STEPHEN FOSTER

A private
empire
NOTES
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NOTES
These notes follow the text of A Private Empire, chapter by chapter. Page
numbers appear in the left margin, preceded by #. Occasionally a note
ascribed to a specic page also relates to the following page or pages.
Much of the book is based on documents in the possession of Sir
William Macpherson of Cluny, referred to in these notes as the Macpherson
Collection. These include many letters, some of them original, some in
draft form, and some repeated as both originals and drafts. Except where
there is a particular reason to do so, I have not in these notes distinguished
originals from drafts.
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ABBREVIATIONS
# page number in A Private Empire
q the number of a bundle or le in the Macpherson
Collection, Blairgowrie
nd no date
M Macpherson
AM in chapters 1 to 9 Allan Macpherson 17401816,
the Colonel
AM in chapters 10 to 16 Allan Macpherson 18181891,
the squatter
WM William Macpherson 17841866, the clerk
WCM William Charles Macpherson 18551936, the scholar
AW Allan Williams 18101896
Ossian James Macpherson 17361796
ADB Australian Dictionary of Biography
BL British Library
CO Colonial Ofce records in the National Archives, UK
HRA Historical Records of Australia
ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
SLNSW State Library of New South Wales
SMH Sydney Morning Herald
Soldiering William Charles Macpherson, Soldiering in India 1764
1787: extracts from journals and letters left by Lt. Colonel Allan
Macpherson and Lt. Colonel John Macpherson of the East India
Companys service, Edinburgh, W.Blackwood, 1928
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1 PORTRAITS
#10 The case of Stephen Lawrence is well reported by Brian Cathcart,
London, Penguin, 1999. This account of the telephone call draws
on conversations with Sir William Macpherson in 2003. Sir William
speaks about the case in various interviews, including with Mary
Riddell in New Statesman, 21 Feb 2000. The Report of the Stephen
Lawrence Inquiry is at http://www.archive.ofcial-documents.
co.uk/document/cm42/4262/4262.htm.
#11 Richard Norton-Taylors The colour of justice is published
London, Oberon, 1999. Searing indictment: quoted in Alan
Marlow, Policing in the pillory: Macpherson and its aftermath,
in Alan Marlow and Barry Loveday (eds), After Macpherson: policing
after the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, Lyme Regis (Dorset), Russell House,
2000, p.1. Dening moment: BBC News/Vote 2001, 7 May 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/vote2001/hi/english/main_issues/sections/
facts/newsid_1190000/1190971.stm [accessed 12 Dec 2003].
#12 William the Purser: this William Macpherson was a recent
widower.
#13 The stone-throwing story is recorded in William Charles
Macpherson, The Macphersons of Blairgowrie, privately printed,
1896, p.5, Macpherson Collection; and WCM, Soldiering in India
17641787, Edinburgh, William Blackwood & Sons, 1928, p.2.
All called William or Allan: note that the tradition begins with
the birth of William in 1784; the father of William who died at
Falkirk was Andrew.
#20 Cost of portraits: Setons invoice, 30 Jan 1783, Macpherson
Collection; the exact cost was 400 sicca rupees, with another
50 rupees for the frame.
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2 PROSPECTS
#22 Calcutta 1781: based chiey on Thomas Daniells Views of
Calcutta, 1780s90s; Jeremy P.Losty, Calcutta, city of palaces: a survey of
the city in the days of the East India Company, 16901858, London, British
Library, 1990, pp.51,65; images by Balthazar Solvyns, in Robert L.
Hardgrave, Portrait of the Hindus: Balthazar Solvyns & the European image of
India, 17601824, New York, OUP, 2004; and Dhrubajyoti Banerjea,
European Calcutta: images and recollections of a bygone era, New Delhi,
UBS Publishers Distributors, 2005. For cautionary comments on
orientalist views of Calcutta, see Swati Chattopadhyay, Representing
Calcutta: modernity, nationalism, and the colonial uncanny, London,
Routledge, 2005, esp. pp.69. Chattopadhyay discusses the works
of William and Thomas Daniell at pp.3452. On bearers: Alexander
Macrabies comments 1775, quoted by Rudrangshu Mukherjee,
Forever England: British life in old Calcutta, in S.Chaudhuri,
Calcutta: the living city, Calcutta, OUP, 1990, pp. 4647.
Promises: based on AM to James Macpherson (hereafter
Ossian: see ch.4), 16 Nov 1781, reproduced in State of the
Conjoined Actions of Reduction, and of Count, Reckoning, and
Payment, Colonel Allan Macpherson, of Blairgowrie, against James
Macpherson, Esq. now of Belville, and Others, 25 Feb 1813, p.112,
q427; John Macintyre to AM, 20 Jun 1779, q435; AM to Ossian,
22 Feb 1782, q582; AM to brother John M, 18 Jun 1782,q755;
AM to Ossian, 31 Mar 1783, Sir John Macpherson Papers, MSS
EUR F291/133, BL; AM to Ossian, 29 Sep 1783, q586; and AM to
Ossian, 21 Jun 1784, q589.
#23 AMs efforts to win promotion: AM to Ossian, 13 Mar 1780,
q591; AM to Hastings, 2 Mar 1781, q589; Macintyre to AM,
15 May 1781, q435; AM to Hastings, 8 Jun 1781,q589; also
Macintyre to AM, 20 Jun 1779,q435; J.M. Murray to AM, 16 Aug
1779, q369; AM to Ossian, 26 Aug 1780, q589; and P. Murray to
AM, 12 Nov. 1780, q374. Prospect in Assam: Macintyre to AM,
15 May 1781, q435; such proposals were not unusual: see Gerald
Bryant, Ofcers of the East India Companys army in the days of
Clive and Hastings [rst published 1978], in P.J.N.Tuck (ed.),
The East India Company: 16001858. Vol.V: war, expansion and resistance,
London, Routledge, 1998, p.58, n.127. Hastings attributed his
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inability to promote AM and his brother John to the pernicious
inuence of the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Eyre Coote: Hastings to
John (later Sir John) Macpherson, 17 Mar 1780, in H.H.Dodwell
(ed.), Warren Hastings letters to Sir John Macpherson, London, Faber
& Gwyer, 1927, pp. 6164. AMs determination to go home:
Macintyre to AM, 26 Sep 1781, q435; and AM to Ossian, 16 Nov
1781, q589.
BADENOCH
#24 Passing through Scotland: AM to William MacDonald,
7 Aug 1786, q588. Scots in Calcutta: S.C.Ghosh, The social
condition of the British community in Bengal 17571800, Leiden, E.J.Brill,
1970, pp.5051; T.M.Devine, The Scottish nation 17002000,
London, Penguin, 1999, p.26 (quoting Andrew MacKillop); G.J.
Bryant, Scots in India in the eighteenth century, Scottish historical
review, no.64, 1985, pp.2241. Badenoch: Rona Macpherson,
The old townships of Badenoch, Creag Dhubh, no.10, 1958. On
sacking of Cluny House: Alan G. Macpherson, A days march to ruin:
a documentary narrative of the Badenoch men in the Forty-ve and biography
of Col. Ewan Macpherson of Cluny, 17061764, Newtonmore, Clan
Macpherson Assoc., 1996, pp.17173. On Highland culture,
see Kenneth Macneil, Scotland, Britain, empire: writing the Highlands,
17601860, Columbus, Ohio State University Press, 2007, esp.
Introduction and ch.1.
Attack on and disintegration of clanship: Devine, Scottish nation,
pp.4647,17072. Care and affection: Fiona J.Stafford, The sublime
savage: a study of James Macpherson and the poems of Ossian, Edinburgh,
Edinburgh UP, 1988, p.11.
#25 A happy childhood: W.C.Macpherson, Soldiering in India 1764
1787: extracts from journals and letters left by Lt. Colonel Allan Macpherson
and Lt. Colonel John Macpherson of the East India Companys service,
Edinburgh, W.Blackwood, 1928, p.2; WCM, The Macphersons of
Blairgowrie, copies A and B, p. 5; and information from Alan G.
Macpherson, St Johns, Newfoundland. Their maternal uncle and
his wife: Alexander Macpherson in Drumnourd (Druminard, part of
Strathmashie) and his wife Isobel Macpherson (Invereshie). Their
maternal aunt and her husband: Helen Macpherson and Andrew
Macpherson in Knappach, parents of James Ossian Macpherson.
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Clunys hideouts and escape: Macpherson, A days
march to ruin, pp.21213; Stafford, Sublime savage, pp.1920;
Davie Horsburgh, Macpherson, Ewen, of Cluny (17061764),
ODNB [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17724, accessed
9 Sep 2005].
Scottish schooling: Devine, The Scottish nation, pp.91100;
Robert David Anderson, Education and the Scottish people, 17501918,
Oxford, OUP, 1995, esp.pp.1011; Marion Lochhead, The Scots
household in the eighteenth century: a century of Scottish domestic and social
life, Edinburgh, Moray Press, 1948, pp.22439. James Macpherson:
Stafford, Sublime savage, pp.2425; M.Kersey, The pre-Ossianic
politics of James Macpherson, British journal for eighteenth century
studies, vol.27, no.1, pp.6162.
#27 Abhorrence of Highlanders: Andrew MacKillop, More fruitful
than the soil : army, empire and the Scottish Highlands, 17151815, East
Linton, Tuckwell Press, 2000, pp. 4344; John Riddy, Warren
Hastings: Scotlands benefactor?, in G.Carnall and C.Nicholson,
The impeachment of Warren Hastings: papers from a bicentenary commemoration,
Edinburgh, Edinburgh UP, 1989, pp.3839.
War needed soldiers: based chiey on MacKillop, More fruitful
than the soil. Wolfe, 9 Jun 1751, is quoted in Stephen Brumwell,
Redcoats: the British soldier and war in the Americas, 17551763, Cambridge,
CUP, 2002, p.26869: How can you better employ a secret enemy
than by making his end conducive to the common good? The
reduced threat of rebellion is suggested by Cluny Macphersons
departure from Scotland in 1755.
#28 Simon Fraser: MacKillop, More fruitful than the soil, p.84.
Ruthven minister: MacKillop, More fruitful than the soil,
p.209. A mere private: Muster Rolls for the 2nd Battalion Royal
Highlanders (information kindly supplied by William Forbes
and Ian Macpherson McCulloch). AM joined one of the three
additional companies recruited for the 42nd Regiment: see Ian
Macpherson McCulloch, Sons of the mountains: the Highland regiments
in the French and Indian War, 17561767, New York, Purple Mountain
Press, 2006, vol.2, pp. 5859.
AMs American career: the three companies recruited in 1757
were incorporated, with additional companies, into a second
battalion of the 42
nd
regiment in 1758 (McCulloch, Sons of the
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mountains, vol.1, p.106) .This account represents AMs most likely
movements, based on the movements of the 2/42
nd
: but there were
some variations so that, for example, he might not have been part
of either attack on Ticonderoga (my thanks to Ian Macpherson
McCulloch and John Houlding for additional information).
Diseases: McCulloch, Sons of the mountains, vol.1, p.297.; Brumwell,
Redcoats, pp.26768.
#29 Cadetship in East Indian Company: Soldiering, pp.1112;
Memorial for Colonel Allan Macpherson of Blairgowrie, Suspender,
against James Gibson, Esq. , 31 Jan 1805, p. 2, q663.
BENGAL
This account of AMs early career in Bengal draws chiey on
Soldiering. On the Indian army see Raymond Callahan, The
Companys army, 17571758, in Tuck (ed.), The East India Company:
16001858. Vol.V, pp.2324.
#30 Professor of Persian: P.J. Marshall, Warren Hastings
as scholar and patron, in A.Whiteman, J.S.Bromley and
P.G.M.Dickson, Statesmen, scholars and merchants: essays in eighteenth
century history presented to Dame Lucy Sutherland, Oxford, Clarendon,
1973, pp.24546.
#31 AMs munshi: Soldiering, p.343. AM on value of languages:
Soldiering, p.346; see also Hastings comment in O.P.Kejariwal, The
Asiatic Society of Bengal and the discovery of Indias past, 17841838, Delhi,
OUP, 1988, p.24.
AMs small collection: Soldiering, pp.35354.
#32 AMs relationship with sepoys: J. Pearse, collector of
Midnapore, n.d. received 9 February 1781, q628. Bryant, Ofcers
of the East India Companys army, suggests the command of sepoy
battalions was regarded as such a difcult task that only certain
ofcers were capable of performing it (p.49); and some British
ofcers found it difcult to adjust their attitudes and the burden of
learning the sepoys language too onerous (p.51).
Promotion to lieutenant: Commission, 21 Nov 1765, q320.
Batta mutiny: Soldiering, pp.1822; Bryant, Ofcers of the East
India Companys army, pp.4345; H.V.Bowen, Clive, Robert, rst
Baron Clive of Plassey (17251774), ODNB [http://www.oxforddnb.
com.virtual.anu.edu.au/view/article/5697, accessed 6 Dec 2006];
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Arthur Broome, History of the rise and progress of the Bengal Army, Calcutta,
W.Thacker and Co., 1850, pp.561617. Fletcher already had a
reputation for speaking his mind: V.C.P.Hodson, List of the ofcers of
the Bengal Army 17581834, part II, London, Constable, 1927, p.195.
Philip Mason, A matter of honour: an account of the Indian Army, its ofcers
and men, London, Cape, 1974, p.113, says of Fletcher: he gives the
impression of a man who revelled in intrigue for its own sake.
Token of esteem: Soldiering, p.21.
#33 AM had previously been with Champion at Mongyer: Broome,
History of the rise and progress, p. 537. Saddle: AM to John Miller, 30
Sep 1770, q604.
#34 Serjeants dropping down dead: Soldiering, p. 94. Pucka fever:
Henry Yule, Hobson-Jobson: A glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words
and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and
discursive, new ed. edited by William Crooke, London, Murray,
1903, p.734 [http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/hobsonjobson/
accessed 30 Jun 2006]. Disagreeable journey: Soldiering, p.30.
A ne ofcer: AM [to Ossian], 24 Feb 1775, q122. Other
views: Soldiering , pp.134,136,142; Keith Feiling, Warren Hastings,
London, Macmillan, 1954, pp.118. Breach of etiquette, Soldiering,
p.93. Gout: Soldiering, p.36.
Justice for the sepoys: Soldiering, p.141. Champion was not yet
Commander-in-Chief, so he was evidently acting on Commander-
in-Chiefs authority, though without his knowledge.
#35 A good horse: Soldiering, p.83.
Billiards: J.M. Murray to AM, 6 Jul 1778, q369. Every
advantage: AM to Ossian, 22 Feb 1775, q122. Clavering: T.
H. Bowyer, Clavering, Sir John (bap. 1722, d. 1777), ODNB
[http://www.oxforddnb.com.virtual.anu.edu.au/view/article/5553,
accessed 26 Jan 2009]. Flattering prospects: Soldiering, p.319.
#36 Size of sepoy battalions: Bryant, Ofcers of the East India
Companys army, p.77. Nasty, low, wet situation, and oldest
captain: Soldiering, p.328. On factors inuencing promotion: Bryant,
Ofcers of the East India Companys army, pp. 4749.
THE FISHING FLEET
Fraser family: Macphersons of Blairgowrie, p.7; Alexander
Mackenzie, History of the Frasers of Lovat, with genealogies of the principal
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families of the name: to which is added those of Dunballoch and Phopachy,
Inverness, Mackenzie, 1896, pp.68687 (copy in Macpherson
Collection with annotations by WCM). Alexander Frasers
decline:q387, Eliza M to Mrs Fraser of Faireld, 15 Nov 1781;
q387, Eliza M to uncle Mr Scott, 5 Oct 1783,q195; AM [to
Ossian], 17 Nov 1781, q195.
#37 A trip to India: Eliza M to Mrs Gardiner, 3 June 1781,
q387.
Fishing eet: Ghosh, The social condition, pp.6264; Richard
Holmes, Sahib: the British soldier in India 17501914, London, Harper
Perennial, 2006 (rst published 2005), pp. 44345. Genteel
things: Eliza M to Susanna Fraser, 15 Oct 1783, q196. (Susanna
did not in fact follow Eliza to India.) Elizas passage money:
Receipt for 120 for passage of Miss Eliz. Fraser to India in the
Rochford, 2 May 1780,q191. Ghosh, The social condition, suggests
a total cost of 500.
Generous advice: based on Elizas later advice to her sister
Susanna, and mention of the advice she had received from Mrs
John Fraser in Eliza M to Susanna Fraser, 15 Oct 1783, q196.
Elizas appearance: J.M. Murray to Eliza M, 31 Oct 1781, enc. in
Anne Murray to Eliza M, 31 Oct 1781,q669; and Setons portrait,
reproduced in this chapter.
#38 A male relatives advice: in Helen Alves to sister Eliza Fraser,
6 Nov 1776, q191. Bengal esh market: Ossian to AM, 1 Sep
1788, q149. On the risks of failure: Ghosh, The social condition,
pp.6465.
Rules and maxims: The ladies annual journal; or complete pocket-book,
for the year 1780, London, J. Russell [c1779].
Problems at Rio: Eliza M to Mrs Fraser of Faireld, 16 Jun
1781, q387. Problems aboard ship: Eliza M to Mrs Gardiner, 3
June 1781, q387.
#39 Vicissitudes of fortune: Eliza M to Mrs Gardiner, 3 June 1781,
q387.
Distress in Madras: Eliza M to Mrs Fraser, 16 Jun 1781, q387.
Invitation from Calcutta: Soldiering, p.5. The Murrays: Soldiering,
p.349. Murray had lately been appointed Commissary-General
and promoted to Captain: Hodson, List of the ofcers, part III, p.141.
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LOVE ON A BUDGEROW
Ungovernable passions: Macintyre to AM, 21 Jul 1781, q435.
#39 Expensive wives: Ghosh, The social condition, pp.6667. Ghoshs
estimate of marriage rates, p.61, refers to the period 17571800.
#40 A whole zenana: Ghosh, p.70. Macintyres children: Alistair
Macintyre, a descendant of John, has concluded after extensive
research that John fathered at least four mixed-race children,
though not necessarily by a single concubine.
#41 Scottish traveller: James Mackintosh, 1779, quoted in Ghosh,
The social condition, p.186. Go home now: Macintyre to AM, 9 Aug
1781, q435.
Romance and courtship based on numerous letters, esp.
in q416; only the most signicant letters are mentioned below.
Disagreeable and foolish: William Hickey, quoted in Ghosh, The
social condition, p.132. A verse in Calcutta Gazette; or Oriental
Advertiser, 12 Aug 1784 describes the custom as barbrous.
Come and see her: Macintyre to AM, 10 Sep 1791, q416.
#42 Sympathetic surgeon: Certicate by Hugh Mair, 26 Sept.
1781, q620. Resignation:, AM to Ossian, 16 Nov 1781, q589.
First encounter: Soldiering, p.6. Budgerows: Robert
L.Hardgrave, Boats of Bengal: eighteenth century portraits by Balthazar
Solvyns, New Delhi, Manohar, 2001; and Hardgrave, Portrait of the
Hindus, p.47476.
AMs love-letter: to Eliza Fraser, 29 Oct 1781, q416. Eliza
gratied: draft [to Anne Murray, Oct? 1781], q416. Also Anne
Murray to Eliza, 28 Oct 1781, q416; and Alexander Murray to
AM [3 Nov 1781],q416.
#44 AM in torment: eg AM to Alexander Murray, 24 and 25 Oct
1781, q416. A girl of delicate sentiments: Alexander Murray to
AM, received 28 Oct 1781, q416.
John Ms promise: Macintyre to AM, 1 Oct 1781,q435.
Turmoil: Eliza Fraser to Anne Murray, 28 Oct 1781, q416.
Anne Murray outlines the proprieties: to Eliza, 28 Oct 1781,q669.
You have got a jewel: Macintyre to AM, 18 Nov 1781,q435.
#45 Appointment as Quarter-Master General: Macintyre to AM,
16 Nov 1781, q435; AM to Ossian, 22 Feb 1782, q582.
Well placed to assist: AM had in fact already written to his
cousin Ossian in England to see what might be done for Elizas
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brother Andrew. Dreams of home: AM to Alexander Murray, 1 Nov
1781, q416; also AM to Alexander Murray, 25 Oct 1781, q416.
Decision to remain in India: AM to Ossian, 16 Nov 1781,
q589; and AM to Ossian, 22 Feb 1782, q582.
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3 WAR AND PEACE
#46 Much of this chapter is based on Soldiering in India by AMs great
grandson, William Charles Macpherson, which quotes extensively
from the Macpherson Collection.
Fired a salute: Soldiering, p.89.
Ease and moderation: P. J. Marshall, Hastings, Warren (1732
1818), ODNB [http://www.oxforddnb.com.virtual.anu.edu.au/
view/article/12587, accessed 12 Feb 2007]. Army of detractors: see
inter al. John Keay, The honourable company: a history of the English East
India Company, London, HarperCollins, 1991, pp.394401.
THE ROHILLA BUSINESS
#47 Politics in Oudh: Purnendu Basu, Oudh and the East India
Company, 17851801, Lucknow, Maxwell, 1943, p.27; Keith Feiling,
Warren Hastings, London, Macmillan, 1954, pp.11012.
Shuja ad-Daula: A.L.Srivastava, Shuja-ud-daulah, 2nd ed, Delhi,
Shiva Lal Agarwala [1961], pp.1518; S.Mohan, Awadh under the
nawabs: politics, culture, and communal relations, 17221856, New Delhi,
Manohar, 1997, pp.5657; John Strachey, Hastings and the Rohilla
war, Oxford, Clarendon, 1892, pp.3436. Artful and able: Charles
Hamilton, An historical relation of the origin, progress, and nal dissolution
of the government of the Rohilla Afgans in the Northern Provinces of Hindostan,
London, printed for G.Kearsley, 1787, p.125. Capricious: Hastings
quoted in C.Collin Davies, Warren Hastings and Oudh, London,
OUP, 1939, p.26. Shujas temper: Nathaniel Middleton, British
Resident to the Wazir, to Hastings, 17 Jun 1774, quoted in Strachey,
Hastings and the Rohilla war, p.210. Arrant coward: Soldiering, p.211.
#48 Shuja ad-Daula on the Marathas: Davies, Warren Hastings
and Oudh, pp.2728. Hastings on the Marathas: to Sir George
Colebrooke, 26 Mar 1772, quoted Strachey, Hastings and the
Rohilla war, pp.6061. On the Rohillas see Jos J.L.Gommans,
The rise of the Indo-Afghan empire c.17101780, Leiden, E.J.Brill, 1995.
#49 Bouyant mood: on ofcers views of war see Gerald Bryant,
Ofcers of the East India Companys army in the days of Clive
and Hastings (rst published 1978), in Patrick J.N.Tuck (ed.),
The East India Company 16001858, vol.V, London Routledge, 1998,
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pp.4546, 57 n25. Meetings with Shuja ad-Daula: Soldiering,
pp.10213.
Maratha movements: S.P.Varma, A study in Maratha diplomacy
(Anglo-Maratha relations, 17721783 A.D.), Agra, S.L.Agrawala,
1956, pp.2224. The Marathas were later distracted by their
own domestic problems: see later in this chapter. The agreement
was the Treaty of Benares: see Davies, Warren Hastings and Oudh;
and Strachey, Hastings and the Rohilla war, pp.86126, who
reproduces the treaty on pp.10809. Deep suspicions: Strachey,
p.48, comments that, in view of this animosity, it was easier for
the Rohillas to join the Marathas than the Wazir. The strategic
context is summarised in Barbara N.Ramusack, The Indian princes
and their states: The New Cambridge history of India, iii, 6, New York,
CUP, 2004, pp.6566.
Rohilla numbers: Champion and AM give a gure of 40,000
(Soldiering, pp.198, 202), which is supported by Iqbal Husain, The
Ruhela chieftaincies: the rise and fall of Ruhela power in India in the eighteenth
century, Delhi, OUP, 1994, p.165; Strachey, Hastings and the Rohilla
war, p.140, gives greater credence to Hamiltons estimate of 28,000
men. Husain gives the gure of 6062,000 for Shuja ad-Daulas
troops, while noting that numbers did not count for much since
troops varied so much in terms of weapons, skill, discipline and
morale. Champion on AMs intelligence role: Minutes of the
evidence taken before a committee of the House of Commons
, London, Printed for J. Debrett, 1786, evidence of Colonel
Champion, 3 Mar 1786, p.25. Hobson-Jobson gives headwords
hurcarra, hircara.
#50 Battle description based chiey on AMs account in Soldiering,
pp.19194; also Hamilton, An historical relation, pp.23338.
This representation of Hazs death draws on three not entirely
consistent Persian sources: Hamilton, An historical relation, p.236;
Ydgr-I Bahdur of Bahdur Singh, in H.M.Elliot, The History of
India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period (ed. John
Dowson), 1
st
Indian ed., Allahabad, Kitab Mahal, 1964, p.312; and
Moostujab Khan, The life of Haz Ool Moolk, Haz Rehmut Khan, written
by his son, the Nuwab Moostujab Khan Buhadoor, and entitled Goolistan-
I-Rehmut. Abridged and translated from the Persian, by Charles Elliot, Esq.
of the Bengal Civil Service, London, Oriental Translation Fund, 1831
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[http://Persian.packhum.org/Persian/, accessed 16 Jan 2007]. See
also Husain, The Ruhela chieftaincies, p.167.
Put to rout: Soldiering, p.194; Strachey, Hastings and the Rohilla
war, pp.14042. AM estimated the number of Rohilla killed and
wounded at over 5000: Soldiering, p.203. Champions satisfaction:
to Hastings and Select Committee, 24 Apr 1774, in G.W.Forrest
(ed.), Selections from the letters, despatches and other state papers preserved in
the Foreign Department of the Government of India, 17221785, Calcutta,
Superintendent of Government Printing, 1890, vol.1, pp.9698.
WCM in Soldiering, p.201n, quotes an anonymous note on a
copy of this despatch complaining that Champion misdirected
his praise to a parcel of Scotch Aid de Camps who carried half
a dozen orders and messages, rather than to those who truly
deserved it.
Dead horse: Soldiering, p.204.
AMs observations and conclusions: Soldiering, pp.193217.
Feiling, Warren Hastings, p.118, remarks that the war was repugnant
to many British ofcers, quoting Colonel Pearce, the commander
of artillery in Bengal, who declared that the war was un-British.
#52 Inexpressibly disagreeable: Champion to Hastings, 10 May
1774, in Forrest, Selections, vol. 2, p.286. Champions disgust:
Champion to Hastings and Select Committee, 24 Apr 1774 and
12 Jun 1774, in Forrest, Selections, 1890, vol. 1, pp.98,181.
#53 Indescribable scenes: Champion to Hastings and Council, 30
Jan 1775, in Forrest, Selections, 1890, vol. 1, p.219.
Champions criticisms: to Hastings, 15 Jun 1774, Rohilla War,
[London?,] 1788, p.16 [available through Thomson Gales Eighteenth
century collections online].
A thousand villages: Champion to Henry Vansittart, 20 Jun
1764, Forrest, Selections, 1890, vol.1, p.181; and comments by
Davies, Warren Hastings and Oudh, p.54. Champion was second in
command at the Battle of Buxar. Running the gauntlet: Soldiering,
p.171. Firing from a cannon: eg Major Hector Munro quelled a
mutiny by this means before the Battle of Buxar: Soldiering, p.13.
Champion on the Wazirs excesses: Champion to Hastings,
15 Jun 1774, Rohilla War, p.17. Champion urges restraint: quoted
in Soldiering, p.190. Conventions of honour: Philip Mason, A matter
of honour: an account of the Indian Army, its ofcers and men, London, Cape,
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
16
1974; and Bryant, Ofcers of the East India Companys army,
pp.3842. No more towns to plunder: Champion to Hastings and
Council, 30 Jan 1775, in Forrest, Selections, 1890, vol.1, p.218; also
Champion to Hastings, 10 May 1774, in Forrest, Selections, 1890,
vol.2, p.286. The 20 000 estimate is accepted by R.C.Majumdar,
K.Datta and H.Raychaudhuri, An advanced history of India, 3
rd
ed.,
London, Macmillan, 1967, p.685.
#54 Rumours of treasure: Champion to Hastings, 28 Apr 1774,
in Strachey, Hastings and the Rohilla war, p.157. A hint of menace:
Champion to Hastings and Council, 16 May 1774, Forrest,
Selections, 1890, vol.1, p.107; Feiling, Warren Hastings, p.118.
