By David Morgan

Supported by a Create NSW Arts and Cultural Grant – Old Parramattans & St. John’s First Fleeters

Members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are advised that this essay contains names and images of deceased Aboriginal People

‘Moonraker‘

In his long life, Thomas Chipp was a marine, a First Fleeter, a farmer, a constable, a baker, a labourer, and finally a Chelsea Pensioner—but before all that he was a ‘Moonraker,’ born in Devizes in the English West Country county of Wiltshire about 1756.^[1] This nickname for people from Wiltshire came from a legend relating to their role in the smuggling trade. Supposedly, a pair of Wiltshiremen smuggling brandy hid a barrel of it in a pond. Coming back for it on a moonlit night and trying to rake it back to land, they were caught by excisemen. They escaped by claiming that the reflection of the moon was a cheese and that they were trying to rake it in, leading the excisemen to laugh at the simple-minded rustics and leave them to it.

An 1881 Wiltshire dialect poem inspired by the legend celebrates the people of the county for being far cleverer than they appear to outsiders, and gives us some idea of what Thomas Chipp might have sounded like:

Bit he tha tale did zoon let out

To ael the countery roun about;

An to thease day, people da teeze,

All Wilsheer voke about tha cheese.

Bit tis thay as can avourd ta grin,

To zee ow nice a wur took in.

Zoo wen out thease county you da goo,

An voke da poke ther vun at you;

An caal ee a girt Wilsheer coon,

As went a reakun var tha moon.

Jist menshin thease yer leetle stowry,

And then bust out in ael yer glowry,

That yer smeart Excisemin vresh vrum town,

Wur took in wie a Wilsheer clown.^[2]

We have no further information about Thomas Chipp’s early life, but Wiltshire’s position close to England’s south-west coast, which put it on the route for smugglers, also placed him near two of the main bases of the Royal Marines.

Per Mare, Per Terram

Chipp’s attested sixteen years of service in the Royal Marines indicate he enlisted in 1775, at about the age of nineteen.^[3] A marine is a sea soldier, and the Royal Marines’ motto ‘Per Mare, Per Terram’ (‘By Sea, By Land’) highlights their dual role. The present corps dates from 1755, when it was formed on the eve of the Seven Years’ War and administered by the Admiralty rather than the War Office. Marines generally lived aboard ships in small detachments forming part of the crew, but at the same time were distinct from the seamen, with their own areas for berths and messes. The reason for the separation was that, as well as their key role in amphibious warfare, marines served in the prevention of mutiny and desertion, keeping a watchful eye on seamen and standing guard whenever a punishment was inflicted. Their appearance was also different, their smart uniforms contrasting with the informal dress of the seamen.[4]

Royal Marines Uniform: Pattern 1782 (c. 1782), © National Maritime Museum Collections. Video edit by Michaela Ann Cameron. This Royal Marines dress coat of Major General Arthur Tooker Collins (1718–1793) is constructed of red wool with cuffs and lapels faced with blue. The buttonholes are of embroidered metal thread and the cast brass buttons are stamped with a laurel wreath enclosing a crossed sword and baton. On the left shoulder is a fastening for an epaulette. The skirts could be turned back, so that the white lining of the coat created a contrast against the red wool of the skirts. They were secured by means of hook and eye fasteners. The lines of the coat indicate the leaner silhouette that was popular in the latter part of the 18th century. In keeping with this fashion, the front of the coat slopes back and downward from the waist and the pockets are hidden in the interior lining. Royal Marines uniform: pattern 1782 (UNI0014).

The contrast between marines and seamen was summed up by a naval captain who served in the Napoleonic Wars, and shows us what Chipp’s daily life would have been like in the Marines:

No two races of men, I had well nigh said two animals, differ from one another more completely than the ‘Jollies’ [seamen] and ‘Johnnies’ [marines]. The marines as I have said are enlisted for life, or for long periods as in the regular army, and, when not employed afloat, are kept in barracks, in such constant training, under the direction of their officers, that they are never released for one moment of their lives from the influence of strict discipline and habitual obedience. The sailors, on the contrary, when their ship is paid off, are turned adrift, and so completely scattered abroad, that they generally lose…all they have learned of good order during the previous three or four years. Even when both parties are placed on board ship, and the general discipline maintained in its fullest operation, the influence of regular order and exact subordination is at least twice as great over the marines as it can ever be over the sailors.^[5]

The ‘Johnny’ Chipp served in the Marines’ 42^nd Company, which was part of the Plymouth-based Third Division.[6] There was, however, no relationship between the company on shore and a detachment at sea, as men were sent to ships’ detachments in ones and twos from each company. The Marines’ base in Plymouth was the Stonehouse Barracks, which was completed in 1783 and is still used by the Royal Marines today.^[7]

Chipp is next recorded as serving aboard the Plymouth guardship Standard in 1785.^[8] He was thus in the right place at the right time when the Admiralty called for volunteers to go to Kamay (Botany Bay) in October 1786.^[9]

‘A fine detachment’

The ‘Heads of a Plan’ by Home Secretary Lord Sydney to establish a penal settlement at Kamay (Botany Bay) envisaged a major role for the Royal Marines. He estimated that about 180 men would be needed. As well as undertaking guard duty, these marines would have roles in construction and farming, drawing on the skills they had acquired before enlisting: ‘[as] many of the marines as possible should be artificers, such as carpenters, sawyers, smiths, potters (if possible), and some husbandmen [farmers].’^[10] Lord Sydney later wrote to the Admiralty asking them to offer men the inducement of either a ‘bounty or promise of discharge should they desire it upon their return, or at the expiration of three years, to be computed from the time of their landing at the new intended settlement should they prefer the remaining in that country [sic].’^[11] The response was enthusiastic: within six days 200 men volunteered, enabling the commandant at Plymouth to choose ‘a fine detachment’ including men from ‘all trades.’ Indeed, so many were eager to serve that a ballot became necessary. There was such a large number of skilled men in the Marines because many were formerly unemployed tradesmen made redundant by technological change.^[12] Given his childhood in the largely rural county of Wiltshire and his later role as a farmer in the colony, agricultural skills may have counted in Chipp’s favour during the competitive selection process.

By early 1787, the First Fleet was starting to gather at Portsmouth. Chipp was part of the detachment commanded by Captain-Lieutenant James Meredith aboard the convict transport Friendship, which arrived with convicts from Plymouth on 13 March.^[13] Completing the officer complement aboard the Friendship were Lieutenants Ralph Clark and John Faddy, while Chipp was one of the 30 privates and non-commissioned officers.^[14] The Friendship was a new ship, built in Scarborough in 1784 and until then used in the coastal coal and West Indies trades. As a two-masted brig of 278 tons, she was one of the smallest of the fleet. Among the 72 male and 21 female convicts on board were recaptured Mercury mutineers Simon Burn and William Haynes, Richard Carter, as well as Henry Kable, who would later become chief constable, then a merchant, landowner and shipowner in New South Wales, his future wife Susannah Holmes, and their son Henry junior, who had been born in gaol in 1786.^[15] After an attempt to leave Portsmouth on Saturday 12 May 1787 was abandoned when the wind dropped, Chipp finally set sail with the fleet the following morning.^[16]

