The first plans for governing new south wales, 1786-87

Australian Historical Studies

Volumn 24, Issue 94, 1990, Pages 22-40

  Atkinson, Alan ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84963160105     PISSN: 1031461X     EISSN: 19405049     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10314619008595830     Document Type: Article

References (99)

1. G. Martin (ed.), The Founding of Australia: The Argument about Australia's Origins, Sydney (1978).
2. A. Frost, 'Towards Australia: the Coming of the Europeans', in D.J. Mulvaney and J.P. White (eds), Australians to 1788, Sydney (1987), p. 409.
3. Quoted in M. Sturma, 'Some Current Thoughts on Justice and Penal Administration', Push from the Bush, no. 26, April (1988), p. 49.
4. Review of M. Steven's Trade, Tactics and Territory, in Historial Studies, vol. 21, no. 82, April (1984), p. 120; Convicts and Empire: A Naval Question 1776-1811, Melbourne (1980).
5. A Place of Exile: The European Settlement of New South Wales, Melbourne (1985).
6. It is necessary here also to note a new article by Frank Lewis, a statistical analysis by which-so the author claims-'the question why convicts were sent to Australia would appear to be settled'. However Lewis thinks the question is ‘Why transportation?” It is, in fact, 'Why New South Wales?’ (“The cost of convict transportation from Britain to Australia, 1796-1810', Economic History Review, 2nd series, vol. 41, (1988).
7. ‘Explanation and Significance in Australian History: The Founding of New South Wales', Australian Studies, vol. 1, (1988); 'The Founding of New South Wales', in P. Statham (ed.), The Origins of Australia's Capital Cities, Cambridge (1989), pp. 45-6.
8. English Historical Review, vol. 97, (1982).
9. ‘“Emptying the hulks”: Duncan Campbell and the First Three Fleets to Australia’, Push from the Bush, no. 24, April (1987).
10. There have been exceptions outside the universities. See for instance Sir Victor Windeyer, ‘ “A Birthright and Inheritance”: The Establishment of the Rule of Law in Australia', Tasmanian University Law Review, vol. 1, no. 5, November (1962); B. Rice, 'Were the First Fleet Convicts Bond or Free?’ Royal Historical Society of Victoria Journal, vol. 55,(1984), pp. 44-8 (I owe the second reference to Dan Byrnes).
11. See below, footnotes 71 and 98.
12. S.S. Webb, 'Army and Empire: English Garrison Government in Britain and America, 1569 to 1763', William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, vol. 34, (1977); I. Steele, 'Governors or Generals?: A Note on Martial Law and the Revolution of 1689 in English America', William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, vol. 46, (1989).
13. P.M. Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery, London (1976), p. 102; J.H. Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786-1792, St Lucia (1987), pp. 1-3.
14. Ibid. p. 92; C. Lloyd, The Nation and the Navy: A History of Naval Life and Policy, London (1961), pp. 94-7; R. Harding, 'Sailors and Gentlemen of Parade: Some Professional and Technical Problems concerning the Conduct of Combined Operations in the Eighteenth Century', Historical Journal, vol. 32, (1989), pp. 36,43-4.
15. L.W. Labaree, Royal Government in America: A Study of the British Colonial System before 1783, New York (1958), pp. 39,110; C.L. Mowat, East Florida as a British Province 1763-1784, Berkeley (1943), pp. 114-15.
16. R.G, Lounsbury, The British Fishery at Newfoundland 1634-1763, New Haven (1934), pp. 332-4; A.H. McLintock, The Establishment of Constitutional Government in Newfoundland, 1783-1832, London (1941), p. 10; W.S. Macnutt, The Atlantic Provinces: The Emergence of Colonial Society 1712-1857, London (1965), p. 85.
17. This is in spite of the fact that commodores were occasionally endowed with formal councils, made up of other officers. These were less common in this period than hitherto. See Harding, op. cit. pp. 41-2.
18. Lounsbury, op. cit. pp. 273-336; McLintock, op. cit. pp. 56, 57-8.
19. J. Shy, Toward Lexington: The Role of the British Army in the Coming of the American Revolution, Princeton (1965), p. 279.
