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Ask most Sydneysiders about the Rum Corps and you'll get a picture of red-coated officers rolling barrels of grog up from the Rocks and running the place like a private club. There's truth in that, but it's only part of the story. The New South Wales Corps was a regiment of the British Army that garrisoned the colony for twenty years. Its officers got land, convicts and a stranglehold on trade. Then, on 26 January 1808, it marched on Government House and arrested the King's governor. Here's how that happened, and what became of the regiment afterwards.
Raised to Replace the Marines – 1789
The First Fleet came out in 1788 guarded by marines, and the marines never wanted to stay. In June 1789 a new regiment was formed in England as a permanent garrison to relieve them. That was the New South Wales Corps. It began with three companies of about 300 men, and even with drafts sent out over the years its full strength never went past 500 (Wikipedia, New South Wales Corps).
The officers signed up in that first rush. John Macarthur transferred in as a lieutenant by 5 June 1789. Joseph Foveaux bought a lieutenancy the same day. William Paterson was gazetted captain that month, probably through Sir Joseph Banks (ADB, Macarthur, Foveaux and Paterson). The commander was Major Francis Grose, a wounded veteran of the American war who had been sitting on half-pay. He was also made lieutenant-governor of the colony, and the ADB says it was the promise of full pay that got him to take a job at a penal settlement nobody much wanted (ADB, Grose).
A fourth company was raised in Sydney from marines who wanted to stay. It was put under Captain George Johnston, who had been Phillip's aide-de-camp. Phillip picked him as the "most deserving" marine officer for the job (Wikipedia; ADB, Johnston).
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The Second and Third Fleets
The Corps came out in pieces. The first men arrived as guards on the Second Fleet in 1790 (Wikipedia; Dictionary of Sydney). That was the fleet where a quarter of the 1,006 convicts died on the voyage and about 40 per cent were dead within six months of landing (Wikipedia, Second Fleet). Macarthur, his wife Elizabeth and their baby Edward sailed on the Neptune. After Macarthur fought a duel with the ship's master, they moved to the Scarborough, and they reached Port Jackson on 28 June 1790 (ADB, Macarthur).
Paterson came out with the Third Fleet and arrived in October 1791. He was sent straight to command the detachment on Norfolk Island (ADB, Paterson). Grose himself didn't get to Port Jackson until February 1792, aboard the Pitt (ADB, Grose).
Grose, Paterson and the Officers' Years – 1792 to 1795
Phillip sailed home sick in December 1792, and Grose was left running the colony for two years. Historians call this stretch, which lasted until Governor Hunter arrived in September 1795, the interregnum (ADB, Hunter).
Grose moved quickly. He replaced the civil magistrates with military officers and gave the senior officer at Parramatta control of the convicts there. He made Lieutenant John Macarthur inspector of public works (ADB, Grose). Macarthur was already the regimental paymaster on more than double his lieutenant's pay, so between the two jobs he had a hand on most of the colony's resources (ADB, Macarthur). The ADB says some historians believe Macarthur became "the real ruler of New South Wales". It adds that the evidence isn't good enough to say when Grose was acting on his own and when he was taking advice (ADB, Grose).
Grose looked after his own men. He increased the soldiers' weekly ration so they got more than the convicts, and he improved their housing (ADB, Grose). Wikipedia puts it the other way round: after the poor harvest of 1793 he cut the convicts' rations but not the soldiers', ending Phillip's rule of equal rations for all (Wikipedia, New South Wales Corps).
Grose went home in December 1794, worn down by his old wounds. Paterson, back from Norfolk Island and now second-in-command, ran things for the nine months until Hunter turned up. In that time he granted 4,965 acres. The ADB says he "made no attempt" to check the officers' trading and farming, or the habit his soldiers had of taking the law into their own hands (ADB, Paterson).
Land Grants and Convict Labour
This is where the officers' fortunes started. Grose gave serving soldiers who asked for land grants of about 25 acres each, without any specific instructions to do so. Following Home Office instructions, he gave the officers farms, and against orders he let each officer have ten convicts fed and clothed at government expense (ADB, Grose).
