Joseph Moir

Joseph James Moir (1809–1874) was a prominent builder, ironmonger, citizen and shot manufacturer in 19th century Tasmania. He is best known for building the Taroona Shot Tower, but also built St Mark's Anglican Church, Pontville, issued tokens in his own name during a currency shortage in the colony, and served as an alderman on Hobart City Council.

Life and family

Joseph Moir was born in the Scottish Border town of Kelso in 1809, where he learned his trade as a builder.{{cite web|title=Joseph Moir, Ironmonger (1809–1874)|url=http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/themes/2164/joseph-moir-ironmonger-1809-1874|publisher=Museum Victoria|access-date=26 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904192834/http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/themes/2164/joseph-moir-ironmonger-1809-1874|archive-date=4 September 2014}} In 1829, he emigrated with his elder brother John (c. 1807–1876){{cite news|newspaper=The Mercury|date=6 January 1876|title=Family Notices: Deaths|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8942212?searchTerm=Moir|access-date=30 January 2011}} to the colony of Van Diemen's Land (as Tasmania was then known), sailing on the North Briton from Leith to Hobart via The Cape of Good Hope.{{cite web|url=http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=2820|title=Shot Tower History|publisher=Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service|access-date=30 January 2011|archive-date=15 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110315154601/http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=2820}}{{#tag:ref|Tasmania Parks gives 1829 as the year of arrival in Hobart, when Moir was twenty, whereas The Victoria Museum dates the voyage from 24 May 1827 to 20 September 1827, calling at the Cape of Good Hope in August. Other sources describe a voyage of the North Briton departing from Leith on 23/24 May 1829 and from the Cape on 10 August 1829, destined for Sydney on 7 October 1829, and arriving in Hobart on 18 September 1829, with passengers "James and John Moir" on board.{{cite web|url=http://www.ozships.net/ozships/events/3/272.htm#16654|title=Arrival: North Briton|publisher=ozships.net|access-date=30 January 2011|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031129/http://www.ozships.net/ozships/events/3/272.htm#16654|url-status=dead}} Based on New South Wales Colonial Records.{{cite news|newspaper=Colonial Times|date=25 September 1829|title=Ship News|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8644528?searchTerm=Moir|access-date=30 January 2011}}|group=nb}} His sister Mary (c. 1804–1866) followed her brothers to Hobart in 1832.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8840335?searchTerm=Moir|title=Family Notices: Deaths|newspaper=The Mercury|date=7 July 1866|access-date=30 January 2011}} In 1843, Moir returned to Kelso, where he married Elizabeth Paxton (c. 1822–1875),{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8938286?searchTerm=Moir|newspaper=The Mercury|title=Family Notices: Deaths|date=2 July 1875|access-date=30 January 2011}} returning with her to Hobart in early 1844.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2951011?searchTerm=Moir|title=Shipping Intelligence|newspaper=The Mercury|date=31 May 1844|access-date=30 January 2011}}{{cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/s/search/index/record-search-advanced#searchType=records&filtered=false&fed=true&givenName=Elizabeth&surname=Paxton&eventLocation=Kelso&eventYearFrom=1843&eventYearTo=1843|title=Historical Records: Elizabeth Friskon Paxton|publisher=familysearch.org|access-date=30 January 2011}} He had at least five children with Elizabeth: Jane Josephine (b. 1846),{{#tag:ref|Jane Josephine Moir's birth is dated via her marriage in 1866 to George Dinham.{{cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/s/recordDetails/show?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fpilot.familysearch.org%2Frecords%2Ftrk%3A%2Ffsrs%2Frr_805451210%2Fp1&hash=HloWXpZgU9zB10k5M56iYku8TUc%253D|title=Australia Marriages, 1810–1980|publisher=familysearch.org|access-date=30 January 2011}}{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8842345?searchTerm=Moir|newspaper=The Mercury|date=25 October 1866|title=Family Notices: Marriages|access-date=30 January 2011}}|group=nb}} Mary Sophia Stanley (b. 1848, died in 1853, aged 5{{cite web | url=https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD35-1-4p31j2k | title=Libraries Tasmania - Image 31 }}), John Augustus (b. 1851), Joseph Paxton (b. 1853) and James George Wood (b. 1855).{{cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/s/search/index/record-search-advanced#searchType=records&fed=true&collectionId=&advanced=true&surname=Moir&eventType=any&eventLocation=Hobart&eventYearFrom=1843&eventYearTo=1855&relationship=parents&fatherFirst=Joseph&exact-FatherLast=on&fatherLast=Moir&filtered=false|title=Historical Records|publisher=familysearch.org|access-date=30 January 2011}}{{#tag:ref|There are two chronological anomalies in the sources. First, Tasmania Parks states that Mary died in 1853, aged 7, which is not compatible with an 1848 birth date. Secondly, Joseph Paxton Moir's 1933 obituary{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article24878714?searchTerm=Moir|journal=The Mercury|title=Obituary: Mr J.P. Moir, Familiar Hobart Identity|date=14 September 1933|access-date=30 January 2011}} states that he died in his 84th year, whereas he would have been in his 81st year (aged 80) in September 1933 if the 1853 birthdate is correct. Other sources state that John Augustus was the eldest son, who died in his 21st year (aged 20) in January 1872, and support a July 1853 birth for Joseph Paxton.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8921566?searchTerm=Moir|newspaper=The Mercury|date=29 January 1872|title=Family Notices: Deaths|access-date=30 January 2011}}{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36269736?searchTerm=Moir|title=Birth|newspaper=Launceston Examiner|date=4 August 1853|access-date=30 January 2011}}|group=nb}} In January 1872, John Augustus (aged 20) drowned with two others in an accident when their boat capsized on the River Huon.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8921571?searchTerm=Moir|title=Incidents of the Month|newspaper=The Mercury|date=29 January 1892|access-date=30 January 2011}}

