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de St Remy, Hippolyte
Description
Unique IDPE-000051Surnamede St RemyGiven namesHippolyteBirth date qualifierno dateBiographical noteMonsieur Hippolyte de St Remy also known as Valentine de St Remy was employed by the City of Sydney from August 1855 until August 1859. He was initially employed as a draftsman in the City Engineer’s Department and during the course of his employment his duties and salary increased to become the equivalent of those of Assistant City Engineer. At the time of his resignation his salary had reached £300 per annum, only the principal office bearers of the City (Town Clerk, City Treasurer, City Surveyor and City Engineer) earned more.
During the period of St Remy’s employment, the City Engineer’s department was responsible for overseeing the development of the City’s Sewerage system and for the building and bringing into operation of the Botany Water Works for the supply of water to Sydney. St Remy supervised the Drawing Office and was responsible for the design and production of plans for various City Works particularly at Botany. He also performed extra work for the City of Sydney in completing some of the final maps of the trig survey of the City of Sydney, producing accurate delineations of the streets and buildings of the City on a scale of 10 feet to the inch. When Edward Bell, the City Engineer, recommended that St Remy’s salary be increased to £300 per annum in October 1856, he wrote “he is worth it”.
St Remy resigned from the City’s employment in August 1859, having been earlier not accorded a salary increase and noting that as the major works of the City were reaching completion his services might become redundant; he wrote that he had sought and found a position elsewhere.
The Common Seal and Coat of Arms of the City of Sydney, 1857-1902:
His major legacy to the City was the design of the first Common Seal for the Corporation of Sydney in April 1857. His design was enthusiastically adopted by the Councillors of the newly reincorporated body of the City Council and it was used, in various adaptations, through the remainder of the 19th Century as the Coat of Arms of the City.
The design for the Seal consists of a shield with two supporters; above the shield is an inverted anchor impaling a mural crown with a multi-pointed star above and underneath the shield is a banner with motto. The shield is divided horizontally with a beehive above and a sailing ship in full sail below. The supporters are an indigenous Australian and a British sailor. The motto is “I take but I surrender”. Around the rim of the seal are the words “Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of the Corporation of Sydney – 1857”.
The imprint of the original seal is to be found in the Council Minute Book (CRS 7/10) underneath the motion approving it on 27th April 1857.
The design appears in different locations in the Town Hall building whose construction began in 1869. It was also used on letterhead and in publications. Each of these occurrence has variations. The support figures hold different items such as spear, telescope, boomerang or they merely support the shield; their apparel alters and the figures may be clean shaven or bearded; the beehive changes shape and sometimes is accompanied by bees in flight; the orientation of the ship changes and the number of points on the star varies as does the shape of the crown.
The design appears in stone in the pediment above the Town Hall entrance. In the version carved in the pediment on the wall facing St Andrew’s Cathedral, the beehive has been replaced by a humanised rising sun. The design occurs as a floor mosaic in the Centennial Hall and etched on glass above doors in the Town Hall. It was used on invitations to civic events at the Town Hall. It is depicted on the hanging medallion of the Lord Mayor’s Chain of Office.
When the Lord Mayor and City Council came to consider the matter of the City’s Coat of Arms in 1902 it was realised that the Coat of Arms in use had never been granted nor submitted to the College of Arms in England. The coat of arms was redesigned with new elements added but the sailing ship, supporters, crown, anchor, star and motto were retained although in different forms. In more recent times, the Coat of Arms has been supplanted by the Corporate Logo of the City of Sydney which retains the crown, anchor and star with other elements.
Biographical Information and Later Career:
Monsieur Hippolyte de St Remy arrived in Sydney as a cabin passenger on the Dutch barque, ‘Egmont en Hoorne’, from London on 31 May 1855 accompanied by his wife, Madame de St Remy. It is assumed that they were natives of France. St Remy referred in a letter to the City of Sydney Commissioners in October 1856 to his lack of “easiness of a ready English tongue” while expressing his belief that he had lived up to expectations in his work. During the course of his employment with the City, he began to use the forename “Valentine”, perhaps an easier or more familiar name for the citizens of Sydney with their English tongue.
