The life of Captain Matthew Flinders, R.N

Front matter

HANDBOUND AT THE

40&3.

THE LIFE OF MATTHEW FLINDERS n

Preface

The subject of this book died one hundred years ago. Within his forty years of life, he discovered a very large area of what is now an important region of the earth; he participated in stirring events which are memorable in modern history; he applied a vigorous and original mind to the advancement of knowledge, with useful results; and he was the victim of circumstances which, however stated, were peculiarly unfortunate, and must evoke the sympathy of everyone who takes the trouble to understand them. His career was crowded with adventures: war, perilous voyages, explorations of unknown coasts, encounters with savages, shipwreck and imprisonment are the elements which go to make up his story. He was, withal, a downright Englishman of exceptionally high character, proud of his service and unsparing of himself in the pursuit of his duty.

Yet up to this time his biography has not been written. There are, it is true, outlines of his career in various works of reference, notably that contributed by Sir J. K. Laughton to the Dictionary of National Biography. But there is no book to which a reader can turn for a fairly full account of his achievements, and an estimate of his personality. Of all discoverers of leading rank Matthew Flinders is the only one about whom there is no ample and convenient record.

This book endeavours to fill the gap.

The material upon which it is founded is set forth in the footnotes and the bibliography. Here the author vi LIFE OF MATTHEW FLINDERS

takes pleasure in acknowledging the assistance he has received from several quarters. A previous book brought him the acquaintance of the grand-nephew of that Comte de Fleurieu who largely inspired three famous French voyages to Australia — those of Laperouse, Dentrecasteaux and Baudin — all of which have an important bearing upon the subject. The Comte A. de Fleurieu had long been engaged in collecting material relative to the work and influence of his distinguished grand-uncle, and in the most generous manner he handed over to the author his very large collection of manuscripts and note-books to be read, noted, and used at discretion. Even when a historian does not actually quote or directly use matter bearing upon his subject, it is of immense advantage to have access to documents which throw light upon it, and which enable an in-and-out knowledge of a period and persons to be obtained. This book owes much of whatever value it may possess to Monsieur de Fleurieu's assistance in this respect, and the author thanks him most warmly.

The Flinders papers, of which free use has been made, were presented to the Melbourne Public Library by Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie. They are described in the bibliography. The transcripts of family and personal documents were especially valuable. Although they were not supplied for this book, Professor Flinders Petrie gave them in order that they might be of use to some biographer of his grandfather, and the author begs to thank him, and also Mr. E. La Touche Armstrong, the chief librarian, in whose custody they are, and who has given frequent access to them.

The rich stores of manuscripts in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, have been thoroughly examined, with

PREFACE vii

the assistance of Mr. W. H. Ifould, principal librarian, Mr. Hugh Wright, and the staff of that institution. Help from this quarter was accorded with such grace that one came to think giving trouble was almost like conferring a favour.

All copies of documents from Paris and Caen cited in this book have been made by Madame Robert Helouis. The author was able to indicate the whereabouts of the principal papers, but Madame Helouis, developing an interest in the subject as she pursued her task, was enabled, owing to her extensive knowledge of the resources of the French archives, to find and transcribe many new and valuable papers. The author also wishes to thank Captain Francis Bayldon, of Sydney, who has kindly given help on several technical points; Miss Alma Hansen, University of Melbourne, who was generous enough to make a study of the Dutch Generate Beschrijvinge van Indlen — no light task — to verify a point of some importance for the purpose of the chapter on "The Naming of Australia"; and Mr. E. A. Petherick, whose manuscript bibliography, containing an immense quantity of material, the fruit of a long life's labour, has always been cheerfully made available.

Professor Flinders Petrie has been kind enough to read and make some useful suggestions upon the personal and family passages of the book, which has consequently benefited greatly.

The whole work has been read through by Mr. A. W. Jose, author of The History of Australasia, whose criticism on a multitude of points, some minute, but all important, has been of the utmost value. The help given by Mr. Jose has been more than friendly; it has been informed by a keen enthusiasm for the subject, and viii LIFE OF MATTHEW FLINDERS

great knowledge of the original authorities. The author's obligations to him are gratefully acknowledged.

