http://davidsonfamilyarchives.blogspot.com.au
On 18 November 1828 William Davidson was appointed by Governor Arthur as the 1st Superintendent of the Government and Domain Gardens (later known as Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens).
 |
| William Davidson 1805 - 1837 |
On 18 November 1828 William Davidson was appointed by Governor Arthur as the 1st Superintendent of the Government and Domain Gardens (later known as Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens).
Davidson was the Head Gardener on the Benwell Estate in Northumberland, England and was awarded three medals for melons, mushrooms and asparagus by the Northumberland and Newcastle-on-Tyne Horticultural Society. He was a man of substance with influential friends. He arrived in Hobart Town on the "Albion" 31 December 1827 with capital of 500 pounds Sterling, 800 trees, 200 grape vines, seeds, cuttings and letters of introduction. He was only 24 years of age when appointed. He was obviously no ordinary gardener risen from the ranks. His letters reveal him as a man of education and refinement, well favoured and unassuming. Governor Arthur was elated to get a trained and competent man to take charge of the Garden. He was to be paid a salary of one hundred pounds per annum, rations and a house in the Government Garden. Davidson proved to be the right man for the job, developing the gardens rapidly.
The stone for Davidson's residence was quarried on site. The building was originally designed with a central courtyard. Three rooms of prepared freestone blocks on the northern side were for use by the Superintendent and his family. On the opposite side of the courtyard, two rooms with walls of rubble construction were for the convicts who maintained the gardens. Six were housed in one room and four in the other. The windows on the northern side are of Gothic Revival design.
 |
| William Davidson's residence built 1829 |
 |
| William Davidson's residence (left) built 1829 with convict accomodation (right) |
The building has been modified greatly over the years, and much of the original charm has been lost. The building has been used as a Museum and today it is an Administration Office.
 |
| Davidson's cottage built 1829 photo taken 2005 |
 |
| William Davidson's residence with sundial - photo taken 2006 |
William Davidson married Elizabeth Naisbett on 1 September 1829 at St.David's Church of England in Hobart. They had 4 children - 2 were born while the family was living at the Gardens.
 |
| William Davidson married Elizabeth Naisbett at St David's Cathedral, Hobart on 1 September 1829 |
By 1829, he was organising
building materials for fences, making muchroom beds, coping with
bureaucracy for supplies and the army for the supplies of dung. He also
had to counter the theft of produce, as well as ordering plants and
seeds from England and Launceston.
Possibly the most memorable project undertaken during his period of residence was the construction of the impressive Arthur Wall, under instructions from Governor Arthur. The Wall was to serve both as a western boundary to the Queen's Domain and an internally heated wall on which exotic fruits and flowere could be grown. This hollow wall was faced on one side with freestone blocks quarried near the grounds of the present Government House, and on the adjacent face with mellow brick. The fire places and flues are still there. Many years have passed since the wall was internally heated, but today it retains the heat of the sun so well that flowing creepers and other exotic plants grow over a large part of it. A microclimate is thus provided.
 |
| Arthur Wall constructed in 1829 - photo taken 2006 |
By 1830, there was an enclosed area of 13 acres. Twelve gardeners and 12 convicts were needed to cultivate the gardens and clear the Domain.
The expansion of the Gardens did not proceed without
criticism. In 1831, the "Colonial Times" complained of the excessive
number of convicts employed there. The editor suggested that the Gardens
benefited only two or three of the colony's "leading stars" and wondered what was done with all the cabbages and cauliflowers!
The cultivation of native plants was not neglected. He had over 130 species growing which had been gathered from the slopes and summit of Mount Wellington. Seed was also sent to the Royal Belfast Institution and to the Horticultural Gardens at Hammersmith, London, where they were reported as thriving luxuriantly in 1832.
In 1832 tribute was pair to Davidson for his successful management of a hive of bees introduced by Dr.T.B.Wilson R.N., a Surgeon and Superintendent on convict transports. These bees apparently were the first European bees in the Colony and multiplied sufficiently in the Gardens for Governor Arthur to send a hive to Governor Bourke in Sydney.
The Gardens became so popular that by December 1832, Governor Arthur directed that they be closed on Sundays. This was because of "the extreme inconvenience and injury which arises from the great number of persons who resort there on the Sundays", accoring to the Superintendent.
Davidson was apparently also a Draftsman. He made plans for quite
elaborate glasshouses, but Governor Arthur approved of only 40-50 feet
of them. There were many delays in their construction and on 31 July
1833, Davidson recorded that he was worried about his 200 pineapple
plants for which he needed glasshouses. He also wanted an apple house
to store the fruit from the big collection.
