Guide to the Letters of David Watson (as filmed by the AJCP)

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M2065

National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record

Created: 2018

Collection Summary

Creator: Watson, David Matthew
Title: Letters of David Watson (as filmed by the AJCP)
Date Range: 1852 - 1857
Collection Number: M2065
Extent: 1 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

Typescript copies of letters 1852-57 of David Watson to various family members in Scotland. They were written from Leith, London, Plymouth, Melbourne, Forest Creek, Geelong and Sydney. Subjects include: his voyage to Australia; impressions of Melbourne, Sydney and Blue Mountains, Forest Creek and Ballarat diggings; economic conditions in Australia; Union Bank; churches in the colonies; and his travels in Western District of Victoria.

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 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)

Archival History

Material selectively filmed at the private residence of Mrs Agatha Wood, England, as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1987 (AJCP Reels: M2065). Original microfilm digitised as part of the AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.

Some of the letters are extracts only and in other letters some words or phrases have not been transcribed.

Existence and Location of Originals

The private residence of Mrs Agatha Wood, Cambridge, England.

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-vn2296848] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.

Finding-aid Notes

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.

Dates used in this finding aid refer to the date range of the records selected for filming rather than to the date range of the Series or Files.

Subjects

Australia: economic conditions; Ballarat, Victoria; Blue Mountains, New South Wales; Church buildings: Australia; Emigrant voyages; Forest Creek, Victoria; Geelong, Victoria; Gold and goldfields: Victoria; Leith, Scotland; London, England; Melbourne, Victoria; Plymouth, England; Scots in Australia; Union Bank of Australia; Victoria: immigration to; Watson, David; Western District, Victoria

Bibliography

Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 480, p187.

Biographical / Historical

David Matthew Watson (1835-1901), son of Rev. Charles Watson of Burntisland, Scotland. Articled to firm of solicitors at Leith. Watson emigrated to Victoria in 1852, returning to Scotland in 1857. Trained as a paper manufacturer and established a major paper factory at Dundee.

Item Descriptions

Series 1. Typescript copies of letters of David Watson to various members of his family in Scotland (160pp), May 1852 - December 1857

The letters were written at Leith, London, Plymouth, Melbourne, Forest Creek, Geelong and Sydney. They refer inter alia to Watson's resignation from his legal firm; preparations for the voyage to Australia; visit to Plymouth; the voyage, including passengers, drunkeness of crew, 'crossing the Line' festivities, reading, seasickness, articles that should be brought by emigrants; first impressions of Melbourne; prices and rents; difficulties faced by emigrants without capital; appointment as a clerk at the Forest Creek Post Office; Forest Creek diggings; landscape; dust and insects; hardships of living in a tent; preachers; mutual friends; Scottish news; misleading information about Australia given to intending emigrants; appointment as bookkeeper in Banner Newspaper office in Melbourne (Oct. 1853); divisions among Scottish churches in Melbourne; Rev. A. Cairns; appointment as clerk in Union Bank (Jan. 1854); economic conditions in colony; affairs of Union Bank; fund-raising for churches; travels in Western District; Ballarat diggings; a walk from Ballarat to Castlemaine; Crimean War; murder of J. Price (March 1857); departure from Melbourne (Aug. 1857); impressions of Sydney and Blue Mountains.