The year 1795: The year 1796: The Blackheath Connection (Phase Two): Blackheath and the London Missionary Society: Further phases within The Blackheath Connection: Phase Two to 1800:

 

The Blackheath Connection

Chapter 45

 

The year 1795:

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A disposition of personnel...

 

          In 1795 the East India Company charter was relaxed sufficiently to allow British whalers entering the Pacific via Cape Horn to go as far west as long. 180 degrees, under licence from the Company. Legislation gave South Fishery ships the right to sail East of the Cape of Good Hope to long. 51 degrees east, and as far north as the Equator, also being under licence to sail so. Significantly in 1795, Britain captured Cape Town and by March 1795 an East India Company representative at the Cape was John Pringle. ([1])

 

      By 29 January, 1795 the ship Young William, owned by Daniel Bennett, was initially found unfit by the Victualling Commissioners to be sent to Sydney. The situation was righted and she sailed in company with storeship Sovereign, 362 tons,  ([2]) An example of a shipman listed by Shelton, but not by Bateson, is in Shelton's Contract No 11, dated 27 January, 1795, with Alexander Towers, for Sovereign, Captain George Storey. (There is no information at all on Towers, but it may have been that Towers had interests in India, as Sovereign and Captain George Storey appear to have illustrated some connection between India and Sydney via the activities of a young Scots merchant Robert Campbell, who later moved to Sydney.

 

      Robert Campbell was of a family from Greenock, Scotland; his brothers were actively trading in India as Campbell, Clarke and Co. In 1794, Campbell Clarke and Co. at Calcutta had moved to a new site, previously known as Barwell's, to carry on a commission and wine business; they imported wines, spirits, Madeira. ([3]) Shelton's Contract No. 11 noted one Scots convict for whom Shelton had written to the Crown Agent at Edinburgh for a certificate concerning the radical Joseph Gerrald, sailing on Sovereign.)

 

      Storey arrived at Sydney on 5 November, 1795 and sailed later to Bengal. ([4]) On 4 October, 1795, Young William, (via Spithead, Rio), arrived at Sydney. She left on 29  October, 1795, for China; presumably Daniel Bennett was to profit from a cargo of tea. Capt. Storey when he departed Sydney made for Calcutta, where he gave to The Calcutta Gazette, about May 1796, a story on trade prospects at Sydney. There is a tenuous suggestion that Storey had previously traded with Campbell and Clarke of Calcutta. Whatever the case, this news on Port Jackson prompted Robert Campbell, as junior partner in Campbell and Clarke, to examine the prospects for trading to New South Wales, and it was Campbell who did much to firm the small "country trade" between Sydney and India. ([5])

 

       Daniel Bennett, later of Blackheath, was becoming ambitious not only about whaling, but East India trade. Shelton's Account No. 12 of 17 October, 1795 was taken with him for Indispensible. Shelton charged £143/5/8d, mentioning 149 convicts, and he noted mysteriously... "Copy certificate of Conviction of Rachel Turner by Mr. Pollocks desire and delivered same to Mr White, Surgeon-General of NSW to take out with him .... The like of Margaret Dawson." It appears that by some variation of procedures, Rachel Turner had been delivered into White's personal care.

 

      Indispensible 351 tons Capt. William Wilkinson carried female convicts and arrived at Sydney on 30 April, 1796, not to go whaling, but by September to sail to Canton as chartered by the East India Company. ([6])

 

         Meanwhile, when Capt. Eber Bunker had returned to London from his Third Fleet whaling trip, Alexander and Benjamin Champion offered him command of their new vessel, Pomona. He accepted and sailed from London in May 1795. ([7]) On 22 May, 1795 Charles Bishop on Ruby reached north of the Columbia River, trading about north-west America. Bishop was an employee of the Bristol South whaler, Sydenham Teast.  ([8]) On 25 May, 1795, Sovereign Capt. George Storey sailed for Sydney Cove in company with Young William. Also in 1795 sailed convict transport Marquis Cornwallis, 654 tons, not contracted with Thomas Shelton. Marquis Cornwallis was owned by Capt. Michael Hogan, who was later a slaver round Africa with Donald Trail, earlier on Neptune, Second Fleet. Hogan suffered a bloody mutiny aboard, but arrived in Sydney on 11 February, 1796. On Marquis Cornwallis were up to 100 of The [Irish] Defenders. ([9])  And to the end of 1795, judging from Collins' account, nearly 100 expirees had left New South Wales, or about 10 per cent of those entitled to do so. Almost as many had successfully absconded while still under sentence. ([10])

 

*    *    *

The year 1796:

 

 

The maritime background...

