Aust. Banknotes - Private Bank Issues

Lot 3052    Session 10 (7:30pm Wednesday)    Aust. Banknotes - Private Bank Issues

Estimate $100
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $150

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND, Hobart Town, 28th April 1835, Cashier of the Derwent Bank, pay to Bearer on Demand the sum of five pounds and place same to Account of Geo.Meredith. Several pin holes, otherwise fine.

George Meredith, was born on 13 February 1777 near Birmingham, England. In 1796 he was commissioned second lieutenant in the marines and later served in the West Indies, at the blockade of Ferrol in Spain and on the Mediterranean Station. At Alexandria in 1803 he made a daring ascent of Pompey's Pillar, a granite column 180 feet high, to fasten the Union Jack in place of a French cap-of-liberty placed there by Napoleon's forces.

In 1805 when recruiting in Berkshire he met and married Sarah Hicks. Next year he retired from the Marines on half-pay and commenced farming at Newbury. Later the family moved to Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, and farmed there until 1819 when the post-war rural depression stimulated his interest in emigration. Meredith resolved to settle in Van Diemen's Land and applied to the Colonial Office for letters of introduction. In company with several partners he chartered a ship, but early in 1820 his wife died suddenly, thus jeopardizing the whole venture. By good fortune their former governess and companion, Mary Evans, consented to take care of the young family on the voyage however, before embarkation, George Meredith and Mary Evans were quietly married and on 8 November the expedition sailed in the Emerald and reached Hobart Town on 13 March 1821.

Meredith presented his letters of introduction to Lieutenant-Governor William Sorell and began to look for suitable farmland. According to government surveys the most promising land was at Oyster Bay, about 225 km distant on the eastern coast, and a small party set out in a whale-boat to explore the district. Some parts capable of development were selected and the party returned to Hobart on 24 April to lodge the formal applications.

Official permission was duly given to the whole scheme, and late in September, after the first livestock were dispatched overland, a small schooner was chartered to take the settlers to Oyster Bay. A tannery and flour-mill were established at the Meredith River and bay whaling stations set up on nearby islands to try out whale oil for export. The Meredith family had first lived at Redbanks, a turf hut strengthened with timber, on the south bank of the Meredith River. In about 1827 they moved into Belmont, a more spacious home about 1.6 km further inland and in about 1836 they moved into Cambria, a large dwelling designed by Meredith near the original home and surrounded by large gardens. By then, the management of the property was mostly being undertaken by the eldest sons, and they took over full operational duties of the holdings when Meredith's wife Mary died unexpectedly in 1842. By his second marriage he had three sons and four daughters, of whom the second son John remained in charge at Oyster Bay until George Meredith died in 1856.

Meredith is credited with the establishment of Swansea, originally known as Swanport, which is a classified Historic Town. It was first settled in 1821 by George Meredith and two of his tenant farmers from Glamorgan in Wales. During his time in Van Diemen's Land he continued to maintain a close interest and participation in the public affairs of the free colonists promoting independence from New South Wales, and supported the need for a free press and an independent legislature. Several of Meredith's children became prominent in later years; his second son, Charles, was appointed colonial treasurer of Van Diemen's Land in 1857; the fourth son, John, was appointed a magistrate at Swansea in 1855; and the fifth son, Edwin, migrated to New Zealand as a pioneer colonist in 1851.