[Editor: This Miner’s Right was issued to Robert King, in Victoria, on 8 January 1872.]
[Front of Miner’s Right]
[Handwritten text has been rendered in italics.]
Series C.
Colony of Victoria.
Five Shillings.
No. 67175
District & Place in which issued Buninyong Date 8th January 1872
Miner’s Right.
Issued to Robert Storrey King of Scotchmans
under the provisions of “The Mining Statute 1865,” No. 291, to be in force until
7th January 1873 Simon O’Neill
cps
By Authority: John Ferres, Government Printer.
[Reverse of Miner’s Right]
JS 24/2/72
[The reverse side of the Miner’s Right is blank, except for some handwritten initials and a date.]
Source:
Original document
Editor’s notes:
Dimensions (approximate): 203 mm. (width), 140 mm. (height).
The printer’s details were printed on the left side of the Miner’s Right.
The middle name of the holder of this Miner’s Right is unclear; it may be Storrey, Storvey, Stoney, or some other name.
Underneath the signature there are some initials, “cps”; however, it is not known what those initials refer to.
The front of the Miner’s Right has a coat of arms near the top, with a lion on the left and a unicorn on the right, with the text “Honi soit qui mal y pense” (the motto of the Order of the Garter), with a scroll underneath with the words “Dieu et mon droit” (a phrase which is used as the motto of the monarch of the United Kingdom). At the bottom of the coat of arms is the motto “Advance Australia”.
The left side of the front of the Miner’s Right has a vertical design which includes 1) a small coat of arms at the top, with a kangaroo on the left and an emu on the right (symbols of Australia); 2) a crossed pick and shovel (symbols of mining); 3) two British ensigns, upon which are superimposed a sword and scales (the sword is a symbol of authority and of punishment; the scales are a symbol of justice).
Dieu et mon droit = (French) “God and my right” (the phrase is used as the motto of the monarch of the United Kingdom)
See: 1) “Coats of Arms”, The Royal Household
2) “Dieu et mon droit”, Wikipedia
Honi soit qui mal y pense = an Anglo-Norman phrase, which has been translated as “shamed be whoever thinks ill of it”, “shame on anyone who thinks evil of it”, “shame on him who thinks this evil”, and “evil to him who evil thinks” (the phrase is used as the motto of the Order of the Garter)
See: 1) “Coats of Arms”, The Royal Household
2) “The Order of the Garter”, The Royal Household
3) Camille Chevalier-Karfis, “Origins of the expression ‘Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense’”, ThoughtCo. (updated 7 August 2019)
4) “Honi soit qui mal y pense”, Wikipedia
5) “honi soit qui mal y pense”, Wiktionary
Scotchmans = (in the context of Victoria) the name of several locations in Victoria: 1) Scotchman’s Creek, in Mount Waverley; 2) Scotchman’s Gully, between Castlemaine and Chewton, 3) Scotchman’s Gully, near Warburton; 4) Scotchman’s Gully, also known as “Drunken Scotchman’s Gully”, in the area of Whipstick (north of Bendigo), 5) Scotchman’s Gully, in the area of Whroo (south of Rushworth); 6) Scotchman’s Lead, located between Napoleons and Buninyong
See: 1) “Mt. Waverley Sth. progress requests”, The Dandenong Journal (Dandenong, Vic.), 16 July 1947, p. 6 [“Box Hill Rd. near Scotchman’s Creek”]
2) “Rich specimens: An incident of the past”, The Mount Alexander Mail, (Castlemaine, Vic.), 8 October 1898, p. 2 [“the head of Scotchman’s Gully, or, as it is now known, Little Quartz Hill (from its close contiguity to the Old Quartz Hill), situate about three miles east of Castlemaine, and nearly the same distance from Chewton”]
3a) “Fight at Warburton: Mountains on fire: Good saves effected”, The Age (Melbourne, Vic.), 16 February 1926, p. 11
3b) “Scotchman’s Gully Falls, Warburton ”, Trove [link to postcard, SLV]
4a) “The Whipstick”, The Bendigo Advertiser (Sandhurst, Vic.), 9 July 1857, p. 2 [“Scotchman’s Gully”]
4b) “A three hundred and seventy ounce nugget found in Drunken Scotchman’s Gully, in the Whipstick”, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.), 13 April 1857, p. 6
5) “Whroo”, The Colonial Mining Journal, Railway and Share Gazette and Illustrated Record (Melbourne, Vic.), 2 May 1861, p. 139 [“At Whroo … the old gullies — Scotchman’s, Main Gully, and Windlass Flat”]
6) “Meeting at the Scotchman’s Lead near Buninyong”, The Star (Ballarat, Vic.), 22 May 1857, p. 2
Leave a Reply