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The Howitts: A Tale of Two Mills

By Andrew Hall and Meredith Patterson

May 2016

Not to be quoted, printed or reproduced in part or in its entirety without

full acknowledgement of the authors.

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The Howitts:

A Tale of Two Mills

By Andrew Hall and Meredith Patterson

When Henry married Charlotte at St Bartholomew’s in Norwood, South Australia

on the 26th of April, 1877 the families of Hall and Howitt became linked. The

marriage had all the portents of a prosperous union; Henry a senior partner in

his father’s Norwood aerated waters business, George Hall & Sons, and Charlotte

the daughter of an industrious Kensington baker and storekeeper, Edward

Howitt.

Charlotte grew to be a dominant figure and something of a chatelaine within her

family. She is a significant ancestor so it is appropriate that we take a look at

The Family Howitt, its background and also because it’s a marvellous story.

Charlotte Howitt about the time of her marriage, c1876. Courtesy of the Barbara Dean Collection

In the 1700s there were several Howitt families living in the adjoining English

counties of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Huntingdonshire1. One of these

1 The boundaries of these counties shifted back and forth over the years.

3

families gave rise to Charlotte and another to Alfred Howitt (1830-1909) the

famous Australian explorer, naturalist, pioneer and authority on Aboriginal

culture2. So remarkable were Alfred’s achievements that we hope someday we

might be able, through further research, to establish a link. One can never have

too many famous personages in the family closet, if for nothing else, than to

balance out the skeletons.

The earliest Howitts we can definitely claim as our ancestors are William Howitt

(1747-) and his wife Elizabeth Rogerson (1745-). We know little of them other

than they had at least one son, William, born in 1771 and named for his father

according to the custom of the day.

William Jnr married Elizabeth Tinley on the 17th of November 1801 at Swinderby,

in Lincolnshire soon after her mother’s death. Their marriage record states he

was ‘of Besthorpe’ and she ‘of Morton in Swinderby’.

It is worth at this point diverting briefly to look at the Tinley family because it is

a significant connection. Elizabeth and/or her family must have had wealth,

status, influence or charm because the name, Tinley, was passed down in each

generation up to and including the first generation of Halls (i.e. Frank Tinley

Hall) born in Australia.

Elizabeth Tinley, or Betsy as she was usually known was born in Sutton on Trent

on the 21st of June 1777 and was the fifth of seven children born to John Tinley

(1746-1814) and Mary White (1749-1800).

A member of this Tinley family, Ruth Tinley who, at the time of writing is nearing

90 years of age and still living in Lincoln, has spent the last 60 years researching

her family and writing a comprehensive and detailed book entitled ‘The Tinley-

Glasier Connection’3; for those who are interested in learning more. But we

digress, back to the Howitts.

William and Betsy initially lived in her home village in Swinderby in Lincolnshire

and started a family. They had nine children;

William (the III) (1802-1870),

George (1804-1891),

John (1806-),

Edward (1808-1896)

Mary (1811-),

Sarah (1812-),

Tinley (1815-1898),

Elizabeth/Betsy II (1817-1836) and

2 See for example, Stanner, W,E,H, Howitt, Alfred William (1830–1908)

in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4, (MUP), 1972 3 Tinley, Ruth, The Tinley-Glasier Connection, ISBN 0 9521336 2 8, Lincoln, 1997,

Revised 2009

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Dorothy (1819-).

It appears that in the first few years of their marriage William and Betsy moved

several times. Their first three children were born at Besthorpe, (their father’s

village) at Swinderby, the next at Morton (his mother’s village), Swinderby and

the last four children were christened at Aisthorpe.

By 1828 William Jnr had established himself and had a fair sized house at the

west side of The Strait, Lincoln4. Thirteen years later in the 1841 census he was

recorded as living at 7 The Strait, Lincoln which it is reasonable to assume was

the same house5. William was recorded as being of independent means which

suggests that they had ‘acquired’ some wealth and were ‘comfortable’ but

whence the wealth came we know not.

The Strait, Lincoln, the Lincoln Cathedral in the background.

William and Betsy Howitt’s fourth child, Edward and his wife are the ancestors

responsible for our Australian Howitt heritage.

