Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929), Monday 4 December 1922, page 10


CHARLES CAMERON KINGSTON.

A FAMILY HISTORY.

By A. T. Saunders.

A casual enquiry about the late, Right Hon. Charles Kingston and his father, the late Sir George S. Kingston, prompted me to delve into the interesting history of the Col. Cameron, after whom Charles Cameron Kingston was named. One fact is clear, and that is that little dependance

can be placed on ordinary printed records. Burke's Peerage is supposed to be very exact, but on page 1502 of 1884 it says, respecting Sir G. S. Kingston: — "Knighted 30/4/1870, son of George Kingston, of Bandon, born 1807, married first 1829 Har-riett Ann Stuart (died 1839), daughter of Capt. Felix McDonough, second, 1851, Ludovina Catherine Da Silva (who died same year) ; third, E. M. A. C. B., daughter of Capt. Thomas Lupson (sic), Adelaide, S.A. Nearly every state-ment is more or less erroneous. Mennel's Australian biography says, "Son of George Kingston, of Bandon, Cork, Ire-land. Born 1807, married first time Har-riett Ann Stuart, daughter of Capt. Felix MacDonough (who died in 1839); secondly 1841, L. C. da Silva, daughter of Lieut.-Col. Charles G. Cameron, who died same year; and thirdly; E. M. A. C. B. Lipson, daughter of Capt. Thomas Lipson, R.N., died 26/11/1881." This lame narrative is also inaccurate. - Sir George died in 1880, not 1881. Lady Kingston, the third wife, died 28/4/76, and the second wife did not die the same year. —Arrival in Australia. — The Adelaide Observer (6/11/80) gives an account of Sir George, and (11/12/80) gives his obituary, which correctly says that he arrived per Cygnet first time 11/9/1836, and after visiting Eng land in the Rapid, returned to Adelaide in the Eden (which arrived 24/6/1838), bringing his first wife with him. Sir George left two surviving sons and three daughters, one being Mrs. Hu-bert Giles. Apparently he was first mar-ried in 1829. History is mixed respect-ing Col. Cameron, the grandfather of Charles Cameron Kingston, and the bio-graphical dictionary does not contain any account of Sir George Kingston or of Col. Cameron, but on page 288 of vol. VIII. is an account of Charles Duncan Came-ron, sons of an old peninsula officer, Col. Charles Cameron, of the 3rd Buffs." This is wrong. Cameron was born in 1827, died 1870, and, as the military records show, could not have been the son of Col. Charles Cameron, of the 3rd "Buffs." Charles Duncan Cameron was the once renowned consul in Abyssinia, whose cap-ture and detention caused the Abyssinian war. The historical records of the Brtish Army contains a long ac-count of the old and celebrated Imperial 3rd Regiment, the Buffs, but has no record of a Col. or Lieut.-Col. Cameron. On page 230, however, it records that at the battle of Albuera Capt. Cameron was wounded and made prisoner. On page 235 it says that (10/11/1813) Capt. Charles Cameron was wounded, and on page 236 Febuary, 1814, Brevet Major Cameron was wounded. In 1814 the Buffs were sent to America, and in 1821 embarked for New South Wales. (23/1/27) one wing em-barked at Sydney for Bengal, and arrived in June, 1827. The other wing embarked 28/11/1827 for Calcutta, and arrived in February, 1828. I am told by a great grandson of Col. Cameron that the colonel died of cholera at Chinsurah, India, in 1828; but Hennikerr-Heaton's Australian Dictionary of Dates says, "Headquarters of the 3rd Buffs arrived in the Commodore Hayes at Sydney August 29. 1823. and un-der Col. Stewart embarked at Sydney for England November 28, 1827. The romantic story of Col. Cameron is that, when in Portugal, he met an ex-nun named Da Silva, and married her. They had several daughters and sons. After Col. Cameron's death, his widow married a merchant sea captain named John Finnis. One daughter married Mr. William Hampden Dutton, who died in Melbourne 21/11/1849, and was one of the eariiest settlers in the district of Port Phillip (Register, 12/12/43). Mr. Dutton and his brothers Frederick Hals-borough Dutton, the original owner of An-laby, and F. S. Dutton, who was Agent General for South Australia in London till 25/1/77, when he died, were sons of Frederick Hugh Dutton, who died 27/12/1847 at Rotterdam, and who for many years was British Consul at Cux-haven (Register, 3/3/48). Another married (10/4/1841) Sir George Kingston. A third daughter married the celebrated Dr. George Bennett, who for years resided in Sydney (see Henniker-Heaton, page 233). As to the sons, Henniker-Heaton (page 33) says that Ewan Wallace Cameron was born in France (26/7/1816), and was the second son of Col. Cameron, of the 3rd Buffs. He went to and returned from California, became a partner in T. S. Mort and Co., of Sydney; married in 1852 Sophia. daughter of Mr. George Nail. He was an enthusiastic N.S.W. volunteer, and died (25/5/1876), leaving a large family. Mrs. Dutton, Charlotte Da Silva Cameron, had a large family, and on December 3, 1851, Luduvina, aged 18, and apparently the Duttons' eldest child, was married by the Rev. T. P. Wilson, in Saint John's Church. Adelaide, to Robert Waters Moore. M.R.C.S., surgeon. The witnesses were F. H. Dutton and Montague Fether-stonhaugh. Among the collection in the S.A. Archives are portraits by S. T. Gill of both. Fetherstonhaugh and Capt. John Finnis. The latter's portrait seems to lend colour to the rumour that Capt. Fin-nis had some buccaneer experiences. The Southern Australian, 1/9/1838, p. 5, c. 1, records the arrival overland from New South Wales of Capt. Sturt, and Capt. Finnis was one of Capt. Sturt's party. Evidently Capt. Finnis settled in Adelaide, for the directory for 1839 includes Capt. Finnis, North Adelaide. The name does not appear the next year, but does in 1841— 'Mrs. Capt. Finnis, Ber-nard street, North Adelaide. —Birth of Charles Cameron Kingston.— I have not been able to ascertain how and when Mrs. Finnis arrived, but The Register (7/3/40) records that 2/3/40 the

