Charlotte BLACKMAN - John and Charlotte's seventh child

Charlotte's BLACKMAN's birth was recorded in the fourth quarter of 1855 (GRO ref: Dartford 2a 201). She was baptised in Wilmington, Kent on 14 October 1855.

In 1861 the family lived at Slades Green, Crayford, possibly Howbury Farm.

1861 Census Sun/Mon. 7/8th April 1861
Source:     FHL Film  TNA Ref RG09
            Piece 466; Folio 129; Page 26; Sched 128
Dwelling:   Slades Green [Howbury Farm?]   
Place:      Crayford, Kent, England

Name                Rel   Mar  Age  Occupation                  Birthplace 
Blackman John       Head   M   43   Ag La                       Kent, WilmingtonFbeverl
Blackman Charlotte  Wife   M   45                               Essex, Redmdon (?)
Blackman William     Son   U   16   Ag La                       Kent, Wilmington
Blackman George      Son   U   15   La B???kfield               Kent, Wilmington
Blackman Mary A      Dau   U   12   At home                     Kent, Wilmington
Blackman Lucy        Dau   U    9   Scholar                     Kent, Crayford
Blackman Joseph      Son   U    7   Scholar                     Kent, Crayford
Blackman Charlotte   Dau   U    5   Scholar                     Kent, Crayford
Blackman John        Son   U    5   Scholar                     Kent, Crayford 
Blackman Henry       Son   U    3                               Kent, Crayford 
Blackman Emma        Dau   U    8mo                             Kent, Crayford

In 1865, following the death of their father, John BLACKMAN, Charlotte's brothers William and George emigrated to Australia arriving on 24 August 1863. Charlotte's mother, also Charlotte, followed with eight other children. They departed the UK on 15 May 1866 as eight of the 244 registered adult passengers, arriving in Hobson's Bay, Melbourne on 13 August 1866, after a 140 day voyage aboard the 1218 ton clipper Golden Empire, of the Golden Line. It is assumed that she followed her sons to the goldfields near Ballarat.

Above: A composite image of Charlotte Blackman and family immigration passenger list on page 5 of the Golden Empire Source: Ancestry - Victoria assisted and unassisted passenger lists 1839-1923

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Right: Charlotte Blackman née Clackston outside her Miners Rest house date unknown Courtesy: Llyris Hill

Ernest Alexander NEELY

Ernest Alexander was born in Tipperary, Ireland in 1857, the son James NEELY and Mary Anne STEFF. The family left from Liverpool on 28 November 1866 as several of the 220 adult passengers for an estimated 140 day voyage on the Wallasea, They arrived in Melbourne on 25 April 1867, with Ernest aged 9. The Victoria Government Gazettes for 1873 and 1896 have Ernest as a carriage cleaner. He must have been about 15 when he started with the railways. Source: Heather Schoffelen Left: Ernest and Charlotte NEELY Courtesy: Llyris Hill - with thanks

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Above: A composite image of the departure of the 'Wallasea' on 28 November 1866 with 220 passengers on a voyage expected to take 140 days. Note: Emily NEELY, a servant Research: Vivian Bugden, Heather Schoffelen Source: Ancestry

Right: New South Wales Police Gazette 18 September 1872 seeking for Ernest Alexander Neely Source: Ancestry New South Wales, Australia, Police Gazettes 1854-1930 (Accessed: 08 June 2020)

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Ernest Alexander NEELY, the Ballarat gold miner

Ernest A. NEELY was a Ballarat miner in the days when gold mining had progressed from the earlier alluvial opencast gold bearing beds to the deeper ore-bearing band of quartz extending north from Sebastopol to Black Hill. Whilst it is known that Ernest A. was a shareholder of the Queen Mining Company of Ballarat East and was described as a miner, it is not known where he worked: whether he worked for the Queen Mining Company or indeed which of the mines bearing a variation of that name. One can only hypothesize as to why Ernest A. auctioned his home and contents and moved to Melbourne. Several possibilities are offered with a speculative historical explanation in the context of the time.

Above: Band of Hope Mine, Ballarat in the 1880s perhaps a representation of the Queen Source: Bate

When Ernest A. lived in Ballarat, it had become a prosperous, if polluted, town whose fortunes fluctuated with the amount of gold extracted. The sale of his home and its contents suggests some affluence - see below.

