https://norfolkislandfirstfleetersandfamilies.blogspot.com
Edward Risby and Ann Gibson
With permission of Max Kemp, author of "Four Founding Felons - Once Punished, Thrice Exiled", I include some extracts from his document.
Edward Risby.
Edward Risby was born into a family
who lived in Uley in the Cotswolds area of Gloucestershire. Uley was rated an
important cottage industry town, with weaving the main occupation of its bread
winners and Edward, probably following his parents, ultimately became a weaver
also. He married Hannah Manning in Horsley, Gloucestershire, in 1779, and by
1784 they had three children.
In 1780 Risby was arrested for “stealing and carrying away by
force of arms … three yards of broad cloth to the value of thirty
shillings and two other pieces of cloth of the value of two shillings … the
goods of John Holborrow and Thomas Maule.[i]” Stealing
should have been enough for him to be sentenced to seven years transportation,
but when he stole ‘by force of arms’ he should surely have been summarily dealt
with. He seems to have escaped punishment then however and, given the standard
of severity of punishment meted out by the justice system at the time, one
wonders why. There is no available record explaining the delay in his
imprisonment.
Any hope or
intention of Risby’s continuing to earn a living as a weaver at home while the
satanic mills of mass cotton and wool production and processing were gearing
up, would have disappeared during the 1780s. In 1783 he was arrested again, presumably because the
law had caught up with him; there is no evidence that new charges were laid. He
was now sentenced at Gloucester Assizes on 24 March 1784, to transportation to
Australia for seven years.
His crime
saw him banished for life by an increasingly desperate government, exiled not
only from his country[ii]
but separated from his wife and three children, including a new-born daughter.
He would see none of them again.
His
next four years would become a struggle against the hell of survival on a
prison hulk, Censor, awaiting
transportation, followed by the First Fleet journey to Australia on the Alexander. The Alexander, the largest of the 11-ship convoy, was the worst managed. Before arriving in Australia Risby would
have to endure eight months on board of neglected and dysfunctional bilges with
repeated accumulations of human excreta, infestation of vermin, the stench of
ill fellow-convicts, of brutality by guards, and awful deaths amongst the
chained and crowded prisoners[iii]..............
Ann Gibson.
On board
the Lady Juliana was 21 years old Ann
Gibson who had been convicted for stealing, not prostitution. She had stolen,
in concert with Sarah Lyon, “ … nine yards of thread lace, value 20 s, the
property of Thomas Hattersley, privily in his shop.” Old Bailey court records suggest that Gibson
was a practised shoplifter, as in her initial trial on 22 February, 1786, she
was interrogated for implication by Lyon as an accessory to Lyon’s theft of the
lace, and was found not guilty. In this instance Gibson had a child with her;
the child (gender not named, but probably her son William) was blamed for
innocently hiding the lace. Lyon was nonetheless found guilty and, lucky thence
to escape transportation, sentenced to whipping and placement in a house of
correction.
On 25
October 1786, Gibson was on trial again, this time with Lydia Levi “ … for
feloniously stealing … one piece of silk containing twelve handkerchiefs, value
48 s, the property of Henry Als.” She was found guilty and sentenced to a house
of correction, while Levy was found not guilty. In both trials the techniques
of shoplifting involved hiding the goods in or under clothing, voluminous for
women at that time, while the accessory distracted the shopkeeper. For reasons
unknown, on 25 June 1788, both Gibson and Lyon had their comparatively light
sentences overturned and they were each sentenced instead to transportation for
seven years. This perhaps begs the question: why or how did they fail to meet
their initial conditions of correction?
After
arriving in Port Jackson, Gibson was transferred to Norfolk Island on Lady Juliana with 114 convict women. On
17 November 1791, while Rev. Richard Johnson was briefly visiting Norfolk
Island, it is assumed – because no marriage records have survived – that Ann
Gibson married Edward Risby in one of Johnson’s marriage rituals for 100 eager
couples. Marriage in the two colonies was officially recognised despite it
being known that many transportees had families back in Britain. Edward and Ann
subsequently had six children on the island and another later in Van Diemen’s
Land; six of them survived: Thomas (b.1792), Hannah, Susannah, Joseph,
Benjamin, Charles (b. Sep. 1804; d. Mar., 1805) – all born on Norfolk Island –
and Edward (b. Jan. 1810), born in Hobart.
Having
settled his apparent dispute with the island’s authorities, Risby joined the
Norfolk Island farming group where on six acres of a 12 acres grant he grew
maize and wheat and raised pigs, eventually becoming a leaseholder. Later he
was in the employ of, and being ‘victualled’ by, the government as a watchman
while still farming a smaller allotment of five acres. In Colleen McCullough’s novel, Morgan’s Run,[i] Ed Risby
is mentioned a few times as a friend of Richard Morgan, also a survivor of the Alexander and a successful Norfolk
Island and subsequent Van Diemen’s Land farmer.
