My father was born here…
RIght: Carolyn Bourne with Peter Poulet at East Maitland Library, January 2021.
Carolyn Bourne participated in Peter Poulet’s community engagement workshops in January 2021. In sharing her story, she began:
“I’ve only been in Maitland 50 years! … But my father was born here... His father was born here... And his father before him, just after his father arrived from England in the late 1830s. …
Great great grandfather … came up to Maitland where he opened a hardware store. Quite a big hardware store … and the family had quite a bit to do with the Maitland Hospital.”
Carolyn Bourne’s great great grandfather was Edward Peter Capper (1799-1872), founder of the Capper hardware business whose magnificent stores were a feature of Maitland’s High Street until the 1888 building, the most recent one, burnt down in 1971.
Views of the Capper buildings, High St, Maitland, 1878 to early 1960s.
Capper family members were actively involved with Maitland Hospital from its early years. E.P. Capper Senior was among the first committee members of the Maitland Benevolent Asylum, precursor to the hospital, and then served on the Maitland Hospital committee for many years. His son, Edward Peter Capper (1835-1920), similarly served on the hospital committee and, until well into the twentieth century, there were generous donations of time and resources by family members. Some of these contributions are recognised through plaques - and a portrait - still in the hospital.
A copy of the portrait of E.P. Capper Senior commissioned by the hospital following Capper’s death in 1872, and the copy set in a frame with copies of other portraits similarly commissioned by the hospital in recognition of the contributions of individuals to the institution.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 53)
Metal plaque on a wooden mount with the inscription: ‘The private automatic telephone system throughout this hospital was installed in memory of late Edward Peter Capper and Mary Pearson Capper. Installed February 1935.’
(Maitland Hospital Collection 26)
In 2021 the plaque is in storage in the Collection Cottage.
Metal plaque on a wooden mount with the inscription: ‘Isolation wards were furnished in memory of the late Edward Peter Capper, Mary Pearson Capper and Isabel Grace Hyne Capper, February 1935.’
(Maitland Hospital Collection 30)
In 2021 the plaque is still attached to the wall of the former isolation ward building.
The Edward Peter Capper mentioned on the plaques is the younger E.P. Capper. Mary Pearson Capper (nee Owen)(1842-1905) was his first wife, and Isabel Grace Hyne Capper (1870-1934) their daughter.
Capper business and family papers, along with an annotated index to the collection, are located in the Newcastle Region Library, and there is a 1977 article by then student Ian Bowrey that explores the ways in which the business records provide insights into the family, the business and the community they served. The papers also include photographs of some family members.
(Newcastle Region Library)
Edward P. Capper, along with his younger brother, Harry Hyne Capper, joined his father’s business in 1864. At the time of his death he was described as Maitland’s ‘most prominent businessman and one of its best citizens’ (Maitland Mercury, 20 August 1920).
(Newcastle Region Library)
Mary Ellen was the daughter of Dr Michael McCartney and his wife, Matilda. Following Michael McCartney’s death, Matilda McCartney and her daughters moved to ‘Koorelah’ House at 40 Bourke St, Maitland. Their neighbour was E.P. Capper Jnr. E.P. Capper’s first wife died in 1905 and, in 1908, he married Mary Ellen McCartney.
(Newcastle Region Library)
Harry Hyne Capper (1838-1911) was the third son of Edward Peter Capper Snr and his wife Grace Sweet Capper (nee Hyne). In 1864, along with E.P. Capper Jnr, he joined his father’s business which was renamed E.P. Capper and Sons.
Harry Hyne Capper was Carolyn Bourne’s great grandfather.
Val Rudkin, Who? What? Where? People of 19th Century High Street Maitland, Maitland and District Historical Society, 2015, pp. 16-19 provides an overview of the history of the Capper business and family.