John Henry Watmuff (1839 - 1895)

Born 2 Feb 1839 in Halifax, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Stone) Watmuff — married 30 Jul 1870 in 6 Palmerston St. Carlton, Victoria, Australia

Husband of Elizabeth (Pitts) Watmuff — married 3 Feb 1880 in The Manse (Presbyterian Church), Punt Rd, South Yarra

Descendants

Died 15 Feb 1895 at age 56 in Mildura, Victoria, Australia

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Biography

Jack Watmuff came free to the Colony of South Australia (1836-1900)

"Jack" was born in 1839 ^[1] His own journals meticulously detail his early life, and cannot be done justice to here.

His journal Prologue describes his early life in England, Adelaide, Castlemaine goldfieds and Bendigo, his mining adventures commenced about his 13th birthday, his journal begins 1 May 1856, beginning at Pinch Gut Gully, off Ironbark Gully, Bendigo. Later his adventures at Newbridge, Tarnagulla, (Sandy Creek), Dunolly, Ararat, Pleasant Creek (Stawell) etc. He worked briefly on the railway line on the Keilor plains, 14 miles from Melbourne in August 1858 before returning to Bendigo. In 1859 he modestly claimed while being instructed by singing teacher, Mr. Hardy that he now "could read music a little". His son, Bert wrote that he could transpose music beautifully. When the New Zealand rush started he delayed going, but set sail for there Sunday 22 December 1861, as the only paying passenger on a Tasmanian built flat bottomed "floating collander" called the "Sarah_and_Esther", with a rough old Captain and his mate, the Bellman or Public Crier of Williamstown and a crew of six. The leaky barge broke her topmast spar before reaching Swan Island, another was procured from the lighthouse keeper from a previous wreck. The Captain was more familiar with that Island than he let on, having once wrecked a ship there.

Thomas Sylvester Downes

Off the coast of New Zealand the vessel encountered a brief storm and was struck by lightning, five men were knocked down, three of the crew were knocked out, one having his flesh burnt to the bone, and spent the rest of his days in a Dunedin asylum as an invalid. Downes' family tradition has Thomas Downes junior (the captain's son) as a regular visitor to that institution, the present Downes family were not aware of the circumstances until JHW's journals were brought to light.^[2]

His first stop was the diggings around Wetherstons (Lawrence)/Gabriels Gully, and later the diggings at Alexandra, then called Manuherikia, on the Clutha River.

His journey from Wetherstons to Manuherikia is a story in itself, with the near loss of a packhorse and its load due to the actions of a belligerent muleter. He went on a couple of prospecting trips when winter freezing halted mining operations, the first was with Harry Dight, to the "Old Man" and a month later, in October 1862, with "Yankee Bob" up the "Molly" and explored a tributary, apparently Lowburn Creek, where they encounted a couple of prospectors who tried to dissuade them from exploring, claiming they had found nothing. However they continued and found every indication of good prospects wherever they looked. They followed the creek till they reached a towering hill, Mt Dottrel, which they climbed, and from which they could see Lake Wanaka, (not Wakatipu as he thought).

Ever craving intellectual fodder, in april 1863, he and some friends, including Henry Bloxham, set up a debating society, they called the Manuherikia Mutual Improvement Society, they had regular meetings for debates and sharing knowledge, he was vice-president.

He was a witness to the first bushrangers captured at the New Zealand diggings.

His adventures included long treks in search of firewood, the countryside being completely denuded due to a meteor impact in the near geographic past.

Another was a pig hunt, in which the pig tried to make a meal of him in a vicious fight to the death.

He and his mates destroyed a drinking establisment after Jim Elliot or Jim Jinks detected an attempted robbery upon himself while drunk.

Later, in Dunedin this scene is repeated, when he met a former associate, Nicholls, an undermanager of the Nelson Reef on Bendigo and in protecting Nicholls while drunk did some damage to a Dunedin drinking establishment.

As was usual, he had the intimate lady friend, named Jenny Woodhouse, an expert at extracting money from unsuspecting diggers through card playing; her ex, whom JHW gave a thrashing lesson in boxing, swore revenge and followed them on a night walk, he was fortunately spotted lurking in the shadows, gun in hand, and given another lesson in the form of a speeding rock, after which he made a hasty skulking retreat. After breaking his arm through slipping on ice, he sold his meagre assets and trekked midwinter along the recently discovered circuitous overland route to Dunedin, sleeping in the snow under a coach he was following and searched for its wandering horses on at least one occasion. Jenny's heart was broken, and she later followed him to Dunedin, but her amor was not reciprocated.

The Alexandria museum, have a section dedicated to him. A local historian Jim, (his wife a Downes descendant) has declared his writings to be by far the best account of the New Zealand gold digging experience he has read.

In Dunedin he was kindly recieved by a good Samaritan named Mrs Greenwood, a friend of Harry Dight's, and accomodated for a while with a Frenchman named Chas Malander.

He soon obtained work excavating for a house to be constructed.

Then as a traveller for a printer named Watson, a man with a strange story, his future wife, knowing his reputation as a righteous man came out from England especially to meet and marry him, she had never before met the man.

