IMMIGRANTS TO THE CAMDEN ESTATE OF JOHN MACARTHUR
Doreen Phyllis Byrnes, nee Steiner, was a sixth(?) generation Australian. Her mother Elsie Clout was descended from a family who were Bounty Scheme emigrants to Australia. They were given assisted passage by the Macarthur family on the understanding they would work on the Macarthur lands after their arrival. John Macarthur (1766–1834) was an Australian wool industry pioneer and his estate which they emigrated to was a major development of its times. They came on the ship Royal George, in 1839. Although the Clouts had resided in Kent before that for hundreds of years, they are regarded as being originally a family that lived in Flanders and went to England in the reign of Edward III.
When Doreen's Clout ancestors first came to Australia they settled at Macarthur's Camden Park or Cawdor near Camden. Ancestor George Clout farmed here on leased land although it is not established exactly where. There is little left at Cawdor although it had once been laid out as a village. At the end of Argyle St in Camden is a roundabout where Cawdor Road which heads off south to the area of the former village.
It was the earliest and most important centre of settlement on the "Cowpastures" and predated the establishment of Camden town. A very early hut was built at Cawdor for the herdsman guarding cattle there in 1804. Later on a superintendent's house was erected in 1819. These were only government cattle lands at first but later on private land grants followed.
John Macarthur, the overlord of the grand agricultural development they came to be part of, is a famous figure in Australian history. He had been following a military career, which commenced as an ensing in 1782 but he bought a commission in 1788 with the 68th Foot (later Durham Light Infantry). He faced the prospect of court-martial when he refused to assume a new posting to Gibraltar and ensuing negotiations with the war office resulted in him being posted to the far-flung penal colony of Sydney in 1789. Macarthur is recorded as quiet quarrelsome and may have attempted to duel with a captain of the fleet bringing him here over the cramped and squalid accommodation provided for his wife and infant son. He managed on that occasion to have his family exchanged to better quarters on another ship. When he arrived in Sydney in 1790, holding the rank of Lieutenant, he was appointed as the commandant of the town of Parramatta.
In Australia Macarthur quickly began to pursue agricultural interests. He was granted 100 acres of land at Rose Hill near Parramatta, and soon a further 100 acres for being the first man to clear and cultivate 50 acres of land. He named the property Elizabeth Farm after his wife and it still exists as a heritage site. Here he profitably farmed wheat and sheep. He resigned from the government in 1796 to concentrate on private business and farming interests.
Macarthur was a proud man and quarrelled with many of his neighbours and successive Governors. He was involved in a campaign against Governor Hunter, alleging that this governor was ineffective and trafficked in rum. The campaign lead to Hunter being forced to answer the charges and then being recalled. He quarrelled too with the later Governor King, and attempted to use presonal material from a letter of Colonel Paterson's wife to try and pressure Paterson to help him in this. Instead Paterson challenged Macarthur to a duel, in which Paterson was severely wounded. King had Macarthur arrested and attempted to send him to Norfolk Island, one of the colony's internal punishment places. Macarthur resisted and was sent for trial in England, where the Duke of York, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, rebuked King for failing to deal with the matter himself, but also stated that King's orders transferring Macarthur to Norfolk Island stood. Macarthur sidestepped this by resigning his commission before he returned to Sydney.
Governor King had declared while Macarthur was in London that, "if Captain Macarthur returns here in any official character, it should be that of Governor, as one-half the colony already belongs to him, and it will not be long before he gets the other half." And so it was, that Macarthur's star would continue on the rise. Although it must have irked King to do so, Macarthur was granted 5000 acres at the Cowpasture Plains as it was then known, in 1804. The grant was approved by Lord Camden, Secretary of State, after Macarthur had lobbied about the creation of an Australian sheep industry. Macarthur was a remarkable entrepreneur and decided that, instead of just producing food including mutton for the colony, the land around Sydney could be used to produce high quality wool and a profitable export industry established. In 1796 he had imported some poor quality Merino sheep, which being Spanish were considered better suited to the local climate than the English sheep. When in England for trial over the duel with Colonel Paterson, the Colonial Secretary, Lord Camden, was highly impressed by Macarthur and his ideas. Camden backed Macarthur for a grant of 10,000 acres (40 km²) of his choosing. Sir Joseph Banks, another influential figure, was however not so impressed with either Macarthur or his commercial venture. And when Macarthur failed to conceal his low opinion of Banks, Banks became a strong opponent of the plan and had the grant halved, with the remaining half to be granted only on the successful supply of high quality wool to England (something Banks believed would never happen).
