Transcription of Alexander Brodie Spark’s diaries

MLMSS 11800

fonds

1836-1856, transcribed probably 20th century

9669231

0.16 metres of textual material (1 box containing 2 volumes) - manuscript, typescript

Alexander Brodie Spark (1792-1856) was born in Scotland and arrived in Sydney as a free settler in 1823. He set up a shop in George Street selling sugar, wines, alcohol and drapery and in 1826 he started a shipping agency through which he sold incoming cargoes and exported colonial produce and wool. By this time, Spark owned more than six thousand acres of land on the Hunter River and a nine-acre grant at Woolloomooloo. He served on the Sydney Grand Jury, becoming its foreman in 1826. He became the Bank of Australia board’s managing director in 1832. He built his main residence ‘Tempe’ on the Cooks River but also lived briefly at ‘Tusculum’ in Woolloomooloo Hill, both homes being designed for him by architect John Verge. He joined the committee of the Agricultural Society and the Chamber of Commerce and supported causes such as Scots Church, the Benevolent Society and the Female School of Industry.

In 1840 he married Frances Maria, née Biddulph, with whom he had six children.

In the early 1840s he began to lose a great amount of money and became officially insolvent in 1844. However, he managed to recover and by 1846 was shipping copper to England and horses to India. He then recovered much of his fortune by the successful speculation he made about the discovery of gold in Ballarat in 1851. He died in Tempe in 1856.

References:
Library acquisition file
NSW Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages. “Family history search.” Accessed 6 January 2023. https://www.nsw.gov.au/family-and-relationships/family-history-search
Museums of History New South Wales. “Tusculum.” Accessed 6 January 2023. https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/tusculum/
“Spark, Alexander Brodie (1792–1856).” Australian Dictionary of Biography. Accessed 6 January 2023. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/spark-alexander-brodie-2684/text3755
Spark, Alexander Brodie, Graham J. Abbott, and Geoffrey Little. The Respectable Sydney Merchant : A.B. Spark of Tempe. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1976.

2 maroon volumes containing a transcription of Alexander Brodie Spark's diaries which cover the period 1 January 1836 to 22 September 1856. The transcriber is unknown. In the diaries Sparks records not only his personal life but many of the major issues of the time such as the anti-transportation movement and the emancipist movement. He writes about the boom of the 1830s, the events leading up to the 1840s depression and Australia's subsequent recovery. Also mentioned is the colonial aristocracy, with its vice-regal balls and huge parties, as well as the emerging middle class and convicts. He writes about his business transactions as a property owner, merchant and shipping agent, and as director of the Bank of Australia and of various companies. Mention is made of his attendances at court as assessor, and of the arrivals and departures of ships for which he acted as agent. He also describes visits to Patrick's Plains, Newcastle, Parramatta, Wollongong and other places to inspect properties and stock and to visit friends.

The second volume contains an appendix containing biographical notes on many of the people who are mentioned in the diaries.

Copyright restrictions may apply:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder

Title devised by cataloguer based on contents

A modern note that came with the volumes stated, 'These are fuller transcriptions of the Spark dairies than the published version'. '?? to the Mitchell'.

Date of diaries (1836-1856) taken from contents of diaries. Transcription estimate of 'probably 20th century' taken from the years, 1952/1953, the binders (Riven Spring-back binder) had advertisements in the Kalgoorlie Miner and Northern Star newspapers.