Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/317

 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 291 Sir Samuel Davenport, K.C.M.G. THE escutcheon and heraldry of our forefathers are now becominjr the memorials and emblazonry of the mercantile house and factory. In Australia many English gentlemen of birth and position have established new homes and made fortunes. The colonising activity of pioneers of this class has, in most cases, been exceptional ; they have long enjoyed the reputa- tion of being accounted among our most useful and enterprising settlers. Standing high among these is Sir Samuel Davenport. In him we behold a blending of the old and new virtues. The grace and dignity of associations with an inlluential past have engrained in his being a strong regard for institutions and customs that are still the corner stone of our social fabric ; while at the same time he has always shown himself fully animated by the spirit of colonial enterprise and progress. Descended from an old and distinguished English family. Sir vSamuel Davenport was born in 1S18, at Sherburn, Oxfordshire. His father was a man of position in the county of his ancestors, and at Great Wigston, Leicestershire, is to be seen a memorial erected in the church of that parish to his honored memory. Time, in its change - bringing flight, however, has obliterated most of the remains of the former greatness of the Davenport family. The neighborhood of Stockport, where once dwelt their long unbroken line in all the pleasant and dignified circumstances of affluent English squirehood, is now covered with busy and smoky factories. The trade of Liverpool has effected wonderful transformaticjns in that part of Lancashire where once the forefathers of Sir Samuel rode forth to hunt, and Dame Dorothy Davenport worked classical pictures in tapestry. Visions of temptis actum are all that now remain. Hammer ^ Co., thoto The earlier part of Sir Samuel's manhood was profitably spent in, travelling round the southern shores of Europe. As he journeyed from one point to the other, he