Alexander Brodie Spark
Encyclopedia
Alexander Brodie Spark influential merchant
, businessman and free settler of Australia
, was born on 9 August 1792 at Elgin
, Scotland
.
, Spark had a literary education
in his hometown of Elgin, learnt to speak and studied French
, and acquired an interest in astronomy
. In the June of 1811, after he had had some experience in business, Spark went to London
, where he became the founder of a small literary society. Despite himself, Spark found living on £50 a great difficulty, and opted to contact his parents for financial support. His father, at first reluctant to offer his son any sum of money to help him to deal with his sinking financial situation, gave him the money he requested only after Alexander had found a supply of low-priced watches and came up with a design for what Spark called a 'Patent Warning Clock', and not before lecturing Alexander about over-spending and the poor grammar and writing in the letter which Alexander had sent to his father asking for money.
In 1820, Spark took a journey around the globe, a continental tour. During this journey, Spark met and spent several days with renowned poet William Wordsworth
and a few members of his family, including his wife and sister.
Now well-monetarily supplied, Spark felt confident that he could start a business of his own, and be the better for it. He also decided that he would go from Europe and try his luck as a free settler of Australia, which had been founded less than fifty years before. After being granted a letter of recommendation as a free settler, Spark voyaged on the Princess Charlotte to arrive in Sydney
, Australia in April, 1823. After arriving, Alexander set up a shop in George Street
, where he sold sugar
, wines and alcohol
and various drapery
. Spark also supplied salted meat to the commissariat
at Sydney and Parramatta
at the time.
By 1825, Spark's trading business had greatly expanded, and he was chartering ships to coastal trade routes. A year later, his business had grown even more, and he started a shipping agency. Through this agency, Spark sold incoming cargoes, exporting stores to places such as Hobart
, colonial produce to Calcutta, and wool
consignments (the first of what would be very many wool consignments) to London, backloading merchandise when it was possible. Additionally, Spark worked as a sort of agent for farmers and country settlers by purchasing their produce and selling them supplies such as livestock
and stores, as well as the occasional ploughman or overseer. At this particular time, Spark owned more than six thousand acre
s (24 km²) of land on the Hunter River
and a nine acre (4 hectare) grant at Woolloomooloo; Spark had developed a passion for land ownership. In 1835, the designer John Verge (who also built Elizabeth Bay House) helped Spark complete his property, now named Tusculum outside of Wolloomooloo Hill (now known as Potts Point). It now houses The Royal Australian Institute of Architects.
Despite the great success of his business, Spark engaged in and did a great many things in and around Sydney. He served on the Sydney Grand Jury, became its foreman in 1826 and, in 1827, a justice of the peace.
Spark engaged in the committee of the Agricultural Society and the Chamber of Commerce
, as well as supplying support and sometimes finances to causes such as those of Scots Church, the Benevolent Society and the Female School of Industry. Additionally, despite two failed attempts at becoming a director of the Bank of New South Wales, he was able to join the first board of the Bank of Australia, also in 1826. He later became the board's managing director in 1832.
By this time, business for Spark had increased (especially in the wool industry), and continued to increase over the next few years. While continuing his prior engagements, Spark began work on designing himself a house, where he planted a vineyard
and an orchard
, being the treasurer of Australian Gaslight Co. and director of at least two insurance companies, as well as being an active investor in several steam navigation companies.
With all of his business-related and social partakings and engagements, Spark's new home, after it had been designed and built, became something of a rendezvous for many of the people he was associated with - bankers, merchants, landowners and magistrate
s he met on his regular visits to the Hunter River region.
During this time, Spark had begun to become somewhat perturbed by the divisions between the Presbyterians in Sydney, and decided to turn to the Church of England
. He became involved in his new faith, and was involved in and supported the construction of St Peter's Church at Cook's River, which was consecrated in 1839.
1839 was a busy year for Spark - he entertained over 800 visitors at his house in Tempe
, and became involved in yet more enterprises including becoming vice-president of Commercial Banking Co. of Sydney, becoming an agent of the South Australian Co. and becoming director of Australian Loan Co. Spark also extended his land dealing to the regions of Melbourne and Victoria, as well as becoming agent for some twenty-two ships.
, while also taking pastoral leases in the New England district, even though he already had over 50 deeds to land; this displays how much land ownership meant to Spark.
On 27 April, 1840, Spark married Frances Maria, née Biddulph. It seems that, after this marriage, Spark began to lose a great deal of money very quickly, for a number of reasons. Spark had guaranteed loans to people who were now bankrupt or otherwise out of finances, and, by September, a wave of drought, among other things, had caused unrest and nervousness in the money market. To keep himself from facing bankruptcy or becoming broke, and also to help pay for large bills (£21,000 worth) he acquired in March 1841, he sold off much of his land, his shares and his ships. He also mortgaged a town house for £6,000. To make matters worse (financially), Spark's baby was born in April 1841, which meant that he had to support two other people as well as himself. Finally, having had to sell all of his assets to pay for his many debts, Alexander Spark became officially insolvent in 1844.