• In poor years, for the sake of the industry, Ballarat investors appeared to accept lower returns on their investments. Food and housing were cheap in the town and the large army of miners were prepared to accept living at subsistence levels in the hope of a rich strike. ¹
• In 1880, the applications for leases became so numerous that the local mine surveyors could not cope. Whilst the revenue from gold was offering a new life to the city, the quest for reefs and the industrialisation created by extracting the ore polluted the environment.

Ernest A. speculated in the Queen Mining Company, a No Liability Company, ² by buying 250 one-pound shares with, it is presumed, the intent of making his fortune.

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The Courier confirms that Ernest Alexander was a Ballarat gold miner who invested £250 (equivalent to A$30,540 in 2018 by a simple CPI purchasing power calculator) 3 in a new mine venture taking over the established Queen Victoria Quartz Company. He must have a good sum in the bank to make this outlay. Right: A composite image of Ballarat Courier 09 May 1879, which announces the formation of The Queen Mining Company, variously known as The Queen Quartz Mining Company and The Queen Gold Mining Company on 9 May 1879 on Black Hill Flats, Ballarat Source: The full account can be read in Trove (Accessed: 23 June 2020)

• The early 1880s, when Ernest A. was a shareholder, it was a general boom time, but not for all mines
• In 1880 there was a general scramble for shares that gave everyone a chance to invest. The smaller but insecure cooperative and tribute companies ⁴ held their own well into the eighties. ⁵
• As an example of the enthusiasm for investing to make a fortune in money rather than ore was the Hurdsfield Freehold. In April 1880 they discovered an amazing patch of reef-wash and the company was floated. With good prospects, all 12,000 shares were taken by noon. Having paid 1shilling 1d (pence) (equivalent to A$6.71) per share the company paid a dividend of 14s (A$86.92) a share. The Ballarat Star commented that this was perhaps the richest golden ground yet opened out by the picks of Ballarat miners. This rush stimulated further prospecting in Ballarat West making 1880 an unforgettable year ⁶. Between April and September 1880, the number of Ballarat companies doubled from 71 to 143. Business at The Corner ⁷ was brisk especially from working miners who were numerous amongst the shareholders. ⁸
• Under the No Liability Act, which did so much to encourage mining, risk taking became gambling at the Melbourne and Ballarat stock exchanges. The majority of investors were brokers and their clients who gambled and suffered the share-price fluctuations just a gold prices fluctuated. The spread of rumours of unproven great strikes encouraged investment.

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Contemporary images of The Corner, Ballarat

Mining speculators at The Corner 1866 Source: National Gallery of Australia

Buildings at The Corner with speculators outside the Unicorn Hotel 1868 Source: State Library of Victoria

Dealing in mining shares at The Corner, undated Source: State Library of Victoria

Brokers at The Corner 1880 Source: Bates

Speculators on The Corner by William Thomas Smedley (1858-1920), 1886 Source: From the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia Vol 2, 1886

The old bank building at The Corner, undated Source: ballaratrevealed.com

Some events in the life of Queen Mine

There were several Ballarat Mines with Queen as part of their name.

• Between 07 December 1880 and 04 August 1881 Ballarat Courier and Star carried newspaper advertisements for the North Queen Mining Company and the No.2 Queen Mining Company, both with No Liability. That they were both signed ROBT. ATKINSON, Manager suggests a link between them. Whilst both mines are on Ballarat's Black Hill, at this moment, nothing is known about the specifics of the two companies, their history, or in which Ernest A. was a shareholder.
• January 1865. Trove records the Queen Gold Mining Company was in existence
• 1874/5 the Queen Victoria Gold Mining Company appears to have been in financial difficulties and was facing a legal challenge by the Minister of Mines in the courts. The Queen Victoria, apart from leaving boilers on site, were letting the mine to tribute (a mining term for rent) parties in contravention of their lease. The tributors argued that the Queen Victoria lease should be forfeited. Despite paying £6000 (A$684, 800) in dividends in January 1875, the need to raise more capital is supported by next six- monthly financial statements and suggests a reason for a take-over. Is this Queen Victoria in Maryborough?????
• 09 May 1879 The Queen Mining Company advertised as a No Liability Company
• 16 June 1879 the company paid a dividend of one shilling (A$6.35) per 10,000th share.
• 28 June 1879 Reports of an excellent fortnight with 130 oz of gold
• 23 December 1879 A letter to the Ballarat Star concerning a disgruntled shareholder and that yields had not averaged 200 oz.

