WILLIAM SWAINSON, F.R.S., 1789-1855 and HENRY GABRIEL SWAINSON, 1830-1892

Turnbull Library Record, Volume I, Issue 1, 1 March 1967, Page 6

WILLIAM SWAINSON, F.R.S., 1789-1855 and HENRY GABRIEL SWAINSON, 1830-1892

I.M.W.

In July 1966 the Library bought a group of drawings by William Swainson, the naturalist, and a diary kept by his son, Henry Gabriel Swainson. These came from Mrs Janet Leeper, of London, a grand-daughter of William Swainson’s youngest son, Edwin. Of the two distinguished William Swainsons who arrived in New Zealand in 1841, the one of particular interest to Wellington is the naturalist. The other, the Attorney-General, lived chiefly in Auckland and published several books which although of interest are not uncommon. The naturalist also published books but they are less important to us than the first-hand records of early Wellington left by him and his children. William’s own legacy was the many drawings he did between 1841 and 1849 of Wellington, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and the Waikanae coast. It appears that very few of his letters or papers have survived. 1 His children, however, wrote voluminously and their letters and diaries are still held by their descendants, who have kindly allowed many of them to be copied for the Library.

Of William Swainson’s drawings the Turnbull already had in its collections four hundred or so scientific drawings and plates and fifty-six landscapes and tree studies done in New Zealand and Australia. There are many more in New Zealand, in libraries, galleries and museums, as well as in private hands. The collection just acquired by Turnbull comprises thirtyseven drawings of New Zealand and Australian interest and thirty three ‘Sicilian’ sketches. These drawings are a welcome addition to a strong collection of original works by the artist. The diary of his son, for the two years 1850 and 1851, is doubly welcome, not only as one of the very few original Swainson manuscripts in the Library but because it covers a period when Henry, who was in the Navy, was in the same squadron as the survey ship Acheron and based at Sydney.

The events in William Swainson’s life which preceded his decision to emigrate to New Zealand were summarized by himself in an Autobiography which appears to be the basic source of subsequent notices, including those in the Dictionary of National Biography and the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. 2 The original Autobiography, which is more informative than these paraphrases, was published in one of the twelve volumes he wrote comprising the Natural History section of Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia. The publication of the autobiography in the Treatise on Taxidermy, with the Biography of the Zoologists, and Notices of their Works (1840) 3 marked the announcement of his retirement from professional authorship and intended emigration to New Zealand. Briefly, Swainson’s career had fallen into two periods - the Army 1806-1815;

scientific study and authorship 1815-1840. The third phase, pioneering in New Zealand, 1841-1855, was about to begin. He had joined H.M. Customs at fourteen, then transferred to the Commissariat of the Mediterranean Army at seventeen because of the opportunities to travel and study natural history. This was during the Napoleonic wars. When he retired on half-pay at the age of twentysix he had served in Malta, Italy, and Sicily, had visited Greece and was shortly afterwards to go to South America. He knew many eminent naturalists and at the beginning of this new phase of his career was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and shortly afterwards, on the recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks, a Fellow of the Royal Society. Other honours followed. He studied lithography and began publishing his Zoological Illustrations and other works, and presently turned to professional authorship mainly in association with the firm of Longman, Orme, Brown & Co, for whom he produced the Cabinet Cyclopaedia series on natural history.

Perhaps prodigious labour which included drawing illustrations on wood and devising his own theory of the classification of animals had begun to outweigh the charm of this occupation. At any rate by 1839 William Swainson, who had been a widower since 1835, was planning to emigrate. The only reason he gave in his Autobiography was that he wished to bring up his five children in simplicity, virtue and religion, and that ‘it is to accomplish such objects that I am about to transplant myself and them to a new soil, in the southern hemisphere His first choice was Australia. Letters passing between his father-in-law John Parkes and his brother C. L. Swainson indicate this as early as 26 January 183 9. 4 In Australia he had prospects of supplementing his halfpay of -£l3O per annum by an appointment from Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe and the agency of a property. 5

On 10 June 1839, however, William Swainson’s name was entered as No. 43 on the New Zealand Company’s Register of Applications for Land. 6 On 8 July 1839 his name appeared as a member of the Committee of the First Colony of New Zealand, 7 a development which alarmed his brother, who thought it ‘something more than the greatest imprudence to venture the planting of a young family in a spot where not even protection from our Government is secured. 8 In the following February, William Swainson’s father-in-law wrote of his grandchildren, from the moment they leave England, I shall consider the grave as closed over them...’ 9

For a time it was planned that the Swainsons would go to Hokianga to settle on land bought from Lieutenant Thomas McDonnell, whom William Swainson had met in London and who had offered Hokianga land to the New Zealand Company. A quantity of effects, including doors and windows for a dwelling, were despatched there in the Patriot. 10 On 21 March 1840 Swainson wrote to the Church Missionary