Back in Sydney in 1805 Macarthur asked that his 5,000 acres (20 km²) be in the Cowpastures. This was the best grazing land that had yet been discovered around Sydney. It was well supplied by water from the Nepean river, and it had been reserved by the Governor exclusively for the government's own cattle herds. Both Governors King and Bligh strongly objected to Macarthur's request and wanted the grant moved, but the Colonial Office wrote back instructing the colony to give Macarthur his land at Cowpastures.
Bligh bitterly opposed him, stating "What have I to do with your sheep, Sir? Are you to have such flocks of sheep as no man ever heard of before? No, Sir!".
The conflict with Bligh culminated with Macarthur's arrest. Officers of the NSW Corps sided with Macarthur and rebelled. A contempory drawing depicts the cowardly Bligh being dragged out from hiding under his bed. Immediately after the rebellion took place Macarthur, ever the brilliant tactician, dispatched his son Edward to London with Macarthur's version of the events and the first ever bale of Australian wool to be exported. The British woollen mills were desperate for wool because of the Napoleonic blockade, and this wool sold for a record price. The Macarthur fortune was assured, despite having just overthrown a colonial government. There were difficulties however. Macarthur himself fled to England to avoid later likelihood of arrest in Sydney. He remained there for eight and half years during which time his wife Elizabeth managed the estate. Lord Camden granted him an unconditional right of return to NSW in 1817.
Back in Sydney, John Macarthur expanded the wool industry and also established Australia's first commercial winemaking enterprises. Following failing mental health, he died at Camden in 1834. During the 1830s, the Macarthur family began bringing out immigrant families as envisaged tennant farmers to develop Camden Park. The Bounty System was commenced in 1835 and the Macarthurs were quick to use it. Between 1837 and 1839 forty families were assisted to come to Camden Park. They were mainly English but six families of German vignerons were also brought out.
Once settled at Camden Park the immigrants were to work for three years as employees (five years in the case of the Germans) and then be given leaseholdings of their own and a small flock of sheep.
In the NSW Legislative Council Votes and Proceedings 1838, Minutes of evidence, William Macarthur gave evidence before a committee on immigration. This well describes the ideal of what they planned to happen at Camden Park, and very likely is what did happen there:
A better plan is to employ [women and children] either by the day, or by the piece, at the various descriptions of light work, of which there is generally abundance upon almost every establishment. According to the quantity of work they perform, they should be paid, and out of their earnings they can maintain themselves. Habits of industry and frugality will thus be either created or preserved. Every healthy child of either 8 or 9 years should be able to earn enough for its maintenance; and children two or three years younger can contribute towards it ...
At Camden, my two brothers and myself have about thirty women; and it does not often happen that more than five or six will accept of employment at 1s. per diem. They find means in the neighbourhood to engage themselves in washing, needlework or other employments, which are more profitable. The labour proposed to the women is of that description which women are capable of performing, and are accustomed to in England. We have generally ten to twenty children, from five and six years old to sixteen, employed at wages from 3d. to 1s. per diem. Their labour remunerates for the wages paid. These are paid with reference to the value of their work; and frequently, where circumstances admit, it is performed by task, when they not infrequently earn considerably more than the daily wages I have named.
Since 1835, my brothers and myself have supplied ourselves with labourers from Europe to a considerable extent, by importing Emigrants on our own account; and also by hiring them in the Colony. Those imported by us consist principally of agricultural labourers, viz: 16 families from the County of Dorset...and 6 families of vine dressers from Marko-Brunner, on the Rhine in the Duchy of Nassau...The agreement with them (which has been adhered to except that occasionally for their better encouragement they have been allowed to perform work by the piece) was as follows, £15 per annum for 3 years to each man, with a ration consisting of 11 lbs. seconds flour, and 7 lbs fresh beef, or mutton; to the wife, for the first six months only, half the above ration; the milk of a cow to each family; a piece of good ground of not less than a quarter of an acre; permission to keep a pig and poultry, provided they are not suffered to commit any mischief; and a comfortable cottage to each family
Hitherto the only material embarrassment we have experienced in the execution of this agreement, has been in providing for them cottages, of such a description, as shall encourage them to preserve the habits of neatness, and domestic comfort which is remarkable amongst the better sort of English peasantry. We have built them of 9 inch brickwork; and 14 inch "pise" or rammed earth; and framed upon wooden sills brick nogged between the quarterings and weather boarded outside, the whole plastered within, but without ceiling, and with shingled roofs. Each cottage contains generally, a kitchen, two sleeping rooms, a small pantry, and a verandah in front...[The second type, the pise, is relatively inexpensive,] much more comfortable, and if well executed, equally as durable as good brickwork or masonry.