On 3 June he arrived in the harbour of Santa Cruz on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.^[17] The day after the Friendship’s arrival, the Marine commander Major Robert Ross came aboard to deal with the two sergeants of the ship’s detachment, both of whom Meredith had confined for court martial for ‘unsoldierly’ behaviour. Whatever their offence was, according to Clark, Ross told Meredith ‘he would not try them although he said the[y] ought both to [be] hanged for the offence (a very pretty Way of carr[y]ing on Service I must own) and order[ed] them both to be released.’[18] What did they do, and why was the Marines’ usual severe discipline relaxed in this case? It may have been because there was no prospect of replacing such senior non-commissioned officers now they had embarked on the voyage; in addition one of them, Peter Stewart, was a married man with young children. Captain and Governor-designate Arthur Phillip also came aboard and ordered that irons be taken off the convicts, but that they were to be put back on immediately for the smallest offence. Chipp and his fellow marines now had the chance to go ashore, and were told that wine and fresh beef would be available for all while they were in port. It was, however, the wrong time of year for fresh fruit, except for green figs and pumpkins—‘never Saw the Kings birth day worse kept than this [sic],’ Clark grumbled in his diary.^[19]

On 9 June 1787, a fight broke out on the Friendship among the convict women Elizabeth Dudgeon, Margaret Hall, Elizabeth Pooley and Charlotte Ware, and Clark had them put in irons.^[20] The next day Captain Phillip made the signal for the fleet to weigh anchor at 5:00 am the next morning, but it was becalmed and made little progress for two days.^[21] The irons were taken off the women on 19 June, but Clark was unforgiving: ‘ther[e] was never three [four] great whores living than they are, the four of them that Went through the Bulk head [to the sailors’ quarters] while we lay at the Mother Bank [off the Isle of Wight] —— I am convinced the[y] will not be long out of them the[y] are a disgrase to the[i]r Whole Sex B . . . . . s that they are I wish all the Women Wair out of the Ship [sic].’^[22] On 3 July, Dudgeon and Pooley were again in trouble, having been found in the seamen’s quarters, along with Elizabeth Thackery and Sara McCormick, and all four were put in irons for the rest of the voyage, while three of the four sailors who were with the women were flogged.^[23] As a marine, Chipp was one of those tasked with enforcing discipline on the ship; he would have been used to dealing with sailors, but convicts—especially female ones—presented new challenges.

By 5 July 1787, the fleet was caught in the doldrums of the mid-Atlantic, and the water ration was reduced to three pints (1.7 litres) a day, but it was restored to two quarts (2.4 litres) on 18 July.^[24] On the same day, Clark recorded that Marine Sergeant Peter Stewart’s ‘[y]oungest child was [al]most kil[le]d by one of the Convicts letting it drop out of his hand into the fore hold,’ while a ‘very much in liqour [sic]’ Elizabeth Barber was bound and gagged after abusing Assistant Surgeon Thomas Arndell, Captain Meredith and Lieutenant Faddy—‘in all the course of my days,’ declared Clark, ‘I never h[e]ard Such exspertions come from the Mouth of human being [sic].’^[25] On 1 August, Meredith put Barber, Thackery, Dudgeon and Pooley in irons again for fighting among themselves, ordering the sergeant ‘not to part them but to let them fight it out which I think he is very wrong in letting them doe so [sic].’^[26]

The fleet arrived in Rio de Janeiro on 6 August 1787 and would remain until 4 September while stores were purchased, and Chipp was no doubt one of the marines taking the opportunity to go ashore.^[27] There is no record of him misbehaving, but some of the punishments meted out to other marines show the ferocious discipline under which he served. Privates John Tolan and Michael Barrisford of the Prince of Wales got drunk and started fighting, and then Tolan abused an officer who had ordered them to stop. Barrisford received 50 lashes for fighting, while Tolan received 175 lashes of a 300-lash sentence for his additional insubordination.[28] Other marines also faced punishment for drunkenness, fighting, or ‘improper intercourse’ with the female convicts.[29] On the Friendship, a corporal was demoted and Private Thomas Chapman promoted in his place.^[30] Captain Phillip reported that during their time in Rio both the marines and the convicts had benefited from fresh provisions, namely 1¼ pounds (568 grams) of beef and one pound (454 grams) of rice a day. The convicts, then, had received the same as the marines, ‘spirits excepted.’^[31]

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After sailing from Rio, Chipp and the rest of fleet now found themselves in storms and wild seas on the South Atlantic. On 8 September 1787, Clark was ‘very much frighten[e]d in the night by the Ships being taking al[l] a back in a very hard Squal[l] of wind and rain,’ while on 23 September the hatches of the marines’ and convict women’s quarters were battened down as the seas were breaking over the Friendship.^[32] When the fleet arrived at Cape Town on 13 October after a gruelling five weeks and four days at sea, 20 marines and 93 convicts were reported sick.^[33] Two days after arriving, Marine Sergeant James Scott from the Prince of Wales noted that the marines and their families, as well as the convicts, were served fresh beef and mutton with soft brown bread.[34] Chipp had 29 days to make the most of his time ashore at the Cape while the fleet took on further provisions.^[35] We do not know exactly what Chipp did there, but on 24 October 1787, Scott recorded spending an ‘Agreeable’ day ashore with his wife, two other sergeants and their wives, making an excursion to the Dutch East India Company’s gardens, and observing ‘Various Birds &c Which is, as Desirable a place, As Ever I Would Wish to See.’^[36] By the time Chipp returned to the Friendship, it had been transformed into what Clark, at least, considered a more ‘desirable’ environment: ‘[A]bout 1 oClock [sic]’ on 28 October, Clark had ‘[s]ent the Women convicts away as order[ed] thank god that the[y] are all out of the Ship—I am very Glad of it for the[y] wair a great Trouble much more So than the [men] [sic].’^[37]

Leaving Cape Town on 12 November, Chipp was now sailing into the unknown. Taking advantage of the ‘Roaring Forties,’ on 25 November Captain Phillip formed a squadron of the four fastest ships—HMS Supply, the Friendship, the Scarborough and the Alexander—to go ahead and prepare the settlement for the arrival of the other ships. Three days later, Clark wrote that ‘it blows So hard that I cannot Sit to write,’ and on 31 December noted that the Friendship was making 170 nautical miles (350 km) a day. The Supply arrived at Kamay (Botany Bay) on 18 January, and the Friendship arrived with the other transports the following morning.^[38] We may wonder whether Chipp, from aboard the Friendship, saw with Clark ‘at 10 oClock a great maney of Natives of Point Solander as it is cal[le]d to which we went very near which is the South Point as we goe in to the Bay—Saw also a great manny on the North Shore [sic].’^[39]

Kamay (Botany Bay) offered no shelter for ships and little fresh water, but after sending out several exploring parties Captain Phillip found Warrane (Sydney Cove) in Cadigal Country to the north to be ‘the finest harbour in the world,’ and so the fleet sailed north on the morning of 26 January.^[40]

There was one last ordeal for Chipp aboard the Friendship. As she started to leave Kamay (Botany Bay) she ran afoul first of the Prince of Wales, which carried away her jib boom, and then the Charlotte. Clarke wrote that the Charlotte ‘[s]hook us very much’ and that ‘if it had not being by the greatest good luck we Should have been both on Shore on the rocks and the Ships must have been all lost and the greater part if not the whole on board drown[e]d for we Should have gone to pi[e]ces in less than a half of an hour but how good the Almighty is to us [sic].’^[41] The fleet came to an anchor in Warrane (Sydney Cove) in the evening and four volleys of small arms were fired to celebrate the founding of the new town.^[42]

