Edmund Musk arrived in Van Diemen’s Land on 16 May 1832 on the convict ship 'Lotus', having been transported for stealing ‘beans and barley’. He was 31 and married with five children when he arrived in Hobart. His wife and children were left behind in England.
According to the convict record, Edmund was 5-foot 8 inches tall with a dark complexion, dark brown hair and dark grey eyes. He had a small scar on his right thumb. His hulk report stated good and gaol report that he belonged to a gang. Edmund’s colonial offences list records only two instances, one for insolence and one for being out after hours in a public place. Edmund was assigned to William Gellibrand, where his skills as a ploughman would no doubt have been prized. Having gained his ticket of leave he leased a farm from the Gellibrands. By 1858 he was farming 120 acres at South Arm, and employing convicts himself.
Edmund and Mary Hoggins married in 1839. Mary had previously arrived in Hobart as a 16 year old with her parents in February 1835. Edmund and Mary had ten children at South Arm. Two of their children drowned. John the eldest son drowned in Ralphs Bay while loading their passage boat Loura Louisa in 1879 and their daughter Susannah (15 years old) drowned when a boat capsized at Rokeby.
Their fourth daughter Agnes Marion married George Thomas Alomes, son of Robert and Elizabeth (nee Bellette) Alomes. Agnes and George's son Leslie Derwent John Alomes married Minnie Edith Watson, daughter of John and Amelia (nee Alomes) Watson.
Their fifth and youngest daughter Mary Ann, married John James Alomes, a grandson of Robert and Elizabeth Alomes. So many Alomes connections!
Following Edmund’s death on 14 June 1866, Mary took over running the farm worked by their sons. They leased other farms, now known as Winspears and Blatherwicks, from the Gellibrands. When Mary died in 1897 the farm was split into four, shared by three surviving sons Edward Charles, Richard David and Frederick James, and a daughter Charlotte Elizabeth.
Edward Charles Musk married Emily Wallis. Their daughter Ethel Mary Musk married Ronald Freeman Bezzant. Ethel and Ron had seven children: Madge, Jean, Edward (Ted), Joan and Mary (twins), Ron and Judy. Madge married Derwent Leslie Alomes (son of Les and Minnie). Ted Bezzant, local South Arm historian, in his presentation 'South Arm with particular reference to The Gellibrand Family' states that from the marriages of the four Musk brothers, only four girls and one son were born. Ted's uncle Wallis Musk, who died in 1982, was the last person with the Musk name in Tasmania. Edward Musk and his father Edmund (headstone shows Edward) are buried at St Barnabas Church, South Arm.
Richard Musk married Thirza Padman and Frederick Musk married Vineta Padman. Two Musk brothers married two Padman sisters! The Padman name was well known on the Peninsula. The sisters had a brother Charles Henry, father of Wes Padman (b. 1922).
Bezzants Road in South Arm was originally known as Musks Road, then renamed Bezzants Road after the Bezzant family, long-term residents and landowners in the area. Musks Road in Sandford was named after Wallis Musk and was previously known as Watsons Road (leads to Watson property 'York Grove').
References:
Tasmanian Archives & Heritage Office - CON 31/1/30 image 125, CON27/1/6 image 39, CON18/1/13 image 37, CON 23.
The Mercury, 4 March 1879, p 2.
The Cornwall Chronicle 23 June 1866, pp. 8, 9
The Knopwood Historical Lectures
Placenames Tasmania
Nomenclature Number: 20906Q
Nomenclature Number: 12148N