People: James Chatman - builder of the first Jondaryan homestead

There are many remarkable and sometimes tragic stories about our early pioneers and Jondaryan has no shortage of them. Unfortunately in the annals of history it is almost always only the stories of the leaders that are recorded and the part played by the common people is ignored. In this and other articles, I intend to redress this imbalance.

Until just recently, I was unaware of the fact that convicts had been associated with Jondaryan's early development. There were two andpossibly three convicts in the group of people that came with Henry William Coxen, to settled and begin the development of Jondaryan station. This is the story of one of those convicted men.

In recounting this story, it takes us back to a time before the beginning of Jondaryan's history, to the year of 1838. Very little is known about the early life of James Chatman senior, but we do know that he was an educated man and was trained in the profession of a carpenter, so he must have belonged to a reasonably well to do middle-class family. In 1838, when he had been practising his profession for five years, he fell foul of his employer. (He was probably owed wages and became too insistent in their payment, so was set up by his employer to get rid of him.) With the help of an associate, James Chatman's employer accused him of picking his pocket and stealing a handkerchief. With the weight of the law on his employer's side, James Chatman was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to ten years transportation.

On his arrival at Sydney town, the Governor of the colony recognised the value of James Chatman's skills and put him to work as a carpenter. Early in 1840, he was sent to Yarandai, a property at the head of the Hunter River, owned by Stephen Coxen, who had 60 assigned convicts working for him. Stephen Coxen was an older brother of Charles Coxen, the first official owner of Jondaryan station.

Charles Coxen was managing another of Stephen Coxen's properties at the head of the Namoi River and he allotted a number of his convicts to assist his brother run and develop the property. James Chatman, whose skills were in high demand, was one of those sent by Stephen Coxen.

By mid 1841, Charles Coxen had become concerned about what had happened to Henry Dennis, who had been sent the Darling Downs the year before, to select land for him and some of his neighbours. Nothing had been heard of Henry Dennis and the worst was feared about his fate. Charles Coxen was also anxious about the possibility of his missing out on obtaining land on the Downs, so he hastily dispatched his young nephew Henry William Coxen, with instructions to claim and occupy a run for him.

Henry Coxen had 300 head of cattle and two dray loads of supplies to take to the Downs and five white men, including James Chatman and an Aboriginal boy accompanied him on the journey, to assist him set up and run the station. Soon after crossing the Seven River, one of the drays broke an axle. Henry Coxen elected to remain with the dray to protect its contents, keeping James Chatman with him. Lieutenant Irving, who was accompanying Henry Coxen, with the help of the rest of the men, took the other dray and the cattle on to the Downs, where they hoped to get the broken axle mended.

While they waited for Irving's return, Henry Coxen contracted a severe illness, James Chatman did what he could for him, but Coxen's life was only saved by the administering of medicines carried by other men travelling to the Downs, who happened to come along. To make things worse the two were attacked on a number of occasions by Aborigines trying to take the contents of the dray and they were only frightened off by firing over their heads. A month later Irving returned with the mended axle and they were able to push on to the Darling Downs, meeting up with the rest of the men and the cattle at Gowrie station.

Isaacs pointed out the boundary of Gowrie and Henry Coxen chose a run to the north-west of this for his Uncle Charles. In February of 1842, Governor Gipps' Land Commissioner arrived on the Downs and all the squatters there were able to register their runs. Henry Coxen registered Jondaryan in his Uncle Charles's name. Henry Coxen chose a site on the bank of Oakey Creek for their camp and James Chatman set to work constructing huts for them to live in. When commissioner Rolleston visited Jondaryan early in 1843, he reported that three slab and one bark hut had been constructed.

Henry Coxen realised that the Darling Downs was ideally suited to sheep. In May of 1843, he sent James Chatman off to his Uncle Charles to obtain sheep for the run. This is no surprise, for although a convicted man, James Chatman, was educated and intelligent and had proved that he could be trusted. Charles Coxen had no stock of his own and was reliant on the generosity of his brother Stephen, to obtain stock for his new run, so James Chatman was dispatched to Yarandai. Stephen Coxen decided to supply the females for the flock from his own, but sent James Chatman on to Camden, to see John Macarthur to obtain rams.

Soon after James Chatman had departed from Jondaryan, a major tragedy occurred there, when two of the men on Jondaryan, while out cutting grass, were murdered by Aborigines, being horribly mutilated with their own reaping hooks.

James Chatman was invited to stay with the Macarthurs while he obtained the help of some one to assist with taking the large flock of sheep back to Jondaryan. The Macarthurs had a young girl working for them, Keturah Small. James and Keturah were attracted to one another and had an intimate affair. Keturah had an uncle, Edwin Small, who was looking for work and he was engaged to help James Chatman take the sheep back to Jondaryan.

Soon after they arrived back at Jondaryan with the sheep, word arrived that Keturah Small discovered that she was with child. One can imagine the intense discussions that would have taken place over James wish to return to Camden to marry Keturah, the problem with the station being so shorthanded, the trouble with the Aborigines and the dangers of bringing Keturah back to Jondaryan and having her baby there.

On his return to Camden, James Chatman once again stayed with the Macarthurs and arrangements were made for James and Keturah's marriage. The fact that James Chatman was still a convict meant that he had to have the Governor's permission to many. On John Macarthur's advice, James decided to apply for his ticket-of-leave as well as permission to marry. With John Macarthur pulling strings, his ticket-of-leave came through on 8 March 1844 and five days later, permission to marry was granted. On 19 March, James and Keturah were married in Sydney and soon after departed on the long journey back to Jondaryan

Almost immediately upon their return, a start was made on the construction of a homestead on Jondaryan. This would be a home for Henry Coxen, but it would also provide a secure and relatively comfortable place for Keturah and James to live and for the baby when it arrived.

James Chatman junior arrived on 27 August 1844, making him the first white baby to be born on Jondaryan and the second on the Darling Downs, his mother Keturah, was the third white woman on the Darling Downs.

Soon after James Chatman junior was born, a series of severe thunderstorms occurred. The ironstone knob on which the house was built, attracted so much lightening, that it was decided to dismantle and rebuild the homestead on a new site chosen two miles up stream, where the present homestead now stands.

Towards the end of 1844, all records of James Chatman senior suddenly cease to exist and he completely disappears. All the circumstantial evidence we have indicates that he was killed on the station by Aborigines. There is a record of two men having been killed on Jondaryan, not far from the homestead, at the end of 1844, but our searches have thus far failed to uncover the names of these two men. It would appear that James Chatman was one of these men killed in this second tragedy.