The Marines Land

Early on 28 January 1788, all but the sick convicts on the Friendship were sent ashore, followed at 10:00 am by the marines, including Chipp. Clark ‘never Saw So much confusion in all the course of my life’ as in the three companies disembarking.^[43] Marine Captain-Lieutenant Watkin Tench noted that Governor Phillip’s residence was set up east of the Tank Stream, ‘with a large body of convicts encamped near him,’ while the rest were placed on the western side near the marines’ camp.[44] Chipp would have been a member of one of the two guards which were ‘daily mounted for the public security, with such directions to use force, in case of necessity, as left no room for those who were the object of the order, but to remain peaceable, or perish by the bayonet.’[45] Tench also recorded the burst of activity which began the moment of landing:

In one place, a party cutting down the woods; a second, setting up a blacksmith’s forge; a third, dragging along a load of stones or provisions, here an officer pitching his marquee, with a detachment of troops parading on one side of him, and a cook’s fire blazing up on the other. Through the unwearied diligence of those at the head of the different departments, regularity was, however, soon introduced, and, as far as the unsettled state of matters would allow, confusion gave place to system.^[46]

Chipp and his fellow marines were soon settling into their new daily routine. On 30 January, Ross issued the first Orders of the Day for the Marine detachment: they would guard the hospital, patrols would bring in stragglers and they were to fire on any escapees or convicts out at night, no man would be served food before noon, and rations were to be drawn on Mondays and Fridays. Spirits, however, would be drawn daily.^[47]

Due to what Tench called ‘the multiplicity of pressing business necessary to be performed immediately after landing,’ it was not until 7 February 1788 that Arthur Phillip was able to read out his commissions and take possession of the colony in front of the assembled marines and convicts.[48] Afterwards, Governor Phillip reviewed the marine battalion and was ‘pleased to thank them, in public orders, for their behaviour from the time of their embarkation[.]’^[49] Nevertheless, discipline for Chipp and his fellow marines remained severe. On 11 February Arthur Bowes Smyth, surgeon on the Lady Penrhyn, recorded that Private Thomas Bramwell was flogged for beating a convict woman, Elizabeth Needham, ‘a most infamous hussy…[with] whom he had had connections while on board.’[50] He noted that Bramwell received 100 lashes and would receive 100 more, while a convict who had struck a sentry on duty received only 150 lashes: ‘The Severity shewn to the Marines & Lenity to the Convicts has already excited great murmuring & discontent among the Corps & where it will end, unless some other plan is adopted, time will discover.’^[51] Even greater severity was shown on 27 March 1789 when six marines were executed for using a duplicate key to rob the public stores of ‘flour, meat, spirits, tobacco, and many other articles.’^[52] Marine Private John Easty recorded in his journal that ‘thare was hardley a marine Present but what Shed tears offacers and men [sic].’^[53]

Relationships with local Aboriginal People began to deteriorate during 1788, and Chipp was on the front line. Ross wrote in July 1788 that ‘the detachment is at this hour without any kind of place of defence to retire to in case of an alarm or surprize…The natives, tho’ in number near us, shew no inclination to any kind of intercourse with us [sic].’[54] He voiced his suspicions that ‘Tho’ we have had little or no opportunity of coming at their real dispositions and character, yet I am by no means of opinion that they are that harmless, inoffensive race they have in general been represented to be,’ after two convicts were speared.^[55] Matters escalated in the early hours of 10 December 1790 when John McIntyre, a convict who was the governor’s gamekeeper, was speared near Cooks River by the Bidjigal warrior Pemulwuy, and died six weeks later.[56] Governor Phillip’s response was draconian: he ordered Tench to assemble a party of two captains, two subalterns, forty privates and ‘a proper number of non-commissioned officers’ to go to the north of Kamay (Botany Bay), take two natives prisoner, put to death ten, and cut off and bring in the heads of the slain, ‘for which purpose, hatchets and bags would be furnished.’[57] Tench, clearly appalled by the order, asked Phillip to consider whether ‘instead of destroying ten persons, the capture of six would not better answer all the purposes for which the expedition was to be undertaken, as out of this number, a part might be set aside for retaliation.’[58] Phillip agreed, though he added that ‘if six cannot be taken, let this number be shot’—if Tench could take six, Phillip would hang two and send the rest to Norfolk Island.[59] Tench left for Kamay (Botany Bay) at 4:00 am on 14 December.^[60] Chipp’s presence in Tench’s company makes it likely he was on this expedition.^[61] Tench’s ‘terrific procession’ reached the peninsula at the head of Kamay (Botany Bay) by 9:00 am, but after walking in ‘various directions’ by 4:00 pm, they had found no natives.^[62] The detachment returned to Warrane (Sydney Cove) after what Easty described as a ‘Troublesome Teadious March [sic].’^[63] Tench subsequently led another expedition from Warrane (Sydney Cove) on 22 December, but again returned empty-handed.^[64]

Norfolk Island: Staying On, Finding a Wife

While the marines’ military duties (and discipline) continued, Tench observed that the situation in which they found themselves meant ‘knowledge of the mechanic arts afforded the surest recommendation to notice,’ so ‘attention to the parade duty of the troops…gradually diminished.’[65] As they were now playing a major role in the building of a new colony, ‘[the] possession of a spade, a wheelbarrow, or a dunghill, was more coveted than the most refulgent arms in which heroism ever dazzled. Those hours, which in other countries are devoted to martial acquirements, were here consumed in the labours of the sawpit, the forge and the quarry.’^[66] Coming from a rural county, Chipp quite likely had the farming skills required, and would soon be able to take advantage of an opportunity now offered to the marines.

A June 1789 letter from Home Secretary William Grenville to Governor Phillip noted ‘the discontents which have prevailed in the marine detachment, and the desire expressed by most of the officers and men to return home as soon as they shall have performed the tour of duty they had undertaken.’[67] It also outlined the three options which would be made available to them: return to England (and quit the service on return if they wished), be discharged and stay on in New South Wales as free settlers, or transfer to a new army corps which would be sent to replace the marines as the garrison for the colony.^[68] A further letter instructed Phillip to grant 100 acres (40 hectares) to non-commissioned officers and 50 acres (20 hectares) to privates who wished to remain; the land would be rent-free for ten years, and Phillip was also to give them clothes and provisions from the public store for a year, as well as convict labour to work the land.[69] In addition, Phillip would ‘lay out townships of a convenient size and extent.’^[70] Despite all that was on offer, the main body of the marine detachment returned to England on HMS Gorgon, leaving Port Jackson on 18 December.^[71] However, eight marines took up the offer of land in Wallumettagal Country at what the newcomers then called the ‘Field of Mars,’ near Parramatta, and in October 1791 two corporals and 27 privates, including Chipp, were discharged to become settlers on Norfolk Island, where he had been granted 60 acres on 17 August.^[72] Chipp sailed for Norfolk Island per Atlantic on 26 October 1791, settling on his grant at Cascade Stream, Phillipsburg, on the northeastern side of the island on 28 November.^[73]

Cascade Stream (Cascade Creek) can be seen winding its way from Cascade Bay through the landscape in the middle of this satellite view between Prince Phillip Drive and Cascade Road.

