Dolly Dalrymple
Dolly Dalrymple (* 1808 on the Furneaux Archipelago , Tasmania; † December 1, 1864 in Latrobe , Tasmania ) was the first so-called half-caste child (first "half-blood" child) of an Aboriginal mother and a father of British origin who lived in the convict colony Australia was born in Tasmania.
Early life
Dolly Dalrymple's parents were the Tasmanian woman Woretemoeteyenner , daughter of the tribal elder Mannalargenna of the northeastern Tasmanians , and the English seal hunter George Briggs . The parents gave them to doctor Jacob Mountgarrett and his wife Bridget for adoption before their second birthday . The adoptive parents raised her to be Christian, taught her to write and read. They named her Dalrymple after the port of Tamar , Port Dalrymple. The Mountgarrett family left Launceston in the 1820s. When Jacob Mountgarret died, Dolly Dalrymple left this place with Thomas Johnson.
Thomas Johnson was a British convict and therefore could not marry Dolly. He worked as a drover. Dolly Dalrymple had two children with him at the age of 18. They lived in a wretched hut, as George Augustus Robinson reported when he visited them on September 24, 1830.
At the age of 19, Dolly Dalrymple was defending her family from the Aboriginal people who tried to set their hut on fire. For her bravery, the government promised her eight hectares of land after her election, and Thomas was declared a free man. Two months later they were married in Longford .
Marriage and children
Dolly Dalrymple chose Perth in Western Australia to settle on the eight hectares of land she had chosen, but she and her husband had ongoing conflicts there as the population did not accept that an Aboriginal and an ex-convict owned land. Thomas Johnson was accused of theft of wheat and sentenced to seven years in prison. Dolly Dalrymple already had four children and was expecting a fifth. The second child died at the age of nine, and Johnson was not released until 1841 after Dolly had written several petitions to Governor George Arthur . Dolly Dalrymple gave birth to a total of 13 children.
After Johnson was pardoned, they moved from Perth to near Latrobe in Tasmania in 1845. They built a residential building, Sherwood Hall , two hotel buildings and a hall, which they used for church purposes and as a school. They made money selling timber that they exported to South Australia and Victoria . They discovered coal on their property and opened a coal mine.
Descendants as Tasmanians
Dolly Dalrymple gave birth to a total of 13 children and the Tasmanian Aboriginal Center believes that her and the descendants of Fanny Cochrane Smith are the crucial lineage of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people living today.
Web links
- Latrobe Online Access Center
- Ian McFarlane: Dalrymple, Dolly (1808-1864) , p. 94, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplementary Volume, Melbourne University Press, 2005. Australian Dictionary of Biography
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/AS10118b.htm Data from Australian Dictionary of Biography, accessed July 16, 2009
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dalrymple, Dolly |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | first "half-blood child" of a Tasmanian woman and an Englishman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1808 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Furneaux Group , Tasmania |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 1, 1864 |
| Place of death | Latrobe , Tasmania |