Edward was born on 12th of September 1808 at Morton, Swinderby. We know

nothing of Edward’s schooling or early life but at some stage he went to school

4 Ibid, p 6 5 Ibid, p 6

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and was trained or more likely apprenticed, as a miller and baker. It may have

been a family trade as many skilled occupations were at that time however we

currently have no evidence of this. His family would not have held an

inconsequential position in their community and were probably well regarded.

For those devotees of Thomas Hardy one has only to reflect on the images he

created in ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ to get a mind’s eye picture of Edward’s

social and occupational environment.

Whatever the source of the family’s means Edward Howitt was recorded as a

miller/baker when he married Charlotte Myers on 22nd of June 1837 in St Peters,

Eastgate, Lincoln.

Charlotte was born on the 26th of April, 1803, the youngest of 12 children, to

Levi Myers (1756-1828) and Mary Sutton (1764-1843) who had been married in

Skendleby, Lincolnshire on the 17th of May 1784.

In the 1841 UK census Edward and Charlotte and two children, Henry and

Caroline, and were recorded as living with his parents William and Betsy in their

“fair sized house”6 in The Strait, Lincoln. Edward was by this time a confectioner

and they all probably lived above the shop.

Edward and Charlotte went on to have five children;

Henry (1838-1922),

Caroline (1839-1866),

Charles (1841-1931),

George Tinley (1844-1844) and

Charlotte II (1845-1944).

Infant mortality in Victorian England was horrendous and in 1844 tragedy struck

and their fourth child, George Tinley died before his first birthday.

Sometime in the 1840s Edward’s parents, William, now in his 70’s, Betsy, their

son Tinley, daughter Dorothy and a servant moved to the parish of Plumstead in

Kent for reasons which will soon become apparent. At the time of the 1851

census they were still in Kent and William was still in receipt of an annuity. His

son’s (Tinley) occupation was given as ‘Instructor’.

Edward, Charlotte and their four children however remained in Lincolnshire

where their fortunes and destiny took a dramatic and far reaching turn.

All the indications are that Edward was an industrious, enterprising man, a bit of

a risk taker with an outgoing personality, keen to make a name for himself and

to provide handsomely for his family.

Edward also needs to be seen through the prism of his times. In the 1840s the

industrial revolution was in full swing in England. The population was exploding

6 Ibid p 6

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creating many more mouths to feed. Cottage industries like milling and baking

were being transformed by the application of machines and steam power. The

scale of business and production was growing past all previous understanding.

Fortunes were being made and empires created. It was in this economic and

business environment that Edward decided to chance his hand.

We are not sure exactly when but in the mid 1840s Edward decided to abandon

the confectionary business and return to his earlier trade of miller and baker.

Possibly with some capital from the sale of the confectionary business and

possibly with some help from his parents but certainly with a significant amount

of borrowed capital he ventured into a new flour mill and baking business. He

went into partnership with three other men, William Dawber, Robert Dawber and

William Harrison, in Lincoln. The firm was known as “Dawber, Howitt and

Harrison”. For Edward who was probably apprenticed in a wind or water

powered flour mill the chance to financially participate in and build a large,

modern, state of the art steam mill and baking business must have been a

dream come true. In his late thirties and possibly feeling that the world was

passing him by it was his chance to make his fortune in this new industrial age.

An opportunity to participate in such a venture must have been thrilling and

close to overwhelming; he ventured deeply.

In September 1845 Edward purchased several properties including dwellings, a

bakehouse and yard in the parish of St Martin. The dwellings were over shops

that fronted on to The Strait. To affect these purchases he arranged mortgages

with Richard Mason (£1,200) and with the Lincoln and Lindsey Banking Company

(£300)7. His Uncle John went security for the £300 from the bank.

Nine months later he used a steam engine, machinery and property as security

to borrow another £400 from Richard Mason to build the steam flour mill.

7 Bromhead and Hebb, Solicitors and Conveyancers. Lincoln, Miscellaneous Deposit

159/3

7

Map of the area (i.e. The Strait & Grantham Street) in Lincoln showing where the flour mill would

have been situated. Courtesy Google Maps

However Dawber, Howitt and Harrison needed another small (149 square yards)

piece of land, the property of Benjamin Carrington, to complete the mill and

bakery complex. For this Carrington extracted £144 from Edward. At this point

one has to wonder what Dawber, Dawber and Harrison were contributing to the

partnership and enterprise.