Society stating his intention of settling at Hokianga and offering his services in promoting an inquiry in New Zealand into the truth of charges laid against the Society’s missionaries. 11 The embarkation for New Zealand took place on 26 November 1840, when William Swainson, his second wife Anne and four of the five children 12 joined the McDonnells on the barque Jane which after long delays reached Port Nicholson on 24 May 1841. At Port Nicholson, William Swainson parted company with Lieutenant McDonnell, abandoning the Hokianga scheme in favour of settling in Wellington. His son William later went to Hokianga to fetch back the property consigned on the Patriot, 13 and the New Zealand Company allowed the rebate on passage money and freight customarily given to emigrating shareholders. 14

The family lived for two years in Thorndon while a dwelling and cultivations were being prepared on leasehold land 15 in the Hutt. By June 1843 they had moved there, 16 to their new estate of Hawkshead. From the time of his arrival in New Zealand, William Swainson seems to have thrown himself wholeheartedly into the life of a settler, breaking in ground, planting hedges and crops and superintending the building of a house, in spite of harassment by the chief Taringakuri. 17 He took part in community life, and his name appears through the pages of Ward’s Early Wellington as vice president of the Masonic Lodge, committee member of the first Horticultural Society, Militia officer for Hutt, Justice of the Peace and Magistrate. He was interested in several properties, including the Rangitikei estate still associated with the family, and a number of transactions are recorded in Lands and Survey files held by National Archives. 18 He hoped to participate in a scheme suggested by Governor Fitzßoy by which absentee shareholders were to be kept out of a ballot for some fertile land of the settlers’ choice, i.e. Wainuiomata, but which failed because the Company did not make a road, nor did the Government issue Crown grants. The memorial to the Governor which William Swainson drafted in 1848 begging for a road to the area met with refusal. 19 In the same year part of the Hawkshead dwelling was burned 20 but the house appears to have been repaired and occupied for some time. 21 Later the family lived at Fern Grove, on a section adjoining Hawkshead. 22 In his Autobiography of 1840 William Swainson had warned against putting faith in the names and promises of joint stock companies: in 1850, after nine years under the auspices of the New Zealand Company, he reviewed Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s View of the Art of Colonization (1849), referring to ‘the miserable failure of the Author’s system in New Zealand.’ 23 Earlier he had been writing to W. B. D. Mantell about leaving the cold and windy valley of the Hutt, in which nothing came to fruit, in order to settle in New Plymouth where he had six town acres. 24

There are indications elsewhere that he later contemplated abandoning New Zealand altogether. 25 Instead, he engaged with the New South Wales Government to work on botanical surveys, and on 12 May 1851, leaving his family in the Hutt, embarked from Port Nicholson in h.m.s. Acheron. 26 In one of Acheron’s sister ships which left Port Nicholson about the same time was William’s son Henry Gabriel, who mentions his father’s departure in the journal bought by the Library with this latest acquisition of his father’s drawings. When Henry arrived in Sydney in h.m.s. Bramble on 24 June 1851 he found that his father had gone on to Newcastle in the Acheron and was to go from there to Moreton Bay. 27

William Swainson was in Australia for three years, 28 during which he made botanical surveys for the Governments of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, 29 and also visited Fiji. His absence lengthened as the first engagement was followed by other offers, tempting because he needed money, so that his daughter’s letters 30 were soon full of anxious hopes that he would speedily return in order to relieve his wife of the management of Hawkshead and oversee the education of the three youngest children, one of whom was born after he left New Zealand. When at last his return was imminent Mary wrote to a friend that her father would bring ‘hundreds’ of sketches, ‘... altho’ he says he sees no scenery to be compared to N.Z. anywhere.’ 31 He returned on 18 June 1854, by the schooner Munford from Hobart Town, via Nelson. 32 Mary, who was his eldest daughter, died on 29 September 1854 and William himself died on 7 December 1855 33 at Ferngrove, his second homestead in the Hutt Valley.

