 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(February 2010) |
Thomas Valentine Blomfield (14 February 1793 – 19 May 1857) was a British soldier, pioneer New South Wales settler and pastoralist, magistrate, Justice of the Peace and Liverpool District Council member.
Thomas was born on Valentine’s Day, 14 February 1793, in Suffolk, England and christened Valentine Thomas Blomfield on 18 February 1793 at Old Newton, Suffolk. His parents were Thomas Blomfield (1750–1833) and Mary Manning (née Seaman).
On 8 June 1809 (aged 16), Thomas enlisted as an Ensign in the 2nd Battalion of the 48th (Northamptonshire) Regiment of Foot in the British Army. On 17 June 1811, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. He served in the Peninsular War and was awarded the Military General Service Medal, with clasps for Busaco (1810), Albuera (1811), Ciudad Rodrigo (1812), Badajoz (1812), Salamanca (1812), Vittoria (1813), Orthes (1814) and Toulouse (1814).
In February and August 1815, Thomas wrote to his family from Limerick, Ireland. The battle-weary 48th regiment had returned to Ireland on 19 June 1814 and fought in several of the American battles but were mainly garrisoned in southern Ireland. From 1817 until 1824, the 48th Regiment of Foot was stationed in Australia. Thomas arrived on the ship "Dick" on 3 August 1817 with a detachment of his regiment which had been ordered for service in New South Wales.
In a letter to his father dated 4 September 1820, Thomas announced his marriage had taken place in New South Wales on 3 August 1820 "to Christiana Jane Brooks, eldest daughter of Richard Brooks, Esq., a respectable settler and a magistrate of the Territory". Thomas and Christiana were married at St Philip's Church, Sydney.
His wife, Christiana Jane Brooks (1802–1852), was born on 15 January 1802 in Surrey, England, the eldest daughter of Captain Richard Brooks (c1763-1833) and Christiana Eliza Passmore (1776–1835). Christiana spent her childhood in Greenmile, Kent, England. She arrived in New South Wales, aged 12, in March 1814 on the Spring with her parents, older brother and four younger sisters. Another sister was born that year in New South Wales.
In a letter dated 4 September 1820 to his father, Thomas described Christiana:
"She is of a fair complexion, about 5ft 5 inches in height, fair hair and dark brown eyes and, of course, in my opinion, not ugly."
Both Thomas and Christiana were prolific letter writers and many of these have been preserved in a collection published in 1926 entitled "Memoirs of the Blomfield family being letters written by the Late Captain T. V. Blomfield and his wife to relatives in England".
Thomas continued in the Army until January 1824 when he sold out his commission. He settled on land he named "Dagworth" (after the farm where he was born), an estate of 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) on the Hunter River, granted to him on 21 April 1825.
In a letter to her niece, Louisa, dated 2 June 1825, Thomas’ wife Christiana describes her husband:
"Uncle Thomas has very dark hair, a high forehead, dark blue eyes, rather a short nose, a small mouth with a fine set of very white teeth, which he shows very much when he laughs; a very black beard, and nice black whiskers. Altogether he has a round face, a cheerful good-tempered countenance habitually when he laughs, which he does often and most heartily. In height he is five feet seven, and in my opinion a very good figure, and I know several young ladies who used to think so, too, when he was a bachelor. Oh, you'll enjoy meeting him! He is such a joy!"
Thomas is ranked as one of the pioneering band whose early settlement and recognition of its possibilities contributed to the development of the Monaro area in New South Wales. In 1848, when the applicants for leases were gazetted, Thomas sought to obtain Run No. 8, known as Collarnatong, consisting of 35,000 acres (140 km2) and the boundaries whereof, as set out in the Gazette, refer to neighboring runs as being those of Messrs Cassels, Brooks, Brierly and Eccleston.
After the death of Christiana’s parents, Captain Richard Brooks in 1833 and Christiana Brooks in 1835, the Brooks' property "Denham Court" near Liverpool passed to Christiana and Thomas Blomfield where Thomas lived until his death on 19 May 1857. He was buried in the small churchyard at the Church of St Mary the Virgin near Denham Court in Ingleburn. Christiana had died five years earlier on 31 October 1852 at Denham Court and was also buried in the churchyard of the Church of St Mary the Virgin.
On 1 November 1834, Thomas's appointment as a magistrate was published in The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser : [1]
His Excellency the Governor has been pleased to appoint the undermentioned Gentlemen to be Magistrates of the Territory, viz. Thomas Valentine Blomfield, of Dagworth, Hunter's River and Denham Court, in the County of Cumberland, Esquire; and Charles Boydell, of Cam. Yr. Allyn Hunter's River, Esq.
