A well accomplished man
Today's blog has a segway to
a few other organisations and events; The State Library, The Friends of
Rookwood and the National Trust but more of that later...
The essence of this blog is
that having convict ancestors in the family is something to be proud of. They
were sent out to a penal colony 16,000 kilometres away from the
"mother" country to basically fend for themselves and those that
survived due to their intestinal fortitude should be celebrated as many of us
would not be here without them.
Let me introduce an
individual, the son of a convict, who did very well.
JOSHUA FREY JOSEPHSON -
Musician, Solicitor, Judge, Businessman
Joshua was born in February
1815 in Hamburg Germany, the eldest son of Jacob Josephson and his wife, Emma.
Jacob was transported to Sydney in May 1818 on the Neptune and sentenced to 14
years for having fake £1 notes and stolen goods in his possession. In 1820
Jacob received a conditional pardon from Governor Macquarie and was soon joined
in the colony by his wife and young family.
Jacob tried his hand at
business but started out badly. He was sentenced in 1826 to the debtors' jail
in Sydney and was defended by a young solicitor, William Charles Wentworth (yes
that one!), who eventually secured his release and managed to collect debts
owed to him. After this sobering event Jacob gradually amassed a considerable
fortune mainly via real estate investments, including the purchase of Enmore
House which had been built in 1835 and designed by John Verge. He even
purchased some of Wentworth's own estate at Petersham, giving it the name
Lewisham, no doubt a "nod" to the London suburb.
Joshua, his eldest son, became
an accomplished pianist, flautist and singer and was teaching music and performing
in concerts at the Theatre Royal by 1834. In December 1838, he married Louisa
Jane, one of his pupils. Joshua was admitted as a solicitor in February 1844
and to the NSW Bar in June 1855. He was appointed Mayor of Sydney in 1848, the
first man born of the Jewish faith to have occupied that position.
Joshua and his brothers
Isaac and Manuel invested in real estate, developing the railway suburbs west
of Sydney to Concord and Strathfield, a shrewd move. He also invested in
pastoral ventures in the regional areas of NSW.
In February 1856, Joshua
took his young family back to England on a grand tour of Europe. He was called
to the British bar on 30th April 1859 and briefly practiced as a barrister.
The family returned to
Sydney in September 1861 and Joshua was appointed New South Wales Land Titles
Commissioner in 1864. His wife Louisa died in 1863, one day after the birth of
their fifteenth child (!) and in April 1868 he married Katerina Frederica
Schiller with whom he was to have three more children.
Upon his father's death in
1845, Joshua Josephson inherited Enmore House; with his wealth and land he was
known as the "squire" of Newtown but failed to gain a seat on the
Newtown Council in 1863.
Josephson was elected to the
NSW Legislative Assembly as the representative for Braidwood and served from December
1864 to September 1869. He was Solicitor-General from 1868, but resigned in
September 1869 when he was appointed a District Court judge and chairman of
Quarter Sessions for the Western District.
In the 1860s Josephson was
the Director of the Australian Joint Stock Bank amongst other organisations. He
collected Italian art and sculpture, some of which was donated to the Art
Gallery of New South Wales upon his death including the sculpture by John
Gibson "Hunter and Dog". He was also President of the Newtown School
of Arts.
Josephson resigned in 1884
but later became a partner in the wool broking firm FL Barker & Company.
Enmore House was sold and demolished in 1883 and Josephson built St Killian's,
Bellevue Hill, which later became Aspinall House, Scots College.
His wife Katerina died in
1884 and he married his third wife, Elizabeth Geraldine Brenan, at Springwood
in 1891 at the age of 76. His bride was some 30 years younger than him and
there was no issue from this union. He died at Woollahra on 26th January 1892,
survived by four sons and eight daughters from his first marriage, and a
daughter from his second marriage. He was buried in the Anglican section of
Rookwood Cemetery with Katerina, the family having converted from Judaism prior
to arriving in Australia.
His brother Manuel Francis
Josephson is buried in a vault nearby, the area recently cleaned up by the
Helping Hands Gardening Group and predeceased Joshua by some 11 years. Manuel's
wife Frederica Mary nee Millar was the daughter of Henry Ludwig Miller, a
convict who was transported to Australia in 1831 for stealing silverware but
did well in his new country. Her parents and other family members are buried in
the vault next to hers and Manuel's.
The first segway is that
Frederica was good with a needle and thread and a few years ago she was one of
the woman colonists featured in a National Trust exhibition at Old Government
House in Parramatta. An example of her work, a star and diamond patchwork
quilt, recently conserved was on display. It is believed that it was made whilst
she and Manuel resided in Riverview Cottage in Longueville from 1853 to 1873.
It was a sandstone cottage with a verandah overlooking a garden designed by
Frederica. The cottage was demolished in the 1930's and the area is now part of
St Ignatius College.
The second segway relates to
the new exhibition at the State Library of the original works of Charles Rodius
which includes watercolours, drawings from the library's archive and private
collections and is the first retrospective of his work. Charles was a convict
and sentenced to transportation to Sydney in 1829 for stealing a lady’s
handbag. He worked for the Colonial Architects Office and did many sketches of
Sydney Harbour township at the time. After receiving his ticket of leave in
1832 he resumed his portraiture and teaching work. His sitters came from all walks
of life and besides sketching Joshua Josephson, his works included indigenous
people such as Bungaree. He also sketched some people who call Rookwood “home” the likes of William Bland and Reverend
John Dunmore Lang to name a few.
The final segway is that the
Friends of Rookwood are conducting a new Jewish tour this Sunday 2nd July
departing at 10am from outside the St Michael's Chapel on Necropolis Drive. It
will run for 2.5 hours and tickets need to be booked via Eventbrite. Check the
Friends of Rookwood website for more information. I will be attending this one!
I have utilised
Ancestry.com., the State Library archive, Art Gallery collections, numerous Google searches, the Art Almanac and the
National Trust website as references for this blog today.
If you have any comments,
please feel free to add them below or at the Group Facebook page which can be
found at
rookwoodcemeterydiscoveries
or send me a personal
message via my email address.
lorainepunch@gmail.com
Until next week!
Wow thank you so much for posting about the Josephson family! My great Grandmother was housemate for two wealthy families at Burwood- Manuel and Frederica Josephson lived in a beautiful home in Burwood named “Moilena” and the Holdsworth Family lived nearby in a home named Coombes. The Josephsons had 2 young daughters Rica and Amy ( Elza), I have quite a few postcards that Elsa sent to my great grandmother when she would go back home to Casino for her holidays. Elza married a wealthy landholder named “Storey”, she was an author and an artist, she sounded like a fascinating woman
ReplyDeletewow - great memories of your great grandmother there. The Josephson family are fascinating!
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