Commonly refered to as "The
Father of
Tasmania".
Great great grandfather of
Aldous Huxley.
Born in England around 1772, fled to Sydney, a penal colony in The Antipodes
in 1791 after spending a year in America to escape a twelve crown debt.
Exploiting the good name of his family in the motherland, he bought a commission
in the New South Wales Corps and quickly secured the post of the Corps' acting paymaster, using his contacts and education.
Made a fortune selling rum (which was prized above food and sex) to the convicts
at a 2000% markup.This rum was purchased from any trading ships that entered the harbour
with promissory notes to his family in England and the treasury bills with which he was
suppossed to pay the regiment.
Soon rum was the currency of the colony, and this earned the regiment it's nickname of
The Rum Corps.
In 1803 he departed as second in command of an occupying force sent to colonize Van Diemens' Land
(modern day Tasmania). Ten months later he was left in charge of Van Diemens' Land
while the Governor sailed for Sydney. Under his command the settlement almost starved to death.
Back in Sydney he was instrumental in the Rum Corps Rebillion on February 26 1808, the
twentieth anniversary of white settlement. The mutineers charged into Government House
where they eventually found the Govenor hiding under a bed in an upstairs bedroom.
The corps subsequently ran New South Wales as a military junta for two years.
After the mutiny he was appointed supreme legal officer whose duties included
all the marriages in the colony. Legend has it that one morning, with eleven
services to conduct and through a combination of impatience and drink, he married the wrong couples.
When confronted with this he told them to "settle it amongst themselves, for I can interfere no further."
He died in 1868 with a legacy of 18 children.