Born in 1800 at Thrumster, Caithness, Scotland, Archibald Clunes Innes obtained a commission as an ensign in the 3rd Regiment, The Buffs. He obtained his Captain’s commission in 1821 and on 20 July 1822, with 160 convicts and guard, Captain Innes sailed from Sheerness for Australia on board the Eliza, and arrived in Sydney on 22 November, after a 140 day voyage.
In November 1826 Innes was appointed Commandant at Port Macquarie. Recalled to Sydney to become Brigade Major, he later resigned his commission and became Police Magistrate at Parramatta.
Innes married Margaret Macleay (1802–1858), a daughter of the then Colonial Secretary, Alexander Macleay, in 1829, and in 1830 returned to Port Macquarie as Police Magistrate and took up 2560 acres at Lake Burrawan, later renamed Lake Innes, and obtained numerous government contracts to supply provisions to the penal settlement. His wife also had 1280 acres as a “marriage portion” on the Wilson River at Crottys Plains. With the cheap convict labour provided by the government, they built Lake Innes Cottage, a residence with 22 ‘apartments’. They were renowned throughout New South Wales for their hospitality. Besides the mansion Innes built at Lake Innes, he owned hotels, wool stores and many cattle and sheep properties throughout the region. A man of wide interests, he was the most influential of the early settlers in the district.
In 1842 Innes’ sister Barbara married George Macleay, a son of Alexander Macleay.
Innes’ niece, Annabella (the daughter of his brother
George who died in 1839), lived at Lake Innes from April to November 1839 and
again from January 1843 to [May?] 1848, and wrote a series of diaries—now
held by the Port Macquarie Historical Society—which record many facets of
her early life in the region. They have been published under the title Annabella
Boswell’s Journal.
Innes survived the economic depression of the early 1840s, but with the cessation of transportation, meaning no more cheap labour, he finally became bankrupt in 1852.
Innes was appointed assistant gold commissioner at Hanging Rock on the Peel River, in succession to Edward Hargraves. William Telfer’s manuscript[1] records an experience Inne’s had during this period: “Even the Commissioner Major Innes was bailed up by two armed men as he was returning from Tamworth. One man presented a gun at him, told him to bail up, when he spoke the other man recognised him and said to his mate that it is the Major, don’t shoot. He said by G[od] it is the Major. They begged his pardon. He made them throw away their gun and come with him to the police camp. He promised them he would not prosecute them on condition they would lead an honest life, giving each man a licence to work on the goldfield where they done well, and always behaved themselves afterwards. The commissioner kept this very quiet but one of the men told his mates about the kind-hearted old Major. He was a grand old gentleman not many like him at the time.”
As Telfer’s story of his being bailed up indicates, Innes had acquired a reputation for exceptional leniency, much to the dissatisfaction of his superiors. It was probably most fortunate for Henry Cohen and his family that he was able to serve his time assigned to Innes at Port Macquarie.
In 1853 Innes and his wife moved to Newcastle where he
became Police Magistrate. He died there on 29 August 1857. Margaret died there
in 1858.
[Biography in ADB, vol. 2, 1788–1850, pp.3–4.]
Most of the following is distilled from an article written by Jacob Frankel’s son by his second marriage, Philip Frankel (1863–1943), and read before the Society by his sister-in-law, Mrs William L. Cohen, on 8 July 1943, and published in AJHS, Vol. 1, Pt. 10, December 1943:
Jacob Frankel was a Hebrew scholar. Soon after his arrival in England, he came under the notice of Chief Rabbi Solomon Hirschell, at whose home he recited the customary prayers after the demise of his [Jacob’s] mother.
The Chief Rabbi invited him to study for the ministry. He did so and later received an appointment in England to a congregation.
He resigned, however, after three years’ service, from the position, and entered upon a business career, choosing Greenwich and the surrounding towns as his field of operations. In 1834, at Greenwich, he was married to Miss Miriam Moses [b.1815; daughter of Moses? Moses?].
His wife’s brother, Elias Moses, visited England from Australia in 1841 and persuaded him to migrate with his wife and family to Australia. Accordingly, in June 1842, he sailed from England with his wife and three children [Mary (b.1836), Esther (b.1838) and Simeon (1840–1937)] in the sailing ship Calcutta. His destination was Hobart, Tasmania, where they disembarked in October of the same year. There he took part in the founding of the Hobart Hebrew congregation.
In 1847 he suffered misfortune by the death of his wife, and his sister-in-law, Mrs Elias [Julia] Moses, of Sydney, took over the care of the two younger children. One of these, Simeon [the other, Esther], was later for about thirty years the Secretary of the Great Synagogue in Sydney. The eldest daughter, Mary, was also taken care of by another brother [D. M. H. Moses] residing in Sydney.
In 1849 Jacob made a voyage to San Francisco, and after his arrival he acted as an officiant in the Hebrew congregation “Scheareth Israel.” About 1852 he decided to return to Australia, and, on hearing of his intended departure, the congregants presented him with a memento in the form of a gold medal bearing a Hebrew inscription on the one side and on the reverse a translation in English, reading as follows:
Presented to Jacob Frankel, Esq., by the Congregation Scheareth Israel as a mark of esteem and respect for his kindness in rendering his services as Hassan, Tishri 5612, San Francisco, October 1852.
On his return to Australia Jacob started in business in Melbourne, but later he assisted the Rev. Moses Rintel at the Bourke Street Synagogue. By that gentleman he was married to Mary Marks [b.1833]. He left Melbourne again in 1861 and went to Dunedin in New Zealand, where their son Philip was born in 1863; but he remained there only till 1864, when he removed to Wellington.
Jacob died on 30 August 1899, and Mary died on 14 December 1899. Both are buried in the Jewish Cemetery at Wellington, New Zealand.
[Philip Frankel married two sisters, Minnie and Estella Myra, daughters of his much older step-sister, Mary Frankel, who had, in 1854, married Lewis Cohen, the fifth son of Henry Cohen. And, Simeon Frankel married Anne, a daughter of Samuel Henry Cohen, the eldest son of Henry Cohen.]
Other references:
Frankel, Jacob. ‘The Life of Jacob Frankel’ (autobiography), AJHS, Vol. 13, Pt 3, November 1996, pp 395–412.
“English-born former calico glazier James Simmons (1797[sic]–1849), transported in 1815 for stealing jewellery from no less a personage than the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. He became a publican, auctioneer and eventually the owner of a well-stocked Sydney store. His brother Joseph came to Sydney as a free settler. He married a gentile.”[2]
In 1821 James married Agnes Thorley ?
James Simmons was elected a Sydney alderman in 1848.[3]
James Simmons died[4] ______ 1849.
Children: Joseph; David (d.1850 at Tamworth aged 17 years[5]); Isaac (d.1857 at Sydney aged 21 years[6]); Sarah (1832–90), married David Hart; Frances . . . ; Agnes (d.1880 at Paddington[7]) . . . ; Elizabeth (1835–1925), married Gustav Wangenheim.
James Simmons (1795–1849), merchant, left an estate valued at £15,000.[8] His daughter Sarah, widow of David Hart, left an estate in NSW in 1890 valued at £234,495.[9] Another daughter, Elizabeth, widow of Gustav Wangenheim, left an estate in NSW in 1925 valued at £155,123.[10]
[Other ref: Levi. The Forefathers, AJHS, 1976. p.106.]
