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The tragic death of John & Sarah Blanch, 1839

Reports of the death of John BLANCH and wife Sarah WITT, and some information about the BLANCH family


Researched and contributed by Verity Baylis, who descends from Sarah's sister Mary WITT.  This page could have been just a list of websites, but due to the fact the some sites have a habit of 'disappearing' without notice, they have been quoted from extensively.  I hope the owners of the sites don't mind!
 
(1)  http://home.vicnet.net.au/~pioneers/pppg5r.htm
An article from the Newsletter of the Port Phillip Pioneers' Group Inc, Melbourne, Australia.  It is reproduced in it's entirety here...

SHE ARRIVED WITH A BANG

On December 16th, 1839, Jane Mortimer, aged 8, arrived at Port Phillip from Hobart Town with her family. The occasion was marked by a terrible explosion.
We had cousins living in Market Street, Melbourne, Mr. and Mrs. John Blanch and their three children John, William and Ann Eleanor. He was a gunmaker. Mother and we girls were to stay with them until our house was finished.
But the very day we were leaving the vessel their house was blown up and quite destroyed, the roof being thrown into the street. Mrs. Blanch was in the sitting room sewing when one wall fell on her, killing her instantly. Mr. Blanch lingered until one o'clock in the morning. Father being in town was able to be with him and sent a message by boat to us in the bay telling us not to come up.
Fortunately their children were out with the nurse. The two assistants were injured, one very severely - it was many months before he was well, but the man who did the mischief was not hurt.
He was getting some caps to fit his gun, and fired it off in the shop, thinking it was not loaded. It went into a barrel of gunpowder, hence the explosion. So we remained on board as long as possible.
We came up in boats, I do not remember what time we left the vessel, but it was twilight when we reached the landing place. It was such a pretty river, the water clear and clean with ti-tree to the water's edge on the south side and on the north lovely little wattle trees and bushes, but the mosquitoes were something to remember.
Contributed by Tom Davison (PPPG Member No. 1168)

 

(2)  http://www.virtualcreations.com.au/trip/dwv.html
"My Life", by David Wilson Virtue, posted among 'Other interesting stuff' at Greg and Mark's World Trip site (Mark Virtue is David Wilson Virtue's 3 x great-grandson).  This is an extract...
Shortly after this, another event of a very painful character occurred. The shop of a Mr Blanch, a dealer in fire arms and ammunition, situated in the Market Square, blew up. The report was awful, and the sky was darkened with dust, and presently, guns, pistols, pieces of brick and wood began to fall in Collins Street opposite our door. After recovering from the shock I ran with others to the scene of the explosion, and found the building completely demolished, and level with the ground. Rev. Mr Blanch, with his wife and nurse girl were underneath, as also two men, new arrivals. One of these had caused the accident by snapping his towling piece, which he thought was empty when it was loaded. The contents struck a stack of tins of gunpowder. Mrs Blanch and the nurse girl were dead when extricated. Her husband and the two other men died the following day. I followed the funeral of the fire to the grave. The service was conducted by the Rev Mr Davis, Church of England, in a very solemn impressive manner, the tears running down the cheeks of the good man, while he spoke.

 

(3)  http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/butlera/alexander_bishop.htm
The story of Alexander Bishop Butler, subtitled "Celebrated Gunsmiths", found in the Family History section of What The Butler Did, the website of (Marist) Brother Tony Butler.  This is an extract...
They [Alexander Bishop Butler, his wife Charlotte Selina (Mortimer), and 6 children] arrived in Port Phillip, Monday 16 December, and no sooner had they arrived than tragedy struck. John Blanch, son of Henry William and Charlotte Selina's sister Ann Eleanor, aged 26, (John had been a signatory of the 7 October 1839 letter of welcome to Governor LaTrobe in The Port Phillip Patriot,) and his wife Sarah, aged 22, were blown up in an explosion in his gunsmith's shop in Market Street, Tuesday 17 December.
About four in the afternoon of Tuesday the shop and warehouse of Mr. Blanch, the gunmaker, blew up from the ignition of a large quantity of powder, causing the total destruction of the building itself and involving, in one horrible scene of death and anguish, the unfortunate inmates of the house. Two passengers, lately arrived by the Westminster, in passing Mr. Blanch’s "Emporium", dropped in with the usual design of customers, one holding a gun in his hand imprudently fired off a cap; the gun was loaded and discharged itself into a quantity of powder lying loose in the shop; above was a large square box filled with the same destructive material. … Hundreds of persons immediately rushed to the scene while a few dragged from amidst the charred and smoking ruins the body of a female; her whole form, scorched and withered, was denuded of every particle of clothing except the fragment of a shoe that remained on the right foot. The parties were bearing the mangled figure over to the house of Dr. Cussens, but seeing life became extinct after a slight convulsion of the limbs, it was carried to Mr. Lilly's rooms. Mr.Blanch himself was taken to Mr. Cotter's surgery, where after lingering in great torture, but sensible to the last, he died at 10 this morning. Of the surviving two, neither it is expected will survive the injuries received; their names are Henry Griffin and Charles Deering. ... The funeral of Mr. and Mrs. Blanch will take place this afternoon at four o'clock when all persons are invited to attend the remains to their last melancholy home.
Their three children, John, William Harnett and Ann Eleanor, were out walking with their maid when the accident occurred. There is no mention of them - or of their recently arrived relatives - in the newspaper account. Henry William Mortimer had intended that his wife and younger children should stay with the already established Blanch family, but their deaths put paid to that idea. Instead, Mortimer moved into Flinders Lane and reared the three Blanch children with his own.

Ten days after their arrival in Port Phillip, Charlotte Selina Butler gave birth to her seventh child, a son, Phillip Henry, 29 December 1839, baptised in the Independent Church 9 February 1840.

 

(4)  http://www.genseek.net/pp38b.htm and http://www.genseek.net/pp39a.htm
Advertisement Indexes to the Port Phillip News (Melbourne), part of the Genseek Genealogy site, including the following entries...
  1838
Blanch
Blanch
Blanch

J
J
J

gunmaker
Gunmaker/Melbourne
Pistols & shot for sale
  1839
Blanch
Blanch
Blanch
Blanch
Blanch
Blanch
Blanch
Blanch
 

John
J
John
John
John
J
John
John
 

gunpowder for sale
wine, wood etc for sale
his late employees commence business
deceased/executor's sale
Ironmongery sale
Gunmaker
contributes to erection of R.C.church
nails for sale
 

(5)  http://www.jblanchdatabase.co.uk/history.htm
A Brief History of J Blanch & Son, part of a site dedicated to John Blanch & Son, Gunmakers by Toby Barclay.  The John Blanch who married Sarah Witt was the son of the first John Blanch.  The history is illustrated with some interesting photos of trade labels, etc.  Photos of the actual guns can be found elsewhere at the site.

 


Other miscellaneous transcripts


Page last updated: 22nd September 2005, e-mail: martin@hagger.org