The Pitcairn Island Register 1790 – 1854: An unfinished story

There are objects we come across in life that powerfully move us, that evoke a strong emotional response and speak to us far beyond their monetary value. The significance for Mervyn Buffett of ‘finding’ the original Pitcairn Island register of births’ deaths and marriages created in the hand of his great-great grandfather John Buffett, moved him and partner Clare McPherson to start a claim to have it travel ‘home’ over 10,000 miles from the Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) in England to tiny Norfolk Island, located in the South Pacific.

While the journey of the register is still underway and its final destination not yet confirmed, the story so far is worth telling. Mervyn says “as the foundational record of our community, I’m not doing this for me, but for the whole community”.

Our community was of course born of the unique circumstances that brought together the mutineers of HMAV Bounty and Polynesian women after their arrival on Pitcairn Island on the 15th of January 1790. Buffett came later, arriving in 1823 on a passing American whaler and choosing to stay (along with John Evans) following a request by the last surviving mutineer John Adams for help educating the children. Buffett married and soon became deeply involved in the school and running of the island.

Buffett began the register of births, deaths and marriages with a first entry on the 10th of December 1823. He then carefully interviewed Adams and the Elder women and men to accurately and retrospectively record all entries since their 1790 arrival. Today we can only humbly and sincerely thank Buffett for the profound importance and foresight of this action. Mervyn says because of the register “we have the gift of knowing our ‘kumfrum’, who we are as individuals and a community of families down through the generations”. Incredibly for the Buffett family, they have that gift recorded in their own ancestor’s hand.

However, from 1839 the register also includes the hand of George Hunn Nobbs who arrived in 1828 and also married into the community. After the death of John Adams, as a more dominant personality than Buffett, it was Nobbs who took over the education and spiritual leadership of the community, eventually travelling to England where he was ordained as a minister. When Nobbs later returned to England in 1854, he left the register in the hands of Reverend William Holman of HMS Portland who took his place during this absence.

Arriving back on the island Nobbs found that the register had become “wet with salt water when taken onboard Virago…”. His last entry in the register dated July 1854 records that “This book has become so dilapidated…that it is necessary to prepare a new book by copying the contents of this into it and then continue from this date….”. He also records that “It is my intention to send this Imperfection to my well-beloved friend, The Rev T.B. Murray, thinking it may serve to amuse him over his after dinner toast and water”. Rev. Murray was secretary of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) which had since 1819 supported the Islanders by sending gifts of books and financial support. They sponsored Nobbs’ trips to England and later helped campaign the Government to support the Pitcairners’ petition to Queen Victoria to be relocated. The original register may likely have been one of a number of books sent to the island by the SPCK.

So the register journeyed to England and into the hands of Rev. Murray. We are lucky that Rev. Murray did not keep it for his own possession as a personal ‘amusement’ but left it within the SPCK records, from where it was loaned from 1989 to the National Maritime Museum (part of the RMG) for their exhibition Mutiny on the Bounty 1789-1989. Eventually gifted to the museum, it has been on display in their Pacific Encounters Gallery since opening in 2018.

Roughly 150 years after being sent to England, knowledge that the original John Buffett register was held in the RMG, was not well known on Norfolk Island. It was certainly a revelation to Mervyn and Clare when, on the 2nd of September 2022 a chance family ancestry conversation and google search, led to its astounding ‘discovery’ as being on display in a museum on the other side of the world.

Clare immediately helped Mervyn send an email to the museum asking how his great-great grandfather’s register came to be in their possession. In later communication they identified that they believed it should come ‘home’ to its people on Norfolk Island. While not a repatriation or returning of a stolen item, the compelling ethical grounds for the register to be with the community whose origins it records, were immediately understood by RMG curators and personnel.

Things moved quickly. Mervyn and Clare contacted the Norfolk Island Museum and a group was assembled to formally make a claim comprising members of the Council of Elders and the Norfolk Island Museum Trust (NIMT). Trust members are appointed under the NIMT Act 1987 and have responsibility for the care of objects within the Norfolk Island Museum that came from Pitcairn Island and Norfolk after the Pitcairners arrival in 1856. Cherie Nobbs became the Council of Elders representative, providing another tangible link in the claim as a direct descendant of George Hunn Nobbs. The first of numerous Zoom meetings with RMG personnel began at a time that started their English workday at a very early hour, while the Norfolk group gathered in the early evening.

Community support for the register to come to Norfolk was evidenced with the collection of over 600 signatures on a document which in November 2023 was personally handed to the curators at the RMG by a delegation of islanders who happened to be travelling to London at the time. A formal written request was completed and sent for the RMG Director’s consideration.

It became clear that there were considerable hurdles for the register to be handed over by RMG. The key problem being that they did not have a policy in place for returning objects on ethical grounds. Further, it was discovered it would take an Act of the British Parliament for this to occur. Without giving up a claim for the register to permanently be on Norfolk Island, the group decided the most pragmatic position in the interim was to request a long term loan.

Documentation for the approval of the loan is currently being considered by RMG. The Norfolk Island Museum must show that it can care for the register within a specific environment that safeguards against such things as deterioration or theft and proves that the museum can handle the object according to best museum standards. NIMT trustees have an important role to play in not only securing the loan but working with museum staff across all aspects of organising a complex international loan. Bringing the register from England to Norfolk will require extensive and costly processes and will likely need some form of community fund raising.

One unexpected outcome already felt throughout the loan process, is a strong and genuine respect and relationship between RMG personnel, Mervyn, Clare and NIMT Trustees. NIMT Chairperson, Pauline Reynolds was able to visit the RMG in early 2024 where she met key personnel and was offered a very personal and emotional viewing of the register. In mid-September 2024 the NIMT will host Professor Clare Anderson, a Trustee of the RMG when she visits the Island. These opportunities to meet face-to-face importantly build on all party’s understanding of why and how this loan should and can occur.

While on Norfolk, Professor Anderson will be able to view the large number of objects brought here by the Pitcairn Islanders in 1856, now held in the NIMT collection. These include a cannon, kettle, salt dish and plate from the Bounty as well as items of a personal nature such as a tapa beater, Bounty ring, Pitcairn ‘scratch mark’ ceramics and yolla stones. These objects all tell important parts of our story as a community borne of the Bounty mutineer men and the Polynesian women who landed with them on Pitcairn in 1790.

It is hoped Professor Anderson will be able to personally experience the connection the community of Pitcairn descendants have towards the register and that as the original founding document, understand there is no other single object that tells our ‘kumfrum’.

Clare says “from little things big things grow”. She and Mervyn have numerous examples of how that has played out during their time together, because they were not afraid to ask and to act. The email they sent that night from their small island home, to travel across the globe to England’s National Maritime Museum, could lead to the Norfolk Island community’s founding document coming ‘home’ to be with its people. What an incredible day that will be.

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Image Credit: Robin Nisbet
www.robinnisbet.com

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Article content disclaimer: Article first published in Discover Norfolk, Volume 07 Issue 02, 2024. Please note that details of specific travel, accommodation and touring options may be outdated. References to people, places and businesses, including operating days and times may be have changed. References to Government structure and Government businesses/entities may no longer be applicable. Please check directly with businesses and/or Government websites directly rather than relying on any information contained in this article before you make travel arrangements.