See also
Husband:
James Guy Thomson (1832-1890)
Wife:
Emma Lucille Frances Roe (1837-1876)
Children:
Marriage:
4 Oct 1856
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Name:
James Guy Thomson
Sex:
Male
Father:
Guy Thomson ( - )
Father:
-
Note 1:
James Guy Thomson (1832-1890) was born and raised in Oxford, England of a banking family. He was high spirited and refused to follow his father into the banking world, choosing instead to try his luck in the new Swan River Colony in Western Australia. He arrived in 1855 as first mate on the Avalanche. Travelling on the same ship were Samuel Pole Phillips and his wife Sophie, as well as Sophie's sister, Emma Roe. They were returning to the colony after a two year visit to England. Sophie and Emma were the daughters of John Septimus Roe, famous in West Australian history as the first Surveyor General of the Swan River Colony. They were accompanied by Augustus Lee Steere and another family friend. The three men had acquired three thoroughbred stallions, and were bringing them to their property near Newcastle (now Toodyay), in the hope of setting up a horse breeding partnership. The plan was to use the sires from England to breed mounts for the Indian Army.
Meanwhile, James Guy Thomson courted Emma Roe and gained permission to marry her. John Septimus Roe, as James’s prospective father-in-law, went into business with the other three men on James’s behalf, so James thus entered the horse breeding fraternity.
James and Emma married in 1856. Their first child, May, was born at Bolgart near Perth (Western Australia) in 1858, and the following year James moved to Bunbury where he invested in a large 80,000 acre property on the track towards the Blackwood which he called Brookhampton after a family home in England. He bred horses, cattle and sheep on the estate. Emma and the family joined him there in 1861 when the house was ready for them.
James was known locally as “Gentleman Thomson”, probably on account of his social status and upper-class upbringing in England. He was very enterprising. He was influential in the locality, and employed ticket-of-leave men from the penal colony who later settled in the Blackwood area.
His wife Emma died suddenly in 1876 at the age of 39. In 1878, James married Mary Elizabeth (Bessie) Bussell. He died in 1890, leaving everything he had to Bessie.
Source: Fran Taylor, Bridgetown the Early Years, Book Two, pp. 197-199
Note 2:
History of Brookhampton: In the 1850s, a squatter named Mueller, which was anglicised to Miller, erected a slab hut on land that was taken up in 1858-9, as freehold and extensive pastoral leases, by James Guy Thomson (b. Oxfordshire, 1833; arr. 1855, d. 1890; m. 1856, Emma, d. 1876, daughter of Surveyor General J. S. Roe; m. 2nd 1878, Mary Elizabeth ‘Bessie’ Bussell). Until mid-1858, Thomson was in partnership with S. P. Phillips and A. Lee Steere, as Phillips and Co., graziers and horse-breeders, at Toodyay. He continued these pursuits at the place he named ‘Brookhampton’ after a family home in England. He was the first permanent settler in the district that took its name from his farm and pastoral station. In early 1860, he took his wife and family from Bunbury to visit the place, and the slab hut and kitchen became the nucleus of their home with the linear addition of three new rooms by May 1861, when they took up residence. At various periods in 1863-79, he employed a number of ticket-of-leave men, including carpenters and bricklayers, who probably worked on erecting some of the buildings and structures. His other employees included some Aboriginal people. ‘Gentleman’ Thomson as he was known had 14 children, nine from his first marriage and five from his second, and eventually the house comprised 15 rooms. Bricks were made and baked in kilns on the property to construct a number of buildings including a large separate kitchen, a school-room, cook’s bedroom, two staff bedrooms, a bathroom, dairy and storeroom. Two cottages and the school-room survive. Thomson was well known for his horse-breeding, including for the Indian Army, and there were stables for 30 horses and a racetrack. He planted couch grass from J. S. Roe’s garden in Perth on the flats by Thomson’s Brook, which became known as the best dairy land in the district. There were numerous other outbuildings. In 1882, two separate fires destroyed the hayshed and the carpenter’s shop. During Thomson’s lifetime notable visitors who stayed for an extended period included his friend the poet Adam Lindsay Gordon and the botanist Dr. Ferdinand Von Mueller (later knighted, 1879), who collected flora in the surrounding district. In 1890, James Guy Thomson (snr) died. When his ‘Valuable Farm and Station Property known as Brookhampton’, ‘one of the finest Station Properties in the South’, was advertised for sale in May 1891, it comprised 700 acres of freehold land and 80,000 acres leasehold, with about 800 cattle, 40 horses and 30 pigs (Inquirer 20 May 1891). The extensive improvements included the ‘roomy house with large kitchen, dairy, bath, store, and servants rooms and every requisite for a large establishment’, ‘excellent stabling and stockyards and all other necessary outbuildings’, ‘a large garden with vineyard and other fruit trees’ (ibid). It was not sold, and Thomson’s three eldest sons continued to work the property. In 1892, his widow married Captain L. H. Noyes and they moved to Busselton with her children. James Guy Thomson (b. 1860), who had returned from the North-West in ill health, kept the accounts at ‘Brookhampton’ until he died there in late 1895. In c. 1895-6, when the leasehold land was resumed for settlement, Mervyn ‘Bon’ Thomson (b.1874, d. 1966) acquired ‘Brookhampton’ (2,500 acres) and John ‘Jack’ Thomson (b. 1866, d. 1944) acquired the area to the east (2,000 acres, later expanded to 6,000 acres), which he named ’Woodperry’ after the Thomson home in Oxford, England. ‘Bon’ Thomson continued to work ‘Brookhampton’, where he and his wife, Frances (née Yelverton) raised their son, Kynaston ‘Ken’, and six daughters.
