Joseph Robson family of early Victoria

Joseph Robson 1798-1879 and Jane nee Hudson 1800-64 arrived Victoria, Australia August 1853 from Brazil, ship Bore, with their six surviving children and three grand-children. Alluvial gold mining had become main industry of Victoria. Experienced in industrialised gold mining in Brazil, Joseph Robson became a leading worker in implementing quartz gold mining. His employer Port Phillip and Colonial Gold Mining Co was controlled by the same British interests under J.D. Powles as the Brazil venture. Established 1852, it brought contract miners from England. Mining attempts at Fryer's Creek 1853, Forest Creek 1854-5 and Ovens 1855 ceased after resistance. From 1853, it had a public gold smelting and assay office at Flinders Lane, Melbourne and 1856-7 three quartz mines at Ballarat where Joseph Robson erected and worked the crushing batteries. In 1857, under resident director Rivett Bland, attention went to mining at Clunes, north of Ballarat. Joseph Robson settled there 1857 with Jane and much of the family. He was stamp manager or, by 1864, amalgamating manager at one of Australia's largest gold mines.

Joseph and Jane were from Durham county, NE England, m 1820 Heworth, Joseph a merchant there. He was b 1798 probably at Hebburn (known locally as "Hebron"), site of Hebburn Colliery, near Heworth, where about that time his parents had settled. Joseph's parents were John Robson and Hannah Thompson, m 1796 Houghton-le-Spring. John Robson was b 1775 Houghton-le-Spring and was a coal miner at Hebburn, by 1841 Bourn Moor (Burnmoor) near Houghton-le-Spring, by 1851 Thornley colliery. He was son of an earlier Joseph Robson b East Rainton and Jane b West Rainton d 1794, m 1775 Chester-le-Street. Hannah Thompson was b c1776 Ovingham, Northumberland, d c1846, dau of Peter Thompson and Hannah Waugh, m 1769 Ovingham. Jane nee Hudson was b 1800 Sunderland, dau of William Hudson, mariner, and Elizabeth Burnside, m 1788 Sunderland 1788.

Joseph, Jane, children Hannah and probably William went to Brazil c1826 where Joseph worked at Morro Velho for British company St. John d'el Rey Mining - ie Mina São João del-Rei, Minas Gerais, Brasil - about 200 km nw Rio de Janeiro, and possibly worked also at Curapaity, Amazon basin. Children including Joseph, Jane, Elizabeth and John were b Brazil. This Nova Lima, Brazil link (in Portuguese) has photos, including Casa Grande, residence of the mine superintendent at Morro Velho. It mentions other things connected with the mine - Quintas dos Ingleses was the housing area for English community, Mineração Morro Velho the mine, and Casa Aristides the major retail outlet with close association to the company (from Stephanie Dew).

Woodland, John
Sixteen Tons of Clunes Gold
A History of the Port Phillip and Colonial Gold Mining Company
Clunes Museum 2001 avail and
R. H. Bland and the Port Phillip and Colonial Gold Mining Company
thesis M.A. La Trobe 2002 download thus at lib.latrobe
refer to Joseph Robson here compiled and edited

Machinery for quartz mining by the company arrived in Melbourne June 1856, selected on the best advice by the London directors. Around October, Joseph Robson supervised installation at Dead Horse Gully, Ballarat. A second plant was erected shortly afterwards at Black Hill, Ballarat.

Capable of crushing 20 tons of ore per day, the Dead Horse Gully plant consisted of a 12 head stamp battery driven by a portable steam engine. Ore was "burnt" in a kiln before being crushed to make the quartz more brittle. Using a similar gold recovery method to that of the St John Company (probably introduced by Joseph Robson), pulverised ore leaving the stamp battery was washed over "strikes" (a series of inclined wooden tables) covered with blankets, which caught most of the gold. The ore then passed through two mercury-filled amalgamating troughs to recover very fine particles.

Joseph Robson

picture from
Methodist Spectator 1908

Both Ballarat sites came to a standstill in January 1857 due to poor gold grades and shortage of water because of drought. The plants were dismantled March 1857 and most of the machinery transported to Clunes where the first crushing of quartz was May 1857.

The Mining Institute of Victoria was instigated late 1857 to promote the advancement of the mining profession and mining technology, and to stimulate investment. Chaired by the Chief Secretary of Victoria, Joseph Robson was a member.

