William Charles Wentworth
by James Anderson, State Library NSW
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Earliest pictorial representation of the crossing from The Sydney Mail, 25 December 1880
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Colonial compass for navigation
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WILLIAM CHARLES WENTWORTH – The Renaissance Man of the Colony
Who is this unkempt figure? Unruly red hair, crumpled corduroy trousers and morning coat? Loud voiced and overbearing. Who is this who has such a strong claim on the history of the New South Wales settlement? Yet this is the man William Charles Wentworth, a man of many parts, of diverse influences that mould his life and make him a man of mark and a lasting influence in those early days when the settlement of New South Wales was emerging from its convict chrysalis. Let’s look more clearly at this complex character. Today he’d be called an icon. Put him under the microscope and examine some of these diverse traits. Here is at first look an aristocrat. In other words one of the best. He was on his father’s side well connected. Lord Fitzwilliam was a relative and it was such aristocratic connections that drew him back to London in the last year of his life.
His father was Dr Darcy Wentworth who sent his two sons back to England for their schooling in the classical mode, and later he returned to read for the bar at the Middle Temple and some terms at Cambridge. Here his gift of oratory was refined and love of words. He long poem Australiasia enhanced his reputation as a writer (he had won second prize for the poem).
He passionately believed in the principles imbued in the British constitution. He felt a great affinity with the founding fathers – these English Americans. Some more English than the English. He echoed the sentiments espoused by Jefferson particularly his devotion to freedom for all men. Men must be free, but free to rise – Universal Franchise and Education, freedom of the press and trial by jury. He saw the new colony as a similar situation as the American States.
Look at his stately home that he created, an antipodean “Monticello” in the midst of its 500 acres of rough bushland. See the imprint of his classical education and the refinement from his European travels – he spent more than a year in Europe, chiefly in Paris, to the benefit of his French.
Look again and we see the passionate democrat, the great champion of the underdog, and let’s face it, there were more underdogs than gentry in those early days of this raw colony.
He received the rudest shock when the secret was revealed of his father’s trial for highway robbery, the charge of which he was acquitted; but no doubt influenced his father’s self-imposed exile.
Look at his mother, Catherine Crowley, who too was indicted for stealing.
This was the persistent whisper behind the hands of polite society that haunted his family.
His mother and father were at Norfolk Island where he was born and these five and a half years there left an indelible impression on the young Wentworth.
He was a man ready to stand up to any opponent. He fought with governors and any in authority who blocked his way. At first he was considered the champion of the emancipists, but in time he lost patience with the majority who did nothing to improve their status and throw off the convict image. He had an innate hatred of anything that smacked of mob rule.
His adventurous spirit took him on the journey of discovery over the Blue Mountains with William Lawson and Gregory Blaxland; and helped guide his ship from Rarotonga to Sydney when the Captain was killed by the natives.
Like the American patriots, Wentworth attacked autocratic government believing strongly in the principle of freedom of speech. He edited without permission a first free newspaper, The Australian, which was eventually given government approval.
But look, changes are taking place in the fervent emancipist. His land empire grew; his wealth increased; he became one of the great pastoralists. The emancipists’ champion was turning into an exclusive, not a pure bred merino alas, an undoubted patriot still, but his visions for the emerging nation was one guided by a new breed of aristocrat, wealthy landowners, a new House of Lords.
He believed that an independent nation must have an educated emos, and he set up a system of state primary education and was one of the founding fathers of Sydney University.
He agitated for self-government for the colony and through his advocacy was responsible for the Act (5.6 Vic, C76) of Parliament of the United Kingdom, the first franchise. Voting for a Legislative Council. This Act of 1842 brought the first free elections to New South Wales.
This Act was brought out from the United Kingdom in person to Sydney by the hand of my great-grandfather Samuel Milford, first judge in equity. His sons were to be frequent visitors, sailing over from Potts Point to Vaucluse Bay.
Wentworth even advocated the continuation of transportation – cheap labour to be absorbed in the huge pastoral estates.
He died in England in 1872 and his body was brought back to Vaucluse. A chapel erected on his tomb as a perpetual memorial.
Perhaps more lasting than stone and mortar are his achievements in securing democratic ideal for this young nation and his motivation in everything was his love of Australia which in his own words he called “His Master Passion”.
