Joseph Jenkins
Encyclopedia
Tregaron
Tregaron is a market town in the county of Ceredigion, Wales, lying on the River Brenig , a tributary of the River Teifi. The town is twinned with Plouvien, in Finistere, France. According to the 2001 Census, Tregaron's population was 1,183, of whom 68.8% spoke Welsh fluently.-History:Tregaron...
, Ceredigion
Ceredigion
Ceredigion is a county and former kingdom in mid-west Wales. As Cardiganshire , it was created in 1282, and was reconstituted as a county under that name in 1996, reverting to Ceredigion a day later...
, mid-Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
who, when aged over 50, suddenly deserted his home and large family to seek his fortune in Australia
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...
. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says that "Jenkins's noteworthiness stemmed from the rich documentation of his experiences and thoughts that has survived". He was a consistent diarist for 58 years of his life and a consistent if not outstanding poet, under the bardic name Amnon II.
He achieved fame posthumously from publication of some excerpts of his Australian writings.
The compiler, his grandson Dr William Evans
William Evans (cardiologist)
Dr William Evans M.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.P., Hon.D.Sc. was a distinguished Harley Street cardiologist...
, a Harley Street
Harley Street
Harley Street is a street in the City of Westminster in London, England which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery.- Overview :...
cardiologist
Cardiology
Cardiology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the heart . The field includes diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology...
, coined the title Diary of a Welsh Swagman by which name he is familiar to generations of Victorian
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
school students for whom the book became a prescribed history text in 1978.
Early life and education
Joseph Jenkins was born at Blaenplwyf farm near Ystrad AeronYstrad Aeron
Ystrad Aeron is a small village west of Felinfach on the A482 between Lampeter and Aberaeron in Ceredigion, west Wales, at a junction with the B4342 road that leads to Llanarth on the A487 near New Quay It has two pubs, a church, a garage and a caravan park....
in Ceredigion
Ceredigion
Ceredigion is a county and former kingdom in mid-west Wales. As Cardiganshire , it was created in 1282, and was reconstituted as a county under that name in 1996, reverting to Ceredigion a day later...
, Wales. He was the fourth child of 12 brought up by Jenkin Jenkins and Eleanor (née Davis). In 1846 he married his second cousin Elisabeth (Betty) Evans of Tynant. They purchased the lease of Trecefel farm, Tregaron
Tregaron
Tregaron is a market town in the county of Ceredigion, Wales, lying on the River Brenig , a tributary of the River Teifi. The town is twinned with Plouvien, in Finistere, France. According to the 2001 Census, Tregaron's population was 1,183, of whom 68.8% spoke Welsh fluently.-History:Tregaron...
and had nine children, the last of whom, John David, was born in April, 1868.
He commenced education under a disciplinarian private tutor and later attended a small Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
church school at Cribyn
Cribyn
Cribyn is a small village in Ceredigion, Wales, about 7 miles north of Lampeter and with the villages of Troed y Rhiw, Mydroilyn and Dihewyd to the north.-History and amenities:...
, a five-mile walk from home. Throughout his life, Joseph bewailed his lack of more formal education. However, his thirst for knowledge, religious temperament and passion for reading and writing proved a firm basis for continuing self-education.
Agricultural skills
Under his management, Trecefel won many prizes in agricultural shows and its cattle fetched top prices in the market. In 1851, it was judged to be the best farm in the county. In 1861, Joseph was appointed to adjudicate the same competition.Joseph Jenkins favoured the rotation system of growing crops, spoke against deep ploughing, favoured thorough harrowing, and was a strong advocate of the virtue of feeding the soil with farmyard manure. In his writings appearing in farming journals, he emphasised the importance of harvesting young hay , and preparing lucerne and clover crops to provide fodder for cattle during a severe and prolonged frost in winter and periods of drought in summer. . .
Diaries
. . . The diaries reveal him as a man seeking to exorcise his own demons by attempting to escape from them, but they also reveal him as an astute observer of the people and occurrences impacting upon his own eventful life. His dogged determination in keeping a daily journal, often under the most difficult of circumstances and in the most unpropitious surroundings, has given us a uniquely valuable historical record of life in the nineteenth century.
Wales
The first entry was on New Year's Day, 1839. Though he continued to record each day, much of the early record has been lost. The earliest complete year extant is 1845. Manuscripts for the years 1839-1868 and 1895-1898 (when he lived in Wales) are held by the National Library of WalesNational Library of Wales
The National Library of Wales , Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales; one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies.Welsh is its main medium of communication...
at Aberystwyth, together with his shipboard diary of the voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne.
Australia
State Library of Victoria
The State Library of Victoria is the central library of the state of Victoria, Australia, located in Melbourne. It is on the block bounded by Swanston, La Trobe, Russell, and Little Lonsdale streets, in the northern centre of the central business district...
, Melbourne, cover the years 1869-1894.
