Farmer Thomas Wiggins

In Hobart recently, I caught up with my only cousin on my father’s side. His mother was my aunt. I spent some time today researching his paternal ancestry. I found his third great-grandfather from Staffordshire, who was arrested at age fourteen for stealing and transported for seven years.
The most unusual discovery was the story of another third great-grandfather, Thomas Wiggins. Thomas had the unique distinction of being the first birth recorded in the official baptismal register in Van Diemen’s Land.

The Mercury of Hobart reported his death on September 30, 1884.

DEATH OF THE OLDEST INHABITANT OF TASMANIA.

“Mr. Thomas Wiggins, whose arrival in Hobart dates back to the foundation of the colony by Govenor Collins in 1804, died at his residence, Springmouth, Sorell, on Saturday last, in the 81st year of his age, after an uninterrupted residence in Tasmania of 80 years. He was, at the time of his death, the oldest inhabitant, and the last of the arrivals by the first fleet visiting Tasmania, having been born on board HMS Calcutta, at sea, on the voyage from England to Australia, on June 11, 1803. His birth is thus recorded in the Rev. Robert Knopwood’s published journal of the voyage:-

‘Saturday, June 11, 1803. Mary Wiggins, wife of a colonial marine, was delivered of a son.’

“The deceased was christened on board HMS Calcutta by the first chaplain of Tasmania, the Rev. Robert Knopwood, Captain Huston, R.M., standing godfather at the ceremony. With his father and mother he was landed at Port Phillip when six months old; but, on the hasty abandonment of ‘the settlement’, as it was then called, on account of its fancied worthlessness, though it is now regarded as the land of Ophir, he came to Hobart with his parents in the early part of 1804. 

“His early days were spent in this city, but the greater part of his life at Sorell, where, until his death, he was a successful farmer. He leaves behind him over 60 descendants, running through three generations, to perpetuate his memory. The deceased was frugal and industrious throughout his life, free from pecuniary anxiety in his declining years, and leaves behind him a good name, which is better than riches. His remains will be buried in the family vault at Sorell this afternoon.”

The portrait is from the studio of Mr. Wherrett, of Hobart Town. After the passionate petition of Josiah C Pratt of the Sorell Council Chambers, it was included in the Melbourne International Exhibition (the eighth World’s Fair) in 1880. Pratt waxed poetically of the subject: “It portrays ‘The Old Man’ not ‘The Child of the Ocean’, as he was when landed in his mother’s arms at Point Nepean 77 years back: “full of years and full of cares, with furrowed brow, with whitened hair and sinking frame, quietly sitting at ease in his rustic homestead of Springmount, in the rural municipality of Sorell, in the colony of Tasmania, and like Jacob of old, gently leaning on his staff. 

“The painting of the clouds above, and the ocean below – on the bosom of which HMS Calcutta and HMS Ocean may both be seen – is the work of Capt. Forrest; whilst the plain Oxford frame, which is of Tasmania knotted myrtle, is the handiwork of Mr. George Davis, of Sorell.”