Old Catalogue
Manuscripts, oral history and pictures catalogue
Adlib Internet Server 5
Try the new catalogue. Start exploring now ›

Details



Print
9662540
  • Title
    Major-General Charles Neville letter to Rev. Josiah Pratt relating to George Bruce, August 1815
  • Creator
  • Call number
    MLMSS 11565
  • Level of description
    fonds
  • Date

    1815
  • Type of material
  • Reference code
    9662540
  • Physical Description
    0.03 metres of textual material (1 folder) - manuscript
  • ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

    Major-General Charles Neville (1760-1837) was vice-president of the Church Missionary Society and Rev. Josiah Pratt (1768-1844) was its secretary. The subject of the letter, George Bruce (1778?-1819) was convicted at the Old Bailey of housebreaking and stealing and sentenced to death. However, his sentence was commuted to transportation for life and he arrived at Sydney in 1792. He received a free pardon and after working as a sailor he served as a police officer before being sentenced to six months hard labour for drinking illicit spirits he had been ordered to seize. He escaped from prison after receiving a sentence of 200 lashes for his involvement in a fight and was on the run for several months until Governor King (who needed experienced sailors) gave him permission to return to sea.

    In 1806 Bruce sailed to New Zealand in the Lady Nelson but abandoned the ship when it arrived at the Bay of Islands. He decided to settle there becoming probably the first European to live in New Zealand. He was made a chief and married a Maori chief’s daughter.

    After further adventures he arrived in London in 1810 and joined the navy. In 1813 he petitioned the Colonial Office for a passage to New Zealand where he claimed he would be of great assistance to traders and missionaries. However, in an 1814 dispatch to the Colonial Office Governor Lachlan Macquarie recommended that he should never be allowed to return to NSW or New Zealand citing his desertion from the Lady Nelson, abandonment of his wife, drunkenness and dissolute behaviour. As a result, his petition was denied and he died in Greenwich Hospital in 1819.

    This letter shows that the Colonial Office was not the only recipient of Bruce’s petition – he had also sent it to the Church Missionary Society. Unfortunately for Bruce, Neville's enquiries revealed that his petition had been repeatedly refused on Macquarie’s recommendation and so concluded that “it will be in vain to press the Question upon Governance, but the Committee will probably decide as to the ulterior measures to be taken.”

    Reference: Library acquisition file and collection
  • Scope and Content
    Manuscript in ink, 2 pp, written on a single quarto leaf of unwatermarked wove paper; addressed to Rev. J. Pratt (Church Missionary Society secretary), headed Pall Mall, Augt. 14th 1815, and signed at the foot Most truly yours, Ch. Neville (CMS vice-president); annotated in red ink by a CMS clerk Major General Neville to Secretary, and in black Com[mitt]ee Aug. 28/15 (indicating it was read before the CMS Committee on that date)
  • Language
  • Copying Conditions
    Out of copyright:
    Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
  • Creator/Author/Artist
  • Subject

Share this result by email