It is hoped that these pages will enable the reader to know Matthew Flinders the man, as well as the navigator; for the study of the manuscript and printed material about him has convinced the author that he was not only remarkable for what he did and endured, but for his own sake as an Englishman of the very best type.

Melbourne, June 1914.

Chapter I

Place of Flinders among Australian navigators — Birth — Flemish origins — Pedigree — Connection with the Tennysons — Possible relationship with Bass — Flinders' father — Donington • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1

Chapter II

Education — Robinson Crusoe — Aspirations for a naval career — His father's wish — John Flinders' advice — Study of navigation — Introduction to Pasley — Lieutenant's servant — Midshipman on the Bellerophon — Bligh and the Bounty mutiny . . . . . . . . • • • • • • • • 11

Chapter III

The second breadfruit expedition — Flinders in the Providence— Notes from Santa Cruz — At the Cape — Tahiti — In Torres Strait — Encounter with Papuans — Return to England 29

Chapter IV

The naval war with France — The battle of June 1st, 1794 — Flinders as gunner — Pasley wounded — Flinders' journal of the engagement — Effect of Pasley's wound on the career of Flinders 41

Chapter V. AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHY BEFORE FLINDERS

The predecessors of Flinders — How Australia grew on the map — Mediaeval controversies on antipodes — Period of vague speculation — Sixteenth century maps — The Dutch voyagers — The Batavia on the Abrolhos Reef — The Duyfhen in the Gulf — Torres — The three periods of Australian maritime discovery — Geographers and their views of Australia — The theory of the dividing strait — Cook and Furneaux — The untraced southern coast . . 64 x LIFE OF MATTHEW FLINDERS

Chapter VI. THE RELIANCE AND THE TOM THUMB

Governor Hunter — Captain Waterhouse — Flinders' passion for exploring new countries — Joins the Reliance — Hunter on the strategic importance of the Cape — Sailing of Reliance and Supply for New South Wales — Flinders' observations — Arrival at Port Jackson — George Bass — The Tom Thumb — Exploration of George's River — A perilous cruise — Meeting with aboriginals — The midshipman as valet — Port Hacking — Patching up the Reliance — Voyage to South Africa . . . . . . . . • . 77

Chapter X

Bass's marriage — Part owner of the Venus — Voyages after pork — A fishing concession — South American enterprise — Unsaleable goods — A "diplomatic-looking certificate" — Bass's last voyage — Probable fate in Peru — His missing letters . . 145

Chapter XL

ON THE QUEENSLAND COAST

Flinders and the Isaac Nicholls case — Exploration on the

Queensland coast — Moreton Bay 157

CONTENTS xi

Chapter XII. THE INVESTIGATOR

Return to England in the Reliance — Sir Joseph Banks — Marriage of Flinders — Ann Chappell and Chappell Island — The Franklins — Publication of Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen's Land, on Bass Strait and its Islands — Anxiety about French expedition — The Investigator commissioned — Equipment of ship — The staff and crew — East India Company's interest — Instructions for the voyage — The case of Mrs. Flinders — Sailing orders delayed —the incident at the Roar — Life on board — Crossing the Line — Australia reached • • • • • • • • • • 163

Chapter XIII. THE FRENCH EXPEDITION

Origin of Baudin's expedition — His instructions — Baudin's

dilatoriness — In Tasmanian waters — Waterhouse Island • . 198

Chapter XIV

The south coast of Australia — Method of research — Aboriginals at King George's Sound — Discovery of Spencer's Gulf — Loss of Thistle and a boat's crew — Memory Cove — Port Lincoln — Kangaroo Island — St. Vincent's Gulf — Pelicans — Speculations on the fate of Laperouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Chapter XV. FLINDERS AND BAUDIN IN ENCOUNTER BAY