http://inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au/Public/Inventory/PrintSingleRecord/3f5d0f27-7a20-4492-bae5-ec1c45213233 (accessed 23.09.2017)
Birth:
31 Jan 1832
Old Bank House, Baldon, Oxfordshire
Education:
Winchester College & Oxford University, England
Religion:
Anglican
Immigration:
20 Jun 1855 (age 23)
to Swan River Colony
Occupation:
Pastoralist and stockbreeder
Death:
10 Nov 1890 (age 58)
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Name:
Emma Lucille Frances Roe
Sex:
Female
Father:
Mother:
Birth:
10 Jun 1837
Swan River Colony, Western Australia
Christening:
14 Mar 1838 (age 0)
Church of St George, Perth
Death:
24 Jul 1876 (age 39)
Bunbury, Western Australia
Name:
Mary Matilda Lucille (May) Thomson
Sex:
Female
Note:
May Thomson, the eldest child of the Thomson household at Brookhampton, was a fearless and enthusiastic horsewoman, "probably the best female rider in the new colony". She was attractive and popular, having many suitors. When she was sixteen she became engaged to her first cousin, Samuel James Phillips. But then her mother, Emma, died suddenly and May was left to help in raising her many younger siblings. The marriage didn't take place, and May never married.
When James Guy Thomson remarried, May - who didn't get on with her stepmother - moved out and devoted her energies to developing a property called Queenwood near Lowden, W Australia. Later she moved back to the Blackwood area where she purchased a property which she called "Roebank" after her maternal grandfather, John Septimus Roe. May bred cattle and chickens on the property and also grew vegetables for sale. She died in 1944, aged 86.
Source: Fran Taylor, Bridgetown the Early Years, Book Two, pp. 200-202
Birth:
25 Jul 1858
Bolgart, Western Australia
Death:
1944 (age 85-86)
West Perth, Western Australia
Name:
James Guy Thomson
Sex:
Male
Note (shared):
After his father's second marraige went North. Suffered from ill health. Returned to 'Brookhampton' where he kept the accounts of the family business.
Thomson, James Guy (1860–1895)
It is with regret we record the death of Mr. Guy Thomson, the eldest son of the late Mr. J. G. Thomson of Brookhampton, who passed away at Brookhampton on Sunday last. Mr. Thomson, who was comparatively a young man being only about 35 years of age, spent the greater part of his life in the North-West where he unfortunately contracted an illness which ultimately caused his death. For many months past he has been a great sufferer his life having been despaired of for some time. The funeral took place in Bunbury yesterday. Much sympathy is felt for his bereaved relatives and friends.
Southern Times (Bunbury), 31 December 1895, p 3
http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/thomson-james-guy-18637
Birth:
4 May 1860
Bunbury, Western Australia
Death:
28 Dec 1895 (age 35)
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Name:
Emma Frances Thomson
Sex:
Female
Spouse (1):
Spouse (2):
Birth:
3 Oct 1861
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Death:
22 Apr 1899 (age 37)
Bunbury, Western Australia
Name:
Minna Sophia Thomson
Sex:
Female
Spouse:
Henry Arthur Mitchell (1870-1940)
Children:
Mary Marjorie Bremer Mitchell (1899- )
Henry Rex Bremer Mitchell (1901-1902)
James Henry Bremer Mitchell (1902-1968)
Guy Newman Bremer Mitchell (1903-1977)
Charles Bremer Mitchell (1905-1979)
Minna Kate Bremer Mitchell (1909-2002)
Note:
The following reminiscences of Minna Thomson were published in the Western Mail in 1948 when the Brookhampton property was sold:
'There were tales of wild gallops to Perth when exhausted horses were unhitched at McLarty's, Pinjarra, and fresh ones carried on with their untiring driver still cracking his whip; of breathtaking escapes when only brilliant handling of runaway horses on the winding five-mile forest track prevented upset of the coach.'
