Major Archibald Clunes Innes

       A Simon family of Macleay River legend is that after arrival in Sydney from Germany in September 1855 Michael Simon Sr., then by occupation a vinedresser (vineyard worker), gained employment with Major Archibald Clunes Innes at Port Macquarie. In correspondence with the compiler in June 2010 a researcher asserted the Major Innes employment legend - quote "cannot be true - as INNES was bankrupted in the late 1840s and moved to Newcastle". The validity of this and other purported grounds for excluding the Major as a possible initial Michael Simon Sr. employer in the Port Macquarie district of New South Wales are addressed below.

Bankruptcy?

       The correspondent's claim he was bankrupted in the late 1840s was not correct. No mention of the Major having ever been made bankrupt has been noted in any article on his history, in a reputatable journal, a published book, in the NSW Government Gazette or in a newspaper. If such had been the case there would be evidence of the sequestration of his estate assets etc. Noted is some internet sites claim he was made bankrupt in 1852 but all just asserted it without providing a checkable source such as a newspaper report of "Insolvency Proceedings" or a NSW Govt. Gazette notice. All appear to be just cases of their respective authors parroting someone else who had published their assumption as a fact. In one such instance an author even mixed-up Major Innes with a Captain Innes who for a period to 1841 was Sydney Superintendent of Police and no relation to Major A. C. Innes!
      The financial pressures the Major experienced following the 1843 depression in the colony, that were referred to in a newspaper report of his funeral as the "nipping frost" ¹⁹, resulted in him borrowing heavily (including a £29,180 loan from his father-in-law and others) and resulted in him eventually losing ownership of the majority of his once vast pastoral and mercantile holdings on New England, the Darling Downs and of some in the Port Macquarie/Hastings district etc.Those pressures appear to have resurfaced in 1852 as in July that year he offered two parcels of rural land in the Hastings area for auction on terms of a 25% deposit with the balance at 3 and 6 months ¹. In May the same year he accepted a Government appointment as the Assistant Commissioner for Crown Lands in the Liverpool Plains district and in that capacity was Assistant Gold Commissioner for the Hanging Rock and Peel River Gold Field ^{2, 3}. However the injustices of having to evict hard working diggers from lands of the A. A. Company who owned the mineral rights was evidently distasteful and six months later it was reported rumoured he had resigned. On 17 Jan 1853 when presented with a farewell address by the miners he stated in reply his chief reason for leaving the district was he was most unhappy when separated from his family and the absence of his dear ones was a great privation to him. His successor Charles King was not appointed until April 1853 ^{4, 5}.
      At the end of 1853 Major Innes was appointed as the Police Magistrate at Newcastle - a position he held until his death there on 29 August 1857 ⁵. A year later on 6 Sep. 1858 his wife Margaret née Macleay, a daughter of the former Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay, died at the Lake Innes estate homestead near Port Macquarie.

