Masters, Magistrates and the Management of Complaint: The 1833 Convict Revolt at Castle Forbes and the Failure of Local Governance

Abstract

The 1833 revolt at Castle Forbes in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales (NSW), in which a small group of convicts conspired to attack the property and take the life of their master, was a sharp reminder of the fragility of law and order in the colony's remote farming and pastoral districts. In three expedited trials in December 1833, six men were twice capitally convicted of stealing from two dwelling houses, five of them also for shooting with intent to kill or for aiding and abetting an attempted murder. Five were subsequently hanged. However, complaints aired by the defendants about 'bad treatment' at Castle Forbes, including insufficient and unwholesome rations, of 'frequent and severe' punishment and malfeasance in the local administration of justice, attracted high-level interest at a time of swelling preoccupation with scandalous abuses of power by peripheral elites. Although the claims did not exonerate the conspirators, they prompted an inquiry into the management of Castle Forbes and the practices of local magistrates at Patricks Plains (Singleton). The evidence given by convicts, local settlers and government officials provides a unique window into the largely hidden world of relations between masters, magistrates and servants on the margins of the colony and a case study of how those relations could go terribly awry.