During his lifetime William Swainson must have made several thousand drawings and sketches. Not only did he draw natural history specimens and prepare the illustrations for his own publications, but he recorded his surroundings houses, trees, roads and stockades. These small, fine sketches described the local scene for his own pleasure or the benefit of distant relatives or made a naturalist’s note of typical or unusual vegetation. It seems that he often did several versions of one study, sending them to friends in the manner of snapshots. Although the family papers contain references to fires, losses and destruction 34 of William Swainson’s effects, a great many drawings are preserved in New Zealand. On the final division of the estate, after his widow’s death in 1868, the drawings were shared among the seven surviving children and the children of his daughter, Mary. Some of these collections have reached libraries and museums in New Zealand and others are held by members of the family or collectors. 35

Many of the scientific drawings and New Zealand and Australian landscapes already in the Library were part of the share of William Swainson’s youngest child, Annette Elizabeth, Mrs Wesley Turton, who

left her collection to the New Zealand Government in 1916. 36 The National Art Gallery’s Swainson drawings are part of this gift. The Alexander Turnbull Library’s latest acquisition of Swainson drawings is part of the inheritance of William Swainson’s youngest son, Edwin, whose grand-daughter Mrs Janet Leeper offered the sketches to the Library. Edwin never came to New Zealand, although three of his nine children settled here. 37 He received his share of his father’s effects when they were distributed in 1873, some time after the death of the widow. His brother, W. J. Swainson, sent aboard the Malay a rimu box of his own make containing about one hundred drawings mounted by himself for uniformity of size, together with his father’s seal and a few other mementos. 38

Mrs Leeper has told us all she knows about Edwin Swainson’s one hundred drawings. ‘My Mother 39 prized the William Swainson drawings which came to her as her “share”. Mary [one of Edwin’s six daughters] insisted on dividing them up, my Mother wanted them to be left all together. I remember this share-out and imagine it happened after Grandfather’s death in September 1913 ... There is no doubt in my mind that Edwin’s share of the drawings was intact until then, and that these drawings have gradually accumulated as the daughters died (unmarried except for my Mother and Annie who went to New Zealand before the share-out and died there) 40 and were finally in the hands of Dorothy Swainson who died here in 1959, the youngest by some 9 or 10 years of all that long family, and a most gifted musician and cherisher of family relics. Her home, like the others, was in France and the drawings arrived after this last war among her family possessions, having been stored in Paris ... since before the war. She herself was put in a prison camp and her house at Noirmoutier in Vendee commandeered by the Germans, but the stored furniture in Paris was not touched. Grandmother’s box 41 was among these Paris things and Henry Gabriel’s Journal was with the drawings... ’ 42

Although William Swainson’s purpose seems to have been primarily to record, his drawings are carefully composed pictures. The design is gracefully balanced whether it relates objects in space a few bent trees, a hut and some hills or highlights a particular feature such as a giant punga against a lightly sketched background of bush. The New Zealand and Australian sketches are mostly in pencil and small, the space amply filled without crowding, an effortless mastery of relative proportions. Form and grace seem to have impressed him more than pattern, except when it came from the overlapping of palm leaves or intermingling of branches. His sense of proportion made him see things whole, so that while he could be delicately exact in the lines of trunks and branches the scale of his drawings did not allow fine distinctions between the pattern of one set of massed leaves and another. Shape and texture are the identi-

fying features of his trees. After looking through a series of Swainson drawings one can look at growing trees and see them just as they stand in his sketches.

Atmospheric effects in these pencil sketches are sparingly applied. In the seascapes one can see a grey day with the air full of spray, and in the bush scenes the clearings are occasionally touched with sunshine. Therefore it is easy to discount the age of the sketches and the softness of the pencil and see in the scenes of the Petone foreshore the murky sprayladen look of a Southerly even when the flax bushes stand quietly and the thatch scarcely stirs on the huts.

The more austere sketches, like those ones of Petone, have a look which we recognize, but the foliated scenes are finished in a convention which gives them a slightly woolly effect. It may be that the sketches bring to mind steel engravings from nineteenth century illustrations and by analogy seem old-fashioned and English looking, so that in spite of the towering trees and crouching huts the human figures focussing the compositions look like the Englishmen they were, but on their native heath. Some of William Swainson’s drawings are sharply finished, others are rough sketches in soft pencil. Actual pairs of preliminary sketches and corresponding finished drawings are rare, but if the hundreds of drawings in New Zealand were assembled some inferences could be made about Swainson’s working methods. What would be even more obvious than now is how often he returned to a subject and drew again and again the giant rata on Baron Alzdorf’s property, a punga fern, or the gorges in the road through the Hutt Valley. It is doubtful if William Swainson’s movements could be accurately traced from the dates on his pictures should a representative collection be assembled. There are indications, for instance in the Dandenong series, that the pictures were dated when finished, which could have been after the artist had left the district.

