Only Behind a Cloud

By Stephe Jitts

When looking at the grand structure that is Old Linton today it is hard to conceive that its origins lie in the dubious conviction of a young Jewish man.
It began life as ‘Alfristan Cottage’, a generously proportioned cottage of simple design and the last building erected by that man. It still stands today as the core of Old Linton.
In its second lease of life as the home of JP Ritchie and his family it became known as ‘Linton’ in recognition of Ritchie’s birthplace.
In its third, it grew like Topsy into most of what stands today, at the hands of one of Australia’s greatest pastoralists, AB Triggs.
Subsequently gifted to the Returned Services League it became a refuge for war veterans and following their relocation across the road, it was resold into private hands to become known as ‘Old Linton’.
During and between each lease of life, Old Linton has seen the rise and fall of prosperity. It has seen two world wars and a host of lesser ones. It has survived two major economic depressions. Through all it has stood as quiet witness. In the words of Arthur Bryant Triggs:
The sun has not gone out of business, Only behind a cloud.
This is its story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephe Jitts
• Release date: Feb 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458190314

Stephe Jitts

Stephe is a retired audiologist who has a love of things old. He spends his time tinkering and restoring.

Book preview

Only Behind a Cloud

The History of Old Linton

Stephe Jitts

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 Stephe Jitts

Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Table of Contents

Chapter One: INTRODUCTION

Chapter Two: MOSES THE CREATOR

Chapter Three: THE RITCHIE YEARS

Chapter Four: A PASTORAL SANCTUM

Chapter Five: YASS WAR VETERANS' HOME

Chapter Six: GROWING UP AT LINTON

Chapter Seven: BACK IN PRIVATE HANDS

Chapter Eight: OLD LINTON TODAY

REFERENCES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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Chapter One: INTRODUCTION

When looking at the grand structure that is Old Linton today it is hard to conceive that its origins lie in the dubious conviction of a young Jewish man.

It began life as ‘Alfristan Cottage’, a generously proportioned cottage of simple design and the last building erected by that man. It still stands today as the core of Old Linton.

In its second lease of life as the home of JP Ritchie and his family it became known as ‘Linton’ in recognition of Ritchie’s birthplace.

In its third, it grew like Topsy into most of what stands today, at the hands of one of Australia’s greatest pastoralists, AB Triggs.

Subsequently gifted to the Returned Services League it became a refuge for war veterans and following their relocation across the road, it was resold into private hands to become known as ‘Old Linton’.

During and between each lease of life, Old Linton has seen the rise and fall of prosperity. It has seen two world wars and a host of lesser ones. It has survived two major economic depressions. Through all it has stood as quiet witness. In the words of Arthur Bryant Triggs:

The sun has not gone out of business, Only behind a cloud.

This is its story.

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Chapter Two: MOSES THE CREATOR

On the evening of June the 22nd, 1813, a man named William Beard was accosted on the London Streets. I was going up to Holborn, he told the court at Justice Hall on the 14th of July. I was met by four persons; they pushed against me... in a kind of manner that showed me it was not an accidental thing. Proceeding onwards Beard was hustled by the four again and this time, as he walked away, he shifted his pocket book from his coat pocket to his breeches. For a third time the four men appeared around a corner, and pushed against Beard with cries of How do you do? before running off into the evening.

I was alarmed, said Beard to the court, And I put my hand in my breeches pocket and felt my book was gone. The pocket-book contained seven one-pound notes and a cheque for thirty-five pounds. Beard continued: ... at the same moment three of the four went towards Gray’s Inn lane, the fourth (the prisoner) crossed over Brownlow Street and came towards Holborn; I pursued him momently [sic].¹

‘The prisoner’ was Moses Moses, a London born glass-cutter and the son of a rabbi. He is described in bare detail: a dark complexion, dark brown hair, and dark eyes. This was not his first appearance in court – he had faced a charge of exchanging counterfeited money for oranges in 1812 and been found Not Guilty². Now, he tried to tell the court at Justice Hall, it was simply a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time – he said he had been crossing town on the evening of June the 22nd in order to seek work. The gentleman was intoxicated, he said. I could easily have got from him had I been one of the parties. Beard replied shortly: I was sober.

This time Moses’ defence was unsuccessful. Found guilty, Moses was sentenced at the Old Bailey to transportation for life.

The Old Bailey cast an ominous shadow across London’s small Jewish community. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the desperation of poverty and the nature of need meant that crime was not just an idle compulsion but a matter of necessity. As elementary as this might sound today it was nonetheless the basis of the concept of the penal colony – the idea that in purging Britain of the bad, the debauched, and the criminally minded, the problem of crime itself was solved. Crime – it was maintained – was the product of a damaged soul, regardless of external factors. It was this notion of the damaged soul which, leading from the prejudice towards the Jewish community, deepened the notion of the links between Jewish people and crime. When Charles Dickens (a man who was to have a prominent connection with Linton nearly a century later) was asked why he had made Fagin a Jew he replied: "...that class of criminal invariably was a Jew."³

Moses left behind him three brothers and three sisters – and it is doubtlessly an indication of the time that within a decade two of his brothers would join him as convicts in the colony. But Moses went first, bound to Sydney aboard the Marquis of Wellington.4 He was twenty-three years old.

Moses was one of eight or nine Jewish convicts aboard the Marquis of Wellington. Another was twenty-three year