Strachey, Hastings and the Rohilla war, p.159, suggests Champions
expression was almost menacing. Also Champion to Hastings and
Council, 13 Dec 1774, Forrest, Selections, 1890, vol.1, p.161. Avoid
like poison: Hastings to Champion, quoted in Strachey, Hastings
and the Rohilla war, p.160.
On plunder, see Richard Holmes, Sahib: the British soldier in India
17501914, London, Harper Perennial, 2006, pp.27484.
Argument about entitlements: Soldiering, pp.21213.
#55 The Oxford English Dictionary gives the rst use of loot for
plunder as 1788. Champions continuing protests: to Hastings and
Council, 30 Jan 1775, in Forrest, Selections, 1890, vol.1, p.222.
Total plunder: Soldiering, pp.21516; A list of plunder taken
by Sujah ul dowlah in the Rohillah country in the campaign in
1774, by report of hircarahs, q598. A mohur was a coin worth
about 1/12/0. Distribution of the Rohilla donation: Additional
Supplement to the Calcutta Gazette, 24 May 1787, q600.
Death of Shuja ad-Daula: Richard B.Barnett, North India Between
Empires: Awadh, the Mughals, and the British 17201801, Delhi, Manohar,
1987, p.94; Ydgr-I Bahdur of Bahdur Singh, in H.M.Elliot, The
History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period
(ed. John Dowson), 1st Indian ed., Allahabad, Kitab Mahal, 1964,
p.423; but note Barnett, p.103: most of Awadhs nobility and much
of the public were in a state of mourning, which all witnesses
describe as sincere and surprisingly unanimous. Husain, The Ruhela
chieftaincies, p.173 discusses the conicting evidence relating to the
cause of Shuja ad-Daulas death.
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A SEVERED HEAD
#56 The Vizier rejoiced: Soldiering, p.195. Extract from Persian
Interpreters journal, 23 Apr 1774, in Forrest, Selections, 1890, vol.
2, p.335. Champion later mentioned in passing how the Wazir
exalted over the pale head of Hufez: Champion to Hastings and
Council, 30 Jan 1775, in Forrest, Selections, 1890, vol. 1, p.240.
On Francis see John Cannon, Francis, Sir Philip (1740
1818), ODNB [http://www.oxforddnb.com.virtual.anu.edu.au/
view/article/10077, accessed 20 Jan 2007]. In 1775 Francis urged
connections at home to publish Champions views on the battle:
Sophia Weitzman, Warren Hastings and Philip Francis, Manchester,
MUP, 1929, pp.228, 237.
On Burke and Francis: Nicholas B.Dirks, The scandal of empire:
India and the creation of imperial Britain, Delhi, Permanent Black, 2007,
pp.94100; Frederick G.Whelan, Edmund Burke and India: political
morality and empire, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996,
pp.6869. On Hastings as scapegoat: Dirks, The scandal of empire,
pp.9192; Whelan, Edmund Burke and India, p.61.
#57 Burkes condemnation of the Rohilla war is summarised in
Whelan, Edmund Burke and India, pp.13943. Champions outrage:
to Hastings and Council, 30 Jan 1775, in Forrest, Selections, 1890,
vol.1, p.245. Burke on Haz: Speech on Foxs India Bill, 1 Dec
1783, in P.J.Marshall (ed.), The writings and speeches of Edmund Burke,
vol.V. India: Madras and Bengal 17741785 (ed. Paul Langford),
Oxford, Clarendon, 1981, p.393.
Freebooters: Remarks by Hastings to the Court of Directors,
30 Nov 1774, in Forrest, Selections, 1890, vol. 1, p.178. Confusion
with the bard: Hamilton, An historical relation, p.239n; Strachey,
Hastings and the Rohilla war, pp.2728: though Strachey notes that
Haz Rahmat Kahn was well-educated. Also G.W.Forrest (ed.),
Selections from the state papers of the governors-general of India: Warren
Hastings, vol. I, 1910, p.46; Marshall (ed.), The writings and speeches of
Edmund Burke, vol. V, p.393n. On Burkes overstatements, Keay, The
honourable company, 1991, p.400.
Francis on the rst scene: quoted in Dirks, Scandal of empire,
p.100. Rohilla War Charge, 4 Apr 1786, in Marshall (ed.), The writings
and speeches of Edmund Burke, vol.VI. India: The launching of the Hastings
impeachment (ed. Paul Langford), Oxford, Clarendon, 1991, p.88.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
18
#58 Burkes strategy: Marshall (ed.), The writings and speeches of Edmund
Burke, vol.VI, pp.7980. Reasons for exclusion: Forrest, Selections from
the state papers, 1910, pp.xiixiii; Marshall, The impeachment of Warren
Hastings, Oxford, OUP, 1965, pp.4546.
Macaulay on Hastings: Warren Hastings, London, Macmillan,
1893, pp.2930; also Owen Dudley Edwards, Macaulays
Warren Hastings, in Geoffrey Carnall and Colin Nicholson, The
impeachment of Warren Hastings: papers from a bicentenary commemoration,
Edinburgh, Edinburgh UP, 1989, pp.10944, esp. p.141. Macaulay
based his account on James Mill, whose turgid prose enhanced its
authenticity.
Full circle: George W. Forrest, Director of Records for the
Government of India, studied the archives and declared that
Hastings had been unjustly maligned: History furnishes no more
striking example of the growth and vitality of a slander. The
Rohilla atrocities owe their birth to the malignity of Champion
and Francis; their growth to the rhetoric of Burke; and their wide
diffusion to the brilliancy and pellucid clearness of Macaulays
style. Forrest, Selections, 1890, vol.1, p.xxxi. On Strachey see
B.R.Tomlinson, Strachey, Sir John (18231907), ODNB. On the
meaning and signicance of extirpation: Hastings remarks, 11
Jan 1775, Forrest, Selections, 1890, vol. 2, p.268; Strachey, Hastings
and the Rohilla war, pp.vii, 17388; Whelan, Edmund Burke and India,
pp.14345. Hamilton, An historical relation, pp.xiiixv, denies
extirpation. For another spirited defence of Hastings, see Penderel
Moon, Warren Hastings and British India, London, Hodder, 1947,
pp.11733, esp. p.129: The war was not marked by any atrocity
or inhumanity; rather the reverse. Had it not been for the malice
of Francis, the alleged atrocities would never have been heard
of, and the Rohilla war, like other petty Indian wars of that time,
would have been completely forgotten.
On changing views of the Hastings impeachment: Marouf
Hasian Jr, Nostalgic longings and imaginary Indias: postcolonial
analysis, collective memories, and the impeachment trial of Warren
Hastings, Western journal of communication, vol.66, no.2, 2002.
#59 Burke on the empire: Dirks, Scandal of empire, pp.31314;
Whelan, Edmund Burke and India, pp.1925. Purging the empire:
Burke, Rohilla War speech, 1 Jun 1786, Marshall (ed.), The writings
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and speeches of Edmund Burke, vol.VI, p.105; Whelan, esp. pp.1925;
Dirks, pp.31315 and passim.
Strachey on slanders: Hastings and the Rohilla war, pp.12930,
15859. Champions annoyance at having been left in the dark:
to Hastings, 12 Jul 1774, Rohilla War, p.19. Champion also had
personal disagreements with the Wazir, including a dispute
involving misconduct by Company troops: see Davies, Warren
Hastings and Oudh, p.57. Champions assault on the Wazir, which
turned to acerbic criticism of Hastings, also reected a broader
frustration that soldiers in India were used to being lorded over
and having their re smothered by every young man who could
scrawl a waste-book or post a ledger: Champion to Hastings and
Council, 30 Jan 1775, in Forrest, Selections, 1890, vol. 1, p.248.
#60 Stracheys sources: Hastings and the Rohilla war, p.xvii.
WCM on the great Governor: Soldiering, p.322. Trivial: WCMs
comment on Journal of Captain Allan Macpherson, March July
1774, telling of the March to Rohilkhand and of the campaign,
q599. WCM also took exception to Stracheys suggestion that
there was a lust for plunder pervading the English Army; so he
added a note pointing out that Champion and his fellow ofcers
were expressing dismay about the mistreatment of Hazs family
well before the distribution of plunder became an issue. He also
suggested that Strachey had failed to take account of the views of
the ofcers who served under Champion.
#61 Davies, Warren Hastings and Oudh (1939), defends Hastings
vigorously: oddly, he seems unaware of Soldiering in India, published
a decade earlier. On the suggestion that the Wazir had raped a
chieftains daughter, Davies writes: it was asserted by British
ofcials that Shuja-ad-daulah at the time was not in a position to
gratify his passion. On Davies as a historian, see Barnett, North
India Between Empires, p.207. AM interviewed by Council: Capt.
Macphersons replies to the questions proposed to him by the Hon.
The Governor-General and Council [1775], Soldiering, p.226.
PEACE WITH THE MARATHAS
In this section again, the main source is Soldiering.
Conict among the Marathas: set out with commendable
clarity in Majumdar et al., An advanced history of India, pp.668
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70; and in greater detail in S.N.Sen, Anglo-Maratha relations
during the administration of Warren Hastings, 17721785, Calcutta,
K.L.Mukhopadhyay, 1961, pp.194.
#62 Company affairs: Sen, Anglo-Maratha relations, pp.1,4546. The
context is well summarised in Keay, The honourable company, pp.405
06.
March across India: G.S.Sardesai, New history of the Marathas,
[Bombay] Pheonix, 1946, p.54; Sen, Anglo-Maratha relations, p.62.
Presents: at the rst meeting, Colonel Upton presented an
elephant; a list of presents promised was read (Soldiering, p.260).
#63 Meetings in a tent: Sardesai, New history of the Marathas, p.56.
AM credits Upton: Soldiering, p.288. Objectives of the Calcutta
Council: Varma, A study in Maratha diplomacy, pp.11617. Details of
negotiations: Varma, pp.12034; the disputed islands are now part
of Mumbai. Madanraos response: Soldiering, pp.26263. Also James
Grant Duff, History of the Mahratthas, 4
th
ed., Bombay, Times of India
Ofce, 1878, pp.3132.
Maratha turnaround: Soldiering, pp.28284. Sen discounts the
inuence of Ganga Bai, arguing that the fact remains that the
Marathas were not prepared to resume hostilities in case no treaty
was concluded as their forces were quartered in different parts of
the country and suffering a scarcity of provisions (p.67).
A more compelling reason: Varma, A study in Maratha diplomacy,
pp.13334; Sardesai, New history of the Marathas, pp.5657.
#64 Well rid of a war: AM to Champion, 7 Mar 1776, in Soldiering,
pp.30102.
#65 Burke on the treaty: Speech in Reply, 16 Jun 1794, P.J.Marshall
(ed.), The writings and speeches of Edmund Burke, vol.Vii. India: The
Hastings trial 17891794 (ed. Paul Langford), Oxford, Clarendon,
2000, pp.68490. Patchwork of compromises: Sardesai, New history
of the Marathas, p.58
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4 FRIENDS
#66 Without parents and friends: AM to WM, 15 Oct 1801, q195.
This chapter draws on the extensive literature relating to
patron-client relationships. On use of the term friends in England
see Naomi Tadmor, Family and friends in eighteenth-century England:
household, kinship, and patronage, New York, CUP, 2001. On reciprocity
see Harold Perkin, The origins of modern English society 17801880,
London, Routledge, 1969, ch.2.
#67 John Ms unhappy end: John M to AM, 15 Apr 1780, q654;
AM to Ossian, 24 Aug 1786, q588; Soldiering, pp.386,407.
John Macintyre was made Lieutenant in 1777, a Captain-
Lieutenant in 1781 and a Captain in 1785. On Macintyre see
Alistair K.Macintyre and Alan G.Macpherson, Lieut-Gen John
Macintyre, the laird of Balavil that never was, Creag Dhubh, no.59,
2007.
AM tells Ossian he is his most valuable friend, 26 Aug
1780, q589.
OSSIAN
James Macphersons early life: Fiona J.Stafford, The sublime
savage: a study of James Macpherson and the poems of Ossian, Edinburgh,
Edinburgh UP, 1988, pp.11525; on Scottish sense of inferiority:
Stafford, Sublime savage, p.114. Fingal was preceded by The highlander
in 1758 and by Fragments of ancient poetry collected in the Highlands of
Scotland in 1760.
Much has been written about James Macphersons literary
career: see, eg, Stafford, Sublime savage; Paul deGategno,
James Macpherson, Boston, Twayne, 1989; Derick S.Thomson,
Macpherson, James (17361796), ODNB; James Buchan, Capital
of the mind: how Edinburgh changed the world, London, John Murray,
2003 (2004 ed.), pp.14246, 16972; Kenneth Macneil, Scotland,
Britain, empire: writing the Highlands, 17601860, Columbus, Ohio State
University Press, 2007, ch.1; Hugh Trevor-Roper, The invention of
Scotland: myth and history, New Haven, Yale UP, 2008, chs 5 and
6; and Thomas M.Curley, Samuel Johnson, the Ossian Fraud, and the
Celtic Revival in Great Britain and Ireland, Cambridge, CUP, 2009. See
also Richard B.Sher, Selected Bibliography: James Macpherson
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and Ossian, last revised 13 Mar 2004 [http://www.c18.rutgers.edu/
biblio/macpherson.html, accessed 18 Jul 2006].
#68 Jefferson on Ossian: James Porter, Bring me the head of
James Macpherson: the execution of Ossian and the wellsprings
of folkloristic discourse, Journal of American folklore, vol.114,
no.454, 2001, p.396. On Ossians musical inuence see John
Daverio, Schumanns Ossianic manner, 19th-century music, vol 21,
no.3, 1998.
Menaces of a rufan: Johnson to James Macpherson, 7 Feb
1775, quoted in James Boswell, The life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., Ware
(Herts), Wordsworth Editions, 1999 (rst published 1791), p.410.
Ossians mistresses: Ossian had ve children by four mistresses;
although the mothers of his children were not necessarily part of
his London circle, we can reasonably assume that other women
were. See Alan G.Macpherson, The bastards of Balavil: James
Macphersons mistresses and their children (pt 1), Creag Dhubh,
no.57, 2005, pp.4347. Thick legs: Alexander Carlyle, quoted
Bailey Saunders, The life and letters of James Macpherson, London, Swan
Sonnenschein & Co., 1895, p.71. James Macphersons character:
John Macintyre to AM, nd[1786], q436; James Boswell, quoted
in Stafford, Sublime savage, frontispiece; J.N.M.Maclean, The early
political careers of James Fingal Macpherson (17361796) and
Sir John Macpherson, Bart (17441821), PhD thesis, University
of Edinburgh, 1967, pp.2729. Who is without enemies:
James Macpherson to Macintyre, 14 May 1782, q147. James
Macpherson in politics: Stafford, Sublime savage, pp.18183;
Maclean, Early political careers; Trevor-Roper, The invention of
Scotland, pp.12534. Ossian and Fingal: although close friends
were more likely to call him Fingal and his enemies Ossian, I
follow the more common practice in calling him Ossian.
#69 Reciprocity: Ossian to AM, 5 Jan 1782, q157. On Scottish
networks see Andrew MacKillop, Europeans, Britons and Scots:
Scottish sojourning networks and identities in Asia, c.17001815,
in Angela McCarthy (ed.), A global clan: Scottish migrant networks and
identities since the eighteenth century, London, Tauris, 2006.
I did that for him: Ossian to AM, 4 Jun 1779, q156.
Nawabs vakeel: Ossian upheld the Nawabs sovereignty in
his anonymously published The history and management of the East
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India Company, from its origin in 1600 to the present times, 1779: Nicholas
B.Dirks, The scandal of empire: India and the creation of imperial Britain,
Delhi, Permanent Black, 2007, pp. 26468.
Ossian on reciprocity again: Ossian to Macintyre, 22 Feb 1781,
q147. On the role of EIC Directors in distributing patronage,
Ronald M.Sunter, Patronage and politics in Scotland, 17071832,
Edinburgh, John Donald, 1986, pp.89. Hint of mystery: Ossian
to Macintyre, 10 Mar 1781, q147.
#70 Getting money home: P.J.Marshall, The personal fortune of
Warren Hastings, Economic history review, 2nd series, no.XVII, 1964,
p.285.
#71 John Murray on Ossian: to AM, nd [Dec 1776], q369.
Reasonable hopes: Ossian to Macintyre, 12 Feb 1781, q147.
Heavily on my own resources: Ossian to Macintyre, 21 Feb
1781, q147. A heavy hint: Ossian to AM, 21 Feb 1781, q157.
Macintyre seeks another 1000: to AM, 30 Aug 1781,
q435. Improper delicacy: AM to Ossian, 3 Sep 1781, q589, and
printed in State of the Conjoined Actions of Reduction, and of
Count, Reckoning, and Payment, Colonel Allan Macpherson, of
Blairgowrie, against James Macpherson, Esq. now of Belville, and
Others, 25 Feb 1813, p.111, q427; the quotation draws on both
sources. Money for a comfortable retirement: AM to Ossian, 16
Nov 1781, q589, and printed in State of the Conjoined Actions,
1813, p.113, q427.
#72 Real sincerity: AM to Ossian, 12 Dec 1781, printed in State of
the Conjoined Actions, 1813, p.115, q427.
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
Advertisement for Steuart & Company: Calcutta Gazette; or
Oriental Advertiser, 19 Aug 1784. James Steuart arrived in Calcutta in
1783 and probably took over an existing business: Evan Cotton, A
famous Calcutta rm: the story of Steuart and Co., Bengal past and
present, vol.XLVI, no.2, 1933, pp.6570.
Driving in Calcutta: A letter [in verse], From a Lady in
Calcutta, to her Friend in England, Calcutta Gazette, 12 Aug
1784; S.C.Ghosh, The social condition of the British community in Bengal
17571800, Leiden, E.J.Brill, 1970, pp.13740; Jeremy P.Losty,
Calcutta, city of palaces: a survey of the city in the days of the East India
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
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Company, 16901858, London, British Library, 1990, p.38; on use of
term Maidan, Losty, p. 48.
#73 Fine riding horse: Soldiering, p.358. Repairs at Steuarts:
Account due by Colonel Allan Macpherson to J and R Stewarts
[sic], coachmakers, Calcutta, 17 Oct 1786, q711.
#74 Pinnace: Soldiering, p.357; Ghosh, Social condition, p.140; Robert
L.Hardgrave, Portrait of the Hindus: Balthazar Solvyns & the European image
of India, 17601824, New York, OUP, 2004, pp.47576. Hardgrave,
Boats of Bengal: eighteenth century portraits by Balthazar Solvyns, New
Delhi, Manohar, 2001, pp.1721. Comparison with Thames:
Sophia Goldborne, quoted in Ghosh, Social condition, p.140.
What life was about: Eliza M to her mother, 3 Aug 1785, q387.
For porticos, columnades, galleries, etc. etc. see P.J.Marshall,
Eighteenth century Calcutta, in Marshall (ed.), Trade and conquest:
studies on the rise of British dominance in India, Aldershot (Hamps),
Variorum, 1984, p. 90. AMs houses: Soldiering, pp.67; Losty,
Calcutta, p.48. Chumming: R.Mukherjee, Forever England:
British life in old Calcutta, in S.Chaudhuri (ed.), Calcutta: the living
city, Calcutta, OUP, 1990, p.46. A ne castle: J.M.Murray to AMs
brother John M, 4 Nov 1783, q369.
Servants: Eliza M to her mother, 3 Aug 1785, q387.
#75 Cost of living: Soldiering, p.357. Soldiers not well off:
P.J.Marshall, East Indian fortunes: the British in Bengal in the eighteenth
century, Oxford, Clarendon, 1976, p.247. Quartermaster General:
AM [to Ossian], 15 Dec 1782, q582. A sad plague: Eliza M to AM,
6 May 1783, q420.
AMs salary between 1781 and 1785 was about 240 surat rupees
(a surat rupee being a little less than a current rupee), plus 150 off
reckonings (prots from clothing the troops), signicantly less
than Marshalls estimate for lieutenant-colonels of 1500: see his
East Indian fortunes, pp.20910. Hopes to succeed Hannay: AM
to Ossian, 31 Mar 1783, State of the Conjoined Actions, 1813,
q427. On Hannay see C.Collin Davies, Warren Hastings and Oudh,
London, OUP, 1939, pp.17172.
Bloated leech: Edmund Burke, The speeches of the Right
Honourable Edmund Burke on the impeachment of Warren Hastings,
vol 2, London, Bohn, 1857, p.144 (speech at the trial,
5 Jun 1794). Cruel villains: AM to Ossian, 23 Nov 1783, q586.
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#76 Prots and losses at Barrackpore: AM to John (later Sir John)
M, 7 May 1783, q582. AM to his brother John M, 29 Sep 1783,
q586; Eliza M to her mother, 15 Apr 1783, q387; AM to John
(later Sir John) M, 7 May 1783, q582; Soldiering, p. 335.
More contracts: AM to WM, 28 Jun 1813, q361. Well and
truly passed: AM to his brother John M, 15 Oct 1783, q755.
NABOBS
#77 Few large fortunes: Eliza M to her mother, 4 Oct 1785, q387.
Calculations from Company records 176264, in Holden Furber,
John Company at work: a study of European expansion in India in the late
eighteenth century, Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard UP, 1951, pp.27
28, suggest that these gures considerably overestimated the
likelihood of success; see also Marshall, East Indian fortunes, p.254.
Clives fortune: Marshall, East Indian fortunes, p.236. Hastings
fortune: Marshall, The personal fortune of Warren Hastings, esp.
pp.29192. Marians spectacular dress: A.Murray to Eliza Fraser,
4 December 1781, q254; see also Marshall, The private fortune
of Marian Hastings, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research,
XXXVII, 1964.
Reactions at home: Philip Lawson and Jim Phillips, Our
execrable banditti: perceptions of nabobs in mid-eighteenth
century Britain, Albion, vol.XVI, 1984, esp. p.238; Tillman
W.Nechtman, Nabobs revisited: a cultural history of British
imperialism and the Indian question in late-eighteenth-century
Britain, History compass, vol.4, issue 4, 2006; and Christina
Smylitopoulos, Rewritten and Reused: Imaging the Nabob
through Upstart Iconography, Eighteenth-Century Life, vol.32,
no.2, 2008.
#78 Scapegoat: Marshall, The impeachment of Warren Hastings, Oxford,
OUP, 1965, pp.1121.
Ossians complaints and reassurances: to Macintyre, 14 May
1782, q147; to AM and Macintyre, 24 Jul 1782, q157; to AM, 14
Nov 1782, q157.
Ossian chagrined: to Macintyre, 13 Nov 1784, q149.
Committees of farts (in Gaelic): translations of passages in letters
between Ossian and [Sir] John Macpherson, pp.18 and 25,
Macpherson Collection: correspondence and papers of Sir John
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Macpherson, Bart, Mss Eur F291/217, BL; the original letters are
presumably in this collection, inadequately cross-referenced.
PLANNING FOR RETIREMENT
#79 Naming of William M: Eliza M to her mother, 24 Nov 1784,
q387. Minor cadet: Extract from the Minutes of HEIC Council,
Calcutta, 29 Nov 1784, q122. Godfathers: AM to Ossian, 7 Mar
1786, q588; AM to Macintyre, 24 Aug 1786, q588.
Constant slave: Eliza M to her aunt Mrs Johnston, 21 Aug
1786, q387. Balls and concerts: Eliza M to AM, 3 Sep 1786,
q417; A letter [in verse], From a Lady in Calcutta, to her Friend in
England, Calcutta Gazette, 12 Aug 1784. Barrackpore: AM to WM,
28 Jun 1813, q361.
Dining with great men: AM to Eliza M, nd [1783], q420.
Marian Hastings giddy height: Eliza Fay, Original letters from India
(17791815), with introductory and terminal notes by E.M. Forster,
London, Hogarth Press, 1986, p.174. Promises without sincerity:
AM to Ossian, 29 Sep 1783, q586.
#80 Benets of being near Edinburgh: Eliza M to her mother, 19
Nov 1783, 15 Feb 1784, q387. Ossian on the low country: to AM
and Macintyre, 23 Sep, 29 Oct 1783, q158. Macintyre on the
English: to AM, 31 Jul 1786, q436.
Cost of living: eg Ossian to AM and Macintyre, 30 Jun 1784,
q148. Requirements for genteel living: Eliza M to her mother, 19
Nov 1783, 11 Feb 1784, q387; Eliza M to her brother John Fraser,
2 Apr 1783, q755; Eliza M to her brother-in-law John M, 11 Feb
1784, q387.
#81 Trusting Ossian: AM to Ossian, 31 Mar 1783, [Sir John]
Macpherson Collection, Mss Eur F291/133, BL. Not trusting
bankers: AM to Ossian, 24 Aug 1786, q588; also AM to brother
John M, 3 Feb 1783, q755.
Lifted spirits: Eliza to Mrs Fraser, 20 Jan 1785, q387.
Not really a kinsman: the Skye clan was in fact quite a separate
entity from the Badenoch Macphersons, though John Macpherson
referred to it as a branch (my thanks to Alan G.Macpherson
for clarifying this relationship); see also J.E.Macpherson, The
Macphersons of Skye, Creag Dhubh, no.22, 1970. Dirks, The scandal
of empire, mistakenly has John and James Ossian rst as cousins (p.61,
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
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presumably in the narrow sense), then as brothers (p.348n.41). On
John M see Paul J.DeGategno, Macpherson, Sir John, rst baronet
(c.17451821), ODNB; Maclean, Early political careers; letters,
notes and drafts by M.M.Stuart, 1960s70s, including extracts
from an unpublished book by Sir Arthur Macpherson, in the
Macpherson Collection.
#82 Not susceptible: Maclean, Early political careers, pp.5661.
For relationship between Hastings and John M, see Henry Dodwell
(ed.), Warren Hastings letters to Sir John Macpherson, London, Faber &
Gwyer, 1927.
Condential secretary: Soldiering, p.336. Reluctance to favour
namesakes: AM to Ossian, 31 Mar 1783, Mss Eur F291/133, BL;
AM to Ossian, 29 Sep 1783, q586. Have done with foolishness:
translations of passages in letters between Ossian and [Sir] John
Macpherson, p.28, Mss Eur F291/217, BL.
#83 Not worthier men: John M to Ossian, 28 Nov 1784, Mss Eur
F291/131, BL. On HEIC instructions relating to contracts, with
specic reference to AM, see Governor-General and Council to
Court of Directors, 23 Aug 1784, in B.A.Saletore (ed.), Fort William-
India House correspondence: and other contemporary papers relating thereto,
vol.IX: 17821785, Indian Record Series, Delhi, National Archives of
India, 1959, pp.48788. Pressures on John M: R.Sinh (ed.), Fort
William-India House correspondence: and other contemporary papers relating
thereto, vol. X: 17861788, Indian Record Series, Delhi, National
Archives of India, 1972, pp.34.
Bad luck: AM to Charles Bowles, 21 Aug 1786, q588.
The lesson was clear: AM to Ossian and Macintyre, 24 Aug
1786, q588.
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28
5 SCOUNDRELS
#84 Berrington: Calcutta Gazette, 1 Feb 1787; East India Company
Ships, Ship Berrington, http://www.eicships.info/ships/shipdetail.
asp?sid=849; Anthony Farrington, Catalogue of East India Company
ships journals and logs 16001834, London, British Library, 1999,
p.60. The servants were two Europeans and an Indian ayah: letters
between AM and Captain Thomas Ley, q634.
John M ready to serve: AM to Macintyre, 24 Aug 1786, q588.
Contemptible and contemned: quoted in A.Aspinall, Cornwallis in
Bengal: the administrative and judicial reforms of Lord Cornwallis in Bengal,
Manchester, Manchester UP, 1931, p.22. Nervous fever: AM to
Macintyre, 24 Aug 1786, q588; AM to Ossian, 27 Aug 1786;
Aspinall, Cornwallis in Bengal, pp.910.
Outrage: Sir John Macpherson later remarked that AM
appeared more attached to my Interest than I was myself: John M
to James M jnr (Ossians son), 25 Sep 1801, [Sir John] Macpherson
Collection, Mss EUR F291/127, BL.
SECRETS
#85 List of possessions of Lt.col. Allan Macpherson, Calcutta,
q365. Cots by Steuart: Account due by Colonel Allan Macpherson
to J and R Stewarts [sic], coachmakers, Calcutta, 1786, q711.
Account to Mrs Rixon for washing, 31 Dec 1788 [an obviously
incorrect date], q764.
Getting money home: ch.4 above; P.J.Marshall, The personal
fortune of Warren Hastings, Economic history review, 2
nd
series,
no.XVII, 1964, p.285; Holden Furber, John Company at work: a study
of European expansion in India in the late eighteenth century, Cambridge
(Mass.), Harvard UP, 1951, pp.22735; Marshall, East Indian fortunes:
the British in Bengal in the eighteenth century, Oxford, Clarendon, 1976,
p.249. Pitts India Act of 1784 relieved much of the uncertainty.
#86 Diamonds hard to come by: Marshall, East Indian fortunes,
pp.25051. On Hastings and diamonds: Furber, John Company at
work, p.230; Marshall, The personal fortune of Warren Hastings,
pp.28789. Ossian disgusted: to AM, 25 Dec 1786, q149.
Ossians vigilance: AM to Ossian, 31 Mar 1783, State of the
Conjoined Actions of Reduction, and of Count, Reckoning, and
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
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Payment, Colonel Allan Macpherson, of Blairgowrie, against
James Macpherson, Esq. now of Belville, and Others, 25 Feb 1813,
p.11923, q427.
Links with China: Marshall, Private British trade in the Indian
Ocean before 1800, in Patrick J.N.Tuck (ed.), Trade, nance and
power, London, Routledge, 1998, p.121. Trade in tea increased
markedly after the reduction in tea duties in 1784.
China plan: Macintyre to AM, 6 Jun, 19 Sep, 30 Sep, 4 Oct
1785, 12 Jan, 31 Jul 1786, 6 Mar 1787, q436; AM to Ossian, 22
Dec 1785, in State of the Conjoined Actions, 1813, p.125, q427.;
AM to Ossian and Macintyre, 24 Aug 1787, State of the Conjoined
Actions, 1813, p.12829, q427.; Ossian to AM, 26 Aug 1789, q149;
AM to Alexander Fraser, 5 Apr 1811, q437. Investment in cargoes:
Turnbull and Macintyre [to Peter Murray], 3 Jan 1789, q759. On
relationship between John Macintyre and the Macintyre brothers
see Alistair K.Macintyre and Alan G.Macpherson, Lieut-Gen John
Macintyre, the laird of Balavil that never was, Creag Dhubh, no.59,
2007 (supplemented by correspondence with the authors, 2008).
#87 Happiest moment: AM to Ossian, nd [late 1787], State of the
Conjoined Actions, 1813, p.130, q427. Not the men I supposed
them: John Macintyre to AM, 28 Sep 1787, q436.
Turnbull & Macintyre bankrupt: Turnbull to AM, 13 Jan 1789,
q759; John Macintyre to AM, 6 Mar 1787, q436; [Peter Murray]
Memo of conversation with Turnbull at Serampore, 14 Jan 1789,
q759; Macintyre to AM, State of the Conjoined Actions, 1813,
p.19394, q427.
AM calculates loss of 7000: AM memo re nances, nd
[1790s], q194. Sufcient to live genteely: AM to Macintyre, 24
Aug 1786, q588; also Eliza M to her mother, 3 Aug 1786, q387.
Rumours: William Duncans account of discussion with Ossian
[May 1789?], State of the Conjoined Actions, 1813, p.24, q427.;
Declaration by AM re Sir John M [last item in bundle], 17 May
1796, q460.
#88 Burke on presents: Edmund Burke, The speeches of the Right
Honourable Edmund Burke on the impeachment of Warren Hastings, vol.1,
London, Bohn, 1857, p.248 (speech at the trial, 21 Apr 1789).
The poor colonel: Duncans account of discussion with Ossian
[May 1789?], p.24. Leave the country: Memorial for Colonel Allan
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
30
Macpherson of Blairgowrie against James Gibson Esq WS, 31 Jan
1805, p.9, q663. Flight to France: Accounts of expenses of a trip
to France via Dover, Calais, Boulogne and Fountainebleu among
other places, 1790, q121.
Come back to India: reported in AM to Ossian, 17 Sep 1790,
q460. Unt for anything: AM to Ossian, 19 Jan 1791, State of the
Conjoined Actions, 1813, pp.13536, q427.
Terrifying prospect: AM to Ossian, 31 Dec 1791, q147;
Ossian to AM, 8 Aug 1789, State of the Conjoined Actions, 1813,
pp.13435, q427.
PRESENTS
Impenetrable nances: Bond of Macintyre to AM, 21 Dec 1785,
q437; AM to Ossian, 22 Dec 1785, q147; Cancelled bond of
Macintyre to AM, 21 Dec 1785, with later endorsements, State of
the Conjoined Actions, 1813, pp.157, q427; WM to his parents,
26 Jun 1813, q361; Henry Wilsone to Sir John M, 9 Nov 1789,
Mss Eur F291/133, BL.
#89 Buhu Begum commented on her son Asaf ad-Daula after
he had made incursions on money in her custody: to Warren
Hastings, 22 Dec 1775, in G.W.Forrest (ed.), Selections from the
letters, despatches and other state papers preserved in the Foreign Department
of the Government of India, 17221785, Calcutta, Superintendent
of Government Printing, 1890, vol.2, p.465. Hastings on Asaf
ad-Daula: quoted in Richard B.Barnett, Oudh, nawab wazirs of
(act.17541814), ODNB. Curious compound: Lewis Ferdinand
Smith, Letter from Lucknow, 11 Mar 1795 [http://www.columbia.
edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urdu/baghobahar/appendix_smith.
html#three, accessed 10 June 2006]. Cornwallis referred to his
habits of dissipation and inattention to business: Cornwallis to
Court of Directors, 2 Aug 1789, in G.W.Forrest (ed.), Selections
from the state papers of the governors-general of India: Lord Cornwallis,
vol. 2, Oxford, Blackwell, 1926, p.135. Asaf the giver: Surendra
Mohan, Awadh under the nawabs: politics, culture, and communal relations,
17221856, New Delhi, Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 1997,
p.77. Mohans view of Asaf-ud-daula is more sympathetic than
most. See also Abu Talib Khan, History of Asafu'd Daulah, Nawab
Wazir of Oudh: being a translation of "Tafzihu'l ghalin": a contemporary
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
31
record of events, connected with his administrations [the title translates as
The disgrace of the negligent ones], trans W.Hoey, Lucknow,
Pustak Kendra, 1971, esp.pp.2930; Purnendu Basu, Oudh and the
East India Company, 17851801, Lucknow, Maxwell, 1943, pp.16;
Richard B.Barnett, North India Between Empires: Awadh, the Mughals,
and the British 17201801, Delhi, Manohar, 1987, pp. 96126;
C.Collin Davies, Warren Hastings and Oudh, London, OUP, 1939,
pp.6869,8689.
Hyder Beg Khan: Cornwallis to Court of Directors, 16 Nov
1787, in R.Sinh (ed.), Fort William-India House correspondence: and other
contemporary papers relating thereto, vol. X: 17861788, Indian Record
Series, Delhi, National Archives of India, 1972, p.531, and note at
p.717; Abu alib Khaan, History of Asafu'd Daulah, esp.pp.910,21,29
31,78; H.A.Qureshi, The Mughals, the English & the rulers of Awadh, from
1722 A.D. to 1856 A.D.: a kaleidoscopic study, Lucknow, New Royal
Book Co., 2003, pp.12937; Basu, Oudh and the East India Company,
pp.1517; Barnett, North India Between Empires, pp.13435.
#90 1001 rupees: Governor-General John M to Nawab Wazir of
Oudh, 22 Mar 1786, Soldiering, pp.34041. Hearts united: quoted
in Soldiering, p.215.
#91 Need to assimilate: see generally William Dalrymple,
White Mughals: love and betrayal in eighteenth-century India, London,
HarperCollins, 2002.
Country business and interviews: Soldiering, pp.33637,342.
On Shah Alams use of presents to win English support:
Marshall, East Indian fortunes, p.177.
#92 Hastings and present-giving: see Natasha Eaton, Between
mimesis and alterity: art, gift, and diplomacy in colonial India,
17701800, Comparative studies in society and history, vol.46, no.4,
2004, esp. p.820. Hastings presented the German-born artist John
Zoffany to Asaf ud-Daula; John Macpherson followed his example,
introducing to the Nawab the miniaturist Ozias Humphry (see
Soldiering, p.341.)
Large and secret gifts: Marshall, East Indian fortunes, pp.179.
A lass and a lakh: East Indian fortunes, p.164. New rules: Marshall,
The impeachment of Warren Hastings, Oxford, OUP, 1965, pp.13031;
B.B.Misra, The central administration of the East India Company 17731834,
Manchester, MUP, 1959, pp.384408.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
32
Hastings and the ten lakhs: Court of Directors to Governor-
General in Council, 15 Jan 1783, in B.A.Saletore (ed.), Fort William-
India House correspondence: and other contemporary papers relating thereto,
vol.IX: 17821785, Indian Record Series, Delhi, National Archives of
India, 1959, pp.9495; Marshall, Impeachment, pp.14750,16162;
Marshall, East Indian fortunes, pp.17879 (Marshall suggests that
Hastings effort to win money for himself was the last bid by an
individual to win a fortune for himself by presents from an Indian
ruler.); Davies, Warren Hastings and Oudh, pp.18788.
Hastings unfamiliar: Marshall, Impeachment, pp.18486. John
Ms election: Paul J.DeGategno, Macpherson, Sir John, rst baronet
(c.17451821), ODNB; Macpherson, John (c.17451821), in
Lewis Namier and John Brooks (eds), The history of Parliament: the
House of Commons 17541790, vol.III, London, HMSO, 1964, p.96.
#93 For evidence of John Ms earlier prescience see John Riddy,
Warren Hastings: Scotlands benefactor?, in G.Carnall and
C.Nicholson, The impeachment of Warren Hastings: papers from a
bicentenary commemoration, Edinburgh, Edinburgh UP, 1989, pp.50
51. John M the reformer: John M to Ossian, 28 Nov 1784, Mss
EUR F291/131, BL; to his mother, 18 Sep 1782, and to Company
Resident at Lucknow, nd, both quoted in unpublished book by
Sir Arthur Macpherson, pp.9697,99, Macpherson Collection.
Slashed salaries: more precisely, John M reduced the batta, or
allowances additional to salaries (see ch.2 on the batta mutiny).
On John Ms nancial policies see Aspinall, Cornwallis in Bengal,
pp.2122; Furber, John Company at work, pp.23639. Egs of views on
John M: Furber, John Company at work, p.235; ODNB; Namier and
Brooke (eds), The House of Commons 17541790, vol III, pp.9697;
Macpherson, Sir John, 1
st
Bt., in R.G.Thorne (ed.), The history of
Parliament: the House of Commons 17901820, vol.IV, London, Secker &
Warburg, 1986, pp.51617. Keith Feiling, Warren Hastings, London,
Macmillan, 1954, has a favourable word for him on p.298, while
J.E.Macpherson offers a spirited defence of his fellow clansman in
Creag Dhubh, nos 6,7 and 8, 195456.
Nothing but reform: John Ms note on Ossian to John
Macpherson, nd, quoted in unpublished book by Sir Arthur
Macpherson, p.107. AM agrees with John Ms reform efforts: AM
to John Murray, 24 Aug 1786, q588; AM to Ossian and Macintyre,
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
33
24 Aug 1786, q588. Eternal nature of things: Ossian to John M,
nd, quoted in unpublished book by Sir Arthur Macpherson, p.100.
On changing attitudes to patronage see Henry Parris, Constitutional
bureaucracy: the development of British central administration since the eighteenth
century, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1969, esp. ch.3.
Grasp time by the forelock: Ossian to AM and Macintyre,
24 Feb 1783, q158. Honest John: Alexander Murray to AM, 6
Aug 1785, quoted in Soldiering, p.407. Admirable in theory: AM
to Ossian, 27 Sep 1783, q586; also Macintyre to AM, 16 Jun
1785, q436; and Macintyre to Ossian, 1 Aug 1785, quoted in
unpublished book by Sir Arthur Macpherson, pp.11415. Mixed
messages: AM to James M jnr, 10 Jul 1798, q460. We shall do well:
Macintyre to Ossian, 1 Aug 1785, quoted in unpublished book by
Sir Arthur Macpherson, pp.11415.
AMs plan: AM to James M jnr, 10 Jul 1798, q460.
#94 Complicated arrangements: Henry Wilsone to Sir John M, 9
Nov 1789, Mss EUR F291/133, BL. Eason, Between mimesis and
alterity, pp.82930, cites evidence to show that this was a time of
lavish gifting.
Cruellest cut: AM to Ossian, 2 Jan 1792, q147. John Ms
compensation: Namier and Brooke (eds), The House of Commons
17541790, vol III, p.97; Thorne (ed.), The House of Commons 1790
1820, vol IV, p.516. Henry Wilsone, an attorney employed by
AM and Macintyre, told John Macpherson about this hellish
Secret: Wilsone to John M, 7 Nov 1789, Mss EUR F291/133, BL.
Following John Ms return in 1793, he asked AM to afrm that he
knew nothing about the present. AM readily obliged: Declaration
by AM re Sir John Macpherson, 17 May 1796. (This contradicts
Nathaniel Wraxalls suggestion at Mss EUR F291/133, BL, that John
M was unaware of the proceedings until 1804.) John M continued
to press for compensation: The case of Sir John Macpherson,
Baronet, late Governor General of India; containing a summary
review of his administration and services. Prepared by friends from
authentic documents, London, printed by William Bulmer and
Co., 1808 [unpublished pamphlet], Mss EUR F291/26, BL.
#95 WMs questions: to AM, 26 Jun 1813; and AMs answer, 28
Jun, q361.
Ill-gotten wealth: Eliza M to WM, 29 Jun 1813, q361.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
34
'MAKE YOUR MIND EASY'
Macintyre on Ossian: to AM, nd [1786], q436.
AMs exchanges with Ossian: Condescendence for Colonel
Allan Macpherson, in State of the Conjoined Actions, 1813,
pp.1214, q427; AM to James M jnr, 10 Jul 1798, q460.
#96 Ossians dictated letter: Condescendence, p.13; AM to Ossian,
14 May 1789, State of the Conjoined Actions, 1813, pp.13132,
q427. AM could not refuse Ossian: to James M jnr, 10 Jul 1798,
q460. AMs absolute condence in Ossian: AM to Ossian, 31
Mar 1783, Mss EUR F291/133, BL; and 30 Jun 1789, State of the
Conjoined Actions, 1813, pp.133, q427.
#97 Make your mind easy: Ossian to AM, 13 Aug [1789], q149
on the Continent: Memorial for Colonel Allan Macpherson of
Blairgowrie against James Gibson Esq WS, 31 Jan 1805, q663.
Accounts between the Nabob of Arcot and James Macpherson,
178093, q696.
Infallible preventive: Late 18th. century copper token
or ticket (27mm.) of Sir Samuel Hannay of London,
advertising preventive medicine for venereal diseases, sold on
E-Bay [http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item
=7397790114&indexURL], accessed 20 Sep 2006]. Alexander
Hannay had hanged himself in 1782 after falling out with
Hastings: Barnett, North India Between Empires, p.202. AM
compliments Ossian: 7 Dec 1784, State of the Conjoined Actions,
1813, pp.12324, q427.
AM joins partnership: Hannays, Macpherson, and Co. to
prospective clients [printed], 1 Mar 1788, q437; Condescendence,
pp.1415; Ossian to AM, 14 Mar 1787, AMs index, q663.
#98 Collapse of Hannays: Condescendence, p.15. Not a halfpenny:
AM to Ossian, 5 Jan 1791, q149.
Despair: AM to Ossian, 19 Jan 1791, State of the Conjoined
Actions, 1813, pp.135, q427. Ossians responses: Condescendence,
esp. p.15; Ossian to AM, 13 Apr 1791, AMs index, q663; Ossian
to AM, 25 Jan, 29 Jan, 30 Dec 1791, q150.
#99 Purchase near Ruthven: Ossian to AM, 11 May 1783, q657;
14 Sep 1784, q148; Macintyre to AM, nd [1786], q436.
Ossian on AMs folly: to AM, 1 Nov 1788, q149. (Ossian
knew Blairgowrie, having taught Thomas Graham of Balgowan
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
35
there many years earlier.) Purchase of Blairgowrie: documents and
letters at q163, q194, q268, q269 and q784.
'THE DECEPTION OF THE CROCODILE'
#100 Interview with Ossian: AMs memorandum of conversation,
4 Jun 1794, q460.
#101 AM begs for relief from bond: to Ossian, 8 Jul 1795, q460.
Ossians nancial worries: to AM, 20 Jun 1793, q913. Ossian
at Belleville: Macpherson (James), in Alexander Chalmers, The
general biographical dictionary, new ed., vol.XXI, London, J.Nichols,
1815, p.82.
Ossians epitaph: Macpherson, James, in Thorne (ed.), The
House of Commons 17901820, vol IV, p.515.
Ossians will: Macintyre and Macpherson, Lieut-Gen John
Macintyre, pp.7172. AM received more than Ossians other
friends, though Macintyre received 1000 and any debts he
owes me at present. AM writes to James M jnr: recorded in AMs
notebook, 28 Feb 1796, qvol.1.
#102 Deception of the crocodile: AM to Eliza M, 23 Feb 1802,
q264.
Like a father: Duncan to AM, 23 Apr 1793, State of the
Conjoined Actions, 1813, pp.140, q427. Macintyre regrets: to
AM, 8 Oct 1796, q438.
AMs consolation: to WM, 4 Apr 1802, q165.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
36
6 LOTTERY
#103 Guildhall lottery: Harriot M to WM, 11 Apr 1802, q295; John
Ashton, A history of English lotteries now for the rst time written, London,
Leadenhall Press, 1893, esp.pp.31824.
#104 Lotteries and social class: Ashton, pp.61,119,327. Knaves and
fools: Ashton, p.62.
AMs and Elizas habit: eg AM to Eliza M, 28 Feb, 9 Mar 1802,
q264. On 1/16th: Ashton, pp.90,119.
#105 Value of tickets, p.132. The 1802 lottery was the most valuable
since 1755: Ashton, p.130.
Eliza on Gods will: to WM, 13 Oct 1801, q294.
BLAIRGOWRIE
Blairgowrie: description based chiey on James Johnstons entry in
John Sinclair (ed.), The statistical account of Scotland. Drawn up from the
communications of the ministers of the different parishes, vol.12, Aberdeen,
William Creech, 1796, pp.191208; for a later description see entry
in Samuel Lewis (ed.), A topographical dictionary of Scotland, London,
S.Lewis & Co., 1846, vol.1, pp.12451 [http://www.british-history.
ac.uk/re[prt.asp?compid=43423, accessed 26 Aug 2007].
#106 Newton Castle: AM to Eliza M, 4 Jul 1789, q195; Johnston
in Sinclair, Statistical account, p.206; Alan D.Macpherson,
Newton of Blairgowrie, Creag Dhubh, no.19, 1967, pp.15558;
John Gifford, Perth and Kinross, New Haven, Yale UP, 2007,
pp.23334. Conagration: Lewis (ed.), A topographical dictionary,
vol.2, pp.30924 [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?
compid=43467&strquery=blairgowrie, accessed 14 September
2007]. Leaks and pigs: Murdoch McPherson to AM, 9 Oct 1789,
q167; Thomas Whitson to AM, 9 and 12 Oct 1789, q167.
Delightful habitation: Johnston in Sinclair, Statistical account,
p.206.
Purchases in London: accounts for various items, 178788,
q764.
Coach invoice: John Mills to AM, 19 Dec 1787, q764.
#107 Helpful advice: Henry Butter to AM, 15 Mar 1790, q167.
Handbill: Ground to be feud, and farms to be let, in Perthshire,
6 Oct 1790, q259.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
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Parish lagging: Johnston in Sinclair, Statistical account,
pp.20204.
#108 AM promises improvements: Ground to be feud, 6 Oct 1790,
q259.
Road intersection: Johnston has Blairgowrie on The great
road, from Couper of Angus to Fort George (Inverness); Alan
G. Macpherson (personal email) explains more accurately that
Blairgowrie was located where the road from Dundee via Coupar
Angus intersected with the hillfoot road from Aberdeen via
Kirriemuir to Dunkeld where it joined the Great North Road from
Perth to Inverness.
Lords lieutenant: Ann E.Whetstone, Scottish county government
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Edinburgh, J.Donald,
1981, pp.9598. AMs responsibilities: Papers relating to plan
for preserving the public peace within the county of Perth,
by raising three troops of fencible cavalry, including oaths of
loyalty signed by many inhabitants of the county, 1794, q236.
#109 Blairgowrie prepares to resist French: AM to Lord Adam
Gordon, 14 Feb 1797; Gordon to AM, 15 Feb, q237/2.
Volunteers and the Militia Act: based on undated typescript
note by WCM; Whetstone, Scottish county government, pp.95
98,104,1089; and An Act to raise and embody a Militia Force
in that Part of the Kingdom of Great Britain called Scotland, 37
Geo.III cap.103, 19 Jul 1797. AM jostled: AM correspondence
relating to militia riot in Blairgowrie, including description of the
threats to the schoolmaster (charged with drawing up the list of
eligible individuals) and letters from various individuals noting
similar opposition elsewhere to the Militia Acts, Aug 1797,
q124. Subscribed apology by the young men of Blairgowrie for
involvement in the riot, 8 Oct 1797, q124.
Trafalgar celebrations: AM to Bailie James Dick, 11 Nov
1805, q278.
'GOD GRANT ME A RELIEF FROM THE
LAW'
AM intends legal action: implied in J.M.Murray to AM, 25 Aug
1794, q369.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
38
#110 The law a lottery: J.M. Murray to AM, 25 Aug 1794, q369.
AM determined to seek justice: Memorial for Colonel Allan
Macpherson of Blairgowrie, Suspender, against James Gibson, Esq
, 31 Jan 1805, p. 17, q663. AM as parent: eg AM to James M
jnr, 23 Jul 1786, in Soldiering, pp. 34547. AM visits Belleville: AM
to James M jnr, 10 Jul 1798, no. 2, q460; James M jnr to AM, 2
Oct 1798, q155. Sir John Macpherson urged James to act liberally
towards AM and reach an arrangement out of court: John M to
James M jnr, 25 Sep 1801, [Sir John] Macpherson Collection, Mss
EUR F291/127, BL.
Quixotic search: based chiey on AM to Eliza M, 11 Nov
1804, q263; and Memorial, 31 Jan 1805, q663.
Ossians reputation: James Porter, Bring me the head of
James Macpherson: the execution of Ossian and the wellsprings
of folkloric discourse, Journal of American folklore, vol.114, no.454,
2001, pp.41617; Derick S.Thomson, Macpherson, James (1736
1796), ODNB.
#111 James M jnr seeks vindication: Richard Hotchkins and James
Tyler, agents for James Macpherson of Belleville, to AM, 14 Nov
1807, q663.
God grant me: AM to Eliza M, 28 Dec 1804, q263.
Carriage problems: Eliza M to Mr Hatchet[t], coachmaker,
29 Nov 1802, q41; Eliza M to WM, 7 Aug 1803, q209; WM to
AM, 11 May 1805, q906; AM to John White at Hatchetts and Co,
26 Mar 1808, 18 Mar 1809; Eliza M to John White, 12 Apr 1809,
q41; AM to White, 26 Apr 1811, q41.
AMs humiliation: to Eliza M, 28 Feb, 9 Mar 1802, q264.
Proud coachmen: AM to WM, 3 Apr 1802, q165.
AM reclusive: to Eliza M, 16 Mar 1802, q264.
#112 Indulging Eliza: AM to Eliza M, 16, 27 Mar 1802, q264.
AM philosophical: to Eliza M, 9 Mar 1802, q264.
EDUCATING WILLIAM
Elizas instructions: to WM, 5 Apr 1792, q289.
#113 WM studies history: WM to uncle Lt Andrew Fraser, 10 Jan
1793, q407. Arthur Herman, The Scottish Enlightenment: the Scots
invention of the modern world, London, Fourth Estate, 2003, p.27,
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
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contrasts English and Scottish views of William Wallace and
Edward I.
Peter Murray pays for WMs education: AM to John Macintyre,
24? Jan 1795, q120. Murrays fortune: V.C.P.Hodson, List of the
ofcers of the Bengal Army 17581834, part III, London, Constable,
1927, p.362. Recommendation of Grierson: G.H. Baird to AM, 2
Jan 1797, q271.
Virtue: AM to Ossian and Macintyre, 24 Aug 1786, q588.
#114 Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education, 1693, quoted in J. R.
Milton, Locke, John (16321704), ODNB; Henry L.Fulton, Private
tutoring in Scotland: the example of Mure of Caldwell, Eighteenth-
century life, vol.27, no.3, 2003, pp. 5455. WMs tutor explains:
James Grierson to AM and Eliza M, 17 Nov 1798, q271.
Griersons favourable report: to AM, 4 Apr 1799, q271.
#115 Peter Murrays advice: to WM, 5 Mar 1798, q194.
Sudden burst of genius: Stewart quoted in Herman, The Scottish
Enlightenment, p.11.
Edinburgh University: J.B.Morrell, The University of
Edinburgh in the late eighteenth century: its scientic eminence
and academic structure, Isis, vol.62, no.2. 1971; Alexander Grant,
The story of the University of Edinburgh during its rst three hundred years,
London, Longmans, Green, 1884.
#116 Unruly behaviour: Grant, p.481.
WM continued lessons in French with a private tutor, and
Latin with Mr Grierson. On Stewart see Michael P.Brown,
Stewart, Dugald (17531828), ODNB; Nicholas Phillipson,
The pursuit of virtue in Scottish university education: Dugald
Stewart and Scottish moral philosophy in the Enlightenment,
in Phillipson (ed.), Universities, society, and the future: a conference held
on the 400
th
anniversary of the University of Edinburgh, 1983, Edinburgh,
Edinburgh UP, 1983, pp.82101; Stefan Collini, Donald Winch
and John Burrow, That noble science of politics: a study in nineteenth-
century intellectual history, Cambridge, CUP, 1983, pp.2561.
Stewarts lectures: Lord Cockburn, quoted in Grant, The story of
the University of Edinburgh, p.341.
#117 Stewart on self-improvement: quoted in Phillipson, p.90. On
modes of behaviour: WMs class notes in Moral Philosophy, 10
Mar 1801, qvol.23.
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40
Playfair: Jack Morrell, Playfair, John (17481819), ODNB.
Nasmyth: J.C.B.Cooksey, Nasmyth, Alexander (17581840),
ODNB.
Griersons departure: AM to WM, 7 Apr 1801, q294.
#118 Luke-warm on India: Allan M jnr to his brother WM, 7 Jun
1803, q278.
West Indian prospects: Alexander Fraser to AM, 14 Aug 1801,
q902; Eliza M to WM, 31 Aug, 11 Sep 1801, q294.
WM visits Inverness: AM to WM, 22 Sep 1801, q294. A
promising young man: James Fraser of Belladrum to AM, 25 Sep
1801, q902.
Time to go: James Fraser jnr to AM, 26 Sep 1801, q902. To
London with the Dicks: WM to Peter Murray, 4 Apr 1802, q906.
#119 Persevere in goodness: Eliza M to WM, 22 Nov 1801, q350.
A sink: Simon Fraser of Faireld to AM, 29 Sep 1801, q294.
#120 A letter from Colonel Allan Macpherson to his son, William
Letter from AM to WM, 15 Oct 1801: original at q195, copy
at q165.
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7 MUD
#123 Repairs: WM to Simon Fraser (Inverness), 7 Apr 1802, q906.
Couch in the roundhouse: WM to Eliza M, 24 Nov 1801, q168.
Clothing: J. Fraser younger of Belladrum to WM, 16 Oct 1801,
q902.
Lock of hair: WM to Eliza M, 24 Nov 1801, q168.
Blairs sermons: AM to Eliza M, 15 Oct 1801, q226. Dicks
advice: Dick to WM, nd [1801], q165.
#124 Ashingtons approval: WM to Eliza M, 24 Nov 1801, q168.
A bound apprentice?: WM to Eliza M, 9 Dec 1801. q168; AM
to WM, 15 Dec, q165. Entertaining young ladies: see, eg, Jane
Austen, Manseld Park, vol.2, ch.3.
French and Spaniards: WM to Simon Fraser (Inverness), 7 Apr
1802, q906; WM to Eliza, 30 Nov 1801, q168.
#125 My dear Mac: WM to AM and Eliza M, 3 Feb 1802, q906.