Macarthur did best of all. Elizabeth Farm at Parramatta began in 1793 on a 100-acre grant of "some of the best ground that has been discovered". He had unlimited convict labour, and he was the first in the colony to clear and cultivate 50 acres of virgin land. That earned him another 100 acres (ADB, Macarthur). The Dictionary of Sydney gives a different figure: it says Macarthur received 400 acres at Rose Hill in 1794 (Dictionary of Sydney, Economy). Johnston got 100 acres at Petersham in May 1793. He called it Annandale Farm. Annandale in Dumfriesshire was where he'd been born (ADB, Johnston).
Was it all bad? The ADB's entry on Grose is fairer to him than the old stories are. By December 1794 the threat of famine had passed, more land was being farmed and more stock grazed, and outside observers said the settlement looked more prosperous. The Hawkesbury was opened up for farming. The ADB also says the horror stories of murder, drunkenness and rapine came mostly from the chaplains Richard Johnson and Samuel Marsden and from Thomas Arndell, and were exaggerated. All the same, it says, that picture "though exaggerated, was not entirely untrue". Its verdict is that by letting the officers farm and trade, Grose gave them a hold over the colony, and that he "unwittingly" created problems "that none of his immediate successors was able to surmount" (ADB, Grose).
Other officers did well too. Wikipedia's list of Corps men who became big colonists includes William Cox, who built the road over the Blue Mountains, and John Piper, William Lawson, Archibald Bell, Anthony Fenn Kemp, Edward Abbott and Nicholas Bayly. It also includes the surgeon John Harris, who became a large property owner in Sydney and around Bathurst (Wikipedia, New South Wales Corps). Harris bought the land of James Ruse's Experiment Farm at Parramatta (Dictionary of Sydney, Economy). Foveaux was in charge of the Corps while Paterson was away from 1796 to 1799. By 1800 he had 2,020 acres and 1,027 sheep, which made him the biggest landholder and stockowner in the colony (ADB, Foveaux).
The Trading Monopoly and Rum as Money
The colony had almost no coin. Notes and coins were scarce, so people bartered, and whoever had food, clothing and grog had the power. Convicts and the lower ranks were often paid in goods instead of money, and the most popular payment was rum (State Library of NSW). "Rum" didn't just mean rum, either. It was a catch-all for any spirit, and much of it came from Bengal (Wikipedia, New South Wales Corps).
Ships calling at Sydney Cove knew there was money to be made, and the officers made sure they got the cargoes. Grose put up with the officers tendering together for each new cargo. Macarthur, Grose, Paterson, Johnston, Rowley and Foveaux are all named as buying inbound cargoes, and sometimes they chartered whole ships (Dictionary of Sydney, Economy). The first known clash between Phillip and Grose was over exactly this. In October 1792 Grose approved the officers' charter of the Britannia, and Phillip didn't like it (ADB, Grose).
Did Grose make money from it himself? The ADB says no. It thinks he let the officers have spirits because grog was such a good incentive payment for convict workers (ADB, Grose). It was the colony's settlers who paid the price. By 1798 Hunter was reporting mark-ups of as much as 700 per cent between the landing price of goods and what the public paid (ADB, Hunter).
The ADB's Hunter entry also makes a point that's easy to forget. Officers trading on the side wasn't unusual in the King's army. Macarthur made less as paymaster than such officers often made in India. What was different in New South Wales was that the officers got something close to a monopoly (ADB, Hunter).
John Macarthur
You can't tell the Rum Corps story without Macarthur, though for most of the big fights he wasn't actually in the Corps. He was the son of a Plymouth mercer and draper, and his enemies called him "Jack Boddice" (ADB, Macarthur). Phillip reprimanded him early on. Grose made him paymaster and inspector of public works, and Macarthur was made captain in May 1795 (ADB, Macarthur).
He fell out with every governor who wouldn't do what he wanted. In September 1801 he fought a duel with his own commanding officer, Paterson, and wounded him in the shoulder. King sent him to England for court martial, and in his letter he said "there are no resources which art, cunning, impudence and a pair of basilisk eyes can afford that he does not put in practice" (ADB, Macarthur; ADB, Paterson).
It backfired on King. In London no one would try the case, and Macarthur took samples of his wool with him. English clothiers declared the wool equal to the best from Spain. Macarthur resigned from the army and came home with a grant of 5,000 acres of the colony's best pasture and some rare Spanish sheep from the royal flocks (ADB, Macarthur). He named the Cowpastures grant Camden Park after his patron, Lord Camden (Wikipedia, John Macarthur). So by the time of the 1808 coup he was a civilian merchant and grazier and no longer a Corps officer, a point the State Library of NSW makes too (State Library of NSW).
