Francis Doveton

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Golden Point and the Alluvial Goldwashers
Courtesy Ballarat Heritage Services.
Commissioner's Tent, Ballarat William Strutt. State Library of Victoria (H2919)

Background

Francis Crossman Doveton was the son of John Frederick Doveton, a Church of England clergyman, and Elizabeth Crossman. He was born on 18 October 1817 at Marksbury, Somerset, England and privately baptised by John Frederick Doveton on 23 October. His siblings were Frederick Brickdale Doveton, Elizabeth Jane Doveton, John Bazett Doveton, Louisa Doveton, Lucy Ducarel Doveton, Maria (Doveton) Adams, Catherine Doveton and William Blake Doveton. He came to Sydney in 1838 as a Lieutenant in the 51st Regiment. After serving in Van Diemen’s Land, he was promoted to Captain and then moved to Victoria.

He married Margaret Bostock on 3 September 1842 at St John's Anglican Church in Launceston, Tasmania and they had five children: Margaret Elizabeth, born on 17 November 1844 at Campbell Town (married John Doveton in 1873; died on 13 December 1941; buried at the St Kilda Cemetery); Rachel Emily, born on 9 September 1846 at Campbell Town (married Octavius Frederick Palmer in 1867 in Victoria); Annie, born in 1848 at Belfast, Victoria (married William Boyle Boyd); Francis, born in 1850 at Belfast (educated at Melbourne Grammar School in 1864; died in 1887); and John Frederick, born in 1852 at the Merri River (died in 1854). He buried his first wife and child in the Forest Creek Cemetery in January 1853. Margaret died from dysentery. [1]

On 21 August 1851 he was appointed first Gold Commissioner in Victoria. He was on the first staff at Mount Alexander (Castlemaine) Goldfields. Doveton arrived at Ballarat, along with Assistant Commissioner David Armstrong, on 19 September 1851 with a team of troopers and assisted by Captain Dana and his police troopers. They began to issue the first licences on 21 September 1851, with the first confrontation against the licence occurring the day before on 20 September 1851. The licence system caused much resentment, and Doveton is quoted as saying that he did not make the law but was sent to administer it.

In 1855 Francis Doveton married Mary Anne Snell and they had eight children: Thomas Frederick, born in 1857 at Hepburn (married Amy Alison Ross in 1882); Honora Maria Mary, born in 1861 at St Kilda (married James Brown Hopkins in 1883); Florence Lucy, born in 1865 at Heidelberg (married Thomas Mansfield in 1888); Otto Guy William, born in 1868 at Collingwood; Henry Albert, born in 1870 (died in 1875); Charlotte Ella Alice, born in 1873 (died in 1875); Catherine Josephine, born in 1876 at Kew; and Bazette, born in 1880 at Prahran (died aged one day).

Francis Crossman Doveton died on 10 July 1905, and was buried on the following day at St Kilda Cemetery (RC A 681). Doveton Street in Ballarat and Doveton Street in Castlemaine are named after him.[2]

It has been reported that Margaret, the daughter of Francis Doveton was buried in an unmarked grave at St Kilda Cemetery. She was the daughter of Lieutenant Doveton of the 51st Regiment Queens Own, the first goldfields commissioner in Victoria who played a leading role in the conflict at Eureka Stockade.[3]

Goldfields Involvement, 1854

Post 1854 Experiences

AN OLD COLONIST.
Mr. Francis Crossman Doveton, whose portrait we give in our illustrations, was the first gold commissioner in Victoria. He was appointed to Ballarat in August, 1851, filling a similar office upon various gold fields for nine years. He arrived with his regiment, the 51st K.O.L.I., in Sydney, in 1838. Mr. Doveton was a son of the Rev. John Frederick Doveton, of Endon Hall, County Northampton. Before leaving Eng land, when at Sandhurst, in 1834, he was one of ten students chosen to give an exhibition of horsemanship before King William IV, his Queen Adelaide and the then Princess Victoria. This accomplishment he retained, and when with his regiment in the early forties in Tasmania won many races. The gift of horsemanship may be said to have been inherited by more than one of his grandchildren, who are constantly seen on the polo ground and as amateurs in the saddle. The veteran colonist is 86 years of age next October. He has all senses perfect, and is living in Prahran. He frequently walks to Brighton to see his old friend and comrade Colonel Mair.[4]
William Mair Victoria and Riverina - a biographical record of some of the pioneer families of Victoria and the Riverina. McCarron, Bird, Melbourne, 1933.

See also

William Mair

Further Reading

Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.


References

  1. A. R. McMillan, The Pennyweight Kids Self published, 1998; Records of Castlemaine Pioneers.
  2. Argus 28 August 1851, p1; 22 September 1851, p2; 16 October 1851, p2; Clare Gervasoni, Dorothy Wickham & Wayne Phillipson, Mt Alexander District Directory of Old Settlers and Residents 1837–1856, Ballarat 1999, p35-36; H J Gibbney & Ann G Smith, A Biographical Register, Canberra 1987 (FCD); notes from Michael and Charlie Palmer.
  3. Eidleson, Meyer, Walks in Port Phillip, City of Port Phillip, 2001.
  4. Melbourne Leader, 23 May 1903.

External links