FRANKLIN (SIR JOHN) – AUSTRALIA


Warrant signed by Sir John Franklin, as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land ("John Franklin"), authorising payment to J. King, W. Lynn, W. Bramish, J.T. Pyke and other unnamed parties "for Supplies furnished by them to parties in pursuit of Bushrangers" amounting to £150-7s-11d; made out to the Deputy Assistant Commissary General Peter Roberts, 1 page, printed with manuscript insertions, registration dockets in red ink, laid onto an album leaf, tears and trimming at edges and some slight staining, nevertheless still an attractive document, folio, Launceston, 3 April 1839
|'PARTIES IN PURSUIT OF BUSHRANGERS' – the Arctic explorer John Franklin served as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) from 1837 to 1843. Bushrangers had proved a problem from the colony's early years, not least because of the decision to arm convicts so that they could hunt down kangaroos in the bush during periods of famine; the problem exacerbated by the practice of sending the worst offenders there as punishment for second offences committed in Sydney: the most famous, and gentlemanly, of these at this period probably being the Irishman Martin Cash. Our document has the printed heading 'By His Excellency Colonel George Arthur' which has been altered in manuscript to "Sir J. Franklin". Similarly it has the printed subscription of 'Hobart' which has been altered in manuscript to "Launceston", which Franklin has initialled.