The thirty seven New Zealand and Australian sketches recently bought by the Library are representative of William Swainson’s drawings. Probably when the estate was distributed William John Swainson divided them fairly amongst the beneficiaries, choosing finished drawings and rough sketches and some from each period. He may also have devised the captions on the mounts, and as he was the eldest of the family and the earliest to know the country his titles have authority. The drawings include four studies of rata clinging to a totara, three views of gorges on the road to the Hutt, two stormy seascapes, and views of Petone Beach, stockades atTaita and Porirua and drawings of houses in the Hutt. One drawing, in red conte, shows an unusual cabbage tree in Nelson: dated 1854, it is thus a souvenir of the trip home from Hobart Town, via Nelson, in the schooner Munford, in June. There are six Australian sketches, representing New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. Only one subject, the coast from Wollongong towards Sydney, 18 June

1852, was already represented in the Library’s collection, by a sketch in the area dated a week previously. The ‘Sicilian’ drawings, made during William Swainson’s period of military service in the Mediterranean (1807-1815) are larger than the New Zealand sketches and some are carefully finished. Several are in water colour, others pen and wash, pencil and wash, or pencil. All are in his characteristic monochrome, grey or sepia, except a fragment on the back of a drawing, where sea, palm trees, flags and a soldier’s coat are touched with colour. The drawings seemingly were mounted by Swainson himself and like the New Zealand drawings have survived more than a hundred years without foxing. Evidently he cherished these scenes, for one seascape is fully described on the back in his writing, with a note: ‘Drawn in 1813 (finished 1838) on a voyage from Genoa to Palermo.’

William Swainson wrote in his Autobiography of his experiences when plague broke out in Malta. For two months his street was cordoned off and provisions were brought by the authorities and received into the house by an opening out through the door. ‘This imprisonment enabled me to finish many of my Sicilian and Grecian sketches, and arrange the plants and animals. In short, I was almost sorry, on my own account, when our street was released from quarantine, and I had again resumed my official duties.’

Later, the withdrawal of the French from Italy and William Swainson’s transfer to Naples and later Genoa enabled him to study art. ‘... the glorious works of the Italian painters, so profusely scattered in the churches and galleries of Rome and Florence, cooled for a time, my passion for natural history. I began collecting their pictures, sketches, and etchings, particularly those of the Genoese school without however, neglecting the plants and insects of Northern Italy.’ The Library’s ‘Sicilian’ sketches, which may have passed through the plague in Malta, predate William Swainson’s great period of enthusiasm for Italian art, but they do show, in the watercolours especially, more conscious artistic purpose than in the later years when technique and handling of composition were more instinctive, and the subject was preeminent. The watercolours show a greater interest in volume, form and light than in the New Zealand drawings. The subjects were different, of course the huge bare mountains of Sicily, which Swainson said were ‘perfectly woodless,’ contrasted with the oppressive forests of New Zealand. Perhaps it was the closeness of the forest which made his New Zealand drawings small or it may have been shortsightedness or lack of leisure or a fashion for small sketchbooks but it is only in the Sicilian land- and seascapes that there is sweep and space. The New Zealand scenes are mostly details, small vistas framed in nearby trees or larger scenes seen small. Between the Sicilian drawings and those done in

New Zealand there is such a gap in time that without seeing the work of the intervening years other than the exquisite scientific illustrations it is idle to speculate about their contrasts. The importance to us of the New Zealand drawings is that they exist, that William Swainson never lost his interest in what he saw around him in spite of the hardships, dangers and disappointments he encountered when he chose at fifty one to emigrate to the colonies. We are indebted to him for numerous glimpses through an Englishman’s eyes of the first encroachments on the wilderness.

Henry Gabriel Swainson, whose 1850-1 diary was bought with the drawings, was born on 6 December 1830, the fourth child of William Swainson. He was ten years old when he came to New Zealand and although he probably went to school during the two years the family spent at Thorndon his subsequent education must have been got at home for his ‘Hawkshead Journals’ kept in 1844 43 for his grandparents are a daily record of work on the property in company with his brother George. Although an erratic speller, he was a fluent and spontaneous writer, as his later letters show, and early cut childish pieties to a minimum to write succinctly and with enjoyment of the happenings of the district.

The young Swainsons all wrote home to their fond and anxious relatives, and many of their letters have been preserved. 44 Although the writers no doubt felt they were withholding the worst of their experiences, they have left many artless descriptions of life in the settlement which must have confirmed to excess their grandparents’ fears for their welfare and survival. Henry Gabriel’s letters of 1845-46 casually alternate stories of backwoods horrors with Swiss Family Robinson confidence and cheer. On 12 July 1846 he described an ambush, several skirmishes (in which he participated) and a murder, interspersed with social gossip, then said, ‘We have a guard of Soldiers stationed at our house so you need not be allarmed for us amid all these horrible scenes so I hope you will put your mind quit at rest with respect to us ...’ 45 He was then in the Hutt Militia, for which service he later received the New Zealand Medal. 46 In spite of his exuberance Henry was fretting to leave New Zealand. On 20 October 1845 he wrote to Mr and Mrs Parkes saying that ever since he had left England in the Jane he had had ‘a strong attachment to [the sea] and now it has burst out in all its vigour ...’ The next year, in which he joined the Militia while waiting for his future to be settled, was full of discussion of ways and means. He was afraid as his sixteenth birthday approached that he would be soon too old to make a satisfactory career in the Navy and, funds being short, was willing to work his passage home to save time. Once in England if the Navy failed him he was prepared to accept a place in a Liverpool merchant’s fleet trading with China. For the Navy, influence was necessary and his uncle’s friendship