Reverend Robert Knopwood, the first Anglican Chaplain in Van Diemen's Land wrote in his diary that he spent the morning at the Government Garden on 14th January 1834. He had not been there for more than six years, and found it "very beautiful with prodigious quantity of fruit of every kind".
Superintendent Davidson was probably not robust and may have burned himself out in developing the Gardens. His handwriting - initially impeccable as shown by his signature with the date, February 18th 1833 engraved on one of the windows in his residence which later showed a marked deterioration.
 |
| William Davidson's signature February 18th 1833 engraved in his residence window - taken 2005 |
A year later there had been a break-in at the Director's office with some window panes broken. Fortunately the above pane was not broken but was removed for safe keeping and appropriately framed for sake-keeping.
Joy Olney holding an ink sketch of William Davidson and the framed window pane 2006.
Reverend Robert Knopwood, the first Anglican Chaplain in Van Diemen's Land wrote in his diary that he spent the morning at the Government Garden on 14th January 1834. He had not been there for more than six years, and found it "very beautiful with prodigious quantity of fruit of every kind".
If there are any Davidson descendants out there I would appreciate you contacting me via email
joyolney@gmail.com
To view my other blogs go to - https://sites.google.com/site/joysblogs123/
Reverend Robert Knopwood, the first Anglican Chaplain in Van Diemen's Land wrote in his diary that he spent the morning at the Government Garden on 14th January 1834. He had not been there for more than six years, and found it "very beautiful with prodigious quantity of fruit of every kind".
“Hobart Town Courier” 3 October 1829 Page 2
Re Government Garden
We were much gratified the other
day in taking a walk to the Government Garden, to observe the rapid improvement
since our last visit, both in an architectural and horticultural point. Besides a very neat and ornamental cottage
for the Superintendent, a capital garden wall has been erected, against which
we understand a hot house and green house are to be raised, so long a desideratum
in this island. Mr Davidson the superintendent has been very successful with the
seeds which we lately mentioned had been introduced from India by Dr
Henderson. Almost every seed has come
up. Among them are several fine healthy
plants of acacia and mimosa, and other elegant shrubs. We observed two or three specimens of that
stupendous species called the Snake Killer in India. It grows there to the height of upwards of
100 feet, and the strong rigid thorns with which the stem is studded,
frequently to the length of 12 or 15 feet, are apt to spear the snakes as they
climb among the branches, when they cannot by any possibility escape. As most of these plants are natives of the
higher parts of Hindustan, and bordering some of them on Tartary, it is possible
that with the help of Mr Davidson’s
experience and attention they may be gradually inured to this climate. The South American seeds introduced by Mr
Moore from Rio are also in a thriving state, and are all coming up, as are also
a number of seed Geraniums, brought by Mr
Davidson, of which we know but two or three varieties, with the exception
of our native species, as yet in the island.
“The Mercury”
(Hobart, Tas. 1860 – 1954) Friday 20 May 1932, page 7
re Botanical Gardens
……..Governor Arthur bestowed much
attention on the garden, and wrote that he wished for a botanical garden on the
Domain to be commenced immediately for native plants and shrubs. In 1828 Mr
William Davidson was appointed overseer, and did much good work, bringing
from England upwards of 2000 vines and fruit trees. In 1828 the house at the gardens, still
occupied by the superintendent, was built and the Wall commenced. The
Wall was of stone, faced with brick and the fireplaces and flues were built in
it, so that the Wall could be heated to assist the ripening of the fruit. Mr
Davidson gathered the seeds of 150 species of native plants from the slopes
and summit of Mt Wellington…….
Note: The Wall was later named
The Arthur Wall.
“Colonial Times” (Hobart, Tas. 1828 – 1857) Wednesday, 30 May 1832.
Re: William Davidson.
The side-wind manner in which the
“Courier” contrived in its number of the 12th instant, to bring
forward the merits of Mr Davidson,
“the intelligent and industrious Superintendent of the Government Gardens”,
just at the moment that we had been showing the public what the greatest farce
of all notable farces, these Government Gardens are, with their
Superintendents, and all other circumstances thereto appertaining, is really
quite amusing. It appears, however, if
we are to credit what we are so told, that it has been reserved for this able
and intelligent rearer of “guinea cabbages”, to make the discovery of a fine
tract of fertile open land, at the back of Mount Wellington, and within eight
miles too, of the township of New Norfolk.
