Chapter 41:
The Blackheath Connection (Phase Two):
Blackheath and the London Missionary Society:

 

������ Interest in the Pacific remained strong among other men at Blackheath, leading to the departure of the London Missionary Society ship Duff. One Blackheath identity involved was Joseph Hardcastle, who had links with Middleton and the navy. ([1]) Hardcastle may also have had links with East India Company men, as Lloyd's Registers note that there sailed on 13 March, 1786, the East India Company ship Hillsborough 758 tons Capt. W. Hardcastle, for coast and Bay, husband R Preston. ([2])

 

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������ If Morison's book on the London Missionary Society (LMS) can be believed, Hardcastle's mind fed on a degree of evangelical bombast it is difficult to believe could exist outside the realms of fiction. Hardcastle was connected with all the great operations of the LMS, and, writes Morison, "The history of the South Sea Mission is one of the brightest pages in the annals of the Christian Church". Few books have been written in such a spirit of annoying, cloying, "spiritual" self-congratulation. ([3])

 

���� In a letter to Capt. James Wilson of Duff on 5 September, 1796, Hardcastle wished the effects of the missionary voyage to Tahiti would not be limited in time or space; a voyage "so pregnant with important events", a service "intimately connected" with the praise on earth of God. ([4]) Hardcastle spoke of "the beams of the Sun of Righteousness"; and he closed his encouraging letter to Wilson with the confidence that "when we reside among the immortals"....� "Connected with him [God], I venture to subscribe myself, Your Friend in imperishable bonds, Joseph Hardcastle". Though Hardcastle might already have been in Heaven, suffice to say, the natives on Tahiti finally ordered the LMS missionaries landed by Duff off their island. Later the LMS in their desperation to get ships into the Pacific stooped to convict contracting, using Blackheath connections to do so. With Royal Admiral II they took aboard fever with their convicts, by which means they killed some of their own personnel. And as it happened, after the LMS missionaries stepped on Tahiti, the birthrate ([5]) there dropped like a rock in an ocean, and kept dropping.

 

 

 

Phases in The Blackheath Connection: Phase Two:

 

������� Two LMS contacts were Gabriel Gillette and James Beveridge Duncan, the latter assisting Haweis, founder of the London Missionary Society, by negotiating with the East India Company to enable Duff's voyage. In a letter, (James Duncan to Haweis, 17 July, 1796), Duncan mentioned Sir Charles Middleton, former comptroller of the navy. Duff had received her East India Company charter to take tea. Following his determination to convert the Pacific cannibal heathens, Haweis gained supporters including Hardcastle. ([6]) ([7]) ([8]) Haweis, credited with the creation of the LMS, was chaplain to Lady Huntingdon, the aristocratic evangelist of Methodism whose mission had been aided by Lord Dartmouth. ([9])

 

���� As noted earlier, Haweis had acquired a copy of a vocabulary of the Tahitian language, then found it difficult to actually mount the missionary enterprise. By 1794, Haweis had realised that only an interdenominational organisation would suffice for the conversion of the Pacific heathens and so the LMS was formed. Maritime activity remained nil until a captain could be recruited.

 

���� An ex-East India captain retired to Portsmouth, James Wilson, heard of Haweis' zeal and approached Haweis. With James Wilson, Haweis had on his hands a zealous convert. Earlier in India, James Wilson had experienced "trials" leading him to convert to God. He'd been captured by the French in India, had to swim a crocodile-infested river to escape. Recaptured, he was flung in jail by a rajah, so he escaped again. Soon he "saw the light'. ([10]) With James Wilson as ship's commander would sail his nephew William Wilson as chief mate.

 

����� By 1796 Haweis had mounted the resources to prepare Duff for a first missionary voyage. ([11]) Whilst Duff� was prepared, Joseph Hardcastle, devout merchant of Ducksfoot Lane, London, originated a scheme whereby the missionary work could be made self-supporting by the sale of exotic artefacts imported from the Pacific. It was James Duncan, ([12]) of Blackheath, lately involved in the convict service to New South Wales, who dealt with the East India Company when the LMS decided to backload China tea to reduce the cost of the voyage after missionaries had been dropped at Tahiti. On 16 July 1796, David Scott, chairman of the East India Company, required from Duncan an assurance that the LMS equipment on Duff was not intended to invade the Company's privileges. The assurance provided, Duff received her charter to backload tea.