with Sir Robert Peel was spoken of. Eventually, with the help of uncles on both sides of the family, a passage was arranged 47 and Henry left New Zealand on 7 March 1847 aboard the Lady Rowena. 48 He had been impatiently awaiting the moment for months and on 7 January 1847 had written, ‘Everything is ready at a moments notice for my departure.’ 49 ‘lf it was not for leaving my Father etc. etc. behind me,’ he wrote on 7 December 1846, ‘I should not have the least regret in leaving this country where I have seen so many persons ruined as I feel confident that I shall succeed in the profession I am now going into and as confident that I should not in any other except the army.’ 50

Henry did join the Navy and succeeded quite well, rising to the rank of Staff Commander, although in the 1860 s there were some long periods on reserve. In spite of offers from their grandparents the other young Swainsons remained in New Zealand. William John decided to put his faith in the colony and became a sheep farmer. George Frederick, who had been educated at Saint Johns College, Auckland, was a surveyor. Mary married J. W. Marshall of the 65 th Regiment in 1849: she looked forward to their eventual return to England but died young and is buried in Bolton Street cemetery.

Henry’s letters to his sister began on Christmas Day 1847, written from their grandparents’ home in Harborne Road near Birmingham. 51 The letters continue until just after Mary’s death in 1854, so that some are contemporaneous with the 1850-1 diary. There must be other diaries of Henry’s in existence, as correspondence at various times in his life indicates. His first seafaring journal, written aboard the merchant vessel Lady Rowena, got him into trouble in Valparaiso where the Captain found it, read it and, disliking a reference to himself, took Henry before the British Consul for a reprimand. The 1850-1 diary, which contains plenty of criticism of senior officers, begins with Henry’s title, ‘Private journal...’

After months of suspense in England Henry began his naval career by joining h.m.s. Havannah in April 1848 and setting sail for New Zealand via Rio de Janeiro and the Cape. 52 Mary wrote to her grandfather, ‘...1 am sure tho’ I am his sister I can safely say that Her Majesty never had a finer Midshipman enter her Service than he, & I am sure he will distinguish himself if he ever has an opportunity, & I do think he will, at any rate he will rise steadily by his own good conduct and Uncle Joes interest as long as he lives.’ 53 Nevertheless, with Henry’s best interests in mind she had prepared her grandfather for his return: ‘Henry has a fine character naturally, but it is much counteracted by a great degree of self will, & selfishness, these you may remember were the besetting sins of his childhood, and they have grown with him.’ 54 Fears that the parting with Henry might be for life were happily unfounded. Havannah was attached to the Australian station and Henry

was back in Port Nicholson on 26 November 1848 s 5 with all the news that Mary longed for of the large circle of beloved relatives and friends in England. He was not able to be at Mary’s wedding in May 1849 but on the wharf at Hobart Town he saw her wedding dress taken aboard the Emma for Port Nicholson. 56

During the period of the diary Henry visited New Zealand twice, made two cruises in the Pacific and turned 21. He was a man of the world, decorously adult in Port Nicholson society; critical of the entertainment at parties in Sydney and Hobart and of the looks, dress and deportment of the ladies; and an outspoken observer in the Islands as well as a keen participant. He spent more than a year in the schooner Bramble chafing to get back to the Havannah, which he rejoined for the return trip to England; and he met up with the Calliope, his ‘old ship’ as he called her in memory of his Hutt Militia days when Calliope and Driver were at Porirua and the Swainsons were friendly with Captain Polkinghorne, Midshipman McKillop and the Honourable Lieutenant Yelverton, r.a.

Inside the diary is a note in the handwriting of Edwin Swainson’s daughter Dorothy, ‘Aunt Lilia (Mrs Henry G. Swainson) gave this book to my sister Mary saying “Here is your Uncle’s diary you may like to read” we all felt certain she had never read it herself —’ Dorothy Swainson may have underestimated her aunt, who emerges from later Swainson correspondence as a favourite relative and seemingly not predisposed to be shocked. It must be one of Henry’s vintage diaries, however, and appears to have been read to pieces. Every night on shore in Sydney was a ball or a party, every day in Hobart a picnic. ‘Monday the ioth [February 1851] Got the “Bramble” under way & took a PicNic party over to the other side of the river Captain Erskine and Miss King. No one was asked but spoons [girls to spoon with] so directly we landed they all paired off. I thought it rather a bawdy house turn out...’ Henry’s objections were on grounds of style. In Fiji he accepted local manners: ‘We then dined smoked and bathed. We performed the latter operation before about twenty women who at last became so excited that they caught hold of each other in all kind of indecent postures. When we came out I tried what could be done but there were too many together and I could not get any privately.’ 57

