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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The Denis Joachim Collection
• Sale Date:
  19 Jun 2016 ~ 2pm - Session 1: Lots 1 - 321
  20 Jun 2016 ~ 10am - Session 2: Lots 322 - 480
  20 Jun 2016 ~ 2pm - Session 3: Lot 481 - 688
  20 Jun 2016 ~ 6pm - Session 4: Lots 689 - 818
• Lot #:
  71
• Lot Description:
  Meehan, James (after). Tracing from Plan of the Town of Sydney, N.S. Wales by Jas. Meehan Assistant Surveyor
  By Order of His Excellency Governor Bligh 31st October, 1807. Manuscript map, approximately 430 x 500 mm, ink and coloured washes on tracing paper with manuscript annotations and key, contemporary inscription on verso “Property at Sydney”, the edges very frayed, wear at old folds, some loss, expertly restored and conserved, in a wash-border mount. Possibly London, circa 1812.
• Notes:
  Early, and probably very nearly contemporary, tracing of James Meehan’s official survey of Sydney, undertaken on the orders of Governor Bligh in 1807. Meehan’s official survey gave a detailed plan of the town’s lease holdings, each numbered with a reference to a key giving the names of the lessees. That survey was included with Bligh’s despatch to the Colonial Secretary (H.R.N.S.W., VI, pp. 349 – 66). While that original despatch is now held by the Public Record Office in Great Britain (co 201, 44), Meehan’s plan no longer accompanies it and appears to have been lost – if, indeed, the plan was ever held by the Public Record Office. The present map is a detailed tracing, possibly for legal purposes, from the Cockle Bay area of the plan. One of the larger properties included is numbered 77 and was held by John Macarthur on a lease granted by Governor King. Bligh’s attempt to dispossess Macarthur of his leasehold and Macarthur’s refusal to forego his right in the property was one of the crucial points in the dispute between the two men that culminated in the mutiny against Bligh early in 1808 and his arrest by Lt.-Col. George Johnston. During the 1811 trial of Johnston, the question of these leases was raised and the relevant survey produced in court during the cross-examination of John Macarthur. It is quite clear that either the original or a tracing of this very portion of the overall survey was used by the court (Proceedings of a General Court-Martial…for the Trial of Lieut.-Col. Geo. Johnston… on a charge of mutiny… for deposing… William Bligh. See pp.180-6, the present “chart” was “produced” and is referred to specifically on p. 184). Although there can be no certainty on this point, it is possible that the present tracing has come from among the papers used in that trial – most of the interested parties and their lawyers would have been provided with tracings. It is suggestive that an old pencil note, bottom centre, notes “Garden according to Whittle”, almost certainly referring to the evidence of the illiterate Sergeant-Major Whittle, who was a witness in the Johnston trial and was, in fact, the man who ‘arrested’ Governor Bligh under the bed. The present tracing lists leases (numbered according to Meehan’s plan), nos.10-32, 52-55, 77-79, 83, 89, and 93. In addition to the highly important Macarthur leasehold (no. 77), these include properties leased to Captain Waterhouse, Colonel Paterson, Lieutenant Moore, Captain Kemp, and a veritable roll-call of the Sydney elite.
• Estimate:
  A$20,000 - 30,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Books & Manuscripts

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.