Attainted No More

Attainted No More How Convicts Became Citizens John Walter Ross Cover photographs: Top: Hyde Park Barracks, designed by Francis Greenway, 1819 Lower left: William Charles Wentworth, 1872 Lower right: Edward Eagar, c1863 Source: Top: Historic Houses Trust Lower left and right: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales 2 Contents Foreword ............................................................................................................................................. 7 Early convict transportation to America ............................................................................................. 9 The American colonies .................................................................................................................... 9 The War of Independence halts transportation ............................................................................. 9 The continuing need for transportation ....................................................................................... 10 Industrialisation spawns criminal law ........................................................................................... 10 Floating prisons ............................................................................................................................. 11 Transportation to Australia ............................................................................................................... 13 Transportation empties the prison hulks ...................................................................................... 13 Governor Phillip starts the penal colony ...................................................................................... 13 The colony grows .......................................................................................................................... 14 The New South Wales Corps takes control of the colony ............................................................. 15 Governor John Hunter fails to control the Corps .......................................................................... 16 Governor Philip Gidley King encourages emancipists................................................................... 17 Governor William Bligh and the Rum Rebellion ........................................................................... 20 The New South Wales Corps returns to power ............................................................................ 20 The contradictions of law and local practice in a penal colony .................................................... 21 Summary of this period ................................................................................................................. 23 Lachlan Macquarie, the emancipists’ ally ......................................................................................... 25 Macquarie takes stock of the colony ............................................................................................ 25 Macquarie implements his pro-emancipist policy ........................................................................ 26 New civil courts are established ................................................................................................... 28 Free lawyers arrive in the colony .................................................................................................. 30 The people’s bank begins operation ............................................................................................. 33 Justice Barron Field arrives ........................................................................................................... 34 The colonists’ petition on trial by jury and economic issues ........................................................ 35 Felony attaint is upheld in court ................................................................................................... 37 The emancipists’ petition for legal rights ..................................................................................... 39 Macquarie’s impact and his legacy ............................................................................................... 41 Evolution of trial by jury .................................................................................................................... 45 The problems with military juries ................................................................................................. 45 3 Bigge sets back the cause ............................................................................................................. 46 Francis Forbes arrives and civilian juries begin ............................................................................. 47 Britain clamps down on criminal juries ......................................................................................... 48 Richard Bourke invigorates the campaign .................................................................................... 50 George Gipps finishes the job ....................................................................................................... 52 Removal of felony attaint ................................................................................................................. 55 Felony and the forfeiture of property ........................................................................................... 55 The colony sidesteps the law of attaint ........................................................................................ 55 Attaint is upheld in court and changes everything ....................................................................... 55 The British government restores some security ........................................................................... 56 Francis Forbes puts necessity ahead of the law ........................................................................... 57 One step forward but two steps back ........................................................................................... 58 Felony attaint is finally legislated out of the colony ..................................................................... 59 Self-government at last ..................................................................................................................... 61 Early pressure for representative government ............................................................................. 61 The first Legislative Council ........................................................................................................... 61 The Council is expanded to include more settlers ........................................................................ 62 Agitation for constitutional change in the 1830s ......................................................................... 63 Partially representative government commences ........................................................................ 67 Britain contemplates self-government for the colony.................................................................. 69 New South Wales takes the reins of government ........................................................................ 71 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 73 Notes ................................................................................................................................................. 75 Appendix 1 – Early arrivals in the colony .......................................................................................... 79 Governor Phillip’s era .................................................................................................................... 79 Governor Hunter’s era .................................................................................................................. 81 Governor King’s era....................................................................................................................... 82 Governor Bligh’s era ..................................................................................................................... 82 Governor Macquarie’s era ............................................................................................................ 82 Appendix 2 – Early Governors of New South Wales ......................................................................... 85 Appendix 3 – British Secretaries of State for the Colonies ............................................................... 87 Table of Figures ................................................................................................................................. 89 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................................... 91 Index.................................................................................................................................................. 93 4 Felony attaint: In English common law, this is the termination of the civil rights of a person upon a sentence of death or outlawry for treason or a felony. An attainted person is denied the right to own or transmit property, cannot be a witness in court, and cannot sue another person. In short, the person is dead in law. An attainted person’s civil rights are only restored after an absolute pardon or after the sentence is completed. An unpromising beginning: “The story begins in the depths of the Nether World. It is as if a deliberate experiment

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