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Governor Bligh and the Rum
Rebellion
Treatment of Governor Bligh during the Rebellion
Bligh Summoned to Resign by George Johnson
26
January 1808
I am called upon to execute a most painful duty. You are charged by the
respectable inhabitants of crimes that render you unfit to exercise the supreme
authority another moment in this Colony, and in that charge all the officers
under my command have joined.
I therefore require you, in his Majesty’s sacred name, to resign your authority,
and to submit to the arrest which I hereby place you under, by the advice of all
my officers, and by the advice of every respectable inhabitant in the town of
Sydney.
[Historical Records of Australia,
Series One, Volume Six p 241]
Proclamation of Martial Law by George Johnston
26
January 1808
The present alarming state of the Colony having induced the principal
inhabitants to call upon me to interpose the military power for their relief,
and to place His Excellency Governor Bligh in arrest, I have, with the advice of
my officers, considered it necessary, for the good of His Majesty’s Service, to
comply with their request. I do, therefore, hereby proclaim Martial Law in this
Colony, to which all persons are commanded to submit, until measures can be
adopted for the restoration of the Civil Law on a permanent foundation.
[Historical Records of Australia,
Series One, Volume Six p 520]
Proclamation by George Johnston to End Martial Law
27 January 1808
The public peace being happily and, I trust in Almighty God, permanently
established, I hereby proclaim the cessation of martial law.
I have this day appointed Magistrates and other public functionaries from
amongst the most respectable officers and inhabitants, who will, I hope, secure
the impartial administration of justice, according to the laws of England, as
secured to us by the Patent of Our Most Gracious Sovereign.
Words cannot too strongly convey my approbation of the behaviour of the whole
body of people on the late memorable event. By their manly, firm, and orderly
conduct they have shown themselves deserving of that protection which I have
felt it was my duty to give then, and which I doubt not they will continue to
merit.
In future no man shall have just cause to complain of violence, injustice or
oppression. No free man shall be taken, imprisoned or deprived of his house,
land, or liberty, but by the law, justice shall be impartially administered,
without regard to or respect of persons, and every man shall enjoy the fruits of
his industry in security.
Soldiers, your conduct has endeared you to every well disposed inhabitant in
this settlement. Preserve in the same honourable path and you will establish the
credit of New South Wales Corps on a basis not to be shaken.
[Historical Records of Australia,
Series One, Volume Six p 241]
Statue of William Bligh at Circular Quay, Sydney
Letter of Thanks from Officers and Settlers to George Johnson
27 January 1808
Sir
We, the undersigned, beg leave to offer our most grateful thanks for your manly
and honourable interposition to rescue us from an Order of things that
threatened the destruction of all which Men can hold dear. We hail you Sir, as
the Protector of our Property, Liberty, Lives, and Reputation.
In this Moment of joyful exultation we must not, however, be unmindful of our
future Security, and with a view to the arrival in this Colony of any Officer
superior to yourself in Rank, before His Majesty’s Gracious Pleasure shall be
known respecting the Supersession of Governor Bligh, we take the liberty
respectfully to represent that we think you ought (before you resign the
Command) to stipulate that that officer shall confirm the measures you have
wisely adopted for the Public Security and for the honour of His Majesty’s
Government.