It seems to have been on Norfolk Island that Chipp met and married Jane Langley. Jane ‘Jenny’ Langley, a tambour (embroidery) worker, had appeared with Mary Finn at the Old Bailey on 14 September 1785, charged with theft and grand larceny, ‘for feloniously stealing, on the 29th of July last, five guineas, value 5 l. 5 s. and 9 s. and 6 d. in monies numbered, the property of Robert Robinson.’[74] He testified:

I was going home, and I met the prisoner Langley in Nightingale-lane, and she asked me to go home with her, accordingly I returned, and she took me to Mary Finn’s in Blackhorse-yard, and I set down in the house five minutes; I felt something in my pockets, and I jumped up, and felt in my pocket, and missed my money; I was not any way disguised in liquor; I had the money after I went in not five minutes before; I had it in my hand; they ran out of the door, and a man who stood in the door-way before I was robbed, tripped up my heels, and set his feet on my breast as I was going out[.]^[75]

A witness, Mrs. Elizabeth Taylor, quoted Robinson’s description of Jane Langley as ‘a tall very remarkable woman…I should know the woman if I was to see her among a thousand, says he, the woman is very remarkable indeed, she is quite a black complexioned woman, and her hair grows over her forehead all rough.’[76] Another witness quoted Robinson as saying Langley’s hair was ‘curly.’^[77] Robinson also claimed that a man had approached him after the prisoners were arrested and offered him four guineas (four pounds and four shillings) not to appear before the court. Langley and Finn denied the charges and called a series of witnesses in their defence, but the court was not convinced, telling them that it considered ‘your perjured defence, in which opinion I must entirely concur with the Jury, so great an aggravation of your guilt, that the Court must pass an additional punishment upon you.’[78] Ordinarily they would have received a whipping and six to twelve months confinement, but now they were to be transported for seven years.^[79] Aged about 22, Jane embarked with the First Fleet in May 1787 on the Lady Penrhyn, and at the Cape of Good Hope in October or November she gave birth to a daughter, Henrietta. Mother and daughter lived at Warrane (Sydney Cove) with the rest of those who arrived with the First Fleet, but when an expected supply ship did not arrive, Governor Phillip sent a party consisting of two companies of marines, 167 male and 67 female convicts, and 27 children, including Jane and Henrietta, to Norfolk Island per HMS Sirius on 6 March 1790.^[80] By moving them to a place with ‘resources in…great abundance,’ Phillip hoped to take pressure off Port Jackson, where supplies were limited and the arrival of each convict ship meant more mouths to feed.[81] The Sirius was then supposed to go on to China to purchase more supplies but was shipwrecked on 19 March while trying to leave the island. Jane and Henrietta were among those left stranded on Norfolk Island.^[82]

Aboard the Atlantic with Chipp when it arrived at Norfolk Island on 4 November 1791 was Lieutenant-Governor Philip Gidley King. He was relieving Ross, whom Phillip had sent there in March 1790.^[83] On arrival, King found that ‘a general murmuring and discontent at Major Ross’s conduct assailed me from every description of people on the Island.’[84] Ross had aimed to get all the inhabitants ‘clear of the publick store [sic],’ that is, self-supporting, by March 1792, but King judged this impossible—‘from what I can at present observe and understand, I do not imagine more than twenty men at the farthest can possibly maintain themselves for three months independent of the stores.’[85] He set out terms for the new settlers:

The marines are to be independant of the publick stores in eighteen months, and the convicts in twelve months; they each take a woman, who they are to maintain independant of the stores in a twelvemonth, viz., when their first crop is got off the ground, which will be in Decr., ’92. Each settler will also take a convict after their first crop is got off the ground, and maintain him. From the hogs which will be delivered out to the settlers…and these swine which will be purchased from the convicts going from hence to Port Jackson and the marines, I hope there will be nearly enough to supply the whole of the settlers, so as to make them independant of animal food at the prescribed time [sic].^[86]

Ralph Clark had been another one of those stranded on Norfolk Island as a result of the sinking of the Sirius, and was now quartermaster there.^[87] He noted the colony’s chaplain, the Reverend Richard Johnson, had likewise arrived per Atlantic and baptised thirty-one of the island’s children on 8 November.^[88] He also performed marriages; we do not know if Jane Langley was the woman Thomas Chipp had ‘taken,’ or just when they first met and were married, but by mid-June 1794 she was recorded as married to him and having three children—Henrietta, Robert (born and died on Norfolk Island, 1792) and Ann (born c. 1793).^[89]

Chipp was now part of a substantial community on Norfolk Island, but it was still far from being self-supporting. Lieutenant-Governor King reported to Governor Phillip in September 1792 that there were 1,115 people living there, but of these 812 ‘[did] nothing towards maintaining themselves’ and had to live off the store—‘I have made the above statement in order to give your Excellency an idea of the small progress we have made since being on a reduced ration.’[90] He was cautiously optimistic about the future, saying, ‘I think it highly probable that the store will be eased of two hundred people if the crops belonging to private persons turn out good; but the whole of the above statement must depend on the continuation of the present favourable aspect, for the time is not past when a great part of our crop may be hurt by the grub and caterpillar, many acres of maize have been planted thrice.’^[91] Any skills Chipp had as a farmer would have been vital to the community’s survival.

Chipp and his family would remain on Norfolk for three years. By March 1794, Lieutenant-Governor King was reporting that ‘the natural goodness of the soil, from its situation, is inexhaustible, which will readily appear from its producing sixty bushels of corn on an acre of ground at one crop. Those who are industrious have two crops in the year, or an abundant second crop of potatoes or other vegetables[.]’^[92] The population was now 1,025, comprising 641 adult males and 384 females and children.^[93] In August 1794, Acting-Governor Francis Grose (who had taken over after Governor Phillip’s departure on 11 December 1792) reported that there were now 397 people on Norfolk Island not being victualled from the stores.^[94] By October 1793, Chipp was holding 38 acres (15.4 hectares), of which 10 were hilly and 28 level, but all were ploughable, and in 1794 he was selling grain to the stores.^[95] The island was now self-sufficient in grain, and exporting swine to Cadi (Sydney). But life on Norfolk Island was not peaceful. Serious disturbances took place there between March 1793 and March 1794, caused by the mutinous and abusive conduct of soldiers of the New South Wales Corps, the army regiment that had replaced the marines as the military garrison in New South Wales. Grose reprimanded King, alleging that he had dealt with the mutineers too severely, and issued orders giving the military illegal authority over the civilian population.^[96] A group of thirty-nine free settlers petitioned Grose to be allowed the firearms he had ordered taken off them: ‘[W]e have always considered our arms as our own property during our residence on this island, numbers of us having been repeatedly robbed and insulted on our own premises.’^[97] Was Chipp one of the signatories? It may have been his experience in the previous twelve months on Norfolk Island which persuaded him to return to the mainland.

