James Stuart (1802-1842)

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James Stuart, after whom the Brown Antechinus (Antechinus stuartii) was named in 1841 by the entomologist William Sharp Macleay, was one of the first Quarantine Officers at Sydney's North Head Quarantine Station.

Born in Ireland c1802, he arrived in Australia in June 1834 and wrote to his sister, Margaret "by the ship Jessie from Liverpool, which place we left in December 1833 and after encountering very stormy weather we were obliged to put into Falmouth. We left the latter place in February and after a fine passage we put into Talbot Bay at the beautiful Town of the Cape of Good Hope. From this we sailed to Hobart Town and thence to Sydney, nothing remarkable occurring on the passage except that we were sometimes in danger from the drunkenness and consequent incapacity of our Captain."

He was a keen naturalist and artist and illustrated many species of bird, insect and fish during his time in Sydney and also during a spell on Norfolk Island. Some 200 of his paintings are held by the New South Wales state Archives and by the Mitchell Library.

In his role of Colonial Assistant Surgeon, Stuart took charge of the sick who arrived at Sydney on board the emigrant ship Minerva on 24 January 1838. Of the 198 steerage passengers, 86 were attacked by typhus, 14 of whom died during the passage.^[1]

James Stuart was a nephew of Charles Stuart (British Army officer) and grandson of son of Thomas Smyth (eldest son of Charles Smyth (1694-1783), MP for Limerick, and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Prendergast, 1st Bt.).

James Stuart was one of eight brothers of the diplomat Major Robert Stuart. He died suddenly in 1842 but two earlier bouts of typhus, presumably contracted from incoming disease-ridden ships, probably hastened his death.

[edit] References

1. ^ THE SHIP MINERVA IN QUARANTINE, 1838 By Shelagh Champion, B.A. (Lib.Sc.) and George Champion, Dip.Ed.Admin.

[edit] Further reading

Dr. James Stuart: Artist Naturalist. 1955 By A. Musgrave. Erskenville, N.S.W., 1955.

Penny Olsen, Feather and Brush: Three Centuries of Australian Bird Art, Melbourne, CSIRO Publishing, 2001, 240 pp (with numerous colour illustrations). ISBN: 0 643 06547 4 (HB),