Convict Guide - published 2006 - Manual / Resource - Page 208
Guide to New South Wales State archives relating to convicts and convict administration
Chapter 18: Letters about convicts
18.1
Background to the records
Most researchers engaged in tracing a particular convict would be aware
of the major records such as indents, tickets of leave, certificates of
freedom or pardons. An often neglected source is the correspondence
series listed in this chapter.
Office of the
Principal
Superintendent of
Convicts
In the mid-1820s the Office of the Principal Superintendent of Convicts
absorbed most of the day-to-day work, including assignment and
routine correspondence concerning tickets of leave. Some of the records
documenting these activities, particularly the correspondence, appear to
have been destroyed in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Researchers can search the correspondence of other agencies.
Colonial Secretary’s
correspondence
The correspondence of the Colonial Secretary is one of the most
valuable sources of information on all aspects of the history of New
South Wales. Chiefly responsible for this was the Colonial Secretary's
pre-eminence in public life and the fortunate survival of the greater part
of those papers.
First Colonial
Secretary appointed
1821
Included among these are earlier papers of the Secretary to the
Governor taken over by the first Colonial Secretary, Frederick Goulburn,
on his appointment in 1821. After responsible government was
introduced in 1856 the Colonial Secretary (at times known as the Chief
Secretary or Principal Secretary) was frequently also Premier, and
papers relating to this aspect of his work (until a separate Premier's
Department was established in 1907) may also be found here.
Responsibility for
the records
The British Government was at first little concerned with the question of
who would be responsible for the records of the colony. No secretary
was appointed to assist Phillip and he also lacked a registrar. The
absence of an official keeper of the records was not corrected until
Frederick Goulburn reached Sydney in 1821 with a commission as
'Secretary and Registrar of the Records'.
Recordkeeping
under Macquarie
Ten different men successively served as secretary to the Governor in
the twenty-two years before Macquarie arrived. The average period of
tenure was less than two years and this was not conducive to good
record keeping. John Thomas Campbell held office for eleven years
under Macquarie and the greater part of the early records surviving are
from this period. Macquarie, assisted by Campbell, set about restoring
order and regulating the conduct of public business. Petitions from this
era are often annotated with Macquarie's decisions. Frederick Goulburn,
who succeeded Campbell on 1 February 1821, was the first officially to
be called Colonial Secretary and was appointed by a commission dated
13 June 1820. (HRA vol. 10, p.664, Australian Dictionary of Biography,
vol. 1, p.463). He was also the private secretary to the Governor.
Recordkeeping
under Brisbane
Prior to 1823 all inwards correspondence was addressed to the
Governor, although filed in the office of the Secretary to the Governor
and, after 1821, that of the Colonial Secretary. In 1823 a notice
prepared by Goulburn appeared in the Sydney Gazette directing that
letters and memorials intended for the Governor were to be addressed
to the Colonial Secretary. (Sydney Gazette, 29 May 1823, p.1a).
Brisbane had intended this order to apply only to applications for land
State Records Authority of New South Wales
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