A Forger's Progress

by Alasdair McGregor

  7 A state of ‘infantile imbecility’

  1 Harry Dillon & Peter Butler, Macquarie: From Colony to Country, p. 80.

  2 Dillon & Butler, Macquarie, p. 62.

  3 Castlereagh to Macquarie, HRA, series 1, vol. 7, p. 80.

  4 Lachlan Macquarie, A Letter to the Right Honourable Viscount Sidmouth: In Refutation of Statements Made by Henry Grey Bennet …, pp. 72–79 (original emphasis).

  5 Macquarie to Bathurst, 10 September 1822, HRA, series 1, vol. 10, pp. 671–72.

  6 Macquarie to Castlereagh, 8 March 1810, HRA, series 1, vol. 7, p. 223.

  7 Macquarie to Castlereagh, 30 April 1810, HRA, series 1, vol. 7, p. 223–24.

  8 Macquarie to Castlereagh, 30 April 1810, HRA, series 1, vol. 7, p. 255.

  9 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 13.

  10 Liverpool compared drawings against the Treasury by New South Wales governors for various years: £13 873 in 1806 and £31 110 in Bligh’s last year as governor, whereas for 1810 the charge was £72 600 6s 10¼d (MH Ellis, Lachlan Macquarie, p. 216). As Ellis quipped, ‘the Treasury had a weakness for farthings’.

  11 Liverpool to Macquarie, 4 May 1812, HRA, series 1, vol. 7, pp. 477–78.

  12 Convict indents, SRANSW, 4/4005 (COD 140), p. 496.

  13 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 13.

  8 To copy a courthouse

  1 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 23.

  2 Macquarie to Bathurst, 7 October 1814, quoted in Ellis, Lachlan Macquarie, p. 269.

  3 Sydney Gazette, 14 May 1814.

  4 Macquarie, ‘Remarks on a letter from Francis Greenway of 25 January 1822’, 10 February 1822, CSC, 4/1752, p. 75.

  5 Greenway, ‘Memorial to Governor Bourke’, n.d. [1836], CSC, 4/2529.5.

  6 Greenway to Macquarie, 27 July 1814, CSC, 4/1752, p. 85. There are two other versions: one in Greenway papers, ML, A 1451, p. 380 (copy); and letter, Greenway to the editor, Australian, 20 January 1825, quoting the same letter. Each of the three versions shows significant variations.

  7 DD Mathew to Macquarie, 14 April 1814, CSC, 4/1729, pp. 370–71; ‘Copy of D.D. Mathew’s plan for a Court House and Town Hall, 1814’, Royal Australian Historical Society: architectural drawings, plans and maps, ca 1807–1949, ML, PXD 1223.

  8 Morton Herman, The Early Australian Architects and Their Work, p. 41.

  9 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 29.

  10 Dillon & Butler, Macquarie, pp. 200–201. Jeffrey Bent felt slighted when his appointment was not accompanied by a knighthood. Both Jeffrey and his brother Ellis would become embroiled in clashes with Macquarie, leading the governor to demand their recall.

  11 JH Bent, entry for 4 March 1814, ‘Journal of a voyage performed on board the ship Broxbornebury, Captain Thomas Pitcher, from England to New South Wales’, papers of Ellis Bent and Jeffrey Hart Bent, NLA, MS 195/1.

  12 Bent, entry for 7 March 1814, ‘Journal of a voyage’.

  13 The Surry was also known as the Surrey. This was the first of 11 voyages she made carrying convicts to Australia, the most of any transport.

  14 Female convicts were not confined below decks as much as their male counterparts. Consequently, the spread of contagious diseases was less likely and the mortality rate on ships carrying women was much lower.

  15 Greenway to Macquarie, dated ‘Friday Noon’ (29 July 1814), CSC, 4/1752, pp. 84–84a.

  16 ‘European information’, Sydney Gazette, 30 July 1814 (original emphasis).

  9 FH Greenway, 84 George Street

  1 Macquarie, ‘Remarks on a letter from Francis Greenway of 25 January 1822’, 10 February 1822, CSC, 4/1752, p. 76.

  2 Sydney Gazette, 8 August 1829.

  3 After the Portuguese-born navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, who searched for Terra Australis in the early 1600s.