Birth:
26 Sep 1863
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Death:
Feb 1951 (age 87)
Boyup Brook, Western Australia
Name:
[Female] Thomson
Sex:
Female
Birth:
1865
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Death:
1865 (age 0)
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Name:
John (Jack) Thomson
Sex:
Male
Spouse:
Children:
Birth:
11 May 1866
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Education:
Donnybrook & Hale School, Perth
Religion:
Anglican
Occupation:
Farmer
Death:
24 Dec 1944 (age 78)
Donnybrook
Name:
[Male] Thomson
Sex:
Male
Birth:
1867
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Death:
1867 (age 0)
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Name:
Lucille Jane Thomson
Sex:
Female
Spouse:
Children:
Birth:
18 Sep 1868
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Death:
25 Feb 1947 (age 78)
Pembury, Kent, England
Name:
Emily Louisa Thomson
Sex:
Female
Spouse:
Children:
Birth:
12 Jul 1870
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Death:
5 Dec 1955 (age 85)
Bridgetown
Name:
Herbert Thomson
Sex:
Male
Birth:
9 Jan 1872
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Death:
22 Oct 1873 (age 1)
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Name:
Mervyn Thomson
Sex:
Male
Spouse:
Children:
Birth:
11 Sep 1874
Brookhampton, Blackwood, Western Australia
Occupation:
Farmer & horse breeder
Death:
3 Aug 1965 (age 90)
Donnybrook, Western Australia
James Guy Thomson (1832-1890) was born and raised in Oxford, England of a banking family. He was high spirited and refused to follow his father into the banking world, choosing instead to try his luck in the new Swan River Colony in Western Australia. He arrived in 1855 as first mate on the Avalanche. Travelling on the same ship were Samuel Pole Phillips and his wife Sophie, as well as Sophie's sister, Emma Roe. They were returning to the colony after a two year visit to England. Sophie and Emma were the daughters of John Septimus Roe, famous in West Australian history as the first Surveyor General of the Swan River Colony. They were accompanied by Augustus Lee Steere and another family friend. The three men had acquired three thoroughbred stallions, and were bringing them to their property near Newcastle (now Toodyay), in the hope of setting up a horse breeding partnership. The plan was to use the sires from England to breed mounts for the Indian Army.
Meanwhile, James Guy Thomson courted Emma Roe and gained permission to marry her. John Septimus Roe, as James’s prospective father-in-law, went into business with the other three men on James’s behalf, so James thus entered the horse breeding fraternity.
James and Emma married in 1856. Their first child, May, was born at Bolgart near Perth (Western Australia) in 1858, and the following year James moved to Bunbury where he invested in a large 80,000 acre property on the track towards the Blackwood which he called Brookhampton after a family home in England. He bred horses, cattle and sheep on the estate. Emma and the family joined him there in 1861 when the house was ready for them.
James was known locally as “Gentleman Thomson”, probably on account of his social status and upper-class upbringing in England. He was very enterprising. He was influential in the locality, and employed ticket-of-leave men from the penal colony who later settled in the Blackwood area.
His wife Emma died suddenly in 1876 at the age of 39. In 1878, James married Mary Elizabeth (Bessie) Bussell. He died in 1890, leaving everything he had to Bessie.