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• 31 January 1880 the optimistic half yearly report began We congratulate you on the value and progress of your mine since the formation of the company in May of last year. There was a net return of £7611 7s 3d (A$945,200.00). A Mr NEILY had resigned as a director on 25 July 1879. Is this a Courier typo for our NEELY, despite being correctly spelt as an investor? However, the mine showed no dividend as the run of gold previously promised so well did not continue and your company has since had to do and is now doing large amounts of progressive work of which your company will presently reap benefit. There is a vast extent of ground westward of the shaft to open up. Your mining manager is of opinion that there are several good runs of stone to that direction, but we have been unable, out of the profits of the mine in the past, to do more dead work than we have already done. The mining manager, apart from reporting on drifts driven was positive. He expected good returns will shortly be obtained from the 600 feet level [...] four gold-bearing veins extending over 30 feet from east to west, and promising to become richer as we are going south; enable dividends to be declared more regularly. ⁹
• July 1880 The Queen Mining Company was one of six companies whose offices were moved from Princess Street, Ballarat East to Trinity Chambers, Lydiard Street, Ballarat.
• 07 December 1880 Third call of 6d per share
• 24 December 1880 A dividend of 1s (A$6.35) per share was declared
• 28 February 1881 The discovery of another 25oz patch warrants confidence
• 12 May 1881 through June 1881 The Company was raising more money. A call, the eighth, of four pence (A$2.11) per share on the capital of the company required share holders to pay the company in respect of the shares they hold
• 07 June 1881 Tenders were issued for the sinking of a 100 foot shaft
• 06 August 1881 half yearly report to shareholders

Right: The Ballarat Star of 06 August 1881 reporting a shareholders meeting. The full text can be read at Trove - Ballarat Star Saturday 06 August 1881 page 4 (Accessed: 23 June 2020)

The Mining Manager’s reports in the sixth year of production, gives an air of promise and potential, rather than immediate success. He describes the working of a mine in good order, well ventilated but was in need of commissioning the purchased pumps. In all it appears there are eight drifts around a depth of 500feet (152m). In all it appears 541feet (165m) of rock have been excavated with many cross cuts between tunnels and other tunnels extended usually by stopping ¹⁰. The report hints at a lot of excavation without finding work able veins of gold in the quartz. The Manager used terms such as a strong vein [of quartz] was struck, from which several crushings were taken out, of an unremunerative quality; expect to strike quartz, but without any good results as yet; working a good vein, which, however, was cut out by a slide. With the exception of the teams optimistically discovered two strong good veins 16 feet above level, from which good results have been obtained the report may be summarised as of striking anything as yet of any value.

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The company auditors balanced the books, which in a simplified form may be summarised as: ¹¹

Earlier in the year, on 28 February 1881, Trove reported several new ventures were floated in the Black Hills with the Queen Company discovery of a patch of 25 ounces of gold being a warranty for the confidence.

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Home auction

On 21 January 1884, page 3 of the Ballarat Star announced, for some as yet unknown reason, the sale of superior household furniture and effects the property of Mr Ernest Neely, Of the No. 2 Hose Reel, Barkly street, near the Powder Magazine. To be Sold without the Slightest Reserve [...] . Judging by the sale of his property and quality of the contents of his home, Ernest A. had struck it lucky or made some money from his shares, above the wages of a miner.

Source: Trove - Ballarat Star Monday 21 January 1884 page 3 (Accessed: 23 June 2020)

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Right: Map dated 14 April 1871 locating Ballarat East Graveyard with modern additions and with Ballarat Powder Magazine also located According to the advertisement for the Neely home auction, is was located of the No.2 Hose Reel, Barkly Street near the Powder Magazine. There is no modern indication of No.2 Hose Reel, as the area has been redeveloped, but it would be located somewhere on the map below.

