- Placename
- St Katharine Docks, England
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude51.506278 Longitude-0.071694 Start Date1829-07-18 End Date1829-07-18
Description
Extended Data
- Location notes
- The Gilmore left from St Katharines Docks on 18 July 1829, and picked up more passengers from Gravesend and Plymouth. We do not know which port Elmslie embarked at. [5]
- Date notes
- Biographical information
- Adam Wallace Elmslie was born in England in 1874 [7]. He was baptised in Nottingham in 1781. [1] One record indicates he married Sarah Ann Lloyd in Holborn in 1813 [1]. Another suggests they married in 1808 and had 12 children. [3] The following children have been documented: Sarah Ann, born 4 May 1809 in Marylebone; Mary Eliza, born 25/07/1810 and baptised 27/07/1810 in Marylebone; Kenwood Wallace, born 11/01/1812 and baptised 10/02/1812 in Marylebone; Arthur Cruickshank, born 1813 and baptised 1814 in Marylebone; Edward, baptised in St Olave's, London, in 1815; Edgar, baptised in Marylebone in 1824; William, born 10 April 1824 in Woodford; Alice May, born 1835; and Alexis Gordon, born 1838. [1, 3]
Elmslie was recorded as a merchant of Crutched Friars when his son Edward was born in London in 1815. He was the business partner of John Wybergh Shaw; this partnership was declared bankrupt around 1824. [1] Alexandra Hasluck wrote that his 'family business had been in the West Indies but had failed'. [2, pp 91-92]
In 1829 Elmslie accompanied Thomas Peel to the Swan River Colony aboard the Gilmore as Peel's agent or acting manager. He took his son Arthur and daughter Sarah. [2] Another record suggests he took with him 'Miss E. & Arthur', 2 of his then 10 children. [7]
- Links to slavery the slave trade
- Co-heir of John Elmslie, Jamaican slaver and West India merchant; co-owner of West India merchant Elmslie & Shaw; Secretary Jamaica Steam Navigation 1836-8
- Attitudes around race
- Attitudes around labour
- Images
- Images notes
- References
- [1] UCL database https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146645345
[2] Alexandra Hasluck, Thomas Peel of Swan River, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1965
[3] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Elmslie-45
[4] https://www.mandurah.wa.gov.au/-/media/files/com/downloads/explore/museum/fact-sheets/thomas-peels-ships.pdf
[5] https://www.anps.org.au/upload/ANPSPlacenamesReport2.pdf
[6] Adam Wallace Elmslie letters, State Library of WA, ACC 603A
[7] The Bicentennial Dictionary of Western Australians
[8] Shane Burke, Peter Di Marcho and Simon Meath, 'The land ‘flow[ing] … with milk and honey’: Cultural landscape', 2010
[9] http://inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au/Public/Inventory/PrintSingleRecord/66ac6f42-adcb-4ec5-9338-c6548844f8fb
Sources
TLCMap IDt79a5
Created At2022-01-14 17:24:06 Updated At2023-12-11 17:49:40
- Placename
- Woodman Point
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-32.134361 Longitude115.747 Start Date1829-12-15 End Date1829-12-15
Description
Extended Data
- Location notes
- Date notes
- Biographical information
- Passengers of the Gilmore finally disembarked at Woodman Point on 15 December 1829. [4]
- Links to slavery the slave trade
- Attitudes around race
- Attitudes around labour
- Images
- Images notes
- References
Sources
TLCMap IDt79a6
Created At2022-01-14 17:24:06 Updated At2023-12-11 17:49:40
- Placename
- Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River)
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-31.894278 Longitude115.965889 Start Date1829-12-16 End Date1829-12-16
Description
Extended Data
- Location notes
- We have not identified the exact location of Elmslie's grant, however he describes it as 'about seven miles above Guildford on the North Bank of the Swan' [6]
- Date notes
- We are yet to obtain the original land grant to check the date Elmslie officially started occupying this land. This date is therefore an estimate.
- Biographical information
- Elmslie was alloted 4306 acres at the Swan River colony. [2] In a letter to James Elmslie Esquire, dated 10 March 1831 from the Swan River, he writes: 'overlooking the river with a few acres of meadow in front well adapted for building on; the situation for that purpose is really beautiful. It is about seven miles above Guildford on the North Bank of the Swan ... There is a much finer grant in point of size being about 5000 acres, which I should very much like to possess, I think it is the very best on the whole river.' [6]
Elmslie struggled in the colony (see further details under biographical information for Vauxhall, London). Alexandra Hasluck wrote that Elmslie considered himself entitled to more land than he was allotted and was jealous of naval officers, and highly critical of the enterprise. [2] His eldest daughter, Sarah, returned to England on the Wanstead on 30 January 1830, less than two months after arriving. [7]
- Links to slavery the slave trade
- Attitudes around race
- Attitudes around labour
- Images
- Images notes
- References
Sources
TLCMap IDt79a7
Created At2022-01-14 17:24:06 Updated At2023-12-11 17:49:40
- Placename
- Peel region
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-32.17475 Longitude115.775278 Start Date1829-12-31 End Date1829-12-31
Description
Extended Data
- Location notes
- There is disagreement over the exact location of the Peel settlement - archaeologist Shane Burke has located it at Mount Brown, whereas historians Pamela Statham Drew and Ruth Marchant James locate it at Woodman Point. [9] We have located it at Mount Brown.
