My husband’s family history has been
fortunate to have been enhanced by two published accounts, both mentioned
before in my #52 Ancestors blog.
In Week 26 (Legend), I debunked some
of the myths perpetuated in the booklet written by Peter McCann, the grandson
of the first Peter who was Paul’s 3 x great grandfather.
“History of descendants
Of
Peter McCann, Who Landed in Australia
in 1799
And
the Establishment of the Cement
Industry
and its
Development in Victoria.”
Peter’s fanciful retelling of his grandfather’s story
continues with the story of his father, Nicholas, and here he is on firmer
ground. Born when Nicholas was only 24,
Peter was actually involved in many adventures with him.
But first he had to survive the death of his
mother, Catherine, in 1832, when he was only 4 years old. His baby sister Anne was adopted by a kind
and wealthy couple who loved her; Peter was sent, at the age of 5, to a school
that sounds like something out of Charles Dickens. He described it as “the most antediluvian
scholastic establishment that has come within my knowledge”, a place of “starvation
and neglect”, run by a couple called Howard who were drunken bullies. He seems to have existed that year on stale
bread, tea and boiled nettles and became filthy and itchy with lice. The boys were caned for the smallest of transgressions
and were all miserable and unhappy.
After about a year, Peter was rescued by his father,
who was making a good living as a stonemason and builder and who planning to
marry again. Peter’s stepmother was
Catherine Nelson, eleven years younger than Nicholas and working as a nursery
governess.
In April 1837, Nicholas, Catherine and 9 year old
Peter set off from Tasmania on board the “Thistle” bound for Port Fairy where
Nicholas was to work for John Griffith.
The ship was a small schooner but it was packed with 50 people and several
sheep. The crossing which should have
taken about 6 days, took 6 weeks! A south-westerly
blew them two hundred miles off course, and as the Captain struggled to deal
with the conditions, Nicholas was thrown overboard.
Peter wrote: “I remember running to the stern of
the boat, from where I saw the well-known head of my Father bob up like a cork. I saw too that he had immediately turned on his
back, so as to keep his face away from the waves and towards the ship. Although he had heavy clothes on, including
his boots, he seemed to be able to float breast high out of the water. Fortunately he was a most expert and fearless
swimmer and was able to keep afloat….we had on board some of the most expert
boatmen in Tasmania and in less time than you could believe to be possible ,
they had one of the best whale boats down and launched…to our delight we began
to have good hope that the small whale boat would be able to stand up to the
violence of the sea. But then the crisis. I distinctly saw the stern of the whale boat
approaching him, and when it came within a touch, a wave struck the boat and it
went right over the top of my Father. We
were now afraid the keel had struck him and were afraid that he would be
stunned. But here his cool courage seems
to have come to his aid. He said,
subsequently, that he saw the whale boat coming over him and shot down feet
first. This must have been the case, for
to our great delight he shot up again near the stern of the whale boat and was
at once pulled aboard by strong arms.
The boatmen lavished praise on Father for his bravery, without making
any reference to the bravery of their own deed.”
Peter and his father lived for about a year at Griffith Island (now the site of the Port Fairy lighthouse) and Nicholas worked for a time as a whaler.
Peter’s adventures continued when his father
selected a parcel of land between Port Fairy and Cape Otway and established a
sheep station with a small flock of 1000 sheep.
Of course, this was a part of the country thickly populated with natives
so it wasn’t long before there were confrontations. Peter describes an initially friendly
encounter with a large group who camped near their hut.
“There was a very large Lightwood Tree just facing the
hut and my father said,” Peter it will not do for us to all go inside the hut
so I shall watch outside under the tree.
Will you be afraid to stay outside”.
I said, “No, if you stay outside I will stay with you.” My father was reconciled to this night in the
open, but was prepared for War as well as for Peace. He said, “Peter, don’t be afraid. If anything happens there is nothing else to
do but to attack them. Of course, they
are afraid of guns and of us. If they turn
ugly we must have a big turn up with the.
I have arranged with the other men (a bullock driver and another young
squatter) what to do if anything happens”. We had not been down under the tree
very long when we saw the shadow of something by the light of the camp fire,
which proved to be a black fellow. He or another paid many visits of this kind
during the night. However the night passed without any harm”
It was not long before relations became more
hostile.
“My father was cutting some wattles, and not far
from the house, when without warning, a large kangaroo spear landed and stuck
in the ground near his foot. Had it not
been for his courage he would have lost his life. The moment he saw the spear he seized his
double barrelled gun and rushed in the direction from which the spear was
thrown. At the same time, he made the
loudest and most unearthly noise that he could and ran holding the gun in one
hand and swinging the axe in the other.
A blackfellow popped out from behind a tree, followed by several
more. My father pursued them but took
care that his first steps in the chase were in the direction that put him
between the Blacks and the hut. Having
achieved this he ran for the hut and arrived safely”
Nicholas decided to return to Geelong and the
building trade. By this time he had two
more children to feed and educate, so the family returned in 1841, and settled
there permanently. Peter became a stonemason too – he and his
father were responsible for many of Geelong’s early buildings, and when they
purchased land containing sandstone quarried in the Barrabool Hills outside
Geelong, they established the basis of the family fortune. In 1850,
the now prosperous Nicholas sent Peter to England to bring back his sister
Annie who had been taken there by the Hopkins family when she was a small
child. In England, Peter met and married
Elizabeth Begley and they returned to Geelong to establish a large family. In the portrait below, Peter is celebrated as a pioneer of the Australian Cement Industry and one of the first directors of the Australian Portland Cement Company Ltd.
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