Military settlers: the men of the Royal Veteran Companies and Royal Staff Corps (1825).

After the Peninsular War and Waterloo, Britain was at the zenith of its power. It was the strongest military power in the world and red-coated soldiers served on every continent except Antarctica. For the first time, Britain's power was military, rather than naval and the British Army at the end of the Napoleonic Wars was larger than it had ever been before. Following the British victory at the battle of Waterloo and the subsequent reduction of the army, the British Government had to turn its mind to the extraordinary number of surplus soldiers in Britain.

The British Government had forethought when the Royal Veteran Companies were formed in 1825 for service in New South Wales: they were to be encouraged to settle there. Indeed, the Horse Guards' suggested that, after serving for a time, these men could become 'very useful settlers'. (2) Sure enough, the Royal Veteran Companies were disbanded a few years later, and grants of land in varying sizes were given to the men in different parts of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. There were also some members of the Royal Staff Corps in both these colonies who were disbanded at the same time, and under the same conditions, and together they make a coherent group for analysis.

Yet the scheme to settle these men in the Australian colonies was a failure. Particular blame can be laid at the feet of Governor Darling, especially as his brothers-in-law were the officers in charge of both the Royal Veteran Companies and the Royal Staff Corps, and he kept them busy with civil duties. Other officers were likewise tempted by the large salaries of civil positions, and virtually ignored their military responsibilities. Thus, the scheme was unsuccessful on various levels, most importantly because the officers did not fulfill their duties, and failed to provide leadership to the tank and file who, in turn, performed disastrously in their various roles. After discharge, most soldiers failed to take up their land grants, or forfeited them through non-residence.

However, while the scheme itself did not succeed, there were a few success stories. Glimpses will be provided into the lives of some of the men who did take up their veterans' allotments, to see how they were dispersed in different parts of the colonies, and why the system of veterans' allotments worked better in some localities than it did in others. Small biographies of a few soldiers will be provided to illustrate these and other points.

Most of these soldiers were veterans of the Peninsular War, that brutal conflict between the French and the British, fought on the Iberian Peninsula between 1808 and 1814. Hitherto, little was known of the collective experience of these men, although there have been earlier articles: R. H. Montague (3) and G. Webb (4), along with one by John Passmore on the Royal Staff Corps (5). Each one was incomplete, and a scholarly appreciation of the veterans of both the 1825 Royal Veteran Companies and the Royal Staff Corps companies of the same year in New South Wales and Tasmania is overdue.

The Veteran Companies of the British Army contained aged and wounded men from the tank and file no longer fit for general soldiering. British soldiers usually enlisted for an unlimited period, but could obtain a pension after 21 years' service, or if medically unfit. Those incapacitated in battle were discharged, as in-pensioners or out-pensioners. The former were admitted to Chelsea Royal Hospital, (6) hence the nickname of Chelsea pensioners; whereas out-pensioners returned to their families. Of the latter, men who were fit for garrison duty could transfer to a Veteran Company.

There was an earlier Veteran Company in New South Wales that is often confused with the companies formed in 1825. This earlier company was formed in 1810 from old soldiers of the 102nd Regiment, formerly the New South Wales Corps, who wanted to remain in New South Wales, and Governor Macquarie formed them into a Veteran Company. (7) Most of these soldiers had served for between 20 and 30 years, and had families in the colony. Macquarie therefore considered that, if sent home, 'very few of them would be found fit for service in a Cold Climate'. (8)

By 1817, these men were getting too old to perform even garrison duties. Macquarie suggested that the officers be placed on half-pay and the noncommissioned officers and soldiers be pensioned in the colony, with the option of becoming settlers if they so desired. (9) Yet in 1820, just five years before the arrival of the later companies, there were still 255 persons victualled with the Veteran Company, of whom nearly half were women and children. (10) They were finally disbanded in 1823 and The Sydney Gazette noted:

   There are only four of them who intend to visit Europe, to see
   whether any improvements have taken place in their absence worthy
   of note. All the rest have a wish to be interred where their best
   days have been spent. (11)

Well-known men of this veteran company included Lieutenant William Lawson, who found fame as an explorer and lived to a great age in his home, 'Veterans' Hall' at Prospect on the outskirts of Sydney; and Lieutenant Archibald Bell, whose eldest son discovered a route across the Blue Mountains that still recalls his name, the Bell Line of Road. (12)

Typically, the men who enlisted in the three Royal Veteran Companies, raised in Britain in 1825 for service in New South Wales, were born in the 1790s, and had served in the Peninsular War or at Waterloo. The ideal recruit was a man of good character, either an out-pensioner or already serving as a veteran. They had to pass a medical examination, as the men were to have no serious body infirmity and ideally they should be less than 50 years old. (13) Those accepted were offered higher pay, an enlistment term not exceeding two years, and the possibility of settling down in the colony with a free grant of land. As well, there were the following 'indulgences', offered to those wishing to settle in New South Wales:

   Each man will be allowed from forty to one hundred acres of land,
   according to the quality of the soil or the situation in which he
   may be required to settle, on his entering into a bond that he will
   reside on and cultivate his land for a period of seven years on
   pain of forfeiture.

   He will be furnished with the necessary implements of husbandry. If
   married, he will receive a cow from the Government Herds on taking
   possession of his land, and a second cow at any rime within three
   years, when he shall have cleared and stumped ten acres.

