5 
Lady Franklin purchased this island in 1840, 
and it v/as conveyed to Dr* E. So P. Bedford and 
Mr. R« G. Gunn as trustees for her (deed registered 
No, 4723). in 1866 the Tasmanian Acclimatisation 
Society was formed, and on 29th November 1866 Lady 
Franklin executed a deed, in which she declared 
that she wished the island to be vested in trus¬ 
tees, by whom it should be held for the purposes 
of the Society so long as those purposes should be 
carried out in a manner beneficial to the public 
of Tasmania, but that if the purposes of the 
Society should not be 30 carried out, then the 
island should be held by the trustees for such 
other purposes beneficial to the public of Tas¬ 
mania as the trustees should direct.. On 27th Dec¬ 
ember, 1868 , the island was conveyed by Dr. Bed¬ 
ford and Mr. Gunn to Messrs. Robert Officer, 
R. C. Gunn, Morton Allport and John Woodcock 
Graves as trustees (No, 5 / 6667 ), Mr. John Wood¬ 
cock Graves was the Secretary of the Acclimatisa¬ 
tion Society, and the island was used for many 
years by that Society. In 1903 it v/as vested by 
Act of Parliament (l903 No. 42, s.l5) in the Trust¬ 
ees of the Tasmanian Museum and Botanical Gardens. 
(Betsy Island had much earlier been the scene of 
an experiment in acclimatisation - of the rabbit, 
in the chronological table of events in Bent’s Tas¬ 
manian Almanack for 1 829 there are the following 
items:- "1827j May lOth.~ Silver-haired rabbits, 
pheasants and peacocks imported from England per 
the ship Tiger; many thousand of the rabbits 
increase on Betsy Island, Mr. King intending to 
make the skins an article of export to China. 
1828. March 29th.- 30,000 silver-hair rabbits 
belonging to Mr, King upon Betsy Island." 
