Miss Emily Soldene, 1870s.
Photographer: Lock & Whitfield. National Portrait Gallery Image NPG Ax7716 www.npg.org.uk
Not only was Emily Soldene (and you can read more about her life and career, here and here) a talented actress and entrepreneurial, but she was also a talented writer. In 1897 Emily wrote a regular column, My Musical and Theatrical recollections which was published in the Sydney Evening News and from 1900 to 1909 she had another regular column, London Week by Week, also published in the Sydney Evening News.
When Emily and her troupe finished in Sydney in 1877, most of the company went by sea to Melbourne but she took a Cobb & Co coach to Melbourne which was an adventure that she wrote about as part of her My Musical and Theatrical recollections series and published on May 15, 1897 (4). When the coach finally arrived in Melbourne. Emily wrote, we lived at St. Kilda, at Mrs. Gardiner's. She was a furrier by trade, had a business in Melbourne, had prepared the furs for his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh when he visited there (1868), and related the episode every day, sometimes twice a day. Some days it was very interesting, other days one found it monotonous; after many days it made one sick.
The St. Kilda residence was a pleasant one - a long, low house of one storey, built on piles, with a
broad passage running down the centre, and ten or twelve rooms opening off on each side. St. Kilda is close to and looking over the sea - so close to the sea, in fact, that a man-o'-war practising miles away had sent a big shot through the local pianoforte shop just before we arrived. It was a delightful place, but we seemed to have a good many hot winds there. They always gave me a horrible headache.
Emily visited Mr. and Mrs. Saurin Lyster - the impresario and the namesake of the town of Lysterfield - We went out to their delightful place at Fern Tree Gully, drove in a four-in-hand down a 'corduroy' road constructed at an angle of 45deg, had a lovely dinner and a lovely day, crept down the gully and saw the huge fern-trees, rode bush ponies over stumps, through and over and under the trees, emulating and nearly sharing the fate of Absalom.
The most amusing apart of Emily's essay was this - During my stay in Melbourne, one day I got a letter from a place called 'Brandy Creek.' It was from Mr. Weippert, once upon a time of Regent-street, London. It was very sad. He said he was there in that God-forsaken place in distress, and needed help to buy a piano to get his living. From his description 'Brandy Creek' seemed to me to be about the last place in the world in which a professor the pianoforte should set up his tent (5).
This is what Brandy Creek was like when Henry Nelson Weippert was living there.
Buln Buln Brandy Creek, c. 1880. Photographer: Fred Kruger
State Library of Victoria Image H35016 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/69363
Mr Weippert was Henry Nelson Weippert, and we can place him at Brandy Creek at the time through this Electoral notice, below, where he was the substitute Returning Officer. Brandy Creek was a small town on the original coach road to East Gippsland. When the Gippsland railway line to Sale went through in 1878 to the south of Brandy Creek, the nearest station to Brandy Creek was Warragul. The township which developed around the Warragul railway station soon overshadowed Brandy Creek, which is now known as Buln Buln.
Henry Nelson Weippert, substitute Returning Officer
The Argus June 17, 1878 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5936592
Henry was born in 1840 the fifth of nine children of William and Corunna (nee Bradford) Weippert of London. Henry married Julia Harris in London in 1862 and they had six children John, Annie, Frances, Jane, Edmund and William born between 1864 and 1874. In the 1871 English Census, Henry's occupation was Music Publisher and it was noted that he employed four men and 2 boys. In 1873 he was listed in the London Electoral Registers at 266 Regent Street in London, so sometime between and 1877 he came to Australia.
I am unsure whether Julia went to Australia at all. Julia is listed in the 1881 English Census as living with her mother, Martha Harris and her two sons, Edmund and William and yet at this same time William and 'Mrs Weippert' are living in South Australia (more of which later). In the 1891 Census she is still in England living with daughters Frances and Jane and son William. Julia died October 18, 1900 in London and her Probate records lists her as widow. She wasn't a widow as Henry was alive and well and living in Australia - but perhaps he was 'dead to her' (6).