Mary Ridgway arrived from Sydney with Miss Cameron as a passenger. The Regis-ter (17/4/41) records that on (10/4/41), at Trinity, the Rev. J. Farrell married G. S. Kingston to Ludovina Da Silva, youngest daughter of the late Lieut. Col. Charles Cameron, of H.M.'s 3rd Regiment. The death register says; Ludovina Catherine de Silva Kingston, wife of G. S. King-ston, Franklin street, died 21/10/1851, aged 27, so she was born in Sydney in 1824, and was only 17 when she was married to Mr. Kingston. She was married for 10 years and six months, and had three boys and three girls, of whom Charles Came-ron Kingston was the youngest child. He was born 22/10/1850, and was not quite a year old when his mother died. Capt. Finnis became the step-father-in-law of Mr. William Hampden, by his marriage to the widow Cameron and the marriage of Mr. Dutton to Charlotte Da Silva Cameron must have occurred in 1833, or before that date, as Mrs. Moore, their first daughter, was only 18 when in 1851 ahe married Dr. Moore. Mrs. Ludu-vina Rosa Finnis, nee Da Silva Cameron, and wife of Capt. Finnis died in Adelaide (21/8/1856). The Register (2/2/39) records that Mr. Hampden Dutton, Capt. Finnis, and Osmond Giles are lucky owners of the Mount Barker special survey, and that Captain Finnis had made a donation to the Hahnsdorf school house (4/4/39) it mentions that Capt. Finnis with 25,000 sheep and 7,000 cattle was coming over land, and (5/10/39) his arrival is recorded In The Sydney Morning Herald (26/5/1876) and 27/5/1876), and The Town and Coun-try Journal (3/6/76) are the obituary notice and portrait of Ewan Wallace Cameron, son of Col. Cameron and bro-ther of Sir George Kingston's second wife. The notice says he was nearly 60, that he was the second of three sons, and that his mother was a Portuguese lady, who had also three daughters to Col. Came-ron, who was five times wounded, and whose family held letters of high commen-dation from the Duke of York, Sir John Byng, Lord Fitzroy Somerset (Lord Rag-lan), and others. Ewan Wallace Came-ron came to South Australia with his stepfather, Capt. Finnis, and Capt. Sturt, in the party which his brother-in-law (Mr. Dutton) and others organized. When he returned from Adelaide he took up runs in the north of New South Wales. and when gold was discovered in Califor-nia he went thither and remained for two

