William Redfern (1775?–1833): Mutineer to Colonial Surgeon in New South Wales. Part I: Shock and Recovery

Muster log of HMS Standard (extract). Record Office, Admiralty. In Ar17/4, Mitchell Library, Sydney.

Iggo B . Edinburgh, 1995. Dr Iggo, using material I had sent, viz. Dunlop (1928) and Clune (1964), provided a first complete reference to Redfern's death and burial, i.e., Old Parish Register 692/2, vol. 34, South Leith, New Calton burying ground, Edinburgh.

Op. cit. ref. 1.

O'Shaughnessy P , ed. A Rum Story: The Adventures of Joseph Holt… 1800–12.Penthurst: Kangaroo Press, 1988.

Iggo B . Edinburgh, 1994. Notes on Redfern's attendance at Edinburgh University. See Pearn JH . In the Capacity of a Surgeon… Brisbane: University of Queensland, 1988: 192.

Wentworth papers. Mrs Macquarie to WC Wentworth. A757. Mitchell Library, Sydney 7 Beck J . Sydney, 1994, personal communication. Contents of a letter from the Royal College of Surgeons, England, dated 2 April 1992, which confirmed a Wm Redfern attended the Court of Examiners on 19 January 1797 and passed as third mate on any rate of ship.

Plumb JH . England in the Eighteenth Century. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1981: 200f.

Gill C . The Naval Mutinies of 1797. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1913: 362–4. See also Rudé G . The Crowd in History. London: Serif, 1995: 67–8 for the use of petitions.

Rodger NAM . The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy. New York: W W Norton, 1996: 344–6.

Trotter T . A practical plan for manning the Royal Navy. In: Lloyd C , ed. The Health of Seamen. London: Navy Records Society, 1965: 238–9.

Watt J . The colony's health. In: Hardy J Frost A , eds. Studies from Terra Australis to Australis. Canberra: Australian Academy of the Humanities, 1989: 137.

Manwaring GE Dobrée B . The Floating Republic: An Account of the Mutinies at Spithead and the Nore in 1797. London: Penguin Books, 1937: 116–17.

Gilmore I . Riot, Risings and Revolution: Governance and Violence in Eighteenth-Century England. London: Pimlico, 1983: 421.

Porter R . English Society in the Eighteenth Century. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 1990: 348. “About a third of the century's strikes occurred in [the 1790s].” Ibid. 101. Four hundred labour disputes were authenticated for the century.

Dugan J . The Great Mutiny. London: André Deutsch, 1965: ch. 21, “The mutineer surgeon”. Among the mutiny texts in this paper, only Dugan mentions Redfern by name.

Lind J . An Essay on the Most Effective Means of Preserving the Health of Seamen… London: 1779: 4–5.

Blane G . Observations on the Diseases of Seamen. London, 1789: 252. See also Trotter T . Medicina Nautica (extract). In: Lloyd C . The Health of Seamen. London: Navy Records Society, 1965: 243.

See also Watt J (op. cit. ref. 12): 150.

Manwaring GE Dobrée B (op. cit. ref. 13): 127–8.

Dugan J (op. cit. ref. 16): 187–8.

Minutes of the proceedings of a court martial… PRO/ADM 1/534. Copy held by the History of Medicine Library, Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Sydney.

Film reel 26.2. RAV/FM4/297. The Times newspaper, 1 September 1797. Judgment reported.

Op. cit. ref. 22:.

Op. cit. ref. 22:.

Dugan J (op. cit. ref. 16): 395n.

Op. cit. ref. 23: 10 August 1797, The hanging of the Montague mutineers.

Trotter T . Medicina Nautica vol. II, p. 28, quoted in Lloyd C Coulter JLS , eds. Medicine and the Navy, vol. III, 1714–1815.

Edinburgh: E&S Livingston, 1961: 164. Two errors are to be found in this source, 164n. Redfern did not introduce cowpox inoculation to Port Jackson in 1804 (Historical Records of Australia, Series I [hereafter HRA I] 1915; iv: 648, 21 May 1804) and he died aged 58, not 105.

HRA I 1915; iii: 97–8, 8 June 1801.

HRA I 1915; iii: 98.

Historical Records of New South Wales (hereafter HR NSW) 1896; iv: 399–402, 10 June 1801;HRA I 1915; iii: 358–63, 19 January 1802; see also Bateson C . The Convict Ships 1787–1868.Glasgow: Brown, Son & Ferguson, 1985: 13ff, 47ff.

