Bussell family

Last updated

Members of the Bussell family, c. 1867. Bussell family.jpg
Members of the Bussell family, c.1867.

The Bussell family were a family of early settlers in colonial Western Australia. The four brothers John, Joseph Vernon, Alfred and Charles emigrated from England on Warrior, arriving at Fremantle on 12 March 1830. Lenox, Frances and Elizabeth arrived at Fremantle on Cygnet on 27 January 1833, and Mrs Frances Louisa and Mary arrived at Albany on 19 June 1834. [1]

Contents

On arriving in Western Australia, the Bussells found that all of the good farm land around Perth and Fremantle had already been granted, and were advised by the Governor, Sir James Stirling, to form a sub-colony in the vicinity of Cape Leeuwin. The Bussells first settled in the Augusta area in May 1830, but met with little success. After a number of exploring expeditions, John Bussell discovered good farm land in Busselton in December 1831, and by 1834 the family had established a property named "Cattle Chosen". The town of Busselton, surveyed in 1837, along with the Bussell Highway, are named in their honour. [1]

Massacres and shootings of Noongar people in the Vasse area

During the early years of their settlement in the Vasse area the Bussell family were involved in several massacres and many other shootings of Wardandi Noongar people.

On 27 June 1837 Bessie Bussell wrote a diary entry about the first massacre at Vasse. The trigger was the disappearance on 23 June of a calf of the Chapmans', fellow settlers in the area. The two Chapmans, Alfred Bussell, a corporal, Moloney and Constable Elijah Dawson were led by Bobingroot, a local Noongar man to where those who stole the calf would be. The place was called Yulijoogarup. Another Noongar man called Nungandung refused and ran away. Kenny and Jim, two Noongar men, escaped and nine Noongar Wardandi people were killed and two wounded, including women and children. [2]

A second massacre followed in July 1837. On 13 July Dawson was speared in the arm by a Wardandi warrior, and Mrs Dawson had a spear thrown at her. This would have been in retaliation to the massacre on 27 June. The Bussell brothers Charles, Lenox and Alfred then got together with the Chapmans and took various steps to retaliate and locate the suspected perpetrator, a Noongar warrior called Gaywal; including taking four Noongar women and a child hostage for a day. The young warrior who threw the spears was Knockindon, a Wardandi man whose land the Bussells were occupying. On 24 July Vernon returned from Perth with the year's rations. On 30 July shouting was heard down at the estuary, and the Bussells, Dawson and other settler men armed themselves and headed down there. They shot and killed at least six people. Bessie Bussell wrote "Three women, one man, one boy are known to be dead, but more are supposed to be dying." [3] Three days later the Bussell brothers buried the bodies when they realised that Noongar people were not going to come back for their dead. Lenox refused to do a report on this incident to the resident magistrate John Molloy. Dawson submitted a report about his spearing instead. [4]

During these two massacres, John Bussell was away in England seeking a wife. The other Bussell brothers Charles, Lenox and Alfred were involved. In a letter to his brother John in England, Charles Bussell wrote that "the war with the natives had been properly conducted". [5]

In August 1837 Mr Bunbury's horse disappeared and the Bussells headed out again. (Lieut. Henry William St Pierre Bunbury had been stationed down at the Vasse, but was in York at the time.) This time an old Noongar man was shot and wounded and the child he was carrying was dropped. The Bussells kept this child as a hostage for ten weeks. Subsequently Bunbury's horse was found.

In October 1839 Henry Camfield, a colonial settler in Perth who was looking for a wife, came down to the Vasse area to woo Fanny Bussell. During his stay there the Bussells set a trap for a Noongar man who came to steal food. They set a trap with a shotgun and the Noongar man was shot. The Bussells then rode off searching for collaborators and Camden was left to bury the body. Camden then decided against Fanny Bussell as a wife and returned to Perth. [6]

In February 1841 a third, much more deadly, massacre the Wonnerup massacre  took place after George Layman was killed by Wardandi warrior Gayware. John Bussell, newly married, was back from England by then. He and Captain John Molloy led a group of settlers in a massacre of dozens of Noongar people. Charles Bussell was part of this group, and Lenox may also have been involved (although by then he was mentally very unwell). The History of West Australia , written in 1897, states that during the massacre "the white men had no mercy" and dozens of Noongar people were killed. [7]

In 1842 Charles Bussell shot and killed a little Noongar girl called Cumangoot when questioning her about stealing flour from the family's stores. Charles was charged with manslaughter and fined one shilling. [8]

Correspondence archives

Many of the Bussells were prolific letter-writers, and much of their correspondence has been preserved. These letters provide an outstanding record of the lives of a class of settler that were largely neglected by contemporary historians and record-keepers. Consequently, they have been much studied by modern historians.

