Honourable Alexander Hay

Honourable Alexander Hay (photo: Mount Breckan 2010)

• Birth: Jan 12 1820
• Christening: Jan 30 1820 Queen Anne St. Burgher Associate, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland
• Residence: 1820 Dunfermline, Fifeshire, Scotland
• Father: Peter Hay
• Mother: Susan Thomson
• HAY Alexander arrived in SA 1839-05-16 aboard Planter from London 1838-11-23
• Wife 1: Agnes Kelly
• Children 1: Peter 1846-8; Agnes 1848-9; Margaret 1849-1916 m John Henry Luxmore; Susan 1850-1851; Mary 1852-1891 m William Bower; Agnes 1854-1933 m William Christie Gosse(his second wife's brother) (son Sir James Hay Gosse, dau married Sir Alexander Russell Downer); James 1854-1933 m Alice Stirling; Helen 1858-61
• Wife 2: Agnes Grant Gosse
• Children 2: Gertrude Gosse Hay 1873-1952 m Phillip Gosse; Alexander Gosse Hay 1874-1901; William Gosse Hay Biography1875-1945 m Mary Violet Williams (dau Francis Williams); Helen Gosse Hay 1876-1909

After Agnes Kelly died in August 1870, leaving him with a son and three daughters, Hay became an Anglican. On 13 March 1872 he married Agnes Grant Gosse at Christ Church, North Adelaide. In 1886 he visited Britain and at a royal levee was presented to Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales. He continued to live at his suburban home, Linden, at Beaumont, but in 1879 he built Mount Breckan at Victor Harbor, where he died on 4 February 1898. His second wife and a daughter were drowned in the Waratah off Durban in 1909.

REF: The Hays of Mount Breckan 1879-1909 by Anthony Laube ISBN 0 9592827 0 X

• Biography
• Wikipedia

Alexander Hay worked to help his mother after his fathers death, he was apprenticed to his uncle learning weaving, and later worked in a factory owned by his mothers cousin.

He left Britain on 25th Nov 1838, there was a mutiny on the boat , and they arrived in South Australia on May 15 1839.

He became successful in sheep farming, and Politics, and built the home in Victor Harbour, Mount Brekan.

Occupation

• benefactor (general)
• company director
• farmer
• grazier (unspecified)
• grocer
• hardware merchant
• landowner
• land reformer
• local government councillor
• Member of Lower House
• Member of Upper House
• newspaper owner

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Recollection of the Mt Brackan by Sharyn Proctor (Duthy)

In 1995, the house was for sale for about 1 million dollars, I went to see it, and, was so saddened to see the vandalism. The house had graffiti all throughout, lead light windows were broken, and the grounds were un kept.

The house lay on 12 acres of flattish grounds, on the top of the hill, overlooking the ocean of Victor Harbour. As you walked in, the huge entrance hall, was in proportion to the majestic stairway, that led to his bedroom. I was already in ore of the home, and wanted to buy it, we walked up the stairs, to the bedroom, and, I was filled with, what I can only describe as love. The bay windows, formed a warm facing nook that took advantage of the ocean views. It was somewhere that Alexander would have sat, on a cool winters morning, probably Sunday, reading a paper and enjoying his breakfast, brought to him by a house made.

The Serving wing was in even more ruin, it was long with the corridor, viewing what would have been the outside work and Laundry area.

I climb to the Turret, and, for the first time that I remember, could enjoy a view from a high place without feeling dizzy. I am sure the children would play up there, and, they would watch the ships come in to the small quiet harbour.

We did not buy the home, the community had requested that it not be subdivided, and, we would have had to sell at least a few blocks from the acreage to make the house liveable. My mother sent me this book (The Hays of Mount Breckan by Anthony Laube) as a memento, it mentioned that the house had nearly burnt down at one stage, the fire accidently started by the plumber. It also mentions the Diary of Charles Ormsby, the Ormsby name keeps popping up in much of the South Australian Genealogy. One of the original builders of the house was Joseph Tregoning, and, the authors relative, in fact, four generations of his family had worked at the house.

It was sold, and, all the land was subdivided, and the house made to 7 units. I was saddened to hear this, when it was advertised again for sale, in about 2010 for 5 million starting price.

Still even today, when opening this book, to write here about the house, I feel the love and then the tears, why, I do not know, I fell in love with a house.