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Andrew Torning (1814-1900) a not very useful addition?
‘He is not calculated to be very useful here’ was a theatre critic’s verdict on Andrew Torning one month after Torning’s arrival in Sydney. Nearly 60 years later, a review of his life would recall him as a more than useful addition, and this usefulness extended to numerous areas in the development and growth of the colony of New South Wales. Andrew Torning was born in London, England, 26 September 1814, the son of Andrew Torning (1784-1815), Master Mariner, and Ann Dayton. It has been suggested that Andrew’s father was Danish, as the name ‘Torning’ is present in Scandinavia, however, there is no evidence to support this suggestion.[1] His father was the Master of the vessel Hamilton and he drowned on 9 September 1815 when his ship was lost in a gale while sailing between Jamaica and London.[2]
Andrew, who was a painter of both houses and theatrical backdrops, married Eliza Crew at St. Leonard’s church, Shoreditch, England, on 9 July 1832. They had two children, Thomas Andrew (1834-1868) and Eliza (1836-1862), and by 1841 were living in Provost Street, Hoxton, New Town.
On 18 May 1842, Andrew and Eliza were onboard the barque Trial as it left Plymouth bound for Sydney via Rio de Janeiro and they arrived in Sydney on 21 October 1842. This concluded a long and slow journey in which the trip to Rio de Janeiro had taken 15 or so weeks when it normally took seven.[3] What was the inducement for Andrew and Eliza, with their two young children then aged eight and six, to leave England and come to Australia? The answer is ‘the theatre’.
Colonial Theatrics
Joseph Wyatt was the owner of the Royal Victoria Theatre in Sydney and he had decided he needed some fresh performers for his theatre. In order to obtain them, he boarded the Royal George and left Sydney on 21 March 1841 bound for London.[4]The Sydney public was informed that
Mr Wyatt, is about proceeding to England, where that gentleman proposes to engage an efficient number for all the several branches of the department. For the professional part of Mr Wyatt’s embassy, we confidently rely on his judgment and liberality; and in his private relations …[5]
During 1841 and 1842, Andrew and Eliza were both performers at the Royal Albert Saloon, Shepherdess Walk, City-road, London. This was a minor theatre and was part of Henry Bradley’s Royal Standard Tavern and Pleasure Gardens. It featured concerts, vaudevilles, melodramas, animal acts, fireworks, ballooning, and weekly dances, and the price of admission was usually not more than sixpence.[6]
The couple had adopted the ‘stage name’ of Mr and Mrs Andrews, she as a dancer[7] and he, in the company of others, doing ‘Herculean Feats’.[8] Learning that they were leaving for Sydney, the Royal Albert Saloon Company gave a benefit in their honour.[9] The Company’s Saloon was a conveniently situated venue for the couple as they lived in Provost Street which was a short walk from the theatre. Andrew was a painter by profession and, as he later showed significant skill in painting theatre backdrops (or act drops),[10] this probably was his main source of income and it is doubtful that their theatrical efforts gave them much financial security. The opportunity to come to Sydney meant an increase in income as the average stipend for those who performed at the Albert Saloon was between 15 and 25 shillings whereas in Sydney they would earn from four to six pounds.[11] Sydney was also possibly an enhanced opportunity to be more engaged in the theatre.
(more…)George Collison Tuting (1814-1892)
an aspiring but ordinary nineteenth-century colonist
George Collison Tuting was not an outstanding figure in nineteenth-century NSW. Coming to the colony he hoped to better himself and his family in the drapery business which was a trade he knew well. On arrival he was socially well connected through marriage to the Farmer family (Farmers & Co). He was welcomed into the Pitt Street Congregational Church’s merchant circle (including G A Lloyd, Alfred Fairfax, David Jones) and while he had great aspirations he failed to convert them into business success. His early philanthropic endeavours were quickly extinguished by his failure in business; bankruptcy does not enhance one’s ability to be philanthropic. In the latter phase of his life, having obtained a certain level of financial stability, he gave of his time to help organize various philanthropic activities mostly promoting spiritual engagement.
