Guide to the Papers of the Brown Family
MS 9645
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2019
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Weir, Alison
- Title
- Papers of the Brown Family
- Date Range
- 2001
- Collection Number
- MS 9645
- Extent
- 0.003 Gigabytes [33 digital files + 5 x 3.5 inch floppy disk(s)]
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Special Collections (Manuscripts)
Introduction
Scope and Contents
Transcripts (digital) created by Alison Weir of various members of the Brown, Hamilton and Hoey families in Australia and Scotland.
Correspondence between James Hoey (husband of Maggie Brown) and the Brown family in Scotland (1829-1899). The correspondence describes life in Melbourne and conditions and daily life on the goldfields at Bendigo and Eaglehawk.
Journal of Andrew Hamilton (husband of Jane), 1852 describing his voyage to Australia on barod the SS Birmingham and his subsequent travel to the gold diggings in Ballarat, Victoria.
Correspondence between Jane Hay Brown who arrived in Australia in 1859 and family and friends.
Hamilton correspondence, discussing church, family and business affairs.
Letters of Robert Hoey.
All correspondence refers to fellow Scots in Australia.
The transcripts were created by Alison Weir in 2001 according to their last modified date. Further information on the original file format is available upon request.
Conditions Governing Access
Available for Research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s)
Preferred Citation
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of the Brown Family, National Library of Australia, MS 9645, [series/file/item number(s)]'.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The digital files were created by and donated to the Library by Alison Weir in August 2002 on five 3.5 inch floppy disk(s). The contents were extracted from the disks to create master preservation and delivery copies. The original transfer disk(s) have been removed from the collection and stored separately. They are not available for access.
Related Materials
The original lettersm of which the files in this collection are transcripts, are now held in the National Library of Scotland.
The original letters were filmed by the Australian Joint Copying Project in 1977-1978, at the private residence of Lady Redcliff-Maud and Mrs A Weir, London, England. Copies are avaiable online: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-743505683/findingaid
Arrangement
Digital files are arranged in five folders, which correspond to the five 3.5 inch floppy disk(s) containing the original files. Files have been maintained in order according the index for each disk.
The Titles of the files correspond to the title on each of the five 3.5 inch floppy disk(s).
The titles of each individual item (from first line of the document itself) have been retained where possible. Where the original title contained too little information, the archivist has applied a title (indicated by the use of square brackets).
Born Digital Content - Access Arrangements
Born-digital content: access to this content is available on-site in the Special Collections Reading Room via the Virtual Reading Room.
Requests to access born-digital material must be made to the Collection Branch at least 5 working days in advance of any visit through theĀ Ask A Librarian Service.
Subjects
Names: Jane Hamilton; Margaret (Maggie) Brown; Brown Family; Andrew Hamilton; Jane Hamilton; James Hoey; Robert Hoey Subjects: Gold Mining (Victoria); Victoria: Social Conditions
Biographical Note
Robert Brown (1795-1847) was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, and trained as a Calvinist minister. He was ordained in 1823 and in the same year became a minister at Crumnock, Ayrshire, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1826 he married Margaret Anderson.
They had four children: Jane Brown (b. 1827), Margaret (Maggie) Brown (b. 1830), Jessie Brown (b. 1833) and James Brown (b. 1835).
After her husband's death in 1847, Margaret Brown moved to a house in Hill Street, Glasgow, where she took in lodgers. Among the first were James Hoey (b. 1832) and his brother, Thomas Hoey.
Maggie Brown became engaged to James Hoey in 1852. News of the Victorian gold rushes led James and Thomas Hoey, their sister Catherine Buckie, and their brothers-in-law John Buckie and Andrew Hamilton, to leave Scotland.
The Hoeys and Buckies sailed on the SS Birmingham, which reached Melbourne in October 1852, and Hamilton, who was a widower, followed two months later on the SS Cleopatra. James and Thomas Hoey went to Ballarat, while the Buckies and Hamilton stayed in Melbourne.
In September 1854, Maggie Brown arrived on the SS Great Britain and in the same month, she married James Hoey. Their son Robert was born in 1855 and in the same year, they moved to Eagle Hawk near Bendigo. Maggie had been in poor health even before she left home and her condition worsened in Australia.
