An Irresistible Temptation: The true story of Jane New and a colonial scandalCarol Baxter has written a work that captures the reader This is largely because of her skill as a narrative historian, her capacity to tell a good story.' - Gregory Melleuish, Australian Literary Review In 1829 at the Supreme Court in Sydney, the bewitching Jane New was sentenced to death. Her crime: shoplifting a bolt of printed French silk. But was she guilty? Many had their doubts. Although a legal technicality soon quashed Jane's sentence, the autocratic Governor Ralph Darling refused to set her free. Like bees to the honey pot, the gentlemen of Sydney swarmed to Jane's defence including barrister and political agitator William Charles Wentworth and Supreme Court Registrar John Stephen Jr, who were both vigorous and manipulative in their appeals to set her free. An Irresistible Temptation is set against the backdrop of a particularly divisive period in colonial New South Wales. Not only did the scandal titillate Sydney and its legal and political ramifications push the colony to the brink of a constitutional crisis, but it contributed to the savagery of Governor Darling's public vilification and bestowed upon Jane New a place in the annals of Australian colonial history. Compelling and fast-paced, An Irresistible Temptation is a meticulously researched history that takes us from the court docks of industrialising England, to Tasmania's raw penal settlement, the rough-house world of Sydney's Rocks and eventually back to the rarefied atmosphere of Britain' House of Commons. |
From inside the book
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Page 1
... convict transports continued to offload British outcasts, they were outnumbered by trading vessels — barques, brigs, schooners, cutters — carrying luxuries unimagined by the early settlers who, tattered and barefoot, had almost starved ...
... convict transports continued to offload British outcasts, they were outnumbered by trading vessels — barques, brigs, schooners, cutters — carrying luxuries unimagined by the early settlers who, tattered and barefoot, had almost starved ...
Page 2
... convicts outnumbered free people four to one, when a military autocracy was the appropriate form of governance. Gone were the days when emancipated convicts and small settlers would defer to pastoral king John Macarthur and his fellow ...
... convicts outnumbered free people four to one, when a military autocracy was the appropriate form of governance. Gone were the days when emancipated convicts and small settlers would defer to pastoral king John Macarthur and his fellow ...
Page 13
... convicts could afford the return journey — for the theft of goods worth, in today's terms, considerably less than $50? A harsh punishment indeed. Yet it could have been worse. Under the law, convictions for shoplifting goods worth more ...
... convicts could afford the return journey — for the theft of goods worth, in today's terms, considerably less than $50? A harsh punishment indeed. Yet it could have been worse. Under the law, convictions for shoplifting goods worth more ...
Page 16
... convicts are utterly irreclaimable, being the most worthless and abandoned of human beings. W.H. Breton, Excursions in NSW 'And in the meantime to be imprisoned in the gaol of the Castle of Chester,' the judge intoned when pronouncing ...
... convicts are utterly irreclaimable, being the most worthless and abandoned of human beings. W.H. Breton, Excursions in NSW 'And in the meantime to be imprisoned in the gaol of the Castle of Chester,' the judge intoned when pronouncing ...
Page 17
... convicts for transportation to Australia. Both Jane and Elizabeth — who had remained in gaol for over twelve months despite a female transport sailing for Hobart in December 1823 — were ordered to London. Jane and her fellow Cheshire ...
... convicts for transportation to Australia. Both Jane and Elizabeth — who had remained in gaol for over twelve months despite a female transport sailing for Hobart in December 1823 — were ordered to London. Jane and her fellow Cheshire ...
Contents
1 | |
3 | |
Pretension | 45 |
Infatuation | 73 |
Gratification | 133 |
Indignation | 203 |
Persecution | 237 |
Retribution | 279 |
Epilogue | 356 |
Endnotes | 368 |
Sources | 372 |
Bibliography | 412 |
Index | 417 |
Other editions - View all
An Irresistible Temptation: The True Story of Jane New and a Colonial Scandal Carol J. Baxter No preview available - 2006 |
An Irresistible Temptation: The True Story of Jane New and a Colonial Scandal Carol Baxter No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
admitted affidavit appeared arrived asked assistance attempted authorities believe called Captain certificate Chapter character charges circumstances claimed Colonial Secretary considered constables continued convict Correspondence criminal Crisp Darling’s decision Dickson documents doubt escape evidence Executive Council Factory female File Forbes Frances George Goderich Governor Darling heard hearing Henry Hobart husband James Jane Jane’s John Stephen Jnr John’s judges Justice knew later letter Madame Rens magistrate March Mary McLeay ML ref months never New’s Newspapers offered Office particularly Perhaps person petition Police political present prisoner probably proved question received records Reel regarding remained reported request residence response Rossi sailed sentence served ship silk South Wales SRNSW ref statement Supreme Court Sydney Tasmania testimony transportation truth weeks wife witnesses woman women
Popular passages
Page 26 - FROM distant climes, o'er wide-spread seas we come, Though not with much eclat, or beat of drum ; True patriots all, for, be it understood, We left our country for our country's good : No private views disgraced our generous zeal, What urged our travels was our country's weal : And none will doubt but that our emigration Has proved most useful to the British nation.
Page 177 - Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!
Page 23 - ... supply all demands of this nature ; and if the histories of every house were made public, you would shudder. Even in our small menage, our cook has committed murder, our footman burglary, and the housemaid bigamy ! But these formidable truths are hushed up, or tried to be so.
Page 12 - I sentence you,' says the judge, 'but to what I know not — perhaps to storm and shipwreck, perhaps to infectious disorders, perhaps to famine, perhaps to be massacred by savages, perhaps to be devoured by wild beasts. Away, take your chance, perish or prosper, suffer or enjoy; I rid myself of the sight of you; the ship that bears you away saves me from witnessing your sufferings; I shall give myself no more trouble about you.
Page 81 - Hart-Davies) to exercise and use divers kinds of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, and conjuration, against the form of the statute in such case made and provided, against the peace of our said lady the Queen, her Crown and Dignity.
Page 18 - To see twenty wicked fingers beckoning to him, and twenty wicked eyes winking at him, at one and the same time, no wonder his virtue should sometimes experience a fall ! A very ingenious plan, however, (persevered in from the commencement of the interdictory system until reported to the navy board,) afforded free scope to these amorous flirtations. The swains first gained over the Arguses in charge of the hospital ; forced up the piece of board nailed over the coal-hatch...
Page 69 - Forbes thought his narrow-minded zealot of a governor had "less knowledge of the laws of his country than any gentleman filling his high official station whom it was ever my fortune to meet.
Page 79 - in a high state of neurotic excitement and such an habitual sot that it would have been a violation of all public decency to have suffered him to take his seat on the Bench.
Page 17 - ... in all infant colonies, its growing prosperity in great measure, depends. Let it be remembered too, how much misery and vice are likely to prevail in a society in which the women bear no proportion to the men...
Page 13 - ... or by the said Birmingham and Sheffield Companies, or by the said Wardens or Assayer or Assayers, or any or either of them, every such Person offending in any such or either of the Cases aforesaid, being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be adjudged guilty of Felony, and shall be transported to such Parts beyond the Seas as His Majesty, with the Advice of His Privy Council, shall direct, for the Space of Seven Years...