John Septimus Roe and family papers

MLMSS 11120

fonds

1817-1906

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Photographs, Ephemera

9659450

0.02 metres of textual material (1 folder), including 3 photographs - manuscript, gelatin silver

John Septimus Roe (1797-1878) naval officer, surveyor and explorer was born in Berkshire, England in 1797. He had eight siblings, two who were George (1790-1819) and Thomas (1789-1877). In 1813 Roe joined the crew of the HMS Rippon and served in the Napoleonic Wars before being posted to the New South Wales survey service in 1817.

John Septimus Roe assisted Phillip Parker King in four major voyages, on Mermaid (three voyages) and Bathurst (one voyage) to complete the work of Matthew Flinders. These voyages charted the coastline from Hervey Bay, Queensland, to Torres Strait and from Cape Arnhem on the north-west coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, west along the north coast and down the south coast to Cape Leeuwin, at the southwest corner.

In December 1828 he accepted the position of surveyor-general in the new colony of Western Australia (Swan River). On January 8, 1829 by special arrangement, Roe married Matilda Bennett, of the Isle of Man, a few weeks before sailing from Portsmouth in the Parmelia.

Roe arrived in Western Australia in June 1829, and by August 1870, he retired as the new colony's surveyor-general. He laid out the sites of Perth, Fremantle, and several minor towns and by 1849 he had made sixteen voyages of exploration, mostly into the southern interior of the colony. John Septimus Roe died in Perth on 28 May 1878.

References:
Library correspondence file
Australian Dictionary of Biography. http://adb.anu.edu.au/ (accessed February 22, 2012)
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23941 (accessed February 22, 2012)

David Roe acquired the collection from Augustus James Roe, sometime before 2007

Two letters handwritten in ink from John Septimus Roe to his father, 15 April 1828, and his brother William, 18 April 1828
Three letters handwritten in ink from Thomas Roe to his father, 15 November 1819, 15 September 1820, 19 May 1823
Five letters handwritten in ink from George Roe to his parents, 1816-1818
A typed biography of ancestor Sir Thomas Roe and the Roe family tree
A French biography publication about John Septimus Roe, titled 'Tablettes biographiques', 1878
John Septimus Roe share certificate for the Western Australian Mining Company, 1906
Two portrait photographs of John Septimus Roe and one of Matilda Elizabeth Roe (nee Bennett)

English, French

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales