus on the persistence of the practice outside of the mainstream church, interest and respect for the faith among the general Australian population seemed to improve from that time. (11) Anti-Mormon activists succeeded in having entry banned for all Mormon missionaries across the British Empire following the end of World War One, but it was lifted by 1920. A decade later, the onset of the Great Depression made it more difficult for missiony work to be supported. Despite these challenges, the church continued to find acceptence and expand. The first Australian state to recognise the Mormon church as an official religious denomination was Victoria in 1923. (12) 

As previously noted, it took a century for the Mormon movement to become frimly established in Tasmania. While, the Church of Latter-day Saints began to establish a presence in Tasmania from 1854, progress was slow and there was active resistance to their mission. Regardless, congregations were first established in the 1890s. (13) Resistance to early missionaries were apparently strongest in Launceston and Elders Burr Frost and Robert Owens experienced 'considerable opposition' on their arrival there in 1854. Permission was eventually obtained from the local Mayor for Mormons to hold street meetings in 1897. The Tasmanian region first became known as the 'Tasmanian Conference' led by a 'presiding elder' based in Hobart. Local members worked as Sunday School teachers, secretaries and organists. The first local member to be ordained an Elder was Tracy William Watkins in 1894. The church was finally recognised by the state in 1931 allowing its priesthood to perform such functions as marriages and funerals. The same year the term conference was changed to district. Between 1926 and 1951, the membership grew from 1169 to 2187. In 1937 the standing of the district was raised when the formation of a 'stake of Zion' in Tasmania was approved by church authroities. Membership more than doubled in the decades between 1955 and 1976 from 3506 to 7071. Two of the more progressive initiatives institued by the church were a local branch of the Mormon Women's organisation, the State Relief Society during the depression and a welfare farm in the early post-war period. (14)

Sydney Australia Temple (Carlingford), 2010.

Public domain via Wikimedia Commons (iii)

The mass migration of Mormon converts to the United States likely reflects several push/pull factors among them: poverty, fraternity and perhaps most importantly of all, a compelling, 'new' christian faith. Certainly for many British converts if the motivations were purely material, it probably would have been a more practical  to simply migrate to one of the promising colonies such as Australia, New Zealand or Canada. It hard to reconcile the contemporary argument that the new faith was only a convenience for the dispossesed as the process of conversion was clearly most often a heartfelt and genuine one; for instance, many early missionaries faced many hardships including open hostility and poverty away from their families in order to proselytise their faith. Among the converts there was in fact, an underlying sense of urgency among converts to escape 'Babylon' and find 'Zion' before the impending day of judgement. In truth, the church itself was established during a age of great migration and drew on various European diaspora, including the British and Irish colonials. The missionary experience in Tasmania reflects many of the broader challenges the church faced in its first century or more of development. It was most of all, a threat to the established christian denominations and the hostile reception in Launceston was particularly notable. The practice of polygamy, which had in truth been effectively dropped by 1890, was used as a tool of derision and to some extent negative propaganda. Other challenges - such as the ban against missionaries entering in the British Empire following the First World War and then the Great Depression from 1929 - stunted the development of the church in the newly federated country. However the strong contribution and model behaviour of the church's menbership eventually saw it win mainstream acceptance, offical recognition and growth. 

- Colin Mallett, 19 December 2025.

Endnotes

(1)  D. Michael Quinn, 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons)' in The Columbia Guide to Mormonism in American History, Paul Harvey, Edward J. Blum & Randall Stephens (eds), Columbia University Press, 2012, pp. 352-64, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/harv14020.23, accessed 30 September 2025.

(2) Keith L. Brown, 'As they sailed to Zion: The Voyage of the Julia Ann', History of Mormonism website, https://historyofmormonism.com/2014/10/12/sailed-zion-voyage-julia-ann/, accessed 30 September 2025. There were in fact 593 known voyages that carried converts from Europe to America.
(3) Ronald D. Watt, 'Mission to Britain' in The Mormon Passage of George D. Watt: first Britsh convert, scribe for Zion, University Press of Colorado, 2009, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt4cgrhc.8, accessed 30 September 2025, pp. 60, 64. 

(4) Author Unknown, 'The Mormons in England', Louisville Commercial, 31 October 1880, p. 7, https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.31322241, accessed 30 September 2025.

(5) Fred. E. Woods, 'The unbelievable true story of Saints shipwrecked on their way to Zion', Latter-day Saint Life website, https://www.ldsliving.com/the-unbelievable-true-story-of-saints-shipwrecked-on-their-way-to-zion/s/78234, accessed 30 September 2025. Although five lives were lost, the surviving passengers and crew were rescued and continued their voyage.

(6) William C. Parkinson, 'Biography of Samuel Rose Parkinson', Hagan Family History Website, https://www.hagan.me/fhist/parkinson/SamuelRoseParkinson.html, accessed 30 September 2025.

(7) Marjorie Newton. ' "Seduced Away": Early Mormon Documents in Australia', Brigham Young University Studies, 35 (3), 1995-6, pp. 152, 154, 163, https://www.jstor.org/stable/43042071?seq=1, accessed 30 September 2025. Ironically, while it appears Bucknell went on and married the servant girl, his first wife later returned with her sons to the colony making him effectively, a bigamist.

(8)  'A Mormon Minister in Sydney', Advocate, 26 April 1873, p. 13,  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article170298808, accessed 26 September 2025.

(9) 'A Mormon in Tasmania', Tasmanian Tribune, 29 December 1874, p. 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201483955, accessed 26 September 2025.