In 1859 Jane Brown decided to join her in Victoria and she sailed to Melbourne on the SS Royal Charter. She arrived in time to see her sister, but three months later Maggie Brown died.
Jane Brown settled in Melbourne and married Andrew Hamilton in 1860. In 1863 they moved to Eagle Hawk, where Jane later opened a school.
James Hoey subsequently married Mary Mortley and they moved to New Zealand, but she died in childbirth. James himself died at Bendigo in 1865, followed by Tom Hoey in 1867 and Andrew Hamilton in 1869.
Jane Hamilton and her two children returned to Scotland in 1870. Her mother Margaret Brown, the recipient of many of the family letters, died in the same year. Jane's son, John Hamilton, eventually became a schoolteacher. Jane Hamilton died in 1895.
Item Descriptions
Series 1. Transcripts of correspondence of the Hoey and Brown Families (prepared by Alison Weir)
Australia One (File 1) - Digital-Carriers-Box 35
[Index of correspondence transcripts prepared by Alison Weir], 2002 (Item 1)
Original file name: List_Australia_One
Hoey brothers before Maggie Arrives 1852-1854 [Transcript] (Item 2)
Transcripts of Correspondence of Hoey family.
Includes Journal of James Harvey Hoey, 1848. The Journal describes the journey from Great Britain to Australia and to Ballarat, Victoria Australia.
Original file name: Hoey_Bros_Alone_in_OZ
Subjects:
Catherine Hoey Buckie; Hugh Moodie (Cumnock); James Anderson Brown; James Harvey Hoey; Jane Hay Brown Jane Hay Brown; Jane Stewart Frew; Jessie Anderson Brown; Jessie Brown; John Buckie Maggie Brown Margaret Anderson Brown; Margaret Brown Hoey; Rev William Hutton; Robert Brown Hoey; Thomas Hoey; William Stewart Places: Ballarat, Australia; Bendigo, Australia; Buningyong, Victoria; Collingwood, Australia; Eureka Diggings, Ballarat; 34 Flinders Lane, Melbourne; 29 Bourke Street, West Melbourne; Lonsdale Street, Melbourne; Melbourne, Australia
Maggie [Hoey] goes to Australia, April 1854 - December 1854 [Transcript] (Item 3)
Original file name: New_Maggie_On_GB
Subjects
Names:
People: Archey Wotherspoon; James Anderson Brown; James Harvey Hoey; Jane Hay Brown; Jessie Anderson Brown; Maggie Brown ; Margaret Anderson Brown; Margaret Brown Hoey; Thomas Hoey Places: Collingwood, Melbourne; Gertrude Street, Melbourne; Melbourne, Victoria; Port Phillip, AustraliaMaggie [Hoey] in Melbourne 1855 [Transcript] (Item 4)
Original file name: Maggie_Hoey_1855
Subjects
People: James Brown; James Gemmell; James Harvey Hoey; Jane Hay Brown; Jessie Brown; John Russell; Margaret A Brown; Margaret Brown Hoey Places: Lonsdale Street, East Melbourne Victoria; Melbourne Australia; Collingwood Australia; Geelong, Victoria; Gertrude Street, Collingwood Victoria
Maggie [Hoey] has one child and is soon pregnant again, 1856 [Transcript] (Item 5)
Original file name: New_OZ_1856
Subjects
People: James Anderson Brown; James Harvey Brown; Jane Hay Brown; Jane Stewart Frew; Jessie Anderson Brown; Margaret A Brown; Margaret Brown Hoey; Thomas Hoey Places: Bendigo, Victoria; Birkensaw Cottage, Dunoon; Flinders Street, Melbourne Victoria; Melbourne, Victoria Subjects: Goldfields: , Victoria
Hoeys / Buckies on the Goldfields 1857 [Transcript] (Item 6)
Original file name: Hoeys_Buckies_1857
Subjects
People: James Anderson Brown; James Harvey Brown; Jane Hay Brown; Jessie Anderson Brown; Margaret A Brown; Margaret Brown Hoey; Maggie Hoey Places: Bendigo Australia; Eagle Hawke Gully, Bendigo; Melbourne Australia Subjects: Goldfields: Victoria
