Jean Alston

Jean Taylor

The Australian Women's Weekly (1932-1982) (about) Wednesday 21 March 1973

Pioneer Family Remembers

Tasmania is rich in pioneering history and descendants of George and Mary Taylor, of Valleyfield, gathered at the family homestead in the midlands to look back on the sorrows and successes of 150 years.

Marguerite Taylor, of St. Johnstone, seated and Cynthia Walch, of Stewarton, in the hall at Valleyfield, built in 1838. The dining room, below, was added in 1938. IF ghosts lingered round the homestead of Tasmania's historic Valleyfield on a recent summer day, they would have merged with a gathering of the Taylor clan that celebrated the 150th anniversary of the arrival of their ancestors. George and Marv Taylor, in Van Die men's Land. All roads led to the long, low, double storey homestead at Epping Forest, in the Tasmanian midlands, where 200 family members, descendants of George and Mary Taylor with their wives or husbands, came to pay tribute to the past and enjoy the present.

Host and hostess were the present owner of Valleyfield. Mr. Robert Reginald (Reg) Taylor, and Mrs. Taylor. Oldest male descendant at the reunion was Mr. Arthur Taylor, 89. of Melbourne. Oldest woman descendant was 90-veai-old Mrs. Keith Gatenby, of Rhodes, Longford. Tasmania. Although of a common ancestor, many had not met before, so all wore nametags.

The Scottish ancestry of the Taylors was emphasised bv a sprig of heather presented to men of the clan by Miss E. Oldrey. of Rokeby, owner of a neighboring properly. The talk that day was of the men and women who made Valleyfield history - the pioneers, the Aborigines, the bushrangers - and sheep, preferably champion merinos, because wherever Taylors gather the talk eventually turns to the industry which they helped to father in Australia.

The story of George and Mary Taylor goes back to September. 1822, when they sold stock and plant at their Balvaird farm on the border of Perthshire and Fifeshire, in Scotland, and with three of their four sons and three of their four daughters, set sail in the 400-ton Princess Charlotte. for distant, little known Van Diemen's Land.

Left behind in Scotland - By - ESTELLE CAMPBELL were the eldest daughter. Isabella, and youngest son, John, who joined the family several years later. The little Princess Charlotte, under commander Joseph Blyth, arrived safely in Hobartown in January. 1823 - a plan of the ship hangs in the hall at Valleyfield today.

The family travelled by bullock dray for their land grant 90 miles north, which George Taylor, then 65. named Valleyfield. Eight hundred acres had been allotted to him. and 700 acres to each of his three sons. Robert. David, and George, aged from 32 to 23. Youngest family member was Jean. 16. When George Taylor arrived at the grant, his first work was to build a small house for his family with dreams of a palatial residence to come. But George lived only five years after he came to Valleyfield, and son Robert inherited that dream.

The homestead that evolved from these beginnings has an interesting history. In those days it was the custom to build stables, coach houses, granaries, and other outbuildings before the "big house." So, with sandstone from a local quarry. Robert built his imposing granary and coach house behind the small home his father had built. The palatial dream house was never erected - the granary became the homestead, added to from time to time. A chimney, now covered with ivy. is all that remains of the first little home, and during the family reunion a church service was held at this spot, in dappled light beneath the trees. Today, the homestead at Valleyfield has a number of interesting features, and bridges the passing of time in a blending of old and new. Downstairs, many solid doors and wide-silled windows open on to a stone veranda with a wide doorway at one end. suggestive of a carriage house before the veranda was added. A comfortable sitting room opens off the large, square hall through a low doorway, which causes the tall Taylor men to stoop as they enter. During renovations an open fireplace was built with original sandstone from beneath the floor. The room is furnished with antiques. A dining-room was added by the present owner in 1938 100 years after Robert built the granary. Beyond this is the modern kitchen, and across the hall Mr.Taylor's study. Tree-studded parklands Upstairs, six bedrooms open off a long, narrow passage. Their windows look out over tree studded parklands. Modern bath rooms have been added. The bedrooms are reached from either of two stairways, one in the hall, the other mounting an external wall.

