The Chronicles of Early Melbourne/Volume 2/Chapter 52

by Edmund Finn

CHAPTER LII.

THE TWELVE APOSTLES.

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SYNOPSIS:— A Commercial "Ring." —The Personality of the "Twelve Apostles." —Mr. Rucker Makes an Assignment. —The Bank's Bond. —Rucker Outwits the Bank Manager. —Rucker's Ante-nuptial Settlement. —His Marriage. —"A Man of Straw." —Bank Manager Boyd Puts on "the Screw." —The Apostles "Cornered." —Panegyric on Mr. Were. —His Official Dignities. —Sketch of the "Twelve Apostles." —Mr. Rucker's Letter to Mr. Were.

"RING," in old slang, was synonymous with "whitewashing," or taking the benefit of the Insolvent Act, and in the early commercial traditions of Port Phillip is to be found a curious combination or "ring," which, though not intending it, ultimately terminated in a general daubing of whitewash, either through direct insolvency or by assignment to creditors. Without, perhaps, a single exception, it was a general burst up, though three-fourths of the members afterwards recovered from the shock, did well and lived long in the colony. The "Ring" was known as "The Twelve Apostles," though for any special reason, except that they numbered just the round dozen, I could never ascertain. In 1841 the great commercial depression, which for three years overwhelmed the district, set in. A system of inter-trading and mutual paper accommodation existed of so reticulated a character as to render it not only possible, but something not far from a certainty, that if any of the so-styled principal mercantile or trading houses collapsed, others would be brought down, and there would be a grand smash, and thus the instinct of self-preservation fostered an ardent, and no doubt genuine, feeling of sympathy. It happened that Mr. W. F. A. Rucker, one of the pioneer traders, was indebted to the Union Bank in the sum of £10,000, and the Directory, apprehensive of some of the coming squalls, requested him either to reduce or "secure" this then large liability. Rucker had nominally ample assets, but of an immediately unrealizable nature, except at a ruinous loss; and he went fishing about the commercial waters in quest of any "gulls" who would consent to join him in a bond to the bank. He had formidable difficulties to encounter, for several to whom he applied refused to "bite" through considerations of ordinary prudence, and Mr. D. C. McArthur, the Manager of the Bank of Australasia, fairly warned some of his customers that if they had anything whatever to do with the Rucker imbroglio, they would have to remove their accounts from his money mart, and wipe out overdrafts where they existed. Rucker, however, persisted, and the fear of an approaching panic brought him success, for, after repeated refusals, he contrived to enlist a circle of backers in the following individuals:—

1. William Frederick Augustus Rucker, Merchant.
2. Thomas Herbert Power, Auctioneer.
3. John Pascoe Fawkner, Landholder.
4. Alexander McKillop, Settler.
5. John Moffat Chisholm, Landowner.
6. John Hunter Patterson, Landowner.
7. James Purves, Landowner.
8. John Maude Woolley, Settler.
9. Abraham Abrahams, Merchant.
10. Jonathan Binns Were, Merchant.
11. Horatio Nelson Carrington, Solicitor.
And
12. Patricius William Welsh, Merchant.

This classification is taken from Kerr's Port Phillip Directory for 1842; but though some of them are rated as landowners or merchants, they were all neck deep in other speculations, mostly of a risky character.