He then persuaded Thomas Field to employ him as a traveller three days a week in his grocery business, this was the same Field who was his neighbour on Bendigo and had many a time been under compliment to JHW.

His friend Malander persuaded him to join him and sail on the brig Guatamala, for south America, but on informing Field of his intentions Field made a better offer of a raise and board, which unfortunate offer he accepted. Field's wife was a stingy woman and he was undernourished and worked long hours in less than healthy conditions in the grocery store, sleeping in the shop by night.

He drummed up a good business for his boss, taking groceries out to the Tomahawk district, there he was ambushed by a young lady, "Bonnie Annie Henderson" with the fearsome reputation of being the wildest and biggest flirt on the island, she had ridden her horse out especially to meet him.

His hilarious account of his best friend Jim Hamilton returning from a visit to Scotland, and meeting JHW in the street, pretended to be a stranger looking for directions to JHW's residence, but could not refrain from bursting out laughing in his face.

1865-00-gh.circa-Believed to be James Russell Hamilton

When he became ill, late Nov 1863, he was thrown out by Mrs Field, and if not for his friend Jim Hamilton finding him wandering about and taking him in, was sure he would have died.

Just before leaving Otago he and Jim paid the Henderson family a visit and they and the two Henderson sisters went on a rollicking adventure walk around the Tomahawk.

His departure from New Zealand is marked by a moving account of a tear in the eye of his friend, Jim, as he boarded the Alhambra to leave for Australia.

On return to Australia he eventually procured employment with the Melbourne and Hobsons Bay Railway Company as a clerk, working at the Railway Pier, and also in the head office at Flinders St. Station. His boss, Thomas Finlayson was murdered by a fellow clerk, and he was a witness at the trial, he was not maintaining a diary at that time.

JHW married Elizabeth Stone in Carlton, 30th July 1870, they had 4 children, only the 2nd and 4th of whom survived infancy. After moving to St. Kilda Elizabeth, his wife, died. He married Bessie Pitts in 1880 and had 6 more children, 3 born at 2 Waterloo Street, St Kilda and 3 at 15 Rathmines road Hawthorn, the first probably had mild cerebral palsy, due to a difficult birth, they had gone out for a walk together the day before, he was at work when Ossy was born, and does not mention any difficulty, however that is the story handed down.

In the Hawthorn Choral society he is reported in The Argus, Wed 29 Nov 1876 to have sung "with a pleasing tenor voice, was highly successful with "The Horn of Chase," and "Touch the Harp Gently."^[3] Some names apearing with his on the Melbourne musical scene are, Kingsland, Amery, Juniper, Abecco, Beaumont ....

On the 13th June 1883 on returning from work he found an abandoned baby girl on his doorstep in St. Kilda. The girl's twin, coincidentaly was left at his work place, in a women's water closet room at Flinders St. station. This event is not mentioned in his journals. (Bessie, his wife was 7 months pregnant) The Telegraph, St Kilda, Prahran and South Yarra Guardian (Vic.) Sat 16 Jun 1883 “On Wednesday night, at about ten o’clock, Mr John H Watmuff, of Waterloo-street, St. Kilda, on his return home saw some object on his doorstep. Thinking it was a dog which had been there the night before, he was about to give it a kick, when he was astonished to hear the cry of an infant. He took the child, which was wrapped in a plaid shawl, and proved to be about two weeks old, into his house, and provided for it until a nurse had been obtained.”^[4]

Named Victoria Waterloo by the Bench of the St. Kilda Police court, she was fostered to a wet nurse and became Violet Walton, then later Violet Harvey when her adoptive mother re-married, then Violet Millership.^[5] Declared a vagrant at about three weeks she was sent to Industrial School for seven years. She later married a clergyman who was embarrased over the lack of knowledge of origin, so moved interstate to keep her from her sister, a girl who attended the same Baptist Tabernacle in Sackville St. Collingwood. She was her twin, and was abandoned the same winters’ night in 1883, in the Women's rest room of Flinders St. Station. Named by the police “Emily Station” then “Daisy Flinders” before being fostered out, when she became Daisy O’Connell.^[6]

A Constable Flannery, involved in this case makes an interesting study, he was the policeman who took charge of Thomas Finlayson’s body, years earlier.

He bought a block of land in South Yarra from Mrs Brown, in Gr. Davis St. South Yarra 20th Feb. 1883^[7] He also had a 1/11 share in a block of land described by Bessie as worthless, at Lilydale^[8]

J. H. W. returned to England on the Lusitania to sort out the family inheritances and spent quite a while there, dealing with his ecentric procrastinating aunt Sara Watmuff. His journals describe the trip over in the form of letters to his wife and much of it repeated in small journal notebooks. The return trip on the Garonne is in a journal format.

