Jes was born 7 July 1848 in Mjels and baptised at Oksboel Church eight days later. He was the eldest of nine children of Jes Christen Jessen(1826-1913) and Thore Petersen Leerbjerg (1824-1879). The family had lived in this area at least since 1708 when the great great grandfather of Jes and Peter, Christen Jessen, was born in Bovrup, in Varnaes Parish, that is just across the water from Mjels in Jutland proper. His son Jes Christensen moved to Mjels to marry Karen Christendatter and was known by the surname Baurup after his birthplace. That surname was used by his children but abandoned by succeeding generations who were known as Jessens. Jes’ mother’s family had lived in Oksboel parish since at least 1763. Most of the Jessen ancestors are buried in the Oksboel Churchyard. The Jessen farmhouse stood in about the middle of the present village of Mjels that now is a triangular junction called Hjoernet, where the road Faergevej crosses Naesvej and Nedervej. It was a thatched roof building that burned down when struck by lightning in a very heavy thunderstorm on 15 July 1939.

The trio joined 350 other emigrants in steerage on board the Eugenie when it left Hamburg on 20 October 1871. The Eugenie was an iron ship built in Hamburg in 1864, owned by Robert Slomas under the command of Captain L Voss and with the newly graduated Doctor Jansen as surgeon. In the first cabin was Mr F A Buck, formerly the Immigration Agent in Hobart who was designated to be the German Consul when the vessel arrived. If Jes was escaping military service it is understandable if he did not use his real name when registering with the Hamburg Emigration Board. Ann Marie was listed as ‘a maid servant’ who had last lived in ‘Norburg, Schleswig’. All were bounty migrants, Jes and Peter still owed £6 on their fare when they arrived and Ann Marie owed £11 for her ticket. The Eugenie crossed the equator on 26 November and reached her first port of call, Santo Francesco in Brazil on 10 December. Here 158 emigrants disembarked. A further 42 left the ship in Itajaby on New Years day 1872 to make a new life in another of the German settlements in Brazil. The remaining 204 emigrants set off for Hobart on 9 January. After a voyage of 158 days the Eugenie dropped anchor in the Derwent at 3pm on Sunday 24 March 1872. On board there were 31 married couples, 27 single men, 14 single women and 84 children. There had been 11 deaths and 5 births whilst at sea. A number of passengers including Peter had been very ill and several made a formal complaint. Whilst the passengers were still on board the Chief Secretary appointed a three man board of enquiry to investigate the claims against the master, officers and the owners. It convened in Captain Vos’ cabin on 27 March and immediately found some were suffering from scurvy and there were no vegetables on board. The enquiry interviewed all the passengers, a lengthy job since few spoke English and none of the Board of Enquiry spoke German. Mr. Buck had to act as interpreter creating a complex conflict of interest. As immigration agent he was responsible for ensuring that the contract to carry the emigrants safely to Hobart was properly carried out. But as Consul he was also bound to act in the interests of the ship’s owner and officers and as interpreter to act professionally in service of the enquiry. It appears he did none of his jobs well although 68 of the passengers signed a notice of appreciation for his services that was published in the Mercury. When the enquiry ended the Government found it was precluded by the charter contract from taking any action against Voss, Jansen or the owners. All such matters had to be resolved by the Hamburg Emigration Board so the Chief Secretary forwarded the report to them. Buck held onto the ship’s papers delaying the Eugenie’s departure for Newcastle until Voss paid him £10 for interpreting. Voss justifiably refused telling Buck it was the kind of consular service expected in port. Voss finally got away on 30 April.

Although the emigrants could come ashore and experience their new home, the Eugenie did not tie up at Franklin Wharf until Saturday 30 March. The new Immigration Agent, B. Travers Solly, advertised for prospective employers in the Mercury the next day listing all on board and outlining their skills. Neither Jes nor Peter appeared on that list under their own names but they were there when another list was published the next Saturday but Ann Marie’s name was missing. Jes was listed as a farm labourer and Peter as a groom. When 12 April arrived, the day from which they could no longer live on the vessel, most still had no contracts of employment. Solly moved them to the Immigration Depot in Liverpool Street that had previously been the Women’s Hospital. Some were still there when the following incident occurred.

Although well educated neither Jes nor Peter could speak much English and they had to take what work they could find. Few of the immigrants obtained positions quickly but Ann Marie was employed within a week, by the wine and spirit importer William Blyth in Trafalgar Place Hobart. Jes and Peter also found work and stayed in Hobart for five months and cleared their debts. During this period Jes and Ann Marie were married at Holy Trinity Church in Hobart on 10 May 1872 witnessed by E. Johnston.

