James Turnbull Thomson (1810 – c. 20 August 1876) was a publican and brewer, recognised as the founder of
Balhannah, South Australia
Balhannah is a town in the Adelaide Hills about 30 km southeast of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It was established in 1839 as a farming community by James Turnbull Thomson, who built the first hotel. The town soon grew to inco ...
.
History
Thomson was a son of Rev. James Thomson, pastor of
Steeple Church,
Dundee,
and his wife Hannah Thomson, née Turnbull.
He emigrated to South Australia aboard ''Georgiana'', arriving in Adelaide in August 1839. Before leaving Scotland he purchased Section 4208 in the
Mount Barker region.
Another reference has him purchasing the land from
Hampden Dutton
William Hampden Dutton (29 October 1807 – 21 November 1849), generally known as Hampden Dutton, was a pioneering pastoralist in New South Wales and South Australia.
History
Hampden was the eldest child of Frederick Hugh Hampden Dutton and his ...
after arriving in the colony.
In 1840 Thomson was involved with
Robert Cock
Robert Cock (25 May 1801 – 23 March 1871) was one of the first European explorers of the Adelaide region of South Australia following the establishment of the colony in December 1836.
History
Robert was born in Dysart, Fife, Scotland in 1801, ...
and J. L. Crabb in a venture to sell lots of land in Balhannah, which Thomson named for his mother (and also his sister) Hannah, the prefix Bal being a Gaelic word meaning "place" or "town", as in Balnagowan and Balmoral. He built the Balhannah Inn, which he let to one S. Bartlett who left shortly after.
A year later he reopened the Inn, with himself as publican,
followed by James Anderson. In 1855 Thomson's application for a licence was refused, while Edward Morris's application for the Golden Cross Hotel (now the Balhannah Hotel) was granted, sparking a feud which culminated in Thomson's serving time in jail for slander.
[
He brewed his first beer at Balhannah in August 1843 with the assistance of W. Milne and W. Johnston, one of the brothers who later founded the Oakbank Brewery. In June 1844 he was obliged to mortgage his property and in 1855 had a second attempt at beer brewing.
He was several times in financial difficulties, on one occasion helped out by his father, who purchased his property, then mortgaged it to pay a debt to Alexander Cock.
His body was found in marsh land near the North Arm Road, Dry Creek. He never married and appeared to have no relations in South Australia, though one John Thomson (1794–1869), later of "Lilybank", Mount Pleasant, and family are known to have stayed in the Balhannah region during their first years in the colony.]
Further reading
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, James Turnbull
1810 births
1876 deaths
Australian brewers
19th-century Australian businesspeople