Many people were involved with the establishment of South Australia. This listing profiles the men and women aboard the first nine ships of 1836 as well as those left behind in Britain who were instrumental in establishing the South Australian Colonization Commission and the South Australian Company.
People
Captain John Finlay Duff
The master mariner John Finlay Duff commanded the Africaine on its 1836 voyage to South Australia. Duff was born on 1 April 1799 in Dundee, Scotland. His mother’s maiden name was Finlay (Duff’s second given name) and her father and grandfather were Dundee shipmasters.
Captain Robert Morgan
Robert Clark Morgan (1798-1864) was born in Kent, England. He married Mary Dorrington in 1822, when he was 25 and she was 22. In February 1836 they had one surviving child, having lost several soon after birth, and Mary was expecting another.
Captain Thomas Lipson
Captain Thomas Lipson (1783-1863) was born in Dartmouth, England. An English Naval Officer, he married Elizabeth Emma Fooks (1791-1880) on 30 July 1812. Thomas and Elizabeth emigrated to South Australia aboard the Cygnet with their six children Thomas, Eliza, Mary, Emma, Berry and Louisa in 1836.
Charles Howard
Charles Beaumont Howard was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1807, and studied at Trinity College, Dublin. After being ordained a deacon in the Church of England, he moved to England and served as curate in Chester and Yorkshire.
Colonel William Light
William Light (1786-1839) was born 27 April 1786 in Malaya. He was the second son of Captain Francis Light and Martinha Rozells, a Portuguese Eurasian. William Light spent his early years in Penang, but at age six was sent to England to be educated by his father’s friend, Charles Doughty. In 1799, at the age of 14, Light entered the Royal Navy as a ‘volunteer boy’, and left as a midshipman two years later.
Dr Charles George Everard
Charles George Everard was born in Marshfield, Gloucestershire, England, and baptised at St Michael’s Church in Winterbourne on 29 August 1794. On 17 February 1817, Charles married Catherine Russell.
Dr John Woodforde
John Woodforde was born in Somerset, England in 1810, to Harriet and Dr John Woodforde, a doctor in general practice. He gained his medical qualifications in 1832 and 1833, and was engaged as surgeon on the Rapid.
Edward Gibbon Wakefield
Edward Gibbon Wakefield is generally credited with first developing the concept of ‘systematic colonization’ that underpinned the development of South Australia.
George Fife Angas
George Fife Angas (1789-1879) was a wealthy merchant, banker and landowner, who played a significant role in the foundation of South Australia.
George Strickland Kingston
ir George Strickland Kingston (1807-1880) was born and educated as a civil engineer in Ireland before pursuing a career in England. Kingston married Henrietta (Harriet) Ann McDonough in London in 1829. By Christmas 1830 they were living in Birmingham where Kingston gained employment as an engineer at the Birmingham Waterworks.
Governor John Hindmarsh
Sir John Hindmarsh (1785-1860) was the first Governor of South Australia. A naval officer through and through, John Hindmarsh began his career on HMS Bellerophon at the age of fourteen and served in Nelson’s Navy in the Mediterranean and East Indies.
James Hurtle Fisher
James Hurtle Fisher was a London solicitor active in the colonizing movement. He became a member of the South Australian Building Committee in September 1835 and in July 1836 he was appointed Registrar and Resident Commissioner for the new colony.
John Brown
John Brown (c.1801 – 1879) was born in England. He attended Mill Hill School from 1812 to 1815 and at the age of 30 was a registered voter in the city of London. In 1833 he was an importer of wines and spirits at St Mary at Hill.
John Michael Skipper
John Michael Skipper was born on 12 July 1815 in Norwich, Norfolk, England, to John Skipper (a solicitor) and his wife Jane, nee Stark. J M Skipper started studying towards law, but left his studies to join the Sherbourne, an East India Company ship bound for Calcutta.
John Morphett
John Morphett (1809-1892) was the son of a London solicitor. On leaving school at the age of 16 he worked in a commercial firm in London, before joining another firm in Alexandria, Egypt.
Mary Thomas
Mary Thomas was clearly a redoubtable woman. She was 49 years old when she, her husband Robert and their five children sold all their belongings in England and embarked for South Australia. Mary travelled on the Africaine with four of her children, while the elder son, Robert George, an apprentice in Colonel Light’s survey team, travelled on the Rapid.
Robert Gouger
Robert Gouger (1802-1846) was one of the first and most influential advocates for South Australia. The son of a wealthy London merchant, he preferred worthy causes to trade and was often short of money as a result.
Robert Torrens
Robert Torrens (1780-1864) was active in the South Australian Association and later made Chairman of the South Australian Colonization Commission.
Samuel Stephens
Samuel Stephens (1808 – 1840) was the first colonial manager of the South Australian Company. He sailed for the Province on the Duke of York in February 1836.
The Beare family
Thomas Hudson Beare was employed by the South Australian Company as second in command and Superintendent of Buildings and Labourers.
The Hallett family
John Hallett was born on 30 August 1804 at Woodford in Essex, England. Hallett was ten years older than his wife Maria (nee King), whom he married about 1832. John and Maria sailed on the Africaine in 1836 with their three young sons, John, Richard and Henry. Henry was profoundly deaf.
William Pullen
William John Pullen was born in about 1813 and spent some years in the navy, before resigning and joining the South Australian Company as an officer and assistant-surveyor. He sailed on the Rapid with Colonel William Light.
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