Susan gets her man

[Brighton Beach] [art original] / Henry Burn, circa 1862.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection, H301.

Dr Alexander Hunter was a fairly complex character whose private life was picked over in the Melbourne newspapers of the day.   A Scot, he had studied in Edinburgh and arrived in Port Phillip on 19 July 1849 as a Surgeon Superintendent on the "Victory" from Glasgow. He had left behind a wife and son who claimed he had deserted them.  They arrived in Melbourne in 1852 where they found him in practice as a surgeon in Great Collins Street.  Two advertisements in The Argus reveal the nature of his practice, and his inclination to help the poor:

A CARD

DR HUNTER, Consulting and Operating Surgeon - Begs leave to say, that owing to the misconceptions which have repeatedly come to his ear, in reference to his Professional Fees, he feels it his duty, to take this the only means of correcting the error by stating, that according to the rank or position of the patient, the fee of one guinea, entitles to two, three or four consultations, or visits Melbourne, Great Collins-street, East, 5th October, 1850.

Friday 11 October 1850  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4765064

NOTICE.

To the Poorer Classes of Melbourne and its vicinity.

DR HUNTER, Consulting and Operating Surgeon, has made arrangements to devote from 9 to 10 o'clock, every morning, to giving advice free, to all those classes who are anxious to consult him, but who, from circumstances, are unable to pay for it.  62, Great Collins street, Eastern Hill,

Wednesday 5 March 1851  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4776536

In a very long self-vindication, Hunter gave an airing of his private family life at a public meeting, published in The Argus in 1859. The main cause of his difficulties, he claimed, stemmed from his wife's mental infirmities.  I have noted, however, that after Hunter's death Mrs Hunter remarried, to a reverend gentleman, so she cannot have been too obviously deranged.   By 1851 Hunter was an MLA for East Melbourne, serving from 1859 to 1861.  Further troubles caused him to leave for New Zealand in 1862, dying in Hokitika in 1867.  If Hunter had hoped to escape his notoriety by hiding away in New Zealand, it must be noted that George Griffith from Melbourne was also in Hokitika in 1867.   "Why, Dr Hunter!  WHAT a coincidence!"

But to return to the period when Mrs Hunter arrived from Scotland, Dr Hunter closed his practice in Melbourne.

He went to live at Brighton until he realised his property, which was then sufficient to keep him in affluence. He was tempted to build some houses at Brighton, which occupied 10 months, and during that time his house was the theatre of scenes such as no tongue could tell. Mrs. Hunter would, in spite of his servants, make her escape from his house, and rush about the country, saying that he wanted to poison her. He was then wealthy, but suddenly the affairs of the colony began to turn, and through the title to his property being questioned, his houses being unlet, and the loss of a law-suit, he found himself a poor man. There were two courses for him to adopt - to lie down and die, go back to his native country a poor man; or, like a brave man, beat back his difficulties. He felt that in a free country nothing could stand before him. He had lived on bread and water previously, and could do so again. The only drawback was Mrs. Hunter. He returned to Melbourne and again succeeded ; but the seeds of trouble were sown so deep that they afterwards sprang up so as to overwhelm almost to strangle-him.

 It was into this house of discord and confusion that Susan was brought to be a servant when Dr Hunter of Brighton employed her off the boat.   

On 5 April 1854 Dr Hunter announced in the Melbourne papers that he was resuming his practice at his old residence in Great Collins St, East.   It is possible that there is some connection, perhaps only an opportunity, between that announcement on 5 April and one which was placed in The Argus on 21 April 1854:

Ship Harpley.  If this should meet the eye of Elizabeth Rochester, her sister Susan is very anxious to hear from her.  Address Post Office Brighton.

We can deduce from this that Susan did not know that Elizabeth had married in the previous December, and certainly not of her whereabouts. They had presumably not heard from each other since being separated on arrival in July 1853.   We don't know how long it was before Elizabeth heard or saw the ad, if she did at all at this time. 

Another co-incidence can be noted here - in that Dr Hunter's premises were in the same street as Wilkie's Music Saloon where George Griffith had been, or was, working. It was only one block away.  Is this where Susan and George met, somewhere in Collins Street?  The Argus premises, by the way, was also in Collins Street at this time, at number 74, a few doors away from Dr Hunter. In her ad Susan used the Post Office at Brighton as her return address, so presumably at this time she was still residing in Brighton.  She may have left the employ of the Hunters some time earlier and was working for another family, we cannot be sure.   

Collins Street when George and Susan knew it in 1853.  Hand-coloured lithograph by Edmund Thomas, 1853, courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection, H15480

We don't know where Susan met George Griffith, but a few months after the break-up of the Hunter household at Brighton, around early September 1854, Susan became pregnant.  Susan may have come in to Melbourne to seek work, or perhaps had transferred from the Brighton household to the house in Great Collins Street.  It would have helped enormously if they had married, but it would seem that they did not, and whatever useful information we might have had from such a document,  disappointment is our lot. My suspicion is that the older George had been married in England, or someplace else, but that also remains unresolved.  George was 30, Susan was 16.

The child was born in Wangaratta on 17 April 1855 - 8 days after the second anniversary of the  leaving of Southampton.

Beechworth Philharmonic Society, 1863

'To Gipsyland ... Illustrated by J. Pennell', London, 1893.  Courtesy of the British Library Photostream.

