Melbourne 1852
The first rushes had emptied Melbourne, but so many disillusioned diggers had now returned that the city was overcrowded, and lodgings were impossible to find. A stay in Melbourne was necessary to buy provisions, enquire about the best places to dig, and arrange transport.
The Hodgettses pitched their tents at 5s a week in “Canvas Town”, a tent city that sprang up that year near Princes Bridge and accommodated 7000 people despite having no clean water or sanitation. The shipmates took turns to keep watch each night and it was a Hungarian colonel on duty when he saw a man listening at the tent belonging to either Thomas or William Hodgetts. The Colonel, suspecting an imminent robbery:
“… silently sidled up to [the suspect] unperceived and, presenting his pistol at his head, he proceeded to exclaim in broken English ‘what will you, what will you’. The man thoroughly surprised tumbled neck over heels over the ropes of the tent. The colonel loudly called out for his friend ‘Williams’ when they all rushed out of the tent in dishabille forgetting the ropes, they every one tumbled over the cords of the tent and lay sprawling upon the ground in the drollest possible confusion. In the mean time the man escaped.”
Early Years
During this early goldrush period, the Victorian population was highly mobile. Miners were at multiple goldfields each year and most visited Melbourne periodically. And, of course, new miners arrived daily while others sailed home. This constant movement makes our group difficult to pin down initially.
Life on the diggings was hard, some spent years there, some only months, and some opted for town life or lodged their wives there while they went to the diggings.
We know that Joe went to the Ballarat diggings with Edward Towle’s party and quickly relocated to Creswick. Unused to manual labour and rough living, the dream of easy riches soon tarnished. They found only enough gold to cover their expenses, argued bitterly, and the inseperable friends parted after only a month.
From Towle’s diary, we can be sure William and Thomas were not in Joe’s party but their whereabouts are unknown. The most promising fields at the time were Ballarat, Creswick and Beechworth.
A party of 12 Polish officers from the SS Great Britain formed two digging parties—one to Ballarat and one to Creswick. By Easter 1853, both had regrouped with other miners and Joseph joined the Creswick party. William may have been with the other group which included Lieutenant Cazimir Bielanski. While there is no direct evidence of this, he would later receive a letter from a Cazimir and name a son “Frederick Cazimir Hodgetts”.
It is also possible William and Maria remained in town. Two Bourke Street traders—Sartain and Pearson—were opening a second store at Hawthorn. Running this store would provide William and Maria with accommodation near town, avoid the hardships of the goldfields, and be consistent with their later activities. The first direct evidence of William in Victoria connects him to Sartain and Pearson when he used their city address in September 1853 in advertising for “constant employment for two staunch horses and box-carts.” It is unclear whether William had worked for them or simply knew them, but he was now going into business himself. Perhaps initially he and one of his brothers carted goods to the goldfields, but another opportunity beckoned.
Storekeeping
At the end of 1853, at least two of them ran a store on the Bendigo diggings. One of them impulsively went to the Jim Crow (Daylesford) diggings with the SS Great Britain‘s polish officers. It seems likely this was Joseph.
The first alluvial rush at Bendigo had finished and a lack of water caused miners to drift away to fresh sites the following year. One popular rush was to Tarrangower (Maldon) where Hodgetts Brothers store operated opposite the government camp from at least March-October 1854. There are indications they may have intended to settle there as they had two large wagons built locally, Joseph acted as steward at the opening of the hall, and one brother was involved in moves to establish a school. Perhaps this was William whose first child was born that August. Either Maria had remained in Hawthorn, or she went there for the birth; it was she (not William) who registered the birth.
Later that year 30,000 diggers rushed off to Maryborough. The Hodgetts party soon followed but moved on again by mid-1855.
The brothers separated around this time. You can choose to follow William or his brothers (each page has a link to the others)
Sources & Notes
- Canvas Town: John Haynes & J.F. Archibald, “Canvas Town: How Melbourne Solved Its First Great Housing Problem”, The Bulletin, Sydney, 1880 retrieved 29/5/2023; Susan Matthews, Canvas Town: ‘a floating city, devoured by the sun’, SLV, 31/3/2021, retrieved 29/5/2023; Robyn Annear, Nothing but Gold: The Diggers of 1852, 1999,p43-4.
- Early Days: We know Joe was with Towle but the Thomas, William and Maria were not because:
- Towle’s letters speak of Joe.
- Joe but not William and Thomas were listed in Towle’s party of six to the diggings: Williams, Attrill, ‘the Colonel’, an unnamed Scot, Joseph Hodgetts, and Edward Towle (Ben Towle decided to stay in Geelong instead of going to the diggings).