Hastings & Wilson River Farm Holdings

       A 1982 published book on Port Macquarie history stated - “although Major Innes virtually faced ruin throughout the 1840s he was able to hold the Lake Innes Estate and other local land holdings.” ⁶. In respect of the next decade until his death in 1857 he seemingly continued to hold several properties in the Port Macquarie district. Before his death there is no record of a foreclosure by a mortgagee on any of his Port Macquarie district holdings but same could have occurred after his death if there were defaults ²³. After his death his only son son Gustavus gave his status as a freeholder when with others he signed a letter in March 1859 addressed to the Governor expressing dissent to the Port Macquarie district becoming a municipality and in March 1860 advertised the homestead at Lake Innes had been re-shingled and would be available to rent in two months time fully furnished.
       The Major had an unsighted by this compiler will probate (file #3914 Series 4 at NSW State Records). His only son Gustavus who died in 1880 aged 42 had an administration grant (Series 3 #4765). It has been said as the Major's probated will made no mention of the disposition of any real property it follows he owned none at his death. However in those days it did not follow from no mention of real property in a will that there was none. In respect of the real property in cases of an intestancy re such in a will the real property passed to the eldest son pursuant to the primogeniture rule of law that was not abolished in NSW until the 1860s. Accordinly before then it was not usual for there to be no mention in a will of a testator's real property holdings.
       That from the beginning of 1854 until his death the Major served as the Police Magistrate at Newcastle and, excepting for the law vacations would have resided there, by itself has no relevancy to the question of whether he could have employed Michael Simon Sr. as a vinedresser for a period at Lake Innes or on one of his other Port Macquarie / Hastings district properties after Michael and his family arrived in Sydney on 19 Sep 1855. However if there was such employment it could not have been for much longer than a year as Michael's first Australian born son William was born in April 1857 at the Dondingalong locality on the Upper Macleay River. Through the years in many places in the colony the Major was an absentee landowner and substantial employer. He once had stores at both Port Macquarie and Armidale and several large New England pastoral stations, of which the main one was "Kentucky", and a station on the Macleay and one on the Darling Downs etc. etc. Thus the only question is - what were his Port Macquarie district properties in 1855-1856 where Michael Simon could have been employed by him (i.e. by one of his superintendants) for a period after arrival from Germany in Sep 1855 ?
       A reference to the Major as having employed stockmen at Lake Innes in November 1854 is found in a Dec 1854 cattle stealing case report viz - "defendant prisoner was a young man residing near the property of Major Innes, at Port Macquarie. He had been with the Major's stockmen, in their company, to drive out of the herd some stray cattle" ¹². Along with "Yarrows" of 8225 acres on the south bank of the Hastings River and "Clunesleigh" (aka Catterbuck) of 5737 acres on the north bank of the Hastings opposite "Yarrows", "Tilbuster" of 1280 acres in Cogo Parish at Rollands Plains was offered in November 1853 by the Major for lease for 3 to 5 years (so much for the made up claims he was bankruped the previous year!) when seemingly he was re-arranging his Port Macquarie affairs just prior to taking up the absent in Newcastle Police Magistrate appointment after the Christmas holidays to take into account his much longer future absenses from the area. "Tilbuster" of 1280 acres at Upper Rolands Plains in Cogo Parish was a "marriage portion" grant for his wife Margaret ²². The advertisement mentioned 150 acres of "Tilbuster" had an orchard and had been under cultivation for sundry crops ¹³.
       Adjoining "Tilbuster" on its western boundary was another Major Innes grant of 1653 acres he named "Cogo". It is indicated it's two portion were purchased in late 1857 or in 1858 by a former gold miner William Gaddes (portion 12 on the west side) and portion 11 on the east by Alexander Macleay who arrived from Scotland in 1839 who both came north from Dungog. Adjoining "Tilbuster" along its eastern boundary was another Major Innes grant of 1105 acres he named "Wallably Hill" that according to a Dec 1855 property sale notice for an adjoining 535 acre property, being the western half of an original W. H. Freeman grant, was still owned by Major Innes ¹⁴. It is possible "Tilbuster" did not end up being leased in late 1853 and was combined with the adjoining 1105 acre "Wallably Hill" under the supervision of one person. Whether the two were combined or not the person in charge of "Tilbuster" would likely have been James Stewart. A year after the Major died it was reported that Stewart was charged with having assaulted a farmer at his "Wallaby Hill" house when he had sought to borrow a plough. In August 1858 a newspaper reported Stewart was of "Wallaby Hill" and quote was "in the employ of the executors of the late Major Innes as their agent or superintendent". ¹⁵. A mention was noted in 1871 that a "Mr Stewart" then owned "Tibuster". He would have been the James Stewart formerly of Rollands Plains who died at Tinonee near Taree in 1880.
       In the area of the main Lake Innes property another property seemingly retained by the Major until his death was his 992 acre Horse Station at Ten Mile Creek. An advertisement in The Maitland Mercury of 20th and 20th April 1853 advised a draft of 35 horse stock from Port Macquarie was to be offered for auction by the Major on 3rd May. After his death an advertisement offering the Horse Station for sale appeared in a Sydney newspaper in February 1860 ¹⁶. "The Lake Cottage" homestead itself was offered for lease fully furnished by the Major's son in March 1860 ¹⁰. A later tenant of the house was the Rev. C. C. Kemp formerly the Episcopalian minister at Newtown who eventually purchased the property.

