Francis James Ashburner was the son of William Page Ashburner (b. 7 December 1791, Maharashtra, India – d. 30 March 1862 in Brighton, Sussex) and Ann Beale (1801-1889), his father’s second wife.
His father, formerly a successful merchant in India who had also held the office of Mayor of Bombay, had emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land in 1828 with his first wife, Hester Maria (née Elliott, 1798-1838), and the oldest of their children.
After arriving in Tasmania, William Page Ashburner worked as a barrister and served as a commissioner of the peace before taking up land at Sillwood, near Longford, outside Launceston. The youngest of William and Hester’s 13 children were born in Tasmania at William’s property at Sillwood. Following the death of Hester in March 1838, William served as a Member of the Legislative Council of Van Diemen’s Land in 1839-1844.
After his resignation from politics he made a trip to England, where he married his second wife, Ann, on 14 September 1845 at St. Pancras, Camden, London. The couple then returned to William’s home in Tasmania, where Francis was born on 18 August 1847 at Sillwood. Francis was to be the last of his father’s 14 children by two marriages.
The unpublished journal of 12-year-old Francis, kept conscientiously on board the Star of Tasmania on its 85-day voyage from Launceston to London via Cape Horn in 1859-60, reveals him to have been a bright and observant child. He made the trip in company with his London-born mother, no doubt to visit her family back in England.
Francis was particularly sensitive to the plight of animals on board the ship, recording many events such as the loss of a chicken and a kitten overboard or the death of a captive native mope-hawk, and noting the appearances of albatross, petrels, Cape pigeons and other sea-birds, or porpoises, flying fish, Portuguese men-of-war and whales. (He does, however, enjoy the taste of dolphin meat at dinner and breakfast!).
He notes with excitement the nationality or names of passing ships, the dramatic rescue of the First Mate Mr. Catnach from the Sargasso Sea, the beauty of the stars and of icebergs, and records how he passes his time with French lessons, reading, or playing draughts, and studying the barometer or the nature of the winds. His diction is frequently charming: during a storm, for example, “the ship rolled very much to the great discomposure of the dishes”, and “Mamma passed a most unenviable night” in a flooded cabin.
Because of bad behaviour, he was forced to write as punishment lines: Civility costs nothing and is always recommendable and Beware of evil company and bad examples.
Francis’s much older half-brother, Lieutenant Burnett Ashburner, born in Longford in 1829, had been killed in the Indian Mutiny at Cawnpore in 1857. Francis himself would serve with distinction in the British army, attaining the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He died at Lansdown Place, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on 10 January 1934.