The Corps on the Frontier
The Corps also fought Aboriginal people. The Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars began in 1794, when the British started building farms along the river, and some of those farms were set up by soldiers. Wikipedia lists the New South Wales Corps as one of the British forces in that conflict. Between 1795 and 1802 the Bidjigal warrior Pemulwuy led raids around Parramatta (Wikipedia, Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars; Wikipedia, Pemulwuy). In 1797, at what became known as the Battle of Parramatta, settlers and soldiers fought Pemulwuy's men, and the wounded Pemulwuy was captured and held in the hospital at Parramatta. He later escaped (Wikipedia, Pemulwuy). In 1801 King issued an order letting settlers shoot Aboriginal people on sight around Parramatta, the Georges River and Prospect (Wikipedia, Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars). The Reverend Thomas Fyshe Palmer, a political exile in the colony, wrote of soldiers and settlers coming on Hawkesbury people "unarmed, and unexpected", and said that "the dead they hang on gibbets" (quoted in Wikipedia, Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars).
Clashes with Hunter
John Hunter reached Port Jackson on 7 September 1795 and took office four days later (ADB, Hunter). He was a naval captain nearing 60, and the officers around him were mostly young men. Macarthur was 28, and Hunter leaned on him heavily in his first months. Hunter's very first act as governor was to disobey his orders and keep Grose's system of ten farm convicts and three domestic convicts for each officer who held land (ADB, Hunter).
He soon regretted it. Macarthur resigned as inspector of public works in February 1796, and Hunter accepted "without reluctance". He wrote of Macarthur that "scarcely anything short of the full power of the Governor" would satisfy him (ADB, Macarthur). Macarthur went over Hunter's head and wrote straight to the Secretary of State and the army's commander-in-chief (ADB, Macarthur). Hunter tried using the Corps' own soldiers to guard imported rum, and he tried a public store to bring prices down. The officers beat him both times. On one occasion they even chartered a Danish ship to bring a big load of rum from India (Wikipedia, New South Wales Corps). The Duke of Portland recalled Hunter in a stern dispatch dated 5 November 1799 (ADB, Hunter).
Paterson came back in November 1799 under orders to investigate the officers' trading in spirits and put a stop to it (ADB, Paterson). In 1800 Major Johnston was sent to England under arrest for trading in spirits. He was never brought to trial and he came back the next year (ADB, Johnston). Wikipedia explains why: the English courts decided the evidence and witnesses were all in Sydney, so any trial would have to be held there (Wikipedia, New South Wales Corps).
Clashes with King
Philip Gidley King took command on 28 September 1800 (ADB, King). He brought spirit imports down to about a third of their rate in Hunter's last months. In June 1802 he put a 5 per cent duty on imported spirits, which he had no legal authority to do. He also cut the number of officers' servants fed by the Crown from 356 to 94 (ADB, King). Wikipedia adds that ships had to lodge a bond, which they'd forfeit if they landed more than 500 gallons of rum, and that King opened a public brewery in 1804 (Wikipedia, New South Wales Corps).
The officers fought back. Early in 1803 King refused to let a cargo of spirits be landed from the Atlas. Straight afterwards libellous "pipes", anonymous verses mocking the governor and his officials, began going around Sydney. Courts martial followed, and all they showed was how much the governor and the Corps hated each other. The ADB's verdict is blunt: "In the end he was defeated by the officers of the New South Wales Corps" (ADB, King).
Castle Hill – March 1804
The Corps' one real battle in New South Wales was against convicts. On the night of 4 March 1804, Irish convicts at the government farm at Castle Hill rose up. They were led by Philip Cunningham, a veteran of the 1798 Irish rebellion, and they planned to take Parramatta and then Sydney (Wikipedia, Castle Hill convict rebellion).
Major Johnston marched through the night and caught up with the rebels at what became known as Vinegar Hill, near today's Rouse Hill. While parleying under a flag of truce, he and Trooper Thomas Anlezark pulled pistols and took the two leaders, Cunningham and William Johnston. According to one account written down much later, the answer to the demand to surrender had been "Death or Liberty". Quartermaster Sergeant Thomas Laycock then led the troops in more than fifteen minutes of musket fire and a charge (Wikipedia, Castle Hill convict rebellion). Official records say 15 rebels were killed in the battle and nine were later executed, Cunningham among them (Wikipedia, Castle Hill convict rebellion). King had to step in to stop a military court hanging one rebel in every ten (Wikipedia, New South Wales Corps). He rewarded Johnston with 2,000 acres at Cabramatta (ADB, Johnston). How many soldiers Johnston had with him depends on which source you read, and that's covered further down.