The sighting of Le Geographe — Flinders visits Baudin — Their conversations — Flinders invites Baudin to visit Port Jackson 224

Chapter XVI

Grant's discoveries — Murray discovers Port Phillip — King Island — Flinders enters Port Phillip — Ascends Arthur's Seat — The Investigator aground — Cruise in a boat — Ascends Station Peak — Flinders' impression of the port — Arrival in Port Jackson — Healthiness of his crew • • 233 xii LIFE OF MATTHEW FLINDERS

Chapter XVII. THE FRENCH AT PORT JACKSON: PERON THE SPY

Arrival of Le Geographe at Port Jackson — State of the crew — Hospitality of Governor King — Rumours as to French designs — Baudin's gratitude — Peron's report on Port Jackson — His espionage — Freycinet's plan of invasion — Scientific work of the expedition . . . • • • . . 246

Chapter XVIII

Overhaul of the ship — The Lady Nelson — Flinders sails north — Discovery of Port Curtis and Port Bowen — Through the Barrier Reef — Torres Strait — Remarks on Coral Reefs — The Gulf of Carpentaria — Rotten condition of the ship- Melville Bay discovered — Sails for Timor — Australia circumnavigated — The Investigator condemned — Illness of Flinders — News of father's death — Letter to step-mother — Letters to Mrs. Flinders — Letter to Bass — The end of the Investigator • ■ • • • . • • • • • • . . 265

Chapter XIX. WRECKED ON THE BARRIER REEF

New plans — Flinders sails in the Porpoise — Remarks on Sydney— Wrecked — Conduct of the Bridgewatcr — Plans for relief — Stores available — Voyage in the Hope to Sydney — Franklin's description of the wreck . . . . . . . . 285

Chapter XX. TO ILE-DE-FRANCE IN THE CUMBERLAND

King receives news of the wreck — The Cumberland — Wreck Reef reached — Voyage to Timor — Determination to sail to Ile-de-France — Flinders' reasons — Arrival at Baye du Cap —Arrival at Port Louis 298

Chapter XXI

Decaen's early career — His baptism of fire — War in the Vendee — The Army of the Rhine — Moreau — Battle of Hohenlinden — Moreau and Napoleon — The peace of Amiens — Decaen's arrival at Pondicherry — His reception — Leaves for Ile-de-France — His character and abilities . . . . 308

CONTENTS xiii

Chapter XXII

Flinders' reception by Decaen — His anger — Imprisoned at the Cafe Marengo — His papers and books — His examination — Refusal of invitation to dinner — Decaen's anger — His determination to detain Flinders — King's despatches — Decaen's statement of motives — Flinders asks to be sent to France • • • • • • • • • • • • . . . . 321

Chapter XXIII

Decaen's despatch — A delayed reply — Flinders' occupations — His health — The sword incident — Anniversary of the imprisonment— Aken's liberation — The faithful Elder . . 346

Chapter XXIV

Thomas Pitot — Removal to Wilhelm's Plains — The parole — Madame D'Ari fat's house — Hospitalities — Flinders studies French and Malay — Further exploration schemes — The residence of Laperouse — Work upon the charts — King's protest and Decaen's anger — Elder's departure • • • . 357

Chapter XXV

Influences to secure release — The order of release — Receipt of the despatch — Decaen's reply — Flinders a dangerous man — Reason for Decaen's refusal — State of Ile-de-France — Project for escape — Flinders' reasons for declining . . 367

Chapter XXVI

Blockade of Ile-de-France — Decaen at the end of his tether — Release of Flinders — Return to England — The plagiarism charge — Flinders' papers — Work of Peron and Freycinet 379

Chapter XXVII. LAST YEARS AND DEATH OF FLINDERS

Flinders in London — Prolonged and severe work — His illness — Death of Flinders — His last words — Treatment of his widow by the Admiralty . . . . . . . . . . 391 xiv LIFE OF MATTHEW FLINDERS

