SIR THOMAS BRISBANE to EARL BATHURST
(Dispatch marked " No. 22 of 1822," per ship Shipley; acknowledged by Earl Bathurst, 1st April, 1823.)
Government House, Sydney, New South WaleS
6th Septr., 1822
My Lord,
The accompanying voluminous enclosures relate to a transaction, whose leading particulars I propose summarily submitting to Your Lordship. On the thirty first of last July, Dr. Hall, of the Royal Navy and late Surgeon Superintendent of the Mary Ann, female Convict Ship, called in company with Sir John Jamison, a Settler in this Colony, at the house of Dr Douglass in Parramatta during his absence. This Gentleman came from England, bearing an Appointment on the Medical establishment and has engaged himself since his arrival in the Superintendence of the female Factory at Parramatta, much to his own credit, with great satisfaction to my feelings and considerable advantage to the community.
Dr. Hall appeared much Agitated at the time of his visit, and, seeing Anne Rumsby, a young and handsome Convict Girl who had arrived in the Vessel whereof he had enjoyed the Superintendence, beckoned to her to follow him. Saying, 'I want you, Ann.' She followed him in consequence, being absent about three minutes; but very little if any conversation could at this time have passed, neither Dr. Hall nor Sir John Jamison delaying as they walked through the Garden. Dr. Hall appears to have afterwards parted with his companion, and met a Messenger on the road to Sydney, whom he engages under the promise of a reward to go back to the house of Dr. Douglass and tell Anne Rumsby that he wanted to speak to her; on his return from executing the wish of Dr. Hall, the Messenger meets that Gentleman walking in great haste towards Dr, Douglass, and looking behind sees the Girl with equal haste coming to meet Dr. Hall. He did not think it right to take much farther notice, but saw them nevertheless talking together for a little while, when they retired from the road into some brush wood, where they remained about twenty minutes. They afterwards returned to the road together, where they separated; when the Girl, coming back to her home, was questioned as to what had been passing, and said that Dr. Hall had been making her promises and given her a ten shilling note.
On the evening of this day, Dr. Hall meets Mr. Marsden about half past nine in Sydney and solicits his interference to obtain Ann Rumsby's quiet removal from her Master, in consequence of her having told him, as he stated, that, if she remained there, Douglas would be her ruin. On the 2d of August, Dr. Hall sends to Ann Rumsby through Sir John Jamison and Mr. Marsden an open Letter, which, as she cannot read herself, is read to her by one of the footmen. In this Letter, she is requested to send to Mr. Marsden a repetition of her alleged Statement on 31st , and directed to scream for help in case any one attempts her violation; a second Letter is afterwards sent importuning an Answer to the first.
The banns of marriage between Ann Rumsby and a Convict, named Bragge, were published by Mr. Marsden on the fourth of August. The day preceding, Dr. Douglass meeting Mr. Marsden accidentally at the Gate of an Inn is advised to send his maid Servant into the Factory, which he refuses to do, and, asking Mr. Marsden for the reason of his advice, the reason is denied though the advice is repeated.
Precisely the same conversation attended with the same result takes place on the 10th. On the afternoon of which day, Dr. Douglass asks Ann Rumsby whether Mr. Marsden's application to have her removed to the Factory is in consequence of any wish that she may have expressed; when she replies, 'No; but Mr. Marsden, by urging that request, seeks to be her ruin.', Ann Rumsby tells one of the men Servants on the twelfth the conversation, she has holden with Dr. Hall, and her fears lest his misconstruction may lead to her being sent to the factory. He advising her to tell the whole to her Master, she enters the parlour on the 13th whilst Dr. Douglass is at breakfast, asking to speak to him privately. He informs her that whatever she has to say she had better say there, as nobody was present but his little daughter; she then for the first time informs him of the two mysterious letters sent by Dr. Hall. He immediately takes her to her Mistress, where she accounts for the receipt of these letters in consequence of an expression to Dr. Hall, which he had misconstrued.
Instantly on this flies Dr. Douglass to mention the particulars to Dr. MacLeod; and, shortly after going into Court, he meets a brother Magistrate, whom he takes with him to his house to interrogate the girl; in all haste he further dispatches his Gig to Sydney with notes both to Mr. Marsden and to Mr. Hall requesting them each to come to his house and investigate so unpleasant an affair. Dr. Hall returns a reply that, although business prevents his immediate presence, he will come there in the course of the Week. Mr. Marsden arrives in the Gig the next morning, and never goes near Dr. Douglass, nor sends him any message, nor sees him until the afternoon of the following day, when he informs him that Dr. Hall will by and by come to Parramatta.