The constant experimentation and improvement for which the Clunes works was becoming renowned continued throughout 1859 under the watchful eye of Joseph Robson as battery manager. In 1862, a working model of one of his stamp batteries was sent to London for an International Exhibition. It incorporated his improvements including cast-iron cam barrels, wrought iron stamp shanks, removable bed-plates and amalgamating troughs below the battery box discharge.

Works manager Henry Thompson and Joseph Robson began experimenting in 1861 on the pyrites problem, traces of base metals that often accompanied the gold and trapped it. In 1862, Joseph Robson designed his "arrastra" machine with trials carried out. Thompson and company chemist George Latta developed a solution; damp, roasted pyrites was ground in the presence of mercury to ensure that each "flake"of gold had sufficient contact with mercury to be amalgamated. Joseph Robson experimented with improving the amount of pyrites recovered from the tailings. In early 1864, there was constructed a buddle which was a circular wooden basin 18 feet in diameter relying on a current of water to separate lighter particles from those of greater density, improved that year by the company's John Munday.

book pages 25, 28-30, 43, 46, 63-66, 71-4.

some notes from
Stephanie Dew
provided for this site

The Years before Coming to Victoria

John Robson and Hannah Thompson, parents of Joseph Robson 1798-1879, were married 1796 at Houghton-le-Spring, Durham. John Robson ch 1775 was one of several children of an earlier Joseph Robson born East Rainton m Chester-le-Street 1775 Jane born West Rainton d 1794; they lived at Stots Pasture and their other children included Joseph Robson ch 1780 m Jarrow 1802 Margaret Chicken from Ryton, Mary Robson ch 1782, Henry Robson ch 1785, Jane Robson ch 1788, William Robson ch 1792. Other children of John Robson and Hannah nee Thompson included Peter Robson b 1796, Jane Robson b c1801, John Robson c1802-08, Henry Robson ch 1805, John Robson b 1810, Hannah Robson ch 1812.

These places had existed since the middle ages. Most of the people worked on the land but at Ovingham parish there was a flourishing dyeing industry and parts of Houghton parish were exploited for coal mining from Tudor times. The village of Heworth, where Joseph Robson and Jane Hudson married 1820, changed very little until the 1800's brought steampower, railways and new factories springing up along the shores of the river.

In 1826, Joseph Robson and Jane had a son baptised at Heworth 5 January 1826 (as Thomas but probably the child known in family as William). Joseph was said in the parish register to be a "'merchant" of High Heworth. This was a pit village. In 1834 Heworth (which consisted of Low Heworth and High Heworth) had "one corn mill, three public houses, and a few shops" (see Hair, P.E.H. Coals On Rails Liverpool UP 1988). On Heworth Shore, there was an "iron manufactury" (referred to in Northumberland & Durham Family History Society Journal 2003). Given that Joseph's working life was spent designing, constructing and operating mining machinery, and that he did later own a foundry in Clunes, an "iron manufactury" would seem a likely place for him to have worked while in Heworth. It changed owners in 1828, the seller being at Tynemouth, probably too far away to have actually been running the business on a day to day basis.

There was a disaster at the High Heworth pit in 1826, which may provide a clue as to why Joseph Robson left the area. It was considered to be a well-ventilated and safe pit, and this may have saved lives as the death toll was only three (thirty-four died at Jarrow in the same year, and in the Stargate explosion at Ryton, also in 1826, thirty-nine died, of whom eleven had the surname Robson).

On the Brazil background, useful reading is Eakin, Marshall C. British Enterprise in Brazil: The St. John d'el Rey Mining Company and the Morro Velho Gold Mine, 1830-1960 (Durham, U.S.; Duke UP; 1989).

The Early Years in Victoria

In Victoria in 1853, the Port Phillip Company was shedding employees. There is evidence of attempt in 1854 at larger scale mining at Forest Creek near Castlemaine. Henry Thompson, of the company, visited in late 1854 when some people there were trying to get a lease for a larger area. There is evidence that a large claim in the vicinity, held by a few, was jumped. Family members were probably in the group at Forest Creek in 1854-55, and may have had some Port Phillip Company support. Joseph Robson's son-in-law, James Johns (see below) died in suspicious circumstances at Forest Creek on 10 June 1855, two days before the Legislative Council passed new mining regulations providing for leases for companies.

