sketchers(?), were two of the children of Samuel Lapham, superintendent of convicts on Maria Island, Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in 1842-78, and Susan, née Butler. One of the Lapham children painted some small, naive watercolours which decorate pages in an album of poems compiled by Frances Lapham (private collection). (Another of the Lapham girls, Susan, Mrs Nugent Wood, later published several books of poems and essays.) A descendant feels that these sketches are more likely to have been by Henry than by Frances, although this is not certain. Two of the watercolours, drawn about 1850, show Maria Island from the east coast and an unidentified homestead, possibly Prospect House, Richmond. Frances later married Rev. Charles Dobson, rector from 1848 to 1878 of St John’s Church of England at Buckland on the east coast of Tasmania, and it has been suggested that the homestead view may have been drawn at Buckland.
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