 

���� �Duff arrived at Tahiti on 5 March, 1797. Within two years, some of the missionaries had become so unpopular with the natives they were sent from the island, and travelled to Sydney on a ship commanded by Charles Bishop, ([13]) who sailed for the Bristol South whaler, Sydenham Teast. Later, some of the missionaries were employed at Sydney by the merchant who was commercially growing in stature yearly, Robert Campbell. ([14])������ (In 1798, Charles Bishop established a boiling works at Cape Barren Island, not long after he had returned survivors of Robert Campbell's ship Sydney Cove to Sydney. Later Bishop sold 12,500 skins and 650 gals of oil to the China market. He is said by August 1798 to have sold seal skins worth �14,000 to the Hoong merchant, Ponqua). ([15])

 

�������� To proceed to Canton, Duff sailed north through the straits of the northern Philippines, near the Bashees, to Canton past Macao, Duff's voyage has long been regarded as a significant aspect of Pacific exploration. The humourless puritans aboard her left their mark by naming some islands, Disappointment Islands, about 25 September 25. Duff at Typa Harbour on 22 November met Britannia, one of the opportunist ships working in the convict service to Sydney; her captain, Dennot, had only recently been exonerated at Sydney for brutality on his convict transport. ([16]) There had been an inquiry after which Dennot had softly murmured "it is human to err" and been let go. Dennott had sailed from Port Jackson on 2 August, 1797, for China to take his cargo of tea. Doubtless, Dennot gave William Wilson news of "Botany Bay" and its trading possibilities. Finally at Typa Harbour, Duff� joined her convoy of East India ships including Canton, Boddam, Arniston, and Glatton Capt. Charles Drummond 40 guns, taking the country ships to Bombay. Duff arrived back on the Thames with a convoy of East Indiamen on 11 July, 1798. Her tea cargo netted about �4,000. William Wilson then compiled a book on Duff's voyage, reputedly being given �2000 for the copyright. ([17]) The book was printed by one T. Gillette, a name known also to the East India Company, as the family dealt to India. Such connections gave William Wilson further inspiration. ([18])

 

����� Wilson shortly purchased from the Larkins family one third of their ship that had already been to New South Wales, Royal Admiral I. ([19]) On 23 July, 1799, Wilson wrote to Haweis that he had lately been at the office of the Duke of Portland, Secretary of State, where it had been agreed by the undersecretary that he might use his new vessel to transport convicts. Wilson had also looked for Sir Joseph Banks (who knew Haweis) but found Banks hard to find. At Treasury. Wilson had spoken with "a Mr Raven". (That is, Edward Raven). Eventually, Under-Secretary King had assented to Royal Admiral� carrying convicts. When she reached Port Jackson in November 1800, her owners were registered there as William Wilson and Gabriel Gillette. ([20]) It should be said, few convict contractors seem to have had to endure such a run-around before they obtained their contracts after seeing Thomas Shelton, or the still-unknown official who made the contracts for transporting Irish.

 

���� After the delivery of convicts and private trade goods at Sydney, Wilson met the missionaries who had already been banished from Tahiti, and through them met Robert Campbell. Later, Wilson dropped off his missionaries, took Royal Admiral II to Canton for tea, and sailed home. Later he sold the ship to the Government and by March 1803, she became, legendarily, a convict hulk on the Thames. This was not the case, she may perhaps have become a hulk for prisoners of war? ([21]) By 1804 William Wilson was described as the London agent for Robert Campbell and the Reverend Samuel Marsden. ([22]) William Wilson entwined his business affairs so closely with Robert Campbell that when Campbell in 1805 unsuccessfully confronted the South whalers about an import to London of his own (Robert Campbell's) whaling produce, Wilson was bankrupted, ([23]) and the fledgling industry of the convict colony NSW firmly put in its place by a grouping of whalers and East India Company interests, particularly Enderbys.

