Philip Chauncy’s memoir: 1839 part 2
Below I continue the memoirs of Philip Lamothe Snell Chauncy (1816 – 1880), my third great grandfather.
In 1839 Philip began to prepare for his emigration to South Australia. In describing this he adds a long aside about the religious beliefs of his brother William, which he contrasts with his own.
On the 15th March I arranged with Western [Messrs James Western and son of 7 Great James Street Bedford Row] and the concurrence of my Father to obtain an advance of £700 on the security of my reversion and now for the first time I was about to have the command of a large sum of money.
Had I been sufficiently informed on the subject, foreseeing and discreet, my subsequent experience has led me to believe that I should at this time have centred my mind on the one object of acquiring a large extent of land of good quality and well situated and of gradually stocking it as my means would allow. But instead of doing this I spent only £80 in the purchase of a “land order” for 80 acres in South Australia and the rest of my money I invested in such goods it as I was led to believe would sell at a profit in the new Colony, retaining barely sufficient for my passage money, and other necessary expences for the voyage. The speculation seemed undoubtedly good in theory but I will presently show how it turned out.
My Father was a most unworldly man – a sort of recluse from society, he had no aptitude whatever for business and his extremely nervous temperament rendered him wholly unfit for its transaction.
To a great extent I took after him, though I never allowed myself to refrain from meeting any person on business. At that period I had no knowledge or experience in ordinary worldly affairs and I seemed to be wholly destitute of that peculiar faculty for the acquisition of property for which some men have been so conspicuous – e.g. John Jacob Astor, Peacock, & Vanderbelt of America and some of our great landed proprietors of Victoria. It is quite true that many of the latter have come into their fortunes rather through a prudent-abstinence from doing any thing in particular than from any ability or prescience in business on their part.
On the 15th March I saw the noted Van Amburgh perform with the beasts of the forest at Astley’s Amphitheatre.
On the 17th I met my step mother at dinner at her brother’s, John Curtis the Aurist, in Soho square.
As Western told me that Mr. Jackson wanted me to help him to finish the survey of the Parish of Fen Drayton I returned on the 18th March and found him and his family there at the Inn – every village hostelry was not termed an Hotel in those days. I with Hugh [Philip’s brother was now articled to Mr Jackson] completed the survey by the 24th and then drove over to St Ives in Hunts.
Mr. Jackson complimented me on my work and politely presented me with a professional fee, the first I ever received, and after dinner proposed my health in very handsome terms and for which I returned thanks. Miss Daintree a rich heiress was then staying with us. On the 30th we all returned to Eglantine Villa Mr Jackson’s estate at March.
On the 1st April I went up to London and Entered my name as a subscriber to the South Australian rooms which I frequent in order to obtain information but I candidly confess I found myself very innocent of business [remainder of sentence not legible].
On the 4th I had an interview at the S. A. rooms with Capt. Frome R.E. who had just been appointed successor to the late excellent and lamented Colonel Light the first Surveyor General of South Australia and the founder of the City of Adelaide. – He told me he could not then give me an appointment as assistant Surveyor.
On the 5th I received my Articles of Clerkship from Western and on which Mr Jackson had endorsed a complimentary certificate. I still retain this document among my papers.
On the sixth I spent a pleasant Evening with W. Hargreaves, my Father’s friend, – he was the only one with whom he had any social converse.
I visited William at the Queen’s stand, Ascot, on the 7th and with him went to Windsor on the 9th and thence on to London where on the day following found that Western had a mortgage deed ready for my signature for £500 loan from Mrs Davidson his relative – as part of the money to be raised on the security of my reversion.
At this time I lodged at 241 Blackfriars road On the 11th April William and I went over the Tower of London and among the historical relics I saw and took up the axe with which Lady Jane Grey was beheaded. [Philip also mentioned the axe when he visited the tower on 27 Dec 1837] The next thing was to order an outfit from Jukes the tailor.
On the 13th my father and Sophia [Philip’s youngest sister] arrived from Portsmouth and he and I executed the mortgage deed by which I was to obtain the necessary capital to proceed to S. Austa. But it was only after considerable d [not legible] on his part that he took the oath required by law in the office of the Master in Chancery whose ward I was. We then called on Mr Hargreaves and talked matters over.
On Sundays I attended church regularly- generally an Independent Chapel.