But in the first place, we have
to observe as some diminution of the claim for merit so advanced on behalf of Mr Davidson, that every enquiry we have
made upon the subject has produced one and the same answer, and that this may
be aptly conveyed to our readers in the words of one of our Correspondents the
week before last, who described the fine fertile tract in question, to be
nothing else than a “barren iron stone waste”.
In the second, even had it been otherwise, even were this Golconda to be
found, which most probably appeared in a vision to the “intelligent
Superintendent”, when comfortably reposing after a hard day’s search for seeds,
(the advantage of a sumpter carrying a well stored canteen having previously
been duly appreciated), still we should have been very slow to admit that the
discovery had not cost more than it is worth, and that we had not much better
have been without the fine fertile tract, and the seeds of the native plants
that grew in its neighbourhood to boot, than to have obtained them at the price
we have shown the Government Gardens, including of course “the intelligent and
industrious Superintendent’s” annual salary cost the public.
The question however is, how long
will these things last? How long will
the public sit contented under Government Gardens – Government this –
Government that – Government every thing – over which not only have they no
control, but from which they do not derive the smallest benefit or
advantage? But we may perhaps have it
said to us in reply, that we trouble ourselves about things that concern us not
– that the bulk of the expense of the “guinea cabbages”, and of the industrious
and intelligent Superintendent, and of his el dorado discovery is borne by the
English Government under that mystification known by the name of convict
expenditure. Fair and softly, ye
supporters of things as they are, we rejoin.
Supposing that the English Government does pay the expenses, are we not
bound in common honesty to act the faithful steward, and to prevent any waste
of the money from which we annually derive a very great advantage? Should not this principle therefore rather
lead us to assign all the hands that are uselessly employed on Government Farms
and Gardens to the service of settlers, by whom every shilling for their
maintenance, &c. would be cheerfully paid, rather than to suffer them to
remain in their present occupation?
We maintain that it should – and
moreover we maintain that the sooner we set about a work that is claimed at our
hands, by so unanswerable a demand, the better will it eventually – aye, and
very shortly too, prove for ourselves; for no one who attentively considers the
jealous feeling which marks every vote for money for the service of the
Colonies, in the House of Commons – who looks at the eagerness with which our
surplus revenue is annually pounced upon by the British Treasury, in the shape
of sums alleged to be due to the Commissariat; and lastly, no one who puts any faith
in Lord Althorp’s recent declaration in Parliament, when he said, as we find
reported in the “Times”, that “Government not only intended forthwith to reduce
all the Colonial offices that had been recommended by the Committee, but to
carry that reductions into all our Colonial establishments, that are borne by
the Mother Country”. No one we say who
looks at these signs of the times attentively, need doubt, nay can doubt, what
must be their end or issue. Every wen,
every excrescence therefore upon our little body-politic, such as Government
Gardens, ought to be removed in time, lest the increased growth and strength of
the future may make the work more difficult. As for land discoveries, we have a Survey
Establishment, numerous enough, and expensive enough God knows, to explore
every hole and corner of the Island, and to do all their regular work besides,
if Mr Davidson could but contrive to
engraft some of his own intelligence and industry upon them. We fear,
nevertheless, that however good might be the scions, all his skill and
ingenuity would fall in curing the barren nature of the stock, he will have had
to work upon.
Before we conclude, let us render
an act of justice. From our manner of
mentioning Mr Davidson, that
gentleman may perhaps conceive that we bear hard upon him; but it is not the
individual, but the appointment, with all the invisible expenses that attend
it, to which we object; and which, we contend, ought to be got rid of, or at
least placed upon a much more economical footing. Of Mr
Davidson himself, we have never seen
nor heard anything that was not highly respectable. We believe too, all that is said by the
“Courier”, of his industry and intelligence; the only question with us being,
whether these qualities, in their present sphere of action, are of any use to
the Colony. We do not blame Mr Davidson, nor should we blame any
other man for accepting a good salary, a comfortable house, a grant of land,
and divers odd end advantages, not of a nature to be enumerated, when such
benefits are offered him. We only wish
some good natured person would make the experiment with ourselves, and we would
very soon convince him, that we belong not to the order of Cynics. No: we
censure the giver, not the man on whom the gifts are bestowed; and so long as
the system continues, under which the latter is tolerated, we have no objection
that Mr Davidson should come in for
the full share he now enjoys; and if, once a year or so, he can really hit upon
some terra incognita, that is not an “iron stone barren waste”, why so much the
better.
If there are any Davidson descendants out there I would appreciate you contacting me via email
joyolney@gmail.com
To view my other blogs go to - https://sites.google.com/site/joysblogs123/
Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens today!
Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens 2006
Japanese Gardens at Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens 2006