Above: Map locating Ballarat Powder Magazine, now Ballarat East Bowling Club in 2020

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The content of Ernest and Charlotte Neely's home suggests one of some affluence: more than that of a simple miner. The list of goods for sale uses adjectives such as Brussels, Vienna, superior, made to order, best quality, beautiful and elegant hinting at expensive purchases of quality. Rather than planks, linoleum, carpets and rugs adorned the floor. The main bed was no ordinary bed but a brass-mounted half-tester tubular bedstead with a sprung mattress, whilst there were also straw filled paillasses and flock mattresses perhaps for the children. Despite being a reproduction, the home had a dining room suite, suggesting a single purchase of matching items. Oil paintings and oleographs - a type of coloured lithograph, which has been impressed with a canvas grain and varnished, in order to make it look like an oil painting – adorned the walls to give a pretence to sophistication, as does the chiffonniere, which could have been identified as a simple sideboard with cupboards and top.

It is interesting to note that everything was to be sold without a reserve, suggesting there was an immediate need for money in their move from Ballarat. Did the Queen Mining Company go bankrupt following low returns?

Possible reasons for the auction

It is evident, from half-yearly reports, that the Queen Mining Company was full of expectations, perhaps not as successful as first hoped and that more capital was needed. However, there is a problem. Between 07 December 1880 and 04 August 1881 Ballarat Courier and Star carried newspaper advertisements for the North Queen Mining Company and the No.2 Queen Mining Company, both with No Liability. That they were both signed ROBT. ATKINSON, Manager suggests a link. Whilst both mines are in Ballarat's Black Hills, at this moment nothing is known about the specifics of the two companies, their history, or in which Ernest A. was a shareholder. It is possible that Ernest A. was bankrupt and had to sell his home and contents to meet his debts. Under No Liability rules, his initial investment was not the end of his financial contribution or responsibilities to the Queen Mine.

• During the time period both mines made repeated calls ¹² to raise more money for the company.
• Today, a call gives a shareholder the option to buy shares at a specified price and gives them the option to sell, a bit like a modern rights issue or placing. ¹³ Existing Queen Mining Company shareholder were given the option to buy new shares. Today there is an option allowing the shareholder not to buy. In 1880-1881, Robert Atkinson sold the shares of those who did not take up the calls option.

On 09 August 1881 the Courier published a warning that investors not paying on the tenth call would forfeit their shares. NOTICE - SHARES - forfeited for the non-payment of the 10th call of threepence (sic) per share will be SOLD by public auction at the Corner, twelve noon on Thursday, 9th August 1881 ROBT. ATKINSON, Manager Right: Ballarat Courier 09 August 1881 showing non-payment on calls. 14

• The quartz mining companies had a particular need to keep raising capital, partly because of the geological peculiarities of quartz reefs. It appears to have been common for a No Liability Mining Company to divide its capital into a shares issue to raise money. In a No Liability mining company, shareholders pay an initial small part of the nominal value of their shares to pay for investigating in a new mine as a start-up fund.
• To fund further developments, mines made calls on shareholders to provide further capital when funds were required to develop the mine and eventually the operation of the mine if it appears to be worth going further. However, companies often found considerable difficulty in getting shareholders to pay up when calls were made, if immediate prospects for returns on the new capital did not seem good. ¹⁵

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• It is evident, that the half-yearly reports of the Queen Mining Company comprised of expectations: it was not as successful as first hoped and that more capital was needed. During the time period of Ernest A.’s involvement as a shareholder in 1879 and his departure from Ballarat in 1884, both mines made repeated calls to raise more money for the company. Existing Queen Mining Company shareholders were being given the option to buy new shares.

By virtue of the Queen Mining Company being a No-Liability company, it would appear that Ernest A. would have to contribute further funds whenever his company made a call on his 250 shares. There are two ways of calculating how much Ernest A. would have to pay for each of the possible mines: by totalling the actual calls traced in Trove and by calculating a total owed from all known calls issued from the known mean.

