Two draft manuscripts of confidential reports prepared for the British Cabinet concerning the convict transportation system by Thomas W. C. Murdoch and James Stephen, 1845-1846

MLMSS 10170/Box 1X

fonds

1845-1846

9615851

0.27 metres of textual material (1 outsize box) - manuscript

Sir Thomas William Clinton Murdoch (1809–1891), was a British civil servant. Educated at the Charterhouse, he entered the Colonial Office as a junior clerk in 1826. In September 1839 he went to Canada to act as chief secretary, and returned to the Colonial Office in September 1842. He became a senior clerk there in May 1846. In November 1847 he was appointed chairman of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners. The commission had been established in 1840 to assist emigration to the colonies, but by the 1850s the Australian colonies had gained responsible self-government and assisted emigration was in decline. In 1870 Murdoch went to Canada on a special mission connected with the examination of the system of free grants to settlers. Murdoch was bestowed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1870, and retired on pension in December 1876.

Sir James Stephen (1789-1859) was a historian and colonial under-secretary. In 1806 he entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge. In 1811 he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn and he received his LL.B degree in 1812. In 1813 he was appointed counsel to the Colonial Office. He became an important advisor on colonial policy and was appointed Assistant Under-Secretary of state for the colonies in 1834, and Colonial Under-Secretary from 1836. He resigned office 1847, and became Professor of Modern History at Cambridge.

References:
Library correspondence file
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, http://www.oxforddnb.com (accessed 21 November 2018)

Previously sold by Bonhams, 22 March 2011

Two draft manuscripts bound together in modern blue morocco, over marbled boards, with modern end papers. The spine is ruled and lettered in gilt: Transportation Manuscript, 1845-1846.

The first manuscript (188 pages) contains a draft report of confidential Cabinet Minutes compiled, and possibly in part written, by Thomas W. C. Murdoch, titled 'The Transportation System'. It details the history of transportation, documents its problems, and reveals the divisive debate then current in British Parliament about sending convicts to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. The report brings together a substantial amount of evidence provided by Sir George Gipps, Sir John Franklin, Captain Maconochie, Lord John Russell, Lord Glenelg, Lord Stanley, Sir Eardley-Wilmot, and others, as well as detailed statistics of the numbers and occupations of convicts sent. It is written in a single hand, but is annotated throughout by another hand with several inserted sections.

The second manuscript (14 pages) was written after the first, in two different hands, and is likely to have been the work of James Stephen, Under-Secretary in the Colonial Office. It is headed, 3rd August. Mr Hawes (being Benjamin Hawes, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies), and contains additions to the report compiled by Murdoch.

Copyright status:: In copyright
Research & study copies allowed: Author has been deceased for more than 50 years
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

At the end of the second manuscript is a notation in pencil: To be signed hereafter by Mr Stephen