autograph letter signed agents messrs von johnston george (1 Ergebnisse)

Folded sheet of laid paper 310 x 190mm, folded to letter-size with postal marks and retaining the original seal; watermarked S LAY identified as made by Samuel Lay at St. Mary Cray Mill Sittingbourne Kent England, around 1793. The earliest letter from Sydney that we have ever handled, thought to be the earliest surviving unofficial manuscript letter written in Australia by a free settler, one of the most important figures on Australia's First Fleet. The only similar letter pre-dating it is two years earlier from the convict Mary Reiby and now "one of the treasures" in the collection of the State Library of New South Wales. Few people had a more remarkable career in colonial New South Wales than Johnston (1764-1823), who arrived on board the Sirius as an officer of the Marines in 1788 and was one of the more senior First Fleeters to take a commission in the New South Wales Corps. He is now most famous for his contentious role in the Rum Rebellion of 1808 but many of his contemporaries remembered him as the man who led the soldiers against the Irish rebels at Castle Hill in 1804. Cashiered after the mutiny trial, in later life he finally returned to Sydney and his property at Annandale. Phillip's open conflict with many of the Marines, including the commanding officer, Major Robert Ross, has been long canvassed, but the short version is that the political masters in England decided to cut the Gordian knot by creating a new group, part standing army and part military police, to be known as the New South Wales Corps. Most of the new Corps came out newly from England, but a small company of First Fleeters decided to stay on in the colony. Johnston was initially hesitant, but ultimately accepted the command of these old hands from Phillip, as the Governor confirmed in letters he sent home, noting "I beg leave to mention Capt. Geo. Johnston fully having the recommendation which I have been permitted to make" (HRA, I:3, p. 47). The present letter relates specifically to Johnston's new position in the Corps, and is a sharp lesson in the complexities and anxieties the new appointees were under. In fine original condition, headed "Sydney New South Wales Aug. 26th. 1794," the manuscript is addressed to the bankers and military agents Cox, providing a fascinating insight into the tremendous complexity involved in banking in a different hemisphere. Johnston writes of his alarm at having been allowed to read a letter sent to Sydney by John Long, adjutant of the Marines, who had recently returned on the Gorgon. Long had written to the Rev. Richard Johnson himself something of a poste restante office for news and gossip describing the latest news about promotions and commissions, all of which was so confused that Johnston found himself in the unenviable position of not actually knowing his actual rank nor when his commission dated from: these were not merely academic concerns, because Johnston would have known that it would not only affect his pay but could have ramifications for his actual authority. If any money was owing, he notes, please to have it paid to his mother. The letter would have been carried on the Bonningtons or Sugar Cane, both ships leaving Sydney Cove on 13 October 1794. The postal marks show that it arrived in London on 27 February and was delivered 28 February 1795. Johnston's unexpected and long stay in the colony is a fiery, spirited story. It spanned from 26 January 1788, when he is said to have been the first Englishman to step ashore at Port Jackson, to his death in 1823 when he was buried in the Francis Greenway designed vault on his Annandale farm. This is one of the earliest Australian manuscripts to have been offered for sale in modern times. The earliest known Australian letter from a free settler, it is an evocative and iconic treasure from the first years of our nation's history. . Torn where originally opened but in excellent condition.