(10) 'About the Mormons', Tasmanian News, 12 January 1895, p. 4., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article173870258, accessed 26 September 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article173870258, accessed 26 September 2026.  According to Elder Pond in the interview, no more than 2% of their people ever engaged in the practice. Men remained married to their first wives and provision was made for the disenfranchised wives. 

(11) An example of a typical salacious headline being: 'Harems in Mexico', Tasmanian News, 23 January 1896, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article177536945, accessed 26 September 20206. Indeed, the publication of a clipping from New York's Independant in 1898 claiming that polygamy was still flourishing in Utah, prompted a visiting missionary to Tasmania, William Harvey, to write a letter to the editor explaining that the practice was indeed formally abandoned with the publication of a manifesto by their president Wilfred Woodruff dated 24 September 1890 after a legal challenge had been lost and to ensure that the Mormon population conformed with the 'law of the land'. He added that any Mormons still engaging in the practice were doing so in defiance of the teachings of the church. See: 'The Mormons and Polygamy', Mercury, 4 June 1898, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9423641, accessed 26 September 2026. The film, 'The Mormon Maid, 1917,  was released in Australia in 1918 and presented a negative view of the church, emphasising the banned practice of polygamy. Refer to: Preben Villy Scott & Donald Arthur Woolley, The History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: Tasmania 1854-2001 (2nd Edition), self--published, Ulverstone, 2001, p.5.

(12) Scott & Woolley, The History of the Church, pp. 4-5.Subsequent to the lifting of the ban, in 1921, Elder David O. McKay of the Council of Twelve toured Australia, visiting all conferences except Perth. This perhaps marked a turning point in the long process of the Mormon faith becoming mainstream in Australia.

(13) Neil Chick, 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints', Companion to Tasmanian History website, https://www.utas.edu.au/tasmanian-companion/biogs/E000207b.htm, accessed 30 September 2025. In fact the first Mormon missionaires believed to have arrived in the colony were John Murdoch and Charles Wandel in 1851. The first Elder to visit was Robert Owen in 1854 on his return home from a mission to India. See: Scott & Woolley, The History of the Church, p. 4.

(14) Scott & Woolley, The History of the Church, pp. 4-6, 8, 11, 86, 92, 123, 127.

Figures and Illustrations

(i) C. C. A. Christensen, The Hill Cumorah, before 1912, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Hill_Cumorah_by_C.C.A._Christensen.jpeg, accessed 8 October 2025.

(ii) Joseph Keppler, In Memoriam Brigham Young, 1877, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:In_memoriam_brigham_young_3.jpg, accessed 8 October 2025. 

(iii) Scott Contini, Sydney Australia Temple (Carlingford), 2010, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sydney_Australia_Temple_(Carlingford).jpg, accessed 8 October 2025. 

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Advocate (Melbourne)

Mercury (Hobart)

Tasmanian News (Hobart)

Tasmanian Tribune (Hobart)

Secondary Sources

Newton, Marjorie. ' "Seduced Away": Early Mormon Documents in Australia', Brigham Young University Studies, 35 (3), 1995-6, pp. 149-65.

Quinn, D. Michael. 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons)' in The Columbia Guide to Mormonism in American History, Paul Harvey, Edward J. Blum & Randall Stephens (eds), Columbia University Press, 2012, pp. 352-64, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/harv14020.23, accessed 30 September 2025.

Scott, P. V. & Woolley, D. A. The History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: Tasmania 1854-2001 (2nd Edition), self--published, Ulverstone, 2001.

Watt, Ronald D. 'Mission to Britain' in The Mormon Passage of George D. Watt: first British convert, scribe for Zion, University Press of Colorado, 2009, pp. 58-81, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt4cgrhc.8, accessed 30 September 2025. 

Online Sources

Author Unknown, 'The Mormons in England', Louisville Commercial, 31 October 1880, p. 7, https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.31322241, accessed 30 September 2025.

Brown, Keith L. 'As they sailed to Zion: The Voyage of the Julia Ann', History of Mormonism website, https://historyofmormonism.com/2014/10/12/sailed-zion-voyage-julia-ann/, accessed 30 September 2025.

Chick, Neil. 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints', Companion to Tasmanian History website, https://www.utas.edu.au/tasmanian-companion/biogs/E000207b.htm, accessed 30 September 2025.

Parkinson, William C. 'Biography of Samuel Rose Parkinson', Hagan Family History Website, https://www.hagan.me/fhist/parkinson/SamuelRoseParkinson.html, accessed 30 September 2025. 

Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.

Woods, Fred, E. 'The unbelievable true story of Saints shipwrecked on their way to Zion', Latter-day Saint Life website, https://www.ldsliving.com/the-unbelievable-true-story-of-saints-shipwrecked-on-their-way-to-zion/s/78234, accessed 30 September 2025. 

Missing friends

 

A Legros - gravure : la solitude, No Restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

In March 1921, my distant cousin Henry Hill published two consecutive notices in the Worker asking for information concerning the whereabouts of his half-brother Fred Richards of Ayr Queensland.

Will FRED. RICHARDS, who is a beneficiary in his late grandfather's estate, who was last heard of at Winton, previously of Ayr, Queensland, formerly of Yarra Junction, Victoria, or anyone knowing his whereabouts, kindly communicate with H. Hill, Jarvisfield, Ayr. (1)

 Their Grandfather who had been a successful miller based in Yarra Junction, Victoria, had recently died and Fred was a beneficiary. (2) I don’t want to speak ill of Fred, but he was what Australians might be refer to as a ‘real character’— mercurial, hard to pin down. His family are still trying to figure out what happened to him!

