John Grant - Letter to mother and sister, 13-16 July 1804

Component identifier:

Item 15

Content Summary:

Personal description of Judge Atkins. Grant is living in a "ruinous house" offered as an asylum by Mr Williamson at Parramatta, and is supporting himself. Governor King did not give him the freedom of the colony, as he was persuaded by Williamson, Captain Cox, Judge Atkins and Major Johnston that the time was not ripe to apply for it. From Governor King he received £20 for rum acquired in San Salvador, but no favours as King had animosity for the previous Governor Hunter's friends, including Williamson who befriended Grant. Captain Charles Bishop of Prospect befriends Grant, 5 miles from his home at Parramatta. (Bishop a man of influence, and in a joint concern with George Bass who has been gone 17 months to Peru on a trading voyage. Bishop himself a minor explorer).

Immediate source of acquisition:

The collection was discovered in the vaults of Lloyd's Bank in London by Mr W.S. Hill-Reid. Mr Hill-Reid used the documents as the basis for his book John Grant's journey : a convict's story, 1803-1811 (London : Heinemann, 1957). The collection was acquired by the Library in 1957. Yvonne Cramer later used the papers for her book This beauteous, wicked place : the letters and journals of John Grant, gentleman convict. (Canberra : National Library of Australia, 2000).

Names:

Cramer, Yvonne

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