On 9 August 1848, Thomas was listed in the District Council appointments published in The Sydney Morning Herald : [2]
Liverpool. – Messrs, John Brown Bossley and Thomas Valentine Blomfield, to hold office until the 1st May, 1851.
On 27 October 1851, Thomas was amongst a large list of appointees as Justices of the Peace published in The Sydney Morning Herald. [3] He had earlier appeared in a list of "The New Commission" published in The Sydney Herald [4] on 7 January 1836 which is thought also to include Justices of the Peace.
Thomas and Christiana had 12 children:
In 1839, Christiana’s sister, Honoria Rose Riley (née Brooks) died leaving three young orphans. Honoria had been left a widow about three years before when her husband, William E Riley (c1808 – 1836) died. The three children raised by Christiana and Thomas, in addition to their own 11 surviving children, were:
The City of Liverpool is a local government area, administered by Liverpool City Council, located in the south-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The area encompasses 305.5 square kilometres (118.0 sq mi) and its administrative centre is located in the suburb of Liverpool.
Thomas Alexander Browne was an Australian author who published many of his works under the pseudonym Rolf Boldrewood. He is best known for his 1882 bushranging novel Robbery Under Arms.
Vice Admiral Sir Henry Mangles Denham was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station.
John Palmer was a commissary of New South Wales, responsible for the colony's supplies. He arrived with the First Fleet in 1788, and was opposed to those who plotted against Governor William Bligh.
Edward Riley was a merchant and early pastoralist in Sydney, Australia. Born in London to George Riley Sr., a well-educated bookseller, and Margaret Raby, he was the younger brother of Alexander Riley and the first person in his family to be interested by colonial life, moving to Calcutta and trading between Canton and Australia. William Rubinstein listed Edward Riley as being Australia's ninth richest man ever in Australian history in terms of current GDP Value.
Richard Brooks, pioneer New South Wales settler, was born in Devon, England, the son of Henry Brooks, a clergyman of Salcombe Regis and Honoria Hall.
Henry Dangar (1796–1861) was a surveyor and explorer of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He became a successful pastoralist and businessman, and also served as a magistrate and politician. From 1845 to 1851 Dangar was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council.
David Jones, was a Welsh-Australian merchant, and the retailer founder of David Jones Limited.
John Ryan Brenan was an Australian politician and an elected member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for 68 days in 1856. He founded, and outlined, the suburb of Smithfield in Sydney. Furthermore, Brenan Park, which is in that suburb, was named after him.
Thomas Garrett was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, newspaper proprietor and land agent.
Abram Orpen Moriarty was an Irish-born Australian politician.
William John Dumaresq was an English-born military officer, civil engineer, landholder and early Australian politician. He is associated with settler colonisation of the areas around Scone and Armidale, in New South Wales.
Sylvester John Browne, occasionally referred to as Sylvester John Browne Jnr, was an Australian mining magnate, adventurer and sportsman, whose activities spanned practically the whole of Australia. He was a brother of the author Thomas Alexander Browne.
Denham Court is a heritage-listed former residence and farm estate and now residence located at 238 Campbelltown Road, Denham Court in the City of Campbelltown local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Verge and built from 1820 to 1829. The property is privately owned. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
Lieutenant Colonel John Kenneth Mackenzie (1791–1857)—also spelt 'McKenzie' or 'MacKenzie'—was a military officer who fought in the Peninsula War and the War of 1812, and a pioneer colonial settler of New South Wales, Australia. He is a particularly associated with Nerriga, Braidwood, and The Wool Road, but also with Dangelong, in the Monaro region.
Major William Sandys Elrington (1780–1860) was a British military officer, veteran of the Peninsula War, and colonial settler of New South Wales, Australia. He is associated with the locality of Farringdon and the village of Majors Creek, both near Braidwood.
Captain Duncan Mackellar, was a sea captain who later became a colonial settler in New South Wales, Australia. After a notable maritime career, including a daring escape from French capture in 1812, he visited Sydney in 1822 and decided to settle there. By 1829, he and his nephew, Duncan Mackellar, Junior, acquired substantial land near Braidwood.
William Henry Breton was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy who wrote the memoirs Excursions in New South Wales, Western Australia and Van Dieman's Land, during the years 1830, 1831,1832 and 1833, first published in 1833 and Scandinavian Sketches, or, A Tour in Norway, published in 1835. The books resulted from private visits to Australia, or New Holland as it was then known, in 1829-30 and 1832-33 and to Norway, Sweden and Russia in 1834.