Bad money in wool and boots: Bankruptcy records in the Tasmanian Names Index

Posted on 31/10/2017

A picture of a brick building on a street corner. — Photo taken when Bank of Van Diemen’s Land closed its doors 1891, Monday 3 August, TAHO: AUTAS001126251362

We have added a new category to the Tasmanian Names Index!

Go to Record Type and select Bankruptcy to find the records of over 1600 people who declared either bankruptcy or insolvency between 1821 and 1928.

These include the files of two notable Tasmanians whose fortunes fell on hard times – Thomas Wells and Sylvanus Blundstone.

All’s well that ends Wells?

Thomas Wells was a convict. He was transported in 1816 for embezzling money while working as a clerk for a surveyor. Ironically, this crime earned him a promotion – as a convict he worked as a clerk for Governor Sorell! Literate convicts had a definite advantage in the skill-poor colony. Wells’ other claim to fame is as the writer of Tasmania’s first literary pamphlet, about the bushranger Michael Howe.

In Van Diemen’s Land Wells was given a Conditional Pardon almost immediately, and was able to build up landholdings through land grants and purchases. He may even have received a bit of special treatment, getting government contracts for the supply of meat.

Luck caught up with Wells in 1829. He made some bad wool speculations, and found himself in debtor’s prison, unable to pay his debts. His bankruptcy papers include a letter to his son, advising him to defend their home (Allanvale, at Macquarie Plains) against unlawful seizures. Two copies of this letter are included in the file – one carefully and calmly transcribed, the other hastily drafted on scraps of paper, full of crossings-out.

Somehow, Wells did manage to hold onto the house at Allanvale until after he was released from prison. Wells’ wife and eleven children must have been quite relieved that they could stay at home. The family included twins born October 1830, somehow fathered while Wells was in prison!

Wells was able to maintain his family and partially recover his fortunes through constant pleas to the Governor, and by working as an accountant while in prison.

A news article, text reads: “Death of Mr. Thomas Wells. We have this week the painful task of record ing the melancholy sudden death, at Launceston, on Monday the 10th inst., of Mr. THOMAS WELLS, late proprietor of Allanvale, in the Macquarie district, in the 52d year of his age. Mr. Wells arrived in this Colony with Lieutenant Governor SORELL, and, during the whole of that officer's administration, held a confidential situation in the Secretary's Office. On the arrival of Lieutenant Governor ARTHUR, he ceased his connection with the Government ; and, having acquired a large property, Allanvale among other estates, commenced farming and speculating in wool. In the exportation of the latter article, his speculations turning out unfortunate, reduced him to a gaol, and for many years he remained a prisoner for debt in Hobart Town. His misfortunes at last preyed so much upon his mind, that he became delirious — in which state, he remained for many weeks ; but the claims of his large family to his care at length seemed to arouse him, and with that spirit of persevering industry, for which he was so eminently distinguished, he commenced practising as a Public Accountant, while confined in prison, which he followed so closely, that he not only supported himself and family in a genteel manner, but paid off some thousands of pounds of his debts ; in fact, settled with nearly all his “creditors. After his release from a five years' confinement, he gave up his beautiful property at Allanvale, and opened an office in Hobart Town, as an Accountant ; in which he was doing a good business, when he was induced to accept an offer made to him, to go over to Launceston, for the purpose of settling the accounts of the Cornwall Bank, in which work he was suddenly cut off by a locked jaw. He leaves a widow and eleven children, totally unprovided for, to lament his loss ; whose distress, on the melancholy occasion, must be much encreased by the circumstance of his dying away from his home, among strangers ; and who certainly have a claim upon the public, on account of the long and valuable services of the deceased. In his habits, the late Mr. Wells was very industrious ; but luxurious and extravagant — very reserved, and in some measure haughty. His talents, as an Accountant, were of the first order ; and, as an English scholar, he was surpassed by few. He wrote many very able and beneficial articles for the Colonial Press, and among” — Colonist and Van Diemen’s Land Commercial and Agricultural Advertiser, Tuesday 18 June 1833, page 4

Continuation of the article, text reads: “his avowed works is the "Hermit in Van Diemen's Land," although it is supposed and generally stated, that those papers were the production of another person, (who has just quitted his connexion with the Public Press,) and that Mr. Wells only acted as an amanuensis in the matter. In concluding this notice of the deceased, we cannot fail to suggest that the Government ought to provide for young Mr. Wells, by giving him a situation under Government ; and we think there are few who would regret seeing Mrs. Wells placed upon the Colonial pension list. “ — Colonist and Van Diemen’s Land Commercial and Agricultural Advertiser, Tuesday 18 June 1833, page 4

Wells’ death did not end the troubles for his family. Despite the newspaper’s suggestions that the government help support the family, the eldest son Samuel Pullen Wells resorted to sheep stealing. He was sentenced to ‘life’ at Port Arthur in 1834 (but pardoned in 1837).

See: P. R. Eldershaw, ‘Wells, Thomas (1782–1833)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wells-thomas-2779/text3953, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 13 October 2017.

Boots and all

In 1901, Sylvanus Blundstone had to declare bankruptcy for his father’s iconic boot company John Blundstone & Son after failing to keep up with mortgage payments and debts totalling £18,902. This would be about $2.79 million today!

Sylvanus was again in financial trouble in 1909. Trading under the name Blundstone and Company, he had accumulated another £109 of debt to one creditor (or $14,878), and was bankrupt again.

He did not have much time to recover his fortunes after that. Sylvanus Blundstone died in 1915, aged 57.

A death notice in a newspaper, text reads: "Death from heart failure. Hobart, Friday, in connection with the death of Syivans Blundstone, whose body was found in a paddock adjoining his home on Thursday morning, no inquest was deemed necessary, as a doctors certificate was forthcoming that death was due to heart trouble. — Examiner, Saturday 9 January 1915, page 8

The family lost the company, but the Blundstone boot retains their name to this day.

Notes

See: David Young, ‘Blundstone, John (1831–1895)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/blundstone-john-12807/text23115, published first in hardcopy 2005, accessed online 13 October 2017.
Modern monetary equivalents have been calculated using the Reserve Bank of Australia’s pre-decimal inflation calculator
The header image for this post is a photo taken when Bank of Van Diemen’s Land closed its doors 1891, Monday 3 August. The bank failed after a financial collapse in the mining industry, and was one of several banks to fail around Australia in the depression of the early 1890s.

Author

Jessica Walters

Jessica is a Librarian for the State Library and Archives of Tasmania

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