cont...Part 4 The Harris family of Derbyshire – pioneers of the Swan Valley, Western Australia from 1833.
Thomas Newte Yule in 1825 became an Army Cadet, then and Ensign and then resigned in 1830 from his Commission in India.
In 1836, a syndicate of three British Army Officers, Houghton, Lowie and Thomas Newte Yule (who had been serving together in India) purchased the northern half of Swan location II to grow wine grapes in the fledgling Swan Valley. The syndicate named the property Houghton after the senior ranking officer of their group, Lieutenant Colonel Richmond Houghton. The syndicate named the property Houghton after the senior ranking officer of their group, Lieutenant Colonel Richmond Houghton.
Houghton did not come to Western Australia and for 23 years the property was managed and developed by Thomas Newte Yule until he sold it in 1859. Dr John Ferguson purchased the Houghton property for the sum of £350. That year it produced the first commercial vintage of 25 gallons of wine from the vineyard which has gone on to be one of the great success stories of the Australian wine industry.
Thomas Newte Yule- The Battye Library WA holds the original of this portrait.
In addition to being Resident Magistrate from 1838- 1843, Thomas Yule was appointed an MLC in 1841 and Protector of Natives at York in 1843. Yule settled in Toodyay in 1845 but was burnt out and, in 1851, became Perth Police Magistrate.
He is also known to have accompanied the Gregory brothers in land exploration trips. The Newsletter of Australian place names survey Dec 2005 shows 8 roads, a river, a bridge and a brook named after Thomas Newte Yule.
Thomas Yule had another well reported claim to fame . There was a bit of excitement in 1832 when two early settlers had a misunderstanding . A merchant, George French Johnson and a solicitor William Nairne Clark were in dispute. Thomas Newte Yule delivered a letter to Clark from Johnson challenging him to fight a duel . The time, place and weapons were arranged and it was “pistols at 7am” the following morning on the banks of the Swan River. Yule acted as Johnson’s second. Johnson was mortally wounded and died 24 hours later. The authorities had frowned upon dueling.
A full enquiry was held and Yule among others was committed for trial on a charge of murder. The three who had been charged with murder in the second degree were bailed and a subsequent hearing in front of a grand jury downgraded the charge to manslaughter. The case was sent to a lesser jury for hearing. “A very respectable jury” was selected , the three men were acquitted (including Clark) and they left the court “surrounded by a crowd of most respectable friends.” It was the only duel fought between “whites” in the State.
The two pistols said to be used in the historic dual are in the Police Museum in Perth
With this interesting early background it is surprising that Yule became the first Resident Magistrate of the Swan Valley District from 1838 -1843. A display at the Guildford Courthouse and Goal Museum tells his history. The police lockup of two cells (centre) was designed by Henry Trigg and built in 1841 by John Webourne. These buildings are now run by the Swan Guildford Historical Society. Pictures are compliments of local resident Jeanette Wood.
Guildford Court House and Old Guildford Police Lock up and Cells
Yule had been dabbling in growing wine grapes for his own enjoyment. Yule being ex Army was a good friend of Joshua Gregory, the retired Soldier who had brought his wife and 5 boys to Australia. The younger Harris children were all childhood friends of the Gregory Explorers.
Young motherless John Yule was known to “ have grown up on a vineyard”, a great Australian claim to fame. No doubt he was playing alongside his Uncle Herbert who was 4 years older and other pioneer children such as the younger Gregory children who lived in the district. Wendy Birman who wrote an account of the early years of the Gregorys in Swan Valley in “Gregory of Rainworth” tells of the children playing an alternative game of cowboys and Indians. The children copied the hunting methods of the local aboriginal children and played with spears and tools adopting aboriginal hunting stances and techniques as they played in the fields and pastures.
In 1841 Elizabeth Yule from Thomas' first marriage joined her father in the Colony. "she led a quiet but useful life int he early days being full of the hardships common to all the old pioneers." She married Thomas Sampson and lived on a station in Geraldton and later at Fremantle. She had one adpoted daughter and died in 1909 aged 83.
Two years after the Harris women and his son had returned to England Thomas Yule retired to England also around 1862. When he returned to England he probably lived in Plymouth, Devon for a time. He died in King Street, Milbrook, in the parish of St. Germans, Cornwall, on the 13 November 1868. It’s a small village on the English Chanel, across the Tarmar River from Plymouth, Devon. His death certificate gives his occupation as landed proprietor. His effects were administered by his son John and brother Charles. Probate was said to be under £450.
Today the Houghtons Winery still stands. Australian’s love its signature Houghtons White Burgundy. The label bears the Black Swans of the region.
Historic picture captures Houghton Winery in its earliest days.
Young John Strelley Carslake Yule followed in the footsteps of his Grandfather, Uncle and other Strelley relatives by studying medicine. He appears in the 1861 English census visiting with his aunts and grandmother as a medical student in Hammersmith aged 22. Yule studied at Manchester Royal School of Medicine and King's College, London. He qualified in 1867 and was in general practice in Bury, Lancashire.
By 1871 he was in a medical practice with his Uncle Herbert in Bury, Lancashire. The Inquirer and Commercial News- WA 24/9/1873 announces his wedding at the parish church Eastwood ,Nottingham to Ida Eliza Stafford whose father was also a surgeon from Sierra Leone.
He continued as a surgeon and medical practitioner in Bury. However sometime after 1881 he retired and moved to Fernlea , Grantham Rd Worthing where he died in 1886 aged 47. Ida Stafford remarried in 1891. His final effects were £600.
1881 census for John Strelley Carslake Yule and his wife Ida
John Strelley Carslake Yule Source: Richard Kuchnowski
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