The flour mill was situated in Grantham Street in the parish of St Martin in the

City of Lincoln. The mill building itself had six floors with grain and flour

elevators between each. The mill was powered by two engines (each 9 horse

power) with two boilers of 20 and 16 horsepower respectively. Four pairs of

French stones 4 feet 4 inches in diameter and a pair of grey stones four feet 1

inch in diameter, ground the grain. There were dressing machines, a corn

screen and all the latest machinery necessary for the business.

At the rear of the Mill were granaries, a yard, stabling, a shed and a warehouse.

The yard backed on to the bakehouse and dwellings above the shops that

opened onto The Strait. One of the shops was an old established Flour Shop

over which Edward, as the baker, and his family resided.

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The project had everything required for a ‘modern’ integrated milling, baking

and retail business. It was quite a complex and altogether a substantial

enterprise but it devoured capital. In March 1847 Edward had to go again to

Richard Mason for more capital, this time for £200.

Lamentably not all went well in fact the business was soon in serious trouble.

Was it tensions between the partners, poor management or did they encounter

difficulties getting all the plant and equipment to function properly? The most

likely explanations are too much debt and an economic ‘slump’ between 1847

and 18528 precisely the time Edward and his partners were trying to bring their

steam mill and bakery into production.

Whatever the cause, the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent on Friday

the 15th of December, 18489. It was however Edward who exited the business

first suggesting that he was the most financially vulnerable and that the

recession and under capitalisation were the main causes of their troubles.

Stamford Mercury, Friday the 15th of December, 1848

The remaining three partners continued as “Dawber and Harrison”; but not for

long. Eighteen months later on Friday the 23rd of August, 1850 the Stamford

Mercury carried an auction notice advising that the Freehold Steam Flour Mill,

recently erected and well built and all of its plant and equipment would be

auctioned at the Lincoln Corn Exchange on the 6th of September. Included in the

sale were the stables, granaries and bakery at the rear of the mill and

significantly for Edward, the adjoining two shops with the dwellings above them.

The auction would mean Edward and Charlotte would lose their home.

8 Thirsk, Joan. English Peasant Farming, 1957. p. 198. Based on a study in Lincolnshire 9 Stamford Mercury, of the same date

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Auction Notice in the Stamford Mercury 23rd of August, 1850

The auction notice declared that “To a person with moderate capital, and of

active habits, an opportunity of engaging in an old-established and

advantageous trade is presented which but seldom occurs.” Although it may

have been a ‘fire sale’ the claim of “moderate capital” seems a little

disingenuous for such a substantial enterprise and group of properties.

Less than six weeks after the partnership was dissolved, on the 26th of January

to be exact, a Fiat of Insolvency was issued against Edward and he was

subsequently declared bankrupt on Saturday the 10th of February, 184910. It

10 Westmoreland Gazette, of the same date

10

must have been a bleak Christmas for the family knowing that Edward’s dreams

lay in tatters and that bankruptcy and disgrace loomed.

Edward’s Proof of Debts and Auditing of Accounts meeting was held at the Town

Hall on the 5th of June, 1850. Two months later his home was sold from

underneath him at the mill auction and in 12 months Edward and his family set

foot in Port Adelaide.

The decision to emigrate must have been heart wrenching; leaving family,

friends and familiar places. We however need to see bankruptcy in the context

of their times. In Victorian England bankruptcy was a major disgrace. People

went to prison for debt in fact at about this time half the prison population in

England were there for debt. The infamous Marshalsea debtors’ prison, so

graphically depicted in Charles Dickens’s ‘Little Dorrit’, had only been closed for

five years at the time of Edward’s insolvency. These were tough times for

debtors.

So it is not surprising that Edward, his wife Charlotte and their four surviving

children, Henry, Caroline, Charles and Charlotte II fled the disgrace and probably

an angry Uncle John, to Australia. And it’s probable that Edward’s parents,

William and Betsy, ‘escaped’ to Kent at about the same time to avoid the

embarrassment of a bankruptcy in the family. Later and probably after William’s

death in 1853, Betsy, Dorothy and their servant moved to Walmer in Kent where

they remained until at least the 1861 census when Betsy was recorded as a

‘Fund Holder’ and Dorothy as ‘unmarried’. We don’t know what happened to

Uncle John.

