Fragment of a contemporary fair copy of Governor Arthur Phillip's Sydney journal
Fragment of a contemporary fair copy of Governor Arthur Phillip's Sydney journal
About this item
Full title
Date
October-November 1791 and January-February 1792, transcribed probably 1792
Call Numbers
SAFE/MLMSS 12028
Record Identifier
Reference Code
Language
English
Formats
Physical Description
Contents
0.01 metres of textual material (1 folder) - 245 x 387 mm (unfolded) - manuscript in ink, 20 pages on 5 folded sheets of laid paper
Other Descriptions
Level of description
Fonds
Access and use
Copying Conditions
Out of copyright
Please acknowledge : Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Physical Access Conditions
Access to this collection via appointment only. Please submit your request through Ask a Librarian
Subjects
More information
Scope and Contents
Contents
The manuscript begins mid-sentence in October 1791 and runs to the end of November, breaking off mid-sentence at the bottom of the tenth page before starting again in January 1792 and running to the end of February in a further ten pages. There are two neat manuscript corrections on the 5th and 11th pages.
Information contained in the first...
Alternative Titles
Full title
Fragment of a contemporary fair copy of Governor Arthur Phillip's Sydney journal
Authors, Artists and Contributors
Author / Artists
Notes
General note
Each of the five sheets have clear watermarks for Portals, the Hampshire-based firm founded by Huguenot refugees in 1711 and still in business after three centuries. Four feature the elaborate design of a fleur-de-lis with a central 'P', lettered 'GR' at the base and surmounted by an ornate crown; the fifth has that design’s corresponding counterma...
Attributions / Conjectures
Believed to be in the hand of one of Governor Phillip's private secretaries; possibly sent to Sir Joseph Banks as one of the regular semi-official reports sent to him by the Governor (Douglas Stewart vendor catalogue).
The hand is very similar to one of the secretarial hands found in the letters and papers that Phillip sent to Sir Joseph Ba...
Date note
A dating of 1792 for the fair copy is indicated by the paper watermarks and the clerical hand that appear to match other documents from this period in the Sir Joseph Banks Papers held by the State Library of NSW.
Object History
Purchased by Douglas Stewart from Forum Auctions UK, Lot 44, 10 February 2022. The vendor purchased the item from a provincial UK bookseller many years prior.
Published information
The first 10 pages of the manuscript are very closely related to five pages of text in Chapter 23 of this published work by John Hunter:
Hunter, John, Henry Lidgbird Ball, Philip Gidley King, and Arthur Phillip. An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island: With the Discoveries Which Have Been Made in New Sout...
Contextual Information
Source
Purchased from Douglas Stewart Fine Books, August 2023
Administrative / Biographical history
Arthur Phillip (1738-1814) was appointed first Governor of the colony of New South Wales on 12 October 1786, chosen by Lord Sydney, Home Secretary of the Pitt Government and a key executor of the plan to establish a settlement in New South Wales. He led the First Fleet as ‘Captain General & Commander in Chief, in & over the Territory of New South W...
Related Material
Extracts from an earlier journal by Arthur Phillip, in a similar clerical hand
Identifiers
Primary Identifiers
Call Numbers
SAFE/MLMSS 12028
Record Identifier
9yMpRv69
Permalink
https://devfeature-collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/9yMpRv69
Other Identifiers
Reference code
9675804
How to access this item
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