During this time, when Spark was losing so much money so fast, his diary records at length his depression and sadness about the losses. It also records his mixed feelings about his wife's pregnancy, and his worries about whether he would have the finances to support it.
Despite being insolvent, Spark managed to recover, but very slowly. By 1846, Spark was shipping stores of copper to England, as well as shipments of horses to India
. he further re-established his place in society, and much of his fortune, after successful speculation made about the discovery of gold in Ballarat, Victoria
in 1851.
Due to heart problems, Spark died at Tempe on 21 October 1856. He was survived by his wife and five children.
, and patronized the art
s. He also played golf
on a regular basis, fished in Cook's River (where he also bathed, on occasion) and liked to read books for leisure.
He also enjoyed the theatre
and concert
s, and also often went to social dances or balls.
Spark was widely concerned with public affairs, and was very active in that regard, but was mostly too patronizing to have much effect on people less wealthy than himself; for all that he represented, he never had a deep identity with Australia, where he spent much of his life.
His piety
only seemed actually present and noticeable when he was in times of need or greatly distressed, such as in the time of his great monetary losses between 1840 and 1844. He is also remembered to have been very severe in his judgements on criminals, but himself managed to avoid controversy or accusation in the public eye.
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
, businessman and free settler of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, was born on 9 August 1792 at Elgin
Elgin, Moray
Elgin is a former cathedral city and Royal Burgh in Moray, Scotland. It is the administrative and commercial centre for Moray. The town originated to the south of the River Lossie on the higher ground above the flood plain. Elgin is first documented in the Cartulary of Moray in 1190...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Early life
The son of a watchmakerWatchmaker
A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since virtually all watches are now factory made, most modern watchmakers solely repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their parts, by hand...
, Spark had a literary education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
in his hometown of Elgin, learnt to speak and studied French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, and acquired an interest in astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
. In the June of 1811, after he had had some experience in business, Spark went to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he became the founder of a small literary society. Despite himself, Spark found living on £50 a great difficulty, and opted to contact his parents for financial support. His father, at first reluctant to offer his son any sum of money to help him to deal with his sinking financial situation, gave him the money he requested only after Alexander had found a supply of low-priced watches and came up with a design for what Spark called a 'Patent Warning Clock', and not before lecturing Alexander about over-spending and the poor grammar and writing in the letter which Alexander had sent to his father asking for money.
In 1820, Spark took a journey around the globe, a continental tour. During this journey, Spark met and spent several days with renowned poet William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
and a few members of his family, including his wife and sister.
Life in Australia
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia in April, 1823. After arriving, Alexander set up a shop in George Street
George Street, Sydney
George Street is one of Sydney's most notable city streets. There are more high rise buildings and more ASX 100 companies located here than anywhere else in Australia, and is well known for being busy around-the-clock...
, where he sold sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
, wines and alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
and various drapery
Drapery
Drapery is a general word referring to cloths or textiles . It may refer to cloth used for decorative purposes – such as around windows – or to the trade of retailing cloth, originally mostly for clothing, formerly conducted by drapers.In art history, drapery refers to any cloth or...
. Spark also supplied salted meat to the commissariat
Commissariat
A commissariat is the department of an army charged with the provision of supplies, both food and forage, for the troops. The supply of military stores such as ammunition is not included in the duties of a commissariat. In almost every army the duties of transport and supply are performed by the...
at Sydney and Parramatta
Parramatta, New South Wales
Parramatta is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Greater Western Sydney west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Parramatta River. Parramatta is the administrative seat of the Local Government Area of the City of Parramatta...
at the time.
By 1825, Spark's trading business had greatly expanded, and he was chartering ships to coastal trade routes. A year later, his business had grown even more, and he started a shipping agency. Through this agency, Spark sold incoming cargoes, exporting stores to places such as Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
, colonial produce to Calcutta, and wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
consignments (the first of what would be very many wool consignments) to London, backloading merchandise when it was possible. Additionally, Spark worked as a sort of agent for farmers and country settlers by purchasing their produce and selling them supplies such as livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
and stores, as well as the occasional ploughman or overseer. At this particular time, Spark owned more than six thousand acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s (24 km²) of land on the Hunter River
Hunter River
The Hunter River is a major river in New South Wales, Australia. The Hunter River rises in the Liverpool Range and flows generally south and then east, reaching the Pacific Ocean at Newcastle, the second largest city in New South Wales and a major port....
and a nine acre (4 hectare) grant at Woolloomooloo; Spark had developed a passion for land ownership. In 1835, the designer John Verge (who also built Elizabeth Bay House) helped Spark complete his property, now named Tusculum outside of Wolloomooloo Hill (now known as Potts Point). It now houses The Royal Australian Institute of Architects.