It was at the Orphan School that they thus accidentally met, and Mr. Marsden received Dr. Douglass with more than common cordiality.
In the meanwhile, Dr. Hall had been swearing an Affidavit in the Public Office of the Judge Advocate, detailing a variety of indecent liberties taken by Dr. Douglass with the person of Ann Rumsby, according to her alleged Statement; and two days afterwards, he addresses a Letter to Mr. Marsden expressive of his surprise that no immediate steps had been taken to free the young woman without exposing the Master, agreeably to his wish verbally communicated on the thirty first of July; and he ends with a proposal to call on Mr. Marsdon on the fifteenth of August, and request him to summons Ann Rumsby to a private examination in his presence, in order that the result may be laid before the Governor. Dr. Douglass attends the Bench upon Thursday, and finds Mr. Marsden addressing a Letter to Dr. Hall at Parramatta; not a little surprised at so unexpected a discovery. He sends to his own house, but learns that Dr. Hall has not called. Immediately he seeks an explanation with Mr. Marsden from whom he elicits with difficulty a confession of having received a letter from Dr. Hall, criminating the character of Dr. Douglass, but which he refuses to produce. Mr. Hannibal MacArthur now advises Dr. Douglass to send the female to the Factory, in which he acquiesces; but on returning to his home and acquainting Ann Rumsby, she raises such violent objections, as to stagger the resolution of Dr. Douglass, and make him send for Mr. Hannibal MacArthur; who, on his arrival, interrogates the woman, and she still persists in her refusal to go into the factory, since she had not committed any crime for which she deserved punishment. It is then agreed to walk to Mr. Marsden's, where Dr. Hall is at dinner. Dr. Douglass, on reaching the house, requests Mr. Marsden to shew him the Letter of Dr. Hall.
Mr. Hannibal MacArthur acknowledges to have seen it, and states that the charges against Dr. Douglass are in a high degree serious. Mr. Marsden refuses to shew it. Dr. Douglass then requests Mr. Hannibal MacArthur to ask Dr. Hall's permission that it may be produced. Dr. Hall refuses his assent, until the girl shall have first been removed from under the influence of Dr. Douglass. Dr. Douglass then proposes to send her to the house of Mr. Marsden; Mr. Marsden refuses to receive her.
The next morning, Dr. Douglass dispatches Ann Rumsby to Sydney and produces her before me. I ask her, if she has any complaints against her Master; she says that she has none, but has always been treated with the greatest Kindness, and returns to Parramatta. In the mean while, the Bench assembles; Dr. Hall appears; The girl is sent for, but she is at Sydney. The Magistrates therefore, promising to Summons her for a future day, pass a resolution, in consequence of her having been taken away, not to associate or Act with Dr. Douglass as a Magistrate, which is forwarded to me officially. The Bench assembles on the Morrow; Ann Rumsby is brought by warrant before it, and ordered to the factory where she refuses to go; when it is ultimately decided on sending her to the Orphan School. Dr. Douglass is informed that, on Monday the nineteenth of August, the charges of Dr. Hall will be heard before the Bench. He declined all attendance in person, lest his presence might exercise an undue influence over the evidence of Ann Rumsby . The female appears; she is promised perfect indemnity, if she only speak truth; she denies upon Oath every particular in the Affidavit of Dr. Hall. The Bench then passes a panegyric upon him, and condemns her to banishment for the remainder of her sentence.
In consequence of these proceedings, I commanded the Colonial Secretary to write to the Magistrates composing that Bench offering them their option either to retract the resolution they had passed, refusing to associate with Dr. Douglass as a Magistrate, or to forward their resignations. On the day following the Bench transmits their reply persisting in the original resolution; and on the same day, a circular is issued by two of their Members, calling a General Meeting of the Magistrates to justify their conduct. This meeting was attended by Six Magistratesand the two Judges, and a resolution was passed, which the Clerk of the Court at the peril of his life was forbidden to make public but which, from every thing I am able to gather, applauded the independent Spirit of the Parramatta Bench, assured them of the perfect confidence and entire support of their brother Magistrates and declared them more competent to fulfill the duties of their station than any other Magistrates of the Territory. I so far however dissented as to issue a new Commission of the Peace in the next Gazette omitting their names.