After almost 30 years with the railway, and suffering mild strokes he and his family moved to Mildura, in November 1892, Charlie went for a while to help set things up, but he and Josephine remained in Melbourne. Josephine had a child, Ruth, severely handicapped, who would have been about 2 years old when they left. She married and had another girl but her husband was a rogue and 11 months after her marriage fled to Mildura, that would be December 1894. She remained either 2 or 10 months, so was there at least shortly before her father died. She returned to her husband but eventually divorced. The daughter's (Elsie Gladys Lee) life reflected that of her mother, she was bright and dark eyed by newspaper accounts of her divorce. Her mother, Josephine was fair and blue eyed as is obvious from a photo with Charles.

A farewell was held in Melbourne on the 4th November, 1892, he took his family to Mildura, by train to Bendigo on to Echuca, then by the paddle steamer Trafalga 518 river miles (830km) to Mildura about a three day paddle, arriving Mildura Sunday the 20th November 1892.^[9]

Trafalgar, Red Cliffs, c1926

John kept his journals again at Mildura and endured severe financial difficulties. He suffererd a debilitating stroke on the 3rd May 1894, which paralysed his throat and made it very difficult to swallow anything but liquids.

While attending one of Mr. Carl B. Luffmann's demontrations, probably the one at Nicholls Point, 13th February 1895^[10] he suffered heatstroke, or another stroke, and on the 15th February, died.^[11] Year 1894 on gravestone at Nicholls Point is incorrect and date 16th February Find a Grave is also incorrect, that was probably the burial date.

Miscellaneous

Mildura

"The Vagabond" always wrote a good story about places he visited, here is one on Mildura.

New Zealand

NZ Archives. Application for water race - Edward Watmuff, Henry Nelson, W.H. Dight, John Henry Watmuff (R24693911)^[12] Page 1 Page 2

Probate

59/457 John Hy Watmuff: Grant of probate 8 pages, proctor's statement, disbursements etc.

59/457 John Hy Watmuff: Grant of probate 6 pages, inventory, Rathmines Road Hawthorn (former residence), 1/11 share in 15 acres at Lilydale (worthless), watch and chain and wearing apparel.

59/457 John Hy Watmuff: Will; Grant of probate 6 pages, value 811 pounds, signed statement of Elizabeth Watmuff, 30th Sept. 1895.

Song List

He was a very good baritone singer and always in demand at social gatherings and concerts etc. Here are some songs he tackled.

1. "Remember Me " actually ‘Then You’ll Remember Me’ from the opera ‘Bohemian Girl’
2. Maritana, Act II: 'Yes! Let me Like a Soldier Fall!' (This one always stunned his digger mates)
3. ‘In Happy Moments’ from the opera ‘Maritana’ by W.Vincent Wallace.
4. "If with all your hearts" (Elijah) Mendelssohn.^[13]
5. My Village Home (by Park Benjamin snr.)
6. Cujus animam from Stabat Mater.

Journals

Journals Index
J.H. Watmuff Profile
Prologue
1 1856-05-01 (Bendigo, Dunolly, Sandy Creek (Tarnagulla), Loddon , (Mt. Hope Fiasco), Ararat, Chinamans Flat, Moonlight Flat, Mt William (trek with Aboriginal guide), Pleasant Creek (Stawell), Melbourne).
2 Bendigo Melbourne 1862 Otago N.Z. (1859-07-17)
3 Otago (1862-09-11)
4 Otago (1863-07-26) to Melbourne 1865
5 Melbourne 1865-11-12
6 Melbourne 1866-03-04
7 Melbourne 1869-03-28
8 Melbourne 1870-06-12 to April 1876
9 Melbourne 1876-06 to 1880-09-07
10 Dribs & Drabs 1881-02-16 to 1882-06
11 Sydney & Misc. 1884
12 Lusitania Voyage 1887-05-27
13 Lusitania Voyage 1887-05-30
14 Lusitania Voyage 1887-06-26
15 Lusitania Voyage 1887-07-01
16 and 17 England, letters and Journal 1887-07-14
18 Garonne return Voyage 1887-09-27
19 Resignations 1888-08-28 to 1892 Nov.
20 (Journal 19) Mildura 1893-05-06
21 Genealogies from 1738 to 1889
22 New Zealand Essays

J.H. & Bessie Watmuff's Photos
Olive Watmuff's Photos

Sources

1. ↑ His own journal
2. ↑ Jim, N.Z. historian and husband of a Downes descendant
3. ↑ https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5911481
4. ↑ The Telegraph, St Kilda, Prahran and South Yarra Guardian (Vic.) Sat 16 Jun 1883
5. ↑ St. Kilda Historical Society, No. 155 June 2002 The Foundlings: VICTORIA WATERLOO AND DAISY FLINDERS, by Amanda Larcombe
6. ↑ Amanda Larcombe, of Ballarat
7. ↑ JHW Journal 11 page 2
8. ↑ John Hy Watmuff: Grant of probate https://prov.vic.gov.au/archive/FE5CACE6-F1E2-11E9-AE98-0B4E102047B8?image=1 59/457
9. ↑ The Mildura Cultivator (Vic.) Sat 26 Nov 1892
10. ↑ https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/265605338
11. ↑ https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9347065
12. ↑ Archives New Zealand: R24693911
13. ↑ https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5866447