The year 1836 was an eventful one for the future of South Australia,\u00a0 and His Majesty\u2019s Government in Britain hoped to build a perfect State in an area where there seemed to be unlimited possibilities for land development,\u00a0 for expansion,\u00a0 and for the disposal of surplus population.\u00a0 England was still suffering from the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars,\u00a0 from massive unemployment due both to the cessation of production of war materials and to the rapid progress of industrialisation.\u00a0 There was little demand for farm produce,\u00a0 and the rural population,\u00a0 too,\u00a0 felt the results of economic depression \u2013 possibly to a greater degree than those in the cities.<\/p>\n
The solution,\u00a0 in part,\u00a0 to the problem of overpopulation was deemed to lie in the unclaimed wastelands of South Australia,\u00a0 where the Government hoped a society could be built of settlers who ultimately would be free to follow their own pursuits.\u00a0 Religion would be a personal preference\u00a0 and not be controlled by the Established Church from London;\u00a0 for the voices of those who dissented\u00a0 from established Church of England were becoming troublesome.\u00a0 The Dissenters suffered many disabilities,\u00a0 and Eric Routley in his book English Religious Dissent <\/i>sets out the problems thus:<\/p>\n
Up to the year 1753 marriages in Dissenting meeting-houses were often held to be invalid:\u00a0 from 1753 to 1836 the law made it clear that they were always invalid.\u00a0 In 1747 a Dissenter who was married in the meeting-house at Fairford,\u00a0 Gloucestershire,\u00a0 was arrested for fornication.\u00a0 Baptisms in such meeting-houses were often declared invalid,\u00a0 although here,\u00a0 since no legal contract was involved,\u00a0 the judgement was a theological one and had no substance in law.\u00a0 Up to 1900,\u00a0 burial in parish churchyards was denied to Dissenters.\u00a0 The Universities were closed to them;\u00a0 and the first university to be open to them,\u00a0 that of London,\u00a0 was founded largely in order that they might circumvent the traditions which in respect of Oxford,\u00a0 Cambridge and Durham persisted until 1871.<\/em><\/p>\n South Australia,\u00a0 therefore,\u00a0 became very attractive to many English Non-conformists as well as to some German Protestants,\u00a0 who also suffered persecution in Europe.<\/p>\n The colony was not to become another New South Wales or Van Dieman\u2019s Land \u2013 as Tasmania was then called.\u00a0 Each settler was to be able to hold up his head with pride.\u00a0 There certainly was to be no convict settlement;\u00a0 and indeed the word \u201cconvict\u201d as far as South Australia was concerned was almost considered not to exist.\u00a0 Truly,\u00a0 the new land was to be a Paradise,\u00a0 with for its centre a well-planned city which would be given the lovely name,\u00a0 Adelaide,\u00a0 for the consort of King,\u00a0 William IV.\u00a0 The South Australian Colonisation Commission was appointed by the British Government to turn dreams into reality,\u00a0 to arrange the land surveys and to set up all the panoply of Government with Governor,\u00a0 staff,\u00a0 the usual array of officials and of course the Judiciary.<\/p>\n The South Australian Company was formed by G. G. Angas,\u00a0 a former Colonisation Committee member,\u00a0 to take care of the commercial development of the new Colony,\u00a0 and this Company soon owned a fleet of ships.\u00a0 There were passenger vessels,\u00a0 whalers to cull the wealth of the seas,\u00a0 coastal traders to ply to the other Australian mainland ports and to Van Dieman\u2019s Land.\u00a0 It was not long before shore stations were set up and business began in earnest;\u00a0 but first there were trees to be felled,\u00a0 timber sawn,\u00a0 and store and residences erected for employees.<\/p>\n The South Australian Church Society looked\u00a0 after religion to the extend that it was able to do so.\u00a0 It arranged for the appointment of a Colonial Chaplain,\u00a0 for staff and for a prefabricated church \u2013 in the outcome,\u00a0 this church was not erected \u2013 to be shipped out to the new Colony on the William Hutt. <\/i>The William Hutt <\/i>had been named after Sir William Hutt,\u00a0 Member of Parliament for Woolwich,\u00a0 a member of the South Australian Company and later of the New Zealand Company. This ship,\u00a0 under charter to the Colonisation Commissioners,\u00a0 was owned by Henry French and commanded by Alexander Fleming.\u00a0 Henry French was probably a member of the family of that name who were members of the Dissenting Congregation\u00a0 of Woolwich.\u00a0 He travelled on board and according to Smith family tradition with his wife and her companion,\u00a0 Miss Martha Neavy of Woolwich.\u00a0 The family tradition appears to be confirmed in an article by L.J. Ewens entitled \u201cThe South Australian Colonising Ships of 1836\u201d and published by the Pioneer Association of South Australia,\u00a0 which states:\u00a0 \u201cAlthough it was expected that the William Hutt<\/i> would carry emigrants,\u00a0 only one was reported\u201d.<\/p>\n Each of the three above-mentioned organisations was very active.