Return to Cadi (Sydney)

In November 1794, Thomas, Jane, and their children left Norfolk Island on the Daedalus for Port Jackson, where Thomas joined the New South Wales Corps.^[98] As early as July 1788, Governor Phillip was complaining that ‘[marine] Officers decline the least interference with the convicts, unless when they are immediately employed for [the officers’] own conveniency, or when they are called out at the head of their men [sic],’ even though, according to Phillip, little more than ‘the saying of a few words to encourage the diligent when they saw them at work, and the pointing out the idle when they could do it without going out of their way, was all that was desired.^[99] But, the Governor acknowledged, ‘[They] did not suppose that they were sent out to do more than garrison duty[.]’^[100] Major Francis Grose of the 29^th Foot was appointed commanding officer of the Corps in England on 29 June 1789 and began recruiting men, but the standard of soldier he was able to attract was nowhere near that of the enthusiastic volunteers of the marines, with some coming from deserters in London’s Savoy Military Prison. During the voyage out to New South Wales, they were only allowed ashore in the company of non-commissioned officers, who were answerable for their conduct.^[101] The Corps arrived between 1790 and 1792, gradually replacing the marine detachment.^[102] Whatever led Chipp to abandon farming on Norfolk Island and return to the mainland, as a soldier he could now count on steady pay in a job in which he had long experience.

Thomas and Jane would go on to have five more children: Mary (b. 1795), William (b. 1797), Sarah (b. 1799), Sophia (b. 1803) and Eliza (b. 1805).^[103] Chipp’s duties as a New South Wales Corps private did not stop him from taking up farming again in 1795, becoming a settler at Mulgrave Place near present-day Bardo Narang (Pitt Town), Dharug Country, where he received a share of 200 acres (81 hectares) with seven others. On 13 March 1800, he was also granted 600 acres (243 hectares) with John Hayes, but the New South Wales Corps’s Major Joseph Foveaux purchased it from them before the grant was registered.^[104] Chipp finally ended his military service with his discharge on 26 December 1802, having been in the Corps for eight years. On 4 June 1804, he received a further grant of 100 acres (40 hectares) at Bankstown. Within two years he had 21 acres (8.5 hectares) growing wheat, maize and barley, with 1.5 acres (0.6 hectares) of potatoes, an orchard and a garden, and the rest as pasture or fallow. He also had three hogs and 14 bushels of wheat and maize on hand, and his family and one free servant were off the stores.^[105] This appears to have been the farm on the Georges River in Dharug and Dharawal Country which was advertised for sale in the Sydney Gazette of 7 June 1807:

To be Sold by Private Contract,

A Capital Farm comprising one hundred acres, upwards of 30 clear, the whole well watered being in front of George’s River, and known by the name of Chipp’s Farm; pleasantly situate, and calculated for stock or agriculture.

On the premises are a good shingled Dwelling house, barn, and other requisites. Persons wishing to treat for the same are requested to make application to Thos. Chipp, the premises.[106]

Chipp would receive a last land grant of 100 acres (40 hectares) at ‘Upper Minto’ in Dharawal Country on 1 January 1810. ^[107]

The series of land grants and sales raises questions—why did Chipp sell, and who was buying? We know that at least one buyer was an army officer, and as historian Grace Karskens explains, ‘Most of them were adventurers seeking their fortunes rather than disinterested career men. They were themselves mainly of modest background, “marginal men” on the make, for whom serving the empire in distant colonies was the path to wealth and privilege at Home. Amassing land and property was one way to achieve these ambitions[.]’^[108] Given that Chipp was now in his mid-fifties, he may have decided to take up work that was less strenuous than farming, and offered a steady wage; alternatively, debt may have forced him to sell up.^[109]

Constable, Baker, Labourer, Pensioner

Chipp embarked on a new career when he became a constable in the Cadi (Sydney) district in 1811, replacing Thomas Jones, who had been dismissed for ‘gross neglect of duty.’^[110] We know little of this period of his life, because while others appointed to the role were frequently reported in the papers to reward them for their meritorious conduct or (as in the case of his predecessor) to report their dismissal for misconduct, Chipp’s time as a constable was apparently not noteworthy for either reason.

On 30 January 1821, Chipp applied for a military pension from the Royal Hospital in London’s Chelsea.[111] His physical description in the application gives a height of 5 feet 6¾ inches (169.5 cm), dark hair, grey eyes and fair complexion. Under ‘Disability Particularized’ he is described as ‘Worn out in the Service,’ with ‘Remarks’ adding that he was ‘Disabled in the right arm.’[112] Exactly what the disability was, and what caused it, are not recorded—was it sustained during his time as a constable? Was it an old wound from his military service that had grown worse as he aged? Or was it the result of an accident unrelated to his official duties? It was not until 18 February 1823 that Henry Antill, former Brigade Major of Forces in New South Wales, reported that Chipp was ‘a very infirm well behaved man with an aged wife, and could he be received as an out Pensioner of Chelsea Hospital, after his long services, he is well deserving the indulgence. General Foveaux late of the same Corps can also certify the truth of the above.’[113] The former New South Wales Corps surgeon John Harris confirmed his disability.^[114] Chipp was awarded a pension of one shilling and twopence per day, with his current occupation listed as a baker on 26 November 1823.^[115] Chipp was not the only Out-Pensioner in New South Wales—a notice in the Sydney Gazette of 28 July 1821 stated that two men had also been admitted as Out Pensioners, while another notice in the Gazette of 13 May 1824 announced that Out Pensioners in Parramatta, Liverpool, Windsor or Emu Plains could now have their quarterly payments made there instead of them having to go to Sydney.[116] By 1828, the Census was classifying him as a labourer, aged 74 and living in Pitt Street with his wife Jane—but we must wonder what kind of labour a disabled man in his seventies was capable of doing. Jane died on 18 February 1836, while Thomas died at Concord on 3 July 1842. His burial was registered in the parish of St. John’s, Parramatta, Burramattagal Country, but his grave is unmarked, exact location unknown.^[117]

*          *          *

The picture of Thomas Chipp that emerges from the records is more complex than it may at first seem. On the one hand he appears to be an easygoing rustic Wiltshire ‘Moonraker’ who never rose to any high rank or made a fortune, and preferred the structure of life in the armed forces. But leaving Wiltshire, signing up for the Marines and accepting their severe discipline, volunteering to go to Kamay (Botany Bay), staying on to make a life as a farmer on a series of properties in a country on the other side of the world, and marrying a convict woman and fathering seven children with her, are evidence of both ambition and steady application. His may not have been a spectacular life, but it was a long and fruitful one. In 2001, The Jane Langley Descendants Association was able to name 11,641 descendants of Jane, Henrietta and Thomas Chipp.[118]

CITE THIS

David Morgan, “Thomas Chipp: The Marine,” St. John’s Online, (2020), https://stjohnsonline.org/bio/thomas-chipp, accessed [insert current date]

Acknowledgements

• Biographical selection, assignment, editing & multimedia: Michaela Ann Cameron.