Nobbs R , ed. Norfolk Island and its First Settlement, 1788–1814. 30 North Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1988. This first settlement had more in common with that on the mainland. First settlement buildings were razed in 1814 to deny the French.

Norfolk Island victualling book, 1802: 147. In: Baxter CJ , ed. Musters and Lists NSW and Norfolk Island. Sydney: Australian Biographical and Genealogical Record in association with the Society of Australian Genealogists, 1988.

Foveaux letter book. A1444: 42. Mitchell Library, Sydney.

HRA I 1917; x: 275, 3 September 1804, 21 February 1820.

Foveaux J . Certificate. In: Redfern W . Memorial to Governor Macquarie. 29 January 1810. The Memorial gave the reasons for the grant as non-payment on Norfolk Island for his work with the military and loss of property on leaving the island. 4/1827 CS mems no. 271: 5.

HR NSW 1897; v. 306–9, 1 March 1805. D'Arcy Wentworth's pay shows this dual source.

Forster FMC . Progress in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Australia. Sydney: John Sands, 1967: 14.

Commandant Foveaux (Army) recommended Redfern for a pardon, and Governor King RN agreed.

Redfern to Bigge. 5 February 1821: 6186–222.35 BT Box 26 appendix.

Ford E . Thomas Jamison and the beginning of medical journalism in Australia. Med J Aust 1954;2: 624–6.

Ryan RJ . Land Grants 1788–1809.37 Sydney: Australian Documents Library, 1981: 76.

Op. rit. ref. 37: 157–9, Hobart to King.

For an example, see 4/1167A: 445ff. Sale to stores of wheat, maize and swine's meat, 1 January to 30 June 1805, for £31116s8d. Archives Authority of NSW. Colonial Secretary: Norfolk Island papers 1794–1807: reel 4/1167A: 449.

Op. rit. ref. 37: Includes facsimile of Foveaux's certificate.

Wentworth papers and Wentworth D papers. General source for this paragraph. A751: 201–3 and A4073: 1808, respectively, Mitchell Library, Sydney.

O'Shaughnessy P (op. cit. ref. 4): 91.

Butlin SJ . Foundations of the Australian Monetary System 1788–1851.Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1968: 56.

Ritchie J . Introduction. In: A Charge of Mutiny: The Court Martial of Lieutenant Colonel George Johnston for Deposing Governor William Bligh in the Rebellion of 26 January 1808. Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1988 (Mr Bartrum's short hand record: 1811).

Turner J . Newcastle University study tour of Norfolk Island, 1994, which I attended. Local salt extraction from sea water dated back to first settlement, but salt was also imported.

Piper J . Norfolk Island returns 1808. List of settlers embarked on Estramina. Their possessions were described. CYReel 1303 BT 12: 152. Mitchell Library, Sydney.

I have dated this letter to 1808 on internal evidence involving actors, events, and particularly shipping in Nobbs R (op. cit. ref. 32).

Piper J (op. cit. ref. 51).

HR NSW 1901; vii: 306, 8 March 1810. Macquarie's first despatch supported Redfern's appointment. Ibid.: 561, 26 July 1811. Earl Liverpool confirmed Mr Redfern as assistant surgeon.

Kerr JS . Design for Convicts. Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1984: 4–5.

Bridges P . Foundations of Identity: Building Early Sydney 1788–1822. Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, 1995: 98.

HRA I 1916; vi: 647, 643, 6 September 1808. See also Governor's despatches, vol. 1, 1813–16: 55–6.

Wright R . Shipping movements 1788–1814. In: Nobbs R (op. cit. ref. 32).

Op. cit. ref. 57: 703–4, 31 December 1808.

Macquarie ordered grants, made after Bligh was deposed, to be surrendered. Redfern's Memorial to Governor Macquarie, 29 January 1810, made a fresh claim. Op. cit. ref. 36.

Hassall correspondence, vol.4: 1101–2. A1677–4. Mitchell Library, Sydney.

HR NSW 1901; vii: 368–70, 3 May 1810. Bath, 3 May 1810 John Macarthur to his wife.