Such were the so-styled "Twelve Apostles" of Port Phillip to whom Rucker made an assignment of his property, nominally assessed as worth £40,000, and by a curiously peculiar arrangement, the "Holy Brotherhood" were rendered jointly and individually liable to the Union Bank of Australasia, not for the sum claimed, but for £10,000 each, or £120,000. Though these "Saints" comprised what might be termed a smart, wide-awake lot, one of them was so superlatively cute that, by a rapid and pleasant stroke of business, he showed himself the superior of his fellows, and actually succeeded in outwitting the Bank. After all the legal preliminaries were arranged, and the ominous parchments cut and dry, ready for the signatories, a certain hour of a certain day was appointed to put the finishing touches of pen and ink to the deed, which was lying like a State prisoner in the Bank parlour. The sharp practitioner referred to had his weather-eye open wider than the Bank Manager's, and, setting his solicitor to work, an ante-nuptial settlement of all his property was prepared in favour of an attractive spinster, whose services were retained as governess in a family residing at Heidelberg, and thither on the evening before the doomsday he hied, led off the consenting lady in triumph to the Hymeneal altar, and duplicated the prior settlement by another, ratified through the joint agency of a minister, a book, and a ring. He was present, however, at his post, in compliance with the Bank appointment, and no one there, save himself, had the slightest notion that there was a veritable "man of straw" amongst them. By this adroit move, one of the ten thousand pounder assets was finally disposed of. But it could be well spared, for when the time for action arrived, Mr. Thomas Elder Boyd, who succeeded Mr. William Highett in the Union Bank management, made short work with the Army of (Rucker's) Salvation, for he put on the screw most mercilessly, rushed station and various other kinds of property into a market where there was little demand for any sort of commodity, and at these forced sales everything was sold without reserve. "A tremendous sacrifice" was effected, and though the "Apostles" had to pay the piper, others danced to the joyous tune of some £50,000 ultimately netted by the purchasers, who, I have been informed upon reliable authority, were believed to have acted in complicity, if not with the Bank, certainly with its Manager. Three things are certain, viz., that the original £10,000 liability was paid, that certain persons pocketed handsome profits out of the purchases, and that the "Apostles" were so far cornered as to be compelled either to fly for refuge to the Insolvent Court, or compromise with their creditors. Even the hero of the ante-nuptial coup did not weather the storm, for he too went under water through other commercial causes. It was not to be expected that such a bouleversement could have run its course without the intervention of the Law Courts, and the consequence was a network of suits in Equity, Nisi Prius, and Insolvency, whose intricacies nearly exhausted the ingenuity and patience of Bench, Bar, and Jurors, a detail of which would fill a tolerably-sized volume. Sufficient to state that the "Apostles" withdrew from the struggle like a dozen squeezed oranges, yet with a recuperative power in the pips, which enabled them to resume the battle of life, and fight it so lustily that, except three or four of them, who either died soon after or left the country, they worked themselves into good positions in life; some in easy and some in affluent circumstances. Of the Twelve, ten are sojourning in that bourne from which there is no return, and only two remained amongst us until a recent period. One of these twins, and the chief of the tribe (Mr. Rucker), passed out of the world in 1882. "The Last of the Mohicans," the ultimus Romanorum, the solitary Apostle now remaining on earth, is Mr. J. B. Were^[1] an old colonist, dating from 1839, who has seen much of the ups and downs of Victoria; and, from various points of view, has been accounted both a good and bad fellow, using the adjectives in a general and inoffensive sense, as the goodness outweighed the badness in his organization. Largely engaged in the early commercial and other speculations, he had so shrewd an eye to business that certain sharp customers who were unable to "do" him were wont to indulge in a little spiteful merriment, by recasting his name and declaring that, though conventionally J. B., it should in reality be Jonathan "Be-Ware." Mr. Were had more greatness thrust upon him than any other individual in the colony. On the 5th October, 1840, he was sworn in as a Territorial Magistrate, and claims to be the first specially appointed J.P. for Port Phillip, and the Senior Magistrate of Victoria. Mr. Were was also President of the first Bible Society, and the first importer of whisky; Director of the Union Bank; Director of the Melbourne Bridge Company; President of the first Chamber of Commerce; the first Agent of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company; a member of the Society of Antiquaries of Copenhagen; the first Member for Brighton in our Legislative Assembly; and Consul for Heaven only knows how many distant realms, scattered over the globe from Norway to Peru, from Denmark to Brazil; indeed it would fill a catalogue to enumerate all his large and small dignities. In 1873 he was created by Christian the Ninth of Denmark, a Chevalier of the Third Class of the Order of Dannebrog (Standard of Denmark), which confers the rank and title of a Knight-Commander. In 1874, King Oscar, of Sweden and Norway, bestowed upon him a Knighthood of the Order of Wasa; and in 1883 he obtained a Knight-Companionship of St. Michael and St. George through the gracious favour of Queen Victoria. It would be a sight worth looking at to behold Chevalier Were, A.B.C., &c., &c., "doing the Block," bedizened with the insignia of the various distinguished offices filled by him, the stars and ribands decorating a not unimposing figure, moving in a halo of pride and pomp.

