1808

11 Feb.

Will go

I may here also observe that Mr. Campbell's ship, the Albion, is soon expected, and should you approve of my desire to leave [in] that ship, the expence may be left for the decision of His Majesty's Home in one Ministers. The Alexander (Brooks) is hourly expected from Campbell's England, and should she arrive previous to the Albion, Mr. Campbell will also engage that she shall sail with me Home, with every exertion after her arrival, on the same terms.*

of

ships.

12 Feb. The tomb of Captain Putland.

Jamison's dismissal

from the

To this I must likewise beg you will consider that it will be some time before my papers in your possession will be ready for me, and my affairs settled, to conclude which I will not lose a moment in executing.

With regard to the medical assistants and the servants you have been so good as to offer me, I have to request a short time to deliberate who I may name for that purpose.

I am, &c.,

WM BLIGH.

GOVERNOR BLIGH TO MAJOR JOHNSTON.
Government House, Sydney, 12th February, 1808.

Sir,
In answer to your written message of the 1st instant by
Mr. Bayly, that if I had determined on any plan of finishing the
tomb of my late son-in-law, Captain Putland, or if I had not and
was desirous to consult with any of the artificers upon the subject
they should be immediately ordered to wait upon me and to
proceed to the execution of my wishes, and that the expense should
be transmitted with other accounts for His Majesty's Ministers to
decide whether the tomb is to be finished at the public or my
private expence, I have to express my thanks for this offer; but
as Mrs. Putland is extremely anxious that the body should be
sent to England to his friends, I have to request that the vault
may only be covered over, and a flat stone put thereon until an
opportunity offers to comply with Mrs. Putland's wishes.

The place where the body lies I had contrived to be a part of a large vault (of which Mr. Divine, the superintendant, has a plan) for the family use of all Governors who might require it.

I am, &c., W'M BLIGH.

NICHOLAS BAYLY TO PRINCIPAL SURGEON JAMISON. Sir, Sydney, 12th February, 1808. In consequence of your letter of the 10th inst.,† I was directed by His Honor, the Lieutenant-Governor, to require from magistracy. the late Governor a specification of the offences you had committed to occasion your dismissal from the office of magistrate, and to draw down upon you the severe accusations contained in his letter of the 31st October, 1807, to His Majesty's Secretary of State.

It appears from this that at the time Bligh wrote this letter he was willing to proceed direct to England. His partiality to one of Campbell's ships is explained by the fact that Campbell was one of his confidential advisers.

† Ante, p. 516.

Ante, p. 355.

MACARTHUR APPOINTED SECRETARY TO THE COLONY.

519

1808

12 Feb.

His Honor has this day received in reply a letter from the late Governor, wherein he begs leave to refer to the decision of His Majesty's Ministers. His Honor has directed me to assure you that it affords him particular pleasure to declare that he conceives your dismissal from the magistracy on the 22nd September is only The cause of to be attributed to your having attended him as a friend on that dismissal. day to witness an interesting conversation on public business.*

And His Honor has also directed me to recommend that you do not give yourself any further trouble upon the subject, because in his judgment no stronger testimony of the integrity of your life can be produced than the silence of your accuser when called upon to come forward and justify his extraordinary attack upon your reputation. I am, &c., NICHOLAS BAYLY,

GOVERNMENT AND GENERAL ORDER.

Secretary.

12th February, 1808.

Jamison's

JOHN MCARTHUR, Esq're is appointed a magistrate and Secretary Macarthur appointed to the colony. It is to be understood that no salary or emolument Secretary. can be attached to either of these appointments. All public letters relative to the civil department, are in future to be addressed to the Colonial Secretary.†

A muster will be taken on Wednesday at the Hawkesbury of all persons victualled at that settlement by Government.

NICHOLAS BAYLY TO GOVERNOR BLIGH. (Colonial Secretary's

Papers.)

Sydney, 13th February, 1808.

13 Feb.

offered to

I AM directed by His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor to inform Copies of you, sir, that your wishes respecting the tomb of your late son-in-papers law shall be minutely complied with. I am also directed to Bligh. acquaint you, sir, that fair copies of many of the confessions and examinations concerning your late government are prepared and ready to be sent to you, which will be done as soon as they have been compared with the originals and properly attested. His Honor therefore wishes that your secretary should attend at the barrack of his aid-du-camp at 10 o'clock this morning that the business may be immediately proceeded upon.‡ N. BAYLY,

Secretary.

[13th February, 1808. — Major Abbott to ex-Governor King. See Appendix A.]

* See Harris to Mrs. King, 25th October, 1807, ante, p. 346, from which it appears that the "interesting conversation" occurred upon the occasion of Johnston protesting against Bligh interfering with the private detail of the New South Wales Corps. See also Fitz to Chapman, ante, p.305; and the evidence of Bligh, Trial of Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston, p.69. This is the first time such an officer appears in our annals.

Bligh replied: "I cannot receive any papers in this country relative to my late Government to which the above-mentioned message alludes."

1808

RETURN of Government stock for 13th February, 1808. Increase, decrease, and remains to 20th February, 1808.

13 Feb.

14 Feb.

Bligh's

refusal to appear against

Jamison.

Sir,

PRINCIPAL SURGEON JAMISON TO MAJOR JOHNSTON.

Sydney, 14th February, 1808.

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th ins't, with the enclosures, and I am much concerned to learn that the late Governor declines coming forward to prove his allegations against me before a General Court-Martial, feeling conscious of not deserving such censure. It is particularly gratifying to me to find you acquit me, and that you attribute my dismissal from the office of magistrate to the cause of attending as a friend to witness an interesting conversation, and the enclosed letter from the late Governor a few hours after that event strongly warrants the conclusion.

