Thomas Blinkhorn

For the rugby league footballer of the 1930s for Great Britain, England, and Warrington, see Tom Blinkhorn

Thomas Blinkhorn (May 3, 1806 – October 13, 1856) was a pioneer farmer on Vancouver Island, today part of British Columbia.

Thomas Blinkhorn Jr. was born in Sawtry, Huntingdonshire, to Thomas Blinkhorn Sr. and Ann Blinkhorn (née: Waldock). He had the following siblings: Sarah (b 1808, d 1842), Anne (b 1809, d 1829), John (b 1811, d 1841), Elizabeth (b 1813, d 1820), Eliza (b 1814 or 1816, d after 1841), Martha (b 1817, d 1852), and William (b 1819, d 1820 or 1821). Ann Waldock Blinkhorn died at her home in Sawtry, in 1820, and in 1821 Thomas Blinkhorn Sr. married Ann Hudson (b 1795, d 1828). They had four children: Elizabeth (b 1822, d 1841), Mary (b 1824, d 1843), William (b about 1825, d 1913), and Naomi (b 1826, d 1826). Some historians have mistaken these step-sisters and step-brother for Thomas Blinkhorn Jr.'s own children.

Thomas Blinkhorn Jr. became a farmer, although he was also known as a miller, like his father and grandfather. On Aug. 9, 1827, Thomas married Ann Beeton, age 23 (b. 1804, d. 1884), a daughter of Thomas Beeton of Great Gidding, Huntingdonshire and Ann Coles. They were married by banns in Great Gidding church, Huntingdonshire. The marriage was witnessed by his brother John and their mother, Ann Waldock Blinkhorn. It is possible that Thomas Sr. didn't witness the marriage because he was ill: he made a will two weeks later. Thomas Jr. was 21, and his brother John was only 15, when their father died, on Wednesday, February 20th, 1828, in Sawtry at the age of 50. He left behind his widow Ann and nine surviving children.

Eight years later, on the night of Friday, May 13, 1836 for reasons unknown, Thomas Blinkhorn Jr. stole a gelding from the Lutton farmyard of his wife's sister's father-in-law, William Cheney (Martha Cheney's grandfather). He took the horse to the True Blue public house in Cambridge, and left it in the stable there. On Sunday, William Cheney's son, Martha’s father, James (Thomas' brother-in-law) encountered Blinkhorn in Chatteris--where he was living at the time--and enlisted him in the search for the horse. They ended up in Cambridge, and when they reached the True Blue, Thomas told James to walk on while he talked to an old man he knew who could give him some information. He then went into the stable and, perhaps in an attempt at disguise, cut off the horse's tail. He told James that the old man was not home and they returned to Chatteris. Later, Mr. John See, the owner of the True Blue, who knew Thomas well, informed James Cheney and p.c. Thomas Stearn who had committed the crime and where the horse had been left. See then apprehended Thomas Jr. and handed him over to Stearn.

Blinkhorn underwent an examination before the magistrates on Wednesday, May 18, and on the following Thursday, May 26, was taken to Thrapston in Northhamptonshire (approx. 35km southwest of Chatteris) where he was committed to trial by Mr. Yorke, the magistrate. In Northampton Q.S. (Queen’s Sergeant) on Thursday, June 30th, 1836 at age 30, Thomas was convicted of stealing the horse and sentenced to transportation for life, though this was reduced to 7 years at some point. Thomas spent almost an entire year as a prisoner aboard a hulk prison ship, waiting to be transported. It was normal for prisoners under sentence of transportation to spend the first part of their sentence in the prison where they had awaited trial, usually in solitary confinement. There were three active hulks in the Woolwich area at the time: the HMS Leven, the Dasher, and the Justitia. His behaviour on board was noted as "good" in the Con 31 Convict Register. [1]

Thomas was finally transported to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) on August 5th, 1837 out of Spithead aboard the ship Susan. The Ship Master was Henry Neatby and the ship surgeon was Edward Hilditch. The voyage lasted 108 days: 300 persons embarked, 1 re-landed, 6 died en route, and 293 were landed safely in Van Diemen's Land. The Surgeon's Report said that Thomas was “well behaved on Board". [2] The Con18 Description List of Male Convicts puts Thomas' height at 5'3". His complexion was "fresh", his head and face "round", his hair dark brown, his forehead "high", his eyes grey and his nose small. It was noted that he had "2 moles" at the side of his cheek.