Chapter XXVIII

Personality — Portraits — Flinders' commanding look — Geniality — Conversational powers — Gentleness — Kindness to wounded French officer — Advice to young officers — An eager student — The husband • • • • .... . . 402

Chapter XXIX. THE NAVIGATOR

Technical writings — The marine barometer — Variations in the

compass — Praise of other navigators — Love for his work 414

Chapter XXX

The name Australia given to the continent by Flinders — The "Austrialia del Espiritu Santo" of Quiros — De Brosses and "Australasia" — Dalrymple and "Australia" — Flinders' use of the word in 1804 — His use of it in a French essay in 1810 — Persistent employment of the word in letters — Proposes the word "Australia" to Banks — His fight for his word — "Terra Australis" — The footnote of 1814 . . 420

APPENDIX A — BAUDIN'S NARRATIVE OF THE

MEETING IN ENCOUNTER BAY 431

APPENDIX B— PERON'S REPORT ON PORT JACK- SON 436

APPENDIX C— NAMES GIVEN BY FLINDERS TO

AUSTRALIAN COASTAL FEATURES .. ..465

BIBLIOGRAPHY 475

INDEX 481

MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Portrait of Matthew Flinders, aged 27 Frontispiece

Flinders' Birthplace, Donington, Lincolnshire xviii

Facsimile of Letter to Sir Joseph Banks, 1794 . . 48

Tablet on Memorial erected by Sir John

Franklin at Port Lincoln, S.A. . . . . 64

Memorial on Mount Lofty, South Australia . . 81

Map of Flinders' Voyages in Bass Strait . . . . 102

Bass's Eye-sketch of Westernport . . . . . . 114

Portrait of George Bass . . . . . . 122

Page from Flinders' MS. Narrative of the

Voyage of the Francis, 1798 . . . . . . 128

Memorial on the Summit of Station Peak,

Port Dalrymple, discovered in the Norfolk, 1798 136

Page from Bass's MS. Account of the Voyage of

Cairn erected on Flinders' Landing-place,

Kangaroo Island, S.A 164

Portrait of Earl Spencer . . . . . . . . 181

Tablet at Memory Cove, South Australia . . 196

View on Kangaroo Island, by Westall . . . . 213

Flinders' Chart of Spencer's Gulf, St. Vincent's

Gulf, and Encounter Bay . . . . . . 218

Tablet at Encounter Bay, South Australia, commemorating the Meeting of Flinders

View of the Western Arm of Port Phillip, by

Westall 240 xvi MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Flinders' Map of Port Phillip and Westernport . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

View of Sydney Harbour, from Vaucluse, by

Westall 257

Flinders' Chart of Torres Strait, also showing

Cook's and Bligh's Tracks . . . . . . 270

Flinders' Map of the Gulf of Carpentaria . . 272

Flinders' Map of Australia, showing his

Principal Voyages . . . . . . . . 272

View on the Hawkesbury River, by Westall . . 278

Wreck Reef Island, by Westall . . . . . . 295

Flinders' Map of Wreck Reef . . . . . . 300

Portrait of General Decaen . . . . . . 308

View of Port Louis . . . . . . . . . . 325

Map of Ile-de-France . . . . . . . . . . 354

Page from Flinders' Copy of his Memorial to the

French Minister of Marine . . . . . . 360

Portrait of Flinders in 1808 . . . . . . 366

Silhouette of Flinders, made after his Return

from Ile-de-France . . . . . . . . 383

Facsimile of Original MS. Dedication of

Flinders' Journal . . . . . . . . 398

Page from MS. of Flinders' Abridged Narrative 404

Extract from Flinders' Letter-book . . . . 406

Flinders' Memorial in Parish Church, Donington 409

Memorial to Bass and Flinders at the Commonwealth Naval Base, Westernport . . . . 424

The maps have been copied from Flinders' Atlas, with the omission of a few details, which, on the small scale necessarilyadopted, would have caused confusion ; it has been thought better to make what is given quite legible to the unassisted eye. All names on the maps are as Flinders spelt them, but in the body of the book modern spellings have been adopted. In the case of the Duyfhen (p. 70) the usual spelling, which is also that of Flinders, is retained ; but the late J. Backhouse Walker has shown reason to believe that the real name of the vessel was Duyfken.

