Person:Louisa Arpin (1)

Louisa had been in a London Workhouse, according to a list of passengers of the "Princess Royal" published on the internet. She sailed to Australia on 12 April 1832 from London, England on the "Princess Royal", which arrived in Hobart on 6 September 1832. The Princess Royal was a 402 ton barque and it brought about 200 free women settlers to Australia. It was the first ship to Tasmania where the passengers were entirely free settlers, rather than mostly convicts. Most of the women were from poor backgrounds looking for a new life. Several were widows with young children and many came from workhouses.

The ship had arrived in Storm Bay on 24 August 1832 but the master mistook the mouth of the Derwent and entered Frederick Henry Bay. On realising this the ship was anchored, but later a gale sprang up and she started to drag, then the cables parted. Ralph Dodge, a settler, directed her off the entrance to Pittwater, but having no anchors left, the Princess Royal soon grounded at Tiger Head. After being lightened by local craft, she was refloated in early September. The passengers were taken off by the paddle steamer "Surprise", which was sent from Hobart on 24 August and arrived back in Hobart with most of the female immigrants on 5 September. (Nicholson, Ian Hawkins, "Shipping Arrivals and Departures, Tasmania, 1803-1833", Roebuck, 1983, pp201-202.)

1832-3 - Family stories tell that Louisa met William Humphries on the docks in Tasmania and married him 6 weeks later.

On early documents Louisa's maiden name was given as Arpin. On later documents it was changed to Harper. This was possibly due to the misunderstanding that Arpin was a phonetic corruption of Harper.

In an article entitled "A Pioneer's Story", written by "Goulburnian" in the Argus dated Saturday 25 March 1905, Louisa is described as being in her 92nd year, still active and strong and with a wonderful memory. In the article Louisa recounts:

"I came out to Van Diemen's Land in 1832, in the Princess Royal, the first emigrant ship which arrived there. There had been frequent requests for free domestic servants, and our ship brought out nearly a couple of hundred girls. We had been promised positions at 8/- to 10/- per week, which was regarded as good wages in those days. We soon found that there were too many of us and it was extremely difficult to get good places.

"A year after I arrived I married, and we went to live at Launceston. There my husband worked for John Pascoe Fawkner, who was a neighbour. When Fawkner came over to Port Phillip, in 1835, he wanted my husband to engage with him, but I objected to him going to such a wild country. After Batman and Fawkner settled at Port Phillip, all the talk in Launceston was of the new country, and, work being slack, my husband, who was an expert brickmaker, engaged with Fawkner, and left about the middle of 1837, promising to send for me in a month. But the schooner was five or six weeks beating about the Straits before they were able to enter the Heads. I was sent for at last, and arrived in the Yarra in the Enterprise (Fawkner's schooner) on September 14, 1837. Mr Wedge, I remember, brought over four horses in the schooner, and there were two other passengers, brothers, named Birch. It was on a Saturday evening when the Enterprise was tied up to a tree on the river bank, and Mr Humphries took me and our two little children through the bush to a little wattle and daub hut, which stood in what is now Little Collins-street, between Elizabeth and Swanston streets. My husband and a mate were brickmaking close by.

"On Sunday morning Mr Humphries had to go up Batman's Hill to Fawkner's for rations, and I was scared by the arrival of a number of blacks, who begged "white lubra giv' it bread." There was another hut a short distance away, and the woman sent her husband over to tell me not to be afraid of the natives. We lived in that hut from September, 1837, to July, 1839, when we moved out to what was then called Batman's Swamp, where the Spencer-street railway yards now are.

"Melbourne during that period was a scattered village in the bush, without streets and with few houses, mostly huts. Henry Batman (John Batman's brother) was chief constable, and Buckley was also a policeman, and a dull stupid fellow he was. Where Elizabeth-street is now was a gully, through which a creek, often dry, but sometimes quite a torrent, ran. The first schoolhouse was erected where St James's church now stands. Miss Osborne was the first teacher, and after her Mrs Dutton. It was built of sawn timber, cut in a saw pit in what is now Elizabeth-street. I well remember John Batman's funeral in 1839. He was buried in what is now the old cemetery, adjoining the Victoria Market. Then it was neither cleared nor fenced - just a few graves in the bush. Another woman and I stared out to look for them, but without success. As we were returning we met the funeral. Poor John Batman was an invalid for some time before his death, and he used to be wheeled about in a chair. He left a family of eight daughters and a young son, who was afterwards drowned in the Yarra. His brother Henry died in October of the same year (1839).

