George Suttor
Encyclopedia
George Suttor was an Anglo-Scottish farmer and pioneer settler of Australia
, who is notable as the founder of a significant Australian family, and also as a supporter of Captain Bligh
following the 1808 Rebellion
at Sydney
, New South Wales
.
, England
, the third son of a Scottish market gardener (and botanist
on the estate of Charles Cadogan, 2nd Baron Cadogan
) and his wife, née Thomas. Suttor, through contacts of his father, gained an interview with Sir Joseph Banks
who sent Suttor to Australia with a collection of trees and plants including grapevines, apples, pears, and hops. These were put on board HMS Porpoise
in October 1798, but delays took place and it was not until September 1799 that a proper start was made. A gale almost wrecked the ship, which was found to be unseaworthy, and a return was made to Spithead
. In March 1800 another start was made on a corvette
taken from the Spanish and re-named the HMS Porpoise
.
on 5 November 1800. In spite of the delays, Suttor managed to land some of his trees and vines still alive. He was given a grant of land, and settled at Chelsea Farm, Baulkham Hills
. In a few years time he was sending oranges and lemons to Sydney, obtaining good prices for them, and had become a successful settler.
At the time of the William Bligh
rebellion in 1808, Suttor was a firm supporter of the deposed governor. When Colonel Paterson
arrived, Suttor's was the first signature to an address presented to him promising to give him Suttor was, however, arrested and sentenced to be imprisoned for six months for failing to attend Lieutenant-Governor Joseph Foveaux's general muster and for impugning his authority. The stand taken by Suttor was much to his honour; a full account of it will be found in the Historical Records of Australia, vol. VII, pp. 131–7. Suttor always spoke of Bligh as a "firm and kind-hearted English gentleman, no tyrant and no coward" (W. H. Suttor, Australian Stories Retold, p. 6). In 1810 Suttor was summoned to England as a witness on behalf of Bligh, and arrived in Australia again in May 1812. In August 1814 Suttor was given the position of superintendent of the lunatic asylum at Castle Hill with a salary of £50; in February 1819 he was dismissed from this position on charges he used lunatic labour on his farm.
Suttor again took up land, and in 1822 he moved to beyond the Blue Mountains to the newly settled lands on the Bathurst
plains. There he established the 130 hectares (321.2 acre) 'Brucedale Station' at the junction of Winburndale and Clear Creeks, which turned out to be a successful landholding leading to great prosperity, and by the 1830s it had been expanded to 4055 hectares (10,020.1 acre). During a time of great conflict with the Indigenous Australians
of the Wiradjuri
nation, who resisted the taking of their lands, Suttor and his family (in particular son William
) established good relations with the aborigines. They were known to have been close to the Wiradjuri's warrior leader Windradyne
, and when Windradyne died he was buried at Brucedale.
Nine years later Suttor was living on the Baulkham Hills property, and he also built a house at Sydney. Suttor visited England and Europe in 1839-45 and was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society of London
.
Suttor published a volume on The Culture of the Grape-Vine and the Orange in Australia and New Zealand (1843), and the Memoirs Historical and Scientific of the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks (1855, reprinted 1948).
Suttor married Miss Sarah Maria Dobinson (his childhood sweetheart) in 1798 and founded a distinguished Australian family. He died at Bathurst on 5 May 1859; Mrs Suttor had died in 1844, but five sons and three daughters survived their father.
A park in Baulkham Hills is name for him.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, who is notable as the founder of a significant Australian family, and also as a supporter of Captain Bligh
William Bligh
Vice Admiral William Bligh FRS RN was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. A notorious mutiny occurred during his command of HMAV Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift in the Bounty's launch by the mutineers...
following the 1808 Rebellion
Rum Rebellion
The Rum Rebellion of 1808 was the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia's history. The Governor of New South Wales, William Bligh, was deposed by the New South Wales Corps under the command of Major George Johnston, working closely with John Macarthur, on 26 January 1808, 20...
at Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
.
Early life
Suttor was born in Chelsea, LondonChelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the third son of a Scottish market gardener (and botanist
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
on the estate of Charles Cadogan, 2nd Baron Cadogan
Charles Cadogan, 2nd Baron Cadogan
General Charles Cadogan, 2nd Baron Cadogan was a British peer, soldier and Whig politician.Charles Cadogan was the younger son of Henry Cadogan and his wife, Bridget, the second daughter of Sir Hardress Waller...
) and his wife, née Thomas. Suttor, through contacts of his father, gained an interview with Sir Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
who sent Suttor to Australia with a collection of trees and plants including grapevines, apples, pears, and hops. These were put on board HMS Porpoise
HMS Porpoise
Eleven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Porpoise, after the marine mammal, the Porpoise:*HMS Porpoise was a 16-gun sloop, formerly the Annapolis, purchased in 1777...
in October 1798, but delays took place and it was not until September 1799 that a proper start was made. A gale almost wrecked the ship, which was found to be unseaworthy, and a return was made to Spithead
Spithead
Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds, except those from the southeast...
. In March 1800 another start was made on a corvette
Corvette
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...
taken from the Spanish and re-named the HMS Porpoise
HMS Porpoise (1799)
HMS Porpoise was a 10-gun sloop originally built in Bilbao, Spain, as the packet ship Infanta Amelia. She was 308 tons, 93ft long on the gun deck and a beam of 27ft, 11 inches. On 6 August 1799 HMS Argo captured her off the coast of Portugal...