   Each man will be allowed the usual ration (spirits excepted) for
   himself and his family for twelve months from the date of his
   discharge, to be issued at or in the neighbourhood of his farm: the
   ration to be forfeited, if he or his family absent himself or
   themselves from the farm.

   A log hut will be put up for the accommodation of such men as are
   married. It is intended that these men should be located in
   different parts of the colony in small bodies of about six in
   number, as soon as eligible situations have been determined on; and
   it is desirable that the individuals should be of different trades,
   as being more likely to prove generally useful to the colony and to
   afford them an opportunity of providing comfortably for themselves
   and families. (14)

There was no shortage of recruits, but when they reported to the old Chatham army depot, the officers had difficulty enforcing discipline. Many men regarded the Veteran Companies as a sort of army reunion, with the bonus of good pay. (15)

The rations referred to in the 'indulgences' were the usual British Army ones: for men, one pound of bread and, on overseas stations, one pound of fresh or salt meat a day, with lesser quantities for women and children. Often the quantities were reduced to allow for the purchase of tea, sugar and vegetables. The Secretary for War, however, thought these indulgences were too liberal, and that they would be the undoing of the scheme. Supplying all the wants of settlers without extracting any work from them had encouraged idleness in other places, such as Upper Canada and on the coast of Africa. As the Secretary put it, 'the inducement to exertion is taken away'. (16) That advice proved correct, although Governor Darling did not heed it.

It was decided in 1825 to send a company of the Royal Staff Corps to New South Wales to assist with public works, and the cost was to be met from the revenue of the colony. The Royal Staff Corps Company included skilled tradesmen, such as bricklayers, stonemasons, sawyers, and blacksmiths. Their officers were unlike those of the Royal Veteran Companies--their commissions could not be purchased, their officers were mounted, paid as cavalry, and they formed part of the Quarter Master General's Department. Battle honours for this corps included the Peninsular War and Waterloo, so they contained men with the same experiences as the soldiers in the Royal Veteran Companies. The No. 3 Company of the Staff Corps arrived in two separate groups: the first in December 1825 under Captain William Dumaresq in the Catherine Stewart Forbes, the second aboard the Chapman. (17)

It is apparent that the British Government had specific aims for forming the three Royal Veteran Companies and, as it turned out, for the Staff Corps company as well, a group it termed 'military settlers'. (18) One aim was to remove excess soldiers from Britain, and the other was to settle these men in the Australian colonies. In the turmoil of post-war Britain, veterans posed a potential threat: Peninsular War veterans had been active in radical protests and in organising striking weavers. (19) The Horse Guards suggested that these men could prove useful settlers, and that a certain proportion should be discharged after two years and replaced by men from England. The men discharged could serve in the militia or as special constables and would provide:

   ... a progressive increase in the number of Settlers of a good and
   useful description in the class of Artisans and labourers which
   would keep par with the higher class of Settlers and assist in
   keeping the degraded class in check. (20)'

The rotation system never eventuated, as the three companies were disbanded after a couple of years, but the suggestion of these men's usefulness as settlers was not overlooked. As predicted, many of the veterans had positions in the police force, which attracted old soldiers because it offered the discipline and uniforms to which they were accustomed.

Many of those who enlisted in the Royal Veteran Companies of 1825 had been forced by economic circumstances into the British Army during the Peninsular War, and then unemployed since discharge after the battle of Waterloo. This was particularly so for framework knitters from the north of England. Machines were replacing domestic knitters, and thousands found themselves unemployed. Lynn Shepherd, who was born in 1795 in the village of Arnold, on the outskirts of Nottingham, was one of these men. During the latter part of the Peninsular War, in early 1811, followers of the mythical Ned Ludd, known as Luddites, were active in the Nottingham area, smashing stocking frames as a protest against new pay rates, truck payments and other devices. (21) At the beginning of their protests, on the night of 11 March, Luddites marched to Arnold, where the Shepherds lived, and broke 63 frames belonging to a hosier associated with the new oppressive conditions being forced on framework knitters. (22) It seems likely that Lynn Shepherd's decision to enlist in the British Army on 13 February 1812, 10 months after the riots, was a consequence of the desperate economic conditions in Arnold.

After enlistment, Shepherd served in Ireland and Belgium, and then was at the battle of Waterloo, on 15 June 1815, where he was wounded. After discharge from the army in 1816, with two years' additional service credited for the Waterloo campaign, he returned to live in Arnold and resumed his former work as a framework knitter. Over the next few years, he married and children began to appear. Given his increasing family, combined with the economic distress of framework knitters, Shepherd appears to have been forced back into the army. He enlisted in the 4th Royal Veteran Battalion, destined for Canada, but was discharged in 1821. He tried again, and in 1825 enlisted in the Royal Veteran Companies bound for New South Wales. (23)

On 5 May 1826, the Shepherd family sailed from England on the Orpheus for New South Wales. Aboard the Orpheus was the main detachment of the Royal Veteran Companies to New South Wales: 213 men, women and children. (24) Lynn Shepherd's story typifies the economic desperation of framework knitters and handloom weavers in Britain, who were forced into the British Army. Had he and his ilk remained in Britain, his life would have been among those of the poverty-stricken, left to the vagaries of the Poor Law.