Dickens himself would have approved of Edward’s decision to start afresh in the

colonies. It was something he often recommended to people who had fallen on

hard times or who had been disgraced in some way. In fact he assisted

members of his own family to ‘relocate’ to Australia. And although Adelaide had

only been established for 15 years it was a logical choice because it was

promoted as a non-convict settlement where ‘capitalists’, as investors were

called by the South Australian Company, were welcome.

The family left England on the ‘Satellite’ out of Liverpool, England in 1851 and

arrived in South Australia on the 27th of September of that year. Unfortunately

we know little of the voyage except that it called at Port Phillip and then

proceeded to Adelaide. It is interesting to note that unless they had

disembarked at Port Phillip there were no other children on board. Of the other

10 passengers that embarked at Liverpool and made the voyage to Adelaide at

least eight were single men presumably emigrating to seek a better future in the

antipodes. The life of one of these young men was destined to become a sad

episode in the Howitt story.

If we know little of their voyage we know nothing of the family’s reaction to

being put ashore at Port Misery, as Adelaide’s port was often called, because

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“nothing in any other part of the world [could] surpass it in everything that is

wretched and inconvenient”11.

Passenger List of Satellite, 1851. Note the incorrect spelling of the Howitt family name and the

mix up between Charlotte and Caroline’s names. Errors such as these in the original passenger

lists or when the names were transcribed from the original hand written lists are common.

By 1851 there was a regular flow of ships back and forth between the UK and

Australia but the voyage was long, always uncomfortable and often dangerous.

It must have been a huge relief to be put ashore at their destination but also a

shock. It would have been interesting to have Edward, Charlotte and their

children’s first reactions. Adelaide was just 15 years old, an outpost on the

other side of the world and by their standards, primitive. Did they think this was

this the biggest blunder yet or did they see the sun rise on an horizon of new

possibilities?

The family must have had some capital because there is no record of them

having been granted assisted passage. They may have had the proceeds from

the sale of a few personal items not caught up in Edward’s bankruptcy

proceedings and it’s probable that his parents and even Uncle John may have

advanced them some money.

The family’s immediate movements after they disembarked are not known. We

do know however that their first recorded home was in High Street in the little

village of Kensington a few miles east of Adelaide. Kensington had been laid out

in 1838, not much more than a year after the proclamation of the Province of

South Australia; it was a small but established village.

11 The Sydney Herald. 7 November 1840. p. 3.

12

Kensington High Street two years before Edward Howitt and his family arrived.

The Congregational Chapel and School, A lithograph by Penman & Co from a sketch by S.T. Gill

1849. Near the corner of Maesbury Street and High Street. State Library of South Australia,

B3713

In 1852 Edward purchased a four roomed house, store, warehouse, yard and

stables on three allotments of land in High Street, Kensington. The store fronted

High Street but the house and other buildings ran along Thornton Street. It was

a big property as evidenced by Edward’s first Council Assessment12 of £75, a

huge amount in those days. By way of comparison a small house would have

been assessed at £5 per annum.

The vendor was a Mr William Blyth. He had been a Magistrate until the end of

May 1852 when the Lieutenant-Governor replaced him due to insolvency. Mr

Blyth’s son later claimed that his father’s financial difficulties arose from the near

panic that gripped Adelaide with the mass exodus of men to the Victorian

goldfields13. Whatever the reason for Mr Blyth’s difficulties they presented a

great opportunity for Edward and his family and in all probability at an attractive

price.

12 Town of Kensington & Norwood, Assessments. 1853 13 South Australian Register, 20th of October, 1871. p. 3

13

House and store of Mr William Blyth, High Street, Kensington. Erected about 1848. Adelaide

Photographic Co. 1910. . Courtesy of the City of Norwood, Payneham & St Peters.

There would have been a good deal of understanding and empathy between the

two men. Both had been store keepers and both had been insolvent. Perhaps it

was out of this understanding or it may have been part of the transaction for Mr

Blyth to stay on as a tenant after the sale was finalised. And there would have

been other advantages for Edward in Mr Blyth remaining as a tenant apart from

the rental income. Having a tenant enabled Edward to devote his energies to

expanding the business. In this Mr Blyth’s local knowledge and contacts would

have, should have, been invaluable.

