Thomas Prior in Australia?

Robert M-P wrote that his grandfather Thomas visited Queensland ‘briefly’, but gives no evidence.¹⁾ Rosa Campbell Praed, Thomas Prior's granddaughter, wrote that she recalled one of her grandmother's trunks with the information on its side, 'that Colonel Thomas Murray-Prior had taken passage in the Roxburgh Castle from Southampton, England, for Bungroopim Station, Logan River, Brisbane Water, Moreton Bay, Australia'. The Roxburgh Castle was the ship her father had sailed in when he first emigrated in 1838, and it is more likely that, especially given Thomas consistently dropped the Murray from his name, that (as was common) Rosa's memory had let her down. Her memoir was, after all, published in 1902, when she could no longer check with her grandparents or parents.²⁾

Andrew Darbyshire has undertaken research into TLM-P and his family. He provides evidence in the form of a land map of Prior’s Pocket [Road] Moggill (Brisbane) showing that ‘T. Prior’ selected land there ‘in the early 1850’s during his stay in the Brisbane area (he also purchased land in Cleveland)’ and shows a map courtesy of the Queensland State Archives. He also reproduces a letter from the Surveyor’s Letterbook (Queensland State Archives) dated 25 October 1853, that ‘Major Prior has applied to purchase’ the allotments at Moggill. Darbyshire then explains that ‘Thomas purchased this and other land at Cleveland using a Remission Order allowed him as an officer in HM Regiment’.³⁾ In contrast, the Mogill Historical Society states that TLM-P was the purchaser, and in 1850. TLM-P certainly bought considerable land in Brisbane in 1854, at the same time as Thomas Prior purchased one allotment for £32.4.9, of which £20.6.11 was paid from the balance of a remittance order given him as a former military officer.⁴⁾

One possibility is that TLM-P bought the land in his father's name, with there being no need for Thomas Prior visiting Queensland. Acquiring land in the names of family members was a well-established practice to get around closer settlement laws that sought to restrict large holdings of land by a few owners (as occurred in the United Kingdom). Eminent historian Ross Fitzgerald puts in bluntly: the squatters regarded selectors as intruders and cynically manipulated land regulations to keep the newcomers out. As a result 'many [squatters] resorted to “dummying” their runs (i.e., lodging land claims using the name of a family member of employee)… Queensland became “a liar's paradise” … Most of the distinguished squatting families of the [Darling] Downs were involved….'⁵⁾

Andrew Darbyshire also states that Major Prior was the returning officer in April 1854 election for the County of Stanley for the NSW Legislative Council (Queensland was part of NSW until 1859). Trove reveals that the references to ‘Major Prior’ as returning officer are in the Moreton Bay Courier, 13 May 1854, p.9, 18 May 1854, p.1 and 5 August 1854, p.2. This supposition is supported by Nehemiah Bartley in his Australian Pioneers and Reminiscences 1849-1894:: together with portraits of some of the founders of Australia⁶⁾ Bartley's reminiscences was published in 1896 and he knew TLM-P, so his information has some authority. He stated that TLM-P's 'father, Colonel Prior, was a genial Irishman, and the inevitable returning officer and chairman of hospital and similar election meetings in the infant days of Brisbane' due to his 'tact and good temper'.⁷⁾

Was this genial Irishman Colonel Prior our Thomas Prior who had been promoted from Brevet Major to Captain in the 5th (Northumberland Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot in 1849, and then further promoted to Brevet Lieutenant Colonel in June 1854, and by 1858 was in Ireland with his regiment?⁸⁾ One thing that the regimental histories makes clear is that the 5th Regiment of Foot was never posted to Australia. Two companies of the Regiment went to India, but not until 1857, so it was not the case of Thomas Prior taking leave from India to visit his son in Queensland in 1854.⁹⁾ Verdict? While the question is still open, it is highly unlikely that Colonel Prior visited his son in Queensland. On balance of probability, Major Thomas Prior was an unrelated individual.