Madame advertised herself only weeks after her arrival in June 1855 as a French midwife, having attended the Empress of the French and having been awarded 1st prize by the Board of Medical Examiners in Paris. She continued throughout their stay in Sydney to advertise both locally and in country papers as a midwife with premises in Woolloomooloo used for her practice or for a private lodging house for lady boarders. The address was shared with her husband.
Advertisements in the Sydney Morning Herald in April 1859 for “a middle aged general servant” and again in the Herald in December 1860 for “a middle aged general servant, English or German”, describe the household as having no children.
St Remy’s occupation from August 1859 to the end of 1861 has not been identified but in this period he is listed in Sands Directory of Sydney for 1861 as a civil engineer, living with his wife, Madame, an accoucheuse, (ie midwife) at 130 Woolloomooloo St. Entries in Sands Directories and in the City Assessment Books between 1855 and 1867 show the pair living at various houses in Woolloomooloo St while Madame for a short period also used 68 Forbes St opposite Woolloomooloo St for her business.
In 1862, St Remy was appointed to the NSW Public Works Department as Assistant Engineer for Bridges, Roads Department. He surveyed locations for bridges at West Maitland, at the Namoi River and elsewhere. In 1863, he was promoted to the position of Assistant Engineer, Roads Department and it was noted that his duties were to be principally the design of bridges. He retired from his position for reasons of ill health in 1867 and received a gratuity payment of £291/13/4 from the Civil Service Superannuation Fund (Sydney Morning Herald, 7 March 1868). Perhaps his ailment was rheumatism as he appears with others in an advertisement endorsing the “Herbal Elixir and Restorative Embrocation” for the cure of rheumatism made by John Barnett (Freeman’s Journal 27 October 1866).
In June 1867, the furniture and household items of Madame de St Remy were advertised for sale at her residence 171 Woolloomooloo St and a “collection of valuable French works from the library of Madame de St Remy” was advertised for sale at auction.
Monsieur and Madame de St Remy departed the colony of NSW on 3 July 1867 aboard the ship ‘Anglo Indian’ bound for London. The identity of the person described as “Miss de St Remy” or “child” listed accompanying them in newspaper shipping departure lists is a mystery.
Husband and wife are in most cases referred to as Monsieur and Madame throughout their stay in Sydney. Madame’s first name has not been found although the Sands Directories of Sydney for 1864 and 1865 give her the initial ‘C’. St Remy’s social standing may be indicated to be of a superior nature by his use of the preposition “de” in his surname and is perhaps vindicated in his attendance at the funeral in Sydney in May 1866 of the Prince de Condé (grand-son of King Louis Philippe of France) as one of the foot mourners in the procession with other French luminaries.
St Remy was a Freemason; his name appears in a list of Members forming the General Committee for organizing the Grand Full Dress Ball on behalf of the Freemasons’ Orphan Society as Brother St Remy, Zetland and he designed the hall decorations for this event. The newspaper Empire on 28 June 1865 recorded the hall as “brilliantly decorated” and “one variegated kaleidoscopic scene” which it described in great detail. He was again on the Ball Committee in 1866, listed as Brother V de St Remy, Lodge 655, E.C.
