History of Samuel Dunn

Our Dunn’s Paddock Shiraz is, not surprisingly, made from grapes grown in Dunn’s Paddock. The lease title for the property shows the paddock belonged to a Samuel Dunn and my great grand parent’s who had lived across the road had frequently referred to the paddock as “Dunn’s”. We did not know much about Samuel Dunn until recently, when his great grand daughter Dawn P. Barbary contacted us and mentioned that Samuel Dunn was her great grandfather. 

Samuel Dunn (1837-1898) (photo supplied by Dawn Barbary)

Dawn kindly forwarded a copy of her self-published book, “Samuel Dunn and his Descendants”. The story of Samuel Dunn is a fascinating one, spanning the 19th century, as he was intimately involved in the two key features of this period that were to dramatically change Australia: the transportation of convicts from England and Ireland, and the gold rush.

Samuel Dunn was born Samuel Field Knowles in the parish of Arnold, Nottinghamshire, England on 15^th March 1819 to Samuel and Hannah Knowles. Not much is know of his early life, but this changed on the 26^th of June, 1837 when he was found guilty of stealing “one lamb of the price of ten shillings of the goods and chattels of Robert Mackley” and was sentenced to be transported to Australia for the term of his natural life. 

Samuel Knowles travelled to Australia in the “Moffat 2” which sailed from Warwick on 27^th October, 1837 with 400 male prisoners and arrived in Van Dieman’s Land on 1^st April 1838. 

Upon arrival at Van Dieman’s Land he was assigned to the Bridgewater Party which is believed to have been a large “road party” of convicts assigned to the Bridgewater area on the Derwent river about 15km from Hobart, building a causeway out across the river where it was reasonably shallow to connect to an opening bridge over the deep part. 

A snippet of Samuel Knowles’ Convict Report gives an idea of how traumatic life was for a convict in the early 1840s:- 

“…..Sept. 26^th 1843, Crown: Misconduct, 3 days solitary confinement. The Lt. Governor has ordered this man to serve one month in the Chain Gang. March 11^th 1844, Drunk, 6 days solitary confinement. Oct. 3^rd 1845, Kelly: Absent without leave, 4 months hard labour. April 11^th 1846, Drum: Absent without leave, 3 months hard labour…..”

And finally, the last record on Samuel Knowles’ Convict Report states “17/4/46: Absent”. Samuel fled from Van Dieman’s Land to South Australia on the “Resolution”. He changed his family name to Dunn and gave his place of birth as County Wicklow, Ireland.

  On 29^th December, 1851 Samuel Dunn married 18 year old Mary Therese Taaffe at West Terrace, Adelaide. Mary had arrived in Adelaide two years earlier aboard the “Inconstant”, as one of one hundred and ninety five “Irish Orphan Girls” after her parents had died from fever during the Irish Famine.

  Sam and Mary walked from Adelaide to Amherst pushing a wheelbarrow carrying their belongings. Sam purchased land from the Government and they settled on the piece of land that was later to become our vineyard. They were to spend a half century cultivating land in the Amherst area.

  Sam and Mary erected a cottage on a piece of their eighty five acre property. Part of this property was an apple orchard, known as Dunn’s Garden. Sam grew an apple from seed and it was called Dunn’s Seedling. Later, Sam also grew grapes from which he made wine. Sam’s name appeared as a voter on the 1856 Daisy Hill Electoral Roll, Number 889, his occupation was said to be “Store Keeper and Land Owner.” There is little sign of the orchard and vineyard to this day, however some irrigation channels are still visible near the billabong on our Chinese Garden field.

Life was not to be easy for the Dunn’s, as gold was discovered in 1852, which was to prove to be a mixed blessing. During this time there was extensive prospecting for alluvial gold and the population of Back Creek, later changed to Amherst, swelled to 2,500, and greatly improved the economy of the area. A lot of digging went on around the area which, 150 years later, is still pockmarked with shallow alluvial mines. This digging all but ruined much of the land making it unusable for agricultural purposes. Some of the shafts were over 20 feet deep, and provided a hazard for the owners of the land as we shall later see.

On December of 1855 there were some 5000 prospectors at the Mia Mia Diggings which was on Crown Land. Unfortunately these diggers went over the fences onto the cultivated land owned by Samuel Dunn (a problem which continues to this day). The diggers not only resisted all efforts to remove them but also took the police to task. Warden P.C. de Crespigny was given the unenviable task of removing them when he was pelted with stones and hooted and jeered at whenever he made an appearance.

It was soon found that no regulations existed at Amherst because no Local Court had been set up, and later that year the diggers and storemen at Amherst petitioned the Government for the Local Court. The land owned by Samuel Dunn that was entered by the prospectors was never re-cultivated by Sam, and remains largely unusable to this day.

Between 1853 and 1875 Sam and Mary had fourteen children, and became a respected member of the community, which was to assist him when, in 1866, a man from his Van Dieman’s Land days threatened to blackmail him. A petition to the Governor of Tasmania was prepared and published in The Age, stating:-

“Since his arrival in this Colony he has invariably conducted himself in every relation of life in a most upright and creditable manner, so much so that he obtained, and still retains the respect and esteem of all classes of our community for his integrity, sobriety, and fair dealing, and especially for his charity, insomuch also that he has on several occasions been requested to fill and occupy public positions of honour and trust”.

No application for a pardon could be found but this was obviously enough to scare off the blackmailer.

On 7^th February, 1874, Samuel Dunn’s eighth sone John James, aged 10 years 7 months, fell into one of the many mine shafts on the property that were used as “wells” and drowned. The shaft was 13 feet deep and was reported to have six feet of water in it at the time.

Samuel Fields Dunn died on 11^th January 1898 after a long illness. He and John James were interred in the same grave at Amherst General Cemetery, which is just down the road. Samuel’s widow, Mary, moved to Waaia to join her daughters, and passed away in 1923.

Information from "Samuel Dunn and his Descendants". Written and Published by Dawn P. Barbary, ©2001 Dawn P. Barbary. Used with permission from the author.

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Last modified: July 07, 2002