The diary is full of gossip about people in society, about quarrels and scandals in the navy, and about the missionaries and chieftains in New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, Fiji and Samoa. Terrible stories of hearsay are recounted and cruel and sad instances of his own experience: ‘... we have to take 8 natives back who were brought to Sydney from Aneitium [?] being the same that were in that disturbance at the Beche de Mer fishing in New Caledonia. We left Sydney with 9 all looking very ill. One poor thin skeleton died on Tuesday such an object I never saw.

We had had great difficulty in preventing his countrymen throwing him overboard alive two or three days previous to his death.’ 58 Henry recorded on 4 January 1850 that Thomas Arnold had left Sydney in the Shamrock steamer for Hobart Town where he had got some Government appointment. In January ] 851 he wrote: ‘Saw Arnold & his bride who I do not admire at all.’ 59

The diary ends with him spending Christmas with his uncle Charles Swainson, rector of Crick Church, Northamptonshire. An engraving of the church is enclosed with the diary, with two drawings of Henry’s, one showing Havannah at anchor at Darling Point, Port Jackson. The other sketch signed by W. & H. S. is of the Hutt River. Henry was in the Baltic squadron afterwards, served in the Crimea, and chased pirates in China Seas. ‘We have been destroying no end of Pirates since I last wrote and we ought to get a good grant. It is a pity they dont pay you in the good old way of a head. Dreadful butchery goes on in these expeditions, but it is the only way of ridding the coasts of the blackguards.’ 60 Later he was Naval Instructor at the Chinese Naval College, at Foo Chow. He ended his naval career as Superintendent of Chronometers, Portsmouth. 61

In spite of his keen interest in the Sydney and Hobart girls and an attachment to a certain Bessy, Henry did not marry until he was thirtynine, and then it was to a distant cousin, Lilias Dunlop Findlay. Henry’s brother William John, who had not seen him since the Havannah days, welcomed the news of the marriage, but wrote to Edwin: ‘Lilias sent me a photo of herself but it was taken eight years ago. I can not say much for her good looks Henry does not seem to think much of them himself for he wrote to me & said “her face is too Scotch to be pretty” I think Lilias is quite right when she tells me Henry is so “matter-of-fact”!’ 62 One of the New Zealand relatives, visiting England in 1881, wrote: ‘I was much in Portsmouth with Uncle Henry and Aunt Lilias, both most hospitable to me. My aunt and I became great friends... [she] was an accomplished musician and took me as her adc to concerts ~.’ 63 Henry and Lilias Swainson had no children. After a few years spent in China they lived at Portsmouth until Henry’s death on 20 July 1892.

NOTES 1 Turnbull has three letters 1846-52, Swainson to W. D. B. Mantell. (Ms Papers 83, no 385); also H. Swainson to C.M.S., London, 21 March 1840 (Ms Papers 179/7). Linnean Society of London Proceedings 1899-1900 lists 236 correspondents of Swainson whose letters are held by the Society. Fifteen of the 934 items are draft letters from Swainson. 2 Ibid. The list is prefaced by a critical biographical note. Liverpool Public Museums are preparing a biography for publication. 3 Turnbull has a typescript copy of the Autobiography, in Marshall, J. W. Extracts from the memoirs 0f... (from Memoirs in possession of H. K. C. Marshall).

4 Parkes, John. Letters to Mr and Mrs Parkes written by their grandchildren ... [and others J 1839- Photocopied from originals in possession of the owner, the Countess of Iddesleigh, Pynes, Exeter. William’s brother Charles was not unsympathetic, ‘... my dislike and dread of the absorbing influence of commercial pursuits being very great, if the prospect be but tolerable for a livelihood, I should much prefer a most limited support in agriculture and more simple society [to] abundance in a life of business.’ To John Parkes, 9 July 1839. 5 ibid. C. L. Swainson to John Parkes, 12 June 1839. 6 New Zealand Company Register of Applications for Land. NZC 33/1 (National Archives). 7 First colony of New-Zealand. Literary, scientific, and philanthropic institutions for the benefit of the British settlers and native inhabitants of the islands of New Zealand. [1839] Circular. Turnbull copy bound in: New Zealand Company. [Circulars] 1839. 8 Parkes, John, op cit, C. L. Swainson to John Parkes, 9june 1839. 9 Micro Ms 64-5. 10 Marshall, M. F. Letters of Mary Frederica Swainson to her grandparents in England. 1840- vol. 1. (typescript, copied in 1948 from originals in possession of Miss Marshall, Marton). Mary Swainson to Mrs John Parkes, 5 March, 7 May 1843. 11 Ms Papers 179/7. W. Swainson to C.M.S., London, 21 March 1840. 12 William John, b 18 June 1824; Mary Frederica, b 6 May 1826; George Frederick, b 17June 1829; Henry Gabriel, b 6 Dec 1830. The youngest, Edwin Newcomb, b 20 Sept 1833, remained in England as the adopted child of Mr & Mrs Barron Field.

