Australian Royalty: Genealogy of the colony of NSW

Name: Charles Harpur
Birth Date: 1813
Birth Place: New South Wales
Registration Year: 1813
Registration Place: Windsor, New South Wales, Australia
Father: Joseph Harpur
Mother: Sarah
Volume Number: V18133034 IA

Harper, Joseph, 52, absolute pardon, Royal Admiral, 1800, life, Protestant, innkeeper, Windsor
Harper, Sarah, 37, free by servitude, Alexander, 1806, 7 years, Protestant
Harper, Joseph (Jun), 18, born in the colony
Harper, Charles, 15, born in the colony
Harper, John, 13, born in the colony
Harper, Mary, 11, born in the colony
Harper, William, 9, born in the colony

On the 2nd July, by special license, at Jerry's Plains, by the Rev. J. S. White, Presbyterian Minister of St. Andrew's, Singleton, Mr. Charles Harpur, to Mary, the eldest daughter of E. Doyle, Esq., of Montrose Park, Jerry's Plains.

Number 153 Vol 79
Charles Harpur a bachelor and member of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, abode Grant Lodge, jerry's Plains.
Mary Ann Doyle, spinster, church membership not stated, abode Jerry's Plains.
Married 2 July 1850 at Grant Lodge by James White of abode Denbie in the Presbyterian religion. Witnessee were R. Hobden and Elizabeth Hobden (who made her X mark).

We understand
that Mr. Charles Harpur has been appointed assistant
gold commissioner, and will reside at Araluen. Mr.
Harpur's poetry is favorably known to the reading
public of the colony.-- Braidwood Observer.

OBITUARY.-Charles Harpur, Esq, J. P., of Uroma,
Moruya district, formerly Gold Commissioner at
Nerrigundah, and whose poetic talents have been
delightfully appreciated by his fellow-colonists, died
of consumption on Tuesday, the 9th instant.

THE LATE MR. CHARLES HARPUR.
A FEW weeks ago we noticed in the columns of a pro-
vincial paper an announcement which was invested with a
peculiar and sorrowful interest. It was a notification of
the death, by consumption, of Mr. Charles Harpur, who
has been called "The father of Australian poetry," and
who was generally and justly looked upon as a man of
genius. For the last thirty years the name of the de-
ceased has appeared from time to time in association with
verses having, in many instances, original power, and, in
every case, a pure and elevated tone of thought.
Some of his lyrics — "Under the wild figtree," for
example — are as natural as wood notes, and a few
of his higher flights, such as the "Creek of the
Four Graves," remind the reader of the strength and
solemnity of Wordsworth. "The peace and power of hills,"
which some one finely attributes to the latter poet, seems to
have passed on more than one occasion, into the writings
of Mr. Harpur. The genius, however, of the Australian
poet was undoubtedly native, although it appears to have
been shaped by a long and reverent study of Milton, the
elder Coleridge, and the bard of the "Excursion." His
blank verse, for instance, is modelled on Milton's; and
there is a fitfullness of rhythm in his lyrics, which instantly
recalls to the memory certain passages of "Christabel."
Notwithstanding the influences implied here, several of
his poems contain verses and lines whose syllables must
have been caught from the wild and waste places of nature
only. The stanzas on the "Wail of the Native Oak," and
"An Aboriginal Deathsong," are peculiarly waifs of the
Southern wilderness: the latter piece reading like a Keene
from the lips of the blacks themselves. These, and other
verses of their class, are filled with that sense of vastness
and spectral silence which the mind cannot help associating
with the Australian forests; and which Mr. Harpur, of all
writers, has been the most successful in describing. The
genius of the deceased was not confined in its expression
to poetry alone. He was an eloquent, if not elegant prose
writer, and some of his essays in the domain of aesthetics
evince a really high critical faculty. We may note, for
example, the paper on Chaucer and Shelley, which
appeared in this journal about eighteen months ago.
Mr. Harpur was born at Windsor in the year 1818, and
he died at Euroma, in the Moruya district, on the 9th of
June last. His youth having been passed in the dark early
days of the colony was, doubtless, as his friends assert, an
unsettled one, and possibly, as a consequence, his education
suffered. After leaving the Hawkesbury district the poet
spent some years with his brother Joseph, on the Hunter,
near Singleton. In the latter locality many of his most
beautiful pieces were penned, and it was there that he
married. Mr. Harpur subsequently moved to Sydney,
where he met and formed a lasting friendship with the late
Mr. Deniehy. During his stay in this city, he was also on
intimate terms with the present Colonial Secretary, and with
Mr. Duncan, then editor of the Australian. These gentle-
men assisted the poet who seems to have been of a wayward
and restless nature, in many of his later undertakings, and
it was mainly due to their influence that he obtained a
situation under Government in the capacity of Gold Com-
missioner. The site allotted as the field of his official
labours, caused him to move to Euroma, near Moruya,
where he continued to reside up to the date of his death.
In 1866 a scheme of retrenchment was carried into effect by
the Government, and several of the gold commissioners, in-
cluding Mr. Harpur, had their salaries struck out of the
Estimates. The poet felt this blow keenly, and
from that date his health — never of the best — began
to decline. The sorrow, however, which hastened
his end was caused by the death of a favourite son,
who shot himself accidentally while on a holiday excursion.
Mr. Harpur never rallied after the last mentioned event.
His life appears to have been one full of trouble, and there
is no doubt that he suffered deeply from what appeared to
be the neglect of the public. But all his expression was
marked with a brave and persistent hope, and it must have
been very trying to witness the spectacle of his strong
spirit flickering away into the dark, notwithstanding its
courage, its capacity for endurance, and its patience under
the heaviest trials.