Jack Buckland
Encyclopedia
John Wilberforce Buckland (1864–1897), also known as ‘Tin Jack’, was a remittance man who lived in the South Pacific in the late 19th century. He travelled with Robert Louis Stevenson
and his stories of life as an island trader became the inspiration for the character of Tommy Hadden in The Wrecker
(1892).
, the eldest child of William Wilberforce Buckland and Harriet Emmeline Hopkins. Jack's mother, Harriet, was born in Sydney in 1842. Her father, John Hopkins, was a ship chandler. He died when she was young and his partner, John Carr and his wife Eliza later adopted Harriet in addition to the ship chandler business. Jack’s father was William Buckland, from Wraysbury
in England, the son of an auctioneer William Thomas Buckland
. William Buckland worked as a merchant and shipbroker in Australia. In 1863, William married the 21-year-old Harriet in Sydney. Their first child was Jack, born in 1864. When Jack was 9, his family returned to England, leaving him with the now elderly John and Eliza Carr who adopted him as their son. John Carr thus was both Jack’s stepfather and step-grandfather.
The Carr family lived in a house called Neepsend in Lavender Bay, North Sydney. Part of this property was later sold and it was from this sale that John Carr made sufficient money to provide Jack with his allowance. John Carr died in 1881 and the money from the property sale was left in a trust from which Jack received an annual allowance. In 1883, now living on his own, Jack visited his parents and siblings living near London in England. Later he returned to Sydney and subsequently worked for Henderson, Macfarlane and Co., island merchants of Auckland, as a copra trader.
From the mid 1880s to about 1891, Jack Buckland was a trader at Nonouti
atoll, in Kiribati
(at the time known as the Gilbert Islands) and during the 1890s Jack Buckland, traded at Niutao
and Nanumea
in Tuvalu
(at the time known as the Ellice Islands). The resident trade on Niutao
after Jack Buckland was Fred Whibley
.
Jack Buckland's remittance was £700 a year, paid to him by the trustee of the trust fund established by John Carr. The £700 was sufficient to allowed him to live comfortably for part of the year in Sydney. To supplement this income Jack worked as a trader in the central Pacific. This was an isolated existence where he was likely to be the only European on a Pacific atoll. As a trader working for a trading company Jack Buckland bought copra
, used in the manufacture of nitro-glycerine, and sharks fin and sea cucumber
s, for sale into Asia, as well as selling islanders tobacco and other European goods.
As a trader Jack Buckland chose an isolated life on a pacific atoll rather that being a castaway or beachcomber. Howe (1984) estimated that in 1850 there were over 2,000 beachcombers throughout Polynesia
and Micronesia
. It was not only shipwrecked sailors forced, by circumstances, into a life of beachcombing
with many choosing to escape from a life of respectability in the Victorian era
.
In April 1980 he was a passenger on the trading steamer the “Janet Nicoll", which left Sydney for a trading cruise around the central Pacific. Robert Louis Stevenson
, his wife Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson, and her son Lloyd Osborne were also passengers on that voyage. The journal of Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson was published under the title The Cruise of the Janet Nichol. Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson explained the origin of the name ‘Tin Jack’ as being the island equivalent of ‘Mr Jack’.
Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson recounts how Jack Buckland, inadvertently caused a fire on the Janet Nicoll. In Auckland
, New Zealand, Jack Buckland purchased ten pound of ‘calcium fire’ (fireworks); cartridges, grease paint, and false nose and a wig for the entertainment of the islanders at Jack’s trading station on Nonouti
atoll. However on leaving harbour the ‘calcium fire’, which was promised by the chemist to be “safe as a packet of sugar”, spontaneously caught alight causing the fireworks to explode in technicolour flashes endangering the ship – until the crew put out the fire.
, as the inspiration for the character of Tom Hadden in The Wrecker
(1892), for which Stevenson and Lloyd Osborne shared the writing.