References

Primary Sources

• F. M. Bladen (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. II.—Grose and Patterson, 1793–1795, (Sydney: Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1893).
• Alexander Britton (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. I, Part 2.—Phillip. 1783–1792¸ (Sydney, Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1892).
• Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003).
• David Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. I, (London: printed for T. Cadell Jun., and W. Davies in the Strand, 1798).
• John Easty, Memorandum of the Transactions of a Voyage from England to Botany Bay, 1787–1793: A First Fleet Journal, (Sydney: Public Library of New South Wales in association with Angus and Robertson, 1965), transcript at http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2007/D00007/a1145.html, accessed 19 October 2019.
• National Archives, British Army Service Records: Royal Hospital Chelsea: Admission Books, Registers, And Papers 1702–1876, Series: Wo 23; Piece: 147, (The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England).
• Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0), 14 September 1785, trial of JANE LANGLEY and MARY FINN (t17850914-96).
• James Scott, Remarks on a Passage to Botany Bay 1878–1792, (Sydney: Public Library of New South Wales, 1963).
• Arthur Bowes Smyth, A Journal of a Voyage from Portsmouth to New South Wales and China, http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview/?pi=nla.ms-ms4568, transcript at http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2007/D00007/a1085.html, accessed 8 October 2019.
• Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979).
• Frederick Watson (ed.), Historical Records of Australia, Series I: Governors’ Despatches to and from England, Vol. I, 1788–1796, (Sydney: William Applegate Gullick, Government Printer, 1914).

Secondary Sources

• Don Chapman, 1788: The People of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Doubleday, 1986).
• Cyril Field, Britain’s Sea-Soldiers: A History of the Royal Marines and their Predecessors and of their Services in Action, Ashore and Afloat, and upon Sundry other Occasions of Moment, Vol. 1, (Liverpool, Merseyside: Lyceum Press, 1924).
• Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989).
• Janet D. Hine, “Clark, Ralph (1762–1794),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clark-ralph-1898/text2239, published first in hardcopy 1966, accessed online 16 October 2019.
• Grace Karskens, The Colony: A History of Early Sydney, (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2009).
• Brian Lavery, Nelson’s Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organisation, 1793–1815, (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989).
• David S. Macmillan, “Ross, Robert (1740–1794),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ross-robert-2608/text3591, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 13 October 2019
• John Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786–1792, (St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987).
• David Morgan, “Friendship,” Dictionary of Sydney, (2015), http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/friendship, accessed 1 October 2019.
• A. G. L. Shaw, “King, Philip Gidley (1758–1808),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/king-philip-gidley-2309/text2991, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 17 October 2019.
• Edward Slow, Wiltshire Rhymes: A Series of Poems in the Wiltshire Dialect, (London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.; Salisbury: Frederick A. Blake, 1881).

NOTES

[1] “Examination of Invalid Soldiers on Wednesday the 26th of November 1823,” National Archives, British Army Service Records: Royal Hospital Chelsea: Admission Books, Registers, and Papers 1702–1876, Series: Wo 23; Piece: 147, (The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England).

[2] Edward Slow, Wiltshire Rhymes: A Series of Poems in the Wiltshire Dialect, (London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.; Salisbury: Frederick A. Blake, 1881), pp. 9–10.

[3] “Examination of Invalid Soldiers on Wednesday the 26th of November 1823,” National Archives, British Army Service Records: Royal Hospital Chelsea: Admission Books, Registers, and Papers 1702–1876, Series: Wo 23; Piece: 147, (The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England).

[4] Brian Lavery, Nelson’s Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organisation, 1793–1815, (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989), pp. 145–6.

[5] Cyril Field, Britain’s Sea-Soldiers: A History of the Royal Marines and their Predecessors and of their Services in Action, Ashore and Afloat, and upon Sundry other Occasions of Moment, (Liverpool, Merseyside: Lyceum Press, 1924), vol. 1, p. 288.

[6] Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989), p. 69.

[7] The First Division was based at Chatham and the Second at Portsmouth, with a Fourth being formed at Woolwich in 1805. Brian Lavery, Nelson’s Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organisation, 1793–1815, (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989), pp. 148–9. The Stonehouse Barracks is now a Grade II* Listed Building. “Royal Marine Barracks, The Longroom,” Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1244646, accessed 20 September 2019.

[8] Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989), p. 69.

[9] John Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786–1792, (St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987), p. 26. Regarding the Aboriginal endonym “Kamay” and its associated European exonym “Botany Bay,” as well as a list of other relevant Aboriginal endonyms and European exonyms, which have been drawn on in this project, see Harold Koch and Luise Hercus (eds.), Aboriginal Placenames: Naming and Re-naming the Australian Landscape, (Canberra: ANU E Press, 2009), p. 42 https://books.google.com.au/books?id=HyHh-OrnRGoC&lpg=PR1&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed 26 August 2019. For a general discussion about giving prime position to indigenous endonyms and subordinating European imposed exonyms in both the colonial Australian and colonial American contexts as a mark of respect and to “sound” language, see “Name-Calling: Notes on Terminology,” in Michaela Ann Cameron (Ph.D. Diss.), “Stealing the Turtle’s Voice: A Dual History of Western and Algonquian-Iroquoian Soundways from Creation to Re-creation,” (Sydney: Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney, 2018), pp. 25–35, http://bit.ly/stealingturtle, accessed 25 August 2019.

[10] [Enclosure] “Heads of a Plan,” in Thomas Townshend, “Lord Sydney to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, Whitehall, 18 August 1786,” in Alexander Britton (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. I, Part 2.—Phillip. 1783–1792¸ (Sydney, Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1892), pp. 17–18.

[11] Thomas Townshend, “Lord Sydney to the Lords of The Admiralty, Whitehall, 31 August 1786,” in Alexander Britton (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. I, Part 2.—Phillip. 1783–1792¸ (Sydney, Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1892), p. 22.

[12] John Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786–1792, (St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987), p. 26.

[13] John Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786–1792, (St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987), p. 34.

[14] “First Fleet Ships and Passengers,” School of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, https://history.cass.anu.edu.au/centres/ncb/first-fleet-ships-and-passengers#friendship, accessed 1 December 2019.

[15] David Morgan, “Friendship,” Dictionary of Sydney, (2015), http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/friendship, accessed 1 October 2019.

[16] John Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786–1792, (St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987), p. 47.

[17] John Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786–1792, (St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987), p. 50.

[18] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), p. 26, http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 1 October 2019.

[19] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), p. 26, http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 1 October 2019.

[20] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), p. 30, http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 1 October 2019.

[21] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), pp. 27–28, http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 1 October 2019.

[22] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), p. 30, http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 1 October 2019.

[23] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), p. 34, http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 1 October 2019.

[24] David Morgan, “Friendship,” Dictionary of Sydney, (2015), http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/friendship, accessed 7 October 2019.

[25] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), p. 40 http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 7 October 2019.

[26] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), p. 45 http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 7 October 2019.

[27] David Morgan, “Friendship,” Dictionary of Sydney, (2015), http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/friendship, accessed 7 October 2019.

[28] John Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786–1792, (St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987), p. 61

[29] John Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786–1792, (St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987), p. 62

[30] John Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786–1792, (St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987), p. 63.

[31] Arthur Phillip, “Governor Phillip to Under Secretary Nepean, Sirius, 2 September 1787,” in Alexander Britton (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. I, Part 2.—Phillip. 1783–1792¸ (Sydney, Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1892),p. 112.

[32] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), p. 63 http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 7 October 2019.

[33] John Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786–1792, (St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987), p. 67.

[34] James Scott, Remarks on a Passage to Botany Bay 1878-1792, (Sydney: Public Library of New South Wales, 1963, p. 20.

[35] David Morgan, “Friendship,” Dictionary of Sydney, (2015), http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/friendship, accessed 7 October 2019.

[36] James Scott, Remarks on a Passage to Botany Bay 1878–1792, (Sydney: Public Library of New South Wales, 1963), p. 20.