When his daughter Hannah Johns remarried at Richmond, Victoria on 30 October 1855, Joseph Robson was said to be a gold-assayer. Joseph Robson is not mentioned in connection with Port Phillip Company mining until July 1855, when Rivett Bland had him supervise the making of a kind of Dolly Tub for the company operation on the Ovens region in north-eastern Victoria. He probably never got there as the company's land was jumped July.

The Port Phillip Company's 1856 Annual Report (in Melbourne University archives) gives a history of affairs mainly explaining lack of success.

Joseph Robson in a letter (in State Library Victoria) to Rivett Bland from Ballarat in 1856 mentioned Black Hill and Dead Horse Gully. There was a third un-named site, which was probably Long Gully - the Port Phillip Company crushed quartz there in March 1857.

The Years at Clunes

Creswick & Clunes Advertiser 21 September 1860 reported the inauguration ceremony that day of the Victoria Company battery at Clunes by Joseph Robson discharging a bottle of spirits. The whole affair passed off with much cheering. "A more substantial piece of work has not been erected on Clunes". Joseph Robson had supervised erection.

Creswick & Clunes Advertiser 9 December 1862 reported that Joseph Robson and William Lancashire [son-in-law, see below] had applied for a patent for "An Invention for grinding, extracting, arresting and amalgamating gold from sand tailings and pyrites". Their letter to the editor published 5 June 1863 headed "THE ARASTRA" stated that the quantity of gold which had been obtained from their machine was not from common tailings but from blanket sand which the Port Phillip Company had for some two or three years been saving.

Reports in Creswick & Clunes Advertiser show Joseph Robson a leader in the local Wesleyan Church, also from 1860 a trustee of the Clunes General Cemetery: 27 April 1860, 24 January, 5 December 1862; 7 December 1864. Pictured is stone he laid 1870 at the church.

In 1866, Joseph Robson was in Clunes Voters' Roll as living in the Port Phillip Co. paddock. In his later years, he lived in Smeaton Road, Clunes next door to the store of William Curnow, husband of his grand-daughter Mary Jane: see further below.

Creswick & Clunes Advertiser 16 May 1870 reported the formal starting of an additional 20 head battery at the New North Clunes Company which had just been finished. A large number of persons had assembled on the occasion. The machinery having been set in motion, Mr Robson, of the Port Phillip Company, broke a bottle of wine against the fly wheel, named the battery "Amelia Lewis" in honour of the wife of Mr John Lewis, the able and much respected manager of the company, and gave the toast.

Joseph Robson was apparently a generous person. He had lent money to just about all the family and stipulated that it need not be repaid. The amounts were to be deducted from each person's share of his estate.

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Their six surviving children and three grand-children arrived 1853 in Victoria with them.

Pelham Ambrose Saunders 1829-1914 m Ballarat 22 April 1857 Jane Robson. He then was a gold miner. Both were residing Ballarat but soon went to Clunes where Pelham worked for Port Phillip Co as accountant and office manager.

Pelham (P.A.) Saunders by 1851 was a Russia merchant lodged at Liverpool, England. He left Liverpool 20 Feb 1852 second class cabin barque Collector arriving Melbourne 16 June 1852 (Co sent from Argus newspaper, Melbourne 17 June 1852). The departure date was same as that of the party Port Phillip England under mining engineer Evan Hopkins to establish operations in Victoria which arrived from Singapore on least Hopkins, Fatel Oheb 5 June 1852, at his son and a servant having travelled overland to Suez (Woodland). It is likely that P.A. Saunders and at least some others on (including first Collector class cabin Mr. Saunders and Miss Saunders) had link with the company or its personnel. He could also be P. Saunders arrived by official register April 1853 on Amigos from Quebec via Cape of Good Hope, age 22 gent as "Canadian" amongst "Passengers from Quebec".

In 1860, P.A. Saunders was, Creswick & Clunes Advertiser reported, Secretary to a Working Committee of New North Clunes Co, an enterprise in difficulty which the Port Phillip Co was assisting under an agreement of partnership; in 1863 it reported him secretary of the company. (Stephanie Dew)

By 1888, the Port Phillip company fortunes were in decline and within a few years the mine closed. On 28 November 1888, Mr P.A. Saunders was farewelled at a dinner "about to leave the town for the metropolis" having been "so long connected with the Port Phillip Company in the office of the general manager, of which mine he has held a position of trust and responsibility" and in his speech, Mr Saunders referred to his 31 years connection with the mine: Clunes Guardian & Gazette 30 November 1888. Woodland (p.89) refers to P.A. Saunders in November 1888 having been "office manager [of Port Phillip Co] since its first days at Clunes 31 years earlier".