Work

=Builder and Ironmonger=

Moir began his colonial life as a builder, constructing houses and churches around Hobert, and acquiring land and property (including three blocks of land in his first four years in Hobart). He established a reputation for notable buildings such as St Mark's Anglican Church, Pontville, and was appointed to civic positions: Clerk of Public Works for the colony in 1834, then Commissioner under Hobart's 1846 Paving and Lighting Bill.

Image:Moir Token.JPG of a penny token issued by Joseph Moir.]]

In 1849 he visited Britain once more{{#tag:ref|He departed for London on the Salsette in May 1849{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8764983?searchTerm=Moir|newspaper=Colonial Times|date=22 May 1849|title=Shipping Intelligence|access-date=30 January 2011}} and returned to Hobart on the Eliza, arriving in April 1850.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2963233?searchTerm=Moir|newspaper=The Courier|title=Shipping News|date=13 April 1850|access-date=30 January 2011}}|group=nb}} in pursuit of new business ventures, returning with textile manufacturing machines and ironmongery goods.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8767101?searchTerm=Moir|newspaper=Colonial Times|title=Colonial Manufacture of Wool|date=3 May 1850|access-date=30 January 2011}} With the latter, he soon established a successful ironmongers in Hobart at Economy House, Murray Street, advertising that he had "relinquished the business of Builder carried on by him for twenty years in Hobart" and had "arrived from England, per Eliza, with a large assortment of general Ironmongery suitable for this market, all having been selected by himself... from the principal manufacturers... of a quality hitherto unknown in the Colonies" and concluding that he could "recommend them with confidence, and at such prices as he hopes will secure the patronage of the public."{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8767102?searchTerm=Moir|newspaper=Colonial Times|title=A Card|date=3 May 1850|access-date=30 January 2011}} Economy House was run by Moir until his death, when his son Joseph took over, finally selling the business in 1884.

=Penny token=

In the early 1850s, the currency shortage in the Australian colonies was so severe that dozens of tradesmen issued their own tokens.{{cite book|first=Greg|last= McDonald|title=Australian Coin and Banknote Market Guide|page=14|publisher=G. McDonald|year=1987|isbn=978-0-9589582-1-9}} Moir's ironmongers issued a one penny token (dated 1850, when the business was established), probably around 1860. The reverse identifies Economy House as his workplace, with Murray Street spelt as Murry Street.{{cite web|url=http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/items/75553/token-1-penny-joseph-moir-economy-house-hobart-tasmania-australia-circa-1860|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025001204/http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/items/75553/token-1-penny-joseph-moir-economy-house-hobart-tasmania-australia-circa-1860|archive-date=25 October 2012|title= Token – 1 Penny, Joseph Moir|publisher=Museum Victoria|access-date=30 January 2011}}

=Shot Tower=

File:Taroona_Shot_Tower.jpg, built by Joseph Moir in 1870]]

Moir moved with his family to "Queenborough Glens" in 1862, a house at Taroona, along the Browns River Road seven miles south of Hobart, built on 39 acres of land which he had purchased in 1855.

