Henry Reveley
REVELEY Henry Willey BE (Pisa) 1788-1875)
Henry Willey Reveley was born in London, England, the son of Willey Reveley, an architect and his wife Maria Reveley, née James. His parents were friends of such intellectual liberals as Jeremy Bentham, Thomas Holcroft, William Godwin and his wife Mary Wollstonecraft. When the last named died soon after giving birth to a daughter, her infant was brought up for some years in the Reveley's home. This child later became the second wife of the poet Shelley and author of the novel Frankenstein.
After Willey Reveley's death in 1799, his widow married merchant John Gisbourne. In 1801 the family went to live in Italy, where Henry studied mathematics and natural philosophy, distinguished himself by his scientific attainments, and graduated as a civil engineer at the University of Pisa. Henry was described as socially awkward and unsophisticated which he put down to having been home schooled from the age of 12. This may have contributed to his poor relationships later in life.
The family had been detained as prisoners of war by Emperor Napoleon and were confined to Pisa for eight years. Napoleon refused approval for Henry to study at the University of Paris.
After graduating from Pisa University, Henry had difficulty in obtaining employment as an engineer. He unsuccessfully tried to establish a foundry and a steam driven grain mill in Tuscany.
He became a close friend of Shelley, whom he saved from drowning in the River Arno in 1821. Shelley had first visited Maria Gisbourne, Henry’s mother, in May 1818 and became a regular visitor attracted by the library of ancient and modern books as well as the deep literary studies by Henry’s mother and stepfather.
Shelley was a significant investor in Henry’s major project to build a steamboat at Livorno for the coastal trade between Livorno and Marseille. Shelley and Reveley fell out after the poet ceased financial support for the steamboat project when it became too costly. Reveley had also had an affair with the poet’s wife’s half sister, Claire Claremont, and wished to marry her but she refused.
In May 1821, Reveley returned to England, where he is reputed to have studied under John Rennie, the engineer and constructor of Waterloo Bridge. Reveley was in England when Shelley drowned when Shelley’s boat capsized off the coast of Pisa in July 1922.
On January 20, 1824 Henry married Cleobulina Amelia Fielding at Finchley, England.
In 1824, Reveley published an article in the Society of Arts Journal on “Granite Block Diagonal Paving for the Streets of London”. He also submitted a design for a new bridge across the Thames that impressed engineer John Rennie who recommended him for an engineering position in Cape Town.
Reveley arrived with his wife as the first Colonial Civil Engineer at the Cape Colony in November 1826. One of his principal tasks was to improve the Table Bay Harbour. His best known buildings are St Andrews Presbyterian Church and St Georges Church, incorporating the Doric style of his father’s work. In May 1828 he was dismissed as incompetent by the Governor Richard Bourke. His personality may have contributed to a dispute with his Clerk that led to the dismissal as his replacement, Thomas Skirrow, found no evidence of incompetence.
When the barque Parmelia called at Cape Town in May 1829, Lieutenant Governor James Stirling engaged Reveley as civil engineer to the Swan River settlement at a salary of £200 and the Reveleys continued the voyage with the founders of Western Australia.
Reveley’s first work after arrival was the building of huts at the temporary encampment on Garden Island. When the party moved to the mainland, he was responsible for the design and construction of all public works. These included the first Barracks, Government Offices, Commissariat Store, first Government House, the first Gaol at Fremantle, a 12 sided building now known as the Round House, and the first Courthouse at Perth. He also superintended the cutting of a canal through the shallow flats in the Swan River near the later Causeway, planned a breakwater and harbour at Fremantle, and as a private venture built in St George's Terrace the first water mill in Perth on the Tuscan principle. Of the many buildings he designed in a simplified Georgian style, the only surviving ones are the Round House, Fremantle (1831) and the Old Court House, Perth (1836).
In 1838 Reveley and his wife returned to England, where his continued interest in the colony was revealed by two articles: one written in 1844 from Parkstone, Dorset, on immigration policy and the other in 1873 from Reading on West Australian timber.
He continued his interest in steam giving a presentation to the Society of Arts on his direct acting steam hammer in 1865.
In 1870 he published an article on the “Maintenance on Macadamised Roads”.
He died at Reading on January 21, 1875. In spite of his varied attainments, Reveley's contribution to Western Australia seems to have been limited to his architecture. He is known to have tutored the son of at least one family, but the harsh conditions of early settlement left little opportunity for cultural and intellectual activity.
References:
The Poems of Shelley, Volume Three, 1819 1920, Jack Donovan, Cian Duffy, Kelvin Everest, Michael Rossington Editors, Routledge, 2011.
Australian Dictionary of Biography [*http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/reveley henry willey 2587 adb.anu.edu.au/biography/reveley henry willey 2587]
Alexandra Hasluck, Unwilling Immigrants, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1991
John LePage, Building a State, Water Authority of Western Australia, 1986