A fateful meeting

Having grown up in a country village the trio perhaps felt they would be able to settle into their new environment away from the town. Jes was offered a job at Coles Bay and they left Hobart in August. By a strange coincidence the master of the vessel taking them from Swansea was another Dane also born near Mjels. Finding a virtual neighbour 12,000 miles from home must have lifted the spirits of the young emigrants. The pilot was the 32 year old Jacob Peter Madsen who had gone to sea when only thirteen and progressed to become a mate before leaving Denmark during the war with Prussia. About 1862 he found himself in Hobart where he was appointed pilot and marine surveyor for the Douglas River locality that stretched along the east coast from Swansea to Falmouth. His principal task was to pilot coastal ships between Swansea, Bicheno and Falmouth. There were also two jetties at Seymour used to load coal.

Jacob Madsen told Jes that the Coles Bay area was not a promising place and suggested they sail on to Seymour where he promised to find him something better. Jacob and Ann with their baby son Charles were living at Seymour and that evening Madsen rode off to see his friend ‘Mr Wardlaw’. On that day three families formed a link that was later cemented by marriages. Robert Wardlaw was born in Saline, near Dunfermiline, Fifeshire in 1803 and arrived in Hobart as a bounty migrant on the Prince of Orange in January 1842 sponsored by the ship’s captain. He was described as a first class farm servant and brought with him his wife Marion, two sons Robert Junior and James and three daughters Catherine, Marion and Kate. He was bound for the first eight years to John Amos at Cranbrook. Two years later the Wardlaws had a daughter they named Elizabeth. In 1848 they moved to St Albans in the Apsley Valley and in 1852 they leased that property from Amos. They prospered and three years later were able to purchased 5000 acres at Chain of Lagoons, 20 km north of Bicheno at Seymour. As Robert Wardlaw Snr. grew older his sons gradually took over the running of Chain of Lagoons. As well as farming James Wardlaw was the customs clearing officer at Falmouth and thus had regular contact with Jacob Madsen.

James married Emma Jane Gibson in 1867, five years after his arrival in Tasmania, and his brother Robert Junior married Elizabeth Bennett a year later. In late 1872 when Jes, Peter and Ann Marie arrived the household at Chain of Lagoons consisted of Robert Wardlaw Snr. and Marion, Robert Jnr. and Elizabeth and their five children, Marion and her husband Olaf Hedburg and their two boys, and Elizabeth now 28. James and Jane were probably already living at Glencoe near Falmouth. Wardlaw offered Jes work as a ploughman and accepted the role of general adviser to the Danes. The new arrivals spent the next fourteen months living near Bicheno. When their first child, Margaret Victoria (Torie) was born in February 1874 Jes registered her birth by letter describing himself as a labourer and the place as Courland. It seems likely that he was referring to the Wardlaw’s property Glen Albyn at St Albans.

Soon after Torie’s birth the Jessens moved to Chain of Lagoons and the three other children were born there, Clara Eugenie in March 1876, Tasman Charles in 1878, and Hilmer Jes in 1881. In 1880 Peter, now 28, married Elizabeth Wardlaw the youngest daughter of Robert Wardlaw Snr. who was 8 years his senior. The next year he set off for the tin mines at Weldborough (then called Thomas Plains). Peter Jessen said in his application for naturalisation that he had spent five years tin mining. However he and Elizabeth Jessen had three daughters — Marion Victoria (Minnie) b. 1 August 1881 and twins born in April 1883 — Elizabeth Helen (Bessie) and Katherine Margaritha (Katie) all were registered as having been born at Kingston while Peter was a farmer. By 1890 his family were living in Lord St. Sandy Bay and in September 1894 he bought two adjoining blocks in Queen St., Sandy Bay and lived there until his death in 1913 aged sixty one. Peter was variously described as both a surveyor and a contractor but from about 1900 he was a foreman for the Council and for the last few years of his life he was an inspector for the Queenborough Council. The house was left to Elizabeth and the two older girls; in 1917 they sold it and moved to 31 Red Chapel Avenue Sandy Bay. Minnie and Elizabeth’s brother James, were executors of Peter’s estate and inherited seven other properties in Hobart. None of the girls married and, much later, Min and Bess were regular visitors to the Wright’s home in Albuera St. to chat and to play bridge. Elizabeth died in the Red Chapel Ave house in 1932 as did Minnie and Bessie in 1962 and 1967. Katie went to live with her cousins at Glencoe when her father died but towards the end of her life went to live with another cousin Marie Jessen, Hilmer’s daughter, in Longford and died there in 1972.