The John Barry arrived in Hobart Town three months later, on 26 August 1826, with Captain John D'Arcy, Lieutenants Robert Travers and Stephen Collins, three sergeants, three corporals, 50 privates, 45 women and 42 children. Reinforcements for this group arrived in small numbers until the end of 1827, making a total of 63 rank and file. (25) In April 1827, a further 30 men, 14 women and 13 children sailed on the Marquis of Hastings, including Thomas Budd and his family (of whom more later). (26) In November the Hooghly left England with another 24 men, 12 women and 22 children bound for New South Wales. However, trouble was brewing on the voyage out, and it appears that discipline among the men of the Royal Veteran Companies was taken lightly, and their duties of guarding convicts on convict transports were not performed satisfactorily. (27) Right from the beginning, the officers failed to enforce discipline among their men.

On their arrival, No. 1 Company was stationed in Sydney, No. 2 in Newcastle, while No. 3, aboard the John Barry, went to Van Diemen's Land. Lynn Shepherd was transferred with No. 1 Company to Moreton Bay, where the commandant at that time was Captain Patrick Logan. Shepherd's stay at Moreton Bay was brief, and before long, he was transferred to the Newcastle penal settlement to guard prisoners.

Governor Darling soon grew increasingly concerned over the lack of effectiveness of the Royal Veteran Companies. In 1827, he complained of a sergeant-major who was placed in a situation of trust and then promptly committed a fraud. Likewise, a sergeant for 28 years and a pay sergeant for much of that time, who was employed as a storekeeper, began to steal stores. (28)

Yet there had been problems with the Royal Veteran Companies almost from the outset. In a long despatch on the subject to London, Darling recounted the misconduct of the men on board ship. Captain Robison had reported several men on arrival, as the conduct of some of them had been 'highly insubordinate and mutinous' on the passage out. (29) For their part, the Horse Guards were concerned at the lack of discipline, as it was considered 'that their bad habits must have been contracted subsequently to their leaving this Country'. (30) The Horse Guards also castigated Robison for not attempting to establish any system of discipline and not paying 'the necessary attention' to the men under his charge. Likewise, Darling was reprimanded for not taking steps to establish a proper system of discipline and more regular habits among the veterans. (31)

Darling formed a poor opinion of these men, as many of them were of bad character and some had formerly been flogged. Their duties were to supervise convicts working in road-building parties, and those who could ride were appointed as mounted police, whose task it was to protect settlers in outlying districts from Aborigines, bushrangers and escaped convicts. As convict overseers, however, Darling reported that they were absolutely useless: the two sent to Western Port as overseers would do nothing; the four he sent as mounted police into the interior lost their carbines, pistols and sabres on the first day; and others who were mounted police at Bathurst had become drunk and disorderly. Indeed, Darling found them to be 'the most drunken, disorderly, worthless set of fellows that ever existed'. (32)

There was no alternative, he thought, but to transfer them to garrison duty, and put other men in their place. Overseers could be appointed from within the ranks of convicts, and the mounted police would be selected from the garrison regiment. Darling proposed that a few good men from the regular regiments in the colony be transferred into the Royal Veteran Companies, and the most useless of the veterans could then be discharged to make way for them.

One good man from the garrison was Thomas Spicer, born in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He enlisted in the 1st Life Guards, as his father and grandfather had done before him. After service in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, he transferred to the 3rd Regiment, the 'Buffs', because he wanted to come to New South Wales, and only infantry regiments were sent there. After some time in Ireland, Spicer arrived with the 'Buffs' in 1823, and was discharged from the army in 1824. Immediately on discharge, he joined the Royal New South Wales Veteran Companies and was promoted to sergeant. When those companies were disbanded, Spicer was offered a grant of 100 acres of land at White Rock, near Bathurst. He made a success of his farm, as after five years he had 50 of his 100 acres under cultivation, had three assigned convicts, and the following year leased a further 660 acres. (33) In areas such as this, Spicer and other successful small settlers found a sort of midpoint between the landed gentry and convicts, and thus were an important part of a growing community.

Certainly, responsibility can be laid at the feet of the officers for the failure of the Royal Veteran Companies and the Royal Staff Corps. Busy in civil positions, they were not attending to their duties with the Royal Veteran Companies. In New South Wales, Lieutenant Warner was Assistant Surveyor of Roads and Bridges in 1827 at an annual salary of 91 [pounds sterling], and Andrew Gibson was Assistant Surgeon in 1827 and 1828 at a salary of 136 [pounds sterling] a year. Similarly, in Van Diemen's Land, Captain D'Arcy was a police magistrate at a salary of 127 [pounds sterling] in 1827, and 136 [pounds sterling] for the next two years. (34) But it was Lieutenant Colonel Henry Dumaresq who came in for the strongest criticism. The Australian noted that Dumaresq, 'who never yet, we are assured, did a day's duty with his company, has been absent from the colony for year and a half past ...' (35) The Australian also took aim at Governor Darling: 'Colonel Dumaresq's Company of Veterans which were kept in a good-for-nothing state during four years past by Governor Darling, in order to keep the Colonel, his brother-in-law, on full pay, are at last disbanded.' (36)

