| Notes |
- JOHN HUCKLEBRIDGE HUETT
By all accounts John HUETT was a colourful character with an intriguingand mysterious past. Born in Somerset, England, in 1820, he is reputed tohave trained as a physician (possibly in Glasgow). For some reason he wasdisqualified from practising, but the nickname ODoc£ stuck to himthroughout his life. (Huett£s grand-daughter, Alice Turnbull [nee Viney]recalls that he drank to excess, and also cites a tradition that hismedical qualifications were lost in transit from the U.K.). HUETT marriedAgnes Skinner and they appear to have emigrated to Tasmania in the early1850£s. The couple settled on the land at or near Westbury, and producedfour children before Agnes£ death (from tuberculosis) in September 1862.(She was 33 years old).
John HUETT wasted little time finding a second mother for his youngfamily; he married Sarah Ann Atwell at Deloraine in December 1862, andbetween 1867 and 1884, the couple produced another 8 children: Albert,John, Jesse, Alice, Arthur, Frank, James, George and David.
(By the time David was born in 1884, his father was well into his 60£s).Alice Jane Huett (b. Deloraine, 16 May 1874) married Thomas Viney, 28, atDeloraine, July 25 1894, produced 7 children, and died at Launceston,March 3 1908 (aged 33). [Alice and William Viney£s elder daughter, AliceVictoria, was born in 1902, and married Stanley Turnbull].
With his marriage to Sarah Atwell (also born in Somerset, c 1844), JohnHUETT settled in the Deloraine area and stayed there the rest of hislife. His house at Elizabeth Town has been classified by the NationalTrust. HUETT is probably best remembered as the founder and proprietor ofHuett£s Coaches, which carried passengers and mail between Deloraine andTorquay (or, according to his grand-daughter, between Elizabeth Town andBurnie) prior to the establishment of the north-west rail links. JamesFenton once
described the less than glamorous coach-travel of that time:
Even so late as the year 1879 the road to Deloraine was a dangerousbog in some places. In the spring of that year I was travelling inHewett£s [sic] coach with Mr. Braddon..... when in one spot, where astump had been grubbed, one of the horses disappeared, all but his headand shoulders. We had all to lend a hand to extricate the poor animal.
The road being a sea of slush, not only there but for miles father, thecondition of the coach, horses, driver, and passengers when we arrived atLatrobe can be more easily imagined than described.
On another occaision, and apparently drunk HUETT turned his coach over.He acquired the OStone House£ on the Deloraine - Latrobe road atVirginstow, for use as an inn and changing place for horses. (Thebuilding, which was demolished many years ago, was reputed to behaunted).
John HUETT died at Whitefoord Hills, 5th November 1905. Many of hisdescendants still live in and around Deloraine, and interestingly, arecent retail development in the town is called Hucklebridge Court.
Courtesy of;
Dr.Malcolm J. Turnbull
51 Gilles Street
Fairfield
Victoria 3078
9481 3924
Sent to me by Kevin Callahan 5/7/2003
Death Notice: "The Advocate-Times", 6 Nov 1905, Page 2, Col 2
Received from Frances Travers, researcher, in letter dated 11 July 1986.Photographic copy included.
"HUEITT. - On November 5, at his late residence, Whitefoord Hills, JohnHucklebridge Hueitt, native of Somersetshire, England, in his 86th year.Home papers please copy."
Obituary: "The Advocate-Times", 6 Nov 1905, Page 2, Col 4
Received from Frances Travers, researcher, in letter dated 11 July 1986.Photographic copy included.
"DEATH OF MR J. H. HUETT.
Our obituary columns notify the death of a well-known coastal identity,Mr J. H. Huett, who came to Tasmania from England in 1851, and as thecontractor for 10 years for the mail service between Deloraine and TableCape he will be well remembered by many old residents. He had been illfor some considerable time, and being in his eighty-sixth year the end,which came yesterday morning, was not unexpected. He leaves a family ofnine sons, of whom three are married, and five daughters, who are allmarried. They are Mrs William Holyman, sen., and Mrs W. Stroud, of EastDevonport, Mrs Woodberry, of Ulverstone, Mrs Viney, of Whitefoord Hills,and Mrs Walsh, Elizabethtown. The funeral takes place at Deloraine onWednesday afternoon."
Extracts from a letter from Mrs Maureen Bennett, "Rubicon", ElizabethTown RSD 180, TAS 7304, dated 8 May 1986.
Maureen's husband and his brother owned both "Harbourne" and "Eddington"at the time.
" I am not sure of the year in which John Hucklebridge Huett cam toElizabeth Town but it was in the sixties. His original pub was on theoriginal road which is to the east of the present one. I haven't hadtime to visit the site of this original pub but it was in the clump oftrees on the east of the highway. We are not sure when he built thepresent house but that was also an inn. In 1870 the Valuation Roll forMar 1 claims he was renting 174 acres and a public house from SamuelHenry and that it was called Eddington. Samuel Henry's original grant of630 acres took in the 500 acres of the present Harbourne and 130 acres ofEddington. William Dawson Grubb had 320 acres of the rest of Eddington.
By 1886 John Huett owned and occupied 535 acres of Harbourne and the pub.He also owned the farm of Eddington 247 1/4 acres and leased it toGeorge Burgess. He also had another block at Elizabeth Town that wasprobably bush of 30 acres. Perhaps things went wrong for John Huettbecause he must have sold all but the 30 acres to James Bennett - perhapshe held the mortgage, as he was very wealthy. In 1901 he still leased600 acres of Harbourne from James Bennett's estate. Michael's (myhusband's) grandfather went to live on Eddington not long after this andthe family have farmed it ever since. We bought Harbourne two years ago.The Huett's in Deloraine would know something of the family's history.I know the Skirvings bought Harbourne eventually and then Moores boughtit from them."
... "All this information comes from the Hobart Town Gazettes which wereand still are published every year. They contained before 1950 completelists called Valuation or Assessment Rolls of where people owned and/oroccupied land. They have a complete set in the Launceston library.
...The information I have given you is from copies I have made of theyears I have quoted but you can check through the sixties to find outwhen both* men came into the district. Neither seems to have been herein 1858 the first year these rolls were done."
* Other parts of this letter referred to John Atwell.
John Hucklebridge HUETT - information from a conversation with AislaVAUGHAN, nee VINEY, his grandaughter, 9 June 1984
John H Huett's home, "Harbourne" near Elizabeth Town is still standing.The large stand of elm? trees beside it were planted by great grandfatherHuett from seeds he brought with him from England on the ship.
He trained as a doctor in Somerset, but did not practice in Tasmaniabecause he 'hated' it. He preferred to be working with horses. 'He wasa very clever man.' If someone needed a tooth pulling, or neededstitching up they often sought his help, but he never practiced medicineofficially here.
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1820 - 1905 (85 years)
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