"Clowns of no account"? Reflections on the involvement of four Irishmen in the commercial life of the Colony of New South Wales,1788-1818

Abstract

This paper reflects on the involvement of four Irishmen in the commercial affairs of the fledgling British colony in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), between 1788 and 1818. They are John Kenny, a felon transported from Carlow (allegedly the first teacher of double-entry accounting in Australia); Michael Hayes, a Wexford rebel (the first to advertise in the Sydney Gazette for work as an accountant); Sergeant Jeremiah Murphy, a native of Creagh serving in the British Army (the first customer to open a bank account in Australia); and John Thomas Campbell, an Ulster loyalist (the first President of the Bank of NSW). We find representations of the Irish that are partly in accord with, and yet partly very much removed from, conventional stereotypes of the Irish. While accounting was a currency worth counterfeiting in early NSW, it did not unlock new opportunities given the constraints of the colonial context.