We think that principally from a spirit of emulation, the prisoners perform more work than they did before the emigrants came, and that their moral conduct has decidedly improved. At the same time I am not aware that the moral character of the emigrants has at all deteriorated from being placed on the same establishment with the prisoners. The two classes are not intermingled at their work, and their residences are quite apart. The statements which the emigrants have sent home to their friends in England, has [sic], as far as we know, been very satisfactory, and expressing themselves greatly pleased with their situation and treatment. It is true that some misconduct has occurred on the part of a few; but, by the exercise of firmness and good temper, any irregularities of conduct have been repressed or reformed.
With respect to the provision made for the Religious instruction of the people on our estate, at present the Clergyman of the neighbouring Parish officiates one Sunday in every month. On the other Sundays, I am in the habit of reading the Morning Service of the Church of England, to which all the English Emigrants, except two, belong. The whole of the children, English and German (the latter being Roman Catholics), attend a Sunday School in common...We have built a school, capable of containing from 100 to 120 children, which is at present daily attended by more than thirty. The schoolmaster [Joseph Turner] was a prisoner, sent out for taking part in agricultural disturbances ... He is now free, and perfect reliance may be reposed in his integrity.
It is of interest, but perhaps only coincidental, that Doreen's other parental line, the Steiners,
were Germans and wine workers apparently, who later intermarried with the Clout descendants and gave a Catholic line. Perhaps the Steiners came under some assistance scheme like the Clouts did, but this is not known.
The storekeeper on the Camden Park Estate maintained records of employee's wages and the provisions dispensed to them and their families. These were entered in Journals containing separate personal accounts of all employees. These accounts have survived within the Macarthur Papers held in the Mitchell Library in Sydney.
Exactly where the Clouts were is not established but it was likely in the vicinity of what is shown as "Cawdor" on the map below. This possibly had been intended to become a substantial settlement, however any public offices there were transferred to Camden after that town began growing in 1841. The settlement at Cawdor gradually declined after Camden was established. A few of the old farmhouses established on land leased from the Macarthurs possibly remain, as does a late 19th century Methodist Church which replaced an earlier church erected mid-century. Some ancient slab hut remains exist which could possibly be of the original 1804 cattleman's vintage.
Location of Cawdor (lower left) south of the Nepean River at Camden.
Camden was founded as a village on the edge of the Macarthur lands. Prior to that there was probably very little in the district. The Macarthur estate had a main store (at Cawdor?) which supplied 50 or so employees and their families with most of their needs. Charles Clout's account may be found in Ledger No. 2 and it shows that Charles' annual wage, like the other Royal George immigrants, was £20. Wages were possibly credited to the store account quarterly, rather than the money being paid in cash(?). There were no banks available. As part of the agreement with the Macarthurs, employees had also been provided with goods in England to the value of £5.19.10. One third of this amount was then to be credited to the worker's account during each successive year of service until this liability was liquidated. In other words, this amount of provisioning came free if the worker remained with the Macarthurs for three years.
As part of the conditions of employment, each employee received basic rations [the equivalent of £14.14.6] and certain clothing free of charge in addition to their basic wage. These items were not charged to the personal accounts.
Clout origins have been researched by the Clout Descendants Society (CDS) and Cloutlines: A Family History (Chapter 5) describes the arrangements made by the Macarthur family to bring out emigrants from England to work their Camden Park Estate.
The CDS refers to this line of Clouts as the Camden, or descendants of Charles Clout of Beneden, photographed below.