CHRONOLOGY

1793 (September)

1795 (February)

1798 (January) 1798 (January) 1798 (January 31)

1798 (October) 1798 (November)

1800 (March) 1800 (October)

1 80 1 (February 16)

1802 (February) 1802 (March)

Born, at Donington.

Enters the Royal Navy.

Midshipman on the Bellerophon.

Voyage in the Providence.

Rejoins the Bellerophon.

Participates in the battle off Brest.

Sails for Australia in the Reliance. Meets George Bass.

Cruise of the Tom Thumb.

Bass's whaleboat voyage.

Discovery of Westernport.

Flinders' voyage in the Francis

Flinders obtains lieutenant's commission.

Voyage of the Norfolk.

Discovery of Port Dalrymple.

Bass Strait demonstrated.

Return to Port Jackson.

Exploration on Queensland coast.

Return to England in the Reliance.

Arrival in England.

Plan of Australian Exploration.

The Investigator commissioned.

Publication of Observations.

Obtains commander's rank.

Marriage of Flinders.

Sailing of the Investigator.

Australia reached.

Discovery of Spencer's Gulf.

Discovery of Kangaroo Island and St. Vincent's Gulf.

CHRONOLOGY

1 802 ( November )

1803 (September 8)

1803 (September 21)

1803 (November)

Meeting of Flinders and Baudin in Encounter Bay.

Flinders in Port Phillip.

Voyage to Northern Australia.

Discovery of Port Curtis and Port Bowen.

In the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Return voyage; Australia circumnavigated.

Sydney reached ; the Investigator condemned.

Sails in the Porpoise

Wrecked on the Barrier Reef.

Voyage in the Hope to Sydney.

Arrival in Port Jackson.

Sails in the Cumberland.

Timor reached.

Arrival at Ile-de-France ; made a prisoner.

Removal to the Garden Prison (Maison Despeaux).

Removal to Wilhelm's Plains.

French Government orders release of Flinders.

Release of Flinders.

Return to England.

Death of Flinders.

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I— I

THE LIFE OF MATTHEW FLINDERS

Chapter I. BIRTH AND ORIGINS

Matthew Flinders was the third of the triad of great English sailors by whom the principal part of Australia was revealed. A poet of our own time, in a line of singular felicity, has described it as the " last sea-thing dredged by sailor Time from Space;"* and the piecemeal, partly mysterious, largely accidental dragging from the depths of the unknown of a land so immense and bountiful makes a romantic chapter in geographical history. All the great seafaring peoples contributed something towards the result. The Dutch especially evinced their enterprise in the pursuit of precise information about the southern Terra Incognita, and the nineteenth century was well within its second quarter before the name New Holland, which for over a hundred years had borne testimony to their adventurous pioneering, gave place in general and geographical literature to the more convenient and euphonious designation suggested by Flinders himself, Australia. t

But, important as was the work of the Dutch, and though the contributions made by French navigators (possibly also by Spanish) are of much consequence, it remains true that the broad outlines of the continent were laid down by Dampier, Cook and Flinders. These are the principal names in the story. A map of Aus-

* Bernard O'Dowd, Downward (1903).

t Not universally, however, even in official documents. In the Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, dated May 1, 1849, "New Holland" is used to designate the continent, but "Australia" is employed as including both the continent and Tasmania. See Grey's Colonial Policy I., 424 and 439.

tralia which left out the parts discovered by other sailors would be seriously defective in particular features; but a map which left out the parts discovered by these three Englishmen would gape out of all resemblance to the reality.

Dampier died about the year 1712; nobody knows precisely when. Matthew Flinders came into the world in time to hear, as he may well have done as a boy, of the murder of his illustrious predecessor in 1779. The news of Cook's fate did not reach England till 1781. The lad was then seven years of age, having been born on March 16th, 1774.

