Description

Extended Data

Birth Place

UK

Biography

sketcher, engraver, pharmacist and farmer, was the son of Thomas Jones and Hannah, née Fryer, the place of his birth being given variously as Cheltenham, England, and Cardiff or Swansea, Wales. He was apprenticed as a pharmacist, but no other details of his early life are known until 1836, when he was travelling in North America. Then, at the suggestion of his brother-in-law Daniel Rutter Long , a fellow pharmacist, he migrated to Melbourne in the Himalaya , arriving on 29 September 1840 with Long and his family. On 16 March 1842 George Augustus Robinson appointed him medical dispenser to the Aborigines at Narre Narre Warren Station at a salary of 3s a day with a single ration. A pencil drawing, Aboriginal Family , may date from this period. Jones retained the position until 30 September 1843. As late as 1847, when living in Little Collins Street, Melbourne, he was called 'Deputy Protector of Natives’. Early in 1846 Jones produced a series of etchings of Melbourne scenes which were printed as headings on sheets of notepaper by John Green , an engraver and copperplate printer, also of Little Collins Street. These included views of Collins, Elizabeth and Bourke streets, the Melbourne wharf and signal station and some of the principal buildings of Melbourne, such as the Wesleyan and Catholic chapels and Old Government Offices from Batman’s Hill . Together with lithographs by G.A. Gilbert and Joseph Pittman , they constitute some of the earliest views of Melbourne to be printed and published there. In the 1920s the original copperplates were discovered in an old trunk; 12 were reprinted as a set by the Fine Art Society of Melbourne in 1934. Although of considerable value as a historical record, Jones’s views suggest that he was an amateur who had difficulty in mastering perspective—at least when faced with the problem of reversing a sketch for etching on a plate. They are not known to have been publicly distributed at the time and have since been universally accepted as private productions. Yet, as well as being a chemist, Henry Gilbert Jones was listed as an artist of Collins Street in the Port Phillip Almanac for 1847 and as an artist and engraver of 107 Elizabeth Street in 1859, which suggests some professional artistic aspirations. A lithograph, Native Encampment (Deutscher Fine Art), is attributed to Henry Gilbert Jones. In August 1850 Jones purchased 93 acres in the parish of Nillambick at Eltham where he built a log hut and for many years lived the life of a recluse. He died on 27 March 1888 at his nephew’s pharmacy, 183 Bourke Street East, Melbourne, and was buried in the St Kilda Cemetery. Writers: Darragh, Thomas A. Date written: 1992 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. c.1804

Summary

Sketcher, engraver, pharmacist and farmer, he produced a series of etchings in the 1840s which constitute some of the earliest views of Melbourne.

Gender

Male

Died

27 March 1888

Age at death

84