The problem of locating ‘missing friends’ in the Australian colonies was recognised in an editorial published in the Queenslander in 1877. Drawing attention to the hundreds of published enquiries every year in the colony of Queensland alone, it called for more to be done about the problem. While recognising that a certain percentage of cases were likely ‘deliberate’, the problem was mostly attributed to the premature deaths of men moving constantly to follow work. The author suggested a remedy could be a government gazette that would publish a comprehensive annual list of deaths in the colony. (3) However, even by 1926, the phenomenon of ‘missing friends’ or relations was still such a numerous problem that New South Wales broadcasters would only publish inquiries if they had been verified by the local police. (4)

Some notices were clearly heartfelt pleas:

M'Carthy.—M'Carthy (John) would like to hear of his brother Jeremiah, who left Cork forty years ago; last heard of in Australia. (5)

Lawrence (Arthur Richard) went to New Zealand in 1907, and was last heard of at Dunedin. Sister asks. Father ill. (6)

Some notices even referred to entire family groups:

William Barton, care of John Shanahan 6 Sir Harry's Mall, Limerick, writes to the "Catholic Press" inquiring after a family named Barton, who left Limerick in 1859, having been sent for by Mrs. Coolagan or Counahan, whose husband was in the timber business. (7)

Information— to be addressed care of "Reynolds's Newspaper," London— is asked for in connection with the following: — Daniel Donovan and his four sons, who left London 38 years ago. Last heard of in Toowoomba, Australia. His sister, Mary Hayes, inquires. (8)

John Allan, care of W. Jones, 10 William St. Leederville, Perth, would like to know the whereabouts of the Waugh family who arrived in this State from Newcastle, England, on April 16, 1914. They are supposed to be in the York district. (9)

Some of these people had been silent for decades. It is possible that the sudden desire for connection may have often been related to the dispersal of estates.

BRUCE.—If the children of Alfred Bruce (sometimes known as Alfred William Bruce and also Alfred John Bruce) will communicate with the Union

Trustee Company of Australia Ltd., 400 Queen Street, Brisbane, they will learn something to their advantage. Alfred Bruce died in Brisbane in March, 1928, but for several years previously was interested in a sugarcane farm, at Carmila, near Mackay, Queensland. It is believed he came from Victoria in 1913. Information as to the whereabouts of his children or other relatives is sought. (10)

And there are occasional indications that there were genuine fears that some may have fallen victim to misadventure:

Doidge (William) left Bristol in 1854; last heard of from gold diggings at Goulburn, Australia, in 1857. Sisters Grace, Mary Ann, and Martha seek him. (11)

William Hale Talintyre, 39, grocer, possessing means, who, while travelling for the benefit of his health, two years and a half ago, reached Sydney, and has not been heard of since. Talintyre was staying at one of the leading city hotels, which he left on the morning of April 15, 1900, after asking whether a person could have a good swim at Manly. His luggage remained at the hotel, and nothing whatever has since been heard of his movements. (12)

Some are descriptively very vivid and read more like police circulars:

Joseph A. Marshall, native of Ireland, age 40 years, a nurseryman, farm labourer, or milk hand, height 6ft. 1in., stout stooping build, light brown hair, dark eyebrows, straight forehead, eyes believed to be blue, large mouth, thick lips, good teeth, short thick fingers, large hands, round chin, large ears, round smiling face, very fair, reddish thick moustache, friendly in manner, speaks rather loudly, has the appearance of a new chum, walks with a long crouching stride, very round shouldered, head down, large feet, dressed in a large check Irish frieze suit, square cut coat. (13)

And some are just simply amusing:

Chas. Edward Martyn or Edward Martin, 44 years of age, 5 feet 8J inches high, dark hair now grey when not dyed golden red or black, grey-green eyes, thick loose underlip, may be covered with dyed moustache; wears No. 10 boots; fairly well educated and informed generally; plays billiards, cards, &c., and will not work if possible to avoid it. Inquiry at the instance of his wife, Emily Martyn, Montrose, Sideup, Kent, England.—I.R., 1907-163. (14)

Augustus Caesar—described, appropriately enough, as having a Roman nose—who left Brisbane five years ago for West Australia. (15)

There must have of course been a percentage that had no intention of being located. With the vast improvements in communication evident from the middle of the Twentieth Century such public measures became less common. As in regards to cousin Fred Richards, I personally wonder though how many of these other historical ‘missing friends’ cases were ever finally resolved?

 

  -  Colin Mallett, 15 September 2023.

Endnotes

(1) Worker, 24 March 1921, p 15, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71054342  & 31 March 1921, p 13, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71053630 , both accessed 8 September 2023.

(2) Will of William RICHARDS, 1 February 1921, Public Record Office of Victoria, Wills, 7591/P0002, 171/282.

(3) Queenslander, 6 October 1877, p 17, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19762065 accessed 8 September 2023.

(4) Wellington Times, 7 October 1926, p 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137386472 accessed 8 September 2023.

(5) Evening News, 2 January 1895, p 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108065566 , accessed 8 September 2023.

(6) Observer, 13 November 1909, p 43, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168281941 , accessed 8 September 2023.

(7) Catholic Press, 21 August 1913, p 20, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105155782 , accessed 8 September 2023.

(8) Freeman’s Journal, 20 July 1901, p 18, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111084148 accessed 8 September 2023.

(9) Eastern Districts Chronicle, 18 June 1915, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article148576582 , accessed 8 September 2023.

(10) Daily Mercury, 1 February 1939, p 11, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168812645 , accessed 8 September 2023.

