William Redfern (1775?–1833): Mutineer to Colonial Surgeon in New South Wales. Part II: Promise and Default

Cummins CJ. The Administration of Lunacy and Idiocy in N.S.W., 1788–1855. Australian Studies in Health Service Administration, 2. Sydney: School of Hospital Administration, University of New South Wales, 1968: 1.

In this context, see Wiener MJ . The health of prisoners and the two faces of Benthamism. In: Creese R Bynum WF Bearn J , eds. The Health of Prisoners, Historical Essays. Amsterdam. Editions Rodopi BV, 1995: 44–57.

A copy of the instructions given by Earl Bathurst to Mr Bigge.… Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 7 July 1823. In: Bigge JT . Report. on… Agriculture and Trade in New South Wales. Adelaide Library Board facsimile edition no. 70, 1966: 1–7.

Ibid.

Bonwick Transcripts, Mitchell Library, Sydney, of Bigge inquiry (hereafter BT). Papers include details of agreements reached with financiers and problems associated with the construction of the hospital.

Reel 6043: 133. Archives Authority, New South Wales.

Medical establishments in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. In: Bigge JT (op. cit. ref. 3): 104–11, 106–7.

Wentworth papers. Invoice of medicines, etc. for the use of H.M. settlement at New South Wales. Portsmouth Medical Depot, 30 November 1814. A762, Mitchell Library, Sydney. Paper and writing materials were listed on this requisition but paper was generally in short supply in the colony.

Population figures from Cumpston JHL. Health and Disease in Australia, A History. In: Lewis MJ , ed. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1989: 39.

Op. cit. ref. 8.

Pearn J Petrie AF Petrie GM. An early colonial pharmacopoeia: a drug list and its materia medica for an Australian convict settlement. Med J Aust 1988; 149: 630–4.

Ford E. Mackay lecture. Medical practice in early Sydney. Med J Aust 1955; 2: 48–9.

Bigge JT (op. cit. ref. 3): 106–7. As many as 90 were crowded into three rooms designed for only half that number. (Governor Macquarie, weakened by dysentery in November 1819, became seriously ill. This was probably the time Redfern sent a note, undated, to D'Arcy Wentworth for his urgent attendance).

See Cumpston JHL (op. cit. ref. 9): 234-6. Dysentery is discussed in its social context and food quality, absence of amoebic form and undoubted inclusion of enteric fever in this category at that time.

CY Reel 1551: Medical, oral evidence: Cowper to Bigge. BT box 6.

Ibid.: 16 November 1819.

Op. cit. ref. 8: 49.

Op. cit. ref. 15: 2370.

Ford E (op. cit. ref. 12): 49.

Ibid.: 51–4.

Wright R. The Forgotten Generation of Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land. Sydney: Library of Australian History, 1986: 40. Note: Sheers (Shears) and Commandant John Piper's wife were siblings.

The Police Fund, a catch-all of local charges and petty fines. The unpaid treasurer of this fund, D'Arcy Wentworth, “conspicuous for his humanity”, asked for retrospective payment as a result of Bigge's strictures. CY Reel 1377, BT 21: 4058 ff.

Jackson ES. Henry Cowper, surgeon, and his times. In Transactions of the Third Australasian Medical Congress (Brit Med Ass), Sydney 1929. Sydney: Australian Medical Publishing Company, 1930: 198–202, 199.

Steele JG. Brisbane Town in Convict Days 1824–1842. St Lucia, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1975, indexed. See also Douglas G. Sickness and death at the Moreton Bay Convict settlement. Med J Aust 1963: 2: 473-80.

Forster FMC. Progress in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Australia. Sydney: John Sands Pty Ltd, 1967: 14. See also Luxford Y . In: Covacevich J , eds. History, Heritage and Health. Proceedings of the Fourth Biennial Conference of the Australian Society of the History of Medicine, 2–9 July 1995. Brisbane: Australian Society of the History of Medicine, 1996: 73–6.

Surgeon Jamison to Earl Camden, 20 July 1805: 667-9. Historical Records of New South Wales (hereafter HR NSW); v.

A list of wants for the General Hospital etc., Sydney, 26 August 1797, including Three Setts of Midwifery Instruments. In: Cummins CJ . The General Hospital, Sydney: 1788–1848. Mod Med Aust 1974: 15.

Dr Smellie's Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery, 1783. The anatomical tables, reduced in size, are signed A[ndrew] Bell Sculpt. See Johnstone RW . William Smellie: The Master of British Midwifery. Edinburgh: E & S Livingstone, 1952: 85.

Ibid.: 130.

Microfilm CY1446: 6186–222. Redfern to Bigge, 5 February 1821. BT box 26.

Wentworth papers. A4073, Mitchell Library, Sydney.

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

Rathbone R. A Very Present Help, Caring for Australians Since 1813. The History of the Benevolent Society of N.S.W. Sydney: State Library of New South Wales Press, 1994: 26.

Redfern William Dr In: Benevolence in action. Benevolent Society of New South Wales Newsletter 1979; 3: 4. Personal communication, Dr Ian Cope.

Forster FMC (op. cit. ref. 25): 12.

Hamlin C. State medicine in Great Britain. In: Porter D , ed. The History of Public Health and the Modern State (Clio Medica 26/Wellcome Institute Series in the History of Medicine). Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1994: 134–8. Note: Refers to “contagion … as much a moral as a physical process”.

Cummins CJ (op. cit. ref. 1): 4.

Rathbone R (op. cit. ref. 33): 17.

Sydney Gazette, 12 August 1826. In: Pescott RN. Emancipist and Autocrat: The Life of Doctor William Redfern and his Relationship with Governor Macquarie in the Society of N.S.W. Canberra, roneoed copy from the author, 1970: 84 ff.