Joseph Jenkins disembarked from the sailing ship Eurynome at the Melbourne port of Sandridge on 12 March 1869. The following month's diary shows him carrying his swag
Swag
In Australia and New Zealand, a swag is a bundle of belongings rolled in a traditional fashion to be carried by a foot traveller in the bush. Before motor transport was common, foot travel over long distances was essential to agriculture in the Australian bush....
, pessimistically prospecting and offering rural labour in and around the goldfields town of Castlemaine
Castlemaine, Victoria
Castlemaine is a city in Victoria, Australia, in the Goldfields region of Victoria about 120 kilometres northwest by road from Melbourne, and about 40 kilometres from the major provincial centre of Bendigo. It is the administrative and economic centre of the Shire of Mount Alexander. The...
where he found many fellow Welshmen. He rarely left this vicinity except to attend the annual St David's Day eisteddfod at Ballarat where, on thirteen consecutive occasions, he was awarded the premier prize for an englyn
Englyn
Englyn is a traditional Welsh and Cornish short poem form. It uses quantitative metres, involving the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme. Each line contains a repeating pattern of consonants and accent known as cynghanedd.- The Eight Types :There are eight types of...
(Welsh verse form).
Joseph obtained regular employment in 1884 as a cleaner of streets and drains in the town of Maldon
Maldon, Victoria
Maldon is a town in Victoria, Australia, in the Shire of Mount Alexander local government area. It has been designated "Australia's first notable town" and is celebrated for its 19th-century appearance, maintained since gold-rush days...
, a few miles north from Castlemaine. He remained there working until he reached the age of 76 and became homesick for Wales. Having saved the fare, he departed Maldon by rail on 23 November 1894, and embarked on the ss Ophir which docked at Tilbury docks
Port of Tilbury
The Port of Tilbury is located on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the principal port for London; as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facilities for containers, grain, and other bulk cargoes. There are also...
on 5 January 1895. In 1994 a water drinking fountain and a plaque were erected at Maldon railway station to recognise the centenary of Joseph Jenkins's departure and his unique record of the life of a rural worker in Victoria. His own words were cited: Through this [diary] I am building. . . my own monument (pictured at right).
Return and controversy
On returning to Wales, he entrusted the diaries to his daughter Elinor (Nell) who stored them in the attic of her home, Tyndomen farm, near Tregaron. They came to light some 70 years later when a great-granddaughter, Frances Evans, recovered and protected them, permitting her uncle, Dr William EvansWilliam Evans (cardiologist)
Dr William Evans M.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.P., Hon.D.Sc. was a distinguished Harley Street cardiologist...
to read and edit the contents. Destruction of the diaries had been favoured by some family members who were concerned by their potential to arouse adverse reflection on reputations, especially that of Joseph's wife, Betty, whose alleged infidelity and at least one specific physical assault on him by her and others: [26 May 1868] . . . my ribs and breastbone were fractured . . . I have an ugly black eye with about a dozen other different wounds. were consistently blamed by him as the cause of his leaving home. However, no conclusive evidence has emerged that Betty was other than a loyal and capable wife—and one who may herself have had good reason to find fault with Joseph's own personality and behaviour. E.g., in Pity the Swagman, Bethan Phillips argues that Joseph drank excessively while at home, though he generally abstained in Australia, and that he became disliked by neighbours for actively supporting landowners and their politicians at a time when they were oppressing many tenant-farmers–who were consequently promoting liberal candidates.
Historical studies
In 1904 a body of information with a photograph of Joseph and a selection of his poetry in Welsh was included in the book Cerddi Cerngoch by Daniel Jenkins and David Lewis. (The title is Welsh for 'Poems of Redcheek'--the bardic name of Joseph's brother John, but the book also records writings of several other distinguished family members.) Most of the book is printed in the Welsh language but some prefatory pages are in English.In 1998, Dr Bethan Phillips of Lampeter
Lampeter
Lampeter is a town in Ceredigion, South West Wales, lying at the confluence of the River Teifi and the Afon Dulas.-Demographics:At the 2001 National Census, the population was 2894. Lampeter is therefore the smallest university town in both Wales and the United Kingdom...
, having devoted many years to the project, including a visit to Australia, published her extensively researched account in Welsh–Rhwng Dau Fyd: Y Swagman O Geredigion, followed in 2002 by Pity the Swagman--The Australian Odyssey of a Victorian Diarist.
Further reading
- Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Joseph Jenkins
- Diary of a Welsh Swagman--Assessment as a historical treasure by the State Library of Victoria
- The Welsh Swagman video, images and extracts at Culture Victoria
- Rees, Rev D C History of Tregaron Gomerian Press 1936
- Tregaron and District Historical Society Tregaron–Images of a Country Town Landmark 2006
- Jeffreys E Welsh Australians: their history and achievements Y Lolfa Cyf., Ceredigion 2008. ISBN 9781847710734