This Charles Clout was born on 23 April 1805 at Hawkhurst, Kent, the thirteenth of fourteen children in the family of John Clout, labourer at that place, and his farm servant wife Mary
(nee Miller). On 17 December 1825, Charles Clout married Ann Sharpe, the twenty-three year old daughter of John Sharpe, labourer of neighbouring Benenden, and his servant wife Sarah (nee Tempkin). The couple moved to Benenden and there three children were born there: Charles (10 Feb 1828), George (19 June 1829) and Sarah (20 August 1834). Besides two other Clouts who came as convicts, this family were among the first Clouts to arrive in Australia. Charles may already have been on some form of "poor relief" when he decided to join a party of agricultural labourers who were being recruited for Australian service in the Benenden area.
Altogether 22 Clouts left England for Australia in 1838-1839. Although there is no actual record that any of these were on poor relief, several relatives of theirs were listed as Workhouse inmates, and it was also generally the case that the Parish officials arranged emigration for the poorest parishioners. At the time over 15% of the population of Kent was on relief. The Weald at the time was described as being in a pitiable and torpid position. There was sheep rot in the flocks, the demand for agricultural produce was low and the parishes were instead putting the labourers to work on public road works. The roads became better and better but the farms pooer and poorer. The first Clouts to reach Sydney were convicts convicted of theft. David Clout, native of Kent, arrived on the ship John on 7 February 1837. The words "EHD Love and Liberty" were tatooed on his arm, meaning now unknown. And before him, there arrived on 7 September 1835, Sarah Clout, aboard the ship Mary, on a seven year sentence for stealing a shawl.
An agricultural depression is thought to have driven these Clouts one way or the other from Kent to Sydney. This depression began in southern England 1834 and as it worsened Kent was the worst affected county. And in all of Kent the Weald district was the hardest hit. This is where Charles and the other Bountied immigrants who agreed in 1838 to be Australia bound, had all been living.
On arrival in Sydney assisted immigrants appeared before an Examining Board which looked into their character and best prospects, however the CDS notes that the Bounty system soon degenerated into commercial speculation controlled by the shipowners. The 22 Clouts from Kent arrived during the peak of this system, there being 10,000 assisted immigrants arriving in 1839 alone (and this in a population of barely 100,000).
Going back further in time all these Clouts are reckoned as descendant of or related to Thomas Clout and Jane Munn of Kent. The Clouts were centred on a cluster of villages on the Weald. Of these, Cranbrook (Cranebrook) was sometimes known as the 'Capital of the Weald'. The other Clout villages are Hawkhurst, Sandhurst and Benenden.
The area is also known as the High Weald of Kent. Weald means wooded country. The ending "-hurst" signifies a forest and "-den" signifies a clearing in a forest. The Clouts were there from the late 1400s and are believed to have migrated there from Flanders. In the wars between England and France the rulers of Flanders had aligned themselves variously with either country. Flanders united with England under Edward III and in 1336 Edward sent emissaries there to encourage the Flemmish weavers to settle in England. The King brought over many Flemmish weavers from Louvain to Cranbrook. Although there is no proof of the matter the Clout ancestors moving to Kent is attributed to these actions of King Edward's reign.
Charles Clout (b.1805)
Charles Clout the younger (b.1828)
George Clout (b.1829), youngest son of the first Charles.
(Source: Mark Stump of Castlemaine, Victoria, via the Clout Descendants Society)
This information and the above photos are from the CDS, which noted that the photos will be of great interest, particularly to Camden Clan descendants. The first one Charles Clout (b.1805), was the progenitor of the Camden Clan. Mark advised that the photo believed to be Charles Clout was annotated in two distinct hands on the reverse of its cardboard mount. The first is that of Mark's grandmother, Jean Stump, and reads "Great Grandfather C..." with the remainder having been cut away. To this, the second hand, that of Mark's father, has added a line diagram showing his mother's descent from great grandfather C, through George Clout and Hannah Collins (nee Clout).
There is general agreement that the features are those of a Clout, especially when one compares this photo with the photo in Cloutlines: A Family History which identifies the subjects as Charles Clout junior (b.1828) and his first wife Mary Ann Norris. CDS notes that the likeness is sufficiently strong to raise the possibility that these two photos are of the same man, however it is believed that these current identifications are probably correct.
After Charles Charles Clout and family arrived at Sydney in March 1839 they moved to the Macarthurs' Camden Park estate, south of the Nepean River near Camden.