Despite the great success of his business, Spark engaged in and did a great many things in and around Sydney. He served on the Sydney Grand Jury, became its foreman in 1826 and, in 1827, a justice of the peace.
Spark engaged in the committee of the Agricultural Society and the Chamber of Commerce
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
, as well as supplying support and sometimes finances to causes such as those of Scots Church, the Benevolent Society and the Female School of Industry. Additionally, despite two failed attempts at becoming a director of the Bank of New South Wales, he was able to join the first board of the Bank of Australia, also in 1826. He later became the board's managing director in 1832.
By this time, business for Spark had increased (especially in the wool industry), and continued to increase over the next few years. While continuing his prior engagements, Spark began work on designing himself a house, where he planted a vineyard
Vineyard
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...
and an orchard
Orchard
An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...
, being the treasurer of Australian Gaslight Co. and director of at least two insurance companies, as well as being an active investor in several steam navigation companies.
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
s he met on his regular visits to the Hunter River region.
During this time, Spark had begun to become somewhat perturbed by the divisions between the Presbyterians in Sydney, and decided to turn to the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
. He became involved in his new faith, and was involved in and supported the construction of St Peter's Church at Cook's River, which was consecrated in 1839.
1839 was a busy year for Spark - he entertained over 800 visitors at his house in Tempe
Tempe, New South Wales
Tempe is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Tempe is located 9 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of Marrickville Council....
, and became involved in yet more enterprises including becoming vice-president of Commercial Banking Co. of Sydney, becoming an agent of the South Australian Co. and becoming director of Australian Loan Co. Spark also extended his land dealing to the regions of Melbourne and Victoria, as well as becoming agent for some twenty-two ships.
Later life and death
It was in 1840 that Alexander Spark purchased an amount of land in New ZealandNew Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, while also taking pastoral leases in the New England district, even though he already had over 50 deeds to land; this displays how much land ownership meant to Spark.
On 27 April, 1840, Spark married Frances Maria, née Biddulph. It seems that, after this marriage, Spark began to lose a great deal of money very quickly, for a number of reasons. Spark had guaranteed loans to people who were now bankrupt or otherwise out of finances, and, by September, a wave of drought, among other things, had caused unrest and nervousness in the money market. To keep himself from facing bankruptcy or becoming broke, and also to help pay for large bills (£21,000 worth) he acquired in March 1841, he sold off much of his land, his shares and his ships. He also mortgaged a town house for £6,000. To make matters worse (financially), Spark's baby was born in April 1841, which meant that he had to support two other people as well as himself. Finally, having had to sell all of his assets to pay for his many debts, Alexander Spark became officially insolvent in 1844.
During this time, when Spark was losing so much money so fast, his diary records at length his depression and sadness about the losses. It also records his mixed feelings about his wife's pregnancy, and his worries about whether he would have the finances to support it.
Despite being insolvent, Spark managed to recover, but very slowly. By 1846, Spark was shipping stores of copper to England, as well as shipments of horses to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. he further re-established his place in society, and much of his fortune, after successful speculation made about the discovery of gold in Ballarat, Victoria
Ballarat, Victoria
Ballarat is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately west-north-west of the state capital Melbourne situated on the lower plains of the Great Dividing Range and the Yarrowee River catchment. It is the largest inland centre and third most populous city in the state and the fifth...
in 1851.
Due to heart problems, Spark died at Tempe on 21 October 1856. He was survived by his wife and five children.
Personal life
Spark is known to have enjoyed playing cards and chessChess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, and patronized the art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
s. He also played golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
on a regular basis, fished in Cook's River (where he also bathed, on occasion) and liked to read books for leisure.
He also enjoyed the theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
s, and also often went to social dances or balls.
Spark was widely concerned with public affairs, and was very active in that regard, but was mostly too patronizing to have much effect on people less wealthy than himself; for all that he represented, he never had a deep identity with Australia, where he spent much of his life.
His piety
Piety
In spiritual terminology, piety is a virtue that can mean religious devotion, spirituality, or a combination of both. A common element in most conceptions of piety is humility.- Etymology :...
only seemed actually present and noticeable when he was in times of need or greatly distressed, such as in the time of his great monetary losses between 1840 and 1844. He is also remembered to have been very severe in his judgements on criminals, but himself managed to avoid controversy or accusation in the public eye.