  4 Sydney Gazette, 18 April 1829.

  5 See Broadbent & Hughes, Francis Greenway, pp. 84–85.

  6 John Thomas Bigge, Report of the Commissioner of Inquiry into the State of Agriculture and Trade in the Colony of New South Wales, pp. 41–42.

  7 Greenway, memorial, 3 April 1815, CSC, 4/1732, p. 135.

  8 Greenway to Macquarie, 27 July 1814 (copy), Greenway papers, ML, A 1451, p. 380.

  9 The word ‘ultimo’ was once used in formal English correspondence, meaning ‘of the last month’, e.g. the 2nd ultimo. Its usage is now considered dated. When summoned before a court martial in 1803, Harris ridiculed the prosecution when it stated that the court had been convened on the 12th ultimo rather than on the 12th instant (of this month). He was acquitted and took such delight in the error that he named his property Ultimo.

  10 Elizabeth Macquarie, ‘Journal of a voyage from England to Australia in the ship “Dromedary” ’, 15 May – 25 December 1809, ML, MSS C126.

  11 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 26.

  12 Greenway to Macquarie, 27 July 1814 (copy), Greenway papers, ML, A 1451, p. 380.

  13 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 27.

  14 James Broadbent, The Australian Colonial House, pp. 87–88.

  15 Elizabeth Spurrell, ‘Journal of a voyage to New Holland etc. 1815– 1816 by a lady’, ML, B 563.

  16 Sydney Gazette, 19 August 1824.

  17 TS Champion, ‘Ultimo House. Old landmark passing’, Sydney Morning Herald, 29 October 1932.

  18 Quoted in ‘Ultimo House. Old landmark passing’.

  10 Three shillings a day and a government horse

  1 Campbell to Greenway, 2 January 1816, CSC, 4/3493, p. 301.

  2 Campbell to Greenway, 2 April 1816, CSC, 4/3493, p. 430–31.

  3 The term ‘rum’ was generally applied to all spirits and not specifically to an alcoholic liquor distilled from sugar cane residue or molasses.

  4 MH Ellis, ‘Governor Macquarie and the “Rum” Hospital’, Royal Australian Historical Society: Journal and Proceedings, vol. 32, no. 5, 1946, p. 275.

  5 Macquarie to Castlereagh, 30 April 1810, HRA, series 1, vol. 7, p. 250.

  6 Macquarie to Liverpool, 18 October 1811, HRNSW, vol. 7, p. 605.

  7 Sydney Gazette, 2 November 1811.

  8 Ellis, ‘Governor Macquarie and the “Rum” Hospital’, p. 277.

  9 Henry Grey Bennet, Letter to Vis-count Sidmouth, Secretary of State for the Colonies, on the Transportation Laws, the State of the Hulks, and of the Colonies in New South Wales, pp. 78–79

  10 ‘Report of the committee nominated to survey the erection of the building of His Majesty’s General Hospital at Sydney’, ML, BT 15, quoted in Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 53.

  11 Hospital contractors to Macquarie, 27 April 1816, ML, BT 15, pp. 1380–82.

  12 Greenway to Wentworth, Riley and Blaxcell, 15 May 1816, BNA, MFQ 1/236, quoted in Broadbent & Hughes, Francis Greenway, p. 48.

  13 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 54.

  14 Liverpool to Macquarie, 19 May 1812, HRA, series 1, vol. 7, p. 487.

  15 Bathurst to Macquarie, 4 December 1815, HRA, series 1, vol. 8, p. 641.

  16 Bathurst to Macquarie, 6 April 1816, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, p. 106.

  17 Sydney Gazette, 15 February 1817.

  18 Kitchen to Bigge, 29 January 1821, ML, BT 26, pp. 5946–47.

  19 Bigge to Bathurst, 24 August 1820, ML, BT 24, pp. 4958–59.

  20 Greenway to Macquarie, March 1818, ML, BT 16, pp. 2142–43.

  21 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 54.