HR NSW 1901; vii: 396–7. London, 20 July 1810, John Macarthur to his wife. Macarthur gave no first names. In 1992, my research centred on a Thomas Redfern family in Trowbridge with a son Thomas old enough to travel to Bath by himself in 1810. Roma Draper, working on my behalf in 1995, showed that Thomas and William were brothers. The will of Ann Redfern, 1823–38, A & W, at Trowbridge archives, and a letter signed by William Redfern confirmed it. Thomas was a surgeon, too. Mr Ken Rogers, former county archivist, provided additional material. Campbelltown City Council Library and the local Mormon Church Family History Centre supplied micro-fiche and micro-film records.

Colonial secretary's papers 1788–1825: Reel 6002; 4/ 3490B: 88–9. Leave application 20 February 1810. Archives Authority, New South Wales.

HRA I 1916; vii: 276, 30 April 1810. Of the four, Redfern, Thompson and Lord had been convicts but not D'Arcy Wentworth.

Op. cit., ref. 64: 4/3490C: 66, 71, 84.

Grant J . Providence: The Life and Times of John Grant (1792–1866). Orange, NSW: self-published, 1994.

Macquarie L , Governor of New South Wales. Journals of his Tours in NSW and Van Diemen's Land 1810–1822. Sydney: Trustees of the Public Library of New South Wales, 1956: 7–8.

Wentworth papers. Deed. Sarah Wills, b. 23 April 1796;married 4 March 1811 (AO reel 5002: 200); son W Lachlan Macquarie Redfern, b. 27 July 1819; son Joseph Foveaux Redfern, b. 7 February 1823, buried 11 April 1830. A752: 38. Mitchell Library, Sydney.

Cumpston JHL . Health and Disease in Australia, A History (ed. by Lewis MJ ). Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1989: 41, 44, 201–3.

Noah W . Voyage to Sydney in the Ship Hillsborough 1798–1799… Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1978: 51.

Griffiths G Kass T . Campbellfield… a Heritage Study. Sydney: Ministerial Development Corporation, February 1996.

O'Shaughnessy P (op. cit. ref. 4).

Ritchie J . Lachlan Macquarie: A Biography. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1988: 141.

“Commission to Redfern” as a “Royal Commission under seal”. In: Ellis MH . Lachlan Macquarie… Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1970: 474.

HRA I 1916; viii: 274–93, 30 September 1814. Assistant surgeon Redfern to Governor Macquarie. Ibid.: 295, Quarantine procedures with the Surrey.

Bateson C (op. cit. ref. 31).

The 1812 Select Committee on Transportation. In Clark M . Sources of Australian History. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1977: 116.

Reel 6044, 4/1731: 30 July 1814. Archives Authority, New South Wales. See also typhus fever in Cumpston JHL (op. cit. ref. 70): 201.

Op. cit. ref. 76: 295.

Porter R . Howard's beginnings: Prisons, disease, hygiene. In: Creese R Bynum WF Beam J , eds. The Health of Prisoners, Historical Essays, Amsterdam. Editions Rodopi BV, 1995: 14. In the context of the debate, “why shouldn't miasmatism galvanize action?”.

Bigge JT . Reports… 1822: 5, and… 1823: 109 refers to large cases of unused lime juice from convict ships accumulating at Sydney Hospital. (On the Lord Wellington in 1819 it was called lemon juice.) Perhaps the unused juice reflected Trotter's view that lemon juice had a detrimental effect when taken for long periods. In: Carpenter KJ . The History of Scurvy and Vitamin C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986: 234.

Bateson C (op. cit. ref. 31): ch. 4, The surgeons and surgeons-superintendent.

Gandevia B . Medical history in its Australian environment. Med J Aust 1967;2: 243.

Bateson C (op. cit. ref. 31): ch. 4, The surgeons and surgeons-superintendent.

Blane G (op. cit. ref. 18): 211ff.

Watt J Freeman EJ Bynum WF . Starving Sailors: The Influence of Nutrition Upon Naval and Maritime History. London: National Maritime Museum, 1981: 201, appendix 1, 17.

Ford E . Annual post-graduate oration. The life and work of William Redfern. Bull Post-Grad Comm Med Univ Sydney 1953/4; 9: 1–36.

Ford E . Bibliography of Australian Medicine 1790–1900. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1976: 262–3.

Borrie WD . Immigration. In: Chisholm AH , ed. The Australian Encyclopaedia. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1958: vol. 5; pp 65–6.

Reel 6038: 14. Archives Authority, New South Wales.

Macquarie L (op. cit. ref. 68): 109.