30 November 1901(1901-11-30) (aged86) Devon,England
Occupation
Explorer of Australia,Colonial Administrator,Grazier
Edward John Eyre (5 August 1815–30 November 1901) was an English land explorer of the Australian continent,colonial administrator,Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand's New Munster province,and Governor of Jamaica.
Eyre was born in Whipsnade,Bedfordshire,shortly before his family moved to Hornsea,Yorkshire,where he was christened.[1] His parents were Rev. Anthony William Eyre and Sarah (née Mapleton).[2] After completing grammar school at Louth and Sedbergh,he moved to the colonial settlement of Sydney,Australia,rather than join the army or go to university. He gained experience in the new land by boarding with and forming friendships with prominent gentlemen and became a flock owner when he bought 400 lambs a month before his 18th birthday.[3]
In December 1837, Eyre started droving 1,000 sheep and 600 cattle overland from Monaro, New South Wales, to Adelaide, South Australia. Eyre, with his livestock and eight stockmen, arrived in Adelaide in July 1838.[4] In Adelaide, Eyre sold the livestock for a large profit.
Expeditions of Eyre
With the money from the sale, Eyre set out to explore the interior of South Australia. In 1839, Eyre went on two separate expeditions: north to the Flinders Ranges and west to beyond Ceduna. The northernmost point of the first expedition was Mount Eyre; it was named by Governor Gawler on 11 July 1839.[5] On the second expedition, he spotted what was later named Lake Torrens.[6]
In 1840, Eyre went on a third expedition, reaching a lake that was later named Lake Eyre, in his honour.[6]
Overland to Albany
Eyre, together with his aboriginal companion Wylie, was the first European to traverse the coastline of the Great Australian Bight and the Nullarbor Plain by land in 1840–1841, on an almost 3,200-kilometre (2,000mi) trip to Albany, Western Australia. He had originally led the expedition with John Baxter and three aboriginal people.
On 29 April 1841, two of the aboriginal people killed Baxter and left with most of the supplies. Eyre and Wylie survived only because they chanced to encounter at a bay near Esperance, Western Australia, the French whaling ship Mississippi, under the command of an Englishman, Captain Thomas Rossiter, for whom Eyre named the location Rossiter Bay. In 1845, he returned to England on board the Symmetry, leaving Port Adelaide on 16 December 1844,[7] and sailing via Cape Town, under Captain Elder.[7] Upon reaching England, the Symmetry called first at Deal, Kent on 11 May 1845, before anchoring at London on 12 May.[8] He brought with him two aboriginal boys, one of whom was Warrulan.[7][9]
Once in England, he published a narrative of his travels.[10]
As Governor of Jamaica, Eyre mixed only with the white ruling class, to whose interests he was sympathetic. Instead of trying to relieve the unemployment problems or the unfair tax burdens on the poorer classes, he busied himself with the passing of bills to provide punishment on the treadmill for certain offences, and flogging as the penalty for stealing food. George William Gordon, a mixed-race member of the Assembly of Jamaica, criticised Eyre's draconian measures, warning that "If we are to be governed by such a Governor much longer, the people will have to fly to arms and become self-governing."[13]
Baptist preacher and rebel leader Paul Bogle encouraged and led a rebellion, and occasioned the death of 18 militia or officials. Fearful of an island-wide uprising, Eyre brutally suppressed the Morant Bay rebellion of 1865. Up to 439 black peasants were killed in the reprisals, some 600 flogged, and about 1000 houses burnt down. General Luke Smythe O'Connor was directly responsible for those who inflicted excessive punishment.[14]
Erroneously convinced that he was one of the leaders of the rebellion, Eyre authorised the execution of Gordon, who was tried for high treason by Lieutenant Herbert Brand in a court-martial. On 23 October, Gordon was hanged two days after his hastily-arranged trial, and Bogle followed him on to the gallows two days later, when he was hanged along with 14 others.[15]
The controlling European element of the Jamaican population, those who had the most to lose, regarded Eyre as the hero who had saved Jamaica from disaster.[14] Eyre's influence on the white planters was so strong that he convinced the House of Assembly to pass constitutional reforms that brought the old form of government to an end and allowed Jamaica to become a Crown Colony, with an appointed, rather than an elected, legislature on the basis that stronger legislative control would ward off another act of rebellion. That move ended the growing influence of the elected free people of colour Eyre distrusted, such as Gordon, Edward Jordon and Robert Osborn. Before dissolving itself, the legislature passed legislation to deal with the recent emergency, including an Act that sanctioned martial law and, all importantly for the litigation in Phillips v Eyre, an Act of Indemnity covering all acts done in good faith to suppress the rebellion after the proclamation of martial law.[14]