The Susan disembarked in Hobart on November 5th (possibly the 21st), 1837. Thomas was convict number 2722 when he arrived in Van Diemen's Land, but was later number 5511. He was held at Longford Gaol (Prison) for just over three years. The prison report notes “character and connexions very respectable”. Despite this, he was at one point sentenced to "Six hours of Stocks" for disobeying orders. In February 1840, Thomas was appropriated by Lieutenant Ritchie [3] and moved to Ritchie's Scone estate in Perth, about 20 km south of Launceston. Scone featured four water-powered flour mills. On Feb. 6, 1840 Thomas was found guilty of misconduct for making a "malicious and unfounded" complaint about his “master”, presumably Ritchie, and sentenced to “6 months hard labour out of chains“. However, only one week later, on Feb. 14, 1840 he was returned to Scone "by order of Lieutenant Governor" Sir John Franklin. Why Franklin intervened is unknown.

It wasn't until late April, or early May, 1842 that Thomas was likely involved in the search party of convicts that was sent out from the Launceston area to look for Governor and Lady Franklin when they became lost in the bush during an overland expedition. Unbeknownst to the searchers, the Franklins' ultimately found their way to Macquarie Harbour and safety on board the government schooner, the Breeze. After a long wait for safe weather, the Breeze met up with the rescue ship Eliza, to which the Franklin's transferred for the trip back to Hobart. Family lore has it that during a sojourn in the Victoria area between February 22, 1861 and March 24, 1861, and again from April to July 1870, Lady Jane Franklin and her niece Sarah Cracroft visited Mrs. Blinkhorn at her home, formerly on the corner of Yates and Broad Streets, and later at Wentworth Villa on Fort Street. This was supposedly in thankful acknowledgement of Thomas' rescue party efforts in Van Diemen's Land, although no record of either visit has been located.

The story of Thomas Blinkhorn "rescuing" Sir John Franklin and Lady Jane Franklin was first recorded by Captain John T. Walbran in his book, British Columbia Coast Names, p. 56. This record was later cited by Victoria, British Columbia newspaperman J.K. Nesbitt in his Introduction to Martha Cheney’s diaries.

Thomas lost several family members while he was serving his sentence in Van Diemen’s Land: his sister Sarah, wife of George Cooper Sr., died in England 1842, and his sister Mary died in 1843. Thomas sued the insolvent Alexander Anderson, (a farmer located in Thorpe, near Bothwell, just north of Hobart), for debts in Aug. 1843. [4] How Anderson became indebted to a convict still serving his time is unclear.

After being punished a second time for misconduct in May, 1843, Thomas Jr. was released on October 30th. He had served only six years of his seven-year sentence, not counting his time aboard the prison hulk and the Susan.

Thomas Blinkhorn did not apply for his Certificate of Freedom until 1845. Thomas did not return to England until 1849. He may have spent time on sheep ranches in Tasmania or Australia during the intervening years, raising money to pay for the trip home.

Sometime in 1850, young Captain James Cooper convinced Thomas Blinkhorn Jr. to join him in a farming venture in the Pacific colony on the southern tip of what was then known as Vancouver's Island. Cooper's father, George Cooper Sr., had married Thomas Blinkhorn's sister Sarah in 1831. The Hudson’s Bay Company had been advertising settlement opportunities in England in an attempt to expand the Fort Victoria colony, which was a condition of their lease to the land from the Crown. The business partnership struck between Blinkhorn and Cooper would see Blinkhorn develop and act as superintendent of farm land that Cooper intended to purchase from the HBC.