Added to that were the comments of Captain Robison of the Royal Veteran Companies, who said that Dumaresq:

   ... never did one hour's duty with his company nor once interfered
   with them. He held the Military situation of Aide de Camp and the
   Civil appointments of Private Secretary and Clerk to the Executive
   Council, worth 700 [pounds sterling] a year, besides having
   received, whilst on the full pay of these Companies, a free grant
   of upwards of 3000 of the best acres of Land in the Colony, with
   leave to purchase 10,000 more adjoining at 1 [pounds sterling] an
   acre and is at this moment one of the largest Stock and Land
   Proprietors in New South Wales. (37)

Robison, however, was not an impartial observer and became something of an enemy of Governor Darling, yet he was correct as to Dumaresq's appointments: his salary as Private Secretary to the Governor was 300 [pounds sterling] a year (38), as Clerk to the Councils 800 [pounds sterling], as well as his pay and allowances as officer in charge of the Royal Veterans, say 500 [pounds sterling], making 1600 [pounds sterling] in total. (39) Robison also pointed out the civil appointments of Lieutenant Samuel North, and that of Assistant Surgeon Gibson, who was the only medical officer for the Royal Veteran Companies. Gibson was in Sydney as the house and family surgeon of Governor Darling, and had never been outside Sydney since he came to New South Wales. (40)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

While his brother, Henry, was supposedly in charge of Royal Veteran Company No. 2, Captain William Dumaresq was the officer in charge of the Royal Staff Corps in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. But he also had civil positions: as Chief Engineer and Inspector of Roads and Bridges. Dumaresq received 700 [pounds sterling] a year as Civil Engineer (41) as well as his salary of 600 [pounds sterling] as Captain of the Staff Corps, (42) a total of 1300 [pounds sterling]. Governor Darling also attempted to have Dumaresq (his brother-in-law) appointed as Deputy Surveyor General--'his appointment would be particularly satisfactory to me, being assured that he is a person in whom I could place more confidence than in any stranger (43)--but Lord Bathurst refused that appointment. In the same dispatch, Darling requested that if Dumaresq was appointed, he be allowed to retire on half pay. In addition, when Dumaresq sold out to settle in New South Wales, he had served nine months less than the required 20 years of service for a land grant, but he was granted the concession of allowing him to apply for a grant of land as if he had served 20 years. (44)

Governor Darling eventually convinced the British Government of the futility of continuing with the Royal Veteran Companies, and it was left to his discretion whether he reduce the companies, disband some of them, or disband all three, with the proviso that, if the Royal Veteran Companies were disbanded, as many men of the tank and file as possible should be allowed to settle, while the officers also were to have the option of remaining in New South Wales. (45) Darling then immediately disbanded the three Royal Veteran Companies, under certain conditions, one of which was allowing those men who were tradesmen to be discharged immediately as they were more likely to find work in the towns. (46) It has been suggested that locating the men in different areas assisted the spread of settlement by providing a ready labour supply for larger landowners. (47) So far as the officers are concerned, Lieutenants Sweeney and Travers wished to go home, while Assistant Surgeon Andrew Gibson and Lieutenants Warner and North wished to remain. Gibson, Warner and North remained in New South Wales and were given grants of land.

Lieutenant Jonathan Warner was in the British Navy before joining the army in 1808, from whence he served in the West Indies. From 1817, he was on half-pay and ever vigilant for an opportunity. That came with his enlistment in the New South Wales Royal Veteran Company in 1825, and he arrived on the Orpheus with his wife and four children, a key that he thought his future lay in the colony, and not in Britain. There were also civil positions for Warner. As well as Assistant Surveyor of Roads and Bridges in charge of the Great North Road, he was also Police Magistrate at Newcastle and Brisbane Waters. Ultimately, he settled on a grant of 1280 acres near Lake Macquarie, and the suburb of Warner's Bay is named after him. (48) Lieutenant Samuel North had been in the militia before joining the army in 1813, and then served in Bermuda and North America until the termination of the Napoleonic wars, when he was placed on half-pay. He was subsequently appointed to full pay in the 27th Regiment, and served with it until the formation of the Royal Veteran Companies for service in New South Wales. By this time, North was 37 years old, married with five children, and he also saw his future in the colony. (49) It is no wonder he sought to stay in New South Wales, as surely his prospects in Britain could not match those available in the colony, with grants of land and substantial salaries. In 1827 and 1828, North was Keeper of Bonded Stores for a salary of 400 [pounds sterling] a year, and in 1829 his salary as Keeper of Police was 300 [pounds sterling] a year. (50)

Meanwhile, the Royal Staff Corps had more specialised duties than the veterans, including carrying out urgent public works. Royal Staff Corps companies served in both New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. In the latter colony, most of the Royal Staff Corps had been stationed at Oatlands and were responsible for building much of that township. Most of these men stayed where they were. They also supervised the work of convicts, but the latter proposition proved a failure. 'But the officers assure me it is impossible to prevent an intimate association between [the soldiers and the convicts],' Darling wrote, 'and Idleness with its usual consequences result from it.' (51) Darling soon discontinued their duties as overseers, recommended disbanding them, and pointed out that the discontinuance of the Veteran Companies and the Staff Corps would save about 12,000 [pounds sterling] a year.

