Records and reports

Over time, a range of extra records, reports and other items of historical and research interest will be added here. If you have any particular feedback, interests, requests or even better something to share, please use the email link at the top of the page.

1. A series of 1844 letters, ultimately to the Lieutenant Governor, recommending staffing changes and appointments.

2. Letter of resignation by Superintendent and Headmaster J. M. Chapman after acts of brutality to an 11 year old boy.  Provides an interesting insight into Orphan School culture.

3.  Thomas and Ann Stone. In 1969 the descendants of Thomas and Ann Stone celebrated the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of their arrival in Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land on the 11th October 1819. To mark the occasion a plaque was unveiled in St John’s Church, New Town which alluded to their contribution to the education of children in the early colony and in particular their service as Master and Mistress of the Male Orphan School in New Town from 1831 to 1836.

As one of those descendants, who has also been involved in schools, Alex Stone has been interested in seeking to fill out the details of Thomas and Ann’s time as teachers, especially their six years in New Town. He was disappointed to find how little this contribution is regarded by recent writers and at the same time concerned that some descriptions of the history of the Orphan Schools fail to differentiate between the various periods in the life of the schools.

Of particular concern to Alex is the way the problems described by Dr Edward Swarbeck Hall in the 1850s are by implication ascribed to the period before the schools were taken over by the Convict Department in 1845 as a government cost-saving measure.  He has documented and generously allowed us to publish here the early history of the Orphan Schools and the role of Thomas and Ann Stone.