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Captain Charles Charlesworth

Individual

TitleCaptain Last edited by: Debbie

First NameCharles Last edited by: Debbie

Last NameCharlesworth Last edited by: Debbie

OccupationMaster Mariner Last edited by: Debbie

Biography

The person after whom Charlesworth Bay is named, as noted by the NSW Geographic Names Board.

Mr Muller [sic], who may be justly termed our pioneer selector, has taken up some 160 acres of heavy jungle land, adjoining Coffs Harbour village reserve, many of us thinking he was queer in the upper story in doing so; but we thought the same of Mr James Small, of Ulmarra, when he came amongst us and announced his intention of shipping pine from the beach through the surf to a vessel in the bay. His daring project has been realised, and has opened our eyes and shown us what energy and perseverance will do - having shipped three cargoes of pine, nearly 200,000 feet, in the brig Jane, of Sydney, in three months. Two cargoes were shipped at Coffs Harbour, and one at Charlesworth Bay, so called in honour of Captain Charlesworth, of the brig Jane. To this genuine and obliging sailor our thanks are due, as he has shown us that one of the greatest difficulties to the settlement of these parts can be surmounted, and that it is practicable to ship produce and also to land cargo.

The brig Jane, Captain Charlesworth, left Charlesworth Bay on Wednesday night, for Sydney, with 60,000 feet of pine. The weather is fine, with strong north-east winds.

COFF'S HARBOUR. (1880, August 14). Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser (Grafton, NSW : 1859 - 1889), p. 2.

Coff's Harbour is a pretty place, but it is not a harbour, and though it might be made to by connecting the island with the headland, there is no stone in the neighbourhood suitable for the purpose of constructing a breakwater, the rock being soft Siluro-Devonian elates and shales, quite unsuitable for this purpose. There is a much better place for constructing a jetty between, the harbour and Mr. Small's selections, called, we believe, Charlesworth Bay.

Agricultural Areas, and Where to find them. (1883, September 22). The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), p. 546.

"My father built the sugar mill for Mr. James Small at Korora in 1883, also a fine big residence for him. For a time the mill did very well, as the cane was good about here. I have helped cut an average of 97 tons to the acre on the whole of the flats south of Korora homestead. It went as high as 150 tons in patches along the creek frontage. Mr. Small had great difficulty in marketing his sugar. It was taken out in a surf boat to the old steamer Jane, which anchored out in Charlesworth Bay, about a mile south of Korora. A store room was built there and the sugar stacked until the steamer came. Many a ducking both sailors and sugar got on those trips through the surf."

EARLY COFFS HARBOR. (1927, February 4). Coffs Harbour Advocate (NSW : 1907 - 1942; 1946 - 1954), p. 1.

Photograph

Group at Charlesworth Bay, 1890

Map

Map of Parishes of Coff and Bonville Reserves, 1882

The hometown of Captain Charlesworth: Thongsbridge
in (now) West Yorkshire
England

Family

Family History

"Charles Charlesworth was born on 28 February 1837 in Thongsbridge, a small settlement on the River Holme about a mile north of Holmfirth in the West Riding of Yorkshire and was baptised on 16 May 1837 at the nearby newly-established church of All Saints Netherthong. His parents were John Charlesworth (b Thongsbridge 1808) and his wife Betty Littlewood (?b 1804) who were married on 24 September 1832 at Almondbury Parish Church. John and Betty Charlesworth had had a previous son Thomas Paul Charlesworth in 1835 but he had died suddenly at the age of 8 months.

John Charlesworth’s occupation in the 1841 census is “machine maker”; machinery probably supplied to the burgeoning woollen textile industry in the Holmfirth area. His father Abraham Charlesworth appears as a blacksmith and whitesmith at Thongsbridge in a trade directory for 1834 and in 1841 is living next door to the John and Betty Charlesworth family, also with the occupation of machine maker. Following the death of his first wife Ann Mellor, Abraham Charlesworth had remarried in 1839 at the relatively advanced age of 60 and the marriage register usefully gives his father’s name as Benjamin Charlesworth, together with his occupation, blacksmith (Benjamin Charlesworth 1736-1815, married Sarah Hinchliff 1738-1790).

