Bathurst street, Richmond, Tasmania
Image © Archives Office of Tasmania
This photograph is from the Archives Office of Tasmania, and is described as “1890, Photograph - View of a cottage at Richmond shows a girl, Elsa Green (later Mrs Peacock) with relatives.” While the identity of the figures in the photograph is hardly a mystery this time, I wanted to see if I could work out exactly where in Richmond the house was, and whether it still stood.
I initially tried to search old street directories and newspapers for mention of an address for the Green family, with no success, however Richmond is a beautiful little historic village today, and it being small enough I decided to go for a virtual walk about town instead. A quick look for buildings most likely to have a steeple or tower such as the one in the background of the photo led me to the old St Luke’s church, which quickly narrowed down my search, as St Luke’s sits on the edge of town: thus I was able to estimate based on distance and angle that the house I was looking for would have been in Bathurst street. Sure enough, in what I can see to be the right spot is number 22, looking almost exactly the same today as it did in 1890.
The house is heritage listed, and described in the register as “an early Old Colonial Georgian Cottage with a Victorian verandah on the front and side. It is sandstone with a hipped roof and a central door and flanking windows. The later verandah features Victorian decoration in the manner of cast lace brackets and coloured glass panels.” The verandah must have been added shortly after the photo was taken, and since appears to have been removed in a beautiful restoration of the property.
Even though I knew who the family in the photograph were, I didn’t know anything about them, so I also set about trying to find out more about Elsa Green, and the rest of her family. I was initially only able to glean bits and pieces, here and there.
A Mr F Green was a member of the Richmond Cricket Team, who recorded a creditable victory over the visiting New Town team in May 1879. Reference is also made in the article to the team’s retiring to a “Mr Green’s Hotel” for post-match refreshments. On 14 May, 1881, the licence for the Bridge Inn in Richmond was transferred from a Mr Green to a Mr Jack. The article also notes that the pubs in this area didn’t do too much trade, and that “there is not much drunkenness” in the town. In March of the same year, a Mr Joseph Green of Richmond was listed in the stock reports as selling a number of items, including a dog cart, wagonette and chaise, “on account of [his] retiring from the Richmond Hotel.” It seems likely that the reporter made a mistake with the name of the hotel, and the hotel was actually the Bridge Inn, Richmond.
In the death notices for 1887, I found a “Frederick Clarence, the eldest son of Mr J Green, also of Richmond, [who] died in the General Hospital on 23 June 1887,” aged only 37 years. This appears to be Elsa’s father, who was indeed called Frederick as per the birth records, which then makes publican Joseph Green her grandfather. His lovely old Georgian pub still exists near the corner of Edward and Bridge Streets, and now houses other businesses.
The only possible info I could glean about Elsa’s dad, apart from his untimely death and fondness for cricket, was from 1885. That year tenders were called for renewal of the contract for the Campania-Richmond mail run. The author of the article noted that “Almost everyone here will be glad to see our present contractor, Mr F Green, continue to carry the mails, as punctuality and civility always command innumerable friends.” If Elsa’s dad was indeed the local postie (and given the size of the town, it’s possible there was only one F Green), it’s obvious that he was respected and well-liked by his community.
Elsa married John James Peacock in 1903. Originally from Sorrell, not far from Richmond, John moved his new bride to Kimberley, near the north coast of the island. John had recently secured a position as the new station master there, and was reported in September of that year to be “already proving to be the right man in the right place, for he seems to have that affable spirit which every public servant ought to possess.” Another news report of 22 September notes that “A very interesting event took place on Friday evening at the residence of Mr J. Peacock, our worthy stationmaster, when a few of his personal friends paid him a surprise visit and presented him with a silver-mounted pipe, they having heard of his asking for leave of absence, for the purpose of tying the connubial knot.”
Elsa and John had five children, all of whom grew to adulthood. Mr and Mrs Peacock also appear to have participated happily in their local community, taking part in a fundraiser for their local school in 1904, and giving generously to at least one local charity fund. A Mr J J Peacock of Kimberley also wrote a warm endorsement for Dr McLaughlin’s Electric Belt in 1907, in which he claimed this device had completely cured his “Functional Weakness.”
So that’s a quick view of Elsa, but what about the others in the photograph? Simply listed as “relatives”, I wanted to see if I could work out who they were. Elsa only had one brother, Clarence Joseph, who was 2 years her senior, making him approximately twelve when this photograph was taken, so therefore it’s most likely him in the image. Clarence grew up to marry Anna Marks, and they lived with their growing family in the Zeehan area, where Clarence appears to have worked as a miner. His daughter was reported to have suffered scalds in a kitchen accident in 1913, but this does not seem to have had life threatening consequences. A grandson also sadly died in infancy in 1935.
One of the women in the image is almost certainly Elsa and Clarence’s mother, Isabella, who would have been 38 in 1890. Isabella was also born in Tasmania, into a large family. She had at least ten siblings including several sisters, one of whom could be the second woman in the photograph. It could also of course be one of her husband’s sisters, of which he had at least four. Frederick had died by the time this photo was taken, so it would have been natural for a female relative to move in and help Isabella with the kids. Ultimately though I’ll never get any closer to the identity of the two women in the image, unless some family information comes to light. It’s funny, but even over a gap of 120 years, I get the impression that they were a really nice, close knit family, and would have been great people to know. It’s always nice to be able to draw that sense of knowing someone personally from these old shots, with just that little bit of extra research.