Charles' wife Ann soon after settling in their small hut at Camden Park was afflicted with symptoms of "amaurosis", a form of vision loss. Although under lengthy treatment she only worsened and grew very infirm in mind and body, dying in 1841. Charles remained there all his life as an employee and did not proceed to the leaseholder stage. In 1855 he remarried and had one further child, Mary. He later on worked as cellarman. He died at Camden Park in 1885 and is buried at St John's church in Camden.
Tracing Doreen back to Charles:
- Doreen's mother Elsie, also known as Queenie, had the full name of Mary Julie Elsie Clout.
-- Elsie, born at Wagga Wagga in 1893, was first daughter of George Clout. His third daughter was Eileen Phyllis, possibly where Doreen's middle name is from.
- George Clout was born in 1858 at Camden Park (Cawdor), and married Mary Louisa Hart at Wagga Wagga in 1891.
-- That George Clout was the third son of another George Clout who is the George pictured above who came with his parents from Kent. He arrived in Australia aged nine. Later on he farmed with his brother on land rented from the Macarthurs and in 1850 married Jane Leonard, a Catholic, in Camden.
One of the witnesses at their wedding was Ann Norris, daughter or another of the Royal George immigrants, who later on (in 1855) was charged along with her mother Sarah over concealing the birth of Ann's illegitimate child. The Norris and Clout families were apparently close. George Clout joined with Ann's father to pay the 100 pounds bail sureties on each person, a not inconsiderable amount in those times. That these families remained close is also apparent from later intermarriage. Ann Norris was a daughter of Sampson Norris who had come on the Royal George with the Clouts. Mary Ann Norris, who was born in England married Charles Clout in 1850, the Charles who was the other son who came on the Royal George, the brother of George. And later on Clout descendants of Mary Norris and Charles Clout married Norris descendants, e.g. Frederick Arthur Clout married Mary Elizabeth Norris in 1921 at Narrabri and Jane Clout married Daniel John Norris at Burwood in 1902.
In 1865 George Clout, son of Charles and grandfather of Queenie, left Cawdor with his family, then numbering six children.
It is thought that a series of devastating floods in the early 1860s and the emergence of stem rust within the wheat crops of the district had ruined many of the small tennant farmers there, and forced them to leave their farms. This is likely what forced George to move.
He moved to Reedy Creek near Junee in the Wagga district. The reason for moving there is not known. Further children were born at North Wagga Wagga and George was living at Pine Gully. The family move to Junee could have been connected with wheat prospects. Also members of the Norris family also seem to have moved south, one of whom, William Matthew Norris moved to the Monaro and ran teams there as early as 1850. By the end of the century the Junee and Wagga Wagga region had become a rich wheat belt and wheat growers may have moved there as early as the 1860s. Junee (the original town was known as Old Junee) was established on land resumed from a squatting run, Junee Station. The district population was sparse, only 200, by 1876. George Clout besides his farming pursuits also operated as a general carrier throughout the Riverina region and maintained a sizeable horse team. He retired in 1897 and moved into town in North Wagga Wagga, where he died in 1907.
This George's son George, Queenie's father, and her mother Mary Louisa, also appear to have resided most of their lives in the North Wagga Wagga vicinity. Nothing further is presently known about them. In view of the closeness of the Clout and Norris families as mentioned, it is curious that George married a Mary Louisa Hart at Wagga Wagga in 1891 and where his farther first moved to in 1865, the Junee area, there was buried a Mary Louisa Norris in 1952 (born 1870 in Gundagai). Perhaps just a coincidence that two intertwined families that both expanded south both came to have persons with the name "Mary Louisa".
FURTHER REFERENCES
Macarthur Papers, [held in Mitchell Library, Sydney]. Manuscript Nos. A4187, A4188.
Master And Servant at Camden Park, 1838, From the Estate Papers, Push From The Bush No 6. May 1980, by Alan Atkinson
Evidence before the committee on immigration (Legislative Council), New South Wales Legislative Council Votes and Proceedings [August] 1838, Minutes of evidence, pp.16-20. [by William Macarthur].
Hardie & Gorman - Cawdor Estate Camden Park Camden for auction [cartographic material]. Close to St. John's Church / Hardie & Gorman. [Sydney] : John Sands Lith., 1882. Description: 1 map.