In 1841 John Charlesworth, as at least the third generation of metalworkers in his family, is employing 3 eighteen-year-old apprentices so it seems clear that the metalwork and machinery business of the Charlesworths of Thongsbridge was by that time well-established. John’s oldest sister Betty had married another machine maker, Thomas Firth, in 1832 and in 1841 they were living with their two daughters at Milnsbridge, an industrial centre near Huddersfield. John’s older brother Joseph, born 1803 and also a machine maker, is living with his family a mile or so away in New Mill in 1841 and 1851.

It seems that shortly after the 1841 census both John and Betty Charlesworth died. There was a death for a John Charlesworth at All Saints Netherthong 24 May 1842 which is probably him though the age at death in the register is not quite correct. Neither John nor Betty Charlesworth appear in the 1851 census and there is no indication that Betty remarries. In 1851 Charles, presumably therefore having been left an orphan, is living with his now widowed uncle Thomas Firth the machine maker in Milnsbridge aged 13 as nephew and “ap”(prentice), while his grandfather Abraham, presumably having retired from blacksmithing, is keeping an inn at Thongsbridge at the time of the census. Abraham dies shortly afterwards at the age of 72.

Charles was clearly destined to follow in the family machinery/blacksmithing business but this was not to be. We do not know whether he was happily situated with his uncle Thomas but perhaps the lack of immediate family ties to the Holmfirth and Huddersfield area led him to seek opportunities further afield. On 26 April 1853 at the age of 16 he was indentured for four years in Liverpool to John Gladstone of the ship John Wood and from then on he pursued the career of a mariner.

Australian shipping records track his career as a mariner in the Pacific region, first arriving in Sydney from Melbourne on 2 July 1859 on the Golden Spring as Coxswain, third in command of an eight man crew. He works the Sydney – Melbourne route on a number of ships then in March 1861 arrives again in Sydney on the Caroline Hort from Tahiti. He is master (captain) of the Hilander from Warrnambool, Victoria to Sydney in 1862 and during the 1860s was sailing as mate between Sydney and the South Sea Islands and Fiji.

He received his Certificate of Competency as Master of foreign-going vessels from the Marine Board of NSW on 16 August 1872. As Captain Charlesworth he was clearly a well-known figure up and down the coast between Sydney and Brisbane. In February 1875 he wrote to the Clarence Examiner, complaining of the difficulty experienced by navigators of vessels on the Clarence River (up to Grafton), owing to the neglected state of the buoys. In March 1880 the Brisbane Courier related how as Captain of the Brilliant on a trip from Sydney to Cape Byron to load cedar he had come to the aid of the ship the Arakoon which had run into difficulties in bad weather near the Brunswick River. The report ends:

…Captain Charlesworth has received from the local manager of the New Zealand Insurance Company a handsome testimonial for the assistance rendered to the Arakoon and desires publicly to return his acknowledgements to that gentleman.”

According to the Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser, Grafton NSW Sat 14 Aug 1880:

...Two cargoes were shipped at Coffs Harbour and one at Charlesworth Bay, so called in honour of Capt Charlesworth of the Brig Jane. To this genuine and obliging sailor our thanks are due, as he has shown us that one of the greatest difficulties to the settlement of these parts can be surmounted, and that it is practicable to ship produce and also to land cargo.....The brig the Jane, Captain Charlesworth, left Charlesworth Bay on Wednesday night for Sydney with 60,000 feet of pine. The weather is fine, with strong north east winds.

In March 1864 he married Jane Little of Langholm Dumfriesshire in Sydney. They had five children, four born in Sydney and one in Victoria.

Charles died at the age of 45 in Suva, Fiji from erysipelas on 3 Feb 1883. Jane died aged 76 in Rockdale, Sydney in 1914."

Compiled by W R Charlesworth, Honley, West Yorkshire

March 2023