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Bligh Arrives – 1806
Banks found the next governor. William Bligh of the Bounty was offered the job in March 1805 at £2,000 a year, double King's salary. He brought special instructions to curb the spirits traffic (ADB, Bligh). He reached Sydney on 6 August 1806 (ADB, Bligh). The State Library says London hoped his reputation for tough leadership would get the rum trade under control (State Library of NSW).
Bligh got stuck in. On 3 January 1807 he ordered that all promissory notes be made payable in sterling. On 14 February 1807 he banned, with stiff penalties, the bartering of spirits for grain, labour, food or any other goods (ADB, Bligh). He lost his temper with Macarthur over sheep and cattle. He refused land grants and questioned town leases held by Macarthur, Johnston and others (ADB, Bligh). In eighteen months he made only three land grants (ADB, Bligh).
The Rebellion of 26 January 1808
It came to a head over one of Macarthur's ships. In June 1807 a convict stowed away and escaped on Macarthur's schooner Parramatta. When she came back in December, the bond her owners had lodged against helping prisoners escape was declared forfeit. Macarthur ignored an order to appear, was arrested and bailed, and was sent for trial at the Criminal Court on 25 January 1808 (Wikipedia, Rum Rebellion). That court was the judge-advocate, Richard Atkins, plus six Corps officers. Macarthur objected that Atkins was his debtor and his enemy, and the six officers backed him. Without the judge-advocate the court couldn't sit, so it broke up. Bligh accused the six officers of what amounted to mutiny and sent for Major Johnston. Johnston said he was too ill to come, having wrecked his gig on the way home from a dinner with the officers on the night of the 24th (Wikipedia, Rum Rebellion; ADB, Bligh; State Library of NSW). Duffy reckons that if Johnston had come when he was called on 25 January, the rebellion probably would never have happened (Wikipedia, Rum Rebellion).
Johnston came in from Annandale on 26 January. He later claimed he found Sydney in uproar, "with no man's life or property safe" from a tyrannical governor (ADB, Johnston). He went to the gaol and ordered Macarthur's release. Macarthur then drafted a petition asking Johnston to arrest Bligh and take charge (ADB, Macarthur; Wikipedia, Rum Rebellion). Then, in the evening, the Corps marched from the parade ground on High Street (now George Street) up Bridge Street to Government House, playing "The British Grenadiers", with hundreds of people following (State Library of NSW). Wikipedia says about 400 soldiers marched, at 6 pm, with the band playing and colours flying. Bligh's daughter Mary Putland tried to block them with her parasol (Wikipedia, Rum Rebellion).
The legend says he was hiding under a bed, and a State Library of NSW media release quoted by Wikipedia says a cartoon showing a soldier dragging him out from under one was drawn within hours of the coup (State Library of NSW; Wikipedia, Rum Rebellion). Bligh said he was behind the bed hiding papers. The writer Michael Duffy argues that if he was hiding, it was to get away and rally support, not out of cowardice (Wikipedia, Rum Rebellion).
Johnston made himself lieutenant-governor, and Macarthur was given the specially created post of colonial secretary. He "virtually administered" the colony until Joseph Foveaux arrived on 28 July 1808 and took over (ADB, Macarthur). Paterson was down at Port Dalrymple in Van Diemen's Land and in no hurry to come up. He finally left on 1 January 1809 and took office in Sydney nine days later. He refused to reinstate Bligh, and he handed out land so freely that 67,000 acres went in a year, more than King had granted in six years (ADB, Paterson). Bligh stayed under arrest in Sydney for more than a year. He got away on the Porpoise in March 1809, after breaking his promise to sail for England, and he spent months at the Derwent (ADB, Bligh).
The ADB doesn't let either side off. On Bligh: his temper and language were bad, he favoured his own farm, and he made enemies everywhere. "Nevertheless", it says, the men who claimed Bligh was a tyrant who was about to spark "insurrection and massacre" were "grossly" exaggerating, and liberty and property "were never in danger" (ADB, Bligh). Only nine people had signed the requisition asking Johnston to take over before he did it (ADB, Bligh).
