Robert Logan Jack L.L.D. (1845-1921) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Robert Logan Jack L.L.D.

Born 16 Sep 1845 in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Son of Robert Jack and Margaret Logan

Brother of William Jack

Husband of Janet Dobbie (Simpson) Jack — married 9 Apr 1877 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom

Descendants

Father of Robert Lockhart Jack

Died 6 Nov 1921 at age 76 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

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Profile last modified 11 Sep 2023 | Created 5 Sep 2013

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Biography

Robert Jack L.L.D. is Notable.

Robert Jack was born on 23 September 1845 to Robert Jack and Margaret Logan in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland (ABI record).^[1] ^[2] See Image-3. Dorothy Hill has his birth date as 16 September 1845, and that his father Robert Jack was a cabinet-maker, and that his son would become a geologist and explorer. "Educated at the Irvine Academy and at the University of Edinburgh, he joined the Geological Survey of Scotland in 1867 and by 1876 had contributed greatly to Scottish geology by mapping the coalfields"^[3]. The 16 September 1845 birth date is given in 'John's Notable Australians, 1906 for Robert Logan Jack'^[4], which adds to the foregoing that "he laboured for 11 years in Lanarkshire, Stirlingshire, the Southern Uplands and South-Western Highlands." The fact is that Robert was baptised on 23 September 1845 to Robert Jack and Margaret Logan as sighted on the baptism register in John Lockhart Blackburn's excellent Ancestry Family tree ^[5].

In the 1851 Scotland Census, his age was given as 5 years and he was living with his father Robert Jack (39), born in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, a Joiner Cabinet Maker employing 6 men, and Margaret Jack (50) born in Dunlop, Ayrshire, at Glasgow Vennel South Side, and had been born in Irvine, Ayrshire. He had an elder sister 12 years old Margaret Jack.

In the 1861 Scotland Census, his age was given as 15 years and he was living with his father Robert Jack (44) and mother Margaret Jack (60) at High Street, Irvine, Ayrshire, with Robert jnr a Worker Apprentice].

On an 1871 Scotland Census, he was a Lodger in the Parish of Fintry, Stirlingshire, giving his name as Robert Logan Jack (mis-transcribed by Ancestry as Robert Logra Nach!), and his age as 25 years. His occupation was transcribed as Geologreat Sarncyor, which presumably was originally written as Geological Surveyor, as he had been employed by the Scottish Geological Survey since 1867 and was working in the countryside of Stirlingshire.

It seems that during the time he was lodging in Fintry he may have met his future wife, as that was were she was born. R.L. Jack, a 31 years old Bachelor and Geological Surveyor residing at 60 Castle Street, Edinburgh, whose father Robert Jack was a Retired Joiner, and mother Margaret Jack (nee Logan), married Janet Simpson Love, aged 36, a Widow, residing in the Village of Fintly, daughter of James Simpson, a Surgeon, and Janet Simpson (nee Dobbie). They were married at 152 Bath Street, Glasgow [suggested to be a registry office at the time by John Lockhart Blackburn] in April, 1877 following Banns according to the forms of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The copy of the 'Statutory Marriages 644/07 0104' sighted in John Lockhart Blackburn's FT has the day cut off but the form seems to have been registered on 9 April 1877. See Image-4.

In March 1876^[6] Jack was appointed Geological Surveyor for northern Queensland and arrived at Townsville in 1877 (Dorothy Hill, 1972). John's Notable Australians has that he accepted the position in 1877 in succession to Richard Daintree^[7].

There is a record for a Mr and Mrs Jack arriving on the ship 'Normanby' at Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, from Singapore, in Saloon class, on 30 July 1877. From there they could have taken another vessel up the coast to Townsville. Wikipedia has it that "he arrived in the colony in April 1877". However, the month could not be correct as that was when they were married in Glasgow, Scotland.

Robert Logan Jack's and Janet Simpson Love's son Robert Lockhart Jack was born on 21 January 1878, with his birth place given as Queensland, reg.no.1878/C/5236^[8]. The Sydney Morning Herald of Tuesday January 29, 1878 has that Mrs Robert Jack's son was born at Townsville. They may well have given their son his middle name from a close friend of his father's, Hugh Lockhart, whom Robert named the Lockhart River after in January 1880^[9].

In 1879 Jack became government geologist for the whole colony of Queensland, and began his work in that role with a tour of the Cape York Peninsula as far north as the Archer River^[10]. With the principal interest in finding new alluvial gold deposits, he led a party of miners and prospecters back to the Archer River, late in 1879, and beyond to the Pascoe River, returning to his base in Townsville to write up his reports in mid-1880. During that 2nd trip "he was speared in a surprise night attack by Aboriginals" (ref.1). "In all probability, when I was attacked on 9th January, 1880, and my horse was killed by the blacks, I was standing on Edmund Kennedy's footsteps. I probably also followed his track on 18th January, 1880"^[11].

By 1883, the family were living on a 360 acre property, 11 kms south of Townsville, named "Strathendrick" (ref.3).

It should be noted here that Dorothy Hill, AC, CBE, FAA, FRS was [herself] an Australian geologist and palaeontologist, the first female professor at an Australian university, and the first female president of the Australian Academy of Science^[12]. She wrote in the Australian Dictionary of Biography that "Jack's geological work for Queensland is outstanding in both quality and quantity and remarkable for its accurate and detailed observation. His recognition of the basinal structure of western Queensland and its potential for artesian water led to the first government bore in the Great Artesian Basin being sunk at Barcaldine in 1887. He personally mapped and appraised the Bowen River coalfield and coal prospects near Cooktown, Townsville and the Flinders River, and reported on twelve goldfields including Mount Morgan, Charters Towers and the Palmer as well as the Stanthorpe and four northern tinfields, the Argentine and other silver mines, the Chillagoe and Koorboora mining districts and the sapphire deposits of Withersfield. Mount Morgan, discovered in 1882, was to become the largest gold producing mine in the world at one stage, also producing copper and silver.