 

���� Here, commercial ironies infested situations. Visiting London in 1805, Sydney merchant Robert Campbell had his ship Lady Barlow (loaded with Australasian seal produce the Enderbys and the East India Company denied entry). He also had ambitions of becoming Sydney agent for the whalers Daniel Bennett. Nothing transpired. In October 1806, in London, William Wilson and William Fairlie of the India House Fairlie Ferguson and Company offered to act as security for the future financial good behaviour of Campbell, whose capital was destabilised due to blockades placed before him, preventing him landing Lady Barlow's cargo. The affair finally destabilised Wilson so much he also bankrupted, around 1810.

 

���� By then, Wilson had opened the sandalwood trade to Fiji. ([24]) In 1799 meanwhile a committee of the London Missionary Society had been appointed to oversee the writing and printing (by the printer Gillette) of the book written by William Wilson, chief mate of Duff on her first voyage. ([25]) Duff had arrived back on the Thames from Tahiti, then China, with a convoy of other East Indiamen on 11 July, 1798: her cargo netted her �4000. ([26]) William Wilson then compiled a book on the voyage and sold the copyright for a reputed �2000. ([27])

 

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�������� In 1798 when he was contracting for the "fever ship" Hillsborough,� James Duncan had also arranged for that ship to take several LMS missionaries to Sydney. ([28]) For his part, William Wilson would see his career take many strange twists and turnings, and with his associates he is yet another figure amongst the London merchants of The Blackheath connection. And so, some of the evangelical LMS associates, such as Joseph Hardcastle, are curiously, like Freemasonry at Blackheath, another strong cultural influence linking Blackheath, New South Wales and the broader Pacific. (In Sydney, Christian life is still strongly influenced by similar strains of evangelism.)

 

����� On 9 May, 1798, was held the fourth general meeting of London Missionary Society. Ironically, as the righteous conferred in London, the adventurous Charles Bishop was delivering unpopular LMS missionaries who'd first feared massacre, then been thrown off Tahiti and let go to Sydney. On 14 May, 1798, Bishop brought them safely into Sydney Harbour, among them Rowland Hassall. ([29])

 

 

 

The Blackheath Connection (the beginning of Phase Two):

 

������ It should be asked, why London merchants with East India connections India did not interest themselves more in sending goods to Sydney, either from London or India? Among many reasons are costs, deliberate restrictions on the trade of the colony which favoured the charter of the East India Company, the risks of sailing an ex-Sydney leg of the voyage in unprofitable ballast. Government actively encouraged convict transportation to Sydney, but not trade. A trade system taking in London, Sydney, China/India did not firm until after 1810, and received no large stimulus until after 1824, when the Australian Agricultural Company began operations, by which time, the colony's legal system was more convenient in respect of financial claims being settled in a civil court.

 

������� However, by 1807, the New South Wales sheep breeder John Macarthur had visualised an Australasian quadrangular trade pattern with one leg at Sydney. ([30]) Another leg was in Fiji, another at Canton, another at Calcutta; although not embracing New Zealand. This pattern became reality, can be used to explain much but certainly not all Australasian trading till the 1840s (by when New Zealand was settled). In terms of broader maritime history, and in order to explain the trading pattern of convict ships captain (or their employers) this quadrangle should be placed within a larger quadrangle, with legs at London, Sydney, "the Pacific" and India-China. Within this larger quadrangle, the chief inheritors of the Blackheath Connection remain blurrily apparent. They were the London Missionary Society, which helped to promote trading in Pacific artefacts, as one of their early treasurers, Hardcastle, had suggested.

 

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�������� One man not intimidated by the East India Company's earlier forbidding attitude to New South Wales was James Duncan, not a government contractor, ([31]) who between 1794 and 1800 acted as an agent for ship men who were mostly master/owners, acting as opportunists in the convict service to Australia. ([32]) From 1793, the war with France meant that fewer convicts were being directed to New South Wales, but most of the men acquainted with James Duncan were able to harvest convict business not taken by the whalers. One East India husband quite willing to deal with James Duncan was Robert Charnock. ([33]) Charnock's interest pioneered a much greater involvement with New South Wales by men more closely connected with the East India Company, and heralded the arrival of a new institutional footing in the City of London that was to affect the maritime history of convict transportation to New South Wales. ([34]) ([35]) ([36])

 

Further on James Duncan of Blackheath:

 

�������� James Duncan in August 1796 ([37]) handled ships business for Ganges, owned by Capt. Thos. Patrickson. Patrickson on 11 August, 1796 from St Albans Street, Pall Mall, had written to under-secretary John King concerning the contract for the ship, mentioning Shelton, Clerk of Arraign at the Old Bailey. ([38]) (By now, it should be clear that any ship man who knew Shelton's name and role as contract-maker would have been recognised by others in the know as having gotten close to the heart of the matter). The same day, Ganges received from overseer Campbell 73 pairs of double irons along with 73 convicts. ([39])

 

��������� East India husbands James Duncan and Robert Charnock both remained willing to deal with convict transports. ([40]) On 27 September, 1797, Charnock in his usual line of business with the East India Company sent out Northumberland 403 tons Capt. A. Aikman for coast and bay. Charnock's interests helped pioneer a much greater involvement with New South Wales by men connected more closely with the East India Company, not without renewed struggles with the Company's negative attitude. The continuing difference of opinion between the East India Company and government has been made clear by Bateson. ([41]) ..."instead of hiring the East Indiaman as convict transports, the government compelled the Company to charter the vessels engaged as convict ships - a reversal of the plan as originally intended".

 

���� In great contrast to the present views on British Imperialism and colonial government in the 1780s and 1790s of Frost, Bateson's view on shipping deployment fits nicely with Helen Taft Manning's view published in 1933, the year in which the Australian Oldham finished the first Ph.D. thesis on convict transportation to North America and Australia: ([42])

 

����� Manning's view was that... "Pitt and his colleagues had, in fact, no general principles on which to base a policy of imperial expansion, and they would never have undertaken to defend such a project as the colonization of Australia by upholding in universal terms the value of colonial enterprises. Just as they found the justification for Botany Bay in the difficulties which they faced after 1783 in ridding the British Isles of a dangerous and expensive problem..."

 

���� As he made his way, Charnock was helped by James Duncan, who assisted the London Missionary Society mount Duff's voyage. With shipping bound for the Pacific, something was happening which Pitt and his ministers may well (with common sense) have anticipated - that once initial conflict between the whalers and the East India Company had settled, perhaps, some whalers and some East India men would merge their interests. This merging happened slowly from 1797, and modified the institutional setting of the merchants engaging in convict contracting.

 

Charnock and Duncan in early 1798 wanted to use a ship Minerva to carry convicts to NSW, then trade in Bengal. ([43]) The annoyances of dealing with government and the East India Company is evident in the fact Minerva did not arrive at Sydney until 11 January, 1800, when one fearsome character of the convict colony was revealed... As Minerva sailed past the present site of the Sydney Opera House, a convict spied Pinchgut, now named Fort Denison, a harbour island. He wrote... "Just at daylight we entered Sydney heads, we then fired a gun for a pilot but none appeared... as we sailed up by Pinch Gut Island, the first thing I observed was the skeleton of a man in gibbets by name of Morgan, whose crime I discovered to be wilful murder..." ([44]) Britain had exported its most fearsome moral authoritarianism to intimidate anyone sailing into the harbour - quite effectively. It has also used Minerva to exile Irish rebels. On Minerva �was "General" Joseph Holt, who had led rebels about County Wicklow. ([45])

 

������� From April 1798, the East India Company refused to charter Minerva on� "substantial grounds". ([46]) But her managers induced the government to intervene - the Company reluctantly reversed its decision, waiving the need for the vessel to pass its surveys. Charnock's persistence helped usher in a new, more reasonable era where East India merchants would finally take convicts with less Company interference. ([47]) But the bureaucracy of convict transportation remains convoluted. Minerva Capt. Joseph Salkeld was owned by Robert Charnock, James Duncan helped with the affreightment.

 

����� By 5 April, 1798 a note in Treasury Board papers was an Account for clothing used, provided for Irish convicts to NSW - related to the chartering of Minerva - and this in the year of the short-lived Irish rebellion put down brutally by Lord Cornwallis. The Irish rebellion began on 23 May, 1798 at Naas, county Kildare, but since it was hopelessly disorganised the rebellion remained confined to Kildare, Wicklow and Wexford. Attempts were made to spread it to Carlow, Meath and Dublin. On 25 May a leader, Wolfe Tone was arrested; he later committed suicide in gaol. There was rebellion at Carlow, and Wexford, where the fighting ended. Dublin was placed under martial law, and on the hill of Tara in county Meath, 4000 insurgents were defeated. A force greater than the force defeating Napoleon at Waterloo had to be used against the Irish who did rebel. On 21 June, 1798 Irish rebels fought a 90-minute battle, Vinegar Hill, before they surrendered to Lord Lake's forces. By March 1799, it was proposed that all fit Irish rebels be given as privates to the King of Prussia, a good way to get rid of them, one official thought. A Prussian officer actually sought such men, he wanted 200, and one man was "sold" to the king of Prussia as a slave for the salt mines. ([48])

 

����� In dispute with East India Company over Minerva's voyage, Charnock had contacted the Duke of Portland, Yonge the Secretary of War, and Secretary of the Navy Henry Dundas, who all virtually coerced the East India Company to succumb in the matter. ([49]) By 18 July, 1798 the Company's Court of Directors were forced to accept the ship, lamenting they had to accede to "these right Honble gentlemen". A note exists of 19 July, 1798 from the East India Company to the Colonial Office, about a copy of a minute from the court of directors, on a request by the Colonial Office that the Minerva be allowed to proceed to Bengal to load sugar, indigo and cotton. ([50]) Minerva sailed for Cork on 6 August, but was detained there amid ruction associated with the Irish rebellion. The first convicts were not embarked on her until 12 February, 1799, a costly delay for ship operators. ([51])

 

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The year 1795:

 

A disposition of personnel...

 

��������� In 1795, according to Australian Encyclopedia's 1958 entry on whaling, the East India Company charter was relaxed sufficiently to allow British whalers entering the Pacific via Cape Horn to go as far west as long. 180 degrees, under licence from the Company. Legislation gave ships in the South Fishery the right to sail East of the Cape of Good Hope to long. 51 degrees east, and as far north as the Equator, also being under licence to sail so. Significantly in 1795, Britain captured Cape Town and by March 1795 an East India Company representative at the Cape was John Pringle. ([52])

 

����� By 29 January, 1795 the ship Young William, owned by Daniel Bennet, was initially found unfit to be sent to Sydney, in the view of the Commissioners of Victualling commenting to Treasury. The situation was righted, and she sailed in company with the storeship Sovereign, 362 tons,� ([53]) An example of a shipman listed by Shelton, but not by Bateson, is in Shelton's Contract No 11, dated 27 January, 1795, with Alexander Towers, for Sovereign, Captain George Storey. (There is no information at all on Towers, but it may have been Towers had interests in India, as Sovereign and Captain George Storey appear to have illustrated some connection between India and Sydney via the activities of a young Scots merchant Robert Campbell, who later moved to Sydney.

 

����� Robert Campbell was of a family from Greenock, Scotland; his brothers were actively trading in India as Campbell, Clarke and Co. In 1794, Campbell Clarke and Co. at Calcutta had moved to a new site, previously known as Barwell's, to carry on a commission and wine business; they imported wines, spirits, Madeira. ([54]) Shelton's Contract No. 11 noted one Scots convict for whom Shelton had written to the Crown Agent at Edinburgh for a certificate. (Shelton here charged only �4/12/2d). The convict was the radical Joseph Gerrald, sailing on Sovereign.

 

����� Storey arrived at Sydney on 5 November, 1795 and sailed later to Bengal. ([55]) On 4 October, 1795, Young William, (via Spithead, Rio), arrived at Sydney. She left on 29� October, 1795, for China; presumably Daniel Bennett was to profit from a cargo of tea. Capt. Storey when he departed Sydney made for Calcutta, where he gave to The Calcutta Gazette, about May 1796, a story on trade prospects at Sydney. There is a tenuous suggestion that Storey had previously traded with Campbell and Clarke of Calcutta. Whatever the case, this news on Port Jackson prompted Robert Campbell, as junior partner in Campbell and Clarke, to examine the prospects for trading to New South Wales, and it was Campbell who did much to firm the small "country trade" between Sydney and India. ([56])

