What was the Castle Forbes Affair?

The Castle Forbes Affair

On the 5th November 1833, five convicts assigned to the Hunter Valley settler, James 'Major' Mudie, ransacked the house and storeshed at Mudie's estate, Castle Forbes, and attempted to murder his manager/partner and son-in-law, John Lanarch. A week later, the same men attacked the neignbouring property of Minimbah, where they seized the overseer and flogged him. A third property was attacked a few days later. The bushrangers were tracked down and captured by local settlers and sent to trial in the Supreme Court in Sydney. On 21 December, three of them, James Reilley, John Perry and James Ryan, were hanged in Sydney, while the two ringleaders, Anthony Hitchcock and John Poole, were executed in Maitland. A sixth participant, David Jones, who had not been present during the shooting of Lanarch, was sent to Norfolk Island.
The voluminous body of documents relating to the Castle Forbes Affair of 1833 provide one of the most important and complete sources for the history of the early colonial period in the Hunter Valley. They are especially significant for the account they provide of convict life and labour on the nascent grazing/farming frontier, and of the social relations, tensions and negotiated contracts between landowners and their workers during the convict era. The revolt itself was a very significant and uncommonly violent affair that has hitherto only been discussed within the context of the consequent political controversy that engulfed Governor Richard Bourke’s administration.

Where did it take place?

Castle Forbes lies a few kilometres south-east of the present city of Singleton, in the Hunter Valley north of Newcastle NSW. The estate was built by James Mudie on a 4,000 acre grant lining the Hunter River. The property was sold in 1969 to Albert Augustus Dangar, who built the imposing 18 room mansion 'Baroona', that can be seen from the New England Highway.

What you will find on this Website

 This site is an online archive of documents and materials relating to the Castle Forbes Affair. To date, this consists primarily of transcriptions of evidence recorded at a Court of Inquiry convened at Maitland between 19-28 December 1833 by the Solicitor General, John H. Plunkett Esq., and the Principal Superintendent of Convicts Frederick A. Hely. This material, held by the State Archives of New South Wales, forms Volume 1 of the Castle Forbes Affair. It is anticipated that future Volumes will include the many items of government correspondence generated by the episode, as well as the significant volume of newspaper reportage. We have incorporated some critical scholarly content, including a Bibliography and a Directory of people, places and themes relevant to the Castle Forbes Affair. The materials have also been partially indexed. As the electronic form is amenable to upgrading and additions over time, we will update this site as time and resources permit.

Acknowledgements

This project was funded by a 2004 Internal Research Grant from UNE's Faculty of Arts. The editors are indebted to Geoff Burrows for his creative site design. We dedicate this resource to Norma Townsend, as a measure of our respect and appreciation for her influence as a teacher and colleague.

About the Editors

David Andrew Roberts lectures in Australian History in the School of Classics, History and Religion at the University of New England, Armidale. He wrote his PhD thesis on the colonial frontier at Wellington Valley, and his Honours thesis on the Bells Falls massacre. David has been published in Australian Historical Studies, the Journal of Australian Colonial History, Ethnohistory and The Great Circle. He is the co-author of Ancient Ochre: The Aboriginal Rock Paintings of Mount Borradaile (2003). His previous web projects include the University of Newcastle's online electronic archive, the Aboriginal Mission and Reserves Database.

 Sue Wiblin works at the University of Western Sydney in the Office of Research Services. She recently completed a BA with a major in History which included several units relating to convicts. Sue is undertaking an Honours degree with the School of Classics, History and Religion in 2005.