Garden and Vineyards

        First and perhaps foremost of his holdings that fall into this category was the main Lake Innes grant originally of 2560 acres, where the 22 room homestead known as "The Lake Cottage" was situated and its ruins remain to this day. It had an extensive garden and accommodation for a gardener. Also beginning from about 1844 the Major established a 30-acre vineyard on the property, cellars and a winery equipped for wine making and distilling.
        What is known of the gardens and vineyards at Lake Innes? The above referred to 1982 published Port Macquarie history to 1850 described same at "The Lake Cottage" as - "there were gardens, an orchard, vineyard and olive grove. A variety of exotic plants were tried for their suitability. The driveways were lined with hedges of lantana, neatly clipped: the great chinese bamboo and mysore thorn thrived... maize, flax and sugar cane were grown in the paddocks; sugar cane it was written grew in the Cati (Cathie) paddock" ⁷. In regard to the garden an Argent Family History had it Allen Argent, after whom Argent's Hill west of Bowraville was named, before farming for many years on "Cogo" at Upper Rollands Plains was employed by Dr. McKellar as the gardener at "The Lake Cottage" when McKellar rented the house after the Major's only son rented it out in 1860 ¹⁰.
        Annabella Boswell's Journal covered the period from January 1843 to April 1848 when she lived with her uncle Major Innes at the Lake Innes estate. Re a date early in October 1844 it stated the following - "About this time my uncle made up his mind to have a vineyard of thirty acres planted, which was the extent thought desirable at that time to have in full bearing before starting seriously to the business of wine-making ... It took a long time to prepare the ground. I never saw it in full bearing (Ed. after a five year residence in April 1848 Annabella left Lake Innes and said she only returned once five years later - presumably it was in Dec. 1853 to attend the wedding at Port Macquarie of the youngest of the two Innes daughters Gordie to Rev. Thomas O'Reilly, but know it was planted with the choicest vines." (Ed. likely with cuttings from the pioneer Macarthur vineyard at Camden that were dispersed far and wide). She also wrote that - "after my uncle's death in 1857, his son (Augustus), who was a great temperance advocate (Ed. he had studied to become and became a C of E Church Minister), would not have any wine made, and allowed the vineyard to become overgrown. Eventually it was, I believe destroyed by a bush fire, and the wine-cellars went to ruin" ⁸.
       Thus it has to be assumed up until the Major's death it was maintained by vinedessers of which Michael Simon could for a period have been been one. None of the Major's family papers have survived. However in respect of wine making and vineyards there are some official records from 1852 that cast some light on the extent of his then and intended future involvement in that activity. Firstly it is said 1852 "Colonial Secretary In Letters" corro (unsighted) disclose the 30-acre vineyard he originally established at Lake Innes from about 1844 had by 1852 been altered to one of 9 acres and another of 5 acres and that in addition he also had "Clifton" a 10-acre vineyard in area that was once owned by W. Stokes and was situated on a portion of the former penal "Settlement Farm" ²⁰. When "Clifton" was offered for sale or lease by William Stokes in The Sydney Morning Herald of 17 May 1847 it was described as being one and a quarter miles from Port Macquarie with a 5-room brick veranda cottage and servant room etc., two other cottages, two wine stores, a still house, utentsils for wine making, and a cellar capable of containing 100 pipes of wine (a pipe was equivalent to 475 to 480 litres so the storeage capacity was about 48,000 litres). The vineyard of 11 acres consisted of 15,000 vines of which 12,000 were trellissed. It was said about half the vines were in bearing and producing wine and the other half would be in bearing next summer. The production since establishment was given as: 1845 - 12 pipes, 1846 - 26 pipes, and in 1846 - 32 pipes (i.e. about 15,000 litres that year). When Annabella Boswell visted "Clifton" in 1847 near "Hamilton" she wrote that its vineyard with extensive cellars was flourishing. Reminiscent of the Macarthurs' in 1838 having imported from the same area of Germany that Michael Simon came from six vinedressers to tend the vineyard at "Camden Park" that by 1849 was 25 acres in area and producing 72,000 litres annually, is that early 1851 Innes sought permission to also import six families of German vinedressers under the 1847 instigated bounty scheme. It was recommended he should be allowed twelve persons of whom six should be males and skilled vinedressers. They were duly imported and on 1 May 1852 a bounty of £216 (£36 a couple) was authorised to be paid to him ²¹.
       Innes certainly had problems with his wine making, distilling, and vineyard maintenance. A report re the person charged in a 1855 cattle stealing case stated - "that prior to his departure for Victoria the prisoner had been engaged in the cultivation of some vine-yard, or similar establishment, at Port Macquarie, for Major Innes, but had got into some trouble about distillation." As the defendant's "departure for Victoria" would have been after the late 1851 gold discovery there most probably the reference to Innes having employed him in one of the vineyards and on distilling was to 1852 ¹¹.
       About this time, without giving him a reason, the Colonial Treasurer refused renewals of the licenses previously held by Innes to distill brandy at Lake Innes estate and Clifton vineyards for the purpose of fortifying his wines. Innes then informed the Colonial Secretary he would not take his seat on the Port Macquarie Bench of Magistrates (Ed. to which he had been appointed in Oct. 1851) until the matter was explained to his satisfaction. A legal reason was duly provided but it was not satisfactory to him and he demanded the Crown Law Officer's investigate the matter. The upshot was the Attorney-General advised it was valid for spirit licenses to be granted for stills at each of the two vineyards and licenses for both were issued to the Major. A colonial treasurer memorandum indicated smuggled spirits seized by Customs had come from his licensed still and, whilst he could not have known anything of the sale of the spirits, Innes had been convinced it had been going on for some time by the person in charge of his licensed still at "Clifton" whom he believed had robbed him to a considerable extent ²⁰.
       Nothing has been ascertained by the compiler of the Major's wine making and and brandy distilling operations in the 1855-56 period at the Lake Innes estate or at "Clifton" or even if the latter was still in his ownership. A 9 page unsighted Port Macquarie Historical Society publication on the subject of Hastings River vineyards may cast some light? ⁹. However it can be reasonably assumed the Major, even if not then employing persons on making fortified wines at the vineyards, would have had it in mind when he retired from the Newcastle appointment to reside permanently at Lake Innes and whilst absent would not only have employed a gardener to maintain the extensive garden but also skilled vinedressers to continue maintaining the vineyard he established there at considerable cost almost a decade earlier that logically he would have regarded as a property asset and likewise the 10-acre purchased "Clifton" vineyard located about ten miles distant from the Lake Innes homestead.

