Henry Reginald Buttanshaw Esquire

Gentleman of Means

Henry Reginald Buttanshaw was born at sea off the island of Tristan da Cunha, 17 February 1832, aboard the East India merchantman Protector.

He was only eight years old when his father Thomas Buttanshaw made a financial decision to move his family from England to Australia and invest his considerable capital into financial and agricultural ventures in New South Wales.

A former Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, Tom Buttanshaw was a wealthy man in his own right, making a small fortune working for the British East India Company plying the London - Bombay trade route.

The family departed London, 14 August 1836 aboard the "Florentia", sailing via Rio de Janerio and arrived at Sydney six months later, 22 January 1840.

Blue Mountains Death

He purchased land in the Molong district of New South Wales and began what was to become a highly successful farming business. Buttanshaw Senior was only 47 years old when died in an accident in the Blue Mountains near Bathurst, 6 June 1841.

Henry's mother Ellen remarried twelve months later to the dashing twenty five year old Irishman William Thornton, 14 September 1842. Thornton was well connected, a one time squatter and adventurer who made a name for himself taking a herd of cattle overland to Adelaide with the Kinchela family.

East India Company Career

Henry Buttanshaw was educated at Parramatta by William Woolls, school master, clergyman and botanist.

In 1850, aged nineteen, he followed family tradition and left Australia to take up a cadetship with the East India Company. Henry went on to serve with the 47th Bengal Native Infantry in Burma seeing active duty during the Indian Mutiny and Opium War with China.

Lieutenant Buttanshaw was invalided out of the East India Company army and joined the Queensland Colonial Secretary's office in 1859 becoming Assistant to the Legislative Assembly, 17 April 1861.

Police Magistrate

Buttanshaw was appointed presiding Police Magistrate at Brisbane Central Police Court in January 1863 and became Visiting Justice to Her Majesty’s Gaol St. Helena Island, the Lunatic Asylum at Woogaroo and the prison hulk Proserpine.

He was later moved to Cardwell, North Queensland as Acting Police Magistrate, Clerk of Petty Sessions, Sub-collector of Customs and Harbour Master.

Four years later he was appointed Police Magistrate at Roma, Queensland, 1 January 1867. While the Magistrate may not have impressed many with his ability in the short term, he was to make a lasting impression on Antoinette Nicoll, the twenty six year old wife of the Postmaster, Francis Nicoll.

Murder on the High Seas

Buttanshaw continued to serve with distinction as Magistrate in Bowen, Rockhampton, Maryborough and Cooktown where he acted as Immigration Agent and Commissioner of Minerals and Lands.

Although having no legal qualifications, he presided over civil and criminal cases including a noteworthy case dubbed "Murder on the High Seas" listed for hearing in Maryborough in  November 1883.

Five man including a Government Agent were charged with the murder of a mate and boat crew from the sailing ship "Alfred Vittery" at Ambrym Island in the New Hebridies six weeks earlier. Buttanshaw committed the men to stand trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court.

On 29 March 1884 a jury was unable to reach a verdict and all but one of the men was discharged. Robert Grimes a crew man was convicted of manslaughter, recommended to mercy.

Grimes was ordered to enter into his own recognisances of £20 and to come up for sentence when called upon.

The Magistrate's Mistress

If H. R. Buttanshaw had a weakness it was the mysterious, twice married Antoinette Bedat alias Mrs. Bray. The Magistrate maintained a life long relationship with her following a liaison in Roma, Queensland in 1870, which produced an illegitimate son, Henry Ernest.

Believed to be born in St. Petersburg about 1840, Antoinette left her native Russia in 1856 in the company of a German Immigrant family bound for Australia. On 1 August 1856, the fifteen year old sailed from London aboard the "Merlin" and arrived in Melbourne three months later, 16 November 1856.

Wizard of the North

In July 1858 she married magician and illusionist Wilhelm Kohler at Castlemaine, Victoria. Kohler known as "The Wizard of the North" travelled the country performing with Miss Flora, the Fire Queen. More than likely Flora was his young, attractive wife Antoinette.

The marriage produced three daughters, Wilhelmina born Dubbo, New South Wales, 8 July 1859, Bertha born Rosetown, South Australia, 27 February 1861 and Alice born Forbes, New South Wales, 4 June 1863.

Burying the Past

Antoinette eventually abandoned her husband and marriage in early 1865, leaving her eldest daughter Wilhelmina in the care of the Bray family in Binda, New South Wales. She was next seen in Roma, Queensland, 1,000 kilometers away.

On 10 August 1865 she married Francis Nicoll, a former officer in the Native Police Force in a civil ceremony in the Roma Court House. She was recorded as Antoinette Bray, Spinster.

Antoinette began her relationship with Buttanshaw, shortly after he was appointed the Roma Magistrate in January 1867 and left Nicoll when she fell pregnant to him in 1870.

The Kindest Heart

H. R. Buttanshaw retired from the bench in mid 1888 but tragically died 17 October, only one day after he joined Antoinette in his Sydney home at Glebe. It was rumored the couple had intended to marry. Three weeks before arriving in Sydney Buttanshaw added a codicil to his will leaving Antoinette £200 per annum and all his real estate in New South Wales.

Fifty-six years old Buttanshaw was buried in Waverley Cemetery, Bronte, New South Wales. His imposing sandstone memorial, paid for by Antoinette, bears the epitaph, "The kindest heart that ever throbbed".

Death united the couple in April 1930 when Antoinette was buried at his side. Her epitaph, "Abide with Me", heartbreakingly ironic.

Rise and Fall of Henry Nicoll

Buttanshaw's son Henry Ernest Nicoll was born in Brisbane, Queensland, 15 April 1871. His birth certificate records his "father" as Francis Nicoll, the estranged husband of Antoinette Nicoll alias Mrs. Bray.

He was only five years old when Nicoll a journalist turned shopkeeper died from burns suffered in a fire at Victoria Downs Reserve near Charleville, Queensland in 1876.

Henry Junior was educated a Ipswich Grammar School, Queensland and excelled in both study and sport and became School Captain in 1888. William Thornton, the Collector of Customs was his appointed guardian. Thornton's wife Ellen formerly Buttanshaw was the boy's blood grandmother.

Great Expectations

In 1892 Henry Nicoll turned twenty one and inherited the bulk of Henry Buttanshaw's estate valued at £25,730/4/10. Later that year he married Isabella Murray daughter of prominent Maryborough hotelier Richard Murray.

Henry Ernest Nicoll aka Bray led a life of extravagance and excess but died practically penniless in 1936 aged 66 years. Unlike the grandeur of his true father's grave, he is buried in unmarked ground in Gayndah Cemetery.