References:
Margaret Betteridge: “Sydney Town Hall: the Building and its Collection”, 2008, Council of the City of Sydney: (Illustrations of First Coat of Arms: Mosaic in Centennial Hall, front papers; p91; p 246; Elevation showing entrance pediment, p19; p248; glass etching, pp 20-21; chromolithograph of International Exhibition Sydney, published in Illustrated Sydney News, July 1879, p 147; Top left corner of Memorial to Alderman Fitzgerald, p 166; Invitation to opening of Centennial Hall 1889, p 37; Medallion hanging from Lord Mayor’s Chain of Office, p 176; p 195; and History of Coat of Arms: pp 202ff)
Shirley Fitzgerald: “Sydney, 1842-1992; 1992”; Hale & Iremonger: (First Coat of Arms, photograph of carving in pediment, south side of Town Hall, p8 [SRC 15643]; Invitation, 1886, p 122)
City of Sydney Archives: CRS7 Minutes of City of Sydney Council;
CRS 26 Letters Received, CRS 22 Reports of the Finance Committee: (item descriptions or digitised objects available online);
City of Sydney Assessment Books (available online); Sands Directories of Sydney (available online)
Newspapers, 1855 to 1868: Sydney Morning Herald; Empire; Freeman’s Journal; Bathurst Free Press; Northern Times (Newcastle); digitised by the National Library of Australia and searchable online: www. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper
NSW Government Gazettes
State Records Authority of NSW: Shipping Records
22 January 2016; Marilyn Mason
Relationship legacy dataRELATED TO: City Engineer and City Surveyors Department I AG-0086 - Employee
Occupational historyMonsieur Hippolyte de St Remy also known as Valentine de St Remy was employed by the City of Sydney from August 1855 until August 1859. He was initially employed as a draftsman in the City Engineer’s Department and during the course of his employment his duties and salary increased to become the equivalent of those of Assistant City Engineer. At the time of his resignation his salary had reached £300 per annum, only the principal office bearers of the City (Town Clerk, City Treasurer, City Surveyor and City Engineer) earned more.During the period of St Remy’s employment, the City Engineer’s department was responsible for overseeing the development of the City’s Sewerage system and for the building and bringing into operation of the Botany Water Works for the supply of water to Sydney. St Remy supervised the Drawing Office and was responsible for the design and production of plans for various City Works particularly at Botany. He also performed extra work for the City of Sydney in completing some of the final maps of the trig survey of the City of Sydney, producing accurate delineations of the streets and buildings of the City on a scale of 10 feet to the inch. When Edward Bell, the City Engineer, recommended that St Remy’s salary be increased to £300 per annum in October 1856, he wrote “he is worth it”. St Remy resigned from the City’s employment in August 1859, having been earlier not accorded a salary increase and noting that as the major works of the City were reaching completion his services might become redundant; he wrote that he had sought and found a position elsewhere.Source system ID51
During the period of St Remy’s employment, the City Engineer’s department was responsible for overseeing the development of the City’s Sewerage system and for the building and bringing into operation of the Botany Water Works for the supply of water to Sydney. St Remy supervised the Drawing Office and was responsible for the design and production of plans for various City Works particularly at Botany. He also performed extra work for the City of Sydney in completing some of the final maps of the trig survey of the City of Sydney, producing accurate delineations of the streets and buildings of the City on a scale of 10 feet to the inch. When Edward Bell, the City Engineer, recommended that St Remy’s salary be increased to £300 per annum in October 1856, he wrote “he is worth it”.
St Remy resigned from the City’s employment in August 1859, having been earlier not accorded a salary increase and noting that as the major works of the City were reaching completion his services might become redundant; he wrote that he had sought and found a position elsewhere.
The Common Seal and Coat of Arms of the City of Sydney, 1857-1902:
His major legacy to the City was the design of the first Common Seal for the Corporation of Sydney in April 1857. His design was enthusiastically adopted by the Councillors of the newly reincorporated body of the City Council and it was used, in various adaptations, through the remainder of the 19th Century as the Coat of Arms of the City.
The design for the Seal consists of a shield with two supporters; above the shield is an inverted anchor impaling a mural crown with a multi-pointed star above and underneath the shield is a banner with motto. The shield is divided horizontally with a beehive above and a sailing ship in full sail below. The supporters are an indigenous Australian and a British sailor. The motto is “I take but I surrender”. Around the rim of the seal are the words “Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of the Corporation of Sydney – 1857”.
The imprint of the original seal is to be found in the Council Minute Book (CRS 7/10) underneath the motion approving it on 27th April 1857.