The Recall – Macquarie and the 73rd
London's answer was to send a new governor and a new regiment together. Late in 1808 it decided to send the 73rd Regiment to replace Bligh and "the mutinous New South Wales Corps". The governor was first meant to be Major-General Miles Nightingall, but the job went to Lachlan Macquarie, the 73rd's lieutenant-colonel. He sailed from Portsmouth with the regiment on 22 May 1809 in the storeship Dromedary, escorted by HMS Hindostan, and entered Port Jackson on 28 December 1809 (ADB, Macquarie). He took office at the start of 1810 (State Library of NSW).
Macquarie put back the officials Johnston and Macarthur had sacked, and he cancelled every land and stock grant made since Bligh's arrest (Wikipedia, Rum Rebellion). On 12 May 1810 Paterson and the bulk of the old Corps sailed for England in the Dromedary, the same ship that had brought their replacements out. Bligh left the same day (ADB, Macquarie; ADB, Paterson). Paterson didn't get home. He died at sea off Cape Horn on 21 June 1810, a poor man. Unlike most of his fellow officers, he had never traded or got rich in the colony (ADB, Paterson).
Not everyone left. Some officers and long-serving privates were moved into the 73rd to bring it up to strength. About 100 veterans and invalids stayed on for garrison duty (Wikipedia, New South Wales Corps), and the 73rd's own history records a draft of men from the Corps joining it in 1810 (Wikipedia, 73rd Regiment of Foot).
Rum didn't go away just because the Corps did. Macquarie had no money for a hospital, so he gave the merchants Alexander Riley and Garnham Blaxcell and the surgeon D'Arcy Wentworth a monopoly on importing 45,000 gallons of spirits in exchange for building it. The General Hospital on Macquarie Street opened in 1816 and has been called the Rum Hospital ever since (Sydney Living Museums). Its south wing is now the Mint, and its north wing is NSW Parliament House (Sydney Living Museums).
The Court Martial
Johnston was court-martialled at Chelsea in 1811, with Macarthur attending. Johnston was found guilty and cashiered, which the ADB calls a "mild penalty" (ADB, Johnston; ADB, Macarthur). The court added that "novel and extraordinary circumstances" partly excused what he did, which the ADB reads as the court thinking Bligh wasn't blameless either, or perhaps not wanting to punish Johnston for being Macarthur's tool (ADB, Bligh). The lawyers said the civilians couldn't be tried for treason in England, so Macarthur stayed in England until he was sure he wouldn't be arrested at home. He didn't return to New South Wales until 1817 (ADB, Macarthur; Wikipedia, John Macarthur).
Johnston came back in 1813 as an ordinary settler. In 1820 he wrote bitterly, "Every person that promised ... has risen upon my ruin. I alone am the sufferer". He died on 5 January 1823 and was buried in the family vault at Annandale (ADB, Johnston).
A Second Life – the 102nd Regiment
The regiment didn't end in 1810. It was renamed the 102nd Regiment of Foot. When that happened is covered below, because the sources differ. When the men got home, most of the old hands went off to veteran or garrison battalions. The regiment was rebuilt at Horsham in October 1810 with new recruits, including 150 men "of free birth and good character" born in New South Wales (Wikipedia, New South Wales Corps).
It went to Guernsey in 1811 and Bermuda in 1812, just as the War of 1812 with the United States began. Under Lieutenant-Colonel Charles James Napier, later a famous general, it fought at Craney Island on 22 June 1813 and raided along Chesapeake Bay before going to Halifax, Nova Scotia (Wikipedia, New South Wales Corps). After the war detachments held Moose Island, now Eastport in Maine. In 1816 it was renumbered the 100th Regiment. It was the last British unit occupying American soil, and it was disbanded at Chatham on 24 March 1818 (Wikipedia, New South Wales Corps). So the Rum Corps ended up guarding a corner of Maine, which not many people know.
Legacy – and Is "Rum Corps" Fair?
The nickname stuck early. The State Library of NSW says the Corps' part in the rum barter system earned it the name "Rum Corps" in the 1790s, and the Dictionary of Sydney lists "Rum Corps" as its colloquial name (State Library of NSW; Dictionary of Sydney). "Rum Rebellion" is a different story. The State Library says that term "was not used at the time" and that the coup had "much less to do with the rum trade and much more to do with a battle for power" between the military, the civil elite and the governor (State Library of NSW). Michael Duffy, quoted by Wikipedia, credits the phrase to the English Quaker William Howitt, who took Bligh's side in a popular history he published in 1855 (Wikipedia, Rum Rebellion). The British Modern Military History Society calls "Rum Rebellion" a misnomer and says "The Great Rebellion" is the more accurate name (BMMHS).
