Robert John Sholl (16 July 1819 – 19 June 1886) was a government administrator, magistrate, explorer, journalist, entrepreneur, harbourmaster, customs official, postmaster and lay reader in Western Australia (WA), during the colonial era.Colonial Secretary, 1865, "Instructions to the Government Resident of the North District". Because of his multiple, simultaneous roles, which carried judicial, political, cultural and commercial power and influence, Sholl is regarded as a significant figure in the history of North-West Australia, at an early stage of its settlement by Europeans.
Between 1865 and 1881, Sholl was the most senior government official and only judicial officer in North West Australia between the Murchison River and Timor Sea – a jurisdiction known at the time as the North District.McCarthy, 2001, p. 33. (From 1883, the North District was sub-divided into three magisterial districts: "Gascoyne", "Northern" [i.e. Pilbara] and "Kimberley".) His headquarters at Roebourne was extremely isolated – messages took weeks to travel between Sholl and his immediate superior, Frederick Barlee, Colonial Secretary of Western Australia.The Parliament of Western Australia was far less powerful at the time. While members of the Legislative Council ostensibly represented the North District sat from 1874, the Parliament's powers were highly limited until 1890, when responsible government was granted. Consequently, Sholl wielded considerable, de facto executive power;Sholl's paid positions apart from Resident Magistrate were Sub-collector of Customs & Internal Revenue, as well as Registrar of Births, Deaths & Marriages. He was also expected to perform religious services for the Church of England, which was the official church in Western Australia at the time). (See also Sholl's preliminary instructions from the Colonial Secretary of Western Australia, Frederick Barlee, in the quotation box on this page.) an obituary in The West Australian described him as having been "virtually a Lieutenant Governor" of the North District.
Family and early life The Sholl family originated in Cornwall and had strong ties to maritime industries, the armed forces, international trade, public office and medicine, in both England and Australia.William, Clement & Boase 1876, p. 46.
William Sholl (1736–1797), R. J. Sholl's paternal grandfather, was a Freeman (shareholder) of the Levant Company, represented it at İskenderun (Alexandretta) in Turkey and was vice consul of both the UK and the Netherlands in that city;William, Clement & Boase, 1876, p. 46 and; Wilson, 2011, p. 40. (At the time, the rare, alternate title of "Factor Marine" was given to the British Vice-Consul at Scanderoon (as İskenderun/Alexandretta was known in English at the time). He married Maria Teresa Sholl, née Justa (1761?—1833) at Aleppo in 1778.Sources citing the wedding certificate suggest that Maria Sholl's mother was named Clara Justa and that Maria Teresa Justa, before marrying William Sholl, "abjured the Roman Catholick Religion or the Church of Rome, and embraced the Protestant" (e.g. Sherwood 1913–16, p. 326). One source (William, Clement & Boase 1876, p. 46) spells the surname, as "Justo" and describes Maria Sholl as the daughter of a "Greek physician at Aleppo" (which, if it was correct, may have meant that the family belonged to a Greek Catholic Church, rather than being Greek in ethnicity).
Several members of the family had careers connected to the Royal Navy (RN) or British Army during the 19th century: Robert Sholl senior (c. 1781–1832), the father of R. J. Sholl, was an official Naval Agent, contracted to supply ships of the RN;A Naval Agent was either a government contractor supplying the Royal Navy (RN), or a commissioned officer of the RN, usually a Lieutenant, who liaised with merchant ship owners and captains contracted by the navy. Richard Sholl (1786–1836), an uncle of R. J. Sholl, was a naval officer and Purser on HMS Sulphur, when it was part of the 1829 expedition to establish the Swan River Colony – he later acquired property there;Western Australian Explorers' Diaries Project, n.d. Vice Admiral Sir John Kingcome KCB (1794–1871) was an uncle by marriage; Dr William Horatio Sholl MRCSE (1808–76), R. J. Sholl's older brother, was a military surgeon with the British Auxiliary Legion in Spain, during the First Carlist War Australian Encyclopaedia (v5), 1977, p. 333; Perth Gazette, 3 April 1841, p. 4; South Australian Register, 30 December 1876, p. 8S and; The West Australian, 26 September 1936, p. 5 and;Alexander Somerville, 1839, History of the British Legion, and War in Spain, London, James Pattie, p. 662.) and; Colonel Edward Corbett MP (1817–95), an officer in the British Army and later a member of the House of Commons was R. J. Sholl's brother-in-law.Corbett married Elizabeth Sholl junior (1826–?) in WA in 1842 (see, for example, the Perth Gazette of 26 February 1842).
Robert John Sholl, born on 16 July 1819 in London, was the third of six children of Elizabeth Sholl (née Motton; c. 1782–18??) and Robert Sholl senior.Birman, 1976, p. 121; The Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle, 29 October 1832. R. J. Sholl was the second oldest sibling (and second oldest son) to survive into adulthood.Birman 2012.
Dr William Horatio Sholl emigrated to Western Australia in 1839, after inheriting property from their uncle Richard. Dr Sholl attempted, without success, to be appointed Colonial Surgeon – the most senior medical position in WA.Mossenson 2012. After becoming editor of Perth newspaper The Inquirer, W. H. Sholl used that position for outspoken criticism of some government officials. He later moved to South Australia, where he became a prominent medical practitioner.
