Item A8 - Journal of William Bell Leake : 1820

John Leake (1780-1865) was born in Kent, U.K., in 1780, son of Robert and Sarah Leake. The family were merchants connected with the firm of Travis and Leake of Hull and John worked as a shipping and cargo agent, trading in various commodities between Hamburg, Hull, and North Sea and Mediterranean ports. In Hull in 1805 he married Elizabeth the daughter of a Hull merchant, William Bell, and between 1806 and 1819 they had six sons and two daughters, but one daughter died in childhood. After the Napoleonic Wars Leake and his family settled in Hamburg, an important trading centre and home for many British merchants, where he acted as agent for a number of East Yorkshire and German business companies, especially in agricultural produce, linseed oil, whale oil, cotton, etc. In the 1820s and 1830s, however, business began to decline and many of the Anglo-German merchant community emigrated. Leake was encouraged by William Wilberforce and the British consul in Hamburg to emigrate to Van Diemen's Land and he and his family sailed from Leith in 1822 and arrived in Hobart in 1823. The family settled near Campbell Town in the Midlands where many other former merchants of Hamburg and Altona (Holstein) settled, including Lewis Gilles and the Oakden and Milliken families etc. Others, later settled in South Australia, including Osmond Gilles and two of Leake's sons, Robert and Edward. Leake still kept in touch with friends and relatives in Hamburg and Hull. Former business associates acted as Leake's agents for the sale of wool and other business, especially Leake's father-in-law William Bell of Hull and his son, William Bell jr. Leake's father-in-law left property in Hull, in the street called "Land of Green Ginger", in trust for the education of Leake's son John Travis Leake as a surgeon, the residue for Bell's daughter Elizabeth Leake and then for Elizabeth's other children (see L.l/D.277-99). John T. Leake studied medicine in Kiel and Dublin and later received an MD. from Kiel University. William Bell the younger offered to educate a younger son, Arthur, and teach him the merchant business, so he was sent back to Hull and spent some years there and also in Hamburg with his other uncle Edward John Bell. One of Edward Bell's daughters, Clara, came to live with the Leakes in 1857 and in 1869 married the youngest son, Charles. Bell's son Ernst joined Robert Leake at Glencoe for a few years and then settled at Mt. Drummond near Port Lincoln, South Australia. Another son, Edward Geiss settled in Queensland, and after their father's death the youngest sister, Helen, came out to join the Leake family at Campbell Town in 1878.

William Bell Leake was the eldest son of John and Elizabeth Leake. After establishing Rosedale John Leake left its management to his eldest son William, while he acted as accountant in the Derwent Bank in Hobart, in 1830 John Leake resumed the management of the farm and his son William replaced him at the bank. William suffered bouts of insanity which began in 1863. He lived most of the time at New Norfolk, either at the Asylum or with Dr. Huston, the Superintendent and his family where he was happy and enjoyed gardening, fishing and reminiscing about Hull and Hamburg. His letters show he was usually quite rational, apart from occasional fantasies and extravagances, and his nieces all loved their "old Uncle Billy".