Edward Denny Day Esq (1801 - 1876)

Born 1801 in Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland

Ancestors

Husband of Margaret (Raymond) Day — married 19 May 1836 in St James Church of England, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Descendants

Died 6 May 1876 at about age 75 in Maitland, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

Denny Day Esq is Notable.

Edward Denny Day (1801-1876), police magistrate, was the son of John Day, a clergyman of the Church of England in County Kerry, Ireland, and his wife Charlotte, née Denny. In 1820 he joined the 46th Regiment as an ensign and in 1833 became a lieutenant in the 62nd Regiment. After serving in India, he resigned in 1834 because of ill health. He then went to Sydney where he obtained employment as clerk to the Executive Council; in 1835 he served in the office of the colonial secretary. In 1836 he married Margaret^[1], fourth daughter of James Raymond, the postmaster-general,^[2] and there were six sons and five daughters of the marriage. Day was appointed police magistrate at the Vale of Clwydd in January 1836, at Maitland in January 1837^[3], and at Muswellbrook in October 1837.

In June 1838, under instructions from Governor Sir George Gipps, a party of mounted police led by Day was sent to arrest white men said to have killed at least twenty-eight Aboriginals at or near Henry Dangar's station at Myall Creek on the Liverpool Plains.^[4][5] Eleven men were caught, tried and found guilty; seven were hanged.^[6] As police magistrate again at Maitland, he was also commissioner, Court of Requests, from 1841 and of insolvent estates from 1842. He played a major part in public life in Maitland, became a foundation member of the Australian Immigration Association, and was elected chairman of the Maitland branch.

In December 1840, when visiting Muswellbrook, he learned of a gang of bushrangers led by Edward Davis 'The Jewboy', who had terrorized settlers in the Scone district, raiding cattle stations and breaking into homesteads. In one raid John Graham, clerk in a store at Scone, was murdered. Captain Day organized a party of mounted men, pursued the bushrangers, and captured five of them after a short skirmish at Doughboy Hollow; a sixth was arrested the next day.^[7] They were all tried and found guilty and were hanged on 16 March 1841. Grateful residents of the Scone district presented Day with a service of plate for his efforts.

On 16 February 1844 he laid the foundation stone of a new gaol at East Maitland.^[8] In January 1846, as representative of Gipps, he laid the foundation stone of a new hospital at Maitland.^[9] Day's business ventures proved unsuccessful and his estate was sequestrated in 1848. Next year he was appointed to Sydney and from 1 January 1851 was provincial inspector of police for the northern district.^[10] In June 1853 he was appointed stipendiary magistrate at Port Macquarie;^[11] after five years he was transferred back to Maitland,^[12][13] where he served until 1869.^[14][15]

He then again retired at Maitland, where he died on 6 May 1876^[16]. One obituary appeared as follows:^[17]

Death of Mr. Edward Denny Day.

A gentleman who has been withdrawn for many years from active life by sickness, died at his residence in East Maitland on Saturday morning last. Mr. Edward Denny Day was, previous to an attack of paralysis, and after the attack till increasing feebleness compelled him to resign his public duties, police magistrate of Maitland, and had occupied that responsible office for so long a time that his name was historical in connection with it. At one period of his life, Mr. Day made a considerable figure in the public eye by a gallant capture of a noted bushranging gang who had established a reign of terror in the district of the Upper Hunter. Mr. Day's career as police magistrate in Maitland was not continuous; he held the position in the very early times, was removed to Port Macquarie, and returned on the death of Major Crummer, remaining in office till his sickness obliged him to retire.

Mr. Day was admirably fitted for the duties of the magisterial bench. He possessed a keen intelligence, an active mind, and very wide practical knowledge of the law. By some people he was charged with harshness and tyranny, and it must be admitted that in his administration of the law, he made it a terror to evildoers. That is rather a virtue than a failing in the dispenser of justice. His stern manner detracted materially from the estimation in which he was held by people generally, but although he made a few mistakes, his decisions on the bench were almost invariably distinguished by strict equity. He had held office at a time when rigour was specially called for from a magistrate, and when a stern enforcement of the law was an essential to social security. He was a faithful public servant, always doing his duty honorably; and if the manner of an older and worse day was sometimes a little too rugged for the improved state of society in his later time, we can pardon it for the sake of such conspicuous fidelity. In public matters Mr. Day took such part as his position permitted, and his last extra magisterial appearance in public was, if we mistake not, as chairman of the first meeting called in this district to express detestation of the attack on Prince Alfred in 1868. It was on a Saturday afternoon, two or three days after the occurrence, when men's minds were newly-stirred by the event, and the writer has a vivid remembrance of the emotion visible on the stern face of the chairman, who, in his opening speech, referred to the country of the assassin,-" a land which he loved dearly and well," for it was his own mother-land, Ireland.

Mr. Day leaves a widow and a large family, all grown up and settled in life. He was one of the old school of officials, which almost every year now sees reduced by death, and he was one of the best in his sphere.

He was buried in the Anglican cemetery, East Maitland.^[18]

Sources

1. ↑ NSW BDM marriage 101/1836 V1836101 20
2. ↑ Family Notices (1836, May 21). Commercial Journal and Advertiser (Sydney, NSW : 1835 - 1840), p. 3. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article226458211
3. ↑ GOVERNMENT GAZETTE (1836, September 29). The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), p. 3. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2206905
4. ↑ (1838, July 17). The Australian (Sydney, NSW : 1824 - 1848), p. 3. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36854124
5. ↑ ADVANCE AUSTRALIA SYDNEY GAZETTE. (1838, December 4). The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), p. 2. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2550951
6. ↑ ADVANCE AUSTRALIA SYDNEY GAZETTE. (1838, December 20). The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), p. 2. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2544268
7. ↑ BUSHRANGING DAYS. (1899, September 9). Singleton Argus (NSW : 1880 - 1954), p. 8. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78881326
8. ↑ LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE MAITLAND GAOL. (1844, February 17). The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893), p. 2. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article664838
9. ↑ THE MAITLAND HOSPITAL. (1846, January 30). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12885000
10. ↑ POLICE. (1851, January 3). New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900), p. 2. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230690987
11. ↑ Extracts from the Government Gazette. (1853, January 8). Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer (NSW : 1845 - 1860), p. 3. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59756541
12. ↑ No title (1858, March 13). Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer (NSW : 1845 - 1860), p. 2. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59868326
13. ↑ RECEPTION OF MR. E. D. DAY. (1858, August 10). The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893), p. 2. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18640675
14. ↑ OUR EAST MAITLAND CORRES (1869, January 16). The Newcastle Chronicle (NSW : 1866 - 1876), p. 2. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111157391
15. ↑ TESTIMONIAL TO E. D. DAY, ESQ. (1869, June 24). The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893), p. 1. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18737898
16. ↑ NSW BDM death 7442/1876
17. ↑ Death of Mr. Edward Denny Day. (1876, May 9). The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893), p. 4. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18806334
18. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 03 September 2019), memorial page for Edward Denny Day (1800–6 May 1876), Find A Grave Memorial no. 86579746, citing Glebe Cemetery, East Maitland, Maitland City, New South Wales, Australia ; Maintained by ProgBase (contributor 47278889) Find A Grave: Memorial #86579746

See also:

• Ben W. Champion, 'Day, Edward Denny (1801–1876)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University
• Terry Smyth, 'Denny Day : the life and times of Australia's greatest lawman - the forgotten hero of the Myall Creek Massacre', North Sydney, NSW : Ebury Press, 2016
• FamilySearch