BERBICE SOCIETY
Raleigh and El Dorado: see Alexander von Humboldts Preface
to O.A.Schomburgk (ed.), Robert Hermann Schomburgks travels in
Guiana and on the Orinoco during the years 18351839, Georgetown,
Argosy, 1931.
Raleighs prophesy: Humboldt in Schomburgk, Travels in
Guiana, p.8.
#126 Dutch welcome: D.Graham Burnett, Masters of all they surveyed:
exploration, geography, and a British El Dorado, Chicago, Chicago
UP, 2000, p.25. British planters and Guyana population: Henry
Bolingbroke, A voyage to the Demerary, containing a statistical account of
the settlements there, and those on the Essequebo, the Berbice, and other contiguous
rivers of Guyana, London, Richard Phillips [1807], pp.30,10001
[pagination differs between copies]; Papers relating to the West Indies:
ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed 12 July 1815, London,
House of Commons,1815. Relative to some of the island colonies,
slave numbers in Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice were few. The
volume increased markedly after 1796: Winston McGowan, The
African slave trade to Guyana, Guyana Historical Journal, vol. 1,
1989, pp.110. Cotton producers: Emilia Viotti da Costa, Crowns of
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
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glory, tears of blood: the Demerara slave rebellion of 1823, New York, OUP,
1994, pp.20,28.
Most of these names are from WM to Harriot M, 19 Jul
1811, q203. See also David Alston, Very rapid and splendid
fortunes?: Highland Scots in Berbice (Guyana) in the early
nineteenth century, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness,
vol.63, 2006. Old Belladrum was a plantation on the Berbice
River. Place names changed often, as estates changed hands
or were subdivided though many of the names are still in
use today.
Plantations: Bolingbroke, Voyage, p.7; Burnett, Masters of all they
surveyed, p.25.
#127 Barefoot: WM to AM, 25 Jul 1802, q906. Foolish desire: WM
to Peter Murray, 4 Apr 1802, q906.
Seaforth: Alston, Very rapid and splendid fortunes?. Poor
prospects: WM to AM and Eliza M, 3 Feb 1802, q906.
#128 Proper mode of address: WM (Blairgowrie) to Eliza M
(London), 27 Dec 1801, q264.
#129 Union plantation: Inventory and appraisement of Plantation
Union being Nos. 28, 29 & 30, situate on the West Sea Coast of
Berbice , 16 Jun 1804, Union account book, vol.1, pp.19697,
Fraser of Reelig Collection (see National Register of Archives for
Scotland).
Overseers life: WM to AM and Eliza M, 3 Feb 1802, q906;
WM to AM, 25 Jul 1802, q906; Henry G.Dalton, The history of British
Guiana, vol. I, London, Longman, 1855, pp.33031. Candles: WM to
AM, 15 Dec 1802, q906. Mosquitoes: WM to his brother Allan, 12
Apr 1807, q203; Edward Satchwell Fraser to his mother, 12 Feb 1805,
bundle 27; 8 Aug 1809, bundle 66, Fraser of Reelig Collection.
Amusements and absence of religion: WM to Eliza M, 10 Apr
1802, q906; WM to AM, 13 Apr 1806, q906.
#130 Public road: E.S. Fraser to his mother, 1 Nov 1803, bundle 7,
Fraser of Reelig Collection; Thomas Staunton St Clair, A soldiers
recollections of the West Indies and America, vol.I, London, Richard
Bentley, 1834, pp.13839. Carousing: WM to AM, 25 Jul 1802,
q906.
New Amsterdam: WM to his sister Harriot, 19 Jul 1811,
q203; E.S. Fraser to his mother, 12 Feb 1805, bundle 27, Fraser
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
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of Reelig Collection. Stabroek: Bolingbroke, Voyage, chs 2 and 3;
E.S. Fraser to his brother Aleck, 30 Oct 1803, bundle 7. Population
estimates based on Bolingbroke, p.24; and B.W. Higman, Slave
populations of the British Caribbean, 18071834, Baltimore, Johns
Hopkins UP, 1984, p.97, who suggests total population of 6000
in 1812.
#131 Courthouse: St Clair, A soldiers recollections, pp.10708.
Disease and intemperance: WM to AM, 1 Jun 1802, q906;
Do not give way to melancholy: WM to AM, 29 Oct
1803, q210.
#132 A step up: WM to AM, 6 Jul 1803, q906; WM to Eliza M, 28
Apr 1804, q906. Edward Satchwell Fraser: based on letters in the
Fraser of Reelig Collection; and Alston, Very rapid and splendid
fortunes?.
AM promises help: to WM, 29 Jul 1802, q165. Cost of slaves:
William Threlfall to AM, 22 Nov 1802, q168. Payment by the
acre: Bolingbroke, Voyage, pp.28081.
Purchase of slaves: AM to WM, 26 Aug 1802 [continuation of
29 Jul], q165; WM to AM, 25 Nov 1802, q906.
Happy beginning: AM to WM, 17 Feb 1803, q351.
SLAVES
Dinner-table conversation: based chiey on E.S. Frasers letters,
Fraser of Reelig Collection.
#134 Van Batenburg scandal: E.S. Fraser to his mother, 1 Oct 1805,
bundle 27, Fraser of Reelig Collection; Alston, Very rapid and
splendid fortunes?.
Desperate pleadings: for a discussion of reasons for abolition,
see David Beck Ryden, West Indian slavery and British abolition, 1783
1807, Cambridge, CUP, 2009.
Debate over dinner: E.S. Fraser to his mother, 30 Dec 1808,
bundle 7, Fraser of Reelig Collection.
#135 Notwithstanding the increase in slave numbers from 1786,
demand still far exceeded the supply: McGowan, The African
slave trade to Guyana, pp.712. More humane than the Dutch:
Bolingbroke, Voyage, pp.6163. Golden Fleece escape: WM
to brother Allan, 13 Jun 1807, q203. Something radically
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wrong: E.S. Fraser to his mother, 8 Nov 1808, bundle 7, Fraser
of Reelig Collection.
#136 Brute force: eg Benny case in Demerara in 1819, Higman, Slave
populations, p.202. On incentives to labour see Higman, pp.199
204. Task system: WM to Harriot M, 13 Apr 1810, q203; Henry
Beard, 1824, quoted in Alvin O.Thompson, A documentary history of
slavery in Berbice 17961834, Georgetwon, Free Press, 2002, p.199.
James Walvin, Black ivory: a history of British slavery, Washington DC,
Howard UP, 1994, pp.10203.
McDougall case: Lewis Cameron to E.S. Fraser, 27 Jun 1812,
bundle 137; James McDougall to James B.Fraser, 20 Jul, bundle
231, Fraser of Reelig Collection.
#137 Lockjaw: E.S. Fraser to his mother, 10 Jul 1804, bundle 27,
Fraser of Reelig Collection. On Mr Arthur: E.S. Fraser to his
mother, 6 Apr 1804, bundle 27.
Blacks in Britain: on lack of blacks in Scotland see James
Walvin, Black and white: the Negro and English society 15551945,
London, Allen Lane, 1973, p.142n; on blacks in the cities, Walvin,
Black and white, esp.ch 4. Mungo Park: WM to Eliza M, 28 Jan 1800,
q276; Christopher Fyfe, Park, Mungo (17711806), ODNB.
Dugald Stewart and slavery: WMs class notes in Moral
Philosophy, 10 Mar 1801, qvol.23; Gordon Macintyre, Dugald
Stewart: the pride and ornament of Scotland, Brighton, Sussex Academic
Press, 2003, includes a single reference to Stewart declaring his
opposition to slavery, in 177879 (pp.3233). On Stewart and
politically contentious issues: J.M.Tannoch-Bland, The primacy of
moral philosophy: Dugald Stewart and the Scottish Enlightenment,
PhD thesis, Grifth University, 2000, pp.14,94.
#138 AMs advice re slavery: to WM, 15 Oct 1801, q195.
Phyllis Wheatleys On being brought from Africa to America
appears in her Poems on various subjects, religions and moral, 1773. Eliza
transcribes it for WM, 25 Mar 1805, q210; her version, taken
perhaps from a newspaper, differs slightly from the one that
appears in the book. I have taken the book version.
#139 Eliza approves abolition: to son Allan M, 30 Apr 1807, q210.
Ungrateful race: WM to AM, 6 Jul 1803, q906.
E.S. Frasers view: to his mother, 6 Jul 1809, bundle 66, Fraser
of Reelig Collection.
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COUNTESS
Allans unhappiness: Allan M jnr to AM, 20 Nov 1804, q903; to
Eliza M, 25 Nov, q168; and 14 Dec, q903.
#140 His ambitions: AM [to W.F. Elphinstone?], 17 Oct 1803,
q210; Allan M jnr to AM, 31 Jul 1804, q168. A little fortune:
Allan M jnr to AM, 20 Nov 1804, q903.
Allans temper: Allan M jnr to parents, 7 Jul 1805, q903.
Allan and the regiment: Allan M jnr to AM, 15 Jul, 9 Sep 1806,
q903; AM to Allan M jnr, 12 Sep 1806, q210; AM to WM,
30 Dec 1806, q210.
#141 A decent native woman: AM to Allan M jnr, 20 Sep 1804,
q168.
AM expects brothers to read each others letters: AM to Allan
M jnr, 31 Dec 1806, q210.
Slave names: Walvin, Black ivory, p.63; Linda Colley,
The ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: a woman in world history, New York,
Pantheon, 2007, p.10, adds that such names were also intended
to erase their pre-slave selves. Slaves at Union: Inventory
and appraisement of Plantation Union, 16 Jun 1804, Union
account book, vol.1, Fraser of Reelig Collection. Edward Frasers
namesake: Fraser to his mother, 1 Oct 1805, bundle 27, Fraser of
Reelig Collection.
#142 Berbice not so bad: WM to AM, 11 May 1805, q906. Slave
girls initiated into concubinage at 15: Jenny Sharpe, Ghosts of slavery:
a literary archaeology of black womens lives, Minneapolis, University of
Minnesota Press, 2003, p.54.
Disgrace not to take a concubine: Sharpe, Ghosts of slavery,
p.58. Barbados exception: Higman, Slave populations, p.150. Two
ladies of colour: Bolingbroke, Voyage, p.25; note however da
Costas description of racial segregation in Georgetown (Stabroek)
a decade or two later (Crowns of glory, p.26). John Wray: quoted in
da Costa, Crowns of glory, p.102.
Bolingbroke on attachments: Voyage, pp.2627. St Clair,
A soldiers recollections, pp.11214, follows and substantiates
Bolingbrokes view.
#143 Lime juice: Bolingbroke, Voyage, p.54. Naming the daughter:
WM to Allan M jnr, 7 Apr 1807, q203. Renaming Countess:
Copy of bill of sale, 31 Mar 1807, q202. Reminders of Home: on
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
46
mimicry see Sharpe, Ghosts of slavery, pp.5770.
Looking after Countess: WM to Allan M jnr, 7 Apr, 1 Apr
1807, q203.
#144 Waiting on James Fraser: WM to Harriot M, 8 Feb 1807,
q203. Copy of bill of sale, 31 Mar 1807, q202. Linen and beads:
WM to Allan M jnr, 7 Apr 1807, q203.
Anxious crossing: WM to Allan M jnr, 13 Apr 1807, q203.
Misleading report: presumably a French setback during the Eylau
campaign in Prussia. No re on board: WM to Allan M jnr, 13 Apr
1807, q203.
Liverpool: WM to Allan M jnr, 12 Apr 1807, q203. Parents
know nothing: WM to Allan M jnr, 28 Jun 1807, q203.
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47
8 LOVE
#145 Grand piano: AM to Eliza M, 10 Jun 1796, q258. Elizas
favourites: Eliza M to Harriot M, 26 Feb 1816, q65. Harriots view
of Blairgowrie: WM to Eliza M, 21 Jan 1808, q203.
Jane Austen: Manseld Park, vol I, ch 1, begun in 1811 and rst
published in 1814.
#146 Marriage proposal: Harriot had already rejected another
suitor, Major Campbell, perhaps because he had no money: Eliza
M to John Macintyre, 12 Oct 1806, q296.
PRUDENCE
John Macintyre: V.C.P.Hodson, List of the ofcers of the Bengal Army
17581834, part II, London, Constable, 1927, p.417; Alistair
K.Macintyre and Alan G.Macpherson, Lieut-Gen John Macintyre,
the laird of Balavil that never was, Creag Dhubh, no.59, 2007;
and genealogical information compiled by Alistair Macintyre,
Reykjavik. Macintyre to India: Ossian to AM, 20 Mar 1771,
q156.
#147 Sharing house in Calcutta: Soldiering, p.6. Esteemed as a
brother: Eliza M to her sister Mrs Gibbons, 15 Dec 1785, q196.
Disapproval: AM to Eliza M, 31 Jan 1802, 11 Feb 1802, q264. AM
looking after the boys: Macintyre to AM, 14 Mar 1787, q436;
corresp. between AM and R. MacLeod, Aberdeen, 179298,
q430.
Fever in Bombay: Macintyre to AM, 26 May 1785, q436; also
Eliza M to her mother Mrs Fraser of Faireld, 15 Dec 1785 q387.
Sore gums: Macintyre to AM, 6 Jul 1806, q432. Melancholy:
Macintyre to AM, 9 Nov 1804, q432. Health problems at length:
Macintyre to AM, 13 Dec 1806, q432.
What am I to do?: Macintyre to AM, 13 Dec 1806, q432.
Harriots delicate health: AM to Macintyre, 24 Mar 1807,
q434.
#148 Happiest days over: Harriot M to Eliza M, 16 May 1809,
q58.
Continuing Hannay problems: Macintyre to AM, 22 May
1805, q432. Looking for ships: Macintyre to AM, 3 Mar 1807,
q437.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
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Macintyres loneliness: Macintyre to AM, 6 Jul 1806, q432.
AMs account of the argument about the marriage settlement: to
W.Dick, 6 May 1810, q292; exchanges with Macintyre regarding
the settlement at q296.
#149 Local excursion: AM to Macintyre, 9 Apr 1807, q434;
Macintyre to AM, 13 Apr 1807, q432. Harriots letters while on
tour, q232.
#150 More arguments about the settlement: AM to W.Dick, 6 May
1810, q292.
WMs revelation and Eliza Ms response are implied in Eliza M
to WM, 29 Dec 1807, q194.
Cards: WM to Eliza M, 5 Jan 1808, q203.
On the unlucky argument: Eliza M to WM, 1 Jan 1808
(continuing from 29 Dec 1807), q194.
Cruel parting: WM to Eliza M, 13 Mar 1808, q901. Dispute
regarding the maid: WM to Eliza M, 13 Mar 1808, q901. Macintyre
complains about interference: Macintyre to AM, 20 May 1808,
q58.
#151 Harriots appeal for reconciliation: Harriot M to Eliza M, - Apr
1808, q58. AM to Macintyre and Eliza M to Macintyre, 1 May
1808, q58. French, Dutch or German? Macintyre to AM, 9 May
1808, q58.
Bad news from India: Harriot M to Eliza M, - Apr 1808, q58.
Problems with one of his natural children: Eliza M to WM, 2 Jul
1808, q210. Kings bench: Harriot M to Eliza M, - Apr 1808, q58;
Eliza M to WM, 2 Jul 1808, q210. Harriot in despair: to parents, -
Apr 1808, q58.
#152 The same little volume: The ladies annual journal; or complete pocket-
book, for the year 1780, London, J. Russell [c1779].
Other views: Mary Wollstonecraft, A vindication of the rights
of woman, London, W.Scott [1892, rst published 1792]. Barbara
Taylor, Wollstonecraft , Mary (17591797), ODNB.
Endearing expressions: Harriot M to Eliza M, 19 Aug 1809,
q58.
#153 Macintyres stubbornness: Harriot M to Eliza M, 12 Apr 1809,
q58. More child than wife: Harriot M to Eliza M, 21 May 1809,
q58. Arguments about where they would live: eg Harriot M to
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
49
Eliza M, 24 Feb 1810 , q70. Macintyre on cold Scotland and
unfriendly England: in Harriot M to WM, 25 Oct 1814, q60.
Common boarding house: Eliza M to WM, 20 Mar 1810,
q210. Miseries of the boarding house: Harriot M to Eliza M, 15,
17, 20, 24 Feb, 12 Mar 1810, q70.
#154 Visiting social inferiors: Harriot M to Eliza M, 22 Feb 1810,
q70.
William mentions a possible separation: WM to Eliza M,
undated fragment [180809], q210. On divorce and separation
see Leah Leneman, Alienated affections: the Scottish experience of divorce
and separation, 16841830, Edinburgh, Edinburgh UP, 1998, esp.
pp.1314. He loves me: Harriot M to Eliza M, 3 Mar 1810, q70.
Eliza on duties of a wife and the role of Providence: to Harriot M,
18 Aug 1808, q58.
FOLLY
Secret code: Eliza M to WM, 29 Dec 1807, q194.
#155 Servants: Household accounts 17911803, q847. Kennedys
appointment: AM to William Dick, 13 Apr 1807, q763. Kennedys
dismissal: Servants wage books for 180708, q42.
#156 Anny replaces Margaret: Eliza M to Margaret Cameron, 1 Jun
1808, q50.
Anny in training: Anny McGillivray to Eliza M, 2? May 1808;
Eliza M to Anny McGillivray, 30 May, 1 Jun; Margaret Cameron
to Eliza M, 30 Jun, 1808, q50.
#157 Anny and Kennedy: Ensign James Cameron to AM, 4 Jul
1808, q50.
Views of Eliza and AM: Eliza M to Margaret Cameron, 20?
Jul 1808; AM to James Cameron, 6 Jul, q50. A mind of her own:
James Cameron to AM, 20 Jul 1808, q50.
#158 Tracking Kennedy down: AM to James Cameron, 12 Jul 1808,
q50. Kennedy agrees to marry: Margaret Cameron to Eliza M, 1
Aug 1808, q50.
Shameful behaviour: Margaret Cameron to Eliza M, 1 Aug
1808, q50. Eliza forgiving: Eliza M to Margaret Cameron, 3 Aug
1808, q50.
More than 20: AM to Ensign James Cameron, 6 Jul, 15 Jul
1808, q50.
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LOOKING AFTER COUNTESS
Consignment for Countess: WM to Allan M jnr, 9 Sep 1809,
q203.
#159 Allans adventures: Allan M jnr to AM, 18 Sep 1807, q903;
AM to Allan M jnr, 17 Jan 1808, q210; Allan M jnr to AM, 16 Mar
1808, q903.
WMs annoyance: to Allan M jnr, 10 Nov 1807, q203. Allan
jnrs remorse: to AM, 3 Jun 1808, q903.
WMs money: WM to Eliza M, 13 Mar 1808, q901. AMs
loan: WM to AM, 8 Aug 1808, q203.
WMs purchases: to AM, 6 Apr, 8 Aug 1808, q203.
#160 Dangers of partnership: WM to AM, 27 Jun 1802, q165.
Dispute: WM to Eliza M, 20 Jul 1809, q203.
Drought: Peter Fairbairn to Lord Seaforth, 22 Feb 1804,
GD46/17/23, f.296, National Archives of Scotland; Alvin O.
Thompson, A documentary history of slavery in Berbice 17961834,
Georgetown, Free Press, 2002, p.32. Winding down business: John
Fraser (London) to AM, 2 Feb 1808, q426. Well see: Seaforth
to Peter Fairbairn, 17 Feb 1806, GD46/17/24, f.359, National
Archives of Scotland. Seaforths joke was perhaps unintentionally
whimsical, as he was deaf and, for a time, dumb, owing to scarlet
fever in childhood: H. M. Chichester, Mackenzie, Francis
Humberston, Baron Seaforth and Mackenzie of Kintail (1754
1815), rev. Jonathan Spain, ODNB.
Misfortune has attended me: WM to AM, 22 Mar 1811,
q903.
Knives and forks: WM to Eliza M, 13 Mar 1808, q901; WMs
account with Dr Dudley Wade, 15 Jan 1813, q901.
#161 30 slaves: WM to parents, 12 Sep 1811, q203. Country life:
WM to Harriot M, 13 Apr 1810, q203.
Perception that high-ranking men were under power of their
mulatto favourites: Sharpe, Ghosts of slavery, p.45. Undue inuence:
James McDougall to James B. Fraser, 20 Jul 1812, bundle 231,
Fraser of Reelig Collection. Ill temper of a coloured woman: Allan
M jnr to AM, 3 Jun 1808, q903.
Unable to read and write: see the end of this chapter. Sharpe,
Ghosts of slavery, ch.2, discusses the ways such relationships were
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negotiated; see p.60: the relationship breaks with the conventions
of slavery and freedom, on the one hand, and marriage and morality
on the other.
#162 Use of the term keeper: Sharpe, p.44. Tropical ladies: Thomas
Staunton St Clair, A soldiers recollections of the West Indies and America,
vol.I, London, Richard Bentley, 1834, p.114.
Preparing for death: WM to Eliza M, 20 Jul 1809, q203.
FREEDOM
Manumission: see B.W. Higman, Slave populations of the British
Caribbean, 18071834, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins UP, 1984, pp.379
86, 692; Winston McGowan, The African slave trade to Guyana,
Guyana Historical Journal, vol 1, 1989, p.10. On manumission in
Demerara and Essequebo, see Da Costa, Crowns of glory, pp.5657,
102; and in Suriname, Rosemary Brana-Shute, Slave manumission
in Suriname, 17601828, Slavery & abolition, vol.10, no.3, 1989,
pp.4063.
#163 Deed of gift, 1 Oct 1810, q202. Cost of manumission:
Proclamation regulating the manumission of slaves, 6 May 1807,
in Thompson, A documentary history of slavery in Berbice, pp.20405;
Henry Bolingbroke, A voyage to the Demerary, containing a statistical
account of the settlements there, and those on the Essequebo, the Berbice, and other
contiguous rivers of Guyana, London, Richard Phillips [1807], p.42.
Bolingbroke gives the value of guilders at 12 to the , though it
varied signicantly over time.
Reasons for manumission: see Brana-Shute, Slave manumission
in Suriname, pp.5359, 63n.33.
#164 Financial woes: WM to parents, 22 Mar 1813, q203; da Costa,
Crowns of glory, pp.2830. Property values: WM to parents, 23 Jul
1812, q203; and 31 Oct 1812, q901.
Circumstances in Blairgowrie: WMs tax return 18111812,
q168. AM desperate: AM to WM and Allan M jnr, 27 Jun 1812,
q210.
Betsy Tapin: WM to parents, 5 Jul 1811, q203.
#165 AM on matrimony: to WM, 18 Oct 1811, q901.
Doctors bill: WMs account with Dr Dudley Wade, 15 Jan
1813, q901. Tapin the miser: WM to parents, 25 Nov 1812,
q901.
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Final settlements: WM to parents, 6 Sep 1812, q165; 8 Jul
1812, q203; 31 Oct 1812, q901.
#166 Berbice is a poison: E.S.Fraser to Lord Seaforth, 30 Nov 1810,
GD46/17/35, f.332, Seaforth Papers, National Archives of
Scotland. Death of E.S.Fraser: William Dalrymple, City of Djinns:
a year in Delhi, London, Flamingo, 1994 (rst published 1993),
pp.13941. Law suits: WM to parents, 31 Oct 1812, q901.
Determination to bring the children home: WM to parents,
31 Oct 1812, q901 (crossed out).
Voyage home: WM to parents, 30 Jan 1813, q901.
Safe return: WM to AM, 28 Apr 1851, q390.
#167 Hucksters: Bolingbroke, Voyage, pp.16, 3031. Single clue:
Berbice slave register, 1817, T71/437, National Archives (UK); I
owe this reference to David Alston, Cromarty.
Good creature: James B.Frasers journal of a voyage to India, 24
Feb 1812, bundle 397, Fraser of Reelig Collection. Durba Ghosh
warns against misrepresenting narratives of romantic intimacy:
National narratives and the politics of miscegenation: Britain and
India, in Antoinette Burton (ed.), Archive Stories: facts, ctions, and the
writing of history, Durham (NC), Duke UP, 2005, esp.p.31.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
53
9 SHAME
#168 Letter from a cramped space: WM to parents, 30 Jan 1813,
q901.
Leave them a little at Glasgow: AM to WM, 21 Mar 1813, with
notes indicating that letter was returned to Blairgowrie, q202.
THE HOMECOMING
#169 Tax demand: WM to T. Whitson, 14 Aug 1813, q111. A
triing sum: Eliza M to William Dick, 8 Dec 1812, q763.
Macintyres claims: Macintyre to AM, 20 Aug 1810, q437.
Macintyre threatens legal action: to AM, 20 Aug, 14 Nov 1810, 1
Feb 1811, q437. Cruellest blow: AM to WM, 5 Mar 1811, q210.
Bond: Harriot M to WM, 31 May 1812, q60. Reconciliation:
Macintyre to Eliza M, 19 Jul 1811, q292; Eliza M to Macintyre,
21 Jul 1911, q292.
#170 Domestic routines: Harriot Macintyre to WM, 31 May 1812,
q60.
WM on the court case: WM to parents, 20 Jun, 26 Jun 1813,
q361. Debt to James M jnr: Sir John Murray Bart to AM, 2 Aug
1813, q56; WM to AM, 21 Aug 1813, q361.
Sale of Mawes (part of estate): AM to Sir John Murray Bart,
4 Jul 1813, q56; AM to WM, 23 Jul, q361; WM to AM, 4 Aug,
q361; WM to Thomas Whitson, 14 Aug, q111; WM to Alexander
Fraser, 17 Aug, enc in WM to AM, 18 Aug, q56. AMs budget:
Memorandum by AM, 12 Aug 1813, q56.
WM presses Macintyre: WM to Alexander Fraser, 17 Aug
1813, enc in WM to AM, 18 Aug, q56; WM to Macintyre, 9 Jan
1814, q60; WM to parents, 1 Jul 1814, q228/1. Agreement with
Macintyre: WM to Thomas Whitson, 14 Mar 1815, q111.
#171 Planning to leave: Alexander Fraser to AM, 7 Apr 1813, q56;
AM to Allan Macpherson of Callander [no obvious relation], 8 May
1813, q904. Harriot on the sudden ight: to WM, 19 Jul 1813,
q60.
#172 Whimsical passion: WM to AM, 16 Aug 1813, q361. WMs
ultimatum: to AM, 21 Aug 1813, q361.
At work on the farm: WM to Harriot Macintyre, 15 May
1814, q60. Wood stealers: WM to T. Whitson, 29 Nov 1813,
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
54
q280. Job-seeking: AM to WM, 67 May 1813, q361; Sir John
Murray Bart to AM, 6 Jul 1813, q56. Dull and solitary: WM
to Harriot, 26 Aug 1814, q60. Meeting young ladies: WM
memoranda, 1814, q109.
'MOONLIGHT SHADES'
Schooling arrangements: WM to Harriot, 8 Jun 1813, q60; Harriot
to WM, 10 Jul 1813, q60. Harriots desire for children: to Eliza M,
25 Dec 1810, q70. Harriots role: Harriot to WM, 10 Jul 1813,
q60. Avoiding a suntan: Harriot to WM, 13 Aug 1814, q60.
Moonlight shades: Eliza M to WM, 16 Jan 1815, q234.
#173 AM careless: AM memorandum of debts payable from my
Martinmas rents, 1815, q73.
Eliza takes control: WM to Harriot, 8 Jun 1814, q60. Out
of respect for his mother, William crossed out appear suspicious
and substituted excite surprise. WMs intentions: to Harriot, 8 Jun
1814, q60.
#174 Allan Williams implies the Simpson children are still in
Blairgowrie, in AW to WM, 28 Aug 1823, q202.
School at Stevenage: Eliza M to Harriot, 5 Jun 1814, q228/1;
WM to Harriot, 5 Jun 1814, q60. Insolent Francis: Harriot to
WM, 3 Jul 1814, q60; AM to WM, 12 Jul 1814, q228/1. Lodgings
at Charing Cross: J. Freeman to AM, 24 Sep 1814, q904.
Are children well? WM to parents, 16 Aug 1814, q228/1.
WMs attachment to children: to Eliza, 1 Jul 1814, q228/1.
The childrens names: Eliza M to WM, 25 Aug 1814, q228/1.
In England illegitimate children were required to take their
mothers surname; however, practice appeared to differ in the
Scottish Highlands: see example of James Ossian Macphersons
children in Alan G.Macpherson, The bastards of Balavil: James
Macphersons mistresses and their children (pt 1), Creag Dhubh,
no.57, 2005, p.44.