 

������ Daniel Bennett, later of Blackheath, was becoming ambitious not only about whaling, but East India trade. Shelton's Account No 12 of 17 October, 1795 was taken with him for Indispensible. Shelton charged �143/5/8d, mentioning 149 convicts. Shelton mysteriously noted, "Copy certificate of Conviction of Rachel Turner by Mr. Pollocks desire and delivered same to Mr White, Surgeon-General of NSW to take out with him .... The like of Margaret Dawson." It appears that by some variation of procedures, Rachel Turner had been delivered into White's personal care.

 

����� Indispensible 351 tons Capt. William Wilkinson carried female convicts and arrived at Sydney on 30 April, 1796, not to go whaling, but by September to sail to Canton as chartered by the East India Company. ([57])

 

�������� Meanwhile, when Capt. Eber Bunker had returned to London from his Third Fleet whaling trip, Alexander and Benjamin Champion offered him command of their new vessel, Pomona. He accepted and sailed from London in May 1795. ([58]) On 22 May, 1795 Charles Bishop on Ruby reached north of the Columbia River, trading about north-west America. Bishop was an employee of the Bristol South whalers, Sydenham Teast.� ([59]) On 25 May, 1795, Sovereign Capt. George Storey sailed for Sydney Cove in company with Young William. Also in 1795 sailed convict transport Marquis Cornwallis, 654 tons, not contracted with Thomas Shelton. Marquis Cornwallis was owned by Capt. Michael Hogan, who was later a slaver round Africa with Donald Trail earlier on Neptune. Hogan suffered a bloody mutiny aboard, but arrived in Sydney on 11 February, 1796. On Marquis Cornwallis were up to 100 of The [Irish] Defenders. ([60])� And to the end of 1795, judging from Collins' account, nearly 100 expirees had left New South Wales, or about 10 per cent of those entitled to do so. Almost as many had successfully absconded while still under sentence. ([61])

 

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The year 1796:

 

The maritime background...

 

����� In 1796: the average size of a vessel in the whaler fishery was 296 tons. London sent 55 vessels into the fishery, Cork 1, Bristol 3, Hull 1. ([62])

 

��� Cases of maritime surprise can crop in the records. What, for example, can be made of the following information? In January 1796, we find from London Missionary Society (LMS) letters, that Rev. Thomas Haweis was concerning himself with the outfit of a ship Sally for the South Whale Fishery. ([63]) It appears the LMS was considering shifting a whaler into the Pacific. (Haweis had connections in the Blackheath area). Was this perhaps Sally owned by Thomas Guillaume? It was now only a short mental leap, and the LMS would become a participant in the convict service to Australia, simply to be able to get a ship more easily into the Pacific. This is exactly what happened. Maritime records (not treating convict transports) indicate that in 1795-96, Young William, owned by Bennet, and Sally, owned by Thomas Guillaume, became the first British vessels to go to South Georgia. ([64]) This is a little mysterious, as it is not clear why a Bennett ship sailing London-Sydney-China would go to South Georgia. However, the London Missionary Society before it sent out Duff �had considered helping fit out a ship named Sally to take missionaries into the Pacific, but it is not known it this was Guillaume's ship.

 

���� By January-July 1796. ([65]) J. P. Larkins was sending out Royal Admiral (back from Sydney) Capt. W. D. Fellowes to Bengal, and Walmer Castle Capt. E. H. Bond to China 1200 tons. ([66]) The LMS would later use East India husbands such as James Duncan and Robert Charnock, as we will see. James Duncan - probably - was James Beveridge Duncan of Blackheath, an East India broker of Great Tower Hill who helped with negotiations with the East India Company so that Haweis could enable the voyage of the first LMS missionary ship, Duff. In a letter, James Duncan to Haweis, 17 July, 1796, Duncan mentioned some views of Sir Charles Middleton, former comptroller of the navy. Duff had received her East India Company charter to take tea. ([67]) As a convict contractor, Duncan exploited the broach the whalers had made in the East India Company monopoly. Few full-time East India ships husbands dealt with ships for Sydney, and so Duncan is conspicuous in such activities. He contracted for Capt. Michael Hogan's Marquis of Cornwallis. ([68]) And James Duncan dealt for Capt. Hingston's Hillsborough in 1798, says Clune in Botany Bay. ([69])

