This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The British government decision to found a colony at Botany Bay, New South Wales in 1786 Foley, Daniel Joseph The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 10. Oct. 2021 The British Government Decision to Found a Colony at Botany Bay in New South Wales in 1786 A thesis submitted to the King's College London in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Daniel J. Foley Menzies Centre for Australian Studies King's College London April 2004 BflL LOf'DIIL UNW. ABSTRACT It is a common misconception that the colony at Botany Bay was founded purely so that Britain could rid herself of her convicts. This would have made the alleged convict crisis in Britain a first order consideration for the Pitt Government. It was not. Pitt had two major problems on coming to office - finance and trade - and the solutions to them were not mutually exclusive. Each depended on his skill at filling Treasury coffers and on the successful completion of the complicated trade treaties with France, Holland and Spain after the American War of Independence. Numerically speaking there was no convict crisis, rather a prison problem. The towns and cities in England and Wales refused to build the expensive prisons required under legislation passed in 1778-9; instead seeking a resumption of transportation. Pressure was brought on Government by the merchants in the House of Commons. They dominated the Beauchamp Committee of 1785, which recommended a resumption of that punishment. Pitt saw the advantages to be gained from having an armed settlement in the Far East. During his commercial treaty negotiations in 1786-7 he did not wish to arouse the suspicion of his European rivals, but still saw the opportunity a colony would present in case there was a resumption of hostilities. New South Wales helped solve a number of Pitt's problems. Most importantly, the swing to the east helped him financially. Next it secured the southern trade route to China and placed a strategic base at the rear of the French, Dutch and Spanish possessions. And, as a matter of relatively minor detail, it also salved the conscience of the Enlightenment lobby by solving his prison problem. Unfortunately a generation of war intervened shortly after the settlement was founded and not until 1815 did it start to achieve what Pitt originally envisaged. 2 DECLARATION I, the undersigned, a candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of London, declare that this thesis entitled, 'The British Government Decision to Found a Colony at Botany Bay in New South Wales in 1786' has been composed by me, and that the work is mine alone, unless otherwise stated. DanielJ Foley .. 3 For Patsy Who never wavered in her belief. Acknowledgements Without the generous help of many people and institutions it would not have been possible for me to complete this study. It is impossible to name all those who have extended help, offered advice, provided encouragement and listened, sometimes in the wee small hours of the night. For providing the initial inspiration I would like to thank my sister-in-law Mary Welch, who, in telling of the Crusades, made history come alive for me and communicated the excitement of handling original historical documents. To my three sons, who never stopped asking questions but listened, especially if I provided the alcoholic sustenance. To the librarians and support staff of the many institutions where a research student must spend their time. But especially the staff at the Mitchell Library in New South Wales; the National Library of Australia in Canberra; the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; the British Library in London; the curator of the Wallace Collection, London; the National Library and Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh; the National Archives and National Library in Dublin; the recently renamed National Archives of England (formerly the Public Record Office), and the Institute of Historical Research. To Wendy Bridge for producing the maps. I must also thank Professor Alan Frost, who spared the time in his busy schedule to discuss my research, both in Melbourne and London; and, Dr. Graham Abbott, who spent the time communicating with me via the internet and graciously sent me a copy of his manuscript. My thanks also go to Professors Blainey and Bolton, who were prepared to discuss my initial research proposal and findings during a whirlwind stay in London in 2000. My biggest thanks is reserved for Professor Carl Bridge, a man who has courage, humour and dedication. Dedication to his profession and the students he supervises; an ability to see the amusing in life's rich tapestry, especially that of a struggling student; and the courage to take this mature man as a student in the first place. Carl, I owe you a big debt of gratitude, more especially for your friendship. 5 Contents Title Page I Abstract 2 Declaration 3 Dedication 4 Acknowledgement 5 Table of Contents 6 Chapter 1 Debating Botany Bay 10 Chapter 2 Prison problems 1775-6 40 Chapter 3 Initial Solutions, 1776-9 67 Chapter 4 Transportation and Prisons, 1779-84 93 Chapter 5 Commercial Interests and the Atlantic Solution 127 Chapter 6 The Beauchamp Committee 152 Chapter 7 Pitt's Financial Problems and the Pacific Solution 179 Chapter 8 After the Decision 225 Conclusion 259 List of Maps Map I - The global extent of European expansion on the 269 eve of British occupation of Botany Bay Map 2 - The strategic situation in South East Asia on the 270 eve of British occupation of Botany Bay Map 3- List of principal fortified stations in West Africa 271 In 1785 Appendices Appendix I - First Beauchamp Report 272 Appendix 2 - Second Beauchamp Report 290 Bibliography 302 6 List of Tables Table I Numbers held in gaols in England 44 and Wales, 1773-88 Table 2 An account of the convicts ordered 46 for transportation from 1 November 1769 to 1 November 1776; extracted from the list transmitted to the Clerk of the House of Commons. Table 3 Felons delivered from Newgate to be 47 transported 1773-5 Table 4 The respective offences and their 51 punishments at The Old Bailey, 1749-71 Table 5 English ports of embarkation for convicts 99 transported to Maryland, 1746-75 Table 6 Transport costs from various county 102 gaols in England and Wales to the port of embarkation, 1773-6 Table 7 Convict prices at sales conducted in 103 Maryland, 1767-75 Table 8 Beauchamp Committee sittings 157 List of Illustrations Francis Seymour Conway, 2 Marquess of Hertford by James Bretherton, 1784 151 William Pitt by James Gillray, 1789 184 List of Abbreviations used in the text - Archival locations BL British Library (London) ML Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales NAS National Archives of Scotland NLA National Library of Australia NLI National Library of Ireland NLS National Library of Scotland NMM National Maritime Museum (Greenwich) OIOC Oriental and India Office Collections PRO Public Record Office, London ADM Admiralty CO Colonial Office FO Foreign Office HO Home Office SP State Papers T Treasury 7 II - Printed Sources Auckland The Journals and Correspondence of William, Lord Auckland, Richard Bentley (ed.), 4 vols. (London, 1861) Banks The 'Endeavour' Journal of Joseph Banks, J.C. Beaglehole (ed.), 2 vols. (Sydney, 1963) Barham Letters and Papers of Charles, Lord Barham, J. K Laughton (ed.), 3 vols. (London, 1907-11) Buckingham Duke of Buckingham & Chandos, Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George III, 4 vols. (London, 1853-5) Cassel The History of the British People, Volume V - From the Revolutionary Settlement to Wate,loo, 6 vols. (London, 1965) Cook The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery, J. C. Beaglehole (ed.) 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1955-74) Cornwall is Correspondence of Charles, First Marquis Comwallis, Charles Ross (ed.), 3 vols. (London, 1859) DNB Dictionary of National Biography Dropmore The Manuscripts of J. B. Fortescue, Esq., Preserved at Dropmore, 10 vols. (H.M.C. London, 1892-1927) Ehrman John Ehrman, The Younger Pitt - the Years of Acclaim, (London, 1969) Harlow Vincent 1. Harlow, The Founding of the Second British Empire, 2 vols. (London, 1952 and 1964) HRA Historical Records of Australia, 1st series, 26 vols. (Sydney, 1914-25) HRNSW Historical Records of New South Wales, A. Britton and F.M. Bladen (eds.), 7 vols. (Sydney, 1892-1901) LCG The Later Correspondence of George Ill, A.