Media: BOOK - paperback, 134 pages
Author: Finlayson book committee
Year: 1987

William and Helen Finlayson and Their Known Descendants: Being the 150th Anniversary of their arrival at Holdfast Bay (Glenelg) South Australia

FOREWORD

The younger generations who read this book may find it hard to believe that a man and his wife would leave the comfortable environment of Scotland just to bring the Scriptures to the Aborigines in Australia. But such was the objective which motivated William and Helen Finlayson.

Their story is told in William’s own words in the pages that follow.

The incredible hardships which they endured are rendered even more stark by the simple way in which they are told.

Their courage, hard work and complete faith in God enabled them to rise above their misfortunes.

The Finlaysons were true pioneers. Their descendants have spread throughout Australia and have left their mark in commerce, farming, engineering, administration, science, medicine, law, exploration, public service and many other fields.

The Clan Finlayson, (which was a Sept or Sub-Clan of the Clan Farquhar, and was named from Finlay Farquharson, also known as ‘Finlay the Black’), belonged originally to the Western Highlands of Scotland. Representatives lived around Loch Alsh, and on the Island of Skye in the Hebrides.

In the Seventeenth Century some of them settled in the lowlands, and the branch to which William Finlayson belonged lived at Stirling. William’s grandfather, Henry Finlayson, was born at Stirling about 1747, and came to Glasgow in early life, where he became a merchant. He married Mary Fletchfield, and they had five sons and one daughter. Henry was an Elder of the Kirk, and a Freeman or Burgess of the City of Glasgow.

His second son Robert Finlayson was born in Glasgow about 1773, and also became a Burgess of Glasgow. He and his wife had eleven children, seven of whom survived; William the youngest, was born in Glasgow in November 1813. He commenced work when eleven years old. Early in his life he became a committed Christian with a desire for service abroad. Therefore, when an advertisement appeared in the London papers offering a free passage for young married men to the newly formed colony of South Australia, he moved quickly. His proposal to Helen Harvey, ‘a friend and sister in the Lord’, was accepted. Helen Harvey was descended from William Harvey, a celebrated English physician, who in 1628 announced in a published treatise his discovery of the circulation of the blood. For many years he was Court Physician and attended Charles I at the battle of Edge Hill.
William and Helen were married in Edinburgh on the evening of 30 September 1836, and on the next day sailed for London.

They left London on 8 October in the John Renwick and arrived at Holdfast Bay, South Australia, on 14 February 1837.

CONTENTS
Introduction
Foreword
South Australian Pioneers - Ship Arrivals 1836/37
Passenger List - John Renwick
Family Tree of William Finlayson
Extracts, Jottings and Memoranda from the Diary of William Finlayson
Death of an Old Colonist - Helen Finlayson
The Garden, Helenholme
Land Transactions of William Finlayson
Journal of an Excursion from Adelaide to the River Murray and Lake Alexandrina
Jane Connell Finlayson
Robert Kettle Finlayson
William Finlayson (Junior)
John Harvey Finlayson
Helen Harvey Finlayson (Ambrose)
Ebenezer Finlayson
Jessie Grace Finlayson
Elizabeth Mary Christina Finlayson (Nickels)
Hannah Randell Finlayson (Randell)
Index