Joseph Foveaux

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Joseph Foveaux (* 1767 - March 20, 1846 in London ) was a soldier and administrator for the convicts of the colony of New South Wales , Australia .

biography

Little is known of Foveaux's early life; he was born on April 6, 1767 in Ampthill , Bedfordshire , England, the sixth child of Joseph Foveaux, a servant of the Earl of Upper Ossory, and his wife Elizabeth, née Wheeler.

Foveaux joined the 60th Regiment on May 10, 1789 and then served as a lieutenant in the New South Wales Corps from June 5, 1789 . He reached Sydney in 1791. There he was promoted to major and as senior officer he controlled the corps between August 1796 and November 1799. In doing so, he traded with the land of the Corps and in this way he soon became the largest landowner and capital owner of this colony.

In 1800 his reputation as a capable and efficient administrator was established. He was offered the post of lieutenant governor on Norfolk Island . He built buildings on the island partly with public support, for which he earned praise from Governor King . During this time, the first settlement of Norfolk Island (1788-1814) from the Sydney Penal Colony took place and the island was a "branch of the Sydney Penal Colony", one of the convict colonies in Australia where convicts who had behaved well were spent. The convicts made up no more than ten percent of the island's population. They were not sent into isolation from Sydney, but the island was not a place for a second punishment. Norfolk Island became a hard penal camp only after the second settlement from 1825 to 1855.

A document dated 1823 contains drawings of buildings on Norfolk Island that could not have been erected in those years. Modern science debunk it as a work after 1850 and that this document is no documented endorsement of the life and work of Foveaux on Norfolk Island.

In September 1804, Foveaux left Norfolk Island for England to manage his private affairs and to recover from his asthma. When he recovered, he returned to New South Wales in July 1808 and became Lieutenant Governor. There he found Governor William Bligh under arrest. The officers of the New South Wales Corps had arrested him on the occasion of the event known as the Rum Rebellion . Foveaux chose neither Bligh nor the rebels. In January 1809, the incumbent lieutenant governor, Colonel William Paterson returned and Foveaux stayed, helping him and his successor, Major General Lachlan Macquarie .

Maqcuarie was impressed by the administrative activities of Fovaux and wanted to use him as the successor to David Collins on the post of Lieutenant Governor of Tasmania, as he considered him suitable and he also enjoyed a corresponding reputation in the public. Furthermore, with this decision he no longer had to take Bligh into account. However, Foveaux returned to England in 1810, and these considerations had to be put aside. Foveaux became a field inspector officer in Ireland , major general in 1814, and pursued an uneventful military career. In 1830 he rose to lieutenant general .

Names

Surry Hills, which is near the center of Sydney, was an area that Foveaux used for agriculture. His property was known as Surry Hills Farm and is named after Surrey Hills in Surrey , England . The Foveaux Strait , a strait in New Zealand , is named in his honor. It is located in the Roaring Forties and is characterized by rough weather. There are also Foveaux Streets in Sydney and Canberra in Australia.

In 1814 he married Ann Sherwin, his partner since 1793; they had a daughter who was born in 1801. He died in London on March 20, 1846.

literature

  • Whitaker, Anne-Maree, Joseph Foveaux: power and patronage in early New South Wales , Sydney, NSW University Press, 2000.
  • Wright, Reg, "The Most Flourishing Spot out of Old England", Tasmanian Historical Research Association Papers and Proceedings , vol 46 no 3 (1999), pp 135-149.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b In the family history it is assumed that he was born a year earlier on April 10, 1766. Joseph Foveaux ( Memento from April 6, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ BH Fletcher: Foveaux, Joseph (1767 - 1846) . In: Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1 . Melbourne University Press. SS 407-409. 1966. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
  3. ↑ AW Jose et al. (Ed.): The Australian Encyclopaedia Vol.I . Angus & Robertson, Sydney 1927, pp. 485-486.
personal data
SURNAME Foveaux, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British soldier and Lieutenant Governor of Norfolk Island
DATE OF BIRTH 1767
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1846
Place of death London