How Michael Simon could have gained employment

       Given that upon arrival the contracted for in Germany Alexander Berry estate employment did not eventuate ¹⁷, and assuming Kirchner & Co was the immigration agent, Kirchner's would likely have considered itself obliged and it of financial benefit to find an alternative employer to whom Michael's labour could be contracted for at least 12 months. As Wilhelm Kirchner was then the officially appointed NSW German Immigration Agent perhaps the German Immigration Office that was in George Street in Sydney was operated by his company ¹⁸. Michael could also have obtained employment through an employment agency specialising in the employment of foreign workers. It is known from records that Wilhelm "William" Rosenbaum and his wife, non-bounty immigrants who arived in Sydney with the Simons' on the "Wilhelmsburg", were in Port Macquarie only a few weeks after the ship's arrival and he was employed in Port Maquarie by Major Innes's future son-in-law Patrick Mackay. It is known from Annabella Boswell's diary that back in the 1840s when the Lake Innes homestead empoyed several servants, during absenses of the Innes's he had custody of the cellar keys. It seems quite probable in the 1850s when the Innes was absent in Newcastle he had overall supervision of the Major's affairs at Port Macquarie so could well have employed Michael Simon on the Major's behalf and engaged him at the same time as the Rosenbaums.
       It is possible Rev. Thomas Hassall, whose home property "Denbigh" and parish church were at Camden, and who employed Margaretha's sister Anna Maria (Mary Ann) and her husband Anton (Andrew) Senz at Parramatta ¹⁷ where he had a house and orchard opposite the original site of "The King's School" where his son James became a boarder at Easter in the year it first opened, could have found work for Michael with Major Innes at Port Macquarie. Although Rev. Hassall left Port Macquarie before Innes was appointed the Commandant of the penal settlement there in November 1826 he and Innes would have known each other well as after leaving the military Innes was appointed on 16 Jun 1828 as Police Magistrate and Superintendent of Police at Parramatta - a position he filled until April 1830.

Conclusion

        It is possible Michael Simon was employed by Major Innes at Port Macquarie for a period of a year or so after his 19 Sep 1855 arrival in Sydney.