After 1888, Pelham Saunders, accountant, resided with Jane at locations in South Melbourne and Albert Park, by 1914 at 20 Madden St, Albert Park where Jane died 15 July 1914 and Pelham 7 August 1914, age 85, in Victoria 63 years; both bur Melbourne Gen Cem.
On 15 August 1914, Clunes Guardian & Gazette reported the death of Mr P.A. Saunders whom it said came with others to Clunes from the old country to work at the Port Phillip Company's mine, and his duties were that of an accountant in the office of the manager, R.H. Bland; he was of a very charitable disposition and of affable manners, and much respected by the hundreds of men who were then working in the mine; many friends in Clunes well remembered him.

Jane Saunders 1858-1938 m 1909 Thomas Dreweatt, b Portarlington Vic. As youth, at Clunes with parents (Stephanie Dew book).
Anne Elizabeth Saunders 1859-1946 pic was a school teacher (certificated) commencing Nov 1880 at Sunbury School. She was a keen botanist sometimes known as "'Bot". She m c1886 Herrmann Just. Anne and Herrmann were great grand-parents of site author, more justd.com/just.
John Frederick Saunders 1873-1929 clerk, and Catherine Saunders 1874-1953 school teacher, resided with parents until 1914 and later elsewhere in Albert Park.
Isabella Louisa Saunders 1861-1948 m 1890 Charles Kempson, born at Melbourne, father Peter Kempson in 1862 set up the first school at Clunes.
Ethel Saunders 1877-1945 was a school teacher, as at 1903 residing with parents.

Family and ancestry of Pelham Ambrose Saunders 1829-1914

Pelham Ambrose Saunders was born 16 July 1829 Bombay, India; parents John Saunders 1801-37 pic merchant, m Bombay 1824 Anne Jones 1795-1867. Saunders & Co were East India Co merchants Bombay with John Saunders a European inhabitant, merchant (East India Reg 1831). John Saunders d 24 Sept 1837 at Singapore of java fever, passenger on Royal Saxon for Manila, Philippines, age 36; on 10 Dec1837, at Manila, Anne gave birth to their child Isabella Mary (per notices The Asiatic Journal). By 1851 Ann was settled at Sunderland,co Durham and remained there until her death in 1867. Her son Richard Thomas Saunders 1824-52 b Bombay, ironworks clerk, d Sunderland. Another son seemingly was Henry Frederick Saunders ch Bombay 1827. Daughters: Anne Catherine Saunders b c1828 Bombay m Benjamin Whittaker of the Bombay service, later of Jersey, Channel Is; Mary Louisa Saunders b 1833 East Wickham, Kent m 1859 Francis Fane Yeatman 1821-94 customs officer, Sunderland; Isabella Mary Saunders 1837-1916 b Manila, Philippines, 1861 with mother at Sunderland, m Wigan 1868 Charles Prattman Douglas 1837-1910 b Sunderland, engineer, resided co Durham co many years Consett, later Darlington.

