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Robert James Jarvis Clapp (1847 - 1928)

Robert James Jarvis Clapp
Born in Dartmouth, Devon, Englandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Husband of — married 3 Apr 1876 in Dawes Point, New South Wales, Australiamap
Descendants descendants
Died at age 80 in Perth, Western Australia, Australiamap
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Profile last modified | Created 9 Mar 2017
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Biography

(The master copy of this biography, which includes images, is maintained at http://www.dorneyfamilyhistory.net/famtree_web/History_maternal.pdf)

A small part of this chapter has come from ‘In search of adventure’ a family history of Clapps from Devon, by John Clapp (now Clapton), 1984.

Robert was born on 30 October 1847 in Dartmouth, Devon. His parents were John Clapp, a pit-sawyer and Ann Jarvis. He was the fifth of six children, with four older brothers. His mother died before he turned three years of age.

Official records refer to his birthplace and residence as being in Tunstall or Townstal. This is the part of Dartmouth on the western bank, with the eastern part called Kingswear. The name Townstal came from a manor situated on elevated ground a little to the west of the town. Dartmouth was of strategic importance as a deep-water port for sailing vessels. The port was used as the sailing point for the Crusades of 1147 and 1190. It had a population of around 4,400 when Robert was born, not much less than today.

The first mention of Robert in the historical record is in the 1851 Census, when he was living on Silver Street with his father, John, siblings Sarah Ann (13), William Henry (10), Seth (6), and a lodger, George Bulley.

Silver street was a narrow alley running between Clarence Street and Mayor’s Avenue, from Broadstone to King’s Quay, it wasn’t wide enough to get more than a handcart down. Robert was still living on the same street during the 1861 Census, but this time it was only him and his father.

Robert arrived in Australia as a member of the crew of the schooner Escort. He was an Ordinary Seaman. The ship had come from Labrador, had put in at Melbourne on 14 February 1866, before arriving in Sydney on 23 February. The Escort was put up for sale on arrival.

The next we hear of Robert, he was working on the collier Emma Jane. The crew appeared before court in August 1866, having stolen items from another ship, but only the Master was charged.

If he was working on a collier, there’s a good chance he was plying a route from Newcastle to Sydney, and the unclaimed letter register of August 1871 connects his name to there. The list of unclaimed letters in April 1873 shows that he had been living at the town of Gulgong. Gulgong is a gold rush town situated about 300 kilometres north-west of Sydney. Gold was first found there in 1870. It seems plausible that Robert was trying his luck on the diggings there for two years.

Next we hear, Robert is arriving in Sydney on the James Paterson as a passenger in steerage, having come from Rockhampton. This is where he re-starts his shipping career.

We’re fortunate that New South Wales recorded the names of the crew of all ships arriving from interstate or overseas, so we have quite a good idea of many of the ships Robert worked on. Of course, when he was working within the state, his name doesn’t appear in the records.

The first ship we know he crewed on in this period was the steamship You Yangs, which ran between Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle. He was employed as a trimmer and crewed on the ship from at least March to June 1874. His final trip on the You Yangs, in July 1874, was as a passenger.

Trimmers loaded the coal onto the ship, and while underway, worked inside the coal bunkers located on top of and between the boilers. They used shovels and wheelbarrows to move coal around the bunkers in order to keep the coal level, and to shovel the coal down the coal chute to the firemen below, who then shovelled it into the furnaces. Sometime they also needed to extinguish fires in the coal bunkers. The fires were extinguished with fire hoses or by removing the burning coal by feeding it into the furnace.

Of the engineering crew, the trimmers were paid the least. The working conditions of a trimmer sound awful as the inside of a coal bunker was poorly lighted, full of coal dust, and extremely hot due to residual heat emanating from the boilers.

The next ship he worked on was the steamer City of Adelaide, which was operating between Sydney and Melbourne, for the months of August and September 1874. After this was the James Paterson, from November 1874 to April 1875. The James Paterson was mostly operating between Maryborough, Brisbane and Sydney, but made a trip out to Levuka, the former capital of Fiji. This is the most exotic location we know Robert travelled to.

This stint was followed by the Wentworth, from May 1875 to November 1876, with virtually all trips on the Sydney-Melbourne run. His next ship was the Tambaroora, on a Maryborough-Brisbane-Sydney run, with one trip all the way to Cooktown. He crewed on this ship for most of 1877, and this is where he is first referred to as a fireman, rather than a trimmer. There’s then a big gap in the record before he appears on one trip on the Egmont in November 1884. This was then followed by a stint on the Tenterden, from February to July 1885, travelling between Adelaide and Sydney. Robert then went straight over to the Egmont, for August 1885 through to September 1886, all on the Brisbane run.