The Royal Staff Corps men were discharged with the Royal Veteran Companies on the same conditions. Among those who were given grants of land were: Charles Clayton, Joseph Daly, Richard Gill, John McGeorge, Samuel Mason, John Passmore, Robert Parks, Stephen Robinson, John Robins and John Ward. However, as with the Royal Veterans, most of the Staff Corps men did not stay on their allotments. Only three were still on their land in 1847: John McGeorge, John Passmore and John Robins. (52) After the Royal Veteran Companies were disbanded, about 100 rank and file of the No. 1 and 2 companies were settled in small groups in New South Wales at Botany, Bong Bong (near Bowral), West Maitland, Goulburn Plains and Wollombi. A few were given grants elsewhere at Kurrajong and at Dapto, near Wollongong, or town allotments of a couple of acres near Parramatta and Liverpool. At Wollombi, there were eight grants of land given to men of the Royal Veteran Companies, as well as a couple of grants to the earlier group. Those who received allotments in this location were: Thomas Budd, James Black, James Deville, John Hamburgh, John Wells, William Close, Patrick McIntyre and Nathaniel Nixon. Each of them received 100 acres of good, well-watered, fertile land, and this most likely is the reason that five out of the eight were still on their land in 1847.

One of these veterans, Thomas Budd, had seen many years of active service during the Peninsular War, with the 2/31st Regiment. Budd saw action at many of the battles of the Peninsular War, including Talavera, Albuera, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes and Toulouse. At war's end in 1815, Budd transferred to the 8th Regiment briefly, then to the 46th. (53) After the end of the war, Budd sailed for New South Wales with his regiment, and his new Spanish wife Hozepha [sic]. The regiment's stay in New South Wales was brief and it left in 1817 bound for Madras, although Budd and others sailed on to England. But New South Wales still beckoned him, and he enlisted with the 1825 New South Wales Royal Veteran Companies, sailing on the convict ship Marquis of Hastings.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

On arrival, Budd was appointed as a mounted policeman in the Hunter River area, and then as special constable and pound-keeper for the Paterson Plains district. In 1830, he was granted a veteran's allotment of 100 acres on the banks of the north arm of the Wollombi Creek, which he named Tallivera [sic] Grove, after the Peninsular War battle. Budd was given an assigned convict to help him clear the sloping, thickly wooded land, and in 1833 he was appointed the local schoolteacher in the developing village of Wollombi. (54) He died that same year, but his family managed to hold onto the land, at least until the late 1840s. Budd's grave is still visible, just off the Old North Road. (55) Familles such as the Budds were among the first settlers in Wollombi and they helped to form the nucleus of a community there, as did veterans in other locations in New South Wales.

While the veterans' allotments were fertile at Wollombi, the land given to veteransat Botany was swampy. In 1830, a road was marked out and Robert Hoddle surveyed some of the swamp for allotments. It was divided into seven allotments, five of which varied between 53 and 56 acres, one was 68 acres and one was 100 acres. This was unusual, as most of the veterans' allotments in any one locality were of equal size. Those at Botany were granted to J. B. Curran, Samuel Foster, Andrew Lowden, Thomas McConnell, James Pegg, Roderick Ross and William Vernon.

Only two of the seven allotments were still in the same families in 1847, those of Curran and Ross. After Curran's death, his son held the allotment. All the other allotments were either cancelled or forfeited. (56) Whether it was because of the state of the land, or from other causes, it is difficult to say. The land at Botany, however, is still known as Veterans' Swamp, and is bounded by Stephen Road and Denison Street. (57)

The other veterans granted land at Botany probably stayed in Sydney, as did James Pegg, who had been granted the largest allotment at Botany, 100 acres. Pegg, born in Staffordshire in 1796, came to Sydney with his family in 1826, and immediately joined the Royal Staff Corps as a private in the 3rd Company, where he remained until 1829. But instead of taking up his allotment Pegg remained in Sydney, like many other discharged soldiers. There he had work as a painter, and his wife was deputy matron at the Female Factory, (58) a more reliable source of income than chancing life on an allotment. Pegg's allotment at Botany was cancelled because of his non-residence, and given to someone else. (59)

By far the largest settlement of veterans in New South Wales was at Oakhampton, or West Maitland, where 17 men were given grants, and where the area is still known as Veterans' Flats. Again, with the weight of numbers, these men formed a separate class between the landed gentry and convicts and thus aided the social mobility of their families. John Wilkinson was one who managed to keep his veteran's allotment at Maitland for at least eight years, although later he ran a public house, which he named the Waterloo Inn.

Another veteran, Joseph James, was given his veteran's allotment later than the other men, in 1839. James was born in 1797 at Taunton in Somerset, and served in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo with the 40th Regiment. His hand was injured in an accident with a fowling piece and, as he was unable to use a musket properly, he was discharged from the army in 1820. He enlisted in Royal Veteran No. 2 Company at Chatham in 1826, and came to Australia as part of the detachment aboard the Orpheus. When the company was later disbanded, James was given 60 acres of land at Kurrajong, which he sold the next year for 330 [pounds sterling], (60) despite the regulation that these grants could not be sold before seven years passed. James then became the licensee of the Welcome Inn, about which a traveller commented:

   At nine miles from the Nepean, having been one hour and fifty
   minutes in performing that distance, we reached the Welcome Inn,
   kept by a jolly old soldier named James, who rejoices in a Waterloo
   medal, a pretty daughter, and what was more to our purpose, some
   excellent bottled ale. (61)

Lynn Shepherd, the former framework knitter from Arnold in Nottingham whom we met earlier, was discharged from the Royal Veteran Companies in 1829 and granted 80 acres at Bong Bong, one of eight grants in that locality. Shepherd's was No. 2. The Shepherd family managed reasonably well on their land for a few years, but 1832 proved to be a bad year. By then, the family had almost doubled in size. The subsequent strain on the family finances forced Shepherd to mortgage his land to an ex-convict, who had turned himself into a wealthy landowner.