McIntosh AM. The life and times of William Bland. Bull Post-Grad Comm Med Univ Sydney, 1954/5; 10: 109–52.

Rathbone R (op. cit. ref. 33): 27.

See Cummins CJ (op. cit. ref. 1): 4. Note: according to Cummins, discontent appeared with the minor role of the medical service in the administration and supervision of the first asylum, opened in 1812.

Bostock J . The Dawn of Australian Psychiatry. Glebe: Australian Medical Publishing Co., 1968.

Historical Records of Australia, Series I (hereafter HRA I); viii: 274–93; see also paper I (J Med Biog 1999; 7: 35–41).

“It is intended that the Assistant Surgeon shall succeed to the Office of Chief Surgeon”. In: Reel 699, Wentworth papers. A751, Mitchell Library, Sydney. See also Redfern's letter of resignation, in HRA I 1917; x: 272–5.

CY1446: 6186–222, 5 February 1821. BT box 26.

Ibid.: 6227 ff. Redfern to Bowman, 24 October 1819.

CY Reel 1551, medical interviews. BT box 6.

Op. cit. ref. 46.

Ibid.

See Kercher B. An Unruly Child. A History of Law in Australia. St Leonards, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1995. See also Bennett JM, Castles AC. A Source Book of Australian Legal History. Sydney: Law Book Company, 1979.

HRA I 1914; x: 214–39, 22 February 1820.

King PG. Governor's despatch. 12 August 1806.

Bigge JT. Report. into the State of the Colony of N.S.W. 1822. In: British Parliamentary Papers, Colonies, Australia, I. Shannon: Irish University Press, 1968: 84.

HRA I; viii: 324–7, 7 October 1814. The Memorial of the Colonial Medical Officers of New South Wales to the Right Honourable Earl Bathurst. Signed by Wentworth, Mileham, Redfern, Luttrell and Younge.

Bigge JT (op. cit. ref. 54): 85.

Op. cit. ref. 46.

Op. cit. ref. 52: 257–63, Macquarie to Bathurst, 1 April 1817.

Op. cit. ref. 46: 6227, 24 October 1819.

Op. cit. ref. 58.

Op. cit. ref. 47: 6229.

Reel 6007; 4/3501: 32-3. Archives Authority of New South Wales.

Op. cit. ref. 48: 2487–509, 2502.

Carpue JC. In: Power, Sir D'Arcy et al., revised. Plarr's Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. London: Royal College of Surgeons, 1930: Vol. 1, pp. 196–9.

See “grinders”, in: Rosner L . Medical Education in the Age of Improvement. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 1991: 73 ff.

Fox J. A New Medical Dictionary. London: 1808. Note: “Phimosis, a contraction of the prepuce so as to prevent its being drawn back”.

Lawrence SC. Anatomy and address: creating medical gentlemen in eighteenth-century London. In: Nutton V Porter R , eds. The History of Medical Education in Britain. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi BV, 1995: 210.

Bigge JT (op. cit. ref. 54): 87.

Kercher B (op. cit. ref. 51).

Macquarie L. The Governor's Diary and Memorandum Book for 30 November-1 December 1820. A 774, Mitchell Library, Sydney.

Macquarie L , Governor of NSW. Journals of his Tours in NSW and Van Diemens Land 1810–1822. Sydney: Trustees of the Public Library of New South Wales, 1956: 168–202.

Bigge JT (op. cit. ref. 54).

Ritchie J. Punishment and Profit. Melbourne: Heinemann, 1970. See also Ritchie J (op. cit. ref. 32): 194–8, 200–2.

Macarthur papers, vol. 15, pp. 150-1. A2911, Mitchell Library, Sydney.

Pearn JH. In the Capacity of a Surgeon, A Biography of Walter Scott. Brisbane: University of Queensland, 1988: 192n, 3.2.

HRA I; xi: 203. Sarah Redfern to Earl Bathurst, 13 January 1824.

Fiche 3107: 291 ff. Redfern to Sir Thomas Brisbane, 1 November 1824 with enclosures. Archives Authority, New South Wales.

Grant J. Providence: The Life and Times of John Grant 1792–1866. 73 Orange, NSW: self-published, 1994.

Beck J. Sydney, 1994. Personal communication. Certificate of burial of Robert Redfern.

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

Ar 17/2, Mitchell Library, Sydney. Note: Beck J. Sydney, 1994, personal communication. The brother, Robert, was also a surgeon.

See Ritchie J (op. cit. ref. 32): 274, n.8.

Wentworth papers. A757, Mitchell Library, Sydney.

Iggo B. Edinburgh, 1994. Dr Iggo confirmed the Redfem signature (ref. 74) for me, and found Redfern had matriculated (enrolled) in medicine in Edinburgh University in 1829 and 1830.

Portrait catalogue, Redfern William, 1832. Artist, George Marshall Mather. Mitchell Library, Sydney.

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

Bellot HH. University College London 1826–1926. London: University of London Press, 1929: 13.

Iggo B. Edinburgh, 1995. Dr Iggo also found the Inventory of Wm Redfern, SC36/48/24: p. 465, Glasgow, 15 November 1834.

For house contents at Campbellfield, see the Australian, 13 May 1834.

Sydney PT, 1995. Personal communication. Stephensen wrote this book and several others which were published under Clune's name. See Munro C. Inky (PR) Stephensen, Wild Man of Letters. St Lucia, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1992: 305.

Ibid.: 128. Facing p. 128 are photographs of Redfern's grave, and Campbellfield.