His father, also named Matthew, was a surgeon practising his profession at Donington, Lincolnshire, where the boy was born. The Flinders family had been settled in the same town for several generations. Three in succession had been surgeons. The patronymic indicates a Flemish origin, and the work on English surnames* that bids the reader looking for information under " Flinders " to " see Flanders," sends him on a reasonable quest, if to no great resulting advantage.

The English middle-eastern counties received frequent large migrations of Flemings during several centuries. Sometimes calamities due to the harshness of nature, sometimes persecutions and wars, sometimes adverse economic conditions, impelled companies of people from the Low Countries to cross the North Sea and try to make homes for themselves in a land which, despite intervals of distraction, offered greater security and a better reward than did the place whence t'.^ey came. England derived much advantage from the infusion of this industrious, solid and dependable Flemish stock; though the temporary difficulty of absorption gave rise to local protests on more than one occasion.

* Barker, Family Surnames (1903), p. 143.

As early as 1108, a great part of Flanders "being drowned by an exudation or breaking in of the sea, a great number of Flemings came into the country, beseeching the King to have some void place assigned them, wherein they might inhabit."* Again in the reign of Edward I. we find Flemish merchants carrying on a very large and important trade in Boston, and representatives of houses from Ypres and Ostend acquired property in the town.t In the middle of the sixteenth century, when Flanders was boiling on the fire of the Reformation, Lincolnshire and Norfolk provided an asylum for crowds of harassed refugees. In 1569 two persons were deputed to ride from Boston to Norwich to ascertain what means that city adopted to find employment for them ; and in the same year Mr. William Derby was directed to move Mr. Secretary Cecil, Queen Elizabeth's great minister, to "know his pleasure whether certain strangers may be allowed to dwell within the borough without damage of the Queen's laws.";):

During one of these peaceful and useful Flemish invasions the ancestors of Matthew Flinders entered Lincolnshire. In the later years of his life he devoted some attention to the history of his family, and found record of a Flinders as early as the tenth century. He believed, also, that his people had some connection with two men named Flinders or Flanders, who fled from Holland during the religious persecutions, and settled, in Queen Elizabeth's reign, in Nottinghamshire as silk stocking weavers. It would be very interesting if it were clear that there was a link between the family

*Holinshed's Chronicle (edition of 1807), II., 53.

t Pishey Thompson, Collections for a Topographical and Historical Account of Boston and the Hundred of Skirbeck (1820), p. 31.

% Boston Corporation mss., quoted in Thompson, History and Antiquities of Boston (1856).

and the origins of the great Nottingham hosiery trade. A Flinders may in that case have woven silk stockings for the Royal termagant, and Lord Coke's pair, which were darned so often that none of the original fabric remained, may have come from their loom.

Matthew Flinders himself wrote the note : "Ruddington near Nottingham (it is four miles south of the town) is the place whence the Flinders came;" and he ascertained that an ancestor was Robert Flinders, a Nottingham stocking-weaver.

A family tradition relates that the Lincolnshire Flinders were amongst the people taken over to England by Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, a Dutch engineer of celebrity in his day, who undertook in 1621 to drain 360,000 acres of fen in Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. He was financed by English and Dutch capitalists, and took his reward in large grants of land which he made fit for habitation and cultivation. Vermuyden and his Flemings were not allowed to accomplish their work of reclamation without incurring the enmity of the natives. In a petition to the King in 1637 he stated that he had spent £150,000, but that £60,000 of damage had been done " by reason of the opposition of the commoners," who cut the banks of his channels in the night and during floods. The peasantry, indeed, resisted the improvements that have proved so beneficent to that part of England, because the draining and cultivation of so many square miles of swamp would deprive them of fishing and fowling privileges enjoyed from time immemorial. Hardly any reform or improvement can be effected without some disruption of existing interests; and a people deeply sunk in poverty and toil could hardly be expected to contemplate with philosophical calm projects which, however advantageous to fortunate individuals and to posterity, were calculated to diminish their own means of living and their pleasant diversions. The dislike of the "commoners" to the work of the " participants " led to frequent riots, and many of Vermuyden's Flemings were maltreated. He endeavoured to allay discontent by employing local labour at high wages ; and was courageous enough to pursue his task despite loss of money, wanton destruction, and many other discouragements.* Ebullitions of discontent on the part of fractious Fenlanders did not cease till the beginning of the eighteenth century.

