Theme: A Question the Records Can’t Answer

Where did GG GrandFather Thomas Darchy (1820-1877) spend the years 1829-1839? Many members of the extended Darchy family have tried to work this out over the years but even with modern-day access to multiple records, it remains a mystery.

First the facts: Thomas was born in Augsburg, Bavaria and baptised there with only a guardian present – a probably impoverished Scottish Army surgeon on half pay. Just before his birth, the guardianship was transferred to a Prussian Army doctor who lived in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Thomas lived there until September 1829 when he was collected by Englishman Julius Charles Hare, a well-known theologian with links to nobility, ostensibly to return the boy to his mother. There are several legal papers attesting to this. But it is also known that Hare was of a romantic, susceptible, helpful nature ..…

Thomas’ mother has never been identified, but it is known (via a precious letter) that she told the Neuchatel guardian that she feared for Thomas’ presence in England and also that he would never know his mother and her family, who would “forever ignore his existence”.

So Hare collected the boy and then …. Where did they go?

In 1839 Thomas turned up again – on the passenger list of the sailing ship India on her maiden voyage from Greenock in Scotland by way of Cork and Porto Prio, which arrived in Adelaide, South Australia on 23 February 1840. Thomas, one of the elite cabin passengers, a very wealthy young man and apparently unaccompanied, went on to Port Phillip (Melbourne) and then Port Jackson (Sydney). He was on the passenger list arriving in Sydney on May 19, 1840.

A year later he appeared on another shipping list, arriving in Sydney again on the Ariadne. It is not known what he did in the intervening year. Perhaps he made an overland journey from Sydney to Melbourne with one of the early Australian explorers. He is believed to have known the explorer Hamilton Hume and stayed with him on one of his properties, but again – no record.

So where did he spend those 10 years before arriving in Australia?? One reasonable assumption is that Hare took him back to Herstmonceaux Castle, Sussex where Hare occasionally took in pupils to cram for University admission. Thomas’ first language would have been German with possibly some French, so Hare would have been the ideal tutor/companion to prepare the young man for his life as a wealthy young Englishman. But Thomas’ name is not on any list of such pupils.

Another theory is that he soon returned to Neuchatel – especially as in later life he and later some of his children maintained a close relationship with the guardian’s family. But there are no records or stories within that family after the handing-over in 1829, and a current descendant, a historian who knew all abut the aunts who mainly looked after Thomas, had never heard of him. Thomas may well have visited them occasionally but he would also have been learning fluent English during that time.

Or he spent time with the first guardian at Gibraltar, by then a medical superintendent after a somewhat suspicious meteoric rise through the ranks. But there is no record of Thomas in the Census taken about that time, nor in any other Gibraltar records.

Or did he perhaps spend time on a country estate in England, Scotland or Ireland? He seemed to know about managing large estates and stock within a few years of his arrival in Australia.

Or did he attend one of the greater English public schools? A number have been contacted but none have any record of a Thomas Darchy.

It is a great pity the English and Scottish Censuses did not start until 1841!

Another mystery is the source of Thomas Darchy’s wealth. He was not mentioned in the wills of either Guardian. Maybe a Swiss bank would know – but never tell.