William Lawson papers, 1784-1882

A 1952

fonds

1784-1882

Textual Records, Clippings

825692

Microfilm : CY 258

0.05 metres of textual material (1 volume)

William Lawson, explorer and pastoralist. Lawson trained as a surveyor, but joined the New South Wales Corps in 1799. He later became a lieutenant in the New South Wales Veterans Company. In 1813 he accompanied Gregory Blaxland and William Charles Wentworth in the first successful attempt to find a route across the Blue Mountains. During his years at Bathurst Lawson undertook three journeys of exploration to find a practicable pass through the ranges to the Liverpool Plains. In this he was unsuccessful but his journeys helped to open up the rich pastoral district of Mudgee. Lawson attributed the discovery of the Cudgegong River to James Blackman but claimed that he himself discovered the site of Mudgee some ten miles (16 km) beyond the farthest point reached by Blackman. From 1819 to 1824 he was commandant of the new settlement at Bathurst, and made several further journeys of exploration in that area. He died at Veteran Hall, his grant at Prospect, in 1850.

Reference:
Australian Dictionary of Biography Online. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/ (accessed February 20, 2008)

This collection comprises leaves from an account book of 1806-7, with accounts and memoranda pasted in; holograph letters, commissions and newspaper extracts from the Sydney Gazette. Correspondence includes several letters from Lachlan Macquarie (6 July 1815, 5 April, 9 November 1819, 6 March 1820) concerning affairs connected with the Bathurst district.

Commissions include William Lawson to ensign in New South Wales Corps, 1799; lieutenant, 1806, 1811; justice of the peace, by Lachlan Macquarie, 1819, and to command of the settlement of Bathurst and troops stationed westward of the Blue Mountains, 1819; William Frederick Jones to Deputy Assistant Commissary-General, 1834, to justice of the peace, 1840 and to Commissioner of Crown Lands, 1843.

Other documents include Government orders relating to 1819-1820 (printed); request from Nelson Lawson to Principal Superintendent of Convicts for assigned convict servants 1826; memo from Samuel Marsden, 1814; directive by Barron Field to John Thomas Campbell to summon William Lawson and Henry Grattan Douglass to appear before the Supreme Court at Sydney to answer the complaint of Samuel Marsden, 1823; sketch map, "Return of land felled burnt & stumped by Government at Prospect", undated.

Ferguson, J.A. Bibliography of Australia, 756, 7936, 794

The Governor: Lachlan Macquarie, 1810 to 1821 - State Library of New South Wales (5 July - 10 October, 2010). Applies to: f. 31