• North Queen Mining Company - Between 07 December 1880 and 04 August 1881, Trove records twelve calls in nine months. Eight have been traced to the total value of 3 shillings 1d (penny) (£15.26/A$18.81) per share. This is equivalent to Ernest A. having to find £3815/ A$4545 for his 250 shares.
• In the same time period, North Queen Mining Company calls ranged between 6d and 3d with a mean of 4.625d making a total additional investment of 4 shillings and 3d (£21.11/A$26.02) per share for all eleven calls. This is equivalent to Ernest A. having to find £5277.50/A$6505 for his 250 shares.
• No 2. Queen Mining Company - Between December 1880 and 07 November 1881, Trove records nine calls in 1881. Four have been traced to the total value of 1 shilling 1d (£5.35/A$6.60) per share. This is equivalent to Ernest A. having to find £1337.50/A$1650 for his 250 shares.
• In the same time period, No 2. Queen Mining Company calls ranged between 4d and 3d with a mean of 3.25d making a total additional investment of 2 shillings and 5d (£11.99/A$14.78) for all nine calls. This is equivalent to Ernest A. having to find £2997.50/A$3695 for his 250 shares.
• In 1880-1881, Robert Atkinson sold the shares of those who did not take up the calls option.
• Under No Liability rules, no subsequent call was to be made for seven days.

Faced with the frequent demands over eight months and by virtue of the No Liability conditions, Ernest A. had fourteen days to meet the new financial demand. Upon failure to pay a mining companies call, the 1871 Act formalised the practice of forfeiture of partly paid shares. If Ernest A. had been unable to fund the calls, his shares would have been sold.

• Shareholders of a No Liability company were under no contractual obligation to pay calls, charged in proportion to their share investment. Should the shareholder choose not to pay when there was a call, the shareholder forfeited both the new unpaid shares and those they have already purchased and paid for
• Calls were payable within14 days after they were made, as can be seen in the Courier and Star advertisements. However, shares were to be forfeited automatically if a call remained unpaid after the 14 days. Forfeited shares were sold at public auction, the proceeds going to pay unpaid calls and expenses. The forfeiting shareholder, on presentation of their scrip, ¹⁶ received any remaining balance. It was possible for forfeited shares to be redeemed. ¹⁷
• Ballarat found that before the 1871 Act, when a company went into liquidation, its shareholders were liable for large sums of uncalled capital. An essential feature of a No Liability company was that shareholder with unpaid shares could choose to withdraw from the company with no legal consequences: the absence of any shareholder financial liability in the event of a failure

It is possible that Ernest A. forfeited his shares and therefore his investment, but if that was the case, whatever money left from the share auction together with whatever monies he received from his house and content, remained with the family. There was no other financial penalty to the mine.

There were other constraints in the gold industry that may have caused Ernest A. to leave Ballarat. In the early days of Ballarat gold mining, the alluvial gold was easily won. This contrasted with the immense outlay of money, labour and plant for the deep quartz gold extraction in the Queen Mine of Ernest A.’s time.

Following gold in the quartz bearing rocks was unpredictable. When the vein was lost, huge quantities of the bedrock and quartz bearing rock had to be removed in an attempt to find the vein or a new lode.

• The direction of the quartz field and the gold reserves in the Ballarat East area were hard to assess. Important lodes existed in two anticline folds on the general line from Sovereign Hill to Black Hill. Along the dipping west faults, the easterly First Chance Anticline had huge massed quartz, known as leatherjackets, which were the most productive of Ballarat’s quartz formations. Additionally, to the east, there were near vertical regularly spaced quartz veins across the layers of sandstone and dark banded slate known as ‘flat makes’. Whilst these were thin and unpredictable they outdid the leatherjackets in the splendour of gold they sometimes held. […] they were thin and unpredictable […] then suddenly barren and cracked into giant zigzags by movements in the crust of the earth. ¹⁸

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It may be a case that the Queen Mining Company was uneconomical having lost the lode or vein, necessitating the many calls to find new gold. There may have been no work for miners.

• Economic forces gradually eliminated the smaller mines as the quartz, excavated by pneumatic drills, diamond bits and from about 1880 dynamite, went deeper and deeper. By 1890 there were only 31 companies. The several Queen Mines, the Parade, Duchess and United Black Hill companies amalgamated to the Victoria United, first mentioned in Trove on 19 January 1885.

As established mines searched for new lodes it is possible that the number of miners or ‘tributors’ needed was reduced. In modern terms, Ernest A. may have been made redundant.