(11) Evening News, 2 January 1895, p 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108065566 , accessed 8 September 2023.

(12) Evening News, 27 October 1902, p 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article114504767 , accessed 8 September 2023.

(13) Eastern Districts Chronicle, 30 September 1910, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article148565909 , accessed 8 September 2023.

(14) New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime, 4 September 1907, p 315, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article251635535 , accessed 8 September 2023.

(15) Evening News, 27 October 1902, p 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article114504767 , accessed 8 September 2023.

Bibliography

Primary Sources:

Catholic Press (Sydney)

Daily Mercury (Mackay)

Eastern Districts Chronicle (York)

Evening News (Sydney)

Freeman's Journal (Sydney)

New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime (Sydney)

Queenslander (Brisbane)

Wellington Times (New South Wales)

Worker (Brisbane)

A promising start: what went wrong with Tasmanian cricket in the nineteenth century?

As throughout most of the British Empire, cricket took solid root in the Australian colonies. A total of seventy-five intercolonial matches were played on the Australian continent between 1851 and 1892. Cricket was played as early as 1825 in Van Diemen’s land, later rechristened Tasmania. The colony was also the site of the earliest first-class cricket to be played in the Australian colonies. (1) The first intrastate game between North and South was held at the geographical mid-point at Oatlands on the 20^th of April 1850. (2) When “Tasmania” defeated Victoria in Launceston in March 1854 by 8 wickets it was termed ‘the conquering match’ as each had previously won an intercolonial match on their own ground. (3) While Tasmania had begun as one of the ‘strongest cricket colonies’, it was excluded from the inaugural Sheffield Shield competition in the 1892-93 season. (4) In fact the state did not join the competition until the 1977/8 season. (5) So exactly what factors retarded the development of cricket in Tasmania during the Nineteenth Century? I have identified several potential candidates: elitism, aversion to professionalism, resistance to round arm bowling, rivalries between North and South, population and poverty. Do any of these adequately explain the stifled progress of the sport in Tasmania?

While the game of cricket was diffused across most of the British colonies, among all the territory that was once held by the British, it appears to have failed to take root in North America, specifically the United States and Canada. That was also despite evidence of early popularity in both countries and its enduring success in the Caribbean. Sociologists Jason Kaufman and Orlando Patterson have argued that the success of its diffusion was dependent on two main factors: use of the sport as a hegemonic tool and popularization by cultural entrepreneurs. (6) Additionally, is it possible that the reasons for the sport’s overall failure in North America could shed some light on its qualified success on the island state?

 

 A game of cricket by Francis Hayman 1743, British Museum, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

From its inception, cricket was both a creation and a creature of the social elite and this elitism could be managed in order to include or exclude. Kaufman and Patterson allude to the ‘hegemonic’ power of the game of cricket. The British appreciated its capacity to “discipline and civilize men”. If diffused in an inclusive manner, the game appears to have been very effective in allowing the colonized to pay ‘symbolic homage to British cultural and political hegemony’. The game could also allow those who suffered various forms of social and economic stratification to find a way above or around them. This may have been one of the reasons they in turn argue that the sport was diffused so successfully in the ‘West Indies’. While this kind of inclusive diffusion could be seen as indoctrination, it was however much more positive than its counterpart. (7) There is little evidence of this occurring in Tasmania, as the Derwent Club found it difficult to secure a permanent ground before 1843. Their first two grounds were confiscated by the government, the first to be used as a drilling ground for troops and the second was required for a road after extensive improvements had already been made. Finally, the Director General of Roads obliged and transferred the first ground to them for the 1843-4 season. (8) 

The game of cricket was undeniably very often a game used by the social elites to exclude. Its early adoption into English public education reflects its role as a socialization agency emphasizing specific values and behaviours. With the introduction of professionalism, a practice called ‘stacking’ became common, which allowed the elite and the professionals to co-exist but at the same time remain segregated in relation to everything from separate change rooms to listing on score cards. Kaufman and Patterson argue however that while exclusive elements were transplanted into the culture of the game in the Australian and New Zealand colonies, the elites themselves were limited in their capacity to insist on exclusivity in these European settlements because of both their size and isolation. The process of diffusion of the sport was still essentially top down though, although the extent to which the elites could ‘cultivate their Englishness’ through acts of exclusion were qualified. But they tried. The Melbourne Cricket Club reportedly employed a grounds man specifically to eject non-members from the club grounds. (9) The South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) in the 1870s had a policy of preventing the poor from attending games at the Adelaide Oval until intervention from parliament ensured there was facility for those who could not afford the cost of admission to attend in ‘the outer’. (10) At the same time, there appears to be little evidence that the mainstream were excluded from engaging in the sport, although they likely had little involvement in its government. (11)

The biggest controversy of the early period appears to have been acceptance of the professional player. The game had originally found popularity among the social elites in England who found they could gamble on the outcome and that inevitably led to the engagement of professionals to secure better results. (12) However, it was often thought that the game departed from being a gentlemen’s preserve when professionalism was permitted; instead it became one led by publicans, associated with various social vices. (13) Indeed, Joseph Bowden, owner of the Lamb Inn in Hobart (perhaps qualifying as one of Kaufman and Patterson’s cultural entrepreneurs?) organized one of the first cricket matches there on Easter Monday 1826 in the Domain. It involved a match between gentlemen from the Counties of Sussex and Kent against the choice of the whole island with a stake of 50 guineas! (14) Despite the clear potential of the sport on the island, Northern and Southern cricket interests remained doggedly opposed to the inclusion of professionals for decades. This was despite some of the more successful players representing the mainland colonies increasingly being drawn from the ranks of professionals. For instance, Gideon Elliott had originally played for Surrey and had migrated during the gold rushes. (15) Australian born Tom Wills played for Kent and the MCC while away in England for his education before returning and representing Victoria. (16)