A long-winded article in the Ovens and Murray Advertiser, evidently paid for by the word, didn't really tell us much about the concert, but that the Philharmonic Society was an amateur organisation which made enthusiastic attempts to play classical pieces.  They were supported by three professional musicians, Herr Schmidt on the violin, Mr Griffiths on the violin, and Mr Ruxton on the piano

"[N]o notice of the Concert would be complete without mention being made of Herr SCHMIDT's exquisite performance on the violin, and the manner in which he has instructed his pupils. Mr Griffiths and Mr Ruxton also deserves much praise for their masterly execution on the violin and  piano. We, unfortunately, were not present at the 'First Part,'- but MOZART's Twelfth Mass is decidedly the very best selection that could have been made by amateurs,-— the one in fact that is generally attempted by non professional associations. We hear it was admirably rendered, and to judge from the subsequent successes, we should think the applause which it called down was well  deserved. -We wish all prosperity to our Philharmonic Society, and feel convinced that it will exert a powerful influence, both morally and socially, in Beechworth."

 The Ovens and Murray Advertiser. (1863, July 4). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1857 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved October 9, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112893938

Henri William Ruxton is described in Graeme Skinner's Austral Harmony as " late member of the Philharmonic Society, Liverpool". Ruxton is interesting because not only was he from the Liverpool area, but he gave Wilkie in Melbourne as a referee when he advertised in Melbourne as a music teacher in 1853.

Herr Schmidt may have been the viola player, active in Ballarat in 1859 according to Austral Harmony.

Wilkie's Music Saloon, Melbourne

 

The advertisement in which George Griffith announced his presence in Beechworth in 1855 alluded to previous employment in "Wilkie's Music Saloon".  Investigation in Trove for 1855 reveals this business to be located at 15 Collins St East, Melbourne.  This was on the north side of Collins Street, just around the corner from Elizabeth Street, and appears to have later become the site of Block Arcade.  In 1862 Wilkie formed a partnership with John Campbell Webster.  In 1863 the business was joined by George Leavis Allan.   The business became Wilkie, Webster & Allan in 1869 until 1876, at which time Allen became the sole proprietor, and then Allan & Co in when his son came into the business.  ( http://tinyurl.com/mqkvpzk  A Guide to Dating Music Published in Sydney and Melbourne 1800 to 1899, by Prue Neidorf, 1999.)

 Wilkie's Music Saloon offered retail sales of musical instruments, sheet music, instrument repairs, sales of concert tickets.  Portable instruments were popular in the goldrush, for obvious reasons, and in 1853 advertised:

GOOD Wages and constant work for a person un-
derstanding tuning and repairing accordeons, at
Joseph Wilkie's, Music and Pianoforte Saloon, 15,
Collins street.

Advertising. (1853, July 28). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 -
1957), p. 1. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4795079

 It is not clear where George learned the skills of instrument repair and piano tuning to which he later turned his hand, but perhaps he learnt some of it with Joseph Wilkie in Melbourne.  No trace can be found of George in Melbourne in this period, so it is impossible to be certain how long he had been employed there.  Joseph Wilkie himself had come to Melbourne in 1850 via Adelaide.  As we don't know when George arrived in Victoria, it is possible he was with Wilkie even at this stage.

Wilkie's business became very well known and influential in Melbourne - Joseph himself was later elected to the Legislative Council.  When the firm moved to a new three storey building erected nearby in 1877 by Allen & Co, Wilkie's name was still incorporated on the fascia of the building, above the first floor.

"MESSRS. ALLAN AND CO.'S NEW MUSIC WAREHOUSE, COLLINS STREET"

Melbourne : Ebenezer and David Syme  December 27, 1876.  Published in The illustrated

 Australian news State Library of Victoria Collection.

Around 1988, some 130-odd years later, the family renewed the contact with this old pre-gold-rush music business when George's gt gt granddaughter was employed by Brash's, which had taken over Allan & Co.

Read more about Joseph Wilkie on Austral Harmony.

A Professor on the goldfields,1855

"On stone by A J Stopps from a Daguerreotype by Acley and Rochletz.   Post Office, Beechworth 1856."   The original photographers appeared in the 1857 Ovens Directory, business rivals of Walter Woodbury - "Ackley & Rochlitz, Daguerrean Artists, Ford St, Beechworth".  This postcard copy of the lithographed daguerreotype was included in the family photo collection.

  
Advertising. (1855, March 3). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1855 - 1866; 1914 -1918), p. 6. Retrieved April 25, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113013160


With the above advertisement George Griffith introduced himself and his talents and services to the diverse and growing community in the Ovens goldfields.  He was aged 31; his wife Susan was still only 17 and on the verge of delivering her first child - which arrived on 14 April 1855, a fortnight after the ad.

George announced multiple skills - a teacher of pianoforte, violin, harp, with a general wave in the direction of other instruments.  He could repair multiple instruments, and he could perform at private and public functions.

George also helpfully indicated his place of employment prior to coming to the Ovens goldfields - with Wilkie's Music Saloon in Melbourne.

It is difficult to imagine Susan travelling along badly made roads from Melbourne to Beechworth in an advanced state of pregnancy, which makes it seem likely that they had been in the area for a few weeks at least, or had travelled from somewhere closer.   George perhaps had been wearing himself out digging for gold, and erecting some form of home for himself and his young wife and coming child.  The advertisement signals a more focussed approach to earning a living.