Guide to the Papers of Reverend Francis Henry Hodgson (as filmed by the AJCP)
M729
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2018
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Hodgson, Francis Henry, Rev
- Title
- Papers of Reverend Francis Henry Hodgson (as filmed by the AJCP)
- Date Range
- 1841 - 1929
- Collection Number
- M729
- Extent
- 5 items
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Australian Joint Copying Project
- Sponsor
- The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020. The National Library of Australia gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the other foundation AJCP partners, the State Library of New South Wales and The National Archives of the UK, and all other organisations which supported the work of the AJCP, the world's most extensive collaborative copying project, operating from 1948 to 1997.
Introduction
Scope and Contents
The main part of the collection is 'Notes on My Life' 23 November 1848-2 July 1924, being detailed recollections of his life and the history of his family. There is also a small journal written in 1860, when he was 12; a newspaper cutting about his brother E.D. Hodgson; a pencil sketch of Head Station, Eton Vale 1841; and a printed map, with manuscript additions, of part of the Balonne and Dawson River basins of south-east Queensland, given by Ludwig Leichhardt to Sir Arthur Hodgson.
Conditions Governing Access
Available for access.
Conditions Governing Use
Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.
Preferred Citation
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example:M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February-23 September 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-987654321)
Archival History
Filmed as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1971. (AJCP reel M729). Original microfilm digitised as part of the NLA AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.
Existence and Location of Originals
Mrs F.E. Spurway; Taunton, Somerset.
Existence and Location of Copies
The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2107080] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.
Finding Aid Note
This finding aid is a revised online version of the original finding aid prepared by the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP), published by the National Library of Australia in 2018. The original AJCP finding aids were unpublished typescripts or photocopies available from libraries that held copies of the original microfilm.
Subjects
Balonne River, Queensland; Clergymen; Darling Downs, Queensland; Dawson River, Queensland; Eton Vale station, Queensland; Genealogy and genealogies; Hodgson, E.D.; Hodgson, Eliza, Lady; Hodgson, Francis H., Rev.; Hodgson, Sir Arthur; Leichhardt, F.W. Ludwig; Maps, plans and charts: Queensland; Painting, drawings and prints: Queensland; Paintings, drawings and prints: Queensland; Queensland
Bibliography
Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry number 226, page 85.
Biographical / Historical
Francis Henry Hodgson (1848-1930) was the son of Sir Arthur Hodgson, a Queensland grazier and politician, and the grandson of Sir James Dowling, the chief justice of New South Wales. He was born in Rickmansworth, England. In 1849 the family returned to Queensland and Hodgson spent his early years at Eton Vale, their sheep station on the Darling Downs. In 1860 he returned to England, where he lived for the rest of his life. His parents joined him in England in 1870.
Hodgson attended a preparatory school at Thorpe Mandeville, near Banbury, and went on to Eton. He was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1871, and was ordained a priest in 1874. He was the vicar of Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire (1878-93), the rural dean of Watford (1884-93), the rector of Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire (1893-99), the rector of Escrick, Yorkshire (1899-1904), the rural dean of North Kineton, Warwickshire (1908-18), and the rector of Clifford Chambers, Warwickshire (1818-26).
In his later years Hodgson lived at Stratford-upon-Avon. He married Mary Horsman Solly in 1881 and they had four children. She died in 1888 and in 1896 Hodgson married Elizabeth Odeyne de Grey. They had one daughter.
In 1925-26 Hodgson and his wife visited Australia and spent a short time in the country where he had lived in his childhood.
Item Descriptions
Diary kept by Francis Hodgson on the sailing ship La Hogue during part of the voyage from Australia to England, 29 January 1860 - 27 March 1860 (File 1)
Hodgson was aged 11 when he wrote this diary and the ship, captained by John Williams, was sailing eastward across the Pacific. In most of the entries he recorded the position of the ship and also referred to sightings of other ships and islands, games, church services, Bible classes, and crossing the antipodes (longitude 180 degrees).
Memoirs, entitled 'Notes on my life', c. 1929 (File 2)
The manuscript, which is about 200 pages in length, is essentially a chronicle of Hodgson's life, written in note form rather than being a polished memoir. The text was written on the right-hand pages of an exercise book, the left-hand page being left empty for additions. Hodgson dealt with his childhood and early life very succinctly, but his later years are covered in much more detail. There are many references to his parents Arthur and Eliza Hodgson, his brothers, and his own family, as well as to numerous friends and acquaintances. In addition to his work in various parishes and dioceses, Hodgson wrote about church affairs generally, his social life and sporting interests, and his travels in Europe.
Hodgson wrote in some detail about his visit to Australia in 1925-26 (pp 109-28). He and his wife left Southampton on a Dutch ship on 17 November 1925 and sailed to Marseilles, Port Said, Colombo, the island of Sabang, Singapore and Batavia. They spent some time touring in Java and then sailed from Surabaya to Brisbane, arriving on 3 January 1926. They stayed on the Darling Downs for 12 days, visited Eton Vale, and met relatives and friends of his parents. They then travelled to Sydney by train, stayed at Camden Park and Medlow Bath in the Blue Mountains, and met local dignitaries such as the judges Sir Adrian Knox and Sir Philip Street. Finally, they sailed round the south coast, making short visits to Melbourne, Kyneton, Adelaide and Perth. They left Australia on 22 February and reached Marseilles on 19 March 1926.
The memoirs contain photographs, but they have not reproduced well.
Newspaper cutting of a letter from Hodgson to the editor, 18 January 1926 (File 3)
Newspaper cutting of a letter from Hodgson to the editor, dated 18 January 1926, concerning his brother E.D. Hodgson (d. 1896) who had managed the Eton Vale estate.