.
Australia
Suttor arrived at SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
on 5 November 1800. In spite of the delays, Suttor managed to land some of his trees and vines still alive. He was given a grant of land, and settled at Chelsea Farm, Baulkham Hills
Baulkham Hills, New South Wales
Baulkham Hills is a suburb in the north-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Baulkham Hills is located 31 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of The Hills Shire...
. In a few years time he was sending oranges and lemons to Sydney, obtaining good prices for them, and had become a successful settler.
At the time of the William Bligh
William Bligh
Vice Admiral William Bligh FRS RN was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. A notorious mutiny occurred during his command of HMAV Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift in the Bounty's launch by the mutineers...
rebellion in 1808, Suttor was a firm supporter of the deposed governor. When Colonel Paterson
William Paterson (explorer)
Colonel William Paterson, FRS was a Scottish soldier, explorer, Lieutenant governor and botanist best known for leading early settlement in Tasmania. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Paterson when citing a botanical name.-Early years:A native of Montrose, Scotland, Paterson was...
arrived, Suttor's was the first signature to an address presented to him promising to give him Suttor was, however, arrested and sentenced to be imprisoned for six months for failing to attend Lieutenant-Governor Joseph Foveaux's general muster and for impugning his authority. The stand taken by Suttor was much to his honour; a full account of it will be found in the Historical Records of Australia, vol. VII, pp. 131–7. Suttor always spoke of Bligh as a "firm and kind-hearted English gentleman, no tyrant and no coward" (W. H. Suttor, Australian Stories Retold, p. 6). In 1810 Suttor was summoned to England as a witness on behalf of Bligh, and arrived in Australia again in May 1812. In August 1814 Suttor was given the position of superintendent of the lunatic asylum at Castle Hill with a salary of £50; in February 1819 he was dismissed from this position on charges he used lunatic labour on his farm.
Suttor again took up land, and in 1822 he moved to beyond the Blue Mountains to the newly settled lands on the Bathurst
Bathurst, New South Wales
-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...
plains. There he established the 130 hectares (321.2 acre) 'Brucedale Station' at the junction of Winburndale and Clear Creeks, which turned out to be a successful landholding leading to great prosperity, and by the 1830s it had been expanded to 4055 hectares (10,020.1 acre). During a time of great conflict with the Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
of the Wiradjuri
Wiradjuri
The Wiradjuri are an Indigenous Australian group of central New South Wales.In the 21st century, major Wiradjuri groups live in Condobolin, Peak Hill, Narrandera and Griffith...
nation, who resisted the taking of their lands, Suttor and his family (in particular son William
William Henry Suttor
William Henry Suttor was an Australian pastoralist and politician. Suttor was born in Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, the third son of George Suttor and his wife Sarah Maria, née Dobinson....
) established good relations with the aborigines. They were known to have been close to the Wiradjuri's warrior leader Windradyne
Windradyne
Windradyne was an Aboriginal warrior and resistance leader of the Wiradjuri nation, in what is now central-western New South Wales, Australia; he was also known to the British settlers as Saturday...
, and when Windradyne died he was buried at Brucedale.
Nine years later Suttor was living on the Baulkham Hills property, and he also built a house at Sydney. Suttor visited England and Europe in 1839-45 and was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society of London
Linnean Society of London
The Linnean Society of London is the world's premier society for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history. It publishes a zoological journal, as well as botanical and biological journals...
.
Suttor published a volume on The Culture of the Grape-Vine and the Orange in Australia and New Zealand (1843), and the Memoirs Historical and Scientific of the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks (1855, reprinted 1948).
Suttor married Miss Sarah Maria Dobinson (his childhood sweetheart) in 1798 and founded a distinguished Australian family. He died at Bathurst on 5 May 1859; Mrs Suttor had died in 1844, but five sons and three daughters survived their father.
A park in Baulkham Hills is name for him.
Descendants
- Son: William Henry SuttorWilliam Henry SuttorWilliam Henry Suttor was an Australian pastoralist and politician. Suttor was born in Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, the third son of George Suttor and his wife Sarah Maria, née Dobinson....
(1805–1877) member of the New South Wales Legislative CouncilNew South Wales Legislative CouncilThe New South Wales Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. The Assembly is referred to as the lower house and the Council as...
1843 - 1854, and of the Legislative AssemblyNew South Wales Legislative AssemblyThe Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...
1856-72 - Grandson: William Henry Suttor (junior) (1834–1905), entered the Legislative Assembly in January 1875; in 1889 became Vice-President of the Executive Council
- Grandson: Sir Francis Bathurst SuttorFrancis Bathurst SuttorSir Francis Bathurst Suttor was an Australian pastoralist, politician, and sheep and horse breeder.-Early life:...
(1839–1915).
- Son: John Bligh Suttor (1809–1886), who for some years represented East MacquarieElectoral district of East MacquarieEast Macquarie was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales between 1859 and 1894, in the Bathurst region. It was represented by two members, with voters casting two votes and the first two candidates being elected.-Members for East Macquarie:...
in the Legislative Assembly, and at the time of his death was a member of the Legislative Council.