S.R.A. Kalina FFF #1164
Who is this unkempt figure? Unruly red hair, crumpled corduroy trousers and morning coat? Loud voiced and overbearing. Who is this who has such a strong claim on the history of the New South Wales settlement? Yet this is the man William Charles Wentworth, a man of many parts, of diverse influences that mould his life and make him a man of mark and a lasting influence in those early days when the settlement of New South Wales was emerging from its convict chrysalis. Let’s look more clearly at this complex character. Today he’d be called an icon. Put him under the microscope and examine some of these diverse traits. Here is at first look an aristocrat. In other words one of the best. He was on his father’s side well connected. Lord Fitzwilliam was a relative and it was such aristocratic connections that drew him back to London in the last year of his life.
His father was Dr Darcy Wentworth who sent his two sons back to England for their schooling in the classical mode, and later he returned to read for the bar at the Middle Temple and some terms at Cambridge. Here his gift of oratory was refined and love of words. He long poem Australiasia enhanced his reputation as a writer (he had won second prize for the poem).
He passionately believed in the principles imbued in the British constitution. He felt a great affinity with the founding fathers – these English Americans. Some more English than the English. He echoed the sentiments espoused by Jefferson particularly his devotion to freedom for all men. Men must be free, but free to rise – Universal Franchise and Education, freedom of the press and trial by jury. He saw the new colony as a similar situation as the American States.
Look at his stately home that he created, an antipodean “Monticello” in the midst of its 500 acres of rough bushland. See the imprint of his classical education and the refinement from his European travels – he spent more than a year in Europe, chiefly in Paris, to the benefit of his French.
Look again and we see the passionate democrat, the great champion of the underdog, and let’s face it, there were more underdogs than gentry in those early days of this raw colony.
He received the rudest shock when the secret was revealed of his father’s trial for highway robbery, the charge of which he was acquitted; but no doubt influenced his father’s self-imposed exile.
Look at his mother, Catherine Crowley, who too was indicted for stealing.
This was the persistent whisper behind the hands of polite society that haunted his family.
His mother and father were at Norfolk Island where he was born and these five and a half years there left an indelible impression on the young Wentworth.
He was a man ready to stand up to any opponent. He fought with governors and any in authority who blocked his way. At first he was considered the champion of the emancipists, but in time he lost patience with the majority who did nothing to improve their status and throw off the convict image. He had an innate hatred of anything that smacked of mob rule.
His adventurous spirit took him on the journey of discovery over the Blue Mountains with William Lawson and Gregory Blaxland; and helped guide his ship from Rarotonga to Sydney when the Captain was killed by the natives.
Like the American patriots, Wentworth attacked autocratic government believing strongly in the principle of freedom of speech. He edited without permission a first free newspaper, The Australian, which was eventually given government approval.
But look, changes are taking place in the fervent emancipist. His land empire grew; his wealth increased; he became one of the great pastoralists. The emancipists’ champion was turning into an exclusive, not a pure bred merino alas, an undoubted patriot still, but his visions for the emerging nation was one guided by a new breed of aristocrat, wealthy landowners, a new House of Lords.
He believed that an independent nation must have an educated emos, and he set up a system of state primary education and was one of the founding fathers of Sydney University.
He agitated for self-government for the colony and through his advocacy was responsible for the Act (5.6 Vic, C76) of Parliament of the United Kingdom, the first franchise. Voting for a Legislative Council. This Act of 1842 brought the first free elections to New South Wales.
This Act was brought out from the United Kingdom in person to Sydney by the hand of my great-grandfather Samuel Milford, first judge in equity. His sons were to be frequent visitors, sailing over from Potts Point to Vaucluse Bay.
Wentworth even advocated the continuation of transportation – cheap labour to be absorbed in the huge pastoral estates.
He died in England in 1872 and his body was brought back to Vaucluse. A chapel erected on his tomb as a perpetual memorial.
Perhaps more lasting than stone and mortar are his achievements in securing democratic ideal for this young nation and his motivation in everything was his love of Australia which in his own words he called “His Master Passion”.
S.R.A. Kalina FFF #1164
Vaucluse House by Conrad Martens, Caroline Simpson Library
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Wentworth's mausoleum, perched on his favourite rock near Parsley Bay.
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1993 Australia 5 Dollars, Royal Australian Mint, masterpieces in silver issue 'The Explorers-Part 1' W. Lawson, G. Blaxland and W. C. Wentworth,
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© Arthur Phillip Chapter of Fellowship of First Fleeters 2022 -
Source for images: From the internet
Source for images: From the internet
