History of Adelaide Through Street Names
Streets Named on the 23rd May, 1837
Halifax Street L16
Sir Charles Wood 1800-1885 - First Viscount Halifax - social reformer, historian and economist, was Commissioner of
Emigration.
He entered Parliament in 1826 and in 1832 was appointed private secretary to The Treasury in the administration of Earl Grey.
Hanson Street J17
Hill Street E4 Hindley Street D11
Hutt Street L16
Jeffcott Street F4
Jerningham Street L6
Kermode Street I7
Named after Richard Davies Hanson, a founding member of The SA Literary Society of August 1834 who gave the opening address Founding The New Colony of SA. When Captain John Hindmarsh was appointed Governor of SA in May 1835, Hanson resigned.
In private life he was a London solicitor and journalist. He went to Canada as Lord Durham's Secretary. After Durham's death in 1840, he proceeded to New Zealand as one of the pioneers and was appointed Advocate General and Crown Prosecutor.
In 1846 he moved to South Australia where he won the case against the Church of England's claim of a site in Victoria Square for the Cathedral. He became Advocate General, Premier, Chief Justice and Acting Governor. He died in 1876 aged 71.
Rowland Hill 1795-1879, was a member of the National Colonisation Society of 1830 where he made the acquaintance of Robert Gouger. Gouger recommended his appointment as Secretary of the South Australian Association in December 1833. He and his brother Matthew Davenport Hill MP, were both members of the Provisional Committee. He eventually, went on to become Secretary to the SA Colonisation Commissioners in 1835 and issued the instructions to the colonial officers.
His criticism of Colonel Light's request for assistance with the surveys and his inferred dereliction of duty, led to Light's resignation as Surveyor General in June 1838. Hill resigned as the Commissioners Secretary in January 1840.
He is more internationally known as an inventor, the originator of penny postage and adhesive 'stamps', for which he was knighted.
Charles Hindley was a member of the House of Commons. He was an original director of the South Australian Company and of the Union Bank of Australia.
The street itself has a bigger claim to fame--38 tree stumps were removed to create it. It was the first important business street established in the new city of Adelaide. The first newspaper printed in S.A. was published there, June 1837, and the first stone church constructed. The first meeting of the Adelaide City Council, the oldest municipal body in Australia, was held in a Hindley Street building. The labour of destitute new settlers and private subscriptions were responsible for the first work done to improve the thoroughfare--this included digging channels along each side of the road to drain the bog in the middle.
A great founding pioneer was Sir William Hutt, M.A., after whom Hutt Street is named. He sat in the House of Commons for Hull from 1832 until 1874. He became a member of the National Colonisation Society in 1829 and worked with Torrens and Gouger over the next six years to obtain a public and legislative sanction for the principles on which the new colony of South Australia was to be founded. He joined the second Board of the South Australian Commissioners in 1835 and helped Torrens and Lefevre draft our land regulations.
His brother, John Hutt, became our first Superintendant of Emigration and later Governor of Western Australia 1839-46. William became a leading member of the New Zealand Association which founded New Zealand in 1841. He continued his interest in South Australia throughout the rest of his life. He died in 1882 aged 81.
Sir John Jeffcott's main claim to fame is that he probably fought the last fatal duel in England in 1833. His opponent died 8 days later. Jeffcott was master of arts of Trinity College Dublin and then Chief Justice of Sierra Leone. He was appointed first judge of South Australia arriving on the Isabella in 1837. He was a member of the first executive government, but because of his late arrival, was not present when our government was inaugurated at Glenelg on the 28th December 1836. Jeffcott sided with Governor Hindmarsh in all the early official squabbles and wanted Adelaide shifted to Encounter Bay.
He was a member of the street naming committee. Through his interference, we have the name O'Connell Street, after Daniel O'Connell, who had defended Jeffcott over his duel, and Kermode Street in North Adelaide. Jeffcott was about to marry Miss Anne Kermode of Hobart, but on a trip to the River Murray mouth to inspect a site for Adelaide, the boat overturned and he was drowned.
Charles Jerningham a banker of London and a supporter of The S.A. Association.
After Robert Quayle Kermode, a friend of Judge Jeffcott. See Jeffcott Street.