Edward
John
Eyre
Born in Whipsnade, Bedfordshire, England, United Kingdom
Ancestors 
Son of Anthony William Eyre
and Sarah (Mapleton) Eyre
Brother of
Caroline Elizabeth (Eyre) Wake, Elizabeth (Eyre) Wooding [half] and Frances Jane (Eyre) Machill
Husband of
Adelaide Fanny (Ormond) Eyre
— married
3 Apr 1847 in Chapel of St John's College, Wellington, New Zealand
Descendants 
Father of
Gervas Selwyn Eyre, Edward Broughton Eyre, Ada Austin (Eyre) Gordon, Charles Ormond Eyre, Henry Eyre, May Lilian Eyre and Sydney Frederick Eyre
Died
at age 86
in Tavistock, Devon, England, United Kingdom
Profile last modified
| Created 10 Feb 2013
This page has been accessed 5,457 times.
Contents |
Biography
Edward Eyre is Notable.
Edward Eyre was an Australian explorer.
This profile is part of the Eyre Name Study.
| Edward Eyre is managed by the Australia Project. Join: Australia Project Discuss: australia |
Edward Eyre was an English explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, and a controversial Governor of Jamaica. He discovered South Australia's Lake Eyre, Eyre Peninsula, Eyre Creek, Eyre Highway (the main highway from South Australia to Western Australia). Other places named in his honour are Edward John Eyre High School and the Eyre Hotel in Whyalla, the electoral district of Eyre in Western Australia, villages of Eyreton and West Eyreton in Canterbury and the Eyre Mountains and Eyre Creek in Southland, New Zealand.
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Edward John Eyre was born in Whipsnade, Bedfordshire. His parents were Reverend Anthony Eyre and Sarah Mapleton. His father descended from the ancient family of the Eyres of Derbyshire. [1][2][3][4]
After completing his education at King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth, Lincolnshire and Sedbergh School, Cumbria, [5] at seventeen, he had intended to enter the army but at his father's suggestion, he used the purchase money to emigrate to the British Colonies on the Australian continent.
Australia
Edward Eyre migrated from England to New South Wales.
Edward arrived in Sydney, New South Wales, in the Ellen on 20 March 1833 and moved to the Hunter River district where, through the good offices of Colonel Henry Dumaresq, arrangements were made for Eyre to live with William Bell at Cheshunt Park to gain colonial experience in sheep and cattle management, and in July he bought a flock of 400 sheep. When South Australia was founded in 1836, Edward took 1,000 sheep and 600 cattle overland from the southern New South Wales region of Monaro to Adelaide and sold them for a large profit. The profit on the trip was over £4,000 ($8,000) half of which was his. After purchasing an acre of land at Adelaide and building a cottage he set out to explore the interior of South Australia. [6] Edward made two separate expeditions north to the Flinders Ranges [7] and west to beyond Ceduna. He reached the Spencer Gulf, [8] and travelled on towards the Flinders Ranges. Setting out from his camp at Mount Arden he finally caught sight of Lake Torrens. [9]
- The whole was barren and arid-looking in the extreme, and as I gazed on the dismal scene before me I felt assured, I had approached the vast and dreary desert of the interior, or, it might be, was verging on the confines of some inland water, whose sterile and desolate shores seem to forbid the traveller's approach.
In January 1840, Edward and two companions took sheep and cattle by sea to King George Sound, Western Australia and then drove them overland to the Swan River Settlement. On his return to Adelaide in May he brought with him an Aborigine, Wylie. He found that a committee had been set up to organise an expedition to explore an overland route to the west. Edward offered his services and also undertook to find a third of the horses and pay a third of the expenses, in fact he paid almost exactly half.
The objective of the expedition became in Governor George Gawler's words,
- The discovery of the interior of Australia.
On 18 June 1840, Eyre set out from Adelaide with a party made up of six white men, including John Baxter, [10] Eyre's assistant, E B Scott, two Aborigines, 13 horses, 40 sheep and stores for three months. More stores were sent up to the head of Spencer Gulf in the government cutter Waterwitch, to await the arrival of the overland party. [11] Edward and his Aboriginal companion Wylie, was the first European to travel the coastline of the Great Australian Bight and the Nullarbor Plain by land in 1840-1841, a 2,000 mile trip to Albany, Western Australia. [12] He led the expedition with John Baxter and three aborigines but two of the aborigines killed Baxter and escaped with most of the supplies, and Eyre and Wylie were only able to survive because they were rescued by a French whaling ship under the command of Captain Rossiter, who happened to be there. Eyre named the bay after the captain. [13]
As well as exploring inland South Australia and New South Wales, Eyre kept the peace between white settlers and Aborigines along the Murray River. [14]
Edward Eyre served as Lieutenant-Governor of New Munster Province in New Zealand from 1848 to 1853. [15] He married Adelaide Ormond in 1850. [16] Her brother was the politician John Davies Ormond. The couple had seven children: two in New Zealand, two in St Vincent, in the Caribbean, one in Oxfordshire, England, another in the West Indies, and finally in Somerset, England.