Edward was back in business. According to the Express and Telegraph14 he

“soon worked up a large business.....among residents of Kensington and

surrounding” areas. Not content however with the scope of the business he had

purchased Edward expanded by adding a new bakehouse to the premises. And

the lure of his old trade beckoned although to be fair he probably saw an

excellent business opportunity. But we have to ask, where was William Blyth’s

local knowledge? Surely he would have been aware of the troubled history of

the Finnissbrook flour mill.

In 1853 Edward leased the Finnissbrook flour mill15 at the entrance to Waterfall

Gully from Mr Boyle Travers Finniss who at the time was the Colonial Secretary,

14 The Express and Telegraph, Adelaide. Friday 28th of February 1896, p. 4 15 South Australian Register, Advertisement, Friday 13th of May 1853, p 3

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and destined to be the first Premier, of the Province of South Australia16; a man

of considerable repute.

Boyle Travers Finniss, Colonial Secretary, and later first Premier, of the Province of South Australia

The watermill had originally been built as a sawmill by Thomas Cain in the late

1830s. Mr. Finniss, who came to South Australia as part of Col. Light’s survey

team, bought it in 1840 for £1,000 and converted it to a flour mill renaming it

‘Finnissbrook’. Unbeknown to Edward unreliable rainfall had made it

unprofitable. Finniss had in fact tried to sell it in 1847 but was unsuccessful and

decided to lease it instead17. Edward obtained from Mr Finniss a 20 year lease

on condition that any improvements he made “to the mill should remain after

the lease expired.”18 The annual rental was set at £50 a year.

With Edward’s expertise and experience the mill immediately turned a profit and

by cutting out the middleman he was able to advertise flour, bran and pollard

through his Kensington store at the lowest prices. But Adelaide’s fickle climate

interposed and a drought ensued with many months without rain. Without rain

no grain could be ground to flour and without flour to be sold there was no

income. The solution seemed obvious.

South Australian Register Tuesday the 19th of July, 1853

16 Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, (MUP) 1966 17Guide to Waterfall Gully, City of Burnside, 2011 18 South Australian Register, Wednesday 12 November, 1856. P. 4

15

In August 1855 Edward “applied to obtain leave to put a steam-engine upon the

premises and for the privilege the rent was increased to £150 per annum”19.

One could be forgiven for thinking that the Colonial Secretary was exploiting the

situation; increased rent and substantial improvements to his property were a

handsome return on his original investment of £1,000. All up Edward invested

£2,413 in improvements but taking into account all other expenses to bring the

mill back into production and wages he estimated that he spent a total of £9,000

on the property. To finance these improvements he mortgaged his Kensington

properties and obtained loans from the South Australian Bank and from several

other individuals including a Mr Bruce who charged 25% interest20.

Much to his family’s despair history repeated itself and a Fiat of Insolvency was

declared against Edward on Friday the 19th of September, 185621. For the

second time in their lives a flour mill and a stream powered mill at that,

threatened to bring them down.

Edward appeared in the Court of Insolvency on Tuesday the 11th of November

1856 to be ‘examined’ before the Commissioner. He provided figures on his

loans, expenditure, profits, losses and holdings. The crux of the problem

however was that Edward had purchased some 3,000 bushels of grain which lay

unground because of the drought. He claimed to have had £100 in pocket

beyond liabilities and was therefore perfectly solvent at the time he setup the

steam mill.

There was a lot of evidence given about how Edward had represented his

financial position but some “creditors looked upon his conduct as being marked

by inexcusable folly and they felt they had a right to complain of his reckless

trading”22.

The commissioner said the insolvent’s examination presented different features

to many that had come before his notice, and, as he understood, it was not

intended to oppose, the insolvent would be allowed to pass his examination.

Edward had passed his examination for criminal intent but he was still insolvent.

Edward’s career as a miller was at an end.

Edward’s insolvency however was not the last brought about by the Finnissbrook

Flour Mill. A Mr R. Satterly claimed in the Insolvency Court on 1st of July 1862

that his difficulties resulted from repair work on the Finnissbrook Flour Mill23.

The properties at Kensington carried two mortgages, one for £300 and another

for £500. On Saturday the 22nd of November 1856 the Adelaide Observer

19 Ibid p. 4 20 Ibid p. 4 21 Op Cit, Friday the 19th of September, 1856, p. 3 22 South Australian Register. 12th of November 1856, p. 4 23 South Australian Register, 1st of July, 1962, p. 2

16

carried the notice of sale24. The following Tuesday the bakery, shop, house,

yard, stables, warehouse and of course the 13½ acres upon which they all stood

went under the hammer.