Shepherd sought employment off the farm and applied for a position with the mounted police. Not surprisingly, with his previous experience, he was successful, and in November 1835 he was appointed to the police station at Lumley, near Bungonia. The Shepherd family therefore moved to Bungonia, leaving an older son on the farm at Bong Bong. By 1838, however, it is likely that Shepherd was running an inn at Liverpool named the Blue Bell, as he was arrested there and charged with robbery in May of that year, with the victim identifying Shepherd as the person who stole his clothing and money. The trial took place on 5 November 1838 with a military jury, and Shepherd was found guilty and sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment on Norfolk Island.

There, Alexander Maconochie, the enlightened commandant, petitioned for Shepherd's release and, in 1840, this was approved. In 1841, in a petition to Governor Gipps, Shepherd stated that William Lees had confessed to the crime for which he had been sent to Norfolk Island, and he sought restitution of his land grant at Bong Bong, and his army pension. Both were restored, sadly though not for long; he died a few years later. (62)

William and Thomas Wood were given grants Nos. 5 and 6 respectively at Bong Bong, each of 80 acres. William was a Peninsular War veteran, having served in the well-known 95th Regiment, or Rifle Brigade, in Captain Jonathan Leach's company. After the Royal Veteran Companies were disbanded, they were given grants at Bong Bong. Proud of his service with the famous Rifle Brigade, William Wood named his farm Rifle Farm, and remained there until at least 1847. The Quaker, James Backhouse, wrote of his visit to these veterans' allotments and of his impressions of the veterans.

   Between Bong Bong and Mitiagong, we passed the huts of several
   veterans, who had grants of 100 acres each. in this fine
   neighbourhood where the soil is rich, in many places overlaying
   basalt, but drunkenness and profligacy have kept these wretched
   people in poverty. (63)

Royal Veteran Companies Nos. 1 and 2 were disbanded simultaneously with Company No. 3 in Van Diemen's Land. After their arrival on the John Barry, the veterans were sent to various parts of the island. Some went to George Town, while others were based at Swansea, Brighton, the Clyde and the Huon settlements. (64) In these areas, the veterans supervised convicts building roads, bridges and public buildings, while others were mounted police, performing the same duties as their counterparts in New South Wales. Eleven men remained in Hobart Town, among them William Hunt, who described his work in a letter home, published in The Nottingham Review:

   My station is over a gang of convicts consisting of 40 to 80, all
   in chains with heavy irons around each leg. I fetch them from the
   prison barracks at half-past five in the morning and they work
   until nine o'clock. Then out at ten till one for dinner, then again
   half-past two until six at night, in winter from seven in the
   morning until five in the evening when l take them back into the
   barracks where they remain till I fetch them out in the morning. I
   have to overlook them with a stick in my hand and to see them work
   and 1 am obliged to be very severe with them. The work my gang do
   is making the town streets and levelling them and gravelling them
   and I have the honour to say I have completed the first street in
   Hobart Town and I believe there are nineteen more wanting
   completing ... (65)

When the No. 3 Company of the Royal Veteran Companies was disbanded in Van Diemen's Land, the majority remained: 43 out of 63. Many chose to settle in areas in which they had served and with which they were familiar, as was the case with some in New South Wales. The places settled by the veterans in Van Diemen's Land were George Town, the Brighton district, the eastern shore of the Derwent and the East Coast. In Hobart, Veterans' Row was created for 19 veterans in 'neat little brick cottages', (66) while another six veterans were granted land at Spring Bay on the River Tamar. These latter grants varied between 66 and 73 acres. In this area, William Holliday was the longest survivor: he remained living on his original grant for 15 years. (67) As for the inhabitants of Veterans' Row in Hobart, there were only five of the 19 left by 1842: William Skerrow (although he was murdered in 1846), William Cleary, Simon Carson, James Paton and William McKay. (68) The longest survivor of the veterans in Van Diemen's Land was Benjamin Shires, who died in 1879. Others from this company settled in the north of the island, among them Joseph Bilson, John Orchard, Augustus Walsh, Samuel Johnson, Charles Bennett and Alexander Fullerton. Both Bennett and Fullerton received veterans' allotments in Launceston.

Reflecting official concern at the number of veterans who had either not taken up their grants, or abandoned them, a question was raised in the New South Wales Parliament in 1847. In response, a return was provided of all orders for grants of land made to discharged soldiers in the years 1829, 1830 and 1831, and the status of these grants at that date. From a total of 103 grants of land, there were only 27 families still on their land, (69) or about one-quarter. By then, some of the men had died, and the land was in the name of widows or sons.