Tuting was born in Beverley, Yorkshire, England, in January 1814 and was the son of Jeremiah Tuting, variously a cordwainer (shoemaker) and sexton of St Marys’ Church, Beverley, and Sarah Collison.[1] In 1841, George married Eliza Bolton (1817-1847) and they had 5 children: William Collison (1841-1918), George Bolton (1843-1843), Eliza Bolton Kent (1844-1883), Emily Sarah Parsons (1846-1924) and Henry Gutteridge (1847-1847). Eliza died in March 1847[2] and on 9 February 1848, George married Mary Petford nee Farmer (1804-1868), the widow of Jason Petford, a draper in Brierley Hill. Mary and Jason, had married in 1827[3] and had two daughters: Mary (1834-1858) and Amelia (1843–1928).
The Tuting family left England 8 November 1849, on the Prince of Wales and arrived in Sydney on 21 February 1850. The family group consisted of George and his wife Mary and George’s son William, his daughters Eliza and Emily, his nephew Thomas Shires Tuting together with Mary’s two daughters, Mary and Amelia.[4]
In England
George was a draper and his first shop was in the Market Place, Beverley, and while it is unknown when he began business, the first evidence of its existing is from 10 April 1840 when he sought to commend his goods to the public through the distribution of printed hand bills.[5] He was a religious man who, when advertising for staff, made a point of indicating that ‘a man of piety will be preferred’[6] and when seeking an apprentice gave the assurance that his ‘Moral and Religious training will be strictly attended to, as well as receiving a thorough knowledge of the Business.’[7] He was, as a churchman, a Congregationalist attending the Independent Chapel, Beverley, and later at Brierley Hill.[8]
It would appear that George was interested in missions, financially supporting a young Indian man from 1846-1849 so that he could undergo training for ministry at Bangalore, India.[9] He also gave money to a Medical Institution[10] and towards the building of a Mission College in Hong Kong.[11] The Missionary Magazine and Chronicle, a publication mostly concentrating on the work of the London Missionary Society, was itself largely supported by Independent Churches. That his financial support of missions was recorded in this publication is consistent with his churchmanship being congregational.
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Bush Missionary Society – the early years up to World War 1
In 1861, the Queanbeyan-based newspaper ‘The Golden Age’ reported a case which it regarded as one of ‘rank heathenism’ and ‘an instance of the most lamentable ignorance it is possible to conceive of, as existing in a professedly Christian country’.[1] The ‘rank heathenism’ and ‘lamentable ignorance’ concerned a 12-year-old boy named Hobson and his lack of even a basic civilising experience of school and church or an understanding of the Christian faith. He was to testify in the Small Debts Court, but before he was sworn in to give evidence the Police Magistrate asked him a few questions:
PM How old are you?
Boy Don’t know.
PM Have you been to school?
Boy No.
PM Ever been to church?
Boy No.
PM Do you say any prayers?
Boy No.
PM Ever heard of God?
Boy No.
PM Ever heard of heaven or hell?
Boy No. [and after some hesitation] Yes, I think I have.
PM What people go to heaven when they die?
Boy Bad people.
The newspaper then commented on the situation and suggested a remedy:
Who the parents of the boy are, we know not; but such a specimen of rank heathenism we never heard of in a so-called Christian country. We draw the attention of the committee of the Bush Missionary Society to this case.[2]
The isolation of the ‘bush’ in colonial Australia meant that there were many, like young Hobson, who were never exposed to the Christian message, worship and prayer and were thereby ignorant of its precepts; the problem was recognised, but it was difficult to address. An attempt, however, was being made to address this lack of Christian ministry through the distribution of bibles and religious literature by colporteurs, and it was to this ministry of the Bush Missionary Society (BMS) that the Queanbeyan newspaper ‘The Golden Age’ looked in order to address the problem.