The three children of William Swainson’s second marriage were born in New Zealand: Lucelle Frances (24 Mar 1842), Edith Stanway (28 April 1844), Annette Elizabeth (18 Aug 1851). Swainson, G. M. A short biography of William Swainson, FRS, FLS [1961?] Typescript. 13 Marshall, M. F. Letters ...to her grandparents ... op cit vol. 1. Mary Swainson to Mrs John Parkes, 21 August 1842,12 June 1843. 14 ibid. Mary Swainson to Mr and Mrs John Parkes, 3 Sept 1841. 15 Wakefield, E. G. Adventure in New Zealand. 1845. vol 2, p 243. 16 Marshall, M. F. Letters ...to her grandparents ...op cit vol 1. Mary Swainson to John Parkes, 10 June 1843. 17 Wakefield, op cit Ch X (vol 2). McKillop, H. F. Reminiscences twelve months’ service in NZ. 1849. pp 174-9. 18 L. S. W 62/10 (National Archives). 19 ibid. 20 Marshall, M. F. Letters ...to her grandparents ...op cit vol 2 (typescript, copied from originals lent by Mr Roger Marshall, Tutu Totara, Marton.) Mary Swainson to John Parkes, 13 Feb 1848. 21 Marshall, M. F. Letters, mainly to her father and husband ...1842-53. (typescript, copied in 1962 from originals owned by Mr R. Marshall, Tutu Totara, Marton). Mary Marshall wrote to her father in Australia ‘... we all think it will be far better for you to buy a piece of land of your own, than build any more at Hawkshead where you never will have a certainty of purchasing,...’ Dated January 30th [ca 1854]. 22 Marshall, J. W. Extracts from the memoirs of John Willoughby Marshall, (typescript, copied in 1957 by H. K. C. Marshall.) p 13. ‘The first house was called Hawkshead. That was burnt down. The second was on an adjacent section, & was named Fern Grove, taking the name from the numerous fern trees around the house.’ 23 New Zealand magazine, 1850, vol 1 no. 1, p 84. 24 Ms Papers 83/385. W. Swainson to W. B. D. Mantell, 18 Jan 1846.

25 Marshall, M. F. Letters ...to her grandparents ...op cit vol 1 Mary Marshall to Isabel Percy, 3 Sept 1853 26 Wellington Independent, 14 May 1851. Acheron’s departure on 12 May noted. In the same issue was the announcement: ‘The Royal Society of Tasmania, of which his Excellency the Governor is President, has recently elected his Excellency Sir George Grey, and Mr Swainson, Honorary Members of that Society. We understand that Mr Swainson will continue to give his assistance to the scientific objects of the survey of these Islands, so ably conducted by Captain Stokes, up to the latest period, for which purpose Mr Swainson proceeds to Sydney in the Acheron.’ 27 Swainson, Henry Gabriel. Private Journal commencing Jan Ist 1850 ending December 31st 1851 ...Ms. 28 For the purposes of this article it has not been attempted to date William Swainson’s movements in Australia, partly because information is not readily available and partly because such dates as come to hand in reports and letters and on sketches are not easily reconciled. One person interested in following Swainson’s Australian career is Mr D. Dickison, who has corresponded with this Library over many years and whose last address was Stamps Office, 283 Queen Street, Melbourne. William Swainson’s descendants no doubt have considerable information.

