The Rum Rebellion
Page 12
George Suttor was released from prison ten days short of his six month sentence. He did go to England, with five other free settlers, to give evidence against Major Johnston and in support of Governor Bligh. He was in the witness box for half an hour and away from his family for two years.
The trial took place in 1811. All accusations made against Governor Bligh were dismissed and Major Johnston was found guilty of mutiny and forced out of the army. None of the other soldiers was charged but the New South Wales Regiment was withdrawn from the colony and returned to England.
For legal reasons John Macarthur could only be charged with breaking the law in New South Wales. To avoid this he stayed away from the colony for nine years.
When George Suttor returned to New South Wales in 1812 he found the colony had changed. Governor Macquarie had brought with him his own regiment and so the conflicts between the military and the naval Governors were a thing of the past.
Macquarie was determined to break the power of the wealthy class. He encouraged ex-convicts into respectable society. He created laws that aimed to control the colony’s drinking and he planned and constructed more impressive buildings than Sydney and Parramatta had ever seen.
George was in such debt on his return that he had to sell his collection of books. He continued to farm and in 1814 became the Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum at Castle Hill. In later years he received a grant of land in the Bathurst district where the family prospered. Descendants of George and Sarah Suttor can still be found farming in that region and living in Sydney.
John Macarthur was finally reunited with his family in 1817. His large land holdings had been consolidated and well-managed in his absence by his wife, Elizabeth and his family. He became involved in the power games of the colony again and lobbied hard to blacken the administration of Governor Macquarie. He was appointed to the new Legislative Council in 1823 but became increasingly insane and died in 1834.
Both George Suttor and John Macarthur pursued their vision for the Colony of New South Wales. Their long absences from their farms meant that much of the success of their ventures, in wool-growing for the Macarthurs, and in orchard-growing and general farming for the Suttors, depended on the women who were left behind to manage the properties and their large families.
Our knowledge of our country’s history comes to us in many different ways. A number of films have been made about the mutiny on board Captain Bligh’s ship, the Bounty. In those films the sailors are cast as romantic heroes fighting against the tyranny of an overbearing sea captain. It is dramatic storytelling, but the real reasons for the sailors’ actions are given little attention.
In the same way, rebels in New South Wales argued that they were overthrowing a tyrannical Governor. They even published images of Governor Bligh being dragged out from under a bed—an accusation dismissed at Johnston’s trial. They claimed to be heroes, acting for all the free settlers of the colony. Many, many settlers, George Suttor among them, protested at this.
The growth of the wool industry and the vast wealth it created for large landholders has meant that the Macarthur family has remained prominent in the Australian community. For many years John Macarthur was credited with much of the industry’s development. In recent years people have realised the important contribution of Elizabeth to the family’s prosperity, and of other early settlers to the growth of the national industry.
The Suttor family, although ultimately comfortably well-off, did not prosper in the same way as the Macarthurs. Only family and local historians are familiar with the role George Suttor and other small farmers played in the events of 1808. Like many others, their contribution is not visible in mainstream history books.
A nation’s history is made up of many stories. There are those individuals who are celebrated and become known to all. There are also those who do not attain fame but who still play an important role in events. George Suttor and those like him made moral decisions that put themselves and their families at great risk. They believed that just because an action was taken by rich and powerful men, that did not mean that it was right.
Some people believe that the wealth of a country depends on rich and powerful people building up great fortunes. Others believe that it is more important for a country to be a place where everyone participates in a fair and just system. This conflict is just as alive today as it was two hundred years ago.
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LIBBY GLEESON
Libby Gleeson studied Australian History at the University of Sydney. She has taught in secondary schools and in tertiary institutions. She writes short stories, picture books and longer fiction for young people of all ages and has also contributed to a number of preschool television series.
Her first novel, Eleanor, Elizabeth, received the Angus and Robertson New Writers’ Award and was Highly Commended in the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Awards.
Libby has had many titles short-listed in the CBCA awards, in all four fiction categories. Hannah Plus One was the CBCA Book of the Year, Younger Readers in 1997.
Libby has published numerous picture books, five of them illustrated by Armin Greder. From this collaboration, Big Dog won the Prime Minister’s Multicultural Award in 1992 and An Ordinary Day was the CBCA Picture Book of the Year in 2002. The Great Bear won the Bologna Ragazzi Award in 2000. This was the first time an Australian book has won this prestigious international award, presented at the Bologna Book Fair.
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Published by Scholastic Australia, 2001
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