Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/275

  articles to the Examiner, 12, 19, and 20 Nov. 1821, pretending to justify Fawkes, from which Lamb quoted in his essay on Guy Faux.]  FAWKES, WALTER RAMSDEN (1769–1825), miscellaneous writer, born at Hawksworth, Yorkshire, in 1769, was the eldest son of Walter Beaumont Fawkes, the head of an old West Riding family. Early in life Walter Fawkes became an active member of the advanced section of the whig party, being M.P. for the county of York from 1806 to 1807. He took a prominent part in the anti-slave trade movement, and spoke effectively in the debate which preceded the passing of Wilberforce's measure. In 1823 he filled the office of high sheriff of Yorkshire. He was a man of varied intellectual gifts, a cultivated writer, and, above all, a great lover and patron of the fine arts. In 1810 he published ‘The Chronology of the History of Modern Europe,’ in 1812 a ‘Speech on Parliamentary Reform,’ and in 1817 ‘The Englishman's Manual; or, a Dialogue between a Tory and a Reformer;’ in all of which he set forth his political views and leanings with much perspicuity. He will be best remembered, however, as the intimate friend and one of the earliest patrons of Turner, the artist. Turner had a welcome and a home at Farnley Hall, Fawkes's Wharfedale residence, whenever he chose to go, and used to spend months at a time there. Mr. Ruskin has borne eloquent testimony to the influence of Fawkes, Farnley, and Wharfedale on the genius of Turner, and the Turner collection still existing at Farnley Hall contains about two hundred of the artist's choicest works. Fawkes was also a keen agriculturist. He did much towards the improvement of his estates, and was very successful as a breeder of cattle, his shorthorns being known abroad as well as in England. In conjunction with Mr. Jonas Whitaker of Burley-in-Wharfedale and the Rev. J. A. Rhodes of Horsforth he founded the Otley Agricultural Society, one of the first of its kind in England. The park which he formed at Caley Hall was stocked with red and fallow deer, zebras, wild hogs, and a species of deer from India. He greatly enlarged the family mansion at Farnley, which he adorned with many collections. He married Maria, daughter of Robert Grimston of Neswick, and left a large family, dying in London on 24 Oct. 1825, and being buried in the family vault at Otley.

[Foster's Pedigrees of West Riding Families; Gent. Mag. for 1825; Leeds Mercury, 1825; Thornbury's Life of Turner; Hamerton's Life of Turner, &c.]  FAWKNER, JOHN PASCOE (1792–1869), Australian settler, born 20 Oct. 1792 (Melbourne Herald, 29 Oct. 1866), was in his eleventh year when his father was sentenced to transportation. The elder Fawkner was allowed to take his family in the convict expedition despatched from England for Port Phillip 26 April 1803 under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Collins. Port Phillip (discovered in 1802) was reached 10 Oct., but found to be unsuitable, and on 26 Jan. 1804 the convicts were re-embarked and the ships proceeded to Van Diemen's Land. Young Fawkner became a sawyer by trade, but was punished for helping some escaping convicts in 1814, and retired to Sydney. He returned in 1817, and appears to have practised all possible callings. He was a baker, farmer, and bookseller. He left Hobart and went north to Launceston (1819), where he took an hotel, and then in 1829 undertook the ‘Launceston Advertiser,’ changing its name to ‘Tasmanian Advertiser.’ He started a coach in 1832, practised as a bush lawyer, and opened some assembly-rooms. In 1829 he was fined for again aiding in the escape of convicts, and he lost his hotel license for attacking the resident magistrate in his newspaper. He showed literary tastes, opened a library and newsroom in his hotel, and offered to teach French.

Attempts had already been made to settle Port Phillip, especially by John Batman [q. v.] Fawkner had determined, even before hearing from Batman, to make a similar attempt. The ‘Launceston Advertiser’ of 21 May 1835 mentions that his ship, the Enterprise, was being equipped for the purpose. But as Fawkner, prostrated by sea-sickness, had to be put ashore, and as his associates settled, not at Western Point, but on the present site of Melbourne, his claim to be sole founder of Victoria is untenable (, Port Phillip Settlement, p. cxiii; Melbourne Herald, 12 July 1856 and 26 Sept. 1863; Argus, 2 Feb. 1869, &c.). On his late arrival he did much, however, to stimulate and direct his associates. He built the first regular house in the end of 1835. In the October of that year there were but thirty-three settlers in the whole district, of whom but twenty-seven were Europeans. For a time the whole fate of the colony was in doubt. At last it was decided by the home government that the new colony should be under the control of the governor of New South Wales, and that the claims of the early settlers over the land should not be allowed. In June 1836 the colonists, led by Fawkner, held a meeting, and petitioned for a resident magistrate. Then Fawkner started an hotel and opened a bookstore. On 1 Jan. 1838, before