Notice of Sale, Adelaide Observer, Saturday the 22nd of November 1856

Whether it was by arrangement or good fortune we do not know, but a Mrs

Margaret Graham purchased the properties. Here again Edward displayed his

mercurial skills. He rented all the properties from Mrs Graham enabling the

family to remain at High Street as tenants. And as a consequence Edward kept

his business and retained the considerable and hard won custom and goodwill

that he and his family had developed.

It appears that this was a satisfactory arrangement for all concerned because it

continued for another four years until the tenanted property was sold to Mr

William Ferguson. The change in ownership however was only temporary. A

few months later Mrs Graham again became the owner and remained so with

Edward and family as tenants for the next 16 years.

The store and bakehouse were popular and well patronised and the Howitt family

prospered. As they became old enough Edward and Charlotte’s children,

especially Charles, worked in the shop and bakery. Edward employed a baker,

24 The Adelaide Observer. 22nd of November 1856, p. 3

17

was appointed a postal agent, and his shop and bakery became a hub of activity.

He was even able to travel to Melbourne in 1859 but for what purpose we know

not. And there was enough income to financially support Henry, the oldest son,

so he could pursue his studies and calling. There was even enough money for

Edward to purchase a small cottage next door to the shop in High Street in 1871

which he rented out to various tenants.

Interestingly, sometime after Edward and Charlotte left Kensington the cottage

was knocked down and the narrow block on which it stood became Howitt

Street. It ran off High Street down to where Second Creek ran behind.

When people relied on their feet and horses to get about local stores were a

focal point for the community and Edward’s store was probably just as important

as the local pub, The Rising Sun, for the exchange of information and gossip.

Edward became involved in local issues and politics and contributed his name to

the nomination of, or publicly pledged his support for, numerous candidates for

the Kensington and Norwood Council and the South Australian House of

Assembly. He converted from the Church of England to the Congregational

Church and in fact became an active fund raiser for it. He was quite the

community minded man.

Edward Howitt, c1867. Courtesy of the Barbara Dean Collection

A particularly sad event however occurred on the 7th of February 1856. A young

man, Joseph Knowles aged 30 years died in their home25. The cause and

25 The Adelaide Observer, 9th February, 1856.

18

circumstances of his death are not currently known but we do know that Joseph

had emigrated from Liverpool on the ‘Satellite’ with the Howitts. They had

obviously maintained some sort of contact in the years since their arrival in

Adelaide. Like many young single men at the time Joseph was probably

escaping poverty in England and seeking his fortune in the South Australia. He

may have worked for Edward or he may have turned to him when he became ill.

Whatever the reason Joseph was alone in a strange land where public assistance

was all but none existent. We like to think that Edward and Charlotte took him

in and cared for him but we will never know the whole story. But for Edward,

Charlotte and the children to lose someone who had made the same journey as

they had and with whom they had shared the close confines of ship board life for

about four months, Joseph’s death had to be a distressing and poignant event.

Life of course had many other, although lesser, dramas and tribulations. There

were the usual problem creditors and other business disputes some of which

required court action. Edward also had his share of scapes with the Kensington

and Norwood Council. Trouble about an unlicensed dog, some drainage from the

bakery issues and at one stage he was ordered “forthwith to remove the

verandas and other obstructions from the footways opposite his house”26. We

wonder what the good residents of Kensington did for shade when they went

shopping in the summer.

The family prospered however and to the point where Edward decided in 1871 to

expand by opening a branch of the family business in Magill two or three miles

away.

Edward and Charlotte’s son oldest son, Henry was born on the 6th of May 1838 in

Lincoln and so was about 13 years old when they arrived in South Australia.

Henry became a school master before entering the Anglican clergy in 1868 and

was ordained by Bishop Augustus Short, the first Bishop of Adelaide. He was

appointed as incumbent in several church parishes in South Australia. Henry

was serious about his calling. At one stage he was granted leave to pursue

evangelical activities in the north east of the Province and was active in many of

the debates on church issues of his day. A highlight of his clerical career in

Adelaide must have been when he was the joint celebrant at his sister

Charlotte’s wedding at St Bartholomew’s in 1877.