Some historians stick up for the officers a bit. They point out that the officers' farms fed the colony when government farming couldn't (ADB, Johnston; ADB, Grose). The ADB also notes that the convict records don't support the charges that crime and drunkenness rose under military rule in 1793–95 (ADB, Hunter). On the other side, the Dictionary of Sydney traces Macquarie's new economy back to "the greed and arrogance of the early officers of the Rum Corps" (Dictionary of Sydney, Economy).
Either way, you can still see their marks around Sydney. Elizabeth Farm still stands at Parramatta. Johnston's Annandale Farm started with Grose's grant of 1793. Wynyard Park was their parade ground. The Rum Hospital became Parliament House and the Mint. And on 26 January there's an older anniversary than most people realise: the day in 1808 when the soldiers marched up Bridge Street.
Timeline
- June 1789 – New South Wales Corps formed in England to relieve the marines. Macarthur and Foveaux join on 5 June.
- June 1790 – First Corps men arrive with the Second Fleet. The Macarthurs land on 28 June.
- October 1791 – Paterson arrives with the Third Fleet and goes to Norfolk Island.
- February 1792 – Major Francis Grose arrives in the Pitt.
- October 1792 – Grose approves the officers' charter of the Britannia.
- December 1792 – Phillip sails home. Grose takes charge and military officers replace the civil magistrates.
- 1793 – Elizabeth Farm and Annandale Farm granted. Macarthur made inspector of public works.
- December 1794 – Grose leaves. Paterson administers the colony.
- 7–11 September 1795 – Governor Hunter arrives and takes office.
- February 1796 – Macarthur resigns as inspector of public works.
- 1797 – Battle of Parramatta. Pemulwuy wounded and captured.
- 5 November 1799 – Portland recalls Hunter.
- 1800 – Johnston sent to England under arrest for trading in spirits. He's never tried.
- 28 September 1800 – Governor King takes command.
- 14 September 1801 – Macarthur wounds Paterson in a duel and is sent to England in November.
- June 1802 – King imposes a 5 per cent duty on imported spirits.
- Early 1803 – King refuses to let the Atlas land its spirits. The "pipes" begin.
- 4–5 March 1804 – Castle Hill rising, put down at Vinegar Hill.
- June/July 1805 – Macarthur returns with his sheep and his 5,000-acre grant.
- 6 August 1806 – Governor Bligh reaches Sydney.
- 14 February 1807 – Bligh bans bartering spirits for goods or labour.
- 25 January 1808 – Macarthur's trial collapses after he objects to Atkins and the six officers back him.
- 26 January 1808 – The Corps marches on Government House and arrests Bligh.
- 28 July 1808 – Foveaux takes command.
- 1808 or 1809 – Corps renamed the 102nd Regiment of Foot (sources differ).
- January 1809 – Paterson takes office in Sydney.
- 28 December 1809 – Macquarie and the 73rd Regiment enter Port Jackson.
- 12 May 1810 – The Corps sails for England in the Dromedary.
- 21 June 1810 – Paterson dies at sea off Cape Horn.
- 1811 – Johnston court-martialled and cashiered.
- 22 June 1813 – The 102nd fights at Craney Island in the War of 1812.
- 1816 – Renumbered the 100th Regiment.
- 24 March 1818 – Disbanded at Chatham.
Where the Sources Disagree
- Grose and the rations. The ADB says Grose increased the soldiers' ration so they got more than the convicts. Wikipedia says that after the 1793 harvest he cut the convicts' rations but not the soldiers'. Either way, the soldiers ended up better fed than the convicts.
- Macarthur's first grant. The ADB says Elizabeth Farm began on a 100-acre grant in 1793, with another 100 acres added later. The Dictionary of Sydney says he received 400 acres at Rose Hill in 1794.
- Johnston's force at Castle Hill. The ADB says Johnston had 26 soldiers after a forced march from Sydney. Wikipedia's Corps article says he led 29 soldiers from the barracks at Annandale to Parramatta. Its Castle Hill article gives 30 regulars and 67 militia at the battle, and says a contingent of 56 Corps men was sent to Parramatta overnight.