 

      In 1796: the average size of a vessel in the whaler fishery was 296 tons. London sent 55 vessels into the fishery, Cork 1, Bristol 3, Hull 1. ([11])

 

    Cases of maritime surprise crop up in the records. In January 1796, London Missionary Society (LMS) letters reveal that Rev. Thomas Haweis was concerning himself with the outfit of a ship Sally for the South Whale Fishery. ([12]) It appears the LMS was considering shifting a whaler into the Pacific. (Haweis had connections in the Blackheath area). Was this perhaps Sally owned by Thomas Guillaume? It was now only a short mental leap, and the LMS would become a participant in the convict service to Australia, simply to be able to get a ship more easily into the Pacific. This is exactly what happened. Maritime records (not treating convict transports) indicate that in 1795-96, Young William, owned by Bennet, and Sally, owned by Thomas Guillaume, became the first British vessels to go to South Georgia. ([13]) This is a little mysterious, as it is not clear why a Bennett ship sailing London-Sydney-China would go to South Georgia. However, the London Missionary Society before it sent out Duff  had considered helping fit out a ship named Sally to take missionaries into the Pacific, but it is not known it this was Guillaume's ship.

 

     By January-July 1796. ([14]) J. P. Larkins was sending out Royal Admiral (back from Sydney) Capt. W. D. Fellowes to Bengal, and Walmer Castle Capt. E. H. Bond to China 1200 tons. ([15]) The LMS would later use East India husbands such as James Duncan and Robert Charnock, as we will see. James Duncan - probably - was James Beveridge Duncan of Blackheath, an East India broker of Great Tower Hill who helped with negotiations with the East India Company so that Haweis could enable the voyage of the first LMS missionary ship, Duff. In a letter, James Duncan to Haweis, 17 July, 1796, Duncan mentioned some views of Sir Charles Middleton, former comptroller of the navy. Duff had received her East India Company charter to take tea. ([16]) As a convict contractor, Duncan exploited the broach the whalers had made in the East India Company monopoly. Few full-time East India ships husbands dealt with ships for Sydney, and so Duncan is conspicuous in such activities. He contracted for Capt. Michael Hogan's Marquis of Cornwallis. ([17]) And James Duncan dealt for Capt. Hingston's Hillsborough in 1798, says Clune in Botany Bay. ([18])

 

       Some confusion exists about just which merchants took contracts for transportation, due to Shelton's Contracts having been ignored. For example, for 1801, Bateson connects Brown, Welbank and Petyt regarding the contracts for the convict transports Coromandel and Perseus, but Shelton's Contract No. 22 links only Joshua Reeve to those two ships. ([19]) However, Shelton's Contracts indicate that the contract takers were: for Hillsborough, Capt. Hingston, and the whaler Daniel Bennett. ([20]) (Shelton does not list Marquis Cornwallis as she carried Irish convicts). On 11 August, 1796, sailed Ganges, ([21]) her master being a part-owner, Capt. Thos. Patrickson from St. Albans Street; ([22]) contractor, some say, being James Duncan. Shelton's Contract  No.  13 lists only Capt. Patrickson as the contract taker for Ganges. ([23]) What is difficult to establish here are the financial motives for London merchants to be involved in transportation, if it was not the prospect of bring home a profitable cargo of East India goods?

 

      Convict transportation proceeded. On 11 August, 1796 sailed Ganges Capt. Thos. Patrickson. ([24]) The contractor was James Duncan. Shelton's Account No. 13, dated 9 August, 1796, was made with Mr. Thomas Patrickson, a fair copy was made for the Commissioners of the Transport Board by direction of the Under-Secretary of State, for 206 convicts. This was the first such fair copy Shelton made for the Transport Board. ([25])

 

*    *    *

 

       In February 1796, Campbell made further codicils to his will, and on 15 June, another alteration. His daughter Anne was considering marrying Mr. Peele. By 6 July, the daughter had received back the settlement from Mr. Peele. There was a May-June matter of a debt owed by Cosmo Gordon... trivial matters compared to the fear that would grip London - of an invasion from France. London feared a military novelty from Napoleon, that expert artilleryman; an aerial invasion by balloon

