Hi obyone
I am a great-great-grandson of Increase Robinson Bell and my brother has extensively researched his origins. It is of great interest that he was a witness at your relative's marriage. I will send supporting documents if you can send me your e-mail as to mygirlbill. In essence it appears that John "Tinker" Campbell came from Halifax Nova Scotia, to Sydney via Hobart in the MicMac in 1834, financing his trip by selling his cargo of American clocks. Apparently clocks were in very short supply in Australia. He 'sussed out' the new colony and found that land was to be had for very little or nothing at the outskirts of the new colony. My understanding is that he returned to Halifax or Boston and sold the MicMac. He had obtained the patent to a tin plate pressing machine and so came back to Australia to arrive on the Brig Mary on 26 July 1935.
John Campbell is said to have come from USA - Westbrook Maine. It is not clear that he was born there. He relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia but often visited in the Boston, Massachusetts area. He was a man of great ideas which did not always work out. In the first trip he had discovered that
tinwork was in short supply and had in his possession on arrival the patent and pattern for a tin pressing machine. The hold of the brig Mary was said to hold 36 hundredweight of tin and in steerage were at least 4 qualified tinsmiths that we know of - John Smith, Increase Robinson Bell George Balser and James Green.
On arrival these chaps +/- a few worked for Campbell who plied their works in Sydney town. (Hence "Tinker" Campbell. This appears to have continued for 2-3 years and then Campbell took up land at Maitland, then at Severn River on the Queensland border, then on the advice of Arthur Hodgson, squatted at a property he named Westbrook (after his home town) near Toowoomba. This still exists today
Given the high percentage of the ship's passengers associated with John Campbell, it may be that he was associated in some way. Certainly if he came all the way from Halifax he must have known him. I wonder in Cummings' case whether, if not a whitesmith, then was he a clockmaker?
As to the trip. Oral tradition as told to Ignatius, Increase's son says that their ship from Halifax/Boston to Rio de Janeiro nearly foundered and the passengers had to man the ship in part as there was serious illness of the crew and extreme weather. Whether that was the reason for taking the Mary from Rio or whether it was pre-arranged I am not sure. There are several brig "Mary"'s around and this led to initial confusion. However, this brig did a regular run from Liverpool, Rio, Capetown, Hobart, Sydney. On this trip it did not return to Liverpool but took on passengers at Rio. The route was dictated by the winds.
MicMac" is the anglicised name of a NovaScotian/Labrador aboriginal tribe (previously called red Indians")
Hope this is of some help - happy to send further info re Campbell and Increase Bell via e-mail