© Copyright, Max Kemp, Mornington Peninsula,
July 2015
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| Edward Risby - Parcel 22, 12 acres. |
Edward & Ann Risby were resettled on Van Diemen's Land, Tasmania on "City of Edinburgh" on 3 September 1808, with 5 of their 7 children, Benjamin, Charles, Joseph, Susannah and Thomas, who married Dinah Morrisby, daughter of James Morrisby and Ann (Lavender) Brooks.
Thomas & Dinah Risby's sons Thomas and Joseph Edward Risby established The Risby Timber Company at Battery Point, Hobart.
Thomas & Dinah Risby's sons Thomas and Joseph Edward Risby established The Risby Timber Company at Battery Point, Hobart.
The Risby Timber Company until its demise in the mid-1990s was one of Australia's oldest family-run firms. Boat builders Thomas and Joseph Risby established a sawmill in Hobart in the mid-1840s. Thomas left, but Joseph had the business on a sound footing when his three sons took control in 1885, trading as Risby Brothers. By 1900 Risbys had ten vessels and their enterprises extended from the south-east to the west, with a depot and mill at Strahan (1897), followed by numerous bush mills in the Derwent Valley. They sold timber and timber-related products, and moved to different sites in Hobart as business expanded, particularly during the do-it-yourself boom of the 1970s. After the main Westerway mill burnt down in 1957, Risbys developed a state-of-the-art sawmill at Austins Ferry. Among numerous timber-based ventures, the company became embroiled in the conservation-forestry confrontation at Farmhouse Creek in 1986. The company closed in 1994.
Further reading: J Dargavel (ed), Sawing, selling and sons, Canberra, 1988; D Brownlow, 'Risby Bros Pty Limited', Honours thesis, UT, 1968; K Pearce, manuscript on the Risby Timber Company and family, AOT. Kim Pearce.
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Brothers, Thomas & Joseph Risby established Risby Bros. Sawmill, Battery Point, Hobart, Tasmania.
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The Risby Clock made for Joseph Edward Risby:
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| Joseph Risby's clock built about 1860s. |
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| Clock face Mechanism by Archibald Gray (Glasgow, Scotland). |
Provenance
The clock case was made for Joseph Edward Risby (1826–89), the founder of Risby Brothers Timber Merchants of Hobart, Tasmania. It passed by inheritance to Joseph Risby’s daughter Florence Johnston (who married Hugh Johnston, 1896, no issue). The clock was then given as a wedding present to the donor’s parents, Florence’s nephew, Jack Risby (1892–1960) and Jean Isabell Johnston (unrelated to Hugh Johnston). It then passed to the donor, Theia Gaffney (nee Risby) who donated it to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in 2006.
History
The case of this clock was made in the 1860s for the Hobart timber merchant, Joseph Risby (1826–89). Risby Brothers Timber Merchants was founded in 1844 and passed through the family until it closed in the early 1990s. It was one of Tasmania’s longest running family-owned businesses.
Though little is known of its maker, the dial of the clock mechanism suggests a date around the early nineteenth century—some 50 years before the case was made. It has a simple, austere design characteristic of Scottish-made clocks, of which the broken arch hood is particularly indicative. It is highly probable that it was based on the original case for the extant Archibald Gray mechanism.
Joseph Risby’s new case was made from Australian red cedar veneered with richly figured bird’s-eye Huon pine and fiddleback Tasmanian blackwood. The contrasting colours and patterns of these woods produces a highly decorative effect in an otherwise very restrained design. As a timber merchant, Joseph Risby had access to timber from both the Huon Valley and the west coast of Tasmania. The finest flitches would have been available to him for making the veneers for this clock case.
Description
Long case clock with a Scottish-made movement and a Tasmanian-made case. Case is made predominantly from Australian red cedar and is veneered with highly figured blackwood and Huon pine. The painted and gilded clock face has Roman numerals for the hours and two smaller dials for seconds and the day-of-the-month. The clock face is framed in a circular cedar moulding set onto a plain, shaped door veneered in highly figured Huon pine. The upper part, or hood, of the clock has a broken-arch dial framed with a projecting cedar moulding set in Huon pine veneered to the front in bird’s-eye Huon pine. The arch is carried on plain pilasters veneered with fiddleback blackwood. Two holes in the top of the upper moulding of the hood suggest missing decorative elements, possibly brass urn finials from the original case.
There is a substantial cavetto moulding at the transition from the hood to the body of the clock case, the front section of which is veneered with highly figured Huon pine. The pendulum door is solid cedar veneered with Huon pine framed by mitred strips of blackwood. There is a substantial cavetto moulding veneered in highly figured Huon pine, again, at the transition to the plinth. The plinth is a simple box structure with a panel of highly figured, book-matched Huon pine veneer framed by mitred strips of fiddleback blackwood. The whole rests on shaped and scrolled, bracket feet in eighteenth-century style.