One of the central negative outcomes of diffusion identified by Kaufman and Patterson is the danger of ‘status insecure first-adopters’ capturing the game for themselves, for which they credit the failure of cricket to succeed in North America. While the sport had also become popular there during the mid-Nineteenth Century, it was effectively eclipsed by the sport of baseball at the turn of the century. While the potential reasons are clearly numerous and complex, (ranging from the climate to a dislike of the slow nature of play) they explain:

Over time, the sport’s snooty image took a toll on the popularity of cricket among Americans at large, an image the elites sought to cultivate, In contrast to the robust English tradition of  “gentlemen and players”, American cricket clubs strictly forbade professionals from play, even if it meant bitter defeat at the hands of travelling English and Australian teams. (17)

The same reluctance to hire professionals was evident in Tasmania during the same period. When the Tasmanian side was totally routed by the visiting Victorians in the first intercolonial match of 1858, it was clear that the Victorian side reflected a sporting culture that prized first class play, rather than one that still viewed the game as merely a preserve for gentlemen. The contrast between the sides was evident not only in the disparity between the ratio of runs for wickets but also in the high level of maiden overs produced by the Victorian bowlers. (18) Tasmania not only lacked round arm pace bowlers but, perhaps as a consequence of not allowing them to play in the state, also lacked batsmen with the ability to play them. In contrast professional players by their nature normally had experience of many types of conditions and styles of play and it is likely that their contributions as both players and coaches may have prevented such overall poor performances as were witnessed in those matches. (19) There appears to be some level of symmetry between the decline in the competitiveness of teams in Tasmania and North America during the Nineteenth Century as a result of attitudes to professionalism.

At the time of initial settlement in Australia in the late Eighteenth Century, all bowling in the developing game of cricket was underarm. It was a very informal game involving smoking on the field. Round arm bowling became increasingly popular in England throughout the 1820s. It was originally devised by John Willes of Kent but first used to devastating effect in the local game by leading exponents William Lillywhite and James Broadbridge. The style was declared legal by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) at Lords in 1828. Colonial players and enthusiasts were able to follow the English game only by virtue of newspaper coverage. The development in the style of play was likely transmitted to the antipodes in that way.  One of the early pioneers of the style in New South Wales was Captain Edward Ward. Ward was particularly noted for his jerky style of delivery. (20) The change in the nature of the game necessitated the use of gloves and pads, however primitive. William Still in May 1834 became the first player in Australia to make use of these items, presumably in order to deal with the increasing pace of the ball as a result of round-arm bowling. (21) 

The game developed concurrently in Van Diemen’s Land. The very first game of cricket in Tasmania may have been played at Christmas in 1814 as The Reverend Robert Knopwood makes a reference to it in his famous diary. (22) The Hobart Town Cricket Club was inaugurated on 27 October 1832. Subsequently the Launceston Cricket Club which survives to this day was formed in 1843 and several other regional clubs also began to form at this time including Sorell, Richmond and New Norfolk. (23) However, before the 1850s, the round-arm style bowling was simply not part of the game in Van Diemen’s Land. The accepted style in Van Diemen’s Land in this period remained ‘lob bowling’ which involved tossing the ball high in an attempt to beat the batsman with an arc that could hit the stumps. This style of bowling was no longer used anywhere else in the cricketing world. (24)

It was only a matter of time before the new style of play crossed the strait. Melbourne was settled by pioneers from Tasmania between 1834-5. A match between ‘Port Phillip’ and a Tasmanian team was proposed and organized in Launceston in 1850 and Governor Denison granted the Launceston club land near the racecourse for the purpose. Somewhat reluctantly, the Hobart club dispatched players to help fill out the local side. However, due to an administrative bungle the Victorians did not arrive when expected in June 1850. (25) The game was reorganized and took place between 11-12 February 1851. There is some indication that the locals were unprepared for the pace of round-arm bowling as there were no runs scored in their first innings for almost four overs! (26) This was Australia’s initial first-class match and the local team won by 3 wickets. A rematch was proposed for Melbourne and this began in late March 1852. This time the Victorians won by 61 runs. Despite some controversy over the Victorian use of professional players, relations between the two colonies and their teams remained cordial. (27)

It was the next two intercolonial matches between Tasmania and Victoria in 1858 that was to draw attention to the lingering issue of round-arm bowling. Victoria only had to bat once in the first encounter of the tour:  Tasmania produced a mere 33 in their first innings and 62 in their second falling short of Victoria’s tally of 106 by 11 runs! The Tasmanians were hounded in turn mercilessly by the pace of Gideon Elliott and Tom Wills. Elliott tore through the Tasmanian batting order in the first innings finishing with eight wickets. Wills was the star of the fielding side the next time the Victorians took the field taking five wickets. In response to what the Sydney Morning Herald later declared an ‘ignoble defeat’, the Launceston Examiner lamented that: ‘we have not one round arm bowler with command of pace in the whole country’. (28) The Hobart Town Daily Mercury reported that: ‘The round hand bowling seemed to astonish the nerves of the Launcestonians’. (29)

 

 Victorian Cricket team 1859, Gideon Elliott far left & Tom Wills far right, Uncredited, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons

The carnage continued in the rematch held in Hobart in March at the Domain led again by Elliott and Wills. In their second innings already on the second day and before a local crowd of an estimated 2000 people, Tasmanian batsman Jamieson was struck on the leg three times in the second over and afterwards required a runner. Tasmania finished their second innings with a tally of just 25 runs. (30) This game was actually later classified as the initial first-class game to be held in Hobart wherein Elliott finished with match figures of 7 for 25 yet still only supporting Tom Wills who finished with 11 for 35. Jack Pollard in his analysis of these games has argued that these poor performances by the Tasmanian team can be directly attributed to an inability to play round arm bowling – a method that was still considered on the island to be ‘unsportsmanlike’. Perhaps as a direct result of these poor performances, Tasmania did not accept further invitations for another intercolonial match for several years, while the other colonies benefited from such competition. (31)

Regardless, the intercolonial matches between 1851-8 and the match with the ‘All England team’ in 1862 had served to increase awareness of the modern round-arm style of play. The technique made the local game more dangerous and demanding and it was asserted that it drew on the ‘convict element’. This likely contributed to those among the local gentry (referred to as ‘passengers’) who could not play well being slowly weeded out from the game. The method was only slowly accepted on an official level in the state. Tom Hogg was no-balled for ‘lifting his arm above the shoulder’ in an 1863 senior match. His action was the subject of much scrutiny and fear, but he became the first Australian player to dismiss W. G. Grace. (32) It is difficult to understand how the administrators of the game in the colony could expect their players to remain competitive on any level if they could not embrace this fundamental change in the nature of the game. Perhaps they did not and that was the reason Tasmania did not participate in any intercolonial cricket for several years, content to enjoy an insular gentleman’s paradise while the world moved on? (33)

From the inception of colonization of the island from 1804, there was a demarcation line established between the North and the South at the 42^nd parallel. Both of these separate colonies, based on the Tamar River in the North and the Derwent River in the South, were answerable to the Governor in Sydney. It was not until 1813 that the administrations of both were fused. Lingering tensions between the two though are often attributed to (perceived?) inequities in the allocation of services. It is generally agreed that this rivalry has affected the administration and government of the island on all levels. (34)

North and South rivalries may have hampered the development of a co-ordinated and efficient administrative system in the colony. The Derwent and Launceston clubs did all the organizing of inter-colonial matches. Jack Pollard specifically singled out rivalries between the Northern and Southern forces of the game as the reason that there wasn’t another intercolonial game involving Tasmania after 1852 until 1858. (35) The resumption of inter-colonial competition does appears to coincide with the amalgamation of three Southern clubs (the Derwent, Break O Day and Wellington) into the Southern Tasmanian Cricket Club in 1858. (36) Even so, the first ever English tour of the Australian colonies in the 1861-2 season led to a disappointing encounter in Hobart. Significantly the local team of 22 was comprised of 11 players from each end of the colony and even then, the visitors won by four wickets. (37) In comparison, a crowd of 500 in Launceston were privy only to an hour’s exhibition play! (38)

Roger Page has argued that that North and South interests ‘clashed bitterly on any and every issue’ in the 1860s and 1870s. (39) The Southern Tasmanian Cricket Association (STCA) was formed in 1866 and arguably instigated some professionalism in relation to the administration of the game in the colony. (40) The treatment or behaviour or both of Tasmanian James Alexander Ferguson during the 1877 tour to Adelaide and Melbourne was a symptom of the simmering tensions between North and South. The trip was organized by the SCTA, but three Northerners from Launceston were included in order to make it a ‘Tasmanian’ team. Ferguson fell out with team management during the trip and was refused a place, although he did play as substitute. The ill feeling continued during two matches in Victoria staged on the way home. The Launceston Cricket Club took Ferguson’s side in relation to a dispute over travelling expenses. Relations between North and South broke of entirely between 1877-8. (41)

The standard of the game at least did rise in the second half of the Nineteenth Century as organization, pitches, equipment and play steadily improved. But the process was gradual, too gradual. Part of this improvement at least could be attributed to the formation of the Northern Cricket Association in 1886 which helped to remedy a perceived imbalance of authority and influence. (42) Aside from the clear damage inflicted by an innate conservatism among administrators, rivalries between North and South were officially acknowledged as being instrumental in retarding the development and success of the game in Tasmania. Ric Finlay has posited that insistence on ‘equal representation’ from both North and South historically led to sides not being wholly selected on merit. (43) Persistent rivalries then were regarded as the main reason Tasmania refused to join the Australian Board of Control on its formation in 1905. Consequently, the Board and the Victorian Cricket Association in turn encouraged the formation of the Executive Cricket Council of Tasmania in 1907. Tellingly, this body was comprised of six delegates, three from both the North and the South. Subsequently the Council was able to send a representative delegate to the Australian Board of Control to represent the state’s interests. (44)

The problems inherent to a small population and poverty are intertwined in Tasmania. Between 1851-2 the male population of the colony dropped by 33% and this had an immediate impact on the economy. The demographic dive caused wages to rise, caused spiraling inflation and saw land use fall by 18%. While the population drain soon after halted it is reasonable to argue that both socially and economically, the colony never fully recovered from this set back. (45) Historian Jack Pollard identifies one of the main factors in the retardation of the game in Tasmania as the effects of the gold rush. (46) While the impact of the gold rushes on the economy was probably more self-evident, there was effectively also smaller pool of men from which the sport had to draw on. The enlistment of men during the First World War and subsequent casualties similarly weakened the available pool to the extent that the 1916-7 domestic season was the last to be held until the 1935-6 season. (47) Ric Finlay identifies a ‘crippling poverty’ that decimated the potential for the sport effectively until the post-war period. Attempts to allow the state to both engage on an interstate level and play competitively consistently floundered during this period. (48) Tasmania grapples with the problems associated with a small population to this day and to some extent still, its competitiveness relies on imported players from other states and overseas. (49) At the same time over the next few decades the state produced several players of note, some even selected for the national team, including Burn, Bailey, Eady, Nash, MacDonald, Badcock and Windsor. (50)

