Thomas Jamison

Thomas Jamison (* around 1753 ; † January 27, 1811 in London ) was a doctor, a surgeon. He was a surgeon, government official, trader and landowner around Sydney , Australia . Jamison was a member of the First Fleet and cofounded the New South Wales colony in 1788 and was later involved in the Rum Rebellion in which Governor William Bligh was deposed.

Early years

Jamison was baptized on January 10, 1753 in the Presbyterian Church, Ballywalter , Newtownards , County Down , Ireland , the son of William Jamison and his wife Mary, née Fisher. Jamisons went to school in his ward, where his family lived. He married early and lived in neighboring County Antrim , had several children (Mary, John and Jane) and studied medicine. After graduating from college, he chose to serve in the Royal Navy to get to know the world and was appointed surgeon for the Navy in either 1777 or 1780, and was hired on HMS Sirius from 1786. He was married to Rebecca.

Australia

Jamison reached New South Wales , Australia with the flagship of the First Fleet in January 1788 on the Sirius and was sent by Arthur Phillip to settle Norfolk Island in March 1788 . There he was later made resident of the colony by Governor Phillip after the Sirius crashed on the island. He stayed on Norfolk Island until he was relieved in October 1799 and then served in Sydney until September 1800. He then went to England, where he sailed by ship on a private matter to Rio de Janeiro and came back to Sydney in June 1802. In 1801, Lord Hobart reported to Philip Gidley King that Jamison was to succeed William Balmain as Surgeon General of New South Wales.

In 1804, Jamison, with surgeons John Harris and John Savage, conducted the first successful vaccination of children against smallpox, which Savage later said was his initiative. On October 14, 1804, he published the first Australian medical bulletin, the General Observations on the Smallpox (German: General investigation for smallpox). In 1805 he charged two assistant surgeons, Mileham and Savage, for neglecting their court martial duties for a child birth. But the court martial declared that it was not responsible for such crimes. This problem showed that the growing population of Australia could no longer receive adequate medical care. He wanted to change this situation and therefore submitted applications to the Governor Bligh, which the latter refused. In this dispute, Jamison applied for permission for himself and his family to go out of the country to England in 1806, which Bligh denied and only granted permission to leave on the condition that he had to arrange for medical replacement before his departure.

Trade and Rum Rebellion

In the aftermath of Governor Arthur Phillip, there was a development that resulted in rum being traded as a means of payment and the New South Wales Corps dominating the distribution and distribution channels. Bligh accused Jamison, John Macarthur and D'Arcy Wentworth of involvement in the illegal liquor trade and of failure to perform their duties. He informed the Colonial Office that he believed Jamison to be incapable and that he would be fired. So it was no surprise that Jamison was on the side of Bligh's impeachment supporters. After Bligh's impeachment, he became a marine officer in the rebel government, was a member of the committee that heard Bligh's supporters and sifted through his personal papers. Jamison sailed to England to assist the accused Johnston in court-martial.

Jamison was deeply involved in trading. He brought £ 15,000 worth of wheat and pigs to settlers on Norfolk Island. With his partners Garnham Blaxcell and Macarthur, he invested heavily in the timber trade. The dispute over participation in trading in this business preoccupied his son and Macarthur long after his death. He was given 405 acres on the Nepean River in 1805, where Regentville was later built, and he received farms on George's River and South Creek ; and held 931 hectares of land in 1807. Returning to England, he transferred the property to his son John Jamison, who came to the colony in 1814.

Thomas Jamison died in London on January 27, 1811, leaving his widow Rebecca with a pension of £ 30. Due to his death, he no longer had the opportunity to testify in the upcoming court martial against Johnston, which began in June 1811.

Names

In Australia there is a city Jamisontown , which is about 35 miles from Sydney, and a street in Sydney. In the Blue Mountains of New South Wales is a valley called the Jamison Valley , which is part of the Coxs River canyon system.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020012b.htm
2. ↑ Vivienne Parsons: Jamison, Thomas (1753? - 1811) Australian Dictionary of Biography Available online

literature

• Vivienne Parsons: Jamison, Thomas (1753? - 1811) , Australian Dictionary of Biography, pp. 12-13, Volume 2, Melbourne University Press, 1967.