Jack Buckland also receives a dedication in Island Nights' Entertainments
(also known as South Sea Tales) a collection of short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson
, first published in 1893. This collection is dedicated to Jack Buckland, Ben Hird, (supercargo
or manager of the cargo owner's trade) and Harry Henderson partner in the firm Henderson and Macfarlane that owned the Janet Nicoll. A character referred to as ‘young Buncombe’ and inspired by Jack Buckland makes a brief appearance in chapter 2 of The Beach of Falesá
.
Jack Buckland stayed at Vailima with Robert and Fanny Stevenson in 1894. In later correspondence to Lieutenant Eeles, an officer on H.M.S. Curaçao
, Stevenson expresses his pleasure that his correspondent had met Jack Buckland.
While The Wrecker
was not a commercial or critical success, in adopting Jack Buckland as a character, Stevenson describes a specific era of European engagement with the Pacific. Watson (2007) describes Stevenson’s The Wrecker as “a prophetically postmodern vision of a depthless world of travel, exile, novelty and rootlessness, of 'discarded sons' whose corruption, in a world they neither understand nor fully belong to, is curiously innocent.”
, visited Vailima, Samoa for three weeks. Jack Buckland was still at Vailima on 6 February 1894. During his time at Vailima Jack Buckland is mentioned as flirting with Addie (Adelaide), the daughter of Henry Ide
, American Chief Justice in Samoa. Jack Buckland then became the island trader on Nanumea
in Tuvalu
in about 1895, before moving to Suwarrow
Island.
Robert Louis Stevenson draws directly from the life of Jack Buckland in describing Tom Hadden in The Wrecker
as being “heir to a considerable property, which a prophetic father had placed in the hands of rigorous trustees.” (p. 296). Tin Jack’s dissolute life came to an end in 1897. A sanitised version of the death of Jack Buckland published by Simpson (1913) describes him as being blown to pieces by an explosion on Suwarrow
Island.
Fanny Stevenson in her journal of the voyage of the “Janet Nicoll” published in 1914 described the trustee that provided Jack with the majority of his income as defrauding the trust of all the funds.
About
Websites
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
and his stories of life as an island trader became the inspiration for the character of Tommy Hadden in The Wrecker
The Wrecker (novel)
The Wrecker is a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson in collaboration with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. The story is a 'sprawling, episodic adventure story, a comedy of brash manners and something of a detective mystery'. It revolves around the abandoned wreck of the Flying Scud at Midway Island...
(1892).
Early life
Jack Buckland was born in 1864 in 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...
, the eldest child of William Wilberforce Buckland and Harriet Emmeline Hopkins. Jack's mother, Harriet, was born in Sydney in 1842. Her father, John Hopkins, was a ship chandler. He died when she was young and his partner, John Carr and his wife Eliza later adopted Harriet in addition to the ship chandler business. Jack’s father was William Buckland, from Wraysbury
Wraysbury
Wraysbury, traditionally spelt Wyrardisbury, is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It is located in the very east of the county, in the part that was in Buckinghamshire until 1974...
in England, the son of an auctioneer William Thomas Buckland
William Thomas Buckland
William Thomas Buckland was born on 5 September 1798 in Wraysbury now in Berkshire, England, in the house on Longbridge Farm where he later lived, and where he died on 1 November 1870. He became an innovative surveyor and auctioneer, as well as establishing the Baptist Chapel in Wraysbury. He was...
. William Buckland worked as a merchant and shipbroker in Australia. In 1863, William married the 21-year-old Harriet in Sydney. Their first child was Jack, born in 1864. When Jack was 9, his family returned to England, leaving him with the now elderly John and Eliza Carr who adopted him as their son. John Carr thus was both Jack’s stepfather and step-grandfather.
The Carr family lived in a house called Neepsend in Lavender Bay, North Sydney. Part of this property was later sold and it was from this sale that John Carr made sufficient money to provide Jack with his allowance. John Carr died in 1881 and the money from the property sale was left in a trust from which Jack received an annual allowance. In 1883, now living on his own, Jack visited his parents and siblings living near London in England. Later he returned to Sydney and subsequently worked for Henderson, Macfarlane and Co., island merchants of Auckland, as a copra trader.
