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Harlaxton House is a heritage-listed villa at 6 Munro Street, Harlaxton, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1869 to 1870 to 1910s circa. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992. It should not be confused with Harlaxton Manor in England (nor is it likely to be, once photos are compared). == History == Harlaxton House is a low-set, single-storey stone residence built for Francis Thomas Gregory, and his wife Marion Scott Gregory, née Hume, in the 1870s. A letter to the editor of the Toowoomba Chronicle dated 19 June 1979, suggests that Harlaxton House was named after Harlaxton Manor, the home of the Gregorys near Farnsfield, in Nottinghamshire. The architect of Harlaxton House is unknown.〔 The date of completion of Harlaxton House is uncertain but in a letter written to Katie Hume, dated November 23, 1869, Mrs Gregory refers to "The Hermitage", presumably where she was writing, as being "within a mile of the house Frank Gregory is building on the Range and which they are to occupy next March". On 28 January 1871, Mrs Gregory had a son "at Harlaxton House near Toowoomba." Mrs Gregory was the sister of Walter Hume who later became the Commissioner of Crown Lands on the Darling Downs. (Walter Hume was the husband of Katie Hume, née Fowler, who is the subject of the publication Katie Hume on the Darling Downs: A Colonial Marriage, edited by Nancy Bonnin.)〔 On the 7th August, 1862, Martin Meldon took up 53 hectares of land extending back to where Downlands College now stands (On Deed of Grant information, land area is given as 43 acres and 3 roods). On 18 December 1869, it was purchased by Frances Thomas Gregory, later Hon. F.T. Gregory, M.L.C, gold medallist of the Royal Geographical Society, explorer, geologist and botanist. He was the son of Captain Joshua Gregory of the 78th Highlanders and brother of Sir Augustus Charles Gregory, first Surveyor-General of Queensland. Gregory was born on 19 October 1821, in Farnsfield, Nottingham, England, and came to Australia in 1829 in the ship Loftus.〔 Gregory married Marion Scott Hume in 1864. The Register of the Queensland Parliament, 1860–1927 states that Gregory resigned as mining Commissioner for Stanthorpe in November 1872 to take over the administration on the Estate of his late friend William Beit, and the family moved to Westbrook. William Beit was the father of William Beit Jnr, the builder of Ascot House in Toowoomba. In 1874 Gregory entered the Queensland Legislative Council and the family moved back to Harlaxton. In 1874 Francis Thomas Gregory was listed in the Post Office Directory as a Justice of the Peace, Darling Downs. From information available in the Post Office Directory, 1883–84, Gregory is listed as Vice-President of Horticultural Association, Chairman of Highfields Divisional Board and Chairman and Treasurer of the Toowoomba Grammar School. Information in files of the National Trust of Queensland claim that, in 1877, Gregory was the financial agent for trustees of Beit (Westbrook) and Tooth (Clifton). He may still have been financial agent for trustees even though he may have moved back to Harlaxton. The exact dates of these occurrences remains unclear.〔 Harlaxton was originally known as Irishtown, as a number of Irish settlers stayed in the completing the new railway line between Ipswich and Toowoomba. Railway line opened in Toowoomba on 1 May 1867, while the Brisbane link was not established until 14 June 1875.〔 Harlaxton House was rented by Lord Lamington, the eighth governor of Queensland (1896-1901). A special railway at Harlaxton was installed for the benefit of Governor Lamington, his guests and his staff. From 1906-1909, Gabbinbar was the summer residence of the Governor of Queensland, Lord Chelmsford and his family. The use of the residence as a summer retreat for the governor continued the trend of using several Toowoomba residences in this manner. Fernside was used as a place of summer residence by Sir Arthur Kennedy, Governor of Queensland from 1877-1883. Sir Arthur Kennedy, 5th Governor of Queensland, often visited Harlaxton. It is purported that Sir Arthur and Lady Kennedy were good friends with the Gregorys.〔 After the death of Gregory in Toowoomba on the 23rd October, 1888, Harlaxton was sold to Anne and William Herbert Francis Perry in April 1891. The Perrys used the house as a summer residence. It was probably during the Perrys' residence that a sewerage system and hot and cold running water was installed. Mrs Perry died in 1911 and the house again was sold.〔 Information from Trustees Quarterly Review, April 1912 states that: ...A number of important property sales have taken place in Toowoomba during the last few months. One very important feature was the subdivision of the late Hon. W. Perry's Harlaxton Estate, comprising an area of about 150 acres within two miles (ca. 5 km) of the city. Under instructions from Queensland Trustees Limited, this property was subdivided into allotments ranging from a quarter to one acre, and at the two auction sales held, practically the whole of the property was disposed of at prices ranging from £43 to £220 per acre. Harlaxton was however, not sold and still remains open to a purchaser.〔 George and Dorothea Cook bought the property in 1914, however, according to Mrs Cook, the title deeds were held up due to the war. The Cooks became the registered owners of Harlaxton House on 26 September 1916. The Cook's bought the property when Munro Street was named Herbert Street and what is now Prince Street was named George Street. Dorothea Cook died in 1982 and Harlaxton House has remained, for the most part, unoccupied since.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Harlaxton House」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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