 

������ Some confusion exists about just which merchants took contracts for transportation, due to Shelton's Contracts having been ignored. For example, for 1801, Bateson connects Brown, Welbank and Petyt regarding the contracts for the convict transports Coromandel and Perseus, but Shelton's Contract No. 22 links only Joshua Reeve to those two ships. ([70]) However, Shelton's Contracts indicate that the contract takers were: for Hillsborough, Capt. Hingston, and the whaler Daniel Bennett. ([71]) (Shelton does not list Marquis Cornwallis as she carried Irish convicts). On 11 August, 1796, sailed Ganges, ([72]) her master being a part-owner, Capt. Thos. Patrickson from St. Albans Street; ([73]) contractor, some say, being James Duncan. Shelton's Contract No 13 lists only Capt. Patrickson as the contract taker for Ganges. ([74]) What is difficult to establish here are the financial motives for London merchants to be involved in transportation, if it was not the prospect of bring home a profitable cargo of East India goods?

 

Convict transportation proceeded. On 11 August, 1796 sailed Ganges Capt. Thos. Patrickson of St. Albans Street. ([75]) The contractor was James Duncan. Shelton's Account No 13, dated 9 August, 1796, was made with Mr. Thomas Patrickson, a fair copy was made for the Commissioners of the Transport Board by direction of the Under-Secretary of State, for 206 convicts. Shelton charged �192/12/6d. This was the first such fair copy Shelton made for the Transport Board. ([76])

 

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������ In February 1796, Campbell made further codicils to his will, and on 15 June, another alteration. His daughter Anne was considering marrying Mr. Peele. By 6 July, the daughter had received back the settlement from Mr. Peele. There was a May-June matter of a debt owed by Cosmo Gordon. All these were horribly trivial matters compared to the fear that would grip London in 1797 - of an invasion from France. London feared a military novelty from Napoleon, that expert artilleryman; an aerial invasion, by balloon

 

����� A full page in The Royal Calendar for 1796-1797 proves the extent of the fear. Normally, the printed list of the Commissioners for the Lieutenancy of the City of London might be eight names; the name Calvert had figured regularly in the list for years, for years (though these men were not necessarily related to Anthony Calvert). In 1792 the Lords Commissioners for the Lieutenancy of London listed in The Royal Calendar had been: John and Peter Calvert, Thomas Thomas, Samuel and Nathaniel Martin, Richard Neave (of the firm Neave and Aislabie). London's fear of the French invasion meant that the list of commissioners had been greatly expanded to a full page of consecutive names, and the names included the names of merchants and convict contractors interested in NSW and the Pacific: (some information has been added).

 

These included: Sir Stephen Lushington (East India Co.), Peter Calvert (probably of the Calverts London brewers), Felix Calvert (brewer, or Felix Calvert and Co., Campion Lane, Thames Street?), Wm. Mainwaring (director Equitable Society, Court of Common Pleas, trading justice of Middlesex), Robert Preston (Elder Brother of Trinity House), Sam Bosanquet (Turkey Co.), Roger Boehm (Eastland Co., director Bank of England), Sir R Neave (Bank of England, provisioners to government's armed forces), J Calvert, Tho Selwyn, J Nesbitt (merchant, MP), Hen Thornton, Godfrey Thornton (Thorntons were Russia merchants), Edward Darell (Bank of England), Jos. Nutt (Bank of England), Moses Yeldham (Bank of England, Russia Co.), Sam Thornton, Tho Dea (Royal Exchange Assurance Co.), Sir Francis Baring (banker, East India Co.), T Cheap (East India Co.), Hugh Inglis (East India Co.), Wm. Money (East India Co., soon to be a dockowner), David Scott (East India Co.), Robert Thornton, Thos. Fitzhugh (East India Co.), J Bond (possibly the wool dealer Joshua Bond?), Rich Sheldon, Wm. Raikes (Amicable Soc., Eastland Co., Russia fleet), Stephen Thornton, Tho Neave, Wm. Pitt (prime minister), Mark Weyland, Thos. Raikes, Wm. Mellish (whaler, suppliers to shipping), Tho Boddington (West India merchant, Bank of England), Jacob Bosanquet (East India Co.), Sir Lionel Darell (East India Co.), John Manship (East India Co.), Abraham Roberts (sic) (East India Co., that is, Robarts, banker partner with Ald. William Curtis), Geo Tatem (East India Co.), Wm. Devaynes (East India Co.), Jos. Berens (possibly Hudson Bay Co.), Claude Champion (probable relative of Champion whaling investors), Wm. Thornton, Matthew Raikes, Jas. Curtis, J St Barbe (whaler, Lloyd's underwriter), John Julius Angerstein (a senior Lloyd's underwriter, leader of the market). Alderman George M. Macaulay (Major) was a field officer of the 2nd regiment of London Militia. Each regiment had 600 men. William Curtis was vice-president of the Honble Artillery Company; where alderman Paul Le Mesurier, (who about now had given Campbell's son Mumford a reference), was colonel.

