The Historical Archaeology of the First Government House site, Sydney Further Research PENNY CROOK AND TIM MURRAY Volume 11 of the Archaeology of the Modern City Series A HISTORIC HOUSES TRUST OF NEW SOUTH WALES PUBLICATION Published by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales The Mint, 10 Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia www.hht.net.au Published in Sydney 2006 © Archaeology of the Modern City Project Partners, 2006 ISBN 1 876991 14 3 The views expressed in this book may not be representative of the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales or the other project partners and remain the responsibility of the authors. The Archaeology of the Modern City project incorporates two research ventures: ‘Exploring the Archaeology of the Modern City: Sydney 1788–1900’ and ‘Managing the Archaeology of Central Sydney and Melbourne 1788–1900’. Both projects are funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage Scheme and conducted by Project Partners: La Trobe University, the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales, Godden Mackay Logan Pty Ltd, the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, the NSW Heritage Office, Heritage Victoria and the City of Sydney. C ONTENTS Synopsis.......................................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction................................................................................................................................... 9 Acknowledgements..........................................................................................................................................................9 Limitations........................................................................................................................................................................10 Terminology.....................................................................................................................................................................11 Research Context........................................................................................................................ 13 The Excavation................................................................................................................................................................13 Recovery of Stratigraphic Units..................................................................................................................................18 Research Directions for the EAMC Project............................................................................................................19 First Government House site: An historical-archaeological perspective............................ 21 Who Made the Archaeological Record?...................................................................................................................22 ‘A Good Foundation’: Building First Government House, 1788 ........................................................................25 Living Ruins: Decay, Extension and Repair at First Government House..........................................................26 Supersession: the Demolition of First Government House, 1845–1846 .........................................................28 The ‘little office’: Australia’s First and Second Printing Offices............................................ 34 At the Governor’s Table ............................................................................................................ 37 Governor King’s Spode.................................................................................................................................................38 The Tendril Pattern: Fine Dining and the Macquaries?.........................................................................................48 The Governor’s Guard House ................................................................................................... 50 The Establishment of the Governor’s Guard..........................................................................................................50 Inside the Guard House................................................................................................................................................55 A passage through the Guard House: truncation, 1838.......................................................................................58 Discussion..................................................................................................................................... 65 Appendices................................................................................................................................... 67 Appendix One Timeline of First Government House, 1788–1847..................................................................67 Appendix Two Governors of New South Wales, 1788–1846..........................................................................69 Bibliography................................................................................................................................. 70 F IGURES Figure 1 Location of the First Government House site, Sydney. (P. Crook) .......................................................11 Figure 2 Outline of key architectural features from the First Government House site, known from historical and archaeological sources............................................................................................................17 Figure 3 Archaeological remains of the FGH complex and adjacent guard house overlaid on the current street grid (approximate locations only).......................................................................................15 Figure 4 Detail from ‘A direct North general View of Sydney Cove the chief British Settlement in New South Wales as it appeared in 1794 being the 7th Year from its Establishment. Painted immediatly [sic] from Nature by T. Watling’ ..............................................................................................26 Figure 5 Estimated total number of artefacts associated with the major phases of occupation......................24 Figure 6 Total number of artefacts associated with the buildings in the First Government House phase of occupation......................................................................................................................................................24 Figure 7 Plan accompanying the ‘Report on the Present state of the Old Government House’ prepared by M. Lewis on 15 September 1845 for a Board of Survey....................................................30 Figure 8 Quantity and percentage of sherds in key activity groups recovered from the demolition layers of the guard house and First Government House complex, respectively.................................32 Figure 9 The First Government House site on the corner of Phillip and Bridge Streets, 1899, showing tramlines..............................................................................................................................................................33 Figure 10 Distribution of printing type across the First Government House site. ...............................................36 Figure 11 Philip Gidley and Anna Josepha King, and their children Elizabeth, Anna Maria and Philip Parker...................................................................................................................................................................38 Figure 12 Governor King’s order of tablewares from Josiah Spode, 6 August 1798. ..........................................39 Figure 13 One of the two black basalt sherds recovered from the site (YRP6211)..............................................42 Figure 14 Oval sauce tureen in creamware, impressed ‘3’ (YRP6089).....................................................................43 Figure 15 Examples of creamware plates and dishes recovered from the site (YRP0001, YRP0064, YRP0456 and YRP6087).....................................................................................................................................44 Figure 16 Detail of the ‘SPODE’ manufacturer’s mark on a creamware plate (YRP6086)...................................44 Figure 17 Number of vessel functions per ceramic type. ...........................................................................................46 Figure 18 Olive-brown banded creamware.. .................................................................................................................47 Figure 19 Tendril-pattern plate (YRP5925).....................................................................................................................49 Figure 20 Tendril-pattern teacup (YRP6142) .................................................................................................................49 Figure 21 The first known depiction of the guard house adjacent to the main Government House complex. ..............................................................................................................................................................51 Figure 22 Looking east along Bridge Street, 1813. .......................................................................................................52 Figure 23 Details from ‘A view of the Cove & Part of Sydney New South Wales. Taken from Dawes Battery’, engraved by W. Preston from an original drawing by Captain Wallis, 46th Regiment, 1815–1817...........................................................................................................................................................53