Papers of John Pascoe Fawkner

Identifier(s): MS 13018

Collection

Scope and Content

Correspondence, 1836-1857, reminiscences and other historical writings, diary 1869, invoices, receipts, contracts, printed ephemera, photographs. Also includes (H1182) A mounted ink drawing, showing plots of land on the Moonee Ponds Creek. Undated, circa 1840s ; (H16545) A mounted receipt for an allotment of land bought by James Hilliard, in the parish of Doutta Galla. It is signed by John Pascoe Fawkner, as manager of the Victoria Co-Operative Freehold Land Investment Society. It is annotated by Fawkner to the effect that the transaction was subsequently concelled. Dated 29th June, 1850. Printed on vellum (MC 8, DR 1). Includes four sheets - 1. Statistics of the gold-fields of Victoria for the year 1853. Dated Melbourne, January 1854 ; 2. De Bergue's patent permanent way. Melbourne. Undated ; 3. 'To the Honorable the Legislative Council of Victoria in Council Assembled. A petition of Thomas Greenhall Atkinson ... '. Melbourne. Undated (c.1855) ; 4. A sheet on draft resolutions relating to the need for a market in the eastern part of the City of Melbourne. Undated.

Dates

1828-1869

Creator

Fawkner, John Pascoe, 1792-1869 (Person)

Biographical Information

Chronology

1792
: Born Cripplegate, London
1801
: Fawkner senior sentenced to fourteen years transportation for receiving stolen goods.
1803
: The Fawkner family sails to the penal settlement at Sullivan’s Bay.
1804
: The settlement is abandoned and removes to Sullivan’s Cove, Van Diemen’s Land.
1806
: Fawkner senior is granted land at Glenorchy. John works on the land as a shepherd.
1814
: John Fawkner is working as a baker in the shop owned by his father in Hobart. He attempts unsuccessfully to aid the escape of a number of convicts and is sentenced to 3 years labour and a flogging.
1816
: Free, he resumes his trade as a baker. Also carts firewood and sells liquour without the benefit of a license.
1817
: He is bound over on a charge of robbing His Majesty’s store in connection with a contract to supply bread to the local military.
1819
: He moves to Launceston with his wife Eliza.
1824
: By this time he has established a substantial and successful public house.
1825
: After the death of his mother, Hannah Pascoe, he begins to style himself John Pascoe Fawkner.
1829
: Launceston Advertiser.
1831
: Launceston Advertiser.
1835
: Acquires the ship Enterprise and after some setbacks, establishes a settlement at Hobson’s Bay.
1837
: Buys land at the first Melbourne auction.
1838
: Melbourne Advertiser
1839
: Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser
1840
: Geelong Advertiser.
1841
: Is elected to the Melbourne Market Commission.
1842
: Geelong Advertiser.
1844
: Takes out a pastoral license on the Mooneejettee run.
1845
: Port Phillip Patriot
1846
: Is re-elected to the Town Council.
1848
: Is prominent in the campaign against returning non-resident members for Port Phillip to the New South Wales Legislative Council.
1850
: Separation of Victoria from New South Wales.
1851
: Discovery of gold in Victoria. Establishment of the Victorian Legislative Council, to which Fawkner is elected.
1853
: Moves his residence from BelleVue, Pascoe Vale to Smigh Street, Collingwood.
1854
: Eureka Stockade. Fawkner sits on the Royal Commission of Enquiry
1855
: The Constitution Act is passed, crating a new Legislative Assembly.
1856
: Completes his new brick house in Smith Street. Election for the new houses of Parliament are held and Fawkner is elected to the Legislative Council of which he remains a member until his death.
1860
: Begins writing his reminiscences. Sits on the Collingwood Magistrates’ Bench.
1862
: Lectures on his recollections.
1868
: His health worsens and he begins to dispose of his library and other goods.
1869
: Dies 4th September and is buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery.

Extent

2.63 linear metres (15 boxes)

Language

English

Additional description

Immediate source of acquisition

While Fawkner made a large donation of picture, maps and other material to the Public Library on 2 February, 1869, the correspondence and other papers which now form the bulk of the library's Fawkner manuscript holding were not acquired until early in 1931. In November 1930 the Congregational College of Victoria offered to sell the Library 'a collection of documents preserved by John Pascoe Fawkner, mostly dated before 1850' (see the Library committee minutes housed in the Australian Manuscripts Collection, vol. 48, p.220). The trustees agreed to offer fifty pounds, and an account for this sum was passed for payment at a subsequent meeting (ibid, p.226). See also The book of the Public Library (Melbourne: the Trustees, 1932), pp.90-91. Note that the purchase of these papers is not recorded in the Miscellaneous accessions register.