Most grants were cancelled for non-residence or other causes, and many others were not even taken up. Some were taken up for a time, but later abandoned for other more lucrative occupations. But the figures speak for themselves: the scheme was a failure. Certainly one of the reasons was the quality of the land: those at Wollombi who received 100 acres of good, fertile land were more likely to stay there, while the majority of those given swampy land at Botany did not take up their land at all, or else forfeited it through non-residence.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

It appears that the soldiers from both the Veterans Companies and the Royal Staff Corps often favoured running public houses as an occupation: after all, it was a lucrative venture, and certainly more profitable than attempting to clear land and run a farm. John Ward operated the Coach and Horses in Parramatta; John Passmore the Harrow Inn outside Goulburn; (70) Joseph Daly the Shamrock Inn; and George Turner the Angel Inn, both at West Maitland. William Heath had the Rising Sun Hotel at Windsor; John Wilkinson the Waterloo Inn in West Maitland; (71) Joseph James the Welcome Inn; William Cleary the Sir Thomas Brisbane in Hobart; William Lee the Adam and Eve, the Waggon and Horses and the Harvest Home, all in Hobart; James Burnip the Blacksmith's Arms and the Castle Inn at Pontville; Thomas Hughes the Ross Hotel at Campbell Town and the Victoria Hotel in the Oatlands district; and Augustus Walsh the Gardiner's Lodge at Launceston. (72)

It is evident that the scheme to settle the men and their families from the three Royal Veteran Companies, and Royal Staff Corps, was a failure. Most importantly, the leadership of these companies was a shambles, as the officers did not enforce discipline among the men on the voyage out, and the soldiers failed to do the duties for which they had been recruited. Once the soldiers arrived, particular blame can be laid at the feet of Governor Darling, especially as his two brothers-in-law were the senior officers in charge, and he kept them busy with civil duties, as he did Gibson, Warner and North. These three officers all settled in New South Wales with grants of land.

Once discharged, most of the soldiers failed to take up their veterans' allotments, or forfeited it though non-residence. Others failed to make a success of farming the land and abandoned it, sometimes in favour of running an inn. But there were some individual successes and, certainly, the financial prospects of most were improved by enlisting with the Royal Veteran Companies.

Some men did become good and useful settlers and aided in the development of townships in New South Wales such as Wollombi and Maitland, where they fitted into society conveniently between the landed gentry and convicts. Most of them, though, proved to be anything but 'useful settlers'. Yet they did have a physical presence in the two colonies for about 50 years and there are still folk memories of them: at Botany, they are recalled as being the unlucky recipients of land at Veterans' Swamps; at Maitland, as living at Veterans' Flats; and in Hobart and in Launceston as inhabiting the neat little brick cottages in Veterans' Row.

Member RAHS

Braidwood

Notes

(1) The headquarters of the British Army, located at Whitehall in London.

(2) Sir Herbert Taylor, Horse Guards, to Under Secretary Hay, 31 July 1826, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XII, Series I, Sydney: 1919, pp. 480-481.

(3) R. H. Montague, 'The Royal Veterans in Australia', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. 68, no.3, 1982, pp. 238-246.

(4) Gwenda Webb, 'The Royal Veterans in Van Diemen's Land', Tasmanian Ancestry 16, 1995, pp. 17-24.

(5) John Passmore, 'The Royal Staff Corps Settlers in Australia 1829', Descent 7, No.l pp. 3-15.

(6) A home for invalid and retired soldiers since the late 17th century.

(7) See R. H. Montague, Macquarie's Veterans, Rutherford NSW, 1995, for a history of this veteran company.

(8) Governor Macquarie to Viscount Castlereagh, Sydney, 30 April, 1810, Historical Records of Australia, Volume VII, Series I, p. 258.

(9) Governor Macquarie to Earl Bathurst, 15 May, 1817, Historical Records of Australia, Volume IX Series I, p. 405.

(10) 'A Statement of the Army in New South Wales and its Dependencies together with the Commissariat Staff', Historical Records of Australia, Volume X Series I, p. 287.

(11) The Sydney Gazette, 8 October 1823.

(12) Montague, 'The Royal Veterans in Australia', p. 239.

(13) Gwenda Webb, 'The Royal Veterans in Van Diemen's Land', Tasmanian Ancestry 16, 1995, p. 17.

(14) Darling to Somerset, 20 January 1829, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XIV, Series I, pp. 613-614.

(15) Montague, 'The Royal Veterans in Australia', p. 240.

(16) Great Britain. British Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons, 1832. L. Sullivan Esq. to Major-General Lord Fitzroy Somerset, 19 August, 1829, 'Papers Relating to the New South Wales Veteran Companies', 1832. p. 15.

(17) British Parliamentary Papers, 1832, p. 15.

(18) Dispatch Under Secretary Hay to Governor Darling, 3 November 1826, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XII, p. 673.

(19) E. Spiers, Army and Society 1815-1914, New York; London: Longman, 1980, p. 84.

(20) Sir Herbert Taylor, Horse Guards to Under Secretary Hay, 31 July 1826, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XII, Series I, pp. 480-481.

(21) Clive Emsley, British Society and the French Wars, 1793-1815, London: Macmillan, 1979, p. 157.