  11 Bright prospect

  1 Michael Robinson, ‘ODE FOR THE QUEEN’S BIRTH-DAY, 1819’, Sydney Gazette, 23 January 1819.

  2 Greenway to the editor, Sydney Gazette, 13 September 1834.

  3 Macquarie journal, 11 July 1816, ML, A 773, p. 29.

  4 Sydney Gazette, 20 July 1816.

  5 Greenway to the editor, Australian, 31 March 1825.

  6 Greenway to the editor, Australian, 31 March 1825.

  7 Gill’s evidence, 28 December 1821, ML, BT 1, pp. 538ff.

  8 Gill’s evidence, 28 December 1821, ML, BT 1, p. 546.

  9 Kitchen to Bigge, 29 January 1821, ML, BT 26, pp. 5948–50.


  10 Greenway to the editor, Australian, 31 March 1825.

  11 Greenway to Druitt, March 1819, ML, BT 18, p. 2490.

  12 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 59.

  13 Greenway to the editor, Australian, 31 March 1825.

  14 Greenway to the editor, Australian, 31 March 1825.

  15 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 76.

  16 Greenway to the editor, Australian, 14 April 1825.

  17 Macquarie journal, 13 September 1816, ML, A 773, p. 46.

  18 Greenway to Druitt, March 1819, ML, BT 18, pp. 2489–90.

  19 Macquarie journal, 11 April 1817, ML, A 773, p. 97.

  20 Macquarie to Bathurst, 4 April 1817, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, p. 352.

  21 Macquarie to Bathurst, 12 December 1817, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, p. 719.

  22 Broadbent & Hughes, Francis Greenway, p. 53.

  23 Broadbent & Hughes, Francis Greenway, p. 53.

  24 Macquarie journal, 16 December 1817, ML, A 773, p. 125.

  25 Bathurst to Macquarie, 20 January 1817, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, p. 205.

  26 Bathurst to Macquarie, 24 August 1818, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, p. 833.

  27 Macquarie, memorandum to Major Druitt, 15 April 1820, CSC, 4/1744.

  28 Questions and answers to Macquarie, no. 64, ML, BT 11, pp. 4470–74.

  12 Pain and humiliation

  1 Broadbent & Hughes, Francis Greenway, p. 51.

  2 AT Yarwood, ‘Marsden, Samuel (1765–1838)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, .

  3 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 50.

  4 Macquarie memorandum to Greenway, 25 August 1816, ML, BT 20, p.3317.

  5 Macquarie journal, 25 September 1816, ML, A 773, p. 47.

  6 Ellis, Lachlan Macquarie, p. 378.

  7 Ellis, Lachlan Macquarie, p. 378.

  8 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 65.

  9 Greenway’s evidence, ML, BT 16, pp. 1902ff.

  10 Greenway’s evidence, ML, BT 16, pp. 1909.

  11 Greenway’s evidence, ML, BT 16, pp. 1911.

  12 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 66.

  13 Greenway’s evidence, ML, BT 16, p. 1902.

  14 Eagar to Bathurst, 3 April 1823, HRA, series 4, vol. 1, p. 448.

  15 Greenway’s evidence, ML, BT 16, p. 1903.

  16 Greenway’s evidence, ML, BT 16, p. 1904.

  17 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 67.

  18 Wharton’s evidence, ML, BT 16, pp. 1912–19.

  19 Sanderson’s evidence, ML, BT 16, p. 1926.

  20 Eagar became a prominent agitator for the emancipist cause. He was secretary of a committee that in 1819 petitioned the Prince Regent (later George IV) on the social and economic disadvantage of emancipated convicts.

  21 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 68.

  22 Eagar to Bathurst, 3 April 1823, HRA, series 4, vol. 1, p. 448.

  23 Eagar to Bathurst, 3 April 1823, HRA, series 4, vol. 1, p. 448.

  24 Sanderson’s evidence, ML, BT 16, p. 1927.

  25 Eagar to Bathurst, 3 April 1823, HRA, series 4, vol. 1, p. 449.

  26 Eagar to Bathurst, 3 April 1823, HRA, series 4, vol. 1, p. 449. The transcript of the trial records the fine as £5 (ML, BT 16, p. 1930).