In 1844, R. J. Sholl married Mary Ann Berckelman (1822–1889) – who had been born in Ireland – at the Anglican Church in Picton, WA.Landgate 2006–2007. The couple were to have eight children, and several of their sons became prominent in government and business circles: Trevarton Sholl (1845–1867 – see below); Richard Adolphus Sholl (1847–1919), Postmaster General of WA (1889–1900); Robert Frederick Sholl (1848–1909), MLC/MLA, pearler, investor in real estate and mining, representative at the Australasian Federal Convention of 1897, and; Horatio William (Horace) Sholl (1852–1927), MLC/MLA, pastoralist, pearler and mining proprietor.
Early career In 1840, Elizabeth Sholl (a widow), followed her oldest son William to Western Australia, along with three of her other children, including R. J. Sholl – who abandoned his own medical studies. The family arrived in WA on the ship Shepherd on 19 November 1840 and settled in the South West soon afterwards.The Inquirer, 15 November 1843, 17 February 1844 & 17 March 1847 passim; Birman 1976, pp.121–2. R. J. Sholl appears to have worked initially as a teacher or private tutor in the Busselton area.
Sholl joined an exploration party led by Vernon Bussell and George Warburton, in January 1842 – along with four soldiers and four Aboriginal guides – seeking to pioneer a cart route between the Bunbury-Vasse area and a proposed road from Perth to King George Sound.The Inquirer, 16 February 1842; Deasey, 1976, pp.350–51. They explored the sparsely populated, hilly area between Busselton and the middle Blackwood River before returning to the coast near Bunbury. Although no feasible route was found, Sholl wrote an account of the trip for a newspaper and acquired a reputation as an explorer.
In mid-1842, Sholl was one of 24 signatories to an open letter to brothers Alfred and Charles Bussell, thanking them "for the liberal, spirited, and persevering manner with which you have constantly met the aggression of the natives upon the lives and property of the settlers".The Inquirer, 13 July 1842; Perth Gazette, 2 & 16 July 1842; Blackburn, 1999, pp.26–28 and; Green, 1995, p.216. This followed the trial of Charles Bussell for the manslaughter of a seven-year-old Aboriginal girl; Bussell was discharged with a fine of one shilling.
During the mid-1840s, R. J. Sholl was appointed to a series of government positions in Bunbury. In 1844, he became a tidewaiter (customs official) and clerk to the District Magistrate's Court.Birman 1976; Birman 2012. During 1847, he was made sub-registrar of births, deaths and marriages, as well as Bunbury's postmaster. He also became involved in private businesses, such as fattening beef cattle.The Inquirer, 7 February 1844, p. 1
In 1849, Sholl succeeded his brother William as editor of Perth newspaper The Inquirer, which was owned by Edmund Stirling. The following year R. J. Sholl was appointed secretary of the Geraldine Mining Company, formed to operate the first commercial mine in WA: a lead and copper mining lease in the riverbed, banks and near to the Murchison River.The former mining lease is located just west of the point at which the river is crossed by the North West Coastal Highway, and about 25–30 miles (40–48 km) east south east of the mouth of the Murchison. Sholl resigned from The Inquirer in early 1855, and with financial support from George Leake, established a new weekly, The Commercial News and Shipping Gazette, from offices in Fremantle.The Commercial News, 22 February & 28 June 1855; The Inquirer, 13 June 1855; Medcalf, 1974, pp.70–71. After 20 issues, The Commercial News was merged with The Inquirer and Sholl became a part-owner and editor of the new title, The Inquirer & Commercial News.
Like his brother before him, R. J. Sholl used editorials in The Inquirer to mount campaigns against officialdom.The Inquirer, 3 April, 24 April & 1 May 1861; Honniball 1979, pp.37–43. In particular, during 1861 he attacked the Colonial government, over an unpopular customs regulation. Inquirer articles singled out Governor Arthur Kennedy and called on the Imperial government to transfer Kennedy to another position. By contrast, Sholl and The Inquirer were very supportive of both Kennedy's assistant, Frederick Barlee (Colonial Secretary of Western Australia in 1855–75) and his successor as Governor, John Hampton. Sholl's personal and professional connections to Barlee was long-lived and included their joint involvement in private businesses.For example, Barlee and Sholl were shareholders and office bearers of the Roebuck Bay Pastoral and Agricultural Association Limited.
Career as Government Resident
The first settlers in the northern half of Western Australia – led by Perth entrepreneur Walter Padbury – disembarked on 8 May 1863 with sheep and other livestock at Tien Tsin Harbor (later known as Cossack), near the Harding River.Perth Gazette, 29 May 1863 and; The Inquirer, 3 June 1863. (In 1871, Tien Tsin Harbor was renamed Cossack, following the visit of Governor Frederick Weld on board HMS Cossack.) Over the next few years, pastoralists applied for leases between the De Grey and Ashburton Rivers (in the region known later as the Pilbara). The population of pastoralists – which included some southern Aboriginal stock workers – remained small in number.
Camden Harbour