Gordon Blair - Mystery? or Not!

[OZScot]

Here is the Trove article our OP refers to re John MOLLOY and Gordon BLAIR on same voyage.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/186360762 Daily Standard 13 March 1930.

Some (not yet all) dots are starting to join up.   Interesting that a two year old John MOLLOY knew he came on same voyage as an adult Gordon BLAIR.   

And another http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/118470529

JM,
Amazingly my Great Aunt was 2yro when she landed in Moreton Bay 1866 and she told the story in a letter's to the editor how her mother told her the ship's name and year of arrival. If that letter hadn't been written I would never have found them and given up.
God bless Trove & Auntie Jane [another Jane]

 

[OZScot]

Hopefully of interest ....

http://www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/Search/BasicSearch.aspx

INDEX info only
Eccs Files
Gordon BLAIR  Series 4486 Item 281260
Julia BLAIR, Item 2815283

Land Agreement 23/9/1863-22/2/1864
Gordon BLAIR as Purchaser …. Series 1215, Item 1959983

JM

This may be the land JM:

Situation of land: subdivisions 1 & 2 of portion 104, subdivision 3 of portions 103 & 104
subdivisions 4 & 5 of portions 103, and suburban portion 168 County of Stanley, parish
of Ipswich, and allotment 39 of section 51, town of Ipswich.

[majm]

This may be the land JM:

Situation of land: subdivisions 1 & 2 of portion 104, subdivision 3 of portions 103 & 104
subdivisions 4 & 5 of portions 103, and suburban portion 168 County of Stanley, parish
of Ipswich, and allotment 39 of section 51, town of Ipswich.

OZScot, 

I am not related to any of this BLAIR family, so I am not sure why you are offering the details on that land to me...  BUT .... umm ...  May I ask if have you actually sought access to any of those various files archived by Qld State Archives?   The info you have posted above - does it come from the 1907 Probate notice for Julia BLAIR, widow, at the following online link?   http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/19386001 The Brisbane Courier 26 August 1907

The index info I posted re the Land file at Qld State Archives .... errr ... it dates from 1863-1864, and not from 1907.  I urge you to consider seeking access to those Probate files and the Land file as I think that you may well find logical answers to many of the apparent conflicting details you currently have at hand about Gordon BLAIR and I am sure your friend will appreciate the effort of seeking out original records.   If it were a NSW Probate packet, then it can contain far more than the will, and it can at times include 'proof' documents like baptismal certificates, birth certificates, marriage certificates for those named as beneficiaries and usually the death cert for the principal person of interest whose deceased estate is being proven by the court. 

JM

[isobelw]

majm posted - There is a Gordon BLAIR in Ipswich,Qld in the 1860s who is NOT working in a lawyers office.  Please see my earlier reply giving live links to newspaper cutting.

From an obituary in the Queensland Times Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser 25/8/1900 -
Gordon Blair was born in Scotland. He arrived in Australia almost 40 years ago and during nearly all of that time resided in Ipswich. He first entered the office of Hon Arthur McAllister, that gentleman at the time practising his profession as a solicitor in Ipswich. Mr Blair's somewhat extensive legal knowledge acquired in the old country served him in good stead in his fresh sphere of duty. It was in connection with her Majesty's Customs that deceased gentleman was best known. His first appointment with the government of Queensland dated from 8th May 1865.
Isobel

[OZScot]

GORDON BLAIR: Possible timeline of movements prior to Arrival of a Gordon Blair Moreton Bay.
Tie all this in with Isobel's great post.