20. Labaree, op. cit. pp. 110-12; Lounsbury, op. cit. pp. 329-40; D.A. Baugh, British Naval Administration in the Age of Walpole, Princeton (1965), pp. 216-19.
21. A.N. Gilbert, 'Law and Honour among Eighteenth-Century British Army Officers', Historical Journal, vol. 19, (1976), pp. 75-6.
22. R. Therry, Reminiscences of Thirty Years' Residence in New South Wales and Victoria, London 1863, p. 46.
23. McLintock, op. cit. pp. 92-3,144.
24. Ibid. p. 144.
25. Frost, Convicts and Empire, p. 33.
26. In fact this officer never reached Sierra Leone.
27. C. Fyfe, A History of Sierra Leone, Oxford (1962), pp. 15-23.
28. Description of the Gambia scheme enclosed with Lord Sydney to the Lords of the Treasury, 9 February 1785, HO 7/1 (reproduced in “The Convict Republic', Push from the Bush, no. 18, October (1984), pp. 70-2).
29. Ibid.; Evan Nepean's evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons inquiring into transportation (Lord Beauchamp's committee), 27 April 1785, HO 7/1.
30. Convicts and Empire, p. 31.
31. October 1786, Historical Records of New South Wales, vol. 1, part 2, pp. 24-5.
32. Lord Howe to Lord Sydney, 3 September 1786, and G. Rose to P. Stephens, 21 October 1786, ibid. pp. 22-3,25-6.
33. A. Frost, 'New South Wales as terra nullius: the British denial of Aboriginal land rights'. Historical Studies, vol. 19, (1981), pp. 519-20.
34. This is clearly implied in two of Phillip's letters, to E. Nepean, 28 October 1786, HO 42/9, ff. 83-4, and to Lord Sydney, 1 November 1786, Sydney Papers, Dixson MS Q162.
35. Frost himself does not make the comparison with Newfoundland.
36. Phillip to Sydney, 1 November 1786, loc. cit.
37. The earliest estimate, n.d. but August 1786, refers to 'two Convict ships', to carry about 270 convicts each (HO 42/10, ff. 425-7).
38. Journals of the House of Commons, vol. 40, p. 1162.
39. HO 7/1 (9 May 1785). The earliest detailed accounts, both undated but clearly August 1786, are to be found at HO 42/10, ff. 425-7, and HO 42/7, ff. 23-4. The first is apparently earlier, and relates mainly to the convicts and to the cost of provisions. It was supplied to Nepean by Duncan Campbell (though Frost, Convicts and Empire, p. 217, says the Treasury). The second, which is a draft followed by a fair copy, adds the cost of shipping and staff to Campbell's estimates. As with much of the material I have used, these were first discovered by Frost.
40. ‘Memo, of matters to be brought before Cabinet’, Sydney Papers, Dixson MS Q522. This paper is dated, on the back, 1775, but internal evidence points unmistakeably to about January-February 1785.
41. But apparently written on 21 August. Frost (ibid. pp. 132, 217-8) shows that the letter was backdated, apparently to make it possible to pretend that the Treasury Board had considered and approved the scheme when they were in fact in recess.
42. Sydney to the Lords of the Treasury, 18 August 1786, Historical Records of New South Wales, vol. 1, part 2, p. 15.
43. Estimate [August 1786], HO 42/7, ff. 23-4.
44. Sydney to the Lords of the Admiralty, 31 August 1786, ibid, pp. 20-2.
45. Enclosure with Sydney to the Lords of the Treasury, 18 August 1786, loc. cit. This enclosure is inconsistent with the letter accompanying it, and must have been drawn up later without the letter being corrected accordingly.
46. I am concentrating here on the newer parts of the empire. In older colonies the rights of property in office and the problems arising from sinecures had produced a complicated system which was at odds with that of the more modern and streamlined colonies.
47. Mowat, op. cit. p. 16; Labaree, op. cit. pp. 19-21.
48. H. Neatby, Quebec: The Revolutionary Age 1760-1791, London (1966), p. 34; Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. V, p. 141. The lieutenant-governor was Guy Carleton, soon afterwards promoted to governor.