The design appears in different locations in the Town Hall building whose construction began in 1869. It was also used on letterhead and in publications. Each of these occurrence has variations. The support figures hold different items such as spear, telescope, boomerang or they merely support the shield; their apparel alters and the figures may be clean shaven or bearded; the beehive changes shape and sometimes is accompanied by bees in flight; the orientation of the ship changes and the number of points on the star varies as does the shape of the crown.
The design appears in stone in the pediment above the Town Hall entrance. In the version carved in the pediment on the wall facing St Andrew’s Cathedral, the beehive has been replaced by a humanised rising sun. The design occurs as a floor mosaic in the Centennial Hall and etched on glass above doors in the Town Hall. It was used on invitations to civic events at the Town Hall. It is depicted on the hanging medallion of the Lord Mayor’s Chain of Office.
When the Lord Mayor and City Council came to consider the matter of the City’s Coat of Arms in 1902 it was realised that the Coat of Arms in use had never been granted nor submitted to the College of Arms in England. The coat of arms was redesigned with new elements added but the sailing ship, supporters, crown, anchor, star and motto were retained although in different forms. In more recent times, the Coat of Arms has been supplanted by the Corporate Logo of the City of Sydney which retains the crown, anchor and star with other elements.
Biographical Information and Later Career:
Monsieur Hippolyte de St Remy arrived in Sydney as a cabin passenger on the Dutch barque, ‘Egmont en Hoorne’, from London on 31 May 1855 accompanied by his wife, Madame de St Remy. It is assumed that they were natives of France. St Remy referred in a letter to the City of Sydney Commissioners in October 1856 to his lack of “easiness of a ready English tongue” while expressing his belief that he had lived up to expectations in his work. During the course of his employment with the City, he began to use the forename “Valentine”, perhaps an easier or more familiar name for the citizens of Sydney with their English tongue.
Madame advertised herself only weeks after her arrival in June 1855 as a French midwife, having attended the Empress of the French and having been awarded 1st prize by the Board of Medical Examiners in Paris. She continued throughout their stay in Sydney to advertise both locally and in country papers as a midwife with premises in Woolloomooloo used for her practice or for a private lodging house for lady boarders. The address was shared with her husband.
Advertisements in the Sydney Morning Herald in April 1859 for “a middle aged general servant” and again in the Herald in December 1860 for “a middle aged general servant, English or German”, describe the household as having no children.
St Remy’s occupation from August 1859 to the end of 1861 has not been identified but in this period he is listed in Sands Directory of Sydney for 1861 as a civil engineer, living with his wife, Madame, an accoucheuse, (ie midwife) at 130 Woolloomooloo St. Entries in Sands Directories and in the City Assessment Books between 1855 and 1867 show the pair living at various houses in Woolloomooloo St while Madame for a short period also used 68 Forbes St opposite Woolloomooloo St for her business.
In 1862, St Remy was appointed to the NSW Public Works Department as Assistant Engineer for Bridges, Roads Department. He surveyed locations for bridges at West Maitland, at the Namoi River and elsewhere. In 1863, he was promoted to the position of Assistant Engineer, Roads Department and it was noted that his duties were to be principally the design of bridges. He retired from his position for reasons of ill health in 1867 and received a gratuity payment of £291/13/4 from the Civil Service Superannuation Fund (Sydney Morning Herald, 7 March 1868). Perhaps his ailment was rheumatism as he appears with others in an advertisement endorsing the “Herbal Elixir and Restorative Embrocation” for the cure of rheumatism made by John Barnett (Freeman’s Journal 27 October 1866).
In June 1867, the furniture and household items of Madame de St Remy were advertised for sale at her residence 171 Woolloomooloo St and a “collection of valuable French works from the library of Madame de St Remy” was advertised for sale at auction.
Monsieur and Madame de St Remy departed the colony of NSW on 3 July 1867 aboard the ship ‘Anglo Indian’ bound for London. The identity of the person described as “Miss de St Remy” or “child” listed accompanying them in newspaper shipping departure lists is a mystery.