1833 19 Sep birth Glasgow - Fact from DC
1841 Census - St Ninians Stirlingshire
1850 Marriage to Jane Norval - Glasgow Lanark
1850 birth at Barony Lanark
1851 Census - St Ninians Stirlingshire - Law clerk
1852 Birth unnamed child 2 days - Glasgow lanark
1853 Birth at Gorbals
1855 Birth Hutchesontown Glasgow
1856 Birth Hutchesontown Glasgow
1857 Birth at Tradeston - he's a 'writer Glasgow
1861 Census - missing wife Jane a boarder with da Georgina at 40 Maxwell St, Glasgow
1861 7 Aug - Arrival of a Gordon Blair labourer. Only Gordon Blair to arrive in either NSW or QLD
        from 141 Blair arrivals from about 1848 to 1912
1863 Gordon Blair 'claims' he was married that year to Julia Droughton born Ireland although no
        registration exists - Fact   
1863 da Elizabeth is born and registered, he claims he's 31yrs [coincides with his birth in 1833.]
1863 Gordon Blair gets work in a law office of Hon. Arthur Macalister - Ipswich on BC of baby 
        Elizabeth. He never leaves Ipswich and lives there all his life.
1864 isabella Blair is born
1865 8 May, Gordon Blair is appointed as a Clerk for Her Majesty's Customs Qld. He is promoted     
        several times within Customs and retires there.
1867 Henry Gordon Blair is born
1870 James William Blair is born
1876 7 July He marries Julia Droughton the mother of the above children and it's registered - Fact.
1900 23 Aug Gordon Blair dies.

*** When I asked for help with finding a divorce between Gordon & Jane I was hopeful that one existed and he just didn't run out on Jane & da Georgina and that he may have committed bigamy.
As JM pointed out that the laws were very weird back then and he was within the law to do so. He certainly broke a morals law in my book. Evidence now points to the Fact!, that where Jane ended up at 40 maxwell street Glasgow was not a place any woman would choose to be, certainly with a young little girl.

Jane if she did the wrong thing by Gordon, certainly paid the price by being beaten up several times at least we know and there would have been plenty more unreported. It would have been a culture shock from family life with a promising Law Clerk and a budding Solicitor. Life certainly can and does tip upside down sometimes. One minute you're a rooster the next a feather duster.

Whatever happened really took it's toll on Gordon too and we won't ever know unless there's a family member with the story. I haven't turned full circle with Gordon but a light has shone on a reason why he told a few lies - that's a Fact!. He had to getaway. Life had become too painful. Losing 5 children in a row and the only child isn't his, Georgina's Father was Henry Schwabe but he didn't live to see her and Gordon took over the roll ... wow that's cruel and a lot of pain to carry and blame may have been placed wrongly on Jane for the deaths.? Who knows.

So far I'm back to an arc of the full circle. No one wins, least of all poor little Georgina who had nothing to do with anything that happened but she paid a heavy price too. See was married and I hope she has a stellar life --- she deserved it.

That's my opinion about it all and I respect anyone who has a different one.

Let's scratch a little more.


   

[loobylooayr]

Of course, we will never know what really happened, but somehow a law clerks wife leading a double life as a prostitute seems a bit unlikely to me.
 
Looby

Equally Looby 

Who would expect a Law Clerk to abandon (if he did), his family for a life 1000's of miles away?

Jane is already declaring to be a widow which makes you wonder if she even knew where he was?

Annie

True enough Annie - we don't know why Gordon left for Australia. And I suspect the fact that Jane is calling herself a widow on 1861 Census (which I should have made clearer earlier) is because the couple had parted company some time earlier and she probably didn't know where Gordon was.

Looby

[loobylooayr]

Hi Ozscot -

Thanks for the timeline which will help focus the search.

Whatever happened really took it's toll on Gordon too and we won't ever know unless there's a family member with the story. I haven't turned full circle with Gordon but a light has shone on a reason why he told a few lies - that's a Fact!. He had to getaway. Life had become too painful. Losing 5 children in a row and the only child isn't his, Georgina's Father was Henry Schwabe but he didn't live to see her and Gordon took over the roll ... wow that's cruel and a lot of pain to carry and blame may have been placed wrongly on Jane for the deaths.? Who knows.