The BMS was, however, not the first in the colony of NSW to seek to deal with the issue of the spiritual neglect of the bush through the use of colporteurs. This honour belongs to James Robinson, colporteur with the Bible Society, who was the first to provide a ministry of bible distribution to the sparsely populated rural districts. In 1852, Robinson began his work in ‘the bush’ and in his helpful article Gladwin says that:
Robinson’s journeys were the first of many undertaken by dozens of colporteurs—across the Australian continent—on behalf of Australian Bible Society agencies during the second half of the nineteenth century. They provided important pastoral and evangelistic ministry to sparsely populated rural districts in the decades before the creation of dedicated ministries such as the Anglican Bush Brotherhoods (1897–1920) and the evangelical Anglican Bush Church Aid Society (BCA, founded 1919).[3]
Well before the commencement of the Anglican bush ministries that Gladwin mentions, and only a few years after the commencement of the work of the Bible Society, the ministry of the non-denominational Juvenile Missionary Society (JMS), later known as the New South Wales Bush Missionary Society (BMS), was inaugurated.[4]
(more…)Penny Banks in Colonial NSW: banking that sought to serve
The former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Professor Allan Fels, commenting on the revelations about banking behaviour in the Royal Commission, has said
“… it’s now out there in public that this behaviour has been going on, widespread, shocking, unconscionable … It’s worse than I thought, more systemic, more unconscionable.”[1]
Jeff Morris, the whistleblower on Commonwealth Bank activities, recently in receipt of $700 million dollar fine for ‘dodgy’ behaviour, sees it arising in part from the
“untrammelled greed of management fuelled by out-of-control bonus schemes based on Key Performance Indicators”.[2]
Such are things today, but I want to take you to a happier banking time which was motivated not by profit but by philanthropy; to the time of the Penny Bank. “A penny saved is a penny gained” was a slogan used in NSW to promote the formation of Penny Banks and to encourage the poor to bank very small sums.
Where did the idea of Penny Banks originate and what was their purpose?
The Penny Bank (PB) in origin seems to have several stands to its DNA. In 1861 J D Langley, himself a banker and future bishop of the Church of England in Australia, drew attention to Priscilla Wakefield in Tottenham as the founder of the PB. In 1798, she founded the first ‘frugality bank’ in England to help those on low incomes to save money. Members paid, according to age, a monthly sum which would give them a pension after they were 60 years old and money if they were sick.[3] In this function, it was more like a Friendly Society than a bank for it was a form of superannuation, the benefit of which was only available to its beneficiary at a certain date.
In 1808, a society was formed in Bath for the purpose of receiving the savings of industrious and respectable servants upon which interest of four per cent was paid. The management of the scheme was undertaken by a committee of eight, four of whom were ladies.[4] PBs, which were open to all and where funds could be drawn at any stage, was a Scottish innovation[5] being formed in West Calder by its minister the Rev John Muckersey in 1807[6] and then a short time later by the Rev Henry Duncan of Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire in 1810.[7] Such banks, however, did not become commonplace in Scotland until decades later in the 1860s.
The aim of the PB was to encourage the less well-off to save very small sums ‘to encourage and foster habits of regularity and frugal economy’[8] and place them with the PB. In turn, this money would be deposited by the Trustees of the PB in a Savings Bank which would pay interest that was passed on to the PB depositor. The PB was necessary as the Savings Banks normally would only accept a minimum deposit of one shilling.[9] Initially, the first NSW PB did not pay interest as it was intended only to ‘be a poor man’s purse to save his pence until they became shilling and pounds’ upon which time they could place their funds in a savings bank.[10] It was considered, quite correctly, that calculating interest would be a significant burden on the administrators and so this initial PB was promoted as a ‘Safety Bank’ and not a ‘Savings’ Bank’. This was soon to change and PBs did pay interest. Depositors were encouraged to become a PB member as
You will have the advantage of feeling you are doing your duty to your family and yourself, and that you are placing your money where it will be safe, until sickness or old age, or some other cause compels you to ask for it again.[11]
The first PBs in the colonies of Australia were at Unley in South Australia (1858),[12] Dalby in Queensland (1859),[13] Liverpool in New South Wales (1859),[14] Geelong in Victoria (1862)[15] and Launceston in Tasmania (1862).[16] The way the PBs were organised was outlined in a newspaper article encouraging their formation:
Philanthropists and Philanthropy 