The Basire Family mystery - 29th September 2020

MORPETH ROTARY AND A NEW ZEALAND MYSTERY IN A MORPETH SUITCASE

Michael Duffy has been using his time in Covid-19 lockdown to explore old documents that came to his wife’s family fifty years ago. They were living in Hastings when elderly neighbours without family died and left them various household objects and a suitcase. The suitcase was full of letters about a family called Basire that led Michael to try to solve the mystery of who they were. He told Morpeth Rotary that the letters included a copper engraving plate that James Basire had made, a very long handwritten diary of a voyage to Australia in 1849, a will for James who died in 1869, a photo of the sailing ship Lyttelton, and a mourning envelope to a Miss Basire. 

He found that the Basire family, including James, are all mentioned in the Dictionary of National Biography. There had been a Doctor of Divinity called Isaac Basire who was a Chaplain to Charles I and a descendant with the same name who became a skilled and well known engraver. There followed three generations of outstanding engravers, mapmakers and printmakers all called James. Their work is still valued today with some on display in the UK. It was the youngest of the three James Basire’s whose will was in the suitcase. He had ten children, four boys and six girls. 

One of his boys, Frederick, took ship to New Zealand in 1849. The letters were hard to read and fragile but written in a firm hand on fine India paper. Frederick’s first letter tells of his three and a half month voyage to Port Chalmers in the South Island, now the city of Dunedin and how impressed he was by the country. It was the first year of settlement on South Island. He had been a medical student at Kings College London and set himself up as a doctor in New Zealand even though he had not fully qualified. He had met a family called Tayler on the voyage and they settled on the Dunedin River. He married Tayler’s daughter Sarah and they built a house there. The locality is still called Tayler’s Bay. His second letter, of 20 pages, was written in 1850 and talked of his illness and depression. By the end of the letter he was more positive and encouraged his brothers and sisters to come out and settle. Brother Albert emigrated to join him. The bill for Albert’s funeral in 1865 is among the papers and was paid for by Frederick. Brother George wrote from his ship Blue Jacket in the West Indies in 1857 where it had taken labourers from China. The ship later worked the New Zealand to Liverpool route and sank in 1869. From James Basire’s will of 1867 it is known that George was dead by then. The will was a very large document that divided his estate into nine parts with one for each surviving child. One part should have gone to his eldest son James but instead went to his wife Annie as James was in debt. No further information has been found about James. Michael’s research found that Frederick and his family did well. His eldest son Thomas became a Master Mariner and sailed on the ship Lyttelton. It sank at Port Chalmers in 1874. The longest letter of 30,000 words was written by Alfred Harrison to James Basire the engraver. Alfred was engaged to his daughter Mary. Alfred said he was going to get rich in the gold fields and bring her out to marry him. It is known from the will that she stayed in England and married a musician called Ould.  The letter has a daily log of his voyage from London to Adelaide from June to November 1849 and a map showing the daily position of the ship. He also wrote a weekly newsletter for all on board. On arrival he walked from Adelaide to Melbourne. It is known that he got to the gold diggings at Forrest Creek in Victoria but not what happened to him there. The story of the musician Ould is also a mystery. 

Michael is planning to send the documents and what he has found so far to a museum in New Zealand.