years. He was not a successful goldfinder and returned to New South Wales, where in 1852 he married Sophia, daughter of Mr. George Nail, formerly private secre-tary to Lord Minto. Arthur Kingston Moore, eldest son of Dr. Moore, of Ade-laide, married Sophy Cameron, daughter of Ewan Wallace Cameron. The Austra-lian pocket Almanac for 1826, issued by the Sydney Govern-ment printer, R. Howe, gives a full account of the 3rd Buffs, then in Sydney. Sir Henry Clinton was the Colonel (date of rank, 9/8/15), he died in 1828 and Sir George Dow became Colonel. William Stewart (Colonel) was Lieut.-Col. (date of rank, 16/8/1810). He resided in Sydney and as Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales. C. W. Wall (date of rank, 13/9/1821), and Henry Marlay (date of rank. 20/6/1822) were the Buffs majors, and both resided in Sydney. There were 10 captains, and of these C. Cameron (Lieutenant-Colonel) was the senior the date of his rank being 1/12/1804. He lived in Sydney.

and was acting major brigade. From the records of the Buffs, it appears that Lieut.-Col. Stewart had acted as a Colonel, not necessarily in the Buffs, and that Capt. Charles Cameron had been a Brevet Ma-jor and a Lieutenant-Colonel. The regi-ment, 4/6/1815, embarked from Quebec for Europe, and was ordered to Flanders, but was on the sea when Waterloo was fought. The Buffs landed at Ostend 9/7/1815. The second battalion was disbanded (24/12/15), and only 11 companies were retained— 10 in France and 1 in England. The Buffs formed part of the army of occupation in France till 1818, when they embarked to Calais (31/10/1818) and landed at Dover, comprising 867 non-commissioned officers and men. In 1826 the regiment was in Bhaugulpore, East India, and according to The S.A. Register (4/12/44) was then in India and had been there nearly 16 years. The disbanding of the second battalion of the Buffs and the drastic army reductions after Waterloo explains possibly why and how Charles Cameron, who had been a Lieutenant-Colonel, was only senior cap-tain in 1825. Capt. John Finnis married (3/9/1856) Mary Ann Russell, and a quarrel ensued with Mr. G. S. Kingston. Capt. Finnis died 13/8/72, aged 69, and is buried in West Terrace, on the south side of the main road. Mr. F. S. Dutton married a daughter of Marshal MacDer-mot; Judge Stow married her sister. Samuel Tomkinson mar-ried another sister, and Mr. Taylor, connected with Elder, Stirling, and Co. and fhe Wallaroo Mines: married the other of the four Misses MacDermot. Capt. Finnis owned the Joseph Albino schooner, which in 1849 sailed from Port Adelaide for California with a full compliment of passengers. She arrived in San Francisco, but was seized for alleged smuggling, and as the master had now crew on board and could get no hearing from the American officials, he had to leave the vessel at an-chor in San- Francisco and return to Ade-laide, bringing the ship's clearance. Thus Capt. Finnis lost his vessel. The above appeared an portion of Saturday's Issue.