49. J.M. Gray, A History of the Gambia, London (1940), pp. 235-8.
50. Labaree, op. cit. pp. 19-21, 128.
51. F.M. Bladen, 'Notes on the Life of John Hunter, Admiral, Governor of New South Wales', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. 1, (1901), p. 22. Bladen thought that the duplication of deputies was 'remarkable'. However, he does not give the whereabouts of Hunter's commission. There appears to be no copy in Australia, and a search by Mollie Gillen has not yet turned up the original in London. See also J. Stephen to R.J. Wilmot-Horton, 27 March 1825, Historical Records of Australia, series 4, vol. 1, p. 593.
52. Lounsbury, op. cit. pp. 304-7.
53. Compare the justification used for the appointment of a lieutenant-governor in 1800 (P.G. King to the Duke of Portland, 28 September 1800, Historical Records of Australia, series 1, vol. 1, p. 613).
54. October 24 1786, Historical Records of New South Wales, vol. 1, part 2, p. 26.
55. No reliance is to be placed on the exact dates of these documents. For instance, the Judge-Advocate's commission is also dated 24 October, but Collins was not even nominated for the post until the end of November (Moore, op. cit. p. 29).
56. The “Plan”, in Martin, The Founding of Australia, p. 20.
57. Phillip to Nepean, 28 October 1786, HO 42/9, ff. 83-4; Phillip to Sydney, 1 November 1786, Dixson MS Q162. He pointed out that the government was in his debt because of his situation in 'the late war'; his need to feed junior officers at his own table; the 'desagrement attending this Service'; and some small points of convenience.
58. Historical Records of Australia, series 1, vol. I, pp. 9-16.
59. Ibid. p. 13.
60. Frost, Arthur Phillip, pp. 109, 243; ”John Hunter', Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 1, p. 567.
61. R.J. King, The Territorial Boundaries of New South Wales in 1788', The Great Circle, vol. 3, (1981), pp. 80-7.
62. M.B.R. Cawkell and others, The Falkland Islands, London (1960), pp. 24-37; J. Goebel, The Struggle for the Falkland Islands: A Study in Legal and Diplomatic History, New Haven (1982) [(1927)], pp. 234-40.
63. Convicts and Empire, pp. 115-16,123.
64. Frost (ibid. p. 123) makes this an incidental part of the scheme.
65. See Phillip's notes on the expedition and settlement, not dated but before 12 October 1786, Historical Records of New South Wales, vol. 1, part 2, pp. 52-3 (and for the date, see Frost, Arthur Phillip, p. 293).
66. Frost, Arthur Phillip, p. 147.
67. HO 7/1 (9 May 1785).
68. Compare draft and fair copies, HO 42/7, ff. 23-4.
69. See note 39.
70. Sydney to the Lords of the Treasury, 18 August 1786, loc. cit.
71. [Nepean] to S. Hamilton, 24 October 1786, in M. Roe, 'Motives for Australian settlement: a document', in Martin, The Founding of Australia, pp. 54-5; Frost, Convicts and Empire, p. 135.
72. Nepean to Sydney, 9 November [1786], Mitchell Library An 53.
73. See note 65.
74. A. Atkinson, 'Sunshine from Frost', Push from the Bush, no. 26, April (1988), pp. 18-19.
75. Nepean to Sydney, 9 November [1786], Mitchell Library An 53. Frost says (Arthur Phillip, p. 148) that this opinion came from the Crown law officers, but the letter cited here, which is his only source (and which he wrongly gives as Dixson MS Q522) does not say so, implying rather a political motive.
76. Moore, op. cit. p. 29; L. Andel, 'Davis Collins: His Early Life and Background', Tasmanian Historical Research Association Papers and Proceedings, vol. 35, (1988), p. 32. This appointment of a military judge-advocate for civil duties seems to follow from a precedent at Gibraltar in 1720 (G. Chalmers (ed.), Opinions of Eminent Lawyers on various points of English Jurisprudence, London 1858, pp. 187-8).
