User:Bjenks/Sandbox2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joseph Jenkins (1818-1898) was an educated tenant farmer from Tregaron, Ceredigion, mid-Wales who, when aged over 50, suddenly deserted his home and large family to seek his fortune in Australia. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says Jenkins's noteworthiness stemmed from the rich documentation of his experiences and thoughts that has survived. He was a consistent diarist for 58 years of his life and a consistent if less than outstanding poet, under the bardic name Amnon II. He achieved fame posthumously from publication of some excerpts of his Australian writings. The compiler, his grandson Dr William Evans, a Harley Street cardiologist, coined the title Diary of a Welsh Swagman[1] by which name he is familiar to generations of Victorian school students for whom the book became a prescribed history text since 1978.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Early life and education
Joseph Jenkins was born on 27 February, 1818, at Blaenplwyf farm near Ystrad Aeron in Ceredigion, Wales. He was the fourth child of 12 brought up by Jenkin Jenkins and Eleanor (née Davis). In 1846 he married his second cousin Elisabeth (Betty) Evans of Tynant. They purchased the lease of Trecefel farm, Tregaron and had nine children, the last of whom, John David, was born in April, 1868.
He commenced education under a disciplinarian private tutor and later attended a small Unitarian church school at Cribyn, a 5-mile walk. Throughout his life, Joseph bewailed his lack of more formal education. However, his thirst for knowledge and passion for reading and writing proved a firm basis for continuing self-education[3].
[edit] Agricultural skills
Under his management, Trecefel won many prizes in agricultural shows and its cattle fetched top prices in the market[4]. In 1851, it was judged to be the best farm in the county. In 1861, Joseph was appointed to adjudicate the same competition.
[edit] The diaries
Joseph Jenkins consistently maintained a diary of daily events for 58 years. Though he was a native Welsh speaker, he penned the diaries in English as an aid to self-education.
[edit] Wales
The first entry was on New Year's Day, 1839. Though he continued to record each day, much of the early record has been lost. The earliest complete year extant is 1845. Manuscripts for the years 1839-1868 and 1895-1898 (when he lived in Wales) are held by the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth, together with his shipboard diary of the voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne.
[edit] Australia
The Australian diaries which were acquired in 1997 by the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, cover the years 1869-1894.
After disembarking from the sailing ship Eurynome at Sandridge on 12 March, 1869[5]. The following month finds him carrying his swag, pessimistically prospecting and offering rural labour in and around the goldfields town of Castlemaine where he found many fellow Welshmen. He rarely left this area except to attend the annual St David's day eisteddfod at Ballarat where, on thirteen consecutive occasions, he was awarded the premier prize for an englyn.
Joseph obtained regular employment in 1884 as a cleaner of streets and gutters in the town of Maldon, a few miles north from Castlemaine. He remained there working until he reached the age of 72 and began yearning to return to Wales. He had saved the fare, departed Maldon by rail on 23 November, 1894, and embarked on the ss Ophir, which docked at Tilbury on 5 January, 1895. In 1994 a water drinking fountain and a plaque were erected at Maldon in recognition of Joseph Jenkins's monumental contribution to the life of a rural worker in Victoria as recorded in his diaries. His own words are also cited: Through this [diary] I am building. . . my own monument (pictured at right).
After his return to Wales, he entrusted the diaries to his daughter Elinor (Nell) who stored them in the attic of her home, Tyndomen farm, near Tregaron. They came to light some 70 years later when a great-granddaughter, Frances Evans, recovered and protected them, permitting her uncle, Dr William Evans to read and edit the contents[6].Destruction of the diaries had been favoured by some family members who were concerned by their potential to arousee adverse reflection on reputations, especially that of Joseph's wife, Betty, whose alleged infidelity was consistently blamed by him as the cause of his leaving home. However, there seems to be no evidence that Betty was other than a loyal and capable wife—and one who may have had good reason to find fault with Joseph's own personality and behaviour[7].
[edit] Historical studies
In 1904 a body of information with a photograph of Joseph and a selection of his poetry in Welsh was included in the book Cerddi Cerngoch by Daniel Jenkins and David Lewis. (The title is Welsh for 'Poems of Redcheek'--the bardic name of Joseph's brother John, but the book also records writings of several other distinguished family members.)
In 1998, Dr Bethan Phillips of Lampeter, having devoted many years to the project, including a visit to Australia, published her extensively researched account in Welsh–Rhwng Dau Fyd: Y Swagman O Geredigion, followed in 2002 by Pity the Swagman--The Australian Odyssey of a Victorian Diarist.
[edit] References and sources
- ^ Evans, William Diary of a Welsh Swagman (MacMillan, Melbourne 1975, Reprinted by Sun Books 1977- )
- ^ Phillips, Bethan Pity the Swagman (Cymdeithas Lifrau Ceredigion Gyf., Aberystwyth 2002) Foreword p. xviii
- ^ Phillips, pp 8-10
- ^ Evans, x
- ^ This date is given in Joseph's shipboard log. In later diaries, he wrongly recalled it as 22 March
- ^ Pity the Swagman, Foreword p. xv
- ^ Eg, in Pity the Swagman, Bethan Phillips argues that Joseph drank excessively while at home, though he generally abstained in Australia, and that he became disliked by neighbours for actively supporting landowners and their politicians at a time when they were oppressing many tenant-farmers–who were consequently promoting liberal candidates
[edit] Further reading
- Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Joseph Jenkins
- Diary of a Welsh Swagman--Assessment as a historical treasure by the State Library of Victoria
- Culture Victoria An Adobe Flash audiovisual presentation. Click successively on Explore/Immigrants and Emigrants/The Welsh Swagman. Included are videos on the preservation of Joseph's diaries and their acquisition from Frances Evans in 1997.
- Rees, Rev D C History of Tregaron Gomerian Press 1936
- Tregaron and District Historical Society Tregaron–Images of a Country Town Landmark 2006
