Did you know that Christmas Hills in the Port Phillip District, now Victoria, owes its name to an emancipated convict and shepherd, called David CHRISTMAS?
The exact date and whereabouts of his death are unknown but in 1992 a roadside plaque to the shepherd who gave his name to the district was placed over his presumed gravesite commemorating 150 years of his arrival in the Port Phillip District.
David CHRISTMAS (horse groom/servant) married Jane Wall at Llanbadarn, Wales on 21 December 1818. Their son William Lloyd Christmas was baptised at Ludlow in 1819, and their daughter Jane Christmas was baptised in 1821. On the 17 September 1821 David was convicted of burglary (house breaking) and sentenced to death. According to the UK Prison Hulk Registers and Letter Books, 1808 – 1849, by the 15 November 1821 David was on board the ship Justica,which was moored at Woolwich.
On 23 July 1822, David CHRISTMAS arrived in Van Dieman’s Land aboard the convict ship Prince of Orange, one of 136 passengers. CHRISTMAS was a 25 year old groom, 5’4” and a native of Cardiganshire, Wales. David had a tough time of it in Van Dieman’s Land according to his convict record. On 1 October 1822, he was found guilty of being insolent to his master and received 50 lashes and on 4 November that year he was found to be absent from muster and church.
According to the Hobart Gazette 6 May 1826 p3, David CHRISTMAS received a Free Pardon on 13 March 1826. The Hobart Gazette, 19 August 1826 p3 reported that ‘David CHRISTMAS absconded from employment of H. Oakes – Edward Brown, Henry Rogers, and David CHRISTMAS entered into a written engagement to clear a parcel of land at the River Plenty, the Public are hereby cautioned against employing them … until they have completed their said Engagement.’ In March 1827 David was still in breach of his contract with Henry Oakes.
On 24 August David was fined 5/- for drunkenness and on the same day for assault of John Bryant the Sexton of St David’s church during Divine Service. In 1829 David CHRISTMAS (Prince of Orange), was again granted a Free Pardon according to the Hobart Town Gazette, 7 Nov 1829, p3 and according to the Colonial Times (Hobart Tasmania:1828-1857) 10 Sept 1830, p3 he was arrested and found guilty three times in 1830 for drunkenness. On 3 January 1835 he received 50 lashes for repeated insubordination and insolence to his overseer and was still being arrested for drunk and disorderly.
David CHRISTMAS made a life-changing decision when he sailed from Launceston, Van Dieman’s Land to Port Phillip on board The Champion on 7 June 1836.
The only evidence of the whereabouts of David CHRISTMAS after his arrival in Port Phillip, can be found in the Port Phillip Patriot, 22 June 1846, p2, where it is stated that David CHRISTMAS (of Christmas Hills, shepherd) petitioned for a ‘charge of extortion.’ David had stayed at the Public House of James WESTWOOD in Melbourne (The Old Scottish Hotel) and placed his money with the licensee (£59 7s), ran up a tab well over this amount and finally admitted that he was intoxicated for the whole period. The case was dismissed.
Further details of his life were given in The Argus, Saturday 30 Nov 1912, p24 in an article titled:
“PIONEERS OF CHRISTMAS HILLS.
A well-organised meeting of the pioneers of Christmas Hills was held at the Mechanics Institute. Mr J. C. Harvie … introduced … Mr. R. Stevenson, the first white man born on Christmas Hills … He said that the name Christmas Hills was derived from a shepherd named David CHRISTMAS, employed by his father … who was lost in the bush on the hills. CHRISTMAS … was saved from starvation by hearing distant bells … of a team of working bullocks grazing … he kept near the cattle until their owner arrived on horseback. Mr. Stevenson produced a ledger which had belonged to his father, Joseph STEVENSON. This established the fact that in 1840 … the father built the first Kirk’s Bazaar. The ledger shows that STEVENSON built the punt that preceded the first Prince’s Bridge. The date was 1839.”
Sadly, David CHRISTMAS did not secure prosperity, health or happiness that his name congers for most of us. His wife Jane Christmas remarried in 1839 at Stanton Lacy, Shropshire to Benjamin Powell.
Contributed by Dianne Wheeler PPPG Member No. 1505
David Christmas plaque – Source: from the Collection of the Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Chuck’s mosaic picture of W. Lockhart MORTON – SLV