26 South Australian Register, Adelaide. 17th January, 1857

19

Henry Howitt, c1875. Courtesy of the Barbara Dean Collection

Henry married Adelizer Gower (1820–1898) at Robe in the South East on New

Year’s Day 1871. It was not a happy marriage. Not long after he was appointed

to St. Bede’s at Semaphore he experienced health concerns and resigned. A

relatively short time later however he arrived in the USA in 1887 but without his

wife. There he joined the Episcopal Church and was appointed Rector of Mill

Valley, California. He remained there despite ongoing poor health and died in

his 87th year on the 1st of May, 1922, alone, in San Francisco. His wife, Adeliza

died in North Adelaide on the 11th of December, 1898.

We know little of Edward and Charlotte’s second child Caroline. She was born at

St Martin’s, Lincoln on the 11th of December 1839 and was therefore 11 years

old when the family arrived in South Australia. We can assume that as she grew

up she helped her parents in the shop but of her schooling or interests we know

nothing. She never married and died at the family’s Kensington home on the

20th of March, 1866 aged just 25 years. The cause or circumstances of her

death are not known.

20

Caroline Howitt, c1865. Courtesy of the Barbara Dean Collection

Charles Howitt, Edward and Charlotte’s third child was born on the 16th of July

1841 in Lincoln. Physically stronger and more robust than his older brother

Henry, Charles worked closely with his father in the Kensington store and

bakery. It’s probably fair to say that he was effectively ‘apprenticed’ and trained

to follow in his father’s footsteps. So it was logical and probably intended that

when Edward decided in 1871 to expand his business by opening another bakery

and store that Charles left Kensington to manage the new branch. It was

located on Magill Road, Magill only a few miles north of the Kensington store. It

was probably here that Charles met his future wife.

Charles married Elizabeth Ann Bartlett (1854–1880) at St George’s church,

Woodforde on 8th of April, 1875. They had four children;

William (1875-1927),

George (1876-1920),

Charlotte (III) (1878-1958) and

Jane (1880-1880).

Jane’s mother died on the 9th of November in the same year as her daughter

from what the newspapers of the day reported as the result of “puerperal fever”.

21

Charles Howitt’s children, L-R William, George & Charlotte III, c1880. Courtesy of the Barbara

Dean Collection

Like his father Charles was an active and “genial” figure in his local community

and was prominent in the Master Baker’s Association27. His store and bakery

were very popular perhaps because Charles did one thing that his father never

did or was never able to do because of his bankruptcy, and that was to apply for

and be granted a ‘Storekeepers Colonial Wine License’28. Charles retired in his

87th year and died a few years later on the 17th of September, 1931 aged 90

years. He outlived both his sons but not his daughter Charlotte III.

27 The Register, 29th of August, 1928 28 Adelaide Observer, 18th of June, 1887. P. 35

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Charles Howitt, c1920s

By 1887 Edward and Charlotte were all alone in the house and store in High

Street, Kensington. Edward was in his 80th year and Charlotte, five years his

senior, was becoming frail and probably in poor health. Henry, their oldest child

was on his way to the USA and Caroline was dead. Charles was a widower,

bringing up his three children and the manager the Magill store and bakery.

Charlotte II was well married with two surviving sons and living, we believe,

happily at Beulah Road, Norwood. It was time for Edward and Charlotte to leave

Kensington. The cottage next to the shop was sold to a Miss Clark and the store

and bakery business was transferred to another baker, Mr John Hooper29.

Edward and Charlotte moved to live with Charles and his children at Magill in

1887 so there were the three generations living together. Edward probably

helped his son in the store and bakery but having managed it by himself for 17

years Charles may have seen it more as interference than help.

On the 4th of April 1887 a notice appeared in the Insolvencies and Assignments

column of the South Australian Register listing Edward Howitt in the

Assignments. At this point in time we don’t know the significance of that listing

29 Schumann, Denise. Cultural Heritage Advisor, City of Norwood, Payneham and St

Peters. From Council Records. 2016

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but subsequent notices in the press refer to “dividend payments” from the Estate

of Edward Howitt. We assume that when Edward and Charlotte quit the

Kensington bakery and store they owed creditors and the ‘Assignment’ was part

of winding up Edward’s affairs. The detail of what happened is not important but

it did signal the end of nearly 60 years of Edward’s business affairs and that is

significant and more than just a little sad. He had worked hard, overcome many

obstacles, struggled valiantly over the years to raise his family and make a

comfortable life for them but it was now at an end.