One of the earliest objects, to which I directed my attention on my arrival in this Colony, was an extension of the Magistracy and in the selection I made for that purpose, so anxious was I to insure the unanimity of its several component parts, that, after having actually offered to Mr. MacArthur the Appointment of Justice of the Peace, I omitted his name notwithstanding, as Your Lordship has already been informed, in consequence of a Letter from the Judges expressing their opinion that his nomination would be destructive of harmony.
Another reason, that weighed considerably in my enlargement of the Magistracy, and which I pointedly told to the Judges, was a desire that those Gentlemen would never descend from the elevated pinnacle, upon which they were stationed, to become even Chairmen of the Benches of Magistrates.
Both those designs have been unfortunately foiled. On the one hand the Judges have condescended to place themselves on a level with the lowest of the Magistrates by joining them in passing a resolution to intimidate the measures of my Government. While, on the other, by the hasty decision of five Justices refusing to act cordially with Dr. Douglass, no alternative has been left me except to issue a new commission of the Peace, from which either Dr. Douglass or themselves should be excluded. For the little command of temper, that is exercised in this Colony, would never have permitted the whole six to have remained in the same Commission, and acted in the same neighbourhood, without becoming violators instead of Conservators of the Peace.
The considerations then, which led me to that side of the alternation, which I ultimately adopted, were neither few nor unimportant. Had I displaced Dr. Douglass, I would have removed an individual whose single services to my administration have, I can assert without hesitation, redounded to the honor of His Majesty's Government more than the united efforts of any five Magistrates in the Territory.
I would have bestowed substance on the shade, which the joint endeavour of Calumny and secrecy had been attempting to spread over the brightest points of his moral character, a character, I am proud to proclaim, unimpeachable by any other than those secret means; but against Calumny, when armed with the Shield of secrecy, who can defend himself?
I would further have countenanced what I cannot but consider a daring assumption of authority on the part of five individuals, being an attempt to destitute a public officer whom, by the powers vested in me by His Majesty, I had legally appointed a Magistrate. I would have stamped with my authority the illegal and improper decision of that Bench of Magistrates; illegal in having proceeded to pass, on a pretended Conviction for contempt, a judgment unauthorized by Law and doubly improper in having not only sentenced an unsummonsed and absent individual but sentenced him also in a case, in which they stood themselves as the accusers.
I would also have implied my sanction to the whole of their last day's proceedings, dictated evidently by their feelings and not flowing from any pure Sentiment of justice; proceedings during which for five hours they examine Ann Rumsby upon Oath, not on any charges exhibited before the Court, but as Mr. Hall expressly informs us that charges might arise. Frustrated in their endeavours from the testimony of this woman to criminate her Master, they then admit into the body of their minutes a volunteer deposition from Mr. Hall, a deposition so truly ex parte that material and suspicious facts are proved to have been purposedly omitted; and they further admit, as parts equally essential for the conviction, other ex parte Statements, wherein the Oaths have been entirely forgotten, from Messrs. Marsden and McArthur.
The Girl. being inclined to give evidence in favor of her Master, is bound down by the Obligation of an Oath; but released from so irksome a restraint is every one, who stands forward with a bias against the accused, and although as Gentlemen they might find it convenient to speak truth in their several statements, yet under no obligation either of conscience or honor were they to speak the whole truth. But lastly and above all, had I displaced Dr. Douglass, I would have countenanced the Sentence of those Magistrates condemning for perjury, without any testimony against her but on the contrary with great internal evidence of veracity shining throughout a long examination, a female unprotected prisoner, to whom they had previously promised indemnity in case she spoke truth; yet because she spoke not that truth, as they would have it to be spoken, condemned her to banishment for the remainder of her Sentence.
If to all these circumstances we add the further consideration that proceedings have already been instituted against Dr. Hall when, on the cross examination that will take place in the course of that trial, more particulars will be probably elicited than the public eye has yet discovered, tending most likely to prove the existence of a deep laid and foul conspiracy to ruin the reputation of Dr. Douglass, and leading very naturally to the commencement of criminal prosecutions against each of those five Gentlemen, I cannot but feel confident that Your Lordship will fully justify, on the score of its necessity, the measure I have adopted, only after the maturest consideration, of removing those five individuals from the Magistracy.
I have, &c.
Thos. Brisbane.