As a sequel to notice I append two documents which will speak for themselves. The first is a brief sketch of "The Twelve Apostles" found amongst the papers of one of them, and courteously forwarded to me. It is in "the Saint's" own manuscript, and from an Apostolic standpoint, may be accepted as an authorized version of an incident often talked and joked over in the days of "Auld Lang Syne", though now rarely mentioned and comparatively unknown. It is written in a style to induce a belief that the author intended it for publication at some time or other. Here it is:—

"About this time an Association of mercantile men was formed, for the protection of the estate of W. F. A. Rucker, one of the earliest traders from Tasmania, who represented various interests there. Rucker had nominally possessed himself of houses and lands in and near to Melbourne. His bankers (the Union Bank of Australia) had, however, called upon him either to reduce his account or to realize upon his property. The cloud of pressure had begun to rise over the infant colony, indicating heavier pressure, and Rucker, it is supposed, at the suggestion of William Highett, the manager of the Bank, sought for guarantees to the Bank. It came about that he made a deed of assignment for the benefit of his creditors (of which the Bank and Highett were the principal) of all his property, the deed setting out that the assignees should be jointly and severally liable for ten thousand each. This was done, the property was scheduled to the following as assignees or trustees,
* * * * * * * * *
and the deeds deposited with the Union Bank. There was another outstanding liability of Rucker, about £2300, to the Bank of Australasia. The manager, D. C. M'Arthur, objected to be a party to the general assignment but he also held some deeds. It was arranged that Mr. J. B. Were, one of the Twelve, should give his bills to the Bank for the amount, and his security would be the deeds held by the Bank of Australasia. When this liabilty of Mr. Were's became due the property was not realizable. Mr. Were had a summons to pay the Bank of Australasia, and had to stump up something under £2500 for which he was handed bills of several of his brother Apostles to cover the amount, and the deeds representing these were handed to the Union Bank to represent a portion of the security made to the Twelve."

The bills fell due, were dishonoured, and the property representing them being unrealizable, a sort of panic set in among the settlers, coin was scarce and credit nearly defunct. The Apostles being the principal mercantile men, one after the other getting into difficulties. The Insolvent Court was sought for protection by most, and at the head of the schedules was the ten thousand pounds liability to the Union Bank. Some made assignments, others married making ante-nuptial settlements; but early or late the whole Twelve succumbed to the pressure, and the record is now matter of history. The property had been gradually sold by the Union Bank, who are said to have recouped themselves with compound interest, with some lands which had been purchased from the Union Bank by Rucker, but none of the Apostles or their representatives were ever paid for their trouble, and Were, the only one of them who was compelled to advance £2500 some forty years ago, has not directly or indirectly to himself or representatives been recouped one farthing.

One peculiar feature of the arrangement may be mentioned, viz., that Highett had taken over amongst his personal securities from one of the Apostles (Welsh) "The Highett Paddock," originally purchased for a firm at the Cape of Good Hope.

This paddock was never put publicly into the market for sale until after Highett's decease, and it was always considered by the Apostles that it was part of their original protective security.

The following communication, addressed by the Arch-Apostle to not the least prominent of the Brethren, has been placed at my service by the recipient, with a declaration that he has no recollection whatever of the incident referred to in paragraph 4. It is worth a place in these Chronicles, as embodying the version of the principal actor:—

Melbourne, 2nd December 1867.

My dear Were,—The following statement comprises all the information which recollection, and the few papers in my possession bearing upon the circumstances attending your unfortunate entanglement in my affairs in November 1841, enable me to give you:—

1. That you joined ten others of our leading brother colonists of that day, in a generous and spirited endeavour to rescue me from a position of extreme embarrassment and danger, the effect of the first, and all things considered, perhaps the most disastrous crisis, with which the commerce of this colony has had to contend.
2. That I conveyed the whole of my landed property, which I had not long before acquired at a cost of about £44,000, to yourself and those ten gentlemen in trust, to provide funds for the retirement of my paper, then held by the Bank of Australasia, the Union Bank, and the Port Phillip Bank, in all about £16,000.
3. That by a subsequent arrangement between yourselves you undertook to settle with the first-named bank, whilst your co-trustees were left to arrange with the other two; and
4. That in April, 1846, you conveyed to the Union Bank your estate and interest in the before-mentioned properties for the sum of £386 5s.

You are, of course, aware that the Union Bank have realized a very large sum from those properties, confessedly £50,000, but believed to be much more; and that they refuse to account for the balance in excess of my liability to them (about £5000) proceeds, £50,000, liability, £5000; balance excess, £45,000; contending that the conveyances from yourself and co-trustees to the bank were not as we represent them to be, a continuation of the trust, but an absolute sale,—Yours very truly,

W. F. A. RUCKER.

J. B. Were, Esq., Hall of Commerce.

1. Mr. Were died in 1885, since the above was written.—Ed.