• From 1871, gold mining was still central to Ballarat’s economy and was the largest employer of 5120 people. In 1877, when the Ballarat gold yield fell heavily the number of miners declined. By 1879, when it is known Ernest A. was a shareholder, 1750 Europeans were employed in the quartz mine, a number that increased to 2520 in 1880 and 2640 the following year. At the time of the house auction in 1884, the number of European miners had fallen to 1396. ¹⁹

In these situations, the cost to search for new gold spiralled again fostering a modern redundancy situation.

• The cost of gold production was high. The amount of quartz gold produced was calculated to be £80 per miner in 1878 and £160 per miner in 1881, whereas the cost of running the mine was calculated to be £200 per miner. As this increased it placed a burden on shareholders and tributors, hence the frequent number of Queen Mines calls. Despite this, such was the amount of quartz gold produced that, in 1880, the shares of the prosperous Madam Berry mine returned £47 10s[hillings] (A$5,898) a share on shares purchased for 11s 9d [pence] (A$73.02). Despite these financial returns, it is clear that the overall diggings did not offer even the normal wages they had in earlier years. ²⁰

Had Ernest A. weathered the financial uncertainty and

• Had he survived until the depression of the 1890s, he may have seen the benefits from the production of gold. Whilst the depression prices of gold remained high, other commodities fell and production costs dropped. Exploration was stimulated: mines were able to either to pay higher profits or open less profitable leads. The remaining high prices encouraged hundreds of men to open new ground on tribute with a predominance of Ballarat shareholders. ²¹

I am of the opinion that the Queen Mine, despite high expectations reported by the mine manager, struggled to find a lode of gold and that the frequent calls, being a demand on the family finances, caused Ernest A. to lose his shares and his investment, being that he was unable to invest more money.

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End notes

1. Bates p.202
2. The No Liability Company was a creation of Victorian Mining Companies Act 1871 (Vic.), which made general provision for the incorporation, regulation and winding-up of specifically mining companies. The No Liability Mining Companies Act of 1881 had most of the usual Australian financial rules save that a mining company must adopt a constitution which states their objects as mining and add No Liability or NL to their name. Mining is the only sort of corporation which is entitled to this form of liability, because of the financially risky business of mining. No Liability companies should not be confused with the concept of limited liability. No Liability companies divided their capital into shares. They are differentiated from other companies as their shareholders are not liable to pay calls (q.v.) on unpaid shares when calls were implemented. This differs from traditional company structure where the purchase of shares is a binding contract. Should the shareholder choose not to pay when there was a call, the shareholder forfeits both the unpaid and paid shares. This encourages investment in potentially risky mining ventures, as a shareholder with unpaid shares can choose to withdraw from the company with no legal consequences. A successful mining company usually converts to a limited liability company when advantageous. Definitions: No Liability
3. All conversions to A$ 2018 by this method MeasuringWorth, 2020 (Accessed: 22 June 2020)
4. A gold miner who works a small claim on tribute: to work on the plan of paying or receiving certain proportions of the produce on his holding to the original Adventurers or owners, for the liberty granted of enjoying the Mine, or a part thereof, called a Pitch, for a limited time. Oxford English Dictionary
5. Bates p.200
6. ibid p.197
7.   The name "Corner" arose from the fact that in the early 1860s, the previously unorganised business of share dealing began to assume regular form at the corner of Lydiard and Sturt Streets. This was originally an informal meeting place in front of Stallard and Goujon. It was amongst the world's busiest financial hubs; known simply as The Corner. Hundreds of gold speculators, dealers and agents would cluster there to trade in mining stocks and ventures. This was the place not just where money was invested, but where the first news of gold finds was hollered out to clustered groups of miners and speculators amidst robust questions and discussions of the quality of the finds.
    Stallard and Goujon were the first stockbrokers to set up an ‘exchange’ at the south- east corner of Sturt and Lydiard streets, where the London Chartered Bank stood in 1887: in 1966 the original London Chartered Bank building was demolished and was replaced by a modern Commonwealth Bank. In the 1860s, the first official stock exchange was a shed on posts over a mineshaft on the site now occupied by Her Majesty's Theatre. This was followed by a larger exchange occupying the Unicorn Hotel and Ballarat Mechanics' Institute, before the bigger Ballarat Mining Exchange was built in 1887 in Lydiard Street.
     "When the rich gutters were nearly worked out, and the large original shares had got reduced to scrip (q.v.), share dealing became a larger and livelier business, and brokers and jobbers multiplied, nearly all of them being, for the first few years, men who had been actually engaged in mines as working or sleeping shareholders. The business was accompanied by projection of new ventures, and the occasionally violent alternations of activity and depression which usually mark the course of share dealing, for promoters of new schemes have to live, if they can, by their craft, and the passion for scrip gambling provided an ample arena for their exploits." -
   J.B Withers, History of Ballarat (Accessed: 01 July 2020)
8. Bates p.193
9. Trove Ballarat Courier 31 January 1880 page 4 (Accessed: 25 June 2020)
10. To extract (ore) by excavating horizontally, layer after layer
11. Trove 11 March 1874 presents the extra-ordinary statement to the shareholders, which starts In laying before you our report for the past half year, we regret being still unable to present results of a successful kind in connection with operations at the mine. There was an overdraft. Called, at that time, Queen Victoria Quartz Company it appears to be unsuccessful and that the new 1879 company tried to reinvigorate mining under new management and a new name. The name had changed by 1875.
12. Calls raise more money for the company. On top of the initial investment, further instalments, known as calls, were made to fund the development and eventual operation of the mine if it appears to be worth going further. Today, a call gives a shareholder the option to buy shares at a specified price and gives them the option to sell, a bit like a modern rights issue or placing. Today, a call gives a shareholder the option to buy shares at a specified price and gives them the option to sell, a bit like a modern rights issue or placing. Existing Queen Mining Company shareholder were given the option to buy new shares. Today there is an option allowing the shareholder not to buy, however, in 1880-1881, Robert Atkinson sold the shares of those who did not take up the calls option.
13. Paul Burdett, Libertas Finace
14. Trove Ballarat Courier 09 August 1881 page 4 (Accessed: 25 June 2020)
15. Waugh JC
16. Scrip A short written document, a piece of writing; especially. a brief note or letter, a receipt for a share or shares in a loan or a commercial undertaking; a share certificate OED
17. Waugh JC p.31

