Duke of Roxburgh (ship)

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The Duke of Roxburgh was a mid 19th century timber hulled merchant barque of 498 tons registered in London and sailing between Great Britain and the Australasian Colonies. The Duke of Roxburgh was one of the earliest immigrant ships to Port Phillip, South Australia and New Zealand.

Voyages included London (12 April 1838) to South Australia (28 July 1838) and Plymouth (5 October 1839) to Wellington (8 February 1840) under James Thomson, Master, being one of the first fleet of immigrant ships to Wellington.

On 1st August 1841 she again left London, landing at Cork on 1st September and then arriving at Sydney on 10th January 1842. On board were 105 male and 142 female passengers, predominantly emigrants.

On 7 May 1843 the Duke, as she was affectionately known by crew and passengers, sailed under Captain Collard from England with Francis Russell Nixon, the first Bishop of Tasmania, his wife and family, and Archdeacon Fitzherbert Marriott, together with 6 other cabin passenger including John Helder Wedge and the future squatter Henry Godfrey. Sailing via Trinidad, Ascension Island, Cape Colony, the Duke reached Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land, on 21 July 1843.

She left Hobart Town the following January and arrived at Gravesend on 5 June 1844.

The Duke of Roxburgh sailed again from Gravesend on 31 October 1846 and arrived at Port Phillip on 7 March 1847.

The fate of the ship is unknown.