William Patrick Auld (27 May 1840 – 2 September 1912), usually known as W. P. Auld, Pat or Patrick, was an Adelaide, South Australian vigneron and wine merchant born in Stalybridge (near Manchester, England).
He took part in John McDouall Stuart's sixth expedition (Dec 1861 – Dec 1862) which successfully crossed Australia from south to north.Expedition Six, The South Australian Great Northern Exploring Expedition, December 1861 to December 1862, John McDouall Stuart's Companions, John McDouall Stuart Society He was also a member of B. T. Finniss's 1864 expedition to select a capital for the Northern Territory, during which an incident occurred resulting in his being tried for murder of an Aboriginal man.
For many years he managed his father's famous vineyard, "Auldana" in the eastern foothills, and was recognised as an accomplished vigneron and wine judge. The suburb Auldana is located on the site of the vineyard.
Father founds "Auldana" Patrick and Eliza Auld, with son William Patrick and daughters Agnes and Georgiana, arrived in South Australia on 6 April 1842 on the ,1842 ~ Patrick Auld, South Australian AULDs, The AULDs and connected families, www.tizzana.com.au as did James Philcox. The father set up as a wine and spirit merchant in the Old Exchange Buildings in Hindley Street and shortly after purchased two lots of land, each of 230 acres at £1 per acre,Bishop, Geoffrey C. The Vineyards of Adelaide Lynton Publications, Adelaide, 1977 in Magill which he named "Auldana". In 1847 or 1849 the father sold the Hindley Street business to Messrs. Disher and Milne and the family returned to England, enrolling the son at an institution named "King's College", perhaps King's College School.
The father returned to Adelaide alone in 1852, building a residence on one block of "Auldana" and between 1846 and 1856South Australian Wines in England The South Australian Advertiser, 30 July 1886, p. 6, accessed 20 February 2011 developed the other as a vineyard which in February 1862 he floated the South Auldana Vineyard Association with a capital of £12,500. Directors of the Association were Abraham Scott, George Tinline (banker and uncle of Sir George Murray), John Hodgkiss, Patrick Auld and William Wadham. In 1863 they sent a shipment of wines to the London Exhibition which was favourably received, but the Association went into voluntary liquidation in October 1865. Around this time he set up a wine export business in Gilbert Place.Gilbert Place is between Hindley Street and Currie Street, near King William Street, Adelaide. In 1876 he had 104 acres under vines.The South Australian Vintage of 1876 The Register 4 July 1876 p. 6 accessed 20 February 2011
Education and employment In 1853 or 1854, the family returned to South Australia where a young W. P. Auld completed his education at J. L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution, and secured a cadet position with G. W. Goyder, Surveyor General of South Australia.Death of Mr. W. P. Auld The Advertiser 3 September 1912 p. 9 accessed 21 February 2011
Stuart's sixth expedition
In 1861, W. P. Auld he was selected to join the sixth Stuart expedition. John McDouall Stuart officially set out on 25 October 1861 from ... the residence of James and Catherine Chambers in North Adelaide. The party physically left Adelaide on 7 November. This was his third, and ultimately successful attempt to cross Australia. On 24 July 1862, they planted the Union Jack on the beach of Van Diemen's Gulf. The Expedition completed the first European crossing of Australia, from Adelaide to Van Diemen Gulf, passing through the Centre of the Continent, and returning along the same route without loss of life.The South Australian Great Northern Exploring Expedition 1861–1862, johnmcdouallstuart.org.au
The Finniss expedition
In 1864 the South Australian government charged B. T. Finniss with finding a suitable site by the Adelaide River for the capital of the Northern Territory to be called "Palmerston".The chosen location, Adam Bay at the mouth of the Adelaide River, was later discarded for Port Darwin.'Finniss, Boyle Travers (1807–1893)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, Melbourne University Press, 1966, pp. 377–379.Finniss Expedition members included: Hon. Colonel Boyle Travers Finniss; Frederick Henry Litchfield; W. P. Auld; William McMinn; ...Ebenezer Ward, M.P. was clerk and accountant to the Finniss Northern Territory Expedition. Auld, employed as a chainman, was one of the party of 40 that left Port Adelaide on the barque "Henry Ellis" on 29 April 1864 for Adam Bay.Shipping Intelligence South Australian Register 25 April 1864 p. 2 accessed 26 February 2011 He, with several other young "labourers", aroused considerably antagonism among the officer class in the expedition by receiving preferential treatment from Finniss, one of several sources of dissension in a rather dysfunctional organization. He was a member of the exploration party led by surgeon Belgrave Ninnis which explored areas west of the Adelaide River as far as Howard River and King Creek on and arrived at Port Darwin in April 1865. Auld's role was to lead overland a party consisting of G. Warland. W. Dougall, F. Litchfleld, Dr , and Fred. Finniss, which crossed the Adelaide River on 17 April, named the Howard River for the captain of the Beatrice on 20 April, met Beatrice at Port Darwin before returning to camp. The Bengal had arrived and several expeditioners, including Auld, opted to pay the fare home rather than stay. Several others opted to sail west on a boat (Forlorn Hope) they purchased from the captain of the Bengal.
