Troving with John Tebbutt, a progress report

by Garry Dalrymple, member of Sydney City Skywatchers

Introduction

Currently I’m a few weeks into a project to use the National Library of Australia's publicly accessible Trove database of digitised newspapers and other material to document the life of John Tebbutt F.R.A.S. (1934-1916) N.S.W. Astronomer of note and the first President of the B.A.A. N.S.W.. Tebbutt and his work has been written but I am paying particular attention to the Non-Astronomical sides of his life and works.

The 1984 to 1996 Australian one hundred dollar note designed by Harry Williamson featured John Tebbutt on one side and Douglas Mawson on the other.

The 'Messier' John Tebbutts

The Four Thousand or so Trove Articles in N.S.W. newspapers indexed to “John Tebbutt” include a great deal of items by John Tebbutt, or commenting on his work, however, while reviewing these articles I found that there was more than one ‘John Tebbutt’ out there, as, ‘John’ being a common first name even if Tebbutts are rare. So, my first task, paradoxically has been to try to identify / document these other ‘John Tebbutt’s’, which I will refer to as ‘Messier’ Tebbutts, being the astronomical term for comet impersonators, before I can start to review and organise those articles about ‘our’ John Tebbutt F.R.A.S. For example, at one point, our John Tebbutt is styled ‘John Tebbutt the third’, as his name was shared with his father and grandfather (who arrived in Australia in 1801). I have also seen mention of Murrurundi (N.S.W), Sydney and Queensland Tebbutt’s, whose families have included a John.

What I have learned so far

Although our John Tebbutt appears ’like a Comet’ in the press after discovering and publicising his first comet in 1861. He is thereafter frequently reported on whenever he writes to newspapers about Astronomy, giving his own observations or passing on Astronomical news from overseas, our John Tebbutt had other interests and activities before, during and after his several decades (1860-1910) of Astronomical fame and achievement.   

So, Who Was John Tebbutt?

This depends on the newspapers that you have access to.   An easily overlooked ‘thread’ to understanding Tebbutt is the stream of articles in the local Windsor newspaper, which detail many of his non-astronomical activities. In the Sydney newspapers you may read the full spectrum of his non-Astronomical views and activities, but in the Interstate and Regional newspapers, John Tebbutt was all Business, Astronomy business from an Observatory that rivalled the state observatories of Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. From these papers, you do not get a full sense of the man and his many interests.

Four Thousand NSW Articles!

How does he do it?   Did he write them all? Well, no, after 1861/1862 Tebbutt’s frequent reports and bulletins, written to Sydney Daily newspapers, these items were widely re-printed by regional and interstate newspapers. John Tebbutt having ‘arrived’ had become a local and quotable Astronomical celebrity.   From the viewpoint of 1862, it seems as if Tebbutt is preferentially writing to the two Sydney dailies, ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ (Fairfax) and 'The Empire', the newspaper of Henry Parkes (until 1875) and subsequently the ‘The Sydney Telegraph.’    He does however respond to letters appearing in some other papers, so his reading goes beyond this duopoly.

Scientific Papers

Europe was far away, by post, publication delayed and uncertain, but Tebbutt frequently mentions how well received his observations were overseas as published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) as between 1863 and 1915 over 400 papers authored by him were published. Locally, he was able to publish fully detailed scientific papers through the meeting of the local NSW Philosophical Society (later the NSW Royal Society).   

Social and Political Views

Among the first “John Tebbutt” referenced items of a political nature that I sourced are the political advertisements listing local men such as John, his Father and his Uncle Thomas, each being men of financial means and respected in the community, being supporters of candidates for NSW Parliament, to establish the candidate’s credentials.   During election years, these lists were then published in several editions of local newspapers, resulting in that year recording a misleadingly ‘high’ Tebbutt article count. The other early and numerous source of non-Astronomical Tebbutt references, refer to the public listing of Tebbutt family contributions to charitable appeals of the day, such as Drought, Fire, Flood and the Indian Mutiny.  Where there is a community call, you will find the pound pledges of Squire Tebbutt’s family at the very top of the list of other people’s shillings.

During most of his life, Tebbutt was involved with the St Matthews (Church of England) parochial Society, the Windsor School of Arts, the Hawkesbury Benevolent Society and the Windsor and district Bible Society, by participation on the committee, or through his listed donations. 

Work continues

I continue to work through Trove to find and organise the details of the life and work of John Tebbutt F.R.A.S.     I’m at the 1860s and it is taking much longer than I expected, as, although many of the Trove Astronomy items have been corrected for digital transcription errors, many of the non-astronomy ones have not, requiring me to stop and correct, before I pause, copy and save these items, adding them to the Tebbutt timeline and archive.