Abstract
A sardonic and private man, Arthur Phillip has always been an enigma. His private papers were mostly dispersed and lost, his origins were covered in obscurity and misinformation and few personal descriptions have survived. This essay examines the available information to consider Phillip's personal life and rumours about his death.
Highlights
When Phillip died at the age of 75 the founding governor of New South Wales had been recently promoted to Admiral of the Blue.[2]
In 1866 John Dell, a drummer in the New South Wales Corps who arrived in Sydney as a youth in 1790, recalled he had 'ʹa finely-‐‐shaped head set on a most diminutive body'ʹ
I fancy I see him walking with a quick step, between the gaol and the Honorable Robert Campbell'ʹs house, where the camp was erected, marshalling the poor exiles, and commanding James Bloodsworth to lay the first brick of Government-‐‐house
Summary
The bicentenary of Arthur Phillip'ʹs death fell on 31 August 2014.1 A sardonic and private man, Phillip has always been an enigma, the Cheshire cat of Australian history. In 1777 Charlott advertised a rural residence for sale on London'ʹs southern outskirts that she may have shared with both her husbands: Mrs Charlotte Phillip Her household furniture and farm stock was offered for auction at her house, Walcot Place opposite Walnut Tree Walk, Lambeth.[10]. She went on to live successively in Westminster, Hampton Court, Gloucester and for the last few years of her life in north-‐‐west Wales with her female companion, Mrs Anna Maria Cane. Charlott died on 3 August 1792, aged 71, four months before Phillip left New South Wales to return to England She was buried at Llanycil and Anna was buried with her. Rumsey'ʹs valuable discovery (though briefly noticed in contemporary newspapers) lay forgotten on library shelves and was overlooked by all Phillip'ʹs subsequent biographers.[13]
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