George Bouchier Worgan in Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries

The following is a transcript of the biography of George Worgan that appears in the Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries, Spring 1983, Vol XXXV - Part I, pages 6-12. The article was written by Christine North ; and while no biography of the author is provided, she is elsewhere (introduction to 'Cornwall Politics in the Age of Reform, 1790-1885' by Ed Jaggard) described as "county archivist" for Cornwall.

This biography is not available electronically, and I purchased a copy of the original issue in order to provide this transcript for others. I've posted multiple times over the years on George, and the fate of his First Fleet memoirs.

George Bouchier Worgan

George Bouchier Worgan's name is generally asssoicated with the General View of Agriculture of the County of Cornwall published in 1811. He was however neither by upbringing nor by training a farmer, and had retired to Cornwall only after an eventful career in the Navy. Born in 1757, he was the fourth of six children of John Worgan, a doctor of music and a celebrated organist at the Vauxhall Gardens in London. George entered the Navy in 1775 and at the age of eighteen, qualified as a surgeon's mate in 1778, and in the following year was gazetted as a Naval surgeon. For two years he served on H.M.S. "Pilote", a 218 ton cutter of fourteen guns which had been taken from the French in 1779.(1) In November 1786 he joined H.M.S. "Sirius" under the command of Commodore Arthur Phillip,(2) sailing within the next twelve months to the Cape of Good Hope and thence to Botany Bay, as part of the first fleet taking convicts to establish a new colony in Australia.(3)

During his stay there he kept a journal, and sent copies to his family and friends. Unfortunately his longest and most detailed account, comprising two volumes, has not been traced since the nineteenth century(4) but a copy made by Worgan of that part of his diary relating to events between November 1787 and June 1788, and which he sent to his brother Richard in England is, with the letter which accompanied the journal, safely in the care of the Mitchell Library in Sydney.(5) It provides a vivid and entertaining picture of the earliest days of the new colony. The letter to Richard gives additional personal information and more details about events recorded in the journal. Both documents reveal Worgan's keenness of observation and an eager enthusiasm for new experiences, which are described with vividness and humour.

The fleet sailed from the Cape in November 1787. "We provided ourselves with every Article necessary for the forming of a civilized Colony, Livestock, consisting of Bulls, Cows, Horses, Mares, Colts, Sheep, Hogs, Goats, Fowls and other living creatures by Pairs..." together with a large quantity of seeds, plants and trees.  After ten weeks sailing they lay safely at anchor in Botany Bay, and almost at once caught sight of "8 or 10 of the Natives... they were of a black reddish sooty colour, entirely Naked, walked very upright, and each of them had long spears and a short stick in their hands..." Governor Phillip went ashore, offering beads and gifts of cloth to the natives who showed much curiosity about the strangers, especially as they were unable to distinguish the sex of the landing party, since all the men were clean-shaven. Not seeing, when they open our Shirt Bosoms... the usual distinguishing characteristics of Women, they start Back with Amazement and give a Hum! with a significant look, implying, What Kind of Creatures are these? As it was not possible for us to satisfy their Inquisitiveness in this Particular, by the simple words "yes" or "no" we had Recourse to the evidence of Ocular Demonstration..."

Botany Bay was not a suitable site for a settlement, and the company moved twelve miles northwards to an inlet which Captain Cook had named Port Jackson; the cove in which the ships anchored was named Sydney Cove in honour of Lord Sydney,(6) and was described by Worgan as "one of the most spacious and safe harbours in the known world." On 26 January 1788 the British flag was ceremoniously planted and the new colony was officially founded.

Worgan describes in some detail the first days of the settlement. The convicts and tradesmen were put to work at once clearing ground, sawing timber, making bricks, enclosing gardens and erecting temporary buildings. By 5th February all the tents for the army, the laboratory, hospital, and accommodation for officers and convicts had been set up, as well as living quarters for the Governor, and gardens had been enclosed and planted. A small settlement was established on Norfolk Island, and a newly-discovered island, named after Lord Howe,(7) proved to be a plentiful source of edible turtles.

The laws of the colony had been read to the assembled settlers by the Judge Advocate in a ceremony which included much marching, band playing, and numerous speeches. The Governor declared his intention of applying the rules strictly; "those who would not work, should not Eat..."

The journal contains much information on the Australian geography, scenery, and climate. The plants and seeds which had been transported so carefully from South Africa grew rapidly, but many died before reaching full growth. Worgan himself had "enclosed a spot of ground for a garden" but had no more success with his horticultural endeavours than did his companions. Broad beans and peas grew but did not survive; "out of five Rows of the Peas each 3 feet in length, I shall not get above 20 Pods..." This he attributed partly to the weather, especially the frequent and "astonishingly awful" thunderstorms.

He was fascinated by the behaviour of the natives, particularly their skill in fishing with spears and with lines and hooks ; amused by the men's fondness for smearing themselves with clay, red and white "in such lines and circles so as to resemble ye Belts, Sashes and Ornaments of our Soldiers", but considered them "a Rude Race of Creatures... nasty dirty and unashamed".