#175 Voltaire and the Holy Writ: Eliza M to Harriot, 28 Apr 1814,
q904. Bad inuence of colonies: Eliza M to WM, 16 Jan 1815,
q234.
On the stain of illegitimacy, Jane Austen, Emma, vol. 3, ch.19.
Alternative views of illegitimacy and colour: Gail Reekie, Measuring
immorality: social inquiry and the problem of illegitimacy, Cambridge, CUP,
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
55
1998, ch.4. Not colour: Eliza M to Miss Fisher, 11 Jul 1814; and to
WM, 25 Aug 1814, q221/1. Egyptian bondage: Eliza M to WM,
13 Oct 1818, q112. In deance of holy wedlock: Eliza M to Miss
Fisher, 11 Jul 1814, q221/1. Virtue and shame: Eliza M to WM, 13
Oct 1818, q112.
Dinner parties: WM diary notes, 1814, q109; WM to Eliza,
15 Oct 1814, q228/1; WM to Harriot Macintyre, 14 Dec 1814,
q60. Miss Kinloch: WM to Eliza M, 15 Oct 1814, q228/1.
#176 Fear of rejection: WM to Eliza M, 10 Jan 1815, q234.
Jessy Chalmers: WM to Eliza M, 10 Jan 1815 (draft with many
amendments), q234.
Eliza seizes opportunity: to WM, 16 Jan 1815, q234.
#177 Elizas pure delicacy was akin, perhaps, to what Jane Austen
disparaged as elegant morality: Emma, vol.1, ch.3.
#178 The more I esteem her: WM to parents, 24 Jan 1815, q234.
For a short while Eliza referred to herself as Eliza William.
Marriage negotiations: WM to parents, 24 Jan 1815, q234.
Parents urge caution: AM to WM, 31 Jan 1815, q234; Eliza M
to WM, 2 Feb 1815, q234.
#179 WMs frustrations: WM to parents, 12 Feb 1815, q234. Lord
Seaforth, mentioned in chs 7 and 8, was a Mackenzie.
#180 Threat to return to West Indies: WM to AM, 5 Feb 1815,
q234.
Marriage contract, 1815, copied by Allan Williams, 2 Apr
1829, q457.
Arguments re Blairgowrie House: WM to AM, 21 May
1815, q234; Eliza M to Harriot Macintyre, Sep 1815, q65; AM
memorandum, 3 Jul 1815, q73.
Bonapartes carriage: Eliza M to Harriot, 26 Feb 1816,
q65. Hoping to occupy Newton: AM memorandum, 3 Jul 1815,
q73. Fate and folly: Eliza M to Harriot, Sep 1815, q65; AM to
Harriot, 25 Apr 1816, q73.
#181 Black Watch: David Stewart of Garth to AM, 4 Mar 1816, and
AM to Stewart, 25 Apr, q202. Hannay affair: AM memorandum,
20 May 1816, q73. Worries about young Allan: AM to Harriot, 3
Aug 1815, q65; AM to Allan M jnr, nd [Spring 1816], q73. Still
seeking a job for WM: AM to Lord Keith, May 1816, q73.
Death of AM: WM to Macintyre, 31 May 1816, q113.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
56
A USEFUL EDUCATION
Jane Austen on boarding school: Emma, vol.1, ch.3; see also Education,
Womens Education, and Accomplishments, at The Republic of
Pemberley web site, http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/pptopic2.
html [accessed 4 May 2005]. Miss Fishers school: A. Fisher to Eliza
M, 8 Jul 1814, enc. in Eliza M to WM, Jul 1814, q228/1; Harriot
Macintyre to WM, 20 Oct 1815, q60.
#182 Unfortunate accident: Eliza M to A. Fisher, 11 Jul 1814, enc.
in Eliza M to WM, Jul 1814, q228/1. Letters from the children at
q112.
Misunderstanding mother: Harriot to WM, 3 Jul 1814, q60.
Elizas instructions: to A. Fisher, 28 Aug 1817, enc in Eliza M to
WM, 28 Aug 1817, q112. Teaching French: Eliza M to WM, 23
Jul 1818, q112.
Some people: Eliza M to WM, 25 Dec 1817, q112.
#183 Every necessary advantage: Eliza M to A. Fisher, 28 Aug 1817,
enc in Eliza M to WM, 28 Aug 1817, q112. Cows grass: Eliza M
to WM, 1 Jan 1818, q112.
Industrious & t: Eliza M to WM, 13 Oct 1818, q112.
Financial problems: Eliza M to WM, 29 Oct 1817, q112. Needle
work: Eliza Williams to Eliza M, 15 Oct 1818, q112.
#184 Improving references: Eliza M to WM, 9 Aug 1819, q112.
Exchange with Macintyre: Eliza M to WM, 13 Oct 1818,
q112.
#185 Setting Eliza Williams straight: Eliza M to WM, 9 Aug 1819,
q112.
AWs arrival: Thomas Whitson to WM, 1 Nov 1816, q451.
#186 Allan Williams at Dupplin school, near Perth: AW to WM, 28
Aug 1823, 28 Aug 1824, q202.
Birth of Allan jnr: WM to AM jnr, 20 Oct 1855, q391.
PATRONAGE
#187 Poor suffered most: Circular letter from Committee of
Manufacturers and Operative Weavers, 24 Sep 1816, q113. WM
struggling: State of arrears on Blairgowrie estate, 2 Feb 1818, q355.
Need for salary: WM [to ?], Oct 1823, q117. Factor on Atholl
estates: Macintyre to WM, 9 Jun 1816, q60. Barrack Master at
Perth: WM to Duchess of Atholl, 13 Dec 1821, q108.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
57
Atholls promises and WMs allegiances: WM to Sir Peter
Murray Bart, Feb 1818, q108 and q109.
#188 Berbice: James Drummond MP to WM, 22 Mar 1817, q109.
Australian prospects: WM to his brother-in-law Colonel Chalmers,
30 Nov 1824, q259. Sir George Murrays support: WM to Murray,
23 Jun 1828, CO323/132, ff.1617.
Donald Macintyre: Alistair K.Macintyre and Alan
G.Macpherson, Lieut-Gen John Macintyre, the laird of Balavil
that never was, Creag Dhubh, no.59, 2007 (supplemented by
correspondence with the authors, 200809). Partnership with
McLachlan Macintyre: Memorial of [certain] commissioners
[trustees] nominated by WM, With accompanying Opinion,
Oct 1829, q451; WM to Sir George Murray, 23 Jun 1828,
CO323/132, ff.1617. Alistair Macintyre has found additional
evidence of a close relationship between WM and Donald
Macintyre: personal communications, 2009. Harriot Macintyres
estimate of cost of living in London, Dec 1825, q451.
Withdrawal of application: WM to Sir George Murray, 23 Jun
1828, CO323/132, ff.1617. Advertisement for Blairgowrie lease,
2 Aug 1825, q80 and q452.
#189 The Macintyres high life: Eliza M to WM, 26 Jan and 26 Apr
1818, q112. Isabella: some years earlier Harriot had adopted the
daughter of the housekeeper at Blairgowrie, Peggy Cameron, who
had died when still young; but this child too had died in infancy,
and Isabella now stood in her place. Childrens parties: Harriot
to WM, 26 Jan 1818, q60; Boarding school: Blemell House
School: Plate 11, Survey of London: volume 41: Brompton (1983), pp.11
[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50043,
accessed 29 May 2008].
Methodistical notions: Eliza M to WM, 11 Nov 1817, q112.
Childhood illnesses: Harriot to WM, 26 Jan 1818, q60; Eliza M to
WM, 4 Apr 1818, q112. Matilda the brighter: Eliza M to WM, 26
May 1818, 9 Aug 1821, q112. Eliza Williams at Norwood school:
Eliza M to WM, 18 Mar and 26 Apr 1821, q112; Eliza Williams to
Eliza M, 24 Jul 1821, q112; Eliza M to WM, 9 Aug 1821, q112;
Eliza M to Miss Brookes (Norwood school), 11 Sep 1821, enc. in
Eliza M to WM, 12 Sep 1821, q112. Likelihood of Eliza Williams
living with Eliza M: Eliza M to WM, 9 Aug 1821, q112.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
58
#190 On childrens progress: Eliza M to Miss Brookes, 11 Sep 1821,
enc. in Eliza M to WM, 12 Sep 1821, q112.
Allan Macpherson jnr in Berbice: Harriot Macintyre to WM,
7 May 1818, q60; Allan Macpherson jnr to Harriot, 5 Jun 1820,
q911; Allan Macpherson jnr to WM, 31 Aug 1820, q911.
#191 Radicalism: Eliza M to WM, 18 Mar 1821, q112; Allan jnr
contributed to the Aurora Borealis, a new weekly journal strongly
critical of the Tory government. Allan Macpherson jnr in Sedghill,
Wiltshire: WM to Col Chalmers, 30 Nov 1824, q259. Allan
Macpherson jnr in the East Indies: Allan M jnr to brother WM, 3
Nov 1828, q911.
McLachlan Macintyre and approach to Murray: WM to Sir
George Murray, 23 Jun 1828, CO323/132, ff.1617.
Murray served for many years as Quartermaster General, so
his considerable successes to the battleeld were often achieved
at military headquarters. S.G.P. Ward, Murray, Sir George
(17721846), ODNB. Murray overwhelmed with applications: see
CO323/132. On patronage generally: Harold Perkin, The origins of
modern English society 17801880, London, Routledge, 1969, pp.3856;
in relation to the colonies: Zo Laidlaw, Colonial connections 181545:
patronage, the information revolution and colonial government, Manchester,
Manchester UP, 2005, esp. pp.10210: note Permanent Under-
Secretary of State R.W. Hays comment on disputatious colonial
ofcials, p.43.
#192 Superintendent at Swan River: WMs grandson, William
Charles Macpherson, commented in 1929, the centenary of the
foundation of Western Australia, that I have heard my father say
that his father declined the ofce of Governor of West Australia
(note by WCM on article in Perthshire Advertiser, 10 Aug 1929,
q450); The Macphersons of Blairgowrie, copy A. Relevant dates
(detailed in Pamela Statham-Drew, James Stirling: Admiral and founding
governor of Western Australia, Crawley, University of Western Australia
Press, 2003, pp.10018) suggest that WM might indeed have been
offered the appointment ahead of his fellow Scot, James Stirling.
Announcement: Sir George Murray to Governor Ralph Darling,
12 Dec 1828, HRA, vol. XIV, p. 516.
Arrangements for departure: WM to Col Chalmers, 3 Mar
1829, q451; Memorial of [certain] commissioners [trustees]
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
59
nominated by WM, With accompanying Opinion, Oct 1829,
q451. Problem with sureties: R.W.Hay to WM, 31 Jan 1829,
CO202/23; such problems were not unusual: see Laidlaw, Colonial
connections, pp.1819.
Fickle fortune: Eliza M to WM, Apr 1829, q80.
#193 Payments to Eliza Williams: WM to Alexander Whitson, 28
May 1832, q215. Accounts relating to illness and death of Miss
Eliza Williams, Dec 1836Jan 1837, q202.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
60
10 COLONISTS
#194 Aboard the Elizabeth: AM to his grandmother, Eliza M, 13
Oct 1829, q280. Young Allans reading included [Margaret King
Moore,] Stories of Old Daniel, rst published in 1810, and Isaac
Taylor, Scenes of British wealth, in produce, manufactures, and commerce,
for the amusement and instruction of little tarry-at-home travellers, London,
Harris and Son, 1823, quotation from p.301.
SYDNEY
#195 European images of Aborigines: Alan Atkinson and Marian
Aveling (eds), Australians 1838, Sydney, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon,
1987, pp.6467.
WM was on half salary from his date of arrival, 12 Oct, and
full salary from 1 Nov: A.Macleay, Colonial Secretary, to WM, 27
Aug 1830, CO201/224, ff.4950.
#196 Outline of revenue arrangements: Arthur McMartin, Public
servants and patronage: the foundation and rise of the New South Wales Public
Service, 17861859, Sydney, Sydney UP, 1983, pp.18590. Collector
of Internal Revenue: Darling to W.Huskisson, Secretary of State,
15 Mar 1828, HRA, I, 14, pp.2526; Brian H. Fletcher, Ralph
Darling: a governor maligned, Melbourne, OUP, 1984, p.96. Enormous
arrears: WM to Macleay, 14 Apr, 18 Jun 1830, CO201/224, ff.37
41. The landholders at least had some excuse, as in many instances
no-one had told them how much they owed. Solicitor-General,
inc. Darlings estimate: R. J. Mckay, Moore, William Henry
(17881854), ADB. WMs estimate: to A.Macleay, 14 Apr 1830,
CO201/224, f.41.
Extra clerks: WM to Macleay, 14 Apr 1830, CO201/224; WM
to Sir G. Murray, 21 Feb 1831, CO201/224, f.51; NSW Blue Book,
1830, CO206/71, p.86.
#197 WMs workload: WM to Sir George Murray, 21 Feb 1831,
CO201/224, f.52; the Collector of Internal Revenue was not
responsible for customs duties. Learning about NSW: WM to
Sir George Murray, 19 Feb 1831, CO201/224, esp. f.20, and
enclosures.
Need for more clerks: WM to A.Macleay, 18 Aug 1830,
CO201/224, f.42; A. Macleay to WM, 10 Sep 1830, CO201/224,
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
61
f. 43. Approach to Murray and response: WM to Sir George
Murray, 19 Feb 1831, CO201/224, ff.2027; Viscount Howick,
Undersecretary of State, to Governor Sir R.Bourke, 24 Aug 1831,
HRA, I, 16, pp. 33334.
#198 Retention of Collectors ofce: Viscount Goderich to Bourke,
29 Sep 1831, HRA, I, 16, p. 391. Even after Goderichs reassurance,
WM remained anxious: WM to Goderich, 7 Nov 1832, CO201/229,
ff.14649. Indispensable: Bourke to Stanley, 17 Sep 1834, HRA, I,
17, p.537.
Financial troubles: WM to Alexander Whitson, 28 May 1832,
q215.
St Andrews Day Ball: Sydney Morning Herald, 5 Dec 1836.
#199 E.Deas Thomsons praise: to his father, Sir John Deas
Thomson, 26 Sep 1832; also 29 Sep 1834, ML MSS 7270,
SLNSW. Honorary appointments: WM to Alexander Whitson,
17 Nov 1832, q215. Husbands and wives: Australians 1838, pp.
10102. WM as Emigrants Friend: evidence to Committee on
Immigration, Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Council of
NSW, 22 May 1835, pp.28895, esp. p.290; WM to Goderich,
23 Nov 1832, CO201/229, ff.16770; Bourke to E.G.Stanley,
21 Jan 1834, enc. WM to Sydney Gazette, 11 Dec 1833, HRA, I,
17, pp.34346. On government assisted immigration see Eric
Richards, How did poor people emigrate from the British Isles
to Australia in the nineteenth century, Journal of British Studies,
32/3, Jul 1993, pp.25079; Janet Doust, An imitation of England?
English migrants to eastern Australia, 18151860, unpub. MSS,
ch.4 (courtesy Janet Doust).
Anxiety about Reform Bill: WM to Alexander Whitson, 17
Nov 1832, q215. Bourkes initial support for WM: Richard Bourke
jnr to James Stephen, 23 Jun 1835, Bourke Papers, ML MSS 403/13,
SLNSW; see also S.G. Foster, A piece of sharp practice? Governor
Bourke and the ofce of Colonial Secretary in New South Wales,
Historical Studies, vol. 16, no. 64, Apr 1975; and McMartin, Public
servants and patronage, p.169. Bourke promotes WM: Bourke to
Glenelg, 4 Dec 1837, HRA, I, 19, p. 195. As the Colonial Secretarys
salary was 1500, Thomson did far better out of the transactions
than WM. WM outlines his nances: to William Panton, 1 Dec
1838, q215.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
62
#200 Jessy M: obituary in SMH, 12 Jun 1847.
Lightning strike (19 Sep 1835): AM to Harriot Craigie, 4 May
1836, q311.
Allan Williams employment recorded in Blue Books for NSW,
CO206/7178.
#201 Sophia Charlotte Williams death certicate describes her
father as Captain Crowther of the 39
th
Regiment. Although the
regiment was stationed in NSW from the mid-1820s until 1832,
the name Crowther does not appear in the Quarterly Musters
(WO12/526366) or Richard Cannons Historical record of the
Thirty-Ninth, or, the Dorsetshire Regiment of Foot, London, Eyre and
Spottiswoode, 1853.
Bourkes quarrels with his ofcials: Hazel King, Richard Bourke,
Melbourne, OUP, 1971, esp. ch.17; Foster, A piece of sharp
practice?, pp.7280.
Administrative changes: Bourke to Lord Glenelg, 15 Nov
1837, and encs, HRA, I, 19, pp. 16573. On Riddell: John Metcalfe,
Riddell, Campbell Drummond (17961858), ADB; Zo Laidlaw,
Colonial connections 181545: patronage, the information revolution and
colonial government, Manchester, Manchester UP, 2005, esp. pp.18
19,11314. Bourkes opinion of Riddell is reected in letter from
his daughter, Anne Maria Deas Thomson, 18 Mar 1838, Bourke
Papers, MSS 403/7, Mitchell Library, SLNSW.
AW denied promotion based on Bourke to Glenelg, 15 Nov
1837, and encs, HRA, I, 19, pp.16573. Riddells sly dig: Riddell to
Colonial Secretary E.Deas Thomson, 27 Sep 1837, enc. in Bourkes
despatch, p.171. Bourke too made use of connections at the
Colonial Ofce: see Foster, A piece of sharp practice?, pp.41724;
and Laidlaw, Colonial connections, pp.7280.
#202 Gipps background and character: S.G. Foster, Colonial
improver: Edward Deas Thomson 18001879, Melbourne, MUP,
1978, esp. pp.5063; West Indian career: John Gipps, Every inch
a governor. Sir George Gipps: governor of New South Wales 18381846,
Port Melbourne, Hobsons Bay Publishing, 1996, pp.1720.
Gipps initially served in both colonies until his position
was divided in two, when he was given the senior posting as
Commander in Berbice.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
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#204 Port Phillip proposal: Gipps to La Trobe, 23 Dec 1839, in
A.G.L.Shaw (ed.), Gipps-La Trobe correspondence 18391846, Carlton,
MUP, 1989, p.8.
A COLONIAL EDUCATION
Colonial schooling: Australians 1838, pp. 41820. Capes school:
Biographical notes on William Cape and his family made by
A.J.Cape from family records, Papers of William Timothy Cape,
ML DOC 833, Mitchell Library, SLNSW; Notes by James Sheen
Dowling, 18191902, written about 189095, in Dowling Family
Papers, A3947, Mitchell Library; V.W.E.Goodin, Cape, William
Timothy (18061863), ADB; and Australians 1838, pp. 41820. Cape
opened his school in mid-1829. The Sydney College, inaugurated in
1830, began operations in 1835, with Cape as its rst headmaster.
School rules: Based on rules approved for the Sydney College
in 1838: James Maclehose, Picture of Sydney and strangers guide in
New South Wales for 1839, Sydney, J.Maclehose, 1839, pp.10809;
Comparable regulations no doubt applied in earlier years.
#205 Hangings: Australian, 23 Oct 1829; Tim Castle, Constructing
death: newspaper reports of executions in colonial New South
Wales, 18261837, Journal of Australian colonial history, vol. 9, 2007,
pp.5152. Violence towards Aborigines: Australian, 14 Oct 1829.
#206 Curriculum: Maclehose, Picture of Sydney, p.107. WMs
improvements: AM to aunt Harriot Craigie (formerly Macintyre),
11 May 1835, q311.
Amusements: AM to Harriot Craigie, 11 May 1835, q311.
#207 Sailing: AM to Harriot Craigie, 20 Aug 1838, q311. Forster:
Bede Nairn, Forster, William (18181882), ADB; Forster to AM,
6 Jul 1835, q214; Notes by James Sheen Dowling, 18191902,
written about 189095, in Dowling Family Papers, A3947,
Mitchell Library, SLNSW; David Clune, Forster, William, in
Clune and Ken Turner (eds), The premiers of New South Wales: Volume
1-1856-1901, Sydney, Federation Press, 2006. Brush Farm is still
standing in the suburb of Eastwood: see http://www.ryde.nsw.
gov.au/ryde/history/bhouse.htm [accessed 23 Oct 2007].
Hopes of becoming an East India Company writer: AM to
Harriot Craigie, 11 May 1835, 4 May 1836, q311. Submitting to
the law: AM to Harriot Craigie, 4 May 1836, q311.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
64
Frustrations and martyrdom: AM to Harriot Craigie, 12 Feb,
20 Aug 1838, q311.
#208 Colonial obsession: G.J. Abbott, The pastoral age: a re-examination,
South Melbourne, Macmillan, 1971, pp.6270. Wool ambitions:
AM to Harriot Craigie, 4 May 1836, q311. Darwin and wool
statistics: A.W. Martin, Henry Parkes: a biography, Melbourne, MUP,
1980, pp.2627.
The 10 ticket of occupation was introduced in 1836; but as
the system was almost impossible to administer beyond the settled
districts, most squatters managed to avoid paying it. Arguments
against sheep and cattle farming: WM to AM, 27 Jun 1839,
q398.
Trip to Goulburn: AM to Harriot Craigie, 20 Aug 1838,
q311.
#209 Edinglassie: WM to AM, 17 Jun 1839, q398. James Whites
most famous descendent is the novelist Patrick White.
WMs stern lecture: to AM, 1 Apr 1839, q398.
Excessive postage: WM to AM, 30 Apr 1839, q398. Deaf ears:
WM to AM, 30 Apr 1839, q398.
#210 WM prefers northern districts: WM to AM, 27 Jun 1839, q398.
WM risks all: WM to AM, 20 Mar 1840, q399. Negotiations with
Archibald McCalman re the Big River: WM to AM, 10 Jul 1839,
q398.
Allan Williams refusal to budge: WM to AW, 17 Mar 1840,
quoted in WM to AM, 20 Mar 1840, q399.
WMs anxieties: based on WM to AM, 11 Feb 1840, q399,
and other letters.
#211 Avoid conict with the blacks: WM to AM, 12 Sep 1839,
q398. WMs advice to avoid excessive familiarity probably owed
something to his friend Major Mitchell: see D.W.A.Baker, The
civilised surveyor: Thomas Mitchell and Australian Aborigines, Melbourne,
MUP, 1997, p.100.
HEROES
1836 ball: AM to Harriot Craigie, 12 Feb 1838, q311.
Forster on the 1839 ball: to AM, 5 Jun [1839], q214.
#212 Forsters persuasion: to AM, 27 Nov [1839], q214.
Brush Farm: City of Ryde web site http://www.ryde.nsw.gov.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
65
au/ryde/history/bhouse.htm [accessed 23 Oct 2007].
AM offends: WM to AM, 20 Mar 1840, q399. AM resists: AM
to WM, 11 Apr 1840, q399.
#213 Compromise: WM to AM, 14 Apr 1840, q399.
Bushrangers: AM to WM, 14 May 1840, q399.
#214 Liverpool Plains squatting runs included extensive holdings
by the Australian Agricultural Co. Altercation with AW: WM to
AW, 14 Mar 1840, q399; WM to Harriot Craigie, 3 Mar 1843,
q402.
#215 Encounter on the road: Beverley Kingston, Hodgson,
Christopher Pemberton (18211865), ADB. C. G. Austin, Clem
Lack, Russell, Henry Stuart (18181889), ADB. Henry Stuart
Russell, The genesis of Queensland, Sydney, Turner & Henderson,
1887, pp.19293. Russell tells a story of AM being stopped by
bushrangers after their encounter on the Liverpool Plains; he was
probably confusing it with the earlier robbery outside Maitland.
Beginnings of Tamworth: Roger Millis, City on the Peel: a history
of Tamworth and district 18181976, Terrey Hills, Reed, 1980, pp.42
57. Travellers to the Clarence: Louise Tiffany Daley, Men and a river:
a history of the Richmond River district 18281895, Melbourne, MUP,
1966, p.22.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
66
11 SQUATTING
#216 Description of Keera based on AMs Sketch Map, c1850,
Macpherson Collection; A Lady [Emma Macpherson], My
experiences in Australia. Being recollections of a visit to the Australian colonies
in 18567, London, J.F.Hope, 1860, pp.15863; Henry G. Lamond,
From Tariaro to Ross Roy: Wm. Ross Munro 20-2-50 20-2-43, Brisbane,
printed by Jackson & OSullivan [1943], p.23; information from
Jillian Oppenheimer; and personal observation.
AM as surveyor: AM (Keera) to Aunt Harriot Craigie, 27 Jun
1848, q311.
#218 Shrimps: William Ridley, Kmilari and other Australian
languages, Sydney, printed by Thomas Richards, 1875, p.21.
Perhaps AM noted that Keera, when pronounced with a Scottish
lilt, resembled the Gaelic female name Ciara. While it is not
absolutely certain that AM named Keera, the evidence is strong,
especially the introduction of the name in his letters. See also
Roger Millis, Waterloo Creek: the Australia Day massacre of 1838,
George Gipps and the British conquest of New South Wales, Sydney,
University of New South Wales Press, 1994 (rst published
1992), p.787n.85; and Elizabeth Wiedemann, World of its own:
Inverells early years 18271920, Inverell (NSW), Devill Publicity,
1981, p. 27.
KEERA
Transport of goods: List of Articles sent [by WM] to Mr. Miller at
Morpeth to be forwarded by your dray, 21 Sep 1842, q401.
Value of sheep: WM to William Panton, 17 Sep 1842,
q215; Stephen H.Roberts, The squatting age in Australia 18351847,
Melbourne, MUP, 1970 (rst published 1935), pp.19293.
#219 Second rate wool: WM to AM, 15 Feb 1843, q402.
Piano overboard: AW to AM, 31 Oct 1843, q451. Magistrate:
WM to Harriot Craigie, 3 Mar 1843, q402. Magisterial vaccination:
Roger Therrys evidence to Select Committee on the State of the
Magistracy, 1 Jun 1858, NSW Legislative Assembly, Votes and
proceedings, 1858.
Painful to complain: WM to AM, 15 Mar 1843, q402. Pressing
creditors: WM to AM, 28 Mar 1841, q400. Borrowing from estate
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
67
manager, William Panton: WM to brother Allan M, 25 Apr 1850,
q390.
#220 Sheriff Macquoid: WM to AM, 13 Oct 1841, q400.
Bowmans comment and response: based on WM to AM, 4
Nov 1843, q402; and WM to AM [Nov 1843?], q399; Nancy
Gray, Bowman, James (17841846) ADB.
#221 Tallow: AM to Colonel Craigie, Nov 1844, q311; AM to
Harriot Craigie, 12 May 1845, q311; Roberts, The squatting age,
pp.20405; G.J.Abbott, The pastoral age: a re-examination, South
Melbourne, Macmillan, 1971, pp.8184. Gelatine: AM to Colonel
Craigie, Nov 1844, q311; AM to Harriot Craigie, 12 May 1845,
q311; WM to AM, 16 Jul 1845, q282.
Extremely imprudent: WM to AM, 31 Dec 1845, q282.
All Allan wanted: WM to AM, 14 May 1845, q282.
SOLITUDE
AMs diary: WM to Harriot Craigie, 3 Mar 1843, q402.
#222 Bad for eyes: WM to AM, 3 Feb 1847, q282. Writing letters
in Council: WM to AM, 2 Jan 1844, q403.
Frosty relations: AW to AM, 6 May [1843?], q451.
Henry Lawsons comment is in his short story, The bush
undertaker, 1892. Cranky Macpherson: recollections of George
Smith of Mount Beagle, part 1, nd, in Spencer Material, Roma
Town Council. I thank Peter Keegan, Roma, for introducing me to
this collection.
#223 Intimates: William Forster to AM, 29 May 1845, q214.
Purgatory: Forster to James Dowling, 22 Nov 1841, James Sheen
Dowling Correspondence 18311839, ML A486
-1
, SLNSW. At the
time of this comment, Forster was living in a slab hut.
Reading matter: Forster to AM, 10 Aug [1844], q214; AM to
Harriot Craigie, 12 May 1845, q311.
#224 Greatest danger: Forster to AM, 29 May 1845, q214. On
greed see also Forster (Molonglo Plains) to James Dowling, 28
Sep 1839, James Sheen Dowling Correspondence 18311839,
ML A486
-1
, SLNSW; also quoted in part in Michael Roe, Quest
for authority in Eastern Australia 18351851, Melbourne, MUP, 1965,
p.75. Numbers of women: 1846 Census gives a total of 356 women
in the Clarence Pastoral District. Love-scrapes: Forster to AM, 29
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
68
May 1845, q214; also Forster to James Dowling, 22 Nov 1841,
James Sheen Dowling Correspondence: There are some ladies
here however of a more correct style with whom I am tolerably
intimate according to my usual habits.