(22) C. Weir, As Poor as a Stockinger, quoted in Helen Jamieson, The Shepherd Book: The Story of Lynn and Elizabeth Shepherd and Their Descendants in Australia (n.d.), p. 4.

(23) Jamieson, The Shepherd Book, pp. 3-6.

(24) Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 16 September 1826.

(25) Webb, 'The Royal Veterans in Van Diemen's Land', p. 17.

(26) Montague, 'The Royal Veterans in Australia', p. 244.

(27) All except the Orpheus were convict transports.

(28) Governor Darling to Under Secretary Hay, 3 November 1827, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XIII, Series I, p. 591.

(29) Darling to Hay, 8 February 1827, p. 86.

(30) Dispatch Under Secretary Hay to Governor Darling 17 July 1827, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XIII, p. 448.

(31) Sir Herbert Taylor to Under Secretary Hay, incl. in Dispatch Hay to Governor Darling 17 July 1827, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XIII, p. 449.

(32) Dispatch Governor Darling to Under Secretary Hay, 8 February 1827, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XIII, p. 87.

(33) Anon, 'Thomas Spicer of the 1st Life Guards and the Buffs', Hue and Cry, No.32, 1992, pp. 5-7.

(34) Great Britain. British Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons, 1832. 'Papers Relating to the New South Wales Veteran Companies'. Return of Officers of New South Wales Royal Veteran Company who have held civil colonial appointments.

(35) The Australian, 16 January 1829.

(36) The Australian, 27 January 1832.

(37) Capt. Robison to Lord Fitzroy Somerset, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XV, Series I, p. 199.

(38) Great Britain, 'Papers Relating to the New South Wales Veteran Companies'.

(39) E. S. Hall to A. Macleay included in Dispatch, Governor Darling to Sir George Murray, 2 January 1829, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XIV, p. 593.

(40) Historical Records of Australia, Volume XV, Series I, p. 199.

(41) Dispatch Sir George Murray to Governor Darling, 7 August 1828, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XIV, p. 325.

(42) E. S. Hall to A. Macleay included in Dispatch, Governor Darling to Sir George Murray, 2 January 1829, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XIV, p. 593.

(43) Dispatch Governor Darling to Under Secretary Hay, 4 September 1826, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XII, pp. 535-536.

(44) Dispatch Under Secretary Hay to Governor Darling, 24 December 1828, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XIV, p. 536.

(45) Letter Major-General Lord Fitzroy Somerset to Darling, Horse Guards, 16 May 1828 in Great Britain, 'Papers Relating to the New South Wales Veteran Companies', p. 11.

(46) Darling to Somerset, 20 January 1829, in Historical Records of Australia, Volume XIV, Series I, p. 613.

(47) Conversation with Margaret Steven, RSSS, Australian National University, Canberra.

(48) S. Lotocki, Warner family of Australia: the story of Lieutenant Jonathan Warner and his family 1785-2008, self-published 2008.

(49) Memorial of Lieutenant Samuel North to Governor Darling, Papers Relating to the New South Wales Veteran Companies, p. 13.

(50) British Parliamentary Papers, Return of Officers of New South Wales Royal Veteran Companies who have held civil colonial appointments, 1832, p. 15.

(51) Darling to Right Hon W. Huskisson, 7 March 1828, Historical Records of Australia, Volume XIV, Series I, p. 23.

(52) New South Wales Parliament, Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Council, 1847, p. 613.

(53) Thomas Budd Statement of Service, PRO WO 97/603.

(54) Montague, 'The Royal Veterans in Australia', p. 244.

(55) Cessnock Council, the local government body responsible for that area, has researched the history of Thomas Budd and his grave.

(56) New South Wales Parliament, Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Council, 1847, p. 613.

(57) F. Larcombe, The History of Botany, 1788-1963, 1963, p. 9.

(58) Pegg married a second time when his first wife died and then a third time, possibly bigamously. A descendant has speculated that Pegg may have become a Mormon, as he and his family went to Salt Lake City in Utah, where he died. See http://www.geocities.com/regina_craig.jpegg.html

(59) New South Wales Parliament, Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Council, 1847, p. 613.

(60) I am grateful to Robert Wilson, [e-mail], for information on his ancestor, Joseph James.

(61) G. C. Mundy, Our Antipodes, or, Residence and Rambles in the Australian colonies, with a glimpse of the goldfields, London, 1852, quoted in http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~garterl/jamesjose.htm, accessed 1 April, 2004.

(62) Jamieson, pp. 15-24.

(63) He visited the area in October 1836. J. Backhouse, Narrative of a visit to the Australian colonies, New York, 1967, p. 445.

(64) Webb, 'The Royal Veterans in Van Diemen's Land', p. 17.

(65) Letter from William Hunt published in The Nottingham Review, 24 August 1827, in Webb, 'The Royal Veterans in Van Diemen's Land', p. 18.

(66) Webb, p. 18.

(67) Webb, p. 19.

(68) Webb, p. 20.

(69) New South Wales Parliament, Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Council, 1847, pp.

612-614.

(70) Passmore, 'The Royal Staff Corps Settlers in Australia 1829'.

(71) Montague, 'The Royal Veterans in Australia', p. 245.

(72) Webb, 'The Royal Veterans in Van Diemen's Land', p. 20.