The last ship Robert served on was the Eurimbla, working from March to September 1887 on a Rockhampton to Sydney route.

Robert married Elizabeth Hughes on 3 April 1876 in a Presbyterian ceremony at 65 Lower Fort Street, Dawes Point, just at the southern end of where the Sydney Harbour Bridge is today. This was the home of Reverend Archibald Gilchrist, the minister at the ceremony. Robert was living on Margaret Street and gave his profession as fireman.

Robert and Elizabeth had eight children together, Robert (1878), Walter Norman (1880), Sydney Wentworth (1883), Reginald Stanley (1885), Vera Ruby (1886), an unknown child, John Jarvis (1889) and Cecil Reginald (1892).

Their first son Robert died on the day he was born. Reginald died at the age of only three months from convulsions and Ruby was three and a half years old when she died within 24 hours of contracting scarlet fever. The unknown child also died as an infant.

His nephew Zephaniah, via his brother William, moved nearby to him in 1885. Zephaniah later also moved to the West Australian goldfields, but to Boulder and Kalgoorlie.

Witnesses to the burials of Ruby and Reg, include a W.R. Clapp and James Clapp, but it’s not known how they are related.

Robert and his family moved around a lot while in Sydney. He first appears in the Post Office directory in 1882, and they are at Homebush Road, Redmyre until 1884. They’re then at Toogood Street, McDonaldtown (1885) and 133 Union Street, Newtown (1886). They managed a whole four years at 8 Iredale Street, Newtown. Assuming it’s still the same building, it’s a very small timber house on a 112 square metre block. This was followed by Terry Street, St Peter’s (1891), Mary Street, St Peter’s (1892), and Wells Street, Newtown (1893-94). Researcher John Clapp also lists a Grote Street, Camperdown address, but I’m not sure when this was.

Robert’s profession was given as miner in the 1889 Post Office directory. Given he was still based in Sydney, it makes me wonder if he was doing the nineteenth century equivalent of fly in-fly out.

Researcher John Clapp stated that Robert moved to Coolgardie in 1892. If true it appears he went over without his family, and they followed two years later.

In Coolgardie they lived at Richardson Street, Toorak, although the 1899 directory lists him in association with the Golden Horseshoe Gold Mining Company at Boulder.

In November 1907 he appeared in front of the Coolgardie Police Court, charged with illegal timber getting in Crown lands. He was described as an elderly man, and lied by saying he had never appeared before a court before. He was only cutting timber for domestic use and claimed the tree was dead, or mostly dead, but was fined five shillings, with two shillings court costs.

Robert left Coolgardie in about 1910 for Perth. From 1912 to 1914 he was resident at 217 James Street, in the centre of Perth, and we know from the rates books that he was a tenant, not an owner.

His wife Elizabeth died in 1920, at the age of 69. They were living at 74 Melville Terrace, South Perth when she died.

Prior to his death, Robert had moved to Berwick Street, Victoria Park, close to the homes of two of his sons. Robert died on 16 April 1928 in the Perth Hospital. He was 80 years old, and is buried in the Karrakatta cemetery. The In Memoriam notice posted a year later by his children described him as “One of nature’s noblemen”.

Browse newspaper articles about Robert here http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?l- publictag=Robert+James+Jarvis+Clapp&q=

DNA Confirmation

  • Paternal and maternal relationships are confirmed by a triangulated group using Ancestry DNA consisting of Susan Clapp, Sheryl Perrett, Kelly Lynn Hunt, zaltayib and mjgouldlal.
Susan shares 48 cM across 3 segments with Kelly Lynn Hunt, who is the granddaughter of Myrtle Fall, making them 4C2R.
Susan shares 47 cM across 3 segments with mjgouldlal, who is the child of Phyllis Fall, making them 4C1R.
Susan shares 34 cM over 4 segments with Sheryl Perrett, who is the granddaughter of Leonard Gaylor, making them 3C1R.
Susan shares 12 cM over 1 segment with zaltayib, who is the grandchild of Evelyn Clapp, they are 4C2R.

The most-recent common ancestors shared by all three are John Clapp and Ann Jarvis.

Sources

  • Birth: freebmd.org.uk, Totnes Vol 9 Page 481
  • Death: Registry Index 1928/609




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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Robert by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Robert:

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