The celebrated George Barrington a spurious author; the book trade and Botany Bay

MARGIN: Life & Letters in Early Australia, July-August, 2009 by Nathan Garvey

In his book Botany Bay, John Lang wrote a story about George Barrington in New South Wales. It is about the legendary George Barrington the gentleman pickpocket. In the story he appears dressed as aa gentleman and demonstrates his skill in removing the lady's earrings without her being aware of the action. She is outraged when he reveals that he is a convict.

Barrington was indeed a real person and was a convict transported to New South Wales. He became a policeman in Parramatta and did not practice his skill at picking pockets in Sydney but became a respectable 'citizen'. He was for many years acknowledged as the author of a very early work Voyage to Botany Bay, published in London in 1795. It was therefor one of the earliest works on the new colony to appear and was very popular and much cheaper than the official expensive tomes like those of Governor Phillip and Watkin Tench.

Nathan Garvey has written a book which uncovers the real George Barrington. The various books attributed to Barrington were all frauds. They were gobbled together from various sources by London publishers and they used a popular figure, a convict, as author, who had no way of disputing these attributed works.

The first half of Garvey's book is about the man George Barrington and his career in London. He was accused of a number of crimes but initially managed to convince the court of his innocence. This he often managed by an exhibition of tears. To cry in such cases was often considered as a sign of innocence. It was the period of romantic sensibility. He was very good at producing a convincing flow of tears. Barrington's career is carefully researched and the newspaper reports and scandal sheets have been studied and recorded with great effect.

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The second part of the book is a detailed bibliography of the books attributed to Barrington. It started with The Voyage to New South Wales' published in 1795. There is no evidence that Barrington wrote this book. It is a publisher's gobbling together of pieces from the 'official' first fleet journals, with a lot of fictional inclusions. It was accepted as authentic. There were many editions and different versions as different publishers tried to get in on this lucrative market.

There were other books issued as being by George Barrington. All of them frauds. His name was popular as an author and Barrington himself could not do anything about it. He could not sue or even protest. He was a convict in New South Wales and that prevented him protesting at the use of his name.

A comment by Charles Dickens is interesting because he thought the representation of the period, a style of manners, an order of dress, certain habits of street life, assembly room life and coffee room life etc.... showed that there is a very broad distinction between this in Barrington's account and mere Newgate calendar reports.

   The final comment on Barrington's books Nathan Garvey records:
   In terms of the number of editions and textual states, the Voyage
   to New South Wales was easily the most widely distributed account of
   the colony published in Europe during its early years, and several
   further narratives ran to multiple editions. That Barrington's name
   was used fraudulently, that works of other authors were
   plagiarised, and that second-hand textual material was spiced up
   with fictional embellishments, does not diminish the fact that these
   works helped to shape European views of Australia during the
   crucial years of colonisation.

Where was Barrington all this time? He was not practising his pickpocketing skills and was not busy writing about life in New South Wales. It fact there is no evidence that he ever wrote anything. He was in charge of the Police in Parramatta, keeping the peace among an unruly set of convict immigrants.