An unusual sundial mural also gives interest to an outer wall, and tells the morning hours. Another had been planned for afternoon hours, but it was never erected. Behind the house, rich , pastures stretch away to the distant, blue Western Tiers and the Macquarie River mute witnesses of thc adventures at Valleyfield in years gone by. In those early times. George and Mary Taylor, with their family and helpers, were targets for attack by bushranger and Aboriginals. Trees stand sentinel over the old homestead , and gave shade to guests who attended the 150th anniversary celebrations.

A church service was conducted by the Rev. T. Evans at the site of the first homestead at Valley I field. Here, the original . Taylor family fought off I bushrangers. Many escaped convicts wearne bushrangers, forming gangs that roamed the countryside. The Aborigines had suffered cruelly from them and from sealers. To the Aborigines then, every ft'hite man was an enemy.

In 1824, George junior, at 24, was minding sheep when he was attacked by bushrangers led by the notorious Matthew Brady, McCabe, and Crawford. He was held hostage as the gang attacked the homestead. He managed to break free and warn those at Valleyfield, only to be shot in the leg, not, it is said, by a bushranger, but in mistake, by an excited and confused Valleyfield gardener. Was granted 500 acres After a stiff battle with family and servants, during which the daughters of the family loaded muskets for the men. the bushrangers left. One convict was dead, the others escaped. Later, Matthew Brady was captured single-handed by John Batman, the founder of Melbourne, and was hanged. For his bravery in this episode. George was granted 500 acres by Governor Arthur.

Later, young George tried to make friends with the Aborigines, and to learn their customs. His intentions may have been misunder- stood, or it may have been that a strange tribe was in the Valleyfield area, but two years after the attack by bushrangers George was speared to death by Aborigines.

Today, Valleyfield carries 10.000 merino sheep, also fat lambs, and Mr. R. R. Taylor is assisted in running it by his daughters. Mrs. J. Walch and Mrs. B. V. Skerritt. and Mr. Skerritt, his son-in-law. Grandson Hugh Skerritt also helps. All live on neighboring properties.

Other Taylor homesteads in the Tasmanian midlands are known (br their merino studs. David, son of pioneer George, was founder of one of Tasmania's most famous merino studs. Several times Valleyfield topped the world markets, and in 1949 broke the century-old record for wool price at 210 pence a lb., a record which had been held by John Macarthur, of Camden Park (N.S.W.). the founder of the wool industry in Australia.

Mr. R. R. Taylor says this was his '"greatest moment."' In Mr. Taylor's study, hundreds of championship ribbons. trophies. and photographs tell the story of the property's success in the wool world. Perhaps the ghost of a merino ram could be. included among those others who made Valleyfield history.

Members of the original Taylor family to come to Van Diemen s Land. (The name Tasmania was not officially proclaimed until 1855.)

• George ( 1758-1828) and his wife Mary, and their children: Robert (1791-1861) married Margaret Stewart;
• Isabella (1794-1876) married David Hutcheson:
• David (1796-1860) married Nancy Gatenby;
• Christian (1798-1895) married Arthur Buist (a passenger in the Princess Charlotte with the Taylor family):
• George (1800-1826) unmarried, killed by Aborigines;
• John ( 1804-1850) married Jane Todd;
• Mary (1805-1868) married Robert Davidson;
• Jean (1807-1863) married George Alston.

Mrs. J. CALVERT, was in charge of the Visitors' Book. Miss Mary Fisher, of Westbury, signed her name, watched by Mrs. H. C. Edgell, M Canberra.

IN the study decorated with trophies won for champion merinos, Mr. R. R. Taylor, with his daughters, Mrs. B. V. Skerritt, left, and Mrs. J. Walch, and Mrs. J. Calvert, right.

HONORED guests at the reunion were a merino ram and ewe in a specially erected pen under the trees near the homestead.