 

      A full page in The Royal Calendar for 1796-1797 proves the extent of the fear. Normally, the printed list of the Commissioners for the Lieutenancy of the City of London might be eight names; the name Calvert had figured regularly in the list for years, for years (though these men were not necessarily related to Anthony Calvert). In 1792 the Lords Commissioners for the Lieutenancy of London listed in The Royal Calendar had been: John and Peter Calvert, Thomas Thomas, Samuel and Nathaniel Martin, Richard Neave (of the firm Neave and Aislabie). London's fear of the French invasion meant that the list of commissioners had been greatly expanded to a full page of consecutive names, and the names included the names of merchants and convict contractors interested in NSW and the Pacific: (some information has been added).

 

These included: Sir Stephen Lushington (East India Co.), Peter Calvert (probably of the Calverts London brewers), Felix Calvert (brewer, or Felix Calvert and Co., Campion Lane, Thames Street?), Wm. Mainwaring (director Equitable Society, Court of Common Pleas, trading justice of Middlesex), Robert Preston (Elder Brother of Trinity House), Sam Bosanquet (Turkey Co.), Roger Boehm (Eastland Co., director Bank of England), Sir R Neave (Bank of England, provisioners to government's armed forces), J Calvert, Tho Selwyn, J Nesbitt (merchant, MP), Hen Thornton, Godfrey Thornton (Thorntons were Russia merchants), Edward Darell (Bank of England), Jos. Nutt (Bank of England), Moses Yeldham (Bank of England, Russia Co.), Sam Thornton, Tho Dea (Royal Exchange Assurance Co.), Sir Francis Baring (banker, East India Co.), T Cheap (East India Co.), Hugh Inglis (East India Co.), Wm. Money (East India Co., soon to be a dockowner), David Scott (East India Co.), Robert Thornton, Thos. Fitzhugh (East India Co.), J Bond (possibly the wool dealer Joshua Bond?), Rich Sheldon, Wm. Raikes (Amicable Soc., Eastland Co., Russia fleet), Stephen Thornton, Tho Neave, Wm. Pitt (prime minister), Mark Weyland, Thos. Raikes, Wm. Mellish (whaler, suppliers to shipping), Tho Boddington (West India merchant, Bank of England), Jacob Bosanquet (East India Co.), Sir Lionel Darell (East India Co.), John Manship (East India Co.), Abraham Roberts (sic) (East India Co., that is, Robarts, banker partner with Ald. William Curtis), Geo Tatem (East India Co.), Wm. Devaynes (East India Co.), Jos. Berens (possibly Hudson Bay Co.), Claude Champion (probable relative of Champion whaling investors), Wm. Thornton, Matthew Raikes, Jas. Curtis, J St Barbe (whaler, Lloyd's underwriter), John Julius Angerstein (a senior Lloyd's underwriter, leader of the market). Alderman George M. Macaulay (Major) was a field officer of the 2nd regiment of London Militia. Each regiment had 600 men. William Curtis was vice-president of the Honble Artillery Company; where alderman Paul Le Mesurier, (who about now had given Campbell's son Mumford a reference), was colonel.

 

      These then were the men guarding London's wealth and security. Fear of the French meant troops, volunteers and pressed men. There were 1500 men in St George's Fields, 1000 at Blackfriars, 1000 in St Paul's Churchyard, 1000 at the Royal Exchange, 1000 at Tower Hill, 1200 at the Foundling Hospital, and 2700 in Hyde Park... A total of about 9400 local men guarding London. As they drilled, the volunteers were said to use seven tons of gunpowder a week. ([26])

 