On 14 August 2007, The West Australian newspaper reported that the J S Battye Library had paid a possible WA record $91,000 at auction for the personal diaries of Vernon Bussell. [9]

Members of the Bussell family include:

Notes

  1. 1 2 Bussell Diaries, State Library of Western Australia, 25 January 2011, accessed 3 August 2019.
  2. Edward Shann. "Cattle Chosen, Chapter 7, Relations with the Natives".
  3. Edward Shann. "Cattle Chosen, Chapter 7, Relations with the Natives".
  4. Hardwick, Gil. "'The Irish R. M.: Capt. John Molloy of the Vasse (Paper in: The Irish in Western Australia. Reece, Bob (ed.).)'; Studies in Western Australian history, (2000): (20) 1, p. 261".
  5. Allbrook, Malcolm. "'Meeting Aboriginal people,; in Henry Prinsep's Empire, ANU Press, p. 150". JSTOR   j.ctt13wwvzc.10 . Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  6. Bassett, Marnie, The Hentys: An Australian Colonial Tapestry, Oxford University Press, 1954
  7. Kimberley, Warren Burt. "Chapter 13". History of West Australia by, published in 1897, chapter 13, page 116. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  8. Barry, Bernice (22 March 2016). Georgiana Molloy: The Mind That Shines (Kindle ed.). Picador Australia.
  9. Taylor, Robert. Diaries set a record, The West Australian p.12, 2007-08-13.
  10. Freda Vines Carmody (1966) 'Bussell, John Garrett (1803–1875)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, (MUP)
  11. 'Bussell, Charlotte (1803–1899)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed 7 April 2013.
  12. 'Brockman, Capel Carter (1839–1924)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed 7 April 2013.
  13. T. T. Reed (1979) 'Bussell, William John (1854–1936)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, (MUP)
  14. Wendy Birman (1969) 'Bussell, Alfred Pickmore (1816–1882)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 3, (MUP)
  15. 'Bussell, Ellen (1833–1877)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed 7 April 2013.
  16. 'Drake-Brockman, Grace Vernon (1860–1935)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed 7 April 2013.
  17. 'Bussell, Alfred John (Jack) (1865–1940)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed 7 April 2013.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Busselton</span> City in the South West region of Western Australia

Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately 220 km (140 mi) south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselton Port in 1972 and the contemporaneous establishment of the nearby Margaret River wine region have seen tourism become the dominant source of investment and development, supplemented by services and retail. The city is best known for the Busselton Jetty, the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capel, Western Australia</span> Town in Western Australia

Capel is a town in the South West region of Western Australia, located 212 kilometres (132 mi) south of Perth and midway between Bunbury and Busselton. The town is located on the Capel River and is approximately 19 metres (62 ft) above sea level.

Captain John Molloy was an early Irish settler in Western Australia. He was one of the original settlers of Augusta and an early settler of Busselton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgiana Molloy</span> Botanical collector

Georgiana Molloy was an early settler in Western Australia, who is remembered as one of the first botanical collectors in the colony. Her husband, John, was involved in the Wonnerup massacre, and she has been the subject of research into how records and family history documents obfuscate the telling of those events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bussell</span> Australian politician

John Garrett Bussell was an early settler in Western Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Bussell</span> Australian politician

Alfred Pickmore Bussell was an early settler in Western Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wonnerup, Western Australia</span> Town in Western Australia

The townsite of Wonnerup is located 219 kilometres (136 mi) south of Perth and 10 kilometres (6 mi) east of Busselton. It was gazetted a townsite in 1856, deriving its name from the nearby Wonnerup Inlet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirup, Western Australia</span> Town in Western Australia

Kirup, originally named Upper Capel, then Kirupp, is situated between Donnybrook and Balingup on the South Western Highway, 228 kilometres (142 mi) south of Perth, Western Australia in the upper reaches of the Capel River valley.