[37] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), p. 79 http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 7 October 2019.

[38] David Morgan, “Friendship,” Dictionary of Sydney, (2015), http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/friendship, accessed 7 October 2019.

[39] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), p. 112 http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 7 October 2019.

[40] Arthur Phillip, “Governor Phillip to Lord Sydney, Sydney Cove, New South Wales, 15 May 1788,” in Alexander Britton (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. I, Part 2.—Phillip. 1783–1792¸ (Sydney, Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1892), pp. 121–2.

[41] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), p. 115 http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 7 October 2019.

[42] James Scott, Remarks on a Passage to Botany Bay 1878–1792, (Sydney: Public Library of New South Wales, 1963), p. 35.

[43] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), pp. 116-117 http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 8 October 2019.

[44] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), pp. 38–9.

[45] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), p. 39.

[46] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), p. 38.

[47] John Cobley, Sydney Cove 1788, (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1962), p. 45.

[48] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), p. 41.

[49] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), p. 41.

[50] Arthur Bowes Smyth, A Journal of a Voyage from Portsmouth to New South Wales and China, 4 February 1788, http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview/?pi=nla.ms-ms4568 , transcript at http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2007/D00007/a1085.html, accessed 8 October 2019.

[51] Arthur Bowes Smyth, A Journal of a Voyage from Portsmouth to New South Wales and China, 4 February 1788, http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview/?pi=nla.ms-ms4568 , transcript at http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2007/D00007/a1085.html, accessed 8 October 2019.

[52] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), p. 145.

[53] John Easty, Memorandum of the Transactions of a Voyage from England to Botany Bay, 1787–1793: A First Fleet Journal, (Sydney: Public Library of New South Wales in association with Angus and Robertson, 1965), 27 March 1789, transcript at http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2007/D00007/a1145.html, accessed online 19 October 2019.

[54] Robert Ross, “Major Ross to Secretary Stephens, Camp, Sydney Cove, New South Wales, 10 July 1788,” in Alexander Britton (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. I, Part 2.—Phillip. 1783–1792¸ (Sydney, Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1892), p. 171.

[55] Robert Ross, “Major Ross to Secretary Stephens, Camp, Sydney Cove, New South Wales, 10 July 1788,” in Alexander Britton (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. I, Part 2.—Phillip. 1783–1792¸ (Sydney, Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1892), p. 171.

[56] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), pp. 205–6.

[57] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), pp. 207–9.

[58] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), p. 209.

[59] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), p. 209.

[60] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), p. 209.

[61] John Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786–1792, (St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987), p. 307.

[62] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), pp. 209–11.

[63] John Easty, Memorandum of the Transactions of a Voyage from England to Botany Bay, 1787–1793: A First Fleet Journal, (Sydney: Public Library of New South Wales in association with Angus and Robertson, 1965), 27 March 1789, transcript at http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2007/D00007/a1145.html, accessed 19 October 2019.

[64] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), pp. 212–15.

[65] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), p. 134.

[66] Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, (Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, 1979), p. 134. In a footnote, Tench wryly quotes Voltaire’s description of Swedish soldiers taken prisoner by Czar Peter who were transported to Siberia to ‘civilize the natives.’ In this situation, the Swedes ‘who were husbandmen and artificers, found out their superiority, and assumed it: the officers became their servants.’

[67] William Grenville, “The Right Honorable W. W. Grenville to Governor Phillip, Whitehall, 19 June 1789,” in Frederick Watson (ed.), Historical Records of Australia, Series I: Governors’ Despatches to and from England, Vol. I, 1788–1796, (Sydney: William Applegate Gullick, Government Printer, 1914), p. 122.

[68] William Grenville, “The Right Honorable W. W. Grenville to Governor Phillip, Whitehall, 19 June 1789,” in Frederick Watson (ed.), Historical Records of Australia, Series I: Governors’ Despatches to and from England, Vol. I, 1788–1796, (Sydney: William Applegate Gullick, Government Printer, 1914), pp. 122–3.

[69] William Grenville, “The Right Honorable W. W. Grenville to Governor Phillip, Whitehall, 22 August 1789,” in Frederick Watson (ed.), Historical Records of Australia, Series I: Governors’ Despatches to and from England, Vol. I, 1788–1796, (Sydney: William Applegate Gullick, Government Printer, 1914), p. 125.

[70] William Grenville, “The Right Honorable W. W. Grenville to Governor Phillip, Whitehall, 22 August 1789,” in Frederick Watson (ed.), Historical Records of Australia, Series I: Governors’ Despatches to and from England, Vol. I, 1788–1796, (Sydney: William Applegate Gullick, Government Printer, 1914), p. 127.

[71] David Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. I, (London: printed for T. Cadell Jun., and W. Davies in the Strand, 1798), p. 191. Collins praised them for being ‘as valuable a corps as any in His Majesty’s service’, having ‘struggled here with greatly more than the common hardships of service’ and ‘smoothed the way for their successors.’

[72] John Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786–1792, (St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987), pp. 180, 246.

[73] Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989), p. 69.

[74] Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0), 14 September 1785, trial of JANE LANGLEY and MARY FINN (t17850914-96), https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t17850914-96-off475&div=t17850914-96, accessed 15 October 2019.

[75] Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0), 14 September 1785, trial of JANE LANGLEY and MARY FINN (t17850914-96), https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t17850914-96-off475&div=t17850914-96, accessed 15 October 2019.

[76] Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0), 14 September 1785, trial of JANE LANGLEY and MARY FINN (t17850914-96), https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t17850914-96-off475&div=t17850914-96, accessed 15 October 2019.

[77] Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0), 14 September 1785, trial of JANE LANGLEY and MARY FINN (t17850914-96), https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t17850914-96-off475&div=t17850914-96, accessed 15 October 2019.

[78] Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0), 14 September 1785, trial of JANE LANGLEY and MARY FINN (t17850914-96), https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t17850914-96-off475&div=t17850914-96, accessed 15 October 2019.

[79] Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0), 14 September 1785, trial of JANE LANGLEY and MARY FINN (t17850914-96), https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t17850914-96-off475&div=t17850914-96, accessed 15 October 2019.

[80] Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989), p. 213. Surgeon Arthur Bowes Smyth’s journal lists children brought out or born on the voyage, but calls the child ‘Philip Langly [sic].’ Gillen’s suggestions for the identity of the child’s father are either Philip Scriven, a seaman on the Lady Penrhyn, or Thomas Gilbert, master of another First Fleet ship, the Charlotte.

[81] Arthur Phillip, “Governor Phillip to Lord Sydney, Government House, Sydney Cove, 11 April 1790,” in Frederick Watson (ed.), Historical Records of Australia, Series I: Governors’ Despatches to and from England, Vol. I, 1788–1796, (Sydney: William Applegate Gullick, Government Printer, 1914), p. 166.

[82] Arthur Phillip, “Governor Phillip to Lord Sydney, Government House, Sydney Cove, 11 April 1790,” in Frederick Watson (ed.), Historical Records of Australia, Series I: Governors’ Despatches to and from England, Vol. I, 1788–1796, (Sydney: William Applegate Gullick, Government Printer, 1914), pp. 166–7.

[83] David S. Macmillan, “Ross, Robert (1740–1794),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ross-robert-2608/text3591, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 13 October 2019.

