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Camperdown Accommodation:Edwardia Short Stay
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Petworth House, Sussex



Thomas Herbert Willmett
1804 - ?
Thomas Herbert Willmett
 1827-1914
From Petworth House
to Melbourne
to Winton, QLD


Thomas Herbert senior 1804-?
Groom at Petworth House, Sussex

The wedding photo next to the pump organ in Edwardia's  Drawing Room is of the current owner's  grand parents, John Herbert and Emma May Willmett.  Before emigrating to Melbourne in 1858 John Herbert's Willmett's great grandfather, Thomas Herbert Willmett senior  lived and worked as a groom at Petworth House  where he had been born in 1804. 
  Charles Greenville described Petworth  during this time as "like a great inn" and had move servants  than any where else in England. Its owner,  the third Lord Egremont was a colourful fellow who over his  life-time, had 16 mistresses and forty  nine illegitimate children  many of whom lived at Petworth.  
 Lord Egremont was a Patron of the Arts and both Turner  and Constable lived and painted at Petworth for extended periods.
Picture of Turner's painting of Petworth House.Turner, Misty morning at Petworth House
  This Turner painting of Petworth is a water-colour but its tonings and  aspect are similar to May Willmett's oil-colour paintings  above the pump-organ at Edwardia.

Lord Egremont was also a great philanthropist who strongly opposed the poor laws  that instituted the first English workhouses.    Through the Petworth Immigration scheme, he bank-rolled the emigration of 1800 poor from England's south, to Canada from 1833 to 1837.

 The same philanthropy is expressed in relation to his stud horses.
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A  Coachman in Westminster

 After Lord Egremont  of Petworth died in 1837,   the 1841 Census lists Thomas  as  a coachman living in  at 22 Blue Anchor Yard, York Street,  Westminster and  in 1851 as a servant living at 3 Shipgardens, Westminster.
 In 1822 he had married in the illustrious St. Martin in the Fields Church in Trafalgar Square, Westminster and he had a public service record.  In 1851, his son, Andrew, was a scholar at the Blue-coat school,  close to the gates of Buckingham Palace.  
Picture of The Blew-coat School Building in Westminster
The Blew-coat School Building in Westminster
 Andrew and his mother Jane Willmett arrived in Melbourne on 18 October 1855  whereas Thomas Herbert senior  did not arrive via The Sydenham until 1858.  
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Thomas Herbert junior 1827-1914
Groom to Victoria's third  Governor

  Thomas Herbert junior would have been 30 or 31 when his father arrived in Melbourne  and it is possible that he arrived before his mother and brother Andrew who arrived in 1855. 

He married Many Gavin in 1860 and three of his children were born in Toorak, at that time the name of the Italianate property where the first Victorian governors lived between 1854 and 1874.    All these facts lend credence to  the family story that  Thomas Herbert Willmett  Junior came to Australia as a groom to one of the first Governors of Victoria.
Sir Henry Barkly, the third governor of Victoria arrived in Melbourne on Christmas Eve, 1856 and served until 1863 when he  was posted to Mauritious.   
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 In this  1863 advertisement from The Colonist Newspaper, New Zealand,  a Thomas  Willmett  asserts that he has worked clipping horses for Sir Henry Barkly.     It is unclear if this may be Thomas Herbert senior or the son, Thomas Herbert, whose own son was born at Toorack house in 1866.

Picture of the 1st Melbourne Cup.The 1st Melbourne Cup
  The first Melbourne  Cup was  run during Thomas' time of employment with Governor Barkly and  Thomas Willmett's likely  involvement explains the absolute importance of the famous Melbourne horse-race in the life of grandson, John Herbert Willmett.

Picture of Wakatu Hotel in Nelson, New ZealandWakatu Hotel
After Governor Barkly's  departure in 1863, Thomas Herbert senior or junior appears to have set up business  as a horse, clipper, singer and breaker at The Wakatu Hotel in Nelson, South New Zealand.   this hotel was described as a "commodious premises, included a billiard room and was an important social centre in the early days of the settlement.   It was the scene of many public and private meetings and testimonial dinners. When it closed, The Colonist noted that a visit to the Wakatu Hotel had been regarded by country residents as the one relief from their struggles, as they had always been sure of finding congenial company there."

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After several more children were born in Geelong,   by 1872 the family had moved to Stawell where Thomas  Herbert  Willmett's junior's youngest child was born and  where grandson,  John Herbert was living when he met Emma May Martin.
Little is known about the family's Stawell sojourn  other than that one of the sons competed in the first Stawell Gift, which is still Australia's Richest  short distance foot race.

The Move to Outback  North Queensland

By 1886 Thomas Herbert had moved  to  Winton, in Queensland to join  Louisa  Willmett who had married Thomas Lynett in 1877 and with her husband owned Winton's General store, land and  several hotels.
Picture of Winton horse races, 1890Winton Races, 1890
Judging by the historical records Thomas Herbert continued with horse ventures in Winton, which had an active horse-racing calander and a  natural race-course.

 On 23, October 1896 the Land Court granted Thomas Herbert Willmett an unconditional  selection (No 13 at Winton), of 683 acres.  and Jane Winifred, an unconditional selection of 192 acres of land that had be part of Ellerslie station. 

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 The price paid for an unconditional selection was thirteen shillings and upwards, paid over twenty years.    Thus, Thomas Herbert would have paid £443 for this land. 

More on Selection
Meanwhile, the Willmetts seem to have abandoned their Victorian lands.  On Sept 20 1918  their 5 blocks in Newport and Werribee were reauctioned by the Government due to accumulated unpaid rates.  At that time the council  still recorded Bent, St  Caufield as Thomas Herbert's address, where properties today sell for one and a half million dollars and up.   Caufield land was first up for  sale in the 1850's and  the area around Bent Street in South Caufield was mainly market gardens.  It would have been an excellent location for a horse professional as pastoralists were building mansions to the north and  the land for Caufield  Racecourse had just been allocated.
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Jane Winifred would marry a horse-dealer named Harbutt and the pair became Queensland horse-racing identities.
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