There were inevitably some clashes between the natives and the convicts, who sometimes "went skulking about the woods" instead of working. He describes one particularly nasty incident when two convicts were found murdered, but the Governor refused to retaliate, being fairly certain that the natives were not the aggressors. Strict rules of conduct were essential if the colony was to survive, and several convicts were hanged for theft. Some were punished for minor crimes by being placed on an island "for a couple of weeks" with only bread and water to sustain them. Additional complications arose as a result of the behaviour of some of the women convicts, "a shocking abandoned set... a vile pack of Baggages..."

Worgan joined several of the military expeditions to explore and survey further inland.
I enjoy these little Rambles", he told his brother Dick, "we sometimes put a bit of Salt Beef, or Pork, Bisket, a Bottle of "O be Joyful" in a Snapsack, throw it over our backs, take a Hatchet, a Brace of Pistols and a Musket, and away we go..."(8) He sampled kangaroo meat and emu, "which tastes like young Beef." On one of these excursions from Prospect Hill, the upper Nepean was named Worgan River in his honour.(9)

In 1789 he returned to the Cape on the "Sirius" and then spent a year on Norfolk Island. In 1791 he returned to England. He continued to serve as a Naval surgeon for a short time but was soon judged unfit for service and retired from the Navy on half pay.(10)

While in Australia he had corresponded regularly with a fellow Naval surgeon named Mein, who for a time lived at Fowey with his family.(11) Worgan seems to have had no other apparent connection with Cornwall, but in May 1793 at the age of 36 he married Mary Lawry in Liskeard parish church.(12) In 1796 a son, John, was born.(13) A daughter, Mary, was baptised in 1798(14) but must have died in infancy for in 1801 another daughter was christened Mary.(15) The second son, George William, was born in 1800.(16)

By 1798 Worgan had taken a lease of Bray and Hendra farms in Morval.(17) A few years later the family had moved to Glynn in Cardinham.(18) Worgan seems to have embarked on this second career of agriculture with considerable enthusiasm. He was a member of the recently-formed Cornwall Agricultural Society and in 1806 was awarded a prize of 3 pounds at the Society's Exhibition in Bodmin "for new and improved husbandry implements." He had invented four tools "called the Great Cultivator, the Lesser Cultivator a Shifting Double Plough, and the United Roller and Harrow... The inspectors, not having seen any of these implements in use, cannot speak to the utility of any of them...".(19) Worgan's practical ability did not equal his powers of invention. His farm management was regarded as "very theoretical",(20) and only months after his success at the agricultural show Glynn was up for sale, "Mr. G. B. Worgan being about to decline business." The stock included nearly 250 sheep, two pairs of working oxen, ten horses and "several of Mr. Worgan's Implements... entirely of new construction and superior to any yet made...".(21) The property was sold, but at a considerable loss.(22)

In spite of Worgan's lack of success as a farmer he was in 1808 engaged by the Board of Agriculture to compile a survey of Cornish farming. The Board had been established in 1793, its aims being the encouragement of improvements in farming and in the living and working conditions of the poor. One of the Board's most important undertakings was a comprehensive survey of the agriculture of every county in Britain. Robert Fraser's "General Review of the Agriculture of Cornwall" had been published in 1794 but a revision was soon necessary.

Worgan found the enterprise a difficult one. He seems to have made a valiant effort to visit as many farms and estates as possible, but much of his information had to be "taken on trust", the major part of his survey being undertaken in winter.(23) He seems to have had some domestic difficulties, too, for in 1810 he wrote to Henry Hawkins Tremayne of Heligan thanking him for his kindness "to my poor afflicted family."(24)

Worgan's survey was submitted for revision to three editors, Robert Walker, vicar of St. Winnow, Charles Vinicombe Penrose of Ethy, and Jeremiah Trist, vicar of Veryan, and the work was eventually published in 1811. It is a valuable and detailed record of early nineteenth-century rural society; many sections bear the initials of the editors and it is difficult to estimate how much of Worgan's original work remains.

By now the family was living in Liskeard.(25) George was "a man of extensive reading"(26) and he began to direct his energies into training for a third career, this time in the field of education.

The question of educating poor children had been debated in Parliament for a number of years. Two societies were formed to establish elementary schools; the Royal Lancasterian Association (later the British Foreign Schools Society) was founded in 1810, its aim being the provision on non-denominational teaching, while 1811 saw the formation of the National Society for the Education of the Children of the Poor in accordance with the teaching of the established church.

In December 1811 a meeting of gentlemen and clergy was held at Truro to consider the formation of such an organisation in Cornwall, in association with the National Society. A central school was established in Truro where aspiring teachers were trained. In 1814 Athanasius Laffer, curate of Liskeard, write to the committee "recommending Mr. G. B. Worgan to be instructed as a School Master for the Liskeard School (the recommendation also being signed by a Governor)", and the committee duly approved Worgan's admission to the training school.(27) He was now 57 years old.