So for what ever reason, Henry Weippert finds himself in the small town of Brandy Creek and sends a letter to his old acquaintance the well known actress, Emily Soldene. I don't know whether Emily helped him out in any way but Henry did his best to bring some culture to the small town of Brandy Creek and on December 21, 1877 held a Grand Concert and Soiree Dansante at Bradley's new hall.
Advertisement for Henry Weippert's Grand Conert
In February 1878 the South Bourke and Mornington Journal published an article A trip up the Gippsland Road to Brandy Creek and the writer, who used the pseudonym Nemo, described the trip and also mentioned Henry Weippert - Just opposite [the hall] a school is being erected by Mr. Weippert, who is also a teacher of music and dancing, showing that he has faith in the future of the township (7).
By the end of 1878 Henry was touring South Australia and Tasmania in a production of The Infant Mozart. His sister, Emma or Madame Weippert Patey, as she was called was also in the production. Henry was a vocalist as well as the conductor. From 1880 to 1882 we can find references to him living, teaching and performing in Nuriootpa, in the Barossa Valley in South Australia and his occupation was Professor of Music. There are also references to a Mrs Weippert, as I said before. This may be his mother Corunna, who had come to Melbourne in March 1864, with her daughters: sixteen year old Corunna and fourteen year old Emma (8). In the 1890s we can find a Professor Weippert in Castlemaine, and I am assuming this is Henry (9). From around 1904, Henry is in Sydney, where in 1906 at the age of 66 he married 27 year old, Ruth Mildred Major. Henry remained Sydney, living in Woollahra until his death on August 14, 1914 (10).
We will have a look at some of the other members of the Weippert family. William and Corunna (nee Bradford) Weippert were married on May 18, 1828 in London. William (1809 - 1857) was a Professor of Music. There is an interesting website A biographical register of Australian colonial musical personnel by Dr Graeme Skinner of the University of Sydney, which has information on some of the Weippert family, see it here. He has slightly mixed up the generations, however Dr Skinner says that William was the son of John Michael Weippert (c. 1775-1831), a harpist who was the younger brother of the more famous composer and bandmaster John Erhradt Weippert (1766-1823). Corunna Weippert was born in 1809, came to Melbourne as we said before with her two youngest daughters and died in South Melbourne, March 19 1889. She may have spent time in Tasmania, where her daughter Mary lived.
Mary Eleanor Weippert (1833 -1874) had married James Joseph Pollard in 1853 and they arrived in Tasmania in October 1854 and settled in Launceston where James was pianoforte tuner and teacher of music. Mary died in Launceston in July 1874 and James then married her sister Corunna in January 1876. Her occupation was a 'teacher of dance'. Between Mary and Corunna they had at least sixteen children (11) and as the children grew up they were taught music thoroughly, both vocal and instrumental, the latter including reed, string, and brass—each of them being proficient on several instruments. So strict was the father with them that two hours' practice was compulsory before breakfast. The outcome of this training was a family of clever musicians, which, during the middle seventies, became known as "Pollards Orchestral Union." Balls, parties, and theatrical orchestras were supplied, and the production of amateur opera was also a feature of the programme (12).
Pollard's Lilliputian Comic Opera Company, 1881.
Poster designed by Richard Wendel. State Library of Victoria Image H2000.180/75
The family then formed the Pollard Lilliputian Opera Company and toured extensively, their first production being Gilbert and Sullivan's, H.M.S. Pinafore (13). The company toured extensively: New Zealand, Burma, Singapore and Calcutta amongst other places. As well as the family members the Company also had other talented young performers in the Company. It was on the way back from Asia that James Pollard died in Charters Towers in Queensland in May 1884 (14). After his death the company went into an hiatus until 1891 when Tom Pollard, Mary and James' son revived it (15). Corunna settled in Melbourne in Northcote and died in 1906, aged 59. You can read Dr Graeme Skinner's research on the Pollard family, here.
May Pollard - the daughter of Mary and James Pollard in theatrical costume, c. 1885.