        With the emergency, Trinity House, responsible for the navigation of the River Thames, did its part. Its Elder Brethren, of whom prime minister Pitt was senior, found over 1200 volunteers, and raised a blockade of ships at the mouth of the Thames plus a force called the Royal Trinity House Volunteer Artillery, composed of the officers of Indiamen and the mates and masters of merchantmen. Some men worked on maritime tactics, downriver of the City. Trinity House with its headquarters in Tower Hill, London, controlled British navigation: shipping, lighthouses, pilots. Its governing officers were known as Elder Brethren and they included (variously between 1779 and 1799) men such as Capt. Anthony Calvert, Sir Charles Middleton, William Pitt, Henry Dundas, Lord Hood and Capt. George Curtis. ([27]). ([28]) The proposed invasion by Napoleon created "a time of stress and anxiety". The Elder Brethren of Trinity House offered to equip, officer and man ten frigates to be moored across the Thames, in the hope of protecting the metropolis. Some 1200 volunteers appeared, the Royal Trinity House Volunteer Artillery, William Pitt the colonel, composed of Elder and Younger Brethren of Trinity House, Indiamen captains, mates of merchantmen. Capt. Abel Chapman was on Daedalus, Thomas King (of CC&K) ([29]) with Capt. Reed was on Vestal, Anthony Calvert on Quebec. (Also senior in Trinity House was Joseph Cotton, who was irregularly reimbursed for expenditures on NSW). ([30])

 

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The Blackheath Connection (Phase Two): Blackheath and the London Missionary Society:

 

      Interest in the Pacific remained strong among other men at Blackheath, leading to the departure of the London Missionary Society ship Duff. A Blackheath identity involved was Joseph Hardcastle, who had links with Middleton and the navy. ([31]) Hardcastle may also have had links with East India Company men, as Lloyd's Registers note that there sailed on 13 March, 1786, the East India Company ship Hillsborough 758 tons Capt. W. Hardcastle, for coast and Bay, husband R Preston. ([32])

 

If Morison's book on the London Missionary Society (LMS) can be believed, Hardcastle's mind fed greatly on evangelical bombast. Hardcastle was connected with all the great operations of the LMS, and, writes Morison, "The history of the South Sea Mission is one of the brightest pages in the annals of the Christian Church". (Few books have been written in such a style of "spiritual" self-congratulation.) ([33])

 

     In a letter to Capt. James Wilson of Duff on 5 September, 1796, Hardcastle wished the effects of the missionary voyage to Tahiti would not be limited in time or space; a voyage "so pregnant with important events", a service "intimately connected" with the praise on earth of God. ([34]) Hardcastle spoke of "the beams of the Sun of Righteousness"; and he closed his encouraging letter to Wilson with the confidence that "when we reside among the immortals"....  "Connected with him [God], I venture to subscribe myself, Your Friend in imperishable bonds, Joseph Hardcastle". Though Hardcastle might already have been in Heaven, suffice to say, the natives on Tahiti finally ordered the LMS missionaries landed by Duff off their island. Later the LMS in their desperation to get ships into the Pacific stooped to convict contracting, using Blackheath connections to do so. With Royal Admiral II they took aboard fever with their convicts, by which means they killed some of their own personnel. And as it happened, after the LMS missionaries stepped on Tahiti, the birthrate ([35]) there dropped like a rock in an ocean, and kept dropping.

 

*     *     *     *     *

 

Phases within the Blackheath Connection: Further on Phase Two:

 

        Two LMS contacts were Gabriel Gillette and James Beveridge Duncan who helped enable Duff's voyage. In a letter, (James Duncan to Haweis, 17 July, 1796), Duncan mentioned Sir Charles Middleton, former comptroller of the navy. Duff had received her East India Company charter to take tea. Following his determination to convert the Pacific cannibal heathens, Haweis had gained supporters including Hardcastle. ([36]) ([37]) ([38]) Haweis, credited with the creation of the LMS, was chaplain to Lady Huntingdon, the aristocratic evangelist of Methodism whose mission had been aided by Lord Dartmouth. ([39])

 

     As noted earlier, Haweis had acquired a copy of a vocabulary of the Tahitian language, then found it difficult to actually send two missionaries to Tahiti. By 1794, Haweis had realised that only an interdenominational organisation would suffice for the conversion of the Pacific heathens and so the LMS was formed. Maritime activity remained nil until a captain could be recruited.

 

     An ex-East India captain retired to Portsmouth, James Wilson, heard of Haweis' zeal and approached Haweis. With James Wilson, Haweis had on his hands a zealous convert. Earlier in India, James Wilson had experienced "trials" leading him to convert to God. He'd been captured by the French in India, had to swim a crocodile-infested river to escape. Recaptured, he was flung in jail by a rajah, so he escaped again. Soon he "saw the light'. ([40]) James Wilson sailed as Duff's commander, his chief mate was his  nephew, William Wilson.

