The fortunes of Edward Robinson Starkey

The Hulk Proserpine

The Hulk ‘Proserpine’ was used as an Industrial School and Reformatory for boys in trouble in the late 19th century. Neglected children under ten years of age mixed with repeat offenders in their late teens on board the ship.

Every entry in the admission Register told a tale – usually of family breakdown or loss. For some, the Proserpine was merely an interruption to their criminal careers, but sometimes the Proserpine worked for an offender, and they did not trouble the Bench again.

Edward Robinson Starkey had an extraordinary life, from immigrant to youthful criminal, to bravery awards, then farming, local government, insolvency, war, repatriation and marriage. He rests in a cemetery in Harrowgate, a world away from his trouble and triumph in the Colony of Queensland.

The Second Prisoner

On April 17 1871, 19 year old Edward Robinson Starkey boarded the Proserpine. He’d been sentenced with his co-accused father in August 1870 to three years’ penal servitude for cattle stealing. A curious local Constable had found some parts of a recently slaughtered cow concealed about their farm in Tingalpa, and young Edward and his mother had not been able to tell a straight tale about the provenance of the beast. 

Edward had already done some of that time in gaol, and was considered a good candidate for the new industrial school and reformatory aboard the Proserpine. He joined the first prisoner, a 12 year old boy named George Bradley, who was sent away for stealing, of all things, a door scraper.

Life aboard the Proserpine was strict and monotonous, with the inmates performing domestic and maintenance chores, being monitored by a Visiting Justice and doctor who reported directly to the Colonial Secretary. Later, a proper building was erected at Lytton for the Reformatory and Industrial School, but for the first few years, a converted adult prison hulk, which had initially been a cattle ship, was pressed into service.

On arrival, Edward was described as having a fair complexion, grey eyes and auburn hair. He worked for his father George as a farmer, and had been born in England. Edward must have been a good prisoner, because he was released in time for Christmas 1872, nine months before the expiration of his sentence.

On 10 February 1874, the Brisbane Courier reported that 22 year-old Edward had been injured by when felling a tree at the Tingalpa Farm, incurring a gash on his foot, and narrowly avoiding the loss of his big toe.

Rescue at sea.

In 1880, the Victorian Human Society awarded bravery certificates to Starkey and three others for a daring rescue in an open boat at Southport Heads. The Brisbane Courier reported:

We are glad to learn that the Victorian Humane Society has recognised the brave services of the four men who successfully rescued Charles Foley and Frederick Campbell off Southport Heads on the 26th March 1880 and who were in most imminent danger of being carried out to the Pacific Ocean by the force of the current and drowned. The four plucky men who manned the boat that went out to the rescue of Foley and Campbell are Johan Suter, William C. Maund, Edward R. Starkey, and Robert T. Johnston, and their conduct having been brought under the notice of the above society, the committee decided to award them the certificate of the society, which in Australia may be regarded as equal to the medal of the Royal Humane Society in England.

The certificates are neatly engraved parchment documents, which contain an account of the brave and humane action for which they have been awarded, and each of the recipients may deservedly feel proud to be so distinguished.

His worship the Mayor of Brisbane has received the certificates from the secretary of the Victorian Humane Society, with a request that he will present them to Messrs. Suter, Maund, Starkey, and Johnston. The certificates were awarded at the annual meeting of the society, held in Melbourne on Friday, the 22nd ultimo, in the Town Hall. The meeting was presided over by his excellency the Governor of Victoria, and there were also present Lord Charles Scott, captain of H.M.S. Bacchante, other officers of that vessel, and several leading citizens.

The facts are thus described in the annual report of the society:-” William Charles Maund, of Southport-crossing dangerous channel at Southport Heads in an open boat, with three others, rowing to the rescue of Charles Foley and Frederick Campbell, who had drifted out into the breakers and were in imminent danger of being upset, and succeeding in bringing them in drifting boat into smooth water, on 26th March, 1880; awarded certificate. Edward R. Starkey, of Southport-same case as last; awarded certificate. Johan Suter, of Southport same case as last; awarded certificate. Robert Tennant Johnston, of Southport-same case as last; awarded certificate.”

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Local Government and its attendant controversies.