\u00a0 The Colonisation Commissioners promptly\u00a0 dispatched the Rapid <\/i>with the newly appointed Surveyor-General,\u00a0 Colonel William Light,\u00a0 and his party.\u00a0 The Cygnet <\/i>followed with more surveyors and officials,\u00a0 then HMS Buffalo<\/i> with Governor Hindmarsh and his staff.\u00a0\u00a0 The inland site for the city was finally selected and the surveys commenced.\u00a0 Surveying of outlying districts continued for some years and one of the explorers and surveyors was to become prominent in New Zealand a decade later as Governor of the Colony.\u00a0 He was George Grey.<\/p>\n The South Australian Company was equally active.\u00a0 In 1836,\u00a0 the \u00a0Duke of York<\/i>,\u00a0 a whaler,\u00a0 was dispatched southward with Company officers,\u00a0 servants and stores.\u00a0 She was followed by a second whaler,\u00a0 Lady Mary Pelham,\u00a0 <\/i>with 34 employees,\u00a0 and then followed the John Price <\/i>with 28 employees.\u00a0 On 28 June 1836 The South Australian Gazette and\u00a0 Colonial Register<\/i>,\u00a0 at that time printed in London,\u00a0 carried an article to the effect that lying in St Katherine\u2019s Docks were the barque,\u00a0 TamO\u2019Shanter ,\u00a0 <\/i>and the\u00a0 <\/i>whaler,\u00a0 Africaine,\u00a0 <\/i>each preparing to sail \u2013 the former to Van Dieman\u2019s Land and the latter to South Australia.\u00a0 This newspaper also carried the usual advertisement,\u00a0 which began:<\/p>\n For Hobart Town and Sydney,\u00a0 this fine British built\u00a0 ship TamO\u2019Santer,\u00a0 A1,\u00a0 500 tons burthen,\u00a0 Whiteman Freeman,\u00a0 Commander,\u00a0 lying in St Katherine\u2019s Docks,\u00a0 has poop with elegant accommodation for passengers,\u00a0 and is well armed.\u00a0 For freight and passage apply to Goodwin and Lee ,\u00a0 117 Bishopsgate Street,\u00a0 Whithin.\u00a0 The ship is intended as a Colonial Trader and will open on her port of destination to make arrangements \u2013 with parties interested \u2013 to load oil and wood at Portlands Bay,\u00a0 Van Dieman\u2019s Land and elsewhere as required.<\/em><\/p>\n The TamO\u2019Santer<\/i> carried 171 passengers in all \u2013 including thirty convicts to Launceston,\u00a0 their escorts,\u00a0 the Immigration\u00a0 Agent,\u00a0 and a few emigrants.\u00a0 After her arrival in Tasmania the ship was chartered by John White (now known as the Father of South Australia) and she conveyed animals and stores to Adelaide and suffered some damage,\u00a0 more significant than first realised,\u00a0 when she stranded on the Port River bar.\u00a0 She was aground for three days and at one time there was nine feet of water in the hold,\u00a0 and according to John White\u2019s biographer,\u00a0 Geoffrey\u00a0 Dutton,\u00a0 much of the cargo was either lost or ruined. Although repaired,\u00a0 the damage was to cause her loss some months later on the coast of Tasmania.<\/p>\n While the TamO\u2019Shanter<\/i> had a mishap at the end of her voyage,\u00a0 the voyage of the Africaine<\/i> was largely uneventful.\u00a0 The Colonial Secretary,\u00a0 Robert Gouger,\u00a0 travelling on board with his staff, \u00a0complained of the idleness of the steerage passengers and the drunkenness caused by the availability of rum.\u00a0 The women were \u201cdrinking heavily and were quarrelsome\u201d.\u00a0 He also complained that the crew had received no assistance from the passengers.<\/p>\n The Africaine<\/i>,\u00a0 a whaler of 316 tons,\u00a0 left London on 28 June 1836 within two months of the Colonel Light\u2019s Rapid <\/i>and was the first ship to go out under independent charter.\u00a0 Commanded by Captain John Duff,\u00a0 she made her landfall at Kangaroo Island and six young male passengers asked to be put ashore at the Western end of the Island as they wished to walk overland to Nepean Bay and explore the country.\u00a0 Disaster struck this small party as they were ill-equipped for such a journey,\u00a0 and two of the party,\u00a0 Dr Slater and Mr Osborne,\u00a0 apparently died of thirst,\u00a0 two became lost but were later found by search parties,\u00a0 and the others were in a distressed condition on arrival at Kingscote.\u00a0 The subsequent inquiry\u00a0 was later fully reported in The South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register<\/i> in July 1837;\u00a0 however the circumstances concerning the loss of two men were not satisfactorily explained.\u00a0 The ship proceeded to Rapid Bay on the mainland coast and thence to Holdfast Bay,\u00a0 now Glenelg,\u00a0 where the passengers were landed on the beach.<\/p>\n Among the Company employees on board the Africaine<\/i> was a 23-year-old carpenter named Ben Smith. He was engaged as a sawyer and this was his first voyage. He was a bachelor from the small Berkshire village of Longcot,<\/p>\nLongcot<\/strong>\u00a0is a village and\u00a0civil parish\u00a0in the\u00a0Vale of White Horse\u00a0District. It was part of\u00a0Berkshire\u00a0until the\u00a01974 boundary changes\u00a0transferred it to Oxfordshire. The village is about 5\u00a0km south of\u00a0Faringdon\u00a0and about 4\u00a0km north east of\u00a0Shrivenham. The\u00a0A420 road\u00a0between\u00a0Swindon\u00a0and\u00a0Oxford\u00a0passes through the parish 1.6\u00a0km \u00a0north west of the village.<\/span>\u00a0<\/address>\n