Photographer: Bishop-Osborne. State Library of Victoria image H10159
Olive Pollard - the daughter of Mary and James Pollard in theatrical costume, c. 1881.
Photographer: Hemus and Hanna. State Library of Victoria image H10429
Albert Weippert was another son of William and Corunna's who came to Australia. I don't know when Albert arrived but on February 10, 1862 he married Ann Jane Warren at the Presbyterian Manse at Williamstown. In 1865 he was in Launceston, Tasmania - a pianoforte maker, tuner and regulator. Albert died January 15 1897, aged 56. I have no information about Ann.
Albert Weippert - Pianoforte tuner
Launceston Examiner September 28, 1865 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38662607
William and Corunna's last child was their daughter Emma (1850 - 1939). Emma had arrived in Melbourne in 1864 with her mother and sister Corunna. She married Boyle Robertson Patey in 1866. In the late 1870s Emma had toured with her brother Henry, in the production of The Infant Mozart, but we will let her obituary tell us more of her career in the Arts - A versatile member of the theatrical profession passed away yesterday after noon in the person of Mrs. Emma Patey, of Speight-street, Thornbury.....A highly accomplished and versatile performer, she was widely popular on both the dramatic and variety stages,as well as on the concert platform. It was she who sang the dedicatory ode at the opening of the Melbourne Town Hall. Amongst her mast noteworthy dramatic successes were Nancy Sikes (Oliver Twist) and Madge Wedfire (Heart of Midlothian). She supported the noted John Dunn in a long round of plays. The deceased lady married Boyle Robertson Patey, well known In Melbourne legal circles, who predeceased her. There were four children, of the marriage, all of whom survive. Mr. Fred E. Patey, well known in broadcasting circles....She was the oldest living actress in Australia (16).
Emma Patey pictured at the Golden Wedding anniversary celebration of her daughter Louise and her husband George Tutton. This is the only photo I can find of Emma Weippert Patey.
Emma and her husband, Boyle Robertson Patey had celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary on June 11, 1916 (17).
The Argus June 3, 1938 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11173786
Acknowledgement
I came across Emily Soldene's story of her trip from Sydney to Melbourne by Cobb & Co coach in the book They came to Australia: an anthology, edited by Alan Brissenden and Charles Higham (F.W. Cheshire, 1961). Emily's story was published under the title A coach ride to Melbourne.
Sources
I have created a list on Trove of newspaper articles relating to Emily Soldene and various members of the Weippert family who came to Australia, see it here. Much of genealogical information came from Birth, Deaths and Marriage notices on Trove; Tasmanian Archives and sources on Ancestry database.
The website A history of Preston in Herfordshire - Emily Soldene: her life story was useful and interesting, see it here
As referred to in the text this website - A biographical register of Australian colonial musical personnel by Dr Graeme Skinner of the University of Sydney was also both useful and interesting - access the Weippert family entry, here, and the Pollard family entry, here.
Footnotes
(1) Adelaide Chronicle, April 20 1912, see here.
(2) A history of Preston in Herfordshire - Emily Soldene: her life story, see here.
(3) Adelaide Chronicle, April 20 1912, see here.
(4) Sydney Evening News, May 15, 1897, see here.
(5) Sydney Evening News, May 15, 1897, see here.
(6) Family information comes from various sources on Ancestry database including the English Census, English Births, Deaths and Marriage records, Probate records etc.
(7) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, February 27, 1878, see here.
(8) Public Records Office of Victoria Unassisted Passenger lists - they arrived on the Coldstream in March 1864,.
(9) Mount Alexander Mail August 4, 1892, see here.
(10) Henry Nelson Weippert is buried at the Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney.
(11) Mary had at least 13 children and Corunna had three. They may have had more, but I have only discovered the 16 so far.
(12) Hobart Daily Post March 30, 1909, see here.
(13) Hobart Daily Post March 30, 1909, see here.
(14) Launceston Examiner May 6, 1884, see here.
(15) Hobart Daily Post March 30, 1909, see here.
(16) The Age July 26, 1939, see here.
(17) Preston Leader June 10, 1916, see here.