  27 Eagar to Bathurst, 3 April 1823, HRA, series 4, vol. 1, p. 448.

  28 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 71.

  29 Macquarie to the Duke of York, 25 July 1817, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, p. 442.

  30 Macquarie to the Duke of York, 25 July 1817, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, p. 445.

  13 A mansion for the viceroy

  1 Macquarie journal, 1 January 1817, ML, A 773, p. 79.

  2 Macquarie, ‘Schedule & List of Public Buildings …’, 1 January 1817, CSC, 4/1737, pp. 14–17.

  3 Macquarie to Bathurst, 18 March 1816, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, pp. 70–71.

  4 Macquarie to Bathurst, 18 March 1816, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, pp. 70.

  5 Macquarie to Bathurst, 18 March 1816, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, p. 71.

  6 Bathurst to Macquarie, 30 January, 1817, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, p. 205.

  7 Cited in Broadbent & Hughes, Francis Greenway, as ‘Original design for a Government House supposed to be by Greenaway [sic]’, the plans are in NSW Surveyor-General, Sketchbook, SRANSW, X770, p. 78.

  8 The authors state that Macquarie’s salary was £5000. It was actually £2000, the same as that of his predecessor, Governor Bligh (Frederick Watson, ‘Introduction’, HRA, series 1, vol. 8). See also Dillon & Butler, Macquarie, p. 257.

  9 Broadbent & Hughes, Francis Greenway, p. 49.

  10 ‘An Antiquarian’ (Greenway) to the editor, Australian, 4 November 1836.

  11 Macquarie to Bathurst, 12 December 1817, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, pp. 718–19.

  12 Macquarie memorandum, 4 July 1817, ML, A 1451, pp. 2–3.

  13 Macquarie to Bathurst, 12 December 1817, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, pp. 718–19.

  14 Broadbent & Hughes, Francis Greenway, p. 67.

  15 Macquarie to Bathurst, 23 March 1816, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, pp. 100– 101. See Dillon & Butler, Macquarie, pp. 219–22, for a discussion of the seizure of the American ship Traveller by Vale and Moore.

  16 Macquarie to Bathurst, 1 December 1817, HRA, series 1, vol. 9, pp. 495– 500.

  14 Transportation

  1 ‘Number of Convicts Transported to New South Wales from 1787 to 1841’, in GB Barton, History of New South Wales from the Records, .

  2 Bigge’s commission, ‘Government and general orders’, Sydney Gazette, 9 October 1819.

  3 Ellis, Lachlan Macquarie, p. 453.

  4 Bathurst to Bigge, 6 January 1819, HRA, series 1, vol. 10, p. 4ff.

  5 Macquarie to his brother Charles, quoted in Ellis, Lachlan Macquarie, p. 469.

  6 Macquarie journal, 7 October 1819, ML, A 774, p. 71.

  7 Scott’s sister Charlotte had married Bigge’s brother, Thomas Hanway Bigge.

  8 Macquarie to Bathurst, 24 March 1819, HRA, series 1, vol. 10, p. 96.

  9 Bennet, Letter to Viscount Sidmouth, p. 112.

  10 Sydney Smith, ‘Botany Bay’, Edin-burgh Review, February 1823, p. 36.

  15 A ‘palace for horses’

  1 Jacques Arago, Narrative of a Voyage Round the World …, pp. 162–63.

  2 Arago, Narrative of a Voyage Round the World, pp. 161–62.

  3 Macquarie journal, 16 December 1817, ML, A 773, pp. 125–26.

  4 Macquarie memorandum, 4 July 1817, Greenway papers, ML, A 1451.

  5 Macquarie to Bathurst, 24 March 1819, HRA, series 1, vol. 10, p. 97.

  6 Bigge to Bathurst, 18 October 1819, ML, BT 19, p. 2968.

  7 John Thomas Bigge, Report of the Commissioner of Inquiry into the State of the Colony of New South Wales, .

  8 Bigge to Macquarie, 6 June 1820, ML, BT 24, pp. 4967–68.

  9 Chris Johnson, Shaping Sydney: Public Architecture and Civic Decorum, pp. 66–67.

  10 Greenway to the editor, Australian, 24 February 1825.

  11 Quoted in TS Champion, ‘The evolution of a Conservatorium of Music, Sydney’, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. 33, part 5, 1947, p. 313.

