This is the 5th and final post about James Davis’ incredible life. The first three (83 to 85) described his early years in Scotland, his “transportation” to the colony of New South Wales, his transfer to the notorious Morton Bay Penal Settlement, and finally, his escape from there and his 13 years of living with First Nations people.
In Post 86 we met Andrew Petrie and David Bracewell, the men who found James and who returned with him to the Morton Bay Settlement, which had been closed, as a prison, 3 years earlier. James worked as a blacksmith for the police there, and, in 1844, he was recommended for a “ticket of leave”, which gave him the freedom to work elsewhere.
James Davis and David Bracewell, who had also been an escaped convict, had next entered the service of Stephen Simpson, the new “Commissioner for Crown lands”. Simpson was an Englishman who had arrived in Moreton Bay in 1840. Prior to his arrival, he had studied medicine in Edinburgh and, in 1842, when free settlers were allowed to enter the district, he had become the area’s Land Commissioner. He also became a Justice of the Peace and a police magistrate, and he was the person responsible for establishing a police station south-west of Brisbane in 1843.
Simpson had a lot of power. He and his police officers took part in the “Battle of One Tree Hill”, which was a significant conflict between squatters wanting to occupy new land and men of the Jagera clans and other mountain tribes. Simpson organised a major campaign against these Aboriginal people, helped by settlers, soldiers and police. Many of the Jagera people were killed or chased away from their land.
I have not been able to find any evidence of James having taken part in Simpson’s campaigns against the Jagera clans, but he and Bracewell worked for Simpson and were employed by him in “scrubcutting” in Goodna, about 25km south-west of Brisbane. While working there Bracewell was killed by a falling tree.
Records show that James played a role in a survey party involved in establishing a road to Gympie. He was also mentioned as having headed a search party, which was sent out to establish if a story about four people having been murdered, or detained by a tribe further north, was true. He returned after some time, being satisfied that it was not.
In 1846, four years after having left his Aboriginal partner and his son in their camp on the Mary River, James married a woman named Annie Shea (“Ann”). He was 39 years old, and Ann was 31. Their marriage was to last for 37 years, however, I am not aware of them having had any children.
In 1848, James was sent to Sydney, to accompany two Aboriginal people who were to give evidence in the “Kangaroo Point murder trial”. This was a murder which had received a great deal of publicity at the time, and which became the subject of further investigations, and even some books, because it was believed that the wrong man had been convicted and executed. Interestingly, when looking this up, I found that this murder was not the only one in Kangaroo Point which hit the headlines. In 2015 there was another sensational murder, which was widely reported in the media.
After leaving Simpson’s employment, James began working as a self-employed blacksmith. He opened a “Ferrier’s” shop at Kangaroo Point, which he sold a few years later, and then opened a second shop in George Street, where he worked until 1864. By then he was in his late fifties and was probably looking for a less physically demanding occupation. This time, he set up something entirely different, but in the same street, a “crockery” shop!
By the time James opened his crockery shop in 1864, Brisbane had grown to be a very busy town. Five years earlier, Queensland had officially become a separate British colony, and, within just a few more years, nearly 25,000 additional settlers had entered this new colony, attracted by a “land-order system” which made it easier for them to acquire property.
James is also reported to have worked as an interpreter for Aboriginal people. I think that he must have been dissatisfied with his remuneration for this, because, in 1866, he apparently petitioned the governor, unsuccessfully, to raise his salary to the standards of other interpreters.
James’ wife, Ann, died in April 1883. She was 68 years old, and she and James had been married for 37 years. At the time of her death, James was still working in his crockery shop. I did find some records which suggest that James did remarry on 28 July 1883, but this seems very soon after Ann’s death, so it may or may not be correct. I have not been able to verify this time frame. He married an Irish-born widow, Bridget Hayes, who was 49 years old, 25 years younger than James and they lived together until his death in 1889.
James had retired a few months before his death. He was 81 years old and ill, suffering from heart and lung disease. By all accounts, his final days were tragic. Neighbours had reported that they had seen Bridget assaulting James by bumping his head on the floor. According to their accounts, she was drunk, and they had pulled her away from James and had carried him to the house of his landlord. His doctor was called, and he had confirmed that James’ injuries were the result of a violent assault. A police constable had come to the house the following day and had found James in a weak state, with his bed sheets covered in blood. He died on 6 May 1889.
Bridget was arrested and charged with manslaughter. Her court case started on 6 June. “Bridget was incoherent and half-conscious during the hearing, and the case was adjourned”. The case was continued on 21 June, when the neighbours and the landlord gave evidence and James’ doctor provided medical testimony. The post-mortem discovered that James’ heart, lungs, liver and kidneys were excessively diseased and that his injuries had accelerated his death. However, Bridget was found ”not guilty” by the Chief Justice and was discharged from prison on 24 August.
James was buried in Toowong Cemetery, where his first wife, Annie Shea, was buried as well. The inscription on the gravestone reads:
Sacred to the Memory of
ANN
beloved wife of
JAMES DAVIS
who died April 28th 1883 aged 68 years.
Rest in Peace.
Also to the memory of
JAMES DAVIS
native of Glasgow, who died 6th May, 1889 aged 81 years.
James died leaving property, valued at £10,000, nearly the whole of it being bequeathed in his will to a maiden lady, a native of Brisbane, “who had been a constant friend”. He also left a sum of £750, and later, in 1911, another £1100 to the Brisbane General Hospital, and £800 to the Catholic Church.
James’ obituary, in the Brisbane Courier, read: ″his career included some of the strangest experiences that have ever fallen, perhaps, to any man in this colony, and are on a par with those of the once famous ′Crusoe′ of Victoria″.
Four years after James’ death, in 1893, Swedish-born artist, Oscar Friström, completed a painting of him, titled “Duramboi”.
Eight years after his death, in 1897, the “Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act” was passed, authorising the removal of Aboriginal people to reserves. These powers of removal continued until 1971, when the Act was amended.
O.P.
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