On the 11th instant, lost at sea, in the steamship London, on her voyage to Melbourne, Gilbert Andrew Amos, Esq., Police Magistrate and Warden, Heidelburg, Victoria, and third son of the late Andrew Amos, Esq., of St. Ibbs, Hitchin, Herts; also, at the same time and place, Isabella Dick Amos, wife of the above; also, at the same time and place, Miss Catherine McLachlan, aged 22, sister of the said Isabella Dick Amos.
On the 11th inst., in the steamship London, on her voyage to Melbourne, Edward Youngman, Esq., aged 44, greatly beloved and regretted by a numerous circle of friends.
On the 11th inst., lost at sea, in the steamship London, George F. P. Urquhart, Esq., of Evandale, Auckland, New Zealand, and Mary Chauncy, his wife, late of 11, Kensington-park Villas, W., daughter of the late Major James Burke, of the 77th and 99th Regiments, of Arlaman, county Limerick, Ireland.
These are only a few instances out of many that might be given; but now to look at names, well known, take first the story of the Cumberland emigrants.
It appears that no less than ten persons who went out in the London were connected with Cumberland; one family, consisting of William Graham, his wife, and three children, having gone from Carlisle. It is a sad story—one which cannot be read even by strangers without the most sorrowful feelings. William Graham, tailor, aged 51 years; Ellen, his wife, 49 years; George, his son, 10 years; a daughter, 3 years; a baby, aged 4 months; Thomas Graham, aged 40 years; Mary, his wife, aged 27 years; David Graham, aged 37 years; David McVittie, aged 30 years, blacksmith, Newtown; and John Little, aged 30 years, fireman on the North British Railway. The three Grahams were brothers. Thomas had been out in Victoria twelve years, and David followed him four years afterwards, and had since been engaged in business with him. Success followed their farming operations, until they were enabled to purchase an estate. In their prosperity the brothers were not unmindful of their old home, and during the prevalence of distress at Longtown, in consequence of the cotton famine, they generously sent over a sum of 60l. for the relief of the sufferers. They also sent a large amount of relief to Manchester. In August last they came to England, with the view of seeing their friends, and of purchasing implements. Upwards of 1000l. they laid out in this way, and sent out before them a variety of implements for the farm. Thomas had another purpose to effect, also, in visiting the old country, and that was to marry, and take home with him a wife. He married Sarah Bruce, a native of Banff, and they were married only a week before they left Carlisle to take up their berths on board the London. Their brother, William Graham, agreed to go out with them, they paying his passage, and he took with him his family, as stated above. Little and McVittie, friends of the Grahams, were also going out with them. Both men were in the employ of the North British Railway Company, Little as fireman, and McVittie as a blacksmith. Little was a remarkably steady and amiable young man. He was the eldest of a family of eleven children, and is survived both by his father and mother. The whole party of emigrants left for London on the 27th of December last, and a large number of friends assembled to bid them farewell, and three hearty cheers were given as the train started. Such were ten at least who had each a history inestimably precious to a wide circle of friends at home and abroad, and, simple though these people were by the side of more brilliant names, there is a quiet naturalness about their story that will appeal to many hearts.
On board the London also was Mr. Henry John Dennis, a gentleman of some note in Australia and America. A few years ago Mr. Dennis narrowly escaped shipwreck in the Marco Polo, a vessel that in speed and celebrity used to compete with the Suffolk when Captain Martin commanded her. In the middle of the night, in the Southern Ocean, the Marco Polo struck an iceberg; but on that terrible occasion Mr. Dennis had been of some service. He had since been a very active colonial explorer, and had for many months been engaged in a hazardous hunting expedition in the wild regions and among the savage tribes which lie at the back of Port Natal. He is understood also to be the first, if not the only Englishman who has grown cotton in the Southern States of the American Union by free negro labour. Starting for America while the civil war was at its height, he took a plantation on the Mississippi, and though he had to cope with plundering bands of guerillas and with many other dangers and inconveniences, he nevertheless succeeded in raising a crop, and only retired when he found that in the then existing state of things it was utterly impossible to grow cotton without great pecuniary loss as well as personal risk.
There was a clergyman on board, distinguished for his many and varied gifts, and who was beloved by a very wide circle of friends, both in England and Australia—the Rev. Dr. Woolley, to whose worth and talents Dean Stanley and Sir Charles Nicholson, formerly Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of New-South Wales, have paid the very warmest tribute, as, indeed, have a host of the scholarly and worthy of the land. Dr. Woolley was in the 49th year of his age, and his course in life had been one of usefulness and honour in the branches of learning to which he had specially devoted himself. His life had been that of the Professor rather than of the working clergyman. He matriculated at University College, London, but subsequently removed to Oxford, where in 1836 he took a first-class degree in classics. On leaving Oxford, he became successively Head Master of Rossal School, in Lancashire, and of King Edward’s Grammar School at Norwich. This last office he relinquished on obtaining the appointment of Professor in 1852, in the University of Sydney, which had just been incorporated under an Act of the local Legislature. His duties in this new position were most important, as upon him devolved the organization and successful working, under circumstances of great difficulty, of a great national institution. But he threw himself into the work cast upon him with enthusiasm, and laboured with untiring zeal and energy. He succeeded in a very marked degree in winning to himself and moulding the taste and character of the young men placed under his control. The gentleness—almost feminine—of his nature, the warmth and generosity of his heart, his distinguished attainments as a scholar, and the eloquence and earnestness with which he was wont to impart instruction, not only to the Undergraduates of the University, but to the members of various popular institutions with which he was connected, have been tenderly spoken of, and will be long remembered by hundreds of persons. He came to this country a few months ago for rest, and very pleasant to himself, and to those who knew him, was his brief sojourn here. From many, as we at least read the matter, there came tempting inducements to settle down in England among associations more consonant with a refined taste than those of colonial life; but with him, too, the mainspring of life was obedience to duty, and he must return to the work waiting to be done by him. He had been exceedingly happy here. A writer in Macmillan says that one who saw him during his latest days in England writes of him thus:—
“His tastes were those of a refined and cultivated man. He told me that his stay here, mixing in the society of men of letters, had been a delight to him beyond what I, who was always in it, could conceive. Had he met Tennyson and Browning, nothing could be more to his taste than the companionship of such men, with whom his own qualities made him a most welcome guest. He had in perfection the bright, gentle, cheery manner that characterizes the best Oxford man. In stature he was small, but his face most pleasant to look at. He was very active in all sorts of societies and institutions for the benefit of working-men and men engaged in business. His age must have been about fifty, but he looked younger. He had a wife and six children waiting his return to Sydney, whither, as I perceived, he was determined to go, for he felt his work lay there, and his duty. He went back to fulfil his duty, and has fulfilled it. He is remembered by many whom he left in England as the good man—John Woolley.”
There was another passenger of celebrity on board—Mr. G. V. Brooke. He was of respectable family, and some members of it were highly distinguished in literature. In early boyhood he had been a pupil of Lovel Edgeworth, the brother of Maria Edgeworth. His father, who was an architect, had other views concerning him than those which the son lived to fulfil. He was educated with a view to the bar; but while quite young he was thrown amongst those who were devoted to private theatricals, and he was so captivated that he relinquished his law studies and applied himself to theatrical pursuits. He met with some successes, and many reverses, particularly in Australia. Of all places in the world, after his many ups and downs in life, on the morning of the 6th January he was on board the London, and his sister was with him.