- Date notes
- Biographical information
- As agent or acting manager to Thomas Peel, Elmslie would have been involved in the failed 'Peel town' - a transient town operating between 1829 and 1830 to accommodate the rapid influx of British into the Swan River colony. Shane Burke, Peter Di Marcho and Simon Meath's analysis of Peel town explains: 'disease, low morale and the addition of further colonists from Britain into the camp area eroded the predetermined ideas of class segregation and the control of resources, seriously affecting the leadership group’s ability to maintain authority.' [8, p 5]
- Links to slavery the slave trade
- Attitudes around race
- Attitudes around labour
- Images
- Map showing Peel Estate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peel_Estate#/media/File:Wagroupsettlement.jpg
- Images notes
- References
Sources
TLCMap IDt79a8
Created At2022-01-14 17:24:06 Updated At2023-12-11 17:49:40
- Placename
- Launceston, Tasmania
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-41.436167 Longitude147.131056 Start Date1831-07-24 End Date1831-07-24
Description
Extended Data
- Location notes
- Date notes
- Biographical information
- On 3 July 1831, Elmslie left the Swan River to visit Tasmania. He arrived in Launceston aboard the Nimrod on 24 July.
- Links to slavery the slave trade
- Attitudes around race
- Attitudes around labour
- Images
- Newspaper notice of Elmslie's arrival in Launceston: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/84775197
- Images notes
- References
Sources
TLCMap IDt79a9
Created At2022-01-14 17:24:06 Updated At2023-12-11 17:49:40
- Placename
- Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River)
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude-32.035861 Longitude115.758806 Start Date1832-03-31 End Date1832-03-31
Description
Extended Data
- Location notes
- Date notes
- We do not know the exact date Elmslie returned to WA but records indicate he left Tasmania aboard the Eagle in March 1832. [7]
- Biographical information
- Elmslie left Tasmania in March 1832 to return to the Swan River colony aboard the Eagle. The Bicentennial Dictionary of Western Australians states that he was 'attempting to transfer his land claims to Tasmania.' [7]
- Links to slavery the slave trade
- Attitudes around race
- Attitudes around labour
- Images
- Images notes
- References
Sources
TLCMap IDt79aa
Created At2022-01-14 17:24:06 Updated At2023-12-11 17:49:40
- Placename
- Kennington Road, Vauxhall, London
- Type
- Other
Details
Latitude51.486472 Longitude-0.111306 Start Date1842-06-01 End Date1842-06-01
Description
Extended Data
- Location notes
- Date notes
- We do not know the exact date that Elmslie returned to England, however records state that he was 'Of Kennington Street, Vauxhall, for the baptism of Alice May (born 1835) and Alexis Gordon (born 1838) in Lambeth in 1842.' [1] We have used an estimate of mid-1842.
- Biographical information
- Elmslie struggled in the colony - financially, physically and emotionally. In his letter to James Elmslie Esquire, dated 10 March 1831, he writes 'As far as I have observed, the conclusion I draw is that if I had a little money & had laid myself out for business on Peel's failure, I should have done well. But I see you are altogether for agriculture. Stick to the plough you say. And so I will, if I can get a plough to stick to with a team of bullocks and other things indispensable for a farm. But time wears away apace and there is still to be endured the heartbreaking separation from my wife & children. My constant reflections & anxiety about them keep me in such a state of agitation and at times throw me into such unspeakable agony of mind, that I am sure I cannot much longer endure it. I suffer, from this cause, most dreadfully in my health I am never well many days together. And I am in dread continually of another attack of the complaint which almost carried me off last year, as I have frequent symptoms & slight touches of it. Medicine does me no good, except of a restorative kind after I have subdued the complaint by starvation, my favourite remedy, and am become weak. Nevertheless I am obliged to get through a great deal of hard work, having no servant, such as hewing & bringing home wood for fuel, fetching water, & a good deal of other household work, especially when Arthur [his son] is from home, which he is frequently obliged to be in search of game & fish at both of which occupations he is very expert.' [6]
Elsmlie seems to have returned to England in the mid-1800s. Records state he was 'Of Kennington Street, Vauxhall, for the baptism of Alice May (born 1835) and Alexis Gordon (born 1838) in Lambeth in 1842.' [1]
- Links to slavery the slave trade
- Attitudes around race
- Attitudes around labour
- Images
- Images notes
- References
Sources
TLCMap IDt79ab
Created At2022-01-14 17:24:06 Updated At2023-12-11 17:49:40