 

 Tasmanian team that played South Africa in Hobart in 1932, Uncredited, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

There were indeed several central factors that held back the development of the local game of cricket in Tasmania during the Nineteenth Century and they likely included elitism, aversion to professionalism, resistance to the adoption of round-arm bowling, rivalry between Northern and Southern strongholds of the game, population and poverty. However, none of these were the central cause of the decline: conservatism. In fact, its arguable that the first three factors were symptoms of this all-pervading conservatism. The only factors that consistently rivalled the problem of conservatism across the entire history of cricket in the state were North South rivalry as well as the perennial issues of population and poverty. The mistrust and animosity between Northern and Southern cricket organisations appears to have further damaged the potential of the game in the state. When all that was combined with both the debilitating issues of a small (and often declining) population as well as sustained poverty, it is probably not surprising that Tasmanian cricket fell far behind the cricketing standards of the other Australian colonies and therefore failed to join the Sheffield Shield competition from its inauguration in the 1892-3 season. 

Although the government authorities in early colonial Tasmania did not seem to recognise the hegemonic power of the sport, it still developed an enduring popularity with the mainstream population. While the subsequent management of the sport by the social elite in the Nineteenth Century was not focused on exclusion, it was selfish in the sense that it attempted to preserve the game in a genteel form and thereby slowed its natural development into a professional competitive sport. Despite their actions, they unrealistically expected other colonies to pander to their preoccupation with amateurism, sometimes with humbling results! This was unfortunate considering the ‘promising start’ made by the colony as a hub of cricket from around 1826.  There is some symmetry then between the course of cricket in Tasmania and North America. The game was arguably captured by self-interested elites in both places which served to stifle its development to varying degrees. In contrast, it was to be ‘far-sighted administrators’ in the 1960s who reformed the state game in co-ordination with the Australian Cricket Board that allowed restricted entry into the Sheffield Shield in 1977 and full membership in 1982. (51) If we return then to the ugly two match intercolonial series held in Launceston and Hobart in 1858, wherein Tasmania was routed by Victoria, the response printed in the Mount Alexander Mail seems particularly astute:

We hope that the Tasmanians will be taught one lesson, and that is, not to allow any one set of men to have the right of assuming responsibility of challenging a neighbouring colony to a contest in which the character and reputation of Tasmania are involved. (52)

 

 

-  Colin Mallett, 17 December 2022.

 

Endnotes

(1) John Pollard, The Formative Years of Australian Cricket 1803-1893, The Book Company, Sydney, 1995, pp. 21, 94.

(2) A. G. Moyes, Australian Cricket: A History, Halstead Press, Sydney, 1959, pp. 16-7. The Northerners won that match by 12 runs!

(3) Courier 08 March 1854, p. 2.

(4) A. G. Moyes, op.cit.., p. 243. After Lord Sheffield’s tour of the colonies in the 1891-2 season, he donated a sum to the Australian Cricket Council who had the Sheiffield Shield trophy made. The initial competition consisted of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

(5) Ric Finlay, ‘Cricket’ in The Companion to Tasmanian History Online, accessed on 05 October 2022.

(6) Jason Kaufman & Orlando Patterson, ‘Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread of Cricket’, American Sociological Review, vol. 70, no. 1, 2005, pp. 82-84, 97-9. In sociology, diffusion theory seeks to explain how a concept is transmitted, adopted and acculturated by a recipient group and the sport of cricket is used in the paper as a case study.

(7) ibid., pp. 91, 99.

(8) A. G. Moyes, op.cit., p. 15.

(9) Jason Kaufman & Orlando Patterson, op.cit.., pp. 93, 100-1.

(10) John Pollard, op.cit., p. 65.

(11) In fact, one game that was advertised in The Independent on 14 December 1843 gave notice that a game involving ‘22 commoners’ of Launceston! A. G. Moyes, op,cit., p. 16.

(12) Jason Kaufman & Orlando Patterson, op.cit., p. 91.

(13) John Pollard, op.cit., p. 58-9.

(14) Hobart Town Advertiser 24 March 1826, p. 4 accessed on 03 October 2022. There is reportedly evidence of a previous match in an ‘anonymous report’ organised by Bowden for 1 March 1825 held on ‘Stanley’s field’ on Elizabeth Street Hobart between Liverpool and Bathurst Streets. It consisted of a match between the military and civilians and was won by the former by 15 runs. Refer to Roger Page, A History of Tasmania Cricket, L. G. Shea Government Printer Tasmania, Hobart, 1957, p. 9.

(15) John Pollard, op.cit., p. 27, 99.

(16) W. F. Mandle, ‘Thomas Wentworth Wills (1835-1880)’ in The Australian Dictionary of Biography, accessed on 03 October 2022.

(17) Jason Kaufman & Orlando Patterson, op.cit., p. 97.

(18) Launceston Examiner 27 February 1858, p.2 accessed on 03 October 2022.

(19) John Pollard, op.cit., p. 37.

(20) ibid., pp. 2, 9, 12, 20, 29.

(21) A. G. Moyes op.cit., p. 5.

(22) Ric Finlay, ‘Cricket’ in The Companion to Tasmania History Online, accessed 5 October 2022.