A very simple calculation shows that the great-grandfather of the first Matthew Flinders would probably have been contemporary with Sir Cornelius Vermuyden's reclamation works. He may have been one of the "participants" who benefited from them. The fact is significant as bearing upon this conjecture, that no person named Flinders made a will in Lincolnshire before 1600.t

It is, too, an interesting circumstance that there was a Flinders among the early settlers in New England, Richard Flinders of Salem, born 1637.1 He may have been of the same family as the navigator, for the Lincolnshire element among the fathers of New England was pronounced.

The name Flinders survived at Donington certainly for thirty years after the death of the sailor who gave lustre to it; for in a directory published in 1842 occur

* See Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, for 1619-23-25- 38-39, et seq.; and White's Lincolnshire, p. 542.

f See C. W. Foster, Calendar of Lincoln Wills, 1320-1600 (1902).

J Savage, Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (Boston, U.S.A., 1860).

the names of " Flinders, Mrs. Eliz., Market Place," and "Flinders, Mrs Mary, Church Street."*

The Flinders papers, mentioned in the preface, contain material which enables the family and connections of the navigator to be traced with certainty for seven generations. The genealogy is shown by the following table: —

John Flinders, b. 1682, d. 1741, settled at Donington as a farmer, m. 1702, Mary Obray or Aubrey

I John Flinders, surgeon at Spalding, born 1737, still living in 1810

r i

John Flinders, Lieutenant Matthew Flinders, surgeon

in Roval Navy, b. 1766, at Donington, b. 1750, d.

I I

Matthew Flinders the Samuel Ward Flinders,

Navigator, b. March 16, b. 1782, d. 1842, Lieut.

1774, d. July 19, 1814, in Royal Navy, married

m. 1801, Ann Chappell, and left several children b. 1770, d. 1852

I Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, eminent scholar and Egyptian archaeologist, b. 1853, m. 1897, Hilda Urlin

John Flinders Petrie Ann Flinders Petrie

There is also an interesting connection between Flinders and the Tennysons, through the Franklin family. The present Lord Tennyson, when Governor of South Australia, in the course of his official duties, in March, 1902, unveiled a memorial to his kinsman on Mount Lofty, and in April of the same year a second one in Encounter Bay. The following table illustrates

* William White, History, Gazetteer and Directory of the City and Diocese of Lincoln (1842), p. 193.

the relationship between him who wrote of "the long wash of Australasian seas " and him who knew them as discoverer : —

Matthew Flinders (father of Matthew Flinders the navigator) married as his second wife Elizabeth Weekes, whose sister, Hannah Weekes, married Willingham Franklin of Spilsby

I . I

Sir John Franklin, b. 1786, Sarah Franklin, married 1812

midshipman of the Investi- Henry Sellwood, solicitor, of

gator, Arctic explorer, Lieut.- Horncastle

Governor of Van Diemen's j

I Louisa Sellwood married Charles Tennyson-Turner, poet, brother of Alfred Tennyson

Emilv Sarah Sellwood, b. 1813,

Tennyson, Poet Laureate, b.

I Hallam, Lord Tennyson, b. 1852 ; Governor of South Australia 1899- 1902 ; Governor-General of Australia, 1902^

The Flinders papers also contain a note suggesting a distant connection between Matthew Flinders and the man who above all others was his choice friend, George Bass, the companion of his earliest explorations. Positive proof is lacking, but Flinders' daughter, Mrs. Petrie, wrote "we have reason to think that Bass was a connection of the family," and the point is too interesting to be left unstated. The following table shows the possible kinship : —