80C miles from town.
THE
CHRONLCLES
H e was looked upon
OF EARL Y
MELBOURNE.
as a valuable acquisition, but in M a y he was carried off
by death in his forty-third year. MR. WILLIAM KERR, in 1841, took his family for a change during the hot weather after Christmas to the beach at Sandridge, and thought it would not be a bad plan to rig a tent as a s u m m e r residence half-way towards St. Kilda. O n the evening of the 15th January, he was found dead on the sand. His death had been sudden, and its cause as disclosed by a post mortem enquiry, was tubercular disease of the brain, accompanied by serous effusion. M r . Kerr was m u c h regretted, and the Sunday after his death was " improved " at the Independent Church, where the Rev. Mr. Waterfield delivered a suitable discourse upon the lamentable event. DAVID HENRY WILSONE, M.D.—The first death of a medical practitioner in Melbourne occurred in August, when David Henry Wilsone, M.D., was gathered to his fathers. During a brief sojourn in the district the deceased evidenced an active interest in public matters, and had he lived would have m a d e his mark professionally and otherwise. MR. HENRY F. GISBORNE was during his short stay, as light-hearted and well-liked as any individual in Port Phillip. T h e son of a m e m b e r of the British Parliament, he ventured out to Sydney, and after officiating for some time as Private Secretary to Governor Sir Richard Bourke, he proceeded to the newly-found southern country as its actual first Crown Land Commissioner. Equally at home as a bushman and as a sportsman, he rendered valuable assistance in developing an early taste amongst the people for the great English sport of horse-racing, and was one of the half-dozen primitive Nimrods w h o selected the present Flemington course as the proper place for the amusement to which it has been since applied. Along with riding a race, he was just as smart a hand at writing about one, and his ability in this line was such as would admirably qualify him for the modern post of Sporting Editor. T h e first Petition transmitted from Port Philip praying for separation from N e w South Wales was from his pen. In 1841 he started on a visit to England, but in September intelligence was received of his death at sea, between the Cape of G o o d H o p e and St. Helena. MR. ARTHUR KEMMIS was a native of Queen's County (Ireland), and, in 1839, entered into mercantile pursuits under the style of K e m m i s and Co., in a brick store in Flinders Street. K e m m i s was a m a n of scholarly attainments and unspotted integrity; the founder and chief-manager of the Port Phillip Steam Navigation Company, and the doer of m a n y kindnesses in a private and unobtrusive manner. O n the 8th February, 1842, he died at the early age of 36, of water on the brain, after a ten days' illness, leaving a widow and five children to mourn over their bereavement. The regret for what was not unreasonably regarded as a public loss, was universal. MRS. PARKER AND MRS. WAI.SHE. — October of the same year was saddened by two very sudden deaths, with only a day or two intervening, two estimable ladies having disappeared from a society so limited as to be badly able to spare them. T h e former was the wife of an Assistant Protector of Aborigines. A few months previously a brother of the latter—a very fine young m a n — w a s accidentally drowned by the upsetting of a boat on the Yarra, and such a blow T h e events spread a gloom over the small town, which was not was too m u c h for the sister. dissipated by the use m a d e of them in more than one pulpit on the ensuing Sunday, and they formed the ground-work of two or three impressive sermons. MR. ARMYNE BOLDEN.—On Sunday, 9th July, 1843, died suddenly at the residence of Mr. S. Raymond, his brother-in-law, M r . A r m y n e Bolden, w h o had been staying there for some days. Both gentlemen, after dining at the Melbourne Club, went h o m e about 10 o'clock. W h e n Bolden was retiring to rest he told the servants to call him at daylight, as he wished to proceed early to the Saltwater River. S o m e time after R a y m o n d was alarmed by hearing moans issue from the direction of Bolden's room, and to his astonishment he found Bolden lying upon his back, with his mouth open, and gasping for breath, though the bed-covering did not appear in the least disturbed. Dr. O'Mullane was