"The first watch-house, the gaol, such as it was, and the stocks were somewhere near where the Western Market now is. The gaol was a tea-tree shanty, which was burned down by some blacks who were imprisoned for stealing potatoes from a settler named Langhorne. The natives, who escaped, told how they fired it by rubbing two sticks together. The policemen used to call the hours during the night-watch, and it was a standing joke afterwards to call out to them, "2 o'clock and all's well, and the gaol's burnt." I had never seen stocks before, and I was curious to know what the men were doing who were sitting on a bench with their legs stretched out through the frame day after day. My husband laughed at my stupidity.

"After moving out to Batman's Swamp, like many other neighbours, we kept a couple of cows, and I was summoned to court one day for allowing them to wander through the streets of the village. The courthouse - the only one I was ever in as an offender - was a little wooden shanty with a few rough boards laid on the ground for a floor. Mr James Simpson was the magistrate. He asked me if I stood in my husband's shoes. I told him I stood in my own, and with a laugh he fined me one pound. He was known to everybody as "Jimmy" Simpson, and was very popular. Another well-known citizen was John M'Nall, who built the first butcher's shop in the settlement, in Collins-street, near the corner of Swanston-street.

"George Scarborough, quite a character, was the first poundkeeper, and the first pound was near the river bank, between Swanston and Russell streets. We went to the first races held at Flemington in 1840, in Scarborough's bullock-dray. Coming home Scarborough was three sheets in the wind, and we came down Batman's Hill, through Collins-street, at racing pace. Mrs Scarborough and I, who were sitting on the bottom of the dray, being nearly tipped out when the bullocks rounded into Elizabeth-street.

"In November or December, 1849, a great flood occurred, and all Batman's Swamp was under water. Our house was flooded, and the children and I were taken off in a boat. My husband's brickyards were destroyed, and we did not go back to live at the swamp, but moved out to Flemington, where we had a couple of acres of land.

"Provisions were often scarce, and dear, in the early days of Melbourne. The settlement had to depend on Launceston and Sydney for its flour, and often bad weather would delay the trading schooners, and leave the place very short of food. Sometimes bread was up to 1/- to 3/- a loaf.

"When the diggings broke out, Mr Humphries, like most of the men folk, went off to make his fortune, but he was not very successful, and in 1858 he came up here (Bolinda), and obtained this farm (200 acres), and here I have resided for over 46 years. Twenty-two years ago I lost my husband, and last year my eldest son, who was over 70, died. I have seven children still living, 43 grandchildren, two of whom are living with me, and nearly as many great grand children. My memory has always been good. I can remember going, as a little girl, with my mother to St John's Church, Bedford-road, London, to hear the funeral service for George the Third in 1820. I was with her in the streets to witness the celebrations at the crowning of George the Fourth, and can distinctly remember the public sympathy for Queen Caroline, whom he would not allow to be crowned. In 1830 I saw the celebrations when William the Fourth came to the throne, and in 1831, just before I left England, the public processions for Parliamentary reform. Just 67 1/2 years ago I landed in Melbourne. It is nine years since I saw it last, but I hope to see it once again."

Another family story tells: "Louisa was travelling in a conveyance drawn by horses. She was going to visit her daughters and their children, and really enjoying the journey. It was a rainy day and the roads were slippery, and especially so, as they were coming down a large hill. The horses were toey, and all of a sudden they were spooked and bolted, and as they went around the bend at a great speed the conveyance tipped and some of the passengers were thrown out. One lady was on the ground, stunned. A fellow ran towards her and started yelling "She's lost the top of her head". The others, fearing the worst, hurried over. She hadn't lost her head - she had lost her wig. It was hanging from a bush. They quickly retrieved the wig, put it back on the poor woman's head before she "came to" and she was never the wiser. All arrived at their destination, none the worse for the experience."

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 IGI.
2. ↑ Vic Death Reg. No. 7551/1912.