SOURCES:
¹   The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 Jul 1852 - 853 acres at Lake Innes and 640 acres on the Hastings River.
²   NSW Government Gazette of 25 May 1852.
³   The Maitland Mercury of 26 May 1852
⁴  The Sydney Morning Herald,  8 Dec 1852 - "Hanging Rock - It is confidently rumoured Major Innes has sent in his resignation to the government. The diggers unanimously express great regret of his retirement from the Commissionership."
⁵   NSW Government Gazette 29 April 1853 (Charles King appointment). For Innes Newcastle Police Magistrate appointment - see The Maitland Mercury of 7 Jan 1854. p. 4, quoting from the NSW Government Gazette viz. - "His Excellency the Governor General has been pleased to appoint Archibald Clunes Innes, as police magistrate at Newcastle."
⁶   Rogers, Frank (editor) - Port Macquarie : A History to 1850, p. 127.
⁷   Ibid, p.p. 104-105. Also see a book titled 1913 Friday Three Thirteen, in which a a description of Lake Innes is given in a chapter titled "Gem of the Southern Hemisphere".
⁸   Annabella Boswell's Journal, Angus & Robertson, 1981, page 102.
⁹    Port Macquarie Historical Society - Occasional Paper (title to be ascertained)
¹⁰  The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 March 1860 - "TO LET, the RESIDENCE of the late Major innes at Lakes Innes, near Port Macquarie. This well-known and lovely residence will be let fully furnished. Being one of the most beautiful, complete and commodious residences in the colony, no description can give any adequate idea of the advantages and comforts of such a dwelling-house. Parties are requested, therefore, to inspect it, when every facility will be given to them for the purpose. Possession of the house, re-shingled and in good repair, can be given in May. In the meantime application can be made, either personally or by letter, to G. INNES Esq, Port Macquarie.
¹¹ Ibid, 6 Apr 1855
¹²  The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 Dec 1854 .
¹³  Ibid, 23 Nov 1853, p. 6.
¹⁴  Ibid,  29 Dec 1855
¹⁵  The Maitland Mercury, 26 Aug 1858
¹⁶  The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 Feb 1860
¹⁷  June 2010 email advice from Dick Adams who research the Berry estate records and found no record of employment of Michael Simon by the Alexander Berry estate.
¹⁸  The Sydney Morning Herald,  24 October 1855 - GERMAN SHEPHERDS and FARM LABOURERS. - A number of the above, single men. expected in the San Francisco, to leave, Hamburg for this port in July, will be open to hire on arrival. Immediate application is necessary, to H. HAMBURGER, German Immigration Office, 10 Lower George-street.
¹⁹  Ibid, 5 Sep. 1857 - FUNERAL OF MAJOR INNES. - The inhabitants of Newcastle paid, to-day, the last tribute of respect to Major Innes, late police magistrate for this district, whose recent death was noticed in your obituary. The funeral was attended by almost every one of note in the district, and by many from a distance ; the places of business were closed, and the appearance of the town testified the popular respect entertained towards the deceased. The body was borne to the grave on the shoulders of the constabulary, and the pall was supported by his brother magistrates. Mr. G. Macleay, M.P., and Captain Dumaresq, the late major's brother-in-law, officiating as chief mourners. As the deceased was a very old colonist, and filled a high position in another sphere, in times past, a short notice of his connection with the colony will not be uninteresting. Major Innes arrived in this colony in the year 1821, with his regiment the 3rd Buffs ; when that regiment subsequently proceeded to India he retired from the army, having about that period suffered from a tedious illness, during the progress of which his life was more than once despaired of ; he afterwards became police magistrate of Parramatta, but, resigned that appointment, settled down as a squatter at Port Macquarie. For many years subsequently he was distinguished by the vastness of his operations in pastoral pursuits, and by him many of the most valuable sqattages in the northern districts were first occupied. During his residence at Lake Innes he was distinguished by the princely hospitality which is still widely remembered - all who came within its influence being entertained with a liberality and elegance of style not often equaled in the colony. When that "nipping frost" came which then blighted so many fair prospects in this colony, Major Innes suffered in common with others, and most of his extensive property was made the sacrifice of a panic which spared no one. For the last four years Major Innes has held the appointment of police magistrate at Newcastle, where his kind and obliging manners, and painstaking discharge of his duties, gained him the regard and respect of the citizens. He has latterly suffered from a fatal disease, under which he sank on Saturday last. Major Innes was married in 1829 to Margaret, daughter of the late Alexander Macleay, Esq., formerly Colonial Secretary, and Speaker of the Legislative Council of New South Wales.
²⁰  CSIL 52/2578.
²¹  JRAHS Vol 53 Pt. 3 (1967), p. 213 - Archibald Clunes Innes by Frank O'Grady
²²  New South Wales Government Gazette of 21 Sep 1841 MARRIAGE PORTION GRANTS - Deed dated 23 July 1841. William Sharp Macleay and William Dumaresq, in trust for Mrs Margaret Innes, 1280 acres, Macquarie ; promised to Mrs Margaret Innes.
²³  If Old System titled land, the Torrens System was not introduced until the 1860s, was mortgaged the law was that a first mortgagee was the owner of the land and the mortgagor had no legal interest other an equity of redemption. A mortgage was a conveyance of the title. In respect of posession and sale by a mortgagee of a deceased persons Old System title land upon default a first mortgagee could sell (or beneficially retain without selling) the land as its legal owner but could not do so until the mortgagor’s equity of redemption was extinguished. The extinguishment of the equity of redemption was achieved through a foreclosure suit brought by the mortgagee. In an Old System foreclosure suit the Supreme Court determined the amount the mortgagor owed and gave the mortgagor a period (almost invariably six months) to pay the monies owing in default of which the equity of redemption was deemed extinguished and the first mortgagee became the absolute owner of the land. Whether during his lifetime or after his death any of the Major's Port Macquarie land holdings ever changed ownership by way of that process is not known.