In 1888 - not 1880 as the Wikipedia article has it - he published the book "The mineral wealth of Queensland"^[13]. This was the year that he became the President of the geological section for the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, and in December, Andrew Gibb Maitland became his 2nd Assistant Geologist at Townsville^[14]. Andrew Gibb Maitland would go on to become the first government geologist in Western Australia in 1896 and founded the Geological Survey of Western Australia in 1897.

In 1892, Robert Logan Jack and Robert Etheridge jnr co-authored and published the book "The geology and palaeontology of Queensland and Papua New Guinea"^[15], for which they were awarded the Clarke Memorial medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales (ref.2).

In 1894, Robert Logan Jack became President of the Royal Society of Queensland.

In 1898, he was appointed Commissioner for Queensland to the Earl's Court Exhibition in London. While there he was offered a job by an English Company to go to China and Indochina to carry out exploration work (ref.2), so resigned his Queensland post in 1899. According to Dorothy Hill it was for "metalliferous deposits of Szechuan in China". However the outbreak of the Boxer rebellion on 2 November 1899^[16] brought that to an end as he and his son, Robert Lockhart Jack, left in mid-1900 to get to Burma (Robert Logan Jack, 1904, The Back Blocks of China).

The personal column of a newspaper notice dated London, 11 July 1899, advises the confirming of a Doctor of Laws Degree upon Mr Robert Logan Jack by the University of Glasgow (see the excellent media collection in the Ancestry Family Tree referred to above (ref.3). He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Geological Society and a Fellow of the Royal Geological Society (ref.2).

From 1901 to 1904, Robert Logan Jack practised as a Consulting Mining Engineer in London, England. He [and his wife] then returned to Australia and for five years was a Consulting Engineer in Western Australia, where his principal activities related to "the royal commission on the Collie coalfield and presiding at another on the ventilation and sanitation of mines and the prevalence of lung disease among miners" (ref.1).

On 6 August 1904, Dr and Mrs R Logan Jack, giving their respective ages as 56 and 50 years, embarked on the French ship 'Nera' in Fremantle, Western Australia for Sydney, calling at Largs Bay on 10 August to go to Adelaide; Port Melbourne for Melbourne on 12 August, arriving in Sydney on 15 August. Robert then went by train to Brisbane with his destination Gympie to carry out some work there. He was joined by his son Robert Lockhart Jack at Gympie on 31 August. They finally left Gympie, to return to Western Australia, on 22 September 1904, by train and ship, the 'SS Ortova', according to Robert Logan Jack's diary (in ref.3).

In 1905, both Dr R Logan Jack, Consulting Geologist and Mining Engineer, and R Lockhart Jack, Mining Engineer, were listed in the Wises Directory at Surrey Chambers, St George's Terrace, Perth^[17].

The first half of 1906 was spent on consulting work on the Leonora Main Reefs (gold) and the Wodgina tin deposit as per his diary (in ref.3).

In 1908, he was still on the Perth rates notice for his St George's Terrace, Perth office but must have moved soon after (see Death Notice at end of the Biography).

In 1913, Robert Logan Jack, geologist and Janet Simpson Jack doing home duties were on the Electoral Roll residing at 17 Toxteth Road, Glebe, New South Wales.

Robert Logan Jack passed away in Sydney, New South Wales, on 6 November 1921, ^[18] with his death registered in Glebe, NSW, his last residence having been at "Oruba", Toxteth Road, Glebe Point, and occupation Geologist.^[19] He was buried in the Presbyterian section of Waverley cemetery.

According to his Death Notice (ref.3), his age at death was 76 and he had moved to Sydney 14 years ago, which would have been about 1907. While in Sydney he was a Consulting Geologist and worked on his last book "Northmost Australia" [published in 1921](ref.8). It is evident from this very detailed 2 volume work on the history of the discovery of the region known as the Cape York Peninsula, and numerous comments, that Robert Logan Jack had no empathy or understanding of the First Peoples of the land and viewed them, as well as the indentured Pacific Islanders, only from the point of view of their usefulness or otherwise as a source of labour in the tropical environment^[20]. The only concession he seems to have made was "the highly cultivated powers of observation inherent in the race"^[21] in relation to prospecting, something they had had no interest in, except for ochre and suitable materials for stone tools, prior to the 1788 invasion, but was a consequence of their having to be in total harmony with mother nature. Much later their superior observational powers, especially those of the women, to the whitefellas were demonstrated in the South Australian opal fields^[22].

After the death of his wife on 30 May 1920, Robert Logan Jack changed his will and redated it 21 June 1920 with his son Robert Lockhart Jack as the sole Executor. Following Robert Logan Jack's death on 6 November 1921 Probate was granted on 14 December 1921 to Robert Lockhart Jack of Adelaide Assistant Government Geologist the sole Executor. Estate sworn at £9,812/5/0 nett (ref.3). The Probate grant date in the 'Victoria, Australia, Wills and Probate Records, 1841-2009' is 22 June 1922. There is also a 'Scotland, National Probate Index (Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories), 1876-1936' record for Robert Logan Jack with the Probate grant date of 22 December 1922, with the confirmation place Sydney. Probate was granted to Robert Lockhart Jack, the sole Executor. Sealed at Edinburgh. Value of Estate in Scotland, £2365: 5: 8.