- Towle walked from Ballarat to Geelong for medical treatment in early December. If William Hodgetts was with his party, this would have been unnecessary.
- Hawthorn: William Booth Hodgetts birthplace (Vic Reg 3515/1854) “Callitany” and address as “Callinty”. This was an old squatting run (variously spelt “Callatini and “Callatine”) near the present Callantina Road which was broken up and sold between 1851-1853.
- Sartain and Pearson:
- “WANTED, constant Employment for two staunch Horses and Box-carts ; address W. Hodgetts, at Messrs. Bargain and Pearson’s, Great Bourke-street.” Advertising, Argus 13 Sep 1853, p1.
- Victorian Government Gazette 6/1/1854, 25/7/1854, 28/9/1855.
- Trove list of articles: Sartain & Pearson.
- Polish Officers:
- Seweryn Korzelinksi (translated by Stanley Robe) Memoirs of Gold-Digging in Australia, 1979: ‘With the end of 1853 decided to move to the Jim Crow fields [Daylesford]… We walked toward MacIvor [east of Heathcote] along the Bendigo Road and arrived at Bendigo on the second day. We considered trying out luck there, but the hot season dried up the water so much that there was none for washing the stuff and even drinking water was scarce. We stopped for two days to attend to some business and I talked to Hodget who, after parting company with his Polish mates, had opened a shop in Bendigo with his brother. Merchants are always well-informed about new diggings and conditions because it is in their interest to move to places where there is no competition and trading is good. They glean information from their varying customers. Hodget knew about two favourable spots, Mount Malaga and Jim Crow. We knew that some Polish miners worked at Jim Crow and and therefore tended to favour it… We left Bendigo in the morning and pulled up at noon for a rest. Before we were ready to move off again Hodget and a young American doctor came along. Both of them, in their shirt sleeves, had decided to surprise us and have a cup of tea with us. We were a jolly company and time went quickly. When we were eventually due to move off and say goodbye, one of my companions said in a joke “Come with us to Jim Crow.” “All right”, replied our guests without hesitation and joined us. Only after we had covered a few miles did they realize they had said nothing in Bendigo about their intentions and theat they had nothing warm for the night. We soon fitted them out with warm woollen shirts and blankets, but a for a few days the search for our eccentric friends went on in Bendigo.’
- Lech Paszkowski, Poles in Australia and Oceania, 1790-1940, p204.
- Unclaimed letters list Ararat Express 24/3/1859 includes one for ‘Cassimir & Co for Wm Hodgetts’ (from the newspaper file of Phil Waring).
- Hodgetts Bros:
- Korzelinksi as above.
- Criminal Trial Briefs, VPRS 30/P0029, 2-27-13 (Joseph Hodgetts, storekeeper of Tarrangower gave evidence in a horse-stealing case. He said he saw defendants riding up and down outside his Tarrangower store in the last week of March). Note he was misreported as James Hodgetts but the case file has Joseph.
- Joseph Hodgetts, Hodgetts Bros, Tarrangower, opposite the camp Advertising Mount Alexander Mail 20 May 1854, p1
- Mr Hodgetts on committee to start Tarrangower school, Public Meeting, Mount Alexander Mail 24 Jun 1854, p5
- Victorian Government Gazette unclaimed letter Messrs Hodgetts, Maryborough, 1/5/1855 p1085 & 27/7/1855 p1731.
- Maldon & Maryborough Rushes: Cusack, Frank, Bendigo a history, William Heinemann, 1973, p71.
- James Hodgetts:
- Born 1809, the son of a London linen draper, England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, Ancestry.
- Married Elizabeth Pearl 1837 St Martin in the Fields, Westminster, London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935, Ancestry.
- Arrived in Vic Jan 1853 on Countess of Elgin listed as a Scottish 42 yo clerk with wife Elizabeth.
- Feb 1853 in Melbourne.
- Unclaimed property to be sold in Melbourne. Argus 10 May 1854
- March 1855 Elizabeth Hodgetts (known as Portia) sly grogging at Epsom.
- 1856 James, storekeeper in High Street, Bendigo (rates record and electoral roll).
- 1864 applied for beer licence Lower Hunty Advertising Bendigo Advertiser 29 Dec 1864, p3.
- 1866 Sandhurst petty sessions, illegally selling liquor (withdrawn)
- 1869 miner in the Bendigo rates (house and land, Bridge and Baxter Streets rated at £9).
- 1874 (Vic death reg 9072/1874) died aged 65 at Bendigo Benevolent Asylum, newspaper ?runner. Born London. Parents James and Elizabeth. 21 years in the colony.