Cover image for Nancie Grace Hewitt
Agency:
Nancie Grace Hewitt
Agency Number:
Start Date:
28 Jan 1908
End Date:
31 Dec 1989
Description:
Nancie Grace Brownell was born in Penguin, North West Tasmania, on the 28th January 1908. Her father Sydney Brownell was the local pharmacist there for some years. They returned to Hobart when Nancie was about 2 years old and settled in New Town living above his new pharmacy.;;Nancie attended The Friends High School where she was strongly influenced by the Quaker headmaster, Ernest E. Unwin. Her mother, Grace Brownell, was a granddaughter of Henry Propsting, who, in 1832, was transported to Van Diemen's Land (VDL) as a convict. Henry joined the Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1835. On Nancie's father's side of the family, her great grandfather Thomas Coke Brownell, emigrated from England in 1829 with his young family and after an unsuccessful attempt to settle in the Swan River area of what is now Western Australia, moved on to VDL in 1830. He then accepted the offer to become the Assistant Colonial Surgeon at Port Arthur. ;;Because of her time at school with Ernest Unwin and her Tasmanian family back ground, Nancie also became a Quaker and developed a strong interest in both Tasmanian and Quaker history and pursued these interests for the rest of her life. On leaving school Nancie trained as a kindergarten teacher and subsequently taught in kindergartens in Tasmania and Victoria. She also became a governess to children living on properties in the Northern Midlands. In February 1936 Nancie married Jack Hewitt who had migrated from England in 1921. He was released from prisoner of war camp in Germany at the end of WW1 and given a free passage to Australia. He and Nancie built a home in New Town where they brought up three children, Peter, Patricia and Michael. In the late 1940's Nancie read children's stories on the ABC radio and later in life read for Hear-A-Book using a small tape recorder at home.;;After Jack retired from his tailoring business in 1963, they spent time with a widowed friend in his holiday home in Orford. This is where they met Frank Hood. Nancie formally interviewed Frank Hood in about 1974 and taught herself to touch type when she was over 60, to enable her to type Frank's diaries. Overtime Nancie deposited the original tapes, copies on cassette and a typescript of this interview with the Tasmanian Archives. She also deposited papers of the Hood family and of others. ;;Jack Hewitt died in 1976 and Nancie Hewitt in 1989.
Information Sources:
Michael Hewitt, 2020.