 

      By 1796 Haweis had mounted the resources to prepare Duff's first missionary voyage. ([41]) Meanwhile, Joseph Hardcastle, devout merchant of Ducksfoot Lane, London, originated a scheme whereby the missionary work could be made self-supporting by the sale of exotic artefacts imported from the Pacific. It was James Duncan, ([42]) of Blackheath, lately involved in the convict service to New South Wales, who dealt with the East India Company when the LMS decided to backload China tea to help pay for Duff's voyage after missionaries had been dropped at Tahiti. On 16 July 1796, David Scott, chairman of the East India Company, required from Duncan an assurance that the LMS equipment on Duff was not intended to invade the Company's privileges. The assurance provided, Duff received her charter to backload tea.

 

      Duff arrived at Tahiti on 5 March, 1797. Within two years, some of the missionaries had become so unpopular with the natives they were sent from the island, and travelled to Sydney on a ship commanded by Charles Bishop. ([43]) Later, some of the missionaries were employed at Sydney by the merchant who was commercially growing in stature yearly, Robert Campbell. ([44])  (In 1798, Charles Bishop established a boiling works at Cape Barren Island, not long after he had returned survivors of Robert Campbell's ship Sydney Cove to Sydney. Later Bishop sold 12,500 skins and 650 gals of oil to the China market. He is said by August 1798 to have sold seal skins worth £14,000 to the Hoong merchant, Ponqua). ([45])

 

         To proceed to Canton, Duff sailed north through the straits of the northern Philippines, near the Bashees, to Canton past Macao. Duff's voyage has long been regarded as a significant aspect of Pacific exploration. The humourless puritans aboard  left their mark by naming some islands, Disappointment Islands, about 25 September. Duff at Typa Harbour on 22 November met Britannia, one of the opportunist ships working in the convict service to Sydney; her captain, Dennot, had only recently been exonerated at Sydney for brutality on his convict transport. ([46]) There had been an inquiry after which Dennot had softly murmured "it is human to err" and been let go. Dennott had sailed from Port Jackson on 2 August, 1797, for China to take his cargo of tea. Doubtless, Dennot gave William Wilson news of "Botany Bay" and its trading possibilities. Finally at Typa Harbour, Duff  joined her convoy of East India ships including Canton, Boddam, Arniston, and Glatton Capt. Charles Drummond 40 guns, taking the country ships to Bombay. Duff arrived back on the Thames with a convoy of East Indiamen on 11 July, 1798. Her tea cargo netted about £4,000. William Wilson then compiled a book on Duff's voyage, reputedly being given £2000 for the copyright. ([47]) The book was printed by one T. Gillette, a name known also to the East India Company, as the family dealt to India. Such connections gave William Wilson further inspiration. ([48])In 1799 meanwhile a committee of the London Missionary Society had been appointed to oversee the writing and printing (by the printer Gillette) of William Wilson's book. ([49]) ([50]) ([51])

 

      Wilson shortly purchased from the Larkins family one third of their ship that had already been to New South Wales, Royal Admiral I. ([52]) On 23 July, 1799, Wilson wrote to Haweis that he had lately been at the office of the Duke of Portland, Secretary of State, where it had been agreed by the undersecretary that he might use his new vessel to transport convicts. Wilson had also looked for Sir Joseph Banks (who knew Haweis) but found Banks hard to find. At Treasury, Wilson had spoken with "a Mr Raven". (That is, Edward Raven). Eventually, Under-Secretary King had assented to Royal Admiral  carrying convicts. When she reached Port Jackson in November 1800, her owners were registered there as William Wilson and Gabriel Gillette. ([53]) It should be said, few convict contractors seem to have had to endure such a run-around before they obtained their contracts after seeing Thomas Shelton, or the still-unknown official who made the contracts for transporting Irish.