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• 18. Bates pp.193,194
• 19. ibid, Appendix 5 p.269 from Quarterly Reports of Mining Surveyors and Registrars
• 20. Bates pp.192-193
• 21. ibid p.199

Sources

• Bates, Weston, Lucky City - The first Generation at Ballarat: 1851-1901, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 2003
• Definitions: No Liability (Accessed 01 July 2020)
• Key Documents in the History of Australian Corporate Law, The University of Melbourne Law School (Accessed: 01 July 2020)
• Mason French and Ryan, Company Law, Oxford University Press, 2016 p.54 (Accessed: 01 July 2020)
• The Corner: Reveal Ballarat’s Past (Accessed: 01 July 2020)
• Waugh JC, Key Documents in the History of Australian Corporate Law, No liability companies in Victoria, Australian Mining and Petroleum Law Association Yearbook (Accessed: 01 July 2020)
• Withers, WB, The History of Ballarat from the first pastoral settlement to the present times, Revised edition, 1887, Project Gutenberg Australia, chapter 7, p.193 (Accessed: 01 July 2020)

Ballarat Fire Brigade

Left: Ernest Neely, in the uniform of Ballarat fire brigade Courtesy: Llyris Hill

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The fire brigade has operated from the 20-22 Barkly Street, Ballarat East site since 1858. The tower constructed in 1864 would have been familiar to Ernest Alexander, but the 1916 engine house was built on the original 1858 structure. Right: Ballarat Fire Station

Ancestry's Victoria Rate Books 1855-1963 record one of Ernest and Charlotte's first home in 1894 Melbourne as:

• 2325 Neely, Ernest Alexander, a railway employee, as an occupying tenant.
• The brick built four roomed property was at 28 Mary Street (which may be in Richmond).
• The Neelys paid four shillings to Charles Shillen, a gentleman, of 20 Harcourt Street (perhaps Hawthorn East).