[84] Philip Gidley King, “Lieutenant-Governor King to Under Secretary Nepean, Norfolk Island, 23 November 1791,” in Alexander Britton (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. I, Part 2.—Phillip. 1783–1792¸ (Sydney, Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1892), p. 562.

[85] Philip Gidley King, “Lieutenant-Governor King to Under Secretary Nepean, Norfolk Island, 23 November 1791,” in Alexander Britton (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. I, Part 2.—Phillip. 1783–1792¸ (Sydney, Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1892), p. 562.

[86] Philip Gidley King, “Lieutenant-Governor King to Under Secretary Nepean, Norfolk Island, 23 November 1791,” in Alexander Britton (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. I, Part 2.—Phillip. 1783–1792¸ (Sydney, Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1892), p. 563.

[87] Janet D. Hine, “Clark, Ralph (1762–1794),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, , published first in hardcopy 1966, accessed online 16 October 2019.

[88] Ralph Clark, The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787–1792, (Sydney: University of Sydney Library, 2003), p. 296 http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/clajour.pdf, accessed 16 October 2019.

[89] Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989), p. 213.

[90] [Enclosure] “Extract from a letter to Governor Phillip from Lieutenant-Governor King, dated Sydney, Norfolk Island, 19 September 1792,” in Arthur Phillip, “Governor Phillip to the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, Sydney, New South Wales, 4 October 1792,” in Frederick Watson (ed.), Historical Records of Australia, Series I: Governors’ Despatches to and from England, Vol. I, 1788–1796, (Sydney: William Applegate Gullick, Government Printer, 1914), p. 388.

[91] [Enclosure] “Extract from a letter to Governor Phillip from Lieutenant-Governor King, dated Sydney, Norfolk Island, 19 September 1792,” in Arthur Phillip, “Governor Phillip to the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, Sydney, New South Wales, 4 October 1792,” in Frederick Watson (ed.), Historical Records of Australia, Series I: Governors’ Despatches to and from England, Vol. I, 1788–1796, (Sydney: William Applegate Gullick, Government Printer, 1914), p. 388.

[92] Philip Gidley King, “Lieutenant-Governor King to the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, Norfolk Island, 10 March 1794,” in F. M. Bladen (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. II.—Grose and Patterson, 1793–1795, (Sydney: Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1893), p. 136.

[93] [Enclosure] “Numbers and Employment of every Person resident on Norfolk Island, 19^th March, 1794,” in F. M. Bladen (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. II.—Grose and Patterson, 1793–1795, (Sydney: Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1893), pp. 191–2.

[94] “State of the Settlement, 25 August 1794,” in F. M. Bladen (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. II.—Grose and Patterson, 1793–1795, (Sydney: Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1893), p. 251.

[95] Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989), p. 69.

[96] A. G. L. Shaw, “King, Philip Gidley (1758–1808),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/king-philip-gidley-2309/text2991, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 17 October 2019.

[97] [Enclosure] “Norfolk Island Settlers to Lieutenant-Governor Grose, 10 March 1794,” in F. M. Bladen (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. II.—Grose and Patterson, 1793–1795, (Sydney: Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1893), pp. 190–1.

[98] Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989), p. 69.

[99] Arthur Phillip, “Governor Phillip to Under Secretary Nepean, Sydney Cove, 9 July 1788,” in Alexander Britton (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. I, Part 2.—Phillip. 1783–1792¸ (Sydney, Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1892), p. 153.

[100] Arthur Phillip, “Governor Phillip to Under Secretary Nepean, Sydney Cove, 9 July 1788,” in Alexander Britton (ed.), Historical Records of New South Wales: Vol. I, Part 2.—Phillip. 1783–1792¸ (Sydney, Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1892), p. 153.

[101] John Moore, The First Fleet Marines 1786–1792, (St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987), pp. 270–1.

[102] Peter Stanley, The Remote Garrison: The British Army in Australia 1788–1870, (Sydney: Kangaroo Press, 1986), pp. 16–18.

[103] Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989), p. 213.

[104] Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989), p. 69. Hayes was another former marine private who had tried his hand at farming on Norfolk Island but returned to the mainland. Don Chapman, 1788: The People of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Doubleday, 1986), p. 103.

[105] Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989), p. 70.

[106] “Advertising: To Be Sold by Private Contract,” The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 – 1842), Sunday 7 June 1807, p. 3.

[107] Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989), p. 70.

[108] Grace Karskens, The Colony: A History of Early Sydney, (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2009), p. 137.

[109] Fellow First Fleeters Augustus Alt and Christopher Palmer also received land grants, but died in debt. See David Morgan, “Augustus Alt: The Baron,” St. John’s Online, (2017), https://stjohnsonline.org/bio/augustus-alt/, and “Christopher Palmer: Perils of a Purser,” St. John’s Online, (2019), https://stjohnsonline.org/bio/christopher-palmer/, accessed 21 October 2019.

[110] “Government and General Orders,” The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 – 1842), Saturday 5 January 1811, p. 2.

[111] Set up in 1681 by King Charles II to care for those ‘broken by age or war,’ from 1692 until 1955 the Royal Hospital administered and paid all Army pensions; those who did not actually live at the Hospital, in the UK or abroad, and received their pension in cash from agents were known as ‘Out-Pensioners.’ “History & Heritage,” Royal Hospital Chelsea, (2019), https://www.chelsea-pensioners.co.uk/historyheritage, accessed 1 December 2019; “What is a Chelsea Pensioner?” Royal Hospital Chelsea, (2019), https://www.chelsea-pensioners.co.uk/what-chelsea-pensioner, accessed 1 December 2019.

[112] “Report upon the case of Thos. Chipp late Private in H.M. 102 Regiment,” National Archives, British Army Service Records: Royal Hospital Chelsea: Admission Books, Registers, and Papers 1702–1876, Series: Wo 23; Piece: 147, (The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England).

[113] “Report upon the case of Thos. Chipp late Private in H.M. 102 Regiment,” National Archives, British Army Service Records: Royal Hospital Chelsea: Admission Books, Registers, and Papers 1702–1876, Series: Wo 23; Piece: 147, (The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England).

[114] “Report upon the case of Thos. Chipp late Private in H.M. 102 Regiment,” National Archives, British Army Service Records: Royal Hospital Chelsea: Admission Books, Registers, and Papers 1702–1876, Series: Wo 23; Piece: 147, (The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England).

[115] “Examination of Invalid Soldiers on Wednesday the 26th of November 1823 whose personal appearance was dispensed with in pursuance of the Warrant of March 25th, 1816 and the letters of the Secretary of War of the undermentioned dates,” National Archives, British Army Service Records: Royal Hospital Chelsea: Admission Books, Registers, and Papers 1702–1876, Series: Wo 23; Piece: 147, (The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England).

[116] They were John Cocus, 73^rd Foot, and John Foreman, 73^rd and 102^nd Foot, receiving 6d and 1s 1½ d per day respectively. “Government Public Notification: Chelsea Pensioners,” The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 – 1842), Saturday 28 July 1821, p. 2; “Classified Advertising: Chelsea Pensioners,” The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 – 1842), Saturday 13 May 1824, p. 1.

[117] Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, (Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1989), p. 70.

[118] Jane Langley Descendants Association, A New Beginning: The Story of Three First Fleeters and Descendants, (Longueville, NSW: The Jane Langley Descendants Association, 2001), p. 2.

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