Source: Fran Taylor, Bridgetown the Early Years, Book Two, pp. 197-199
History of Brookhampton: In the 1850s, a squatter named Mueller, which was anglicised to Miller, erected a slab hut on land that was taken up in 1858-9, as freehold and extensive pastoral leases, by James Guy Thomson (b. Oxfordshire, 1833; arr. 1855, d. 1890; m. 1856, Emma, d. 1876, daughter of Surveyor General J. S. Roe; m. 2nd 1878, Mary Elizabeth ‘Bessie’ Bussell). Until mid-1858, Thomson was in partnership with S. P. Phillips and A. Lee Steere, as Phillips and Co., graziers and horse-breeders, at Toodyay. He continued these pursuits at the place he named ‘Brookhampton’ after a family home in England. He was the first permanent settler in the district that took its name from his farm and pastoral station. In early 1860, he took his wife and family from Bunbury to visit the place, and the slab hut and kitchen became the nucleus of their home with the linear addition of three new rooms by May 1861, when they took up residence. At various periods in 1863-79, he employed a number of ticket-of-leave men, including carpenters and bricklayers, who probably worked on erecting some of the buildings and structures. His other employees included some Aboriginal people. ‘Gentleman’ Thomson as he was known had 14 children, nine from his first marriage and five from his second, and eventually the house comprised 15 rooms. Bricks were made and baked in kilns on the property to construct a number of buildings including a large separate kitchen, a school-room, cook’s bedroom, two staff bedrooms, a bathroom, dairy and storeroom. Two cottages and the school-room survive. Thomson was well known for his horse-breeding, including for the Indian Army, and there were stables for 30 horses and a racetrack. He planted couch grass from J. S. Roe’s garden in Perth on the flats by Thomson’s Brook, which became known as the best dairy land in the district. There were numerous other outbuildings. In 1882, two separate fires destroyed the hayshed and the carpenter’s shop. During Thomson’s lifetime notable visitors who stayed for an extended period included his friend the poet Adam Lindsay Gordon and the botanist Dr. Ferdinand Von Mueller (later knighted, 1879), who collected flora in the surrounding district. In 1890, James Guy Thomson (snr) died. When his ‘Valuable Farm and Station Property known as Brookhampton’, ‘one of the finest Station Properties in the South’, was advertised for sale in May 1891, it comprised 700 acres of freehold land and 80,000 acres leasehold, with about 800 cattle, 40 horses and 30 pigs (Inquirer 20 May 1891). The extensive improvements included the ‘roomy house with large kitchen, dairy, bath, store, and servants rooms and every requisite for a large establishment’, ‘excellent stabling and stockyards and all other necessary outbuildings’, ‘a large garden with vineyard and other fruit trees’ (ibid). It was not sold, and Thomson’s three eldest sons continued to work the property. In 1892, his widow married Captain L. H. Noyes and they moved to Busselton with her children. James Guy Thomson (b. 1860), who had returned from the North-West in ill health, kept the accounts at ‘Brookhampton’ until he died there in late 1895. In c. 1895-6, when the leasehold land was resumed for settlement, Mervyn ‘Bon’ Thomson (b.1874, d. 1966) acquired ‘Brookhampton’ (2,500 acres) and John ‘Jack’ Thomson (b. 1866, d. 1944) acquired the area to the east (2,000 acres, later expanded to 6,000 acres), which he named ’Woodperry’ after the Thomson home in Oxford, England. ‘Bon’ Thomson continued to work ‘Brookhampton’, where he and his wife, Frances (née Yelverton) raised their son, Kynaston ‘Ken’, and six daughters.
http://inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au/Public/Inventory/PrintSingleRecord/3f5d0f27-7a20-4492-bae5-ec1c45213233 (accessed 23.09.2017)
May Thomson, the eldest child of the Thomson household at Brookhampton, was a fearless and enthusiastic horsewoman, "probably the best female rider in the new colony". She was attractive and popular, having many suitors. When she was sixteen she became engaged to her first cousin, Samuel James Phillips. But then her mother, Emma, died suddenly and May was left to help in raising her many younger siblings. The marriage didn't take place, and May never married.
When James Guy Thomson remarried, May - who didn't get on with her stepmother - moved out and devoted her energies to developing a property called Queenwood near Lowden, W Australia. Later she moved back to the Blackwood area where she purchased a property which she called "Roebank" after her maternal grandfather, John Septimus Roe. May bred cattle and chickens on the property and also grew vegetables for sale. She died in 1944, aged 86.
Source: Fran Taylor, Bridgetown the Early Years, Book Two, pp. 200-202
After his father's second marraige went North. Suffered from ill health. Returned to 'Brookhampton' where he kept the accounts of the family business.
Thomson, James Guy (1860–1895)
It is with regret we record the death of Mr. Guy Thomson, the eldest son of the late Mr. J. G. Thomson of Brookhampton, who passed away at Brookhampton on Sunday last. Mr. Thomson, who was comparatively a young man being only about 35 years of age, spent the greater part of his life in the North-West where he unfortunately contracted an illness which ultimately caused his death. For many months past he has been a great sufferer his life having been despaired of for some time. The funeral took place in Bunbury yesterday. Much sympathy is felt for his bereaved relatives and friends.
Southern Times (Bunbury), 31 December 1895, p 3
http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/thomson-james-guy-18637
The following reminiscences of Minna Thomson were published in the Western Mail in 1948 when the Brookhampton property was sold:
'There were tales of wild gallops to Perth when exhausted horses were unhitched at McLarty's, Pinjarra, and fresh ones carried on with their untiring driver still cracking his whip; of breathtaking escapes when only brilliant handling of runaway horses on the winding five-mile forest track prevented upset of the coach.'