*Ante, p. 518.

I shall, under these circumstances, let the matter drop in this country, trusting I shall be enabled at a future period to prove the rectitude of my conduct to His Majesty's Ministers.

I have, &c.,

THOMAS JAMISON, Principal Surgeon.

[Enclosure.]

A COPY of the letter of dismissal from the office of Magistrate alluded to in the above from Edmund Griffin, Secretary, to Thomas Jamison, Esq'r'.

Sir,

Government House, Sydney, 22nd September, 1807.

1808

14 Feb.

I am commanded by His Excellency to inform you that he Jamison has no further occasion for your services as a magistrate.

I am, &c.,

EDMUND GRIFFIN, Secretary.

GOVERNOR BLIGH TO MAJOR JOHNSTON.

Sir, Government House, Sydney, 17th February, 1808.

dismissed from magistracy.

17 Feb.

On the other side I send you a list of persons that will be Bligh's necessary for me to have sent to England, and have to request witnesses. that you will be pleased to take the requisite steps for providing them with a passage accordingly.

I am, &c.,
W'M BLIGH.

Late Judge-Advocate.

Late Magistrates.

Late Provost-Marshal.

My Secretary.

Late Chaplain.

Commiss'y's Clerk.

Superintendants.

Chief Constable at Hawkesbury.*

GOVERNMENT AND GENERAL Order.

17th February, 1808.

Court.

IT having been represented to the Lieut. Governor that Mr. Constitucion Moore, master builder, cannot discharge the duty of a member of of the Civil a Civil Court without neglecting his other duties, the Acting Judge Advocate has been directed to draw for another member, and that lot having fallen upon John Blaxland, Esq're, he is hereby ordered to sitt as a member.

* Of these officers, only Campbell, Palmer, Gore, Griffin, Fulton, Divine, and Oakes gave evidence for the prosecution at the Court-Martial, held in May, 1811, on Major Johnston. The Judge-Advocate, Richard Atkins, went over to the other side, and was called by Major Johnston.

1808

17 Feb.

Members of the Court.

The charges against

Wentworth.

Johnston willing for Bligh to be

COURT-MARTIAL ON D'ARCY WENTWORTH.*

New South Wales, 17th February, 1808. PROCEEDINGS of a General Court-Martial, held by virtue of a warrant under the hand and seal of His Honor George Johnston, Esquire, LieutenantGovernor of His Majesty's territory of New South Wales, &c., &c., &c. Captain Anthony Fenn Kemp, President; Lieut. Will. Moore, Lieut. Wm. Lawson, Lieut. Thos. Laycock, Lieut. C. Draffin, members; Charles Grimes, Esq'r., Deputy Judge-Advo'te.

THE several warrants appointing the president, members of the Court, and Deputy Judge-Advocate being read, and the members and Judge-Advocate being sworn,

D'Arcy Wentworth, Esquire, Assistant Surgeon in New South Wales, brought before the Court, and the following charges exhibited against him by Charles Grimes, Esquire, Deputy Judge-Advocate :

1st. In employing servants of the Crown who were entrusted to his care in labour on his own grounds, and in taking charge of his own stock. 2ndly. In employing for his private emolument settlers' servants who have been sent into the hospital sick, to the great loss and injury of their masters, and thereby subjecting Government to an heavy expence for the maintenance of the men so improperly kept on the sick or convalescent lists.+

Plea-Not guilty.

Letter from the Judge-Advocate to William Bligh, Esq'r., dated 16th of February, 1808, and William Bligh, Esquire's, answer to LieutenantGovernor Johnston, read to the Court :

"HIS Honor the Lieutenant-Governor has directed me to transmit to you the copy of the charges against Mr. D'Arcy Wentworth, and at the same time represented. to acquaint you that His Honor wishes to know if there is any person you may wish to appoint as prosecutor before the General Court-Martial to be held tomorrow; or, if there is any particular manner in which you are desirous that the prosecution should be conducted. "CHARLES GRIMES.”

Bligh refuses.

Evidence of
Griffin.

"Sir,

"Government House, Sydney, 16th February, 1808. "I have this day received a letter from Mr. Charles Grimes, Acting Judge-Advocate, enclosing a copy of charges against Mr. D'Arcy Wentworth, stating that His Honor the Lieut.-Governor had directed him to transmit to me the same, and at the same time to acquaint me that His Honor wishes to know if there is any person I may wish to appoint as prosecutor before the General Court-Martial to be held to-morrow, or if there is any particular manner in which I am desirous that the prosecution should be conducted.

"In reply to which I have only to refer you to my letter of the 10th instant, and to inform you that I cannot enter into any such circumstances until I return to England, and where I can only assign reasons for any act of mine in this colony. "I am, &c., "W'M BLIGH."

Edmund Griffin, secretary to the late Governor Bligh, sworn, and the letter, with the accompanying depositions of Oakes and Beldon, from Governor Bligh to the Right Honorable William Windham, sent by the Duke of Portland, read.‡

Q. from the Prosecutor.§ Are the letter and deposition produced true copies of those sent to England by the ship Duke of Portland?-A. They are.

* See also Wentworth's letter to Castlereagh and its enclosures, printed ante, p. 313.

† See the depositions of Oakes and Beldon, enclosed in Bligh's letter of 31st October, 1807, ante, p. 369.

See Bligh to Windham, 31st October, 1807, and its enclosures, ante, p. 368.

§ It does not appear who the prosecutor was; probably Grimes, as Deputy Judge-Advocate, acted pro formá. As in the trial of Macarthur, in February, 1808, there was really no prosecution, and the decision was a foregone conclusion.