Cadmans

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Fri 19 Feb 2016 23:17
A Bimble on The Rocks, Beginning at John Cadmans Cottage
 
 
 
 
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Bear stands in front of Cadman’s Cottage.
 
 
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Cadmans Cottage is the oldest surviving residential building in Sydney, having been built in 1816 for the use of the governmental coxswains and their crews. The building is heavily steeped in the history of Sydney, also claiming the title as the first building to have been built on the shoreline of The Rocks area. It is claimed that during high tide, the water would come within 8 feet (2.4 m) of Cadmans Cottage; however, due to the reclamation of land during the building of Circular Quay, the waterline has moved about a hundred metres away since 1816. We stood with our back to the house and looked toward the cruise ship dock, the sandstone ledge just in front of us.

This sandstone ledge represents the location of the original wharf that existed when the Cottage was first built and used as a Coxswain’s barracks. The remains of the original wharf still exist approximately two metres below this mock wharf.

Cadmans Cottage was built to house the Government Coxswain who supervised the operations of the government boats and their crews. The government boats transported government officials around Sydney and up the Parramatta River.

They also moved stores up to Parramatta and other outlying settlements, and carried convicts to their work assignments. Sydney’s waterways provided the main avenues for transport for early settlers as roads were few and in poor condition.

Considering the importance of water travel around this time Cadmans Cottage would have been the centre for activity in the harbour.

 

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The back of the house.

 

 

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The old steps beside the house with the new ones. The steps going up to the Rocks – some old, some new and the plaque outside.

 

 

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Sydney Cove, 1803.

 

 

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Cadmans Cottage was built in 1816 on the shoreline next to the Government Dockyard for the Superintendent of Government Boats and the coxswains, boat crews and labourers, most of whom were convicts. Government sailing boats and row-boats transported timber, shells and wood to make lime, grass for livestock, stores, dispatches and the Governor himself between the colony’s settlements. There were only two Government boats in 1798, but this increased to twenty eight by 1821, ranging in size from schooners to jolly boats.

 

 

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Sydney Cove, 1842.

 
 
In 1806 he was working in Castle Hill as a convict labourer, then transferred to the Government Dockyard in 1809. In 1809, Cadman became the coxswain of a government boat. Whilst in the service of the Government as a coxswain, he lost an eye.
In 1813 he was appointed Coxswain of Timber and Lumber Boat, and received a conditional pardon in 1814 from Governor Lachlan Macquarie.
He received a free pardon from Governor Macquarie in 1821 after serving four years as Coxswain on the Antelope.
From 1823 to 1826 John was Master of the thirty ton cutter Mars which took twenty five prisoners to Newcastle in 1825. The Mars was wrecked off Port Stephens
Appointed Superintendent of Government Boats and moved into Cadmans Cottage in 1827 on a salary of ninety one pounds a year.
John obtained permission to marry convict Elizabeth Mortimer on the 26th of October 1930 and continued to live in the cottage with his new wife and two step daughters.
In 1845 John retired after forty five years of Government service [the longest time served by a governmental Coxswain until the position was abolished after his retirement] and was awarded one hundred and eighty two pounds as a retiring gratuity by Governor Gipps. 
John Cadman died on the 12th of November 1848 at the Steam Packet Inn which he had bought in 1844 and was buried in the old Devonshire Street Cemetery.
 
 
Devonshire Street Cemetery, State Records Office NSW GOV Au
 

The Devonshire Street Cemetery – kind permission of the State Records Office NSW (also known incorrectly as the Brickfield Cemetery or Sandhills Cemetery ) was located between Eddy Avenue and Elizabeth Street, and between Chalmers and Devonshire Streets, at Brickfield Hill, in Sydney. It was consecrated in 1820. The Jewish section was used from 1832. By 1860, the cemetery was full, and it was closed in 1867.

In 1901, the cemetery was resumed to allow for the development of Central railway station, Sydney and representatives of deceased persons buried in the Devonshire Street cemetery were given two months to arrange for exhumation and removal of remains from the cemetery. All reasonable costs were borne by the Government of New South Wales. The remains that were unclaimed were relocated to a purpose-built cemetery named Bunnerong Cemetery. Remains that were claimed were transferred to a number of cemeteries as listed below. Bunnerong Cemetery, south of the city, had a tram line constructed to make the removal of recasketed remains as simple as possible. Bunnerong Cemetery was next to the Botany Cemetery and, in the early 1970’s, was absorbed by that cemetery to create the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park. We hope John was indeed relocated here and that by chance we visited him on our road trip to Botany Bay.

 

 

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ALL IN ALL I HOPE THE HOUSE IS LOOKED AFTER FOR GENERATIONS TO COME

                    VERY INTERESTING PIECE OF HISTORY TUCKED WAY