Husband and wife are in most cases referred to as Monsieur and Madame throughout their stay in Sydney. Madame’s first name has not been found although the Sands Directories of Sydney for 1864 and 1865 give her the initial ‘C’. St Remy’s social standing may be indicated to be of a superior nature by his use of the preposition “de” in his surname and is perhaps vindicated in his attendance at the funeral in Sydney in May 1866 of the Prince de Condé (grand-son of King Louis Philippe of France) as one of the foot mourners in the procession with other French luminaries.
St Remy was a Freemason; his name appears in a list of Members forming the General Committee for organizing the Grand Full Dress Ball on behalf of the Freemasons’ Orphan Society as Brother St Remy, Zetland and he designed the hall decorations for this event. The newspaper Empire on 28 June 1865 recorded the hall as “brilliantly decorated” and “one variegated kaleidoscopic scene” which it described in great detail. He was again on the Ball Committee in 1866, listed as Brother V de St Remy, Lodge 655, E.C.
References:
Margaret Betteridge: “Sydney Town Hall: the Building and its Collection”, 2008, Council of the City of Sydney: (Illustrations of First Coat of Arms: Mosaic in Centennial Hall, front papers; p91; p 246; Elevation showing entrance pediment, p19; p248; glass etching, pp 20-21; chromolithograph of International Exhibition Sydney, published in Illustrated Sydney News, July 1879, p 147; Top left corner of Memorial to Alderman Fitzgerald, p 166; Invitation to opening of Centennial Hall 1889, p 37; Medallion hanging from Lord Mayor’s Chain of Office, p 176; p 195; and History of Coat of Arms: pp 202ff)
Shirley Fitzgerald: “Sydney, 1842-1992; 1992”; Hale & Iremonger: (First Coat of Arms, photograph of carving in pediment, south side of Town Hall, p8 [SRC 15643]; Invitation, 1886, p 122)
City of Sydney Archives: CRS7 Minutes of City of Sydney Council;
CRS 26 Letters Received, CRS 22 Reports of the Finance Committee: (item descriptions or digitised objects available online);
City of Sydney Assessment Books (available online); Sands Directories of Sydney (available online)
Newspapers, 1855 to 1868: Sydney Morning Herald; Empire; Freeman’s Journal; Bathurst Free Press; Northern Times (Newcastle); digitised by the National Library of Australia and searchable online: www. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper
NSW Government Gazettes
State Records Authority of NSW: Shipping Records
22 January 2016; Marilyn Mason
Relationship legacy dataRELATED TO: City Engineer and City Surveyors Department I AG-0086 - Employee
Occupational historyMonsieur Hippolyte de St Remy also known as Valentine de St Remy was employed by the City of Sydney from August 1855 until August 1859. He was initially employed as a draftsman in the City Engineer’s Department and during the course of his employment his duties and salary increased to become the equivalent of those of Assistant City Engineer. At the time of his resignation his salary had reached £300 per annum, only the principal office bearers of the City (Town Clerk, City Treasurer, City Surveyor and City Engineer) earned more.During the period of St Remy’s employment, the City Engineer’s department was responsible for overseeing the development of the City’s Sewerage system and for the building and bringing into operation of the Botany Water Works for the supply of water to Sydney. St Remy supervised the Drawing Office and was responsible for the design and production of plans for various City Works particularly at Botany. He also performed extra work for the City of Sydney in completing some of the final maps of the trig survey of the City of Sydney, producing accurate delineations of the streets and buildings of the City on a scale of 10 feet to the inch. When Edward Bell, the City Engineer, recommended that St Remy’s salary be increased to £300 per annum in October 1856, he wrote “he is worth it”. St Remy resigned from the City’s employment in August 1859, having been earlier not accorded a salary increase and noting that as the major works of the City were reaching completion his services might become redundant; he wrote that he had sought and found a position elsewhere.Source system ID51
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de St Remy, Hippolyte [PE-000051]. City of Sydney Archives, accessed 20 Apr 2024, https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/62722