Chequered Lives by Iola Hack Mathews with Chris Durrant
Wakefield Press, 2013. ISBN 9781743052587.
(Age: Adult - Senior secondary) Recommended reading. Chequered
Lives is the engrossing biography of a pioneer Quaker family
from England, who arrived in South Australia in 1837. Specifically,
it tells the tale of John Barton Hack, his younger brother Stephen
Hack and John Barton's wife Bbe Hack. However, it also tells some of
the story of the Society of Friends (the Quakers) and of early South
Australia. As such it's worth noting that the National Library of
Australia has catalogued this book in South Australian history.
On arrival the Hack family quickly erected a small cottage by the
lagoons at Glenelg beach before the city of Adelaide was created.
Over time and from this simple beginning John Barton became a
merchant who owned a 3000 acre estate in the Adelaide Hills, as well
as ships, a whaling station and the first vineyard in South
Australia. Stephen became a grazier and explorer. He was the first
person to overland cattle from New South Wales to South Australia.
Their business and grazing interests had many ups and downs and the
title of this book Chequered lives represents these times very well.
The author, Iola Hack Mathews is John Barton's great,
great-granddaughter. Much research has gone into uncovering her
family's beginnings in South Australia. I particularly enjoyed the
accounts of the development of Quakerism in England and South
Australia, of which I knew very little.
This book is finely written with great detail but also lightly
written in a style that is easy to read eg "Nick Vine Hall, the
Australian genealogist, said that after sex, the number one area of
research on the Internet was genealogy, 'and oddly enough the two
are sort of related.' " p.8
Included are Sponsors and Acknowledgements with a clear explanation
of the painstaking research process and in particular the use of
primary sources; and a lengthy Introduction.
At the end of this history/biography is an Appendix with details of
John Barton's 8 sons (his 6 daughters all died young) including Iola
Hack Mathews' great-grandfather Theodore Hack and details of
Stephen's 2 surviving children (his daughter died in infancy); Notes
(chapter by chapter); and a comprehensive Index.
There are also photographs, artworks, a family tree, maps and
diagrams.
The predominant audience for this book is adult, but it would be
useful for Senior secondary students of Australian History and
Religion Studies, as well as for Research Projects investigating
genealogy topics.
Margaret Strickland