John Chipper

The first of the Chipper family to enter the pages of Western Australian history is one of this State’s earliest colonists, John Chipper. On 6 June 1829, at the age of 24, John Chipper with his new bride of a few months, Mary (nee Whidby), left West Tarring in Sussex on the chartered ship the Caroline to arrive at the Swan River Colony on 12 October 1829. Ship records inform us that John Chipper was a contracted labourer to the notable graziers and bank merchants, the Thomas Henty family. Thomas Henty’s three sons, James, Stephen and John, chartering the new brig, the Caroline were sent ahead by their father to re-establish the family’s English farming enterprise in Western Australia. Arriving with prized Spanish merinos and with many of their old family employees (including John Chipper), the Henty clan did not stay long in WA as they sought greener pastures than the impoverished soil of the Swan River Colony and left for Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). John and Mary Chipper had eight children -six sons and two daughters. Thomas (1831 -1903), Richard William (1833 – 1888), Stephen James (1835 -1886), Mary Jane Olive (1837 - 1839), George Frederick Whidby (1843 – 1878), Jane Frances (1845-1931), John Charles (1847- 1906), Henry Edward (1849-1850).