Letter from Patrick Hill to Campbell France, 22 March 1833

MLMSS 8000

fonds

22 March 1833

914099

0.01 metres of textual material (1 folder)

Patrick Hill, a former Royal Navy surgeon, was a Justice of the Peace and surgeon at Liverpool Hospital. He was appointed to the post of Assistant Surgeon on the Colonial Medical Establishment in 1821, with responsibility for the Medical Department at Liverpool.
In 1848 Patrick Hill was appointed to succeed Dawson as President of the Medical Board and to the newly created position of Adviser to the Government on Medical Matters, Inspector and Consulting Physician to the Lunatic Asylum. He died in 1852 at his farm in the Country of Camden.

Campbell France was the official surgeon on seven convict transport voyages to New South Wales or Tasmania in the 1820s and 1830s.

An autograph letter from Patrick Hill written to his friend, the naval surgeon Campbell France. The first part of this letter contains information about the financial arrangements between them. The remainder of the letter contains details about life in Sydney in 1833, including a commentary on the mental health of John Macarthur, based on personal acquaintance. The letter also comments on the thriving nature of the Colony’s wool industry, and the increasing rate of emigration of free settlers to the Colony.

News of events in the Colony would have been of great interest to France, as he had been a regular visitor to Port Jackson in the 1820s and 1830s. He made at least seven voyages to Australia as the official surgeon on board various convict ships.

Reference:
Library Correspondence File
Trove newspapers, 29 March 1834, 17 March 1852. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper(accessed 16 Dec 2010)

Addressed `Liverpool New South Wales' and signed `Pat Hill', to a naval surgeon care of
London forwarding agents Maudes & Co. No New South Wales postal markings so carried privately by the ship's captain. 'India letter Ramsgate/Falmouth', readdressed to `HM Steam Vessel Rhadamanthus/West Indies'