The Bounder, Thomas

Thomas Davey

Thomas Davey, Second Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen’s Land, was a bounder.

As a young officer in the Marine Corps he was a First Fleeter to NSW; his wife suggesting that he was the first white man ashore at Port Jackson.

He was present at the Mutiny of the Nore as a Captain of Marines and fought in the naval battles of Camperdown and Trafalgar.

Davey, through the influence and patronage of Lord Harrowby, was appointed in September 1811 Lt Governor of Tasmania, while still a resident on half pay in the Gentleman’s Prison for Debtors over debts incurred as Paymaster of Marines.

Davey did not sail until June 1812. It is said that he left England without informing his wife; she getting wind of his departure managed to get aboard the ship with her daughter. His pay as Governor of 800 pounds per annum was stopped by the authorities until the debt was settled.

Davey appears to have had no qualifications for this position. It was a position gained by patronage. He was indolent; without a sense of dignity and indulged fully in hard drinking. He is still remembered for his invention of the cocktail ‘Blow my skull’; the recipe for which is to be found in Edward Abbott’s the ‘English Australian Cookery Book’.

Macquarie was warned to keep a close watch on Davey; he considered him honest and well-meaning but ‘dissipated in his manner and morals.’ He was allowed to resign the post of Lieutenant Governor in 1817 and Macquarie arranged for a grant of nearly 5,000 acres to be made to him, in lieu of his possessions being lost at sea during the voyage out. He sailed to England from Sydney in 1821, and died in May 1823 whilst on 2 years leave of absence to sort out his UK affairs. Davey was survived by his wife and daughter who had both remained in Tasmania and ‘became much respected.’

He is mainly remembered for his Proclamation Board, labelled ‘Governor Davey’s Proclamation’, designed to show that Colonists and Aboriginals were equal before the law.

I illustrate …

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… one of a pair of fiddle pattern tea spoons of circa 1820 bearing Thomas Davey’s version of the Davy family crest …

… ‘out of a ducal coronet, or, an elephants head, sa.,armed .’ I suggest that Governor Thomas Davey was not entitled to the Davy crest but adopted it to suit his name and colonial position, the engraver in Sydney engraving the elephant’s trunk incorrectly, a fault later continued in London

This somewhat fraudulent character must have ordered and sent back other similarly crested silver some of which I purchased in Australia some 30 years ago, now being offered as a collection at the National Trust Runnymede Fair. The part condiment set was hallmarked in London in 1820 and the single fork in London in 1823. I suggest that they must have been ordered by Davey on his return to England as a present to his wife still living on his Australian land grants, then totalling some 8,000 acres.

Davey’s daughter, Lucy married Surgeon James Scott, later of Boa Vista, in St David’s Church Hobart. Governor Macquarie notes in his diary: ‘Monday 25 June1821. I attended the marriage of Miss Davey and Dr Scott this day and gave her a grant of 1,000 acres of land for her exclusive use’. The newspaper reports that: ‘In [the] absence of the Bride’s father she was given away by His Excellency Governor Macquarie’.

These small objects connect a First Fleeter and Colonial Governor to the city of Hobart one of whose principal streets commemorates those interesting times.

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