Sir John Bayley Darvall

Barrister and politician

Trustee appointed for the award of compensation to secure the annuity of his step-grandmother Mary Johnson (née Francis) on Folly & Savanna in Antigua.

1. Grandson of Godschall Johnson I, and son of Major Edward Darvall and Emily Johnson. Member of Council of New South Wales and late Director of Australian Joint Stock Bank; director with inter alios John Alers Hankey junior of Bank of Queensland.

2. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA, 1833; MA 1837) and called to the bar (Middle Temple) 15 June 1833. Married Elizabeth Flora, daughter of Colonel John Shapland, on 27 September 1837 at Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. August 1839 they emigrated to Sydney, Australia where they were joined by his parents, two brothers and three sisters and 'friends with Indian connexions'.
   'Darvall became "intimately connected with the monied and pastoral interests of the colony"'. Appointed a director of the Sydney Banking Co. and the Australian Banking Co. In 1842 he joined an association formed to petition for permission to introduce Indian indentured labour in place of convict labour.
   For his legal and political career in Australia from 1839-1865 see Australian Dictionary of Biography entry.
   Left Australia and returned to England in 1865 where he practised at the bar and became a director of the Bank of Australasia. Knighted in 1877.
   Left an estate of £60,000 in England and £20,000 in New South Wales.

T71/877 Antigua claim no. 387 (Holly & Savanna).

1. Lady May Thornton, 'The Johnson and Godschall Johnson Families' (1972), http://www.geocities.ws/lordrichardcholmondeley/godschall.htm [accessed 09/04/2012] unsourced; P.O. Directory 1863.

2. R. W. Rathbone, 'Darvall, Sir John Bayley (1809–1883)', Australian Dictionary of Biography.