Fanny Wentworth: WM to AM, 9 Jul 1845, q282; Carol
Liston, Sarah Wentworth; Mistress of Vaucluse, Glebe, Historic Houses
Trust, 1988, pp.2123, 4647.
#225 Bush prison: Forster to AM, 29 May 1845, q214.
On masculinity and colonial self-government see Angela
Woollacott, Frontier violence and settler manhood, History
Australia, vol.6, no.1, Apr 2009.
REBELLION
#226 Incessant rain: Forster to AM, 27 Mar 1848, q214.
For an account of relevant literature on frontier conict
see Bain Attwood and S.G. Foster, Frontier conict: the Australian
experience, Canberra, National Museum of Australia, 2003, esp.
Introduction. On frustration among New England squatters:
David Roberts, The frontier, in Alan Atkinson, J.S.Ryan, Iain
Davidson and Andrew Piper (eds), High lean country: land, people
and memory in New England, Crows Nest, Allen & Unwin, 2006,
pp.10809.
AMs expedition and WMs anxiety: WM to AM, 10 May
1843, q402.
Workers: AM to Harriot Craigie, 27 Jun 1848, q311.
#227 Impudence for any thing: AW to AM, 6 Nov 1840, q451.
WMs dismay: to AM, 31 Dec 1845, q282.
Gipps on Crown lands: to Lord Stanley, 18 Apr 1843, HRA, I,
23, pp.66667.
#228 Wentworths holdings: Buckley, Gipps and the graziers of
New South Wales, 18411846, pt 2 (rst published 1956), in
J.J.Eastwood and F.B.Smith (comp.), Historical studies: selected articles,
Melbourne, MUP, 1964, p.92. Gipps fears: John Manning Ward,
James Macarthur: colonial conservative, 17981867, Sydney, Sydney
UP, 1981, p.142. Gipps regulations: Roberts, The squatting age, pp.
23644; K. Buckley, Gipps and the graziers, pt 2, esp. pp.8283;
Peter Cochrane, Colonial ambition: foundations of Australian democracy,
Melbourne, MUP, 2006, pp.7475.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
69
#229 Wentworth at the Royal Hotel: Cochrane, Colonial ambition,
pp.8081.
Victory or death! Forster to AM, 29 May 1845, q214.
AMs submission: NSW Legislative Council, Report from the Select
Committee on Crown Land Grievances, 1844, Replies to circular letters,
pp.2125.
#230 WMs meeting with Dr Forster: WM to AM, 16 Apr 1846,
q282. Thomas Forster was co-proprietor, from early 1844, of the
Australian, a moderate Tory newspaper: R.B. Walker, The newspaper
press in New South Wales, 18031920, Sydney, Sydney UP, 1976, pp.
3435.
#231 The Atlas insisted that others besides Lowe contributed to its
pages: Ruth Knight, Illiberal liberal: Robert Lowe in New South Wales,
18421850, Melbourne, MUP, 1966, p.110; this is conrmed
A.Patchett Martin, Life and letters of the Right Honourable Robert Lowe
Viscount Sherbrooke, London, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1893,
vol. I, pp.25468; see also G.B.Barton (ed.), The poets and prose
writers of New South Wales, Sydney, Gibbs, Shallard, & Co., 1866,
pp.4963; and Vincent OSullivan (ed.), The unsparing scourge:
Australian satirical texts 18451860, Nedlands (WA), University
of Western Australia, 1988, pp.5760. Apart from subscribing
to the tradition of journalistic anonymity, Forster was averse to
self-promotion.
Devil and the governor: Atlas, 17 May 1845.
Civil disgust: Atlas, 25 Jan 1845. On rebellion: K.S. Inglis, The
Australian colonists: an exploration of social history, 17881870, Melbourne,
MUP, 1974, pp.18889.
#232 Mitchells expedition: William C. Foster, Sir Thomas Livingston
Mitchell and his world 17921855: Surveyor-General of New South Wales
18281855, Sydney, Institution of Surveyors, 1985, esp.ch.14. As
Foster explains, FitzRoy Downs was probably named after Henry
FitzRoy, later 5
th
Duke of Grafton, rather than Sir Charles FitzRoy,
who succeeded Gipps as Governor of NSW. Quotations from
T.L.Mitchell, Journal of an expedition into the interior of tropical Australia, in
search of a route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria, London, Longman,
1848, pp.312,322,152. On champaign, see ch.12 below. Note that
the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt endorsed Mitchells enthusiastic
reports: see his letter written from Mount Abundance in Henry
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70
Stuart Russell, The genesis of Queensland, Sydney, Turner & Henderson,
1887, pp.37374.
#233 Forsters warning: to AM, 10 May 1847, q214. News of
Mitchells discoveries: the explorers Journal for Dec 1846, ML
C64, SLNSW, suggests his route south via Tamworth. Itinerant
stockmen probably carried the news quickly around the Liverpool
Plains.
Lead cofn: AM to Harriot Craigie, 29 Jun 1856, q393. Jessy
Ms obituary: Sydney Morning Herald, 12 Jun 1847.
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71
12 WAR WITH THE BLACKS
#234 Descriptions of the expedition to Mount Abundance are based
chiey on Allan Macpherson, Mount Abundance: or, the experiences of
a pioneer squatter in Australian thirty years ago, London, Fleet Street
Printing Works, nd [1880]; and AM to Harriot Craigie, 27 Jun
1848, q311.
A glorious prospect! Mount Abundance, pp.1213. Peter Keegan
of Roma alerted me to the misspelling of champaign.
SAVAGES
#235 Invasion: T.L.Mitchell, Three expeditions into the interior of eastern
Australia; with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia
Felix, and of the present colony of New South Wales, vol. I, London, T.&
W.Boone, 1839, pp.30607; see also D.W.A. Baker, The civilised
surveyor: Thomas Mitchell and Australian Aborigines, Melbourne, MUP,
1997, p.101.
#236 Mitchells warnings: Three expeditions, vol.I, p.341; Baker, The
civilised surveyor, p.105. Conict on the Murray: Three expeditions, vol.
II, pp.10104 ; Baker, The civilised surveyor, pp.12224.
Treacherous reputation: WM to AM, 17 Jan 1849, q282;
Mount Abundance, p.10; the later book was his Journal of an expedition
into the interior of tropical Australia, in search of a route from Sydney to the
Gulf of Carpentaria, London, Longman, 1848.
#238 Stories of AMs temper: recollections of George Smith of
Mount Beagle, part 1, nd, in Spencer Material, Roma Town
Council; see also ch.11 above.
#239 Black Charley and the charges of cowardice: Mount Abundance,
pp.2527.
WMs advice: WM to AM, 10 May 1843, q402.
#240 Criminal proceedings: WM to AM, 17 Jan 1849, q282.
Myall Creek and its aftermath: R.H.W.Reece, Aborigines and
colonists: Aborigines and colonial society in New South Wales in the 1830s
and 1840s, Sydney, Sydney UP, 1974, chs 4 and 5, and many later
publications. Gipps reaction: Alan Atkinson and Marion Aveling
(eds), Australians 1838, Sydney, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon, 1987,
pp.36567.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
72
#241 Equal justice: proclamation on Aborigines, NSW Government
Gazette, 21 May 1839.
Squatters view: Memorial of P.P.King and 81 others, 8 Jun
1838, 4/1013, State Records of NSW. Gipps response to the
memorialists: E.Deas Thomson to P.P.King, 23 Jun 1838, 4/1013,
State Records of NSW (reproduced with associated documents
in S.G.Foster, Aboriginal rights and ofcial morality, Push from
the bush, no. 11, Nov 1981, pp.6898.) The difculty of pursuing
white offenders was also impeded by the inadmissibility of
Aboriginal evidence: see, inter al., Jane Lydon, no moral doubt
: Aboriginal evidence and the Kangaroo Creek poisoning,
18471849, Aboriginal history, vol.20, 1996, pp.15861. On
Commissioners of Crown Lands (as well as conict in northern
NSW) see Heather Goodall, Authority under challenge:
Pikampul land and Queen Victorias law during the British
invasion of Australia, in Martin Daunton and Rick Halpern (eds),
Empire and Others: British encounters with indigenous peoples, 16001850,
Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. For conict
in the Moreton Bay District see Raymond Evans, A history of
Queensland, Port Melbourne, Cambridge UP, 2007, ch.3.
Wretched protgs: Forster to AM, 15 Mar 1851, q214.
No important result: Forster to AM, 27 Mar 1848, q214. The
powerlessness of the law: Mount Abundance, p.27.
#242 Do not neglect duty to God: WM to AM, 11 Feb 1840,
q399.
AM reads from the scriptures: WM to Harriot Craigie, 3 Mar
1843, q402. WM disappointed: to AM, 16 Apr 1846, q282.
'SUNDRY CONFLICTS'
#244 Armed to the teeth was a familiar expression on the frontier: see
Raymond Evans, Plenty shoot em: the destruction of Aboriginal
societies along the Queensland frontier, in A.Dirk Moses (ed.),
Genocide and settler society: frontier violence and stolen Indigenous children in
Australian history, New York, Berghahn Books, 2004, pp.15455.
Decision to leave: Mount Abundance, pp.3952; and AM
to Commissioner Durbin, 20 May 1849, Colonial Secretary,
NRS 905, Letters received, Letter No.49/6879 with Letter
No.52/1908, 4/3072, State Records of NSW.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
73
#245 Shoot every thing: William Telfer Jr, The Wallabadah Manuscript:
recollections of the early days, ed. and intro. Roger Millis, Kensington
(NSW), University of NSW Press, p.43; Millis says (p.23) Telfers
yarns have to be approached with caution.
Story so far fetched: A Lady [Emma Macpherson], My
experiences in Australia. Being recollections of a visit to the Australian colonies
in 18567, London, J.F.Hope, 1860, p.127. Durbin stimulates
publication: J.H. Scott [Durbin] to AM, 5 May 1879; and AM [to
Durbin] (draft), 7 May 1879, q800. Redspinner [William Senior],
Gentlemans Magazine, vol.CCXLIV, Jan-Jun 1879, pp.55874.
#246 Biblical story: see Ann Curthoys, Constructing national
histories, in Bain Attwood and S.G. Foster, Frontier conict: the
Australian experience, Canberra, National Museum of Australia, 2003,
pp.18889.
Unpalatable detail: see eg Godfrey Charles Mundys comments
on a comparable encounter, reported in his Our Antipodes: or, residence
and rambles in the Australasian Colonies. With a glimpse of the gold elds, 3
rd

ed., London, Richard Bentley, 1855, pp.10809.
Evil spirits: Pearce to AM, 23 Apr [1880], q381.
'CALLING THINGS BY RIGHT NAMES'
#247 Formidable enemy: the Maitland Mercury, 19 Jun 1850, described
the Aboriginal people around Mt Abundance as the only tribe that was
dangerous. Old Billy: the squatter was Gideon Lang. Patrick Collins,
Goodbye Bussamarai, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 2002,
assembles evidence to suggest that a Mandandanji elder Bussamarai,
otherwise known as Possum Murray, Old Billy and Eaglehawk,
led an Aboriginal rebellion against the European invasion in the
late 1840s and early 1850s. Bob Reece expresses reservations about
Bussamarai when he reviews Collins in Eureka Street, Sep 2003; see
also relevant exchanges at http://www.goodbyebussamarai.com/
default.htm [accessed May 2007]. The white mans guns, including
the time taken to load them: David Denholm, The colonial Australians,
Ringwood (Vic.), Penguin, 1979, pp.3536.
#248 Emma Ms justication: My experiences, pp.223,23540. Poison
our: see, eg, Jane Lydon, no moral doubt : Aboriginal evidence
and the Kangaroo Creek poisoning, 18471849, Aboriginal history,
vol.20, 1996, pp.15659.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
74
Gipps warning: Proclamation on Aborigines, NSW Government
Gazette, 21 May 1839. Colonial Secretarys warning: E.Deas
Thomson to Commandant of Native Police, Warialda, 8 Aug 1849,
49/264, Copies of letters to magistrates 4/3850, State Records of
NSW.
#249 Squatters protest: Maitland Mercury, 1 Aug 1849, quoted in
Mark Copland, The native police at Callandoon a blueprint for
forced assimilation? conference paper, History of Crime, Policing and
Punishment Conference convened by the Australian Institute of Criminology
in conjunction with Charles Sturt University and held in Canberra, 910
December 1999 http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences/hcpp/copland.
pdf[accessed 1 Nov 2007]; see also Copland, A system of
assassination: the Macintyre River frontier 18371850, BA Hons
thesis, University of Queensland, 1990.
#250 Many hours of conversation: in the months after AMs
departure from Mount Abundance, as conict worsened, a group
of squatters at Warialda in the Gwydir pastoral district pressed
for government action, arguing that a war of extermination
has been carried on against the blacks, which although it has
succeeded in affecting the security of the lives, and property of
the settlers, has but too often, with the force of retributive justice,
produced a low standard of moral feeling in the white people
themselves. A.Morris to R.Fitzgerald, 13 Jul 1849, 49/7447,
Colonial Secretary In-letters, 4/2868, State Records of NSW.
Forsters growing family: by 1862, when his rst wife died, they
had two sons and six daughters. Speaking in bush style: Forster
to AM, 18 Jan 1852, q541. Forster gives up squatting: to AM, 4
Dec 1854, q541.
#251 Forster on murder: evidence to Select Committee on the
murders by the Aborigines on the Dawson River, 18 Jun 1858,
New South Wales Parliamentary Papers, 1858, vol.2, pp.1014; see
also his evidence to Select Committee on the Native Police Force,
12 Dec 1856, New South Wales Parliamentary Papers, 185657,
vol.1, pp.3540.
Lines on a young kangaroo: The Brothers: a drama, London,
Gordon & Gotch, 1877, pp.23639. For an assessment of Forsters
literary talents, see Dorothy Green, William Forster and the drama
of ideas, Australasian drama studies, vol.1, no.1, Oct. 1982, p.3637:
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
75
it is fairly safe to say that no ner mind, with a greater gift for
analytic reasoning, a better grasp of the nature of dialectic and of
the facts of common life, has ever occupied itself in this country
with the medium of the drama.
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
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13 HOME AND AWAY
#252 On the broad theme of the relationship between imperial
metropole and periphery see inter al Catherine Hall and Sonya O.
Rose (eds), At home with the empire: metropolitan culture and the imperial
world, Cambridge, CUP, 2006, esp. ch.1 by the editors; and Marjory
Harper (ed), Emigrant homecomings: the return movement of emigrants, 1600
2000, Manchester, MUP, 2005.
AMs certainty and ambivalence: AM to AW, 24 Nov 1852,
q391. NSW as my country: AM to Col E.B. Craigie, Nov 1844
(draft and notes), q311.
#253 Mrs Egans attentions: WM to AM, 26 Dec 1850, q390.
Two boys in Sydney: WM to AM, 18 Sep 1847, q282.
Irretrievably sinking: W. Forster to AM, 18 Jan 1852, q541; Forster
was applying his comment to one of his relatives.
AW at Keera: AM to Aunt Harriot Craigie, 27 Jun 1848, q311.
TRANSITION STATES
#254 AMs portrait: WM to AM, 22 Jan 1851, q390.
#255 An agreeable appurtenance: WM to AM, 28 Jan 1853, q391.
Desperately in love: W. Forster to AM, 15 Mar 1851, q214;
the young lady was a Miss Jephson: see also Shipping News
reproduced in Maitland Mercury, 20 Mar 1850, http://nla.gov.au/nla.
news-article695591 [accessed 31 Jul 2008]. Sardonic comments
and sharp rebuke: W.Forster to AM, 18 Jan 1852, q541.
A plain country gentleman: WM to Thomas Duncan, 16 Jun
1850, q390.
Gorse (whins) and broom: WM to brother Allan, 25 Apr
1850, q390. Politics and literature: W.Forster to AM, 15 Mar
1851, q214.
#256 Transition state: AM to AW, 24 Nov 1852, q391. Blairgowrie
transformed: entry on Blairgowrie in Berwick-upon-Tweed -
Braidwood, A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1846), pp.124
51 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43423
[accessed 26 Aug 2007]; Harriot Craigie to WM, 4 Jul 1842, enc.
in WM to AM, 7 Dec 1842, q401; Offer by Thomas Cargill and
John Panton for a 19 year lease of Blairgowrie corn and our mills
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77
and acceptance thereof, 8 Jun 1855, q451. Agonies of suspense:
AM to AW, 24 Nov 1852, q391.
WM on railways: WM to AM, 18 Aug 1855, q391. FitzRoys
lament: [to E. Deas Thomson] nd [May 1851], Thomson Family
Papers, ML A1531-3, p.1074, SLNSW.
New England rushes: R.B.Walker, Old New England: a history of
the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales 18181900, Sydney, Sydney
UP, 1966, pp.4850. Bingara discoveries: Commissioner Richard
Bligh to Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands, 19 Jul 1852,
printed in New Zealander, 25 Sep 1852 http://www.british-history.
ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43423 [accessed 31 Jul 2008]; and WM
to AM, 2 Oct 1852, q390. AW was reported to have discovered
gold at Keera shortly after the rst rushes to the west of Sydney:
Maitland Mercury, 30 July 1851.
#257 WMs complaints about AW: WM to AM, 22 Jan, 16 Aug
1851, q390. AW was reported to have found gold at Keera shortly
after the reports of nds west of Sydney: Maitland Mercury, 30 Jul
1851 (extract from SMH).
Sophia and the children resided at Clerkness station, Bundarra,
owned by AWs friend Edward George Clerk: WM to AM, 25 Jun
1855, q391. The ninth child, born at Clerkness in 1852, was
christened Edward George, presumably in honour of their host.
On Clerkness: Unlocking Regional Memory: NSW Electronic
Regional Archives, Pastoral Station entry, http://www.nswera.net.
au/biogs/UNE0100b.htm [accessed 31 Jul 2008]. William to the
rescue: WM to AM, 22 Jan 1851, q390. Pistols: AM to AW, 24
Nov 1852, q391.
A most unfortunate fellow: WM to AM, 11 Dec 1852, q390.
#258 Additional clerk: WM to AM, 5 Mar 1853, q391. Renting at
Asheld: WM to AM, 23 Mar 1853, q391.
Clerk in Surveyor-Generals ofce: WM to AM, 18 Nov 1853,
q391. Cooks River: WM to AM, 8 May, 17 Jul 1855, q391. Too
many children: WM to AM, 19 Sep 1855, q391; 9 Apr 1856,
q392.
WM ecstatic: to AM and Emma M, 8 Aug 1853, q391.
#259 Emmas family: documents in the Blake-Espitali Collection,
including Blake family trees and family bible; E.K.Pearce to Eileen
Blake, 14 Dec 1903, and accompanying letters; and two (varying)
A PRI VAT E EMPI RE
78
typescript documents by WCM on the Blake, Powney, Denis and
Beswick families, dating from the 1890s; also early 20
th
century
notes and correspondence in WCM Family Scrapbook, q727;
and V.C.P. Hodson, List of the ofcers of the Bengal Army 17581834,
London, Constable, 1927, entries on Benjamin Blake and William
Powney Blake, Part I, pp.16264. Emmas sister Fanny referred
to her grandmother, the daughter of Mary (Indian), as Black
Grandmother, and regarded her with great affection. When Fanny
and Emmas niece, Eileen, evidently suggested in 1903 that the
familys Indian origins should be excised from the family tree, her
cousins quickly dissuaded her.
#260 Blakes promise: to AM, 20 Feb 1853, quoted in AM to
William Shaw Soutar, 17 Aug, 1860, q753; Deed of Covenant and
Declaration of Trust by Charles Henry Blake, 17 June 1861, q545.
The Macpherson and Blake families seem already to have been in
some way related, perhaps by marriage.
Happiest day: AMs diary, 30 Apr 1853, q312.
IMPERIAL TRAVELLERS
Revolution in communications: Geoffrey Blainey, The Tyranny of
distance: how distance shaped Australias history, Melbourne, Sun Books,
1966, esp.ch.8. Unimpressed: WM to AM, 20 Apr 1853, q391.
#261 Walter Hood: Maritime Heritage Online, New South Wales,
http://maritime.heritage.nsw.gov.au/public/documents/wrk_
walterhood.htm [accessed 1 Jun 2008]; SMH, 4 Aug 1853.
Snodgrass Chalmers ancestry: family tree compiled by
Major P.Chalmers, 1906, and corrected by WCM, WCMs Family
Scrapbook, q727.
Snodgrass Chalmers: letters between AM and Sir William
Chalmers, 1853, q492; WM to AM, 12 Sep 1853, 6 Apr 1855,
q391.
#262 Troublesome charge: AM to WM, 26 Mar 1854, q391.
Colonial drinking habits: Frank Fowler, Southern lights and shadows,
London, Sampson Low, 1859, pp.5152, who comments that there
were no fewer than 500 public houses in Sydney and its immediate
neighbourhood. Roderick Mitchell: WM to AM, 16 Sep 1851,
q390.
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Remittance men are most famously described by Mark
Twain, Following the equator: a journey around the world, Hartford CT,
American Publishing Company, 1897, pp.3334 (and republished
in various forms); see also Eric Richards, Britannias children: emigration
from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland since 1600, Hambledon,
Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004, pp.18889.
Shabby dog: AM to Harriot, 20 Aug 1860, q753. Good recovery:
note by WCM, nd, q492.
AMs misdemeanours: WM to AM, 5 Jan and 2 Feb 1854,
q391.
#263 AMs diary, entry for 19 Jan 1854, q312. Scottish Midland
Railway: AM to WM, 26 Mar 1854, q391.
#264 Subdivision: Plan of Newton Villa and Town Feus, on the
Estate of William Macpherson, Esquire, Blairgowrie, 1854, q457.
AMs chastened response: to WM, 2728 May 1854, q391.
Support from Emma: EM to WM, 28 May 1854, q391.
#265 AM hints at his concern about inheritance to WM, 2728
May 1854, q391.
Jessie: like AW, AM misspelt her name; WM set things straight
to AM, 16 Feb 1855, q391. The spelling of Aunt Harriots name
had often varied. In care of Aunt Harriot: The Macphersons of
Blairgowrie, comp. by WCM 18961906 and later amended, copy
2, Macpherson Papers.
SCANDAL
On colonial sensitivities on moral issues see inter al. Penny Russell,
A wish of distinction: colonial gentility and femininity, Carlton (Vic.),
Melbourne UP, 1994; and Russell, The brash colonial: class and
comportment in nineteenth-century Australia, Transactions of the
Royal Historical Society, vol. 12, 2002, pp.43153.
Death of Margaret M (nee Chalmers): Allan Macpherson to his
brother WM, 3 Nov 1828, q911. Remarriage: The Macphersons
of Blairgowrie, comp. by WCM 18961906 and later amended,
copy 2, Macpherson Papers. No children of his own: Uncle Allan
had a daughter, presumably by his second marriage, who appears
to have died by 1850: Harriot Craigie to WM, 4 Jul 1842, q401;
S.Hawkins, Holy Trinity Rothwell: A Guide, Rothwell 1999, extract
kindly provided by Canon George Burgon.
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#266 Hopes for his brothers benign inuence: WM to AM, 9 Oct
1852, q390.
Harriot seems for a time to have had charge of her husbands
daughter, one of two children by an earlier marriage: Harriot
Craigie to WM, 4 Jul 1842, in WM to AM, 7 Dec 1842, q401.
Harriot and religion: Harriot Craigie to AM, 20 Mar 1840, 28 Aug
1844, q908; Harriot Craigie to WM, 4 Jul 1842, in WM to AM, 7
Dec 1842, q401. Col.E.B.Craigies death: V.C.P.Hodson, List of the
ofcers of the Bengal Army 17581834, London, Constable, 1927, Part
I, p.404; Times, 18 Jun 1850; Trewmans Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth
and Cornish Advertiser, 20 Jun 1850.
WM urges attentiveness to Aunt Harriot: to AM, 14, 25 Jun,
16 Sep 1851, q390.
#267 Aunt Harriot as condant: AM to Harriot Craigie, 29 Jun
1856, q393.
#268 WM and Mrs Egan: chiey WM to Harriot Craigie, 29 Jun
1856, q393, as well as later letters in this bundle.
WM looks to the afterlife: to AM, 20 Apr 1853, q391.
#271 Wife of the new governor: Sir William Denison was also styled
and generally referred to as governor-general.
#272 Gossips: AM to WM, 24 Jan 1857, q393.
Trip to Melbourne: AM to Harriot Craigie, 24 Sep 1856,
q393; AM to William Panton, 24 Sep 1856, q753. AW as JP in
1844: Maitland Mercury, 13 Jan 1844. Emma at Cooks River: WM
to Emma M, 20 Aug 1856, q392.
A scene and a conversation: AM to Harriot Craigie, 24 Sep
1856, q393.
#273 Emma better able to live peaceably: AM to Harriot Craigie,
24 Sep 1856, q393. Sydneys delights and deciencies: A Lady
[Emma Macpherson], My experiences in Australia. Being recollections of
a visit to the Australian colonies in 18567, London, J.F.Hope, 1860,
pp.2072, esp. pp.22,44.
A BUSH JOURNEY
A bush journey: based chiey on My experiences; AMs dairies for
185657, q312; and letters between AM and WM. Maitland costs:
AM to WM, 12 Oct 1856, q393.
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Dog cart: My experiences, pp.90,116; object in Cobb & Co.
Museum, Toowoomba, Qld http://www.cobbandco.qm.qld.gov.
au/exhibitions/carriage/carriage.asp?Carriage=8 [accessed 1 Oct
2008]; Ezra M.Stratton, The world on wheels; Or, Carriages, with their
historical associations from the earliest to the present time, including a selection
from the American centennial exhibition, New York, B.Blom, 1972, p.381.
Bullock drays: AM to WM, 12 Oct 1856, q393.
#274 15 miles and 6: AM to WM, 14 Oct 1856, q393; My experiences,
p.113. WM complains: to AM, 21 and 29 Oct 1856, q392.
Eight members of the party: My experiences, esp.pp.9192; AM
to WM, 12 and 22 Oct 1856, q393; AM to Harriot Craigie, 30
Nov 1856, q393; WM to AM, 24 Feb 1857, q393. The son of
a connection: My experiences, p.92. Sleeping arrangements: AM to
WM, 12 Oct 1856, q393; My experiences, pp.10304.
#275 Allan Williams jnr: My experiences, p.92. William Williams: WM
to Emma M, 20 Aug 1856, q392. Horse problems: AM to WM, 8,
12 and 22 Oct 1856, q393.
Emma quickly adapts: AM to WM, 12 and 14 Oct 1856, q393;
quotations from My experiences, pp.18,105,118,120.
#276 More beautiful than Scotland: My experiences, p.116. Emmas
dislikes: My experiences, pp.120,14748; AM to WM, 23 Nov 1856,
q393. Tic douloureux: AM to WM, 1 Nov 1856, q393.
Keera in ne condition: AM to Harriot Craigie, 30 Nov 1856,
q393. Emma rhapsodic: My experiences, p.162.
#277 Cottage and garden: My experiences, pp.16267. The vineyard:
My experiences, p.190. AWs success on the Hunter: WM to AM, 22
Mar 1841, q400.
Nearest doctor (from Warialda): AM to Harriot Craigie, 30
Nov 1856, q393; AM to WM, 30 Dec 1856, q393. Birth of Alan:
AMs diary, 11 Jan 1857, q312. Emma helping out: My experiences,
pp.196200.
The servant greater than the lord: My experiences, p.180. A trial
for any lady: My experiences, p.200.
#278 We hate this colony: AM to William Panton, 9 Dec 1856,
q753. Scarcity of labour: AM to WM, 3 and 9 Dec 1856, q393;
AM to William Panton, 9 Dec 1856, q753.
The station establishment and rates of pay: AM to WM, 9 Dec
1856, q393.
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#279 Aborigines working at Keera: AMs diaries, 185657, q312;
My experiences, pp.20506. Pay and food for Aboriginal shepherds:
AM to WM, 9 Dec 1856, q393; My experiences, p.206. Aboriginal
babysitter: My experiences, pp.23031.
#280 Emma on this strange race: My experiences, esp.pp.20305.