(23) A. G. Moyes, op.cit., p. 15.

(24) John Pollard, op.cit., p. 29.

(25) ibid., pp. 27-8.

(26) A. G. Moyes, op.cit., p. 19.

(27) John Pollard, op.cit., pp. 96-7.

(28) Sydney Morning Herald 4 March 1858, p.2 & Launceston Examiner 27 February 1858, p. 2 accessed on 03 October 2022.

(29) Hobart Town Daily Mercury 27 February 1858, p. 3. The reference to ‘Launcestonians’ seems odd as according to the Argus, three of the team were from the South – almost suggesting that a Hobart based team would be better prepared (?). See: 27 February 1858, p. 5. It also seems clear from the first article that the arrangements for the rematch that was to occur in Hobart had not yet been set. Both accessed on 03 October 2022.

(30) Hobart Town Advertiser 06 March 1858, p. 2.

(31) John Pollard, op.cit., pp. 98-9.

(32) ibid., pp.28-9, 35-6.

(33) A mindset reflected in the comment in the Launceston Examiner’s coverage which stated: ‘…we think it would have been better if the Victorians had not availed themselves of such skill, if only on the ground of not making the match on( e ) sided.’ See: 27 February 1858, p. 2 accessed on 03 October 2022.

(34) Judith Hollingsworth, ‘North-South Relations’ in The Companion to Tasmanian History Online accessed on 29 September 2022.

(35) John Pollard, op.cit., p. 98.

(36) A. G. Moyes, op.cit., p. 17.

(37) Mercury 21 February 1864, p. 4. The English team returned to the state in 1874 with W. G. Grace. A good summary of both these tours can be found here: Examiner, 28 January 1908, p. 2.

(38) Ric Finlay, Island Summers, A History of Tasmanian Representative Cricket, St. David’s Park Publishing, Hobart, 1992, p. 8, 13. This practice of fielding local teams of 22 was continued on the English tour of Australia in 1873-4. At total of 14 of the 22 made ducks in their first innings!

(39) Roger Page, op.cit., p. 29.

(40) A. G. Moyes, op.cit., p. 17.

(41) Ric Finlay, Island Summers, A History of Tasmanian Representative Cricket, op.cit., pp. 14-7. More would likely be known and understood of this whole affair (for instance why Ferguson played at Ballarat and not Beechworth?) if not for a fire at the Pavillion in 1950 which destroyed the club’s records. Refer to Roger Page, op.cit, p. 5.

(42) A. G. Moyes, op.cit., p. 17.

(43) Ric Finlay, Island Summers, A History of Tasmanian Representative Cricket, op.cit., p. 1. Furthermore, he argues that insistence on duplication of facilities in both the North and the South along with competition over the hosting of home games have persisted to the present day and resulted in an overall failure to attract the kind of sponsorship that mainland states enjoy.

(44) John Pollard, op.cit.., pp. 31-3 & originally related by A. G. Moyes, Australian Cricket: A History, Halstead Press, Sydney, 1959, p. 25.

(45) Wendy Rimon, ‘Gold Rush in Victoria’ in The Companion to Tasmanian History Online accessed 29 September 2022.

(46) John Pollard, op.cit., p. 94.

(47) A. G. Moyes, op.cit.., pp. 16-17.

(48) Ric Finlay, ‘Cricket’, op.cit.

(49) Tim Lane, ‘Sport Thought: Revisiting Tasmania’s days of cricketing glory’ in The Sydney Morning Herald Online, 09 March 2019. Indeed, our first state Captain was former England and Lancashire player Jack Simmons who led the state to an unexpected victory in the Gillette Cup in January 1979.

(50) A. G. Moyes, op.cit., p. 31. We’ve continued to punch above our weight per capita in terms of producing talented cricketers in the post war game including national stalwarts David Boon and Ricky Ponting.

(51) Ric Finlay, ‘Cricket’, op.cit.

(52) Mount Alexander Mail 15 March 1858, p.3. Ouch!

 

Bibliography
 

Primary Sources:
 

Argus

 
Courier

Hobart Town Advertiser

Hobart Town Daily Mercury

 

The Independent

Launceston Examiner

Mercury

 
Mount Alexander Mail

Sydney Morning Herald

 
 
Secondary Sources:

Finlay, R. Island Summers, A History of Tasmanian Representative Cricket, St. David’s Park Publishing, Hobart, 1992.

Kaufman, J. & Patterson, O. ‘Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread of Cricket’, American Sociological Review, vol. 70, no. 1, 2005, pp. 82-110.
Moyes, A. G. Australian Cricket: A History, Halstead Press, Sydney, 1959.

Page, R. A History of Tasmania Cricket, L. G. Shea Government Printer Tasmania, Hobart, 1957.

Pollard, J. The Formative Years of Australian Cricket 1803-1893, The Book Company, Sydney, 1995.
 

 

Online Resources:

Finlay, R. ‘Cricket’ in The Companion to Tasmania History Online, accessed on 05 October 2022.

Hollingsworth, J. ‘North-South Relations’ in The Companion to Tasmanian History Online, accessed on 29 September 2022.

 
Lane, T. ‘Sport Thought: Revisiting Tasmania’s days of cricketing glory’ in The Sydney Morning Herald Online, 09 March 2019.

Mandle, W. F. ‘Thomas Wentworth Wills (1835-1880)’ in The Australian Dictionary of Biography, accessed on 03 October 2022.

Rimon, W. ‘Gold Rush in Victoria’ in The Companion to Tasmanian History Online, accessed on 29 September 2022.

Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, accessed 29 September 2022.