Q is for Queensland

T.F. Moxon's house in Toowong

The Brisbane Moxons were horrified.

William Ernest Moxon and his brother Thomas Frank Moxon had followed their older brother, an Anglican priest to Queensland in 1887 and immediately set about establishing successful businesses in coastal shipping and later the timber industry.  By the time T.F. died in 1936, he was the owner of a large group of companies.  Meanwhile W.E. was headhunted by the Adelaide Steamship Company and worked in Western Australia and then back in Brisbane by 1918.

As the 1920s progressed, they began to hear more about a much younger namesake,  H.J. Moxon who was stirring up trouble on the waterfront from Cairns to Brisbane and further south.  A hothead if ever there was one, a Communist no less.

By this time Bert (Herbert John) Moxon was becoming one of Queensland’s dynamic leaders, working with J B Miles to consolidate and build branches in Brisbane and North Queensland.  He worked to prevent a merger with the Labor Party in 1924   He was sent to Moscow in 1928 to attend meetings of the Third Comintern. 

It was also during this time that Bert Moxon was advised to “get out of Cairns quickly”, only later learning that another person had been killed and found floating in the harbour (and incorrectly identified as Bert Moxon).

He also became a central figure in the lead up to the 1929 Queensland election by having “left” candidates successfully stand against Labor Party candidates.

There was no way that the other Moxon family wanted to be associated with Bert,

In the Brisbane Courier on 24 July 1928, the following public notice appeared:

Mr W.E. Moxon (Queensland Manager for the Adelaide Steamship Co. Ltd, Brisbane) who is well known in shipping and mercantile circles desires it to be known that he is not related to Mr. H.J. Moxon, who represented the Central Executive of the Communist Party of Australia in Soviet Russia recently, and who is now in Brisbane.

These days, descendants of the two different families (MX05 and MX27 trees in The Moxon Society) are friends on Facebook and have met each other socially.  The Sydney descendants of each family also went to Fort Street Boys High School.

A is for Air Freight

Twice a year, as Co-ordinator of Moxons Down Under, I receive an email from The Moxon Society's membership secretary in Lancashire, England notifying me that he has posted a bulk consignment of the Moxon Magazine.  Pre-Covid, this would take 10-13 days to arrive.  However, times have changed, and I now wait three to four weeks for this package.  Sigh.  Just one of the many changes due to coronavirus.

The Magazine is eagerly awaited by our Australian membership.  The current issue, no. 67, April 2021 is a bumper edition of 40 pages in full colour.  My husband, John Bruce Moxon and I have been the Down Under Co-ordinators since 2012 when we took over from another Margaret Moxon of Brisbane.  John has to include his middle name for his role as editor of the Moxons Down Under Newsletter because he isn't the only John Moxon.  Many are members, including one more in Australia.

A is also for Adamant, the convict ship that brought Robert Moxon of Nottingham to Port Jackson in 1821.  Robert had a brother John (1821, Lord Sidmouth) - yes, another one - already in the colony.

The Adamant was one of a number of sailing ships with that name.  This one only transported convicts once.  There were 144 aboard.  It was built as a trader in 1811 and was last heard of in Timor in 1828.  Fortunately, there were no incidents on its convict contract.

More about Robert Moxon, convict, Adamant 1821

Robert Moxon, a butcher by trade, was baptised at St Mary’s, Nottingham on 4 April, 1803, the son of John and Phebe Mugson.  In every other record, his parents were named Moxon.  A John Moxon had married Phoebe Teel in South Lynn, Norfolk in 1794, the only recorded marriage of a John Moxon and a Phoebe.  A son John was born to the couple in 1796 and a daughter Elizabeth in 1805.  Sadly Elizabeth died the same year.

In 1818, his older brother John was convicted of larceny and sentenced to seven years transportation.  He arrived in Port Jackson on the Lord Sidmouth in March 1819 and was assigned to Captain Piper, a naval officer after whom the now affluent Sydney suburb of Point Piper is named. 

Here is more about Captain John Piper. 

John appears to have been highly regarded by his master, who found him “an honest, sober, industrious character, having faithfully served his master” (note 1), and recommended for a ticket of leave in 1823. Being a seaman, he became a ferryman on Sydney harbour and married a daughter of the well-known ferryman William Blue. (See Moxons Down Under Newsletter - May 2013)

The year after John’s conviction in 1818, younger brother Robert came to the attention of the law in Nottingham.  After a sentence of 12 months in October 1819, followed by an acquittal for a second offence, he was again convicted on 11th January 1821 of stealing from a shop (where he worked maybe?) and sentenced to seven years transportation.  He was sent to the convict hulk Justitia moored at Greenwich and on 26th March 1821 sailed for Port Jackson on the Adamant.

Adamant 1821

His behaviour suggests he might have been looking for a sentence of transportation after a positive experience by his brother, but then again maybe he just couldn’t help himself.

Robert was noted in the 1822 muster as also working for Captain Piper, but maybe the latter was disappointed in his work and character. 

By 1825, Robert was re-assigned to a landholder at Bathurst, a Mr Hawkins.  The very same year, he used his brother John’s Certificate of Freedom, and absconded.  Quickly caught, he was subjected to 50 lashes, and returned to his master at Bathurst.  Imagine his scars: by the fourth lash of a leather cat o’ nine tails, his skin would be broken, and by 50 lashes, his backbone would have been exposed.  The punishments were inflicted by other convicts, sometimes the convict’s fellow workers, in order to break loyalties.

Robert would have been expected to go back to work immediately, and his back may not have been washed until the following day. (note 2)

This event did not seem to have extended his sentence, because by 28th January 1828, he too had gained his certificate of freedom.  However Robert seemed not to be able to avoid temptation.  In 1830 he was tried for stealing beef and acquitted, but in 1833, he was gaoled for larceny.

It is assumed that John Moxon died before 1834 because Susannah Moxon married George Lavender in 1834.  No death record can be found.

Robert too, fades into oblivion.  Nothing further is heard of him in either Australia or England.

Notes:

1. Ancestry.co.uk  New South Wales Colonial Secretary’s papers, 1788-1856. Downloaded 20/11/15

2. http://www.convictcreations.com/history/punishments.html. Downloaded 18/11/15

Robert Moxon, convict on the Adamant 1821

Robert Moxon was convicted at Nottingham Town Assizes of shop robbery on 11th January 1821 and transported for seven years.  This was his second conviction.

He arrived on the convict ship Adamant on 8th September 1821, and worked for GLM Hawkins in Bathurst.  In April 1824 he was listed as returned to Government and assigned to settles in the district of Appin (south west of Sydney).

He received his certificate of freedom on 28th January 1828 and worked as a butcher.