Statement of Significance
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery seeks to build a comprehensive representation of decorative arts made in Tasmania throughout the colonial period. This includes objects made between 1803 and 1901. While many of these objects are similar to contemporaneous objects made in Britain, they are distinguished by an idiosyncratic inflection derived from the colonial context of their production. The case of the Risby clock exploits the decorative qualities of the Tasmanian timbers, Huon pine and blackwood to great effect. Made for a timber merchant, it would have clearly demonstrated these qualities to visiting cabinet-makers and their customers, as well as to a broader public. The older mechanism and the distinctive design of the case strongly suggest the existence of an earlier case upon which the design of this one was modelled.
Inscriptions
No Inscriptions or marks visible on the clock case. A painted inscription on the clock face reads: ‘ARCH D GRAY / GLASGOW’. Inscribed in white paint on the pendulum bob is: ‘T. GAFFNEY’.
This website was made possible through the generous support of the Gordon Darling Foundation, which provided funds for research, equipment and website design.
© 2009 Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
Descendants of those who arrived with the First Fleet in 1788 with Captain Arthur Phillip. First Fleet Fellowship Victoria Inc
Edward Risby was sentenced at Gloucester to seven years
transportation on 24 March 1784 for theft of three yards of broadcloth and two
other pieces of cloth. After being
sentenced Edward was sent to the Censor Hulk and three years later embarked
aboard Alexander in February 1787. At
Port Jackson Edward worked as a sawyer on Sirius, and later ordered to Norfolk
Island. He married Ann Gibson (Lady
Juliana) and had six children on the Island.
On 17 September 1807 Edward was listed for VDL with a wife and five
children, arriving there by City of Edinburgh.
The family settled on 30 acres at Argyle and another child was
born. Edward’s age was given as 69 when
he died on 6 February 1823, and was buried on the 10th at St David’s Hobart.
6243 Jack Risby
Was my Great Uncle, the younger
brother of my Grandfather. Jack enlisted
in the Australian Imperial Forces on 17 October 1915 at Claremont aged 22 years
and 8 months old. Joined 12 reinforcements
1st Divisional Ammunition Column, 24th Howitzer Brigade as a Gunner Regimental
Number 6243.
Embarked 10 December 1915 to
Egypt via the HMAT Barambah A37. Arrived
Cairo, Alexandria 15 February 1916. JR became part of the reinforcements of the
new 4th Division training in Egypt.
Disembarked at Marseilles France on 13 June1916; sent to front lines
initially in the nursery sector near Armentieres, later on at Pozieres Heights,
Mouquet Farm, and Flers.
Transferred to 10th Field
Artillery Brigade 25 January 1917, 37th field artillery battery. Suffered
pleurisy 29 February 1917, transferred to England via Hospital Ship Formosa
departing Havre until recovered 2 June1917 at Horton County of London Hospital.
Due to his hospitalisation in the UK, JR missed the assault on the Hindenburg
Line and the First Battle of Bullecourt and the Battle of Polygon Wood.
During his convalescence JR went
AWOL for three days and was awarded 7 days confinement to barracks and docked 4
days pay. He returned to France on 10
March 1918 to the Somme region, battles at Hebuterne, Dernancourt and in April
Villers-Bretonneux. JR gassed 31 May1918 by shell gas hospitalised at Rouen and
Trouville till 13 July 1918. Returned to
his battery, promoted Bombardier 13 August 1918. Other 4th Division battles included Hamel,
Amiens, Albert, and Hindenburg Line reaching Bellenglise which is where a
Divisional memorial is located.
Promoted Corporal 22 December
1918. On leave in London from 28
December 1918 till 25 January 1919. Returned to Australia via the transport
Port Denison departing 25 March 1919. Honourably discharged 16 July 1919.
Returning to Hobart and there
married Jean Isobel Johnston and had two daughters. He was 68 when he died on 1 April, 1960. I
recall he wore an old hearing aid which amused me as a boy because he would
answer a phone call and put the receiver on the battery on his chest (wire to
ear).
Service Medals Awarded: Victory
Medal and British War Medal.
My father Jack Lyndon Risby born
3 March 1918 during the World War I was named after his Uncle Jack as
communication from Europe took months by ship.
Jack Lyndon Risby joined the Militia just as his Uncle had done and
served in the Second World War in the Middle East, Greece (where JLR was
wounded). He also served in New Guinea and Borneo. My brother Mark and I are proud of our Great
Uncle Jack and father JL Risby, who died 19 February 1998.
Submitted by Warwick Risby
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| Thomas Risby died 1873 & Diana Risby died 1876 - Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Hobart. |
J.L.Risby (Jack Lyndon Risby) was a Sponsor of the Memorial to the "First Fleeters and Norfolk Islanders" when it was unveiled in 1992 in St David's Park, Hobart, Tasmania.
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| Jack Lyndon Risby (died 1998) was a Sponsor for the Memorial in St David's Park, Hobart to the First Fleeters and Norfolk Islanders who were resettled on Van Diemen's Land 1807-1813. Unveiled 1992. |
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| Edward Risby, wife Ann Gibson and children Benjamin, Charles, Joseph, Susannah and Thomas Risby were resettled to Van Diemen's Land on "City of Edinburgh" on 3 September 1808. |
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