 

     After the delivery of convicts and private trade goods at Sydney, Wilson met the missionaries who had already been banished from Tahiti, and through them met Robert Campbell. Wilson dropped off his missionaries, took Royal Admiral II to Canton for tea, and sailed home. Later he sold the ship to the Government and by March 1803, she became, legendarily, a convict hulk on the Thames. This was not the case; but she may perhaps have become a hulk for prisoners of war? ([54]) By 1804 William Wilson was described as the London agent for Robert Campbell and the Reverend Samuel Marsden. ([55]) ([56])

 

     Here, commercial ironies infested situations. Visiting London in 1805, Sydney merchant Robert Campbell had his ship Lady Barlow loaded with Australasian seal produce, but the Enderbys and the East India Company denied entry. He also had ambitions of becoming Sydney agent for the whalers Daniel Bennett. Nothing transpired. In October 1806, in London, William Wilson and William Fairlie of the India House,  Fairlie, Ferguson and Company offered to act as security for the future financial good behaviour of Campbell, whose capital was destabilised due to blockades placed before him, preventing him landing Lady Barlow's cargo. The affair finally destabilised Wilson so much he also bankrupted, around 1810. By then, Wilson had opened the sandalwood trade to Fiji. ([57])

 

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By 1797 William Richards had long disappeared from the scene and Camden Calvert and King had ceased involvements to NSW. By 1797, records - except the records on London aldermen - became silent on George Macaulay. Macaulay by 1797 had lost almost 25 per cent of his wealth, according to his journal entry of 22 April, 1797. (The alderman banker, Sir Thomas Harley, also lost heavily in 1797.) ([58]) The great stayer of the Blackheath connection was John St Barbe. ([59])

 

In 1797 was produced J. W. Archenholtz' A Picture of England,  while Anon, wrote Great and New News from Botany Bay. (London) ([60]) But Anon forgot to mention which London merchants had been involved in shipping the prisoners. The Blackheath Connection between 1793 and 1797 began to lag, yet it did not entirely die. Involvement in convict transportation passed increasingly to men with East India Company connections. After 1800, the membership lists of the Blackheath Golf Club carried a surprising number of the names of shipping men involved with carrying convicts to Australia, notably Duncan Dunbar ([61]). Also listed is James B. Duncan, captain of the Blackheath Golf Club in 1806.

 

         In 1798 when he was contracting for the "fever ship" Hillsborough,  James Duncan had also arranged for that ship to take several LMS missionaries to Sydney. ([62]) And so, some of the evangelical LMS associates, such as Joseph Hardcastle, are curiously, like Freemasonry at Blackheath, another strong cultural influence linking Blackheath, New South Wales and the broader Pacific. (In Sydney, Christian life is still strongly influenced by similar strains of evangelism.)

 

      On 9 May, 1798, was held the fourth general meeting of London Missionary Society. Ironically, as the righteous conferred in London, the adventurous Charles Bishop was delivering unpopular LMS missionaries who'd first feared massacre, then been thrown off Tahiti and let go to Sydney. On 14 May, 1798, Bishop brought them safely into Sydney Harbour, among them, Rowland Hassall. ([63])

 

<Finis Chapter 79>

 

 

Item: By 1798, Duncan Campbell's ships husband, D. Cameron, was no longer evident in Lloyd's listings. Timothy Curtis on 12 April, 1798 sent out with the East India Company, Nottingham Capt. J. Barfoot. Some comparisons of maritime data serve to illustrate some reasons for the East India Company's unease about shipping "bound for Botany Bay." By October 1798, another whaler for NSW was Indispensable, voyage 3, Capt. William Wilkinson, owned by Daniel Bennett. ([64]) By 15 April, 1799 ([65]) the Newcastle whalers Hurry were sending a brig from London, or Yarmouth, for Ya Baltic, and they would provide a convict transport Ocean in 1803 to be sent to Port Phillip, then Hobart, to help create another new convict colony. ([66]) It is noticeable that Britain never felt the urge or need to send two or three whole battalions and numbers of free settlers to either NSW or Tasmania. This was not necessary in terms of European rivalries in the Pacific. The Imperial purse could not afford it. There was not the political will.