Caribbean
|
| George William Gordon (1815-65) |
From 1854 he was Governor of several Caribbean island colonies. As Governor of the Colony,[1] Eyre implemented barbaric punishments in response to unemployment and used the military to brutally suppress the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica,[3][17] resulting in the indiscriminate murder and execution of 739 Black Jamaicans. Over 600 were flogged, including pregnant women.[17] Assemblyman George William Gordon (b. c. 1815 - d. 23 Oct 1865), who had spoken out against Eyre's policies targeting the poor, was among those executed.[18]
Some in Britain called for Eyre's arrest on the grounds of Gordon's murder. John Stuart Mil organised the Jamaica Committee, which demanded his prosecution. A rival committee was set up by Thomas Carlyle for the defence,[19] arguing that Eyre had acted decisively to restore order. Some of his supporters included John Ruskin, Charles Kingsley, Charles Dickens and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Eyre was charged twice with murder but the cases never went ahead.
Family
Edward married Adelaide Fanny Ormond in 1850 in New Zealand.[20]
His children included:
- Gervas Selwyn Eyre (1851-1920)
- Edward Broughton Eyre (1853-aft.1911)
- Ada Austin (Eyre) Gordon (1855-1929)
- Charles Ormond Eyre (1856-abt.1924)
- Henry Eyre (1861-aft.1901)
- May Lilian Eyre (1865-1940)
- Sydney Frederick Eyre (1871-1929)
Death
Edward retired to Walreddon Manor, near Tavistock, [21] where he lived in seclusion until his death, aged 86 years, on 30 November 1901. [22][23] He was buried in Whitechurch churchyard, near Tavistock.
Edward Eyre was born almost four years after Princess (later Queen) Victoria and died eleven months after her. She had been crowned monarch in 1837, just after Edward had settled in South Australia. During his lifetime, he had witnessed the advent of rail transport, the coming and going of the great clipper ships, and the extending of the British Empire.
Census Records
In the 1861 census Edward (age 45) was the head of household in Spelsbury, Oxfordshire, England.[24]
In the 1871 census Edward (age 55) was the head of household in North Newton, North Petherton, Somerset, England.[25]
In the 1881 census Edward (age 64), Retired Governor In Colonial Service, was the married head of household in The Grange, Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire, England.[26]
In the 1901 census Edward (age 75) was the head of household in Whitchurch, Devon, England.[27]
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Google Books Hulme, H. (1867). The Life of Edward John Eyre, Late Governor of Jamaica, p. 6
- ↑ Heuman, G. Eyre, Edward John (1815 Whipsnade, co. Beds. –1901). in Oxford DNB
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Wikipedia: Edward John Eyre
- "Edward John Eyre Governor of Jamaica," (1862-66). Image Ref. CO 1069/369 (1). National Archives, UK. Web.
- "Edward John Eyre," in Encyclopedia Britannica. britannica.com. Web.
- Wikipedia: Morant Bay rebellion
- Wikipedia: Paul Bogle
- Wikipedia: George William Gordon
- ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," 11 Feb 2018, Edward John Eyre, 05 Aug 1815); FHL microfilm 1,279,191.[1]
- ↑ Wikipedia: Sedbergh School
- ↑ Wikipedia: Eyre's 1839 expeditions
- ↑ Wikipedia: Flinders Ranges
- ↑ Wikipedia: Spencer Gulf
- ↑ Wikipedia: Lake Torrens
- ↑ Wikipedia: John Baxter (explorer)
- ↑ Wikipedia: Spencer Gulf
- ↑ Wikipedia: Great Australian Bight
- ↑ Wikipedia: Rossiter Bay
- ↑ Wikipedia: Murray River
- ↑ Wikipedia: New Munster Province
- ↑ "New Zealand, Civil Records Indexes, 1800-1966," FamilySearch,[2] : 4 October 2016),
- Edward John Eyre and Adelaide Fanny Ormond, 1850; citing Marriage, New Zealand, registration number 1850/43, Archives of New Zealand, Wellington.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1
"The Morant Bay Rebellion," in History of Jamaica, (2020, June 27). Black History Month. https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/jamaica/history-of-jamaica/
- ↑ Wikipedia: EdwardJohnEyre#Colonial Governor in Jamaica
- ↑ Wikipedia: Thomas Carlyle
- ↑ Marriage Registration: "New Zealand, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1840- 1901," database, Ancestry Record 62565 #90128657 (accessed 19 May 2023), Edward John Eyre marriage to Adelaide Fanny Ormond in 1850 in New Zealand; citing Department of Internal Affairs, New Zealand, New Zealand, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1840-1901.