Hoeys / Buckies [Families] on the Goldfields 1858-1859 [Transcript] (Item 7)
Original file name: New_OZ_1858_9
Subjects
People: Catherine Hoey Buckie; Hugh Moodie (Cumnock); James Anderson Brown; James Harvey Hoey; Jane Hay Brown; Jane Stewart Frew; Jessie Anderson Brown; Jessie Brown; Margaret Anderson Brown; Margaret Brown Hoey; Rev William Hutton; Robert Brown Hoey; Tom Hoey; William Stewart Places: Bendigo Victoria; Eagle Hawke, Bendigo
Australia Two (File 2) - Digital-Carriers-Box 35
[Index of correspondence transcripts for Australia Two, prepared by Alison Weir] (Item 1)
Original file name: listaustraliatwo
Jane [Brown] Leaves Liverpool, 1859 [Transcript], (Item 2)
Original file name: JHB_Arrival_On_R.C_1859_60
Subjects
People: E M Russell; James Anderson Brown; James Harvey Hoey; Jane Hay Brown Jessie Brown Stewart; John Gourlay Hoey; Joseph Hiles Wright; Margaret Anderson Brown; Margaret Brown Hoey; Mary Watson; Mrs E Raphael; Selina A Foster Places: St Kilda, Melbourne; Eagle Hawke Gully, Bendigo; Brighton, Melbourne Sale, Victoria Name: SS Royal Charter
[Correspondence between Jane Hay Brown and Andrew Hamilton, 1859-1860], [Transcript] (Item 3)
Original file name: Love_1860
Subjects
People: Andrew Hamilton; Jane Hay Brown; Rev James Brown Places: Brighton, Melbourne; Eagle Hawke Gully, Bendigo; Lugga villa, Brighton; Melbourne, Victoria; 29 Bourke Street, Meblourne
[Australia] to Glasgow, 1860-1861 [Transcript] (Item 4)
Original file name: New_OZ_1860
Subjects
People: Andrew Hamilton; E Raphael; Helen Anderson Stewart; James Anderson Brown; James Harvey Hoey; Jane Hay Brown Jane Hay Hamilton; Jessie Anderson Brown Stewart; Jessie Brown Stewart; Jessie Wright Kate Scott Brown; Maggie Hoey; Margaret Anderson Brown; Rev James Brown; William Davidson; William Stewart Places: Adelaide, South Australia; Eagle Hawke Gully, Bendigo; Lugga Villa, St Kilda; Sale, Victoria; Turakina (North Island), New Zealand Subjects: Marriage; St Mungo Reef Mining Company; SS Royal Charter
[Correspondence of Jane Hoey Hamilton, James Hoey and Helen Stuart, 1861] [Transcript] (Item 5)
Original file name: New_1861_OZ
Australia Three (File 3) - Digital-Carriers-Box 35
[Index of correspondence transcripts for Australia Three, prepared by Alison Weir, 2001] (Item 1)
Original file name: listaustraliathree
[Correspondence of Jane Hamilton, Joseph Thompson to Family], 1865 [Transcript] (Item 2)
Original file name: New_OZ_to_Gla_1865
[Corresponence of Jane Hamilton to Brown Family and William Stewart], 1866 [Transcripts] (Item 3)
Original file name: New_OZ_G_1866
Australia Four (File 4) - Digital-Carriers-Box 35
Original file name: LISTAUSTRALIA_FOUR
[Index of correspondence transcripts for Australia Four, prepared by Alison Weir, 2001] (Item 1)
Original file name: LISTSAUSTRALIA FOUR
Australia Five (File 5) - Digital-Carriers-Box 35
More information on disk. Preserved 9/09/2009.
[Index of correspondence transcripts for Australia Five, prepared by Alison Weir, 2001] (Item 1)
Original file name: LISTs_FOR_AUSTRALIA_FIVE
[Index of correspondence transcripts for Australia Five (1865-1867), prepared by Alison Weir, 2001] (Item 2)
Original file name: List_Home_to_OZ_1865_1866_18
[Glasgow to Australia], 1863-1864 [Transcripts] (Item 3)
[Correspondence to Jane Hamilton from the Brown and Hoey families.
Original file name: New_G_OZ_1863_4
[Glasgow to Australia], 1865-1867 [Transcripts] (Item 4)
Correspondence to Jane Hamilton from Brown, Hoey and Frew families (transcripts).
Original file name: G_OZ_65_67