 

����� These then were the men guarding London's wealth and security. Naturally enough, all were wealthy and most were highly respected. Fear of the French meant troops, volunteers and pressed men. There were 1500 men in St George's Fields, 1000 at Blackfriars, 1000 in St Paul's Churchyard, 1000 at the Royal Exchange, 1000 at Tower Hill, 1200 at the Foundling Hospital, and 2700 in Hyde Park... A total of about 9400 local men guarding London. As they drilled, the volunteers were said to use seven tons of gunpowder a week. ([77])

 

������� With the emergency, Trinity House, responsible for the navigation of the River Thames, did its part. Its Elder Brethren, of whom prime minister Pitt was senior, found over 1200 volunteers, and raised a blockade of ships at the mouth of the Thames plus a force called the Royal Trinity House Volunteer Artillery, composed of the officers of Indiamen and the mates and masters of merchantmen. Some men worked on maritime tactics, downriver of the City. Trinity House with its headquarters in Tower Hill, London, controlled British navigation: shipping, lighthouses, pilots. Its governing officers were known as Elder Brethren and they included (variously between 1779 and 1799) men such as Capt. Anthony Calvert, Sir Charles Middleton, William Pitt, Henry Dundas, Lord Hood and Capt. George Curtis. ([78]). ([79]) The proposed invasion by Napoleon created "a time of stress and anxiety". The Elder Brethren of Trinity House offered to equip, officer and man ten frigates to be moored across the Thames, in the hope of protecting the metropolis. Some 1200 volunteers appeared, the Royal Trinity House Volunteer Artillery, William Pitt the colonel, composed of Elder and Younger Brethren of Trinity House, Indiamen captains, mates of merchantmen. Capt. Abel Chapman was on Daedalus, Thomas King (of CC&K) ([80]) with Capt. Reed was on Vestal, Anthony Calvert on Quebec. (Also senior in Trinity House was Joseph Cotton, who was irregularly reimbursed for expenditures on NSW). ([81])

 

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������������� By 1797 William Richards had long disappeared from the scene and Camden Calvert and King had ceased involvements to NSW. By 1797, records - except the records on London aldermen - became silent on George Macaulay. Macaulay by 1797 had lost almost 25 per cent of his wealth, according to his journal entry of 22 April, 1797. (The alderman banker, Sir Thomas Harley, also lost heavily in 1797.) ([82]) The great stayer of the Blackheath connection was John St Barbe. ([83]) In 1797 was produced J. W. Archenholtz' A Picture of England,� while Anon, wrote Great and New News from Botany Bay. (London) ([84]) But Anon forgot to mention which London merchants had been involved in shipping the prisoners. The Blackheath Connection between 1793 and 1797 began to lag, yet it did not entirely die. Involvement in convict transportation passed increasingly to men with East India Company connections. After 1800, the membership lists of the Blackheath Golf Club carried a surprising number of the names of shipping men involved with carrying convicts to Australia, notably Duncan Dunbar ([85]). Another major name is James B. Duncan, captain of the Blackheath Golf Club in 1806.