His wife Charlotte, long suffering we suspect, died on Friday the 27th of April

1888 at her son, Charles’s home at Magill, aged 87 years. Little is really known

of her apart from the fact that she stayed by her husband through his ventures

and tribulations and brought up a family which included a notable cleric, a

successor to her husband’s store keeping and baking tradition and a strong

willed daughter who established her own ‘house’ and domain. Not bad for a

Lincolnshire lass.

Charlotte Howitt Snr, c1866. Courtesy of the Barbara Dean Collection

Edward survived his wife by nearly eight years and died on the 27th February,

1896 at Charles’s home in Magill and was buried at St George’s, Woodforde.

The Express and Telegraph30 said, according to the phraseology of the day, that

he died “much respected”. We suspect that there were a few creditors who

might have taken issue with that but there can be no doubt however that he

worked tirelessly for his community and family. Unlucky and used certainly,

gullible and overreaching possibly, but indolent and faint-hearted he was not.

30 The Express and Telegraph, Adelaide. Friday 28th of February 1896 p. 3

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True, he lost his financial ‘footing’ in Lincoln but he brought his family safely to

the other side of the world to try again and to give them bigger horizons.

Edward Howitt, c1890. Courtesy of the Barbara Dean Collection

Edward and Charlotte’s youngest daughter Charlotte II was born in Lincoln on

the 24th of December 1845 and was therefore only six years old when the family

arrived in South Australia. She went on to outlive her parents and siblings.

Charlotte married Henry Hall from the neighbouring village of Norwood in 1877.

They lived in Beulah Road Norwood whilst Henry was manager at George Hall

and Sons cool drink factory. It’s fun to speculate where Henry and young

Charlotte first met. There would have been many social and community

functions in the adjoining villages of Kensington and Norwood that would have

afforded them the opportunity. But there is one possibility that we like to think

just may have happened. One of Henry’s duties at his father’s aerated waters

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factory was that of ‘traveller’, that is the person who visited stores, hotels and

other businesses to ensure that they stocked Hall’s ‘Stonie’ ginger beer, soda

water, cordials and soft drinks. Did they meet when Henry, as he undoubtedly

would have, visited Edward’s store and did Henry then give that store a little

closer attention because of the young Miss Howitt? We don’t know of course but

it is fun to speculate.

Charlotte Howitt II, before her marriage, c1870s. Courtesy of the Barbara Dean Collection

When Henry’s health declined and in the same year that his mother in law

Charlotte died, the family moved to North East Road Tea Tree Gully to a house

and property which, family oral history holds, Charlotte II named after a place

close to her heart, ‘Warboys’, in Huntingtonshire.

Henry and Charlotte had five boys three of whom survived into adulthood.

Today they have a hundred or more descendants living in all parts of Australia

and in many parts of the world. Their story and that of Henry and Charlotte will

be progressively told on the Hall Family website, https://hall1818.wordpress.com/

If Charlotte II ever expressed an opinion about her father’s milling ventures it

was not recorded or passed down in the family. Yet both had a profound effect

on her life. The failure of the first mill brought her to Australia and a life so

different to anything she could have expected in Lincolnshire. The collapse of

the second milling venture we believe shaped her character and reinforced her

strong will and determination; her family would never experience the turmoil of

insolvency if she could help it. This is probably why she regularly ‘held court’ at

home where family members came to consult her about important matters.

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Henry and Charlotte lived comfortable and ‘proper’ dignified lives and in a

manner they believed gentle English people should. As one of their grandsons,

who knew them wrote, Henry “like his wife, was more English than the Poms”31.

Charlotte died on the 22nd of August, 1944, just four months short of her 100th

birthday; the grand dame of her family; truly respected if not a little feared.

Charlotte Hall, nee Howitt, 1898. Courtesy of the Barbara Dean Collection

We wish to acknowledge with appreciation the valuable assistance of Denise

Schumann, Cultural Heritage Advisor, City of Norwood, Payneham and St Peters.

Not to be quoted, printed or reproduced in part or in its entirety without

full acknowledgement of the authors.

31 Hall, Dennis, Letter to his daughter, Jane. 2nd of March 1988.