Samuel Yebble Isaacs was an Aboriginal Australian stockman and farmer from the South West of Western Australia, who was best known for his role in the rescue of the SS Georgette in 1876, together with Grace Bussell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bussell Highway</span> Highway in the South West region of Western Australia

Bussell Highway is a generally north–south highway in the South West region of Western Australia. The highway links the city of Bunbury with the town of Augusta and is approximately 140 kilometres (87 mi) in length. The highway is signed State Route 10, except in Busselton where the construction of the Busselton Bypass in 2000 resulted in this stretch being changed to Alternate State Route 10 with the Bypass signed State Route 10.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Bussell</span> Western Australian heroine

Grace Vernon Drake-Brockman, commonly referred to as Grace Bussell, was a woman from Western Australia. In 1876, as a 16-year-old, she was involved with Sam Isaacs in the rescue of the SS Georgette, for which she was awarded the Royal Humane Society's Silver Medal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capel River</span> River in Western Australia

The Capel River is a river in the South West region of Western Australia that rises in the Darling Range east of Mullalyup, and flows into the Indian Ocean at Peppermint Grove Beach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deborah Vernon Hackett</span> Australian philanthropist

Deborah Vernon Buller Murphy, best known as Lady Hackett or Lady Moulden, was an Australian community worker, philanthropist, and mining investor. Born in West Guildford, Western Australia, on 18 June 1887, she was the daughter of surveyor Frederick Slade Drake-Brockman and heroine Grace Vernon Bussell and younger sister of Edmund Drake-Brockman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wonnerup House</span> Heritage-listed farm precinct in Wonnerup, Western Australia

Wonnerup House is a heritage-listed farm precinct in Wonnerup, Western Australia. The current house was built in 1859 by George Layman Jr., one year after the original house built in 1837 by his father, George Layman Sr., was destroyed by fire. The dairy and kitchen survived the fire because they were separate from the house. Stables and a blacksmith workshop were later additions to the farm. In the 1870s, when the lack of a school in Wonnerup was an issue for the local residents, George Layman Jr. donated land near Wonnerup House for a school, which was built in 1873. In 1885 a teacher's house was constructed. The precinct was purchased by the National Trust of Australia in 1971 and opened to the public in 1973.

George Layman was born at Wonnerup House in 1838 and resided there until his death on 13 December 1921.

Colonel Henry William St Pierre Bunbury CB was a British Army officer who served for periods in Australia, South Africa, and India.

Edmund Vernon Brockman was an Australian politician who was a Nationalist Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1933 until his death, representing the seat of Sussex.

The Wadandi, also spelt Wardandi and other variants, are an Aboriginal people of south-western Western Australia, one of fourteen language groups of the Noongar peoples.

The Wonnerup massacre, also known as the Wonnerup "Minninup" massacre , was the killing of dozens of Wardandi Noongar people by European settlers in the vicinity of Wonnerup, Western Australia in February 1841. The massacre on Wardandi-Doonan land in the south-west of Western Australia took place after Gaywal/Gaywaar, a Wardandi Man, speared and killed George Layman, a settler at Wonnerup on 21 February 1841. The leaders of the punitive massacre were Layman's neighbours John Bussell and Captain John Molloy, resident magistrate of the district. Settlers from the Wonnerup, Capel, Busselton and Augusta area joined them to commit "one of the most bloodthirsty deeds ever committed by Englishmen".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Mary's Anglican Church, Busselton</span> Church in Western Australia

St Mary's Anglican Church is a heritage-listed Anglican church in Peel Terrace, Busselton, Western Australia. It is possibly the oldest stone church in the state. Opened in 1845, and consecrated in 1848, it has been the subject of a number of additions, and has also been repaired or conserved on several occasions.

References

  • Shann, Edward O. G. (1926) Cattle Chosen. Oxford University Press, London. Republished in 1978 by University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, Western Australia. ISBN   0-85564-138-X.
  • Hardwick, Gil. (2003) Castle Dangerous: The Alfred Pickmore Bussell Estate, Margaret River, Western Australia. Hesperian Press, Perth, Western Australia. ISBN   0-85905-322-9.