Notes

Note N65 Index

44 years Rector of Darfield

Notes

Note N66 Index

From Cowesby Hall, Thirsk, Yorkshire

Notes

Note N67 Index

Canon Residentiary of Ripon and Rector of Little Ponton, Lincolnshire

Notes

Note N68 Index

From Gospel Oak.

Notes

Note N69 Index

MP for Preston 1826, 1830, 1831 and Recorder of York. Chairman of Board of Inland Revenue.

Notes

Note N70 Index

From Middlesex

Notes

Note N71 Index

Rector of Freshwater, Isle of Wight

Notes

Note N72 Index

Rector of Kirk Sandall

Notes

Note N73 Index

From Snaith

Notes

Note N74 Index

From County Mayo. JP, DL.

Notes

Note N75 Index

JP of Tasmania. Emigrated from Wanstead, Essex, but belonged to a Cumberland family.

Text from "The Serjeantsons of Hanlith" by R M Serjeantson. Privately published. c 1908

"Richard Willis (born 13 June, I777) was a native of Kirkoswold, Cumberland, but was brought up in
London. He was in business for a time, but obtained (30 June, 1823) a Brisbane grant of 2,000 acres of
land in Tasmania, which, augmented to 8,407 acres, became the Wanstead Estate, near Campbell Town.
He sailed in the " Courier," and arrived at Hobart 21 Dec., 1823. He was made a justice of the Peace, 30
January, 1829; and was a member of the Legislative Council from 4 January, 1830, to 24 October, 1838,
when he resigned, prior to his return, in I839, to London. He was a prominent colonist, and in November,
1826, imported the celebrated stallion " Peter Finn." His wife was Anne Harper, daughter of Thomas
Harper, of St. Kitts, West Indies, and British North America. Harper was a man of considerable influence
in America, and on the outbreak of the War of Independence, the colonists pressed him hard to take their
side. He was however a staunch loyalist, and resolutely declined their overtures. When the rebellion
broke out, his little daughter Anne (the future Mrs. Willis) was on a visit to friends at a distance, who had
joined the revolutionary party. They actually went so far as to detain the child, refusing to give her up
unless her father agreed to espouse their cause. He refused however, and after great difficulty at length
succeeded in recovering the little girl, and getting her out of the country. When she grew up she married,
about the year 1800, Richard Willis of Wanstead, by whom she had eighteen children, the second of
whom was Marianne, wife of Capt. Wm. Serjeantson. Anne Willis died at Greenwich 19 Sept., 1848;
and her husband Richard Willis at Southsea, in 1855."

Note from Zenda Cullen (nee Willis)

I have corresponded with Phillipa Baird who now owns 'Wanstead Park' and she has sent me a couple of
photos of the house. Richard Willis and his wife Ann Simpson left England in 1823 with 11 of their
children arriving in Dec. of that year. They took up a grant at Campbell Town and built 'Wanstead Park'
about 1826, where they lived for some years, enlarging and improving on their property to almost 9000
acres. Have you read any of the information about Marianne in the "Clyde Company Papers"? There is a
wealth of information about her and William Serjeantson both in India and Tasmania. Ann's father was a
Silversmith, very prominent in the Masonic Lodge both in England and the USA. There is a newspaper
article about Wanstead being haunted by Marianne who was 'pining for her husband', it's amazing what
they will print.

From Australian Dictionary of Biography http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020547b.htm

WILLIS, RICHARD (1777-1855), settler, was the second son of Joseph and Mary Willis of Kirkoswald, Cumberland, England. In 1800 he married Anne, who was born at St Kitts, West Indies, in 1780, the daughter of Thomas Harper of London. Said to have been a shoemaker, Willis lived in London before he migrated with his wife and eleven children. They arrived at Hobart Town in the Courier on 2 December 1823. Five children died in childhood (one during the voyage), and ten survived in 1836.

Lieutenant-Governor William Sorell felt that Willis's unusually cordial letter from the Colonial Office, as well as his considerable assets and the size of his family, justified his ordering a reserve of 1000 acres (405 ha) in addition to the maximum grant of 2000 acres (809 ha). Friends in England took some pains to acquaint the new lieutenant-governor, (Sir) George Arthur, with Willis's virtues; he had taken to the colony, they said, property worth between £5000 and £7000, and had an independent English income of £300 a year and the promise of a further £10,000 from friends, if needed. His other imports included a hundred pure merinos 'bred from the late King's stock', and stud horses and cattle. His connexions were of the highest respectability, his elder children well educated, he had 'prudence, enterprise, probity and talents', and the friendship of the Duke of York.

Willis located his land north of Campbell Town, named it Wanstead after a village in Essex and in 1826 cited extensive improvements and the importation of breeding stock in his application for an extension of his grant. Arthur, taking into consideration also 'his extensive family, & his conduct respecting Priest the bushranger', whom Willis had captured after his horse had been shot under him and his neck wounded by gunshot, gave him another 1000 acres (405 ha). Two years later Willis applied for more land claiming that he was 'without a competitor in these districts' in improvements, having enclosed more than 1000 acres (405 ha), put 150 acres (61 ha) into cultivation, just completed 'one of the best houses in the Colony, at an expense of upwards of £1000', and having more than 3000 sheep, 150 cattle and 'one of the most beautiful Stallions ever imported'; he had also purchased another 1800 acres (728 ha). The Land Board remembered that 5000 acres (2024 ha) had already been freely granted to him and considered that he should pay for any more, but they recommended that 1000 acres (405 ha) be given to his second son, Richard, now nearing 18.

In 1832 Willis had the services of thirty-five convicts. Of their uselessness he often complained and at the same time dwelt on his great contribution to the colony; he had been a magistrate since 1825. There is some evidence to suggest that Willis's assumptions of importance did not endear him to his fellow colonists; in 1826 there was a quarrel with Samuel Hill who, Willis asserted, insulted him on the bench. Ten years later, in a long correspondence arising from Frederick Forth's claim that Willis had insulted him as a magistrate, it was revealed that Willis had quarrelled with most of his neighbours. But he remained on excellent terms with Arthur, who appointed him to the Legislative Council, and with Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Franklin, who unsuccessfully recommended him to the Colonial Office for compensation for an alleged loss of land to one of his estranged neighbours, John Leake. Unpopularity may have been a factor in his decision to return to England, though the immediate reason was to present his case personally to the Colonial Office. He and his wife sailed in February 1839, leaving five sons in the colonies; Willis never returned. He died at Southsea on 4 March 1855.
Select Bibliography

correspondence file under R. Willis (Archives Office of Tasmania).

Author: P. R. Eldershaw

Print Publication Details: P. R. Eldershaw, 'Willis, Richard (1777 - 1855)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, Melbourne University Press, 1967, pp 604-605.