With great respect:
Edward Abbott
William Stewart
Peter Hodges
Anthony Fenn Kemp
James Blackman
Absolom West
John Harris
Patrick Moore
William Wall
William Minchin
J.Sutton
Richard Guise
Thomas Jamison
John Reddington
William Thorn
Archibald Bell
Martin Short Robert Sideway
Garnham Blaxcell
Joseph Ward
Thomas Stowe
Charles Grimes
Thomas Boulton
Hugh McDonald
John Blaxland
Daniel Cubit
Edward Riley
John Brabyn
Joseph Underwood
J. Collingwood
William Lawson
Edward Jones
David Bevan
Nicholas Bayly
Lewis Jones
James Larra
William Moore
James Thomson
Edward Wills
Thomas Laycock (junior)
George Guest
John Griffiths
Thomas Laycock (senior)
James Parrot
Isaac Nelson
Thomas Moore
William Blake
John Gowen
Ebor Bunker
John Macarthur James Wilshire
Gregory Blaxland
William Reynolds Robert Fitz
Edward Macarthur
W. Bennett
James Moran
D’Arcy Wentworth
David Langley
R. Fitzgerald
Hannibal Macarthur
Phillip Tully Thomas Abbott
John Apsey
George Borch
John Connell
Henry Williams
William Floyd
John Redman
J. W. Lewin
James Vanderoom
James Bull
SImeon lord
Christopher Friendwriess
William Baker
Isaac Nichols
Richard Tuckwell
William Skinner
Henry Kable
John Driver
Nicholas Divine
James Badger
Thomas O’Neil
The Large majority of these signatures
were added subsequent to the day on which the letter was dated.
[Historical Records of Australia,
Series One, Volume Six p 375 and Note 110 p 732 ]
Correspondence from Joseph Foveaux to Viscount Castlereagh
4 September 1808
Joseph Foveaux Informed of Bligh’s Arrest and Assumed Command
On approaching the harbour on 28 July 1808, it was reported to me that Governor
Bligh was in a state of arrest, and in a few minutes after I received this
information a letter was delivered to me from the Governor, in which he desired
an interview at Government House.
The astonishment I felt at the report of the Governor’s arrest was increased on
observing that, in naming the persons he had deputed to wait upon me, he had
spoken of a Mr. Fulton (a man whom I had known in Norfolk Island in the
condition of an emancipated convict) as his friend; and this circumstance
strongly tended to confirm the information I had at first received – that the
Governor had been chiefly guided by persons of that class, in following whose
advice, it has been since proved to me, he had so violated private property, and
had so tyrannized over the colonists, that nothing but his removal from the
government could have prevented an insurrection, with all its attendant
miseries. .....
On my landing (on the 29 July 1808), I was met by the whole body of Officers,
civil and military, and the principal inhabitants with the exception of a few
who have been pointed out in Major Johnston’s letters as the promoters of the
disorders of violence’s which were committed under the government of Governor
Bligh.
Immediately after, I waited on the Governor at Government house, and on our
meeting presented him with a paper containing my resolution not to interfere
with his suspension, which, having read, he requested that it might be put in
the form of a letter, and after a general and uninteresting conversation, we
parted.
Having referred to Lord Hobart’s
instructions dated 24 June 1803, I assumed the command of the Colony as
Acting-Governor, in the absence of Lieutenant-Governor Paterson, which I
signified by a Proclamation, and at the same time I made arrangements to
despatch the colonial vessel Estramina to Port Dalrymple to report my arrival
and the steps I had taken.
[Historical Records of Australia,
Series One, Volume Six p 623.]
Correspondence of Lieutenant-Colonel Foveaux
10
September 1808
Charges Against Bligh
Since I have had the command I have omitted no opportunity of ascertaining the
truth of the heaviest of the numerous charges preferred against the Governor ...
and I do not hesitate to declare that he has appeared to me, throughout his
whole administration, to have acted upon a settled system of enriching himself,
and a few of his necessary agents, at the expense of the interests of His
Majesty’s government, and of the people entrusted to his command; and in the
prosecution of his plans he has been guilty of the most oppressive and often
wanton attacks on private property and personal liberty, as well as the most
flagrant waste and shameful misapplication of the public stores and revenues of
the colony.
The chief of his council was the noted George Crossley, a convict of the most
abandoned character, whom, as well as others of the same class, he publicly and
avowedly consulted in the most important concerns of his government.
[Historical Records of Australia,
Series One, Volume Six pp 661 - 662.]
Perth Mint Coin - 200th Anniversary of Rum Rebellion [2008]
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