I spent the rest of my time before sailing in making purchases — as it turned out, of far too great a variety of things – of merchandise &c. in accordance with the advice of my brother William who was supposed to possess an accurate knowledge of the best manner of procedure for an intending emigrant with a little capital, in consequence of residence in London with with Mr. Higgins the Architect who himself had an intention of going out and courted the acquaintance of those who knew most about the subject. William was always fond of dealing in the marvellous, of asserting ” the Truth” in Religion, in Politics, in Philosophy and in matters pertaining to everyday life. He would relate to me the most incredible occurrences in so cool and circumstantial a manner as to leave me alternative but to believe that he credited these himself. On meeting him one day he had some great news for me – he knew of a method of seeing what the Colonists in Adelaide were doing at any moment, he could through the means indicated follow Theresa and Martha in all their pursuits tho’ they were at the other side of the world. Now don’t be incredulous, you have only to believe – Mr. Higgins had just been to Nottingham where he had called on a seer, or as we would now say a clairvoyant, who had a wonderful large stone or crystal, on payment of the fee you could look into this stone and clearly see what any person in Adelaide was there doing – Numbers of people went and there was no reason why it should not be true. He told me before he was 19 years old that he had read all the books – great ponderous tomes – in Mr. Higgins’ library. He contributed to some of the Magazines and at this time published the prospectus of a book he had written entitled “The Truth of Astrology”. I have the prospectus now (1877).
William still belonged to the Independents and was enraptured with the eloquent preaching of the Rev. Thomas Binney at Weigh House Independent Chapel London Bridge. Whenever I could I went there with him and always came away instructed by the most powerful evangelical preacher of his time. There is at present a life size best of him in Bardwell’s studio, Sturt Street Ballaarat, by which it may be seen that he had what phrenologists call a three story head. He visited Victoria some 12 or 15 years ago and after his return died at the age of 84 greatly honored and respected.
William however could not abide by the Gospel as preached at Weigh House Chapel. He seems to have been in the same predicament as the Church at Thessalonica after they had received Paul’s first epistle in which he writes (Ch. V. 2.) “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord to cometh as a thief” &c. – this troubled them and they did not rest satisfied with the Gospel as it had been taught them, which caused the Apostle to write again to them (2 Thess. II. 1 & seq.) “We beseech you brethren xx that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled xxx by letter as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand xx for that day shall not come” &c. He too became shaken in mind and wrote to me soon after, that he was as it were in a whirlwind passing on rapidly from one truth to another; but I failed to comprehend this for if his later concessions were true his previous belief must have been erroneous for the one contradicted the other. He joined the Plymouth Brethren under Mr Dorman and was very earnest with them for a time but was ultimately whirled on to the “truths” of of the “New Church” of which Emanuel Swedenborg was the expounder and whose wonderful and voluminous works William read and digested with avidity, that for many years past he has been a profound student and teacher of them – not standing still but ever progressing and elaborating he had latterly here taken up with Harris’ Expositions of and improvements on the teachings of Swedenborg the great seer and dogmatist of the 17th Century. [Harris is probably Thomas Lake Harris (1823 – 1906)]
I believe all my brothers and sisters have taken up with these doctrines with more or less warmth and with much diversity of opinion. I find that the more Earnest of them have no difficulty in believing in supernatural manifestations.
For my part I am not of a credulous turn of mind and find myself quite unable sincerely to believe any doctrine or assertion which I cannot conceive the Omniscient, as the God of Truth and of Love would have me to believe. – God does not wish me to believe that which is not true – if therefore I am asked to receive as true and on which I resist him my faith and hopes of salvation, that which is contrary in fact to the nature and character Almighty – I can no more receive or believe that I am a thousand miles away from Ballarat for the sake of obtaining a reward of £1000. God does not wish me to believe that which is not true. But I do believe that God has in his unbounded love gives us a book revelation to be a guide to our path and a lamp to our feet, that it contains His holy Word and that I am bound to receive that Word with all humility and submission tho’ my poor finite understanding is unable to comprehend it all. We understand completely but few if any of the laws of nature, others we have but an imperfect knowledge of and probly we know nothing at all of the greater number. Those relating to Astronomy and Chemistry are the most within our reach, but what do we know of the causes of the polarity of the needle of its variations from the true north, of the annual and the diurnal changes in the variation, of electricity, magnetism, life and the causes of a hundred other effects which we see? Am I therefore not to believe that which God tells me simply because I do not understand it? The distinction between the supernatural and the superhuman shd never be lost sight of. If we only knew or understood the conditions under which any miracle were performed it would no longer appear to be supernatural tho’ we might still wonder at it. Had our forefathers been told that they could converse with persons at the other side of the world conveying their thoughts and receiving back replies in a few minutes they wd at once have said that would be a miracle – a superhuman or wonderful occurrence (from miro I wonder), and so it truly was and is. We make use of the natural law but we do not understand it. 1st you have to catch a flash of lightning then you have to send it to a given distant place and being there thirdly you have to make it record your thoughts to your friend, this is the problem, my grandfather wd have said it is impossible, altho’ he was a very intelligent man, yet I do it or see it done every day. We cannot only say that Christ did not truly change the water into wine because we are ignorant of the natural law under which the miracle was accomplished.
But I am sadly digressing and am giving my thoughts as they are now rather than as they were when I was twenty three.
I will resume the account of Philip’s final months in England and preparations for emigration in a future post.
Related posts
1877 Memoir by Philip Chauncy
This post first published at https://anneyoungau.wordpress.com/2025/02/16/philip-chauncys-memoir-1839-part-2/
Amazing details in his diary writings - what he saw, heard, conversed, believed, pondered... So much detail!!