- ↑ Walreddon Manor
- ↑
"England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," FamilySearch,[3] : 31 December 2014),
- Edward John Eyre, 1901; from findmypast.com: 2012; citing Death, Tavistock, Devon, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
- ↑ Probate: "England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995," database with images, Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 1904 #15916639 (accessed 19 May 2023), Edward John Eyre probate on 23 Jan 1902 in London, England. Died 30 Nov 1901 in Devonshire, England; citing Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England.
- ↑ 1861 Census: "1861 England Census," database with images, Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 8767 #16328443 (accessed 19 May 2023), Edward Jno Eyre (45) head of household in Spelsbury in Chipping Norton registration district in Oxfordshire, England. Born in Whipsnade, Bedfordshire, England; citing Class Rg 9, Piece 910, Folio 10, Page 14, GSU roll 542720, ED, institution, or vessel 10, Household schedule number 84.
- ↑ 1871 Census: "1871 England Census," database with images, Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 7619 #14754633 (accessed 19 May 2023), Edward J Eyre (55) head of household in North Newton, North Petherton in Bridgewater registration district in Somerset, England. Born in Whipsnade, Bedfordshire, England; citing The National Archives, Kew, London, England, 1871 England Census, Class RG10, Piece 2382, Folio 45, Page 22, GSU roll 835107, ED, institution, or vessel 7, Household schedule number 105.
- ↑ 1881 Census: "1881 England Census," database with images, Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 7572 #17954080 (accessed 19 May 2023), Edward John Eyre (64), married, Retired Governor In Colonial Service, head of household in The Grange, Steeple Aston in Woodstock registration district in Oxfordshire, England. Born in N K, Oxfordshire, England; citing Class RG11, Piece 1509, Folio 14, Page 2, GSU roll 1341364, ED, institution, or vessel 2.
- ↑ 1901 Census: "1901 England Census," database with images, Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 7814 #11770056 (accessed 19 May 2023), Edward J Eyre (75) head of household in Whitchurch in Tavistock registration district in Devon, England. Born in Whitsgnede, Bedfordshire, England; citing Class RG13, Piece 2118, Folio 69, Page 13, ED, institution, or vessel 24, Household schedule number 75.
- Biography Edward Eyre] by Geoffrey Dutton AO. adb.anu.edu.au.
- Australian Explorers.davidreilly.com
- Space: Australian Explorers
Changes...
- Eyre-288 on Feb 8, 2013. Kym Briscoe, Schroeder Lancaster.ged
- The county families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, Publisher
London : R. Hardwicke, 1909. Internet Archive. https://www.gengophers.com/book.html#/book/45362?page=487&given=Ada&exactGiven=false&surname=Eyre&exactSurname=false&place=England&date=1860-1929&startDate=1860&endDate=1929&rels=John%20Eyre&exactRels=false
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- Comments on Edward John Eyre Nov 2, 2022.
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Categories: Ellen, Arrived 20 Mar 1833 | Whipsnade, Bedfordshire | Tavistock, Devon | Australia, Profile Improvement - Colonial Australia | Australia, Explorers | Lieutenant Governors, New Munster | Jamaica, Eyre Name Study | Australia, Eyre Name Study | Australia, Project Managed Profiles | Governors of Jamaica | Notables
Regards Dany Stapleton in Canberra
The proposed merge with Eyre-1546 should (if it goes ahead) discount the birth place there, as the birth DATE is out by 26 years. Daughter Ada birth date is out by 6 years.
The 1881 census https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/17954039:7572 shows that the Eyre family lived at Steeple Aston in 1881, despite that address not being in the Australian Dictionary of Biography https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/eyre-edward-john-2032/text2507