- The rebels killed. Official records give 15 rebels killed in the battle. Wikipedia notes that some accounts say about 30 rebels were killed or wounded in the fighting around the western gate.
- "Death or Liberty". The famous reply was recorded only once, and some time later, by a man named Suttor (Wikipedia, Castle Hill).
- Macarthur's return. The ADB entry on Macarthur says he landed on 8 June 1805. The ADB entry on King says he "returned in triumph" in July 1805.
- Mrs King's "Thanks" grant. The ADB's Bligh entry says Bligh gave Mrs King 790 acres. Its King entry says 690 acres.
- How many marched on Government House. Wikipedia says about 400 soldiers. The State Library of NSW doesn't give a number but says hundreds of spectators followed.
- Under the bed. The 1808 cartoon and the legend say Bligh hid under a bed. Wikipedia reports that he was found behind his bed and said he was hiding papers. The State Library calls the hiding story legend and the cartoon political propaganda.
- The requisition. The ADB says only nine people had signed the requisition before Johnston acted. Wikipedia, citing H. V. Evatt, says most signatures were probably added after Bligh was under arrest.
- When the Corps became the 102nd. Wikipedia's Corps article says 1808. The Dictionary of Sydney says 1809, after the Rum Rebellion.
- Who ran the colony under Grose. Some historians say Macarthur was "the real ruler". The ADB says the evidence isn't good enough to decide.
My Earlier Posts
- The Rum Rebellion – 26th January 1808 – Governor William Bligh Is Overthrown at Government House – Sydney
- Arrest of Governor Bligh – The Rum Rebellion – 26 January 1808
- Philip Gidley King – Third Governor of New South Wales
- The Castle Hill Rebellion – Battle of Vinegar Hill – 5 March 1804
- Pemulwuy – Bidjigal Resistance Leader of Botany Bay and Parramatta
- Elizabeth Farm – Alice Street – Parramatta (also on Historic Sydney Mansions)
- Wynyard – From Gadigal Country and the Military Barracks to Wynyard Station
- Annandale House – Sunday Times – 18 August 1907
- Ultimo House – Ultimo (the Corps surgeon John Harris's house)
- Belmont (Archibald Bell) – Richmond Hill – North Richmond
- Government House – Macquarie Street – Sydney
- House of Mary Putland / Frogmore / Werrington Park
- Sydney Hospital – The Rum Hospital
- Governors of New South Wales from 1788 to 2016
- Black Caesar – John Caesar, First Fleet Convict and Australia's First Bushranger – c.1763 to 1796
Sources
- Australian Dictionary of Biography: B. H. Fletcher, "Grose, Francis (1758–1814)"
- Australian Dictionary of Biography: David S. Macmillan, "Paterson, William (1755–1810)"
- Australian Dictionary of Biography: Margaret Steven, "Macarthur, John (1767–1834)"
- Australian Dictionary of Biography: A. T. Yarwood, "Johnston, George (1764–1823)"
- Australian Dictionary of Biography: J. J. Auchmuty, "Hunter, John (1737–1821)"
- Australian Dictionary of Biography: A. G. L. Shaw, "King, Philip Gidley (1758–1808)"
- Australian Dictionary of Biography: A. G. L. Shaw, "Bligh, William (1754–1817)"
- Australian Dictionary of Biography: B. H. Fletcher, "Foveaux, Joseph (1767–1846)"
- Australian Dictionary of Biography: N. D. McLachlan, "Macquarie, Lachlan (1762–1824)"
- State Library of NSW, "The 1808 'Rum' Rebellion"
- Dictionary of Sydney, "New South Wales Corps"
- Dictionary of Sydney, Garry Wotherspoon, "Economy"
- Sydney Living Museums, "What was the 'Rum' Hospital?"
- British Modern Military History Society, "The Rum Rebellion"
- Wikipedia, "New South Wales Corps"
- Wikipedia, "Rum Rebellion" (including Michael Duffy, "Proof of history's rum deal", Sydney Morning Herald, 28 January 2006, as quoted there)
- Wikipedia, "Castle Hill convict rebellion"
- Wikipedia, "Second Fleet (Australia)"
- Wikipedia, "John Macarthur"
- Wikipedia, "73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot"
- Wikipedia, "Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars"
- Wikipedia, "Pemulwuy"
- All images via Wikimedia Commons. Credits and licences are under each picture.