By 1883, Edward was working in the family business of George Starkey and Sons at Nerang, and took an interest in local politics. He didn’t have to go to the polls, though – as the only candidate for Subdivision No. 2 of the Nerang Divisional Board, he was appointed unopposed.

Indeed, Edward Robinson Starkey was now so respectable that he was able to take issue with the reporting of the mendacious jackanapes from the Logan Witness. Starkey showed that he was definitely well-educated, and just a touch, well, pompous in his respectability.

CORRESPONDENCE.
(The Editor does not identify himself with the opinions of correspondents.)
“Your Own” at Nerang. (To the Editor of the Logan Witness.)
SIR, — Your issue of the 16th instant contains a letter from your Nerang correspondent which, though decidedly amusing and ridiculous from some standpoints, shall not pass unchallenged. After lauding in a sycophantic manner of our new chairman, “Your Own” attempts to enlighten the public mind by describing what he supposed he had heard or was told had been done by the Nerang Divisional Board at its first meeting in 1884.
I shall pass over, without commenting upon, the remarkable style and logic of your writer, ascribing it to a reaction which must surely have taken place after the influential spirit which pervaded the meeting had ceased to use its forces upon him. His genius is prominently displayed by creating three divisions out of one, and his natural playfulness is truly refreshing when he announces the charming fact that the Nerang board has presented the Colonial Treasurer with the munificent sum of £815 5s. 6d. Oh, Nerang ratepayers, you should watch your representatives; for I believe I can find either one or two places on your streets or roads that are not quite perfect!
I come now to that spicy paragraph in which I am made to move, “That all reserves, recreation reserves, and all grants for cemetery and other purposes be placed under the control of the board.” Comprehensive enough, to be sure; and one I might well feel proud of moving if I believed that the average divisional board was a competent engine to drive such machinery successfully. In reply to this statement I simply say that no resolution of the kind was moved by me or any other member, and that the lamentable ignorance of “Your Own” should be pitied, or his malice prepense should be unhesitatingly condemned. I am quite willing for any fair criticism to be made upon my actions as a member of the board by anyone who has a proper right to do so; but I decidedly object to be misrepresented by a would-be critic who has not the common intelligence to understand what he sees or hears, or has the meanness to pervert what he does not approve of.
If my seat on the Nerang board has been made secure by the vote of “Your Own,” or the votes of those over whom he supposes he exerts any influence, I am less proud of my late victory, and did I wish my late opponent any ill will I should gladly transfer such support to him; but I think I know my supporters better; that duplicity with which I am charged, is, when in other hands, quite competent to promise votes voluntarily, and then give them in the other direction. All those who are conversant with the subject know that I have not changed my views with regard to the Nerang recreation ground; neither shall I until I feel I am wrong. In my opinion the trustees should control it, – not the board! Hoping that “duplicity” may stay where it has a good home, until it dies, I thank you for sufficient space to contradict some things false, – I am yours, &c. EDWARD R. STARKEY Warongary, Nerang. Feb. 20.

Quite a long way from the teenager who tried to sneak an incriminating cowhide out of the barn while the local copper was watching.

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The rest of the 1880s were not as successful. George Starkey died in 1884, and in November 1886, Edward Robinson Starkey trading as Starkey and Sons became insolvent, with liabilities of £2354 6s. 8d. Starkey kept his head above water by labouring.

In 1899, the Boer War broke out in South Africa, and Edward Robinson Starkey fought for Mother England. He was demobbed to England, and remained there for the rest of his life. His fortunes had altered again, and he lived in Harrowgate, marrying a local girl, Eliza Little in 1909. He passed away in 1822, at the age of 67.

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https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/qld/biogs/QE00529b.htm Admission Registers, Reformatory School for Boys - Hulk Proserpine, Reformatory School for Boys, Lytton, Diamantina Reformatory School for Boys and Westbrook Reformatory for Boys. (1871 - 1906) Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Wednesday 6 July 1870, page 2 Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Tuesday 10 February 1874, page 2 Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), Wednesday 3 August 1881, page 2 Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Thursday 4 August 1881, page 2 Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), Saturday 29 September 1883, page 2 Logan Witness (Beenleigh, Qld. : 1878 - 1893), Saturday 1 March 1884, page 3 Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Thursday 22 January 1885, page 4 Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Tuesday 2 November 1886, page 4