Cases against Lieutenant Brand and Brigadier Alexander Nelson were presented to the Central Criminal Court but the grand jury declined to certify either case. Eyre resided in Market Drayton in Shropshire, which was outside the jurisdiction of the court, so the indictment failed on that count. Barrister James Fitzjames Stephen travelled to Market Drayton but failed to convince the Justices to endorse his case against Eyre. The Jamaica Committee next asked the Attorney-General to certify the criminal information against Eyre but was rebuffed. Eyre then moved to London so that he might bring matters to a head and offer himself up to justice. The magistrate at Bow Street Police Court declined to arrest him, due to the failure of the cases against the soldiers, whereupon the imagined prosecutors applied to the Queen's Bench for a writ of mandamus justified by the Criminal Jurisdiction Act 1802 and succeeded. The Queen's Bench grand jury, upon presentation of the case against Eyre, declined to find a true bill of indictment, and Eyre was freed of criminal pursuit.[14]
The case went next to the civil courts. Alexander Phillips charged Eyre with six counts of assault and false imprisonment, in addition to conversion of Phillips's "goods and chattels",[14] and the case was eventually brought to the UK Court of Exchequer as Phillips v Eyre (1870) LR 6 QB 1, Exchequer Chamber. The case was influential in setting a precedent in English and Australian law over the conflict of laws, and choice of law to be applied in international torts cases.[17] Eyre was exonerated in the Queen's Bench, a writ of error was submitted to the Exchequer, whose judgment affirmed the one below, and an important precedent was thus set by Willes J.[14]
Later life
Eyre circa 1890
Eyre's legal expenses were covered by the British government in 1872, and in 1874 he was granted the pension of a retired colonial governor. He lived out the remainder of his life at Walreddon Manor in the parish of Whitchurch near Tavistock, Devon, where he died on 30 November 1901. He is buried in the Whitchurch churchyard.[2]
Eyre Road, Linton, Palmerston North also is thought to be named after him as well as a few streets in Canterbury, New Zealand. Closer to the Monaro, New South Wales, Eyre Street, in Kingston, Australian Capital Territory, and Eyre Street in Bungendore, New South Wales, are named for him.
In 1971, the Australian composer Barry Conyngham wrote the opera Edward John Eyre using poems by Meredith Oakes and extracts from Eyre's Journals of Expeditions of Discovery.[19]
The history of Victoria refers to the history of the Australian state of Victoria and the area's preceding Indigenous and British colonial societies.
The Morant Bay Rebellion began with a protest march to the courthouse by hundreds of people led by preacher Paul Bogle in Morant Bay, Jamaica. Some were armed with sticks and stones. After seven men were shot and killed by the volunteer militia, the protesters attacked and burned the courthouse and nearby buildings. Twenty-five people died. Over the next two days, poor freedmen rose in rebellion across most of St. Thomas-in-the-East parish.
John Baxter was an Irish convict who became an Australian pioneer, overlander, explorer, and offsider of explorer Edward John Eyre.
George William Gordon was a Jamaican businessman, magistrate and politician, one of two representatives to the Assembly from St. Thomas-in-the-East parish. He was a leading critic of the colonial government and the policies of Jamaican Governor Edward Eyre.
The history of South Australia includes the history of the Australian state of South Australia since Federation in 1901, and the area's preceding Indigenous and British colonial societies. Aboriginal Australians of various nations or tribes have lived in South Australia for at least thirty thousand years, while British colonists arrived in the 19th century to establish a free colony. The South Australia Act, 1834 created the Province of South Australia, built according to the principles of systematic colonisation, with no convict settlers.
Phillips v Eyre (1870) LR 6 QB 1 is an English decision on the conflict of laws in tort. The Court developed a two limbed test for determining whether a tort occurring outside of the court's jurisdiction can be actionable. In time this came to be referred to as the "dual-actionability test".
General Edward Charles Frome was a British Army officer and Surveyor General of South Australia.
The following lists events that happened during 1839 in Australia.
Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia is a Non-fiction novel written by the named explorer and colonist of the early Australia and other varies British colonies, Edward John Eyre. The main content of this book is derived from the travelogue of Mr. Eyre’s one year expedition trip started from Adelaide into mainland of the country and ended after he boarded a ship in King George’s Sound heading back to Adelaide. After returning, Eyre were suggesting to the Governor George Gipps the idea to lead another exploration from Moreton Bay to Port Essington but was instead appointed to resident magistrate and protector of Aborigines at River Murray and the experience and knowledge of dealing with the Aboriginals from this position form the basis of the sections of Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans part of the book.
The first Christian mission is established at Rangihoua. The Hansen family, the first non-missionary family also settles there. Samuel Marsden explores the Hauraki Gulf and travels to within sight of Tauranga Harbour. The first book in Māori is published in Sydney. The first European is born in New Zealand.
Mount Hill is a prominent peak in the Australian state of South Australia on the eastern side of southern Eyre Peninsula. It is located within the locality of Butler.
The Rufus River Massacre was a massacre of at least 30–40 Aboriginal people that took place in 1841 along the Rufus River, in the Central Murray River region of New South Wales. The massacre was conducted by a large group of South Australian Police, who were sent to the region by the Governor of South Australia, George Grey, after Indigenous warriors carried out a series of effective raids against settler overland drives. The police were augmented by armed volunteers and a separate party of overlanders who were already battling with Aboriginal people in the Rufus River area. The colony's Protector of Aborigines, Matthew Moorhouse, accompanied the punitive expedition. He was unsuccessful in his efforts to mediate a solution before the massacre occurred.
Edward Bate Scott was a pioneering colonist of South Australia who accompanied Edward John Eyre on several journeys and had a later career with the South Australian Police Force.
James Collins Hawker (1821-1901) was an English-born explorer, surveyor, diarist and pastoralist of South Australia, aide-de-camp to Governor George Gawler, and subsequently Comptroller of H.M. Customs at Port Adelaide.
Charles Christian Dutton was a pastoralist in the Colony of South Australia who disappeared, believed murdered by Aboriginal people, while driving cattle from Port Lincoln to Adelaide in July 1842.
George Hall Esq. was a British administrator in the 19th century.
The Ngaiawang (Ngayawang) were an Aboriginal Australian people of the western Riverland area of South Australia, with a language considered part of the Lower Murray group. They are now considered extinct. They have sometimes been referred to as part of the Meru people, a larger grouping which could also include the Ngawait and Erawirung peoples. They were called Birta by the Kaurna and Ngadjuri peoples, variations of Murundi by the Jarildekald people, and were also known various other terms and spellings.
The Thangkaali (Danggali) are an indigenous Australian people of the state of South Australia.
Warrulan was an Aboriginal Australian, who migrated to England as a boy. He was educated in agriculture and found work as a saddlemaker, dying as a young man before his hoped-for return to his homeland.
References
↑ Steve Pocock (2000). "History". Great Australian Bight Safaris. Archived from the original on 18 February 2006. Retrieved 8 April 2006.
↑ Sari Braithwaite; Tom Gara; Jane Lydon (June 2011). "From Moorundie to Buckingham Palace: Images of "King" Tenberry and his son Warrulan, 1845–55". Journal of Australian Studies. 35 (2): 165–184. doi:10.1080/14443058.2011.560576. ISSN1444-3058. WikidataQ105946256.
"Papers Relative to the Affairs of South Australia—Aborigines", Accounts and Papers 1843, Volume 3 (London: William Clowes and Sons), pp.267–310.
Geoffrey Dutton (1967), The Hero as Murderer: the life of Edward John Eyre, Australian explorer and Governor of Jamaica 1815–1901. Sydney: Collins; Melbourne: Cheshire, (paperback reprint: Penguin, 1977).
Julie Evans (2002), "Re-reading Edward Eyre—Race, resistance and repression in Australia and The Caribbean", Australian Historical Studies, 33: 175–198; doi:10.1080/10314610208596190.
Catherine Hall (2002), Civilising Subjects: Colony and Metropoloe in the English Imagination, 1830–1867. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ivan Rudolph (2013), Eyre, the forgotten explorer. Sydney: HarperCollins.
Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, and overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound, in the years 1840-41, sent by the Colonists of Australia, with the sanction and support of the Government; including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines, and the state of their relations with Europeans. By E. J. Eyre, Resident Magistrate, Murray River. 2 volumes. London (1845). Available at the Internet Archive: VolumeI, VolumeII.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