Life of an island trader
Nonouti
Nonouti is an atoll and district of Kiribati. The atoll is located in the South Gilbert Islands, 38 km north of Tabiteuea, and 250 km south of Tarawa. The eastern side of the atoll is the primary permanent landmass. There is an islet on the northwest side of the atoll called Noumatong. Noumatong...
atoll, in Kiribati
Kiribati
Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population exceeds just over 100,000 , and is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, straddling the...
(at the time known as the Gilbert Islands) and during the 1890s Jack Buckland, traded at Niutao
Niutao
Niutao is a reef island in the northern part of Tuvalu. It is one of the nine districts of Tuvalu, and one of the three who consist of only one island, not counting the three islets inside the closed lagoon. Niutao has a population of 663 .-Geography:There are two lakes , which are brackish to...
and Nanumea
Nanumea
Nanumea is the northwesternmost atoll in the Polynesian nation of Tuvalu, a group of nine coral atolls and islands spread over about four hundred miles of Pacific Ocean just south of the equator and west of the International Date Line.-Geography:...
in Tuvalu
Tuvalu
Tuvalu , formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls...
(at the time known as the Ellice Islands). The resident trade on Niutao
Niutao
Niutao is a reef island in the northern part of Tuvalu. It is one of the nine districts of Tuvalu, and one of the three who consist of only one island, not counting the three islets inside the closed lagoon. Niutao has a population of 663 .-Geography:There are two lakes , which are brackish to...
after Jack Buckland was Fred Whibley
Fred Whibley
Fred Whibley abandoned a career in a London bank to escape from the constraints and social expectations of respectability in the Victorian era...
.
Jack Buckland's remittance was £700 a year, paid to him by the trustee of the trust fund established by John Carr. The £700 was sufficient to allowed him to live comfortably for part of the year in Sydney. To supplement this income Jack worked as a trader in the central Pacific. This was an isolated existence where he was likely to be the only European on a Pacific atoll. As a trader working for a trading company Jack Buckland bought copra
Copra
Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. Coconut oil extracted from it has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake which is mainly used as feed for livestock.-Production:...
, used in the manufacture of nitro-glycerine, and sharks fin and sea cucumber
Sea cucumber
Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea.They are marine animals with a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a single, branched gonad. Sea cucumbers are found on the sea floor worldwide. There are a number of holothurian species and genera, many of which are targeted...
s, for sale into Asia, as well as selling islanders tobacco and other European goods.
As a trader Jack Buckland chose an isolated life on a pacific atoll rather that being a castaway or beachcomber. Howe (1984) estimated that in 1850 there were over 2,000 beachcombers throughout Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
and Micronesia
Micronesia
Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines lie to the west, and Indonesia to the southwest....
. It was not only shipwrecked sailors forced, by circumstances, into a life of beachcombing
Beachcombing
Beachcombing and beachcomber are words with multiple, but related, meanings that have evolved over time.A beachcomber is someone who "combs" the beach, and the intertidal zone in general, looking for things of value, interest or utility....
with many choosing to escape from a life of respectability in the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
.
The cruise of the Janet Nicoll
As a respite from the isolated life on a Pacific atoll Jack Buckland would spend time enjoying the high life of Sydney where, in few months, he would dissipate his income. Furnas (1951) describes Jack Buckland as spending “a short period each year in Sydney playing spendthrift on the accumulations of a small funded income and the rest of the year vegetating penniless as a petty trader out in the islands.”In April 1980 he was a passenger on the trading steamer the “Janet Nicoll", which left Sydney for a trading cruise around the central Pacific. Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
, his wife Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson, and her son Lloyd Osborne were also passengers on that voyage. The journal of Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson was published under the title The Cruise of the Janet Nichol. Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson explained the origin of the name ‘Tin Jack’ as being the island equivalent of ‘Mr Jack’.
Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson recounts how Jack Buckland, inadvertently caused a fire on the Janet Nicoll. In Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, New Zealand, Jack Buckland purchased ten pound of ‘calcium fire’ (fireworks); cartridges, grease paint, and false nose and a wig for the entertainment of the islanders at Jack’s trading station on Nonouti
Nonouti
Nonouti is an atoll and district of Kiribati. The atoll is located in the South Gilbert Islands, 38 km north of Tabiteuea, and 250 km south of Tarawa. The eastern side of the atoll is the primary permanent landmass. There is an islet on the northwest side of the atoll called Noumatong. Noumatong...
atoll. However on leaving harbour the ‘calcium fire’, which was promised by the chemist to be “safe as a packet of sugar”, spontaneously caught alight causing the fireworks to explode in technicolour flashes endangering the ship – until the crew put out the fire.
Tin Jack and the character of Tom Hadden
Jack Buckland is acknowledged by Robert Louis StevensonRobert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
, as the inspiration for the character of Tom Hadden in The Wrecker
The Wrecker (novel)
The Wrecker is a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson in collaboration with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. The story is a 'sprawling, episodic adventure story, a comedy of brash manners and something of a detective mystery'. It revolves around the abandoned wreck of the Flying Scud at Midway Island...
(1892), for which Stevenson and Lloyd Osborne shared the writing.
Jack Buckland also receives a dedication in Island Nights' Entertainments
Island Nights' Entertainments
Island Nights' Entertainments is a collection of short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1893...
(also known as South Sea Tales) a collection of short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
, first published in 1893. This collection is dedicated to Jack Buckland, Ben Hird, (supercargo
Supercargo
Supercargo is a term in maritime law that refers to a person employed on board a vessel by the owner of cargo carried on the ship...
or manager of the cargo owner's trade) and Harry Henderson partner in the firm Henderson and Macfarlane that owned the Janet Nicoll. A character referred to as ‘young Buncombe’ and inspired by Jack Buckland makes a brief appearance in chapter 2 of The Beach of Falesá
The Beach of Falesá
"The Beach of Falesá" is a short story by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It was first published in the Illustrated London News in 1892, and later published in book form in the short-story collection Island Nights' Entertainments...
.
Jack Buckland stayed at Vailima with Robert and Fanny Stevenson in 1894. In later correspondence to Lieutenant Eeles, an officer on H.M.S. Curaçao
HMS Curacoa (1878)
HMS Curacoa was an of the Royal Navy, built by John Elder & Co., Govan and launched on 18 April 1878.Commenced service on the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa Station before being transferred to the Australia Station arriving on 5 August 1890. She left the Australia Station in December...
, Stevenson expresses his pleasure that his correspondent had met Jack Buckland.
"But the cream of the fun was your meeting with Burn. We not only know him, but (as the French say) we don't know anybody else; he is our intimate and adored original; and - prepare your mind - he was, is, and ever will be, TOMMY HADDON! As I don't believe you to be inspired, I suspect you to have suspected this. At least it was a mighty happy suspicion. You are quite right: Tommy is really 'a good chap,' though about as comic as they make them."
While The Wrecker
The Wrecker (novel)
The Wrecker is a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson in collaboration with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. The story is a 'sprawling, episodic adventure story, a comedy of brash manners and something of a detective mystery'. It revolves around the abandoned wreck of the Flying Scud at Midway Island...
was not a commercial or critical success, in adopting Jack Buckland as a character, Stevenson describes a specific era of European engagement with the Pacific. Watson (2007) describes Stevenson’s The Wrecker as “a prophetically postmodern vision of a depthless world of travel, exile, novelty and rootlessness, of 'discarded sons' whose corruption, in a world they neither understand nor fully belong to, is curiously innocent.”
Tin Jack and Vailima, Samoa
The letters of Robert Louis Stevenson of January 1894 also record that Jack Buckland, and his “avaga” ('married one' in the Niutaon language) Meri Matavaka of the Luaseuta family of NiutaoNiutao
Niutao is a reef island in the northern part of Tuvalu. It is one of the nine districts of Tuvalu, and one of the three who consist of only one island, not counting the three islets inside the closed lagoon. Niutao has a population of 663 .-Geography:There are two lakes , which are brackish to...