77. Windeyer (op. cit.) is one of the few writers to have recognised its significance.
78. Duke of Richmond to W. Pitt, 3 December 1786, PRO 30/8/171.
79. Besides it is very doubtful whether transportation could wait any longer, and whether the government would be prepared to encourage settlers with capital, capable of overseas trading, within the area of the East India Company's monopoly.
80. Lord Camden to W. Pitt, 29 January 1787, PRO 30/8/119, f. 131. For the composition of juries at this time, see D. Hay, ‘The Class Composition of the Palladium of Liberty: Trial Jurors in the Eighteenth Century’ in J.A. Cockburn and T.A. Green (eds), Twelve Good Men and True: The Criminal Trial Jury in England 1200 to 1800, Princeton (1988). I am grateful to Douglas Hay for showing me this paper.
81. Chalmers, op. cit. pp. 184-95.
82. The precedent seems to have been Gibraltar, where juries were established, in principle, in 1740, and given a military membership (but by charter alone) in 1752 ('Notes relative to Act to Settle N.S. Wales', [1786-87], Sydney Papars, Dixson MS Q522).
83. Enclosure with Lord Sydney to the Lords of the Treasury, 9 February 1785, Tl/164, (reproduced in The Convict Republic', Push from the Bush, no. 18, October (1984), pp. 71-72).
84. Matra's suggestion [1783], in Martin, The Founding of Australia, p. 15; Journals of the House of Commons, vol. 40, p. 1162. Alexander Dalrymple, writing late in 1786, stated his belief that the convicts in New South Wales were not to ‘undergo servitude for the benefit of others, as was the case in America', but were to be 'their own Masters’ (A Serious Admonition, extract in C.M.H. Clark (ed.), Select Documents in Australian History 1788-1850, Sydney (1950), pp. 37-8 Dalrymple's emphasis).
85. A. Macdonald to Nepean, 25 March 1787, HO 48/1, f. 119.
86. Atkinson, 'Sunshine from Frost', loc. cit. pp. 12-16. In spite of what I say in that article two, and possibly three, individuals were pardoned and immediately given grants (John Trace, Charles Smith and Richard Cheers, all late 1792). However, the general argument stands.
87. A. McMartin, 'The Payment of Officials in Early Australia: an essay in administrative history', Public Administration, vol. 17, (1958), pp. 49-52.
88. J. Hunter to Sydney, 30 July 1797, Dixson, MS Q522.
89. This can be seen clearly in his speeches in parliament For his career, and his early support for the Elder Pitt, see Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 19, pp. 1058-60; Sir Lewis Namier and J. Brooke, The House of Commons 1754-1793, vol. 3, London (1964), pp. 554-6. See also M. Peters, 'The Monitor on the English Constitution, 1755-65; New Light on the Ideological origins of English Radicalism', English Historical Review, vol. 86,(1971).
90. It was a remote connection; as he himself put it, ‘A drop of the blood of Sidney is in my veins’ (Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England, vol. 17, cols. 1056-8 (16 February 1774). See also, ibid. col. 315 (16 March 1772); 'G.E.C, The Complete Peerage, vol. 12, part 1, London (1953), p. 591. The Sidneys had used the spelling 'Sydney’ for one of their own titles.
91. A.M. Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence: The Newspaper War on Britain 1764-1776, New York (1957), pp. 34,135; C. Robbins, The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman, Cambridge, Mass. (1959), p. 46.
92. J. Ehrman, The Younger Pitt: The Years of Acclaim, London (1969), p. 184, agrees with the conventional Australian view, that Sydney was a 'mediocrity', but he deals with him only as a minister.
93. Cobbetts' Parliamentary History of England, vol. 22, col. 450 (12 June 1781).
94. G.C. Bolton, 'William Eden and the Convicts, 1771-1787', Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol. 26, (1980).
95. Quoted in L. Thomas, “The Establishment of New South Wales in 1788', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. 11, (1925), p. 70.
96. Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England, vol. 17, cols. 1357-8 (26 May 1774).
97. He is said to have lost office in the end because Pitt was ‘anxious for more subservient colleagues’ (Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 19, p. 1059).
98. “The Act of Parliament Establishing the Colony [sic]'. Historical Records of New South Wales, vol. 1, part 2, p. 67.
99. Frost, Convicts and Empire, p. 37.