This lively narrative delves into the private and public worlds of Edward Charles Close, Father of the Hunter and one of the Duke of Wellington’s Men in Australia.
Based on primary sources in England and Australia, private family papers, and diaries and correspondence of contemporaries, Ann Beaumont brings to life a man whose contribution to the colony of New South Wales has been largely undervalued. His prolific output of sketches and paintings throughout his lifetime enhances this long overdue biography.
Born in Bengal and raised to maturity on his uncle’s English estate, Edward Close served as a lieutenant in the 48th Northamptonshire Regiment of Foot during the Peninsular Wars, and later in Ireland. He arrived in the colony with his regiment in 1817, later resigning his commission and carving an estate from the wilderness with convict labour, and creating the town of Morpeth.
From soldier to settler Close shaped a world for himself that would have been impossible in England, leaving a legacy not only for his many descendants but for the wider community he served for more than forty years.
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The winner of a 2014 New South Wales National Trust Heritage Award, this book is a lively narrative of James and Mary Harper’s rise from obscurity to become leaders in the early days of the Southern Highlands town of Berrima. James, the son of convicts, and Mary herself a convict, built not only the Surveyor General Inn but the finest house in the town. Their stories, and the stories of those who followed them as the owners of the house, provide a fascinating insight to the times in which they lived.
Now owned by the National Trust, Harper’s Mansion is one of the most visited Trust houses in New South Wales.
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