  12 Macquarie memorandum, 28 September 1820, ML, A 772, p. 146.

  13 Greenway to the editor, Australian, 24 February 1825.

  14 Macquarie to Bathurst, 24 March 1819, HRA, series 1, vol. 10, p. 96.

  15 Kitchen to Bigge, 29 January 1821, ML, BT 26, pp. 5950–51.

  16 Bigge, questions to Macquarie, ML, BT 11, pp. 4469–70.

  17 Bigge, Report … into the State of the Colony of New South Wales.

  18 Bigge, questions to Macquarie, ML, BT 11, p. 4470.

  19 Druitt to Bigge, 7 February 1821, ML, BT 27, pp. 6307–308.

  20 Greenway to the editor, Australian, 24 February 1825.

  21 Brisbane to Bathurst, 25 May 1825, HRA, series 1, vol. 11, p. 617.

  16 Follies, fount
ains and fugacious toys

  1 Greenway to Macquarie, 16 April 1816, quoted in Greenway to the editor, Australian, 20 January 1825.

  2 Sydney Gazette, 18 February 1836.

  3 ‘Government and General Orders’, Sydney Gazette, 6 October 1810.

  4 ‘Government Public Notice’, Sydney Gazette, 6 July 1816.

  5 Macquarie journal, 1 July 1816, ML A 773, p. 8.

  6 Macquarie journal, 19 September 1816, ML A 773, p. 48.

  7 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 49; Broadbent & Hughes, Francis Greenway, p. 54.

  8 The Millarium Aureum was a monument erected in 20BC by the Emperor Augustus in the Forum of Rome. It symbolised the starting point of the Roman road system throughout Italy and the empire.

  9 Greenway, ‘Estimate of Work done by Contract …’, n.d., ML BT 20, p. 3320.

  10 Joseph Fowles, Sydney in 1848, p. 16.

  11 Fowles, Sydney in 1848, p. 16.

  12 Cureton’s evidence, 24 January 1821, ML, BT 1, pp. 414–17.

  13 Elizabeth Macquarie to Bigge, 25 January 1821, ML, BT 26, p. 5900.

  14 Bigge to Macquarie, 6 June 1820, ML, BT 24, pp. 4967–68.

  15 Bennet, Letter to Lord Sidmouth, p. 112.

  16 Fowles, Sydney in 1848, p. 20a.

  17 ‘Cost of Public Buildings 1810– 1820’, ML, BT 12, p. 317.

  18 Bigge to Macquarie, 6 June 1820, ML BT 24, pp. 4967–68.

  17 ‘… a neat handsome fort’

  1 Greenway’s evidence, 23 January 1821, ML, BT 1, p. 382.

  2 Greenway to the editor, Australian, 28 April 1825.

  3 Ellis, Francis Greenway, p. 42.

  4 Greenway to the editor, Australian, 14 April 1825.

  5 Major James Taylor was also the artist of a well-known 360-degree panorama view of Sydney, painted in about 1821, near the end of Macquarie’s term as governor.

  6 GP Walsh & DM Horner, ‘The defence of Sydney in 1820’, Army Journal, no. 240, May 1969, p. 16, quoted in Peter Oppenheim, The Fragile Forts: The Fixed Defences of Sydney Harbour 1788–1963, p. 28.

  7 Greenway’s evidence, 23 January 1821, ML, BT 1, pp. 382–83.

  8 Greenway to the editor, Australian, 28 April 1825.

  9 Gill’s evidence, 28 December 1821, ML, BT 1, pp. 538–89.

  10 Bigge to Macquarie, 2 October 1820, CSC, 4/1752, p. 15a–c.

  11 William Charles Wentworth, A Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales, p. 47.