There was already some provision in Liskeard for teaching children; Laffer himself was master of the grammar school there from 1811 to 1815, and a local dame school receive 5 pounds yearly from the Elliott bequest.(29) In 1812 an elementary school for girls had been opened in the vestry room of the borough, being maintained as a British school in accordance with the principles of the Lancasterian Society.(30) The school for boys at which Worgan taught was opened in 1813 in association with the National Society and run as a church school under Dr. Bell's monitorial system. A new building paid for by local contributions was built on part of the castle garden which was held by the corporation on a lease from the Duchy. The school flourished for several years, but the land was never conveyed to the subscribers and no arrangements were made for its future administration. In 1835 a new corporation was appointed following the Municipal Reform Act. Local support for the school had lapsed and the building was leased for use as a private school.(31)

Although he had been for a number of years in regular employment Worgan constantly expressed concern about his family's financial situation. In 1828 he wrote to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, explaining that he had "fallen on hard times", and asking that his son John Parsons Worgan, aged 22, might be given employment in New South Wales. A John P. Worgan was from September 1830 to August 1836 clerk to the bench of magistrates at Hyde Park barracks in Sydney. William Worgan, described as "settler", arrived in Sydney in April 1830 in the brig "Elizabeth".(32)

The financial crisis seems to have been temporary for in 1836 the Worgans moved into Wadeland House which had been built for them in the New Road, Liskeard.(33) George had become very much a local "character" and was referred to (as "Dally" Worgan) in an 1832 election verse written by one of the supporters of Charles Buller who successfully contested the seat in that year.(34)

What little is known of Worgan's private life seems to indicate a constant lack of funds and a perpetual concern for the welfare of his family. He tried to supplement his Naval pension by farming and teaching but with little success, and though towards the end of his life his financial situation seems temporarily at least to have improved, at his death his estate was valued at under 300 pounds.(35)

George Bouchier Worgan died in 1838 at his home in Liskeard. Sources disagree as to the cause of his death, either apoplexy(36) or suicide by hanging,(37) surely an unnecessary effort at the age of 81. There is no contemporary newspaper report of his suicide; his obituary merely records "sudden death".(38) He was buried in the churchyard at Liskeard on 8th March 1838;(39) his widow, Mary, died in 1846 and was buried with her husband.(40)

NOTES
ADB - Australian Dictional of Biography (Melbourne University Press, 1967).
FFS - Journal of a First Fleet Surgeon (Library of Australian History, Sydney 1978).
DNB - Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 1975).

1. ADB
2. FFS, introduction. See also note 5.
3. FFS, p. 1.
4. History of Liskeard, John Allen, 1856, p. 526.
5. Ref. ML/C 830. Facsimile copy at Cornwall Record Office (CRO), FS/3/1034. The original manuscript consists of 40 pages written in a small but clear hand. The document was given to the library in 1955 by Mrs. Margot Gaye of Guildford, Surrey, who found it among the belongings of an aunt, Mrs. A. Batley. See also note 2.
6. Thomas Townshend, first viscount Sydney (1733-1800), Secretary of State for the Home Department and the Colonies. He was instrumental in establishing the convict settlement in Australia which he hoped would form the nucleus of a free emigrant colony (DNB).
7. Richard, earl Howe (1726-1799), Admiral of the Fleet; 1783-1788 First Lord of the Admiralty (DNB).
8. FFS, p. 46.
9. ADB.
10. ADB.
11. Typescript article by John Keast on Joseph Thomas Austen, CRO; DD.TF 997.
12. Liskeard marriage register, CRO: DDP 126/1/7. Mary was the daughter of William and Elizabeth Lawry. Worgan is described as "of St. Andrew's Holborn, surgeon in the Royal Navy".
13. FFS, introduction, refers to Johns Parsons Worgan. There are no records of baptism for Worgan children at Liskeard or Cardinham.
14. Morval parish registers, CRO:DDP 157/1/4.
15. Morval parish registers, CRO:DDP 157/1/4.
16. Morval parish registers, CRO:DDP 157/1/4.
17. Land tax assessment, c. 1798, CRO: AD 103/228.
18. Royal Cornwall Gazette, 31 May 1806.
19. Royal Cornwall Gazette, 31 May 1806.

20. Allen, op. cit., p. 526.

21. Royal Cornwall Gazette, 9 Sept. 1806.

22. Allen, op. cit., p. 526

23. "Preliminary Observations", 1808, which form an introduction to the Agricultural Survey.

24. COR: DD.T 2463.

25. Allen, op. cit., p. 365.

26. Allen, op. cit., p. 526.

27. Minutes of Central Schools committee, 1814. CRO.

28. Rolfe index to Cornish clergy, CRO.

29. Board of Education Endowed Charities report, 1921, p 72; Allen, op. cit., pp. 175-183.

30. Allen, op. cit., p. 183.

31. Allen, op. cit., p. 184.

32. FFS, introduction.

33. Allen, op. cit., p. 452.

34. Charles Buller junior, elected MP for Liskeard in the Reform Parliament of 1832, remained its member until his death in 1847.

35. Administration bond, 6 June 1844, CRO.

36. ADB.

37. Bibliotheca Conubiensis p. 906.

38. West Briton, 9 March 1838.

39. Liskeard parish register, CRO: DDP 126/1/21.

40. Liskeard parish register, CRO: DDP 126/1/22.