ARTHUR GRANVILLE ADAM
by Roger Bee
Judging from his life history, Arthur Granville Adam, my grandfather, must have been quite a character. He was born on 11 January 1855 in Gorey parish, Wexford, Ireland, although his father was Scottish. The son of William Adam and Amelia ‘Emily’ Helen ROBERTSON. At various times he was a doctor, veterinarian, seaman, miner, boat shed proprietor, milkman, and market gardener. He visited Sydney as an Able Seaman on the Cairnbulg ex-London 23 Sep 1879 (mariners.records.nsw.gov.au).
He and his first wife, Gertrude Emilie JONES, moved to NSW in 1886 after their marriage in St Georges Parish, Shropshire. A ship’s passenger list for the Barrabool shows a Mr and a Mrs. Adams (sic) in steerage from Melbourne to Sydney on 11 Mar 1886, but I am unable to determine their port of arrival in Australia or their ship.
Arthur Granville ADAM – Photo Ancestry.com
Their children were Gordon Granville born 26 Oct 1886 in Marrickville NSW, Henry Brougham Loch born 21 January 1888 in Balranald NSW, William Wellesley born 20 Dec 1889 in Hay NSW (Arthur became licensee of the One Tree Hotel in Hay, see Hay Standard & Advertiser NSW 2 Apr 1890), and Noel Carroll born in Geraldton 1892 but only lived a few months- he was buried in York. The three surviving boys were baptized in Perth when older when Arthur was prospecting on the goldfields, and they attended Christian Brothers College in Perth.
Arthur is listed in the Postal Directories 1894, 1895, and 1896 as labourer, York, but during and after this time he was prospecting. A fifth baby died with Gertrude at birth in 1895 at Kanowna, She was only 38yrs old and is buried in the Old Kanowna Cemetery, she has no headstone.
Arthur was involved with the QED gold mine (listed as the original prospector of QED and the Garden of Eden, Kanowna, in Those Were The Days by Arthur Reid). QED eventually became the world-renowned Kanowna Belle with success from deep mining.
The Victorian Government Gazette dated 23 Nov 1894, records Patent Application 11739 by Arthur Adam of York, miner, for “an improved rotary pump”, provisional 4 October. The main advantage was it did not have any valves. However, another document dated 2 Sep 1895 has “Abandoned” written on it. Was the pump for dealing with water in mining shafts, or moving the precious liquid to where it was required- we don’t know.
According to his son William Wellesley Adam’s diary, Arthur had a half-million acres cattle station, and a dairy – Mining Homestead Lease MHL 10T known as Black Soak Dairy (Laverton Mercury 11 Mar 1904) comprising 200 acres only- at Laverton WA: MHLs were issued by Mining Wardens at that time (the dairy was about 6km east of Laverton, on Skull Creek, see 1904 census and Postal Directories).
Arthur walked off in 1904 (saying he was going to Mt Margaret to buy some cattle), abandoning his two young sons Gordon and William (the cattle station most likely is incorrect, probably a vision, or a story to get his young sons out there- Landgate has no record of a Crown lease, nor has the State Records Office. Most grazing leases at that time were only 20,000 acres, so half a million??- unlikely).
An Auction Sale advert in the Laverton Mercury 12 Aug 1904 appeared for the mortgagee sale of MHL 10T (Black Soak dairy), the property being purchased by Joe Bott for £180. Gordon Adam continued in the dairy business, working for Joe Bott. Bott sold the farm in March 1907. Interestingly, another MHL “33T (Black Soak)” was recommended as per the “Kalgoorlie Western Argus” 26 Mar 1912, so may have been at the western end of Arthur’s Lease 10T.
When aged 45 he married an Irish girl, Frances Vivian Morrison (sometimes listed as Vivian Frances or Vivian missing an “i”), a servant aged 16, on 5 Dec 1900 at Claremont Western Australia. Postal Directories give Arthur’s address in 1900 as Graylands estate Claremont, in 1901 as Goldsworthy Rd Claremont (stated a boatshed proprietor, trading as Adam & Young: the Daily News dated 14 May 1901 reported he was often drunk, and providing a two-bedroomed hessian home for Frances), in 1902 as Riley Rd Claremont, then 1904 as Laverton, dairy.
William Wellesley Adam doesn’t mention Frances in his diary, although he put her as his mother on his WWI enrolment.
Arthurs notice regarding Frances – Laverton and Beria Mercury 11 March 1904, page 3
Do Not Yield To Despair by explorer Frank Hann, Chapter 12, mentions in 1903 (before the boys were at the Laverton dairy) the camp of Adam and Mrs. Adam, so Frances was living there for a time – Page 140 is not flattering of Arthur, and Page 144 stated Mrs. Adam’s “clearing out from old Adam and could not be found”. Living conditions were rough. Hann named the Adam Range, North East of Laverton, after Arthur, as well as Adam Gnamma Hole in that area.
Frances is shown as a patient of the Laverton District Hospital in July 1903 (Laverton Mercury). Their Black Soak home burnt down on New Year’s Day 1904. Not much is known of Frances until she married Henry Harold Clark in 1918 in Melbourne. She had a son named Frank Adam in 1909, and a daughter, Nancy Clark in 1911, both born in Victoria. She died in 1936 and is buried in the Sale, Victoria, Cemetery.
Arthur is listed as a fruit grower at Forest Range, SA, in a newspaper article dated 27 Apr 1907. He married Edith Mabel de Pury, who was 34 years younger (he was 57yrs old), on 3 Nov 1912 at Norwood, SA (he must have had charm).
Arthur wrote to the Pt Augusta Dispatch, Newcastle, and Flinders Chronicle on 15 Nov1912 regarding typhoid, so had moved to Pt Augusta soon after marrying Edith if not before. He practiced as a veterinarian in Pt Augusta and had a role in procuring and checking horses for the AIF in World War I.
Arthur was nominated as a councilor of the Pt Augusta First Ward in1918 but was not elected. He died of pneumonia on 28 Jun 1920 in Pt Augusta Hospital, leaving a pregnant Edith with six children. Edith died following childbirth a month after Arthur, leaving six orphaned children, one being my mother.
(contributed by Roger Bee)
Note: I wish to acknowledge Laurinda Hill, Tiffany Farlow, and Jim Carter of Laverton, for their assistance in leading me to the name and location of Black Soak dairy. Jim consulted old maps as well as visiting the property several times and taking photos.
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Please forward to Roger Bee:
I note your reference to: “William Adam and Amelia ‘Emily’ Helen ROBERTSON” and I wonder whether you have traced their respective descent and pre-history prior to the birth of Arthur Granville – in 1854: [your ‘1855’ must be, I think, the date of baptism]
I am engaged in a comprehensive study of the Adam and Robertson interconnections (that go back to 1745 and much before); and I have been in extensive conversation and exchange with a descendant of Arthur and Edith de Pury
Critically, do you know that Amelia Helen Robertson (1813-1870) was married first to Richard Swinnerton Dyer (1810-1874), in 1834?; her liaison with Captain Adam began in 1841 who fathered all her eight children, though they only ‘married in 1860’. Richard Dyer made a bigamous marriage in 1855, rectified by divorce from Amelia, and then a correct marriage to Susan Crown in 1860 – but no child by her
Hi Stephen I have forwarded on your message to Roger.