The Douglas

In August 1881 Jes and his family moved to the enlarged Allen Grove now called The Douglas. The original Allen Grove had been originally granted to John Allen. It consisted of three titles on both banks of the river totalling 947 acres. Allen had taken up residence about 1838 and built a house for his wife Ann whom he married in 1842. The house was built from hand cut sandstone blocks with a simple thatched roof broken by two dormer windows that looked out over the river flats and sand dunes to the sea. As part of the marriage settlement Allen Grove was vested in trust for her life time. In 1853 the Allens moved home to another farm they owned at Bicheno. Life in this area changed markedly in 1849 with the development of coal mining and Bicheno was a busy port. However when whaling ended in 1860 and the hopes of coal mining faded Bicheno declined.

Jes was granted two small blocks of crown land in October 1883 on the western edge of Chain of Lagoons amounting to 23 acres in all for the cost of £28.6.0. Although this provided the opportunity for him to farm in his own right instead of just being an employee it is likely Jes was running Allen Grove, that now covered 1292 acres, at first on behalf of the Wardlaws but soon after as the leaseholder. Life at The Douglas was isolated and the work hard. With the failure of coal mining population numbers fell and by 1884 only two families lived at Bicheno but in the nearby Apsley Valley now known as Rosedale at the entrance to the Douglas Apsley National Park and then known as St. Albans, ‘there were tiny farms in every gully’. As a landowner and independent farmer Jes felt it time to become a citizen as well; he and Peter were naturalised in 1885. In recommending his naturalisation the Warden of Glamorgan John Lyne stated that Jes was ‘a respectable and well conducted man’. Peter was sponsored by his brother-in-law Olaf Hilmer Hedberg who had given up the land and now had a warehouse in Argyle Street selling Swedish oils and colours (paint).

In 1893 a third member of the Jessen family emigrated to Tasmania. Thora Jessen married Christian Chrisianson Bonde, of Uge, in Aabenraa in 1883. Tired of Prussian occupation of their homeland they also emigrated and settled on 200 acres of prime agricultural land inland from Ulverstone, at North Motton northwest Tasmania. Their three sons Christen Hansen (1 Oct 1884—30 Aug 1960), Jes Christen (1885-30 May 1964) and Hans Christin (1890-28 Jul 1927) and two daughters Thora and Marie came with them. C C Bonde died at home 26 May 1939 aged 85. His two surviving two sons Chris and Jes were his chief mourners and his coffin was carried by four grandsons Reg, Maurice and Dudley Bonde and Frank Hodgman. He also left two daughters Marie Risby and Thora Hodgman. Thora Bonde (nee Jessen) died at North Motton on 27 December 1944 aged 88. The family prospered with the sons developing new farms and still live in the region.

Jessen and Madsen joined

By 1878 Jacob Madsen owned the former Wardlaw property called St Albans in the Apsley Valley and by 1895 it had grown to 215 acres. In December 1892 he bought another 100 acres on the Apsley River from Elizabeth Jessen (nee Wardlaw) for £75; she had apparently owned it before her marriage. The next year Roger Marshall transferred another 7 acres to him on the southern bank of the Apsley west of Bicheno at Rosedale. In 1895 Torie Jessen married Charles Christian Madsen — the only child of Jacob and Ann. Although he was born at Seymour he had gone to school in Swansea and boarded there with the Rapp’s during school time. He and Torrie had grown up together at Seymour. They moved in with his parents and in 1898 were recorded as farming independently at Rosedale on a property called Tracoon owned by Alex Robinson. They stayed there until 1904 and the first six of their ten children were born there — Dora, Stanley, Linda, Clara, Harold and Evelyn. (Harold died as an infant in 1902.) Jacob still owned St Albans but this address was often recorded as Rosedale. After his son and daughter-in-law moved to Wattle Hill he and Anna stayed at Rosedale until 1906 they then resided at Beach End near the present Bicheno Golf Club and stayed there until about 1908.

Charlie Madsen and Torie and their five children moved to Harefield at Wattle Hill, 6km from Sorell on the Shrub End Road. in 1904 largely to provide better educational opportunities for the children. Keith, Gladys, Colin and Hilmer were born there.