Elizabeth Macarthur by Michelle Scott Tucker

Author:Michelle Scott Tucker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2018-03-10T05:00:00+00:00

The Seven Hills estate at Toongabbie was to be sold, but Elizabeth Farm and the newest lands at Cow Pastures would be kept. Perhaps the sale was also an attempt to reduce Elizabeth’s coming workload, but the advertisement was largely unsuccessful. No one who could afford the Seven Hills property was interested in buying it from the tainted John Macarthur.

Even before Paterson officially assumed office, the infighting between the senior rebels could not be contained. Foveaux discovered a discrepancy in the official accounts. During Macarthur’s time as secretary to the colony, some £500 worth of goods had gone missing: appropriated by Macarthur for his own use, according to Foveaux. John reacted to this public slight with deadly predictability. He challenged Foveaux to a duel. On the morning of 19 January 1809, the combatants and their seconds faced off. In an unusual move, Foveaux’s second proposed that the duellists toss a coin for the right to shoot first, with the loser facing the incoming shot, defenceless. If Foveaux hoped this ploy would encourage John to back down, then he badly misjudged his man. Macarthur immediately accepted the condition, and won the toss. He ‘took very deliberate aim’ Foveaux’s second would later report, staring down the barrel at a very wide target—Foveaux was not a thin man.16 John fired. And missed. Foveaux insultingly refused to fire in return, instead lowering his pistol and handing it back to his second. The pair shook hands, briefly and without warmth. Whether Elizabeth knew about this duel, no one can say. If she did it was yet another worry to add to her ever-increasing inventory of cares. Foveaux was added to John’s own ever-increasing list of people to whom he never spoke or wrote to again. As for the missing £500? The discrepancy was found to be real and Macarthur was obliged to repay it.

The pressure on the interim government was increased by the fact that a year after the rebellion, Bligh, like a stubborn stain, refused to budge. He and his now-widowed daughter, Mary Putland, remained holed up in Government House. When offered passage to London aboard the Admiral Gambier, the ship chartered by the rebel administration for Johnston and Macarthur, Bligh prevaricated. What he really wanted was to take control of HMS Porpoise, the naval warship anchored in Port Jackson whose captain was known to be a Bligh loyalist. Eventually an agreement was reached. Bligh solemnly swore on ‘his honour as an officer and gentleman’17 that if he could travel in the Porpoise he would return directly to England. In late February 1809 the Porpoise, with Bligh and Mary aboard, finally sailed down the harbour, while the inhabitants of Sydney variously watched on in pleasure, conjecture or dismay. Then, just inside the heads of the harbour, the Porpoise dropped anchor. Bligh had no intention of going anywhere.

Bligh arranged for a hand-written proclamation to be given to the master of each vessel in the harbour, announcing a state of mutiny in New South Wales and forbidding anyone from assisting the rebels to leave the colony.

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