The Australian Electoral Roll 1903-1977, available on Ancestry, records Ernest's home in 1903 as:

• 2305, Neely, Ernest Alexander, 45 Molesworth st., North Melbourne, labourer, in Hotham a sub-district of Melbourne

Between 1906-09 there was a change of address:

• 1882, Neely, Ernest Alexander, 41 Molesworth st., North Melbourne, labourer, in Hotham a sub-district of Maribyrnong

In 1914, after Ernest's death, Charlotte lived with two of her children:

• 5693, Neely, Charlotte, 41 Molesworth st., North Melbourne, hd, in North Melbourne a sub-district of Melbourne
• 5694, Neely, Charlotte May, 41 Molesworth st., North Melbourne, whitewrkr, in North Melbourne a sub-district of Melbourne
• 5697, Neely, James, 41 Molesworth st., North Melbourne, labourer, in North Melbourne a sub-district of Melbourne

In 1924-36 Charlotte was alone and at a different address:

• 4682, Neely, Charlotte, 39 Molesworth st., home duties in North Melbourne a sub-district of Melbourne
• 4863, Neely, Leonard William, a canvasser of 39 Molesworth st., in North Melbourne a sub- district of Melbourne

perhaps to the time of her death. Leonard lived on as a single person at the address until before 1949-54:

• 4226, Neely, Leonard William, a clerk of 261 Dandenong rd. S1, in Armadale a sub-district of Higgins

On retirement there was a change of address from 1958-63:

• 4683, Neely, Leonard William, of no occupation of 121 Athol st., in Moonee Ponds a sub-district of Maribyrnong

bl_info6a, sheet 17

The Sands and McDougall street directories of Victoria records:

• 1895 Neely, Ernest A, 151 Leicester-st, F[itzroy]
• 1900/1905 Neely, Ernest J, 45 Molesworth Street N[orth] M[elbourne]
• 1910/1915 Neely, Ernest A, 41 Molesworth Street N[orth] M[elbourne]
• 1920/1925/1930 Neely, Mrs Charlotte, 41 Molesworth Street N[orth] M[elbourne]
• 1935 Neely, Mrs Charlotte, 39 Molesworth Street N[orth] M[elbourne]
• 1940 Neely, Leonard W, 41 Molesworth Street N[orth] M[elbourne] N1

There are contradictions between the Electoral Roll and Sands.

• In 1900 and 1905 Earnest J Neely lived at 45 Molesworth Street before moving to 41 as Ernest A Neely. Is this a transcription error being the same person?
• Charlotte is recorded at 39 Molesworth Street in 1924 before moving back to 41 and then to 39 in 1935.
• It is assumed she died at number 39.
• However, in 1940 Leonard was living in number 41.

There is no obvious record of John Neely in the Electoral Roll or in Sands, probably as his newspaper obituary states, he was working on the New South Wales railways.

It is interesting to note that connections were still made with Ballarat. Right: Ernest Alexander Neely's obituary The Age Monday 3 February 1913

It is recorded that Ernest died on 31 January 1913, (Vic BMD 2086/1913) at 41 Molesworth Street North Melbourne, a home he rented, still a railway employee, perhaps at Newport Railway Works. In his will of 16 September 1913, he left Charlotte all his property real and personal, his furniture, jewllery (sic) and personal effects, his life insurance and monies in the bank and building society. Probate was granted 17 March 1913 for a total of £262 5 shillings a 2 pence, equivalent to A$29,060 at 2018 CPI value. Right: Ernest Alexander Neely's will

bl_info6a, sheet 18

Charlotte, after the death of four of her family in about four years, died on 02 February 1939 (Vic BMD 951/1939): she was living at 41 Molesworth Street in 1930 and 39 Molesworth Street in 1935 (Sands and McDougall). Right: Charlotte Neely's obituary The Age Friday 2 February 1940

Left: The family grave of Charlotte, Ernest, Ernest James Neely at COE, F Grave 93 Faulkner Memorial Park Courtesy: Llyris Hill

Credits With thanks to

• Vivian Bugden for the inspiration taken from her extensive Neely research on Ancestry public trees and her photographs.
• Llyris Hill for her photographs
• Heather Schoffelen for her tireless research.

This page was created by Richard Crompton and maintained by Chris Glass		Version A7 Updated 04 October 2023