George Briggs (), an English convict in
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sepa ...
, was a sealer in
Bass Strait
Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
known for siring children on at least one
aboriginal woman,
Woretemoeteyenner, apparently with the consent of her father, the chief
Lamanbunganah.
Background
James Kelly, the circumnavigator of Tasmania, was connected with
sealing. He wrote an account of the voyage some time after 1821, in which he says: "The custom of the sealers in the straits was that every man should have from two to five of these native women for their own use and benefit, and to select any of them they thought proper to cohabit with as their wives; and a large number of children had been born in consequence of these unions—a fine active hardy race. The males were good boatmen, kangaroo hunters, and sealers; the women extraordinarily clever assistants to them. They were generally very good looking, and of a light copper colour."
Life
In the course of his narrative, Kelly frequently refers to a sealer of the name of George Briggs, originally from
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...
, England.
[McFarlane 2005.] George Briggs was one of Kelly's shipmen during the circumnavigation. Kelly states that Briggs could speak the language of the North-East Coast tribes fluently. He was an able man, who in 1816 had two native women, one a daughter of the chief
Lamanbunganah, and five mixed race children.
One of Briggs's native concubines has been identified as
Woretemoeteyenner (–1847), also called Watamutina, Pung, and Bung, a daughter of the North-East chieftain
Mannarlargenna who arranged for his daughter to cohabit with Briggs. She bore Briggs five known children, including an infant girl (killed near
Launceston in 1811; Aborigines threw the baby into a campfire), and
Dolly Dalrymple.
John Briggs
Brough Smyth gives an account of a half-caste Tasmanian called John Briggs, as follows: "John Briggs, a half-caste Tasmanian, who intermarried with a half-caste Australian, has had ten children, of whom eight are now living—three boys and five girls. John Briggs was born in one of the islands in Bass's Straits. His wife is the daughter of an Australian woman, who, with her sister, was taken to Tasmania at the time that Buckley was removed from Port Phillip to that colony. His eldest son is between seventeen and eighteen years of age, and the youngest child is two months old. He says he was married in 1844. He is an intelligent man; tall and well-formed, but weather-beaten in appearance. His hair is grey; his complexion yellow—dull yellow; his teeth large, and not close together; his hair woolly, somewhat like that of a negro; his eyes dark-brown; his nose arched and almost Roman; his forehead well- shaped—not harsh and bony, but curved, and the lines are good: the frontal sinuses are not prominent. He is the only half-caste Bass's Straits man I have ever had the opportunity of closely examining. He is very different from the half-caste Australian, and is also unlike the half-caste negro."
[(I. pp. 94–95); qtd. in Roth 1899, p. 176.]
See also
*
Dolly Dalrymple
*
James Munro (sealer)
James Munro (
) was a British convict who was transported to Australia, and established himself as a farmer on Preservation Island, Tasmania, and community leader of the region's community of European seal hunters, known as "King of the Eastern ...
References
Sources
* Brodie, Nick (28 June 2021)
"Forced Entry: The Battle for Aboriginal Land" ''Forty South'', 79. Online ed. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
* McFarlane, Ian (October 2002)
"Aboriginal Society in North West Tasmania: Dispossession and Genocide" hesis The University of Tasmania. pp. 55–56, 65.
* McFarlane, Ian (2005)
"Dalrymple, Dolly (1808–1864)" ''
Australian Dictionary of Biography
The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...
''. Supplemental Volume. The Australian National University. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
* Plomley, Brian; Henley, Kristen Anne (1990). "The Sealers of Bass Strait and the Cape Barren Island Community". ''Tasmanian Historical Research Association Papers and Proceedings'', 37(2&3). p. 74.
* Pretyman, E. R. (1967)
"Kelly, James (1791–1859)" ''Australian Dictionary of Biography''. Volume 2. The Australian National University. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
* Walter, Maggie (2006)
Alexander, Alison (ed.). ''The Companion to Tasmanian History''. Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies. University of Tasmania. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
Attribution:
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Briggs, George
Settlers of Tasmania