, visited Vailima, Samoa for three weeks. Jack Buckland was still at Vailima on 6 February 1894. During his time at Vailima Jack Buckland is mentioned as flirting with Addie (Adelaide), the daughter of Henry Ide
Henry Clay Ide
Henry Clay Ide was a U.S. judge, colonial Commissioner, ambassador, and Governor-General.- Early life, States Attorney, Senator, and Presidential Commissioner to Samoa :...
, American Chief Justice in Samoa. Jack Buckland then became the island trader on Nanumea
Nanumea
Nanumea is the northwesternmost atoll in the Polynesian nation of Tuvalu, a group of nine coral atolls and islands spread over about four hundred miles of Pacific Ocean just south of the equator and west of the International Date Line.-Geography:...
in Tuvalu
Tuvalu
Tuvalu , formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls...
in about 1895, before moving to Suwarrow
Suwarrow
Suwarrow is a low coral atoll in the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is about 1,300 km south of the equator and 930 km NNW of Rarotonga, from which it is administered....
Island.
Robert Louis Stevenson draws directly from the life of Jack Buckland in describing Tom Hadden in The Wrecker
The Wrecker (novel)
The Wrecker is a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson in collaboration with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. The story is a 'sprawling, episodic adventure story, a comedy of brash manners and something of a detective mystery'. It revolves around the abandoned wreck of the Flying Scud at Midway Island...
as being “heir to a considerable property, which a prophetic father had placed in the hands of rigorous trustees.” (p. 296). Tin Jack’s dissolute life came to an end in 1897. A sanitised version of the death of Jack Buckland published by Simpson (1913) describes him as being blown to pieces by an explosion on Suwarrow
Suwarrow
Suwarrow is a low coral atoll in the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is about 1,300 km south of the equator and 930 km NNW of Rarotonga, from which it is administered....
Island.
Fanny Stevenson in her journal of the voyage of the “Janet Nicoll” published in 1914 described the trustee that provided Jack with the majority of his income as defrauding the trust of all the funds.
“Some years ago when Jack was at his station he received word that his trustee, who was in charge of his property, had levanted it all. Whereupon poor Jack put a pistol to his head and blew out what brains he possessed. He was a beautiful creature, terribly annoying at times, but with something childlike and appealing--I think he was close to what the Scotch call a natural--that made one forgive pranks in him that which would be unforgivable in others. He was very proud of being the original ‘Tommy Hadden’ in [R. L. Stevenson’s book] ‘The Wrecker,’ and carried the book wherever he went.”
External links
Works- Works by Robert Louis Stevenson at Google Books (scanned books original editions) (plain text and HTML)
- Works by Robert Louis Stevenson, at the Online Books PageOnline Books PageThe Online Books Page is an index of e-text books available on the Internet. It is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom and is hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania...
(plain text and HTML)
About
- There are over 200 published biographies of RLS
- Robert Louis Stevenson: a record, an estimate, and a memorial, by Alexander H. Japp
- Robert Louis Stevenson, a biography by Sir Walter Alexander RaleighWalter Raleigh (professor)Professor Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh was an English scholar, poet and author.He was born in London, the fifth child and only son of a local Congregationalist minister...
- Robert Louis Stevenson: a memoir (1895), by Edmund GosseEdmund GosseSir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic; the son of Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes.-Early life:...
who knew Stevenson personally. - The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson (1913) by Graham Balfour, Stevenson's cousin.
- Robert Louis Stevenson: biography (1911), by Edmund GosseEdmund GosseSir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic; the son of Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes.-Early life:...
, from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh EditionEncyclopædia Britannica Eleventh EditionThe Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time... - Robert Louis Stevenson, biography from the Dictionary of Literary Biography, 1987.
Websites
- The Robert Louis Stevenson Website at Edinburgh Napier University
- Journal of Stevenson Studies
- Robert Louis Stevenson trail GR70
- Silverado Museum, California, devoted to Robert Louis Stevenson