 

      Over 1799-1800 the increasingly noticeable whaler Daniel Bennett also had his ship William Capt. S Bacon for Lo S Seas. Amongst India ships, Gabriel Gillette had out  Bengal Capt. A Cumine 800 tons for Bengal, by 15 April, 1799; the same ship and captain had been out for Gillette by 6 November, 1797. And in 1800, Gillettes would help sent the convict transport Royal Admiral II to Sydney. By 15 April, 1799, Charnock had out Calcutta 819 tons Capt. Maxwell for Bengal. According to Lloyd's listings, on Caledonian for Charnock was Capt. S. Hawei/Hawes, for China and Bengal, her captain probably a connection of Rev. Thomas Haweis of the LMS. Ships husband W. Curtis not long after his Lord Mayoralty by 8 January, 1798 had sent City of London 800 tons Capt. A Green, to Bengal and Bombay. ([67]) J[ohn]. Prinsep on 18 June, 1799 had sent Lady Burgess 820 tons Capt. A Swinton to coast and China, and Prinsep would become interested by 1803 in sending many more ships to NSW. ([68]) (Prinsep was on the organising body for the rebel Red Book at Lloyd's). R. Charnock by 24 April, 1799 had sent Lord Nelson 819 tons Capt. R. Spottiswood, coast and China, and T. Curtis should have sent his Nottingham as usual, but she was not taken up. By 18 June, 1799, Charnock had sent out Asia 819 tons Capt. R. Wardlaw for coast and bay, built Liverpool in 1798 for R. Charnock. ([69])

 

      From 1798 ([70]) the London whaler Elligood owned by Daniel Bennett, Capt. Christopher Dixon, made a little-known voyage to the African coast. It appears by 27 August, 1800 she was at Kangaroo Island on the southern Australian coast - possibly wrecked there by 1802. A Cape Town newspaper in May 1801 reported Elligood  returned to that port that month, with the master and nine men dead by scurvy. A mystery - was she the wreck found on King Island in Bass Strait in 1802? - has only recently been cleared up by Rhys Richards.

 

      One historian's view is that not until 1798 were South whalers able to fish in Australian waters without restriction., that is, without obtaining licences from the East India Company. The fishery was regarded as: Act 38 Geo III c.57 by Cape Good Hope east to 180 degree but not north of the 15th degree south between 51 degrees East and 180 degrees. ([71]) Here, the passage of Act 38 Geo III c.57 enabled British whalers to exploit Australian waters. Late in 1800 they were permitted to carry goods to Sydney under bond for sale to settlers. Swan sees this last achievement as destroying the company's monopoly over the carriage and sale of goods to settlement, a monopoly which had been granted together with one for the transportation of convicts by government in 1792. ([72]) But such views about a division in the interests of whalers versus the Company block vision of the gradual merging of interests between some whalers and some Company men. If this merging remains unnoticed, it is almost impossible to explain why the merchants engaging in convict contracting were even bothering.

 

*     *     *

 

     About 1797-1799, too, for East India service, Coverdale sent Coverdale, Capt. B. Gowland. R Preston sent Coutts, named for the bankers, to China Capt. R. Torin. J[ames] Duncan sent Spence Capt. C. Raitt, 645 tons. T. Newte sent out Henry Dundas 1200 tons Capt. Carruthers. In East India Company listings at Lloyd's came the name of the merchant with a long-standing interest in the South whale fishery, and also a strong interest in whalers carrying convicts to Sydney - St Barbe sent out in East India Service Orpheus Capt. J. Cristal 382 tons for India. And Tellicherry Capt. S. Baker. St Barbe by 29 April, 1798 had sent Mildred Capt. M. Jordan, for East India service. ([73])

 

      So it remains to be asked... if by 1801, the East India Company was willing to let even a whaler - St Barbe, who had earlier brooked Company arrogance - put ships regularly in the Company service, why would it hinder a regular Company husband such as Charnock from sending convicts to Sydney? The answer to the Company's change in attitude seems to be a need for patriotism. What invoked the patriotism was fear that by using the back door of Ireland, the French might invade Britain. When the British had disciplined the Irish after their 1798 rising, many more Irish were to be transported to Australia. So when the Company modified its stance, this encouraged more East India houses to consider sending convict transports which would then sail north to trade about India or China. This helps explain a modification in the institutional setting in which the convict contractors came to be found after 1800, and the connections ten or twenty years later of so many India-connected houses with merchants at Sydney.

 

     Meanwhile, it was not until 1 August, 1800 that the Enderbys were willing to say they had now ascertained that the NSW whale fishery could be profitable, and they also suggested to Lord Liverpool that whaling traffic would ensure government could be in constant communication with the new NSW colony. ([74]) From about 1800, "investment"  in the convict service was more to be mercantile capitalist money, East India money, and often, the more adventurous end of East India money. Which is to say - some of it was  opium money.

 

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[Finis Chapter 45]

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