Andrew Turnbull
That the impost of Thirty Shillings a Month is unjust because the successful and unsuccessful Digger are assessed in the same ratio
For these reasons and others which could be enumerated Your Petitioners pray Your Excellency to Grant the following Petition
* First. To direct that the Licence Fee be reduced to Ten Shillings a Month
* Secondly To direct that Monthly or Quarterly Licenses be issued at the option of the Applicants
* Thirdly To direct that new arrivals or invalids be allowed on registering their names at the Commissioners Office fifteen clear days residence on the Gold Fields before the License be enforced
* Fourthly To afford greater facility to Diggers and others resident on the Gold Fields who wish to engage in Agricultural Pursuits for investing their earnings in small allotments of land
* Fifthly To direct that the Penalty of Five Pounds for non-possession of License be reduced to One Pound
* Sixthly To direct that (as the Diggers and other residents on the Gold Fields of the Colony have uniformly developed a love of law and order) the sending of an Armed Force to enforce the License Tax be discontinued.
Your Petitioners would respectfully submit to Your Excellency's consideration in favour of the reduction of the License Fee that many Diggers and other residents on the Gold-fields who are debarred from taking a License under the present System would if the Tax were reduced to Ten Shillings a Month cheerfully comply with the Law so that the License Fund instead of being diminished would be increased
Your Petitioners would also remind your Excellency that a Petition is the only mode by which they can submit their wants to your Excellency's consideration as although they contribute more to the Exchequer that half the Revenue of the Colony they are the largest class of Her Majesty's Subjects in the Colony unrepresented
And your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray etc.
Contents
Background
This may be Andrew Turnbull who was born 5 January 1831 at Dundee Forfarshire, Scotland. On 25 August 1849 he married Mary Yeaman Smith. He described himself variously as a blacksmith, miner, Carter of granite, dealer and fruiterer.
Andrew and Mary produced at least eight children. They emigrated on the Theodore, arriving in Melbourne on 8 December 1852, with their first born Isabell Ramsay Turnbull.
The family resided at Kangaroo Hill near Mount Franklin.Their second child Andrew was born in 1853 and their third child Johanna was born at Muckleford, Castlemaine, in 1854. Some of the signatures on the Petition were from miners in the Castlemaine area so it is possible Andrew senior signed the petition while working as a miner near Castlemaine.
Children John, Charles, Isabella, James and Mary followed.By 1856 the family was living at Forest Creek Fryer's Town.
He was admitted to the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum on 25 November 1893 after a suicide attempt. He was described as poor, stout build temperate life habits and quiet. He died at the Yarra Bend Asylum from choking on a piece of meat. The inquest findings included lung and brain disease. Andrew Turnbull was buried in April 1894 at Melbourne General Cemetery.[1]
Another possibility if Andrew Turnbull of Windser, New South Wales
- OBITUARY
- After a severe illness of nearly a month's duration, Mr Andrew Turnbull passed away at 'Braemar,' George street, Windsor (the resi dence of Miss I. Bushell), on Wednesday morn-ing. Deceased was in his 75th year, and the cause of death was cerebral apoplexy. The late Mr Turnbull was a native of South Hampton, England, and was the son of Andrew Turnbull, a Custom House officer in South Hampton, but who had prievously been a recruiting sergeant in the famous Scots Greys. The subject of this notice served his apprenticeship as a ship's carpenter, after which he went whaling for a time, and came to Australia as a young man. Being a man of remarkable business capacity, and with an energetic and enterprising nature, he soon carved out a destiny and achieved a position in the commercial world that might have been envied by men who had higher ambitions than modest Andrew Turnbull. He went to Ballarat and Bendigo diggings, and experienced some of the vicissitudes that all gold-seekers had to endure in those early days. But he prospered in all his undertakings, for he was a shrewd, cautious, deliberative, clear-headed Scotchman, and always knew what he was about. Fourty-four years ago he was clerk of works for putting down the piers for the bridge over the Nepean River between Penrith and Emu, and at the age of 31 years married Elizabeth Beatson, of Emu, Later he kept an hotel in Sussex-street, Sydney, and after abandoning this business settled down at Emu. He founded the Emu Gravel and Metal Company, which gradually expanded and became a limited liability company, which later on acquired the Prospect metal quarries, and at the time of his death the late Mr. Turnbull was managing direc-tor and the largest shareholder of the Emu and Prospect Metal and Gravel Company. He was a man of many admirable parts, and scores of men not so fortunate as himself had reason to bless tha name of Andrew Turnbull. He took the contract for building the bridge over the Hawkesbury at Windsor, and afterwards took in as a partner the late William Dixon. Incidental-ly in might be stated that during their contract no less than 27 floods aod freshes inundated their work. Numerous other bridges in the State in-cluding one over Cattai Creek on Wiseman's Ferry road, were constructed by Mr Turnbull, who had a capacity for successfully carrying out large un-dertakings. He owned land at Emu, Yarramundi and in Brisbane (Q), His widow survives him, as well as a grown up family of four daughters and one son, two sons having predeceased him.. The surviving children are : Mrs Walmsley (Agnes) of Tuggerah Lakes; Mrs Rod. Dempsey, (Maude) of Abermain; Misses Linda and Hilda Turnbull, (Emu), and Mr Alma S. Turnbull of Windsor. The late Mr Turnbull died on the third anniversary of the burial of his youngest son, Claude. One brother, Mr George Turnbull, of Bulli, survives him. The funeral took place on Thursday, when the remains were taken by train and interred in the Church of England cemetery at Emu. Mr J. W. Chandler carried, out the funeral arrangements.[2]
Goldfields Involvement, 1853-1854
Andrew Turnbull signed the 1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition.
Post 1854 Experiences
See also
Ballarat Reform League Inc. Monuments Project
Further Reading
References
External links
If you can assist with information on this person, or a related image, please email eurekapedia@yahoo.com.au
To CITE this page click Cite This Page on the link to the left of this page.
