Children died, people murdered, mayors defrauded, and negligence reigned, while the overseer’s daughter could have been the saviour. I told a version of this story on West Bremer Radio.

In the 1850s The Reverend Richard Thackeray was the vicar at Hunsdon in Hertfordshire, England. He ministered there to the likes of Sir Frederick Darley. Darley in Australia became a member of the legislative assembly of New South Wales, lieutenant-governor, and chief justice.

Life was pretty good for Reverend Thackeray when he married the daughter of Major-general William Reece. His son married the granddaughter of Major-general Richard Foley. She was also the great-great-granddaughter of the 3rd Earl of Darnley, who incidentally thought he was a teapot, and was afraid his spout might break off.

Rev. Thackeray then found himself in Ipswich, Queensland, and that’s when his life started to go downhill.

He was living there in 1861 when he went to minster with the Church of England in Drayton near Toowoomba. But just the following year, Rev. Thackeray was thrown from a horse at Clifton in an accident that left him lame for life.

Then the reverend was left covered in brains and skull fragments when the station manager he was travelling with was murdered beside him. The murderer became the first person to be hanged in Toowoomba.

The clergyman then fell into debt to Henry Spiro who was twice the mayor of Toowoomba. The reverend tried to protect his assets by selling everything to his children, who at the time were aged from ten-years down to just four-months. That didn’t work and he still had to pay.

His offspring didn’t fare well either, because in a thirteen-year period, six of his children died in infancy. Imagine that – every two years losing a child.

Rev. Thackeray died in 1879 aged just fifty-two. But life would have been very different if today’s legal standards had applied.

You see, remember after he left Ipswich, he was lamed for life when thrown off his horse? Well, that was no accident.

Rev. Thackeray was in Clifton to solemnise the nuptials of the station overseer there. The overseer’s favourite horse was a high-spirited one. The parson was a poor horseman and that set the boys on the station thinking. When Rev. Thackeray was ready to leave, it was the overseer’s flighty horse that was saddled for him. The preacher climbed into the saddle in his customary heavy manner, and the horse showed its resentment by throwing the reverend gentleman to earth in a heap. His leg was caught underneath and his ankle was really badly dislocated. It was so severe that he was laid up at Clifton for weeks and was never able to walk properly again.

Now, in today’s world, court cases for compensation would have followed. And for the poor clergyman one hundred and sixty years ago, you kind of wish they had.

You see, the family of the station overseer in Clifton came into very good circumstances. Their daughter Fredrica married into the Mosman family whose relatives included the richest and most famous people in the colony.

Family included the eighth premier of Queensland, Thomas McIlwraith, and the fifth premier Arthur Palmer whose daughter-in-law haunts the house Dovercourt in Brisbane today. There was also Emma Mosman whose husband was linked to the Murder on Mitchell Downs.

Then there was Hugh Mosman who discovered gold in Charters Towers, and brothers Archibald and George Mosman after whom the Sydney suburb of Mosman is named. That’s the affluent harbourside suburb on the Lower North Shore. (Picture top of page.) At one time the Mosman family owned all of it.

Rev. Thackeray lost six children as infants, defrauded the mayor of Toowoomba, was a murder witness splattered with brains, and was lamed for life by the negligent station staff.

For Rev. Thackeray it was a case of lost opportunity after he left Ipswich – it could well have been well within his rights to claim some of that Mosman wealth from the overseer’s daughter as compensation.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD LIVE ON RADIO.

Photo credits:
View from Mosman – Mosman Travel Guide, Expedia.
John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley, by Nathaniel Dauce Holland – The Peerage.
Rev, Richard Thackeray headstone, Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery – Toowoomba Region.
Archibald Mosman – Mosman Municipal Council.