IN 2003, Echo Memories published a series of extracts from a diary written by Jonathan Moscrop as he emigrated from Darlington to Dunedin.
He left for a new life in New Zealand in January 1879, as the Albert Hill area where he lived was in the grip of a terrible recession – just as Jonathan was leaving, snow fell, yet one-infour of the pupils at Gurney Pease School was so poor they walked to lessons without shoes.
So Jonathan left in hope – and in love.
He tagged along with John and Fanny Matthews and their family. They were itinerants from Scotland who had tried running a chimney-sweep business on the ironworking Hill before seeking something better.
Their 21-year-old daughter, Sarah, was seeing 24-year-old Jonathan.
So, on a ticket paid for by the New Zealand government, they sailed around the world for nearly three months of seasickness and suicide – all recorded in Jonathan’s diary.
Once he had settled in New Zealand – he married Sarah in 1881 – Jonathan sent his record of the voyage back to Darlington for his relatives to read. In 2003, it was lent to us by Jean Porter with whom we have, unfortunately, lost contact.
However, if Jean is reading this, we’d very much like to hear from her again.
Inspired by the series, a year later, more than 70 descendants of John and Fanny Matthews gathered at their headstone in Oamaru Cemetery for a family commemoration of the 125th anniversary of their emigration.
This year, to mark the 130th anniversary, artists on either side of the globe are planning exhibitions – and would like the diary as their centrepiece.
Jonathan and the Matthews family sailed on the maiden voyage of the Westland, a clipper specially built on the Clyde to carry passengers to a new life in the new world.
William Young was an able-bodied seaman aboard that maiden voyage. He grew up in a croft built by his father, John, on Dunnet Head in Caithness – the most northerly point of the UK mainland. In fact, the voyage on the Westland was William’s only chance to see the world, as he returned to work the croft.
His daughter, Mary-Ann, also devoted her life to the small-holding and when she died in 1996, aged 99, their croft – practically unchanged since John had built it in 1850 – became a living history museum.
One item in the museum is the sea chest that William took on board the Westland.
Inside the lid, he has painted an entrancing likeness of the ship.
This painting has inspired artist Joanne B Kaar to create an exhibition which will open in Thurso, in September. Simultaneously, in a gallery in Port Chambers, where the Westland docked at the end of its voyage, Kiwi artist Lynn Taylor will be putting on an exhibition of her work.
Both artists have been inspired by the words in Jonathan’s diary, but they would like to use images of it in their exhibitions.
If you can help with the whereabouts of the diary, please contact Echo Memories (chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk)
PICTURE CAPTION
FAMILY POSE: The Moscrop family. At the back is Jonathan, with daughters Fanny and Mary. Wife Sarah, is seated in the middle next to her father, John Matthews, with his youngest granddaughter, Ruth, on his knee. Seated on either side of them are daughters Sarah and Alice. In the front is the couple’s son, John Henry. Shortly after this picture was taken, he was killed by a cricket ball
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