I'm puzzled by your statement above about the paternity of Georgina Lorimer Blair    How do you know that Gordon was not her father?
Little Georgina's birth is recorded in the Barony Parish Records. -
Gordon Blair, clerk, 18 Clyde Street, Calton and Jane Norval had a lawful daughter, their 1st child, born 15th November 1850, named Georgina Lorimer. James Scott and James Norval witnesses. 
When Georgina marries on the 6th August 1868 (she gives her age as 16 but in fact she would've been 17) to Paterson Janverik Bamber at Anderston, Glasgow she gives her parents names as - Gordon Blair (Mercantile ? Clerk) and Jane Blair ms. Norval.
I can see nothing to indicate that she was Henry Schwabe's child. Of course, she could be anyone's daughter but I haven't found anything to say she wasn't Gordon's.
The Bamber's relocate to England , Liverpool and had several children over the next couple of decades - Including a Henry but no Gordon it has to be said  - however this is not proof that Henry Schwabe was Georgina's father. Other surviving children were William, Georgina, Alison, Edward, Caroline, George. There also appears to have been several children born who did not survive.

Jane Drummond Schwabe/Norval is the reputed daughter of Henry Schwabe and Jane Norval and her whereabouts at the time of the 1851 Census are at the moment unknown. She is certainly not recorded as living with Gordon and Jane Blair.

As for Henry Schwabe , ship owner ?? I cannot find a Census entry or a death for him in Scotland. He could , of course, have lived in Glasgow in between Censuses and his death may have been outwith Scotland or never recorded . There are a few Schwabes in Glasgow at this time - including a Herman Schwabe a Merchant Shipper who is still very much alive and is recorded in Ayrshire by the time of the 1851 Census - although his last born child Frederick age 1 (1850) was born in Glasgow.

Makes you wonder 

Looby

[RJ_Paton]

Whatever happened really took it's toll on Gordon too and we won't ever know unless there's a family member with the story. I haven't turned full circle with Gordon but a light has shone on a reason why he told a few lies - that's a Fact!. He had to getaway. Life had become too painful. Losing 5 children in a row and the only child isn't his, Georgina's Father was Henry Schwabe but he didn't live to see her and Gordon took over the roll ... wow that's cruel and a lot of pain to carry and blame may have been placed wrongly on Jane for the deaths.? Who knows.

Poor Gordon ....... ?

What little facts are known can be painted into many scenarios  ....

for example,

Stuck in a dead end job (think Bob Cratchett rather than solicitor in training) which probably didn't pay much, perhaps he saw himself as this solicitor in training and spent money he didn't really have running up debts which put the family in trouble. Instead of facing up to things he abandons his wife and child (lawful child acknowledged as his) and runs off. Meanwhile poor  Jane unable to support herself and her child with debt collectors hounding her slips into prostitution and life takes a downward spiral. Meanwhile Gordon strikes it lucky and ever the con man works the system for everything he can get. His descendants aware of some of this (if not all) start gilding the lily and painting a picture of "Poor Gordon" and his struggles.

Seriously though ...
1. There appears to be a theme that considers a Solicitors Clerk to be a well respected job and that it was part of an upward career path. Again look at Dicken's character "Bob Cratchett" as an example of a clerk, equally he may have only been one of several clerks which would make the job title less glamorous "a clerk in a solicitors office". (Who hasn't found an ancestor who has glamourised their position)

2. One thread mentions that "his knowledge of the law from the old country stood him in good stead" - The Scottish Legal System and Law are quite markedly different from English Law and Systems upon which the Australian system was based.

3. Although this type of "geographical Divorce" or abandonment happened far more frequently than is perhaps realised ( I have one case in my line linking me to New Zealand) - I am not convinced that the "dots" are being connected here and while it's difficult with only part of the picture, I get the uncomfortable feeling that facts are being hammered in place to fit a history that others have already decided upon.

[sparrett]

Yes, there is a great deal of speculation and imagination happening,
A young chap named Gordon Blair came to Australia and was employed as a clerk (writer of documents) in a law office.
His father  was John and mother Jane (no other given) according to his marriage certificate where he gave the information himself.

His wife (Julia DROUGHTON) had relatives named DUNN, one of whom sponsored Julia's sister to Australia.
The couple, Gordon and Julia, used the name DUN as a given name for one of their children.

Gordon had a sister in the colony too. When she died the informant gave  her parents' names as  William and Jane BLAIR

When the mother of  Gordon, and his sister Jane died, her parents were given by the informant as John BLAIR and Jane DUNN.

Show me where the dots join.

Sue