Murders of Aboriginals During the Finniss expedition Auld was involved in a punitive expedition against a tribe of Aboriginal Australians from Chambers Bay, some from Escape Cliffs, who had stolen goods and seriously wounded several horses with their spears. During this action an Aboriginal man was shot, presumed dead, and Auld was accused of the crime.
(from a letter from Auld to his father) The Colonel (Finniss)Northern Territory , Settlement of Australian States and Territories - "in 1864. Colonel Boyle Travers Finniss was responsible for the settlement," then gave orders that seven horsemen were to be in readiness to start next morning and try to find the natives' camp, and recover the goods they had stolen from us, and to treat them as felons. I went over to Chambers' Bay with two men, acting as scouts. Fifty (natives) tried to surround us. I shot at one, and sent one of the men to tell the footmen to come to our assistance. They were showing real fighting. Directly the footmen made their appearance the blacks disappeared like magic into the shrub. We recovered a quantity of the stores and goods. The Doctor, (Dr Walker, Protector of Aborigines) I believe, has brought a charge against me for shooting the black. He sent it to the Governor, but he would not receive it; so I hear be intends sending it to Adelaide. It is only done out of ill-feeling to the Colonel.The Northern Expedition South Australian Advertiser 17 December 1864 p. 3 accessed 21 February 2011
In another letter, he wrote The natives are not very numerous here, but they are great thieves and very cunning and artful. There have been two shot by our party here; one, I think was justifiable, and the other a cold-blooded murder. The two deaths referred to were presumably that inflicted by Alaric Ward (no relation to Ebenezer Ward, mentioned below) on 9 August 1864 and that of 8 September 1864 for which Auld was charged.
At the trial no evidence was brought for the prosecution, rather there was a report that the man shot at (named Dombey or Bombey) was still alive.South Australian News, Perth Gazette and W.A. Times, 12 October 1866, p. 3, accessed 21 February 2011"Mr. W. P. Auld has been acquitted on the charge of murdering 'Dombey', an aboriginal native, at the Northern Territory. The Crown Prosecutor offered no evidence. The late accounts from Escape Cliffs state that Bombey, who was supposed to be murdered, is alive." Auld was acquitted when the two witnesses did not take the stand (one, Francis James Packard, brother of H. D. Packard, had drowned in the Murray and the other, a man named McDougall, Auld's co-accused, left for England once he reached Melbourne. Auld, rather than counting his blessings, aroused considerable public antipathyMr W. P. Auld South Australian Advertiser 22 December 1866 p. 2 accessed 21 February 2011It is much to be regretted that the friends of the above-named gentleman did not dissuade him from applying to Parliament for reimbursement, or compensation, with reference to his trial for shooting a native at Adam Bay. It was in the highest degree improbable that such an application would be successful ... The article then goes on to cast doubts on statements made by Strangways under parliamentary privilege. by then attempting to claim costs from parliament, a move which was defeated after strenuous opposition from (among others) H. B. T. Strangways, who was contemptuous of Auld's defence that he was following Finniss's orders.House of Assembly South Australian Register 21 December 1866 p. 3 accessed 21 February 2011
Back in Adelaide On 1 September Police trooper Potter was sent to Adam Bay 23 September 1866 on the "Ellen Lewis" with warrants for the arrest of Auld's fellow-accused William Dougall and Adam Chandler. Auld (who had returned earlier, perhaps by the "Coorong" on 6 April 1866Shipping Intelligence South Australian Register 7 April 1866 p. 2 accessed 26 February 2011) had already been charged and was out on bail.
On 15 November 1866 he married Eliza Hartland Strawbridge (1842? – 20 February 1916), eldest daughter of William S. Strawbridge (1843–1911), who replaced Goyder as Surveyor General. Eliza wrote poetry in collaboration with her mother, Eliza Stockholm Strawbridge (1818–1897).Poems written by Eliza S. Strawbridge and daughter Eliza Hartland Auld, 1867–1894, 1906, nd Poetry written by Mrs Eliza Stockholm Strawbridge and her daughter Eliza Hartland Auld. Mrs Strawbridge's poetry includes some printed examples, pasted in a leather-covered volume. The 1867 poem relates to the arrival of the Galatea with the Duke of Edinburgh on a royal tour of the Australian colonies. Poems with dates were written between 1867 and 1893. Another notebook has handwritten references to poetry published in the 'Adelaide Miscellany' & 'Observer Miscellany', with the year and issues, with some of her poems, written in another hand, dating from 1868–1875. (The end of the volume has a draft of a letter written by her son William Strawbridge relating to the New Church.) Also includes typescripts of poems and single pages. Small volumes of Mrs Eliza Auld's 'Lyrical Poems' were given as Christmas gifts to her brother William Strawbridge and his wife, and to her nieces Wynne and Nellie, in 1906. and published a volume of her own in 1913.Lyrical poems / by Eliza Hartland Auld, 1913, Melbourne : Johnson and Stone's Print Shop
Their daughter, Edith Mary Auld (30 October 1867Births, Maarriages, Deaths South Australian Register – 2 January 1873 supplement p. 8 accessed 21 February 2011–25 August 1928) married Edward E. Cleland.Obituary, Mrs Edith Mary Cleland, 27 August 1928, The Register, p. 12New Supreme Court Judge, Mr. E. E. Cleland, K.C. appointed, 6 March 1926, The Advertiser, p. 22