James, his 22-year-old German wife, their four children (Elizabeth Emma, Thomas, Henrietta, and Charles Villiers), along with the Blinkhorn’s and Mrs. Blinkhorn’s 16-year-old niece, Martha Beeton Cheney (b. 1835, d. 1911), and Captain Edward Langford and his wife Flora (as well as their bull mastiff and a goat), embarked from London for Fort Victoria aboard the sailing barque Tory in late November, 1850. Martha kept a diary of the voyage which, unfortunately, has since been lost. The voyage had its share of trials: severe gales in the Bay of Biscay, scarcity and spoilage of food and water, and storms off the River de la Plata, Rounding the Horn, the ship was driven so far south by fierce winds--almost to the Arctic Circle--that the sails froze. The Tory finally arrived at Vancouver’s Island on May 10th and anchored off Royal Roads. She was greeted by First Nations paddlers in canoes. For the next two years, the Blinkhorn's and Martha Cheney lived with the Reverend Robert Staines and his family in the drafty, two-storey building that served as his residence and school, on the south-east side of the fort.

Captain Cooper finally gave the HBC a down payment on Lot 1, a 385-acre plot of land in Metchosin, on the overland route from Sooke to the fort, and in the spring of 1853, the Blinkhorn's moved there and Thomas took up his job as superintendent of Bilston Farm. It was a nine-mile paddle or sail, and a fifteen-mile walk or ride along a trail through the forest to the farm. Thomas Blinkhorn ultimately brought sixty acres under cultivation and established a dairy herd. Sandwich Islanders, called Kanakas, were employed to clear the land. Most of the other farm labourers were brought over from England. Blinkhorn also managed William Fraser Tommie's farm at Cloverdale, fifteen miles away.

In March 1853, seemingly unaware of Thomas' convict past, or out of desperation, Governor Douglas sent Thomas Blinkhorn a letter appointing him Magistrate and Justice of the Peace for the District of Metchosin. Douglas considered Blinkhorn the only independent settler with a sufficient degree of education to qualify for the office. Three HBC farm superintendents also received appointments. This new responsibility required Thomas to journey to the Fort for the monthly Court of Petty Sessions.

Martha Cheney kept a diary of her life at Bilston farm. The earlier surviving portion, which she titled The Second Volume” (perhaps because she considered the now lost voyage diary the First Volume), covers the period from September 16, 1853 to March 31, 1854. The second portion covers January 1, 1855 to November 25, 1856.

Visitors to the farm included: the Muir family, Captain Grant, the Langford's and their daughters, Dr. Helmcken, Governor Douglas and his family. The Muir family homestead, Woodside Farm, was farther to the west, in Sooke (then spelled “Soke”).

In her diary entry for September 5th, 1856, Martha notes that Thomas Blinkhorn Jr. and his wife Ann returned from a trip to the fort, but her uncle was “not at all well.” The illness lingered, and on September 12th she “found Uncle very ill“, when she got home from a visit to the Skinner’s residence. Thomas’ condition remained poor, so on September 26th a Dr. Beaumont was summoned and he stayed the night at Bilston Farm. He visited again on October 3rd. Sadly, Martha later reports that on the night of October 13th, her uncle “went to bed at his usual time no worse, and he had a good sleep, and awoke coughing and it Broke a Blood vessel and he was suffocated.” He was 50. He was buried in the Quadra Street Cemetery, but the original headstone no longer exists there. A second marker is now located in the Ross Bay Cemetery.

The Honourable Charles William Wentworth Fitzwilliam described Thomas Blinkhorn Jr. as "by far the most energetic settler on the island." The industrious Thomas Blinkhorn is remembered through his name on various geographical features: Mount Blinkhorn, Blinkhorn Lake, and Blinkhorn Island (Peninsula), named by Captain George Henry Richards in 1861.