In 1870, Moir, together with two masons, constructed a shot tower at Queenborough Glens, using dressed curved sandstone blocks quarried at an abandoned Convict Probation Station nearby. The tower, 48 m (157 ft) tall and 10 m (32 ft) in diameter, was completed in July.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39676035?searchTerm=Moir|newspaper=Launceston Examiner|title=A New Shot Tower|date=9 July 1870|access-date=30 January 2011}} The walls were 1 m (3 ft) thick at the bottom and under half a centimetre (1/6 in) thick at the top. The tower had an internal timber spiral staircase, and an external gallery at the top. In March 1871, Moir opened the tower to visitors.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8874749?searchTerm=shot|title=Tasmanian Shot factory|newspaper=The Mercury|date=10 March 1871|access-date=30 January 2011}}{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8867397?searchTerm=Moir|newspaper=The Mercury|title=A visit to Moir's Tasmanian Shot Tower|date=16 March 1871|access-date=30 January 2011}}

Lead shot was produced by dropping molten lead through a colander at the top of the tower: as it fell and cooled, the lead formed into spherical droplets, which solidified when they hit a trough of water at the bottom of the tower. The production of shot suitable for contemporary muzzle loading sports guns was completed in several stages. First, after drying the shot, it was rolled down inclined glass planes to remove defective (irregularly shaped) pellets. It was then polished in a revolving cask using plumbago (graphite), which also blackened it. Finally, the shot was passed through a tower of 10 sieves which sorted it by diameter. The graded shot was packaged in hand sewn linen bags; at the height of production, 100 tons of shot were produced each year.

The shot manufacturing business was profitable while protected by a tariff of £7 per ton, but this was abolished with the Federation of Australia, after which the Tasmanian business could not compete with other Australian shot manufacturers, because of the higher cost of raw materials, and the transportation expenses between Hobart and Taroona. The business was continued by Moir's sons after his death, first by James, who won awards at the 1879 Sydney International Exhibition and the 1880–81 Melbourne Exhibition, but had to give up the business to his creditors in 1887. Joseph operated the business for a few more years, then sold it to his brother-in-law, William Baynton, who continued manufacturing until 1905, when production ceased.

The tower remains the tallest (and only circular) stone shot tower in the southern hemisphere.

=Alderman=

Moir served as an alderman on Hobart City Council from 1846–47 and 1871–73.{{cite web|title=MacLeod – Zucco|url=http://www.hobartcity.com.au/Council/Aldermen/Aldermen_and_Commissioners_of_Hobart_City/MacLeod_-_Zucco|publisher=City of Hobart|access-date=22 February 2012|archive-date=30 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141030135224/http://www.hobartcity.com.au/Council/Aldermen/Aldermen_and_Commissioners_of_Hobart_City/MacLeod_-_Zucco|url-status=dead}}

Death and legacy

Moir died at Queenborough Glens on 11 March 1874, after a long illness.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8928729?searchTerm=Moir|title=Family Notices: Deaths|newspaper=The Mercury|date=13 March 1874|access-date=30 January 2011}} Hobart's Mercury newspaper suggested that Moir "never fully recovered from the shock caused by the drowning of his son" John in 1872.{{cite news|newspaper=The Mercury|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8928693|date=12 March 1874|title=Death of Mr. Joseph Moir|access-date=30 January 2011}} His widow Elizabeth died 16 months later in 1875, while his son Joseph Paxton lived until 1933 and his research on "Stone implements of the Tasmanian natives" was published by the Royal Anthropological Institute in 1900.

Summing up his career, Joseph Moir's obituary described him as "one of our most enterprising colonists ...[and] one of the most valuable and useful aldermen the city has had", adding that Moir's enterprising spirit was "illustrated in a most remarkable manner" in the shot tower he built.