Corroboree: My experiences, pp.22021. Aboriginal friends: My
experiences, pp.205,240. Emma remarks that colonists are too rapid
in the friendships in her shipboard journal, 20 Jan22 Apr [1868],
q235.
The blacks camp: My experiences, pp.20203. Ofcial policy:
Earl Grey to Sir Charles FitzRoy, 11 Feb 1848, HRA, ser I, vol
26, pp.22326. On background to Greys despatch, see Henry
Reynolds, Frontier: Aborigines, settlers and land, St Leonards NSW,
Allen & Unwin, 1987, pp.15154. Emma echoed this view: My
experiences, pp.23738.
Small band joined by others: My experiences, p.203.
#281 Kamilaroi people: [David Horton,] Aboriginal Australia [map],
Canberra, Aboriginal Studies Press, 1996 http://www.aiatsis.gov.
au/aboriginal_studies_press/aboriginal_wall_map [accessed 1
Oct 2008]; Alan Atkinson and Marian Aveling (eds), Australians
1838, Broadway NSW, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon, 1987, pp.3839;
for a convenient summary, inc early population estimates, see
Northern Regional Library Indigenous Unit, Gamilaroi/Kamilaroi
[Moree, NSW, 2004] http://www.indigenousunit.com.au/index.
php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=0&Itemid=44
[accessed 1 Oct 2008]; and Aboriginal Heritage Study, draft report
prepared by Heritage Concepts Pty Ltd for Moree Plains Shire
Council, Oct 2007 http://www.indigenousunit.com.au/index.
php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=0&Itemid=44
[accessed 1 Oct 2008]. Gwydir District: New South Wales Government
Gazette, 7 Dec 1847, p.1339. Report by Crown Lands Commissioner
Richard Bligh on condition of Aborigines in Gwydir District, 28
Jan 1851, DL ADD 81, SLNSW.
Wouraferi: Blighs report is the only primary source I am
aware of for this small band; see also Michael ORourke, The
Kamilaroi lands, Grifth ACT, The Author, 1997, pp.4956 and
maps (while noting Gaynor Macdonalds review in Oceania, vol
70, issue 2, Dec 1999, pp.199200). She knew that they were
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dying: My experiences, pp.215,22830. Burial ground: My experiences,
pp.22426.
Alcohol problems: AMs diary, 8 Feb 1857, 312; My experiences,
pp.228.
Wine-making: AMs diary, 13 Feb 1857; My experiences, pp.190
96. Hogshead and a half: about 360 litres.
WILLIAM DECIDES WHERE HOME IS
#282 Allan nancial hopes: AM to WM, 22 Oct 1856, 13 Jan 1857,
q393. Keera was sold through agents John Single jr and Philip
Adams to the Munro family, who still owned the property in
2009: see Jillian Oppenheimer, Munros luck: from Scotland to Keera,
Weebollabolla, Boombah and Ross Roy, Walcha, Ohio Productions, 1998,
pp.28,4043; additional information from Jillian Oppenheimer,
2008. Mt Abundance sale: AM to WM, 5 Apr 1857, q393; AM
to Harriot Craigie, 8 Jun 1857, q393. This sale was complicated
by WM not having paid licence fees for several years; for a time it
seemed they would forfeit the property entirely.
Keera auction: List of items sold, 15 April 1857, q542.
#283 Emmas regrets: My experiences, p.258. Expected extinction: My
experiences, p.230.
Tedious journey: AM to Harriot Craigie, 8 Jun 1857, q393.
Route across New England: My experiences, pp.25877. The identity
of the male servant is not clear. Young Allan Williams stayed
behind: AM to WM, 24 Jan 1857, q393.
#284 Odious creature: AM to Harriot Craigie, 30 Nov 1856,
q393. Living arrangements in Sydney: AM to WM, 24 Jan 1857,
q393; AW to AM, 14 Apr 1857, q392; AM to WM, 21 Apr 1857,
q393.
Williams decision: based on WM to AM, 31 Mar 1857, q392
and other correspondence; the principal letter is missing. If the
woman should die: AM to Harriot Craigie, 6 Apr 1857, q393.
WM wedded to Australian ways: AM to William Shaw Soutar, 9
Jun 1857, q753; also AM to William Panton, 6 Apr 1857, q753.
WM evasive: AM to Harriot Craigie, 6 Apr, 8 Jun 1857, q393.
Procrastination: AM to Harriot Craigie, 30 Jan 1857, q393.
AM in Melbourne: AM to Harriot Craigie, 6 Apr, 8 Jun 1857,
q393; WM to AM. 30 Jun 1857, q392.
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#285 WM and Mrs Egan at the theatre: AMs diary, 15 Aug 1857,
q312. Farewells at Circular Quay: AMs diary, 11 Sep 1857,
q312.
Melbourne and Albany: My experiences, pp.32934.
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14 MATTERS OF PRINCIPLE
#287 Fort Denison: A.B.Shaw, Fort Denison, Sydney Harbour [?Sydney,
Maritime Services Board of NSW, 1946]; K.S.Inglis, The Australian
colonists: an exploration of social history 17881870, Melbourne, MUP,
1974, pp.21617,221; John Hirst, Freedom on the fatal shore: Australias
rst colony, Melbourne, Black Inc, 2008 (rst published as The strange
birth of colonial democracy, 1988), esp.pp.28994; Hobart Courier, 26
Oct 1857 (Sydney Correspondent).
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
#288 Bernera: Note of deed of grant (copy by WM), 21 Mar
1854, q804; Note on Bernera property, 1868, q805. Bernera was
originally granted to Donald Macleod in 1829, and presumably
named by him after the isle in the Outer Hebrides.
Seen at the theatre and privately married: W.Forster to AM, 19
Jan 1858, q541; also 12 May 1859, q541. A series of documents:
AM to W.Forster, 7 Feb 1859, q541. Interview over coffee:
W.Forster to AM, 6 Nov 1858, q541.
#289 Ultimatum: AM to W.Forster, 7 Feb 1859, q541, enc.letter
from WM.
Monetary and sentimental value of Blairgowrie: AM to
W.Forster, 16 Dec 1859, q541.
Conciliatory response: AM to W.Forster, 7 Feb 1859, q541.
A milder letter from WM: AM to W.Forster, 13 Jan, 12 Feb
1860, q541. To make matters worse for Allan, Emmas father,
Charles Blake, was being tardy in implementing the marriage
settlement.
#290 Decision to visit Australia: AM to Forster, 16 Dec 1859, 12
Feb 1860, q541;
Amicable negotiations: AM to Emma M, 12 Jun 1860, q753.
#291 Promise to AW: AMs diary, 10 Aug 1857, q312. Over-generous:
AM to Harriot Craigie, 13 May 1860, q753. Ducks and drakes, and
not caring: AM to Harriot Craigie, 10 Jul 1860, q753.
Infatuation: AM to Harriot Craigie, 10 Jul 1860, q753. Senile:
AM to W.Forster, 6 Apr1859, q541. Forster on very old men: to
AM, 6 Nov 1858, q541.
#292 Uncle Allan as vicar and entrepreneur: S. Hawkins, Holy
Trinity Rothwell: A Guide, Rothwell, 1999, extract kindly provided by
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Canon George Burgon; Court of Bankruptcy report, Daily News, 24
May 1858.
#293 Uncle Allans act of folly: AM to Emma M, 11 Jul 1860, q753;
AM to Uncle Allan M, 20 Aug 1860, q753; AM to Harriot Craigie,
20 Aug 1860, q753.
#294 Proposal for Uncle Allan to come to NSW: Harriot Craigie
to AM, 14 Jun 1861, q753; AM to Harriot Craigie, 19 Jul 1861,
q753;
Last recorded meeting: Harriot Craigie to AM, 18 Mar 1862,
q291. The six shirts might well have belonged to the late Col.
Craigie.
#295 The enemy at work: AM to Emma M, 11 Jul 1860, q753.
Superciliousness: AM to Emma M, 19 Sep 1860, q753.
Exile: AM to Emma M, 19 Sep 1860, q753. Avoiding
extravagance: AM to Emma M, 11 and 20 Jul 1860, q753. Bernera
property and cottage: AM to Emma M, 11 Jul, 20 Aug 1860, q753;
AM to William Panton, 17 Sep 1860, q753; estate agent maps and
descriptions, 1889, National Library of Australia. My thanks to
Dariel Larkins, Sydney, for additional information about Bernera,
including oor plan.
#296 Buckingham Palace: AM to Emma M, 19 Sep 1860, q753.
Missing Emma: AM to Emma M, 20 Aug 1860, q753. Berneras
potential: AM to Emma M, 12 Jun 1860, q753. Prepared to remain:
AM to William Shaw Soutar, 9 Jun 1860, q753.
#297 Changes in government: WM to AM, 8 Sep, 22 Dec 1855,
q391; index to Journal of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, vol.
1, 185657. WMs resignation: W.Forster to AM, 11 Jan [1860],
q800; Journal of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, 2 Feb 1860,
vol. 5, 185960, pp.5354. Sir W.Macpherson told me the story of
the missing wig.
WM in retirement: WM to John Panton, 21 Oct 1861, q215.
William Harvie Christie had served as Serjeant-at-Arms in the old
Legislative Council: ADB, vol.3, pp.39394. On Canon Robert
Allwood see entry by K.J.Cable in ADB, vol.1, pp.1011. WM,
Christie and Allwood had all been born outside Britain, Christie in
Ceylon and Allwood in Jamaica.
WMs health, inc Polding: WM to John Panton, 21 Oct 1861,
q215.
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#298 WM travelling to Bernera: AM to Harriot Craigie to AM, 20
Sep 1860, q753; WM to John Panton, 21 Oct 1861, q215. AM on
Mrs Egan: AMs notes on Sir William Mannings opinion on Egan
v Macpherson [1866], q801; Papers relating to Mrs Egans bond,
186566, q542.
Deas Thomsons eulogy: SMH, 15 Mar 1866.
Arguments about legacies: AMs notes on Sir William Mannings
opinion on Egan v Macpherson [1866], q801.
POLITICS
#299 Forsters prophesy: to AM, 29 May 1845, q214. Capes school:
AMs scrapbook, Apr 1834, q411; Forster to AM, 15 Mar 1851,
q214; and ch.10 above. Several of Capes boys became politicians,
and three of them premiers.
#300 Colonial democracy: see Hirst, Freedom on the fatal shore, esp.
pp.28994; Peter Cochrane, Colonial ambition: foundations of Australian
democracy, Melbourne, MUP, 2006, esp.pp.47086.
#301 Blairgowrie coming of age: the Blairgowrie Advertiser was rst
issued in 1855 (information kindly supplied by the Perth & Kinross
Council). Curlers dinner: Blairgowrie Advertiser, 5 Feb 1859 (extract
in the Macpherson Collection).
#302 Friends with the semi-washed: AM to Forster, 7 Feb 1859,
q541.
Political turmoil: Hirst, The strange birth of colonial
democracy, in Freedom on the fatal shore; Peter Loveday and
A.W.Martin, Parliament, factions and parties: the rst thirty years of
responsible government in New South Wales, 18561889, Melbourne, MUP,
1966 (which rst dened the faction system); Cochrane, Colonial
ambition, esp.chs 2729; David Clune and Gareth Grifth, Decision
and deliberation: the Parliament of New South Wales 18562003, Sydney,
Federation Press, 2006, esp.pp.4953. Details re ministries and
members are conveniently listed at http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.
au/prod/web/common.nsf/key/resourcesarchives. Responsibility a
claptrap: Denison to Henry Labouchere, 23 Sep 1856, Sir William
Denison Correspondence, microlm FM3/795, Mitchell Library,
SLNSW. The terms liberal and conservative were applied loosely
and imprecisely: see Loveday and Martin, Parliament, factions and
parties, ch.2.
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Growing disgust: Forster to AM, 6 Nov 1858, q541; also
A.W.Martin, Henry Parkes: a biography, Melbourne, MUP, 1980,
p.164.
#303 Slippery Charlie: Alan Powell, Patrician democrat: the political
life of Charles Cowper 18431870, Melbourne, MUP, 1977; John M.
Ward, Cowper, Sir Charles (18071875), ADB, vol. 3, pp. 475
79 (Powell attributes the sobriquet to J.D.Lang, Ward to Henry
Parkes). Forsters ministry: Forster to AM, 15 Nov 1859, and other
letters in q541; Trevor McMinn, William Forster, in David Clune
and Ken Turner (eds), The Premiers of New South Wales, vol.1 1856
1901, Sydney, Federation Press, 2006, pp.6979; Martin, Henry
Parkes, p.171; Bede Nairn, Forster, William (18181882), ADB,
vol. 4, pp. 199201. Forster as reluctant premier: to AM, 11 Jan
[1860], q800.
AMs prediction: Forster to AM, 6 Nov 1858, q541. AM hopes
to succeed WM: AM to Forster, 16 Dec 1859, q541.
Harassed and besieged: AM to Emma M, 20 Aug 1860,
q753.
Central Cumberland election: AM to John Panton, 16 Nov
1860, 19 Dec 1860, 19 Jan 1861, q753; SMH, 28 Nov, 15, 20 and
24 Dec 1860; Empire, 20 Dec 1860. The electorate stretched north
to the Hawkesbury River, south to Campbelltown, then east to
Botany Bay; the town of Parramatta had its own member: see NSW
Dept of Lands, Electoral atlas of New South Wales 18562006, Bathurst,
NSW Dept of Lands, 2006, p.12. The 1858 Electoral Act provided
for 4, 2 and single member constituencies. On electoral procedure
see Marian Simms, From the hustings to harbour views: electoral institutions
in New South Wales, 18562006, Sydney, University of NSW Press,
2006, esp.pp.1725.
#304 Pungent satirist: Daniel Deniehy, How I became Attorney-
General of New Barataria (1860), in E.A.Martin, The Life and Speeches
of Daniel Henry Deniehy, Melbourne, McNeil and Coffee, 1884,
p.225.
On the land issue see Hirst, Freedom on the fatal shore, pp.32140.
SMH, 15 Dec 1860, adhered to its usual practice in reporting AMs
Nebuchadnezzar speech in the third person: I have rephrased the
quotation in the rst person. (A rival newspaper, the Empire, often
used the rst person, but did not report this speech.)
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#305 There was a gentleman: SMH, 15 Dec 1860, emphasis added to
clarify meaning.
Conservative rout: Trevor McMinn, 1860, in Michael Hogan
et al. (eds), Peoples choice: electoral politics in colonial New South Wales,
Sydney, Federation Press, 2007, pp.9495. Insane democracy: AM
to John Panton, 19 Jan 1861, q753.
#306 1863 election: SMH, 4, 8 and 11 Jun 1863; Bells Life in Sydney,
11 Jun 1863. The liberal Empires reporter, 4 Jun 1863, used the
expression grotesque clamour. The issues of the period are clearly
set out in Hirst, Freedom on the fatal shore. Secret voting: AM to Forster,
7 Feb 1859, q541.
AM on the magistracy: SMH, 24 Jun 1863; also 1 Aug 1863.
#307 AMs pursuit of delinquent magistrates in his electorate can be
followed in papers relating to Mrs Laing; and Select Committee on
the death of John Hart in Benevolent Asylum at Liverpool, New
South Wales Legislative Assembly, Votes and proceedings, 186364,
vol. 2, pp. 73990; also Empire, 30 Nov 1864. On the magistracy
generally: Select committee on the State of the Magistracy,
Legislative Assembly, Votes and proceedings, 1858, vol. 2, pp.105193;
Hirst, Freedom on the fatal shore, pp.41421. On politics as the realm
for gentlemen: Hirst, Freedom on the fatal shore, esp.chs 7 and 11.
Forster a true gentleman: AM to Emma M, 19 Sep 1860, q753.
#308 Criticism of returning ofcers: SMH, 11 Jun 1863; Empire, 30
Nov 1864. Ignorant and improper men: SMH, 1 Aug 1863.
#309 1864 election: SMH, 23 and 25 Nov 1860; Empire, 25, 29 and 30
Nov 1864. Martin: J.M.Bennett, Sir James Martin, Sydney, Federation
Press, 2005, chs 18; Elena Grainger, Martin of Martin Place: a biography
of Sir James Martin (18201886), Sydney, Alpha Books, 1970, pp.317,
10910; Bede Nairn, Martin, Sir James (18201886), ADB, vol 5,
pp.21619. AM ercely supported free trade: eg Empire, 26 Nov
1864. State aid: article on AM in Kiama Pilot, Shoalhaven Gazette, and
Impartial Reporter, 2 Jul 1868, clipping at q807; Bennett, James Martin,
p.169. Inexorable hatred: Empire, 2 Mar 1868.
A HORSEWHIPPING IN PARLIAMENT HOUSE
#310 The horsewhipping affair is based chiey on newspaper
reports and commentary in 1868, esp.SMH, 2729 Feb, 2,3 Mar,
6,17,19 Jun; Empire, 2729 Feb, 2,5 Mar, 12 May; Bells Life in Sydney,
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13 Jun. There was no ofcial Hansard reporter and newspaper
accounts sometimes differ. Also W.H.Wilkinson and J.S.Paterson
(eds), Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of New
South Wales, vol. VII, Sydney, J.J.Moore, 1869, pp.23044. Bennett
mentions the incident in Sir James Martin, pp.22223; and Hirst in
Freedom on the fatal shore, p.355, though without mentioning AM by
name. Although the inspector of schools issue was controversial, it
bore little relevance to subsequent events in the house. Parkes was
Colonial Secretary, a title now separate from that of Premier.
Lee: Martha Rutledge, Lee, Benjamin (18251917), ADB, vol
5, pp.7475.
#311 Duelling: Hirst, Freedom on the fatal shore, pp.29596.
Suggestions that Lee had been drinking: Sydney Punch, 7 Mar
1868, p.114.
#312 Royal visit: Inglis, Australian colonists, pp.94103. What would
the Prince think? Empire, 27 Feb 1868; SMH, 27 Feb 1868. Sydney
Punch: 7,14 Mar 1868.
#313 West on native legislators: SMH, 3 Mar 1868; Empire responds
5 Mar.
Bitterest enemy: SMH, 29 Feb 1868; also Empire, 29 Feb 1868.
Triing affair: Empire, 12 May 1868.
#314 AM in court: 6,17 Jun 1868. Vindication of principle: Kiama
Pilot, 25 Jun 1868, clipping at q804.
Wests harsh words: SMH, 27 Feb 1868.
AMs response with feeling: Empire, 28 Feb 1868.
#315 Support from Emma: Emma M to AM, 22 Apr, 28 Jun, 29 Jul
1868, q235.
#316 Political friends: Emma to AM, 11 Aug 1868, q235. An
extended article in the Kiama Pilot, 25 Jun and 2 Jul 1868, was
evidently intended to encourage him to stay. Emma adamant: to
AM, 27 May, 11 Aug 1868, q235. AMs last speech: SMH, 28 Oct
1868. Farewell dinner: SMH, 31 Oct 1868.
A much grander banquet: Dundee Advertiser, 29 Oct 1869
(clipping at q450).
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15 MAKING FAMILIES
#318 AMs political aspirations and frustration: AM to W.Forster,
28 Jan 1869, and nd [1869], q471; Forster to AM, 25 Mar 1869,
q471. AMs politics: Kiama Pilot, Shoalhaven Gazette, and Impartial
Reporter, 2 Jul 1868, clipping at q807; AM to Arthur Holroyd, 13
Jul 1871, q806.
Hopes for appointment as Agent-General: AM to Forster, 28
Jan 1869, 24 Jan 1870, q471. The exact role of the Agent-General
was unclear at the time: Forster to AM, 3 Nov 1869, q471.
#319 A terrible blow: Forster to AM, 8 Oct, 3 Nov 1869, 24 Jan
1870, q471.
Some strange hallucination: Forster to AM, 21 Mar 1870,
q471.
Privy Council decision: Law reports: Privy Council appeals. Cases
heard and determined by the Judicial Committee and the Lords of Majestys Most
Honourable Privy Council, vol.III, 186971, London, William Clowes
and Sons, 1871, pp.26981; AM to Arthur Holroyd, 1 Dec 1871,
q806.
#320 Fixed determination to make a family: AM to Emma M, 19 Sep
1860, q753.
A TUNDING AT WINCHESTER
This section draws substantially on Peter Gwyn, The Tunding
Row: George Ridding and the belief in Boy Government, in Roger
Custance (ed.), Winchester College: sixth-centenary essays, Oxford, OUP,
1982, which is based on close research in the Winchester College
archives. John Chandos, Boys together: English public schools 18001864,
London, Hutchison, 1984, provides valuable background; and
Charles Oman, Memories of Victorian Oxford and of some early years, 2
nd

ed., London, Methuen, 1941, is the best rst-hand account. Brief
biographies of students are in Henry John Hardy (ed.), Winchester
College 18671920: a register, Winchester, P. and G. Wells, 1923.
Jessie in Paris: AM to Frank Williams, 26 Mar 1869, q806.
One all absorbing idea: AM to Forster, nd [1876], q471.
#321 Designation of great public schools: Chandos, Boys together,
pp.2223. On career destinations of Winchester students, see
T.J.H.Bishop, Winchester and the public school elite: a statistical analysis,
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London, Faber and Faber, 1967, esp.p.65; Oman, Memories, pp.25
26. Immersed in tradition: Chandos, Boys together, esp.pp.23,112
15. Charles Wordsworths inuence: AM to editor of the Times,
18 Nov 1872, Times, 20 Nov; John Wordsworth, Wordsworth,
Charles (18061892), rev. H.C.G.Matthew, ODNB. Emmas
parents helped: AM to Mrs Blake, 19 May 1874, q509 (Emmas
father, Charles Blake, died in 1872).
Keen sportsman: AM to Forster, nd [1876], q471. An old
Etonian: Charles Rowcroft (1852), quoted in Chandos, Boys together,
p.33. WCMs school reports 187073, q509.
#322 Pure misery: Oman, Memories, pp.3132. On Tom Browns
schooldays and the Clarendon Commission: Chandos, Boys together,
pp.4546, 328. Praefects and inferiors: Gwyn, The Tunding
Row, pp.44352; Chandos, Boys together, pp.8990; WCM to
AM, 24 Oct 1872, in Times, 29 Nov: he is a Praefect and I am an
inferior, which constitutes a great barrier between us. Floggings:
Chandos, Boys together, esp.ch.11. Spirit of Luther: Gerald Ritchie
(comp. and ed.), The Ritchies in India: extracts from the correspondence of
William Ritchie, 18171862; and personal reminiscences of Gerald Ritchie,
London, John Murray, 1920, p.280. William of Whackem: Punch,
11 Sep 1869.
Ridding: Gwyn, The Tunding Row, esp.p.432 n.8, 45357;
F.G.Kenyon, Ridding, George (18281904), rev. M.C.Curthoys,
ODNB. Riddings wife had died after just one year. Pupil numbers
increased from 275 in 1867 to 385 in 1873: Charles Stevens,
Winchester notions: the English dialect of Winchester College, ed. Christopher
Stray, London, Athlone Press, 1998, p.8 (editors intro.).
A remarkable adventure: WCM to Emma M, 13 Oct 1872,
in Times, 29 Nov. The term Senior Commoner Praefect referred
to a former division of the college between scholarship boys
and commoners, who now occupied the new Houses. Gwyn,
The Tunding Row, traces the events in detail, with additional
comments on the role of another praefect.
#323 Notions: Stevens, Winchester notions; Oman, Memories, pp.2930;
Gwyn, The Tunding Row, p.433 n.12; and many other sources,
all of which are better at describing notions than explaining
their functions. The expression notions was in fact of fairly
recent currency. Ridding, quoted in his daughter Laura Riddings
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biography, George Ridding: schoolmaster and bishop, London, Edward
Arnold, 1908, p. 99, and after him Gwyn, offer an empathetic
account of the praefect, J.D.Whytes, actions.
Strong views as to precedent and legality: Oman, Memories,
p.35.
He had come to be licked: WCM to AM, 24 Oct 1872, in
Times, 29 Nov.
#324 Bruises: WCM to Emma M, 13 Oct 1872, in Times, 29 Nov.
Decidedly irritated: quoted in Gwyn, The Tunding Row, p.440.
A regular hero: WCM to Emma M, 13 Oct 1872, in Times,
29 Nov; Oman, Memories, p.38, refers to his martyrdom. Reign of
terror: Oman, Memories, pp.3235; Stevens, Winchester notions, p.xvii.
Oman, p.39, comments on the improved conditions, though
Gwyn, p.476, remarks that they were short lived, and that corporal
punishment for minor offences continued until at least the 1960s.
#325 Perfect friends: WCM to AM, 28 Oct 1872, in Times, 29 Nov.
Arm in arm: Ridding, George Ridding, p.99.
AM quotes from his correspondence with Ridding in his letter
to the Times, 18 Nov 1872, Times, 20 Nov.
Charles Wordsworths involvement: Times, 20 Nov.
Wordsworths comments on ogging are in his Annals of my early life
18061846, London, Longman, Green & Co., 1891, pp.23637.
Tunding in the press: Gwyn perused 99 letters on the issue
(The Tunding Row, p.432 n.4). Many relevant letters and
editorials can be located through the Gale Groups 19
th
century British
newspapers on-line. A former Wykehamist was R.Maude, Times, 13,
16 Nov 1872; Oman, Memories, p.36, identies Maude as a friend
of AM. Indefensible and barbarous and wholesome and effective:
Times, 16 Nov. The Victim, Times, 15 Nov.
#326 Tom Browns spirit: Times, 16 Nov; also, eg, Graphic, 23 Nov
and Punch, 7 Dec; but note eg of contrary view in Preston Guardian,
16 Nov. AMs broadside: Times, 20 Nov; Riddings response: 22
Nov; Assistant masters: 21 Nov; WCMs private letters, 29 Nov.
Priceless advantage: Times, 25 Nov. Boy government: Gwyn,
The Tunding Row, esp.pp.44347; Chandos, Boys together,
pp.29,24144, inc. reference to a comparable scandal at Harrow
two decades earlier. That indenable something: Times, 19 Nov.
Religious zeal: Gwyn, The Tunding Row, pp.45557. Doubts
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about lads of 18: Times, 25 Nov. Changing attitudes: Chandos,
Boys together, ch.15; Gwyn, The Tunding Row, pp.45758. What
was at stake: Times, 28 Nov.
#327 The ogged becomes the ogger: Preston Guardian, 16 Nov. A
letter from an artisan: Punch, 23 Nov.
Departure of the Second Master: Oman, Memories, p.38.
Governing bodys decision: Times, 22 Jan 1873; Gwyn, The
Tunding Row, pp.47576. The chairman and another prominent
member considered the report inadequate and resigned: Ridding,
George Ridding, p.101. Riddings distress: Ridding, p.99.
Tunded Macpherson: Oman, Memories, p.38.
THE FAMILY TREE
#328 The main sources for Clan Macpherson genealogy are Alan G.
Macphersons An old Highland genealogy and the evolution of a
Scottish Clan, Scottish studies, vol.10, 1966, pp.143; and The posterity
of the three brethren: a short history of the Clan Macpherson, its tartans, music
and heraldry (5
th
ed.), Newtonmore, Clan Macpherson Museum,
2004; also his Historians of the Macphersons, parts 1 to 4, Journal
of the Clan Chattan Association, vols VII and VIII, 19811986. (These
and other relevant articles by Alan G. Macpherson are reproduced
at http://www.sonasmor.net/AGM_menu.html. AMs questions to
Aunt Harriot, 22 May 1866, q202.
Covent Garden farce: Eliza M to her son WM, 4 Mar 1802,
q165. The play was Charles Macklins Love la mode. Seanachaidhs:
Macpherson, An old Highland genealogy, p.2; The Seanchaidhean,
part 2 of Historians of the Macphersons, Journal of the Clan Chattan
Association, vol VII, no.6, 1982.
#330 Sir Aeneas Macpherson and the Inverashie Book: Macpherson,
An old Highland genealogy, pp.36; AM to Duncan Macpherson
of Cluny, 21 Sep 1873 (extract), in Creag Dhubh, no.11, 1959; AM
to W.Forster, 25 Oct 1874, q471.
#331 Fourth cousins, the great tree and AMs reections: AM to
W.Forster, 25 Oct 1874, q471.
Sir Aeneas Macphersons tree included many illegitimate
individuals and lineages: AMs failure to acknowledge the Williams
family was in keeping with Victorian times.