29 William Swainson’s Botanical Report on Victoria, published in Further papers relative to the discovery of gold in Australia. Presented to Parliament, December 1854: Victoria, 24 Nov 1853 [1859] was roundly criticised in the 1902 Presidential Address to the Linnean Society of New South Wales ( Proceedings, vol XXVI, p 796 et seq.) The President said that Swainson ‘... had the temerity to give an exhibition of reckless species-making that, as far as I know, stands unparalleled in the annals of botanical literature. As a “shocking example” of what lengths an unbridled systematist may go to, it certainly should not be buried in the pages of a geological Blue-book.’ 30 Marshall, M. F. Letters, main ly to herfather and husband ...op cit 31 Marshall, M. F. Letters ... to her grandparents ...op cit vol 1. Mary Marshall to Isabel Percy, 3 Sept 1853. 32 N.Z. Spectator, 21 June 1854. 33 Date from death certificate. He died of bronchitis, aged 66. 34 For instance Mary Swainson wrote about the loss of the Prince Rupert, ‘... all those goods of ours that could not go on the Jane were in her. All Papa’s beautiful books the illustrations were in her, the proofs I mean, besides others which had been bound just before leaving ... All the things were sold out of her, and those who could not collect their things had the money for them.’ Marshall, M. F. Letters ...to her grandparents ...op cit vol 1. Mary Swainson to Mrs John Parkes, 23 January 1842. 35 Swainson, G. M. A short biography of William Swainson ...op cit This includes itemised lists of some Swainson collections, including 48 sketches given to Auckland Museum by Mrs B. S. Halcombe, more than one hundred owned by G. M. Swainson, and two smaller groups. The National Art Gallery collection, presented by Mrs Wesley Turton, is listed in Early New Zealand watercolours and drawings from the Chevalier, J. C. Richmond and Swainson Collections at the National Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand [1961] Among other collections are those of the Dominion Museum and the Hocken Library. 36 N.Z. National Art Galley. Early New Zealand watercolours ...op cit 37 Charles, Annie (Mrs Ernest Dudding) and Daisy. Marshall, J. W. Extracts from the memoirs ... op cit p 17; also letter to the Alexander Turnbull Library from Mrs Janet Leeper, 29 August 1966.

38 Swainson, W.J. Letters to Edwin and Henry Swainson, 1868-1887 (typescript, copied 1961 from originals in possession of L. H. S. Marshall, Makoiti, Marton.) W.J. to Edwin Swainson 19January 1873. 39 Edwin Swainson’s daughter Lilian (Mrs Vereker Hamilton). 40 This was Mrs Ernest Dudding, who possibly participated in the ‘share-out’, as she gave some drawings to Mr W. H. Preston-Thomas of Wellington, a descendant of William Swainson through his daughter, Mrs Halcombe. 41 This was not the rimu box in which the sketches went to England, but an oak box of an earlier day, the property of Mrs Leeper’s grandmother, Helen Charlotte Swainson (nee Whitehouse). Mrs Janet Leeper, 29 August 1966. 42 ibid.

43 Parkes, John, op cit ::,70 in ‘jih hsjslqmos • 44 It would appear that all the originals are in possession of descendants. The Turnbull has some volumes of copy letters other than those cited here, as well as family genealogies collected by W. J. Swainson (Micro Ms 64-65) and later material mainly relating to the Marshall family. 45 Parkes, John, op cit Henry Swainson to John Parkes 12 July 1846. 46 Gudgeon, T. W. The defenders of New Zealand. 1887 Addenda, p.xxix. Swainson, W. J. Letters to Edwin and Henry ...op cit W.J. to H. G. Swainson, 10 April i 87- iw kv.mr ff n*> mrlw

47 Chapman, H. S. [Letters] 1843-51. p 561. 48 N.Z. Spectator, 10 March 1847. 49 Parkes, John, op cit Henry Swainson tojohn Parkes. 50 ibid. Henery Swainson to Joseph Parkes. 51 Swainson H. G. Letters mainly to his sister, while serving on hms Havannah and hms James Watt... 1847-1858. (typescript, copied in 1962 from originals in possession of Mr R. Marshall, Tutu Totara, Marton.) 52 Parkes, John, op cit Henry Swainson to his uncle, 7 April 1848. 53 Marshall, M. F. Letters ...to her grandparents ...op cit vol 3. Mary Swainson tojohn Parkes.

54 ibid vol 2. Mary Swainson to John Parkes. 55 ibid, vol 3. Mary Swainson tojohn Parkes, letter begun 14 Nov 1848. 56 Swainson H. G. Letters ...op cit. To Mary, 21 April 1849. 57 Swainson, H. G. Private journal ... 1850-1. Entries for June 1850. (Dates not clear). 58 ibid. May 1850 59 Thomas Arnold, 1823-1900. He visited Hawkshead in June 1848. (Marshall, M. F. Letters ...to her grandparents ...op cit vol 3. Letter no 52. June 25. Also Bertram, J ed. N.Z. letters of Thomas Arnold the younger... 1966. p. 55) 60 Swainson, H. G. Letters ... op cit Henry Swainson toj. W. Marshall, 7 Nov 1858. 61 See Marshall, J. W. Extractsfrom the memoirs ...op dtp 16. for futher details of Henry’s career. He is said to have been employed after his retirement from the Navy by one of the Plearmant Company, trading to the West Indies. ‘I believe he lost his ship and was without employment afloat.’ 62 Swainson, W. J. op cit W. J. to Edwin Swainson, 20 Oct, 1871. 63 Marshall, JW. Extractsfrom the memoirs ... op cit p 53.