John Saunders, father of Pelham, was second son of Thomas Saunders 1765-1848 and Esther c1771-1855; pic. Thomas was child of Thomas Saunders 1736-1821, by 1768 of Highgate, Middlesex and later Yateley, Hampshire, m 1762 Sarah Pickersgill. Thomas Saunders b 1736 by late life had an interest in the Garras mines in Cornwall and Thomas b 1765 seems to have been there for that was locality of his youngest son's birth 1816. From 1819, Thomas Saunders b 1765 and Esther settled and remained in France; Thomas was British Consul at St Valery sur Somme. He had business interests in Brazil. Eldest son of Thomas and Esther, Thomas Saunders 1795-1873, by 1830's settled Guelph, Ontario, Canada, colonel, m Lucy Ann Willcocks 1803-77 with many Canada descendants including Guy Le Fanu Saunders 1908-2002 whose extensive family research and picture collection is at Wellington County archives in Canada, and Darryl Saunders whose contact with site author since 2008 has much assisted on this earlier Saunders history. Third son of Thomas and Esther was Ambrose Edward Saunders 1816-84, b Cornwall, lt-col Indian Army, m India 1845 Eliza Clemons 1822-70 m2 1872 Lucy Ann Burton Conyngham d 1874, Ambrose later of Jersey, Channel Is. Daughters of Thomas Saunders and Esther included Esther Saunders b c1800 Upton, Essex, the eldest, m France 1828 John Seaton, navy, 1841 res Yorkshire, 1851 Kent; Maria Saunders 1801-82 b Upton, Essex m France 1825 Henry Berners berners; Elizabeth Saunders m France 1837 Augustin Blot; Anne Saunders d 1840's, the youngest, m Dover 1830 Richard Jones 1792-1875, brother of Anne nee Jones 1795-1867 (> incl Richard Jones 1833-1913 of East Wickham, Kent, barrister, Isabella Jones 1834-1919, Henry Jones 1838).
Thomas Saunders b 1765 had brothers Joshua Saunders 1768-1853 insurance underwriter London, James Saunders 1769-1838 ordained Oxfordshire and William Saunders 1781-1849 merchant London. Two later family members were famed in botany and entomology: wikip wws, es; another in sociology wikip acs.

This Saunders family has been traced back to 1400's Amersham, Buckinghamshire; see site of Rob Freestone amongst many Australian descendants of Sidney Smith William Saunders 1836-96 who settled New South Wales, grandson of William Saunders 1781-1849. Pitchcott manor Bucks was long owned within the family. Thomas Saunders b 1736 inherited the half part of his father Thomas Saunders of Rickmansworth when his father died in 1749 and in 1775 became an executor and trustee of the interest (seemingly by then the whole) held by distant cousin Thomas Saunders 1729-1775 of Brill, former Governor of Madras. Many old family papers are at Centre for Bucks Studies archives.

The name Pelham came from the family of Ann Jones, mother of Pelham Saunders, who for generations held land at East Wickham, Kent. Her parents were Richard Stayner Jones 1749-97, col 1st foot guards, d West Indies, m 1782 Catherine Hester Reed (who m2 1801 John Pelham Jones 1750-1831, brother of deceased husband); paternal grandparents Thomas Jones 1713-66, originally from Portsmouth, comptroller of laboratory Woolwich, m c1738 Martha Pelham 1713-71. Thomas was child of Evan Jones m London 1708 Anna Reed (who prev m Portsmouth 1697 Richard Holford 1675-1703). Martha was child of Charles Pelham b 1684 who like his father was clerk of the survey royal dockyard Woolwich, m 1710 Mary Smith of family from that region, she d 1742. Charles was child of John Pelham, d 1719 of Deptford, landowner around there and elsewhere, m Martha.

William Lancashire, whom Elizabeth Robson married, was an engine fitter. By 1859, he ran an iron and brass foundry amongst the various businesses at Clunes Iron Foundry, Main Street. Until April 1860, it was in partnership with Henry Thomas.
By advertisement 24 February 1860 Creswick & Clunes Advertiser, Thomas & Lancashire, Engineers, called to the attention of Quartz Crushing Companies their having made improvements in the manufacture of Stamp Heads so that they were harder and more durable than any hitherto manufactured or brought to the Goldfields.
According to information provided by Clunes Museum, William Lancashire was next with the Port Phillip Company, probably until 1866, with a house and foundry in the Company Paddock; from 1866 to 1869, a partnership of Cooper and Lancashire had the Victoria Foundry in Purcell Street; in 1869, he took over the Clunes Foundry of Henry Thomas then in Templeton Street; he was a Clunes councillor in 1869 and 1870; he was also musical - a conductor and a singer.
Some of William Lancashire's work was in association with Joseph Robson: see above.
In August 1870, during a thunderstorm, the boiler used in the Lancashire Foundry works burst, throwing the town into the greatest consternation by a very loud report, and doing an immense amount of damage. A portion of the boiler, weighing 15 cwt, was blown right over Fraser Street, a distance of 400 yards.
In 1874, when Joseph Robson wrote his will, Joseph owned the foundry and was selling it. There was a clause in the will that the sale was to go ahead even if Joseph died.

above 6 notes from Stephanie Dew including also reliance on Creswick & Clunes Advertiser 3 June 1859, 15 August 1870.

This is www.justd.com/robson
by Don Just at Melbourne Australia
commenced 5 June 2002
latest 2 January 2009
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