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#332 AM thanks AW for all the trouble you are taking about my
troublesome affairs in both Colonies: 12 Aug 1869, q806. Poor
investments: AM to ?, 19 Apr 1871, q805; AM to AW, 24 Jan 1870,
5 Sep 1871, q806.
AWs misfortunes: AW to AM, 11 Jul 1872, q328. Softening of
the brain: W.Forster to AM, 25 Feb 1870, q471.
Colonial marriage: in 1911, when Lucy, the youngest of the
11 Williams children, turned 53, only 12 per cent of women aged
4549 were unmarried and 22 per cent of men. These gures were
signicantly lower in earlier years, when the Williams children
were at an age more likely to marry. See Peter F. McDonald,
Marriage in Australia: age at rst marriage and proportions marrying,
18601971, Canberra, Australian National University, 1975, esp.
table 40. It paid to be white: on half-castes see Henry Reynolds,
Nowhere people: how international race thinking shaped Australians identity,
Camberwell, Penguin, 2005.
Information about the Williams family is based chiey on
clippings and genealogical records in the possession of Pam
Webster, and an undated and unsigned note to Allan Crowther
Williams from one of his siblings (probably Edith Sophia) in the
possession of Elaine Williams. Allan Williams jnrs career: Matt
J.Fox (comp.), The history of Queensland: its people and industries, vol.3,
Brisbane, States Publishing, 1923, pp.34041; SMH, [?] 1931.
Frank Williams (18461904), the sixth child of Allan and Sophia
Williams, married in the 1880s and had one daughter, who died
without issue in her early twenties.
#335 Death records: NSW Registrar of Births, deaths and marriages;
Audrey Barnes, St Pauls Church of England, Canterbury, burial records,
[typescript, Earlwood, NSW] Canterbury and District Historical
Society, 1986.
RETIREMENT
AMs daily activities: AM to Arthur Holroyd, 1 Dec 1870, q806;
AM to W.Forster, 25 Oct 1874, q471. [Mrs Allan Macpherson,]
The angel of the desert: and other poems, by A Lady, Windsor (Vic.), printed
by J.E.Tarrant, 188?. (Thanks to Andrew Serjeant at the National
Library of Australia for conrming place and approximate date
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of publication. Emma probably published the booklet when she
passed through Melbourne with AM in 1884.)
#336 County and parish duties: see Blairgowrie Advertiser, 14 Nov
1891, and other clippings in WCMs family scrapbook, q727.
Clearness and vigour: Blairgowrie Advertiser, Nov 1891, clipping in
scrapbook, q727.
Pitched battle: W.Forster to AM, nd [187778], q800.
Weighing machine controversy: Dundee Advertiser, 22 Nov 1879,
Perthshire Advertiser, 24 Nov, q450.
Reconciliation: W.Forster to AM, 19 Aug 1874; AM to
W.Forster, 25 Oct 1874; W.Forster to AM, 12 Feb 1875, q471.
Grumpy old men: W.Forster to AM, nd [c.1877], 26 Aug
1880, 18 Sep 1880, and other letters and fragments, q805; 67
Jun 1875, q471; and AM to W.Forster, nd [1876], q471; also AM
to Archibald Michie, nd [Sep 1876], q805. Forster published his
views at this time in Political presentments, London, Trubner, 1878;
see also Gregory Melleuish, William Forster and the critique of
democracy in colonial New South Wales, conference paper,
Dunedin 2005, Australasian Political Studies Association http://
auspsa.anu.edu.au/proceedings/publications/Melluishpaper.pdf
[accessed 10 August 2006].
#337 Visit from the Forsters: AM to AW, 29 Oct[?] 1876, q806.
Court dress: W.Forster to AM, nd [1875?], q805; also Bede Nairn,
Forster, William (18181882), ADB, vol. 4, pp.199201.
#338 AM advises Forster: 30 Jun 1877, and nd[1879?], 16 Oct 1879,
q471; 26 Aug 1877, q805. Forsters recall: Forster to AM, 15 Oct,
3 Nov 1879, q471; see also David S.MacMillan, The Australians
in London, 18571880: a study in the opinions and inuence of
Sir Charles Nicholson and his circle, with a consideration of the
career of William Forster as Agent General for NSW, and of the
circumstances of his dismissal, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical
Society, vol.44, pt 3, Sep 1958.
AM on emigration: AM to Archibald Michie, nd [Sep 1876],
q805. Hatred of human nature: AM to W.Forster, 27 Mar 1877,
q471. Colonial properties: letters re properties 186881, q328;
List of AM property transactions, 17 Mar 1884, q807; Hardie &
Gorman (solicitors, Sydney) to Emma M, 20 Apr 1896, q804.
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Strawberries and jam: WCM to Emma M, 19 May 1880,
q486; WCM to AM, 3 Sep 1883, q486; Representative documents
assembled by WCM, with his covering note 9 Jun 1928, q451.
#339 AMs death: Ella Ms 1890s journals, q813. Debts: WCM to
Tim [Burra], 7 Jun 1931, scrapbook, q727.
AMs obituary: Blairgowrie Advertiser, Nov 1891, clipping in
scrapbook, q727.
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16 DUTY
#340 Winchester destinations in 1870s were military 21.4%,
business 14.9%, law 12.2%, church 8.4%; Imperial civil service
accounted for just 5%: T.J.H.Bishop, Winchester and the public school
elite: a statistical analysis, London, Faber and Faber, 1967, p.67.
Changing relationship: see John M.Mackenzie, Empire and
metropolitan cultures, and Robin J.Moore, Imperial India, 1858
1914, in Andrew Porter (ed.), The nineteenth century, The Oxford
history of the British empire, vol.3, Oxford, OUP, 1999, pp.28081,
42227. Passing through Ceylon: A Lady [Emma Macpherson],
My experiences in Australia. Being recollections of a visit to the Australian
colonies in 18567, London, J.F.Hope, 1860, p.338.
SERVING THE RAJ
#341 This section draws substantially on David Gilmour, The ruling
caste: imperial lives in the Victorian Raj, London, John Murray, 2005;
although Gilmour did not refer to the Macpherson Collection,
WCMs attitudes and experiences resonate through his pages. For
other views on the Indian Civil Service see Bradford Spangenberg,
British bureaucracy in India: status, policy and the I.C.S., in the late 19
th

century, New Delhi, Manohar, 1976; and Maria Misra, Colonial
ofcers and gentlemen: the British Empire and the globalization
of tradition, Journal of global history, vol.3, issue 3, 2008. On use
of the term career: David Lambert and Alan Lester (eds), Colonial
lives across the British empire: imperial careering in the long nineteenth century,
Cambridge, CUP, editors Introduction, pp.2124. On competitive
Indian Civil Service, see J.M.Compton, Open competition and
the Indian civil service, 18541876, English historical review, vol.83,
no.327, Apr 1968; C.J.Dewey, The education of a ruling caste:
the Indian civil service in the era of competitive examination,
English historical review, vol.88, no.347, Apr 1973; and Gilmour,
Ruling caste, ch.2.
Wrens college: letters to or relating to Wren, 187275, q486
and q509; Ritchie, The Ritchies in India, p.301; M. C. Curthoys,
Wren, Walter (18341898), ODNB. Crammers: Dewey, The
education of a ruling caste, pp.27273; Gilmour, Ruling caste,
p.45.
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#342 Dreadful examination: WCM to Emma M, 23 Mar 1874,
q509. Perhaps to spite the crammers: WCM to AM, 3 Apr 1874,
q509. On ofcial hostility to crammers: Dewey, The education of
a ruling caste, p.272;
Demanding Commissioner: WCM to Emma M, 14 Nov 1875,
q486. Attending courts: WCM to AM, 17 Jun 1875, q486.
Brother Alan had sat for the ICS examination but failed:
AM to W.Forster, 13 May 1877, q471. George and Ewan favour
Winchester: Ridding, George Ridding, p.101.
#343 On board SS Viceroy: WCMs shipboard diary, 1324 Nov
1877, q486.
Reception at Calcutta: WCM to AM, 28 Dec 1877, q508.
Sylhet (Karim Ganj): WCM to Emma M, 29 Sep 1878, 19 May
1880, q486. Civilians avoided Assam (and Bengal): Gilmour,
Ruling caste, p.59.
#344 Indian population gures are at http://www.chaf.lib.latrobe.
edu.au/dcd/census.htm. Missing examinations: WCM to Emma M,
25 Nov 1880, q486.
Risk of violence: WCM to Emma M, 19 May 1880, q486.
#345 Rowdy planters: quoted in Gilmour, Ruling caste, p.102. WCM
and Charlie: Ritchie, The Ritchies in India, p.296; from the letters
home, WCM seems to be chiey concerned in keeping Charlie
out of nancial and other troubles.
Tiresome district work: WCM to AM, 3 Sep 1883, q486;
Gilmour, Ruling caste, pp.12328. On Mount Abundance: WCM to
Emma M, 19 May 1880, q486.
Shillong: WCM to Emma M, 16 Jul, 7 Aug 1883, q486.
Entertainments: WCM to Emma M, 16 Jul, 7 Aug 1883, q486. On
Indian Civil Service preoccupations with precedence see Gilmour,
Ruling caste, pp.7778.
#346 Pleasant berth: WCM to AM, 3 Sep 1883, q486. Trip by
palanquin: WCM (Gaza District, Bengal) to Emma M, 1884,
q486.
#347 Cheerless days: WCM to Emma M, 4 Dec 1884, q486. Diary
entries, Nov 1884, q486. Anxious time: WCM to Emma M, 4 Dec
1884, q486.
Maharani (of Tikari)s invitation: WCM to Emma M, 4 Dec
1884, q486.
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'THE PRIZES & THE HONOURS OF THE
SERVICE'
#348 What was it all for: see inter al. Mackenzie, Empire and metropolitan
cultures, pp.27093. Indian Civil Service salaries: Gilmour, Ruling
caste, pp.22122; as Gilmour explains, the depreciation of the
rupee had a marked impact on salaries. Shivering nights: eg WCM
to Emma M, 4 Dec 1884, q486.
Orders of chivalry: Thomas R.Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj (The
New Cambridge History of India, III.4), Cambridge, CUP, 1994, pp.77
78. WCM ambitious: WCM to AM, 3 Sep 1883, q486.
#349 Empress of India debate, inc. Lowes comment: Metcalf,
Ideologies, pp.6063.
AMs respect for Lowe: A.Patchett Martin, Life and letters of the
Right Honourable Robert Lowe Viscount Sherbrooke, London, Longmans,
Green, and Co., 1893, vol.II, p.14.
#350 Learning Bengali: WCM to Emma M, 29 Sep 1878, q486.
Intention to study agriculture: WCM to Emma M, 16 Jul 1883,
q486; at this stage he hoped to enrol at the Royal Agricultural
College at Cirencester, but his name does not appear on College
class lists (information kindly provided by RAC).
On attitudes of ofcials in Indian Civil Service, see Gilmour,
Ruling caste, esp. ch.12. For a critical summary, Moore, Imperial
India, 18581914, pp.42930. On British sense of superiority, see
Metcalf, Ideologies, esp.ch.3.
Legislation relating to Indian magistrates: this was the Ilbert
Bill, which Gilmour says provoked a spectacular case of Anglo-
Indian collective hysteria; see Gilmour, Ruling caste, pp.13234;
Metcalf, Ideologies, pp.20314; Barbara Caine, Bombay to Bloomsbury:
a biography of the Strachey family, Oxford, OUP, 2005, pp.4748.
WCMs view: to AM, 3 Sep 1883, q486.
On arguments about empire see Mackenzie, Empire and
metropolitan cultures.
#351 Beginnings of the Second Afghan War: WCM to Emma M, 12
Oct 1878; to George M, 24 Nov 1878, q486.
Distressing state of things: WCM to Emma M, 27 Dec
1879, q486.
#352 On marriage in Indian Civil Service: Gilmour, Ruling caste,
ch.14.
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WCMs marriage: Blairgowrie Advertiser, 23 Oct 1886.
#353 Calcutta society: Ella M to Emma M, 28 Dec 1886; and WM
to Emma M, 30 Nov 1886, q486. Ellas pony: Ella M to Emma M,
28 Dec 1886, q486.
As happy as possible: WCM to Emma M, 15 May 1887, q486.
One l or two: note by WCM in Ella M to Emma M, Jun 1887,
q486.
Drudgery of desk work: WCM to AM, 4 Dec 1886, q486.
#354 WCMs appointments are set out in his Career and obituary
le, unnumbered, Macpherson Collection; also Isla M to Alan
D.M, 16 Feb 1966, q727; and Blairgowrie Advertiser, 18 Nov 1927,
q450. Hard work at Mozufferpore: Ella Ms journal, Apr 1889,
q813. Standard reference work: WCM career and obituary le;
A.M.A.Munith, The Deputy Commissioner and development
administration, in Nagendra Kr. Singh (ed.), Encyclopaedia of
Bangladesh, Anmol Publications, 2003, pp.12930. The ofcial
replacement was the District Ofcers Handy Reference Book, pub.1901
and rev.1908 and 1918 (BL holds a copy of the 1908 edition).
Appointment to settlement work: WCM to Ella M, 29 Nov
1891, q813. Revenue survey: Peter Robb, Ancient rights and future
comforts: Bihar, the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885, and British rule in India,
Richmond (Surrey), Curzon, 1997, esp.ch.8; Banglapedia: National
Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (http://banglapedia.net/english/index.htm)
includes lucid articles on Land survey, Permanent settlement,
Bengal Tenancy Act 1885, etc. Elliott justies the proposed Bihar
survey in his Reply to an address of the indigo planters of Behar and
Sonepur, Nov., 1891, in Charles Alfred Elliott [and F.H.B.Skrine],
Laborious days: leaves from the Indian record of Sir Charles Alfred Elliott,
Calcutta, printed by J.Larkins, 1892, appendix, pp.xxiii.
Physically exhausting: Diary of tour in the Central Provinces
(printed extract from an unidentied ofcial document), WCM
Record of services in India scrapbook, unnumbered, Macpherson
Collection.
#355 Watch chain: Isla M to Alan D.M, 16 Feb 1966, q727.
Forecast of asco: H.J.S.Cotton, quoted in Robb, Ancient rights,
p.275. Outcomes of the survey: Robb, p.277, concludes that in the
long term, since the registers were not maintained, the state merely
succeeded in entrenching the successes of the strong. The Bihar
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survey took ten years to complete. On settlement work generally
see Gilmour, The ruling caste, pp.10914.
Tauzi: Note by Alan D.M in The Macphersons of Blairgowrie,
copy 2. (Ella M referred to WCMs appointment to hunt the Tauzi:
Ella M journal, 9 Dec 1894, q813.) Right-hand man: Elliotts
address to civil servants, in clipping from Englishman (Calcutta),
[day and month missing] 1895, WCM Record of services in India.
#356 Elliotts recommendation: WCM to C.W.Bolton, 15 Jul 1898;
Bolton to WCM, 18 Jul 1898; WCM to F.W.Duke, 18 Nov 1911,
WCM Career and obituary le.
#357 Quick promotions: WCM to Alan D.M, 2 Sep 1929, q452.
Imperious Emma: WCM to Sir Andrew Fraser, 12 Dec 1905,
WCM Record of services in India. Possible retirement: WCM
to Fraser, 19 Jun 1905; Fraser to WCM, 3 Oct, WCM Record of
services in India. On signicance of the Revenue Board see entry
in Banglapedia.
On the partition of Bengal see [Andrew H.L.Fraser,] The
administration of Bengal under Sir Andrew Fraser, K.C.S.I. 19031908,
Calcutta, Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, 1908; Fraser, Among Indian
rajahs and ryots, Allahabad, Chugh Publications, 1911, ch.XXIII;
Katherine Prior, Fraser, Sir Andrew Henderson Leith (18481919),
ODNB; Gordon Johnson, Partition, agitation and Congress: Bengal
1904 to 1908, Modern Asian studies, vol.7, no.3, 1973; Vinod Kumar
Saxena (ed.), The partition of Bengal (19051911): select documents, Delhi,
Kanishka, 1987; P.G.Robb, The evolution of British policy towards Indian
politics 18801920: essays on colonial attitudes, imperial strategies, and Bihar,
New Delhi, Manohar, 1992, esp.ch.3; Sukharanjan Sengupta,
Curzons partition of Bengal and aftermath, Kolkata, Naya Udyog, 2006.
WCM appears to have supported Frasers policies, though his
precise role awaits further investigation.
#358 Baker and memorial: Isla M to Alan D.M, 16 Feb 1966, q727.
WCM was inuenced by the medical scientist (Sir) Leonard Rogers:
see also Rogers, Happy toil: fty-ve years of tropical medicine, London,
Frederick Muller, 1950, p.159; G.C.Cook, Leonard Rogers KCSI
FRCP FRS (18681962) and the founding of the Calcutta School of
Tropical Medicine, Notes and records of the Royal Society, vol.60, no.2,
May 2006; money left over from building the statue eventually
went to the School.
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Abrupt resignation: WCM to Under-Secretary of State for
India, 5 Sep 1911; to C.J.Stevenson Moore, 5 Sep 1911; to Duke,
18 Nov 1911, WCM Record of services in India. The immediate
cause of WCMs resignation related to the governments reluctance
to bring him back from leave to undertake a short project for which
he was especially well qualied.
Maharajahs request: Rajendra Mohan Gupta to WCM, 29
May 1911; WCM to Gupta 27 Jun, WCM Record of services in
India. Most experienced ofcer: Capital, 22 Sep 1910; unswerving
devotion: Empire (Calcutta), extracted in Statesman (Calcutta), 23
Dec 1911; no British ofcer: Statesman, 4 Apr 1911: all clippings in
WCM Record of services in India.
CONSOLATIONS
#359 Alan D.Ms career: Clunys account of Cluny, Creag Dhubh, vol.3,
no.18, 1966; wartime letters to parents and note by WCM, q301;
Alan D.M.s notes re Passchendaele, 1918, q811; letters from Alan
D.M. to WCM, 1926, q453.
Conict in Waziristan: Brian Robson, Crisis on the frontier: the
third Afghan war and the campaign in Waziristan 19191920, Staplehurst
(Kent), Spellmount, 2004; Robson refers to the conict as the last
act of the Third Afghan War (p.xiii).
#360 Palestine: WCM to Alan D.M., 2 Sep 1829, q452.
WCMs daughters: information from Jean Ann Scott Miller
and Sir William Macpherson, 2009. Sheila the doctor: Sheila M to
WCM, 25 Jul [1925], q545.
#361 Kalimpong: letters from Sheila and Isla to their parents,
192829, q823; J.A.Graham to WCM and Ella M, 30 Jan 1829,
q823; James R.Minto, Graham of Kalimpong, Edinburgh, William
Blackwood, 1974 (inc. the Anglo-Indian problem). WCMs links
with Graham: Statesman (Calcutta), 4 Apr 1911; St Andrews Homes
letterhead, q823.
David Macpherson (born 1900): see D.W.K.Macpherson,
Little birds and elephants: a diary in Portuguese East Africa & Nyasaland
19281929, ed. Isabel Macpherson, Blonay (Switzerland), Denham
House, 2005; and http://www.birdsandelephants.com/home.htm
[accessed 1 Mar 2009].
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#362 Financial problems: WCM to Tim [Burra], 7 Jun 1931, WCMs
family scrapbook, q727; Alan D.M. to WCM, Jan 1926, q453.
George M died at the Battle of Loos on 27 Sep 1915; Blairgowrie
Advertiser, 2 Oct 1915; typescript documents by WCM on the
Blake, Powney, Denis and Beswick families, dating from the 1890s,
Blake-Espitali Collection. Raspberries: Blairgowrie Advertiser, Jul
1936.
A rich mans plaything: Alan D.M. to WCM (quoting his
father back to him), Jan 1926, q453. Selling Blairgowrie: WCM to
Tim [Burra], 7 Jun 1931, scrapbook, q727; Sheila to WCM, 8, 19
Jun [1928]; Isla to WCM, 19 Jun [1928], q823.
#363 Macphersons of Blairgowrie: WCM to Tim [Burra], 7 Jun
1931, scrapbook, q727. Over 700 acres: Return of owners of lands
and heritages in Scotland, 187273, Edinburgh, Murray & Gibb, 1874,
p.166 (estimating 741 acres).
WCMs community service: Blairgowrie Advertiser, [?] Jul 1936.
Isobel M (died 1760s): note by WCM [c1933], q453.
Research on Emma Ms ancestry is in WCMs family scrapbook,
q727. Research on Uncle Allan: WCM to Sir John M (Somerset),
18 Mar 1932, and Sir John M to WCM, 23 Mar, q473.
Soldiering in India: relevant papers at q185, 454, 500, 518, 825;
quotations are from the Introduction, p.v.
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17 REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING
#365 Funeral of Allan M (181891): Blairgowrie Advertiser, 14 Nov
1891.
MONUMENTS
#367 Emperor of bust-chisellers: Gentlemans magazine, vol.XCIII, Aug
1823, p.167.
Memorial to James Ossian Macpherson: Fiona J.Stafford,
The sublime savage: a study of James Macpherson and the poems of Ossian,
Edinburgh, Edinburgh UP, 1988, p.6; Extract will of James
Macpherson, 10 Sep 1793, q202; AM to Col. Duncan M of Cluny,
3 May 1800, and encs, q233.
#368 Macintyres tablet: Alistair K.Macintyre and Alan
G.Macpherson, Lieut-Gen John Macintyre, the laird of Balavil
that never was, Creag Dhubh, no.59, 2007.
#369 Burial of William and Jessy: see Keith A.Johnson and Malcolm
R.Sainty (comps), Gravestone inscriptions N.S.W., vol. 1, Sydney Burial
Ground, Sydney, Genealogical Publications, 1973. My thanks to
John L.Macpherson for help in tracing burial details.
Stained glass: SMH, 4 Dec 1868; S.M.Johnstone, The book
of St Andrews Cathedral Sydney, rev. J.H.L.Johnstone, Sydney,
Angus& Robertson, 1968 (rst published 1937), pp.10307.
The artist was Charles Edmund Clutterbuck, from Stratford in
East London. The subjects, probably selected by the Cathedral
Building Committee, are Moses lifting up the serpent, John the
Baptist preaching in the wilderness, and Abraham offering up
Isaac. A design for the window is in the Macpherson Collection.
Oddly, relevant minute books in the Sydney Diocesan Archives
do not mention the window or the donation. Pulpit in St
Catharines Church, Blairgowrie: Blairgowrie Advertiser, Jan 1893,
clipping in q727.
#370 Asheld graveyard: Audrey Barnes (comp.), St. Pauls Church
of England, Canterbury, burial records, [typescript, Earlwood (NSW),]
Canterbury and District Historical Society, 1986, pp.2,54.
Dugald Stewart monument: Gordon Macintyre, Dugald Stewart:
the pride and ornament of Scotland, Brighton, Sussex Academic Press,
2003, pp.12,22830 (quotation p.1); Listed Building Report,
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Historic Scotland http://hsewsf.sedsh.gov.uk/hslive/hsstart?P_
HBNUM=27835 [accessed 10 Feb 2009].
#371 Bush monument: Hugh Gordon Munro, The monument at Keera:
with brief historical notes and details of places of interest at Keera Station, near
Bingara, N.S.W., Australia, 14th February, 1960 [Bingara, NSW, privately
published] 1960, with accompanying program; on Munro, see
Jillian Oppenheimer, Munros luck: from Scotland to Keera, Weebollabolla,
Boombah and Ross Roy, Walcha, Ohio Productions, 1998. Great
Australian silence: W.E.H.Stanner, The 1968 Boyer Lectures: After the
Dreaming, Sydney, ABC, 1968, p.25.
PLACES
#373 Spiritual home: Paul Basu, Macpherson Country: genealogical
identities, spatial histories and the Scottish diasporic clanscape,
Cultural geographies, vol.12, no.2, 2005; and his Highland homecomings:
genealogy and heritage tourism in the Scottish diaspora, London, Routledge,
2007, esp.pp.13344 (and p.141 for the cairn).
#374 Keera ood: Munro, The monument at Keera, p.16. Bernera re:
The leader (Liverpool), 16 Apr 1986. Well-designed vernacular:
The heritage of Australia: the illustrated register of the National Estate, South
Melbourne, Macmillan in association with the Australian Heritage
Commission, 1981, p.2/21. Bernera was recorded on the Register of
the National Estate in 1980: http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-
bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;place_id=3290 [accessed
15 Mar 2009].
#375 Location of Mt Abundance head station: information from
Peter Keegan, Roma; my thanks, too, to Pat and Don Tite of
Mount Abundance homestead.
PAPER
#376 Excising documents re strawberries: note by WCM, 9 Jun
1928, q451. Destroying unkind letters: note by WCM, nd,
q432.
#377 Publication of My experiences: AM to J.F.Hope Publisher, 11
Apr 1859; Copy of agreement between AM and J.F.Hope, 14 July
1859, q381. Printing of Mount Abundance: letters and documents at
q800.
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107
Book of annals: WCM to Emma M, 24 Jun 1888, q486.
Printed annals: The Macphersons of Blairgowrie, copies A and
B, Macpherson Collection.
#378 Edward Homer Williams: war diary, Elsie Homer Williams
Collection; Letters, photographs and postcards, PR01220,
Australian War Memorial (this includes typescript copy of
diary); service record, item 1806615, B2455/1, National
Archives of Australia http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/ItemDetail.
asp?M=0&B=1806615; L.C.Wilson and H.Wetherell, History of the
Fifth Light Horse Regiment, 19141919, part 1: from September, 1914,
to October, 1917, Sydney, Motor Press, 1926 http://www.anzacs.
org/5lhr/index.html.
#379 Fine views: Shell Green Cemetery, Commonwealth War
Graves Commission http://www.cwgc.org/search/cemetery_
details.aspx?cemetery=66901&mode=1.
#380 Henry Stuart Homer Williams: Australian Imperial Force
War Diary of 53
rd
Infantry Battalion for April 1918, item number
23/70/21, Australian War Memorial http://www.awm.gov.au/
cms_images/AWM4/23/AWM4-23-70-21.pdf; service record, item
1808271, B2455/1, National Archives of Australia http://naa12.naa.
gov.au/scripts/ItemDetail.asp?M=0&B=1808271. On burying and
remembering war dead see K.S.Inglis, Sacred places: war memorials in the
Australian landscape, Melbourne, Miegunyah, 1998, esp.pp.85106.
#381 The familys story: Matt.J.Fox (ed.), History of Queensland: its
people and industries, vol.3, Adelaide, Hussey & Gillingham for the
States Publishing Co., Brisbane, 1923, pp.34041; also A pioneer
passes, typescript obituary for Allan Williams [1931], Elsie Homer
Williams Collection.
#382 On Australia as a white mans country see, inter al., Marilyn
Lake and Henry Reynolds, Drawing the global colour line: white mens
countries and the question of racial equality, Carlton (Vic.), Melbourne
UP, 2008, esp.ch.6.

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EPILOGUE
#384 I feel that he is home: Statement by Neville Lawrence to
the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, 7 March 1998, Appendix 7 to
the Inquiry, 1999 [http://www.archive.ofcial-documents.co.uk/
document/cm42/4262/sliap07a.htm, accessed 7 Mar 2005]. Daily
Mail declaration: 14 Feb 1997.
#385 Two senior police ofcers: John G.D.Grieve and Julie
French, Does institutional racism exist in the Metropolitan Police
Service?, in David G.Green (ed.), Institutional Racism and the Police:
fact or ction?, London, Institute for the Study of Civil Society, 2000
[http://www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/cs06.pdf, accessed 1 Jun 2009]. The
literature relating to the Macpherson Report is vast, beginning in
1999 and extending throughout the period I have been writing this
book. It includes articles by some of Britains best known social
commentators.
Travels to Australia: Clunys message for 2001, Creag Dhubh,
2001, no.53, p.5; and information from Sir William Macpherson.
Properties north of Sydney: plans and documents at q804.
Williams family: newspaper clippings and documents in
the Elsie Homer Williams Collection, in the possession of Pam
Webster; interview with Pam Webster, 22 Jul 2005; Former
Homevale Station: a conservation plan for the Nebo Shire Council,
Brisbane, Adam Lovell Architects, 2004 [http://www.nebo.qld.
gov.au/images/PDF%20Files/FormerHomevaleHomestead.pdf,
accessed 6 Feb 2009].
#386 Instinctive understanding: Mackay Daily Mercury, 4 Jul 1981.
#387 The fth Allan Williams and his family: Paula Heelan, Family
favourite, R.M.Williams Outback, issue 41, JunJul 2005. Riverside
station was previously known as Goonyella.